-Chapter 7-
Once again, Harry has found himself staring down a wobbling bubble in space. Even though he ran initial scans on the wormhole, he was unable to learn anything from it. His paranoia told him that something could have entered this system, causing the wormhole to form on this side. But then again, his paranoid self always assumed the worst. The wormhole that brought me here was like this one as well, Harry thought, an "End of Life", Type Unknown wormhole. Maybe this is my ride back home. Harry grinned after considering that possibility, but he had to be realistic. He wasn't sure how the first wormhole was able to bridge between realities, but to have the same phenomenon happen again within such a short time-span? Something didn't feel quite right.
On the bright side, he didn't have much trouble convincing the council to let him depart on his voyage of discovery. In truth though, he didn't speak with them on the matter. They just know that once again, the golden ship has left on it's own. Until they figure out how to magnetically lock the Normandy SR9 to the docking hanger, Harry can technically leave whenever he wishes. And he doubted that they would try to keep his ship docked within the Citadel by force, not since the Normandy SR9 wrecked the Narool, and that was just with Aura behind the wheel. Besides, Harry thought, The Turian councilor would probably be pleased about my departure.
Harry ran a Diagnostic scan on the Normandy SR9 once more to check to see if everything was in order, minus the fried shield systems and the damaged Capacitor Regeneration Unit. Other than those two issues, the fact that the ship's armor was at 87% effectiveness, and the limited amount of Capacitor Booster Charges available in the ship's cargo-hold, everything else was performing smoothly and all the drones in the drone-bay were accounted for. The Normandy SR9 was about as ready as she could be given her current condition. "It'll have to do," Harry grumbled to himself as he engaged the thrusters and entered the wormhole.
The transition from one system to another was relatively seamless. Unlike the last wormhole, the Normandy SR9 wasn't tossed about violently or struck by lightning. The ride was calm, like a gondola traversing through the canals of Italy, minus the singing gondolier. Like hundreds of systems before this one, Harry checked for a local communication buoy and then later deployed probes after he was unable to find such a buoy. To his dismay, his probes didn't find anything of relevance either, not even a single star. That can't be right. Harry thought, Usually these wormholes formed in a solar system. Harry then took a look outside, But all that I can see in this dim light are these asteroids... wait, He caught himself, Dim light?
"Aura, are we still in or relatively near the Milky Way galaxy?" Harry asked.
The navigational computer kicked on again and searched for the Normandy SR9's current location. Once complete, Aura reported it's findings. "According to our local star charts, We are located outside of the Milky Way galaxy. Beyond that, I cannot determine our exact location."
"Then we haven't returned home." Harry grumbled to himself. "I thought as much, the ride through the wormhole was too easy."
Normally if he was as lost as he was right now, Harry would've taken the "Pod – Express" back home. The process included the self-destruction of his ship as well as his capsule, which was the best way to eliminate the evidence of his presence. There would be a smoldering wreck leftover from his ship, but in time the wreck would eventually break apart and disintegrate. Meanwhile, Harry's consciousness would instantly be transmitted at the moment of his "Death" to his medical clone back home. The process wasn't the cheapest since he had to pay for another medical clone afterward, but it was the fastest. Unfortunately, Harry was unsure if his consciousness would be transmitted at all in this alternate universe. Rather than take the potentially fatal risk, Harry chose to try to find his way back home. Besides, he enjoyed a good challenge. Although there have been times where he wished he had a pair of red, sparkling slippers. He almost began to chant "Theres no place like home," at the thought.
Pulling himself from his musings, Harry spoke to Aura, "Well while we're here we might as well check out these asteroids. There may be something of value that we can bring back. Might as well make this trip a profitable one."
"As you wish" responded Aura, as Harry maneuvered the Normandy SR9 through the asteroid belt, running scans on each one.
After scanning a few asteroids, he noticed something. The Normandy SR9 sensors revealed that the asteroids were almost completely metallic in nature. It seemed like that there wasn't a trace of carbon on these asteroids, but then again its difficult to scan an asteroid without proper equipment, namely a survey scanner. While moving further away from the wormhole, Harry also noticed another oddity, an oddity that puzzled him.
"Aura, can you run a diagnostic scan on the sensor array again? Why do all of these asteroids look like squids?" questioned Harry.
Not amused, Aura reminded Harry that he ran a full diagnostic scan before they entered the wormhole. "Even after we entered this new system, I did not detect any malfunctions in the ship's systems." bluntly answered Aura.
"So they all do look like squids then." slowly spoke Harry, trying to formulate an explanation. "Maybe they're statues, or relics left behind long ago." verbally thought Harry.
"That is a possibility... but why are these structures here and not somewhere within the nearby galaxy? There is no evidence of a planet or even a star here. The only things here are these structures." contemplated Aura.
"Drift maybe?" questioned Harry. "Maybe they were built at the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy and then just drifted away."
"Possibly." agreed Aura, "But these structures are too large to be collected and transported back through the wormhole."
"Maybe we can use the drones to break off a chunk to take back with us." concluded Harry.
Before Harry could send commands to his drones though, Aura alerted him of movement off the starboard bow. He pulled up the camera feed on one of the monitors and witnessed a statue come alive. Lights flickered on as the statue creaked and crackled as it's limbs began to move. The statue let out a feral scream before it quickly advanced toward the Normandy SR9. As it maneuvered behind the Normandy, a plate over it's body separated into 4 different segments, each pulling back to reveal a hole in the center. A red ball began to glow in that hole as energy was built up before being expelled as a beam toward the Normandy SR9. "Brace for Impact!" Harry instinctively yelled as he attempted to counter the attack. The Normandy SR9 was still achieving target lock onto the statue when the beam collided with the ship's hull.
