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

The Heartlands

Cradle Nebula
Tantalus Bastion

The bastion is covered in weapons and heavy armor. It can and is fighting back against the Starfish. So you take the time to discuss the matter with your friends. The safety of the children is of course paramount, but at the same time just leaving Tantalus to its fate feels wrong. Even putting aside the war fleet the bastion itself is a loyal and ancient defender of the Bentusi. It isn't actually sapient of course, but you were taught to respect these guardians as much as any actual Bentusi. If nothing else you never know when an advanced AI core might take the next step. The Bentusi remember what happened to the Kadeshi after all.

Still just because you want to help doesn't mean you necessarily can. Tantalus and the Starfish are already fighting it out in a raging storm of ion beams and missiles. Oracle 13 shares the records of the Keeper's fight with the last Starfish you fought. It took an entire Keeper fleet to bring it to the state you encountered it in. And by far most of those were destroyed.

Your fleet is not anywhere near that level so you'll have to hope that Tantalus is up to the task itself. In the meantime Iuno and Aurora corral the children and ensure they are all docked. They will jump away to a predetermined rendezvous point near the edge of the nebula. The Shepherds will join them for protection as well as Laverna who is working to bring her new systems online as fast as possible.

Unfortunately you never did rebuild your drone fleet so that doesn't leave much to help Tantalus. Barsa Dun and his flotilla will provide good coverage against the T-Mat interceptors, and Leli'Zefal's Rawaan will provide a welcome supply of additional firepower. But most of the fight is going to be carried out by Oracle-13, Ulysses, and yourself. In the absence of a true carrier Oracle-13 will be switching modes to interceptor construction. You'll be providing both defenses and a substantial amount of firepower, but as always Ulysses has the biggest gun.

As such the battle plan is fairly simple. Ulysses will stay at the core of the fleet using his siege cannon when possible. You stay close to him projecting your field and providing additional ion cannon support. Meanwhile Oracle-13 will concentrate on combating the T-Mat interceptors that enter the field. Barsa Dun and Leli'Zefal will help with that, but switch to battling any Barnacles if they show up.

With the plan settled you bid Aurora, Iuno, and Laverna farewell. They head out and away to escape the hyperspace inhibitor fields being projected by Tantalus while your attack fleet goes the other way and emerges from the cover of Tantalus's armored dome to view the battle space.

You didn't spend that long getting organized, but even so an apocalyptic level of weapons fire has already been exchanged. The Tantalus's armor is cracked and cratered and the Starfish is missing two of its arms already. Both of them are very much still fighting however. So Ulysses begins your contribution with another siege cannon shot. Just as before the miniature sun crosses the battle space burning everything in its path and exploding with immense force. You've seen it enough times to calibrate your sensors properly so this time you're able to watch as the Starfish spins wildly to interpose one of its arms between itself and the ravenous wave of energy. The sacrifice cripples that arm as the blast front ripples down its length stripping turrets and annihilating armor.

As the blast wave dissipates the Starfish drifts limply and for a moment you hope you've actually put it out of commission, but then its thrusters come alive and demolition charges fire. The now useless arm drifts away as the Starfish itself comes around on blazing engines. It only has two arms left, but either one is probably the match for your entire flotilla. It is very much still a deadly threat. And so the battle continues.

As your flotilla burns into optimum range you and Ulysses start to fire your heavy cannons while the space around you fills with Keeper drones dog fighting with T-Mat interceptors while the frigates race around to disrupt the largest squadrons. Your efforts are effective in drawing the Starfish's attention. The main body is still concentrating on Tantalus, but one entire arm is now trying to destroy your flotilla. Plasma bursts are splashing off your defensive field and you are trying your best to avoid ion cannon shots. Unfortunately you built your defensive field with Wraith carriers in mind, not a T-Mat starfish, and your reactors are strained to the limit refilling your capacitors after every impact.

It's enough though. You are able to weather the fire long enough to enter close range where you and Ulysses surgically remove the turrets from the arm you are fighting. And with only one arm left the Starfish rapidly falls behind in the exchange of Firepower with Tantalus. It attempts one last volley, but then its entire frame convulses as its reactors finally overload and the T-Mat warship vanishes in a fireball easily the equivalent of the siege cannon shot.

Unfortunately your side did not come out of it unscathed either. You and Ulysses are fine, but Oracle-13 will need some of its forward armor replaced where a T-Mat interceptor rammed straight into. The frigates are even worse off as they had to leave your field occasionally and weather the firepower being thrown around poorly. Two of the Irunese frigates will have to be scuttled though the Kwan itself is fine with its upgraded armor.

The worst off is Tantalus however. Almost forty percent of its ion cannons are offline and its armor is wrecked across most of its upper dome. Repair drones are already working to repair the damage, but as you consider how to help your sensors register another massive power source.

Another Starfish drifts out of the gas clouds and this one is escorted by over two dozen heavy Barnacle frigates. You are taken aback and Ulysses transmits over the flotilla network, "That's too much we won't be able to fight all of that."

Your mind is still racing to provide a response when another message is sent over the comm network, this one from an unfamiliar source, the Tantalus Bastion, "All non sentinels are advised to leave the area."

Along with the message is a massive data pack. You aren't sure what's in it as most of it is encrypted. But at least a portion appears to be the Tantalus's Black Box records. It clearly doesn't expect to survive this. Then there's almost a lurch as your hyperspace module suddenly registers absence of the inhibitor field. The Tantalus must have disabled it so that you can leave, and that's enough to convince you.

Reluctantly you send the quantum vector to all your friends and with a last regretful look at the approaching enemy forces you slide into the golden quantum gate.

---

In an isolated gas cloud at the edge of the Cradle Nebula your fleet rendezvouses. Your friends and the children are safe, but you are left with unanswered questions. You don't know what happened to Bentus or why the T-Mat even attacked in the first place. But you aren't in a good position to try and find out. Your fleet is battered and lacking in numbers. Plus there are the children to consider.

You need to deliver them to another harborship as soon as possible to keep them safe, but you don't have a lot of options there. You could try to find Memnon again, but it's on the opposite side of the galaxy. You could check one of the hidden data relays, but if the T-Mat are attacking their information might not be current any more as the harborships change locations to evade attackers.

Alternatively you could check with the Flicker races. They wouldn't know of the harborships of course, but they might know where a Bentusi Exchange is that you could check with. These elder Bentusi would likely be more closely attuned to the latest harborship movements than you are.

[ ] Find Memnon Again
Probably the harborship you're most likely to find directly, but you'll have to travel across a large section of the galaxy to reach it.

[ ] Check the Hidden Relays
This will only give you the location of the nearest harborships from the last time a Sentinel updated them. Normally that would be enough, but if the harborships are moving and the Sentinels are guarding them, then there isn't any guarantee that the locations are current. You'd have to spend time searching.

[ ] Check at the Grand Conclave
The Grand Conclave is the center of the galaxy. If anyone knows where a Bentusi Exchange is it'll be one of the information brokers there. And you have plenty of favors with the ministers to cash in.

[ ] Check with the Irune Financial Sphere
The Irunese don't have quite the coverage of the information brokers at the Grand Conclave, but as traders they have their own networks. Especially when it comes to the Bentusi Exchanges given that they are sometimes rivals in trading. The downside is that it's almost as far there as just going to Memnon, but it would be nice to be able to use their shipyards to rebuild your drone fleet.