However the project never got out of the planning phase.

Story plan

In 2819 the Andromeda Initiative vessel Hyperion reached the Helius Cluster.

In 2827, a new prototype mass relay begins construction, the relay doesn’t need a destination relay to exit, only a special mass effect drive.

After some tests, in 2831, the Alacrity, a Normandy SR-4 class vessel is sent out to the andromeda galaxy in order to establish contact. The crew volunteered on what is most likely a one-way trip. Plans are set in motion to send vessels to assemble a relay in the andromeda galaxy should they establish contact.

Communication beacons are sent months in advance at intervals between andromeda and the milky way for communications to be possible. This is a backup system since the Alacrity is equipped with a QEC communicator with a node on the citadel in the mission control. This allows for instant communication with the ship no matter where it is in the universe, in theory.

On July 16, 2831, the SSV-Alacrity departs the citadel and heads for the prototype relay. They initiate the connection to the relay and engage the blink drive.

They arrive at their destination almost instantly, exactly how the relays used to work; the ship shuts down due to an electrical surge upon exit from the relay channel.

Characters

Artemis mission

• Sara Vasquez

• Jean-Christophe Beauchamp

Sarah Vasquez

Alliance N7 – Council spectre

Born 22 May 2802

Sarah grew up on Horizon, one of the human colonies. Her parents were both farmers living on the family farm inherited from generations. As she was growing up, she helped on the farm here and there. It’s when she started going to school that she discovered she had biotic abilities. The school proposed to her parents that she transfer to one of the academies where she could learn to use the powers via an implant. Her parents refused; they didn’t want their daughter joining a military program part of the alliance navy.

As Sara neared the age to go to high school, she was more interested about her biotics powers and what she could do with them. She tried to use her powers but without much success, without an implant it was quite hard. She knew that her powers could be put to good use, even though her parents didn’t approve. At 18, she joined the alliance biotics program, leaving Horizon for one of the training facilities. She kept in contact with her family, even though they didn’t approve at first, they eventually accepted and respected her choice.

She trained for the next two years of her live to control her biotics via her implant. She received military training and qualified to enter the OCS after her basic training. Wanting to pursue her school career she enrolled in the officer program and relocated to Luna where she went through officer school. She graduated with honors top of her class.

One year later at 21 she was recruited into the Interplanetary Combative Academy, or ICA in short, for the N program. She spent years on deployments and training missions finally getting her N7 rank at the age of only 24, making her one of the youngest N7 graduates. Serving in the Alliance Navy special forces, she eventually grabbed the attention of the Citadel security office.

Her name was put for recommendation in the spectre program. After an audience with the council they approved the decision and she was granted the rank of the spectre at 26. The Alliance Navy discharged her as she went on to work for the spectre office, she was no longer in active service for the Alliance.

When the council drafted up the project for the blink drive, it was kept under wraps for a while, making sure that it would be feasible. One year later they started planning the mission to Andromeda. Sarah volunteered for the mission, her request was granted, and she became the overseer for the project in 2828 and the mission to explore Andromeda.

Jean-Christophe Beauchamp

Alliance Navy – Commander

Born 11 July 2799

Military service was something that ran in the Beauchamp family. His father before him was captain on an Alliance vessel and his mother was an analyst at a communication outpost. It’s no surprise that Jean-Christophe followed in his parents’ footsteps and joined the Alliance Navy at the age of 18. He eventually served on several vessels as different roles before being promoted to Commander where he was second in command on an Alliance dreadnought. He was also selected at one point to participate in the N7 program, he made it to the rank of N4 before quitting.

Jean-Christophe met Sara while doing his N7 training, they stayed in contact since. When he heard from her that she became a spectre the two went celebrating together. They were good friends. When she was assigned to the Artemis mission, she tried to convince him to join. He refused at first, not wanting to potentially leave everything behind. But after the loss of his parents in an encounter with mercenaries, he went through a tough grieving period. Jean-Christophe eventually agreed to be part of the program. He was selected to be the SSV-Alacrity second in command.

Jake Bonniwell

Alliance Navy – Flight Lieutenant-Commander

Born 25 September 2795

Jake was interested in spaceships and airplanes from a young age. He played games with some scale models when he was young. When he got older, he player some video games where he was flying around ships. He knew he wanted to be a pilot. He went through flight school and eventually got to fly some airplanes before moving on to ships.

He joined the Alliance Navy at the age of 20, went through officer school and was eventually assigned as co-pilot on some Alliance ships. After he got some amount of flight time and seeing a couple of engagements, he was promoted to flight lieutenant on an Alliance frigate where he was the main pilot.

Len’ya Aveza

Asari Military – Communications officer

Born 2 February 2695

Len'ya wasn’t as gifted as other Asari in terms of biotics abilities. However, as she grew up, she quickly became quite proficient with all kinds of computers and systems. She was very logical and analytical in her way of thinking; this made her field of expertise easy for her. Being only 136, she was still considered young for an Asari. This didn’t stop her from helping develop the new blink drive. She understood how the relays worked quite easily, and she found a way to improve on it, what was previously thought as impossible.

