Space. A vast realm once thought to be the dominion of gods, piquing the curiosity of all those who looked up towards the sky. Ancient poets and philosophers often thought of it like the sea, a place of wonder and mystery where the fish were dwarfed by the stars in the sky. Once those who looked towards it managed to bring themselves closer to the stars however, they found the reality to be rather more bleak than they imagined. Far from the wonderous ocean that the old storytellers believed, space was a few oases of light and matter floating amidst an immense, incomprehensible expanse of nothing. At least out at sea, there was a chance to survive if thrown overboard, be it by swimming back to their ship or, if they were lucky, drifting to shore; space was not nearly so forgiving, able to kill a person in a variety of unpleasant ways faster than it would take to list them all. And that is before one considers the incredible distances that space provides. Stars that seem to be right next to each other would be so far apart that entire generations would be born and die before a ship could travel from one to the other.
Still, as desolate as space can seem to the uninitiated, there are still marvels to be had if one knew where to look. Throughout the galaxy life and wealth can be found if one knows where to look. One such place is Star System C-272O6, a system so obscure that it does not even have a proper name. In it five planets orbit a yellow star, three rocky planets and two gas giants, separated by an asteroid belt. Under ordinary circumstances, such a discovery would have been a momentous occasion; for the crew of the CFV Descending Tide, such things would have to be ignored for more pressing concerns, such as the heavy damage that their vessel currently possessed.
The bridge of the Descending Tide is a scene of chaos. All throughout the room computer displays flickered erratically; some are too damaged to work at all, merely spitting out the occasional spark. The acrid scent of burnt electronics permeated the room. What few crew members that are relatively uninjured try to help the wounded while doing their best to ignore their colleagues lying dead on the floor or at their stations. In the center of the madness sits Captain Alena T'ania, a stern-faced woman with sapphire skin and smooth, contoured crests running along her scalp. Though her face is marred by the indigo blood dripping down her face from a laceration along her forehead, she remains stoic and resolute, a beacon of calm in the chaos around her.
"Status report!" she barks out.
"More than half the crew are dead or critically injured, ma'am," one of the crew members responds. "Our cannon is dry, we only have a few torpedoes left, and the GARDIAN array is completely shot on the starboard side. Our shields are down to thirty percent and I'm detecting hull breaches across the board. Simply put Captain, we're screwed. It's a miracle we managed to survive that last relay jump, and I'm not sure we can handle another one." Captain T'ania mutters a curse under her breath.
"Every day the rachni get bolder. The Council needs to know that the bugs are pushing deeper into our territory. Do we have any data drones left?" she asks.
"A couple, ma'am, but the rachni have been taking out our network. It'll be weeks before it reaches the nearest buoy," replies her subordinate.
While mass relays are invaluable in space travel due to their ability to cross dozens of light years nearly instantaneously, during times of war they provide easily defensible choke points. While it is possible to travel faster than light without the use of the mass relays, doing so will build a static charge throughout the ship, potentially killing the crew if it is not dealt with regularly. Thus, during times of war, critical information is couriered via specially designed unmanned drones, built robustly enough to withstand being in FTL for months at a time without issue.
"And if we don't do it now, Goddess knows how many months the rachni will rampage through asari space unchecked," the captain rebuts. "Do it." Within the hour, an unmanned drone deploys from the Descending Tide, loaded with information about the current situation. With a sigh of relief, Captain T'ania says, "That's one problem dealt with. Now onto the next. Helmswoman, plot a course through the system. We need to find someplace to land on and wait for rescue."
"Ma'am?" said helmswoman asks in confusion. "You do realise that the chances of us finding a garden world is one in-"
"I realize that, but it's better than staying here, waiting to die of disease or suffocation," T'ania interrupts tersely. Suitably chastised, the pilot nods her head and begins to carry out her orders.
Over the next week, a palpable tension lingers through the halls of the Descending Tide like a miasma. Although thick bulkheads and kinetic barriers block radiation from leaking into the habitable areas of the ship, each move into faster-than-light travel elicits and ominous shudder from the ship's hull. As each day passes, more of the injured crew succumbs to their wounds. Having long exhausted the medical bay's meager refrigeration units, the survivors can do little more than place the dead in body bags and stow them away in emptied store rooms, where they can hopefully be given a proper burial later.
"Captain, I've found something!" one of the crew members cries out. She brings up an image of their target, the furthest rocky planet from the sun. Though the image of the planet is flickering and fragmented, the blue oceans and white clouds are evidence enough of liquid water, and thus likely an oxygen-based atmosphere. Several large landmasses of green and speckled brown breaks up the orb of blue. Over one of the oceans, a large mass of clouds begins to swirl, the beginnings of a hurricane. When the captain sees the planet, a smile begins to grow on her stern face.
"Looks like fate is finally in our favor, ladies," she says amidst the triumphant cheers of her subordinates. "Do we have any probes that we can launch? I want to know what we're getting into before we start settling in."
