Running a ship the size of the Chadwik through the Inner Ring, and in an inconspicuous way at that, wasn't exactly an easy task. The relay density made it possible to jump from secondary relay to secondary relay without having to plot a predictable path, sure, but at the end of the day there weren't that many relays compared to the traffic they saw. Running across the galaxy without raising eyebrows was something a lot of people preferred, and not necessarily bad actors only. Space is big, and protecting all of it is impossible. Piracy was still quite common, and using the less traveled path was sometimes the best option.
Thus, the chances of running into someone who was either about to use one of the secondary relays, or had just done so and was on their way to the next. And, at the very least, they were likely to crap their collective pants if they flew anywhere near the Chadwik.
"Captain, we're ready for the next jump."
Captain Venter looked up from the projection at his XO. They had been taking their time doing the trip, and they were on their third shift now. Non-stop jumps, two core discharges, and a few of the crew feeling sick as dogs. Normally, relay transit was damn near unnoticeable for most people, but do a dozen of them in a row and it starts to have an effect. Luckily, they were ahead of schedule. There would be time to stop before the last two jumps. That is, assuming the Einstein didn't need them earlier.
And his XO was one of the people looking a little green around the gills.
"All right, three more jumps and we can take a break. How are we holding up?"
"We'll manage, sir," he replied.
Venter smiled at the mismatch between the man's voice and his appearance.
"Make it so, then."
The Chadwik started to push ahead, straight towards the relay. So far they had crossed only a couple of freighters, who had made for the hills so fast he was still wondering if they were real or a sensor ghost. The enormous carrier maneuvered its approach as the relay flahsed brightly, and the pilot started its countdown. Ten seconds. Five. There was a flash, a general, low-level grunt and groan from the crew, and they arrived on the other side. Being closer to the core, the instruments were registering a higher level of background radiation.
"How are we doing with the sensors?" Venter said.
"Within parameters," the XO replied.
"Good, bring us about and head for the planet, let's discharge the core now and move on."
At that distance from the star of the system, the planet was nothing but a mark on the gravitational sensors. A rather dull looking ice giant with a substantial magnetic field. And a few seconds after they started their approach, the sensor array lit up with proximity alerts as ships came out of FTL. He didn't even have to do anything before the VI kicked in the engagement alert.
"All hands on deck!" he called over the comms. "Status!"
"Sir, I count- They're opening fire!"
"Ninety pitch! All frigates disengage!"
The orders were executed immediately, but not fast enough for the fast-moving shots. Impacts bounced of the heavy kinetic barriers of the carrier, but they didn't completely cover the moored frigates. Several impacts hit the frigates before they had a chance to disengage.
"Damage report!"
"We're in good shape, damage to Chad-One and Three!"
"Try to screen them, move us up from the gravity well!"
The barrage continued as the Chadwik pushed itself lazily off the planet's gravity. He cursed internally as hit after hit pounded their shields, and his curses were out loud when a hit took down the engines of Chad-Three. The frigate stopped its ascent, its trajectory flashing red in the projection. It was going to fall in the planet if they couldn't reach it in time.
How the hell did they catch us during discharge?
It stank to high heaven, someone had set up an ambush at the perfect time and caught them with their back against the wall - or, rather, the gravity well. He hadn't even pre-planned the discharge stops. How had it happened?
The Chadwik was finally in a wide orbit, and free to move around. The enemy fleet started to pull back, trying to keep its distance. Yeah, now that they were free, he had the advantage. Or should have It didn't sit well with him, he was going in blind against an unknown fleet that had planned the perfect ambush, it wouldn't do to jump to the conclusion that they had the upper hand.
"Frigates take position behind, prepare to do standard spread once we launch fighters," he said through the comms. "Status!" he then called. He could see the projection, but he needed more details.
"Twenty ships, six of them cruisers. Mixed load. Batarian make for two of the cruisers and six of the smaller craft, Turian for the other two cruisers and the rest of the small craft. Two of unknown configuration."
"Unknown?"
He zoomed in on the marked ships. Two somewhat fat-looking ships at the front of the formation. The VI had them marked as Volus, which didn't seem right.
"Volus?" he said.
"The VI's full of shit, sir," the lieutenant replied. "If that's a Volus freighter I'm a krogan princess!"
