AN: I've decided to start crossposting this. Comments and criticism to any part is welcome
Tau...
Tau...
Sirius and the Citadel Thread 2: Why so Sirius? (ME/Freelancer)
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AN: I've decided to start crossposting this. Comments and criticism to any part is welcome
Tau 30 system
The only thing running in General Septimus Oraka's mind right now was that this was supposed to be a standard anti-pirate patrol into what was expected to be a generally quiet area. This system has been the suspected location of a pirate base that has been hitting shipping around the area, and as such, he and the Seventh Fleet arrived fully prepared and ready for a fight.
Instead what they have a situation that, to his knowledge, has never been encountered before in known Citadel space, for right in front of him lay a huge construct of unknown make. It seemed to have arms that stretched on for what looked like kilometers, all of which originated from a ring like superstructure, much like the Citadel. Still, it provided him with little to no knowledge about what it was.
"Lieutenant Praxis, what can you tell me about that… thing, in front of us."
Praxis was, despite his training visibly strained as he gave his report. " General, sir, what we are seeing before us is, based on what little we know, an entirely massive alien construct never before seen by anyone from the Citadel."
"So it's not Prothean?"
"No sir, despite the crude resemblance to the Citadel, it doesn't have any trace of eezo, or any of those mysterious alloys relays are made of in it at all. In fact, what we are looking at seems to be a device that while old and certainly mysterious, is not more than a few decades old. Despite the wear and tear on this massive construction, which I suspect is due to the nearby asteroid fields, this thing is generating enormous amounts of energy. Sir, the amounts being generated here are simply unprecedented. I'm no expert, but if we could harness this…"
"We could undergo a technological revolution like when we first harnessed eezo." Oraka replied, a little sternness in his voice." But what if this is a superweapon designed by some race then abandoned for some reason? We could end up triggering some devastating defence mechanism."
"I don't know sir, but if history was any indicator…"
"History also has the Rachni wars Lieutenant. Still you have a point. We will report this to the council, as per our duty, along with all our findings, and then establish a perimeter here to keep it safe and to make sure no one else approaches the device. "
By the Spirits, what he would give for a couple of academics from Thessia or Sur'kesh. They would have had a decent idea of what this is, and more importantly, an idea if it was safe or not.
Still, unless the artefact was to suddenly go active, all he could do right now is to continue scanning the artefact, and then report all their findings. The Council will undoubtedly want to investigate, hopefully with him far far away from it.
The Citadel
In the depths of the Citadel lays a lounge. In this place, three of the most influential people in Citadel Space meet to freely discuss any events away from prying eyes or any possible disturbances. It was also a place to discuss things without any need for formality. Here, they could be reasonably certain that they could talk without anything recording them.
It was here, that the Citadel Council convened in an informal manner to talk about the most pressing and important of events. Councilor Tevos, having had her customary single Thessian Blue before every meeting to help her loosen up, decided to start with the most immediate concern. The unknown artefact discovered by General Oraka.
"You have all received the reports on the Artefact?" she asked her fellow Councillors, Sparatus and Valern.
"Yes. It is quite fascinating," Valern excitedly replied. "No signs of any Element Zero based tech, yet seems to still be active. Suggests completely different technological base. Large power output suggests artefact was a station of sorts. A science station perhaps, with a focus on experiments that would require a high energy output. Perhaps a paired particle accelerator? I digress, artefact of great importance. If we can understand that energy source, we could potentially start a new wave of technological innovation."
"I'm more worried about who built it. Are they a hostile race? Are they still around and if they are, are we dealing with another Rachni event?" Sparatus countered. "We must be cautious, yes we have to investigate it, but I think we must do so very carefully, and with a very well escorted science team. Perhaps keeping the Seventh fleet there would be appropriate."
Tevos could only agree. "I agree with both of you, we shall begin assembling a science and security team along with an appropriate escort for the Science Vessel. Understanding this artefact could advance our technology forward by who knows how much."
Doctor Aela D'Avo was in the middle of a dig. Right now, in front of her lay what appeared to be the remains of a Prothean container of sorts. It was she imagined were it whole, elegant with the traditional egg like shape that Protheans seemed to favor, but more importantly, what interested her more were the inscriptions on the pot. If she was reading this correctly, she could make out symbols that have never been encountered before! The ones she did recognize were symbols that could correlate to warning or danger. Perhaps the pot once contained something rather flammable or explosive, and therefore required care? A quick capture of the artifact with her Omni-tool would ensure that she would be able to cross reference the symbols with the archives back at the university, to make sure she was onto something.
Xenoarchaeology was backbreaking work, especially in the extreme locations digs tended to be, like the desert that Aela found herself in, but she ultimately thought it was all worth it. If just one of her discoveries could help further contribute to the acquisition of knowledge, then she could die happy.
"Aela!" shouted one of her fellow archaeologists, Cerassa, "You have a call on the CEC! They say they need you at the Citadel, it's urgent!"
"But the excavation!" she exclaimed worriedly. "If we don't finish now, it would be years before we can return, and by then some looter will have pilfered these! I can't leave yet!"
"I know. Look, I tried asking what it was about, but they wouldn't answer any of my questions. Said it was classified."
"Fine," she replied resigned to the demands of the University. "Tell them I'll go as soon as we finish at least excavating these surface artefacts."
"I'm sorry, but they said they need you there immediately."
"What? But why? Why pull me out now in the middle of a possibly groundbreaking dig?"
"Like I said, I have no idea. They wouldn't answer my questions. But, hear me out. They said that the University recommended that you go on this expedition despite what we may lose here."
___________________
Aela frowned. She would hate to lose all her work out here in the field, but if the University was recommending that she go to the Citadel despite what may be lost...
Whatever they found must be big. Maybe a beacon was found? A new beacon could advance technology everywhere by centuries or maybe even more!
Still, it was only the prospect of a beacon that made her reluctantly walk to the CEC. Maybe the find would make up for what she would be unable to find here. A beacon would change the Galaxy's situation for... centuries.
_____
Dari'Tena nar Neema could only stare at what lay before her. There, right in front of her lay perhaps the greatest possible gift she could bring back on her Pilgrimage, some technology so alien, so new that it could potentially win back the homeworld from the Geth. On her omni-tool, pictures of an artefact so large, yet contained no trace of element zero downright fascinated her. This, along with the fact that the energy output the thing generated was Huge. If she could somehow get data from this technology back to the fleet... Keelah. This could maybe end their dependency on Element Zero! Soon, she would be at the station and, Ancestors willing, maybe she will find something that could change the fates of the Quarians...
______
Leeds System
HMS Stirling
In orbit Of Planet Leeds.
Commander James Perkins was your typical Bretonian Armed Forces (BAF) pilot. He had graduated from the Bretonian Naval Academy on New London, roughly in the middle of his class, and soon after, found himself doing patrols out over New London, effectively becoming a slightly better armed Bobbie. The outbreak of the Dublin revolution and the Mollies though, changed everything. He was reassigned to the HMS Essex to immediately deal with the rebels, and had managed to distinguish himself as an excellent flight leader, managing to become an ace during his tour there thanks to his seemingly instinctive ability to fight in the asteroid fields of the Dublin system.
Now though, he was being reassigned. He was to now assist the HMS Sterling and her battle group's hunt for the Mollies out in the new system that BMM had opened. All in all, he was feeling pretty good about this mission as he prepared to brief his flight.
"Alright ladies and gents! Listen up! Today should be an easy enough run for us. It's a simple patrol towards that new Tau 30 system. High command hopes that with us there, we may be able to find out how the Mollies seem to be able to strike into the LD-14 station. Well if we see those Mollies, we'll give them blighters a right thrashing for what they did to the Hood eh boys? Right. I want you all to suit up! We leave in ten for Stokes where we'll meet up with some boffins with BMM, then we head for the gate. Any questions?"
"No suh!" replied the flight.
"Excellent. Dismissed."
His men proceeded to their Crusaders, a decent heavy fighter in his opinion, just a tad too much liberty with the aesthetics though. The distinct fish like shape provided a large target for enemy pilots, and while she had the firepower and shields to take the hits, he had seen far too many men die to a lot of well placed hits. Say what you will about the Mollies, they were good pilots, and often good shots. The ex-miners had to be to deal with the hazards of the asteroid fields of Dublin.
As he entered the cockpit of his fighter, he proceeded to do last minute checks on everything. It wouldn't do to take off and not have enough nanobots or batteries to deal with any damage the fighter might take. He didn't have to worry about ammunition, aside from his minelayer, he preferred to make generous use of Skyrails and Rippers to take apart his targets. Range often didn't matter in the haze of the asteroid fields, and he imagined it wouldn't be much different in the Tau 30 system.
Satisfied with all his pre-takeoff checks, he proceeded to alert Flight Control. " This is BAF Sigma 01, requesting permission to take off"
"This is control, we are reading launch area clear. You may proceed with take off."
"Roger control. Any Molly activity in the system?"
"None so far Commander. Leeds has been pretty quiet the last few days. Command expects the Mollies are planning something big."
"Roger control. All right flight, form up on me. We'll take the trade lane to Stokes, then to the Tau 30 Jump Gate as planned. " A hail of rogers proceeded to respond, and now Perkins directed his fighter towards the Trade Lane.
"Everything is check, proceeding to perform docking procedures. " Once he had sent in the proper codes to the Trade lane, his ship proceeded to go at speeds it could never perform, even in cruise drive mode. Several million kilometers between Leeds and the asteroid fields were covered in mere minutes. Perkins personally never got tired of the strange ethereal tube the trade lanes seemed to form. It was beautiful in a way.
All good things must come to an end however, and soon, Perkins and his flight reached Stokes Mining Station.
"This is Stokes Mining Station, identify yourselves." Perkins heard from the comms. The controller sounded rather tired and haggard. All things considered, it could've been worse.
"This is BAF Sigma 01, here to meet up with the BMM group towards our flight towards the Tau 30 system. How are you holding up here?"
