Chapter 24: "Priority: Kira I"
Author's Note: Sorry for the long update, this chapter is a bit longer though. I hope you enjoy it. Oh and I talk about the Reaper a lot in this chapter so for those who is unfamiliar with the franchise, please do google "Mass Effect Reaper" for visual reference.
-World building fact-
While the other nations have similar systems to TACNet and Mnet for the military, none of them are even close to the efficiency of the UNE's systems. TACNet is a synchronized system that provides tactical information, relays orders and intel in the immediate area of operation while MNet is a system that display orders and strategy to all of the military. These 2 systems in combination provide the UNE military with a clear, live view of the entire war theater which make coordination between units so much easier and more precise.
The other systems used by the rest of the galaxy are only limited to video feeds without any advanced sensory that analyzes the battlefield. The lag in long range communication means that by the time their command receives the intel, minutes or hours have been passed. More than that, they do not have the technology to read the brainwave so that orders and commands can be relay precisely without the need to communicate.
-Impact point, Kira I-
The nature of modern warfare includes the use of sophisticated detection equipment make it the time of the day, in which a mission is conducted, less important. However, to maximize stealth, ISOC usually plans their mission so that the AO will be at night time on the planetary body that it takes place. At the depth of 50 meters (164 feet) under the water, the 2 D-20Bs open their side doors as force fields keeping the water from flooding the interior of the ship. The 5th SIF and the cloaked destroyers are maintaining radio silence for the duration of the operation.
Because the Repear's tactical capabilities is largely unknown, the highest precaution is applied for the 5th SIF. All TACNet and MNet links are turned off as well as radio. The SIFs will have to rely on hand signal to communicate with the assist of the suit's sensory, it will detect any signal given by the commanding officers such as Ava and Ashley and display it on the holographic screen in the helmet. While it is not as good as TACNet, it is very reliable and they will have to make do with given the situation.
A standard formation is used, a scout team consist of 3 SIFs from the 1st squad moves 200 meters (219 yards) ahead. The rest of the 1st squad form the center of the formation while 2 teams, 2 SIFs each from the 2nd squad, move along them 100 meters (109 yards) from both flanks. The rest of the 2nd squad move 200 meters behind the 1st squad. This way, they won't be all in 1 place for the enemy to ambush them and teams can easily support each other if one of them is ambushed.
For hours, the SIFs move slowly and carefully toward the location of the research facility provided by Ko'ra. There has been occasional Reaper patrol but Reaper present on the ground is light as they do not expect anything could sneak through their fleet in the orbit. Kira is a class F2V star which is hotter than Sol, this allows Kira I to have a smaller size then Earth but has a wider orbit around the sun but still receives enough heat for the water to stay liquid. As the result, the night in Kira I last longer than on Earth despite its smaller size.
Ava gives the signal for the unit to stay put as they arrive at the AO. The research facility is built on a small hill surrounded by an energy wall. After observing the area, making sure she didn't miss any detail. The enemies inside are Reap Husks created from dead batarians. The facility is lightly defended in terms of enemy contacts but the automated turrets around the facility would most likely convert to be used by the Reaper. Without any kind of support, an assault on foot is almost impossible.
The area outside of the wall is a field of grass, which the batarian make sure that they don't grow too tall so that no one could sneak on them. It is a good security measure but now it is what makes it hard for the SIFs to approach the facility undetected.
Ava runs over to Ko'ra "Looks like your troops didn't put up much of a fight, the defense looks intact".
"The Reaper must have attacked while they were evacuating, they were caught off guard" Ko'ra replies.
"It doesn't matter now, we can't get in the front door, it would be suicidal. Do you have any other entry option?" Ava whisper.
Ko'ra takes a moment and then replies "There's a pipeline to the river 3 pez from here to that direction, it leads straight to the core room which is close to where we put the artifact. Assuming the Reaper didn't move it"
Ava looks at Ko'ra as he looks at her "But?" she asks.
