Mass Effect: The Andromeda Initiative

"Chief, do you think the internal manufacturing systems can produce a few of these? And integrate them into the Thallisa?" Pathfinder Ba'Na Liazin's almost offhand request to the Chief Engineer of the Beseria Michael Thormpton may have struck others as a small thing. But, for the estimable engineer, it prompted a hailstorm of cursing. However, hidden within the profanity-laden rant about resource management, lack of equipment and the hell it was going to put on maintenance there was one final response.

"Yes, you're damn fething right I can you smug pyjack kicking nutjob!"

That they were installed on the Thallisa before the day was out said she'd made the right choice by challenging the ornery engineer. Nothing lit a fire under their asses like questioning their abilities, although why she was standing in front of Carius for that she wasn't sure.

"And that's an appreciable amount of our element zero gone." he sighed rubbing his head crest "It'll be worth it." She responded calmly "You just get into orbit, and start scanning the rest of the system, I'll do my job. I promise we'll have a home to set down on soon."

He was silent for a moment, before looking at the dot that was steadily expanding as they came closer before nodding. "Get ye gone then Pathfinder. And good luck."

"Thanks. See you in two weeks Carius." He waved her off, busying himself with a new datapad of resource management and orbital calculations as she headed towards the bay where her new...old...her ship awaited her arrival, surrounded by dozens of the best-trained techs the Andromeda Galaxy had to offer.

Tempests. The Pathfinders ships. Armoured in Silaris plating, shielded with Cyclone barriers, hidden by a stealth drive and possessing the most advanced scanning and scientific comportment ever devised it was one hell of a ship. Even better now with the new upgrades rapidly shoved into it, the ship was one of a kind with a one of a kind crew who stood or sat by their stations as she marched to the bridge, feeling almost lightheaded with anticipation.

Tomalas Jorun, her pilot sat ready to depart reading information from his console as it came in. "All systems green Pathfinder, final checks have" with a ping "just finished, we're ready to disembark on your orders."

Slight breath, remember this is all on record. "Take us out Mr Jorun."

His only response was "Yes Ma'am" as the entire ship took a minor jolt, as mass effect fields and inertial dampeners kicked into effect, while thrusters so long dormant fired. In front of them the white metal bay doors slowly crawled open, the shimmering light of the eezo containment field keeping the atmosphere within, as with a dull roar the Thallisa flew from the glittering mass of the Beseria, rapidly gaining distance from the far larger vessel and homing in on A-6.

"Panopete system online Pathfinder, focusing scans on the planet for now so far nothing too strange." Jania Waldes Vas Thallisia, her science officer, tilted her head as data began to stream in. "Wait...hold that thought. Thermal sensors are picking up a volcanic eruption in the upper hemisphere."

She nodded, frowning "Lets make sure to avoid there for now, Mr Jorun, how long till we arrive?"

"At our current pace around two hours." Was his absent-minded response, all of his Salarian focus trained upon his work.

"Keep me informed, I'll be heading down with an away team to get personal surveys, but launch probes ahead of us towards areas of interest Miss Waldes."

The confirmations echoing in her mind she passed to the engineering bay, stepping through the organised chaos to where their Nomad was prepared, her away team Thellissia and Kumamar lounging around for her to arrive.

"We're hitting dust in about two hours, triple check your equipment!"

She ignored their responses, instead choosing a small side room to kneel down and meditate, focusing on the mantras the Matriarch taught her as a child. Too much power, not enough control then, still too much power now really. But if there'd just been a volcano who knew what they may have to do.

Her hands tingled as tightly grasped biotic energy spun between them, forming into its most primal form, as she bent it to her will shaping it into a cube of mass shaping energy harnessed to her will and to that alone even as it pushed hard against this confinement.

"Lia? LIA!"

She started, Thellissia's voice ringing in her ears as she shook herself back to consciousness. She was out of practice, six hundred years of disuse she supposed. Though its strange it was yesterday as far as she was concerned. Yet another totally unique thing.

"We're coming in for a landing...are you ok?" Her old friend looked very concerned, but she shook her head. "I'm fine, just a bit sleepy, ironically. Nervy too, but well." She brushed past, pulling on her helmet and hopping into the Nomad Kumamar at the wheel, while the roar of displaced atmosphere brushed by them.

