Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)
Vetris felt the transport ship rapidly decelerate as it came out of the Mass Relay. The rest of the passengers were a nervous kind of excited. Most were Asari or Turian, but there was also a scattering of Salarian and Drell. Spirits, there were even three Krogan and a pair of the massive quadrupedal Elcor.
It only took an hour for the transport to arrive at its destination and dock. The main hatch opened and the passengers began to move through the docking tube into the station. A large open room greeted Vetris and the other passengers once they emerged from the docking tube. The only sign of Vetris' mental state was a slight twitch in her right mandible.
A quick glance around showed a series of recesses in the floor and slots in the ceiling for blast doors, either defensive or to prevent depressurisation, close to the docking tubes. There were seams in the floor, either rectangular or thick semicircles, that Vetris assumed were recessed cover that could be raised in the case of an assault. She was sure there were also an abundance of sensors, recorders and other security devices monitoring the former passengers.
Flanking the docking tube and in strategic positions around the room were armoured and armed figures in black. Their armour was nothing like Vetris had ever seen before and their rifles seemed almost too… sleek and compact. Spirits, those rifles did not have barrels. It looked like a tiny aperture or maybe some kind of crystalline structure at the business end. Maybe the rumours about these people having energy rifles was true.
Across the room from the docking tubes were a series of desks, with a black uniformed but unarmoured person behind them, mostly the new race but also a number of Asari and two Salarians. Flanking each customs officer were a pair of the armoured guards and the immigrant was required to pass through a scanner after answering some questions.
If Vertis had been trying to hide that would have been a problem as she had her Hardsuit and weapons in her luggage, but she was not going to try to hide this time. After patiently waiting in line, Vertis stepped up to the customs desk with an Asari behind it. This close she could see that one of the guards was a Quarian, but their environment suit was armoured looked very similar to all the armour of the other guards. while the other was this new race… Humans.
"Name?" the Asari Customs Officer asked.
"Vertis Artus." Vetris replied.
"Reason for visiting Section 31 Space?" the Asari continued.
"Immigration." Vetris said simply.
"Occupation or specialist training?" The Asari said, continuing the checklist.
"Fugitive and former Spectre." Vetris admitted.
The word Fugitive got a frown from the Asari but the word Spectre got much more of a reaction. Both of the flanking guards immediately raised their rifles to their shoulders, aiming directly at Vetris' centre of mass. She could also hear a number of other guards rushing to take positions behind and off to the side of her, to cover every angle.
Vetris was very careful to keep both of her hands clearly visible in her lap, with the palms facing up to show she was not concealing anything.
"I seek at least political asylum, if not full defection to Section 31." Vetris announced loud enough for all the guards covering her, and the Customs Officer, to clearly hear. "I currently have a kill on sight order out against me and at least one Active Spectre hunting me down. I was given a mission I found morally objectionable and refused, resulting in my expulsion from the Spectres and my current Fugitive status."
"What was the mission?" the Customs Officer asked.
"To intercept a civilian transport, kill all of its passengers and crew and make it look like Section 31 had done the deed." Vetris reported. "The Citadel Council, or at least the Turian Councillor who gave me the order directly, wanted to publicly discredit Section 31 in an attempt to strangle the immigration incentive in the popular imagination."
The Asari Customs Officer touched her ear, in the manner of someone receiving a radio transmission, and listened for a few moments.
"Take Miss Artus into custody." The Asari said to the guards. "Someone from High Command will be coming to interview and evaluate her."
"One of you may wish to take my bags." Vetris said, not resisting as she was pulled to her feet. "They contain my Hardsuit and weapons. The weapons are not loaded."
Two of the guards escorted Vertis into the interior of the station while a third picked up her bags and took them to a nearby guard station for storage until they could be searched by someone with a higher pay grade than the guard.
Bobby followed Ceres, the AI in charge farming production and infrastructure on Haven, as she led him out of the colony proper and towards the fields. Katie and Nikki were both back at the prefab home that they had been allocated when they had arrived almost a week ago. Both Bobby and Nikki had taken the teenaged Kate under their wing. All three had been tested and had full medicals when they had arrived on Haven. Bobby, as he had expected, was allocated to the fields. Nikki, as a former housewife, had thought she was going to be useless in the new colony but was finding satisfaction working at the local creche, helping to look after the toddlers and young children, some of whom had been born of Haven
Kate was to undergo some more training to help her become, having both indicated an interest in and a talent for, a certified mechanic, though she was not sure yet if she wanted to work on vehicles or some of the larger infrastructure facilities.
