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

The Great Rift
System 843E
The Irune Convoy

Your reactors pump fresh plasma through all your power conduits in anticipation of the battle. Your systems are at 120% as you bring them to combat readiness. The void sings with data as you strain to gather every scrap of radiation the pirates are emitting. You might be about to enter a life and death battle, but there is nothing like the exhilaration of being able to stretch yourself so fully after the confines of the Exchange.

The acolytes chirp a confirmation at your orders. "Acknowledged, setting formation."

"Hey, I don't need help." complains Laverna as the acolytes race past her. They break into pairs as they reach the freighters and begin dog fighting with the pirate interceptors. Their ion strikes destroy enemy fighters with ease, but the pirates are quick to respond. They form into packs and begin ganging up on the acolytes. Several acolytes are destroyed, and given the number advantage it looks like the pirate interceptors might actually win through sheer attrition. But then Laverna reaches engagement range and her ion turrets begin reaching out and wiping the interceptors from the void. "See I told you so." she trills. That portion of the battle is well in hand.

Meanwhile you are approaching the enemy frigates. Ulysses and Iuno have taken up positions on your flanks. You can feel the feather brushes of their presence as they pass through your defensive field. But you don't let it distract you as you gather all the data on the closest pirate frigate and feed it to your tactical cortex. Your ion cannon reaches full charge and unleashes a furious bolt at the enemy. The frigate erupts in a pyrotechnic display, but when the view clears it is still flying much to your surprise. Another shot finishes it off, but then the pirates start firing back. Your frame shudders from the feedback as high velocity kinetic slugs begin impacting your field. You have a second to register that these are definitely more powerful than the average pirate, then the battle is truly joined.

Ulysses begins firing with his dual ion turrets. They aren't as powerful as your heavy ion cannon, but he has much better coverage with them. The pattern of his firing makes a steady strobe of radiation that illuminates the void. Iuno only has one light ion turret for minimal fighter defense, but her holographic emitters are fine tuned for area coverage. She begins creating decoys around the three of you to distract the enemy. Unfortunately it distracts you as well. Sometimes too much information is as bad as too little. In all the chaos and excitement you begin missing shots.

"Stay focused kid," grumbles Ulysses over the comms. The comment stings a bit, but it's a reminder to concentrate on what's important. You rearrange your perceptions and set your auxiliary cores to filter out the sensor noise. It will be shunted into storage for review later. For now you focus on what's important. Target the enemy. Charge the ion cannon. Fire at the enemy. Target, charge, fire. Target, charge, fire. You settle into the tempo of firing even as you dance and weave through the enemy formation. Iuno sticks close to you. She creates holographic decoys to distract the enemy and lure them into your firing arcs. Ulysses weaves in and out of your field firing on any pirates who see through the deception and try to flank you. Any single frigate is no match for the potent combination. But your trio is outnumbered ten to one. Your focus narrows to a razor edge as the three of you spirals through the battle space.

You're so focused on your own fight that you don't even have time to see what's happening with Talus. It's only when your sensors register an energy shock wave and the pirate frigates disengage to regroup that you have time to review the logs.

The pirate cruiser had the same heavy armor and railguns as the frigates. Despite Talus firing on it with all three ion lances it managed to close to its own weapons range. Then it began shooting back with a surprisingly heavy bank of railguns. These pirates must have found a cache of the things somewhere. Fortunately Talus has the best armor in the galaxy and was barely dented by the incoming fire. After a surprisingly long time it eventually gutted the cruiser with its ion lances. The shock wave that drew your attention was the cruiser's reactors detonating. It's nothing but a field of debris now.

That seems to have shocked the pirates into pulling back. A dozen of the frigates survived the fight with you, but Laverna has dealt with most of the interceptors. There's only thirty survivors flying back to regroup with the frigates. The battle wasn't entirely one sided though. Half the acolytes are gone, and while Laverna is fine your defensive field is depleted and you've taken a few hits on your armor. Iuno mostly stayed close to you and so benefited from your defensive field. Her worst damage is some buckled armor plates. Ulysses is the worst off. All his maneuvering left him quite exposed and not only is his armor damaged, but some shots got through to his internal systems. His feed into the flotilla network reports his power levels at only 80% of normal operations.

