Super Commander (Raw)

While you guys wait for the Komand'r final interlude 3, I'm giving you this.

*************

A/N: Those are the essences docs!

Crafter, Commander

After reading Inspired Mass and A Terran Resolution, I decided to make my own Mass effect fic but starting with a Quarian Female MC.

***

Chapter 1

Part 1.1

2168 CE
Attican Traverse
Ninmah Cluster
Mulla Xul class K star
Orbiting first planet, Maldor
Migrant Fleet
Laekor research ship

I woke up feeling rested and better than I thought I would feel. My name is Yuna'Hurrel nar Laekor, and I am a Quarian. Soon to be eighteen years old, it was almost time for my pilgrimage. I had six months to do everything I wanted in this universe.

All my memories from my previous life were back to me and it sucked. Being a Quarian wasn't easy despite how beautiful they were outwardly. My vision was impaired by the fucking helmet I wore. The suit was also uncomfortable and it smelled of sweat inside.

"Eww! Who is the bosh'tet (bastard) who farted inside my suit?!"

"Vot (Shit) ." Everything looked completely rusted or well worn around me.

I sat on my chair in the small cubicle that I used as my workshop, everything was indexed and placed here in a ADHD way. Unawakened me was an engineer, a soldier, a scientist and anything she set her mind onto. A genius born every century; but no one liked her because she was emotionless and standoffish with strangers. She was only warm with her family, and she felt no attachment to her race and Quarian Fleet tradition as most people were stupid.

Me Yuna'Hurrel, was also a fan of human media culture; comics, manga, movies, video games and books. Because Asari soap opera was fucking boring. Without chaos and war this society was decaying fast. Fortunately, with the addition of Humanity, we got a good injection of stuff to watch and listen to. I reached for the mini-fridge in the workshop cubicle. I discovered mainly water and some nutripaste.

"Fucking ration paste, what wouldn't I give for some fucking steak." I took the water down the induction port…

First things first, I needed to cure my immune system. For this I needed to come up with a techno-organic version of the immune system; nanites were obviously the solution, as well as genetic patches helped to reinforce my race and body with a retro-virus.

But I needed to check things first. All my Essences had kicked in, and I understood that I didn't need the fucking suit anymore as I could open a portal directly inside my ACU.

My Aeon Armored Command Unit is an Aeon unit. Damn I loved how it looked, inside there was a combination barracks and command center. It contains all the blueprints necessary to build a basic army from scratch. I landed in a blank room, with just a bed and some emergency stuff.

There was a cockpit as well, a la power rangers, it was the command center. I walked toward it and the holographic screen came alive when I sat on the command chair. The holographic screen showed me the face of Princess Rhianne Burke. "Welcome Knight."

"Hello. You're an Artificial Intelligence." The old wariness about synthetic intelligence was rearing its head.

My helmet must have given me away, because the Rhianne look-a-like remarked, [You're not human?]

Tilting my head I asked, "Is this going to be a problem? I was human in my previous life."

[No, this is better in a way. It gives me a chance to play with new data and accumulate knowledge on your species.] Rhianne seemed really happy about it.

Green light surrounded me, the sensors in my suit not even registering that I was being scanned. [Scanning, physiology…]

Warning, Commander is in extreme danger.

[Oh, knight! please come down to medical, we will get you out of this suit and fab you a better one.]

She must have found out about the immunodeficiency and the unsanitary suit… The cockpit receded inside the ACU, the command chair slid to an emergency door with a red cross. Inside there wasn't a blank sterile room but a medical drone with multiple syringes at the ready. My suit was stripped from me and I lost consciousness.

------○ ○------

When I regained consciousness, I realized that I was in some sort of medical bay. The light hurt my eyes and… I sat up and for once I saw myself, not the fucking blue Quarian environment suit. My skin was purple and my hair was long and blue black, fuck it smelled way better in the ACU than on the ship.

I felt better than ever as well! Strong, and… alert. There were suddenly tons of stuffs in my field of vision, did the fucking ACU link itself to me via Nanotech implants?

[And you're right on the money, Knight.] I heard Rhianne's voice in my head.

I recoiled a bit, my deeply ingrained, and racial fear of Artificial Intelligence kept rearing its ugly head. "What did you do to me?"

As an answer, the intelligence showed me a list of what was done to me and I gasped in surprise.

***

Nanotechnology symbiote:

Direct Cybernetic Interface: Direct, cyberpathic control over the communication devices, scanning equipment, and recording devices located in the host's helmet or Augmented Reality HUD.

Wireless Communication: Able to remotely connect to external communications systems such as satellites, cellular phones, and computers throughout the world.

Augmented Physiology: The symbiote bolsters the host's biophysical frame, enabling her to consciously adapt herself on a limited scale both internally and externally.

Superhuman Reflexes: The symbiote grants you enhanced speed reactions and movements.

Regenerative Systems: Capable of biologically healing yourself.

Enhanced Endurance: The symbiote increases the host's natural endurance.

Significantly Enhanced Brain Function: Host's brain function greatly increased, allowing you to process information and connect data together like a supercomputer.

***

"I don't need the suit anymore?" I said in a giddy way.

My eyes looked around, I finally found the old thing in the recycler, it was blue and white and looked full of cracks and a bit rusty. I didn’t miss it at all, the Laekor was a really poor ship despite our status as a research vessel. I intended to change that, I wanted my family to be okay before I left for the idiotic pilgrimage.

