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

Sajuuk - He whose hand shapes what is.
-Rereti Manuscript ca. 5201 GSY

In the time when the galaxy was young Sajuuk strode across the nebulas. The galaxy was his garden and he tended it with care. He scooped up gas into stars and molded the planet with exquisite detail. Others were there as well. Progenitor gods who helped in their own way, Maanja with her life weaving, Sojo strewing asteroids, and other lesser gods. But it was Sajuuk who showed the way.

For many eons this was so and the progenitors rested in great palaces while they watched the galaxy they had formed spin in its slow dance. Everything was good until the great devourer struck. The sly dragon Tiamat waited until Sajuuk had left to wander the galaxy as he did, and then she led her dark brood from the dark void to attack the proud progenitors. The progenitors rose to defend their world, but the years of their peaceful tending had been long and their weapons had been cast aside in ages past.

Even so the progenitors were no feeble foe and they fought Tiamat and her brood with their divine power. But though they slew many of her monstrous offspring they were no match for Tiamat herself, and her terrible magic. One by one she devoured them and destroyed their grand halls.

Until at last Sajuuk returned from his wanderings. He was aghast at the destruction and the few survivors begged him to slay Tiamat and bring peace back to the galaxy. Agreeing he tracked Tiamat to her latest conquest. The Hall of Armat, the Flame Triumphant. Sajuuk found that the once bright halls had been shrouded in darkness and many monsters attempted to devour him as he approached, but he slew them all and continued forward.

At least he found Tiamat laying in the center of the hall. She devoured the corpse of Armat with her wicked maw and laid foul eggs on his throne. Seeing this Sajuuk could not abide and he sprang forth to smite her with his mighty lance. Tiamat however was not taken unawares and returned his blow with claws and teeth.

For an age they fought and everything in their path was destroyed by their cataclysmic struggles. Back and forth it went until at last Sajuuk stood victorious atop Tiamat's corrupt corpse. He shouted in victory, and then collapsed. For even as he slew her Tiamat had bitten him with her toxic maw.

As the surviving progenitors approached they found that Sajuuk lay dying atop the corpse of his fallen foe. He beckoned them closer and when they arrived he tore his own heart out. For each surviving progenitor he tore off a piece and bade them hide his heart in a secret place so that one day he might return if the galaxy needed him again. Then Sajuuk breathed his last.

The progenitors shed great tears made of stardust and carried Sajuuk away to bury him in the in the heart of the galaxy he had shaped and protected. Sealing Sajuuk's tomb behind them the progenitors then separated. Each carrying a piece of his heart to hide it in their own secret places.

-A Bentusi's Children's Tale cs. 7053 GSY

From their records gleaned from Progenitor archives the Bentusi are fairly sure that Sajuuk was once a major historical figure among the progenitors. He features in a great many of their records as being a great figure in many aspects of their society and over a span of time that has caused many debates over whether Sajuuk was immortal or if it was instead a title given to powerful Progenitors.

It is known that Sajuuk was one both one of their most inspired inventors responsible for much Progenitor technology as well as one of their leading generals. Although it isn't clear exactly how many of the myths about the Progenitor's demise are true it does seem likely that he fought against it and helped shield the younger races of the galaxy from the same destruction.

System Omicron Sixteen
Outer System

You decide that the most diplomatic thing to do is to wait for the Keepers to arrive and try to talk them out of fighting you. So you wait, and wait, and wait some more. While you wait you take some time to look into the contents of the vault you recovered from the progenitor station.

It appears to contain some kind of hyperspace generator, but not like what you've ever seen before. After you ponder it for some time you manage to piece together that it will take a ship into a slightly different dimension than the hyperspace ships normally enter. There doesn't seem to be much point to this so you start working out the mathematical models to simulate what the result would be.

