The Shadow of Old Transgressions (Homeworld/Mass Effect Crossover Quest)

The Great Rift
System 192C
The Talus Exchange

The Talus Exchange was busy conducting maintenance on a Millon class waystation when it heard the signal. The waystation orbited an unremarkable gas giant in an unremarkable system, and was itself little more than a navigation beacon, an automated repair facility, and enough defenses to make raiders think twice. Very little traffic visited the station. In fact the logs showed that the last ship to visit it had been Talus itself two decades ago on its regular journey around the outer rim.

All things considered it was a rather insignificant station, but Talus was ancient and kept to the Old Ways. It had sworn long ago to keep up the Old Trade Routes. It would continue to do so even if the civilizations that once used them were long gone. And after so many years of silence hearing the signal at last vindicated this decision. A civilian convoy had sent out a distress call. It was somewhat strange that they were so far out from the New Trade Routes, but their reasons for plying the outer rim didn't really matter. They were using the Old Route and had called for help. That alone was reason enough for Talus to intervene.

The Talus prepared to enter hyperspace to answer the call and as it did it whispered in the dreams of its chorus of defenders. Waking them from their shared dream world. Waking you.

======

You awaken grumpily. You had been enjoying a debate on the best way to glide through hyperspace. But as the Talus opens its sensor connection with you to its full bandwidth you shake off the haziness of the dream world. This is your job after all, to defend the Talus and anyone it extends its protection to. For you are a shepherd class frigate of the Bentusi.

Not all shepherds are the same though. It's your body after all and the Bentusi aren't a collective of drones no matter what outsiders might think. When you finished your youthful pilgrimage and joined the Talus's journey you made a few changes to the ship body it offered you.

1. What Variant did you pick?

[]The Archer: Equipped with artillery class ion cannons you can strike fear into the hearts of every battleship commander in the galaxy. Mere pirates are no match, but watch out for things getting close.

[]The Brawler: Forsaking a heavy cannon for lighter turrets you wade into the fray striking down fighters and corvettes like an avenging god. Probably best to leave the big targets for your comrades though.

[]The Hierophant: Comparatively lightly armed you set aside additional modules for more special equipment. Change the flow of battle at your whim, but you'll need allies with heavier weaponry to effectively fight the enemy.

1. All frigates have a special ability. What is yours?

[]Holographic Disguise: Fool your enemies into thinking you're something else. A random asteroid, space debris, one of their own allies. The options are limitless.

• Hierophant Upgrade: Your cloaking emitters are numerous and optimized. Cloak yourself as a battleship. Hide your friends. Make your enemies think an entire segment of the battlespace is going poorly for them.

[]Ramming Grapplers: You have huge engines and a nose full of magnetic grapplers. Slam into other ships and move them around. Help your injured comrades back to base, or push an enemy out of formation. Anything up to the size of a cruiser is yours to play with. Watch out for turrets though.

• Hierophant Upgrade: Your engine is gargantuan and you have extra armor to protect your approach. You can move anything short of a small moon. And most ships won't be able to hurt you once you latch on to them.

[]Defensive Field: You can project a shield that deflects all but the heaviest weapons fire. It's big enough for you and one or two other frigates or a squadron of fighters.

• Hierophant Upgrade: Your emitters are larger and you have a much larger reactor. Now you can extend your field over an entire flotilla of frigates and even your larger cousins can take shelter behind you. Or constrict your field and shrug off even heavy artillery fire.

1. Like all young Bentusi you went on pilgrimage before you joined an Exchange. Where did yours take you?

[]Meditated with the Kadeshi: The Kadeshi guard their gardens with zealous fervor. It isn't easy to get in and out alive. But there aren't many that will interfere with a Bentusi Pilgrim. You were able to witness the gardens and even managed to make a positive enough impression that they let you meditate with them. You'll never tell the elders, but the most fun you had was with a young Kadeshi scout who showed you the old hulks and some tricks to get them working. +1 Engineering

[]Dueled with the Exiles: Your elders very strictly warned you not to go near the Exiles. They were quite adamant about it. So of course you did. The Exiles are a rough people who have suffered much and distrust everyone. It took a lot of honor duels and trials of strength before they deigned to talk to you. But you persisted and won their respect. One of their warlords showed you his ancestral battle armor, and it gave you a few insights into your own hull. +1 Metallurgy

[]Served with the Taiidan: The Taiidan Republic has the best military in the galaxy. Maybe not the best ships, but definitely the best crews. You were curious and signed on for a tour as a myrmidon auxiliary. It wasn't really worth it. They were incredibly strict, and they kept trying to probe your systems. But you did make friends with a captain who taught you how to make the best use of targeting data. +1 Tactical

