Nick stood quietly in the nearly abandoned hanger, his gaze playing over the small ship in front of him. The sound of one of the access doors softly hissing open and cold told him that Garrus had arrived. He straightened his back slightly as the echo of Garrus's foot prints drew nearer.
Garrus was a friend, and one of his most trusted companions in the Forlorn Hope. He'd been nominated for captaincy by Sarah when she decided to take a more passive role in the Forlorn, and aside from being somewhat blunt, Garrus had more than proved himself for the role since he had been inducted.
Now however, Nick could feel the weight of the air as Garrus drew near. Ah well. If they were going to fight about this again it couldn't be helped. "Listen Garrus I know what you're going to say, and I don't want to ---"
Garrus didn't wait for Nick to finish before cutting in. "I got you. And give me the details, even though I hate the whole operation" He said, surprising Nick into silence. Nick's eyebrows furrowed as he evaluated Garrus's words, before giving a slight shake of the head.
"Thank you." Nick turned away from the surveyor lying in front of him. Producing a small datapad, he brought up its holographic display. "We've seen a marked increase of activity in several sectors, with Omicron Delta being having the largest surge." Gesturing at the surveyor behind him, Nick continues. "Picket's been called in to help us on this one. His chasis is tough enough to survive long enough for us to reach them, and thanks to the fact that he's a drone, he emits all most no signature to be traced. We're just waiting on a cloak from the foundry, and we'll be good to go." Nick pauses for a moment, changing the display on the datapad. Indicating the newly formed holographic image, he continues to speak.
"This is the target. We've seen a few of them around, and while we don't expect that it will be difficult to encounter one, we believe its going to be a bitch to find one that isn't close to the more dangerous ones. Regardless, the trick here, if you will, is pinning it down long enough to retrieve it." Nick makes a motion with his hand once more, the holographic image changing to one that is slightly reminiscent of a harpoon gun, but vastly scaled up and modernized. "This is our trump card for this. Picket will use his new cloak to get as close to the subject as possible, before hitting it with the harpoon. Tethering himself to the subject will allow us to track him easily, and it will stop it from trying to escape. Of course, if it goes hostile, Pickets going to be on a short leash, so we need to hurry once he makes contact."
Nick pauses, switching off the datapad. "This is without a doubt the craziest job we've ever taken, but the client's paying us enough for me to consider retiring if we pull it off. Additionally, once we have the subject we're given free reign to determine the next stage of the plan. Any questions?"
Nick crossed his arms as he waited for Garrus to pick through the information offered, and couldn't stop a smile. He had accepted the job not because of the fortune it paid, but because of the fact that no one else had done it before. They were going to catch a nomad.
Garrus shakes his head. He knew this was a job that offered a lot of money but he still wasn't completely sure about the whole situation. "No questions, just a heads up for you. If this is going to fail and something will happen, it's your head that's going to roll. Just to make things clear." His face was cold as he approached the ship. He looked at the ship and searched for possible weak spots. He took another step towards the ship and put his hand on the hull. "You know it's only a matter of seconds until the ship is ripped apart. Therefor I need my team, people that can easily be deployed if needed. I take it we're going to take the Haven out there? Make room for at least three of the Seraphs and the Seraphim engineers. This is going to be hell of a ride."
Garrus walked back from the ship and turned over to Nick again. "I'm going to blame you and the contractor if one of my men dies." Garrus paused for a second as he grabbed a PDA. He typed a quick message to some of the Seraphim pilots. He told them to be ready for an operation, unknown time and unknown duration. "When are we going to depart? We're going to brief the Seraphim on the Haven, once we departed. You're better prepared to throw in a good cut for them." He put the PDA back into his pocket and crossed his arms.
"They're my men too. We leave in the next two days. Once the Harpoon is ready, we'll mount it, give it a few test runs to familiarize our pilots on its use, and set out." Nick let out a small sigh. "You know, if we get this right, it could change everything. At the very least, it gives us a way to fight back properly. And I don't mean the standard, shoot them till they're dust method. There are too many of them for that to work forever. It's about time we made an effort to find a better way for stopping them."