[Your dependency on your suit was fixed, my Knight. However, after analyzing the socio-cultural data about your people, it is advised that you still wear the suit for stealth and intelligence purposes as long as you stay aboard this ship.]

I saw the advantage, I doubted that the admiralty would let me distribute nanomachines to the whole fleet. No, they would want me to go on the pilgrimage and come back with experience to become a doctor and distribute the fucking cure. Slowly getting out of the medical bed, Rhianne continued to speak, advising me. [However, I offer you to build a more suitable suit, this piece of… primitive environmental junk wasn’t suited to keep you alive.]

Wrinkling my nose at the bad smell. “I agree it smelled inside. Do you think that we could do the same for my family? The crew I mean?”

There were some steps I could take to make the lives of my family more comfortable without giving away that I had the cure for my people. First, our dependency on Element Zero needed to go, Prothean technology was a dead-end as well. Any technology derived from the Reapers was something they expect to be developed by the civilization reared by their cache of technologies.

[Possibly, do you have enough material?] Rhianne answered.

A load of information and schematics loaded into my brain as I looked for a solution to my problems. My solution showed itself to be… marvelous. “I can… I want a large pallet of Naquadah, Vibranium, Palladium, Titanium, Rhodium, Gold and Copper ingots."

Plop. The pallet landed on the deck plates. "Eh, look I got some."

The thing must weigh at least a ton because of the quantity I asked for. Now I needed to make a standard envirosuit with superior tech to what can be found here. But before this…

[How did you do this?!] The AI, Rhianne exclaimed; her avatar looked at me with googly eyes.

"Well that's my superpower, I can summon any kind of materials."

[Can you feed out my resource allocation system with some of those materials? Steel, titanium, aluminum, rare gas and any other metal?!]

"Yeah, sure I can! Meanwhile, can you show me your blueprints? I need to make myself a suit with the material I just conjured?"

[Scanning material… What the hell is that? This shouldn’t exist in this universe!]

Tell me about it! This is a pure bullshit metal from the Marvel universe; it absorbs vibratory or kinetic energy in its vicinity within itself. Most of the Wakandan technology relies on it. I was still naked and… Rhianne made the medical drones put a black sports bra and boy shorts adapted to my physiology next to me. I put it on, it felt so amazing to be out of the suit, the air smelt of disinfectant inside the med bay, but it was better than the rebreather from my unlamented envirosuit.

Rhianne took the information right out of my head because we were linked through the symbiote. [Vibranium you say? If the Aeon Illuminate had this, I bet we would have reigned supreme…]

“I can summon a large quantity of it.” I boasted.

[You’re the best Commander, Knight! Now I need to adapt the metal to my own technology cache. But we must first attend to you! What do you want to do?] Rhianne laughed and a pair of drones entered the med Bay and loaded the pallet on a floating contraption that used Anti-Gravity. I looked at them leaving.

My eyes went back to the suit in the recycler, it was almost being eaten by the nanites. On a hunch, I asked Rhianne, “I want you to scan the Omni-Tool in my old suit. Look for spyware and monitoring software.”

A scanning light later, my ACU's artificial intelligence reports, [it’s full of surveillance programs, do you want me to dispose of them?]

With an alarmed tone, I quickly gave my order. “No! First save the data on it, and get rid of the Salarian, Asari and Turians stuff on it.”

I started to tell her what was what. The omni-tool is a ubiquitous piece of equipment in the modern era. It combines a computer microframe with holographic interface, a sensor pack, Extranet access, and a manufacturing fabricator. The omni-tool itself is fastened to the palm of the non-dominant hand; when activated, it projects the familiar orange holographic interface for ease of use. In 21st century terms, it is like a smartphone, a VR headset, and a 3D printer rolled into one.

"And all that software can be hacked and monitored by the STG, a Salarians organization which spies on everyone. They are thieves and assassins" Rhianne was already backing up all my data and the device was turned into scrap. Never again, I will never buy Citadel race electronics.

"I really hate those frogs." I grumbled as I was already making plans to build my own omni-tool.

I hated Salarians with a passion… but I hate the STG even more. The Special Tasks Group (STG) is a salarian espionage organization, usually deployed by the Citadel Council. STG operators work in independent cells, performing dangerous missions such as counterterrorism, infiltration, reconnaissance, assassination, and sabotage. They are currently very active in the Terminus Systems.

"Map of the barracks." I asked and a 3D map appeared before my eyes.

I realized that I was inside a module connected to another. Moving toward the exit, the door swished open and I found myself in a climate controlled corridor. I turned on the left and walked up to the personal workshop that was next to the armory. Walking on my Quarian feet was still weird to me, my skin was a bit chilly but it made me chuckle, I liked being this… free.

When I finally arrived at the workshop, I found myself in a room looking exactly like the iron man armor movie workshop of Tony Stark. With the holographic table and everything…

"Rhianne, have you reverse engineered the fabricators in my suit yet?"

[It is done.]

"I want one in this workshop, industrial capacity."

In a flash of green light a rectangular device landed next to me, it was the size of a freezer. It was white with a green stripe. I opened it and inside looked just like one of those fancy 3D printers that I'd seen in my previous life. The fabricator is perhaps the most fascinating technology I came across. It is able to rapidly "print" needed equipment by arranging material.

