Saga of the Bridgers-Year 6

Chapter 19: Business as usual

June 25.

Another report on his desk notified Iulius that the final sorting of the capsules was over. Among the rescued colonists there were both imperial and republic citizens, meaning that the latter had been loaded on the Liberator, but not freed yet. Since neither wanted hundreds of new mouths to feed while in deep space, the colonists would be woken up once they were returned to their worlds.

The Primus had taken what was left of the Kett forces and disappeared from the Haleus sector, finally freeing the Angara from the war, allowing them to finally start rebuild their civilization and for the joint fleet to start the journey to the respective homes.

Before that, however, there was something else they all needed to attend: the opening of Meridian.

The door of his office slid open, leaving Qathora to lean in and say loudly "Hey, it's time."

He put down the datapad and quickly stood up, heading back to the bridge in time to see the singular spectacle. And there it was again: the huge artificial planet that had been at the center of the entire conundrum happening in Haeleus. He had to admit, though, that the structure in itself was extremely fascinating and left many questions lying around.

For now, he observed as the Normandy approached the entry point, now with the necessary codes to open it without triggering the defense bots. Captain Shepard reported the success of the first phase, and while the Admonitor, the Chimaera, the Constantinople and the Liberator waited pretty much in front of the entrance, the Normandy accelerated and went inside the planet.

Around twenty minutes passed before Shepard contacted the capital ships.

"Cortana and EDI found out the location of a control room. Maybe we will be able to open the external shell, but the bots here are still sometime hostile. We need reinforcements."

"I'll send you a fire team." Iulius said. "Transmit the coordinates." and while Darvos also announced he was shipping Rex with a squad, the Grand Admiral took his personal comlink and talked to the person he intended to send down. "Kryze, is your clan ready?"

"Awaiting your instruction, sir." Korkie replied dutifully.

"Shepard is sending us her coordinates. She needs some help with the Remnant bots defending the central control, so go out there and assist."

"Understood. We won't let you down."

Operations went on for almost two hours. The bots were probably controlled by something in the central room of Meridian, so they kept attacking the intruders, but the bots acted through predetermined schematics and the veterans of the joint force knew how to safely deal with them by now. With no casualties, the strike team finally reached the core of Meridian and Cortana, being the most advanced of the AIs, managed to finally take control, deactivating the defenses, which included the external shell.

Iulius and the rest of his crew were staggered to see what lied under it: a planet with a huge variety of ecosystems, all separated by polymer walls.

"Thrawn, are you seeing this?" Iulius asked in the comlink.

"I am. It's actually remarkable. I believe these landscapes serve as a blueprint by which Meridian orders the various vaults how to rebuild the worlds."

Once again, Iulius couldn't help but be taken a bit off-guard by the speed at which his mentor could reach such a reasonable conclusion, but he still replied "We'll let the Angara find out its true nature. We're only here to make sure it's safe and take a deserved look."