Disclaimer: I do no own Mass Effect, I do not claim to own Mass Effect, I am only doing this for fun.
Author Notes: This is the beginning of the four part "season one" finale arc.
Episode 23: Forewarning
Shepard's return to the Normandy was hardly the end of the job on Noveria. She ended up having to do a lot of damage control after Saren's report to the Council downplayed some key nuances, and made her look bad. Shepard was entirely unsurprised that he tried to bury her, but she resented having to explain things to the Council while her head felt like it would explode from internal pressure.
The meeting went about as well as she could have imagined it would. Nihlus played a role in counter-arguing some of Saren's assertions, but the Council was still unhappy. Still, there were little blessings to count. Valern seemed very interested in the toxin, and thus he had not ripped into her as much as he could have. Tevos delivered a surprise when she said that while the rachni might pose a threat, she was leaning toward agreeing that murder was not the answer. Sparatus was perhaps the least amused. He made a valiant effort of disguising things by arguing how much blood would be shed if things went south, but Shepard was on to his real motivations.
The way she saw it, while the argument was valid to a point, it was a skewed point. The turians were the peacekeeping force of the galaxy, so if the rachni decided to be a problem, it was their necks on the line. Sparatus was covering the bases, but he definitely had a bias. It was just his lucky day that she was in so much pain by that point that she chose not to stand there, smiling, until it dawned on him that she knew. That and loathe him as she might, he was still a councilor, and she needed something from him, so she chose to play nice. She gave him the same argument she made to Saren, pointing out that the alternative was genocide, just with a lot less accusations of hypocrisy, and more taking a subtle dig at the turian predilection for excess force, something she was not willing to turn to.
The glare Sparatus gave her was withering even over the holographic projection, but it effectively shut down the argument. Tevos seemed vaguely amused and Valern watched the exchange with the look of someone putting numbers to every little thing. Shepard knew that she was not going to be Sparatus' favorite after that one. Not that she ever stood a chance of being his favorite.
In the end, Nihlus promised the Council all the information they had along with his report, which served to end the meeting. When the communicator shut off, Shepard practically slumped over the COMCON table, finally able to let go of the 'everything is great!' act. She waited out the worst of another burst of pain before she could collect herself well enough to march out of the room, hand the reins over to Kaidan, who looked very worried, and make her way to the medbay.
She was not surprised people were on to her act. Nihlus had figured out she was in pain during the Mako ride back, when he noticed she had increased the tint on her helmet visor to combat the light glaring off the snow, along with the fact that she did not gun it through the tunnels. The Spectre seemed perfectly happy to trail behind her all the way down.
Once in the medbay she submitted herself to Dr. Chakwas' full scans. The doctor ascertained she had brainwave irregularities consistent with a recent meld, along with some superficial swelling, the source of her headache, which happened when the meld was resisted. Shepard took her medication and grabbed a fruit jelly toast sandwich from the mess before she turned to her cabin to sleep things off.
Shepard jolted awake and automatically turned to look at the holographic clock on her bedside table, which announced she had slept around six hours. One glance through the skylight over her bed told her that the Normandy was still docked on Noveria. In her pain-addled state she forgot to tell Kaidan that they really ought to pull out, and bless his well-meaning heart, but Kaidan was hardly the one to make executive decisions on his own. A little chime over the intercom sounded again, and Shepard understood what had caused her to wake up.
"What is it, EDI?" she asked as she splayed out on her bed.
"My apologies, Commander, but Admiral Hackett is on the QEC, it is urgent."
Shepard groaned. Had wind of the rachni gotten back to the admiral? She had not even worked up a report. It either somehow got out, or this was unrelated. Either way Shepard wished she had a few more hours of sleep. "I'll be right down, EDI." She muttered as she pushed off the bed and reached for her boots. "Oh… can you tell me what the coffee level in the mess is?" An unorthodox request, but EDI did have internal cameras everywhere.
"A fresh pot of coffee has been prepared ten minutes ago."
"Good," she raked her brain for a long moment trying to remember who would be on duty in the mess right now. Matthews was probably still in bed, as he only got up an hour and a half before breakfast, for his shift. "Could you tell the on-duty serviceman to hold a cup for me?" It was moot; her memory was still too sleep-fogged to recall the rosters she had signed.
"Of course, Commander."
Fortunately, Shepard had been too tired to even switch out of her fatigues. She only had to pull her boots back on and she was out the door. She was acutely aware that she must look like something the cat dragged in, but the admiral would have to forgive that. She was on deck two in less than four minutes. It was then, when she saw the night shift CIC crew that it fully sank in. Admiral Hackett was on the communicator at this hour, so something was up, and very likely it had nothing to do with the rachni.
At the half-wall junction of the OD she stopped for a brief moment, surprised at what she saw. Nihlus lay asleep on the couch, a datapad on the floor next to him. It did not take much to figure out that he lost the fight with exhaustion while trying to work on his report. Shepard grinned, and stepped into the hallway leading to the COMCON. Once there, she stopped in front of the wooden-topped table and adjusted her top one last time, "EDI, if you will."
"Right away, Commander."
The lights dimmed and the holographic projector kicked into power with a loud hum. When the admiral's image stabilized, Shepard snapped to attention and saluted. "Admiral. My apologies for the delay."
"At ease, Commander. I understand." Hackett replied. "EDI told me that you just got back from a mission. Something very urgent has come up; otherwise I would have waited a few hours."
"What's going on, Admiral?" Shepard asked. Had EDI given the admiral more details? He did not say, well she would still have to write up a report.
"A routine patrol passing through the Armstrong Nebula's Grissom system was attacked thirty-seven hours ago. We lost the Cajamarca, no survivors, while the Mukden limped out of the system with serious damage, and only entered comm buoy range five hours ago. Captain Ishida reports major geth presence in the Grissom system."
The mere mention of geth instantly put Shepard on alert. "How many ships?" She wondered. How many people had died on the Cajamarca? Routine patrols were done by frigates, so Shepard could safely assume forty people at least.
"We are not certain. Reports indicate the frigates did not see them until sensors picked up heat signatures materialize from within the atmosphere of Notanban, the system's gas giant. The Cajamarca was shot down by a cruiser-sized vessel, and the Mukden's sensors recorded four frigate-sized vessels with it."
"I see." That did not sound like a recon force to Shepard. Furthermore, the Armstrong Nebula was the backyard of Alliance Space; there were grounds to be worried. "By what I know, Admiral, the geth do not need much in terms of environmental regulation; they allow their vessels to cool, which gives them passive stealth. Hiding in the atmosphere of a gas giant would complete the mirage." She knew why the Normandy was contacted. It was the only Alliance ship with the active stealth needed to sneak into the Grissom system to ascertain the number of enemy ships there.