Even more with the reusable omni-gel "ink" into patterns specified by licensed schematics and rapidly solidifying it. It can even flash-print single-use monomolecular blades, weapons so thin and sharp that they are invisible to the naked eye; in this case, the omnitool helpfully projects an orange hologram to indicate where the blade is. I wanted to eventually go beyond the micro scale, the electronics in my suit needed to be that tiny.

The holo-table came alive and looked at the loaded schematic in my mind. The cyberpathy kicked in and the circular reactor appeared as a holographic construct.

The Arc Reactor is in the most basic sense, a cold fusion reactor. As we know, fusion involves the nuclear reaction between 2 lighter nuclei to form a heavier nuclei. The circular part of the Arc Reactor tells us that there are highly energized particles moving in a circular path due to magnetic fields acting upon them, and thus generating energy through collisions, much like how the Large Hadron Collider works in real life.

The reactor uses a Palladium isotope which possesses distinct nuclear properties, and as a result, the reactor produces more energy than required for it to keep running, meaning, it would be self-sustaining! Palladium is also responsible for cold nuclear fusion, due to its ability to absorb hydrogen, the Arc Reactor runs on lower temperatures while also producing electricity directly through the generation of a minimal amount of heat, resulting in higher efficiency.

“Fab this for me with the material I gave you before, Rhianne.”

[Aye.]

My plan was simple: I was going to show the prototype Arc Reactor to my Grandfather and Father, Captain Nelo’Hurrel and his XO, Netto’Hurrel. They were sensible and would understand what I came up with.

[Completion time, two hours.]

“Okay then, let’s do something else. I need to make a computer relying on crystronics.” Moving toward the material storage next to the table, I stood next to it.

I clapped my hands. "I need some quartz and a diamond and a large batch of quantum crystal."

Plop. Large gems started raining into the large box. "Thanks power!"

“Rhianne, can you reverse engineer the Omni-Tool and use the schematics in my mind to make our own variant?” I asked, this was intended to look like a ring or bracelet. Looking at my three fingers, I opted for a bracelet.

The model loaded on the holo-table. The circuitry will be made of quantum crystal and the quantum processors will be composed of a quad core. A cooling unit will be supplied with the suit. It was going to be nothing fancy, just 7 septillion zettabytes of storage and a really fast supercomputer. There will be an excellent scanning technology that I would be copying from Rhianne.

[Easily, please be patient.]

Meanwhile, I needed to code my own OS for things. I needed a name for it. I choose to go with Expanse. I began coding and working, not seeing the time pass.

To make long-term use of the holographic interface feel more acceptable, the Expanse omni-tool will still incorporate haptic feedback. No special gloves needed though. Frequent omni-tool users may opt for surgical implants in the fingertips to obviate the need for gloves. So I will offer this option as well when I am well established.

Rhianne entered the Expanse bracelet in the fabrication queue.

------○ ○------

Five hours later…

The drone brought me some ration that I savored, it was mainly a chocolate bar and some human food that my symbiote augmented body could digest. My suit wasn't ready yet, I relished the moment that I had outside of it. Eating and drinking with my own mouth instead of using a fucking straw! It was amazing.

I wished the others could live like this.

Ping!

Semi-tactical envirosuit constructed.

"Ah, shit it's already complete." It was time to get back to the prison, hey, it's lucky that  I’m not claustrophobic.

When I peered at the function, and tech in my suit; I whistled. "Vot, Rhianne had fun with this."

[I did.] The Aeon Artificial Intelligence was a quick study. I don’t know how she came up with a powerful suit such as this right from the start.


***

Armored External layer: Hyper compressed Titanium armor.

Aeon Force-Field generator: An energy barrier made up of special particles to protect the operator, area or object from attacks.

Vibranium Micro Weave Mesh: The microweave robs incoming objects of their momentum; bullets do not ricochet off, but simply fall to the ground when they come in contact with the weave.

Cloaking Technology: The cloak can be elongated, shortened or eliminated with a thought, and the entire costume can be covered allowing it to pass as normal street clothes or render the operator completely invisible.

Icarus Landing System: The Icarus Landing System allows a user to land safely from any height by slowing their movement via an electromagnetic field.

Mask Filter: A self-cleaning electrostatic precipitation system allows for full Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Filtration. It also had 16 hours worth compressed air capacity, which helped in situations underwater or in space.

Enhanced Lenses: The Headpiece contains large area holographic lensing to allow for long eye-relief and panoramic real-world/-time viewing. Includes several optical spectrum modes with synthesized information overlay.

Modular Energy Blasts: The entire suit uses the absorbed kinetic energy held between the Vibranium nanomolecular bonds and redistributes it whenever the wearer sees fit.

Climate control: The suit is comfortable and collects the perspiration of the wearer and uses it for cooling.

Musculature Motility Layer: Follows occupant's motion.

Conductivity Control: Low Infrared Signature.

Moisture Pump: Occupant Cooling.

Superhuman Strength: The armor amplifies its pilot's strength to superhuman levels

Superhuman Durability: The armor gives its user superhuman durability, allowing it and its user to remain completely bulletproof, while also withstanding explosions or even energy blasts

Collapsible Plating: the suit plating can open and close up from head to toe and allow the user to seamlessly step in and out of the suit at will. Collapsible helmet.

Sensor Suit: The suit allows the operator to see through all electromagnetic  wavelengths, as an example the operator could easily see through walls, scan all life forms and identify them. They can also create visual images based on the sensor data. In addition to ground radar, there is a wide array of thermal imagers, motion detectors, metal detectors, sound detectors and so on that can detect a target as elusive as a fly.