With a ping Jania's voice emerged from their comms, almost distracted as she did so. "Jorun's bringing you in for a landing on A-6's equator, there's a mountain with a massive plateau for us to land on, but...Pathfinder be careful. There's enormous geological instability all over A-6" She paused for a second, before cursing "Boshtet...its like someone shot it."

Now that was a chilling thought. "Let's not jump to conclusions miss Jania."

"Yes Ma'am, but still be careful."

Chief Michael's voice appeared next the human's harsh accent cutting through the interior of the Nomad like a knife. "Comin in on the landin. Releasin the Nomad in 3,2,1!"

Drop doors of the Thalliasa ripped open with a dull boom as for a second weightlessness gripped all within, the all-terrain vehicle falling downwards. Then with a crash, Kumamar pushed the jump jets jolting all three of them with G force, but slowing their descent as they crashed down upon the hard rocky ground, sending up a cloud of dust.

She barely noticed the impact, instead moving as fast as possible to activate the window as she stared out at A-6.

A vast plain of grey, red scree and dirt greeted her eager eyes dotted with hardy looking shrub plants sporting pale greenish-blue leaves. Around them scattered spooked looking Capra genus animals, bleating with surprise as they fled their meals, bounding towards the edges of the plateau and leaping off without a shred of uncertainty, or climbing up the cliffs behind them with surety that belied their cloven hooves.

And around them she saw the mountains! Vast jagged edifices of stone that pointed from the world with unearthly splendour so many packed together that in places that seemed almost to mould into one another, towering above them so high that she couldn't pick out the caps of many, as white clouds faded seamlessly into thick snows.

The Nomad came to a screeching halt and within a second the doors started to open and she swung her legs around and forwards until she stood on the untainted soil, boots crunching into the rocky earth.

"And I stand here."

The words were unbidden from her mind, but they felt right, her companions starting to clamber forth themselves gazing around with a similar wonder to her. "A new reality within an unfamiliar land."

"Quite poetic Lia, but...by the Goddess."

She nodded. It was one thing to dream for decades, but to see it in the flesh was another thing entirely. She wanted to just take off her helmet, but it wasn't safe yet. She had a job to do first.

Omnitool flashing she started to scan everything around them, the enhanced sensors practically drinking in data from everything, as her team started to spread out, Kumamar opening the Nomad's storage container to begin assembling a base camp, while Thellissia started to move towards the plants, sampling syringes at the ready.

Liazin prefered to simply walk forwards, taking in the beauty of the place while passively gathering information, looking to the horizon to see a sudden plume of white smoke emerge over the horizon from some unclear source until she reached the edges of the plateau.

Gazing over the edge she saw a vast chasm that dropped down until it hit the water. At the very edges of her hearing, she could listen to the liquid churning and see the violently thrashing froth as it was pulled this way and that by unseen forces. Looking to the side she saw a curious furred face looking back at her framed by a pair of internally curling horns.

"Baah." The goat-like creature bleated at her and she smiled back, walking over towards it slowly, hand outstretched as it moved forward to sniff curiously at her.

Then it screamed, leaping over the edge as a tremor swept through the ground and Jania's voice exploded over the comms. She paid little attention; she didn't need to be told what was happening, her senses exploding into action as she spun around. In slow motion she saw high above them cracks starting to appear in the rocks, as boulders began to fall, kicked into motion by the uncaring forces of nature where they would crush her team into nothing.

Her mass vanished, turned into a compressed ball that simultaneously weighed nothing at all and reached them both a second later.

A moment after that a shimmering purple barrier erupted from her fingers covering them in a defence more impermeable than a dreadnaught's defences, as she braced her legs ready to receive the charge, teeth gritted.

Then the first boulder impacted with the force of an angry god, shattering into shards against her defence, as a deluge of stone and fury crashed into her as her hearing started to fade, lost in the sonic booms of falling rocks. It felt like hours until at last the avalanche moved past them, but in reality, it was a couple of few seconds. Even then they dared not move the entire mountain quivering as the avalanche continued on downwards.

A firm reminder if one was required that although entrapped with wonder this new world was dangerous and vicious. It had already taken its first swing and next time...next time she might not be there to block it. With a simple look at the other pale, blood drained faces, she knew the realisation had hit them too.

She simply sighed, activating her comms as Jania's panicked voice echoed in her ears.
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In the orbit of A-6 the Beseria moved slowly into its final position where it would stay until it was either destroyed or some unforeseen calamity forced it to move, while around its hull a handful of reawakened workers started to construct the essential infrastructure to ensure they could upkeep it. External rigs, supply depots the works.

