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 episode saw multiple storyboard-level changes until I got the progression of events to assume a presentable shape. The ending scene gave me lots of grief, but I hope you will enjoy it.
Episode 72: Anglerfish [Part I]
Shepard chose to announce that their next destination was Ilos, and that Saren Arterius would be joining them for the trip in the middle of the mess. It was hardly the best timing, but the clock was ticking and she wanted to give the crew time to get any unprofessional sentiments out of their systems. Once that was out of the way, she knew they would pull through like the professionals that they were. However, the reaction she got was perhaps a bit more powerful than she had anticipated. If the enlisted had not been sure who Saren happened to be, Ashley and Garrus' reactions were enough to clue them in.
Ashley folded her arms over her chest and hissed that he was going to expose the ship's secrets. Shepard could not refute that, but she spared the woman a round-about explanation that the two of them had a mutually-beneficial "enemy of my enemy is my friend" agreement in place. Ashley gave her a wary, doubtful look. Shepard knew that Ashley would not buy that entirely, but she would defer to authority for the time being.
Kaidan had watched the whole exchange in silence, but then broke the silence by asking the obvious question. Had she predicted that Saren would become involved in the matter from the beginning? Shepard would not lie to him, she confessed that she did. Kaidan murmured some choice words about politicians and the games they played and slumped into his seat, his food forgotten. Shepard felt a twinge of remorse shoot through her. Kaidan's patience was nothing short of saintly. As her acting XO, he had the highest chances of ending up having to deal with Saren, no matter what agreement they had, and she knew that Saren would not make it easy.
After that Shepard turned to the matter of making arrangements and passing instructions to the crew. Once again, they were put under a strict edict to refer to the AI core as the "server room". The door to said room was to be kept locked to everyone except Legion. No one was to converse with EDI in the common areas either. The doors to engineering were to be kept locked. Ostensibly as per standard security and-or safety protocols.
The final thing Shepard announced was that since Saren was a full-rank Spectre, he was to be given his dues. She did not want people walking on eggshells around him, but she did not want any complaints either. She expected the crew to be professional. She got a few blank stares, namely from a still-suspicious Ashley, but no one said anything outright.
The meeting ended soon after that, but Shepard caught up to Nihlus and followed him into his quarters. To him alone she admitted that she still wanted to cut down on Saren's opportunities for snooping by biting into his unsupervised time, especially during the night cycle. As such, she wanted Nihlus to share his space with his former mentor for the time being. Nihlus sighed and confessed that he thought it would come down to that. She made a promise to make it up to him later, knowing full well that he would find a way to use that carte blanche promise somehow, but there were no other options. Nihlus had the only other cabin aboard, and she would not subject anyone else to Saren's sunny personality.
An hour later EDI announced Saren's arrival. Shepard hurried to the bridge as fast as her legs could carry her. Joker's external camera view screen showed her that the armor-clad Spectre had passed through the door to their docking cradle's waiting lounge, but stopped some meters down the gangway. What surprised Shepard was that behind him there was a large mobile locker towed by a wheeled drone vehicle.
That mobile armory was easily four times the volume of her own, if not more, with six wheels, and the drone car pulled it by a fifth wheel hitch. That had to be new, as he would not have needed something like it before Nazara had absconded with the Impera. Joker quipped that Saren had better not be expecting the red carpet, but Shepard largely ignored it as she made her way toward the airlock.
It took an hour to get through all the formalities and settle their guest in Nihlus' cabin. Because of the oversized cargo transport setup, Shepard had to guide Saren aboard via the shuttle bay. She had been uncertain whether the rig would fit in the airlock. As it was, the vehicle's VI-operated self-driving system brought it to a crawl once it had to negotiate backing into the Normandy's larger elevator as to avoid jack-knifing and getting stuck.
All the while, it was impossible for her to miss the changes in the crew's moods. Ashley had been in the shuttle bay, double-checking weapons, and she greeted Shepard with all due Alliance formality, with a stiffness that hinted that she was very much uncomfortable.
Crossing the mess commons, Shepard realized that Ashley was not the only one feeling that. A nervous sort of energy permeated everyone they passed. The enlisted were up on their formalities and salutes. Yes, she had requested them to be professional, but this was going a bit far. They were clearly hiding their discomfort behind what was drilled into them. Even Richard, the most enthusiastic and eager member of the crew was uncharacteristically formal, more so than she had ever seen him. His exuberance was simply gone, and that felt weird.
After leaving Saren with Nihlus, she took the elevator to the CIC, taking the duration of the elevator ride as a moment to breathe. After all, even she could not feel entirely at ease with Saren within visual range. Though she was better at hiding her discomfort.
As the elevator door opened, she heard a pair of boosts on scuff on the deck plates. As she stepped out of the elevator, she thought it was telling that she could hear such a thing at all right now.
"Commanding Officer on the CIC!" Kaidan called.
Shepard tossed that thought aside and looked up just in time to see the warm smile he sent her. "Competing with Richard?" She asked as she stepped up to her post at the head of the central command console.
It was a bit of common knowledge that Jenkins was normally the one to make that call-out. Sure, if he was the first person to see her, then technically it was his duty, but he was always so eager in the protocol's execution that his enthusiasm could almost be mistaken for enjoyment. She would not have put it past people to let him do it. So for Kaidan to do it? That was a bit of a departure from the norm.
She cast her gaze about the CIC and noted that her highest ranking officers were all there and ready to go. Kaidan was at the Operations console on her left, having slipped into the role of smoke-screening that their actual Ops Officer was an AI.
Adams was opposite of him at the engineering monitoring station, where he would be able to relay her orders down on Deck Four. Seeing him up here made Shepard think that in all likelihood Tali was with Donnelly and Daniels in engineering, an extra pair of hands ready to help whenever and with whatever needed.
Garrus was in his armor, with a sidearm at his hip, standing over the weapons station on Kaidan's other side. What more, right then, whether consciously or not, he was channeling his father's grave, glacial serenity with uncanny accuracy, heightened by just how close in appearance father and son happened to be.
Then she noted the blue glimmer of light reflecting in the metallic detailing around her, and glanced over her shoulder. Legion stood on her right by the elevator. They tipped their head, but did not speak.
On the other side of the door from them was Javik. The Prothean was clad in his full armor, with his weapon attached behind his back. The look in his eyes was positively icy. "Commander," he greeted frostily.
