Captive - Part 4

Mia was on the Naseby when Keating returned, with snow on her armour and blood on her helmet.
"Thank you," said Mia, feeling a lot better after several doses of medigel on her gunshot wound. She couldn't walk on it, yet, but it had stopped bleeding, "What you did was... helpful."
"It's fine. I was just doing my job."
The base exploded through the observation port behind Keating.
"What was that?"
"Oh, after I shattered the Turian I set the internal heat generators for the base to maximum, and threw a grenade into the system. They tend to explode when that happens."
The intercom beeped into life, "Someone called Thomson wishes to speak to you, Commander," said the pilot, "It concerns the gang."
"I'm sorry, Mia. I have to go. Just ask the doctors if you need anything."

"Who are you?" Keating asked the mysterious caller.
"I'm Lieutenant Thomson. A member of my team mentioned that a Spectre was trying to destroy the gang on Omega that is dealing with Quarian slaves. He also gave me the name of your ship. It's a long story, but they've left Omega and are now on Sur'Kesh. They have my girlfriend. I'm massing a force to destroy them. Do you want to be a part of it?"
Keating smiled, "And you think I would miss something like that? Send me the coordinates."

"Mia, we're taking a bit of a detour through a battle. I hope you don't mind," said Keating as she went back to tell the Quarian the news.
"What?" Mia questioned, "What are you talking about?"
"Well... Apparently someone is trying to get a large force together to deal with the gang. They have a shit load of Dreadnoughts and we, so far, have a hundred thousand ships. A group of which will be doing battle with them, the rest will be trying to protect the Migrant Fleet. I volunteered to have the Naseby in the middle of the battle."
"Why? What the hell possessed you? Keelah."
Keating shrugged, "It's my job. Plus, I get to be in control of the guns. Which is always fun. Especially against a Dreadnought."
"Surely this frigate doesn't have the weapon strength to be up against a Dreadnought?"
"That's what you're supposed to think. But underneath the Frigate shell, it has an Everest-class Dreadnought mass accelerator cannon, capable of firing a twenty kilogram ferrous slug every five seconds. It can fire them at 1.5 percent the speed of light, due to some modifications I made. It has the impact of a forty kiloton bomb. Alongside the standard Frigate GARDIAN defences, it's pretty cool. Oh, and we have a Thanix cannon too."
"So... you've just armed this frigate up?"
"Pretty much. We destroyed a few Reapers. Well, that was an accident. I fired the ferrous slug and it took out a Reaper behind the Reaper I was initially aiming at. Fired straight up into its main cannon before it could destroy us, and their formation meant... well, yeah. Anyway, we'll be there in a few hours. I'm contacting the Citadel, seeing if we can get Destiny Ascension to help. That ship is pretty awesome."

The SSV Naseby got in formation behind the SF-2 Falcon. Keating wasn't going to let Thomson get all the fun. The GARDIAN turrets were ready, and she was sat in the chair where she could fire the weapons from inside the cockpit. The auto-targeting system began scanning for the Dreadnoughts, but they were not in range yet. They had yet to go down to Sur'Kesh.
"Team one, are you ready?" Thomson's voice said through the radio, "Keep to the plan. Wait for my signal."
Keating tapped on a terminal behind her, sending a confirmation to the Falcon to acknowledge the Naseby's readiness.
"Team one away."
The group of about three hundred starships broke away from the larger group and flew down towards Sur'Kesh, and into the battle.

As soon as the fight began, Keating fired three slugs in fifteen seconds, firing the Thanix cannon whilst doing so. A beam erupted from the front of the Naseby, raking across the front of a Dreadnought and leaving a cut in its hull, which glowed orange with scorched metal.
The three slugs, meanwhile, destroyed a Dreadnought each.
The pilot then steered the frigate down the middle between two Dreadnoughts, luckily avoiding the five slugs that had been fired their way.
The SF-2 Falcon also broke away from formation, heading for the leading Dreadnought.
Destiny Ascension had fired several times, each shot taking out a Dreadnought.
Keating, however, was not going to be shown up by the Citadel Fleet's flagship. As the Naseby flew upwards, she cut a line through the hull of a Dreadnought, firing a slug downwards as she did so.
Her aim was true, because the slug hit the Dreadnought and hit it with so much force, it took out the Dreadnought beneath it after it had torn through the first.

