End of Days

Captain Sorlan of the STS Kailan fidgeted in his seat, the monitors before him blank and lifeless. He had never been a patient salarian, and even his Special Tasks Group training had only managed to curb, not eliminate, this tendency. No, Sorlan was perhaps the perfect representation of Salarians as a whole in such regard. He was only comfortable when he knew everything about everyone- his enemies, his friends, his peers, his subordinates and superiors. Not having data made him anxious.

Which was, of course, why he was the captain of a secret STG black ops information vessel, en route to his latest mission. Once in the mission area, he would turn his sensitive sensors on and the data would flow in, granting knowledge, and hopefully, understanding.

The mission itself was unusual in this respect. Normally, the Kailan would be sneaking around the Terminus Systems, ferreting out pirate bases, detecting pirate and slaver fleet movements and such. Or, on rarer occasions, sneaking into Batarian territory to keep tabs on communication, fleet movements, and build blackmail material. Rarest of all they would be doing such things to the Asari, or Turians. But this mission was none of those, and that was why Sorlan was more anxious than even the times when he had sneaked past the most powerful military in Citadel space and into sensor range of Palaven.

His mission, set by the Council via the STG, was to assist in mapping an unexplored relay.

Foolish Volus traders had initially opened it, thinking to find the perfect secret stockpile location for illicit goods. That had ended when their trade ship, and their hired mercenary crew, had returned through the relay with only half the crew and a damaged ship. They were now feeling the full extent of the law; after all, opening a relay was a capital offense. Last time someone did that, the Rachni had driven the galaxy to desperation, and started a chain of events that led through the Krogran rebellions all the way to this very day. Given the state of their return, it could very well be the next galaxy-threatening species was here, alerted, and preparing for the next galactic invasion.

Which meant the STG, foremost intelligence gathering apparatus in Citadel space, was asked to explore the systems beyond Relay 314. Quietly. Carefully.

Sorlan had been sent to the closest of the five observed systems beyond the relay, no more than a few hours of FTL away, currently named nothing more than a long string of numbers denoting its position within the galaxy. It had a few planets and a healthy star, including one planet within the habitable zone that might be inhabited.

Important fact there. A piece of information gathered on the blood of the foolish Volus traders; whichever system they had visited (and it was unclear which system it was, their databanks had been partially wiped, an attempt to escape their fate) had at the very least been visited by hostile aliens. Thus the primary reason why Sorlan was very nervous, because he may well be walking straight into the valsian's mouth. That was the problem with being the best; you received the most difficult, or in this case dangerous, assignments. And unfortunately, until they managed to drop out of FTL and deploy the highly tuned sensors his ship contained, all he could do was obsessively go over the scant interrogation reports of the volus traders, looking for any detail others may have missed that might indicate if he was jumping onto the rocks or into cool water.

"Coming out of FTL in thirty seconds," Kirak, his helmsman, chimed in. Sorlan's eyes darted to his own screen, where the countdown had indeed reached thirty seconds. With a sweep of his arm the screen was cleared.

"Escape plan laid in?" Sorlan asked to be certain.

"Of course," Kirak replied.

"Good."

That was all the time they had for small talk before the ship dropped as silently as possible out of FTL at the edge of the system. Immediately, the ship went into stealth and observation mode, the gravity cutting out- a waste of power that could be better spent on sensors. Every little bit counted when it came to reducing waste heat that would give them away.

From his command chair, Sorlan saw everything. Haptic displays to his left, right, and at head level flashed to life and immediately began displaying pre-selected categories of information. As the Captain, his first priority was to ensure that they would not be detected; he was gratified to see Kirak had already taken the initiative to move them to a more optimal position. Beyond that, his displays were telling him that there were no sensors probing their way, nor any eezo signatures at all in the system.

No eezo at all? Curious.

Sorlan mulled that as he finished checking for threats. No eezo meant no ships or satellites, a good sign, as that meant there was nothing to detect them. Had the mysterious attackers of the volus ship abandoned the planet already?

Satisfied they were undetectable, Sorlan began examining his screens in detail, attempting to pry the secrets from this area of space.

The unfortunate conclusion, a half hour later, was that they were too far out to get good readings on the habitable planet. So it was that Sorlan ordered a cautious lightspeed jump further into the system, into orbit around the lone habitable planet.

Kirak was good, slipping the ship as undetectable as possible into geosynchronous orbit. Sorlan once again checked for any threats, and when there were none again, he turned his attention to other sensors.