"Javik," she replied automatically. He really did not have a reason to be up here, but Shepard would not bother telling him that. Odds were he already knew and did not care anyways. There were also certain fringe benefits to his presence.
There was a scratch overhead, "We're ready when you are, Commander." Joker announced from the bridge.
Shepard squared her shoulders and turned back toward the central console.
"Yes, for anything and everything," Kaidan added. With no strangers on the CIC yet, he allowed his dutiful persona to lapse and his tone to turn warmer.
"I've even got our clearances. The clamps are still on, but they're unlocked. If you're curious, Nihlus organized that. He even got the folks at tower control to keep a departure lane clear for us," the pilot added.
The staff at Traffic Control would not be pleased with that. Keeping a flight lane open meant that no passenger or cargo vessel could use it until the order was rescinded. It would mean extra work to route the incoming and outgoing ships to other lanes. To say nothing of possibly holding up schedules. "I'm not going to make a comment about eagerness, but I will thank everyone, for being here. Thank you." Shepard replied.
"Think nothing of it, ma'am." Adams said calmly.
Before she could even open her mouth to issue any actual orders she heard the elevator start moving behind her. That was as good as warning as they could possibly get, short of asking EDI. She would bet a thousand dollars that it was Nihlus and Saren coming up to the CIC. "Well then. We have places to be and nuisances to handle."
Joker chuckled, his microphone catching the sound and the speakers broadcasting it overhead for everyone to hear.
Shepard chose to ignore it. "Let's begin with the full pre-departure system checks."
"Yes, ma'am." Adams replied as he eased his personal internal communication ear-piece in. A moment later he turned down to his console and began to murmur orders into the device, to be relayed to his staff two decks below.
"Garrus, that includes a full weapon system check. I'll run the shield tests," Kaidan ordered, effectively taking over.
"On it," Garrus replied.
"Navigation systems are optimal. Flight course is locked in. I even did our jump calculations," Joker announced, sounding entirely proud of himself.
The elevator returned with a loud hum and a second later the door opened. Shepard heard the familiar cadence of Nihlus' footfalls even though his pace right then was not his usual unique languid strut. The heavier footsteps behind him were unfamiliar, but she knew whom they must belong to.
A moment later Nihlus came up to stand at the railing around the central console on her right, close enough that she could see his armor's well-weathered charcoal and burgundy colors out of the corner of her eye.
"Power and propulsion systems check out. Stealth systems are ready." Adams announced.
"Point-defense systems are ready. Torpedoes are loaded, but unarmed. Thanix system calibrated and ready for combat," Garrus stated, pride coloring his tone.
"Airlock and shuttle bay door magnetic seals engaged. Shields and sensors are ready." Kaidan finished.
Shepard knew Kaidan was partly relaying what EDI told him as well. "Very well." She took a deep breath, perfectly aware of the cool gaze on the back of her neck, making the hair there stand on end. She could also see the stark bone-white color of Saren's armor on her left. Yet, she also drew some amusement from the fact that like this, Saren had Legion and Javik behind his back. He would not be enjoying that. "Lieutenant Moreau, take us out."
"Yes, ma'am," Joker replied.
There was a series of low-pitched thuds are the Citadel's docking clamps detached from the hull. A moment later the ship's background hum changed, growing louder as the engines came online. Then, a projection of multiple views from their external cameras appeared over the central console. The main drive nacelles wiggled, the thrusters cycled a brief blow each, but then flared in earnest and the Normandy began to drift backward, past the atmosphere-retaining field, and into the void.
Shepard's gut began to drift too, but for a whole other reason. Even with her long experience she could not avoid all of the nervousness that came with missions like these. Harbinger was waiting for them on the other side of that relay, and she was not nearly angry enough for righteous rage to tamp down the trepidation.
Deep in her gut she had a sinking certainty that this mission would end up just slightly behind Solcrum and Terra Nova in terms of the most important jobs she had ever done. However, there was one important difference. On Terra Nova, and even to some degree on Solcrum, she had been entirely in control, a predator stalking unwary prey. This time they were like a pack of hyenas knowingly venturing into lion territory with intent to steal a kill. That rarely ended well for the hyenas in the nature documentaries.
"We'll be at Hawking Eta in an hour and a half, tops." Joker announced.
"Good." It would be an hour and a half spent standing practically on pins and needles.
"Shepard, now is a good time to discuss your plan from when we arrive," Nihlus said.
Or for him to make sure there was a plan. Was Nihlus so nervous that he forgot she always had a plan? Or was he merely trying to make her feel better by reminding herself that she had a plan? "I doubt there will be any Heretics on the Hawking Eta side of the relay. They wouldn't want to draw attention, as even the Terminus denizens might get… curious."
"That is given," Nihlus said.
"I want to make the final jump rigged silent, even though the relay will announce our arrival," Shepard went on. Making a jump like that would tax their IES system, but it would also prevent the Heretics from locking on to them right away. With a bit of luck they could slip right through the ambush undetected. "After that, well… I want to run some quiet reconnaissance, and we'll figure out the rest once we know what we're dealing with. Solcrum version two-point-zero."
Garrus suddenly shifted his as he caught her gaze with his suddenly toothy grin. "Funny you should mention Solcrum, Commander. Do you remember that sensor probe trick we used back then?"
Shepard blinked, "Yes." What was Garrus planning?
"What is he talking about, Shepard?" Saren asked.
"Garrus modified the Normandy's atmospheric sensor probes to emit Identify Friend-Foe signals, creating a mirage fleet. It lured the Heretics out of their passive stealth so we could count them from a safe distance," Shepard explained.
"That will not work a second time on them," Saren replied blandly.
Shepard admitted, if only to herself, that he had a point there. If there was one thing the Heretics seemed to do well, it was learning from and adapting to dealing with the previously experienced.
Garrus snorted, "Sure, the Heretics might know that it is a trick. But Nazara will not. We just need it to attack a decoy once."
Shepard remained silent, she figured Garrus would do a better job of defending his plan than her, and he would enjoy doing it too.
"He is right, Saren, and even if the Heretics tell Nazara that it was a trick… would it listen? It came from an ark, so it is not a tactical military AI, and it always had a habit of thinking too highly of itself," Nihlus argued.
