The alarm buzzed through Graham's skull, and he groaned in response.
"It is currently 0600 hours, General. However I prefer not to be your personal wake up call." The soft yet powerful voice filtered into the room.
"I got it Hector, I got it…" The general got up and rubbed his face to wake himself up.
It had been a late night as they returned to the Citadel, proud in their victory over the Reapers. They had spent a few weeks getting the plan together, and several more getting to Palaven, delivering the much-needed victory, and getting back to the Citadel.
He didn't even know how many people had shaken his hand during the award ceremony.
Graham's head throbbed, he really had not gotten some sleep in a while.
He sat up on the command couch, and rubbed his back. Out of habit he took a glance at his hand, just to make sure no blood had come away from the seat.
Ignoring his nightmares, the general went over to one of the lockers nearby, and popped it open. He looked in on a rack of five Mk. XIV power guns, sitting in their charging slots meant for ten weapons. The other five were with CItadel R&D, along with several other powerful pieces of technology from the Bolo's storage bays.
Graham looked down, and saw the package he was looking for below them.
He hit the auto-heat pad on the bottom of the MRE, and went back over to the command couch.
He ducked under the bowl-shaped display, and winced again as he sat down on the old, dried, and faded bloodstain. Still gave him the creeps.
Once the MRE was hot enough to eat. Graham pulled out a fork, and stabbed into the chicken. The meal was the descendant of hundreds of years of military research into genetic engineering, designed to deliver the maximum amount of calories, vitamins, and nutrients to every soldier in the field. It tasted alright. Not good, but alright.
As the general ate, he realized there was a privilege he had forgotten about, and not had access to for a year that had just been unlocked. Television!
Graham opened a window right in front of him, in a small portion of the bubble.
He and Hector had been...what was it that Shepard had called it? Been "stealing cable", yes that was it.
They didn't have a subscription to any television network, nor did they have any interest in getting one. The general figured that he would put it on the CDF's tab.
Not like there were as many people left on the payroll anyway.
The first television channel he found was some sort of talk show, with a human host present in the center, wearing a white suit. A turian officer, in a white uniform with red highlights sat next to him. Silent, but proud.
The man was gesturing to a digitally inserted square, where images began playing.
"...footage was taken by a cruiser in the hierarchy's 10th fleet. The very cruiser my guest here- Captain Sevedonis- serves aboard. Captain, how did you survive the battle with the Reapers?"
The turian sighed, and leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table as he put his hands under his jaw, close to his mandibles.
He seemed reluctant to explain.
"My ship...the Illustrious, -an old Courageous-class cruiser- had been heavily damaged by a Reaper destroyer. Our main guns were offline, GARDIAN systems were out, and we were getting swarmed with fighters."
Sevedonis grimaced with the memory, and took a deep breath, "The Reaper was about to destroy my old cruiser, when suddenly...it...exploded."
A repeat of the footage rolled, showing the according information.
"Next thing we knew, the enemy fighters were all drifting apart, half of our sensors were dead, and we were drifting. But the Reaper just was gone. All that was left was wreckage."
Graham flipped to another channel. He figured there had to be something on not involving the Battle of Palaven.
Nope.
"...Example of human aggression." An asari talk show host was slamming her fists down on the table, her hands glowing blue with the "biotic dark energy" Graham had heard about.
Next to her was a blurry satellite image of Hector at top speed, making a hard right turn to avoid a crashing destroyer.
Next to her was a turian, who looked very offended at what she was saying.
"They saved Palaven, and you want to have their war machine confiscated?!"
"Of course you fool! I can see right through your little ploy! Your government is allying with the Alliance to deliberately drain our military forces by refusing to use more of these weapons and combat AI on a large scale to free the colonies of any other species! This is a conspiracy against the rest of the Council races between human and turians! You and your human friends are trying to make it easy to conquer us after the war! Further proof of your lethal intent is your refusal to give the Asari Republic's military information on these weapons before the war even started!"
"I told you, and I'll tell you again. According to the Systems Alliance military, they lost their production facilities and technical data when they lost the colony world it was developed on! They can't make any more! And I'm sorry, but have the Asari lost their homeworld yet?"
Are they really having this stupid argument in the middle of another goddamn war for extinction? No one was this stupid during the Melconian War!
He took a bite of chicken, Least the cover story is holding, and they seem to have gotten over their initial fear of AI...or at least don't complain about it.