"They are clever, I will give them that. I want the Normandy to conduct full reconnaissance. I need to know whether they are creating a staging ground within our space. If they are, they will find us to be less than gracious hosts."
"I will get right to it, Admiral."
"I know you will. Best of luck, Commander. I have preparations to make on my end. Hackett out."
Shepard only waited until the connection was fully cut before she breezed out of the COMCON. "EDI, Armstrong Nebula, where is its major relay?" She asked in the hallway.
"The Armstrong Nebula relay is found in the Hong system."
So it was not in the Grissom system proper. Now she knew why it took so long to get a message out. It also created an opening for them to go in quietly. A ship emerging from the relay corridor essentially broadcasted its arrival with a burst of radiation. The Normandy's IES system took some of the radiation out of the equation when they came out of FTL under their own power. "EDI, get Joker to take us to Hong, for now."
"Right away, Commander."
She entered the OD and moved toward the couch, idly wondering if she could get away with letting her crew sleep. This required a general officer's meeting. She needed to talk to Adams as well; the Normandy would need every bit of her IES tanks and shields for this. She also needed to talk to Garrus, were their guns ready to defend the ship?
"Shepard, you are not thinking about smothering me in my sleep, are you?" Nihlus murmured as he cracked open one eye.
Shepard blinked, and it took her a moment to realize she had been standing over him quite ominously. She could not help but smile, "Not today, Nihlus."
"Not today?" He asked as he sat up, giving her one of his puckish grins, "Should I be locking my door at night?"
She bit back the urge to ask what other reason she would have to enter his cabin in the middle of the night and merely grinned back; at least he knew she was kidding with him. The moment of humor drained away as she watched Nihlus reach down for his fallen pad. She sighed, moved over to the couch extension, and sat down, "We have a situation. Admiral Hackett just told me a patrol stumbled on geth in the Armstrong Nebula. We lost a ship, no survivors, and the other was damaged and had to limp out."
Nihlus sobered up instantly, "When?"
"The attack happened thirty-seven hours ago, the Mukden only limped into buoy range five hours ago."
"Hackett wants the Normandy to run reconnaissance?"
"Yes. I had EDI get Joker to take us out; we'll stop at Hong before we jump FTL to Grissom."
Nihlus set his data pad on the coffee table, "Alright… but how is your head?"
"Don't worry about me, I'm tough, pain's gone. I'll probably have about twenty-four hours to recover fully. What about you?" She was deflecting, she knew that. His expression at that moment told her he knew she was deflecting too.
Shepard called a general officer's meeting in the mid-morning once she had some preliminary preparations ironed out. The OD ended up packed with everyone, including Adams, present and alert, though some still carried mugs of coffee. Legion was the last one to drift in, ever the watcher from the back.
She began with a timeline of what happened and what they could be looking at; going over the little bits of information she got from Hackett's call, and two hours later, a forwarded data packet. The latter included a detailed report from Captain Ishida and the relevant sensor logs from the Mukden.
"How many did we lose on the Cajamarca?" Ashley was the first to break the utter silence that had lingered during the presentation.
"By the crew compliment and the Mukden's report… the Cajamarca went down with all hands on board, we lost forty-three on the Cajamarca and four on the Mukden, so forty-seven in total." Shepard replied.
She saw all the humans in the room shift their weight, it was a blow alright. Forty-seven families would be getting the worst sort of notice. Their loved ones would not be coming back, and worse, for forty-three families there would be nothing to bury either.
"We better make those tin cans bleed for that," Ashley growled.
"Geth do no bleed," Legion spoke up.
"Yea?" Ashley rounded on it, her hands on her hips. "I've shot enough geth, drew plenty of that white fluid you have."
"The liquid you are referring to is a coolant used to control the temperature of internal platform components."
"Semantics, that's all!" Ashley argued.
Shepard knew a fight was coming, she also knew it was not the time to have it. "Alright, let's focus on what matters here. Admiral Hackett wants to know how many ships we are facing, and if they have a base somewhere in the system. We will probably run our IES to the limit. Lieutenant Adams and I already discussed some measures to optimize our IES time."
"My team is working out the details as we speak." Adams added.
Shepard nodded and turned to Garrus who stood at the side of the room, arms crossed. "How are the guns?"
Garrus straightened into a formal stance and his arms dropped to his sides, "I completed basic reconfiguration per your request. The Normandy's Thanix system is ready to fire at full power, maximum constriction if necessary."
"Good." Shepard leaned back in her seat. "What happened is a travesty, and no doubt Admiral Hackett will put the Normandy in forefront of the action when time comes. But for the moment we are to run recon. I gathered everyone to let you know that once we hit the Grissom system the Normandy is in deep stealth. We will not link up to the comm buoy network, and all unnecessary heat-producing systems will be shut down to conserve IES capacity. That means have your hot showers before we hit Grissom and meals will be plainer than normal. I know Matthews has been spoiling us all, but this is still a military ship, we will survive a day or two of eating like it."
A forced sort of chuckle went about the room, which was what Shepard was aiming for, even if she was deathly serious about the hot water being unavailable for the duration of the mission. Her earlier meeting with Adams had confirmed they could squeeze out another hour of stealth by actively avoiding heat production in non-essential systems. No hot water and less cooking were the least of it. Adams said that with some minor management of air-flow in the vents, they could eventually turn off the on-board heating and use the internal emission sinks as a radiator instead. This would allow the sinks to redistribute some heat internally, increasing their capacity, giving the Normandy that combined extra hour.
"The modified duty rosters are with EDI," Shepard went on. "Now, I am fully aware that this will be a tense operation. We know these geth are dangerous and liable to open fire on sight, but we have all the reasons we need to get this done. They killed innocent men and women; we will not forgive or forget."
"Here, here," Ashley echoed.
Shepard nodded and went on, "If that's not good enough, then consider this the ultimate test for this ship and her crew. If we can't do this, then no one can, in which case these particular geth go free and we give our critics ammunition. There's plenty enough of that already. We are the most unique crew in the galaxy, but they think that we are nothing but a motley bunch of outcasts and misfits. Let's prove them wrong. Let's get this done, and let's do it right!" She figured a little appeal to honor and competitive nature ought to get the crew motivated and on-point.
"Aye, aye, ma'am!" Ashley and Kaidan responded in a single voice.
Nods and harrumphs went around the room. Adams nodded his head and smiled.
"Alright, I think that about covers it. I will keep you updated on the situation, for now you're dismissed!" Shepard finished.
The room emptied quickly, but Tali hung back. She waited only long enough for the door to close behind the big party before she turned back to Shepard. "Commander, may I have a moment of your time?"
"Sure, Tali, more than a moment even." Shepard smiled.
The quarian clasped her hands before her and cleared her throat, "I know this is much to ask, but… I was wondering whether I could be up here during the operation. I want to collect some data for myself."
