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

The Heartlands

Cradle Nebula
Bentusi Debris Field

You considered returning directly to the Cradle Nebula. The sooner you arrive the sooner you can start tracing Ninhursag and Bentus's whereabouts after all. But on the other hand your fleet is already significantly fragmented, and it's not as if the trail isn't months old at this point.

So you, Ulysses, and Laverna head back to Irune instead. You bring a few Tenders while you're at it. Elders and architects to help Gallus build a true harborship instead of the ad hoc vessel you had planned.

The system doesn't look any different when you jump in. The defensive spheres still appear to be intact, and civilian traffic is still moving in and out of the system. Although not in the quantities you know are normal for the merchants. Nevertheless you transmit your identity and pass through the defensive layers as you head towards the shipyards where Gallus and Aurora were working.

It's much more cluttered than you last saw it. Not only has the massive framework begun to take ship, but Iuno and your flicker allies have arrived. Oracle-13 is keeping to itself, but it appears that the Irunese frigates are taking the chance to get refits and even one of the Kushan battlecruisers is in the shipyard's dock getting some work done. You wondered what happened there.

Your arrival is followed by the normal network updates as everyone reconnects and synchronizes into a single fleet network again.

"How did it go?" asks Aurora.

"We found the rest of the Sentinels. They've been fighting a holding action against the T-Mat. But we think that Ninhursag is the key to this. Or if nothing else needs to be destroyed. So we're going to go looking for it."

"Back to the Cradle then. I'm not looking forward to that. I bet there are T-Mat flying all over it. Still I thought this might happen so I've built a few more drones to help out." Aurora indicates the small fleet of shepherds, bulwarks, and slingers hanging further out in space.

"Those will be useful. What else have you been up to? Is Gallus satisfied with the designs?"

"It's been slow going. A harborship isn't a simple thing to build. But I think I've helped as much as I can here. We can leave it to Gallus and the others you brought now."

Despite what Aurora said you do end up helping a bit more on the designs before you leave. There simply isn't much else to do while you wait for the Flicker ships to finish their refits and say goodby to the children.

Then it's off. Irune to Bentus. You've made this trip before. Multiple times in fact. But this time you don't anticipate home and safety at the end. At best you'll have to search through the debris of your childhood home. At worst you'll have to do that after fighting through waves of T-Mat. At least your fleet is reunited. Not just that, but between the drones and the new flotilla of Kadeshi you're stronger than you've ever been.

When the golden gates deposit your fleet back in the cradle nebula you find the sight worse than your hopes and better than your fears. There are huge fields of debris here, but not the shattered remnants of Bentus. Barnacles and flights of T-Mat interceptors cruise the wreckage, but no Starfish.

They are no match for you, and after clearing the area you settle in for a long stretch of searching. The Irunese, Kadeshi, and Kushan ships comb the wreckage looking for anything mostly intact while Oracle-13 and the rest of you sniff out the hyperspace signatures and try to put together what happened here.

It takes quite some time, but eventually you think you have it. A massive hyperspace anomaly seems to have occurred. You've never seen it yourself, but it matches the records you have of Bentus's Far Jump. It's ability to remotely move entire fleets. You can detect two loci to it, and can only assume that Benus must have decided to jump both itself and Ninhursag somewhere far away.

And according to your reading Bentus's destination was the Balcora black hole cluster. Perhaps it intended to trap Ninhursag there? Of course you have no way to know what Bentus was thinking. Your elder did not leave behind any helpful notes.

Still you have a course, and there's else to do but follow it.

---

While your fleet is in transit you take the time to go back over the wraith data package you've been accumulating. There's quite a lot of data, but you start methodically sorting through it. The first thing you do is subdue the wraith data wyrms that are infesting the package. Fortunately you've gotten relatively good at this. So it only takes setting your security sub mind on them to leave the rest of your attention to the problem of sifting through the data.

As you trawl through the data you note that there seem to be two distinct groups. One is ancient and seems to be related to the Megaliths themselves. Mostly data on their locations and their current status. You note another three you didn't have coordinates for before. Hopefully you'll get a chance to check them eventually.

The other group is far more chaotic. It seems to be from the Wraiths themselves and consists mostly of communications and directives. If your interpretation of the time stamps were correct they seem to have been very active about a million years ago, then gone dormant with only limited communication every hundred thousand years ago until approximately five years ago when the rate of communications spiked.

Most of it is hard to interpret. Insane ramblings on hunger and lost dreams. Some of it seems to be recordings of planet bound individuals that bear no relation to the wraiths themselves. But interwoven within the rest of it is a set of strategic orders for the dissemination of the wraith across the galaxy.

This could be very useful once the current crisis is over.

---

Galactic Core

Balcora Cluster
Progenitor Debris Field

You can tell when you arrive at Balcora. Your hyperspace sensors scream as gravity twists and you drop out early. You're too far away to see the black holes themselves, but space itself feels twisted here. Even at this distance you feel the tug of the blackholes attempting to pull you in.

Not that you're in any actual danger of that. They're hundreds of light years away still. What it does do is make hyperspace much harder to access. You'll need to spend longer calculating the quantum algorithms and opening the hyperspace gates.

