Petroleum Effect
Chapter 4 - The Relay 314 Incident
Shanxi System, 2157
The Turian patrol frigate Daexus was an easy posting, at least by the standards of the Turian Hierarchy. This shift should be no different, thought Captain Etarn Corvannis. All he had to do was check out some anomaly an automated probe had detected on an uninhabited garden world. Entry to the system had proved no difficulty. There was an active secondary mass relay, and a primary relay designated 314 was still nice and deactivated. Nothing was amiss. Until the frigate had approached the planet.
The garden world in the system was not formally named, at least not to the Turians. As a levo-planet it was worthy only of categorisation to them. In the Hierarchy and Citadel systems the planet simply had various designation numbers, one of which was equivalent to R314-G1.
Right now though, there was a large blotch in the middle of the largest continent, where all previous scans had been a beautiful green with flecks of purple. It looked like a natural disaster, a meteorite impact or the result of a bomb. The Daexus' sensors were detecting large active mass effect fields at the edges of the blotch. Orbital cameras zoomed in to show massive, black, cylindrical vehicles crawling across the landscape chewing up the terrain and disgorging dead, sterile rocks and soil.
"Sensor officer - confirm dimension estimate please", ordered Corvannis, calmly, not believing what was said. The sensor officer in answer flicked an analysis window up onto the captain's display. It was true. Vehicles the size of a dreadnought were systematically destroying a garden world for no apparent reason.
"No known matches to ship silhouettes, layout or energy signatures, sir, looks like a first contact situation."
Vast alien vessels were destroying a garden world in clear violation of Citadel law.
"Hail the vessels and send out first contact packs."
"Hailing ..."
"No reply sir"
The Terran Dominion R.E.A.P.E.R Nomnom was a kilometer long and had a crew of three, Captain Peter Grant and two flight officers. Optimised for resource extraction, processing and haulage, the Nomnom was basically a giant, automated, space oil tanker / miner. Other functions were minimal. Communications were limited to a single QEC comm to headquarters and medium range radio tuned to standard Dominion frequencies. Sensors were better. So, whilst the Nomnom could detect a mass effect powered ship in orbit, the crew were blissfully ignorant of incoming messages.
Just as it had not lavished the Nomnom with extra features, the Dominion had also not lavished the vessel with a top-flight crew. As far as possible the vehicle was run by what humans called a simple AI but the Citadel would name a virtual intelligence. The three crew members were there as fallback supervision. The crew did their check-box duties and then enjoyed the relatively high-specification entertainment equipment they had been provided with in an effort to make the hard-to-recruit-for job more enticing.
The sensor ping was noted, but Captain Grant, who was on duty, assumed it was Terran and ignored it.
There was no reply to the Turians, because no one heard their message.
"Dispatch a message via the nearest comm buoy. Alert headquarters. Then, take us down there. We'll take a closer look", ordered Captain Corvannis.
A few moments later, the message was dispatched and then the Daexus descended into the atmosphere.
Sensors chimed on the consoles aboard the Nomnom and its fellow harvesters. It was a low priority alert. A small ship entering the atmosphere of unknown configuration was a concern to the VI's limited parameter set, a second trigger was the lack of a Dominion identity code. Eventually, it triggered a check-box workflow for the crew.
ALERT: Unidentified Ship on Approach - No Identification - Commence Manual Identification Workflow
Aboard the Nomnom, Grant looked up, irritated to be distracted from his game. Still, a workflow once triggered had to be resolved - it was one of the few key performance indicators (KPIs) that was tracked. If he ignored it, it would escalate and could affect his bonus. Captain Peter Grant got to work.
Confirm sensor contact with secondary sensors - CHECK. The vessel was real, not a sensor ghost.
Hail on standard frequencies - CHECK - no response ... no response ... no response within standard period.
"Incomprehensible transmission detected on atypical frequency, sir", reported the sensor officer on the Daexus, "commencing analysis".