As the buildings of the town faded behind him, Bobby revelled in the almost absolute silence for a moment. He had only rarely been somewhere this silent, and most of those few times had turned into a firefight a few minutes later.
"Farming here is very strenuous and we use little to no large scale mechanical means to achieve it." Ceres explained as they walked. "It is not that we lack the technology, in fact most of the food is actually produced via replicator rather than from farming, fishing or hunting. That being said the locally acquired food is growing as a proportion of the total food consumed."
They crossed a small wooden footbridge over a stream and turned upstream. In the distance Bobby could see water gates on the banks of the stream that feed the irrigation system of the fields.
"Many of the original colonists have found that they are much happier with tangible results of their efforts, which they lacked in their previous lives, and thus have chosen to farm, hunt and do many other required tasks in more… traditional ways rather than through the excessive use of machines." Ceres said, waving to one of the farmers who rose from his task and began to walk towards them. "This is going to be your supervisor, who will show you the ropes."
"Bobby Jones, Sir." Bobby said in greeting, extending his hand to the other gentleman.
"I'm Tony Harris." The other man said. "I'll show you how we do things around here. Thanks, Ceres."
"You are welcome, Supervisor Harris." Ceres said, before the mobile holographic projection winked out.
"I hate it when she calls me that." Tony Harris muttered. "Just call me Tony."
"Harris?" Bobby mused. "Why does that name sound familiar."
"Commodore Xander Harris is in charge of the entire Section 31 Fleet." Tony said. "He's my son, though I forfeited the right to claim to be his father long ago. He does what he does and I do what I do, and I have never been happier in my life. Come on, let's introduce you around."
Faith and Helen moved up through the cover of the short bushes that shielded them from the instillation. Another pair consisting of a Quarian and an Asari were ten feet further along, and a Krogan was moving by herself six feet behind them.
Helen touched her communicator sending out a single click without a verbal message. Brella, the Krogan, was the first to move after the signal. With a roar and a patented Krogan Charge, she made for one of the guard posts of the instillation, drawing a lot of fire in the process, but then Krogan were almost the literal definition of a Tank on legs. The charge was not the typical rage induced charge usually made by Krogan Males, though Brella did intend to do a much damage as was possible.
As the various guards and emplacements of the installation opened up to fire at Brella, the rest of the team went to work targeting the newly revealed positions. Helen, Faith and Sarillas, the Asari, concentrated on the guards and the more exposed emplacements with their Phaser Rifles while Tros'Kell, the Quarian, targeted the heavier emplacements with a Mass Effect Tech Rocket Launcher. No one had yet managed to produce an effective, portable explosive heavy weapon equivalent from Section 31 or Starfleet technology, though there were some Humans and Quarians working on Micro Quantum Missile Launchers, without much success so far.
Tros'Kell took out the second guard post with his Launcher just before Brella barrelled into the first one. Within fifteen seconds it was almost impossible to say for sure which guard post was taken out by Tros'Kell and which by Brella, as both were smoking wrecks.
Helen, Faith and Sarillas moved into the installation and began mopping up the few remaining personnel while Tros'Kell and Brella took up guard positions against a potential counter-attack.
"Computer, end simulation." Commandant Tina Reicher called as the last simulated opponent fell.
The instillation and the surrounding vegetation dissolved to reveal a large room with a grid pattern on the walls, with small holo-projects at each intersection, and a gantry high above the floor on which stood the Commandant and Colonel Chase.
"Not bad." The Commandant said evenly. "If you were looking to join Section 31 Security, but this is MACO. You are going to have to do much better than that."
The five MACO recruits filed out of the holodeck, leaving the two senior MACO officers behind.
"They are not bad for recruits only just starting MACO training." Cordy observed. "Tros'Kell was trained as a Quarian Marine, though he only just graduated when he opted for MACO."
"Quite a few new Marines take that option." Tina replied. "Not all make it but I have heard no grumblings from New Rannoch."
"I have heard one or two." Cordy said. "But any who make it through phase one or beyond before washing out are considered for Officers or a new Spec Op unit they are forming. Sarillas… well, she's three hundred and spent sixty years as an Asari Commando. Brella is a Krogan, enough said. Rare to see a Female but whatever. As for Shepard and Lehane, well they fought Vampires and Demons hand to hand, on the ground."
"The recruiters had Shepard pegged for MACO before she left Earth, and they were right." Tina said.
"Good material." Cordy confirmed. "All of them."
The pair left the Holodeck through a door on the gantry level and as the door slid shut behind them, the lights in the Holodeck all winked out.
TBC….