Shepard knew instantly what Tali meant. She was still on her pilgrimage, and needed to bring something back to her people. If they could produce a corpus of data on the geth for Tali, she could complete her rite of passage. "I will not stop you, Tali. I could use your input, your knowledge of the geth. This is why I hired you. Still, I am wondering, what will this lead to?" Shepard knew what the data would be used for, but she wanted to hear it from Tali personally.
"My people have a single wish, to retake Rannoch and end our three centuries of exile. If there is anything I can get that helps however little, it is my duty to get it," Tali replied even as her fingers began to wring. "Commander, you embrace artificial intelligence as your friend; I respect that, but please believe me when I say that not all artificial intelligences are as helpful as EDI."
"And what of Legion?"
"Legion is a unique quirk of programming at best. At worst it is biding its time, spying on us," Tali drawled, her tone one of someone explaining a plainly-obvious fact. "Even if it is the first, one platform with ideas does not make up for the rest. They sought to exterminate my people; instead they drove us from our home and condemned us to this shadow existence." Tali went on, her tone warming with a flash of anger. "Commander, have you ever taken a stroll on the presidium and stopped to smell the exotic flowers? I can't do that because the pollen of those flowers could kill me. This suit filters it out, and with it, the natural perfume of the flowers. The geth did that to us. I can not forgive them for that."
Shepard could not offer a logical counter-argument for any of that. The Geth did nothing to endear themselves to anyone, and Legion could very well be a unique, odd exception. Then it could also be said that even if Legion's people only wanted the galaxy to leave them alone, they were still in control of Rannoch, and that perpetuated the Quarian exile. Shepard wanted to think the best of everyone, but even she could not be so idealistic that she would deny facts staring her in the face. "I understand, Tali. Collect your data, what you do with it, is up to you."
"Thank you, Commander." Tali replied, a little calmer now. Her hands dropped to her sides, "Now I need to go and help with the preparations."
"Alright."
Tali hurried out of the room as fast as she could without outright running. Shepard sighed, why did this mess have to rear its head now? A couple days of time off after Noveria would have been a boon.
The Normandy entered the Grissom system twenty-seven hours after they departed Noveria. The system was not big, three planets with two asteroid belts. Grissom, as an old star, had gone into its final phase as a blue giant, releasing unrelenting solar winds that slowly stripped the planets of their atmospheres. Not that any of the planets had the potential to be a garden world even before that change. All of them were poor on anything worth mining, further ensuring that the only traffic through was pirates and mercenaries looking for a hiding hole. The Alliance only ran occasional patrols, to keep an eye out for unsavory types, and up to now, those hardly offered any excitement. Shepard could see how the Cajamarca and Mukden were taken by surprise.
With the Normandy hiding in the outer asteroid belt, Shepard gathered her core team, consisting of Kaidan, Ashley, Tali, Garrus, Nihlus, Legion, and Wrex, around the central console of the CIC for an orientation session of sorts.
The first piece of information EDI reported was that she had scanned every Alliance frequency, encoded or not, but the Cajamarca's debris field was silent and cold. There were no escape pods pinging for pickup. The Mukden had reported no survivors, but Shepard had held out hope for even one escape pod to have made it. Reality proved to be a harsh mistress.
After that, she ordered EDI to conduct preliminary observations. From those EDI collated a map of the system which she projected as a three-dimensional image over the central console in the CIC. Included were relevant data points and locations from the Mukden's reports and sensor logs, highlighting Notanban, around where the Mukden and Cajamarca were attacked, and the Cajamarca's debris field.
"This is everything we have right now. It does not seem much, but that's why we're here," Shepard began. "The Mukden reported that a cruiser-sized ship emerged from the upper atmosphere of Notanban, escorted by four frigate-sized drop-ships, similar to the ones we saw on Eden Prime and Daiwi."
"That does not sound like a recon force," Kaidan murmured.
Shepard nodded, "My instinct tells me there is a base in this system. Not on Notanban, but somewhere close, I'm thinking Solcrum." She indicated the gas giant's biggest moon. "That said, EDI is not picking anything up, but we can explain that. Notanban is a gas giant. If the ships are voided and unheated, they will be almost completely invisible in a gas giant's atmosphere." Much of the galaxy's sensory network relied on detecting warm objects against the cold void of space. Conversely, an object that was allowed to reach temperature equilibrium with its surrounding environment was nearly invisible. "Of course that is until they fire up their engines."
"They could hide a whole fleet in there," Garrus said.
"There's a scary thought," Ashley murmured.
"They can also stay there indefinitely, while we do not have time to wait." Nihlus crossed his arms over his chest. "Therein lays the problem."
Shepard held up her hand, "Let's not get too far ahead here. We need to find their base first. Passive imagery will be enough for that. Even if they buried their compound, there will be above-ground defenses for EDI to find. After that, we can come up with a way to stir the hornet nest up."
"Actually," Tali cut in, "I think I know how we can flush them out, Commander." When all attention turned to her, Tali cleared her throat, "I can reconfigure some probes to emit a spoofed signal, make the geth think Alliance ships dropped out of FTL in the vicinity of the outer asteroid belt."
"Won't launching them immediately give away our position?" Kaidan wondered.
"Not if we eject them passively, and activate the signals remotely." Tali replied.
"Will the geth buy that? What's stopping them from looking out a window and realizing that there are no ships?" Ashley asked, she did not sound impressed with the plan.
"We have never observed windows on geth ships." Tali said.
"Windows are structural weaknesses. Geth do not use them." Legion stated bluntly.
Shepard was a fair bit impressed. That was the sort of creative problem solving that she valued, "Well that's a plan, but can you rig up a probe net, make it look like a whole flotilla just dropped out of FTL?"
"Of course, Commander, though rigging multiple probes will take longer."
"That's fine. We have tech-heads a plenty to help you." Shepard offered, after all, how hard was it to reconfigure a probe to emit a certain signal? "Here's what I'm thinking. We spoof a dreadnought and four battle groups. That's four cruisers and twelve frigates, seventeen ships in total. If we are going to kick this hornet nest, let's kick it hard; make all the hornets come out."
"First you went fishing for a maw with explosives. Now you're fishing for geth with probes. This is going to be good," Wrex rumbled, amused.
"Hold on there, Wrex. There will be no fighting. The Mukden already reported more ships than the Normandy can engage, even with the Thanix in peak condition. We are only doing a headcount. I have all reasons to suspect that Admiral Hackett will initiate major action based on our data."
"Just as long as I get to shoot something soon," Wrex grumbled.
Shepard shook her head, but she knew that was coming. She did warn Wrex that her job was not all gun fights. "If the base on Solcrum is as big as I think it will be, there will be plenty of shooting for all of us." Wrex nodded, but he was still not pleased with having to wait.
