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

Sector 17
The Garden of Kadesh
The Sphere of Contemplation

Leaving the corruption for later is going to have consequences, you're sure of it. But what can you do? You can't just leave your friends to fight alone. Your security submind is just going to have to hold the line. So you reinforce your quarantine again, and turn to combat preparations.

You work as fast you can, but there is only so quickly your fusion reactors can be powered up from a cold start. You are tempted to cut corners as your sensors report on the battle starting just a short distance away, but no. A corner here a corner there. It all adds up to an unacceptable risk. It won't help your friends if you explode at the first power spike.

One by one you spin up your reactors and feel the power spread through your body. It is always a surprise to do this. You know of course, that you are less capable with your reactors powered down, but it never feels as if you are diminished. Not until you are powered once more and the fog lifts from your mind. You can feel your defensive fields flicker on like a second skin. The pale dots of your friends resolve into the familiar details of their hulls. As the power flows through you become faster, smarter, better in every way. You are more You now.

You turn your enhanced mind to the current tactical situation. Your sensors had been archiving a vast amount of data, but you could only grasp the summaries before. Now you can see the entire situation at a glance. Iuno has fallen back behind the others as far from the fight as she can get, which isn't very far at all as she has to stay within response range or risk a flanking maneuver. Laverna and Aurora have been churning out drones. Clouds of acolytes cover all the members of the flotilla. The largest group around Iuno, then Aurora, then Laverna, and finally Ulysses who only has a dozen escorts. The final two dozen acolytes and six cherubs are flying free to harass the pirates. As you watch another trio of cherubs fly out of Laverna's hangar. They must have just switched to offensive operations.

It's a very cautious stance, but it's probably for the best. Facing them are already a dozen pirate frigates and a swarm of interceptors. Wreckage around the flotilla shows where the pirates have already been fought off several times. Most of it concentrated around Ulysses. They seem to have identified him as the main threat. Which is probably a wise choice. You pick up an energy flare as his siege cannon fires and three of the pirate frigates are simply wiped out of existence.

It's impressive, but it's like using a sledgehammer on a wasp. It certainly works, but it's so much overkill as to be nearly useless. And targeting must be taking most of his concentration leaving him vulnerable to the smaller interceptors. You can't quite get the resolution to see it from here, but hopefully the missile pods are proving their worth now.

Your friends aren't losing, but they aren't winning either. The pirate carrier seems to be hanging back for now, but every time Ulysses takes another hit it drifts a little bit closer. You need to get over there and help them. The distance from the progenitor hulk to the battle isn't long, but it isn't short either. It would take far too long to get there on your normal drives. Fortunately you have another option.

The pirate carrier made a mistake staying so far back. Instead of the normal grating buzz its hyperspace interference is just a small hum in the back of your mind. For most races that would still be too much. They would be forced out of hyperspace immediately. But you are a Bentusi. Of all the branches of technology hyperspace is the one your people have studied most closely. And you just finished optimizing your hyper space core.

---

You exit the gate right on top of Ulysses. So close that he instinctively launches a salvo of missiles at you before he recognizes your handshake protocol. Fortunately you anticipated that and made sure to gate in away from his cannon's firing arc. Plus your fields were already up, and they direct the missiles onto a harmless course. You wish you could have deflected them into the enemy, but sadly you don't have quite that much finesse.

"Ulysses, looks like you could use a hand."

"Valerius, I had it under control, but I won't turn down help."

You open a channel to the others, "Release the acolytes for interceptor hunting, and sync the cherubs with me. I'll take care of the frigates."

"Welcome back. Are you okay? We heard something happened from the Kadeshi."

"Yeah, I'm not quite in peak condition, but I can handle a few pirates. We can talk more after the battle."

"Okay," "Stay Safe," "Don't make more work for me."

The chatter settles over you like a warm blanket. The silence of being alone wasn't terrible, but it's good to be with your friends again. You only take a moment to relish it however before you focus on the pirates once more.

The cherubs form up inside your defensive fields and your formation heads toward the frigates. It's the same tactic you used with the Kadeshi except on a lesser scale. This time your fields barely flicker as the frigates fire on you, but the bombers' torpedo salvos have no such impediment. You do have to worry about interceptors flying right through your shields this time, but you brought a few acolytes along to handle that.

Soon you fall into a steady tempo as cherub bombers cycle in and out of your fields to head back Aurora for rearming. With none of them dying to pirate interceptors the swarm grows ever larger as Aurora sends a steady stream of new bombers into the fight. Ullysses vaporizes another few frigates every time his cannon recharges, and while you can't just assault the pirate carrier while your friends are vulnerable you do steadily push back the stream of pirate reinforcements.

After an hour of this you receive a surprising message from the pirate carrier. It isn't in any galactic language, but you can decode it with your megalith interface. You knew they must be related.

[PREY/INFERIOR YOU ARE NOT WORTH? THIS EXPENDITURE/TIME. WE LEAVE BUT YOUR DEVOURING/ASCENDANCE WILL COME.]

And then it jumps away. With no more reinforcements it's an easy task to mop up the remaining pirates. Then you survey your companions. You didn't take any damage of course and fortunately it looks like Iuno, Aurora, and Laverna weren't hit. But Ulysses's armor is cracked and he's reading as having minor damage over the flotilla network. Honestly not too bad, but you feel the battle could have gone better. You really need another front line vessel besides yourself. Something to keep the enemy occupied.

Your musings are interrupted by Laverna's insistent pings. "So come on tell us what happened!"

"Alright alright." You send over your logs of the battle between the pirates and the Sharbei, "I basically just did the same thing as we did here, but they probably would have won without me. I got infected by something though. I think I got too close to the pirate's virus at some point."

"What! Come here and let me take a look." You almost do so instinctively. But then you pause. You want to jump to the Sphere of Repentance and find Limmu, but that means you don't have a lot of time if you want to get there before she leaves. If she hasn't already. Aurora has most of the engineering facilities in your little flotilla. Do you really want to tie her up just at the moment? You're fairly sure your own situation is stable at the moment.

What should you ask Aurora to do?

[] Take a look at your systems:
You think you have the corruption mostly under control, but it would definitely be helpful to have someone else look at it. Aurora probably can't fix it completely herself, but she could check that you didn't miss anything and help you get it contained.

[] Salvage the Pirates:
You keep blowing up the pirate debris rather than salvaging it, but that didn't stop you from getting infected. Maybe it's time to bite the bullet and start researching the virus so you can work on preventing and curing future infections more easily.

[] Repair Ulysses:
Ulysses will fix his internal damage the best he can. But he can't repair his armor on his own. Aurora can fix him right up.

[] Scan the Flotilla:
You didn't know you were infected until just the right set of circumstances triggered the corruption. Maybe one of your friend's is in the same situation? No one else is exhibiting any symptoms, but have Aurora double check everyone just to be sure.

Optional:
[] Fix Ulysses yourself:
You have a fairly good repair system actually. You could easily fix Ulysses's damage yourself, and let Aurora focus on something else. However only if Aurora is not checking you over.

[] Ask Laverna to Salvage the Pirates:
She wouldn't be as good at it as Aurora, but Laverna could whip up quick containment module to store the salvage for later.