You finish reviewing the situation and form back up with Ullyses and Iuno to deal with the remaining pirates, but then you feel it. A quantum waveform is forming. Something is dropping out of hyperspace! Something big.

The window opens right next to the Talus and a massive black ship emerges. This isn't just a regular Turanic vessel with a few modifications. Its main body is a rounded diamond covered in sleek black armor. There are huge manipulator arms in the front. On another ship they might look out of place but on this one it looks like claws stretching out to grab you. The visuals are only part of its menace though. You can feel the ship through the fabric of hyperspace. There's a hum of interference like nothing you've ever felt before. It's setting all your sensors on edge.

This must be the pirate carrier. It's already releasing more interceptors and corvettes to replenish the pirate losses. Plus the carrier itself is turning to engage Talus. In response all four of your guardian flotilla engage your engines and head back to Talus at maximum speed. Talus is tough, but it doesn't have the maneuverability to deal with a swarm of fighters and the carrier is firing railgun rounds of a size you've never heard of before.

This proves to be the least of your problems however. After a few minutes of trading fire the carrier folds up its manipulators to reveal an exotic looking weapon you're having a hard time identifying. You don't have time to search your memory banks though as it unleashes a beam that hits Talus and causes the Exchange to start listing and its systems to start failing.

Talus begins broadcasting with a tone of surprise and worry you've never heard from them before. [There is something wrong here. This is not an infant race. Not an Unbound. It is Strange and tears at our Body. It rewrites our Song. It Devours Us! It Binds Us!! Flee young ones!!! Flee!!!!]

Several things happen at once. Talus performs an emergency ejection of Aurora, the only remaining Unbound on board besides itself, and launches the utility barge speeding away from the battle. At the same time Talus overloads its engines and rams into the carrier even as the carrier reaches out with its own claws for a terrible embrace. Talus sends out a final defiant broadcast, [We . . . will . . . NOT . . . BE . . . BOUND!!!!!]

Talus's reactor goes critical and a massive shock wave radiates out. The explosion dwarves the one from the cruiser earlier. The pirate interceptors and corvettes near the carrier are vaporized instantly, and even at a distance the shock wave whites out your sensors and flips you end over end. Disoriented and blind it takes you a few minutes to reset your feeds and reorient yourself. What you see is terrible. Talus is completely gone, but even more horrifyingly the carrier is still mostly intact, if obviously severely damaged as its claws were blown off by the explosion.

1. What's your next move?

[] Finish off the carrier:
Talus's sacrifice severely damaged the pirate carrier. And your heavy ion cannon is made for this sort of job. If you destroy the carrier the remaining pirates will be easily dealt with and you'll have all the time you need to process what just happened. This is risky though. The carrier is obviously extremely durable and you don't know what weapons it still has available. Including if whatever it was it used on Talus is still operational.

[] Help the freighters:
The remaining frigates aren't much of a threat to you, but they could still be a threat to the Irunese freighters. The freighters are headed to a nearby slip gate and they're almost there, but they could use your cover for the last stretch. It's what you originally came here to do and they'd definitely be grateful for your protection.

[] Save Aurora:
Aurora was the Talus's onboard trade representative. She did most of the actual exchanging of goods when Talus dealt with the infant races. As such she has an advanced PDA and a small hangar. Which would be incredibly helpful now that Talus is gone. But she was far too close to the explosion. She's tumbling and not responding to hails. You don't know how long you would need to stand guard before she can activate her hyperspace core and escape.

[] Flee!: Your hyperspace core is fine. You could open a quantum window and escape immediately. It's what Talus told you to do. Escaping this nightmare scenario is appealing, but you're not going to abandon your comrades like that.