Regardless you're here for a reason and the fleet is already scanning nearby space for signs of Ninhursag or Bentus. You find an ion trail leading further into the region and you follow it into what appears to be a derelict progenitor installation. Massive slabs of metal hundreds of kilometers across turn the space into a cramped maze and as you navigate it you keep getting echos and distorted sensor readings of powerful energy sources.

Turning a final corner you see a vast chamber. Your attention is immediately drawn to a massive ring. It hangs in space and the energy readings seem to be coming from it. It's probably the largest intact progenitor relic you've ever seen and from the looks of it it's still powered.

However you aren't the only ones here. There is a pitched battle under way. On one side is Ninhursag, but the other is not who you expected. It's not Bentus fighting the T-Mat but a Wraith fleet led by a trio of Wraith dreadnoughts.

They are dwarfed by the Reefship, but they've brought a full armada of Wraith ships. Carriers, missile cruisers, and a swarm of the obsidian frigates you saw back in the Megalith.

[ ] Attack the Wraiths
The T-Mat are a terrible threat, but ultimately they can be beat conventionally. Their weapons are powerful, but they only kill. That Wraiths do much worse. They assimilate and convert, forcing everything to become one with their terrible amalgamation. You do not want to help Ninhursag, but you definitely don't want the Wraith winning and assimilating the Reef ship into their arsenal. To prevent that you can move your own fleet around the edges of the chamber and attack the Wraith armada from the edges in order to tilt the scales in Ninhursag's favor.

[ ] Attack Ninhursag
On the other hand Ninhursag is by no means out of this fight. It's taken terrible damage from the fight with Bentus and Ulysses's siege cannon, but it's still a mighty foe. You've beaten the Wraith before, but reef ships always take a terrible toll in Bentusi lives before going down. It might be better to kill Ninhursag now while it's distracted and deal with the Wraith afterwards.

[ ] Observe the battle
On the other hand as long as they're fighting it might be better to just stay out of it and watch. If both sides wear themselves out in the fight then so much the better for you after all. You'll just need to take care that you aren't dragged in by the roving dog fights happening between Wraith and T-Mat interceptors around the edges of the chamber.

[ ] Continue searching for Bentus
You don't actually care too much who wins this fight. Instead of wasting time here you could continue searching for Bentus. Now that you've got a read on Ninhursag you think you can mask its engine signature out of your readings and find your wayward elder. You are reasonably sure that Bentus is still intact given it was able to jump both itself and Ninhursag all the way here.

Galactic Core

Balcora Gate

Ninhursag is your target and you probably won't ever get as good an opportunity as this. Two hated enemies fighting each other with no friendly forces in sight. It's the perfect opportunity for a siege cannon shot. And this time Ulysses won't have to carefully target it to avoid collateral damage. He can fire directly into the center of the melee.

More than that you have the time to set up a full alpha strike. The slingers will launch a massive missile salvo just behind the siege cannon shot. And behind them a wave of dervishes and acolytes. Followed finally by your main fleet.

It's a powerful onslaught designed to knock your foes off balance and follow it up with blow after blow. And to start with it goes well. The packet of energetic plasma from Ulysses's siege cannon goes off with all the fury of a super nova. It destroys lesser Wraith frigates and T-Mat barnacles outright. Wraith carriers are smashed backward and armor is stripped away from Ninhursag in great sheets.

Then things start to go awry. Because as much work as you put into the Slinger missiles you failed to take into account that they were designed to destroy Wraith carriers. Very specifically programmed to englobe them in fact. So when their sensor packages are blinded by the siege cannon shot and forced to retarget through the haze of plasma and debris they slew towards the best targets. The ones their targeting subminds are optimized for. Or in other words the Wraiths.

If this were any other fight the results would be spectacular. Like a vengeful flock they turn towards the Wraith fleet and spread out. Just as you programmed them they spread out and surround each Wraith carrier and Missile Cruiser. The missile minds coordinating to ensure optimal dispersion and cut off Carrier escape routes. They vector in, evading turret fire and interceptors until they are close enough, and then their quantum charges detonate in a wall of explosives that rivals even that of the siege cannon.

Already damaged carriers are crumpled into scrap. Cruisers are torn apart. Even the dreadnoughts take devastating damage as the missiles specifically seek out their conversion beams. It would be glorious. A textbook missile salvo if you had ever written such a thing. Except of course that they were supposed to target Ninhursag.

Fortunately the strike wings following them have better targeting systems along with direct links to Laverna. They don't divert and instead swarm across Ninhursag ensuring that the massive alien ship doesn't have time to recover despite the tactical blunder. Unfortunately much like the missiles they were optimized to fight Wraiths. Their weapons aren't heavy enough to do much to the Reef ships massive armor layers.

You'll have to do that yourself, and that's just what you intend to do as you and the rest of your fleet burn into range. Your ion cannons begin to cycle into sustained fire mode as you try to burn a hole through its weakest armor. Ulysses and Oracle-13 join you while the Kushan concentrates a bombardment on a different section. For their part the Rawaan leads the Irunese frigates in destroying the still operational turrets attempting to shoot you all out of the sky.