***

Well, I was the safest Quarian in this galaxy just with that. Okay I have the defensive armor, now I need offensive options. Rhianne looked at the weaponry available in the galaxy and said, [Those are primitive.]

"Well yeah, those are fucking guns which can't hit me anymore." Personal firearms, such as pistols and assault rifles, work in this universe by shaving off a sliver of metal from a large block, then accelerating that sliver to very high speeds using a mass effect field and a railgun. This is essentially a miniature version of a spaceship's mass effect cannon.

"No thanks… Computer, start a new file, title: Project Lawgiver."

I wanted a coil gun with tricks! Then while I thought about this, I started to dictate what I was going to do. Multiple projects were going to be open and completed before I left the damn fleet.

"Project Smart AI Jaeli'Vak."

"Project Energy/Matter Conversion."

"Project teleport."

"Project Ion."

"Project Stark."

"Project Habit."

"Project Iron Quarian."

"Project: Better Fabricator."

"Project repair drones."

"And for the last file, title it Repulsor technology."

Ping!

Arc Reactor complete

I looked at the time, it was time to face the music with my father and his grand-sire. With a laugh, I went to fetch my suit, the computer was almost done with my custom omni-tool. I opened the fabricator and took the micro-reactor in my hand, the Cherenkov radiation was dazzling. I was going to put this in my suit and it was going to be glorious.

------○ ○------

Mulla Xul System
Orbiting second planet, Utukku
Laekor
One hour later

The Laekor was an old Salarian frigate that my Grandpa, Nelo’Hurrel bought when he finished his pilgrimage. He was elevated to the conclave and was the family representative. I exited my quarter/workshop and walked through the corridor of the research frigate.

The suit was immensely more comfortable than my previous one, it smelled like a new car in there. My feet clanged on the deck plates, my omni-tool connecting to the ship’s system, showing everything wrong with it because of how connected it was with Rhianne.

[So primitive! We had better technology even as colonists in my reality!]

"Hey don't diss, this is home for me."

[That crumbling ruin? I am surprised it didn't explode yet, the eezo core is on its last legs.]

I walked into the MESS hall, everyone was here, I noticed my father eating with…

“Yuna! Where have you been?!” The screech made me stop and I sighed. Here in a dark blue envirosuit stood the reason I avoided socializing much on the ship. "Ah, vot."

This was my mother, Laena’Hurrel vas Laekor. She was a sweet woman but she was so overprotective that it was tiring for me. When I moved out of the captain's lounge it was to have my own privacy in a crew quarter of the engineering deck.

“Around.” I shrugged, avoiding looking at mom's eyes. Her helmet wasn't opaque and I could see her glaring at me.

I cringed when she came before me and pointed a finger at my face. “Don’t take that tone with me, young lady!”

Damnit even in this life I get an overprotective mom. I crossed my arms and averted my eyes from her furious face. “Fine, I was working on something and now I want to show it to Daddy and Grandpa.”

Mom relented, she knew that I always worked for the good of the Laekor crew, so she backed off after my explanation. “I see.”

Then she pulled me to her and began looking at my suit, her medical omni-tool began to try scanning through it. “Did you eat well? It’s been three days since we last saw you. Huh why isn't my scanner getting through your suit?”

“Three?! But I thought it was just an afternoon.” I ignored her question, shocked by what I heard.

So the symbiote took three days to fix my body? Longer than I anticipated… Mom didn't look happy that she was being thwarted by the ECM installed in my suit. Fortunately, my mother was aware of my paranoia. “You’ve been working too hard again.”

My inventions were always integrated into the ship's system and framework and I was the best engineer in this old rust bucket. That is why when mom looked at the finish of my suit she asked, “Is that suit new? Is this what you were working on?”

I nodded and preened at my mom’s attention on my new suit. “Yeah mom, I just finished it.”

She shook her head as I posed for her, with a chuckle she said, “So that’s why you disappeared.”

"Yeah, guess what? I am working on yours already." Though there won't be any wonder metal in it, I don't want the Salarian or anyone else getting their hands on Vibranium. God knows what those dumb frogs would do with it.

"This is generous of you, darling but…" As usual, my mother attempted to refuse. She’s been wearing the same suit for five years and Rhianne showed me what was wrong with it; some of the servos needed oiling, the rebreather needed some cleaning, and the software was shockful of salarian and… what was that, this little cluster of programs in her omni-tool? *Rhianne, please isolate those programs and download them in a virtual sandbox.*

*I was so not going to take care of this yet.* Rhianne quickly transferred the weird programs that weren’t Salarian, Turian or any other races she’s met. Not even Human; but I had a hunch of what those were.

Passing an arm around my mom’s shoulders, I said, "No, mom, you need a new one! You know what? I decided to show you what's what, follow me to go see Daddy okay?"

“Very well.” She rolled her eyes.

“Yay!” I yelled out.

I walked with my mom to the bridge officers crew table, grandpa, daddy and some of my cousins were there, eating their nutripaste and drinking alcohol. The bottles all came from a human trader, those guys were more amenable to trade with us if you catch my meaning.

Planting myself right before my grandfather who was looking downright amused by my antics, I shouted, “I am here!”

Grandpa chuckled, slurping on some water. “Greetings, esan (young one).”

He put down the plastic bottle. “My little engineer is finally up. Where have you been? It’s been three days…”

I shrugged. “Keelah, you won’t believe what I’ve done.”