The planet was definitely habitable, and inhabited. Or had been. The last time Sorlan had seen ruins like this had been missions over Tuchanka, though these were far newer than the millenia old krogan civilization remnants. He could tell because the highly sophisticated cameras could pick out faded paint colors on buildings, the wood was not yet rotted away, and there were even a few panes of glass remaining in some of the windows of the city he had chosen to look at.

Still too many questions though. Where were the inhabitants? Why had they fled? Were they responsible for the bloody deaths of the volus traders, or had they simply managed to stumble upon an inhabited system that was unrelated? What was their exact technological level?

"Energy discharge from orbit! Directed at the planet!" one of the sensor officers cried out.

The relevant data immediately came up, followed half a second later by visual feed as the sensitive cameras reoriented themselves to the source of the discharge.

It was a satellite, no more than four meters on a side. The lack of eezo was immediately explained by the large solar panels- it was no doubt battery operated and solar charged. But all these details were in the background of Sorlan's primary observation. The weapon.

It was a beam of orange energy, visible in the blackness of space, and it continued to discharge at the surface of the planet for several seconds before cutting out.

"Analysis of that weapon," Sorlan demanded. "Find me the rest of the satellites. Find me whatever it is firing at."

While the rest of the bridge personnel did as commanded, Sorlan checked their tactical status. Kirak had not made any evasive maneuvers, good, they were still invisible. They were still well positioned, able to see both the satellite and the planet, while positioned to move or jump out as necessary. Good.

A new haptic flashed up in his field of view, giving him positioning on the satellites. Another flashed up with readings taken from the weapon. Sorlan immediately scanned them over, forming his own conclusions in the second that he saw them.

"Report on the weapon," he barked out first.

"Unknown laser/particle weapon," Jesup, one of the many sensor operators, reported teresely. "Seems to be laser based, but weapon characteristics show several effects characteristic of particle beams. Output of single satellite appears to be in high megawatt range. Need more time to determine exact specifications."

"Kirak, are we in danger?"

"Unknown if weapon could penetrate shielding. Multiple satellites exist orbiting the planet. None are tracking us, all are pointed at the planet. No danger now," Kirak reported, perhaps the only one on the bridge not frantically tapping at his console. Kirak was smart, but he was a pilot first and foremost, so his responsibility was not analysis of data but immediate tactical analysis and positioning, so he was spared the frantic data gathering of the others.

A feed popped up on yet another haptic around Sorlan, this one of an abandoned and crumbling city, much like the area he had seen before. It was the size of a city block.

"Area satellite was shooting at," Esol, a sensor operator, reported. "Cannot localize further."

"Satellite preparing to fire again!"

Sorlan's large eyes snapped to the haptic screen showing the satellite, and indeed, it appeared to be re-orienting itself minutely. A beam of orange sprouted forth not a second later, spearing towards the planet. The camera focused on the planet caught it, and the operator immediately zoomed in upon the target.

It appeared to be a living being. It contorted and writhed within the satellite weapon beam, its skin glowing a dull orange, but otherwise it was not dying. Movement elsewhere caught his eye- a figure, humanoid, smaller than the target, was firing a weapon at it. Another joined in a second later. Sorlan could only watch, astounded, as an orbital-based energy weapon and what appeared to be small arms gunfire unloaded into the significantly larger, writhing figure.

It appeared to be for naught.

The satellite beam cut off, and the unlucky creature caught in the beam glowed and writhed for a few more seconds before the glow dimmed and seemed to solidify. The creature threw back its head- Sorlan could imagine it was quite angry at having been the target of a satellite based beam weapon- then charged at one of the small figures. The small figure dove into a building, no longer within range of the cameras, but the creature appeared undeterred and smashed its way into the building after the figure.

Sorlan paused. Something had just been hit by a space-based laser… and survived?!

He was still trying to comprehend how such a creature could exist (genetic engineering? Had to be) when a figure came tearing out of the building. It was followed, moments later, by the creature, who hit a large fallen piece of stone and stopped its chase.

"Satellite powering up!"

Sorlan watched intently as targeting beams coalesced around the creature, joined… and then unleashed their wrath. The creature writhed again under the orange beam weapon… and yet somehow survived.

Flashes came from around it- one figure approached the writhing figure slowly, weapon in hand. Sorlan didn't know what the figure expected- how could a hand weapon kill a creature capable of resisting a satellite based weapon of far greater magnitude? But it appeared that Sorlan had been incorrect, and it was indeed the hand weapons that brought the creature down, after the beam had ended but before the figure had stopped glowing.

Two figures appeared to check the body, then slapped appendages together and ran off, leaving Sorlan staring at the broken body of the creature.

Questions whirled through his STG trained mind. Who, when, where, why…. But most pressing of all….

"What… have we found?"