He didn't like it, but they didn't seem to be doing anything. They were large, in size alone they were closer to a cruiser than a frigate, but they looked slow and dumb. Well, he didn't have any more time. His frigates were down to five, and they were close to scraping distance now. The enemy fleet had to be trying to drag them in, they would have been in a much better position if they had kept the pressure and forced them against the gravity well of the planet, but they were recoiling.
Looking at the rest of the ships, he had no doubt he could come out on top in normal circumstances.
"Bomber wings, four. Fighter wings, eight. Brontes wings, six. Engage." His hands flew over the controls, plotting paths for the different craft. Wide paths well away from the main fleet, coming at wide angles against the enemies. "Keep tight formations, and disengage on first contact. This stinks of a trap but we have to engage."
Acknowledgements came in as the ships engaged. The enemy fire was more scattered now as they pushed towards them. Heat management dictated they couldn't keep that rate of fire on them if they expected a protracted engagement. Like it or not, it was time to push.
"Chad-One, Two, Four, peel wide and engage with the turian cruisers," he called. "Chad-Five, Six, behind us, prepare to break off and engage at point blank." He closed the comms and called to his pilot. "Move us in!"
The Chadwik pushed ahead of the rest of the craft, plotting a direct path towards the enemy fleet. The guns on the carrier were made for engaging with small craft at short distances, so they weren't really equipped to deal with the larger ships in the fleet. But they had the staying power to be a threat and take the fire as the rest of the craft moved into position. He watched the projection as the distances closed in. Then, to his infinite surprise. The markers of his ships started to turn orange.
"Damage report!"
"Sir, reporting damage on all craft! It matches GARDIAN laser signatures!"
"Disengage! Pull back!"
Fighters, bombers, even the Brontes, they all tried to turn around, but they were still getting pummeled. The comms were a chaos of voices as the entire comms team tried to deal with the sudden attack and coordinate their retreat. Yet the enemy fleet didn't seem to have moved. They were still in place. The cruisers had broken off to engage their frigates, all six of them. They were completely unconcerned about the rest of his craft.
"What is taking them down!" Venter yelled. "They're not within range to be getting hammered by the GARDIANs of the fleet!"
"There's noting on the scanners sir!"
"Bullshit!"
No, there had to be something. Something they couldn't see. Actively.
"Sergei!" he called. "Pinpoint FTL, get us to the opposite side of that fleet!"
"Aye sir!" the pilot replied. A few second passed, but nothing happened. "Sir! The engines are not engaging! There's too much interference!"
Venter looked at the map. The fleet was neither numerous, nor flying a tight enough formation for that to be true. He knew his pilot, he could jump the Chadwik though the hole of a doughnut, No, there was something out there.
"Full speed ahead, max power to the engines," he called, plotting the path. They'd get pummeled on their way, but it'd get them there. The order was acknowledged, but he continued. "Marisha! Run passive scanners against the background radiation, there's something out there and we need to find it!" He then hit the internal comms. "Attention all crew, evacuate fore sections one through four, we're about to run into something and we don't know what it is. Move it!"
With that, the Chadwik charged ahead at full speed towards the enemy fleet.
The space battle raged in the distance, the human carrier trying to take on the fleet assailing them. Their projections had been perfectly accurate when it came to planning the ambush. STG prided themselves in the accuracy of their predictions, after all, and predicting the most likely path for a ship to follow once the parameters of their mission were known was an easy enough task for them. The developments during the battle, however, were a different matter. Humans remained unpredictable in many respects. All they had were limited scenarios for the important points they wanted to learn from the engagement.
If necessary, a reserve fleet could jump in and finish the job in case the humans managed to push through, but looking at the way events were unfolding, it didn't seem likely. for now, the two of them watching the battle from their hidden position was enough.
"As expected, passive scanners managed to locate the drones." Yenirn said.
"Background radiation due to proximity to the galaxy core," Wepik replied. He looked at the readout of the console. "However, targeting systems cannot lock on them. Mass scanners for FTL engine safety also detected the interference, but couldn't lock on either."
"Good. Oh look, humans are launching Thanix fighters with targeting solutions on the fleet already locked. Creative, but dangerous."
