The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge

1831. Shepard and the mission

This SSV-Normandy-class frigate, numbered SR-1, is 176 meters long and is equipped with cutting-edge equipment such as advanced detection systems, stealth systems, and extreme environment adaptation systems. It is one of the super enterprises of the Dawn Principality - God A new generation of exploration frigate independently designed and manufactured by Fort Standard Light Industry.

At this moment, on the bridge of the spacecraft, a red-haired woman wearing an N-7 combat uniform and holding a full-coverage helmet in her hand, with an impressive appearance and a heroic appearance, continued to report to the communicator: "According to our scans, This strange signal should be a detection device. In other words, the asteroid in front of us should be an outpost."

Her brows are furrowed and her eyes are sharp, her cheeks are slightly square, and overall she is a very beautiful woman. But the aura emanating from her body makes it difficult for people to think anything wrong about her. Even if her whole body is covered in combat uniforms, she can still see the explosive muscles on her body from the lines of her body. If nothing else, you definitely have six-pack abs.

Shepard - the red-haired woman's name. He was a legendary hero who was awakened from the hibernation cabin of the mothership after Tang Xiao launched the unknown star field exploration plan and had the Citadel Standard Light Industry build the Normandy-class frigate.

She comes from the world of "Mass Effect", has a series of legendary experiences, and is also the superhero who saved the entire galaxy. Also awakened at the same time were some of the legendary members of her exploration team, while other members were still in "insufficient conditions."

Originally, Tang Xiao planned to directly appoint her as the commander of the exploration fleet in the unknown star field, but she declined, expressing her hope to start with the front-line exploration team. So Tang Xiao awarded her the rank of captain, but still ordered the commander of the Unknown Star Territory Exploration Fleet to agree to all plans proposed by Shepard as much as possible.

In front of Shepard, there was no picture displayed on the communication side, only a voice, "Will the Normandy be discovered?"

"At present, we have activated electromagnetic interference, and the other party did not send out any abnormal signals. It seems that they did not detect us. Next, I will activate the cloaking device and log in directly to investigate." Shepard said solemnly.

"Agreed. But please be careful, Captain Shepard. Our purpose is to explore. Don't rush to attract the other party's attention and cause unnecessary disputes." The exploration fleet commander said.

"If this thing is really an outpost, then it means that we are approaching the control range of a new cosmic force, and we really need to be careful." Shepard nodded, "Then, I will set off immediately."

She performed a military salute meticulously and closed the communication.

Then, Shepard said to the battleship pilot: "Morrow, locate the direction of the star closest to us, activate the stealth device, go around the star, and approach the asteroid in the direction of the star's radiation."

"Okay sir." The driver is a man wearing a peaked cap and a light stubble on his mouth. He is the Normandy's pilot Jeff Moreau, nicknamed the Joker, "I Guaranteed, we will never be found there."

"Very confident, Morrow." Shepard smiled.

"Well... how should I put it? Judging from some of the tests I conducted carefully just now, this thing shouldn't be too advanced. Anyway, it didn't respond to the little interference signal I sent out." Morrow shrugged, and then Start pushing the joystick.

The Normandy flexibly circled in a large circle under his control. At the same time, its figure quickly faded and disappeared into the universe. It seemed empty.

Shepard also straightened up, turned and walked towards the maintenance deck. As he walked, he said without looking back: "You should also be prepared, Senluo, Death."

A gloomy voice came from the air, "As long as you don't let me use a sniper rifle, you can do anything."

"Pointless persistence, God of Death. In everything, complete the mission first." A somewhat hoarse voice came from the air on the other side.

Then, on both sides behind Shepard, a subtle electric current flashed, and two warriors wearing black combat uniforms and full-coverage helmets appeared. Their electronic tactical eyepieces and the energy nodes on the combat uniforms all lit up. Uneasy red light.

These are clearly two ghost agents!