My father who was next to him shook his head. “Did you blow up something again, Yuna?”

My head wiped toward him, and I answered hotly, “No, Daddy and stop asking; I only did that one time!”

The captain sighed, he must be remembering the incident. Something had blown up a drone satellite that I made with scraps and a bit of eezo. I wanted to scan and collect information on the asteroid she had found three years ago. But I am sure this was a salarian plot! They destroyed my satellite! They don't want us to have that kind of technology to survive…

He put the straw in his emergency induction port and started slurping on some kind of juice. “One time is one time too many in space, daughter.”

It was mom who asked, “So what did you do?”

My eyes fell on the person who shouldn't be here, someone who wasn't crew and was looking at me with baited breath, waiting for my answer. “Not here, can we go to your cabin, grandpa? Oh and I need to scan for monitoring programs.”

The guy was looking downright disappointed when I said this; my omni-tool revealed his ID, a San'Tudal vas Hohala. He shouldn’t be there, but it seems that he was courting my Yeela who had just come back from her Pilgrimage. The guy averted his eyes, I waved at my cousin who did the same awkwardly.

The captain's gaze fell on the fellow who had been invited by Yeela. He turned to me, his visor completely opaque but his body language indicating mistrust as well toward the stranger. “Sure.”

He stood up and walked toward the exit door and ended up in the corridor. We walked up to the bridge. While we moved, grandpa asked me, “Is this a new suit?”

We ended up in deck two, where Grandpa’s room was located. “Yeah, it’s part of the demo…” I finally answered.

Shaking my head I stopped and twirled on myself showing how mobile I was with my suit. Daddy averted his eyes, "You're not doing this in another ship you hear me?"

Grandpa didn't like where this was going, my father was an overprotective guy as well, and the suit seemed to be too sexy for him. “Oh, do I need to get some special tools for you?”

I chuckled as I made Daddy uncomfortable. “Nope. I have all the tools I need in the suit ”

The captain's cabin door opened with a swish sound. Just like in Star Trek, grandpa liked it like that, but it needed a bunch of oil to sound like that. Walking in the center of the room I activated my suit's and a little slot between my boobs appeared, and here was the Arc Reactor glowing with Cherenkov radiation.

“What is this glowing thing between your breasts?”

“This Grandpa is the hope of our people, this is our salvation. I present to you, the Arc Reactor”

------○ ○------

(Captain Nelo’Hurrel)

Captain’s cabin

Nelo knew that his granddaughter was a genius and a quirky Quarian, she feared nothing. Not even the conclave or the admirals, she found all Quarians limited by their desire to recapture Rannoch and she was vocal about how much she despised  the cult-like belief that everything will be alright if her race stayed in council space.

Yuna is his best engineer and scientist, she always came up with solutions when she maintained the ship. Now she was telling him that she had a solution to their energy problems days before the Eezo core inevitably failed.

“Cold Fusion? You made a tiny cold fusion reactor with mundane material? With no eezo whatsoever?”

"Yeah mostly 2 different isotopes of palladium, a bunch of magnets and some copper." Yuna went more in depth with what she created. "This is a cold fusion reactor that utilizes the beta decay of Palladium-107 ions as a source for the electron capture of Pd-103, thereby producing an electric circuit between two different radioactive isotopes. It produces three gigajoules per second."

There wasn't anything said until Laena pointed her omni-tool at the reactor. Yuna had swept the room for listening devices and software; to Nelo's displeasure she found six such devices connected to his omni-tool and desk. She had then proceeded to look in everyone's suit and found out they were being monitored by Salarians STG shadowing the fleet.

Yuna had cursed and promised to take care of them later, the old captain dreaded what the girl had in store for the frogs. Yuna could be… creative in her retaliation.

"Can I scan this?" Laena asked now that her omni-tool was clean.

"Scan away, mom." The girl assented, even Nelo discreetly scanned the device.

Laena gasped. “Keelah si'yah (By the homeworld I hope to find one day), how powerful is this little thing?”

The energy read out coming from such a simple piece of technology was simply astounding. "How? How did no one come up with the same thing yet?"

With a laugh, Yuna explained why. "You remember how I've been watching all this human media? Well I got the idea from a movie called Iron Man."

Nelo remembered, Yuna used all her credits gained from repairing and programming to other ports of call to buy a System alliance server on the black market full of historical and cultural data. "You've been inspired by human media?"

The young Quarian nodded her head. "Yeah, I even read some of their theoretical papers; they know it's possible  to make one. I don't understand why they're not using technology such as this. It was easy to build for me. The technology is there too."

Nelo looked at his granddaughter, inside his suit he wetted his lips and asked, "What would it take for you to scale up this reactor and replace our failing Eezo core?"

Yuna used her omni-tool, a physical one. Something custom looking like a silver bracelet with some holo-projector. Strangely only she could see the hologram construct as it was set on private mode. Quarians always did this when they didn’t want anyone to see their interface.

"A lot of materials, two weeks of work." Yuna declared.

This wasn't possible, Nelo realized. Unless she had access to an industrial center there was no way Yuna would be able to make a reactor big enough for the needs of the Laekor. "Only two? Not a month?"

Yuna nodded her head. "Yeah, only two weeks; I've already got the schematics ready.”

The young Quarian female acted as if she was throwing something that she took from her omni-tool. And Nelo received a notification that some data was being transmitted to his own omni-tool. He let it appear in public mode and the holographic construct appeared for all to see. It was bigger than Nelo expected; but it should be able to be contained in the engineering room where the Eezo core should be.