"You'll have to turn off your armor if you want to fit into the pipe and your bots certainly would not fit, and you'll have to deal with the filtration system" Ko'ra says.
"It's not like we have any other option, let move" Ava says then signal the unit to start moving to the river 1 klick at the direction that Ko'ra pointed.
The SAT8s are left behind in the tree line, in case they need a diversion, as the SIFs move toward the river. Ava intends to keep them there to create a diversion should the SIFs ever need one.
-Oval Office, Presidential Complex, Earth—
President Liam just finished a meeting with the Citadel Council discussing the cooperation against the Reaper. The Council is growing desperate as the Reaper is arriving at their borders and any attempt to confront them had resulted in disaster. Earlier they were able to negotiate a temporary non-aggressive pact with the UNE, which allowed them to divert resources as well as a large portion of their fleets away from UNE border and towards the defense against the Reaper. The combined military might of every Council Races is able to slow the Reaper down significantly, however, it comes with a great cost of lives and it does not stop them from advancing completely.
"Not long ago they called us delusional as we warned them about the Reaper and now, they want us to send our men and women to defend them?" Sarah Hanson, the secretary, says as she organizing the recording of the discussion into the database.
"The Turian military is unable to stop the Reaper and they have the second most powerful military in the galaxy, we're their only hope. However, I can see the benefit of helping them" King replies "The Reaper is coming for us sooner or later, if we fight them in the Council's space, we can freely use any means necessary to stop them".
"There will be a lot of collateral damage, billions are going to die" Sarah replies while imagining the full destructive power of the UNE military is unleashed.
"We're talking about the survival of every civilization in this galaxy, if tens of billions have to be sacrificed so that trillions of others can live then so be it" King replies.
"If we reduce this war to arithmetic, we're no better than the enemy. However, we can't just do nothing while billions are dying and, as you said it, they'll be coming after us sooner or later. King, return to Terra Sphere and draw up a plan. Sarah, see if Ambassador Noah Jason is available and have him to meet me here" Liam orders.
Before King was able to leave the room, Liam call him back "King, just a minute. What's the status of the 5th SIF mission?"
"We have been maintaining radio silence since they leave our space as planned, if everything is according to plan, they should be on the planet by now, sir" King replies.
"Let hope we're not chasing ghost on this one" Liam replies then continues after a pause "Prepare the military for Tatarus Protocol".
"Tatarus Protocol? We're not there yet aren't we, sir?" King is confused by the order.
"I know, just a precaution, call it a hunch if you like" Liam replies.
"Yes, sir" King replies then bow slightly before he leaves.
Tatarus Protocol is Humanity's last-ditch effort while facing imminent total destruction or extinction. It was proposed soon after the encounter with the Citadel Council, and the UNE realized that the galaxy is filled with many hostile alien races. An individual or unit will be given Hades callsign, such individual or unit will have unlimited access to anything. Military units and personnel no matter their rank are to carry out Hades's orders without question. There will be no laws or regulation imposed on Hades callsign, basically, they can do whatever they deem necessary to preserve the human civilization and the UNE. Even If it means killing trillions of innocents, even if it means destroying the whole galaxy.
-Batarian Research Facility, Kira I—
Ava is helping the rest of the SIFs to get out of the water pipe one by one as the few that had already got out are guarding the hallway right outside of the core room. Ko'ra is the second to last to get out of the pipe, Ava immediately activates his white suit as soon as he's out.
The core room is where the core that power the entire facility. There are wire and pipes everywhere, some of them batarian some others are Reaper.
"Commander, I know you don't trust me but can I at least get a pistol?" Ko'ra asks.
"No, the last thing I want is you startle over something and pull the trigger. You can't hurt us but that will alert the enemy of our present" Ava replies, she checks that everyone is set and ready to move out then continues "Where's the artifact? My suit is not picking up anything"
"It's here, our equipment couldn't detect it too. If we didn't dig right into it, we would've never found it" Ko'ra replies.
"Alright, lead the way with Ashley" Ava says then signal Ashley to take point.