Senluo and Death are their code names. As for their names, they've been dropped, well, not entirely. Because on the chest of the ghost agent codenamed Sen Luo on the left, there is a soldier dog tag that normally only manifested soldiers will use, but special combatants such as ghost agents will never use it. There is a line of Moss on it. password.

If you decipher this line of Morse code, you will know that this code is a name - Xie Jun.

"We went to investigate, not to blow things up to pieces." Shepard said, "You two will go with me this time."

As she spoke, she raised her wrist and said in the communication module of the universal tool: "Let the maintenance bay prepare a set of stealth combat equipment for me."

"You have the final say, boss." came the response from the other end of the communication, "Do you need to prepare an all-terrain vehicle?"

"No, use the stealth landing ship. We will complete the rest of the journey on foot to ensure concealment." Shepard said.

"okay."

The two ghost agents over there are still struggling with this trivial matter of sniper rifles... "You obviously don't know, Sen Luo, using a sniper rifle to kill people prevents me from feeling the fear of the other party's death in the nearest place, which will make me very Frustrated." The ghost agent named Death said.

"If you do anything that may interfere with the mission, I guarantee that you will not get another chance." Sen Luo said coldly in his hoarse voice.

"Oh, I'm not here to fight with you. Hahahaha..." The God of Death laughed dryly.

Shepard shook his head secretly, but there was nothing he could do. She knew that many people in the Ghost Agents were not mentally normal. It’s not that they are mentally unstable and easily lose control, but they often have some very strange quirks and their tempers are unpredictable.

Just like now, they can actually argue all the way over this trivial matter of whether to use a sniper rifle or not. The God of Death obviously has excellent marksmanship, but he doesn't use a sniper rifle. Sometimes he would rather use an assault rifle for burst shooting than switch to the C-10 sniper rifle they were equipped with.

Although Sen Luo seemed to be normal, he was able to hold on to the God of Death for several minutes over a small matter like a sniper rifle, which didn't seem so normal.

The three of them went all the way to the preparation deck, only to see a square landing craft ready.

In the equipment area, there were still a few people chatting there. Shepard walked over and said to two of them: "Kayden Alanco, Ashley Williams, you will not participate in this operation for the time being."

While talking, she walked to the equipment rack and took off her N-7 combat uniform in front of everyone. Wearing a corset and shorts that are convenient for movement, her exposed arms and long legs are full of tight muscles, which are full of explosive power at first glance, and on her abdomen, the six-pack abs are clearly visible.

Next to him, a man in his 30s who was also wearing a combat uniform, Kaiden Alanco exclaimed in an exaggerated manner, "Wow! Captain, are you giving us benefits?"

Shepard casually took down a black tight-fitting combat uniform from the equipment rack, turned to look at him and said calmly: "Oh? Benefits? Want to try it?"

"Haha! That's not necessary. You crooked the bridge of my nose last time, and I just healed it a few days ago." Kaiden Alanco waved his hands quickly.

Another female soldier next to her, about 27 or 8 years old, with a determined face asked: "Captain, are you sure you don't want to take us there?" As she said this, she looked at the two ghost agents who were still chattering over there. .

"This mission is just for reconnaissance. Even if the opponent is hostile, I will try to avoid fighting as much as possible." Shepard said as he skillfully put on the tight-fitting combat uniform that was originally very troublesome to put on, showing a very good attitude. Body flexibility.

"Ah, Ashley Williams, that woman is as afraid of us as ever." On the other side, the ghost agent Death had obviously noticed what was going on in Ashley's mind.

Although he couldn't sense more detailed information like the ghost agent, he could still clearly feel Ashley's inner fear.

"If you continue like this, then I think she might be more willing to kill you with one shot." Sen Luo said coldly.

"Don't worry, before that, I will blow her head off first. Haha, haha." The God of Death let out an unpleasant laugh. He looked at the gun rack and finally chose the AGR-14 assault rifle. .

"Look, that's it." Sen Luo said coldly.

Ashley Williams frowned and glanced at the ghost agent, then said to Shepard: "Don't worry, I will be ready for everything."