[]Explored the periphery: You didn't spend your pilgrimage in any one place. Instead you cruised all over the galaxy looking for interesting things in out of the way systems. You spent a lot of time with another pilgrim who performed the most dangerous stunts you've ever seen. You never could match him, but you got better at maneuvering around all manner of obstacles. +1 Piloting

The Unbound: An Overview of Systems
You're a Bentusi, the Unbound. From your earliest memories you could feel the cosmic winds on your skin, hear the quantum whispers, and see all the many bands of starlight. The other races see this process as a great hardship. They see it as entombing yourself as an eternal sacrifice for the needs of the many. But they could not be further from the truth. Being Unbound is liberation from your mortal confines. You are not subsumed by the ship. Rather you become one with it.

And somewhat more pertinently it isn't permanent. You can switch ship bodies with the help of some shipyard facilities. In fact you've already done this twice. From your juvenile Chrysalis Shuttle to a Pilgrim Corvette, then finally to your current Shepherd Frigate. And you are still a young Bentusi. You are readily expected to try out several more vessels before you settle on your mature form.

Each ship is a little different and you'll need to try each one to get a hang of their intricacies. But there are a few things standard across all ships. You learned them during your childhood from the stories of your elders as you played in the great Harborship Bentus.

Armor is your skin. It protects you from the void. The better your armor the more protected you are from different hazards. Including of course the fire of enemy weapons. Armor is fairly hard to change, but the better you are Metallurgy the more you can tweak your armor composition to best protect you.

Systems are your organs. They are everything you need to survive and function in the harsh environment of space. The better your systems the better you can withstand anything that gets past your armor. Having a good grasp of Engineering lets you repair and jury rig your systems should anything happen.

Engines are your limbs. Without them you would be adrift. With them you can soar through the cosmos. The faster you are the faster you can dodge obstacles and the faster you can bring yourself to bear on targets. The better you are at Piloting the better you are at getting every erg of performance from your engines.

Then there are your Special modules. These are your ways of affecting the environment around you in ways that other ships just can't. Some are mundane like being able to tow other ships. And some are fantastic like being able to cloak yourself from view.

Finally there are your Weapons. It's a dangerous universe out there and there are many who would like to harm you. Especially because you are Bentusi. The Elder Exchanges are extremely hard targets, but a young vessel like you is a tempting prize for pirates who think they can overwhelm you and loot your advanced technologies.

Your weapons are what allows you to show them you are no easy prey. There are many intricacies to each weapon, but you have been taught to delegate these to your auxiliary minds. Your primary mind is only concerned with three things. Their overall Firepower, which is essentially how much energy a weapon can deliver to the target in a lethal form. Their optimal Range, which is the range at which it is easiest to hit your targets with the weapon. And finally their preferred Target, which is the ship type your weapon is optimized against. In combat all weapons benefit from your ability to grasp the Tactical situation. The better you can position yourself, and the faster you can track targets, the better you will be able to fight.

---

Quest Note: It seems that there is a clear majority. So I will give everyone a chance to get in some last minute votes, and then tally everything up and post the next update tonight. Say around ten hours from now.

Name: Valerius
Vessel: Sentinel Cruiser (Juggernaught Variant)
Armor: 6
Systems: 3
Engines: 3
Special: 5 + 3
1. Defensive Field: You can project a shield that deflects all weapons fire. It's big enough for you and whole flotilla of other ships. It can hold up nearly indefinitely under medium fire, and for a significant amount of time under heavy fire. Only sustained capital ship fire will take it down.

Weapons: N/A
Primary: Heavy Ion Cannons
The focal point of the enemy fleet is keeping your allies from advancing in this sector. But you have the perfect weapon to deal with it. You route power to a trio of heavy ion cannons. These are the true war variants of the tried and true Bentusi ion cannon. They're fast firing, accurate, and capable of doing heavy damage. The only problem is that they aren't turreted and as such have a limited arc of fire. So you'll have to stay focused on the battleship while trusting your allies to watch your flanks.

Secondary: Ion Turrets
You don't rely entirely on your escorts to protect your flanks. Instead several ion turrets scan your surroundings and stab out at approaching interlopers.


Knowledge:
Class Familiarity: Chrysalis Shuttle, Pilgrim Corvette, Shepherd Frigate, Gatekeeper Destroyer

Skills:
Metallurgy: 0
Engineering: 1
Piloting: 0
Tactical: 1

Trauma: 1

Spare Parts

1. Heavy Ion Cannon
   1. Firepower: Good
   2. Range: Artillery
   3. Target: Capital Ships

Miscellaneous
Resources Units: 5,500
Element Zero: 100
Credits: 0

Item: Subversion Beam (Quarantine)
Item: Wraith Data Cores (Quarantine)
Item: Crimson Organic Matter (Quarantine)
Item: T-Mat Salvage

(Note: You are a Bentusi which means you rate yourself according to Bentusi standards. By galactic standards you would be quite a bit better than just average.)