"It's 1 floor up, this way" Ko'ra says as he stacks up behind Ashley in the hallway.
Ava uses hand signal to other 2 SIFs to send an explosive charge on the core and then signal to move out. Although none of the SIFs are looking at her, their TAC suits pick up the movement and relay it to them. The building is empty as far as their suit's sensors are showing, only the creepy machine sound echo from the outside by all the Reaper husks and the occasional growling sound they make.
Ko'ra lead the SIFs up the stair to a large room that takes the whole floor. In the center is the artifact surrounded by a variety of batarian equipment. The room is filled with workbenches and computers for various analysis purpose, all of them batarian tech. After they're sure that the room is cleared, Ava signals the rest to bring Ko'ra in.
"Secure those windows and the stairs, keep an eye out for the enemy movement" Ava orders.
"Commander, come look at this" Ashley says as she stands next to the artifact "These symbols, they look familiar".
Ava approaches the artifact and realizes that they are magic runes similar to the ones they encountered in Icia "Those are magic runes, on a piece of tech as well. The Prothean must had found a way to combine magic and technology"
"No wonder our sensors picked up nothing, these runes must be masking the artifact somehow" Rob comments.
"There's no way the Reaper could've detected the artifact too, if they did, they would've taken it after they wiped out the Prothean. So how did they know to come here?" Ashley says.
"Alright, get to work. Download everything from the batarian's database and I want to know if we can move it" Ava orders.
She walks over to Ko'ra and suddenly with her pistol pointing at his head, she says "You better tell me what you're hiding or I swear I'm gonna throw you out and let them turn you into whatever those things outside are".
Ko'ra startles "Co…Commander, please put your gun down I'll tell you everything".
Ava pushes the pistol harder against his head "speak" she commands.
"May I?" Ko'ra says as he points at a computer, Ava nods.
Ko'ra open an image of a death Reaper being studied by batarian scientists. It's is badly damaged but the remaining is still valuable for study.
"25 of your years ago we found this floating in space 3 light years out in the void, just right outside of the edge of the galaxy from our space. We didn't know what it was at first, but initial examination showed that it is badly damage but still contain incredible technology that we've never seen before" Ko'ra says.
"What happened?" Ava asks.
"We towed it back to a secret location and study it of course. After a few months some of the first scientists that were studying the Reaper started to act strangely and people report hearing voices in their head. The investigation revealed that Reaper tech have the ability to indoctrinate organic life form over a period of time in close proximity" Ko'ra continues.
"Yet you decided to continue anyway" Ashley comments.
"How could we have passed on such a great opportunity, lieutenant commander? The UNE technology is leaps and bounds ahead of us, and we're not exactly friends. The relation with the Citadel Council was less than pleasant to say the least and the Igar Hivemind was pressing against our border. By study the Reaper and reverse engineer its technology, we could gain a huge advantage when it comes the time to defend our space" Ko'ra replies "Beside we thought it was just some kind of signal so we installed every jamming technology we know in place and the voices stopped. We thought it would stop the indoctrination".
"But it didn't, did it?" Ava says lowering her pistol.
"Apparently not, when it believed that it is safe, our leaders started to visit the location. They must be indoctrinated during these visits" Ko'ra says.
"That's why they found this place so fast, your own people revealed the location to the Reaper. It must be also why the Batarian Nation fell so quickly" Ava says.
"Our great opportunity turned out to be our downfall" Ko'ra says with a sadness in his voice.
"How come you're not indoctrinated" Rob says from across the room as he's working on the artifact.
Ashley and Ava immediately point their guns at Ko'ra again "I was nowhere near the artifact, not for long anyway, me and a few other scientists believe that we need to study more about the indoctrination process before we continue studying the Reaper, but no one listened and they kept me away from the project" Ko'ra says.
"Fuck!" Rob shouts.
"What is it?" Ava says.
"I disabled the batarian's alarm but that tripped the Reaper's alarm, they must have installed it after they took this place" Rob replies.