Shepard smiled.
"Even if does not work, it will not harm us. They will know we are in the system," Garrus added.
Shepard pondered. There was indeed a simple elegance to the scheme, and if Nihlus was backing it, he must think it had a chance of working. There would have to be one modification to the play though. There was only one ship that Nazara would attack. "Garrus, program some probes to emit the Normandy's identification signature."
Garrus nodded and turned to the chief engineer. "Adams-"
"I will reconfigure the launcher for passive ejection," Adams stated calmly.
"Good, but I want Tali's help coding multiple probes."
"I'll tell her to meet you in the shuttle bay," the engineer replied, reaching for his earpiece.
Garrus turned to look past Shepard, "Legion, I want your assistance as well."
"Acknowledged," the geth responded.
"With your permission, Commander."
Shepard nodded mutely.
Garrus stepped away from the console and hurried around the central display toward the elevator. Behind her, Legion's light turned toward the elevator as well. It opened and closed as quickly as Garrus could attack the door close button.
"What will you do if Nazara does attack one of your… decoys?" Saren asked coolly.
Shepard turned to look him in the eye, "I should think that'd be obvious. I will have Garrus blow it to a million tiny pieces with our Thanix. I assume you have no problems with that."
"None," Saren uttered with a cold bite in his tone. "But what if it does not take the bait?"
Shepard shrugged, "The Heretics will still investigate our decoys with LADAR. We'll know how many of them we face. It will also take them time, enough that we can slip past them. Their ambush only works if I am set on annihilating them too. But I'm not." When her enemy's entire plan hinged on their erroneous understanding of her, it was not much of a plan.
"And if there are too many Heretics, as long as we destroy the Impera, we have the option of ducking back into the relay corridor. Shepard can always call for backup," Nihlus added.
"That too," Shepard nodded. "If the only thing left between us and Ilos are a few too many Heretics… well, while the Council won't send ships into the Terminus, the Alliance will." No one, not even the anti-Council hawks would let an opportunity like this pass by. Heck, unless her mother was in deep space, the Kilimanjaro would arrive to lead the charge. The Heretics would not be able to do much against that.
If this gambit ended up putting Nazara in a checkmate, she would sing Garrus' praises for all to hear. Heck, she would sing his praises even if they only put Nazara in a check and slip by the ambush undetected. She would then happily gloat about it to Harbinger directly, because undoubtedly that cretin would show its miserable behind in proxy form once they were ground-side.
When the Normandy reached the Chandrasekhar system of the Hawking Eta cluster, Shepard decided to take a moment to run some reconnaissance even here. The system's relays orbited the star out beyond the orbit of the system's two gas giants. The main one, which also connected with the Omega Nebula, anchored the secondary relays in its L3, L4, and L5 points. They arrived at the main relay, but the previously inactive one, which connected to Ilos, was the one at its L3 point, on the opposite side of the system from their present location.
On her orders, the Normandy approached the L3 relay from behind the outermost planet, Hebat, and stopped in its trailing L5 point. That put them close enough to the relay to establish passive surveillance of its drift zone while maintaining position without the need for adjustments, as those would produce heat. Shepard figured they ought to conserve their IES capacity, as they did not know when they would have the chance to vent the sinks.
Shepard kept her eyes trained on the sensor readings displayed across the central console. So far, there was no sign of any activity in the system. The only thing pinging on the sensors was the homing beacon from a small fuel depot within the outer layers of Hebat's atmosphere. It was there to top up the ore-carrying craft belonging to the Chinese mining consortium operating on Presrop in the neighboring Century system.
Shepard took a deep breath and slowly let it out, something she been doing on the regular for the past half an hour. This time, she did not bother to take a second. The elevator had started humming behind her, the cabin was climbing up its shaft. Shepard smiled to herself.
"About time," Saren murmured.
"Nonsense. I would've let Garrus, Tali, and Legion have all the time they needed." She would not let Saren make those sorts of comments.
The elevator arrived as if to punctuate her point, and its door opened.
"Status report?" She asked glancing back.
"We made fifteen probes and loaded them into the launching system. They are ready for deployment," Garrus stated, pride coloring his voice.
"Well done," Shepard nodded.
Garrus turned and made his way toward his position at the weapons controls.
Legion returned to their preferred position by the elevator door without saying anything at all.
"Alright, I think we're ready as we'll ever be." Shepard announced, raising her voice slightly. Hopefully she sounded confident, because she did not feel it. "I want final preparations, and then we're hitting that relay. Put us in yellow alert, Kaidan."
"Yes ma'am," Kaidan replied as his hands danced on the controls.
The lighting on the CIC dimmed.
"Blast shutters are closing. All unnecessary heat-producing systems are now offline. I've also ordered the crew to put the lights out in all rooms with viewports." Kaidan announced.
"Very good," Shepard replied.
The mood on the CIC shifted as people straightened at their posts. Adams started murmuring quietly into his ear-piece. Garrus' hands were moving across the weapon controls, his gaze focused down on the readouts. Shepard glanced to her side and caught Nihlus' gaze. His mandibles had climbed right up against his jaw.
"Alright. Joker, take us to the relay. I want an inertia-only jump." Shepard ordered.
"Yes, ma'am," Joker replied.
The Normandy shifted ever so slightly as it accelerated out of its passive drift and turned toward the relay in the distance. It was visible on the front cameras as a faint, flickering blue light. "And, Joker… as soon as we emerge from the relay corridor, immediately bring our speed down, we don't know what's on the other side."
"You got it," Joker replied.
Shepard turned back toward her XO, "Kaidan, I also want red alert. We need wide angle passive imaging. Even if the Heretics have voided their vessels and allowed them to achieve thermal equilibrium, their ships should register on the heat sensors if they so much as twitch. I want all the warning we can get on how many and where they are."
"Of course, Commander," Kaidan smiled faintly.
Shepard knew full well that he was talking for EDI. That smile told her that he was intentionally using what might just be EDI's most common reply pattern. She drummed her fingers on the edge of the console in front of her as she contemplated the minutia.
The only unaccounted for variable remained the Impera. Was it on the other side of the relay, waiting for them? Would Harbinger trust Nazara with hunting down the Normandy, especially after their previous ambush failed so dismally? She would have hesitated to do so herself. Then again, what other option did Harbinger have? The Impera was the only vessel that could challenge the Normandy. Shepard hated having so many unknown elements in her mission calculus. She was simply too used to knowing what her enemy would do and countering them accordingly.