The Brontes were jumping out of the hangars already shooting, it almost looked like the carrier itself was firing the Thanix weaponry at the enemy ships. Frigates went down easily enough, but the drones were keeping up with the rate of engagement. The fighters were being destroyed as fast as they came out. Yet come out they continued to do.
"Number of drones?" Wepik inquired.
"Two thousand, three hundred and twenty-seven... No, twenty-five. Chadwik keeps destroying them as it moves."
"Yes, interesting. Einstein used a similar maneuver against Turian dreadnought. Curious, might be a human tactic."
"Adjustment to the drone configuration might be advisable. Include disruptor payload," Yenirn said, turning to his companion and ignoring the battle for now.
"Harder to hide from sensors," Wepik replied, doing the same. "less autonomy. Mixed drone configuration?"
"More complicated swarm control."
The two of them continued to exchange ideas as they watched the battle. Without the aid of the smaller craft, the human frigates were severely outnumbered against the enemy fleet. The drones were not effective against the larger craft, so they were not engaging with the frigates. Their micronized GARDIAN weaponry was enough to deal with the fighters when swarming them in large enough numbers, and the internal heatsinks could hide any heat signature for a short while with those energy requirements. Anything larger, however, presented a significant problem. Scaling up solutions to hide heat signatures was a huge engineering problem. Even their small craft wasn't really invisible to heat scanners, just attenuated. Enough to not be taken for a ship, as long as they didn't move like a ship.
The battle continued. The numbers continued to decline on both sides, but the cruisers from the attacking fleet had already started to engage the carrier again. That added up to significant firepower, all things considered, and the humans were now firmly on the losing side. The rest of the fleet started to position around the carrier, trying to prevent it from jumping away.
But the battle had dragged for too long. The drones were starting to cycle in and get back into the transport ships. Too much heat. Any longer and they'd start to be visible to scanners.
"Surprisingly resilient," Wepik said.
"Chadwik might have received changes to its configuration from the quarians," Yenirn said. "Might explain the difficulty in getting access to data feeds."
"Geth?"
"Unlikely, but possible."
"Recover the wreck after the battle?"
"No, orders are clear, leave nothing behind. Cannot risk early detection by Systems Alliance."
It took another hour before the battle was finally over. The Chadwik made one last attempt at escape, but the fleet was determined to keep them in. Collisions happened every time the carrier tried to push, with crews abandoning the frigates before leaving them in the path of the larger ship. Finally, life pods poured out of the Chadwik, and minutes later later, the entire ship blew up as the captain scuttled the ship.
"Makes decision easier, no intact systems to recover," Yenirn said.
"Yes. Longer cleanup, however."
Outside, the fleet was now engaged in the second to last order in their list. Life pods were targeted, and destroyed, one by one. Somewhat distasteful, but necessary. The alternative was to take prisoners, but they could never be set free if they were taken. And moreover, there was no information they wanted from them. Sadly, that left only one solution. Not that it seemed to bother the turians, if their boastful calls through the comms were to be believed. The entire fleet was crewed by crews from the First Colonial Flotilla, all sworn to secrecy.
They had approximately ten hours before the Systems Alliance's operation in the Traverse. The absence would be noted then. They had to work fast.
Losing Anita Goyle had been a blow to the galaxy, and in many more ways than most people realized. The Systems Alliance sat on the verge of change, large enough to change the makeup of the galaxy, and large enough to, hopefully, prepare it for the incoming reaper threat. They were the catalyst to transform the, on the surface, peaceful balance of power, into that of a large machine of war. Dangerous, but necessary. As far as Tevos could see, it was up to the asari to be the ones to temper that steel and give it purpose. And more importantly, after the events of the Relay 314 incident, be the ones to stick their noses between them and the Hierarchy.
Of course, as time passed, their capacity to intercede between the powers was bound to diminish. It came with the territory. The Republics were now in full production of their most technologically capable ships, and some of those advances were to be shared with the others. Once that happened, they would be left behind, unless further changes were introduced to the treaty of Farixen. That had been the plan, until Benezia's child had thrown an octopus into the Karan pot. Now everything was in flux. More so because very few in the Republics, or anywhere else, knew about the Reapers. So far only a handful of people in positions of power had been brought to Ilos to be "checked" by the VI. The whole discussion about indoctrination had been quite disturbing. For months she had been completely paranoid about absolutely everyone she came across.