"Acknowledged Sigma 01. The BMM group is on-board and were about to take off in fact. Everything is fine so far, but most of us are pulling triple shifts to make up for the lack of workers. If the Mollies were to attack us now, I don't know how the Security forces will deal with them. They are well equipped, but I don't know how long they would last without any support from either the Police or you guys."
"Don't worry Stokes, that's why we are here."
"Roger. The BMM group just took off. Everything is clear on our end. Good luck."
Soon another voice entered the Comms. "Hello Sigma Lead, this is Dr. Edward Brent with BMM. My crew aboard my Transport will join you towards Tau 30. From there, we'll begin scouting for a suitable location for a mining station. I trust you'll escort us all the way while we properly survey the system? We may be heavily armored for a transport, but our pilot can't get this giant scarab moving as nimbly as your Crusaders, and our turrets won't do much damage. We'd be sitting ducks for any for any Mollies."
"No worries Doctor. My flight we'll form up on you and make sure nothing untoward happens to you. It's unlikely we'll find anything special in the first day of our survey anyways right?"
"Quite likely. Still, I've several colleagues from different fields to properly survey the system. Who knows what else aside from Gold can be found there? And since the system is connected only to Bretonian space, we may have a good enough claim to keep it in the long run. We shall see what the future awaits us Commander. Let us proceed."
"Right. Sigma flight, form up on the Doctor. We'll escort him and make sure nothing unusual happens today eh?" Perkins jokingly ordered his flight. The Doctor did have a good point. It was highly unlikely they would find the, if any, jumphole on the first day. This initial survey would just help map out the major landmarks of the system. What could they possibly encounter in that time that they couldn't handle?
Tau 30 system
The only thing running in General Septimus Oraka's mind right now was that this was supposed to be a standard anti-pirate patrol into what was expected to be a generally quiet area. This system has been the suspected location of a pirate base that has been hitting shipping around the area, and as such, he and the Seventh Fleet arrived fully prepared and ready for a fight.
Instead what they have a situation that, to his knowledge, has never been encountered before in known Citadel space, for right in front of him lay a huge construct of unknown make. It seemed to have arms that stretched on for what looked like kilometers, all of which originated from a ring like superstructure, much like the Citadel. Still, it provided him with little to no knowledge about what it was.
"Lieutenant Praxis, what can you tell me about that… thing, in front of us."
Praxis was, despite his training visibly strained as he gave his report. " General, sir, what we are seeing before us is, based on what little we know, an entirely massive alien construct never before seen by anyone from the Citadel."
"So it's not Prothean?"
"No sir, despite the crude resemblance to the Citadel, it doesn't have any trace of eezo, or any of those mysterious alloys relays are made of in it at all. In fact, what we are looking at seems to be a device that while old and certainly mysterious, is not more than a few decades old. Despite the wear and tear on this massive construction, which I suspect is due to the nearby asteroid fields, this thing is generating enormous amounts of energy. Sir, the amounts being generated here are simply unprecedented. I'm no expert, but if we could harness this…"
"We could undergo a technological revolution like when we first harnessed eezo." Oraka replied, a little sternness in his voice." But what if this is a superweapon designed by some race then abandoned for some reason? We could end up triggering some devastating defence mechanism."
"I don't know sir, but if history was any indicator…"
"History also has the Rachni wars Lieutenant. Still you have a point. We will report this to the council, as per our duty, along with all our findings, and then establish a perimeter here to keep it safe and to make sure no one else approaches the device. "
By the Spirits, what he would give for a couple of academics from Thessia or Sur'kesh. They would have had a decent idea of what this is, and more importantly, an idea if it was safe or not.
Still, unless the artefact was to suddenly go active, all he could do right now is to continue scanning the artefact, and then report all their findings. The Council will undoubtedly want to investigate, hopefully with him far far away from it.
The Citadel
In the depths of the Citadel lays a lounge. In this place, three of the most influential people in Citadel Space meet to freely discuss any events away from prying eyes or any possible disturbances. It was also a place to discuss things without any need for formality. Here, they could be reasonably certain that they could talk without anything recording them.
It was here, that the Citadel Council convened in an informal manner to talk about the most pressing and important of events. Councilor Tevos, having had her customary single Thessian Blue before every meeting to help her loosen up, decided to start with the most immediate concern. The unknown artefact discovered by General Oraka.
"You have all received the reports on the Artefact?" she asked her fellow Councillors, Sparatus and Valern.
"Yes. It is quite fascinating," Valern excitedly replied. "No signs of any Element Zero based tech, yet seems to still be active. Suggests completely different technological base. Large power output suggests artefact was a station of sorts. A science station perhaps, with a focus on experiments that would require a high energy output. Perhaps a paired particle accelerator? I digress, artefact of great importance. If we can understand that energy source, we could potentially start a new wave of technological innovation."
"I'm more worried about who built it. Are they a hostile race? Are they still around and if they are, are we dealing with another Rachni event?" Sparatus countered. "We must be cautious, yes we have to investigate it, but I think we must do so very carefully, and with a very well escorted science team. Perhaps keeping the Seventh fleet there would be appropriate."
Tevos could only agree. "I agree with both of you, we shall begin assembling a science and security team along with an appropriate escort for the Science Vessel. Understanding this artefact could advance our technology forward by who knows how much."
Doctor Aela D'Avo was in the middle of a dig. Right now, in front of her lay what appeared to be the remains of a Prothean container of sorts. It was she imagined were it whole, elegant with the traditional egg like shape that Protheans seemed to favor, but more importantly, what interested her more were the inscriptions on the pot. If she was reading this correctly, she could make out symbols that have never been encountered before! The ones she did recognize were symbols that could correlate to warning or danger. Perhaps the pot once contained something rather flammable or explosive, and therefore required care? A quick capture of the artifact with her Omni-tool would ensure that she would be able to cross reference the symbols with the archives back at the university, to make sure she was onto something.
Xenoarchaeology was backbreaking work, especially in the extreme locations digs tended to be, like the desert that Aela found herself in, but she ultimately thought it was all worth it. If just one of her discoveries could help further contribute to the acquisition of knowledge, then she could die happy.
"Aela!" shouted one of her fellow archaeologists, Cerassa, "You have a call on the CEC! They say they need you at the Citadel, it's urgent!"
"But the excavation!" she exclaimed worriedly. "If we don't finish now, it would be years before we can return, and by then some looter will have pilfered these! I can't leave yet!"
"I know. Look, I tried asking what it was about, but they wouldn't answer any of my questions. Said it was classified."
"Fine," she replied resigned to the demands of the University. "Tell them I'll go as soon as we finish at least excavating these surface artefacts."
"I'm sorry, but they said they need you there immediately."
"What? But why? Why pull me out now in the middle of a possibly groundbreaking dig?"
"Like I said, I have no idea. They wouldn't answer my questions. But, hear me out. They said that the University recommended that you go on this expedition despite what we may lose here."
___________________
Aela frowned. She would hate to lose all her work out here in the field, but if the University was recommending that she go to the Citadel despite what may be lost...
Whatever they found must be big. Maybe a beacon was found? A new beacon could advance technology everywhere by centuries or maybe even more!
Still, it was only the prospect of a beacon that made her reluctantly walk to the CEC. Maybe the find would make up for what she would be unable to find here. A beacon would change the Galaxy's situation for... centuries.
_____
Dari'Tena nar Neema could only stare at what lay before her. There, right in front of her lay perhaps the greatest possible gift she could bring back on her Pilgrimage, some technology so alien, so new that it could potentially win back the homeworld from the Geth. On her omni-tool, pictures of an artefact so large, yet contained no trace of element zero downright fascinated her. This, along with the fact that the energy output the thing generated was Huge. If she could somehow get data from this technology back to the fleet... Keelah. This could maybe end their dependency on Element Zero! Soon, she would be at the station and, Ancestors willing, maybe she will find something that could change the fates of the Quarians...
______
Leeds System
HMS Stirling
In orbit Of Planet Leeds.
Commander James Perkins was your typical Bretonian Armed Forces (BAF) pilot. He had graduated from the Bretonian Naval Academy on New London, roughly in the middle of his class, and soon after, found himself doing patrols out over New London, effectively becoming a slightly better armed Bobbie. The outbreak of the Dublin revolution and the Mollies though, changed everything. He was reassigned to the HMS Essex to immediately deal with the rebels, and had managed to distinguish himself as an excellent flight leader, managing to become an ace during his tour there thanks to his seemingly instinctive ability to fight in the asteroid fields of the Dublin system.
Now though, he was being reassigned. He was to now assist the HMS Sterling and her battle group's hunt for the Mollies out in the new system that BMM had opened. All in all, he was feeling pretty good about this mission as he prepared to brief his flight.
"Alright ladies and gents! Listen up! Today should be an easy enough run for us. It's a simple patrol towards that new Tau 30 system. High command hopes that with us there, we may be able to find out how the Mollies seem to be able to strike into the LD-14 station. Well if we see those Mollies, we'll give them blighters a right thrashing for what they did to the Hood eh boys? Right. I want you all to suit up! We leave in ten for Stokes where we'll meet up with some boffins with BMM, then we head for the gate. Any questions?"
"No suh!" replied the flight.
"Excellent. Dismissed."
His men proceeded to their Crusaders, a decent heavy fighter in his opinion, just a tad too much liberty with the aesthetics though. The distinct fish like shape provided a large target for enemy pilots, and while she had the firepower and shields to take the hits, he had seen far too many men die to a lot of well placed hits. Say what you will about the Mollies, they were good pilots, and often good shots. The ex-miners had to be to deal with the hazards of the asteroid fields of Dublin.
As he entered the cockpit of his fighter, he proceeded to do last minute checks on everything. It wouldn't do to take off and not have enough nanobots or batteries to deal with any damage the fighter might take. He didn't have to worry about ammunition, aside from his minelayer, he preferred to make generous use of Skyrails and Rippers to take apart his targets. Range often didn't matter in the haze of the asteroid fields, and he imagined it wouldn't be much different in the Tau 30 system.