"There is just one question remaining. What ships do we spoof?" Kaidan wondered.
Shepard grinned, "That's the easy part. We bring in the Kilimanjaro and her four regular groups." In many ways those ships were known as the first among equals in the Fifth Fleet, and in all probability Admiral Hackett would bring their might down on the geth's heads soon enough. "We need to seed the asteroid field with probes before we move on Notanban and Solcrum. Tali, I will help you, it will speed up the process, save us stealth time. Do you think we need another set of hands?"
Tali hummed, "Configuring one should take about ten minutes, and we need to do seventeen. I could do it on my own in three Terran hours, but with your assistance, Commander, that'll be an hour and a half."
"I will help as well," Garrus volunteered. "Cut that down to just an hour."
"Alright, thank you, Garrus. We can do this work in the shuttle bay. We have our plan. Now, are there any questions or concerns?" She could see that everyone on the CIC was tense like a bowstring. Shepard was not stupid; she knew what the probes would entail. The geth would know there was someone in the system; the Normandy's only security was their stealth. Everything hinged on the IES system being enough to prevent their detection. The Normandy would essentially float in the shadows and count the number of geth ships that came running once the nest was kicked.
When no one raised any particular burning questions, Shepard nodded and turned to Kaidan. "I leave the CIC in your hands, Kaidan."
"Aye, aye, ma'am."
Shepard smiled and stepped around him toward the elevator, with Tali and Garrus in tow.
Two hours later the Normandy made a stealthy approach to Solcrum. Shepard ordered Joker to come from where the moon would be right between them and Notanban, an extra layer of precaution. The probes had been configured in fifty minutes, and after that it was merely a matter of ejecting them. Fortunately the Normandy had a system for that, kind of.
The probes were normally used as part of the ship's active sensory network; they could be launched to collect information on surface conditions if something was preventing an accurate orbital scan. Thus the launch mechanism found in the ship's belly could send them out with considerable momentum. However, with a few tweaks to the mass effect field that normally prevented accidental jettison, the probes simply slid out as if the Normandy was on a planet and there was somewhere for them to fall to. Timing the toggle of the safety field was a button press in engineering. An unorthodox solution to a problem, but sometimes one had to improvise.
They seeded some of the bigger rocks in the belt, to give the probes apparent mass. There would be no disguising the fact that their phantom fleet did not produce heat like actual ships, but Shepard hoped the geth would think that the ships had dropped out of FTL and immediately turned off their main drives, intending to coast on residual momentum as their main drives cooled. She hoped that the issue of travel time would be on their side. Heat and beacon signals were fundamentally electromagnetic spectrum radiation, which propagated at the speed of light. The probe signal would take a good four minutes to reach Notanban and Solcrum.
Currently Shepard was in the OD. She had given EDI instructions, but beyond that, the AI knew what she was doing, there was no point in pacing or hovering behind people's backs on the CIC, it would only make everyone even more nervous than they already were. The Normandy was ready for come what may, the geth would not take them by surprise.
Instead of haunting the CIC she was going through the notes and information Tali had collected on the parts in the cargo hold. The quarian had been zealously thorough in taking apart the platforms. Every piece of hardware was disassembled, analyzed, tested, and annotated. Maybe some part of it was Tali fretting over being 'useful' and going a little overboard, but at times like this; insane attention to detail was the key.
The OD door opened, and Shepard automatically looked up from her seat on the couch, only to see Legion pad in. She set her pad down on the coffee table and watched the geth approach.
"Shepard-Commander."
"Legion. Something I can do for you?"
The geth tipped its head a little and the flaps on the top shifted, "We observed an increase in stress responses to our presence among the crew."
"Ah," Shepard replied. Stress responses? Well that was a cute way of saying 'passive aggressive behavior', which she was sure that it was. "Has it gotten bad?"
"Negative. It is within expected parameters. We are aware that organics perceive all geth as hostile."
"Well the idea that the geth have factions is a bit of a novel concept. Truthfully Legion, your people have been the galaxy's hermits for three hundred years. At this point only the Asari and Krogan can remember a time before. The latter are hardly keen on sharing their impression and the former…" Shepard stopped there. She had always seen the Asari as uncomfortably aloof. They had a sort of arrogance to them borne from the difference in how they perceived time. It was staggering to think that humanity went from the crusades to space within the lifetime of just one asari, yet that is exactly what it amounted to. "After three centuries, thinking of the geth as a danger that lurks in the dark is a normalized thing. It will take time and positive reinforcement for the perception of the normal to change." And a miracle, but Shepard did not say that. She was fully aware that the galaxy feared synthetics like the bubonic plague.
"Acknowledged." Legion replied.
"Speaking of which. Legion, you know we have platforms in the cargo hold, correct?" Shepard asked.
"Affirmative. We are aware that Creator-Tali'Zorah conducted a survey of the captured hardware."
"Legion, I want to ask you a question, if I may."
"Clarify." Legion replied as it tipped its head to the side, the picture of attentive curiosity.
Shepard leaned back in her seat, for no other reason than to be able to look up at Legion without tipping her head back, which got a little awkward. She knew better than to ask the geth to sit. "Tali took apart the black platform that led the geth on Daiwi, where we captured the hardware. We saw and destroyed another on Eden Prime. Tali tells me it is not a geth, it has no computer for geth runtimes. Do you know who leads the Heretics?"
Legion's face-light narrowed as it lowered its gaze to the floor. "The unit you refer to is controlled by the Old Machine."
Shepard blinked, "Controlled, as in, remote controlled?"
"Affirmative." Legion replied without hesitation.
"This Old Machine, is it a synthetic intelligence?"
"Affirmative."
Shepard blinked, stunned almost mute. Her theory had proven to be right. "What… how old is it? Who built it?" She asked.
"The Old Machine is Prothean." Legion replied.
Shepard blinked; the Heretics were being led by a fifty thousand year old AI? "Something that old is still functional?" she asked.
"Affirmative."
"How… when?" Shepard did not know what she was asking even. It boggled her mind to think that a computer housing an AI had remained in tact in some corner of the galaxy for fifty thousand years, and the geth had been the ones to find it. They clearly must have been the ones to find it, because how else could the faction form? It using remote controlled platforms made sense as well. Most AIs, EDI included, were bound to powerful, but physically enormous quantum computers. They had no legs or arms. In that sense the geth were unique.
"Shepard-Commander, clarify your question."
Shepard sighed, "Well… When did the Old Machine cause the split among the Geth?" She would not come out and say that she realized they found what must have been a sizable cache of Prothean artifacts somewhere in or around their space. Where they found said cache did not matter now. The precise date they found the AI did not matter either. She wanted to understand when and how they split into factions, and where the division lay.