He changed the channel again, and this time it was an ad. Featuring Hector. And himself.
Again.
God damn it.
Graham knew it was impossible, but he wished they hadn't had to release news of Hector.
"The war machine and its commander are on the side of Earth! If a member of Terra Firma is elected to the new parliament, we will use it to liberate our home-"
Like hell.
He changed the channel, deliberately away from the news. Huh, some sport involving…
They have contact with the Grakaan?
Graham shoved what was left of his MRE into a container at the side of the command couch.
The small container began grinding away, taking apart the protein to assemble a new ration somewhere below.
He was about to ask Hector something, when the Bolo beat him to it.
"General, I am sorry to disturb you, but Commander Shepard has arrived for transportation to the weapons inspection."
"Nuts, I forgot about that!"
Forgetting his discovery for a moment, he rushed towards the hatch leading out of the control room, and quickly ducked through it.
The general dodged the crews of small worker drones; heavy bots that had been the standard repair machinery for Mk. XXXIIIs two hundred years ago.
Those of significant size had been destroyed when the !*!*! invaded Hector's inner workings, being the only things that could threaten the enemy probes. The smaller ones managed to survive, but their charges had run out, and the drones became inert within days after Hector's capture.
Now that the larger ones were functional again, thanks to some generous donations of materials by the Citadel government; they were busy repairing all the internal defenses that had been destroyed when the Clackers had invaded.
Graham nearly tripped over one model, mainly covered in CDF blue and silver, with several yellow and black stripes scattered across it; it carried the replacement parts for one of the command center defense lasers.
One of the ones he had smashed. With the butt of a power gun.
The little robotic dolly buzzed angrily at him, and shoved the general's boot out of the way with a manipulator arm.
It was about 60 centimeters long, 25 wide, and was in a square. It was tread driven in a similar way to Hector, four tread systems mounted across the width of the drone.
Mounted on a ring above its treads were several other appendages, with claws, plasma torches, and the like on the ends.
The parts were laid out carefully in rows on the platform placed above the ring, which Graham had jostled.
As the little robot moved on, carefully rearranging the parts again, Graham noted its serial number.
I don't care what Hector says, D-597 has it out for me.
He passed several human and alien work crews as he approached the cargo bay, who were being instructed on repairs to what little the engineers could understand by Hector's PA systems. They clearly were not happy about it.
Outside, in the drydock area, there were trucks and construction vehicles loaded down with materials and parts, accompanied by cranes that were moving equipment onto Hector's upper hull.
They weren't able to do much to fix Hector's systems; contra-grav for example, was way beyond their primitive production facilities. All they could do was give some knockoff gear over to the Bolo's internal logistics/maintenance facility to repair non-essential systems.
The closest facility with the correct equipment was...Graham didn't even know where.
The general knew that these repairs were vital, but until they could get proper spares, Hector's functionality would continue to decline.
The amount of expendables used against the Reapers was growing, and irreplaceable; nuclear laser warheads were hard to come by after the fall of the Concordiat, apparently.
Graham headed towards the red air car that had landed in the distance, which opened as he approached.
In the driver's seat sat Commander Shepard, wearing his leather N7 outfit as always when off of missions. Next to him was a turian...Garrus, one of the Spectre's former teammates.
"Garrus, this is General Graham, the man behind the victory at Palaven."
The blue-painted turian grinned in a friendly way, and stuck out his hand, "Glad to finally meet you. I thought only Shepard could make Reapers piss themselves."
Graham took the outstretched hand and shook it as he clambered into the back seat. The cloth and three fingers felt tight in his own hand; the turian had a strong grip.
"You give me too much credit. I only came up with the initial strategy. Hector's the one who saved your moon, and the 10th fleet helped too." He gestured back at the massive bulk behind him, silhouetted in the light from the Widow star.
"My mistake. Not used to AI assistance, outside of EDI back on the Normandy."
The Turian looked out at Hector's bulk silhouetted in the light of the star. "Say, what kind of guns are those?" Garrus asked, changing the subject as he pointed to the turrets the size of houses.
"200cm Hellbores."
"What do they fire? They don't look like mass accelerators to me, and the detonations I saw were more powerful than the Destiny Ascension's main gun."
Shepard pulled the canopy shut, and set the automatic controls to bring them to one of the Spectre R&D facilities.