It takes you a lot of number crunching, hyperspace theory is not your area of expertise, but you eventually come to the conclusion that the purpose is stealth. Entering this new dimension is much faster than forming a quantum waveform to enter hyperspace. And it appears likely that a ship in this dimension would be able to move much more freely than the simple vector movements of hyperspace travel. Combined with another set of components you found that seem to actually allow limited observation of real space a ship in this dimension could jump out nearly instantly and then observe its enemies as it positioned itself for another attack.

The disadvantage seems to be that this new dimension has a larger spatial reference frame than real space. So travel is actually slower than in real space by a substantial amount. As such you decide to name this new dimension subspace and begin assembling the vault components into a working subspace drive.

You keep your sensors peeled for any keepers through this whole process. You didn't expect to spend more than a few hours on it at most, but you've nearly completed the final assembly when you finally feel a faint ripple in hyperspace.

As you watch a green gate opens near your position, however, rather than the keeper fleet you were expecting the only thing to emerge is a small grasper. It's not even a whole grasper as one of its manipulator arms has been sheared off. It still attempts to make a valiant effort to move towards you for grappling purposes, but it goes dark before it makes it even halfway. Presumably from damage caused by whatever destroyed its arm.

Confused, and slightly worried, you scoop up the grasper and analyze its memories. Between battle damage and the Keeper encryption protocols you don't get much, but it seems clear that the Keepers are fighting a fierce battle with someone. And you now have the coordinates of the battle.

Not wanting to jump into a firefight alone you decide to finally hack the inhibitor and disable it before jumping back to the fleet.

---

Sliding out of your own quantum gate you are surprised to find that the construction gantry has been completed and Aurora is well into the construction of the new cruiser frame. Although perhaps you shouldn't be surprised. Between carefully digging into the progenitor station and spending so long waiting for a Keeper fleet you've actually been gone for quite a while.

What is more surprising though is that Ulysses isn't back yet. You wonder if he stumbled into another Keeper inhibitor. "Where's Ulysses, has he come back yet."

"No, we've actually been worried about both of you being gone for so long. What happened?"

"I got trapped in a Keeper inhibitor field, but they never showed up to spring the trap. I think some kind of trouble is happening in this cluster."

"Wraiths?"

"No, no I don't think so. The grasper I analyzed was confused, but I didn't see any wraith ships."

"You fought a grasper!"

"Oh right. A grasper did eventually show up, but it had major battle damage. So I hacked it before coming back." You float the grasper out of your cargo bay so the others can examine it. Maybe they'll be able to get more data out of it than you can. Though you wish Laverna was here for this sort of thing.

There's a few moments of silence as Iuno and Laverna digest your report as well as try to hack into the grasper themselves.

"We should go find Ulysses, I didn't like us all being scattered around. And I especially don't like it if the Keepers are fighting something that's giving them trouble."

"What if we miss him though. We don't know if he's still on his planned route. You should stay and finish the cruiser. You're so close and I've been helping our friends upgrade their ships. They'll be able to help."

"We shouldn't be separated at all though. We should either all go or all wait in my opinion. What do you think Valerius?"

You've been letting Iuno and Aurora debate the point because you aren't sure yourself. You see valid reasons for both options, and even a third one of helping the Keepers.

[ ] "Iuno and I will go."
You and Iuno will go look for Ulysses. You'll have to start with his first planned destination and work forwards so you don't miss him. But you won't need to scan the whole system so it should be faster. Aurora will stay at your base camp to continue work on the cruiser and to catch Ulysses if he comes back by himself.

[ ] "We should wait here."
Ulysses is tough. He can make it back himself, and you don't like the idea of leaving Aurora alone. Your whole group will wait here and help Aurora finish the cruiser construction. Maybe Laverna will even be able to catch up with you. Based on your experience with Memnon you think she should be finished and following your beacon trail by now.

[ ] "Actually we should help the Keepers."
Nothing makes a good impression like fighting a common enemy. The Keepers are fighting right now and you know where. But you don't know how long that battle will last. If you jump now you should all be able to make a difference and get on the Keepers good side.

---

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