"No, ma'am, all our probes were damaged in the fight," the crew member replies. "But there is something else I think you should see." The projection of the planet zooms in towards the coast of one of the continents before highlighting a specific portion. Even with the compromised resolution, they can see the shapes too large and organized to have been made by the random hand of nature, which meant civilization. A primitive civilization, considering the lack of radio signals or even widespread planetary development, but civilization nonetheless.
"An excellent find," T'ania says with a satisfied nod. "We'll have to be careful not to upset the locals too much when we-"
"Contact on the starboard quarter!" a crew member shouts out, cutting her off. She gasps in shock at the information she receives. "It's...oh Goddess, it's the rachni!" A new image appears, monochrome from laser imaging, but the bulbous, hive-like structure is unmistakable. Fortunately for them, it is only a small scouting frigate, equal to the Descending Tide and like them, heavily damaged. But even a damaged ship can still pose a threat if there are reinforcements nearby.
"Damn it," the captain mutters to herself. "If any more of those bugs get here, they'll devour the natives and turn it into another one of their hives. Bring us about! Face the port side to the enemy and redirect all available power to the shields on that side. After that, get to the escape pods and make planetfall." As the crew scramble to complete their orders, T'ania presses a button on her console, activating the shipwide PA system. "Attention, crew of the Descending Tide! This is Captain T'ania. You are ordered to report immediately to your nearest escape pod. This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill! We are abandoning ship, report to your nearest escape pod immediately!"
"Torpedoes inbound!" one crew member shouts out. Over a dozen missiles spew forth from the enemy ship, flying towards the Descending Tide like a swarm of insects. The GARDIAN turrets turn towards the incoming missiles, lasers burning them out in transit. At peak performance, the Descending Tide's array would have been more than sufficient to defend against such a volley, but with one half of the turrets destroyed and the rest in poor repair, a couple manage to slip through the defenses, smashing against the kinetic barriers protecting the ship.
"The shield's holding, ma'am, but we can't take much more of that," one of the crew says.
"Then transfer all functions to my station and get to the escape pods," Captain T'ania orders. When she sees her crews' confused looks, she continues, "If we all leave, the rachni will know that we're trying to flee and shoot us down. If I say here, I can distract them, giving you time to escape. Now do it, that's an order." Reluctantly the crew nod their heads and relinquish control of the ship to their captain before giving one final salute.
"Goddess guide your way, Captain," they declare as one.
"And to you as well," T'ania replies. "It has been an honor serving with you. Now get out of here!"
After they leave, Captain T'ania brings up the ship's functions at her station. A deluge of information, far more than any one person could handle normally, appears before her, but she only needs to manage it for a few minutes. With one hand she sends a command to load the last of the Descending Tide's torpedoes and prime them for launch while with the other she starts to shut down non-essential ship functions. Refrigeration, barriers over hull breaches, anything that she can take away to squeeze an extra drop of power to sustain the shields. As she sees the first of the life pods jettisoning, she fires the torpedoes. The few meager missiles are no match for the rachni ship's point defenses, but if they're occupied shooting down her torpedoes, then they're not trying to slaughter her crew.
Once the last of the escape pods are loose, T'ania proceeds to the next phase of her plan. If the rachni remain, then once they destroy the Descending Tide they will simply move on to her crew before infesting the planet below them. No, they needed to be taken out immediately. But with a ship with no weapons and barely holding together, she has only one option left. It is a risky move with no margin for error, so she needs to plan things exactly. She uses the navigation computer to plot a rough course, but input the final controls manually; the navigation program will not allow her to do what she wants, and to work around it would require time and knowledge that she lacks.
T'ania sees several smaller vessels jettison from the main rachni ship. From the size of the enemy ship, she figures that they are not interceptors; they are probably escape pods of their own to try and establish a beachhead on the planet. She had hoped that she would have more time, time that her crew could use to get closer to the planet. But she must act now; if any rachni make it to the surface, then her crew and the natives are doomed. As she makes the final adjustments, she begins to pray.
"O Athame, goddess of fate, hear my call. Guide my feet so that I may reach my destination. Guide my hand so that I may strike down my foes. And…" Her finger hovers over the button that will seal her fate, her enemy in front of her and her comrades behind her. With one final, bracing breath, she finishes, "And guide my heart, so that if I fall, I shall find peace in your embrace."
Her hand lowers, and the Descending Tide hurtles towards the enemy ship at over half the speed of light. As the two ships connect, the immense amounts of energy completely obliterates both vessels. The resulting explosion momentarily illuminates the sky of the planet below; the shockwave spreads out in all directions. The nearest pods are violently ripped apart, exposing the shocked crew to enough heat and radiation to kill them instantly. The more distant ones are knocked off course, making uncontrolled descents into the atmosphere. Those that are not shaken apart or burned up in descent will crash into the ocean or against the ground hard enough to render them as little more than scattered piles of scrap in a smoldering crater. The few lucky ones furthest away will be buffeted, but be able to correct themselves in time to make a controlled descent. It will be painful, but they will survive, and find themselves stepping out into an entirely new world. A world full of wonders and terrors in equal measure.
A world of monsters.