Nick turned and walked towards his own Nyx, the first the Forlorn had ever operated. The tech's had finally fixed the problems with the energy bleed, and had since replicated the solution for the rest of the Seraphim divisions ships. They'd even managed to get a gunboat running at 100% with the new powercells and distribution methods.
"Get some rest Garrus. I'll notify you when we're ready to perform the jump into Lost."
An impulse that eluded measurement by any conventional device. It compared its findings to those of its brethren. They collectively contextualized the findings, each entity instictively knowing its place. Precognition. It was the way they perceived their surroundings, lacking any sort of visual organs. Radiation, energy. Their bodies acted like buoys in a sea of it, able to pick out disturbances if matter traversed it. If others of their kin were nearby, they would all perceive it from different angles, positions. Their connection made comparison effortless, instinctual. Trajectory, material, the theoretical kinetic energy released upon impact, they could see it collectively, predict it collectively. Not everyone of their brethren was equally adept at it. This was their purpose, and had been created with the necessary toolkit in mind. They were wardens, housekeepers. Their task was to monitor movements within the Lost Void, where their connection was the strongest due to proximity. A human might have called the task monotonous, but it was essential. Its kin needed the information. The radiant matter cluster that their hive world orbited sometimes emitted flares that were able to scorch the surface of their hive world. Precognition. They would know to prevent it.
Thesis: Pathway usage.
It was a thought, a concept. It reverberated through their connection. One of their kin proposed the possibility of an arrival through the pathway.
Acknowledgement.
It was nothing out of the ordinary. Most arrivals were their kin returning from forays into the neighboring voids. They lacked the means to predict arrivals. Their connection was insufficient over distances as long as the ones between traversable voids. It reached out to its brethren and they corrected their trajectory, the movement perfectly synchronized, everyone remaining in their place.
Conclusion: Pathway usage positive.
It was still some ways off from the pathway. There was no uncertainty, as they had always been faster if necessary. However, this was most likely a return from their own. Most of its older kin had been moving outside of the Lost Void recently, the rest remaining sheltered on the hive world. A feeling of alarm went through their connection.
Observation: One massive object, four orbiting objects.
It couldn't be anyone of its kin. There wouldn't have been the impulse of alarm otherwise. The objects were unknown and needed to be identified. As always during situations as these, their kin scurried away, towards the shelter of the hive world. They would hide under the crust of the planet and hope to not be found. This was not possible for it, however, as it would be necessary to cross the path of the intruding objects. A utilitarian decision.
Objective: Investigate.
Someone needed to confirm whether the objects could prove to be harmful. At worst, they would be able to buy time for the others to hide. At best, they could neutralize the thread. Approaching, it and the others approached, keeping a respectable distance. There was movement, the smaller objects orbiting the bigger one. They instinctively knew the bigger shell was capable of hyperspace travel. It radiated the same as a pathway. They realized these were human ships.
Thesis: Enemy.
Not all humans were necessarily their adversaries. The Sparkling Raiders had visited them before and they had allowed it. The Fellowship of the Bird had also visited them before and they had allowed it. Those were neither.
Conclusion: Enemy.
It was immediately obvious that they were in a bad position to fight. Not only did their adversaries have a massive shell and they didn't, but they could feel that the pilots were experienced. One of the pilots, however, was afraid as of their approach. It reached out to the others, comparing with the others. They decided to attack the afraid pilot first. The fight was quick, yet provided enough time for most of their kin to either hide on the hive world or in the asteroid fields if they had been too far away. Thesis, comparison, conclusion. The housekeepers were not meant as defenders, yet they would fulfil the task of one if required. It reached out to the others and one by one, it knew that they were getting fewer and fewer. Slowly but surely, they were succumbing to the attacking force until it tried reaching out in vain.
They'd timed it carefully. There was no other way it would work. So they'd done the research, probed the hive. The Artemis had run half a dozen recon missions through Lost to judge response times. And then, right as they were preparing to strike, the perfect diversion presented itself. A group of Order capital ships in Delta let them slip through the net without being seen, and into Lost before anyone could react. A single Commune pilot noticed and was promptly silenced.