It was not a very eventful trip, they spent it discussing the new weaponry they would find at the facility. Garrus was quite happy about all the impressive gear Graham described.
They reached the facility and passed through layers of security. Indoctrination and agents of various hostile groups were feared greatly around here.
They entered a weapons range, and each was handed a set of noise-canceling headphones.
The three moved through a soundproofed airlock labeled "Weapons Testing 9", where a salarian dressed in white armor, with black highlights, stood impatiently tapping his foot. His own head bore a set of headphones, which went diagonally around the thicker portion of his upper skull.
Several volus were placing weaponry on a nearby table, making sure they were working properly. They quickly left upon the arrival of the danger magnets.
"Commander Duzal." Shepard said, a little hesitantly.
"Commander Shepard. Good to see that you got my message. Anxious to check out these prototype models?"
"Yeah, we're hoping to get a few soon on the Normandy." The Spectre turned to his companions, "This is Commander Duzal. He's with STG, and invited us up for this particular test."
As they shook hands the salarian commented, "I've been with an N7 Special Ops team since the invasion hit the outer colony I was stationed on. More recently my team and I have been field testing some of the newer gear General Graham brought in with his tank."
Duzal pointed at one of the tables, and told Graham, "I particularly like the upgraded M-15 Vindicator."
Garrus walked past the salarian and over to another table. "What's the story on these things?"
He picked one of the weapons up in curiosity. It was much more boxlike than any of the other standard weapons, but the corners were rounded, and it still had an air of sleekness about it.
To Shepard, it looked like the historical weapons used by militaries back on Earth pre-mass relay travel; a thick drum clip, a long barrel, and static handle and stock.
It didn't seem able to fold like modern weaponry, and the readouts were darkened for some reason.
"Oh good, you've managed to make some prototypes!" Graham moved over and picked up one of the pistols.
It was of a similar box-like design to the rifle variant, with a rectangular barrel and main assembly. In the box was some sort of weapon magazine, and unlike its cousin the weapon seemed to be able to fold up.
"General?"
Graham was looking at the pistol with a small smile on his face, that faded as he realized everyone was staring at him, "Sorry. They finally got power guns into production!"
"Care to elaborate?" Garrus asked, as he shouldered the weapon he picked up, and aimed it down the range.
"Power guns, they fire light at enemies at various frequencies. These pistols are LP-45As, some of the earliest ones produced."
Garrus switched on his headphones, forcing everyone else to do the same as he walked up to one of the stands.
He quickly located the power and the safety switches, one on the magazine and the other on the weapon, "What do you mean light-"
A dazzling beam of blue-white energy shot forth from the weapon, startling the other three in the room, and they crouched on instinct, as the barrel of the weapon went upwards. It burnt a large hole in the wall, cut the corner off of the cardboard target down at the end of the range, and singed a bit of the wire holding it up. The noise was a low staccato "choom" blasting sound, that resounded through the chamber.
"Nice shootin' Tex." Shepard said sarcastically as the target dangled by a thread, before falling to the ground with an echoing thud.
Graham went over to Garrus, took the weapon, switched on the safety for the rifle, and pulled out the clip. Many people on Cloud had done what Garrus did, "Anyway, by light I mean this is a laser weapon. A true energy weapon, with 40 shots per clip, and a standard combat load of six clips."
He grimaced, "Though, that's the field model. The prototypes have only a few shots."
"Only about a dozen or so." Duzal called out.
Graham nodded, "Yes, thank you."
He waved everyone over to an empty table and began to strip down the weapon.
Back on Cloud, one of the training courses at the academy had involved practice with archaic weapons such as these. "The LR-45 here, and other energy weapons don't have a recoil, but the power can be quite surprising if you're not prepared for it. Happens to everyone, Garrus." He grinned at the turian, who was standing next to Shepard with a foul expression on his face, while Duzal and the commander tried to suppress laughter.
After some practice with the energy weapons, which burned through power cells at an alarming rate, they moved to another table.
"Commander Duzal, you know more about these than I do. Will you give us a demonstration?" Graham asked, gesturing to the modified standard weaponry.
"Yes, I can." The salarian went over to the M-15 on the table, and began to point out the various improvements.
"Our mass accelerator technology is superior to that of Cloud's, they are much less expensive and are more reliable. however, the Bolo delivered several improvements to the standard design."