"Damage Report!" commanded Harry.
"Armor effectiveness reduced to 74%. Incoming damage is type electromagnetic. I cannot recommend remaining here for long Pilot." Reported Aura.
EM damage... well there's some good news, Thought Harry, The ship's armor is quite resilient against that kind of damage.
"Agreed!" answered Harry as he began evasive maneuvers, activating the afterburner for additional speed in the process. He also applied the tracking disruptor onto the statue after finally achieving target lock. When the statue got close enough Harry instinctively activated the energy neutralizers. He wasn't sure if these statues had mass effect cores, or if the neutralizers would even affect these things, but when you're being attacked there's no time to think, you just react. Meanwhile, the statue fired off another bolt of energy toward the Normandy SR9, hitting the vessel with full force. Harry was thrown left as the Normandy SR9 was hit.
"Armor effectiveness reduced to 61%. The tracking disruptor is proving to be ineffective, Pilot." reported Aura.
"Yeah tell me something I don't know!" remarked Harry.
"Very well, I've detected more movement coming from the other 'asteroids'. They are likely reinforcements." reported Aura.
Realizing he was fighting a losing battle, Harry decided to flee. He pulled the Normandy SR9 around a dormant statue and started burning back to the wormhole. The first statue followed the Normandy around the dormant statue and pursued the vessel, followed by three other statues similar in size and two other statues that about doubled their size. As the larger statues punished the Normandy SR9's armor, Harry pulled away in an attempt to get out of their firing range. He managed to get out of range, but at a price. The Normandy SR9's armor effectiveness was reduced to 15%, and Harry still had to travel 30 kilometers before reaching the wormhole. He was unable to shake off the four smaller statues and beams of red light slammed into the Normandy SR9's structure. Harry was launched forward into his bench as one of the beams penetrated the ship's armor. Sparks flew in the bridge as the Normandy was hit.
"Armor effectiveness reduced to 0%. Warning! Hull Breach! Damage Control module activated." reported Aura.
He didn't have much time, three more hits and the Normandy SR9 would fall apart under fire. Harry launched five Vespa class Electronic Counter Measure drones and assigned one drone per statue. He assigned the other two to the closest statue. While the drones were attempting to jam the statues by transmitting garbage data to their targets, Harry overloaded the afterburner and disabled the energy neutralizers, making the Normandy SR9 fly even faster than before as it raced toward the wormhole.
20 kilometers.
Another beam slammed into the Normandy SR9. The damage inflicted was reduced though, as not all the statues fired in unison. Some of the ECM drones were able to jam the pursuing statues.
"Hull integrity 65%. Harry you must get into the pod." recommended Aura.
"NO! Theres no time! I need to be here" Harry was fairly certain that in the time it would take him to get into the capsule, the Normandy SR9 would be destroyed. He felt that he had a better chance of escaping by being where he was, piloting the Normandy SR9 from the bridge. Come no baby, hold together. We're almost there. Harry thought to himself.
The Normandy's capacitor was running low and in response Harry activated the capacitor booster, expelling a capacitor charge into the capacitor and rejuvenating it. Meanwhile, Aura warned Harry about the heat built up in the afterburner. It was running the risk of burning itself out. Harry knew of this, and was content on letting it happen, they were so close to entering the wormhole. The bridge rocked right and sparks flew once more as the Normandy SR9 was hit once again.
"DANGER! DANGER! Hull Integrity Critical. EVACUATE, EVACUATE" screamed Aura.
"Can it Aura! Keep an eye on the afterburner, let me know when it burns out!" Commanded Harry.
He was nervous. He could tell by the beads of sweat rolling down his face. Harry faced death several times before without showing a sign of emotion. Back then he was confident that he would wake up in his medical clone. But now, he wasn't as confident. He could really die out here and no one would know.
7 Kilometers.
No, I will survive, I have to survive! I won't go down like this!
There was an explosion, Harry thought this was the end, but was proven wrong when Aura announced that the afterburner finally burned itself out. "Damn it!" cried Harry, "I still need that!" He watched the bow camera feed with horror as he saw one of the statues prime for the fatal blow that would destroy the Normandy SR9. Time seemed to slow down for him, as his body prepared for death to take him.
But then his stomach lurched. He was so attached to the bow camera feed that he failed to look at what was in front of him. The momentum from the overloaded afterburner carried the Normandy SR9 far enough that the ship was sucked into the wormhole. The bow camera feed went static as they transitioned into another solar system and then showed the wobbling wormhole as the ship emerged back into Citadel space. Burning... Scorched... and about to fall to pieces; The mess that was the Normandy SR9 drifted to a halt as it's momentum carried it further away from the wormhole, leaving a trail of fire behind it. Harry still watched the camera feed though, anticipating one of the statues to enter the wormhole to finish him off. Instead, the wormhole silently collapsed within itself and was no more.
Harry let out a sigh of relief. His whole body was quivering as the adrenaline rush still pumped through his veins. He patted the bench that he was at, saying, "That'll do girl, That'll do." Suddenly there was an explosion and something smacked Harry's cranium.
His body went limp, and as he fell to the floor everything around him faded to black. There was no time to scream, or to fight back. Knowing this, Harry just accepted his fate.