CHANDRASEKHAR SYSTEM
HAWKING ETA CLUSTER
PROTHEAN HEAVY FRIGATE FAR TRAVELER
FIRST OF OCTOBER, 2188
THE SHIPS WERE COMPLETELY ALIEN. They attacked with no warning, as soon as he exited the relay, no formal declaration. They were not pirates, all the ships were painted and arrayed the same, as if from a single fleet. The ships were black, with symbols he did not recognize inscribed in white all over them. Fortunately, his ship's VI was much quicker-witted than he and shields had come on and warded off the first volley and returned fire before the proximity alarms had finished chiming.
Javik was not a combat pilot – he knew the basics, as he had been extensively trained to cover almost any expediency – to do what he needed at least reasonably competently – but the basics would not serve him well here. He began barking commands to the VI, but it could only handle so much, and Javik felt the rather embarrassing feeling of missing the Normandy's EDI machine. His shields began to buckle under the high energy barrage. He managed to cripple two of the ships, destroy one, but the remaining ringed him, started firing in sequence as they rotated around. It reminded him of the ancient Prothean 'pinwheel' attack. His VI announced the shields had failed, and he felt the first strikes hit the ablative plates on the hull. The VI announced it had destroyed one more ship, and Javik himself managed to damage one enough that it dropped from the pinwheel, but the rest, five in total, continued to attack. Behind him, a bank of monitors blew out. The VI did its best to maneuver and attempt to slip from the ring, but so far it had been unable to do so.
The VI then reported a breach in a coolant assembly and shut the engines down.
Javik cursed, fired on another ship, forcing it to veer away, but the remain four kept hammering him.
The VI then reported failures in the auto-cannons, and Javik was suddenly toothless.
With a growl, he bolted from his seat, sealed his armor, grabbed an EVA helmet and his rifle and ran for a hatchway. One way or another, he would go down with a weapon in his hands, sending death back to his enemies.
He was at the hatchway, ship heeling about from the blasts, when the VI reported another vessel vectoring in.
A moment later, the VI reported all ships destroyed.
Javik blessed his luck – provisionally - and returned to the Command deck. Onscreen, he saw an immense ship, of no design he'd ever seen before, its design a half-moon shape, easily three times the size of the Traveler, slowly pulling alongside. He told the VI to hail it, but his ship abruptly lost power, and all went dark. The Far Traveler then bucked as if in the hand of a giant, throwing Javik across the deck. Javik pulled himself to his feet, and nearly fell over again.
Stepping from the corridor behind him, a Prothean female in full armor stepped forward and pointed behind him. He stood transfixed for a moment, and then wheeled about as a deafening crack! and an intensely bright column of light crackled onto the deck, began moving slowly toward him. He looked back, but the females was gone and the column was advancing. It sounded like angry lightning, and Javik tried the door, an emergency hatch, but to no avail. There was no power, not even emergency backup. The light column continued its approach and then stopped half-a-metre from him. Javik swore he could feel the light as a physical thing, so intense it was – yet he found he could look at it without discomfort.
He took a step, tentatively, and the column moved closer. He stepped back and it moved back. A tendril speared from it, transfixed him. There was no pain. Dozens more shot out to roll across floors, walls and consoles. Beyond it, bathed in the intense light, the female had reappeared.
"aNd So." Javik thought he heard her say, and then knew no more.
The Phoenix arrived twenty minutes later. Of the Far Traveler and its rescuer, there was no sign. Of the ships that had attacked Javik, only one remained. The Phoenix and her crew wasted no time in seizing it.
In short order, the ship's computers were emptied of information, bodies recovered, and technology scanned to the molecular level. An hour later, an Alliance recovery ship arrived in answer to Miranda's summons. The strange ship was quickly scooped up and then vanished into a clandestine laboratory for further study. The Phoenix departed the area to continue its search for the rest of her dossier.
It was only in hindsight that Miranda realized that she should have destroyed that vessel then and there.