The Great Rift
System 843E
The Talus Exchange

Talus drops out of hyperspace with the precision of extreme experience. You savor the last wisps of the quantum waveform and then focus on the sensor feeds. It looks like a convoy of freighters got caught by pirates and are trying to take refuge around a nearby moon. Your auxiliary memory identifies them as members of the Irune Financial Sphere. Probably trying to save money on guards by taking a less well known route. Doesn't look like that gamble paid off.

The pirates are a more ragtag bunch. One heavy cruiser, three dozen frigates, and a whole swarm of fighters. With that many fighters involved there must be a carrier somewhere as well, but it doesn't appear to be in sensor range at the moment. Auxiliary memory pegs them as Turanic Raiders, however it's giving a whole bunch of question marks. You've never seen ships modified like this before. The pirate ships are sleek with curved black armor where most raiders are blocky and angular. They look a lot more ominous than your normal run of the mill pirates. But then that might be the point.

Talus broadcasts the standard warning. [THIS IS THE OLD ROUTE. THESE TRAVELERS ARE UNDER OUR PROTECTION. CEASE THESE HOSTILITIES AT ONCE. CONTINUE AND YOU WILL BE REGRETTABLY DESTROYED.]

The pirates don't break off their attack though. That's not unusual. There's usually a fifty-fifty chance any particular group of pirates will feel confident enough to take on the Bentusi. You've never been sure why so many of them are so suicidal.

Talus whispers in your mind. "Docking clamps released. You are clear to launch. May the winds of Bentus guide you."

You drop out of the hangar with ease. Three of your cousins undock at the same time. Iuno, Ulysses, and Laverna. Laverna is from the same cadre as you, but the other two are veteran members of the Talus chorus. Following your frigate flotilla are two dozen acolyte drones.

Ulysses calls over the flotilla channel, "Iuno you're with me on the frigates. I'm seeing heavy armor and big power signatures on those pirates. So this will be the first real battle for both of you. Show us what you can do."

This is standard practice for young guardians such as yourself. You are free to make your own choices and gain battle experience. If you make a mistake you'll probably take some hits, but Talus will intervene if things go too poorly.

Laverna chimes over the comm channel. "I'm going to go take care of the fighters. The freighters look like they need help fast." She's modified her Shepherd with a series of ion turrets. So it's a sensible choice.

1. Still, who are you going to attack?

[]You will attack the Heavy Cruiser: It's big and tough, and has the heavy weapons to threaten everything in the battlespace. This is what your ion cannon is made for. So this is the most practical choice. That said if you get in an artillery duel with the cruiser your defensive field isn't going to be much help for anyone else. Currently it's on attack vector with Talus so it's probably not going to be an issue for long, but still the faster it's destroyed the faster Talus can focus on other things.

[]You will attack the Frigates: The frigates have formed up to face your cousins. They don't mount the heaviest weapons, but there are quite a lot of them. They could do some serious damage if left alive. Especially to your acolyte squadron. Your ion cannon should be able to deal with each of them in just one or two shots,. But with how many of them there are it will take a while to get rid of them all.

[]You will attack the Fighters: The fighters are still attacking the freighters. This is the worst choice for you personally. Your ion cannon isn't calibrated for anti fighter duty. But you'll be able to draw fire away from the civilian freighters, and even shield them with your defensive field.

There is another option. The Acolyte drones are currently in autonomous mode. By default they'll spread out to engage everything equally. This isn't the most optimal tactic, but Talus's internal shipyard can build them quickly, and they have enough firepower that non Bentusi can't just ignore them or they'll be sliced to pieces. It's a good way to divert fire from actual Bentusi.

Autonomous mode is just the default though. No one will mind if you give them orders. They have the same choices as you do. Their ion cannons are much lighter than yours, but they'll have no trouble targeting anything.

2. What should the Acolytes do?
[]Leave the acolytes in autonomous mode.
[]Have the acolytes attack the Heavy Cruiser.
[]Have the acolytes attack the Frigates
[]Have the acolytes attack the Fighters

---

3. What's your name?
[]Write in
I was going to leave this a bit ambiguous for a while, but writing this post I included some conversation and realized that was a bit awkward. I'm using Roman names for the Bentusi if you want to fit in. But I'll accept whatever gets the most votes.