Satisfied with all his pre-takeoff checks, he proceeded to alert Flight Control. " This is BAF Sigma 01, requesting permission to take off"
"This is control, we are reading launch area clear. You may proceed with take off."
"Roger control. Any Molly activity in the system?"
"None so far Commander. Leeds has been pretty quiet the last few days. Command expects the Mollies are planning something big."
"Roger control. All right flight, form up on me. We'll take the trade lane to Stokes, then to the Tau 30 Jump Gate as planned. " A hail of rogers proceeded to respond, and now Perkins directed his fighter towards the Trade Lane.
"Everything is check, proceeding to perform docking procedures. " Once he had sent in the proper codes to the Trade lane, his ship proceeded to go at speeds it could never perform, even in cruise drive mode. Several million kilometers between Leeds and the asteroid fields were covered in mere minutes. Perkins personally never got tired of the strange ethereal tube the trade lanes seemed to form. It was beautiful in a way.
All good things must come to an end however, and soon, Perkins and his flight reached Stokes Mining Station.
"This is Stokes Mining Station, identify yourselves." Perkins heard from the comms. The controller sounded rather tired and haggard. All things considered, it could've been worse.
"This is BAF Sigma 01, here to meet up with the BMM group towards our flight towards the Tau 30 system. How are you holding up here?"
"Acknowledged Sigma 01. The BMM group is on-board and were about to take off in fact. Everything is fine so far, but most of us are pulling triple shifts to make up for the lack of workers. If the Mollies were to attack us now, I don't know how the Security forces will deal with them. They are well equipped, but I don't know how long they would last without any support from either the Police or you guys."
"Don't worry Stokes, that's why we are here."
"Roger. The BMM group just took off. Everything is clear on our end. Good luck."
Soon another voice entered the Comms. "Hello Sigma Lead, this is Dr. Edward Brent with BMM. My crew aboard my Transport will join you towards Tau 30. From there, we'll begin scouting for a suitable location for a mining station. I trust you'll escort us all the way while we properly survey the system? We may be heavily armored for a transport, but our pilot can't get this giant scarab moving as nimbly as your Crusaders, and our turrets won't do much damage. We'd be sitting ducks for any for any Mollies."
"No worries Doctor. My flight we'll form up on you and make sure nothing untoward happens to you. It's unlikely we'll find anything special in the first day of our survey anyways right?"
"Quite likely. Still, I've several colleagues from different fields to properly survey the system. Who knows what else aside from Gold can be found there? And since the system is connected only to Bretonian space, we may have a good enough claim to keep it in the long run. We shall see what the future awaits us Commander. Let us proceed."
"Right. Sigma flight, form up on the Doctor. We'll escort him and make sure nothing unusual happens today eh?" Perkins jokingly ordered his flight. The Doctor did have a good point. It was highly unlikely they would find the, if any, jumphole on the first day. This initial survey would just help map out the major landmarks of the system. What could they possibly encounter in that time that they couldn't handle?
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Aboard the Silaris Science Vessel
Tau 30 system
Upon seeing the artefact Aela abandoned her dig for, all she could think was "Goddess that's huge."The… thing was simply massive, seemingly capable of fitting an entire dreadnaught within those arms of theirs. Perhaps this was a hub of sorts, similar to the Citadel? There was simply no way to tell though with just her cursory inspection. Unlike ancient Prothean artefacts like Mass Relays or the Citadel, it didn't have a smoothed, clean aesthetic. This was an artefact designed to be rough and tough and do whatever it was meant to do.
Just what was this artefact for? Who made it? How old is it? What can it do? She could make rough guesses based on appearances alone. It was likely that whoever made this artefact was of a very practical mind. There was a certain roughishness to it that Prothean artefacts didn't have. Furthermore it was tough. There were signs of some damage on the gate itself, likely hits from stray asteroids from the nearby fields. Beyond that though, the team was to find out just what exactly it was.
"The Fleet could certainly learn a thing or two from whoever built this." said a Quarian next to her.
"Pardon?" she asked, with the slightest hint of curiosity.
"Back on the fleet, I was, like many of us, a mechanic and engineer. We had to deal with repairing and keeping ancient ships for a long time. This has been here for who knows how long, but I can tell its tough. Notice the lack of any windows are seemingly any room for crew? This was likely a fully automated station, meant to go on without any assistance whatsoever. Whoever built these things built them to last with little to no maintenance. And unlike the Protheans, I think we can duplicate this one. The scans show that the alloy used in its construction isn't entirely foreign to us. In fact,while we are detecting many very familiar or similar alloys or elements, we haven't detected anything too alien in terms of material or design, except for one thing. This thing has no traces of Element Zero whatsoever."
"None at all? But to build something so massive…"
"They must have been masters of engineering to build something so big and yet so massive without any element zero. I wonder if this is the largest thing they could've built or did they build any bigger? Oh the things we could learn from this alone…"
Aela gave his views some thought. They seemed to make sense..."I think you are onto something there. I'm sorry though, I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Dr. Aela D'Avo, apparent Lead Archaeologist for this expedition. You are?"
"Dari'Teema nar Neema, you can call me Dari. I was recruited into this, surprisingly enough, as a Technological consultant for this expedition. They hope that my experience as a mechanic and programmer will help in deciphering the alien programming. Hope." she said with the slightest hint of sarcasm.
"Well it's a pleasure to meet you Dari. I look forward to working with you. I'm sure you'll learn something worthwhile to send back to the fleet here." she said encouragingly
"I'm sure we will. I'm more worried about our security though. Knowing those Turians on that small patrol fleet of theirs, if we trigger something on the artefact, they may just destroy it before we figure out what it was about to do." Dari replied, clearly showing her... dislike for the Turians.
"The Turians are more disciplined than that. They will not fire till they show some sort of clear sign of aggression, and at that point, it is better to be alive and wondering what ifs than dead yes?" she replied.
"True. You have to wonder though, did they have to keep the entire Seventh here, along with that Dreadnaught of theirs? Isn't that a little overkill?" she said as she pointed as said ship.
The Gladius was one of the newer Dreadnoughts of the Turian Navy. At 1.3 km long, she was also one of the larger ones. Her crew may be unbloodied, but they were well trained and were led by the General who discovered this in the first place, General Septimus Oraka. Still, next to the… thing it was small in comparison. Easily enveloped by it in fact.
"While unusual, I expect it is to deter any pirates that may stumble upon us. That would be the last thing we would want to happen while we were up close examining the artefact yes?" she said, though she couldn't help but agree with Dari a bit on how unusual it was for a Dreadnought to escort them. Though she did feel that it may be a little bit of caution, just in case they may be dealing with a new Rachni event. Better safe than sorry.
"Yes. Well I better get ready. We are going to approach the artefact for some more detailed scans soon. Then we go and try and find an access point to see the insides of this. It was good to meet you Aela" said Dari.
"Likewise. I best be getting ready as well." Said Aela before she left for her station. Here thanks to the computers in front of her, she could make out all sorts of data the scans will provide. More detailed visuals of the artefact, more data on its energy output and so much more.
"This is your captain speaking, we are now making our approach to the artefact. All personnel, please proceed to your stations and standby for new data." rang the comms of the ship.
Aela was already at her station, so she just patiently waited as her displays showed her ship approaching the artefact. Soon the Silaris was a kilometer away from the arms of the artefact. Now though, her displays were displaying something interesting. The power signatures of the artefact were getting higher. Worryingly so. "Captain T'Loni, the artefact seems to be generating increased energy signatures. Is my display malfunctioning?"
"No Dr.D'Avo, they aren't. We are detecting it as well. It seems to be concentrat-Goddess, look at that!"
A visual feed from outside the ship was now being played on displays across the fleet. The arms of the artefact were now opening and an anomaly , a great vortex of energy, was now seemingly forming in the middle of the ring the artefact formed. As she continued to observe the anomaly, she couldn't help but hear one of the other officers on the bridge report "Captain T'Loni, the anomaly seems to be getting bigger and the Turians are powering up weapons! They are preparing to destroy the artefact!"
"Comms! Get me Oraka now!" said the Captain with as much steel as she could muster.
"Hailing the Gladius ma'am! She's responding! Putting her up on comms now."
"Oraka here. We're powering up weapons now and we expect you to move out of our line of fire soon. What is it that you want Silaris?"
"What I want Oraka, is that you stand down and get those ships of yours to hold their fire!"
"Captain T'Loni, that thing over there is generating incredibly anomalous energy signatures which started when the Silaris started to approach. It's clear to me you've triggered a defence mechanism of some sort, and it looks like it's powering up something big. Now pull back and let us save your ship and likely rest of the fleet here as well."
"Oraka that thing could just be harnessing a natural anomaly we aren't aware of! Stand down!"
"That's not something I'm willing to risk Captain T'Loni, now move out of the way!"
"Oraka, if you destroy that artefact, we'll never likely find something like it ag-"
"Captain! I'm reading signatures coming from the anomaly! It appears to be… a few shuttles and a freighter! Completely unknown make!" interrupted her Sensor officer.
"Oraka! Stand down! We could be dealing with a first contact!"
It was quiet on Oraka's end for a while, but then he responded" I've confirmed reports that there are indeed unknowns coming out of that anomaly. We won't open fire, but the moment that they do something hostile, we're tearing that thing and them down. "
"Thank you general. "replied the T'Loni, relief clear in her voice. "Now, I want-"
"Captain! I'm receiving a message from the shuttles on several wavelengths! Playing now."
"Seo Cheannasaí Perkins de na Fórsaí Armtha na Breataine. Tá tú ar chríoch éileamh ag an Ríocht na Breataine. Cuirimid fáilte roimh tú i síocháin. Tá súil agam i ndáiríre go atá tú ag teacht ar roinnt tae agus nach bhfuil a mharú dúinn go léir."
Silence reigned in the bridge. Everyone was shocked. This… this was first contact, possibly with the species that made this… thing.
