Mass Effect: IC-342 (Ironsworn: Starforged) Session 18

  When the relay comes to life, I feel like my whole body heats up with it. There’s a thrill in me, a drive I cannot explain or resist.

At some unknowable urging, I push the ship around and into the vector for the relay, let the gravity currents guide us in, throw us into a flash of light that puts us instantly into another system, less than a thousand kilometers from another relay, and something else. Something much more wondrous. Something much more ominous.

“MISO, where are we?” I ask, unable to believe what I’m seeing. The nebular haze is the same color as what I remember from the Widow system, but there’s no traffic, no transmission signals, nothing to indicate we’ve returned by some miracle to the Milky Way.

Yet there it is in front of us, spreading its great arms in all of the splendor I remember. 

The Citadel.

“Coordinating stellar data, Commander,” MISO says. “It appears that we have traveled to a system approximately twelve thousand light years from Devil’s Rest.”

“Is that our Citadel, MISO?” I ask.

“Please clarify query,” MISO responds.

“Is that the same Citadel as the one in the Milky Way?”

“Unknown,” MISO says. “Initial scans indicate composition and signal density nearly identical to that of the Milky Way Citadel when it was first discovered by the Asari in 580 BCE.”

“It’s hibernating,” I whisper, parsing through scan data. 

Move: Gather Information
Roll: (Wits) 2 + 6 (8) vs 8 & 2 (Weak Hit)
Story Complication: Technology or device is shown to have unexpected effects

“It appears that is no longer the case,” MISO says, pulling up projected frames full of graphs and corollary data. “Power levels are rising across the station, presumably in reaction to passive scans. I am detecting reconfigurations of external structures, as well as increasing internal pressure in the docking ring.”

“Take us in,” I gesture. “I want to see how much this place is like our citadel.”

“Preliminary scans indicate that it is nearly identical,” MISO says as the engines trigger. “It is likely that it is functionally the same. Cerberus protocol indicates that a discovery of this significance should be reported to the Director before a further expedition is launched.”

Turning my thoughts within, I stare at the slowly opening arms of the Citadel and pull in a long, considering breath. Now that I’m here, my head feels surprisingly clear. Nothing pulls at me, nothing drives me. The nod comes slow, reluctant. 

“Ok,” I close several windows on the viewplate. “Do a flyby and take a few more scans, then plot a course back to the relay. We’ll head back to Anchor Drop.” I pause, breathing a shaky sigh. “This, all of this. It’s almost too much to believe, and what it means– what it means. . .”

I let the words trail off. What it means is terrifying. This galaxy, this new home, this Forge– the Reapers have set their trap here the same way they set it back home.

We’re just early. This time, we’re the first sprouts of a harvest that could come at any time.

Move: Reach a Milestone - Vow (+1 box on track [8 of 10] )
Mark Progress on Expedition (+1 box on track [8 of 10])
Move: Set A Course: (Back to Anchor Drop)
Roll: 5 (Supply) + 5 (10) vs. 10 & 7 Challenge Dice. (Weak Hit)
Arrive Safely, but suffer a complication: Key Location is threatened.