Now, she was still suspicious, but stuck to the plans. Set them in motion without having to refer to the reapers. And hope they found a way to replicate the technology that allowed the protheans to detect indoctrination.
And deal with the aftermath once they could. That, too, robbed her of sleep.
But what robbed her of the most sleep these days was the loss of Anita. In good part because of the loss of a friend and an ally. But also because of the lack of quality of her replacement.
"Conducting operations in the Traverse is not something to be done lightly," Tevos said, speaking from her vantage position in the Council chamber. "The Systems Alliance not only did so, but acted with unusual ferocity. The loss of life-"
"Our operation," the balding man, Ambassador Udina, interrupted - as he so often did, "was at the behest of one of our potential allies in the Traverse. And we had ample evidence to act on. We do not take actions lightly."
"You never consulted with or informed the Council," Sparatus said.
"That does not mean we didn't consider our actions carefully," Udina replied.
Once again, he almost looked like he enjoyed antagonizing Sparatus. Anita always knew how to balance between goading the turian and stepping back. There were things she never did, at least not in such a clumsy way. The Hierarchy took their role as the shield of the Council seriously enough that one would do well not to rebuff them so openly.
"Ambassador," Tevos called. "That is not the issue at hand. Your operation was beyond the borders of Council space, but a single relay jump away from our territories. We too have deals and treaties with the independent powers beyond our borders."
"And according to our intelligence, those treaties and deals were not worth the paper they were printed on, given how several colonies were at the mercy of raiders and pirates."
"Allegedly," Tevos replied.
"And these allegations were enough for the Systems Alliance?" Sparatus interjected, taking control of the conversation again. "And your only option was to conduct a high casualty military operation? There are many questions we need answered concerning the Alliance's actions!"
"We presented ourselves, issued our demands, and were attacked. What else do you suggest we should have done? Let ourselves be attacked? Run? You would suggest we run, ambassador?"
"You did not explore any other avenues. You could have opened negotiations. Or done a show of force short of open warfare."
"The Hierarchy's opinion on the Systems Alliance's military operations stopped mattering back in '57," Udina replied.
"Ambassador!" Tevos said, trying to stop the situation from escalating.
"In that case, perhaps you could answer this question," Sparatus said, ignoring Tevos. "Why show with such a small force? A larger presence would have served as a deterrent for escalation."
"Our forces were quite sufficient to get the job done. We do have other duties to consider."
Tevos looked at Sparatus. There was something else behind that question, she thought. And as far as she could tell, Udina hadn't picked up on anything. She discreetly reached for the terminal and clipped the last thirty-three seconds of footage, adding a small note.
Review engagement footage and request projections based on larger forces.
She made sure the note was attached right at the moment Sparatus started talking. The Spectre would get her exact meaning, she knew that for sure. That brought her to another mental note, that of none of the Spectres having been evaluated for indoctrination. Bringing them down to Ilos was out of the question - too many questions would be raised, questions which were easy to answer when bringing political figures for a "tour" instead - so she had to still be very careful whom she interacted with. T'Kali was still her first choice.
"For a slaughter, perhaps," Sparatus said. "The Hierarchy would have made a larger show of force to deter the enemy."
"Yes, we've seen how well that worked last time," Udina said. Before Tevos could call for an end to the verbal hostilities, and to her surprise, Udina changed subject. "This is all pointless. We operated well within our rights to assist the colonies which asked for our aid in the Traverse. This meeting is nothing but an excuse for the Council to try and undermine our perfectly lawful trade negotiations. You have imposed sanctions on our trade with the Council races based on our work with the Geth. Sanctions which, I must remind you, were soundly rejected by the Systems Alliance and my predecessor. If open trade is not to be possible with you, we will find someone else with whom we may do so."
"Ambassador," Tevos said, grateful for the chance to go off a tangent. The air was getting very charged in the chamber. "Your initial dealings with the Geth, and restoring the quarians to their homeworld of Rannoch, were never in question. You have to understand that the Systems Alliance doesn't have the experience with the Geth the Council has. For some of us, the Geth rebellion is living memory."