Shepard nodded and boarded the landing ship with the two ghost agents.

Soon, the landing ship took off and immediately turned on the cloaking device, flying down from the flight deck of the Normandy. The landing spacecraft directly approached the asteroid with a diameter of about 90 kilometers, found an area with relatively complex terrain, lowered its height, and began to land.

[The target is in an area 36 kilometers south of your position. I have sent the full scan of the asteroid to your universal tool. 】Jeff Morrow's voice came from the communication.

"Okay, keep the communication silent for now. If there is an emergency, we will talk about it." After Shepard finished speaking, he turned off the communicator.

"If there is an emergency, kill them all." The God of Death said while activating the invisibility device of the combat suit, and the whole person disappeared.

"Don't worry, captain, I will keep an eye on this guy." Sen Luo said, and also activated the cloaking device.

Shepard nodded solemnly and activated the invisibility device of his combat suit.

Invisible spaceship, invisible landing ship, invisible three people... Although it looks empty on the surface, this 90-kilometer-diameter asteroid is already filled with a chilling atmosphere.

The three Shepards moved forward, always keeping their bodies concealed by the surrounding terrain. Although there was no exchange of words during the whole process and they could not see each other's position, as the top warriors, they naturally had a tacit understanding and knew that the other party would definitely do everything they should do.

It took about three hours for Shepard to reach a hillside 800 meters away from the target. He lay on the ground and began to adjust the focus of the electronic tactical eyepiece on his full-coverage helmet to view the base from a distance.

The base consists of three buildings, with the middle building being the tallest, more than 60 meters high. This requires very high construction skills and strong building materials to stand on this asteroid with extremely low gravity. On this tallest building, there is a long antenna.

Soon, she felt a tap on her shoulder, and it was the ghost agent approaching. They have telepathy and can know Shepard's location even if they can't see him.

The ghost agent was also using the electronic tactical goggles to zoom in on the base opposite. Sen Luo said in a deep voice: "There are no living people in the base."

"There are robots, and we can see 7 of them." Death said.

"Although the shape of this robot cannot be said to be strange, it is obvious that they made it like this deliberately." Shepard also said.

Those robots were all on four legs, shaped like a dinosaur, with a turret installed on the back.

"What's the difference?" Sen Luo asked.

"If it is a firepower platform, then the crawler type is obviously more stable. If you want to be more flexible, a bipedal walking mecha is enough... Therefore, the four-legged structure of those robots and the load on the forelimbs are obviously not high," he said To be honest, there are flaws in robot design. So I think this is the other party’s unique aesthetic," Shepard said.

"Robots, the opponent can build them however they want. The B-1 combat robot also has big flaws." Death said on the other side.

"Use EMP grenades to solve the problem." Shepard made a decision. "In this way, we will not destroy these robots after we complete the investigation. The owner of this base may just think that these robots are being attacked by cosmic electromagnetic radiation."

"Okay. Let's go." After the God of Death said that, he rushed over quickly!

Sen Luo and Shepard followed closely behind. There was not even any communication between them. The two ghost agents could naturally know Shepard's action plan through telepathy, and then they would provide assistance.

Shepard was very fast and rushed over to throw EMP grenades at two of the robots. At the same time, he rolled to the feet of the third robot and detonated another EMP grenade!

At the same time, the other four robots were all solved, and the whole process took no more than 10 seconds!

After dealing with the remaining robots, they entered the central building directly, destroyed the monitoring system, and then entered the main control room.

Looking at the completely incomprehensible text on the computer screen, Shepard frowned, "This is not any language in the known galaxy... It seems that we have encountered a new race. Moreover, the technology is very A race that is developed and has mastered interstellar navigation technology... dismantle the entire terminal, take it away, and take it back for analysis."

"Then they will immediately think that we are attacking this outpost." Sen Luo said.

"There is no other way. The language is blocked and the operating system is completely different. We can't even copy the data. We can only disassemble the machine. The worst is, after establishing the connection, we will lose money." Shepard said.