Loni'Vusul vas Vaelazi

Quarian (F) Engineer

Loni’Vusul was born on Ranoch and spent most of her childhood on the planet. Since the atmosphere was rebuilt with the help of the Geth, now fully cooperating with the Quarians. She eventually went on her pilgrimage and spent quite some time onboard various vessels. She learned a lot about maintenance and how the various systems worked. She eventually went on the serve as an engineer on the Vaelazi, a Quarian ship.

Zeeh'Caal vas Jeewan

Quarian (M) Engineer

Zeeh’Caal was raised by his parents on a ship, he learned technology from a very young age. He always had a knack for disassembling things and re assembling them afterwards. As he went on his pilgrimage, he learned a lot of stuff related to engineering, and he eventually became an engineer onboard the Jeewan. He was eventually promoted to chief engineer onboard the ship, overseeing all the other engineers on the ship.

Octaius Rufrian

Turian weapons engineer

Octaius was born from a noble family, he lived a comfortable life on Palaven. He always liked to tinker around with stuff, modifying electronics to repurpose them, create new gadgets and such. He went through school and started taking classes in engineering, hoping to learn how to do more complex stuff.

To his family’s demise, he eventually joined the Turian military, where he served as an engineer, working on many different projects. He went from maintenance to weapons research and everything in between.

Gabilia Opirian

Turian (F) – Yeoman

Gabilia was born out of a poor family on Palaven, she lived from city to city never having a place to stay for a while. She was eventually abandoned by her parents on the Citadel around the age of six. She managed to live by herself for a while before eventually knocking on the door of an orphanage. She was taken in and stayed there until she was an adult. Since then she found herself some jobs left and right making herself useful.

Menka Kiot

Drell (M)

Menda trained in various martial arts, making him an excellent hand to hand fighter. He eventually started a mercenary carer, working for different organisations, whoever would pay the most. He eventually Gabilia on one of his missions and became friends with her. Eventually when she was recruited for the Artemis mission, she managed to convince him to join.

Bugow Azala

Salarian (M) - Doctor

Azala was gifted with an incredible thirst for knowledge, nothing was able to stop him from doing research after research on various topics. Like most salarians, his mind is racing from thought to thought, being hard to follow in a conversation about a subject he’s passionate about. One subject he’s interested in is biology, and anything related to living beings. He studied to be a doctor, but he is mostly interested in research. When the opportunity came with the Artemis mission, he jumped on the occasion to join the mission and potentially study new species.

Prologue

During the last Reaper invasion, survival of many species was at risk. The reapers were gaining grounds rapidly in the galaxy as they invaded. But years prior to the invasion, Shepard tried to warn everyone of what was coming. After having encountered Sovereign, he knew of the threat that the Reapers posed. However, no one listened.

Except for Jien Garson who founded the Andromeda Initiative in 2176 in order to explore the Andromeda galaxy. Soon after the failed attack on the citadel by Sovereign, the initiative also took on a new role, find a new home for all living species in the galaxy if the Reapers win.

In 2819 the Andromeda Initiative vessel Hyperion arrived in the Heleus Cluster, sometime after the other vessels as well as the Nexus. The events that occurred afterwards are unknow to anyone in the Milky Way since there hasn’t been any communication back from the beacons they set in route. As far as everyone is concerned, the Andromeda Initiative success is unknown.

In 2827 as the effort to rebuild the Mass Relay network came to an end, a new project was started. Scientists had the idea to create a new method of transit that didn’t require a destination relay as the system previously worked. The idea of the new mass effect drive, nicknamed the blink drive, would allow a ship to enter the relay and exit at any destination of its choosing requiring only an exit coordinate. The combination of relay and drive could in theory have increased range compared to the standard relays, allowing for exploration of previously uncharted sectors of the galaxy and beyond.

As development of the blink drive and modified relay advanced, it was discovered that the range of the mass effect drive was far beyond what was previously imagined. A ship could technically travel all the way to the Andromeda galaxy. In 2828, the citadel council authorized a special mission that could end in a one-way trip to the Andromeda galaxy. They commissioned the SSV-Alacrity, a newly built Normandy SR-4 vessel to be outfitted with the blink drive and sent on a reconnaissance mission to the Heleus cluster, where it is believed the Andromeda Initiative settled.

Chapter 1

Final preparations

Everything was running smoothly; the blink drive’s final calibrations were underway. The SSV-Alacrity could soon leave the dock it’s been sitting on for the last few months while it undergone retrofits for the spectre mission. Sarah Vasquez was the spectre in charge of the special project and the future mission to Andromeda, dubbed Artemis. The entire mission was a venture into the unknown, following in the footsteps of the Andromeda Initiative, however there weren't any footsteps to follow. Contact was lost with the Initiative during the Reaper war, the only thing we have is the available data left behind, on the multiple destinations, the seven habitats selected.