"You didn't expect that?" Ava asks.
"I did but I'm unfamiliar with the Reaper's tech, I didn't know how it was rigged so I took a guess. I guessed wrong" Rob says.
"Commander!" David shouts from one of the windows as he jumps away right before it explodes.
Jimmy rush over to David "You're alright buddy?"
By this time, TACNet and radio are already activated again as they are no longer in a stealthy situation.
"I'm cool, I'm cool" David replies and he quickly stand up.
"David, grab the artifact. Ash activate the SAT8s we're getting out of here. Move, move, move" Ava orders.
"I'm not done yet, commander" Rob shouts as the Reaper husks start firing at the SIFs from all side and they returning fire.
"We don't have time, set a charge and move!" Ava orders as she pull Ko'ra and push him at the way of the stair.
"Frag out!" A SIF shouts as he through a plasma grenade down the stair as they can hear the Reaper waiting for them down there.
As soon as the grenade explodes, the SIFs quickly move down the stair and kill the remaining husks with deadly precision shots. Some of the husks look like batarian but others look strange like no races they have ever seen before. Ava suspect those are from dead past races that the Reaper wiped out.
"Would destroying the core kill the power of the shield wall?" Ava asks Rob as they continue to follow the formation down the hallway and engage Reaper husks.
"Probably, there are Reaper's powerline to the core. I think they're using the core to power the shields" Rob answers.
"Probably?" Ava asks again.
"What do you…well yes! Yes! It will turn off the shields, but the explosion is gonna take down the building we gotta get out of here first" Rob says.
"Right" Ava replies as TACNet relay her orders for the SIFs to head straight for the main lobby which is the shortest route to the gate "Ash!"
"On it, commander!" Ashley replies as she commands the SAT8s to charge at the front gate shooting everything they have and make as much noise as possible.
-Outside of the facility-
The 4 SAT8s charge across the field at full speed firing their weapons, gun and mortar, trying to draw as much attention to themselves. They run at an incredible speed dodging bullets, shells and beams shooting at them. A few that manage to hit them did no harm but to their shields. As they get closer to the facility, however, they get hit by more and more firepower. Their shields are starting to fluctuate and begin to fail.
-The main lobby-
The SIFs charge out from the main lobby into the front square leading to the gate firing at all side covering each other. By this time 2 of the SIFs were already wounded and are being carried by Jimmy and another SIF on their back. Hurt and in pain, they're still firing their pistol as they can't afford to stop until they're safe.
"Commander, they're punching through our shield too fast!" Ashley shouts.
"I can see that!" Ava shouts "detonate the charges!"
A large explosion happens as the build explodes from the inside. Debris are kicked out of the building to all side as fire blow out in extreme heat. Some of the husks were caught in the fire and is burning but that doesn't seem to stop or slow them down. The shield wall, the lights are turned off and the turrets become inactive. However, there's only 1 SAT8 left that make it to the gate.
Ava orders everyone to move out as she pulls Ko'ra up and push him along "Move, move!".
The SIFs rush from cover to cover, prove cover fire for their fellow SIFs to move forward to the gate. One of the SIFs jump up a light platform to take out the husks that are pinning the rest of team down. Although she managed to kill all 5 husks on the platform, her position is exposed and resulted in her taking multiple hit that disable her shield and multiple breach on her TAC suit.
"Man down! Cover firing!" David shouts as he and 2 other SIFs lay down suppressing fire for another SIF to jump up and recover the downed SIF. However, the amount for incoming fire is too much that none of the SIFs could risk jump up the platform. Ko'ra see as none of the husks are trying to shoot him as he's not carrying a weapon, he makes the jump and carry the hurting SIFs on his back then jump back down as she fires her pistol killing a few husks.
Once the SIFs make it to the gate, a loud mechanical honking sound deafen the entire area as a 2 km (1.24 miles) tall Reaper Harbinger class descending on top of the facility. It shoots a red beam of unknown element destroying the last SAT8.
