CITADEL ARC I: RESCUE Ah, agent. Yes, please, come in - working on new batch of virals, I am listening - yes! Perfectly safe. Assuming you are up-to-date on your innoculants. Of course. Concerns. Yes, go ahead. Speak freely.
PART THREE: "GRAVE" Yes, agent. All of us infected, from lowliest field agent to Director herself. I remember being in your position. Question of free will, of freedom to choose, of who - of what - controls your actions very common. Quick to ask, agent - sign of initiative. Very good.
Primary Relay B/SV-314-Alpha I ask the same question of myself, correct. If one is told not to eat candy from candy box, and chooses not to, surely not the same as being unable to take the candy, yes? Maybe. Sanctity of the mind, sanctity of perception - fictions. The mind is a pliable thing.
13th of Skies, 2378 Galactic Standard / 1895 Council Era Can't forget, agent. Survival at any cost. Any. We will survive, and when we secure our survival we will be punished for our crimes. As it should be. I look forward to that day. Everyone does. Director too. You will, eventually.
"We've arrived at the relay and are holding position at one light minute stand-off as ordered. Can we expect to have our escort soon?" Nihlus asked.
The holograms of the Councilors nodded in unison, and Councilor Sparatus cleared his throat.
"Actually, Spectre Kryik, we sent three carriers, along with their task forces to assist you - they departed not long after you left, as a matter of fact. They should be there within a few hours at the absolute latest."
Nihlus blinked with ill-concealed astonishment, before composing himself. "That's excellent news. Thank you for your prompt response, Councilors. May I ask which carriers they are?"
"Of course. You'll be assisted by the Salarian Union Navy's Light Cruiser Anarchy, the Turian Navy's own Supercarrier Nomad and the Citadel Fleet CarrierDiscovery," Saral explained. "Operational command falls to you, followed by Discovery, then Nomad and finally Anarchy."
"Thank you, Councilors. If that's all, I'll start preparing for their arrival," Nihlus replied.
Herane nodded and smiled. "Best of luck, Spectre Kryik."
The holograms winked out, leaving the private communications room lit only by the dim glowstrips of the floor-mounted lighting system. Nihlus remained still for a few moments, mulling over the information in his head, before taking a deep breath and striding confidently back out into the corridors of theLightspear Apex. Nodding at the ship's personnel as he walked, Nihlus jogged over to the bridge, where Larix was sitting next to Valtha in the co-pilot's (normally empty) seat.
"Ah, Nihlus, good to see you. What's the word?" Larix asked, getting up to clasp arms with Nihlus.
"Somehow we managed to get ourselves three carriers, along with their escorts," Nihlus replied with a nod. "I'm not going to complain - the more backup we have going through that relay the better. Salarians provided a light cruiser, Citadel Fleet's sent a regular one and we even have the Nomad on loan from the Turian Navy. Not to mention we've got all their escort fleets, too."
Valtha let out a low whistle, leaning back in her chair to look up at Nihlus and Larix. "Wait, they actually sent a Supercarrier out to back us up?"
"Uncharted relay exploration is no joke," Larix pointed out. "I mean, I doubt there's anything beyond that relay besides a few pirates considering the fact that the Sons of Kar'shan had regular contact with their new base of operations, but that doesn't mean this doesn't warrant a serious response."
"Still," Valtha muttered. "I've never seen an SC in action. Seems like kind of a waste to drag that sucker out here, just to have it watch us turn a few slavers into dust."
"Hey, you never know," Nihlus offered. ""Maybe we'll get to see it fire its main gun - it's a real treat, let me tell you. Anyways, I'll leave you guys to it - once they're here, we'll do a joint briefing with the other ships."
As it turned out, Nihlus barely had time to relax; he'd just returned to his bunk, left his guns on the nightstand and - not bothering to get out of his armour - had laid down for a nap when he jolted back into wakefulness. Raetor, Itok and Bekhamis - all fully geared up - were standing over him, helmets clipped to their belts and expectant looks on their faces.
"I just laid down for a nap," Nihlus grumbled. "They can't be here already."
