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Marked Effect (AFF Edition)	By : unrealuniverse Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 22185 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Mass Effect characters, species, locations and the universal setting are owned by Bioware and not myself. Any other brand names mentioned are property of their respective owners. This work is and always will be free for anyone to read.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
Chapter 6 - Dropping in
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"This is VB news, our top story this evening. In the last hour we have received reports that the council supported exploration vessel, the ASL-Enlighten, has been attacked and presumed destroyed. Details at the moment are scarce. We however know that all but nine crew members have been recovered, with a further four known to have survived. Turian military vessels will continue searching local systems for the ship and the missing crew. No names of who is missing have yet been announced."
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"I must apologise for having to bring you all here to give this news." The Asari Councillor felt a little disappointment that she had to deliver this news. Matriarch Benezia, a couple of representatives from both the University of Serrice and Armali Council were patiently waiting for her to continue. "As you may already know we got a distress message from the ASL-Enlighten as it was attacked on the eleventh. Our help arrived at the co-ordinates on the fifteenth to find no sign of the Enlighten."
"Why wait so long to give us any more news if they arrived on the fifteenth?"
"It was a difficult and slightly puzzling recovery. The recovery vessels found twenty of the crew in a Batarian mining colony. After extracting them they said there were at least four more individuals known to have escaped. The extraction teams found logs indicating that they were taken to Omega."
"The chances of getting them back are fairly slim then." Benezia did have a point. Aria was rather difficult to negotiate with considering she disliked the council interfering with anything on her station.
"We are due to open negotiation channels tomorrow to try and find them." Benezia nodded.
"Do we know that the Enlighten was destroyed?"
"That was what was confusing everyone. Using the ships specifications they would have needed to discharge the mass effect cores before making another long distance FTL journey. The most suitable planet was guarded by plasma cannons and there were two cruisers patrolling the others. They found no wreckage and no sign at all of the Enlighten ever being there."
"So they used the ships normal thrusters to get away?"
"The rescue vessels have scoured nearly every system in the cluster trying to find the ship and have turned up nothing. They are estimating they will be completed by the fourth of January. If they are not found by that time the recovery vessels will return and we will have to declare the Enlighten lost and the five crew members missing presumed killed."
"Do you know who the five are?" Benezia hoped that Shiala was not amongst them.
"Kriana, Fosanta, Adastra, Shiala and Emala. I apologise Benezia." Benezia gave a reluctant nod of acceptance.
"I have heard a few rumours of ships surviving a core discharge. They did not get far afterwards however since they needed extensive repairs. How long can they survive assuming food and water as the bare minimum?" The Asari representative from Armali seemed rather knowledgeable about ships.
"They received extra food, at beginning of the month. So, assuming they can access water, another seventeen months." The Salarian representative from Serrice calculated the time they could last in his head remarkably quickly.
"Ok, I will give them two years to return before they will be confirmed dead. Until then I would like nobody to mention who the missing five are." The Councillor got a nod of agreement from each individual present.
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"I can see what I think are cities Adastra." Adastra looked closer to see that the few lights she could see were in evident clusters.
"The cities do not look that big but our biggest problem is going to be landing. A smooth landing is going to drop us into an ocean. I have my eye on a large island which seems to be the next best option."
"As long as both ourselves and the shuttle survive."
"I was only warning you as it looks like a fairly rough landscape."
"I will hold on." Shiala looked out of the window to her left and tried not to think about the likely rough landing.
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"Pieces of junk." Sam vented his anger at a pair of uninterruptable power supplies which had failed to do their job. "I hope there has been no damage." He mused to the four racks of servers, hoping that he was not going to have to spend Christmas fixing everything.
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"Will thirty kilometres (~18.5 miles) from a small city and eight (5) from a settlement be ok Shiala?" Shiala tried to think back to her commando training for a quick answer but one was not forthcoming. "It is too late to pull out now. I have found a nice clearing in some trees which should hide the shuttle reasonably well. It also seems to be quite close to a lake as well."
"I like that good news." Adastra just missed the top of some trees before the shuttle got blown slightly sideways by the wind.
"This is not going to be easy, hold on." Shiala braced herself against the tank that was in front of her as Adastra slammed the shuttle onto the ground with way too much forward momentum. Not expecting the ground to be frozen solid the shuttle skidded as if it was on an ice rink towards the edge of the clearing. "This might hurt." Adastra managed to get out as the side of the shuttle hit a tree which straightened up the shuttle's path into the undergrowth. The shuttle stopped dead as it hit a pine tree square on, the top of the shuttle getting covered in dead pine needles as the tree swayed slightly.