Aela though, had come to one conclusion. The Artefact was a… FTL of sorts. It was the only way those ships could have arrived so suddenly.
"Captain." she quietly spoke, yet somehow her voice rang throughout the bridge. " I think… that whoever are in those ships that came out of the anomaly, they built this thing. I also think... that this... gate... is their FTL."
"This… is certainly a most interesting day. Comms, send the first package, I do believe one rotation of the local planet should be enough time for them to decrypt it. We should go into orbit around there and then await them there. "
"What about the General?"
"Inform him that the situation has changed. We are now dealing with a live alien race, and as such, to assume First Contact protocols. We will orbit around the local planet and await them to decrypt the package, and hopefully find enough time for them to communicate, if really primitively with us.
____
Despite centuries of Social Tradition of being calm in the face of adversity, there was very little Commander Perkins could do once he saw the small fleet in front of him. in fact, the first words that came out of his mouth were "Bugger."
Still, training took hold soon after. This was an unidentified fleet, and God knew only knew where they came from, they might have even been Coalition ships for crying out loud, he had to let them know that this was Bretonian space.
"This is Commander Perkins of the Bretonian Armed Forces. You are on territory claimed by the Kingdom of Bretonia. We welcome you in the name of peace, but if you come seeking war, then be prepared to face a good thrashing." he announced, in as cool a manner he could, on the comm on all frequencies, just to be sure.
He also immediately switched to his flight's frequency after sending that open message. "Alright ladies and gents, you too Doctor listen up, I want no one to fire till fired upon,if they do, we all hightail it back through the gate and go lock it. We block things off here and inform High Command that we're under attack. Don't wait for all of us to go through, just whoever gets on the other side, go lock the gate. "
Perkins received a round of affirmatives all around, and he mentally prepared himself to possibly die in the service of his King and Country.
The next minute of blissful peace and no energy build up were a very pleasant revelation.
The fact that he received an information package from them too certainly helped calm things down a bit. Still, he was still quite tensed up and ready to unleash hell when he noticed the small fleet move. He at first thought that perhaps they were closing in for better range till he noticed them turn around, and according to his sensors anyway, head to the local planet.
"Thank God." was all he could really say at this point. He and his men weren't dead and they would very likely go on and continue living for now.
"Commander" interrupted the comms, it was Doctor Brent.
"Yes Doctor?"
"I've analyzed the information packet they've sent us… we've just made first contact Commander. This is an alien race, at least based on the image they've sent alone. It also looks like, at least based on the images they're sending on this package, they want to meet us... around the orbit of the planet in this system in about one rotation of it. That's roughly 37 hours Commander. "
Well that certainly complicated things. "Damn." There went this being an uncomplicated mission." So, we've just met a race of aliens with a fleet just parked inside space claimed by Bretonia"
"Essentially, yes Commander.However, I must add based on what they've sent alone that they are a rather peaceful; bunch, likely explorers. If they were hostile, I don't imagine they would've let us leave alive now, let alone send an information package. "
"Doctor, are you sure they didn't piggybank a virus or something onto that package? Maybe they wanted us to open it so that they can access our Neural net. "
"I don't think so Commander, this is all remarkably basic scientific information, numbers, basic elements, etc. I'm… relatively confident that whatever we've opened, we're capable of handling the consequences. Why, I do believe that me and my team can even come up with a rough translation index given the information they've sent us. I honestly believe that these are a peaceful people."
"Fine Doctor. " sighed Perkins. He was hardly in a position to reverse what the Doctor had done. "Just do be careful and remember to set up proper quarantine protocols. I'll go and report this to High Command. They'll give us further orders and hopefully, they'll have someone better equipped to handle this."
"Right Commander. Good luck."
Knowing just how fast the Bureaucracy moved in Bretonia, Perkins honestly believed that he would need it. Perkins then opened up the comms and prepared to talk to Captain Dunbar.
"This is Commander Perkins of Sigma flight to HMS Stirling. We've uh… encountered non-human lifeforms Stirling.Requesting orders."
"Perkins, this is Captain Dunbar, we're rather busy at the moment holding off possibly the largest Molly excursion ever onto the LD-14 plant and from what New London is saying, several simultaneous bombings across Bretonia, so unless those microbes are making conversation with you, I don't exactly see how this necessitates a change in orders."
"Thats just it sir, these aliens ARE talking back. We're talking about a genuine first contact situation. They want us to meet in orbit around the local planet here in approximately 37 hours. What are your orders sir?"
A worrying moment of silence dominated the comms for a minute. For a while, Perkins thought that he had just underwent a Bureaucratic nightmare and would have to wait the next few hours just for a reply, at least until he heard his comm crackle to life.
"Perkins, I'm going to ask you to wait for a while. This situation you handed me is simply far too important for me alone to give you any orders on this situation beyond you holding position and to simply observe the aliens. Expect to hear from me in an hour. I'll try and reach what elements of High Command that aren't actively frothing at the mouth against the Mollies."
"Copy that sir. I'll make sure nothing fishy goes on with the aliens. Perkins out."
The next hour was perhaps one of the more… tense ones Perkins has had in his career. It was an hour of carefully observing the alien ships on his sensors and keeping an eye out on the Doctor's transport, just in case anything malicious was in that information packet.While the alien ships did absolutely nothing, save orbit the planet, it was still quite nerve wracking to observe them. The human imagination is a terrible terrible thing to have in a situation like this, and with Perkins' rather active one, he wasn't really enjoying the images it gave him so far. He was incredibly relieved when his own comm sparked to life with a message from Captain Dunbar.
"Perkins, this is perhaps the absolute worst time for this to happen." And there went the relief. " Things are in chaos in High Command what with the bombings the Mollys have pulled off. Many civies are dead back on New London and Leeds and honestly, it'll take far too long for any properly trained diplomat to be sent there." That sent far too many tingles down his spine. The same kind that warned him while flying in Dublin." I've been authorised by His Majesty that, until Lord Barstow can get there, which at best speed is around 48 hours considering that he is coming from a trade meeting on Curacao, you are to act as His Majesty's representative in this most historic occasion. You have been authorized to greet them, encourage talks of non-aggression, peace and cultural exchange, nothing more. The moment Lord Barstow and consequently the Stirling arrives there, you are to report back and brief us on what you manage to learn from them. God Help us all Commander. Good luck and Godspeed."
Well Damn. There went going home for a nice cuppa. Still orders were orders, and all things considered, this was an exceptionally fast response from High Command.
"Alright ladies and gents, we have new orders from His Majesty himself. The Mollies have bombed New London and Leeds and things are quite chaotic now. There is simply no way for a Diplomat to be sent here within the timeframe the aliens have sent us. His Majesty has decided" and here Perkins paused and tried to say the next bit with as much dignity as possible. " to send me instead as the representative of Bretonia. "
"Well bugger us sir." replied Thatcher.
"I personally agree with you Thatch, but orders are orders and there i simply no way to tell if the aliens would react in a hostile manner if we were to not meet them here. " Perkins replied, despite hating his brand new appointment as a representative of His Majesty's government.
"Right lads and ladies, since we've about 36 more hours till the meeting, let's go and do a patrol around the system and do what we came here to do originally, no sense in being unproductive, then we'll have to go and camp out in our ships today till the hour of the meet. Clear?"
A round of clears entered his comm and now Perkin had some more specific orders for the Doctor.
"Alright Doctor Brent, I want you and your team to work on that information packet of theirs at best speed. If you can come up with a translation index, no matter how primitive, it would be great. We've 36 hours till that meeting Doctor, and despite the tradition of Britons going into the unknown with nothing more than a stiff upper lip and his dignity, I'd rather like to have some knowledge of what those aliens are saying."
Tau 30 system
Upon seeing the artefact Aela abandoned her dig for, all she could think was "Goddess that's huge."The… thing was simply massive, seemingly capable of fitting an entire dreadnaught within those arms of theirs. Perhaps this was a hub of sorts, similar to the Citadel? There was simply no way to tell though with just her cursory inspection. Unlike ancient Prothean artefacts like Mass Relays or the Citadel, it didn't have a smoothed, clean aesthetic. This was an artefact designed to be rough and tough and do whatever it was meant to do.
Just what was this artefact for? Who made it? How old is it? What can it do? She could make rough guesses based on appearances alone. It was likely that whoever made this artefact was of a very practical mind. There was a certain roughishness to it that Prothean artefacts didn't have. Furthermore it was tough. There were signs of some damage on the gate itself, likely hits from stray asteroids from the nearby fields. Beyond that though, the team was to find out just what exactly it was.
"The Fleet could certainly learn a thing or two from whoever built this." said a Quarian next to her.
"Pardon?" she asked, with the slightest hint of curiosity.
"Back on the fleet, I was, like many of us, a mechanic and engineer. We had to deal with repairing and keeping ancient ships for a long time. This has been here for who knows how long, but I can tell its tough. Notice the lack of any windows are seemingly any room for crew? This was likely a fully automated station, meant to go on without any assistance whatsoever. Whoever built these things built them to last with little to no maintenance. And unlike the Protheans, I think we can duplicate this one. The scans show that the alloy used in its construction isn't entirely foreign to us. In fact,while we are detecting many very familiar or similar alloys or elements, we haven't detected anything too alien in terms of material or design, except for one thing. This thing has no traces of Element Zero whatsoever."
"None at all? But to build something so massive…"
"They must have been masters of engineering to build something so big and yet so massive without any element zero. I wonder if this is the largest thing they could've built or did they build any bigger? Oh the things we could learn from this alone…"
Aela gave his views some thought. They seemed to make sense..."I think you are onto something there. I'm sorry though, I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Dr. Aela D'Avo, apparent Lead Archaeologist for this expedition. You are?"
"Dari'Teema nar Neema, you can call me Dari. I was recruited into this, surprisingly enough, as a Technological consultant for this expedition. They hope that my experience as a mechanic and programmer will help in deciphering the alien programming. Hope." she said with the slightest hint of sarcasm.