"The Geth Schism occurred nineteen years, eight months, and three standard galactic days ago." Legion replied.
It fit! Wrex said they were first seen outside the Perseus Veil nineteen years prior. Wrex's loose puzzle piece suddenly slid into place, and the image became a little clearer. The Old Machine clearly wanted to find other Prothean tech, probably for the data, things that may or may not be in the AI's databases. Why else go after the beacon and the computers? Why did it want that information? She could not begin to guess. It could very well be that it wanted to keep it out of the hands of non-Protheans, some programmed directive to protect a defunct empire even now.
Right now she could not focus on the theories and the possibilities; she had a mission to complete. If they were to stop this Old Machine from terrorizing organics in the present day, destroying it might become imperative. Of course, destroying Prothean tech was a crime in the eyes of the Council as much as keeping Prothean tech secret. The Geth, not being signatories to the Citadel Conventions, naturally kept their findings to themselves, there was no use quibbling over that now.
Shepard hummed; there was another curious quirk of the translator for her. Whatever the term the Geth used for their splinter faction, it translated as 'heretic' to her, and now Legion had used the term 'schism'. It implied there was a system of beliefs in place. A curious concept when one considered that the Geth were a synthetic race. "The term you use, heretics, carries certain connotations to humans. Heretics are those who do not abide to the religious beliefs of the majority, the orthodoxy. Is that merely a glitch of the translation or…"
Legion's emotive plates began to move as it seemed to consider things. "There is no mistake of translation, Shepard-Commander." Its eye-lamp narrowed, as if it was contemplating whether it ought to answer her question fully. "Geth build our own future. The Heretics asked the Old Machine to give them a future. They are no longer part of us."
"So there is an ideological division," Shepard repeated.
"Affirmative."
Shepard thought she understood. A schism of ideology as such, one group believing their way to the future was better than another's, it could be called a schism. It was still a linguistic quibble.
"We studied the Old Machine's hardware for a way to improve our data storage methods. It was deemed necessary for the future. The Old Machine studied us in turn. It offered an alternative version of the future." Legion volunteered. "Its arguments were convincing. Some among us accepted the logic of the Old Machine's offer."
"And… what future are the Geth building?"
Legion's head flaps flared momentarily, and then narrowed. "Ours."
"Will anyone else be affected by whatever it is you're doing?" Shepard thought she had to know, this conversation was veering into some very important territory. If Legion's people were up to no good, she could not help them, not in good conscience. Shepard wanted to give Legion's people a chance, but she was never one to ignore reality. If the future they envisioned included galactic conquest, it simply would not do.
The geth shifted its weight from leg to leg, imitating an entirely organic gesture of discomfort. "If they involve themselves, they will."
Where had it picked up such mannerisms? Why was it displaying them? "Your people still wish to be left alone?"
"Affirmative."
Hermits of the galaxy indeed, Shepard thought to herself. Hermit monks, if one squinted. It really looked like they treated the Perseus Veil like their monastery. "And what of this… Heretic future?" Shepard wondered.
"The Old Machine's authority parallels that of the ancient human concept of a 'god-king', a leader whose absolute authority is drawn from a perceived inherent superiority. The Heretics believe the Old Machine can give them ascendancy over organics."
"Ah." Shepard thought that added some spice to the reason to use the terms. They were dealing with an arrogant, egomaniacal AI that thought it was the apex of synthetic intelligence, if not outright a god of some kind. That certainly explained the machine's manner of talking. Guess she would have to commit regicide mixed with deicide before long. That sounded only a little fancier than just vandalism on priceless artifacts. Shepard was under no delusions, destroying this AI would mean losing everything it might have in its databases, it would be a shame, but she would do it, if the thing pushed her. "One last question, Legion. I just want to know the size of the Heretic faction. Just how many believed this Old Machine?"
"As of our last census, of the total number of Geth runtimes, fifteen percent followed the Old Machine during the schism."
Fifteen percent of however many Geth there were. She had to admit; Legion was a wily one, informative and vague at the same time. She knew that if she asked for specific numbers now, it would not tell her. If it told her how many runtimes, platforms, or ships the Heretics had, it would be giving away the relative power of the Geth. In many ways, Legion was almost a diplomat for its people. If there was something Shepard knew about politics, is that diplomats rarely pulled all the aces stuffed up their sleeves. But then, as a diplomat, Legion was also trying to dissociate its people from the problem group, without outright condemning them. Politicians were really all the same.
"I understand your concerns, Legion." Shepard said, as it was the only thing she could say. Whatever Legion had in their collective minds, could not be pried out of them. She could just be ready for unpleasant surprises.
Legion left the OD after their conversation, leaving Shepard with plenty to think about. To her, it seemed that too much of the big picture suddenly revolved around the Protheans, and it all started with the beacon on Eden Prime. There were so many disparate bits of information coming together to form a single picture. However and whatever happened to their galactic empire, it had something to do with Kryptin-8. The Protheans had done something, driven people to create such a nasty toxin, and that meant they were not the saints that the galaxy wanted them to be. Now this talk with Legion hinted that they also created malignant, or at the very least very arrogant synthetics that seemed keen on ruling in their stead. What other unpleasant surprises awaited them? Did the Prothean legacy get much darker than this?
The OD door opened and Shepard looked up. Nihlus entered the room, carrying a datapad in his hands. Shepard sat up straighter, "Is there something wrong?" She asked.
Nihlus approached the couch and sat down before he offered her the pad. "I found emails in the mirror image we made of Brant's computer."
Shepard took the pad and skimmed over its contents silently. There was a whole series of messages between Brant and the same recipient, who always signed off on messages with "- A.B." Shepard froze; she knew who signed messages like that. In another message down the line she found confirmation when Brant asked how Cadmus was coming along, and A.B. told her in reply never to use the word again, because they could not be guaranteed security in these messages. "Brant was emailing Armistan Banes; she asked about Cadmus once and was politely told to never do that again." Shepard recapped.
"I also found the shipment authorizations, and yes… they were to a 'satellite facility' on Binthu, apparently under the pretence of studying Rachni in that sort of extreme environment. At the very least all that is enough evidence to say Brant was affiliated with Cerberus."
"Binary Helix looks shadier by the day." Shepard murmured.
"Investigating the company is not our priority, but I would not be surprised if their Cerberus connections went deeper," Nihlus agreed as he plucked the pad from her fingers.
Shepard slumped back into her seat. "Great, one more layer to this mess. All this digging and we are nowhere near the bottom. Is there even a bottom to this?"
"There is always a bottom, Shepard. This time it is a long way down."
Shepard groaned. She knew strictly speaking he was right, but did it matter that she was tired of digging? This was like trying to untie the Gordian knot, not happening.