Yuna continued to say, “We would only use the Eezo core for FTL and kinetic barrier."

This was an awesome prospect, the energy supplied to the eezo core would be good for one hundred years from the calculations he was reading from Yuna's note. But… this was too clean, it was as if Yuna was… "There’s something you aren't telling us."

The girl stood silent, saying nothing; only the sound of her breathing could be heard from the speakers of her suit. She finally moved her hands over the sapphire color of the constructs of her omni-tool that she set on public and the hologram of a machine appeared, it looked like a spider with numerous mechanical arms and multiple cameras for eyes. "I have invented a bunch of VI housed in construction and repair drones."

Laena was the first one to react badly to what her daughter had done. "Keelah se'lai! Yuna, no! Please tell me you didn't!"

"Like I expected. It all came back to this. You never were scared of Artificial Intelligence or robots." Nelo knew it, his granddaughter could be counted as an innovator, she wasn't going to make herself any friend in the fleet this way if she ran counter to tradition. But Nelo didn't care, he had had enough of only surviving, that was why he laughed at the news.

Yuna shrugged, uncaring of her mother trying to berate her. "Well, no, I don't see why I should. I know what truly happened in the Morning War, after all. I've always been curious about why we lived like this, so I hacked the admiralty computer database."

Netto, his son, suddenly stood up from his seat. "Vot, tasi (no-one) says anything about what she just said! Computer! Lockdown the cabin!" The door to the cabin locked audibly with a mechanical sound. He looked at Yuna and lamented, “That girl is going to be the death of me.”

Yuna chuckled, then she asked, "Aren't you curious, grandpa? About what truly happened?"

"I already know, young one. And I think that our people missed an opportunity, my good friend Admiral Zaal’Koris already told me how our bosh'tet ancestors who survived, caused the war."

Nelo shook his head, he was a member of the Zaal’Koris faction in the conclave, they are the super progressivists in the Fleet. Damn, he was proud and reassured of the fact that his little girl was literally born in the best position to save the Quarian race.

The captain realized that he couldn’t mess this up! He and Yuna would save their people but he needed to be sure about something first. But Yuna interrupted him before he could speak. "I never understood why everyone wanted to go back to Rannoch, I am already making plans to take it back and negotiate with the Geth, but… I want a fresh and clean new planet where I can build my own city. I have had enough of living in this tin can."

This statement was mind blowing, but there was a hint of something that the girl implied. It was her mother who caught on to it first. "Do you have a plan to find a cure?"

Yuna giggled like a little girl, she then transmitted some partial data to them from her omni-tool and said, "I have already, it's just a matter of material, computational power and research. In one year I will be openly suitless."

The helmet of the Quarian girl slid off to the side and her face was visible. The rest of her helmet retracted into the suit, letting Yuna's full head out under her hood that she took off. The blue haired girl gave everyone present a huge smile.

Laena screamed and threw herself at her daughter and tried to get the helmet's part which had retracted on Yuna's back to reassemble.

"Mom, I'm okay! I…" Yuna cried out trying to stop her mother from hurting herself and calm her down.

Nelo had almost thrown himself at Yuna as well when part of her suit had come off. But it was Yuna's smile which stopped him from overreacting. Meanwhile, Laena was still struggling with her daughter trying to get her helmet to cover her head again.

"No you're not okay, your suit is-!" Laena tried again, but Yuna firmly captured her mother's arms.

With a serious expression the young Quarian assured her mother that all was well. "Mom, I already took the cure. I'm fine. Better than fine."

Laena stopped moving and looked her daughter in the eyes. She looked for signs that her daughter was dying but Yuna stayed smiling and her breath wasn't labored. When she let go of her mother’s arms, Nelo announced, "I want in on it!"

This was everyone’s dream in the fleet; being unbound and free from their suits.

"Vot, me too." Said Netto who had been unmoving for a while, shocked by what was happening.

Laena turned furiously toward her husband and slapped the side of his helmet hard. "Hey!"

"You should have helped!" Laena shouted.

Before the situation could get any louder, Nelo said in his best captain's voice, "I have come to a decision. We will help Yuna in all her endeavors."

"Yay!" Yuna jumped up in joy at the news.

Nelo looked at his son, "Netto, come. We will move the ship to the asteroid belt and do repairs there. Yuna, I will let you build the scaled up Arc Reactor."

As the two Quarian men unlocked the door and left for the bridge; Yuna put her helmet back on and asked her mother, "Mom, will you help, you're good with a wrench."

Laena sighed and slapped her chest. "Obviously, you need more monitoring anyway."

Yuna's mother was already pointing her omni-tool at her daughter…

------○ ○------

(Yuna'Hurrel Nar Laekor)

The asteroid belt was only 1.5 Astronomical Units from the planet Utukku in the Mulla Xul System, so it was easy to get to even in the Laekor with its failing Eezo drive, barely thirty minutes. Already I was hard at scanning for the elements I wanted the most: nickel-iron, titanium, tungsten, platinum and its many isotopes like palladium. For over a week my family and I focused on harvesting a bunch of large asteroids. We refilled our stores of water, helium and other elements as well.

