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

Aethon Cluster

System Aru
Irune Wreckage Fields

After you and the Taiidan deal with the remaining missile cruisers you get down to the serious business of cleaning up the battle space. It is a mess. Dozens of ships have died on both sides and their drifting hulk litter the surrounding area. The Taiidan were especially battered by the fight. Only a handful of ships from their fleet survived the battle, and they are over burdened trying to find and rescue survivors before their life support runs out.

You and Laverna direct some acolytes to help look for fighter pilots who might have survived the loss of their craft. You also keep a sensor open for any wraith interceptors that might still be dangerous. None of them are moving, but all it would take is one still working weapon battery at the wrong time to ruin someone's day.

Fortunately reinforcements soon arrived from Irune. Aurora and the mercenaries jump in along with a few civilian hospital ships. They take over the search for survivors and begin patching up the Taiidan ships. For your part it was mostly your defensive generators that were damaged and Laverna was practically untouched. Only a few fighters made it through the rest of the fleet to her.

With the Taiidan mostly taken care of you open a private channel with your flotilla mates to discuss the flagship hulk. "So how are we doing this?"

"Carefully, let's just use the resource drones to peel it apart layer by layer." Aurora sends a diagram she's built up of the steps you'll to take to efficiently disassembly the wreckage.

"We should be fine. We've already proven that the organic gunk can't stand up to plasma fire. We'll just vaporize those parts." To illustrate Laverna has a resource drone vaporize some of the exposed tumors.

"Well, we do need some samples of that too. To study."

"Ooh yeah that will be tricky."

"I'll build a containment vessel. In the meantime we can work our way from the back to the front. It's not like we'll need a big sample."

With great care the three of you begin directing a swarm of resource drones to take apart the hulk from what was once it's back. Most of what you find is not particularly useful. Various bits and pieces of machinery that have been destroyed by weapons fire or engulfed in red moss. But you do find a few items of interest. The first is a collection of mostly intact data cores. You remember the corruption of your own systems, so you don't interface with them now. Instead they go in Aurora's quarantine pod for later evaluation. The second is quite an amount of element zero. It seems the flagship was heavily enhanced with the stuff, and you are able to collect quite a bounty of it even after discarding portions that appear to be too contaminated to be cleaned. The last item is of course the subversion weapon that the flagship was using. On cursory examination it appears to have been using a combination of energy projectors to deal damage along with particle projectors that launched tiny portions of the organic mess you keep finding.

Which of course brings you to the organic matter itself. With some care Aurora directs a resource done to put samples of the substance into another quarantine pod. Each pod is equipped with its own hyperdrive and a self destruct charge in case it becomes compromised. At no point do any of you plan to directly dock with the pods. Though that will of course make studying the salvaged materials tricky.

Element Zero: 1,000 RUs
Item: Subversion Beam (Quarantine)
Item: Wraith Data Cores (Quarantine)
Item: Crimson Organic Matter (Quarantine)

---

Eventually Iuno joins you with news from the Vol Assembly. They are extremely grateful for your assistance defending their world. They are aware of both the aid you gave directly, and the fact that you convinced the Taiidan to stay. Something which they have already sent a complaint about to the Grand Conclave.

They are more than willing to help you in your mission to stop the Wraiths once and for all, however they currently have to rebuild their defenses, and fortify them such that the Wraiths won't just be able to come back and try again. So unfortunately they can't send anyone with you right now. They do offer to repair your ships for free however, and to finish the construction of the Ark once you relay them the final designs.

"So what now. We've beaten the Wraith back, but they're still out there. Most of the carriers escaped. And the flagship too." Even with all that's happened Laverna seems as eager and ready to go as ever.

Aurora of course is more cautious. "We're not in any shape to go after them. Most of the drones were destroyed, and Ulysses is still nonresponsive. We should go to the nearest harborship and get repairs. You two still have corruption in your memory modules too."

But you're actually surprised at Iuno. "The Wraith aren't going to stay away though. The rest of the galactic races still need to be warned." You suppose talking with the Vol clan has left her wanting to help the flicker races even more.

Your friends are at something of an impasse, and turn to you for your opinion on the matter. You consider the flotilla. Aurora, Iuno, the Raawan, and the Marduk are all still in optimal condition. Laverna and you still need a few repairs, but are mostly battle ready. Most of your slingers are still operational, but you only have two shepherds left. Though they are the destroyers and are carrying dervishes. So most of your flotilla's offensive capacity is still intact. However all of the bucklers are gone so your defensive capabilities have been sharply degraded. And of course Ulysses is still out of action.

On the other hand the Wraith flagship was heavily damaged, and their entire missile cruiser allotment was destroyed along with several carriers. You don't know what exactly was in the megalith, but you feel that if they had any other forces readily available they would have brought them for the assault. Without the missile cruisers and the flagship's subversion beam they should have a hard time breaking through any serious defenses. So Irune should be safe for now. Though the Wraith will still be a major threat to passing convoys, and you don't know how long it will take them to repair the flagship. Or if there are other Wraith outposts in the galaxy. They did get as far as the Gardens of Kadesh after all.

You feel there are basically three options.

[ ] Continue the Mission
Continue on your quest to warn the rest of the galaxy. Fortunately there aren't many more polities you haven't brought word to at this point.

-[ ] The Keepers of the Lost
Time to go talk with the Keepers. You have quite a lot of data they would be interested in now.

-[ ] The Exiles of Kharak
One set of exiles has been warned, but their homeworld still hasn't been. You aren't sure what exactly you'll find there however.

-[ ] The Vaygr Tribes:
Try and find the Vaygr. This will probably be difficult. Though after that Megalith you may need to recalibrate what you consider difficult.

[ ] Follow the Wraiths
Ensure that the this batch of wraiths can't cause any more trouble. Return to the Megalith and destroy it if possible. Or at least check to see what the Wraiths are doing now.

[ ] Go back to Bentus
You've basically fulfilled your original mission and have taken quite a lot of damage through repeated fights. Return to Bentus and get Ulysses checked. Along with yourself and Laverna for corruption issues.

While you are considering your options a little alert pops up. You do actually have two other smaller tasks that need taking care of.

[ ] Cultural Ties
Work out the troubles between the Bentusi and the Taiidan archeological team. The benefit here is that you could probably get at least a little support for repairing your battle damage and checking Ulysses here. Though they probably won't have the specialists you and Laverna need.

[ ] Raider Rumble
You are uncertain of your chances of taking on the Wraiths again without building your flotilla back up, but enough of your upgraded ships survived that are confident in your ability to handle a regular pirate threat.