"That thing can land?" Rob shouts as he is running as fast as he can carrying the artifact.
"Seem like it, move! Get to the tree lines and don't run in a straight line" Ava shouts her order.
"Fuck, fuck, this is not good, this is mess up, fuckin Reaper…" One of the SIFs mumbles as he trying to run and dodge as many incoming fires as possible. As his suit warn him of incoming fire from the Harbinger, he activates his thrusters to leap of out the way but the beam got his right leg and completely disintegrate it "Arghhh!".
Seeing one of her men is down, Ava tries to make her way to carry him.
"No, leave me, commander, go to the rendezvous!" the SIF says as he fires at the pursuing husks.
"We don't leave out people behind soldier!" Ava says as she runs as fast as she could towards the SIF. However, before she could reach him, the Harbinger fire again and completely disintegrate the downed SIF.
"Damn it!" Ava mumbles then turns to follow the rest of her unit.
While it took them hours to cover the ground from the ocean to the facility when they arrived, it only took them a few minutes of running to get back. She directs the platoon to a nearby cliff and have the D-20Bs to come a pick them up as swimming would take too long and their escape window is closing rapidly.
The Harbinger class Reaper is still fire it weapons at the SIFs from the facility with the same efficiency.
"Beacon is set" Ashley shouts as she jumps off the cliff into one of the D-20Bs.
-Kira III gas giant-
A fleet of 60 unmanned SF-40s and 38 unmanned GS-12 escape the gas giant's atmosphere and jump into FTL in the direction of Kira I. As soon as they arrive, they immediately engage the Reaper fleet.
Small and agile, the fighters, even the GS-12 manage to avoid Reaper's capital ship weapons and they try to stay out of their PDS range. One on one, a SF-40 is far superior than a Reaper drone but there are swarms of them that the SF-40s could not hope to win. UNE ships could open wormhole windows and fire at enemy ships from many light years away, but the Fortune and the Panther could not risk revealing their location as the Reaper forces would most likely jump right on top of them.
-D-20Bs, existing Kira I atmosphere-
The 2 transport ships are burning as fast as they can while try to dodge and deploy counter measures to reduce the receiving damage. Their turrets are shooting at the chasing drones with deadly precision but the sheer number of them make it no matter.
"Pilot! Why aren't we in FTL?" Ava asks over the radio.
"The FTL drive would not engage, they're jamming us somehow" the pilot replies.
"Well...shit?" Ashley says.
"Shit indeed!" the Pilot replies then he contacts Captain Carter on HSS Fortune "Roundhound, Roundhound, this is Red Flight 1-1 requesting Flash Maneuver. Over".
"Red Flight, this is Roundhound, copy on Flash Maneuver. Transmitting coordinate and time, see you on board. Roundhound out" Captain Carter replies.
Flash Maneuver is a extraction maneuver where a ship drop out of FTL right in front of fast flying transport ships for them to quickly board and then space dive. The whole process only take a few seconds and it has to be very precise as the hangar bay's door need to be in front of the transport or they will crash into the ship. If the ship arrives too soon then the enemy will have time to destroy the ship, if the ship is too late, they'll ram the transports as they drop out of FTL.
It was developed during the 2nd Interstellar War by a captain of a Phantom Class destroyer. The name came from his famous quote after the success of picking up 2 SIFs platoons returning from a mission while being under heavy fire: "Like a flash".
The D-20Bs are approaching the coordinate sent by Carter and their clock is matching the time down to the millisecond. By now all the SF-40s and GS-12s are destroyed and the Reaper are converting to them.
Right when the clock ticks, the massive Phantom class destroyer drops out of FTL right in front of the transport and fire all their weapons at the approaching enemies. It only takes a few second for the 2 D-20Bs to fly into the hangar and are being slowed down by a force field. A few seconds was enough for the overwhelming number of Reapers to take down the Fortuner's shield and bombard its KEL armor. While they took damage, they managed to space dive before the swarm of drones arrive.