"It's been two hours, boss," Itok pointed out cheerfully. "Also, you snore really loudly."
"You know that. Don't have to rub it in," Nihlus groused as he eased himself out of bed.
"Well, yeah, but Bekha didn't know that," Raetor added, nudging the batarian woman in the arm with his elbow. "Now she knows."
"Illuminating experience. You sleep with your mouth open, too. Should have taken some pictures," Bekhamis snorted. "Would have made for great blackmail."
"You're fitting in just fine, I see. Assholes." Nihlus strapped his guns to his armour and put on his helmet, rolling his neck once it sealed shut. "Come on, let's go say hello to our new best friends."
Together, the group rode the main elevator back up to the command deck, and entered the CIC to find Larix standing at his usual post overlooking the holotable; three holograms of a salarian, turian and asari were standing at attention, facing Larix.
"Apologies," Nihlus said as he jogged up to stand next to Larix on the command platform. "Thank you for waiting."
"It's quite alright, Spectre Kryik - we've only been waiting for a minute or so," the salarian captain said with an incline of his head. "I'm Captain Voniko of the Anarchy."
"Captain Idanis of the Nomad," the turian hologram added. "A pleasure to be working with you."
The asari captain smiled. "And I'm Captain Atruus of the Discovery."
"Well, I'm Spectre Nihlus Kryik, and this is Captain Quentis, who is in charge of ship operations aboard theLightspear Apex. Just to make sure we're all on the same page, I understand that the Council has given me operational command of our mission. I won't pretend that I understand ship combat better than any of you," Nihlus noted, "so if I issue an order that sounds, in any way, to be of poor judgement, tell me. Otherwise, the plan is fairly simple - theLightspear Apex will go through the relay first with our full stealth package enabled."
"By itself?" Idanis interjected. "I understand that your ship is quite advanced in that regard, but if there are hostiles - pirate or otherwise - will your ship be capable of fending off a possibly overwhelming force?"
"I have full confidence in the capabilities of my crew," Larix replied. "At the very least, the Lightspear and her crew would be able to get a message off before retreating or going into hiding."
"Fair enough," Idanis replied, frowning.
"The plan," Nihlus continued, "is for your ships to follow us through if we signal the all clear. If you don't hear from us within a few minutes, you can assume that something's gone wrong and send in scouts after us, contact the Citadel, et cetera. Does that sound acceptable?" The other captains made their assent clear, and Nihlus nodded. "We'll signal when we're ready to proceed. Thank you, captains."
Once the holograms disappeared and were replaced by the regular map display atop the holotable, Larix quickly punched a few orders into his omnitool, and MARCA's voice soon came from the ship's speakers.
"MARCA to all personnel, be advised. TheLightspear Apex is entering uncharted space. Condition two. Repeat, condition two. Orders from Captain Quentis: Engineering, prepare to engage full stealth parameters and stand by to maximize matter-conversion reactor output. Gunnery, stand by on all hardpoints. Comm pit, stand by on stations. System alert: all AI subroutines shifting to combat mode. Minor terminal lag expected for the next three seconds...complete. Systems nominal. MARCA out."
The CIC filled with rustling, clicking noises as the crew began sealing hardsuits and putting on helmets; several new displays appeared on the holotable, showing external views from the ship's hull-mounted cameras and sensors. The Lightspear Apex was holding position not far from the once-dormant relay, surrounded loosely by the three carriers and their escort fleets.
"Think we'll find anything interesting there?" Larix muttered, folding his arms. "With your luck we're going to run into five different alien species and also a sun going supernova."
"Your lack of faith in my track record hurts," Nihlus replied, chuckling. "You can't blame me for running into danger every day. I'm a Spectre. That's my job."
"I'm not blaming you, just complaining." Larix smiled slightly, eyes focused on the relay. "Force of habit. Time hono-"
"MARCA to all personnel, be advised. All stations report green. Control, stand by to initiate relay run," the AI interjected.
"Here we go," Larix said, eyes narrowing as he opened a channel to the carriers. "Lightspear Apex to all ships, we are ready to begin our scouting operation. Stand by."