If I didn't have friends before in the family ship, me using VIs and drones made me a shunned girl. The crew started actively avoiding me and thanks to my augmented hearing senses and suit, I could hear them calling me a Geth-loving whore. It didn't matter to me, I would be out of here quite soon. But I discreetly sent to grandpa the names of future dissenters that he should send to serve on other ships; I would replace them with drones anyway.

Nevermind that I was saving our home, I didn't want the Hurrel clan to be absorbed into another ship with unknown affiliations. The worst that could happen is the clan being folded in a ship supporting Admiral Daro'xen' faction.

It was in the morning of the 9th day that Laena, is in the aft section of the Deck 2 engineering room, housing the starship's drive core. My mom was helping me unplug the eezo core from its pedestal while my self-built construction drones plugged in the completed Arc Reactor, it was a matter of timing.

Mom was standing next to the Arc Reactor, the cable about to be connected to the ship’s electrical system. Then the drones unplugged the eezo core and with a fast movement, mom connected the new reactor to the ship's system.

There was a loss of power for 0.009 seconds, then the engineering programs, which monitored the ship’s system, came alive with more vigor. The lights which had been flickering intermittently for some weeks were now perfectly working, fueling the lights, main and life-support systems. Before the overhaul, life support systems included artificial gravity and inertial damper controls. With the Arc Reactor overhaul of the Laekor, I made a lot of changes to the controls of the ship.

“Seeing non-eezo Artificial Gravity in my lifetime? It’s amazing, we made history there.” Captain Nelo said as he watched the blue Cherenkov radiation lighting up the engineering room.

Laena was checking the graph on the holographic screen of the terminal linked to the Arc Reactor.  “System All-Green. Arc Reactor at 100%."

"Start diagnostic, please, mom!" I shouted next to the eezo core held by the chain hook.

The female Quarian in dark blue suit consulted the interface, the diagnostic not revealing any issues so far. "No bug or loss of power detected."

"Excellent!" I jumped up and down, making a little dance to my success.

My grandpa laughed and kept me on track with his next sentence. “Let’s quickly connect the Eezo core to the kinetic shield and the FTL drive. It’s the only job it will have to do for us.”

Eezo FTL drive cores work by exposing element zero to electric currents, creating mass effect fields. It reduces the mass of an object, such as a starship, to a point where velocities faster than the speed of light are possible. With a mass effect drive, roughly a dozen light-years can be traversed in the course of a day's cruise without bending space-time and causing time dilation.

My computer simulation indicated that the inclusion of the Arc Reactor and its novel energy distribution in the FTL drive would boost travel speed to 20 LY per day. This was a great, yet accidental, breakthrough which was almost comparable to the 30 LY per day that the Reapers FTL engines possessed.

But I wasn't satisfied with the current FTL system; and that's why I planned on building a prototype Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine from Halo that I planned to christen the Hurrel-Engine in this verse. My crafter ability told me how to build one and it was simple to make it with the available material of this universe.

The Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine functions by creating ruptures, referred to in some sources as wormholes, between normal space and an alternate plane known as slipspace. From my own test I discovered that it was a real dimension which could be accessed in the Mass Effect universe; I ran my findings by Rhianne who forwarded me the Quantum Gate theory from her own universe and we found some correlations between the two equations and formulas. The AI was working on it as we speak.

"We need to do something about the water systems, I thought about combining it with a hydroponics farm to allow growing food onboard."

Grandpa waved his hand away at me as he kept monitoring the Arc Reactor’s reading on his omni-tool. "Send me the schematic and I will see if we can add this to the list of upgrades for the ship."

"Roger." I saluted him with my three fingered hand.

After an exhausting meeting five days ago, we came up with a list of systems and gears to upgrade on the ship, though it clearly needed a major retrofit. I sent the basic schematic to him and… left to get back into my cabin. The door to the engine room slid open and I let myself relax a bit after exercising myself so much with the construction of the reactor.

Now, mom and my drone could keep an eye on it for me. I activated my cloak and I saw myself disappear, my silhouette outlined on my HUD by a blue overlay. I avoided the crew members roaming in the ship’s corridors until I found myself on Deck 1 where the crew quarters were located. I found myself before the hatch leading to a storage space that I turned into my own workshop and cabin. In my memories, I remember clearing this room when I was twelve years old and hungry for privacy and freedom to do my own experiments.

Even in my unawakened state I somewhat was a rebel, the Quarian lifestyle didn’t agree with me at all. Must be because I know better than to accept squalor and oppression from everyone in Council space. It was also from this space that I hacked admiral Daro’Xen Vas Moreh's databases and discovered the truth of the morning war, it was a sad one; just for asking if they had a soul, the war started when some idiots in the previous Quarian government decided an immediate termination of all Geth programs, which launched a veritable witch hunt.

Result, the surviving Quarians fled aboard their starships, military and colony ones that were kept in orbit; they all went to plead for help from the Citadel Council and what did they get? They were denied aid and stripped of their embassy as punishment for violating the Council's laws against creating artificial intelligences. There will be a comeuppance for the Council, I swear it.

The door clanged open and I looked inside to see my combined living room and bedroom, there was an alcove on the right which was my cubicle. And I only got this because I was the Captain’s granddaughter and I had a good reputation as a problem solver.

I deactivated the cloak after scanning my room for the presence of listening devices and software which came negative. My helmet slid back into my suit and I took off my hood and stepped outside the suit which opened from the front. I was back into my boy shorts and bra, free from the suit.

The suit closed and followed me to the portal I opened to access my apartment in the ACU’s barracks. I ended up in a similar but more spacious room where Rhianne was waiting for me in her hard-light hologram avatar. [Welcome back my Knight!]