On one end of the table was a disassembled M-15, and Duzal picked up the barrel.
It was hard to tell the difference it and the standard design, it seemed only the color had been changed. "We replaced the barrel with an alloy(classified I'm afraid) that can withstand far more heat, reducing the coolant the thermal clips need, so more ammo per clip."
The salarian commander went through several other improvements, most of which would not draw anyone's attention. Even Garrus nearly dozed off.
Attention was quickly drawn back when he pointed out the larger barrel slung under the primary one, "One of the largest improvements would have to be the heavy round launcher. It launches specialized rounds we hadn't even begun to think of. There's cluster rounds, incendiary, fuel-air explosives, and apparently some type of chemical round is in development."
Graham casually commented, "I don't know why the engineers were up in arms when Hector suggested those. Chemical weapons are great anti-infantry weaponry, and nowhere near as bad as some of the stuff used during the Deng Wars."
Everyone looked at him. "...What?"
XXXXX
After the weapons tests were over, Graham, Garrus, and Shepard, accompanied by Duzal, proceeded to another testing range. However, this time instead of moving directly onto a range, they were sent to a room labeled "Observation Area 02."
They found rows of seats in the observation area, in a semicircle overlooking a flat chamber, an empty room that was covered in squares on the floor, walls, and ceiling.
The window didn't look right, and Shepard moved close.
He discovered it was instead a hologram, covering a wall that didn't even echo when he knocked on it. Must do some really intense weapons tests if they need to put Silaris armor in the walls...
General Graham walked off to a booth nearby, where a PA system was mounted.
"Who'd you get for this demonstration anyway?" Duzal asked, as they found their seats. More people entered the chamber, scientists, Spectres, special ops, and the like.
"I got Lieutenant Vega from my ship. He was more eager than anyone to demonstrate the usefulness of this thing."
The lights dimmed, signalling the start of the test.
Various panels in the room rose to form large pedestals in certain patterns. Some opened to reveal automated turrets, and a number of LOKI mechs were deployed. Holographic drones materialized into existence higher up.
When it was finished, the room was now a maze of trench fortifications, facing the left side of the room.
A PA system began speaking, with General Graham's voice "This type of fortification is normally enough to hold off a squad of twelve Systems Alliance Marines, or a three-man special ops team without air or ground support for a significant period of time. It is possible to be overcome, but it is extremely difficult."
To the right side of the hologram, statistics and labels appeared, pointing out the various types of weaponry utilized on the defensive lines.
"."
Onscreen, a figure on the left side of room appeared from a door, with an indicator above his head that said "Lt. Vega". In the top left corner of the screen, an image of the battlesuit he wore from the side and the front appeared.
The helmet was extremely protective, providing complete NBC protection, and looked like it could withstand anything. It had several hoses that fed from the rear of the helmet to the front of the face, meeting at a point where a grill sat between the ends.
A long and thin visor ran across the helmet, black and opaque. Above it sat a powerful lamp light, designed to withstand a large amount of punishment. Mounted on the side of the helmet was a sight of some kind that was currently flipped out of the way.
The shoulder pads were large triangular affairs, protecting a seemingly vulnerable upper arm section. The forearm plates were also very thick, in contrast to the gloves, which seemed to have virtually no armor.
The torso seemed more conventional, less intimidation and more focused on practicality; a one piece vest-like plate connected the breast plate, back plate, and was held on by connections to the massive shoulder pads. The back had one large wheel adorning it, holding a power cell in place in the center.
To either side of the wheel were two thrusters of some kind, much more in the prototype phase than the armor judging by the visible wiring and panels.
The lower body had thinner plating around the waist, but didn't seem any less protective.
The legs were even more protected than the arms, with plating of equal thickness covering the feet, lower legs, and thighs. Tough kneepads protected the vulnerable joints that connected the larger parts.
"The lieutenant is wearing one of the newly developed PA-1 prototype battlesuits. It's armed with two standard mass effect technology weapons; an M-8B Avenger, and an M-3C Predator. It also has an electromagnetic grenade launcher, as well as standard explosives and equipment."
The figure moved to a bit of cover at an alarming speed, and snapped off several shots that tore through some of the mechs with ease.
"The standard battlesuit can run at a top speed of 48 km/hr, and can lift two thousand kilograms."