Your fellow frigates are in disarray. Laverna wasn't expecting anything like this and has fallen back on her training to protect the freighters. She's taken the acolytes with her. Ulysses and Iuno are senior to you, but that just means they've had longer to get to know Talus. They're taking the loss hard. Ulysses is making a drive for the carrier. He's hellbent on revenge. Meanwhile Iuno is going to help Aurora. Iuno doesn't actually have much ability to help with repairs, but Iuno is unwilling to abandon her friend..

2. (Optional) Rally your fellows.
[] Write In:
Try to persuade the other frigates to follow your plans. That might be to all group up and do one thing or try to cover two options. You'll need to make a fairly solid case to break through to them. None of them are processing things very logically right now.

The Great Rift
System 843E
Talus Debris Field

"Stop, Ulysses," you bark over the comm channel. "You can't face it alone. You can't fight it at all."

"But I," he tries to argue but you cut him off. "No, we don't have time for this. You need to help the freighters. You've got the guns for the frigates just like I've got the gun for the carrier. We can win those, but only if we fight to our strengths."

"Laverna, you go help Aurora. Make a pass through the pirates on your way there and try to shoot down as many fighters as you can. Ulysses you make your own pass on your way to the freighters. Neither of you stop to fight though. There's still a lot of them, so let's try to spread them out a bit."

"Aye aye captain," chirps Laverna. Her words are cheery, but her tone is brittle. She's holding on to her cheeriness to keep the worry at bay.

"Hmm, we'll have to time things just right," muses Ulysses. He seems to have settled on battle tactics as his method of coping.

"Iuno, I know you want to help Aurora, but I need you with me. Every shot you can decoy off me is one more shot I can take at Talus's killer."

She's hesitant, but eventually quietly responds, "Alright for Talus."

"For Talus!" the four of you cry. The four of you split up. You each have your objectives now.

---

Iuno begins generating decoy images of both of you as you approach the pirate carrier. Soon it appears as if a whole flotilla is on the attack. Even so you use caution. The carrier is damaged, but not dead. You're picking up plenty of activity within its hull and its power signature still dwarfs you. Even if it is a bit unstable. Still it seems to be ignoring you so you take the time to line up a few good ion shots into vulnerable looking spots. Unfortunately that seems to have roused the beast and it blasts a railgun round your way that is a substantial fraction of your total mass.

The round smashes through one of Iuno's decoys instead of you, but that is just a prelude of things to come. You fly desperate maneuvers around the leviathan attempting to simultaneously avoid its fire while still being able to line up your own ion cannon. Your shots strike true again and again into the carrier's massive railgun assembly, but it isn't enough. It picks you out of the crowd of decoys and its next shot tears into your defensive field head on. Your field protects you from the worst of the impact fortunately, but the massive excess of energy surges into your field emitters and completely overloads them. You won't be able to use them again in this fight.

Iuno dances around you weaving in and out of her own illusions. Her weapon is far less powerful than your own, but she is doing her best to fire into the armor breaches you have already made. Maximizing her own damage. The carrier is a tough beast though and your analytical systems blare a warning at you. The carrier has managed to reroute power into the exotic weapon that killed Talus. In a panic you hastily redirect your shot and graze the energy array. It explodes and the beam is diverted harmlessly past you instead of into your unprotected hull. It's too soon to celebrate however as that hasn't affected the carrier's railgun at all. Its next shot punches through your armor and directly into your drives. Now you're both drifting through space.

"By Sajuuk," gasps Iuno as she lunges for you. You feel the impact as she physically rams you and a railgun round passes through the space you were just drifting in. You're thankful for the assist, but the spinning is not making targeting easy. You miss half your shots as Iuno keeps physically jostling you to keep you out of the way of railgun rounds.

It's not enough though and you take another hit that smashes half your ion capacitors. The pain is immense. You're not much more than a shattered hulk at this point. Your hull is trailing debris, and you can't see anything through your dorsal sensors. Only your hyperspace core is completely intact. It's buried deep in your armor and feeding power to what's left of your cannon. You only have a few more shots left before it goes completely.