She was wearing a beautiful green dress that made her look like a Galadriel expy, though her cloak and hood seemed to have Quarian inspiration. I walked toward her and embraced her avatar.

“Hey, Rhianne, how have you been?” Keelah, I think Rhianne was my best friend, I also socialized more with her than the members of my own race and treated her like a flesh and blood being.

The hard-light avatar let go of me, and conjured multiple holo-screens. [I did a lot of testing to adapt Vibranium with Aeon technology; oh, I kind of ran out of the material could you…?]

I whistled and looked at the screen with the armor which was still getting stocked. “Yes, I will refill the stores… Did you upgrade the ACU and fill the armory or what? Report.”

[This command unit now possesses a faster production rate and bigger stores for material; I also upgraded the shield generator and built a Chrono Dampener and personal teleporter, we won’t have any problem abusing it for rapid movement or escape with the Mark 2 Arc Reactor which now use vibranium instead of Palladium. As we speak I am building an interstellar enhanced sensor system, it should be ready by tomorrow. In the armory, we have ten Aurora light tanks onboard, some missiles and warheads and two graviton bombs, but you’ll have to build a delivery system for those.]

Rhianne stared at me and another window opened showing the reading taken from the surrounding space in the Mulla Xul Star System. We had all the 50,000 craft of the fleet, the Laekor in the asteroid belts and my drones harvesting the asteroids for materials; there was one ship that wasn’t Quarian affiliated in the mix behind the third planet, surveilling us.

[Do you still wish to destroy that STG spaceship which is monitoring the migrant fleet?]

I will build a missile launcher for the Laekor and put it on the list of upgrades. What was more important to build right now was the sensors to allow grandpa to navigate with more accuracy and speed. “Yeah, they are fucking annoying they attempted to hack into the Laekor one time too many.”

The frogs needed to die, they couldn’t report what the Laekor was doing. With a sigh, I decided to change the subject. “By the way Rhianne, how is the Lawgiver project going?”

Another screen opened before me. [Going well, as you can see we came up with a powerful coil-gun system of reusable cartridges which can be refilled with your suit’s micro fabricators. In addition, we came up with a utility belt for the pistol. You can feed the fabricators some material and construct the smart bullets. Preferably tungsten and copper ammo]

I manipulated the screen and activated the exploded view of the gun. There were four coils used as electromagnets in the configuration of a linear motor that accelerate a ferromagnetic or conducting projectile to high velocity. The coils are switched on and off in a precisely timed sequence, causing the projectile to be accelerated quickly along the barrel via magnetic forces.

“Do you have a prototype?” I suddenly asked the AI.

[Of course, it is ready.]

“Good.”

One of the drones servicing the ACU barracks passed through the door, it had a suitcase in hand, it floated leisurely toward me. It handed me the case and saluted me with its mechanical arm.

“Thank you, Sarge.”

I put the suitcase on the ground and put my hand on the palm readers. With ‘pshh’ it opened and inside was ‘the gun’.

“Hmm, looks rad already.” It was mat-gray and also has a digital screen that indicates what fire-mode the pistol is in, the range to the target, how much ammo there is in the magazine, and what type of rounds are to be fired. There was even a flash suppressor and a recoil suppression system.

There was also a DNA sensor in the pistol grip.When I took the pistol in hand, I couldn’t stop gushing at it. “The ergonomy is adapted to my people’s appendage, good.”

On the digital screen, the ID check appeared and changed to ‘Recognized User’.

[I also took the liberty of locking all the technology we come up with to your genes and DNA map.] Rhianne commented idly.

Throwing Rhianne a thumbs up, I said, “That is excellent, besides the black boxing, they won’t be able to use my stuff if it ever gets captured or stolen.”

Project Lawgiver was a success, like in the Judge Dredd movies it has three fire modes: Semi (Semi-Auto), Rapid Fire (Full-Auto), and Silenced (Semi-Auto). This inspired me in getting creative with the ammunition that I would load into the Lawgiver pistol. There will be the standard Full Metal Jacketed ammo, Armor Piercing, High Explosive, Ricochet, Incendiary, Heatseeker, Grenade and a non-lethal drug-filled Hypodermic Needle (Hypo) round.

Maybe for the next iteration of the gun I could go with a directed-energy pistol? Maybe that repulsor gun I’ve been thinking about? Rhianne seemed to have read my thoughts and said, [I’ve added a built in, Stun-Shot system, which runs on an internal battery pack in the grip. It fires a Neuro-Electric Energy Pulse that scrambles the target's nervous system, causing them to faint. The pulse has… theoretically no lasting side-effects on humanoid lifeforms.]

I heard the uncertain tone in Rhianne’s voice when she said that. Putting down the pistol, I whispered, “We really need to test those on some… volunteers.”

My AI companion gave me a nod. [I agree, computer simulation can only get us so far.]

With a smile, I shrugged and said, “Sure, table that for when we go on pilgrimage. I’m sure Omega will be full of pirate scum that are acceptable targets.”

[Understood, Knight. Tabling the experimentation for when we leave the ship. A large sample of species will be needed.]

Placing my prototype Lawgiver back in its suitcase, which I placed next to my bed; I remembered that I finally had time to do something I’ve meant to since I captured them. “Now it’s time to go interrogate some… prisoners.”

[Oof… I don’t like your tone.]