The Steadfasts systems ran through their final check, The radiant vessels golden corridors filled with hundreds of androids and tens of thousands of combat drones all donning the finest weapons and armor the factory could produce, all were well prepared and equipped for the mission to come.
It did not take long for the minds and the ship's Captain, Aurora, to finish the final checks, the ship's teleportation array reactivating to bring the last passengers onto the ship. It was not the captain's usual role to check the systems, she had officers for that, but all of the makers ships were different. A captain needed only to think of the systems to receive all the information they needed, and if a system faced errors Aurora would immediately know.
She could practically feel the ship, the solar winds from the distant star and the frantic messages of the inhabitants of the system reminding her of the ocean waves and the distant call of birds on a nearby shore.
Aurora had some thoughts that trended towards nervousness, this was her first true operation and it wasn't a quiet easy mission, but the ship stole those worries away with its comforting golden glow, while the Maker's favor filled her with confidence, she'd be chosen and she could do it.
The Makers hands, 2B and 9S had even been tasked with accompanying the mission. Leaving the Maker's side to join her in this battle, their prowess a final insurance made by the Maker.
Even the ship itself basked in their presence, the ships very lights growing brighter in the corridors leading to the pairs assigned hanger.
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The plan for the mission was simple: The Steadfast would enter the Batarian's system via a teleportation beacon slingshot through the relay. Allowing them to avoid immediate detection and interception and avoiding the bulk of the Batarian's static defenses.
The Steadfasts precision weaponry would then fire on the Batarians hangers to prevent single person interceptors and fighters from being launched with slower firing or less discriminate weaponry unleashing their fire on the military ships, which were far less likely to have a significant slave presence.
With the bulk of the Batarian fleet out of position the Steadfast would have nearly ten minutes before it could even be in danger, more than enough time to disable any ships with weaponry they weren't built to defend against, Plasma and Laser based weapon batteries no doubt doing the bulk of the damage in the initial barrage.
Ideally the Plasma weapons and Lasers would disable the systems maintaining the kinetic barriers in time for the previously fired shells to impact the ships.
The Orbital infrastructure of the planet, a mining colony, was extensive for a species in this reality. It contained a significant portion of the planet's population, and more importantly the satellites had tens of thousands of slaves onboard to maintain equipment and perform manual labor.
It was almost certainly a tactic to prevent an attacking force from simply blowing the stations apart with long range fire, forcing attackers to board the stations and bring their ships within range of the various orbital weapons platforms.
For a normal attacking force this would be effective, it was decidedly less so against an army of disposable machines that didn't bother to fear death and were capable of reacting and piloting far faster than a mortal mind. What weapons could be hacked and disabled would be, automated firing systems crippled, and without those systems organics would only be capable of ineffectually firing in the landing shuttles general direction.
When one took the Steadfasts one way teleporter into the equation it simply became unfair.
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The Steadfast appeared suddenly and without warning firing hundreds of rounds and lasers into every available target in the system, sending the Batarians patrolling the system into a frenzy as they tried to identify the ship and take evasive action as their own ships were crippled and their weapon systems slagged.
Before anyone could even process what was happening, or try to do anything beyond a reflexive action in the most skilled of cases, every hostile within effective range of the Steadfast lightspeed weapons was disabled and drifting. Little care was taken to keep the ships intact or the crew alive, Collateral damage being allowed if not encouraged.
The golden ship sang through the void space, an ever present hum filling the system carried upon its aureate light filling all who saw it with images of wealth, luxury, comfort, greed, avarice, and more emotions than most could name each who saw or felt the light upon them seeing images of what they wanted most in the world, and all felt they wanted that ship and its brilliant light most of all.
The invasion continued, golden flashes of light unleashing mechanical horrors unto the outside of the planets many orbital stations and civilian freighters, all filled with valuable metal and workers from the mining world below, in some cases access hatches or damaged hulls allowed the factories robotic army to flood into the halls directly but in most they simply burnt their way inside. Once an entrance was carved the androids were sent forth on dropships with more stable teleporters onboard to allow safe transportation of the more fragile and unshielded organic species.
It did not take long for the first slaves to be encountered, most batarians were simply tranquilized on civilian ships or terminated on military vessels but the slaves required a gentler hand, one the factories metallic horrors were ill equipped to provide. The elegant and inhumanly perfect androids however were the perfect answer to that problem, the uncanny valley easily sidestepped by the simple fact these aliens had never seen a human.
It was as simple as guiding them back to the Steadfasts transports and their onboard teleporters and sending the victims into a relay of teleports that'd take them straight to the enclave, where they were looked over and treated for any injuries or illnesses that had gone untreated under the Batarians 'care'.
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Vek Warge walked over the corpses of the Batarians, the Krogan keeping a careful eye on the things funneling everyone down the bloodsoaked halls. A few of the fresher slaves were practically fawning on the Asari like creatures, heaping praise and thanks on them. Vek knew better, those things weren't organic.
They had no scars, none of the calluses he knew thinner skinned species developed, no imperfections on their skins, no scent of sweat or exertion. All things that set him on edge.
There was nothing he could do about it however, he had no weapons and the Batarians took care to keep him on the brink of starvation, keep him weak. They'd even taken the time to disarm all the corpses he'd seen, no weapons he could grab.