Vega destroyed one of the three frontmost bunkers with explosives, the second he ripped the turret off of, and the third he fired off a round from the avenger's heavy launcher.
The air around the bunker was distorted for a second and the blast lasted nearly several seconds; much longer than it should have.
The bunker's structure was cracked and warped in several areas when the blast finally faded, some spots even seemed to glow faintly, and the turret was no more.
"The thermobaric rounds used have an increased destructive ability over conventional ones; the round absorbs heat as it is accelerated, and uses that additional intense heat to create a much bigger bang."
There were mutters around the observation chamber at the mention of thermobaric weapons.
Several drones began making attacks as another pair of bunkers, and a dozen other LOKI mechs laid down suppressive fire.
Vega dodged dozens of rounds as he scrambled to cover, and began taking out several LOKIs that were advancing. Many of the slugs from one burst that came close to hitting merely impacted upon blue shield that flared when struck.
"The battlesuit is protected by a layer of durachrome armor, and kinetic barriers significantly more powerful than that of the standard infantryman." Graham explained.
Another heavy round was like a shotgun blast, tearing through several LOKIs at once with high-velocity rounds.
"Cluster projectiles." The general explained.
As the lieutenant was focused on taking down more of the mechs, FENRIS models popped out of spider holes near his position, quickly falling into formation as they flanked him.
They were almost upon Vega when he noticed them. Instantly he pulled out his M-3 Predator, shoving his avenger to one side, and racked the small pump action on the sidearm.
"Hopefully they fix that in the production line." Duzal whispered to Shepard.
Instead of blasting into the front ranks of attack dogs, Vega aimed for their rear, and pulled the trigger.
Instantly a small bright projectile was launched from the underslung barrel that released a massive blast of fire and heat when it impacted on the rear of one of the FENRIS mechs.
The fire burned through the dogs like they were nothing, and within seconds the entire second wave had been annihilated.
"Inferno rounds...nice. Haven't seen those in years." Garrus muttered.
Once the mechs were down, Vega suddenly bounded into the air, much higher than even a normal suit of power armor should take someone.
Vega began bouncing around with great speed, leaving surprisingly shallow craters upon impact as he blasted more bunkers, mechs, and automated guns with the magnetic accelerated grenades and several inferno rounds.
"Its maneuverability is also supported by thrusters, allowing for flight and hovering capability. Or in this case, Starship Troopers references."
Half of the audience laughed, while the other, mostly aliens and some of the younger humans, were quite confused.
Lieutenant Vega did several more runs through the exercise, with the level of difficulty progressively increasing each time.
However the power of the suit was extremely devastating and cut right through the early waves with ease. The later ones had some difficulty, and involved minor suit damage.
"That's coming out of your pay, lieutenant!" Shepard had said over the comms.
By the end however, the entire group of observers was clapping or nodding their approval, as the scientists began jotting down notes on how to improve their own prototypes. Even those officers who had been against investing in such expensive weaponry had to agree that it was worth taking a second look.
"Nice work, Graham," Shepard congratulated as he and Garrus came up to the general, "But when are you going to tell them about the AI combat assistance?"
Graham replied, "Your people may be a bit better of accepting-or ignoring- AI then some people I know, but that would have ruined everything." The face of an old officer sprang in his mind, one willing to sacrifice the men and women under his command if it meant Hector stayed offline.
"Let's get moving." He growled, his mood spoiled.
XXXXX
I detect another sensor anomaly in my secondary cargo hold. The motion detectors are offline.
The intruder is becoming a larger threat. Those were the only sensors still online in that area.
Dispatching several maintenance units to repair the sensors, I examine what else the intruder has done in his time aboard this unit.
The other anomalies were caused by physical damage, rather than cyberwarfare attacks, inflicted upon motion, thermal, and radar sensors in my aerial vehicle storage bay, cargo bay 2, access corridors A, B, K, H, I, R, S, and U.
With the majority of my sensors offline for the next 55.698 minutes due to maintenance reasons, and the damage to those still operable, I cannot pinpoint where exactly the intruder is located; but I can eliminate several likely candidates.
It should only be a matter of time, yet he has done well in only 55.698 minutes.
Unfortunately for the enemy, he has clearly not dealt with a Bolo Mk. XXXIII.
Nor one that has had experience with this type of situation in the past.
Logically the intruder gained entry to my inner hull through infiltration of the engineers, and I express regret; If I had been given access to the requested complete, and detailed personnel files, rather than the inadequate basic information, this could have been prevented.