Attempt visual identification - CHECK - poor visual - no identification - Peter Grant wrote the comments in the box on his workflow form next to the checkbox.
Transmit available information to HQ via QEC - CHECK - sensors and visuals transmitted.
The Daexus continued to descend. Now it was only 400 metres above the surface. Below, an ugly, grey-brown, dead landscape stretched out, broken by the forest edge. Several of the ominous vehicles were moving slowly nearby - due to their size visible at great distance. There was no response from the vehicles to the transmissions. They acted oblivious to the Daexus' presence.
"Sir, receiving no reply from alien ships", reported the communications officer.
"Sir, detecting a large number of what we assess to be weapons turrets along the hull. Not active", reported Tactical Analyst Bresnox, a junior officer in the sensor team.
Peter Grant looked at the strange ship, which bore little resemblance to any ship he had seen before. Most likely this was an experimental ship or one of the drills and alerts the brass sometimes liked to inflict. The way to keep your job and bonus during a drill was to follow the procedures. Live by the book, die by the book. He sent updated visuals and sensor scans over the QEC.
PRIORITY ALERT: Orders from Command
A response came in immediately, likely from a duty officer with VI support. Ship unknown ... possible first contact situation ... withdraw from planet, exit system and make way at best speed to rendezvous point. Do not attempt communications. Do not initiate hostilities. Activate weapon systems for safeguarding purposes.
The Nomnom and its peers were to withdraw. Captain Grant immediately began the workflow and started checking boxes. With a slight sense of glee, he pressed a red button and klaxons started to wail. The off-shift officers would have to join him for the red alert.
On the Daexus, the crew knew nothing of the Dominion orders, but they saw the results. The vast black alien ships stopped harvesting the landscape and backed up slightly. Their jaws closed and sealed. Then came the massive power spikes, as the human ships brought their element zero cores online to enable them to lift the enormous ships out of the atmosphere into orbit. Worst of all were the alarms that sounded as the automated systems detected each of the unknown vessels simultaneously activating around 60 kinetic turrets. Those with lines of sight to the Daexus locked on to the ship.
"Captain! We are detecting over 100 incoming weapons locks from the alien ships", exclaimed Bresnox.
Outnumbered by apparently hostile alien vessels, Corvannis ordered a withdrawal at speed. As the frigate lifted however, so did the alien ships.
"Sir! Alien vessels are pursuing!"
"Helm, tactical, divert all available power to engines and shields!"
On the Nomnom, Captain Grant had been joined by Flight Officers Bob Morgan and Richard Trent. The three of them tensely worked at their checklists as their vessels rose ponderously into the sky.
"Tracks retracted - CHECK!" called Morgan zealously, confirming the caterpillar treads had been raised and secured in their place in the ship's underside.
"Status of alien vessel! Now!" shouted Grant with his best impression of dynamism.
"The alien vessel is re-orienting and moving away sir!" exclaimed Trent, furtively glancing at one of the bridge crew monitoring cameras.
Work and communal areas on R.E.A.P.E.R class vessels were theoretically heavily monitored - recorded 24/7, although crew quarters were private. In practice, however, excessive VI monitoring was unpopular and therefore it was toned down for staff recruitment and retention reasons. Another reason was that escalating vast numbers of trivial issues to human superiors was expensive and unpopular with said superiors. As with most bureaucracies, therefore, videos were never viewed and report documents never read. However, in a major incident every word could and would be dissected at a post-incident review. The crew were on high alert to cover themselves.
The Daexus powered away, easily outpacing the sinister alien dreadnoughts. It reached the mass relay well ahead of them. The relay was the secondary they had used to enter the system and it was still aligned with the terminal they had come from. The Daexus activated the relay and fled the system.
A little while later, the R.E.A.P.E.R fleet waited as the relay realigned. They would take the network to the Rainbow system and from there call in for one of the three Dominion gate ships to open a portal to Sol.
The Daexus did not waste time. Whilst it had fled it had been sending frantic messages to the buoy network. It was not long before a response was received. A task force was en route.