You keep firing nearly blindly. One more. Two more. You fire the third and then have just enough time to see another railgun round on a direct course before everything goes white. There's a spike of pain that knocks you unconscious and when you come back to it you can't see anything at all. You strain your sensors, but they're too damaged. Was that it? Did you destroy the carrier? You aren't dead so it seems likely, but what of the others? Did the freighters escape? Did your friends beat the pirate frigates or the other way around? Are you alone in the system now? You can't tell.

You set what repair systems you have left to work on the most critical issues. You try to direct them optimally, but your focus keeps fuzzing. There's not enough power left. Eventually the emergency life support systems send you into a deep slumber.

---

Your dreams are full of screaming. The terrified screams of dying freighters. The defiant scream of Talus warped into pain and despair. The screams of your friends as they fall to pirate ships. All of it is overlaid with an awful hum. You try to tune it out, but you can't. It burrows into your brain and drowns out everything else. You can almost make out meaning in the hum. A chorus repeating over and over. There is nothing else so you strain to hear it clearly. At last you catch the final verse.

"We Hunger."

---

Your dreams are full of numbers. Logs of sensor readings, and damage reports. Engines Offline. Field Offline. Sensors Offline. Weapons at 37%. Systems Offline. You recognize this. Your elders called it the Restoration Fugue. It occurs when you are too damaged for full integration with your ship body. You were put into an artificial Fugue once when you were training, but this is the first time it has happened naturally.

Everything extraneous is cut off here. Everything outside. All the pain from your injuries. You are left with only your mind and your readouts. All so you can only focus on repairs. Or at least you're supposed to. When you try to access your self repair systems they only give error messages. You keep trying over and over reaching for anything you can use to bootstrap yourself out of this fugue. But nothing works. You're trapped in a colorless limbo.

---

You don't know how long it's been, your clocks are as broken as the rest of you, when you feel a sudden connection. Someone is trying to get access to your core. You only have one way to stop them. You ready your core to self destruct, but pause when you get a friendly voice. "Hey Valerius," It's Aurora. The others must have saved her.

"Hopefully you can hear this. I'm patching up your interface as best I can, but there's a lot wrong here." She's right. The best thing you can send back is a chirp of acknowledgement.

"Whew alright little worried about you there. Well I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that you killed the carrier. You saved us! I heard it was an impressive fight and the logs look great. The bad news is your body got scrapped. The only thing salvageable is your core and your gun. A little ironic huh."

"I can't rebuild you. Not with Talus gone." She sighs in regret. "So you've got a few options. I can build you a new Pilgrim body. Should bring back memories huh. Or this gun of yours is in pretty good condition all things considered. I can kludge together some acolytes around it to make a scrap corvette. You'd basically be a gun with engines so don't take any hits. Last choice we can hold off. I'll hook you into my systems so you can see what's going on and talk to everyone. It's not ideal, but we don't have a lot of resources here. You may want to save them until we can find or build a shipyard."

What do you want Aurora to do for you?
[]Build a Pilgrim Corvette:
Pilgrim corvette have exceptional armor and speed, but not really much in the way of weapons. You're very familiar with this class though as you spent a few decades flying around as one before you joined Talus.

[]Build the Kludge Cannon:
Several acolyte drones bolted on to the heavy ion cannon and your core. You'd have almost no armor, your systems would be jury rigged, and you'd need to get used to flying around. But on the plus side you'd actually have more weapons than before. Since you'd have the additional ion cannons of the acolytes. You'd also be even faster. A benefit of losing the weight of armor.

[]Wait for now:
It might seem counterproductive, but you could just wait for now. Aurora doesn't have a lot of resources at the moment. You might be better served using them to just build acolytes and wait for her to gather enough resources for something bigger. If nothing else you could get a better sense of the current situation before you commit to anything. On the positive side it would be a lot faster for Aurora to hook you into her own sensor network than it would be to build a whole new ship for you.
–[] (Optional) Build some acolytes:
If you're going to be waiting anyway you can ask her to build some acolytes instead of spending those resources on you. She can build six acolyte drones for what she would have used on you. Don't worry about your heavy ion cannon. She won't recycle it without your say so.