The ship rumbled for a moment as its various stealth systems engaged, and from the various external displays on the holoboard Nihlus watched as the Lightspear Apex began moving towards the relay at low speed.
"MARCA to all personnel, be advised. Stealth systems online. Phase shifters, active. Infiltration cloak, active. Internal heatsinks engaged. Signals shielding, online. Approaching relay. Message from Flight Ops: activating relay in thirty seconds."
"Acquiring Relay jump vector."
"Calculating mass and destination."
"Relay acknowledges. All stations, secure for transit."
"On alignment. Relay is hot. Stand-by for transit in ten seconds."
"Five seconds."
Nihlus took a deep breath as a lance of blue-white light shot out from the mass relay.
"Initiating transit-"
-the entire ship began letting out a low groaning noise, and the hull seemed to reverberate with a loud, ear-piercing shriek as it faced some sort of unseen assault-
"-transit c-c-c-omple-ete," MARCA stuttered.
"STATUS!" Larix shouted as the external displays turned into static for a moment, alarms blaring at the flight stations.
"Calibration error. Soft reset required. Stand by," MARCA droned, its voice distinctly robotic and lacking its usual smoothness. "Resetting...complete. Systems check. Engineering reports all critical systems nominal, despite external sensor failure."
"VALTHA, ZERO RELATIVE STOP!" Larix shouted.
"Aye, Captain!" came Valtha's voice from Larix's comm. "Hard retro burn… indicators say we are at zero-zero-zero velocity relative to Relay. I'm flying blind."
"MARCA, what's wrong with our sensors?"
"Investigating. Unable to determine. Initiating hard reset to clear unknown interference. Complete. Sensor packages online."
The holoboard flickered as the sections closest to Larix rebooted, static clarifying into clarity.
Nobody said anything for a moment.
"What the fuck?" Itok shouted.
A massive, endless forest of blue floated in front of theLightspear Apex; Nihlus wasn't sure what he was looking at for a split second, his mind unwilling to accept the obvious truth until MARCA spelled it out in its usual, calm voice.
"Assessment complete. At minimum four thousand, five hundred and sixty-seven relays of primary configuration, lay directly ahead of our ingress point to local space, within an volume of one light hour."
"What." Nihlus blinked over and over, shaking his head; there were indeed countless mass relays arranged in a haphazard manner in front of the ship, aimed in seemingly random directions and placed perilously close to one another. "What? Mass rela- how? What is this?"
"Message from Sensors," MARCA added. "High concentration of dark energy anomalies present in area. Furthermore, at least fifty percent of the mass relays present here have been activated. Their destination vectors are unknown."
"Spirits' shit," Larix hissed. "And - there are no planets? No celestial bodies? Where's the star?"
"None detected within effective scan range," MARCA replied. "Hypothesis: celestial bodies and/or planets eliminated due to high concentration of anomalous dark energy fields. Alternatively, anomaly fields are byproduct of catastrophic planet integrity failure."
Silence reigned for minutes.
"Comm pit, transmit all-clear to escort carriers," Larix managed in a voice that was almost free of hesitation. "Make sure they know about the sensor failure we experienced and let them know that, uh, we've found a lot of mass relays. Valtha, one light minute stand-off from the relay. Make room."
"Understood, Captain," Valtha replied, tone nervous.
"So," Nihlus murmured, mesmerized by the countless relays scattered before him on the holoboard's displays. "Better or worse than the supernova?"
"Worse," Larix grumbled, rubbing at his helmet's neck seal. "Way worse. Have fun explaining this to the Council.
CARRIER TEXT VECTOR ONLINE / READY / WAITING
Priority transmission from Spectre Kryik to Council, Spectre Office.
Lightspear Apex and escort carriers / fleet completed transit through Primary Relay B/SV-314-Alpha with minor sensor issues. No evidence of batarian slaver group activity in 6 light hours volume surrounding B/SV-314-Beta; no celestial bodies or stars detected within 1 lightyear volume surrounding Beta relay . Lightspear Apex AI estimates four thousand plus mass relays in local space, in addition to high concentration of dark energy anomalies. We are holding position. Please advise.
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