Lost itself is an intimidating system. The very edge of everything. The sun is the only source of light in this desolate system, illuminating everything from one side, and shrouding the other in shadow. The four snubcraft entered the system without incident, and once confirming that they hadn't been detected, signaled for the Haven to join them. In contrast to the four fighters, the massive carrier would definitely draw attention. And it did. It took roughly thirty seconds from when the Haven entered Lost for the first nomad drone to investigate. It took less than minute after that for four more drones to arrive.
These were different from the usual nomads encountered, and a prime target because of it. Less aggressive, confident. They were definitely not meant to be the first line of defense, and yet, with the order ships drawing attention of the actual guardians away, this was all that was left to stop the intruders from achieving their goals. Unfortunately, for once the humans were relying on being hunted.
The nomads hadn't taken long to pick a target, and begin attacking. The Forlorn pilots had been waiting for them to approach. Fighting a nomad is a grueling task, trying to keep your movements unpredictable and your mind closed from reading. But they hadn't come unprepared for this fight. They'd spent months honing their skills on other humans, and they trusted each other and their ships. Having the Haven nearby helped. Its crew would hopefully confuse the nomads, and slow their reaction times enough to make the difference.
And it did. The creatures went for Garrus first, leaving the other three pilots to pick apart the defenders as he pushed his ship to its limits in avoiding fire. The goal had never been to succeed in a direct assault against the nomads. They just didn't have the firepower. The skirmish here, which the nomads were using to delay them until the more dangerous of their number was exactly what they had wanted. As the first of the nomads fell to the concentrated firepower of three ships, the pace stepped up. Haven started to charge its jumpdrives, and the crewmen aboard began the longest countdown of their lives. If they mistimed the jump by even a few seconds, they risked dragging larger nomads with them as they arrived as backup. If they fired the drives too early, they risked a blindjump that could leave them stranded, or even worse, overheating the drive cores and leaving them at the mercy of the inbound nomad swarm.
Explosions rocked the forlorn fighters as the second nomad succumbed to their numerical advantage. With only two of the defenders left, the Haven launched the capture drone. Picket had been refitted with an electrically charged projectile launcher. It's official name was the HARPOON, but it was little more than a glorified tazer designed to work on a living ship. It was crude, but would serve its purpose. Stunning one of the drones into submission so that it could be recovered safely.
A cheer rose from the pilots as the second last nomad was successfully rammed into a nuclear mine in a risky move from Stenn. Carmen and Junko made short work of the last nomad defender, removing it from existence in a crossfire of tachyon fire, leaving the initial drone that had investigated the pilots alone. Picket had managed to sneak up on the nomad, thanks to being a remote controlled drone and immune to being mind read, and scored a direct hit with the HARPOON from close range.
Aboard the Haven, the countdown reached its end, and the jump drives fired, ripping space in two, and releasing the carrier, the fighters and their prey far from nomad space, and into the waiting arms of support ships.
The movement was fast. Time usually did not matter to it. Their connection allowed them to think through a situation in a matter of split seconds, allowing them to react appropriately. Now, however, it was alone, and there were none of its brethren around to think with it. The projectile was too fast. Electricity did not affect the Nomads as it would a human. Being based on silicon, the Nomads were naturally insulated against electrical discharges, thus allowing them to traverse ionized clouds without dying to being cooked alive.
The projectile pierced its insulating, crystalline body. For a split second, there was nothing, only the slight tug of the chord that connected it to the inaminate matter that had propelled it forward. The projectile had had an arrowhead of cold, serrated metal spikes that had extended as soon as its momentum had been arrested by the impact. It was painfully aware of the damage it had done to its body. First, there was a warmth radiating from the metal. Then it overcame the resistance and a searing feeling went through its form. The excruciating feeling seemed to drag on forever, a fog descending onto its senses. Cognition, motor functions. Everything was replaced by the pain as several million volts melted its vulnerable synapses and would not let up. It tried to struggle, to rip itself free from the metal that had embedded itself into its side, but to no avail. Soon, the last bit of its will was evacuated by the searing, leaving it to drift in a daze, only the consistent pain present on its hollowed mind, never to be whole again.
The entire process had hardly taken fifteen seconds.
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