001- Backup Requested (audio)

[renegadedriving]

[The voice that comes through the line belongs to an adult woman, and she sounds entirely serious.]

This is Commander Shepard hailing SSV Normandy.

[Pause.]

Come in, Normandy.

[Pause.]

Goddammit, Joker, where the hell are you?

[Pause.]

Wait. Where did--

[In the background, there is faint shouting.]

Shit, Monodramon, what did you do?!

[The feed clicks off.]

Comments

[Audio]

[renegadedriving]

Not stationed in hot zones much anymore?

[Audio]

[betrayalcutsdeep]

More along the lines of a shift in the war. With the destruction of Miltia, it's become a more subtle thing. And what active skirmishes there are have mostly been between the fleets.

Not to mention, that's when our previous Commander abandoned his station and I took over as the leader of our organization. I still see combat every now and then, when it's worth my time, but like I said, direct encounters are rare these days.

[Audio]

[renegadedriving]

. . . Where are you stationed?

[Audio]

[betrayalcutsdeep]

Formerly the asteroid Pleroma, but the Fleet has been entirely migratory since it was compromised by the Federation. Before I came here, we were engaged in the space around planet Michtam.

[Audio]

[renegadedriving]

I've never heard of Michtam. Is it colonized?

[Audio]

[betrayalcutsdeep]

It was, but civilization there was destroyed over two decades ago thanks to the Gnosis. All that remains is ruins and proverbial ghosts.

*Well, there's also the possibility that Zarathustra is sleeping there, but that's classified information. Despite the fact that he only figured it out himself today and the Federation seems to have had the same idea.*

[Audio]

[renegadedriving]

Okay. You've lost me. Gnosis?

[Audio]

[betrayalcutsdeep]

Monsters. A far as we can tell, they're lifeforms from another dimension and are entirely hostile to humanity. They can't be spoken to or reasoned with and they spread death and destruction wherever they appear.

[Audio]

[renegadedriving]

Sounds almost like reapers.

[Audio]

[betrayalcutsdeep]

Now it's my turn to ask for clarification. That's not a term I'm familiar with, at least in this context.

[Audio]

[renegadedriving]

They're synthetic lifeforms out to harvest all organic life.

[Audio]

[betrayalcutsdeep]

That sounds more like Realians that were horribly mis-calibrated than the Gnosis, to me. Nobody created the Gnosis, they simply exist, and they're hostile to all life, natural or otherwise.

Not that improperly calibrated or hostilely reprogrammed Combat Realians differentiate much either...

[Audio]

[renegadedriving]

So they're... Gods?

[Audio]

[betrayalcutsdeep]

I wouldn't go that far. Honestly, they're more akin to a virus than anything else. We're not sure how or why it happens, but we have observed instances of humans who survived a Gnosis' potentially lethal touch transforming into Gnosis themselves soon after. Where they came from in the first place is anyone's guess, but I have...reason to suspect that they're somehow related to U-DO.

Ah, that's another term you wouldn't be familiar with, isn't it? U-DO is a mysterious waveform entity that exists within the interstellar network we use for faster than light transportation and communication. It provides a source of infinite energy and instils a primal fear in humans who come into direct contact with it. Actually, some people do consider U-DO itself to be God, but I'm not entirely sure of that myself. However, I do know that communicating with it while under great emotional stress can cause Gnosis to appear.