Needless to say, the battle didn't last very long. However, she was physically not able to lock on to one of the Dreadnoughts. The one she had seen the Falcon steer towards. It was almost like something was stopping her. It simply did not exist on any of the scanners.
"Destiny Ascension, this is Commander Keating of the SSV Naseby. Are you able to pick up any readings of the last surviving Dreadnought?"
"Negative," came the reply, "We are unable to lock on."
Her holographic monitor turned red.
She sighed, "What did I do, overheat the weapon system?"
Mia moved from one end of the CIC to the other with the help of a crutch, "What's happening? All the systems went red," the Quarian pointed out.
"All of them?" Keating questioned, "Shit."
She brought up the radio again, "Destiny Ascension, it's Commander Keating again. Our systems are not responding. Requesting immediate assistance."
There was nothing but static.
"Destiny Ascension, this is-"
"Your communication methods have been disabled," said a deep voice. The red lights of the systems around her pulsed in synchronisation.
"Look, pal," Keating sighed, "I have no idea who you are, but unless you give me back control of my ship, I'm going to find you, hunt you down and feed your remains to a space hamster. Got that?"
"Your threats are unnecessary. This will only take a moment."
"Ma'am," said one of Keating's officers, "All the doors are locked and we can't raise any other deck on the intercom."
"This is bullshit. Look, monitor-guy, you might think you're all tough, putting on a big, bad voice and hacking into my ship, but we'll see how tough you are when you have a fucking bullet in your head."
"You do not understand who you are talking to, human."
Mia tapped Keating on the shoulder, "He sounds serious. I think you should listen to him."
"Noted," she responded, "And ignored." she turned to the monitor again, "I will only listen when you have released your control over my ship. You can go all 'you do not understand who you are talking to', but I don't give a shit. This is my ship and my crew. Nobody fucks with the Naseby and lives to tell the tale."
"Releasing control," said the monitor, and everything returned to normal. The weapons screen began glowing orange again, and the locking mechanisms on the doors turned green and unlocked.
"I am a Reaper," said the voice through her communicator.
Keating laughed, "Nice one. You're just some kid who has nothing else better to do. I will find you, and I will be telling your mummy. Everyone knows the Reapers were destroyed, idiot. I was there. I killed some."
"My name is Revenge. I survived the Crucible blast. I need your help. Unless you want me to take control of your vessel again. And the fact you killed several of us just makes you more promising."
"Could you speak up? All I'm hearing on my end is shit. And lots of it."
"Do you want to be destroyed, human?" the voice growled, "Because I can make it happen with a single data transmission."
"Do your worst, Revenge. You can lock some doors and deactivate some terminals, big wow. Anyone with the new Omni-tool can do that. Destroy us, I dare you. I double-dare you."
"Keating," said Mia, "This might not be a good idea..."
The communicator was silent for a second, "Listen, human." it said finally.
"I didn't hear any manners in there."
"Please listen, human."
"That's better. What do you want?"
"I am not lying to you. I am the last Reaper in existence. There is something I need your help with. Have you ever heard of the planet Junthor?"
Keating nodded, "I have. Well... I think I have. The one which is all ruins, correct?"
"Correct."
"Where is Junthor?" Mia asked.
"The Armstrong Nebula," Keating pointed out, "It's the home of an extinct race that no one knows about."
"We know about them," said Revenge, "We were the ones who reduced their homeworld to rubble."
"Yes, yes, we both know how you claim to be a Reaper. I don't buy it. However, if you want something from me, we have to trade. Make it worth my while."
"If we find any weapons technology, you will be able to keep it. All you need to do is go to Junthor and land by the pillar with the inscriptions. Do we have a deal?"
"Yes. Yes we do. But you'll have to show me yourself in person once we get there. If you're not a Reaper, I'm going to kill you."
"I would like to see you try, human," Revenge responded.
"No," she grinned, "No, you wouldn't. You don't want me as your enemy. Now get the hell out of my radio."
Her communicator went dead.
"If he's telling the truth, you realise you just talked down a Reaper?" Mia questioned.
"Yes. Yes I do. There aren't many people who can say that," Keating smiled.