Once you make your decision Aurora starts repairing your systems. It'll take her some time to repair the battle damage, but at least you have that time now. It would be a good opportunity to see if you can learn anything from that last battle.

What should you spend some time on?
[] The sensor reading of the pirate carrier:
Examine what damage you caused to the carrier, and what damage it caused to you. Get a better feel for how armor and weapons interact. +1 Metallurgy

[] Chat with Aurora:
Aurora is more than happy to go over your repairs with you and discuss how to fix damaged systems. It's always a good idea to get a second opinion, and she's been doing this sort of thing for a long time. +1 Engineering

[] The fight with the pirate frigates:
You had to do a lot of maneuvering to avoid all the firing from the pirate frigates. Go over your memories and see if you can refine your ability to avoid fire in the future. +1 Piloting.

[] An overview of the whole battle:
A lot of things went wrong here. Maybe you could have avoided the loss of Talus. Maybe you could have killed the carrier without losing your body. There's no use for regrets though. You survived, and now you can go over things so you'll do better in the future. +1 Tactical.

Companions

Ulysses (Bentusi)
Body: Gatekeeper Class Destroyer (Hurricane Variant)
Special: Ion Turrets x8, Ion Cannons x4, Low Armor, Siege Cannon
Modules: Mass Effector Core
Respect: 4
Mood: Angry

Ulysses is in his second century of life and is a veteran guardian. He's spent the past few decades in the Chorus of Talus as the elder Bentusi made its rounds of the Old Routes. Ulysses is very much a military buff. He has gone over every military record he can get his hands on, and given the Bentusi's ancient history and vast trading network that is quite an eclectic list. From the ancient Bentusi Peacekeeping missions to the newest reports of Vaygr skirmishes with the Taiidan Republic. Ulysses enjoys wargaming both on a strategic level and in personal simulations. He also has personal experience fighting a wide variety of pirates however none with larger fleet engagements. The loss of Talus was quite a shock to him. As no one has made a serious effort to attack the Bentusi in a very long time, and he quietly believed that the Bentusi were superior to everyone else.

Iuno (Bentusi)
Body: Ark Class Mothership
Special: Passenger Quarters, Diplomatic Databanks, Recreation Spaces, RU Processing Nexus
Special: PDA , Frigate/Destroyer Hangar, RU Processing Nexus
Hangar Slots: (81x Fighters, 27x Corvettes, 6x Frigates, 3x Destroyer)
Respect: 5
Mood: Resolved

Coming from the same cohort as Ullysses Iuno is also two centuries old and the two have been friends for much of their lives. Iuno however is not much of a fan of violence and is only serving as a guardian because it is expected that all Bentusi get some combat experience. As such she chose the least militant frigate she could and focused more on her art and philosophy. She enjoys using holographic sculpting in her free time, and combines it with her expert piloting to put on dance performances which are widely regarded as quite phenomenal among the Bentusi.

Laverna (Bentusi)
Body: Temple Battle Carrier
Special: PDA , Fighter Forge, RU Processing Nexus, Ghosts, A
Hangar Slots: (81x Fighters, 27x Corvettes, 6x Frigates, 3x Destroyer)
Respect: 4
Trauma: 1
Mood: Eager

Adept heavy bombers
Ghost stealth fighters
Myrmidon Heavy gunships.

At a century old Laverna is from the same cohort as you and she is still uncertain what she wants to do with her life. Still she is quite enthusiastic and applies a cheerful energy to everything she puts her mind to. Whether that's studying quantum theory or wading into a pack of pirate fighters. She's more intelligent than many would give her credit for and has made several advances in material engineering that have been quite highly praised by the Elders.