"Well it's a pleasure to meet you Dari. I look forward to working with you. I'm sure you'll learn something worthwhile to send back to the fleet here." she said encouragingly
"I'm sure we will. I'm more worried about our security though. Knowing those Turians on that small patrol fleet of theirs, if we trigger something on the artefact, they may just destroy it before we figure out what it was about to do." Dari replied, clearly showing her... dislike for the Turians.
"The Turians are more disciplined than that. They will not fire till they show some sort of clear sign of aggression, and at that point, it is better to be alive and wondering what ifs than dead yes?" she replied.
"True. You have to wonder though, did they have to keep the entire Seventh here, along with that Dreadnaught of theirs? Isn't that a little overkill?" she said as she pointed as said ship.
The Gladius was one of the newer Dreadnoughts of the Turian Navy. At 1.3 km long, she was also one of the larger ones. Her crew may be unbloodied, but they were well trained and were led by the General who discovered this in the first place, General Septimus Oraka. Still, next to the… thing it was small in comparison. Easily enveloped by it in fact.
"While unusual, I expect it is to deter any pirates that may stumble upon us. That would be the last thing we would want to happen while we were up close examining the artefact yes?" she said, though she couldn't help but agree with Dari a bit on how unusual it was for a Dreadnought to escort them. Though she did feel that it may be a little bit of caution, just in case they may be dealing with a new Rachni event. Better safe than sorry.
"Yes. Well I better get ready. We are going to approach the artefact for some more detailed scans soon. Then we go and try and find an access point to see the insides of this. It was good to meet you Aela" said Dari.
"Likewise. I best be getting ready as well." Said Aela before she left for her station. Here thanks to the computers in front of her, she could make out all sorts of data the scans will provide. More detailed visuals of the artefact, more data on its energy output and so much more.
"This is your captain speaking, we are now making our approach to the artefact. All personnel, please proceed to your stations and standby for new data." rang the comms of the ship.
Aela was already at her station, so she just patiently waited as her displays showed her ship approaching the artefact. Soon the Silaris was a kilometer away from the arms of the artefact. Now though, her displays were displaying something interesting. The power signatures of the artefact were getting higher. Worryingly so. "Captain T'Loni, the artefact seems to be generating increased energy signatures. Is my display malfunctioning?"
"No Dr.D'Avo, they aren't. We are detecting it as well. It seems to be concentrat-Goddess, look at that!"
A visual feed from outside the ship was now being played on displays across the fleet. The arms of the artefact were now opening and an anomaly , a great vortex of energy, was now seemingly forming in the middle of the ring the artefact formed. As she continued to observe the anomaly, she couldn't help but hear one of the other officers on the bridge report "Captain T'Loni, the anomaly seems to be getting bigger and the Turians are powering up weapons! They are preparing to destroy the artefact!"
"Comms! Get me Oraka now!" said the Captain with as much steel as she could muster.
"Hailing the Gladius ma'am! She's responding! Putting her up on comms now."
"Oraka here. We're powering up weapons now and we expect you to move out of our line of fire soon. What is it that you want Silaris?"
"What I want Oraka, is that you stand down and get those ships of yours to hold their fire!"
"Captain T'Loni, that thing over there is generating incredibly anomalous energy signatures which started when the Silaris started to approach. It's clear to me you've triggered a defence mechanism of some sort, and it looks like it's powering up something big. Now pull back and let us save your ship and likely rest of the fleet here as well."
"Oraka that thing could just be harnessing a natural anomaly we aren't aware of! Stand down!"
"That's not something I'm willing to risk Captain T'Loni, now move out of the way!"
"Oraka, if you destroy that artefact, we'll never likely find something like it ag-"
"Captain! I'm reading signatures coming from the anomaly! It appears to be… a few shuttles and a freighter! Completely unknown make!" interrupted her Sensor officer.
"Oraka! Stand down! We could be dealing with a first contact!"
It was quiet on Oraka's end for a while, but then he responded" I've confirmed reports that there are indeed unknowns coming out of that anomaly. We won't open fire, but the moment that they do something hostile, we're tearing that thing and them down. "
"Thank you general. "replied the T'Loni, relief clear in her voice. "Now, I want-"
"Captain! I'm receiving a message from the shuttles on several wavelengths! Playing now."
"Seo Cheannasaí Perkins de na Fórsaí Armtha na Breataine. Tá tú ar chríoch éileamh ag an Ríocht na Breataine. Cuirimid fáilte roimh tú i síocháin. Tá súil agam i ndáiríre go atá tú ag teacht ar roinnt tae agus nach bhfuil a mharú dúinn go léir."
Silence reigned in the bridge. Everyone was shocked. This… this was first contact, possibly with the species that made this… thing.
Aela though, had come to one conclusion. The Artefact was a… FTL of sorts. It was the only way those ships could have arrived so suddenly.
"Captain." she quietly spoke, yet somehow her voice rang throughout the bridge. " I think… that whoever are in those ships that came out of the anomaly, they built this thing. I also think... that this... gate... is their FTL."
"This… is certainly a most interesting day. Comms, send the first package, I do believe one rotation of the local planet should be enough time for them to decrypt it. We should go into orbit around there and then await them there. "
"What about the General?"
"Inform him that the situation has changed. We are now dealing with a live alien race, and as such, to assume First Contact protocols. We will orbit around the local planet and await them to decrypt the package, and hopefully find enough time for them to communicate, if really primitively with us.
____
Despite centuries of Social Tradition of being calm in the face of adversity, there was very little Commander Perkins could do once he saw the small fleet in front of him. in fact, the first words that came out of his mouth were "Bugger."
Still, training took hold soon after. This was an unidentified fleet, and God knew only knew where they came from, they might have even been Coalition ships for crying out loud, he had to let them know that this was Bretonian space.
"This is Commander Perkins of the Bretonian Armed Forces. You are on territory claimed by the Kingdom of Bretonia. We welcome you in the name of peace, but if you come seeking war, then be prepared to face a good thrashing." he announced, in as cool a manner he could, on the comm on all frequencies, just to be sure.
He also immediately switched to his flight's frequency after sending that open message. "Alright ladies and gents, you too Doctor listen up, I want no one to fire till fired upon,if they do, we all hightail it back through the gate and go lock it. We block things off here and inform High Command that we're under attack. Don't wait for all of us to go through, just whoever gets on the other side, go lock the gate. "
Perkins received a round of affirmatives all around, and he mentally prepared himself to possibly die in the service of his King and Country.
The next minute of blissful peace and no energy build up were a very pleasant revelation.
The fact that he received an information package from them too certainly helped calm things down a bit. Still, he was still quite tensed up and ready to unleash hell when he noticed the small fleet move. He at first thought that perhaps they were closing in for better range till he noticed them turn around, and according to his sensors anyway, head to the local planet.
"Thank God." was all he could really say at this point. He and his men weren't dead and they would very likely go on and continue living for now.
"Commander" interrupted the comms, it was Doctor Brent.
"Yes Doctor?"
"I've analyzed the information packet they've sent us… we've just made first contact Commander. This is an alien race, at least based on the image they've sent alone. It also looks like, at least based on the images they're sending on this package, they want to meet us... around the orbit of the planet in this system in about one rotation of it. That's roughly 37 hours Commander. "
Well that certainly complicated things. "Damn." There went this being an uncomplicated mission." So, we've just met a race of aliens with a fleet just parked inside space claimed by Bretonia"
"Essentially, yes Commander.However, I must add based on what they've sent alone that they are a rather peaceful; bunch, likely explorers. If they were hostile, I don't imagine they would've let us leave alive now, let alone send an information package. "
"Doctor, are you sure they didn't piggybank a virus or something onto that package? Maybe they wanted us to open it so that they can access our Neural net. "
"I don't think so Commander, this is all remarkably basic scientific information, numbers, basic elements, etc. I'm… relatively confident that whatever we've opened, we're capable of handling the consequences. Why, I do believe that me and my team can even come up with a rough translation index given the information they've sent us. I honestly believe that these are a peaceful people."
"Fine Doctor. " sighed Perkins. He was hardly in a position to reverse what the Doctor had done. "Just do be careful and remember to set up proper quarantine protocols. I'll go and report this to High Command. They'll give us further orders and hopefully, they'll have someone better equipped to handle this."
"Right Commander. Good luck."
Knowing just how fast the Bureaucracy moved in Bretonia, Perkins honestly believed that he would need it. Perkins then opened up the comms and prepared to talk to Captain Dunbar.
"This is Commander Perkins of Sigma flight to HMS Stirling. We've uh… encountered non-human lifeforms Stirling.Requesting orders."
"Perkins, this is Captain Dunbar, we're rather busy at the moment holding off possibly the largest Molly excursion ever onto the LD-14 plant and from what New London is saying, several simultaneous bombings across Bretonia, so unless those microbes are making conversation with you, I don't exactly see how this necessitates a change in orders."
"Thats just it sir, these aliens ARE talking back. We're talking about a genuine first contact situation. They want us to meet in orbit around the local planet here in approximately 37 hours. What are your orders sir?"
A worrying moment of silence dominated the comms for a minute. For a while, Perkins thought that he had just underwent a Bureaucratic nightmare and would have to wait the next few hours just for a reply, at least until he heard his comm crackle to life.
"Perkins, I'm going to ask you to wait for a while. This situation you handed me is simply far too important for me alone to give you any orders on this situation beyond you holding position and to simply observe the aliens. Expect to hear from me in an hour. I'll try and reach what elements of High Command that aren't actively frothing at the mouth against the Mollies."
"Copy that sir. I'll make sure nothing fishy goes on with the aliens. Perkins out."
The next hour was perhaps one of the more… tense ones Perkins has had in his career. It was an hour of carefully observing the alien ships on his sensors and keeping an eye out on the Doctor's transport, just in case anything malicious was in that information packet.While the alien ships did absolutely nothing, save orbit the planet, it was still quite nerve wracking to observe them. The human imagination is a terrible terrible thing to have in a situation like this, and with Perkins' rather active one, he wasn't really enjoying the images it gave him so far. He was incredibly relieved when his own comm sparked to life with a message from Captain Dunbar.