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It is four hours before Sam was happy that all the servers were ok and he decided to go home. He had sent a message to Tony that the backup generator would need refilling in five days given the servers will have to run off it until the uninterruptable power supplies are repaired. He got to his car and started the engine, the radio turned on a second later making him jump, nearly deafening him with static. "Shit" Sam shouted in shock as he stabbed at the power off button on the radio. He decided to sit for a while to calm down a little before setting off on to the cities streets.
It was not long before Sam was sat admiring the shimmering effect in the sky when he could, in-between blowing his horn and fuming behind the wheel at people being stupid when the traffic lights in the town centre were not working.
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"Argh, that hurts." Adastra rubbed her head. "Shiala, are you alright?" A lack of response forced Adastra to stand up and slightly unsteadily make her way down the shuttle to where Shiala was sat. It was obvious from the large dint in the side of the tank that she had hit her head. "Shiala?" Adastra was beginning to panic a little. Taking a deep breath to try and calm her nerves she looked to see if Shiala had any other injuries. It was clear the first hit on the side of the shuttle had broken some of the bracing from around the tank. "Oh, Goddess." Adastra noticed the large gash on Shiala's left thigh, her commando leathers were doing a reasonably good job of holding the wound closed. The blood had congealed and only a few drops seemed to have made it to the floor.
Adastra had to decide if it was worth making first contact or not. They could stay in the shuttle as they had food and some water. The partially converted shuttle however was really not ideal to stay in for any length of time.
"Adastra?" Shiala sounded a little weary and pained as she opened her eyes.
"Are you ok?"
"I feel disorientated and..." Adastra stopped Shiala grabbing her leg. Shiala looked to Adastra with a confused look before looking down. "...it seems I cut my leg."
"What do you think we should do Shiala as it would certainly be a little unpleasant if we have to stay here a couple of days?"
"I do not mind waiting but I can feel a cold draught." Adastra started looking around for the source of the cool breeze. She made her way to the door on the back of the shuttle and she moved her hand around to quickly find the offending draught.
"Great, the hit on the side of shuttle must have damaged the door seal. I can feel the air coming in." Shiala sighed.
"I cannot believe I am going to say this but we could do with getting somewhere warm. There is no way this shuttle is going to stay warm with a damaged seal unless we run the thruster which would give us away."
"I have no idea what to do in this situation."
"I thought you went to military academy?"
"I did for a week." Shiala looked at Adastra in confusion. "Long story Shiala. Do you have any advice?"
"Have a look around to see if you can see any signs of life, just do not go to any settlements. We ideally want just one of the species so see if you can find a way to single one out."
"I will have a quick look around. I will be back soon." Shiala nodded but still felt a little disorientated. Adastra opened the back door with a little help from her shoulder to be greeted with an icy blast of cold air. The air temperate was minus seven Celsius outside but the strong wind was making that feel quite a bit colder. It was not long before Adastra was shivering, her breath making clouds of smoke as she breathed out. She worked her way through the undergrowth towards the lake until she came across a black strip of ground. Thinking back to history class in school she remembered one particular lesson about ground based transportation using wheels, 'Surely not.' she thought to herself. Adastra a few moments later could hear something coming and so she scrambled back into the undergrowth with just a small view of the road through the shrubs. She could barely contain her surprise as the car went past her. She began to make her way back to talk to Shiala, an obvious excitement in her step. She entered the shuttle, "Shiala they have vehicles with wheels." Adastra closed the door and was rather glad to get out of the biting cold.
"About what size Adastra?" Adastra held her hands about half a metre apart. "So they are tiny vehicles?"
"Oh, I thought you meant the wheels. No it was about the same size as a Skycar."
"Hmmm. Try and find a way to stop one of them. Make sure none of them run anywhere." Adastra nodded with a little trepidation as she went back outside, braving the cold chill once again. She climbed through the undergrowth again to approach the road before looking around for something suitable to stop a vehicle. Looking up she saw a large rotting branch overhanging the entire road. "That should do." She said to herself as she looked around for any signs of life. Once she was happy she gave the branch a quick biotic pull, snapping it clean from the tree. Adastra winced slightly as the branch crashed on to the asphalt surface with a resonating thud. She admired her handiwork for a few moments before moving back into the shrubs to keep an eye open for anyone.
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Sam was soon on the country road that went around by the lake side. The lake was mostly obscured by a stone wall in a car and the trees did not help either. The other side of the road was usually pockets of trees or farmland. Sam yawned before looking down at the clock on the dashboard noting that it said nine forty six. He was tempted to see if he could get back home before ten especially given the road at this time of night was practically dead.
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Notes.
How can I leave it here? I am a little mean at times, sorry everyone. You will find out in the next chapter which will be posted shortly so keep checking back.
- 5
- 6
- 7
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Marked Effect (AFF Edition)