Aurora (Bentusi)
Body: Weaver Class Carrier
Special: PDA , Frigate/Destroyer Hangar, RU Processing Nexus
Modules: Mass Effector Core
Hangar Slots: (27x Fighters, 9x Corvettes, 2x Frigates, 1x Destroyer)
Respect: 3
Trauma: 0
Mood: Regretful

Aurora had been with Talus for almost two centuries and in that time had seen many guardians come and go. She regarded herself as wise older sibling and imparted to them much advice and guidance as they continued to learn and grow. As a "responsible" older sibling she was not adverse to taking them on adventures when Talus wasn't looking. Like the time she took you to slingshot around a blackhole or dive into a gas giant. Her personal hobbies include growing a hydroponic garden and training acolyte drones to perform tricks.

Drones
Shepherd Destroyers (/w dervishes) x1
Shepherd Frigates (/w dervishes) x1

Allies

The Raawan (Kadeshi)
Body: Reconciler Class Frigate
Special: Quad Ion Cannons
Respect: 2
Trauma: 0
Mood: Fascinated

The Kadeshi coalition is led by Praetor Yommu'Vell vas Nudin who is staying with Iuno. He seems like a fairly stoic and terse individual. Though hopefully he'll warm up to you as the mission progresses. The Reconciler frigate is named the Raawan and has a crew of twenty. The captain is Leli'Zefal vas Raawan. You get the impression she's related to Limmu somehow, but it wasn't explicitly stated.

The Marduk (Kushan)
Body: Vengeance Class Frigate
Special: Flak Turrets, Heavy Armor
Respect: 2
Trauma: 0
Mood: Eager

The Kushan are led by Warchief Zraash Sulaku. He seems very angry all the time. You're pretty sure he still holds a grudge about the Hand of Saajuk, though there's no way he was alive at the time. On the other hand the Vengeance frigate, Marduk, is crewed by thirty hulking Kushan that somehow squeeze themselves in there. Their captain is Gergal Dire who is quite friendly. It seems he fought against you in the battle of the Garden and respects your skills as a warrior and tactician. Given that he survived the maelstrom of fire without the benefits of Bentusi armor or shielding the feeling is mutual.

The Kwan (Irune)
Body: Vanguard Class Frigate
Special: Advanced Ion Array, Versatile Armament, High Quality
Respect: 2
Trauma: 0
Mood: Eager

The Kwan is captained by Barsa Dun and crewed by his mercenary crew who have volunteered to serve as the first of the Irune Financial Sphere's new navy. They are not the most veteran of crews seeing as they have been bolstered by volunteers after their run in with the Wraiths. And the Kwan itself is a completely new ship with all the vagaries of such. But the Irunese have spared no expense in fitting it with the latest and most powerful equipment that money can buy.

Oracle 13 (Keepers)
Body: Mobile Processing Platform/Destroyer
Special: Keeper Ion Cannons, Pulsar Beams, Heavy Armor, Drone Hangar, Hyperspace Inhibitor
Respect: 1
Trauma: 0
Mood: Reserved

Oracle 13 is a essentially a keeper city that houses millions of Keeper instances going about their lives and keeping the ship functioning. The Oracle 13 platform is designed for long term independent deployment with its drone hangar, heavy weapons, and the ability to interdict intruders into Keeper space. The keepers on board are willing to turn these abilities against the Wraith.

Miscellaneous

The Irune Financial Sphere: (Grateful)
The Irunese are a peaceful people, and as such rely mostly on mercenary escorts for their civilian trade convoys. They did have some on this run, but the pirates were much stronger than usual and were able to destroy them before you arrived. Despite this the majority of their freighters were able to escape because of your intervention, and they are grateful. They have set up an account for you with the Bank of Cherk Sab with a balance of 10,000 credits and have invited you to visit Irune whenever you wish.

The Keepers: (Intrigued)
The Keepers have reviewed your data logs. They are both worried about what you have faced and intrigued by the fact that you managed to survive.

The Kadeshi: (Grateful)
You warned them of a major threat and helped them deal with two intrusion into their territory. They would have preffered to fight it out, but aren't blind to the fact that they would have lost without your support.

The Kushan: (Grateful)
You provided them with significant upgrades to their fleet and warned them of a major threat. Of course they are more eager to fight it than anything.