Mass Effect: Knight of the Old Republic

“There it is…the Omega 4 relay.” Shepard muttered as the massive superstructure grew bigger on the display port.

In just a few minutes they would be taking the final plunge into the unknown to foil a Reaper operation with no backup.

Unfortunately, unless there was a graveyard fleet of dead Reapers somewhere or a lab that could reverse engineer the IFF and mass produce it in a few days, the Normandy was the only ship that could go through and expect to survive.

Still, Shepard felt good about their chances.

“Last chance to turn around, Commander.” Joker commented, even as he lined the ship up for final approach.

The Spectre shook her head. “The Collectors took my people. It’s time to get them back. Hit it Joker.”

“Alright, Reaper IFF activated. Signal acknowledged.”

“Commander, the drive core just lit up like a Christmas tree!” Jacob reported over the ship’s comms.

“Drive core electrical charge at critical levels.” EDI followed up.

Shepard felt her stomach drop at the thought of the Normandy just blowing up, but said nothing.

She just had to trust her people.

“Rerouting.” Joker said calmly, even though Shepard could hear the tenseness in his voice. His hands danced over the holographic panel even as the Normandy hit the relay.

Never before had Shepard ever felt a relay jump feel ‘choppy’, especially not on a ship their size, but she was forced to grab the back of Joker’s chair and keep a hand on part of the dashboard to keep herself from getting rocked off her feet.

She very carefully avoided looking at the speed readouts. Especially after the display gave up any hope of an accurate reading and just started flashing an error message.

“Brace for deceleration.” EDI intoned.

Electric blue gave way to glowing orange as the Mass Effect envelope unraveled. Shepard had maybe half a second to realize the glow was coming from a nebula in the process of collapsing into a black hole before it was nearly blotted out by the number of wrecked ships and debris cluttering the system. Dead ships that had gone through the Relay without the IFF and been torn to pieces by the forces around them.

“Oh shit!” Joker cursed and immediately pulled the Normandy into a steep climb, pushing the poor frigate to its limits to avoid the maze of wreckage even as micro impacts pelted their shields.

Several close calls and one particularly ‘pants-wettingly terrifying’ maneuver later, Joker finally found a section of space that wasn’t so cluttered he needed to constantly dodge around something.

“Too close…” The pilot breathed as he slumped back in his chair. Something Shepard fully agreed with.

The ship flew on with little issue for a while as both EDI and Joker scanned for anything resembling the Collector base. Something that was taking a while thanks to the sheer number of wrecks and the obvious lack of any planet or planetoid.

“So many…this must be every ship that tried to make it through the Omega 4 relay. Some look…ancient.” Joker commented.

“Let’s make sure we don’t join them.” Shepard replied.

“I have detected an energy signature near the edge of the accretion disk.” EDI reported.

“Has to be the Collector base. Take us in for a closer look. Nice and easy.”

Joker compiled without a word and headed in the direction EDI mapped out. It didn’t take long before they could see the likely source of what the AI had picked up. A massive space station the size of a mass effect relay hung in the void, the surroundings marginally less cluttered with debris.

Shepard had a bad feeling that that station was likely going to be their target.

How were they going to take something that size down with only–

“Careful, Jeff. We have company.” EDI’s announcement interrupted Shepard’s thoughts.

Red beams streaked past the cockpit’s viewports as whatever snuck up behind them opened fire. Joker immediately went evasive and began juking and dodging the enemy craft, even cutting their speed so that some overshot.

“These things are just pissing me off!” Joker snapped as the GUARDIAN lasers lashed out.

Two enemy interceptors died, but another scored a direct hit that caused numerous damage reports to blare.

“Minimal damage to the outer hull! New plating is holding for now.” Miranda reported from her console.

“EDI – take these bastards out!”

“I am doing the best I can, Jeff. Rear GUARDIAN array turrets three through six have been destroyed.”

“Dammit, we’re sitting ducks out here…hold on I’m going to try and lose them in the debris field!”

“Our Kinetic barriers are not designed to withstand impacts with debris that size, Jeff.”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing we upgraded. Hold on, we’re going in…”

Shepard hated this.