"The Geth have not made a single threatening move towards anyone since we made contact with them. You will have to excuse our healthy skepticism when it comes to your version of the events more than two centuries ago," Udina said.
"As I said, you might think of that as ancient history, but for us it is living memory. And so it is fir the Geth. They are not the descendants of the AI involved in that incident, like the quarians are. It is the exact same AI. We have every reason to be skeptical, and we have not been offered any proof that the AI has changed in any way since then."
"We offered to allow observers," Udina said. "You rejected the notion."
"After sanctions were passed. Ambassador, please, we-"
"I've heard enough," Udina interrupted. "None of our actions in the Traverse contravene the directives set forth by the Council. If you wish to be better informed next time, I will be glad to forward your request to the joint chiefs of staff."
And with that, Udina turned around and walked away, leaving the Council chamber without even a by-the-by. Tevos furrowed her brow, listening to the coments rising in volume all around her. It was becoming more and more of a problem. The Asari Republics were being left stuck in the middle as the Systems Alliance's allegiance seemed to shift away from the Council right before her eyes, and her own position was becoming weaker with every day that unlikable, unskilled Ambassador spent in office. She knew that his popularity seemed to raise with every spat and argument with the Council. He played for the audience, but not the audience in the Citadel. The audience back on Earth and its colonies, the audience Anita had made her painfully aware she had very limited understanding of.
She remembered one of the first things Udina had told them after taking office.
I am very different from my predecessor, you'd do well to remember that.
He could say that again and again, as the humans said. The entire balance was being shifted away from her hands, and she didn't know who was it that was pulling the strings.
The meeting had gone exactly as expected. Udina, that clod of a human, had played up his brash side and gone straight for head-on conflict without even considering the matter at hand from anyone's point of view other than his own. He had been described to him as a "political animal", a phrase that had connotations he was starting to understand better and better.
Sparatus sat at his desk and reviewed the footage. No, it didn't look like Udina had reacted at all when he had thrown his barb about the size of the fleet. Either he didn't understand the implications - which was possible for that particular human - or he truly didn't know anything about the loss of the carrier during its passage through the Inner Ring.
"That brazen, open display was unnecessary," Valern said. The Salarian ambassador had not said three words in a row during the entire meeing, a rarity for a salarian.
"I disagree. We have narrowed the options to only two. Either he's an idiot, or he is being kept out of the flow of information."
"We could have established that on our own," Valern said. "Reports indicate the human is mentally sharp, albeit short on interspecies personal skills."
"So," Sparatus said, ending the discussion, "do you have the report?"
"Of course," the salarian replied, handing him a secure data plug.
Sparatus pulled the private terminal out of the drawer, and connected the device. A detail report of the battle. As well as reams of raw data.
"Give me the bottom line," Sparatus said, and paused to curse mentally. Damn human idioms. "A summary."
"Understood that reference," Valern said. "Systems Alliance showed signs of adaptability. Did not have the tools to correctly asses the threat posed by the drones. The captain tried to work around it to eliminate the main fleet. Achieved excellent results given the resources at his disposal."
Sparatus' eyes went over the report as Valern talked. Almost all ships had sustained significant damage. They had also completely lost three of the cruisers, eight frigates, and-
"How many drones did you deploy?" the turian ambassador said, looking at the estimated costs.
"Over nine thousand," Valern said, and grinned in a way that Sparatus knew meant he was missing something. "Almost four thousand destroyed by the advance of the carrier. Second time this kind of maneuver has resulted in substantial losses. Although drones are easier to replace than dreadnoughts."
He suppressed a grunt of annoyance and kept reading. Valern just loved rubbing in how the Hierarchy had lost a dreadnought to a boarding, of all things. Sparatus had spent months raising absolute hell about it, and managed to get the Primarchs back home to get off their asses and review the crew compliment of their dreadnoughts. He knew it was impossible to completely remove the stench of favoritism that went along with the positions aboard the dreadnoughts, but he had been satisfied when the numbers had started to come in. On average, two thirds of all dreadnought crews had been cycled to different positions.
He kept reading the report. The expense was eye-watering. Those drones were expensive. Valern didn't have a problem reading his expression, it seemed.