-A day after-
Every UNE ship was built with a memory core room that can be used to access any information and it has all the equipment to analyze anything. The room is cylindrical with a 15 meters (50 feet) diameter. The artifact is place in the center of the room and Ko'ra is studying it with 2 guards watching his every move.
The 2 guards salute as Ave enters the room and walk to Ko'ra.
"Commander" Ko'ra greet Ava with a slight bow.
"Thank you" Ava says, she continues as Ko'ra is confused "Back on Kira I, you saved one of my men, so thank you".
"Not all batarian is bad, commander" Ko'ra replies.
"Right" Ava nods then continues "The artifact, did you find out what it is?".
Ko'ra face light up like a kid proud of their drawing "Ah yes, I figured it out! Your technology is amazing, the holographic, the scanner, the processors and so much more"
"This!" Ko'ra says as he looks around the room "Is the dream of every batarian scientist!"
"Ko'ra, the artifact" Ava says as she finds it amusing that the things she took for granted could be so incredible to others.
"Ah, yes, I'm sorry. I figured it out, this is a database of a group of Prothean scientists. They were looking for a way to incorporate magic with technology, and they succussed. It's all here, magic enhanced weapons, shields, ships, anything!" Ko'ra says.
"Did they used it against the Reaper?" Ava asks.
"According to your database, I don't know how you got information about the Prothean, but they didn't. To be more accurate, they could not because there was no time" Ko'ra replies "By the time they found out how to enhance technology with magic, the war was already lost and the Prothean civilization was wiped out. What's left of their people did try to build a weapon to destroy the Reaper but there was no time, so they sacrificed themselves and make sure that the future cycles have a chance against the Reaper"
"Their runes worked" Ava says.
"Yes, but they worked too well. You see, we're not the next cycle after the Prothean. Their civilization was destroyed over a hundred million years ago and a cycle only takes a few dozen thousand years" Ko'ra replies as he pull up his summary of his finding "In all of the cycles, the Prothean came closest to winning the war against the Reaper because they were allowed enough time to united the entire galaxy under 1 empire and made some incredible advancement in technology".
"So, the Reaper realized their mistake and make sure it never happened again. They return earlier?" Ava asks.
"Yes, but no. The Reaper left bit and pieces of technology across the galaxy for younger races to find so all develop in the same path of technology. One that they can predict the growing rate and counter. However, the UNE seems like an abnormality in their calculation as you people technology is so different than the rest of the galaxy" Ko'ra says.
"We're like Prothean 2.0?" Ava says.
"Only with less resources to throw at the Reaper" Ko'ra replies.
"Does it says anything about how we can defeat the Reaper?" Ava asks as she touch the artifact.
Ko'ra pull up another wall of text "It says here that they were building a weapon, a massive weapon that capable of destroy the Reaper in all of the galaxy. The weapon would require an enormous amount of energy and magic to work" Ko'ra continues "Hmmm"
"What?" Ava asks.
"This here says the weapon was being built in Uros system" Ko'ra says.
"We found the system a few months ago, but there was no weapon of any kind. There's some remain of Prothean civilization but no weapon" Ava says.
Ko're pull up an image that display the Prothean ringworld in Uros "Is this still there?"
"Yes, what about it?" Ava asks.
"It's the weapon. Part of it, the weapon was complete" Ko'ra says as he applies the blueprint from the data to the image "A very small part".
"It's gonna take a lot to build this…weapon, do we even know if it's gonna work?" Ava is in awe with the scale of the construct, it's bigger than anything she has ever seen.
"The Prothean seem to be pretty sure that it's going to work" Ko'ra replies.
"It better be" Ava says as she can feels the ship shakes slightly "Ava to the bridge, what's happening?".
"The wormhole generator just shutdown, commander, it looks like the Reaper got a lucky shot. The Panther will take your unit along with Ko'ra and the artifact the rest of the way home while we repair, get ready for transfer in 2 hours" Captain Carter says.
"Roger that" Ava replies.