"You are overthinking, Commander," Javik muttered, in Prothean.
Shepard turned to look at him over her shoulder, "Careful, that almost sounds like you care." She did not want the others to overhear this exchange.
"I care only as far as ensuring you are capable of letting me exact my revenge."
"Well, at least you're honest about your motives," Shepard muttered grimly as she looked away.
"Do we want to know?" Nihlus murmured.
Shepard hesitated a moment, not sure what she should say.
"We're ten minutes away from jump." Joker cut in, "Angle of approach locked, I'm putting the Normandy in inertial drift." Joker announced.
Shepard shook her head, opting to give Nihlus a non-verbal reply.
"Figured," Nihlus murmured.
"Initiating nacelle cooling," Adams announced.
"Very good," Shepard stated. It was her way of saying she had been paying attention, even if at this point the chief engineer and pilot knew what needed to be done better than her.
Ahead of them, the relay grew larger and larger. Soon enough it was possible to make out the rotating rings around its massive mass effect core.
"Shepard, once we are clear of the ambush on the other side, we will need to discuss the ground operation," Saren stated.
"Naturally," Shepard replied. "But I've already given it some thought, and I do have a plan." Well, most of a plan, but he did not need to know that. However, as far as she was concerned, it was patently obvious who would be involved. Saren himself would never sit this one out, Nihlus would follow her, and she suspected that Javik would demand to be included as well. There was a possibility that Legion would once again request to be present. Finally Garrus would probably want to come along, but there Shepard hesitated. As depending on what happened in the next couple of hours, she might need him up here at the controls of the Normandy's guns.
She deemed Kaidan, Joker, and Garrus as the ones who could best keep her ship and her crew safe while she was ground-side on Ilos. Joker was her best pilot, Garrus knew their weapons, and Kaidan could coordinate things almost as good as her. He also had a knack for anticipating or understanding how and why she did things. It was kind of a no-brainer thing.
On the forward camera the relay was now the size of a large serving platter, with the details clearly visible. Some people found the rhythmic motion of its rotating retaining rings almost hypnotic. Shepard had never experienced that phenomenon, but to her, a relay was always a sight. Albeit this time, it was an ominous one.
"Commander, now would be the time to disconnect our external communication links," Kaidan announced.
"Agreed," Shepard replied. Normally this would also be the perfect time to give everyone on board some words of encouragement, but Shepard could not. Saren's presence made her feel particularly self-conscious about her lack of speech-making skills. She did not want to expose that deficiency for him to see, and hopefully the crew would forgive her for it.
As the relay continued to grow bigger, Shepard felt her heart accelerate. She took a deep inhale, held it for a few seconds, and let it out as silently as she could. Before she could fully bury that nervousness, the Normandy approached close enough that the relay's glowing core dominated the entire field of view.
"We have contact with the relay's mass effect field, jump in three..." Joker began.
Shepard forced herself to splay out her hands over the flat console in front of her, so as to not be caught gripping the edge with white knuckles.
"Two…"
The Normandy was coming in picture perfect parallel with the relay. The camera was now swamped with a blue glow, creating arcing lens flares across the field of view.
"One…"
Energy surged from the relay's core, enveloping the Normandy.
"Jump!"
The ship accelerated, imparting an inertial kick to Shepard's mid-section. The camera blurred out in a bright blue-tinged glow as the light from millions of stars blue-shifted and then blurred out entirely. Then the journey was over as quick as it began with an inertial kick of the Normandy decelerating out of the relay's corridor, resuming its previous inertial drift velocity. The receiving relay was now on the right hand side of the camera's view, no larger than a coin taped to a wall, seen from across a large room. The drive whirred and hummed louder for a moment and the ship shuddered ever so slightly as the Tantalus drive rapidly brought down their conserved velocity, and a moment later the main CIC lights dimmed and red wall elements began to pulse.
Shepard focused on the image EDI was showing them from the outboard cameras. It took a moment for the feeds to stabilize, but when they did, it became apparent that the halation around every light on the screen, most notably the tiny relay in the distance, was not merely some artifact of velocity changes. There was a very diffuse, nebula-like haze all around them. Hardly as thick as the Widow nebula, but enough that it could refract the light that passed through it, causing the halation. Furthermore, the void here had a slight nebula-like purple and red tint.
As the Normandy came around a little, putting the system's star in front of them, Shepard noticed darkened shapes in the haze around them. It took her a moment too long to realize that the haze was just part of the material surrounding them. At that moment they were very literally in the middle of a shrouded asteroid field! It was entirely a miracle that nothing had been in their path when the Normandy just dropped out of relay velocity. A collision at those speeds could have been disastrous! The realization made her mouth turn desert dry.
Then the central console display shifted to show a representation of their immediate surroundings. There was not much on it, as EDI could not use LADAR, but she did add three markers. One for the Normandy's present location, one for the relay, with their distance to it, and a third for the system's star with a similar measurement. This confirmed what was patently obvious, given how small the relay appeared on the optical feed.
"Your jump had an unusual amount of drift, Moreau," Nihlus commented.
"I calculated as normal. I think the receiving relay is improperly calibrated," Joker replied.
Shepard did not say anything about that, as Joker's theory was as good as any. But now she needed to assert some control. She could not afford to be caught waffling about. Shepard swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "Bring us to a halt. Let's get our bearings before we do anything."
"Yes ma'am," the pilot replied. Almost as soon as he did, the hum of their Tantalus drive shifted.
Shepard watched their velocity indicator count down for a long second, but then looked toward Kaidan. "I want a radiation level reading and a basic spectral analysis on this haze." Aside from the inexplicable presence of a haze and an asteroid field, a supernova had exploded nearby, there was bound to be dangerous fallout.
"On it," Kaidan replied.
She could also see another potential problem. The system's star was in front of them, essentially backlighting the haze, making it behave like fog. Given that they could not use active LADAR, the only obstacle warning they would get would be those darkened areas, and perhaps only when they were close enough, limiting Joker's response time. Furthermore, visual information would not be enough to know the true shape and size of the obstacles.
