Jaelan nervously boarded the massive mining transport on which his precious artifact was now loaded. He had the artifact for now, but he was increasingly worried that he would be unable to make it through the Rosetta Nebula Relay, much less all the way to Council space. The artifact was his! No one else [i]deserved[/i] to be in its presence!

The ship he had the artifact secured on was a behemoth - a Turian made heavy duty mining barge. It was the only ship available to Jaelan that had sufficient cargo space to move the artifact, though extensive modification had had to be made before the artifact could be loaded. The ship was heavily shielded and rugged, designed to operate for extended periods in dense asteroid fields for extended periods. It was never fast to begin with, but once his engineers had finished altering the cargo hold to support the artifact, they had drawn sixty percent of the power the reactor usually supplied to the engines, which made the craft exceedingly slow, although it would take almost total destruction of the ship before the artifact would be in any danger. It was almost unarmed, possessing only a very modest GARDIAN system. Jaelan truly dreaded the idea of trying to run a blockade in it.

The only consolation available to Jaelan was that it wasn’t the only ship he would have. A second barge of identical appearance would by flying alongside him, carrying his lone squadron of six fighters - cheap Volus knock-offs of the the real thing, but capable nonetheless. Two Kowloon class freighters would also be with them, though they were running on skeleton crews and their use would be limited to blocking shots or, at their most desperate, kamikaze rams.

It was with great trepidation that this small flotilla departed the safety of the mining complex on Parnassus several hours later. It would take a few days to reach the Mass Relay, and during that time, Jaelan had nothing to do but wait.

---

[i]“Long standing experimental medical research firm Halios Consortium has released details of their latest revolutionary project today. First receivers of the treatment to bring Elcor speeds closer to the fast paced speed of the galaxy are claiming it has changed their lives. Council specialists are likely to verify the safety and success rates within days, sure to be good news for Elcor across the galaxy! For any Elcor that just can't wait, the treatment is already being provided by Illium medical facilities. If you’re an Elcor and you’re an Elcor and you’re sick of Salarians running circles around you, Illium medical services, a sponsor of Halios Consortium, can help you today!”

Brought to you by Illium News agency, keeping you up to date and the latest and best news the galaxy has to offer.[/i]

[hider=News]
The Artifact is on the move! Anyone who knows the location of Jaelan’s base has a last chance to ambush the convoy before it goes to FTL. If no-one does that, people are welcome to attack it as it tries to go through the Mass Relay. An Attack on it should resolved as a combat against me.
Halios Consortium will not get any proceeds from their latest innovation until the next news, as Elcor are slow to adopt new things.
Red Phoenix’s slow, haphazard response has allowed the territory they lost to be fortified by its new owners. no further attacks on Red Phoenix.[/hider]