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He kept a careful eye on the slaves walking closer to him, all as wary as he though he doubted they'd noticed what he had. They saw he was cautious and followed suit, trusting in his ability to smell a trap. The Batarians would send more compliant slaves to keep watch on the others, and Vek had never failed to spot the spys.
Vek had their trust, and they had his, a Quarian needed supplies to maintain their suit? He could find someone to smuggle it in, medical supplies, extra rations, messages and plans and warnings all things it helped to have more hands to acquire or move. All to help them survive just that much longer, long enough to hijack a ship and escape.
Those plans were dead in the water, just because they had a former pilot and some engineers didn't mean they could get a ship all the way to the relay without a patrol ship destroying them. But staying would have just been a slower death, and so they'd planned.
Now he needed to find out if this was just going to be another path to their death, and if he'd be able to go down fighting.
He signaled to Memi'Naarah, Quarian's never lasted long but the engineer had managed to keep their suit intact by scrounging and smuggling, Memi had been asked to leave their tools behind by one of the creatures but he knew they'd have kept some weapon on them, and got a signal in return. That was one of his compatriots armed at least, though the rest didn't have the luxury of being able to hide things in hidden pockets on an enviro-suit.
The Batarians had gone down quick, but Vek knew he'd last longer than they had if he needed to make a distraction, with enough time hopefully Memi and the others could arm themselves and make a run for it, with the Batarians fleet no doubt in chaos it was their best chance to hijack a shuttle.
Vek took slow breaths as they approached an intersection, two of the beings blocking the offshooting paths away from wherever they were being led. Vek doubted he could hurt them through their armor, it was obviously high quality and too heavy to not be powered, but he could lift them both and run for it taking them far away and pinning them while the group escaped.
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It was soft, warm, and dark when Vek woke, it only took him a few seconds to realize his eyes were shut and with a great deal of effort he pulled them open, the warm light of the room shining into them and forcing him to wince. His body felt exhausted but …. He didn't hurt, it took Vek a few seconds to remember why he thought he should be hurt and he lurched upright.
He felt something pushing him back towards the bed and nearly broke Memi's arm before he realized what, and who it was. His confused eyes fell on the Quarian and he only barely interpreted the subtle sign they flashed at him, the room was monitored. But his groggy mind noticed the distinct lack of a hand signal for danger.
He took in his surroundings, the room was empty save for the bed and a few chairs against the wall. Barely noticeable hatches were present in the ceiling though what they contained he had no idea. The walls were some silvery metal he couldn't recognize the scent of, and there were barely any scents to speak off. No sweat or smells save his own and the harsh burn of antiseptic present in the room.
"Where are we?" He avoided using the hand signs, if their captors(?) were watching he had no need to tip them off if they hadn't noticed already. Memi's voice was calm but laced with confusion and disbelief. "The… Androids who rescued us say we're on a station called the enclave and that the council or our own species would be coming to retrieve us. We're …free apparently" That… he thought for a few moments, he couldn't go with the council, or wouldn't. And depending on who exactly came from his species he wouldn't be able to go with them either. He needed more time to plan.
"Did they say when everyone would be arriving?" Hopefully he'd have a week or two, find out if he could get his own way of the station or contact some old allies. Memi shook their head, "I was only told when a few Quarians would be arriving, but they should be here in three days. I'd imagine it'd be the same for everyone though… These people can build intersystem teleporters and there are dozens of teleporters to different systems on this station alone."
That was… insanity. But if he could barter or sneak aboard a ship he could get anywhere in the galaxy and be home free. If it was true, to figure that out he'd need to get a lay of the land.
He hauled himself out of the bed, pulling the sheets off his body. The Krogan didn't even use sheets, and those had felt confining wrapped around his legs. "What's the layout of this place like? We have a place to stay?" He doubted this was his actual room, the scent of antiseptic felt baked into the walls. Memi, who'd reached out to help him from the bed before thinking better of it, spoke, "We all have rooms near each other, this section we're in is mostly bedrooms, recreation rooms and hallways. Only odd thing is when it opens up into forest's or plaza's, this place is massive for a station and built like a maze, even the signs barely help." If this place was so large he'd just have to look around his room and other places of interest, not investigate every nook of the place. Not that he thought he'd have time for that in the first place.
It didn't escape his notice that Memi had said 'This section' either but he'd look into that later. For now though the Krogan made a show of looking around at the walls, "Any sign of what our… hosts want? Or who they are?" Vek already had a pretty good idea of what their hosts were, but he had no issues getting a second opinion.
Memi's grimace was all the answer he needed, "Their…. Machines, not geth but arguably worse. They're smart, and if I hadn't been told they were robots I'd have had no idea." Well worrying about that was over Vek's paygrade, he'd care if a war broke out, those always needed mercenaries, but if one didn't? Vek would mind his business and let others worry about the new race of hyper advanced machines. "...as for what they want… apparently they think we are all incompetent, or at least our governments, and their "Maker " is showing up in an attempt to make them get their acts together. "Providing a better example" " Vek snorted at that, he had no doubt the prissy council was furious, and he was half tempted to try and find this Maker just to pat them on the back.
Still that meant the council, and the Batarians, were furious with this place in particular, and that meant he wanted to be nowhere near here. He pointedly ignored the part of him that wanted to attack the Batarians, it wasn't productive.
It was time to get back to work.