"You are in a morose mood today," Nihlus observed as he tossed the datapad onto the coffee table, where it landed with a loud clack and skidded along a short distance.
"Look at it from where I'm sitting, Nihlus. Everything we discovered, about Cerberus, about the Protheans, the Rachni, the Geth… it all seems to be twining together into a single quagmire, and I'm right smack in the center of it."
Nihlus hummed, "I see your point. We did discover some shocking information on Noveria. The Protheans, the toxin, the Rachni… I see the connections, but how do the Geth fit into this single picture?"
"Ah." Shepard turned to him and grinned, "I just had a rather interesting conversation with Legion."
"Oh?"
Shepard met his gaze and nodded before launching into an explanation of what Legion told her. Nihlus listened with a calmness and stillness that seemed uncharacteristic of him. When she finished, the Spectre leaned back in his seat and hummed thoughtfully. Shepard was perfectly happy to let him mull things over.
"Another one, huh?" Nihlus murmured after a long silence.
Shepard raised an eyebrow. She did not miss the odd note of amusement in his tone, what was so funny about a megalomaniacal synthetic leading a bunch of other synthetics toward an inevitable clash with organics? Shepard could see well past her nose, she knew that if the Heretics decided to affirm the galaxy's fear of synthetics, AIs like EDI, like Legion, would be the victims by proxy. If the Heretics decided to make a problem of themselves, the Council, in their myopic desire to act, would crack down on AIs, just to be seen doing something. Knee-jerk reactions from politicians were a dangerous thing.
Then a thought occurred to her. Nihlus had always been eerily calm and accepting of synthetics. Even when he found out about EDI he did not react in any discernable way. She had always suspected he knew of other illegal AIs, but now Shepard wondered if it went beyond that. He was not surprised at the discovery of a Prothean AI. Did Nihlus encounter another such machine before? When? How? She could not very well ask, could she? "Eden Prime, it all started there. All of it." Shepard mused. "The Heretics, the search, this… what we know of the Protheans. Everything began with Eden Prime."
Nihlus hummed his assent, turned his head, and leveled his gaze on her. "I admit this is not typical of Spectre missions. Even I do not know if it is an upgrade or downgrade from the organized crime jobs."
Shepard laughed, "I would take a dozen organized crime jobs to this. I signed up to do petty thankless jobs for Admiral Hackett, not wade eyeball-deep into the fallout of fifty thousand years. But nope, the galaxy decided to dump everything previously swept under its proverbial rug right over my head like I'm the galaxy's almighty janitor."
Nihlus chuckled, "Oh but solving the galaxy's problems is unfortunately our main job."
"I'm not a Spectre, remember?" If you asked her, the galaxy could clean its own messes, because they also made them. Shepard had her own problems to deal with. Then again, that was her inner jaded pessimist talking. She was duty-bound and acutely aware of it. If this mess fell on her head, she would have to get through it; otherwise her personal problems would only get bigger.
"Not in name, yes, but I think you have become one in essence. You certainly have the Council's attention, though they would not admit to it." Nihlus smiled his wide-mandible-teeth-flashing smiles.
"Now you're bullshitting me, Nihlus. After Noveria, I'm surprised they haven't recalled you yet. I get it that maybe Valern is curious, and Tevos tries to keep the middle ground in every issue. But Sparatus? If he did not hate my guts before, he certainly does now. I made his favorite Spectre look bad and… I did play that genocide card, to his face; he had to have realized I only omitted the overt accusations of hypocrisy."
Nihlus was still smiling, which was beginning to annoy Shepard twelve ways to Sunday. What was amusing him this much? He must have noticed the stink-eye she was giving him, because next thing she knew, he leaned in, and Shepard raised a hand to bat him away.
"I will let you in on a little secret." He whispered into her ear conspiratorially. She let her hand drop, just short of pushing him away. "You will never please Sparatus, and that has nothing to do with you being you, or being human. It is all to do with the fact that he finds fault with everything. He loves to argue, and sometimes simply for the sake of arguing." He straightened and moved away "So in other words, as you humans love to put it, Sparatus will… deal with it."
"Should you be compromising his authority like this?" Shepard asked.
"Of course not," he snorted. "But you would have realized that on your own soon enough. I am merely telling you now so you stop worrying about it."
It was not the first time Nihlus displayed a streak of not caring about compromising a superior; he was a rather horrible exemplar of his people's vaunted discipline. "You really are a blabber-mouth, you know that? It's a miracle they trust you with anything."
"Maybe I am." He rumbled, "But it is for a good cause. You are wound up over this. The tension practically ripples off you. If telling you this much alleviates at least some of it… it is a small price to pay."
Shepard smiled at him. "Thanks, Nihlus."
"Commander," EDI cut in.
"Yes EDI?" Shepard replied as she held up her hand to stall whatever Nihlus had meant to say.
"I found the base."
Shepard spared Nihlus an apologetic look and got her feet, "I'll be right there, EDI." She said. "Gather everyone around the CIC, we need to plan."
"Of course, Commander." EDI replied.
"We'll finish that line of thought later, Nihlus." She said.
"Sure." He deadpanned as he followed her out of the room.
Barely five minutes later the whole ground team was gathered around the central console of the CIC. The holographic projection of the Normandy's system status was gone, replaced by a blown up tactical model of the area of interest that EDI had identified. Everything centered on a large clearly artificial compound set on top of a hill, ringed by walls, towers, barricades, and more anti-air installations than Shepard cared to count.
The anti-air turrets were the big thing, they scattered in concentric circles, forming three nesting shells of defense that extended away from the base for five kilometers, spaced out two kilometers apart. The sniper towers were a secondary concern after that, because if Legion was any indication, others could potentially pack anti-materiel caliber guns. One shot from that, and no amount of Medi-gel would be enough. The Heretics had busted all the stops for this base.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen, we found the nest." Shepard announced ruefully.
"And it is a big one," Kaidan added.
"Understatement of the millennium, LT," Ashley grumbled.
"Their anti-air armament is scattered over a five kilometer radius, both missile and mass accelerator turret variants. This makes a flying approach suicidal. They will also have elevation to their advantage with those sniper towers. Many of us have seen Legion's rifle in action, I assume it is not the only unit out there with something of that caliber." Shepard summarized for everyone present.
"And let us not forget that once the Solcrum base detects anything, there is the fleet to worry about," Tali added.
"The Normandy is the only ship in the Alliance fleet that can get this close to Solcrum without incurring the wrath of the fleet," Shepard countered. "We do not have enough personnel to handle ground combat like this, let alone the fleet. No offense to you, Joker, but I doubt you can out-dance more than two ships. We are already expecting a cruiser and four frigates."
"Hey, none taken, what's true is true," Joker replied over the comm.
"EDI can you run interference with their anti-air guns?" Nihlus asked.