The Artemis mission was almost guaranteed to be a one-way trip. The idea was to send a reconnaissance ship in the Heleus cluster of the Andromeda galaxy to do some initial reconnaissance and then send the sister relay of the prototype using another blink drive. The mass relay would need to be deactivated to remove it from its anchor point in space. It would then be sent through the relay using the blink drive and rejoin the reconnaissance ship in the Andromeda galaxy. The play relied on a lot of things going right, tests were done prior to the final preparations, some aspects of the mission were tested.

Tests to move a mass relay were done, they proved successful in moving a mass relay using another one with a standard mass effect drive. It was feasible to move those giant structures that seemed immovable. Tests were done on the blink drive, it was proven to work, allowing a research ship to jump to a destination without any relays.

The new relays and blink drive were the culmination in design taken from the Reapers and the races that came before. Rebuilding the network of mass relays took centuries for the many races across the galaxy, as the technology was far more advanced than what was produced at the time. But the different races of the galaxy united and manage to rebuild the network. In the process they learned how the relays were built, how they worked, and most importantly, how to improve on the design. Removing the need for a destination relay was the primary goal of the blink drive. In the process of doing so, creating a new relay type and a new mass effect drive, they managed to increase the range drastically. As they discovered 3 years ago in 2828, the relay could have a range of millions of light years away, allowing for travel to other galaxies.

The retrofits done to the SSV-Alacrity mainly consisted of replacing the mass effect drive for the experimental blink drive. The ship was also outfitted with a QEC, a quantum entanglement communicator. The QEC would allow for instantaneous communication with the paired receiver wherever the ship is in the universe. As a backup, two pairs were installed, the primary one for communication with mission control on the citadel and a backup node on Arcturus station for contacting the Alliance. This retrofit was expensive since the QEC pairs were not easy to come by. But it was deemed the most reliable way of communication between the Milky Way and Andromeda, as there was no other possible way feasible for the near future. The ship was also outfitted with state-of-the-art stealth technology, the next generation of PHALAX cannons and cutting-edge weaponry should it come in handy. The kinetic barrier of the ship was also quite advanced, it could dissipate the energy from a direct hit from an Alliance dreadnought, the barrier was also able to resist for some time hits from an Asari dreadnought. But the main advantage of the ship was its speed, even with 2 of the 4 engines working it could outrun most fighters, making the ship impossible to catch.

Sarah had a new task to begin, since the ship was almost ready, it was time to put together a crew for the mission. They would go on a couple of rehearsals before the final jump, testing the standard relays, then giving the blink drive a couple of tests before setting out to Andromeda. She was waiting for Jean-Christophe in the citadel build where the Artemis headquarters were located. The building was located in between the slums and docks, having a view on the rest of the citadel structure. It took a while to get there from the presidium as the building was located on one of the massive citadel arms.

She had asked Jean-Christophe to join him in the project a couple of months ago. Since he was going to be the ship’s second in command, she wanted him to be involved in the selection process. Sarah heard a knock on her office door.

“Comme in” she answered.

Jean-Christophe opened the door and walked in; Sarah got up from her desk to give him a hug.

“It’s been so long, how have you been?” she asked him.

“Not to bad, I’m finally done with my last assignment with the Alliance” he replied. “And you?”

“Good actually, the ship is almost ready” Sarah replied. “So, you’re moving in here permanently?”

“Well, until we leave” he replied, jokingly. They both chuckled at the joke.

“Here, have a seat and let’s get started” proposed Sarah as she gestured towards one of the chairs in front of her desk. She moved around and got back in her seat as Jean was sitting down.

She opened the holographic displays of the station at her desk. She opened dossiers on many potential recruits. Some they knew, other were brought forward by the spectre office as potential candidates for the mission.

They discussed for a couple of hours about the potential candidates and put up a list to give to the spectre office. The office then contacted the candidates to inform them about the mission and meet up with the people in charge of the Artemis mission. They had a rendezvous in a week at the offices for proper greetings.

***

A week had passed, all the candidates had answered, most of them accepted the offer to join the artemis mission. Many of the candidates were selected because they had skills and knowledge useful for the mission. Len’ya had worked on the mass relays and helped develop the new blink drive that sparked the idea for this mission. Others like Loni’Vusul and Octaius had worked on the SSV-Alacrity during her retrofits, they already knew the ship.

They all knew what was at stake, it was possibly a one-way trip to Andromeda, they might have to spend the rest of their lives there. They understood the risk of joining the mission, and the possible outcome. Sara made sure to greet everyone personally, she tried to know everyone as much as she could. It wasn’t easy to get to know everyone of the crew, there was over 60 people that would be working onboard the SSV-Alacrity. If the ship was to be fully crewed, it would be over 120 crew members.

The shakedown runs world determines if the mission was to be run with a full crew or if a minimal crew would suffice. Sara had planned for a full crew, but the council preferred if possible, to send as few people as possible on the first mission. They preferred to send a smaller crew as a reconnaissance mission and overseeing the transit of the return relay.