Being reduced to a bystander grated on her, but there was simply nothing she could do to help right now. Joker didn’t need the distraction and anything Shepard could point out on the monitor, EDI would have seen, analyzed, and responded before she said anything.

A long reverberating screech of tortured metal shook the ship as Joker fought to fit the frigate in between the moving maze of dead and destroyed ships and simply wasn’t able to find a hole big enough, and all she could do was hold on tight and hope they made it through this.

“Come on, find some room.” Joker muttered next to her.

“Kinetic barriers at 40 percent.”

“Re-reroute non critical power! This is going to hurt!”

Shepard winced as the Normandy pitched and rolled through the debris field. More bangs and screeches were heard all over the ship as it barely managed to scrape through, but the good news was that they had finally seemed to lose their tail. No more interceptors shooting at them and once Joker managed to clear the debris field, a straight shot at the Collector base.

She finally released the breath she didn’t know she had been holding and took a second to collect her thoughts.

“Great flying Joker, EDI. See if you can find a place to land without drawing attention.”

An alert pinged on the dash.

“Too late! Looks like they’re sending out an old friend to greet us.”

EDI helpfully threw up a display of the Collector Cruiser that had been hunting them for over two years undocking from the main base. The same ship that killed the first Normandy, escaped them at Horizon, ambushed them over Aite, and now stood in their way.

“I’m really fucking sick of that thing.” Shepard cursed. “Let’s show them our new teeth. As soon as we’re in range, fire the main gun!”

The Thanix cannon deployed and charged while Joker danced around the cruiser’s main weapon. The yellow beam had neatly crippled the first Normandy, no one wanted a repeat of that here.

“Target lock.” EDI announced. “Firing.”

Both cannons fired and the liquid alloy rounds burned a bright blue line right into the side of the cruiser. Shepard watched with grim satisfaction as they punched right through the enemy ships barriers and caused a massive explosion within the hull.

“How do you like that, you sons-of-bitches!” Joker crowed, but Shepard needed him focusing not celebrating.

“Get in close and finish them off!”

“Right! Okay, girl, give ‘em hell.”

Joker slammed a fist on the fire control and the Thanix cannons fired again.

This time the beam punched right through the weakened outer armor and deep into the massive ship. Shepard guessed it must have hit something important, because a massive secondary explosion followed by a string of tertiary explosions started appearing all across the length of the ship.

Something of a double edged blade.

“Look out!”

The warning ended up being too late as the Cruiser’s powersource detonated and a wave of undirected energy washed over the Normandy, throwing the frigate around enough that everyone on the ship felt it.

“Mass effect field generators are offline!” Joker reported as he did his best to wrestle back control of the ship. “EDI – give me something!”

“Generators unresponsive.” EDI replied even as the Collector base grew larger in the view ports. “All hands, brace for impact.”

Shepard did her best to brace, but with the mass effect generators down most of the inertial damping went with them. The Normandy hit something and jerked to the left and the Spectre was thrown off her feet. The next few seconds were spent desperately trying to protect her head as the Normandy collided with the station and skidded over the outer plating.

What seemed like an eternity later, everything finally stopped.

Shepard groaned as her battered body let her know exactly how it felt about being shaken around inside the cockpit, but she fought her way to her feet anyway.

“Ngh…everyone okay?” She asked aloud.

“...Yeah…think I broke a rib.” Joker responded. “...all of them.”

“I’m fine, Commander.” Miranda called out.

“All crew members survived with minimal injuries at most.” EDI added.

“Great. How’s the Normandy?”

“Multiple core systems overloaded during the crash. Restoring operation will take time.”

“We knew this was likely going to be a one-way trip.” Miranda said.

They certainly knew it was a possibility. But Shepard wasn’t about to die here.

“Fuck that. I’ll do everything I can to stop the Collectors, but we’ve got a lot more work ahead of us dealing with the Reapers. We aren’t dying here.”

“I’m glad you’re in charge.” Joker shifted uncomfortably. “What’s next?”

“Depends, how safe is the Normandy here?” Shepard asked EDI.