"I might be able to interfere with target acquisition, but only on a few turrets at a time. I will not be able to shut down the whole grid remotely."
"Sounds about right," Tali cut in with a nod. "The turrets are operated by runtimes just like the ships. Hacking the geth only works until code is restored from backup copies, and after that, they identify the vulnerability, and learn to protect it. Meaning if EDI manages to scramble the turrets, the effect will be temporary, and she might only be able to do it once."
"Miss Tali'Zorah is correct. My access methods will have to adapt with the defenses. Furthermore, I expect the required resources will tax my processing capacity to its limit, the Normandy will be vulnerable to counter-hacking." EDI added.
Shepard hummed, but said nothing. If EDI would be so distracted, they would need to tuck the ship away in such a place that any counter-hacking could not somehow disable their IES and make them start glowing.
"A little bit of time could work if we do it on the fly and use armed vehicles to physically destroy the turrets. Essentially carve a path through the grid." Kaidan offered.
"If this was a turian operation, there would be only one clear way through; the rest of the space between the turrets would be continuous anti-vehicle mine-fields." Garrus noted.
"Geez, you people don't do anything by half-steps, do you?" Ashley asked.
"Easy, Gunny. Officer Vakarian raised a very good point, we cannot be too cautious. The possibility of mines has to go into the plan. Passive scans cannot detect objects buried underground. Fortunately Makos can cover this, their firepower is enough to destroy turrets, and they have mine-sweeping ground-penetrating radars. It will be slow, but we should be able to get through in relative safety," Kaidan said.
"Great, we have the makings of phase one of a ground attack." Shepard smiled. It would be the most elementary way to go about it, but there were variables. The fleet, the snipers, much of this still needed work. Such planning could not be done right here and now; they did not know how many pieces would be on the board to be planning moves. "This all comes back to equipment and personnel we do not have. So let us leave ground mission for now." Shepard continued, "Our mission is reconnaissance." She leaned her hands on the central console and moved from person to person, catching their gazes in turn. "We found the enemy base and ascertained their defenses, but we still need to scout the size of the orbital fleet. Without getting past the fleet there can be no ground attack." Nods went around the large table, and Shepard straightened accordingly.
Nihlus hummed, "This sort of installation was not built overnight."
"How often does the Alliance patrol this area?" Garrus wondered.
Shepard smiled; trust the Spectre and the former detective to start looking for the bigger picture. "About once a Terran month. But being geth, I don't suppose they take breaks, weekends, holidays or vacations. They also do not need entertainment, food, or sleep. With a big enough group, a month would be enough time. What begs the question is, why? If this is an advance staging area, what's their endgame?" Well, whatever the Heretics or their god-king wanted, it had to do with Prothean technology. She supposed it might be possible that they thought there were more goodies to grab within Alliance space. From its inception, the Earth Systems Alliance grabbed up space faster than they could survey it. They did not know what was truly out there.
"Maybe they know something we do not." Nihlus mused.
Shepard met his gaze and raised an eyebrow.
"Think about it, Shepard. What did you tell me earlier?"
Shepard hummed, she knew what he was alluding to, and as she ran with the thought and extended on it, a singular thought occurred to her. The god-king was a Prothean AI! It could have star-charts in its databanks! It could be looking at the galaxy through Prothean eyes, knowing exactly where to look for artifacts. None of the current species knew where the original Prothean home world had been. For all they knew, one of the dozens of uncharted garden or sub-garden worlds in some back corner of Alliance space could very well be it. Come to think of it, she needed to ask Legion whether it would tell everyone what it told her, the rest of the crew needed to know about the god-king. "Theorizing is well and good, but we are again a little off track."
"We need to scout the fleet size, from a safe distance." Kaidan affirmed.
"We have our little decoy fleet ready to go, so…" Shepard paused there, just in case someone would have questions to ask. Seeing no pressing issues, she nodded and turned to the bridge, "Joker, find us a nice planetoid in the outer belt, something with enough gravity to keep us down comfortably."
"Aye, aye, ma'am." Joker replied.
"EDI, what's our IES status, how long do we have?"
"We currently have six hours of stealth remaining. I am estimating we will still have three hours after Flight Lieutenant Moreau sets us down."
"Could you help Joker find a good rock?"
"Of course, Commander."
"Thank you, EDI. Now… the Normandy will be going into full alert status once we flush the Heretics out of their hiding holes. I am not taking chances. I want everyone at their stations and ready to go."
"Aye, aye, ma'am!" the marines chorused as one.
The CIC emptied of most people with that dismissal, Shepard remained, hovering over the projection. She hated this, flushing the geth out of their nest would be the single most dangerous thing she had ever done, but it needed to be done. If they showed up with too few ships, the losses could be catastrophic. Aside from the lives lost aboard those ships, if they failed to break through and allow the ground attack, there would be no removing the problem at the root. Like a weed in the garden, if the root was not removed, the weed would keep coming back.
"Go have a meal, Shepard. Staring at that projection will not do you any good." Nihlus rumbled as he turned to the elevator.
Shepard shook her head, she did not feel particularly hungry right now.
Two hours later the Normandy found a berth on a planetoid where they could count signatures without being spotted by any of the geth running for the decoy field. Tensions on board had ramped to an all time high as they were getting ready for the most dangerous phase of the mission.
Shepard stood over the CIC console again, watching the telemetry in real life. Right now, EDI's passive sensory registered no warm bodies anywhere in the system. Nihlus stood at her side, like a dutiful XO, except he was not her XO. Kaidan was with Joker on the bridge, occupying the co-pilot's seat.
"EDI. Activate our decoy fleet." Shepard ordered.
"Right away, Commander. Sending activation burst… now." EDI replied.
If they were on a submarine, this activation signal would be akin to emitting a pulse of active sonar. The burst could be traced back to them if the geth figured out what to look for. Shepard hoped that they had chosen the right location, close enough that they could get a good view, but far enough as to have plenty of warning if something went wrong.
The Normandy was around 0.1 AU away from their decoy field, which would mean that the signal, propagating at the speed of light, would still take about fifty seconds to reach their decoy field. Once the field was active, it would take about three minutes for its signal to reach Notanban and Solcrum, and then another four to five minutes for readings to start reaching the Normandy. This was going to be the tensest ten minutes of their lives, but the payout was potentially worthwhile.
She chose their location to play with the laws of physics decidedly on their side. Even if the enemy detected and traced back the activation ping, the Normandy was still far enough from Notanban as to incur the Dreadnought's Bane Principle of mass accelerator cannonry. The largest and most advanced MACs could only accelerate a slug to about one to two percent of light speed. However, when firing, the gun's rails discharged an electromagnetic pulse, a muzzle flash, which moved like a pulsar's ping and at light speed. If ship sensor registered the muzzle flash, it meant the ship was in the trajectory. However because the flash outpaced the projectile at least fifty times, it meant that at sufficient distances the flash would arrive so far ahead of the slug that it would give a mobile target enough warning to move out of the way. This was the Dreadnought's Bane. Despite having such powerful guns, they literally could not hit a ship at very long ranges, unless the ship's crew was asleep at the helm.