For Shepard this brought an uncomfortable association to mind. Like many, she knew the story of the Titanic. On that infamous calm, moonless April night the liner had been steaming way too fast through an area where multiple ships reported seeing large icebergs, and its lookouts went up the crow's nest without their binoculars.
Some of those same conditions were in place here. They were passing through an unmapped, unexpected asteroid field. What mote, not all asteroids were rocky, just as many were made up of ices, in part or whole. In the bitter cold of the vacuum, ices tended to be very hard, capable of gouging even a warship's armored hull. Finally, they swapped the calm moonless night for a fog, and they could not use their LADAR. The only thing missing was the human error and arrogance on behalf of the commanding officer, and the ingredients would be well in place.
"Commander, here's a thought- if we're on this side of the relay, the Heretics could literally be on the opposite," Joker stated.
Joker's comment jarred Shepard out of her dour reverie.
"That is a good point," Nihlus said slowly.
Shepard hummed. "Drift zones are spheres around the relay, right?"
Nihlus nodded without saying a word.
"Alright then, let's assume this one has a radius of four million kilometers," Shepard went on. The Normandy was at slightly over three million kilometers from the relay, so she factored that, and added a margin. There was no reason to think that Joker made a mistake when calculating their transit mass, as it was akin to golf for him. The goal was putting the ball, the Normandy, on the green as close to the hole, the relay, as possible.
"Yes," Joker replied. "And that makes for a big field to search. With no LADAR. In the fog."
Shepard knew what Joker was insinuating. "They won't have an easy time of finding us either," she replied. "But remember, we don't have to do much searching." She glanced toward Garrus.
"You are fortunate that Nazara would not have been programmed with military strategy in mind," Javik stated coolly as he reclined against the bulkhead with one foot on the wall and his arms crossed over his chest.
Shepard glanced at Javik, "Sure, but I'm not dismissing the possibility that it might have-" She glanced up at Saren, "learned some things in the interim. Synthetics learn quickly and retain it all." It went without saying that anything Nazara learned from him would be brutal.
Saren's gaze darkened as his brow plates drew down to hood his eyes.
From that Shepard knew that her insinuation had hit home. She looked back toward Javik. "But, we have more direct combat experience, and we are the better team." Nazara was just one AI and the Heretics had always displayed a certain lacking in the tactical department.
"I have the readings and the analysis, Commander," Kaidan slipped into the momentary lull that had settled over the CIC. "The radiation levels of this system are elevated, consistent with supernova deposition, but they are still within our radiation shielding's tolerance."
"That's good." Shepard murmured. Cosmic radiation was nothing to scoff at, and she had been hoping to avoid needing medicine to counter its effects. The Normandy's radiation shielding was an extra layer between the ship's inner pressure hull and the outer armor. In most ships the outer armor functioned as radiation shielding as well, but that meant making a compromise of materials and construction. The Alliance had opted to separate the two functions for the Normandy class. "And the composition?"
"The haze is over ninety-five percent nitrogen and ethane," Kaidan replied. "The other five percent are a mix of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, and methane."
"Overall benign stuff," Shepard murmured. None of the materials Kaidan listed were rocky or silicates, which meant they were indeed flying through a field of icy materials. However, something about their current distance from the system's parent star stirred some recollection in the back of her mind.
"It sounds like material that would have been stripped off an atmosphere, or more than one," Garrus added.
"Could be. Your guess is as good as anyone's at this point," Kaidan shrugged.
Shepard drummed her fingers on the console in front of her. No, she was probably mistaken. Spectrometry picked up the composition of gasses as light passed through them. The technique would not work on anything solid, so they could not discount the presence of rocky materials in the asteroid belt. But there was still something about the composition of the five percent lacing the haze that bothered her.
Shepard glanced around the CIC, "A good bunch of those elements have boiling temperatures of under one hundred Kelvin. We're definitely close enough to that star for them be gaseous. But the methane? If I remember correctly, it boils at a higher temperature. It should be solid out here."
Silence settled on the CIC.
"Shepard-Commander, the boiling temperature of methane is one-hundred-eleven-point-six on the Kelvin scale."
"Thank you, Legion." Shepard stated.
"What are you thinking?" Nihlus asked.
Shepard shifted her weight from foot to foot, was she even thinking along the right tracks? "Basically, that star is of a similar color and size to Sol. We're currently at ten astronomical units, like Saturn in the Sol system. I know one of Saturn's moons is prone to outgassing when sunlight hits it just right. Garrus may be right about this material being stripped off something, but that would only account for the major constituents. This low quantity of methane? My gut tells me that's being outgassed by something, and that's not a process that would end in a few thousand years."
"Why a few thousand years?" Nihlus wondered.
"The data we got never mentioned anything being out here. That means this stuff is newer than the data." Shepard knew she was conjecturing heavily based on a cursory understanding of things she learned in high school.
"And outgassing asteroids have very little mass, they often shift when they erupt. That's a traversal hazard!" Joker added. "Did I understand where you're going with that correctly?"
"Mostly." Shepard replied.
"Mostly-" Joker said, sounding awfully smug. "And to think, we have two pilots on the CIC," he mumbled low, seemingly under his breath, though the microphone picked it up just fine.
Nihlus instantly glared down the length of the CIC.
"Do you feel overworked, lieutenant? Downtime can be arranged." Shepard stated, figuring that would do as a warning. Normally she would have pretended she had not noticed that comment, but this time Joker was forgetting just who else was on the CIC.
Nihlus gave her a toothy grin.
"No ma'am, no downtime needed," Joker replied, suddenly affecting all due formality.
Shepard grinned to herself, it seemed like he had gotten her drift just fine. "Suffice to say, if my theory is correct, some caution is warranted. We know what we're dealing with, so it's time to do some fishing for Heretics. Our first decoy should be hidden near a piece of debris that's close to the Normandy's size. Just so the Heretic LADAR actually pings off something."
A sweep of LADAR would never mistake a rock for a ship, but the Heretics might think the Normandy was behind said rock. The Impera would not be using its LADAR at all, it would have to rely on relayed telemetry. If she had been pursuing an enemy ship that hid behind a space rock, then opening fire on said rock would be an option. Even if a shot from their Thanix only caused the rock to break up, the debris could still damage a ship hiding behind it. "Joker, calculate a course that will take the Normandy in a circle, at our present distance from the relay."