Then they would begin the long task of servicing a ship that had survived on minimal maintenance while constantly active for a long six hundred years.

If it weren't for the need to present a confident front you'd have winced in that meeting. The bill was not going to be light.

Still the new sensors were coming through for you. Liazin focusing on A-6 left your long range sensors in charge of scanning the rest of the system and by all accounts it seemed pretty good. Lots of hard planets, with a quartet of gas giants likely held good amounts of Helium-3 based on sheer mass. Although obviously nothing that was really practical to exploit right now. That's why you were hoping Liazin came through on A-6. You needed to get more materials soon.

"Sir the Thallisa's leaving the atmosphere now, they'll be onboard shortly."

You nod to the tech and turn towards your office. "Send the Pathfinder to me as soon as she lands." Not much else you needed to do, the crew were the best. Research data would be routed to the scientists up, the ship would be maintained. You needed your Pathfinder's report and that was it.

Setting yourself up comfortably behind the desk, you prepared a small helping of Serrice Ice Brandy, not too much since it was in very limited supply now got your own drink and waited.

You didn't have to take long as Liazin walked in leaving behind a practical trail of dust that caused you to raise a brow in question.

"Don't worry about it, more dangerous to me than you actually."

She sat down in the offered chair, gratefully picking up the brandy and drinking it down in a single shot as she gathered her thoughts.

"So, good news, bad news or medium news?"

"Let's start with the bad." Swirling your own glass and studying its violet texture "The good can be a plaete chaser."

She snorted, but smiled regardless before projecting an image of the planet, before overlaying it with geological information. "Bad news is the planet is a tectonic nightmare. What happened is either someone shot the thing with a mass accelerator, or it got hit by one hell of a meteor. For various reasons I think the latter."

"Ah, so then there's…"

"It's not recent." She cut you off quickly. "Don't worry whatever this was it was millions of years ago at the earliest, haven't dug into fossil records or what have you, but no need to get paranoid about enemies coming back of what have you. No, this happened a long time ago and shattered most of the continental plates completely. Now they've reformed and after a mass extinction things have adapted to the new terrain, which is mountainous, volcanic and prone to every natural disaster you can think of. It's not constant, but my team nearly got crushed far too many times for comfort. And we didn't go down too far either, what would be the oceanic level on most worlds is kinda rough."

"Alright, what's the good news."

"The good news is the planet's got a lot of natural resources like we hoped. We've even detected some eezo which is a big reason why I'm partial to the meteorite theory." At that alone you breath a sigh of relief. This could work.

"Furthermore, the picture changed to a wide flat mountain top, a fair bit distant from any other ones. "I think I've found us a perfect spot for a first colony. Its atop a mountain in the middle of one of the larger continental plates, so nice and insulated from anything but earthquakes and even then it's nice and distant. Any volcanic activity is long extinct and at its at the top so no worry about things falling on you, or tsunami's rising to hit it." She smiled slightly "You've even managed to put the Beseria right over it, so that saves us moving later."

She shrugged, pouring herself another small shot. "It's not perfect, there's instability but that's endemic to the entire planet. It's as good as we're going to be getting, I'm afraid."

You shook your head. "If I didn't value my life so highly I'd hug you, maybe kiss you" she snorted a biotic flick flying past your dodging head. "My big fear was that after getting here having nowhere to land."

"Yeah well, I'm afraid I'm going to have to burst your bubble slightly."

"Ah the medium news?"

"Yeah, its great for you and the Quarians though. Planet's dextro."

"Ah...well, that's." She nodded with a commiserating smile "I know. Lets take what we can get."

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Results

Bring Her In: No problems, preliminary maintenance completed leading to reduced costs on the next stage of maintenance, excellent position for Berseria to support primary colony site.
Explore A-6: A-6 is a highly geologically unstable planet owing to a cataclysmic impact in its relatively recent geological history. As a result, A-6 features enormous mountain ranges, with a huge number of continental plates, large amounts of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and the side effects of the same. Significant amounts of useful raw materials have been detected including some amounts of Eezo, but acquiring them will be a considerable challenge owing to the geological instability. A prime colony site has been identified and preliminary research ideas on stabilizing small areas has been forwarded as has two anomalous areas the Pathfinder identified. In addition, the world's soil is primarily dextro enabled as is all currently identified fauna and flora.
Explore A-6 System: Done at long range, the system contains numerous solid planets and a few gas giants. Close to the sun there is a small solid, further away there are a trio of cooler solids although all are very uninhabitable. A-6 afterwards is in the habitable band, and possess a single moon. After A-6 is an asteroid belt and a final solid. Past that is a quartet of gas giants whose exploitation for H-3 is a logical step for primary exploitation. Scans of the edge of the system currently yield minimal useful data aside from identifying three planets likely ice giants.
Scanning and Surveillance: Numerous advances in detection technology, from the immediately relevant to the less so. Current sensor tech significantly above known Council standard in abilities. Examples manufactured for the Pathfinder and the Betheria as a whole, deducting -10 BI, -20 AI and -15E.