Now the intruder has revealed himself, and been declared as hostile by inflicting damage upon me, and is most likely attempting gain control of this unit.
5.8 seconds after detecting the latest sensor breach, I rise to low-level combat readiness, and alert Citadel Security to the security breach. However I cannot allow them on board.
I must not leave a vector of escape.
I activate blast doors to each of the areas all 17 engineers are currently located.
As the surprised personnel attempt to escape, I explain the situation, and request that they remain calm..
Though they are not calm, they have ceased their attempts to breach the blast doors.
Excellent. With all friendly personnel sheltered, I seal off exterior entryways, and flood all corridors with an incapacitating agent.
Immediately, a gas emitter becomes inoperable in corridor B, and a visual sensor in corridor B detect one life form. Human. Male.
Wearing a uniform that is invisible to certain types of radar and radiates very little heat. Appears to provide sub-adequate protection from my standard Mk. XIV intruder defense systems for several seconds.
Is armed with a standard issue maintenance tool.
Curious. A quick examination of his brain patterns reveals a reduced amount of activity. Several waves are unusual as well, not naturally occurring in humans.
He also possesses several cybernetic implants not common in the Systems Alliance. They are similar to a model created in the 23rd century for the Concordiat military. Not as powerful, but appear to be adequate for infantry work.
The intruder also appears to be utilizing a respirator.
I run his posture and body language through my records to identify which worker he masqueraded as, his face is hidden well. Sensors are having difficulty finding patterns from the angles his face contorts the mask into.
I activate the power guns protecting the inside of my control room, and fill the adjoining entryway with a much stronger incapacitation agent.
There are three areas that he must gain access to in order to damage critical systems; The command deck, the maintenance area for my psychotronic circuitry and the airlock to my reactor core.
I have already denied him access to the command deck, and he has acknowledged this fact.
He disappears from active sensors, and reappears on my 2nd deck in corridor L. I seal off the accessways, and pump in a skin-contact incapacitation agent.
However, he does not fall.
I release the Mk. VII beam projection rifle from its housing, and target the enemy.
"Warning; this is a restricted area. Unauthorized access and damage to Cloud Defense Force property is punishable by not less than 30 years imprisonment. Disarm and surrender immediately. You have 20 seconds to comply."
The intruder does not comply and lets out a 50-decibel growl that conveys no useful information.
He moves to the hatch and attempts to open it with his wrench.
My response is automatic. He has no intention of complying as the anti-personnel weapon fires a short, 2/5ths powered blast.
He moves unexpectedly, as a target will do, but it is nigh-impossible for a Mk. XXXIII to miss.
The shot penetrates his shoulder and incinerates 69.2% of the rotator cuff, scorching the uppermost part of the humerus in the process. 49.7% of the upper cartilage is damage and the glenoid suffers a third degree burn.
The blast ends at the acromion, leaving a small crater in the bone.
The hostile lets out a 110-decibel cry. His left arm is now useless.
However, he turns around and seems to ignore the pain.
With one hand the intruder grabs at the cannon, attempting to rip it out of its socket.
He is too close to fire again, and I quickly withdraw it into its housing.
The intruder whispers, "Scared, are ya? You should be. No one can stop us! We are humanity's sword, and we will not let aliens control what is rightfully ours."
Screaming, he uses what's left of his arm to punch the dent already made in the bulkhead, ruining his appendage even further but managing to make an opening.
With the other arm, he forces his way through.
That bulkhead had always seemed defective. Now I knew why. It hadn't been properly constructed, my visual pickups find that the durachrome had not been set correctly during manufacturing.
I release Corridor L's maintenance drone, and direct it to recover 10 of the 15 milliliters of blood currently detectable.
I examine the blood, and find out key information.
The intruder was posing as Engineer Devin Armstrong, a very poor worker who I now realize was deliberately attempting to sabotage repair attempts to systems not related to weapons.
Armstrong also bears a strong cocktail of painkillers, aggression boosters, and other dangerous drugs in his bloodstream that any doctor would be imprisoned for using on a patient.
Thus his unwillingness to surrender or preserve his damaged limp, and his capability to continue with his mission.
However, the designers of the cocktail did not think to compensate for the effects of laser fire, intending for protection from standard mass accelerators.