"Perkins, this is perhaps the absolute worst time for this to happen." And there went the relief. " Things are in chaos in High Command what with the bombings the Mollys have pulled off. Many civies are dead back on New London and Leeds and honestly, it'll take far too long for any properly trained diplomat to be sent there." That sent far too many tingles down his spine. The same kind that warned him while flying in Dublin." I've been authorised by His Majesty that, until Lord Barstow can get there, which at best speed is around 48 hours considering that he is coming from a trade meeting on Curacao, you are to act as His Majesty's representative in this most historic occasion. You have been authorized to greet them, encourage talks of non-aggression, peace and cultural exchange, nothing more. The moment Lord Barstow and consequently the Stirling arrives there, you are to report back and brief us on what you manage to learn from them. God Help us all Commander. Good luck and Godspeed."
Well Damn. There went going home for a nice cuppa. Still orders were orders, and all things considered, this was an exceptionally fast response from High Command.
"Alright ladies and gents, we have new orders from His Majesty himself. The Mollies have bombed New London and Leeds and things are quite chaotic now. There is simply no way for a Diplomat to be sent here within the timeframe the aliens have sent us. His Majesty has decided" and here Perkins paused and tried to say the next bit with as much dignity as possible. " to send me instead as the representative of Bretonia. "
"Well bugger us sir." replied Thatcher.
"I personally agree with you Thatch, but orders are orders and there i simply no way to tell if the aliens would react in a hostile manner if we were to not meet them here. " Perkins replied, despite hating his brand new appointment as a representative of His Majesty's government.
"Right lads and ladies, since we've about 36 more hours till the meeting, let's go and do a patrol around the system and do what we came here to do originally, no sense in being unproductive, then we'll have to go and camp out in our ships today till the hour of the meet. Clear?"
A round of clears entered his comm and now Perkin had some more specific orders for the Doctor.
"Alright Doctor Brent, I want you and your team to work on that information packet of theirs at best speed. If you can come up with a translation index, no matter how primitive, it would be great. We've 36 hours till that meeting Doctor, and despite the tradition of Britons going into the unknown with nothing more than a stiff upper lip and his dignity, I'd rather like to have some knowledge of what those aliens are saying."
Tau 30 System
Right outside the Silaris
This was it. This was the moment absolutely anything could cause things to simply go tits up. This was where things got real, and Perkins would be jumping from the frying pan, and into the fire. Here he was staring at the open port of the graceful ship. It kind of gave him thoughts of a much more refined Battleship, all chrome and silver, but he didn't doubt that it was deadly at all.
"Alright gents, remember the plan. Thatcher, I'll go first and then you. The Doctor says that he figured out that we breath the same stuff, so removing your helmet would be theoretically fine, but don't unless you have to. No telling if there are any diseases there we might catch. Do depolarize the faceplate though. It wouldn't do to see their faces while they cannot see ours."
"Roger that sir, though i do still think we are buggered."
"Noted Thatch, now initiating docking procedures into the ship. God help us all."
As Perkins slowly entered the massive ship, he couln't help but notice that the insides are as smooth and refined as the outside. The bloody aliens have got to be rather posh, but how that translated to something relevant, Perkins wasn't quite too sure.
Still as he entered the Docking bay proper, he noticed that a few particular areas were completely empty. In fact, there were a string of lights leading to them. He guessed the aliens wanted him to land there, and so he directed his ship ever so slowly there.
Carefully, he gently led his ship there and when he was content with it's positioning, he triggered the ship's repulsor landing gear. A perfect landing. Not bad, considering the totally unfamiliarity he had with this area.
Soon enough, Thatcher went in and landed right next to Perkins, and as he looked into Thatch's cockpit, he gave a nod, and they both began to disembark, with Perkins' taking note to not carry any weapons, that was Thatch's job.
As one, they approached the blue figures in the distance.
He most certainly didn't expect to see a rather human like face there, let alone one that creepily enough, reminded him of his sister. The aliens he encountered were, in his mind, were a race of blue skinned highly beautiful women.
He just knew something was going to go wrong.
Still, there was no helping it. Best to start up the program the Doc gave and try and greet them.
___
"Hi. Me James Perkins of Bretonia. Me greet you. We Human. You?"
Most certainly not a bad attempt at Thessian. Thought Dala T'Loni, now for their attempt at the…what she guessed was the Human language.
___
"I Dala T'Loni. We Asari. Hi,"
Well, it looked like the Doctor's package worked. Thank God for small miracles. Time for the harder part though…
"This Bretonia space. Why you here?"
The alien's face, while beautiful, scrunched up in confusion. Maybe something was lost in the translation?
"Doc… You are watching this right? "
"Yes Commander, though I must say, I have very little to work on. I need them to talk or longer periods."
"Damn it Doctor! I need clarity as soon as possible.!"
"I'll do my best."
"Fine."
The … Asari woman took that moment to answer.
"We explorers. We seek understanding. You build… station?"
Station? There weren't any stations here… unless she meant the gate.
"Gate human yes. Why?"
A little gleam in those eyes that reminded him of his sister getting something she wanted was tickling certain instincts in him. He wasn't quite sure what it was. Seeing as they aliens suddenly were chatting amongst themselves, excitement, or what he guessed it to be, clear in their eyes, he figured they found what they were looking for.
"Happy! We seek welcome you to Citadel community. Come! There much-"
A klaxon begun to ring around the ship. Goddamn it. What the heck has happened now?
___
Aboard the Gladius
Tau 30 system
"Report!" demanded General Oraka, angry because he was right damn it. The aliens had planned something, and now something was coming from that asteroid field.
"Probes are detecting 10 contacts moving fast, within the area of that 'glitched' probe. They are heading straight for the Silaris!"
"Get me Captain T'Loni!"
"Aye sir! Putting her up now."
"General! What is going on? My bridge crew sounded a red alert!"
"We're detecting multiple inbounds heading your way. It's obvious those aliens trie to trick you, now pull back and let the frigates do their work!"
"That's impossible! I was talking with what looke to be their leader a few minutes ago! Look Oraka, stand down! It might just be asteroids or some debris."
"Not with the sensor readings I'm getting, they are most certainly telling me that they are generating power levels similar to that of those fighter/shuttles the aliens came in on, now move away!"
"No General! I will not! " and she cut the connection.
"Damn it T'Loni! Tell the Hoplon and the Scipio to go and put themselves between the Silaris and that field. Their GARDIAN batteries should easily handle those contacts. Meanwhile, I want the rest of the fleet moving to that position."
"Aye sir, relaying orders"
The aliens wanted a fight, then by the Spirits, they'll get a fight.
___
"Greene… what's going on?Did any of you daft buggers fire upon them?"
"No suh! I'm detecting contacts coming from that field… My guess is that that's where the jumphole is. They may be coming in ready for a fight!"
"Damn. Right, Greene, you are in command of the flight there, me and Thatch will try and explain that that is not us! You are not to fire upon the alien ships even if they fire back! We've no chance of denting them anyway, so fight those bloody Mollies off and show we have nothing to do with them! Give em hell Lieutenant!"
"Roger sir!"
Time now to go and explain things to the ladies. God he hoped they would be understanding. He went and approached the woman who talked to him before, she had just finished talking into what looked like a holographic device on her wrist.
"Right. We Bretonian. We Want Peace. Field, not us." he desperately tried to talk to them.
""Then who?" she asked back a little desperation in her voice
UGH! There weren't enough words they knew to talk back properly!
"No have words! Not us! Please believe!" he tried desperately.
"Commander… the aliens are firing laser batteries at us, our shields can still take quite a bit, but they are bloody accurate. If those Mollies were to iht us along with those lasers, I don't think we can't win."
Damn it! He needed to be out there not trying to talk pidgin with this woman!
"Commander! The bloody Mollies are here and man do they look rather angry! They're concentrating on the Frigates and by God, are they doing far more damage than I thought they would. We're trying to get them to back off, but damn it, these Laser batteries of the Aliens aren't making things easy!"
"Damn." This was it. This was where his actions would determine the lives of many, possibly thousands.
Perkins really wished he wasn't here right now, there was just one option left, and he wasn't even sure if it'll work. "
Thatch, give me your gun, then go straight for your fighter. "
"but sir-"
"No buts Lieutenant. That's an order."
Thatch hesitantly approached Perkins, then, slowly handed him his gun. "Good luck sir. I bloody well hope you know what you are doing."
"Same here Thatch. Now go give them hell. "
As Thatch ran for his fighter, Perkins walked up to the woman, Dala, and looked straight into her azure eyes, a hint of what looked like worry in them.
"Right. I know, you no understand all words. So I ask trust." he said as he slowly and carefully raised the gun. He could see the other women behind her raise their own weapons towards him, but he tried to block them from his mind. It wouldn't do to panic right here and now, he instead tried focusing on the eyes of the woman in front of him, their pupils widening in what he hoped was shock. " I trust you. We no wish harm. They not us. " he said as he gently grabbed her right hand and placed the gun there. He then guided Thatch's pistol towards his head and positioned her finger over the trigger.
"I give you life for friends." he told her, as he watched those eyes water with worry and indecision.
He really really hoped he did the right goddamn thing, otherwise, his flight would likely die out there, and he would be one dead body in an alien ship.
"I trust.' she said quietly, handing him the gun while doing so. "Now leave. Me do what I can help."
Perkins could only sigh with relief as he made a run for his ship. Thank God for small miracles. Now to pray to God for bigger ones…
Right outside the Silaris
This was it. This was the moment absolutely anything could cause things to simply go tits up. This was where things got real, and Perkins would be jumping from the frying pan, and into the fire. Here he was staring at the open port of the graceful ship. It kind of gave him thoughts of a much more refined Battleship, all chrome and silver, but he didn't doubt that it was deadly at all.
