EDS (Earth Dating system) – October 29, 2185
Location: Elysium- Vetus System – Petra Nebula
Stellar Orbit: Vetus
Energy danced through space, and particles shone and spun as a portal between dimensions eased the fabric of reality apart. The very essence of existence split as though a seam should be parted there.
The Rubicon slid out of the realm of overlapping fields of energy and higher dimensions and back into sub-space.
Thrusters worked in concert with the hidden jacket of element zero that wrapped the warships laser fusion core, and the ship rotated in space hard to starboard with her prow lifted away from the green and blue planet with great swathes of black smoke clouding its skies.
"Fifteen Reapers on intercept! ETA at present velocity . . . Three minutes!"
Miranda studied the populated map of the system in the blink of an eye. Their intra-system slipspace jump had once more confirmed near pinpoint accuracy thanks to navigational algorithms fished out of their core data trove.
Her eyes flashed over the section of the map that showed Task Force Sabre in an asymmetrical battle with the Reapers several million kilometres away, and the Iliad, the Garuda transport that John was currently residing in was holding station another few million klicks out system.
Guilt and anger washed through Miranda, but it left in nearly the same heartbeat. Hackett and all of the soldiers under his command knew their role and risk, and she had already broken into their initial battle strategy to prevent a breakdown in their ranks by jumping into their formation to deal with the unexpected Reaper incursion.
Witnessing the Reapers behave tactically how they hadn't expected had been both good and bad. It informed them that the battles would be more challenging to manage and that their enemy would be more aggressive than expected. It also showed them potential strategies to expect, however, as a solemn silver lining.
The neural lace, which had been installed painlessly and nearly forgettably in Miranda's skull, connected her will to the systems that she focused on. The three forward most Reapers of the incoming formation were highlighted in red on the forward viewscreen.
"Scramble our broadswords, keep them in our shadow-" She paused; six of the fifteen Reapers grouped closely together and split off their trajectory from the others, but kept headed in their general direction. "-Orientate on the ones splitting off. Fire on target acquisition, if you would be so inclined, Lieutenant."
"Happily, General!" Felentia, the Asari tactical officer, snarled merrily.
Their view shifted, and the Reapers that had been moving off seemed to cease forward motion, then the nose of the Rubicon flashed. Miranda rolled her lips and pressed them into a line in time with a wince shared by the rest of the crew from the almighty reverberance of the MAC firing.
"Fir-"
A second-round departed the chamber, making Miranda wince again. But a smile lingered on the edge of her lips as she saw three of the Reapers still several thousand kilometres away get torn apart on the magnified optics.
The rest of the grouping formed into pairs, their tentacle-like mechanical legs intertwining to dock with one another, and they went spinning off at odd angles.
"Bring us back about to the first group!" Miranda ordered.
The MAC roared again, declaring the fury of Praetoria's will into the fast-approaching Reaper intercept in the high orbit of Elysium. The tungsten slug punched a hole through the middle of one of the middle Reapers, and secondary explosions tore it apart and sent fragments spinning into its comrades.
