User:Teugene/Sandbox/Noveria

Description
Noveria is a small, frozen terrestrial world, barely habitable by conventional definitions. It is privately chartered by the Noveria Development Corporation, who lease out labs to perform research too dangerous or controversial to be performed elsewhere. Given Noveria's unique situation, it is the source of many wild conspiracy theories.

Codex Entry
Noveria is a snowy, rocky world, with most of its hydrosphere locked up in massive glaciers. A privately-chartered colony world, the planet is owned by Noveria Development Corporation holding company. The NDC is funded by investment capital from two dozen high technology development firms, and administrated by an Executive Board representing their interests.

The investors built remote hot labs in isolated locations across Noveria's surface. These facilities are used for research too dangerous or controversial to be performed elsewhere, as Noveria is technically not part of Citadel space and therefore exempt from Council law.

By special arrangement, Citadel Council Special Tactics and Reconnaissance agents have been granted extraterritorial privileges, but it remains to be seen how committed the Executive Board is to that principle. Given its unique situation, it is understandable that Noveria is often implicated in all manner of wild conspiracy theories.

Properties
The ratios of Kepler's Third Law (a3/T2) differ slightly between Noveria and Veles. The ratio (given T in Earth years and a in AU) for Veles is 0.788. Noveria's ratio, given that T and a are both exactly 0.9, is 0.9. Noveria's values are less precise than those of Veles; which might imply that Noveria's orbital properties may be corrected to 0.93 years and 0.88 AU.

Pax's mass and main-sequence status implies that the star is in class F5 with a luminosity 0.4 times that of the Sun.

Locations
Port Hanshan
 * Administrator's Office
 * Plaza
 * Mezzanine and Hotel Bar
 * Synthetic Insights offices

Aleutsk Valley

Peak 15
 * Central Station (including Mira's core, main reactor and passenger tram access)
 * Rift Station (including medical bay, quarantine lab and maintenance area)
 * Hot Labs

Management
Noveria is controlled by an executive board, and directly managed by an administrator. There is a strict no-weapons policy- only the security officers provided by Elanus Risk Control are allowed to carry weapons. Spectres have limited authority on the planet, though they are allowed to carry weapons.

The potential danger of projects developed on Noveria is somewhat mitigated by the inhospitable climate. Along with this, Noveria has several battlestations in orbit. Should a project go awry, or contact with one of the facilities be cut for a suspiciously long time, the executive board votes on dropping an antimatter warhead on the facility in question from the battlestations to eradicate any potential danger.

Plot
"I don't know what's worse, the cold or the corporations. One'll freeze your balls off, the other will sell 'em out from under you." - Joker

Port Hanshan
Commander Shepard heads to the icy planet Noveria following reports of geth activity, but receives a hostile reception from the security forces at Port Hanshan. There is a brief standoff between the Normandy shore party and Port Hanshan security forces, who attempt to confiscate the crew's weapons. Once Shepard's Spectre status is confirmed, the squad is allowed inside. Gianna Parasini tells Shepard that Matriarch Benezia arrived recently on business, but she has gone to one of the research laboratories on Peak 15, currently rented by Binary Helix. If Liara is with the shore party, Commander Shepard will raise the issue of a possible conflict of interest - as Benezia is Liara's mother - and either order Liara back to the Normandy, or allow her to stay with the squad. However, following Benezia proves problematic: a blizzard means the shuttles are grounded, and Shepard will need a garage pass from Administrator Anoleis to follow Benezia.

Shepard tries talking to Anoleis, but he is a rigid bureaucrat, who has little interest in cooperating, even with a Spectre. Additionally, according to Anoleis, there have been problems at the facility - a Code Omega has been sent and Peak 15 is cut off by the weather. Parasini whispers that Shepard can try asking Lorik Qui'in for help. Qui'in is a turian manager for Synthetic Insights, who has found evidence of Anoleis' corruption. However, he has had access to his office restricted by security forces in the administrator's employ, who are attempting to locate the incriminating data. He asks Shepard to retrieve this data from his office in return for a garage pass. With the help of Parasini and Qui'in, or by bartering with Anoleis, the squad finally get into the garage, only to discover several geth have been left on guard, shipped to Noveria as 'cargo' by Benezia. After securing the garage, they head out into the Aleutsk Valley, toward Peak 15.