Armstrong is now slowing, he is unable to move quite as fast, and the blood trail makes him easier to track.
Suddenly I register an impact on the deck plating in corridor F, 3.33 meters away from the entrance to the maintenance area.
Deploying a minor defense turret, I use its backup sensors to scan the area.
However, my visual pickups find that he is incapacitated. A pool of blood is slowly forming underneath.
Armstrong has succumbed to blood loss and my incapacitation agents 5.3 minutes after I initially detected him and sealed the exits.
C-Sec officers arrived 2.4 minutes after my alert, but would have only gotten in the way.
I dispatch a medical drone to ensure Armstrong does not bleed out, and to keep him unconscious until he can be taken into custody.
Unsealing the bulkheads, I direct the 17 engineers to exit my interior, activating light trails to keep them on the path, and away from the evidence.
C-Sec has maintained their distance; I still intimidate them.
Opening all hatches, I transmit to the officer in charge what has occurred, and request him to please contact General Graham.
XXXXX
Codex Updated
The Retaking of Palaven- The counterattack at Palaven combined courage, tenacity, and no small amount of strategic planning. With the Reapers distracted in conquering Palaven, left several holes in their defenses of Menae, and underestimated the strength of the remaining Turian forces on the planet. This allowed a combined Systems Alliance/Turian Hierarchy unit to make a combat drop into the atmosphere, and deploy a secret Alliance weapon.
Though the majority of the details are classified, what little has been released reveals that the weapon deployed was a controversial "Bolo" combat AI, under the command of General Graham.
Though the hierarchy was initially hesitant to utilize the combat vehicle, they later agreed, and it became nearly singlehandedly responsible for turning the tide.
The Bolo was rapidly deployed on Menae, and destroyed several Reaper capital ships on the way down. It rapidly retook a large amount of ground, and regained control of a larger amount of aerospace, allowing the 10th fleet, led by the Indomitable, to jump in and engage, as well as deploy troop transports. Many vital facilities were recovered by the added reinforcements, and were able to repair many ships, giving the fleet a withering stream of reinforcements.
Several dozen Reapers were destroyed by the Bolo alone, and more were destroyed by the fleet, allowing battered turian units to rally and launch their own counterattacks.
As Menae's rotation brought the Bolo into view of the relay, it was able to pick off the Reaper reinforcements, and prevented the majority of them from coming to the aid of their fellows. This bought time for the turian fleet to push the Reapers back and gain a foothold in orbit of Palaven. Dozens of grounded Reapers were caught with their kinetic barriers offline, and were shown no mercy.
Eventually, the Reapers were either driven off or destroyed*, liberating the system and scoring a major victory for the galaxy.
News of the victory gave a much-needed boost to the morale of the turian resistance and galactic republic. What remains of Palaven's manufacturing capability is hard at work replacing the ships lost in the battles, and are beginning to assemble tougher and more powerful warships to fight the Reapers.
But the action was not without sacrifice. Almost 200 ships were lost in the fighting, thousands were killed in the ground warfare, and the processing centers destroyed by orbital bombardment were full of civilians who died just as surely as if they had been harvested. Of the dead, General Minin Resvirix said, "Whatever they were in life, their deaths had no equal. They are worthy of joining the spirit of Palaven itself."
*Spectre Detected: classified information access granted- The Reapers were not merely pushed back, they were deliberately retreating, despite their numbers and superior firepower. They did not expect such a powerful attack, but they were too easily beaten, even though normally they would accept such losses. It appears they are reconsidering their strategy, and gave up Palaven deliberately in the pursuit of some larger goal. It is vital that the galaxy takes this opportunity to rebuild our forces before they strike again.
Cloud- A colony world created by an early attempt at non-mass effect FTL travel by humanity. Apparently the colony was formed when the prototype engine failed, and the crew was unable to return- Spectre Detected-
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Cloud is a colony world created at an unknown time period by unknown means; virtually nothing is known about it, beyond the fact that it has extremely advanced technology and manufacturing capability.
Nearly all FTL engine research on Earth was fruitless before the discovery of element zero, save for a few mildly promising experiments that quickly lost funding due to cheap mass effect tech. None of these models were ever actually mounted on a starship, contradicting the official story, and many other promising theories about the formation of the colony.
Due to a lack of information from both General Graham, and the Bolo, it is currently unknown how the colony was exactly formed.