"Alright gents, remember the plan. Thatcher, I'll go first and then you. The Doctor says that he figured out that we breath the same stuff, so removing your helmet would be theoretically fine, but don't unless you have to. No telling if there are any diseases there we might catch. Do depolarize the faceplate though. It wouldn't do to see their faces while they cannot see ours."
"Roger that sir, though i do still think we are buggered."
"Noted Thatch, now initiating docking procedures into the ship. God help us all."
As Perkins slowly entered the massive ship, he couln't help but notice that the insides are as smooth and refined as the outside. The bloody aliens have got to be rather posh, but how that translated to something relevant, Perkins wasn't quite too sure.
Still as he entered the Docking bay proper, he noticed that a few particular areas were completely empty. In fact, there were a string of lights leading to them. He guessed the aliens wanted him to land there, and so he directed his ship ever so slowly there.
Carefully, he gently led his ship there and when he was content with it's positioning, he triggered the ship's repulsor landing gear. A perfect landing. Not bad, considering the totally unfamiliarity he had with this area.
Soon enough, Thatcher went in and landed right next to Perkins, and as he looked into Thatch's cockpit, he gave a nod, and they both began to disembark, with Perkins' taking note to not carry any weapons, that was Thatch's job.
As one, they approached the blue figures in the distance.
He most certainly didn't expect to see a rather human like face there, let alone one that creepily enough, reminded him of his sister. The aliens he encountered were, in his mind, were a race of blue skinned highly beautiful women.
He just knew something was going to go wrong.
Still, there was no helping it. Best to start up the program the Doc gave and try and greet them.
___
"Hi. Me James Perkins of Bretonia. Me greet you. We Human. You?"
Most certainly not a bad attempt at Thessian. Thought Dala T'Loni, now for their attempt at the…what she guessed was the Human language.
___
"I Dala T'Loni. We Asari. Hi,"
Well, it looked like the Doctor's package worked. Thank God for small miracles. Time for the harder part though…
"This Bretonia space. Why you here?"
The alien's face, while beautiful, scrunched up in confusion. Maybe something was lost in the translation?
"Doc… You are watching this right? "
"Yes Commander, though I must say, I have very little to work on. I need them to talk or longer periods."
"Damn it Doctor! I need clarity as soon as possible.!"
"I'll do my best."
"Fine."
The … Asari woman took that moment to answer.
"We explorers. We seek understanding. You build… station?"
Station? There weren't any stations here… unless she meant the gate.
"Gate human yes. Why?"
A little gleam in those eyes that reminded him of his sister getting something she wanted was tickling certain instincts in him. He wasn't quite sure what it was. Seeing as they aliens suddenly were chatting amongst themselves, excitement, or what he guessed it to be, clear in their eyes, he figured they found what they were looking for.
"Happy! We seek welcome you to Citadel community. Come! There much-"
A klaxon begun to ring around the ship. Goddamn it. What the heck has happened now?
___
Aboard the Gladius
Tau 30 system
"Report!" demanded General Oraka, angry because he was right damn it. The aliens had planned something, and now something was coming from that asteroid field.
"Probes are detecting 10 contacts moving fast, within the area of that 'glitched' probe. They are heading straight for the Silaris!"
"Get me Captain T'Loni!"
"Aye sir! Putting her up now."
"General! What is going on? My bridge crew sounded a red alert!"
"We're detecting multiple inbounds heading your way. It's obvious those aliens trie to trick you, now pull back and let the frigates do their work!"
"That's impossible! I was talking with what looke to be their leader a few minutes ago! Look Oraka, stand down! It might just be asteroids or some debris."
"Not with the sensor readings I'm getting, they are most certainly telling me that they are generating power levels similar to that of those fighter/shuttles the aliens came in on, now move away!"
"No General! I will not! " and she cut the connection.
"Damn it T'Loni! Tell the Hoplon and the Scipio to go and put themselves between the Silaris and that field. Their GARDIAN batteries should easily handle those contacts. Meanwhile, I want the rest of the fleet moving to that position."
"Aye sir, relaying orders"
The aliens wanted a fight, then by the Spirits, they'll get a fight.
___
"Greene… what's going on?Did any of you daft buggers fire upon them?"
"No suh! I'm detecting contacts coming from that field… My guess is that that's where the jumphole is. They may be coming in ready for a fight!"
"Damn. Right, Greene, you are in command of the flight there, me and Thatch will try and explain that that is not us! You are not to fire upon the alien ships even if they fire back! We've no chance of denting them anyway, so fight those bloody Mollies off and show we have nothing to do with them! Give em hell Lieutenant!"
"Roger sir!"
Time now to go and explain things to the ladies. God he hoped they would be understanding. He went and approached the woman who talked to him before, she had just finished talking into what looked like a holographic device on her wrist.
"Right. We Bretonian. We Want Peace. Field, not us." he desperately tried to talk to them.
""Then who?" she asked back a little desperation in her voice
UGH! There weren't enough words they knew to talk back properly!
"No have words! Not us! Please believe!" he tried desperately.
"Commander… the aliens are firing laser batteries at us, our shields can still take quite a bit, but they are bloody accurate. If those Mollies were to iht us along with those lasers, I don't think we can't win."
Damn it! He needed to be out there not trying to talk pidgin with this woman!
"Commander! The bloody Mollies are here and man do they look rather angry! They're concentrating on the Frigates and by God, are they doing far more damage than I thought they would. We're trying to get them to back off, but damn it, these Laser batteries of the Aliens aren't making things easy!"
"Damn." This was it. This was where his actions would determine the lives of many, possibly thousands.
Perkins really wished he wasn't here right now, there was just one option left, and he wasn't even sure if it'll work. "
Thatch, give me your gun, then go straight for your fighter. "
"but sir-"
"No buts Lieutenant. That's an order."
Thatch hesitantly approached Perkins, then, slowly handed him his gun. "Good luck sir. I bloody well hope you know what you are doing."
"Same here Thatch. Now go give them hell. "
As Thatch ran for his fighter, Perkins walked up to the woman, Dala, and looked straight into her azure eyes, a hint of what looked like worry in them.
"Right. I know, you no understand all words. So I ask trust." he said as he slowly and carefully raised the gun. He could see the other women behind her raise their own weapons towards him, but he tried to block them from his mind. It wouldn't do to panic right here and now, he instead tried focusing on the eyes of the woman in front of him, their pupils widening in what he hoped was shock. " I trust you. We no wish harm. They not us. " he said as he gently grabbed her right hand and placed the gun there. He then guided Thatch's pistol towards his head and positioned her finger over the trigger.
"I give you life for friends." he told her, as he watched those eyes water with worry and indecision.
He really really hoped he did the right goddamn thing, otherwise, his flight would likely die out there, and he would be one dead body in an alien ship.
"I trust.' she said quietly, handing him the gun while doing so. "Now leave. Me do what I can help."
Perkins could only sigh with relief as he made a run for his ship. Thank God for small miracles. Now to pray to God for bigger ones…
Onboard the Gladius
Tau 30 system
"What do you mean they aren't dead yet?!" snapped General Oraka, disbelief clear in his voice.
"Those GARDIAN batteries should have finished them off by now!"
"I don't know sir!" reported, Lieutenant Xalax, the stress clear in his voice.
"Calm down Lieutenant" pressed Oraka, "we aren't dead yet."
Xalax breathed in, taking in the General's stern and firm voice "Yes sir."
"Good. Now, can someone give me an idea of why they aren't dead yet?'
"Sir, permission to speak freely?" replied Lieutenant Praxis
"Go ahead Lieutenant." said Oraka, nodding his head in approval toward the Lieutenant.
"Sir,I've noticed that our GARDIAN batteries aren't registering any misses. In fact, they all seem to be registering hits on designated targets."
"You mean to tell me, that those little fighters have shielding that can block directed energy attacks?!" snapped Oraka, his mandibles visibly twitching.
"Yes sir."
"Can they be worn down?'
" In theory, yes sir. I mean our own barriers eventually-"
"Then I want you to relay this to the rest of the fleet, reprogram those batteries to concentrate fire on one fighter than to move onto the next. Spirits willing, that will wear down their barriers, enough." said Oraka, pointing his talon at Praxis.
"Yes sir," said Praxis, his voice remaining cool and collected, "but it'll take some time for us to do so."
"Time is something we don't have!" snapped Oraka "Those little fighters could open fire at any minute now, so program at best speed. Lives are depending on this. "
"Aye sir."
As the young Lieutenant Praxis relayed his orders to the fleet, Oraka still felt that things would go his way. Yes, those barriers of thiers meant that they'll now take some damage, but surely it wasn't anything their barriers couldn't handle?
"Sir! The contacts from the field are moving to attack the Hoplon!"
"Tell the Hoplon and the Scipio to put themselves between the enemy contacts and the Silaris. We can't let those damn stubborn fools there die." his irritation at Captain T'Loni clear in his voice.
"Aye sir. Relaying Orders. Asteroid Contacts have left the field and are approaching the Hoplon in a wedge. Detecting energy spike coming from the Asteroid Contacts- what the- I'm reading some sort of high-energy pulses coming from the fighters! Hoplon reports severe damage to port engines. They're dead in the water!"
"How?" shouted Oraka, disbelief strong in his voice. "What happened? Are you telling me that these fighters have some sort of… directed energy weapon?
"Sir our sensors can't identify just what those fighters are firing! All we can tell is that its definitely some sort of energy "
"Spirits...' Oraka said bitterly, from a slightly more difficult battle to one where he would probably win at tremendous cost…
He knew he should've just blown up that spirits damned Artifact.
"General!" reported Lieutenant Galarn, joy clear in his voice, "the three contacts that were left outside the Silaris have gone and moved to engage the Asteroid Contacts."
"I want video of the three Alien contacts now!" Oraka demanded quickly.
"Relaying video feeds from both the Hoplon and the Scipio." replied Galarn, his optimism still clear in his voice." Video feed established."
And indeed, on screen, Oraka could see that the Aliens were opening fire on the ones coming from the Asteroid field. Perhaps-
"General! The Silaris is hailing us! Captain T'Loni wants to talk!"