“I do not detect an internal security network. It is possible the Collectors did not expect anyone to reach the base.”

“And if we’re lucky, their external sensors were hit like we were.” Joker added. “They might not know we’re alive.”

So it looked like Revan was right. The Collectors didn’t need an internal security system because every single one of them was an indoctrinated slave. Why bother with security when none of them could rebel? Especially when the only way to even get here was using tech pulled off an actual Reaper.

Shepard nodded. “Alright. Then hopefully we have some time. EDI – tell the crew to gather in the comms room. After that, see what info you can pull about the base. Nothing that would draw attention, but anything we can use about the interior. We’ll plan our assault from there.”

-o-

Revan looked around the room as everyone waited for Shepard.

Some were doing last minute equipment checks. Some were having hushed conversations in the corners of the room. And some were simply waiting, either in meditation or simply lost in their thoughts.

Emotionally everyone was a little anxious, but not much more than normal before a mission. Not surprising considering some of the situations the crew had dealt with before. Part of her figured it was natural for such a talented group of combatants. The more cynical part of her wondered how many of them simply didn’t internalize the damage done to the Normandy and that they simply might not have a way out anymore. Though with so many wrecks littered about as long as they had time and power, Revan could likely jury-rig something to at least get them back through the relay with the crew’s help.

Further musing on returning from the mission was pushed aside as Shepard strolled through the door.

“Alright everyone, this isn’t how we expected to start our mission but it’s where we’re at.” She started. “The Normandy is as safe as it’s going to be, but we can’t worry about that. We came here to stop the Collectors, and that means figuring out how to take out this station. EDI, what do you have?”

The holo-table lit up with a wire-frame image of the station. Revan leaned forward and began committing everything she could to memory. She was impressed, EDI had managed to get incredibly detailed scans without letting the Collectors discover them.

“You should be able to overload the station’s critical systems if you get to the main control room here.” EDI highlighted a section of the map.

“That means going through the heart of the station.” Jacob noted. “Right past this massive energy signature.”

Revan caught Shepard nodding out of the corner of her eye. “That’s the central chamber. If our crew or any of the colonists are still alive, the Collectors are probably holding them in there.”

“Looks like there are two main routes.” Jacob continued. “Might be a good idea to split up to keep the Collectors off balance and meet up in the central chamber.”

“No good.” Miranda immediately disagreed. “Both routes are blocked. See those doors? The only way past is to get someone to open them from the other side.”

“What about this ventilation shaft?” Shepard asked. “It looks like it leads straight to the other side.”

“That’s practically a suicide mission.” Jacob said, crossing his arms. “I volunteer.”

Next to him Miranda shook her head. “I appreciate the thought, Jacob, but you couldn’t get access to the systems in time. We need to send a tech expert.”

“Send Legion.” Revan spoke up. “He has the necessary ability and due to his nature as a droid, unless the Collectors send one of their soldiers into the vent themselves, nothing they do will affect him.”

Shepard nodded. “Agreed. Legion, you up for it?”

“We have no issues with that proposal, Shepard-Commander.”

“The rest of us will break into two teams and fight down each passage. That should draw the Collectors’ attention away from what you’re doing. Revan, we’ll work out who goes on which team later.”

Revan nodded back, already mentally shifting who she wanted and who Shepard would need to even out the capabilities of both teams.

Like usual she needed a back-line team leader to coordinate her squad. Preferably Garrus or Miranda given their experience in leading others. And of course they would need members that meshed with their style of command…she could think about that more later.

“I won’t lie to you all, we have no idea what we are going to find in there. It’s not going to be easy. We’ve lost some good people. We might lose more. ” Shepard continued. “We don’t know how many the Collectors have stolen – thousands, hundreds of thousands. It’s not important.”

Revan watched as Shepard’s speech reverberated through each member of the team. Eyes hardened, backs straightened, and the little bit of anxiousness that Revan sensed earlier receded even more.

“What matters is this: not one more. That’s what we can do, here, today. The Collectors want to know what we’re made of? I say we show them, on our terms. Let’s go get our people back!”