"Shouldn't be too hard to find a chunk of something in this field," Kaidan said. "Our size is still quite common for asteroids."
Shepard nodded, "And we do not need anything fancy, literally the first one will do."
"I've got our course," Joker stated.
"Well then, proceed on it, nice and easy," Shepard replied.
"Yes, ma'am."
The pitch of the Normandy's Tantalus drive hum shifted again, and then they were moving. The billions of centimeter-sized chunks of icy material around the vessel each glimmered in the sunlight filtering through the haze, looking like tiny jewels that slipped past their cameras, creating a stunning display. Soon it was also apparent that the density of the haze varied, with areas where the clouding grew brighter and the background stars completely vanished from view.
Shepard knew better than to be caught up in the display, after all, pretty things also tended to be dangerous. Hidden amidst the uncountable cosmic jewels were many larger chunks of matter of varying sizes. The icy ones seemed to scatter the starlight across their surfaces, gaining a faint outlining halo. The rocky ones, which were just as numerous, only gave themselves away as shadows that materialized from the haze when the Normandy drew near. Both were irregular, jagged looking things, lacking the mass needed for internal gravity to force them into a spheroid shape. This meant that discerning their true shape and size without the use of LADAR would involve some guesswork.
"Shepard, your plan is sound only until they utilize optical recognition and realize there is no ship out there," Saren stated.
Shepard took a deep breath, she should have known that he would mount a protest. She turned her head to look him in the eye. "The Geth do not use optical sensors or analysis."
"That is a dangerous assumption to make," Saren argued.
"It is a correct assumption," Legion stated automatically.
"There. It is made on good authority." Shepard added. Then turned her gaze back toward the officers gathered around the CIC's central console.
"Anything on the passives?" Shepard asked as the minutes continued to tick away.
"Nothing yet," Kaidan replied.
Shepard hummed, the Heretics seemed to have indeed allowed their ships to equalize with their environment, and the relay's activation, despite the fact it meant the Normandy was in the system, clearly did not cause them to begin searching conventionally. Though that was perhaps down to the sheer size of the relay's drift zone.
However, before Shepard could even think of making that observation out loud, she saw a faint shadow materialize on the view-feed right ahead of them. This shadow easily dwarfed all the other shadows they had passed so far. "I think we just found our stand-in."
"Looks like it," Kaidan stated.
"Joker, bring us in, belly to the rock, but not too close now. We just need to eject a probe in its direction, a rock that size ought to have enough gravity to draw the probe to itself."
"Got it," the pilot replied.
"Adams, Garrus, the rest is all you," Shepard added.
"It'll be done," Adams said.
"Seeing that rock gives me an idea. I can modify the programming slightly, make the Identify Friend-Foe signal flicker. We could make it look like we collided with the rock, and the flickering is a malfunction of some kind."
Shepard smiled, she liked that idea quite a bit. "Do it!" She ordered. It would be like chumming the water to attract sharks.
Garrus turned back to his console without saying another word.
Shepard watched the view-feed. Joker had already rolled the Normandy onto its side, so that the rock appeared below them, and slowed their approach down to a crawl. Yet the rock did not seem to cease growing, eventually dominating the camera's entire viewing angle. It took a few minutes, but when the Normandy finally came to a halt, they were close enough that the high definition resolution easily discerned the rock's surface details. Most notably the major cracks and crevasses crisscrossing its face. It looked like a single nudge might make it break apart.
"The probe is ready, Commander," Garrus announced.
"Launch at will, Garrus," Shepard replied without taking her eyes off the rock.
A moment later she saw the probe emerge from the launcher port, and as soon as it cleared the influence of the Normandy's mass effect field it began to drift slowly but perpendicularly away from them. The rock indeed had just enough mass that its gravity attracted the probe toward itself.
"Joker move us away, and use the ventral thrusters. Let's really sell the collision story." It would heat their armor, but the hull cooling would compensate for that rather quickly. The use of the thrusters ought to look like a desperate attempt to stop a collision.
Joker chuckled, "Selling a big hit. Can do."
The Normandy shuddered as all of her ventral thrusters let out a sharp blast, pushing it away from the rock at quite a good pace.
"How was that?" Joker asked.
Shepard knew that such a thruster blow would show up on all thermal sensors like lighting a lone candle in a pitch-black room. The water was well chummed. Now they needed a safe spot where to watch and wait for the sharks. "Garrus, activate the probe."
"Yes, Commander," Garrus replied.
The Normandy righted itself, though they were still drifting laterally on the momentum imparted by the burn. A moment later the ship began to rotate to point into the drift direction. Shepard grinned, Joker knew to conserve their IES by using the momentum to their advantage rather than fighting it with the Tantalus drive.
A marker appeared on the central console, indicating the ping from the probe.
"The probe is active," Garrus stated.
"Good. Joker, put half a million kilometers between us and the rock." Shepard ordered. That was about one and a half times the distance between the Earth and Luna, putting them out of range for conventional LADAR, but still close enough that EDI could keep her eyes on the baited trap. Shepard figured EDI would need them to be relatively close-by to use her highest-resolution settings to keep track of the Impera, should it actually show up.
They were now moving perpendicular away from the circular orbit that Joker had defined while searching for the bait rock, out toward the hypothetical edge of the relay's drift zone. Yet neither the haze, nor the asteroid field seemed to thin out. The need for caution meant that Joker did not push the Normandy to cover the distance Shepard ordered. Behind them, the probe began flickering, like a lamp with a faulty electrical circuit.
Shepard shifted her attention to the larger projection around it. Her main concern was whether or not the signals had reached any enemy vessel that by chance happened to be close to their position. Fortunately, so far it seemed like her admittedly audacious gambit had paid off. She knew that had EDI detected anything, she would have displayed it on the projection.
When the Normandy reached its target distance from the bait, Shepard told Joker to bring the Normandy to a halt amidst some relatively large but well separated asteroid shards. She figured these would offer them some protection by complicating LADAR identification for a few seconds. After that it was simply a matter of waiting.
Given that the probe's pings and the heat emissions were both electromagnetic radiation, she knew their signals would cover the breadth of the drift zone in under a minute. For all they knew the Heretics have made a move already, but the time delay between them firing up their heat-producing engines and the signature reaching the Normandy had to be factored as well.