Peak 15
The road to Peak 15 is treacherous, and guarded by both Geth Armatures and turrets. When they arrive at Peak 15, Shepard's team finds the facility's main power is off, and encounter numerous geth. When the squad passes two security turrets on the way to the first elevator, they notice the turrets are facing inward rather than outward - the defences are intended to keep people inside as much as shutting intruders out. As they head into the main building and Central Station, Shepard's team is attacked by creatures they do not recognize (rachni), that emerge from the vents. Shepard finds the core of Peak 15's VI, Mira, and reactivates her. Mira explains there are 'loose contaminants' in the facility, which forced the lockdown. After her landlines have been restored, Mira reports there are some survivors in Rift Station, and Matriarch Benezia is probably there. After restoring main power, Shepard and the squad take the passenger tram to the station.

Rift Station is heavily guarded against the rachni by Captain Ventralis, the head of the station's security detail. The creatures have been attacking for nearly a week, and the guards are becoming both tired and twitchy. The science and medical staff they are protecting are frightened but maintaining their composure. According to Ventralis, Benezia went into the hot labs and has not been seen since, though her biotics are more than a match for the rachni. Shepard can either go straight to the hot labs, finding they are infested with rachni while Benezia is nowhere to be seen, or try to help the science staff, including developing a cure for an accidental biotoxin leak. Whatever the case, the squad is attacked by forces loyal to Benezia. Passing through the maintenance bay to the back of the station, they find Matriarch Benezia with the Rachni Queen, who was hatched by Binary Helix from an ancient egg. Benezia unleashes asari commandos and geth against them, but the squad retaliates, until the matriarch suddenly stops attacking and begs Shepard to listen to her.

The Matriarch and the Queen
Though Benezia has been indoctrinated by Saren's mysterious flagship, Sovereign, her mental strength means she can temporarily resist its effects. She reveals that Saren sent her to Noveria to find the location of the Mu Relay, a mass relay that was lost after it was displaced by a supernova, but later found by the rachni. The surviving queen's genetic memory allowed Benezia to locate it. She does not know what else Saren has planned, but warns Shepard of Sovereign's power. She gives Shepard the coordinates for the Mu Relay, telling the commander to hurry - she has already transmitted them to Saren. Finally, her indoctrination reasserts itself; Benezia attacks again, and Shepard is forced to kill her.

Once Benezia is dead, Shepard approaches the Rachni Queen curiously. Suddenly, one of the dead asari commandos is dragged toward the queen's cage, and the rachni begins speaking through the reanimated corpse. The queen tells Shepard that Binary Helix took her children away, planning to turn them into an army. However, being removed from her presence meant they did not hear the queen's 'song', and so the young rachni grew up terrified and mindless, resulting in any remaining soldiers or workers needing to be destroyed. The queen, who is the last of her species, then asks what Shepard will do - release her with the queen's promise that neither she nor her children will wage war on the galaxy again, or use the lab's fail-safes to kill her. Once Shepard has decided, the squad leaves, taking Benezia's data with them.

Following the conclusion of the Noveria mission, if the departure for Peak 15 was completed in such a way as to leave Administrator Anoleis in office (e.g. by giving him Opold's smuggled package), the player can land again on Noveria and return to Anoleis's office for a short "epilogue" scene. The conversation tree opens with the administrator's curiosity about the events at Peak 15 and, depending on how the player responds, can lead to skeptical mockery of Shepard's explanation and the possibility of earning a few hundred credits for sharing of information.

Trivia

 * The name "Noveria" was derived from "Nova Siberia" (New Siberia).

Mass Effect 2 Consequences

 * If you have Anoleis arrested, Parasini will be outside of Liara's office, offering an easy mission. She gets you that beer as well.
 * If you had talked to Han Olar, the volus at Peak 15, he will send you an e-mail from therapy.
 * If you spared the Rachni Queen, there will be an asari on Illium (near the trading floor, next to the right wall when you exit the transport hub) with a message from her Majesty. The Queen states that an army of Rachni are willing to fight for Shepard should the need arise and sends her gratitude as well. The asari was saved by the Rachni when she was attacked by pirates and, in return, has become an agent for the Rachni.
 * If you help Lorik Qui'in, he will send you a message on your private terminal expressing his gratitude.