Day 4: Batarian Slavers

Day 4

We arrived in the Pranas system after many hours of training. I hadn’t realized the extent of skills this team had. This is good. We might actually have a chance completing this mission. The Asari, although, might complicate things if they keep using stims. I don’t know if I can handle all their giggling and giddiness. It’s unbecoming of soldiers, especially of their rank and prestige. I guess just because they have a thousand-year lifespan doesn’t excuse the younger ones from behaving like, well, young girls.

In any case, getting to the Pranas system was the easy part. The Ocular Surveillance Systems of the Salarians, thankfully, don’t extend much farther than their moon from Sur’Kesh, allowing us to slip into the system undetected. Landing on the planet, however, is going to be the trickier part. A quick scan of the system revealed a few merc ships that we might be able to… expropriate and smuggle ourselves onto the planet. A closer scanning of one revealed a few interesting things: 1. It was a Batarian vessel, and 2. There were sixty Quarian life signatures aboard. Needless to say Aliya was the first, and strangely vehement, to suggest that that was the ship to board. I’ve never seen her so violent, I think it was wise that the Commander shoes to take that ship.

Aboard the ship we split up, the Quarian, Krogan, an Asari and the LT went down to the cargo hold, while the other Asari, the Geth, the Commander and myself went to the cockpit to deal with the Batarians there. Opening the door K8 was blasted back, it’s a good thing it is made of metal or it’d be toast! It then grabbed the unfortunate Batarian and threw him back. Nienna then took one out with a biotic lash, leaving the last two to be easily picked off by the Commander.

The other group had no problems taking down their targets. It appears that the Quarian signatures we picked up are in stasis pods, and they have been in stasis for 177 years! After interrogating one of the Batarians, and learning very little aside from the fact that the Salarian doctor we are after hired them, we opened the Quarian Captain’s pod. It is an understatement to say that he was severely shocked and disoriented. Having never come into contact with the human race and not knowing about the Shepard’s resolution between the Geth and the Quarians I guess can take a while to get used to.

All we have to do now is to smuggle ourselves onto Sur’Kesh. This should be fun.

Beyond the Crucible: The Story

MASS EFFECT

It has been forty years since the battle to free Earth from the Reapers and Shepard activated the Crucible.  The Reapers survived the wave but ceased their attacks and immediately rebuilt all the Mass Relays and then took the Citadel and disappeared into an unknown part of the Galaxy.  The Normandy was found crash landed a few months later and its entire crew had survived; but Shepard has never been found.

The fleet that engaged the Reapers had been the largest ever seen and had been well equipped so had largely survived the encounter.  Recovery of the damage the Reapers caused was accomplished very quickly.  The proverbial thorn in the side of the Alliance, Cerberus, was all but destroyed through Shepard’s efforts.  Peace was established between the Geth and the Quarians and the two races now peacefully cohabitate their home world together.  The Krogans were cured of the Genophage and have become a largely positive force in the Galaxy.

Not all is well though, the Salarians were incensed that the Krogan had been given a cure and in a few years gathered a fleet to attack Tuchanka and try and kill the Krogan before they recovered completely from the Genophage.  To this day no one knows how they knew but the moment the Salarian fleet arrived at Tuchanka the Reapers were already there and almost the entire fleet was destroyed in short order.  A Batarian combat group trying to attack a Human colony near their space was also destroyed by the Reapers.  It was soon discovered that any large offensive action would be met by Reapers and destroyed.  To this day no one knows how the Reapers gained intelligence on these operations.  However the Reapers do not interfere in small scale commando operations and the Salarians took full advantage of it using the Special Task Group to antagonize the Krogan’s any way they could.  The Krogan’s complained to the Council and the Asari, Humans, and Turians, told the Salarians to cease and desist.  Then things spiralled out of control, having all sorts of information on most of the Asari and Turian Spectres the Salarians convinced most of them through blackmail and other threats to fight for the Salarians and help destabilize the council and those who supported them.  The Council turned to the one remaining force they felt they could trust, Alliance N7.  The Alliance immediately opened up membership to their armed forces to all interested races and soon Asari, Geth, Krogan, Quarians, and Turians, served in N7 along with Humans.  Twenty years ago after years of clandestine combat N7 succeeded in wiping out the old Spectres and most of the Special Task Group. 

    

Twenty years on though Peace is still far away, while the Salarians still have a seat on the Council and an embassy on Earth, which had become the new headquarters of the Council during what was called the Commando Wars, they have refused to bury the hatchet and participate in Council affairs.  The Salarians still see the curing of the Genophage as a betrayal by the Council and Humanity in particular.  The Salarians quickly rebuilt the Special Task Force and enlisted the help of any underworld organization looking for money and non council races with an axe to grind.  Some say the Commando Wars have never truly ended. 

Recently the Alliance has decided to allow independent non-Geth AI’s the right to recruit into the Alliance military.  Your ship is the SSV Sachsen a large stealth frigate that is an upgraded version of a design based on the Normandy SR2.  Technology and Resources are readily available but largely given on a basis of need and merit.    

Day 3: Clearing the Base

Day 3

     There is something wrong with this crew. Is it something in the air, or maybe it’s the levo amino food… it’s got to be the food. While the rest of the crew interrogated the prisoners, the LT; the Asari, Nienna; and myself went in search of the missing children. As it turns out Nienna and myself do not have a knack for techie things, while the LT seems to, once again, fluke his way through by licking, yes licking, his omni-tool. How is that even possible, like I said: it must be the food. Anyway (this LT provides some great tangent opportunities…) ahem, yes, we were scanning for the children to find their location, and most of the children were in the storage room they’ve been locked in for who knows how long. As was logical we sent the only human in to see the children first. And, by the spirits, the kids actually liked him! He even found himself a little fan and parted with his sunglasses.