Shepard snapped out of her thoughts when she saw Nihlus shift his weight from foot to foot just within the angle of her vision. However, before she could ask what was making him twitch, a blip appeared on the projection in front of her.
"We have a contact, definitely Heretic! The engine output profile is consistent with previously encountered vessels," Kaidan announced.
"They're unusually cautious this time around," Shepard replied. The marker EDI placed included an estimated distance to the contact, and judging from it the vessel had been close enough to have detected their decoy within five seconds of it activating. Had they flown right past a voided Heretic ship on their way to their present position? Well, with the haze, that was entirely possible, and all the more worrying. The ship registered on their sensors because it had brought its heat-producing engines online. Right then it was slowly advancing on their pinging decoy. So far everything was proceeding according to plan. However, this was also the easiest phase of the plan, nothing worthy of celebration yet.
Then, quite suddenly a second signal appeared, and barely a few seconds later a third. These two were farther away from the decoy, but they were still there, still strong enough to register on their sensors. They were also moving toward the decoy in straight lines, deviating only whenever they had to move around some sizable rock in their paths.
"They are all… too close." Nihlus stated.
Shepard could only nod in agreement.
"Close, but not close enough," Kaidan stated. "Besides, we will know if the hull is even grazed by LADAR."
"Yes," Shepard murmured. The same sensors that allowed them to detect MAC muzzle flashes also worked on LADAR sweeps, as both phenomena were energy travelling as electromagnetic waves. "We ignore these. None of them are the Impera. It would not burn thrusters or main drive now."
Even hiding among multiple Heretic signals would not work. If they assumed that the Heretic ships all had similar engine outputs, then signal strengths alone could give them the ability discern between different types of ships. Any signature that deviated significantly from the measured average of the rest could be interpreted as a different type of ship. There was probably more to such considerations than Shepard was aware of, but she was out of her depth. EDI though would be right in her element.
Suddenly the three the range estimation numbers under the Heretic vessel indicators ceased changing. Shepard blinked, and it took her a moment too long to realize that this meant that the three ships had stopped dead in their tracks. However, what surprised her was that none of them were within a hundred thousand kilometers of the decoy. They were outside the optimal range for LADAR, but within the range for kinetic armament, assuming of course they believed that the decoy was a ship that would not be able to dodge the incoming fire.
Right then this could only mean one of two things. Either the Heretics intended to batter the rock apart at a distance, simply because they were wary of the Normandy lashing out. Or they had been called off, because the Impera was slinking up on the decoy, intending to use its Thanix. "I think… something took the bait," she murmured.
Suddenly another, fainter marker appeared on the projection. It was much too weak to be engine heat, though it was only thirty thousand kilometers separated from their decoy and on the opposite side of the rock, yet still angled in such a way that its heat emissions were not obstructed.
"Commander, do you think that's it?" Kaidan asked.
"Possible," Shepard replied as she turned her gaze to their long-range forward-looking cameras. The haze was still quite a bit thick, but as she stared in the direction of where the signal originated from and squinted, she could see the tiniest pinprick of red that had not been there only a minute before. It looked to be nothing more than a very distant star, with extreme halation around it. However, it was the right color, and for light, six hundred thousand kilometers was hardly a distance at all.
She opened her mouth, meaning to tell Kaidan that in all likelihood it was the Impera, but before she could articulate a single word, the pin-prick erupted into a flare of crimson that raced right across the distance separating it and the rock.
"That's the Impera alright!" Kaidan announced.
The plume vanished as suddenly as it appeared, but the decoy continued to ping.
"That did not go through," Garrus said.
Shepard dithered. Would Nazara fire again? Should she wait for it to compromise itself fully, or order Joker to pursue it now? Additional shots could heat both its Thanix and surrounding armor, and the more they heated up, the longer it would take for hull cooling to compensate. The Impera would struggle to vanish into the gloom, making for an easier pursuit.
"Shepard," Saren began, "Now is the time."
Shepard ignored Saren as she stared into the haze. It would not do to lose the Impera now, as it would likely wise up to the decoy trick rapidly. Still, the presence of Heretics nearby made the pursuit dangerous. A chase under these circumstances was a risk that she was hesitant to take. Deadly mistakes had been made by better people on such high stakes gambles.
A second bright red flare erupted from the distant ship, hitting the rock in almost the same spot as the first and dug in.
"Commander, the intensity doubled! That has to be its full power!" Garrus stated.
The second shot pierced through, emerging clear on the other side and washing over the probe before dissipating. The probe's pings ceased. Five seconds later the three Heretic vessels resumed their previous courses toward the decoy's last logged position.
Shepard smiled to herself. Nazara had abandoned caution. It believed the decoy was the Normandy and went for the kill. From the Normandy's vantage it was patently obvious that there had never been a ship at that location, but the Heretics eschewed visual recognition, and only one ship was close enough to pick up the lack of secondary explosions.
"They're going in to confirm the kill," Kaidan murmured.
"Their loss," Shepard replied with certainty. A kill confirmation would take time, and their commitment to it meant they would not be watching for a shadow in their midst. Now was the time to strike. "After the Impera, Joker! Do not lose it!" She ordered.
"Yes, ma'am!" Joker replied.
Their engine pitch changed instantly as the Normandy began to accelerate under the power of the Tantalus drive.
Shepard turned to her ordnance officer, "Garrus, ready the Thanix. You only get one shot, and I want it right through the power core!"
"With pleasure," Garrus replied, his eyes darkening as his brow plates drew down.
"Channeling your mother?" Nihlus asked.
"I'm a sniper, Nihlus, it's what I do. A core shot on a ship is basically a headshot. Besides, I'm not the one pushing the button." Shepard replied without looking away from the Impera's indicator. "My mother does not have monopoly on giving no quarter." That was her way of ending that topic. Nihlus knew what her mother had done, and whom she had killed. Revenge for it had eluded Saren for over two decades. She did not want to place it within his reach now.
"Fair enough," Nihlus murmured.
Shepard glanced at Garrus. He stood at his post, watching the projection with a very uncharacteristically cold look in his eyes. She knew, that undoubtedly, he intended to deliver that killing shot she had ordered.
She looked away, turning back to the central console. The Impera's faint heat signature was moving as the ship came about, pointing its nose toward the relay. That was curious. Did it intend to run and leave the Heretics to mop things up? Was it so convinced that it had gotten the Normandy? This after the Heretics likely told it about the sensor buoy trick? She would have waited for a kill confirmation, but if it was careless and had no intention of doing than, all the better for them.