Of course the Wraith aren't out of the fight yet and both they and Ninhursag have redirected portions of their fire at your fleet. So Laverna and Aurora orchestrate your drone fleet in a redirected action against them. As has been so ably demonstrated, that's what they were designed for after all.

The fighting is fierce, but paradoxically you have never fought so calmly. You think it is because you have nothing to defend. You are not trying to prevent a planet full of innocents from being assimilated or the galactic council from being destroyed. Iuno has withdrawn into the surrounding maze of debris leaving Aurora as the most vulnerable member of your fleet. And with her cloud of drones she is far from helpless.

So there is no panic. No worry. You are on the offensive at last. You chose this fight. And so it is with a clear mind that you can see that you are losing. Ninhursag is just too powerful. Beyond your wildest estimations. Its plasma turrets are punching through your defensive field. Its ion cannons are tearing your armor apart. And the worst of it is that it's not even fully focused on you.

It's splitting its fire between you and the Wraiths. Although you smugly note that you are at least a high enough threat to warrant an ever increasing share. Though of course this might also be because the Wraith fleet is rapidly coming apart. All the missile cruisers have been destroyed along with most of the carriers. One of the dreadnoughts is floating scrap and the other two are little better. In fact it occurs to you that you better disengage soon because once the Wraiths have been destroyed Ninhursag will turn its full attention to you, and that will go very poorly indeed.

With some concern you note it might already be too late. Several of the Irunese frigates have been destroyed and you redirected the buckler frigates to cover them. But Ninhursag has brought several massive ion cannons to bear and is methodically picking your bucklers off.

You signal the Kushan to break off even as you and Ulysses turn your attention to Ninhursag's engines in the hopes you'll at least cripple it enough to keep it from following your retreat. Given that you've already lost one ion cannon however you are unsure if it will be enough. Suddenly however a wave of fresh acolytes floods the scene. Hundreds of them swarm Ninhursag firing on its turrets and sacrificing themselves to block its ion cannon shots.

They are not your acolytes, but you don't hesitate to take advantage of the opening. You order a retreat and your forces burn hard away from the embattled Reef ship. As a final gambit Aurora tows Ulysses away. Not because he's too damaged to move, but because he's diverting all his reactor output to his siege cannon for a second shot.

It's just as explosive as the first. Something you get to experience first hand as you are very definitely not out of the blast radius when it detonates. You intentionally were the last one to withdraw and now you spread your defensive field wide to shield the rest of your fleet from the artificial super nova.

It burns your field emitters out and most of your capacitors with it, but it saves all but your outermost drone frigates from the ravening energies. As your fleet passes into the debris maze you keep your sensor trained on Ninhursag. It's battered and damaged. Not even a Reef ship can take that much damage unscathed, but it's still fighting. Even as you watch it destroys the last Wraith dreadnought and releases another wave of Barnacles to clear the last of the Wraith interceptors. Fortunately it doesn't seem inclined to follow you. Perhaps it's finally had enough, though more likely it just needs time to repair.

Either way you have time, and so you follow the surviving acolytes through a winding set of passages deep into the maze of Progenitor wrecks. As you suspected, Bentus is waiting for you. They could not have come from anywhere else after all. But Bentus is not as you remember. One of its great arms has been entirely torn off, and great rents crack the harborship's armor all over its bow.

Your sensors read only minimal power levels. Nothing compared to the humming heart that you remember. Resource drones flit all around it pulling off broken pieces and making repairs. Some of them have your own fleet codes and you trace them to Iuno hanging silently above Bentus. Aurora immediately launches her own cloud of repair drones followed quickly by the rest of your fleet.

You reach out, but your handshake fails. "I tried that, but Bentus seems to be fragmented. With most of itself in emergency repair mode. I had to use a distress beacon to get it to launch those acolytes." Iuno transfers what data she's gathered on Bentus's condition.

It's not good. Bentus isn't in immediate danger, but clearly the eldest Bentusi is in little condition to be doing anything at the moment. It will take time to repair itself to even minimal levels of operation. Time you may not have. Ninhursag is not nearly as badly damaged. So you have a decision to make.

[ ] Repair Bentus
Devote most of your fleet's efforts to repairing Bentus. You'll need to build a gantry which will take time. And even then you won't be able to fully repair the harborship. But even partially operational Bentus will outmass and outgun the entire rest of your fleet. You'll only be able to make minimal repairs to yourself and the others however.

[ ] Repair your Fleet
For the same resources you can make much more progress on your own fleet. You can fully repair every ship in the fleet and even rebuild your drone complement. Bentus will keep repairing itself of course, but it probably won't come online by the time you're ready for another strike on Ninhursag.

[ ] Attack Ninhursag as Soon as Possible
Every moment you take to repair Ninhursag does as well. You can't fight immediately, but you can perform only basic repairs on yourself and the others before returning to the fray. Also you don't really want to give Ninhursag too much time with the Progenitor station. Active Progenitor technology tends to be game changing.