After having K-QO scan the base for the remainder of the children we discovered one was about to fall into the same compartment with the mechs! I raced out of there as fast as I could to get there in time. As I opened the door the boy fell out of the duct. Thankfully (and obviously, I mean you should see how intimidating I look in armour) the mechs began attacking me instead of the boy. Pulling out my zweihänder, I clove a mech in half. It felt good to use my blade again; it’s been too long. As I pulled out my assault rifle the Asari came sprinting up, I shouted to her to take the boy and leave. As it would, the Asari came barrelling right into my line of fire! Thankfully she fell flat on her face just as the bullets started flying. The rest was a piece of cake, as the humans are wont to say. We Turians use a lot of human expressions I’ve noticed. We must not have any good ones ourselves… hmm. What did I say about Nienna being clumsy? I sure hope she doesn’t end up dying by friendly fire. That’s always an unpleasant report to file. All in all a happy conclusion to a difficult situation.

After dropping the kids off at the colony and alerting Alliance command, we were briefed on our unofficial, off the records mission of infiltrating Sur’Kesh and finding what the Salarians are up to with their studies of the Reaper nanites we are all, apparently, stuck with. The Salarians seem to believe that the Shepard somehow convinced the Reapers that they were already in control of everyone and that they now influence us through these nanites, and that’s why they attacked Tuchanka twenty years ago. What a load of garbage. So the Admiral “didn’t” authorize us to infiltrate Sur’Kesh, and we are definitely “not” going to the Pranas system, as the LT was so keen on telling everyone. At least he didn’t have his sunglasses to strike a ridiculous pose… I think the Quarian aptly described the situation, something was wrong with his face during the debriefing. And there we “aren’t” headed.

Beyond the Crucible

Day 2: Backwater Colony

Day 2

Well there are another few days of my life gone. This mission is going to be the end of whatever is left of my career and reputation. I mean seriously? Who THROAT PUNCHES a guy then tries to resuscitate him? If this is the best humanity has to offer… I don’t know how they were the ones that were the driving force behind the defeat of the Reapers. Maybe it wasn’t all that hard for The Shepard to stand out from the rest of humanity, shining stars as they are…

Anyway, this colony is in far worse shape than we thought. These people are crazy. I mean crazier than people on a planet in the middle of nowhere space crazy. An armed commando troop comes in and you try to pull weapons on them? At least they had some sense enough to listen to commanding officers, except that poor bastard that got throat punched by the LT. And what dolt tries to save a man with a crushed windpipe? I can’t even think about it. Idiot. How he made it to lieutenant and SECOND in command boggles my mind. He must have some promise though; I don’t think the Alliance has deteriorated that much since the N7 Wars. Back to the mission… This whole colony seems to think they’re indoctrinated and have entrusted their lives to a secret research base and they don’t even know what’s going on, and having their own people returned invalids, and giving up their children? Who does that? Maybe they really have been indoctrinated.

Thanks to K-QO and the Quarian infiltrating the base and neutralizing the threat was relatively painless. Now, on to more interrogations. That’s all we seem to do. Trap people in ridiculous situations where they can be easily coerced into surrender, and then we beat or entice information out of them. The Quarian even managed to hack a guy near to death. She has more potential than I initially thought.

Beyond the Crucible

Day 1: Meeting the Crew

Major Terryck Corinthus

N7 Special Operations

SSV Sachsen,

Commander O’Neil

Day 1

    

Well, this is it. Major Terryck Corinthus; life-long military career, War Hero, serving the Turian Hierarchy, advancing my way up the Meritocracy, and all for what? Abandoning my people, joining the human Systems Alliance, joining this rag tag crew, I mean seriously: a Quarian? on her Pilgrimage? Didn’t they do away with that once they took Rannoch back? But who am I to judge, just look at my story. If I hadn’t needed that favour… at least my family is safe, and I’m doing this for them. I hope I make them proud.

     I officially met the crew and my Commander in the debriefing with the Admiral. It seems like an honourable cause. Those Salarians sure deserve whatever bad luck comes their way.

     What kind of “secure” base is this! What help can I be if the humans can’t ever keep their own bases or ships from being taken by pesky rebel groups!? At least we were able to capture the leaders and learn their purpose in this suicide mission. Locking themselves in the med bay, I mean honestly? Why would you even put yourself in a situation to be vaporised like that? At least they had enough sense in them to surrender. Now we are off to save some backwater human colony. This could get tedious.

At least this Commander has a good head on him. He’ll go far if he doesn’t get himself killed. His Lieutenant on the other hand…let’s not go there, and a Krogan! What is the Alliance coming to? I guess the Shepard had a Krogan or two so I shouldn’t complain. We have the daughter of Aria T’Loak with us too, how interesting is that. I wonder what brings her here. She is a very adept biotic and will be very useful I’m sure, the other Asari though, I’m not so sure. She seems to be a bit… clumsy. The ship’s AI, K-QO, and the Geth Prime, K8, will be very handy as well; although what a machine’s interest in this mission would be I have no idea.

All in all, this will be an interesting mission, one of the strangest I’ve been on for sure.

Beyond the Crucible