Maintenance beginning. Starting next turn maintenance is -20 BI, -12AI and -5E (next turn it will be half of that due to crit success) to ensure the Betheria and other essential services does not deteriorate. Repairing the Betheria to maximum capacity is currently unavailable.

This amount will decrease when you reach Tier 1
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And done, pretty damn good first turn, but you had to choose the option that would cause you to immediately want/need to build didn't ya

Don't worry you'd be in much more trouble had you picked...well any other world really, but be careful your stores are running low fast.

Any questions please ask etc.

When the Initiative started to make true progress one of the immediate concerns was how were the colonies going to keep in contact with one another? This was a new galaxy and while they could bring a few highly expensive comm buoys in each Ark, the fact remained there was no network that the Milky Way relied on for communication. There were other options of course, but the attention of the Directors would be on establishing outposts and thawing out their populations. If they were going to reestablish contact surely it would have to be more permanent than that?

Then QEC was invented, a truly revolutionary creation that allowed for instantaneous communications at seemingly any distance without relying on the fragile set up intensive buoys...with the small caveats of being even more expensive, having little bandwidth needing to know exactly where two QECs were in order to connect. Thus the hope of Quantum Communications to smooth one part of the mission was dashed, until Director Krisha, who masterminded the development of so much of the Initiatives technology proposed a simple alternative. A wide bore pulse emitted from the Nexus that could be picked up by Quantum receptors. It wouldn't carry much information beyond confirming that they were there and current situation, but knowledge that the Nexus was operational would be comforting if nothing else. To truly know that they were not alone in the cold universe.

Upon the Beseria's bridge, a dormant light that had for a long time rested in its standard orange began to flash green, the sign of all clear the Nexus was operational.

This message was of course instantly relayed to the Director, who in turn conveyed it to those sitting in the meeting room with him, the Pathfinder and various thawed out experts as they discussed their next move...with currently divided opinions.

"I will not allow colonists down onto that death trap not when I'm not sure they won't get turned into mulch by a random rockslide!"

Feng Bao, the human director of colonial affairs, his face red with contained anger his fist trembling on the table staring down Manager of Important Affairs, the chief administrator. "This one disagrees." The placid calm of the Hanar seemed to break slightly as this argument ran into its next hour, the other contributors long since fallen silent. "This one believes action must be taken immediately. This one knows you have seen the data retrieved by the pathfinder. A better first site it is hard to find."

Feng Bao looked like he was about to explode, before breathing violently through his nose. "That isn't the point and you know it. My duty is to think of their welfare, and I can't condone sending them onto that deathtrap without certain assurances."

The sparkling luminescence of the Hanar flared slightly, their equivalent of showing frustration by throwing one's hands in the air. "This one will remind you that if we do not act soon we will not have the resources required to establish anything if we wait too long. This one has no desire to see all those present freeze to death due to the Beseria running out of resources!"


"Gentlemen please." It's nice to see they both stiffen at your 'spy' voice as Liazin calls it. Low, threatening and laden with implied threat. "While both of you have made your positions quite clear you have rather dominated the recent events with that in mind, Dr Hadrunos you mentioned you had both analysis and ideas which Mr Bao rather sized on before you had a chance to explain." To his credit Mr Bao has the common decency to seem embarrassed at interrupting his elcor colleague, but you were going to have to have words with him about that.

"With relief: Yes sir, a handful." Blunt as a broadside the Elcor. "Analytically: The data from the Pathfinder's expedition confirms her initial suspicions. Site 1-A is indeed extremely secure from many of the common dangers of the planet." She paused as Manager sparks with triumph. "Exasperatedly: Administrator there is a but." With the Hanar dimmed she continued. "Concernedly: The Mountain has a major faultline running through it starting from its southern base and running upwards. Theoretically reinforcing it is possible, but difficult with current resources."