"Substantial cost to deploy, but test can be considered successful. If we move to full production, economies of scale should reduce costs."
"How much?"
"Thirty to forty percent. Expensive materials are necessary for heatsinks, hiding heat signatures of the drones is the main advantage. Considering ejectable heatsinks, Geth technology. Might be hard to acquire."
It was an advantage. Not a great advantage, but an advantage nonetheless. It was inevitable that hte humans would learn enough about the drones to deploy countermeasures, but for now, they needed a way to have the upper hand if and when necessary. Still, the cost was exorbitant, and it had been just to catch a single carrier with no auxiliary fleets. That only happened during their patrols through Council space in the safest trade routes. No. It was good, but needed more.
"What do you need from the Geth?"
"Reports indicate they posses heat transfer technology used for weapon heat management. Ejectable heatsinks."
"I know that," Sparatus replied. "You need them?"
"Need to replicate the technology. Access to material and manufacturing process information. The principles are simple, it's the details that let you climb."
"I see. I have the right Spectre to do that. Give me the details and I'll put in the request."
"There is no need for haste," Valern replied. "As long as existence of drones remains secret, the advantage is enough."
"According to your data," Sparatus said, pointing at the screen, "there is no sensor data that can be used to identify them."
"Visual data might have escaped."
"Who'd be able to recognize what those things are from a quick look out a ship's window?"
"Unlikely, true," Valern said, and raised his hands in an ambiguous gesture. "But can never be too careful."
Only too true, Sparatus thought. Only too true.
Author's Notes: Well, well, there it is. We now know which way the cookie is crumbling, though it shouldn't be a big surprise to the regular reader. I have alluded to the salarian/turian alliance more than once in the past, only now it's a lot more clear - and brazen. The rise of the carrier has been a disruptive force for space warfare, but it doesn't mean that everyone else will rush to imitate what the Systems Alliance is doing. If you think about the period that the ME lore draws its inspiration from (early 20th Century, the Treaty of Farixen is very likely inspired by the Washington Naval Treaty), the Dreadnought is THE weapon of war. It's going to take a lot more than a few surprise battles for so much historical inertia to move away from that warfare philosophy. And autonomous drone warfare is a common enough trope that I can see the Salarians going for it.
AND, if you really, really paid attention, you might catch a hint of what's about to come - and if you catch the wrong end of the stick, you might not be alone in that. Not that this is a big tease, because it's coming next chapter haha!
And there it is, Udina. The "political animal" quip is, I seem to recall, from Captain Anderson. I've decided to play it here as you see from the point of view that Udina is out, first and foremost, out for himself. IF the winds are blowing in the direction that being brash and loud while antagonizing the Council is popular back home, that's what he's going to do. I alluded to the situation during Anita's tenure, but never quite escalated past that. Not her style.
So that's where we're at! The carriers survived a large battle with a full-fledged Turian fleet, on the back of the Einstein's stellar performance during the boarding of the Victory of Galatana. This time, it was a very carefully planned ambush with a secret weapon the captain of the Chadwik was never equipped to counter, things had gone differently.
Anyway! Let's keep it at this for now so we can go into more detail next time about the next steps for everyone.
If you want to support me a little more, I've set up a word-which-FFnet-will-eat at:
tinyurl (period) com (slash) y2q9cop6
(FFnet and hyperlinks don't mix).
Reviews! Thanks for the reviews! To answer a few tings:
FluffyDwagy, Victorules, Finshadow212th, RedShirt1453: I'm glad to see y'all picking up the ball and running with it. Roy is indeed at a bit of a crossroads, and one that is going to be followed by important things - at the personal, if not galactic level. The upcoming events are going to be shaping some of that, which I hope will be believable and satisfying.
Uemei: Shepard and her driving. I unironically hope they don't change the handling of the Mako in the re-launch of the games. In fact, I wish they re-incorporated the Mako to the later games. We need more maniac Shepard driving moments! Oh, and the Firewalker? MuahahahahahahHAAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, it's coming... in Convergence LOL
evattude, BJ Hanssen, Tom712, RIOSHO, SpecterXCove, thanks for the support!
Next time, on My Effect: Divergence: A flash of recognition, and a collect call. Until then, ta-ta!