The Impera's heat signature was growing fainter as its hull cooling systems worked to counter the excess hull heat from the Thanix shots. It would have also retracted its Thanix into the hull, to conceal that as a source of heat. Yet it was not moving particularly fast either, which hinted that it was in no particular hurry to exit the system. Right then they were under half a million kilometers, and gaining.
"Commander, how close do you want me to get?" Joker asked.
"Under fifty thousand kilometers," Shepard replied. At that range, the Impera would have almost no time to register, never mind evade, the blistering hot blast of the Normandy's Thanix. The signature would materialize on its aft about two seconds before Garrus pulled the metaphorical trigger.
She glanced at Saren from the corner of her eye. What was going through his mind? Right then, he stood with his hands on the railing around the central console, gaze locked on the projection. Due to it, his grey eyes picked up a blue tinge, and appeared to glow in an eerie way.
Shepard looked away and allowed herself to grin, she would give him this revenge, and in doing so, solidify the debt of honor he owed her. He must know then that he would owe her, but for the time being he did not seem to care. Not that such a thing was surprising. Revenge had a habit of blinding those who sought it. She knew that best of all.
By the time the Normandy crossed into three hundred thousand kilometers behind the Impera. The heat signature from the ship had waned considerably, but EDI still had it. All the while Joker was flying a tight, efficient slalom course around the asteroids at considerable speed. In this area of the field, they were somewhat more numerous, but smaller in size and mass.
"Commander, take a look at the other Heretic ships," Kaidan said quietly.
Shepard looked away from the forward cameras and glanced at the central status read outs. The three Heretic vessels they had picked up were now behind them. Then, she noticed what must have caught Kaidan's eye. The three ships were drifting toward the relay as well. Their progress was slow, but they were moving. That made Shepard pause.
"My gut says something just… isn't right here," Kaidan added. "They must know by now that there was no kill. Why are they heading toward the relay? And that slow?"
Shepard stared at the three markers. A thought crossed her mind then, and chilled her to the core. Did the Heretics realize their tactical shortfall and begin using optical recognition? Could they have spotted the Normandy? No, if they had, they would have attacked.
The separation continued to shrink, now no more than two hundred thousand kilometers. Shepard tapped her fingers on the console in front of her. She could not dismiss Kaidan's theory out of hand, and it was not too late to break off pursuit and proceed to Ilos. However, what if Kaidan was wrong? What if the Heretics were merely following their leader like lemmings?
"You had better not be thinking of breaking off pursuit, Shepard. This might be the only chance you will get," Saren stated.
"I am aware of that, but-" Shepard trailed off for a long moment. "It wouldn't do to act rashly. I abide by a certain old maxim, which states that the opportunity to defeat your enemy is often provided by said enemy." She turned her head and caught his gaze, "On the flipside, I do not give my enemies that."
"Commander, the Impera has just come to a halt." Kaidan stated.
Shepard snapped her gaze back to the projection. True enough, the Impera had stopped some one hundred and fifty thousand kilometers ahead of them. Why did it stop? "Joker, slow down a little, and bring us in to ten thousand," she ordered.
"Yes ma'am," the pilot replied.
"Garrus-"
"The Thanix is ready to go, Commander," Garrus replied.
"Kaidan, keep an eye out, if this is a trick, I want to know, immediately." She went on.
Kaidan nodded and turned back to his console.
The Normandy continued to drift forward. Here the space rocks seemed even smaller than any other, and tightly packed together. Many of them were actually icy, their edges highlighted by starlight. There was also a drop in the relative haze density. It was no longer glowing a faint pink-red color, allowing the Impera's red outboard lights to pierce through, winking at them in regular intervals.
The Normandy crossed the fifty thousand kilometers mark and slowed. "Stay on your toes, Joker."
The pilot merely hummed his assent.
Then, as the distance between the two ships shrank down to twenty-five thousand kilometers, the Impera began to come about, slowly and sluggishly rotating in place. As it did, the reason why its heat signature remained visible became apparent. Its Thanix cannon had never retreated into its hull, and what more, there was still a faint red glow between its rails. Though as the ship completed its turn, it faded away.
Shepard felt her jaw unhinge. Suddenly she knew that Kaidan's earlier bad feeling had been a premonition. She whirled to face her ordnance officer. "Garrus! Blast it apart!"
Even before the order left her mouth Shepard saw their Thanix bay doors open just in front of one of their forward-looking cameras. The Normandy's Thanix twin cannons descended and the barrels extended. A faint blue shimmer began to gather right at the tips, soon brightening to the point of flaring the camera lenses, necessitating that EDI adjust the filtering.
"Charging complete." Garrus announced.
"Do not fire!" Kaidan shouted in alarm, but then whirled to face her, "Sensors just detected multiple light occlusions! None produce heat, but they're definitely ships."
Garrus paused, his finger hovering over the final key.
Shepard gripped the railing so had her fingers cramped up. The truth bricked her over the head. The Impera had lured them into an ambush! Then the cameras caught the red glow within the Impera's Thanix return, rapidly growing brighter.
Author Notes: The evil cliffhanger is back with a vengeance! This is the beginning of the final arc of Season 3. Strap in, things are going to get bumpier!
General Notes:
Episode Title – Anglerfish are a family of carnivorous fish. The deep-sea variants are also renowned for having bioluminescent lures, which are used for attracting prey and mates.
Shepard's Maxim – Is actually a fragment paraphrased from Sun Tzu's Art of War.
Chapter Notes:
More on Lagrange Points – L4 and L5 points lead and trail a body along its orbit at a 60 degree angle. The L3 is directly opposite from the main body along its orbital plane. These three are the most stable of the five points.
Spectral Analysis – All elements/compounds have unique configurations of absorption/emission lines, dictated by how their atoms interact with electromagnetic radiation. For the present interest, the spectral analysis of a gaseous cloud works by identifying the lines within the spectrum of starlight passing through it. The technique requires only that the light enter a spectrometer, is spread into a spectrum, and a camera capture said spectrum for analysis.
Gravity and Spheres – The smallest, fully spheroid body in our solar system is Miranda, the innermost moon of Uranus, at a mere 235 km in radius!