"In short to fix the problem we need resources we do not have?"

At the Elcor's slow nod you sigh and scratch at your head crest. The wonder was rapidly draining the longer you were in the meeting.

"Alright, other suggestions people?"

Liazin was practically floating out the door already, but she simply nodded her head towards a trio of pads on the table. "Simple enough, I focus on exploring the planet or system as before, I help do some research with the techies, I can investigate those anomalies I saw or I can go find the Nexus."

You nod, and quickly look through the proposals. "We certainly know where it is in theory."

Bao with a small sigh slides over renewed and reviewed proposals for not only creating a full scale colony, including waking enough people to man it. Not many to be fair at this stage, but it'll be some welcome new company.

Manager presents a series of proposals mostly based around getting some resources, as well as plans for dedicated hydroponics, setting up mineral exploitation on the planet and more.

Finally Dr Hadrunos presented a fair few projects even adding one to Manager's pile. The very expensive faultline management, researching the native fauna and flora, geological analysis, equipment specialization…
So much to do so little time.


Choose 2 in any category 1 in exploration or science

Construction

Build Comms: If you want to get into contact with the rest of the Initiative you need to get moving on this fast. Cost: 5 BI, 5AI, 2E
Launch Colony: You have a site, now you just need to get the people thawed out and prefabricated buildings flying down, although it will be more expensive than it would have been had you already done various preparations. Cost: 20BI, 13AI, 6E
Construct Mines and Factories: With the prefabricated buildings you have available you have the ability to easily build some very simple material infrastructure and you have some of the best engineers and miners from the Milky Way. Of course the obvious problem is a concern you'll accidentally collapse your colony site. Cost 20BI, 10AI, 4E requires the Launch Colony action
Construct Hydroponics: With a dextro world that means a majority of your population cannot easily feed themselves, and you only have so many Turians and Quarians with relevant skill sets. You're going to need to do this eventually maybe sooner than you hope. Cost 15BI, 6AI, 2E Requires the Launch Colony action
Restore the Beseria: Although operating magnificently for a craft that has been operating non stop for 600 years with effectively no maintenance the Beseria is not at its peak compared to where it was. Unfortunately fixing her is a bit...beyond your capabilities right now. Cost 400 BI, 200AI, 100E
Construct Shipyards: With access to some prefabs building the start of these facilities will be easy enough, although nothing for ships with an Eezo core big enough for FTL. Still if you want to start ex planar mining this is how to do it. Cost 20BI, 15AI, 7E
Secure Plateau: At present this plateau is your lifeline to success and it has a giant crack running under it on a world with frequent earthquakes. It needs to have something done about it, but the costs...150BI, 50AI, 20E
Manage Resources: You've got very little in the way of stores...it'd be best if you kept an eye on them. Cost: Nothing

Social: Currently nothing

Exploration

Explore A-6: Liazin is practically pulling at the end of her tether. Cost: 1BI
Explore A-6 system: On the other hand there is an entire solar system here as well. Cost: 1BI
Find the Nexus: The Nexus is meant to be the new Citadel, and with confirmation that it is still active and hopefully looking for you in turn now maybe the time to start that recontact. Cost: 1BI, Pathfinder for at least 1 turn
Investigate Anomaly: 1BI for each
-White Plume: When the Pathfinder team arrived they saw a massive plume of whitesmoke with seemingly no cause which was highlighted for further investigation.
-Strange Tunnels: Noticed much later series of crevices burrowed through the rock, but nothing within them. They seem artificially made though.

Research:
Adapt Gear: With a better understanding of the threats facing your colonists, modifying the existing kits to better help with situations like avalanches and earthquakes is a relatively simple task. Cost: -2BI, -3AI, -1E
Research Flora: With the relative dearth of Dextro species, the importance of ensuring the identification of anything flat out toxic, as well as simple curiosity and cataloging looking at native creatures of A-6 is desired. Cost: -1BI, -2AI, -0E
Research Fauna: The same can be said of the Fauna although these have the extra addition of curiosity as to how they've adapted to their environment. Cost -1BI -2AI -0E
Research Geology: Already it is looking like A-6 has one of the most impressive geological records ever encountered. Cost: -1BI, -2AI, -0E


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Turn 2 up quickly, alternative title MANY MORE DECISIONS! Quite tired sleeping now will answer questions on my morrow.