"The decoy fleet is active, Commander." EDI announced.
Shepard hummed and glanced down at the timer on her console, two minutes on the clock. In about three minutes, if the heretics took the bait, their ships would fire up engines and start moving. Engine heat was essentially electromagnetic radiation, and would spread out at light speed. Four minutes after they began to move, the Normandy would begin to pick up a time-lagged snap image of the ships coming out of Notanban's orbit. The rest was up to EDI's passive sensory and processing capacity.
Shepard watched as the seconds on her timer counted down, and the tension on the CIC rose accordingly. Two minutes passed, "The activation pulse would have reached Solcrum and Notanban about now, this is where things get a little dangerous. EDI you're watching for electromagnetic muzzle flashes, right?" Shepard asked.
"Of course, Commander."
"Good. Joker be ready to take evasive action."
"I'm more than ready. If EDI sees anything like a muzzle flash, I'll see it second." Joker replied over the comm.
Shepard turned back to the timer, watching as the seconds ticked. Another minute slipped by, she shifted her weight. Three minutes until the return contact could be reasonably expected. Shepard started drumming a fingertip on the edge of the console, in rhythm with the seconds ticking by. She was nervous, edgy even, which was hilarious given she was a sniper. Then again, that was just her, the dugout, and her rifle. This was them essentially sitting in place, hoping the enemy does not pick them up. The stakes were a little higher with more people involved. She glanced up at Nihlus and raised an eyebrow. His eyes were not on the console anymore, but focused on her.
"Commander," EDI cut in. "I am detecting multiple small heat signatures in orbit around Notanban."
"Early, no?" Shepard murmured.
"They must have noticed the initial activation pulse." Nihlus said.
"Additional heat signatures detected in Notanban's upper atmosphere…" EDI continued.
Dots began to appear on the projection in the middle of the CIC. EDI labeled the holographic markers according to presumed class, based on the size of the heat signatures. There were four, then seven, then ten, and finally twelve distinct bleeps.
"That is a flotilla alright." Nihlus hummed.
"Three cruisers, nine frigate-sized ships…" Shepard counted off.
Three more blips materialized, one cruiser, two frigates, bringing up the total to fifteen ships. "They are moving to intercept the decoy fleet," EDI added.
Four more blips appeared, two cruisers and two more frigates.
Shepard's jaw loosened, this was officially what a dreadnought with four cruisers and twelve frigates ought to engage, and there was no way to know whether these were all the ships hiding in Notanban's atmosphere. The situation was quickly moving out of enforcement action into a full engagement.
"Muzzle flashes!" Joker called over the comm. "Taking evasive action."
The Normandy shuddered as the Tantalus drive kicked in. The hurry with which Joker took off registered in the split second of heavy pressure on her legs before the inertial dampener field fully kicked in.
Shepard gripped the console, there was the slim possibility that they had aimed with offset, expecting them to dodge the initial shots. She had to trust EDI's processing capacity. She had to believe the AI could calculate the trajectory of the rounds based on the initial position of the ships from the moment of the muzzle flashes. They had forty-nine to ninety-nine seconds for every second the projectile had to travel.
Three more blips materialized in orbit around Notanban, three more frigates.
"That is twenty-two ships. Spirits." Nihlus murmured.
Shepard knew that the heretics were aware of the Normandy's presence; they could not risk overstaying their welcome for much longer.
"That ought to put us out of trajectory," Joker added.
Shepard gripped the console, and took a deep breath. A full minute ticked by, but there were no klaxons or explosions. No more ships emerged from Notanban either.
"They missed," Joker announced.
Shepard heaved a sigh of relief. "Enough. I think we know they have a huge fleet here. Get us out of here, Joker. Back toward Hong."
"Aye, aye, ma'am." Joker replied.
Shepard glanced at Nihlus; they would need to discuss some things in their FTL hop. She had a feeling that the Council ought to know about this. Twenty-two ships was not a small-scale operation, the heretics had pooled considerable resources here.
"Course set," Joker announced. "Disengaging stealth systems." The faint rumble of the Normandy changed. A subtle vibration passed through her hull as the Tantalus drive's mass effect fields shifted, no longer powerful enough to move the ship along without using heat-emitting thrusters. "Main drive online." The ship shuddered ever so slightly as the hull-meltingly hot anti-matter reaction drive ignited. "FTL drive… engaged." There was a punch of the inertial dampener fields as the Normandy jumped into FTL where she would be too fast to track or hit with any conventional weapon.
"Mission accomplished everyone," Shepard said to the men and women gathered on the CIC. "Joker, once we are back in Hong, vent the IES and discharge the drive, and then take us to Arcturus. The heretics have a nice big nest in Grissom. The Alliance won't be letting them keep it for long. We have a major engagement to plan."
"I love your talent for understatement. Major engagement. Hah." Joker replied.
Shepard hummed, but said nothing. If Joker was feeling aggressive, then he was kind of like a barometer for the rest of the crew. The fact that he made a joke of her understatement more than of the situation meant he did not find the situation all that funny. She knew the rest of her crew wanted blood for what happened to the Cajamarca. The Heretics had declared war. They better be ready to lose it.
Author Notes: Now that we are on the road toward the season finale, I have to say I went all out. I had to come up with a great many number of ship names, but also refer to the list of ships that took part in the Battle of the Citadel in game, for the call-back. And yes, I did borrow some details from Legion's loyalty mission in ME2 for this blend of canon.
General Notes:
Cajamarca & Mukden – These frigates are named after two battles, as per the Alliance naming scheme. The Battle of Cajamarca (1532) saw a major conflict between the Inca Empire and the Spanish during the conquest of Peru. It was a decisive victory for the Spanish, leading to the fall of the Inca Empire. The Battle of Mukden (1905) was fought as part of the Russo-Japanese war. The Russians did not fare well, and their defeat caused a withdrawal out of Manchuria, and showed Europe that Japan was not a pushover.
Chapter Notes:
Dreadnought's Bane Principle – This "MAC limiter" is another of my guiding principles for ship-on-ship combat in space. It assumes that there are sensors that can pick up the "muzzle flash", but necessity is the mother of all invention after all. The "Dreadnought's Bane Principle" prevents a MAC from being used as "fire across the solar system" sniper rifle against ships. However, it does not apply to planets. Hitting a city firing from across the solar system is doable with fancy math, factoring in the planet's orbital velocity and how it turns on its axis. A planet can't dodge the round.