"Put her up then!" snapped Oraka. That woman better have something to add to this situation...
"General! By the Goddess stop firing at the aliens we made first contact with!" T'Loni pleaded desperately, her face showing clear signs of desperation. " Their leader put his life in my hands for a while and I swear, that they aren't attacking us! Just watch the battle for evidence!"
Sure enough, as Oraka took a closer look at the footage they were receiving, he began to be convinced that the Aliens were… for the most part on their side.
In fact, the more he looked at the footage, the more he took note of some other things. Like how, despite the fact that the Hoplon and Scipio were wide open to attack, the Asteroid contacts didn't even bother to attack them once they noticed the Alien contacts. In fact, the more he watched their dogfight, the more he realized that the Asteroid contacts were flying very aggressively, taking risks in their maneuvers that no clear thinking pilot would have performed, and yet just minutes ago, these same fighters were performing a well coordinated attack on the Hoplon.
By the Spirits of Palaven, just what have they just walked into?
" Captain T'Loni is right!!" he said as he ordered Lieutenant Praxis " Temporarily designate those Aliens as friendlies, concentrate GARDIAN batteries on one fighter at a time. I want the entire fleet moving to their position at flank speed!"
"Aye sir! Relaying orders!"
Spirits, he hoped things wouldn't get worse.
___
Right Outside the Silaris
Tau 30 system
Things had nearly gone completely tits up. The Mollies have done and interrupted the talks and only after a frighteningly close encounter with Thatch's pistol was he able to get the Aliens to stop shooting at his lads and ladies.
That still left him 10 Mollies to deal with, and from the looks of it, they were fresh out of Aranmore… and rather ready to die for the cause.
"Right lads! Form up! Thatch, give me a status report!"
"Well sir, me and the rest of the lads have been having this wonderfully sunny stroll under these laser batteries-" Thatch crackled on the radio.
"Who are giving us this wonderfully pleasant suntan. We're talking nob quality here Commander! We all really wished we could give one back. Suh" exclaimed White with just a little bit of irritation.
"All of this while you were in there, chatting up that wonderfully charming woman. Then, suddenly, all these batteries decided to go and give our Molly friends the suntan instead eh? Bout bloody time those Miners had something right go their way eh? Anywho, the rest of us are still pleasantly tanned after that, while the Good Doctor has gone to wait at the gate, just in case.
"I should punch the lot of you for that. Luckily I deserve that, so onwards and upwards lads! ' He said as he began to lead his wedge of fighters forward.
"Right lads, Me and Thatch will lead a couple of em close to those batteries, the rest of you, peel off, hide under the frigate to the port side of the one me and Thatch landed on, then when we emerge on the other side of the ships, I want you to give the buggers we're chasing merry hell. No mines! They might go and attach themselves to our alien friends, and we wouldn't want that now would we?" Perkins replied confidently, a cheeky smile forming on his face.
"Roger that sir! Moving to position!" replied his flight, eager to finally do something.
Now for the tough bit. Here, he was going to try and pull off a reverse Hood on them. He put his engine to maximum speed, and did a straight run at one of the Mollies, his sensors showing they managed to nick away most of his shields.
"Well that got their attention, " said Thatch as he formed up beside Perkins. "I think we got them quite angry sir."
"No kidding Thatch. You still have a full load of bots and batteries?" Perkins asked, it never hurt to be to double check the essentials, especially something as life saving as nanobots or shield batteries.
"Yes sir." Thatch eagerly replied..
"Good. God knows we'll need it. One more direct run, see if we can nick away more of their shielding, then run for the designated ship. As soon as we get above it, thrusters to the max."
"Got it sir. Godspeed to you." replied Thatch, his voice practically brimming with confidence.
"Our Lady of blessed acceleration, don't fail us now…" Perkins muttered to himself. This was a flight that would put his skills to the limit, and by God would he need as much speed as possible.
This was it, one more run, then hit it all the way back. Perkins made sure to make his shots as accurate as possible, nicking as many of the buggers shields, but there were too many and they were all starting to angrily concentrate fire on either him or Thatch.
"Now Thatch! Run for the frigate!" Perkins ordered, clearly putting his weight into his voice.
"Way ahead of you sir!" said Thatch as he made a beeline for the frigate he mentioned.
"Right, the rest of you lot better be under there! We're coming in hot!" Perkins shouted into the comms.
"We're ready sir, just pass over and we'll do the rest!" replied White, confident and eager for action. A little part of him wanted to switch places with White, but he shoved that aside. He and Thatch were here for a reason, and that was they were the best bloody pilots in the flight.
Perkins was getting really worried now. A good three of the 10 Mollies were locked onto him, and were depleting his shields at dangerously fast levels. The only reason why he and Thatch were able to survive so long in the first place was because the Mollies were running comparatively ramshackle Bloodhounds and Wolfhounds. His Crusader, while clumsy compared to some border world or even other military fighters, was significantly better engineered than those hunks they call ships.
'There goes the shield, deploying batteries!" he shouted into the comm as he let the disposable supercharged capacitors fuel the shield array once more. Just a thousand more meters, and he'll make it to the Frigate where hopefully those laser batteries will do some good.
"They nicked my port wing sir! I've lost half my armaments!" declared Thatch, a little bit of panic in his voice.
"Hold on Thatch! You still have some bots and batteries! Just a bit longer!" Perkins cried out into the comms, worry very much breaking his normally rather calm and collected voice.
"Doing my best sir. These buggers are damned good shots!" Thatch replied, panic creeping into his voice.
Damn it, Perkins hasn't lost a man yet, and he'll be damned if he'll let Thatch be his first loss.
"Damn it" shouted Perkins to himself. "Thatch, enter cruise and dock with the ship we did so earlier. I'll cover you."
"But sir-"
"Goddamn it Thatch!" screamed Perkins" That's a goddamn order you better follow! I'll be damned if I lose a man under my command that isn't me.I'll buy you some time then finish the plan. Now go!" Perkins ordered, putting as much firmness as he could into this command.
As Thatch's Cruise Engines activated, he left one brief message, regret strong in his voice. "Give 'em hell sir."
"Thatch, I do expect you and the lads to pay for drinks back on the bar after all this." Perkins replied, his voice grim and heavy with the very real possibility that he'll die.
"Of Course sir." said Thatch, more of the regret showing in his voice.
Goddamn it. This was supposed to be a simple mission! This was supposed to be a mission where he would have some form of preparation but noooo. Bloody first contact happened and now things were absolutely going tits up.
"Okay Perkins." he muttered to himself " You've survived these bloody miners before. You've just got to strike fast and then gun it back to the bloody ship. " he said, trying to convince himself that for once in this mission, things will go according to plan, which as far as he was concerned in this situation, was to come out alive.
He launched his full arsenal of particle cannons at one of the Molly ships, this time, actually managing to do some severe damage, and then he pulled back towards the frigate, trying as much as possible to make it hard for the Mollies to get a lock on him.
900 meters to the bloody thing, and his shields get dangerously low
500 meters and he loses his shields, he manages to recharge them, but they were his last batteries.
100 meters, his shields go, and he's down to his nanorepairbots. Luckily the alien batteries start to pick the Mollies off a bit, his scanner now reading 8 instead of 10.
Halfway across the ship, and the Mollies are down to a very manageable 6 , his nanobots still finding the damage he was taking quite manageable.
As Perkins screamed right across the frigate, he could hear his flight's shouts of glee on the comms at him having made it, he couldn't help but wonder just what kind of luck he possessed.
"Damn sir! You made it! We manage to nail another three as they went over us. The rest of them seem to be making for the jumphole again. Should we engage?" White replied, his voice clear with both a desire for vengeance and at the same time, a little bit of tiredness.
"No Lieutenant White. Stand down." ordered Perkins, his voice a little distant. He still had trouble believing he was alive." We'll rest and wait here for the Stirling to come. Goddamn do I wish Lord Barstow would get here soon. "
"Well, sir, at the very least we made sure the aliens don't see us as a threat." White exclaimed rather confidently.
"I'm not too sure about that Lieutenant. I'm not too sure about that at all…" said Perkins as he stared into the damaged Frigate, its port engines clearly on fire…
Tau 30 system
"What do you mean they aren't dead yet?!" snapped General Oraka, disbelief clear in his voice.
"Those GARDIAN batteries should have finished them off by now!"
"I don't know sir!" reported, Lieutenant Xalax, the stress clear in his voice.
"Calm down Lieutenant" pressed Oraka, "we aren't dead yet."
Xalax breathed in, taking in the General's stern and firm voice "Yes sir."
"Good. Now, can someone give me an idea of why they aren't dead yet?'
"Sir, permission to speak freely?" replied Lieutenant Praxis
"Go ahead Lieutenant." said Oraka, nodding his head in approval toward the Lieutenant.
"Sir,I've noticed that our GARDIAN batteries aren't registering any misses. In fact, they all seem to be registering hits on designated targets."
"You mean to tell me, that those little fighters have shielding that can block directed energy attacks?!" snapped Oraka, his mandibles visibly twitching.
"Yes sir."
"Can they be worn down?'
" In theory, yes sir. I mean our own barriers eventually-"
"Then I want you to relay this to the rest of the fleet, reprogram those batteries to concentrate fire on one fighter than to move onto the next. Spirits willing, that will wear down their barriers, enough." said Oraka, pointing his talon at Praxis.
"Yes sir," said Praxis, his voice remaining cool and collected, "but it'll take some time for us to do so."
"Time is something we don't have!" snapped Oraka "Those little fighters could open fire at any minute now, so program at best speed. Lives are depending on this. "
"Aye sir."
As the young Lieutenant Praxis relayed his orders to the fleet, Oraka still felt that things would go his way. Yes, those barriers of thiers meant that they'll now take some damage, but surely it wasn't anything their barriers couldn't handle?
"Sir! The contacts from the field are moving to attack the Hoplon!"
"Tell the Hoplon and the Scipio to put themselves between the enemy contacts and the Silaris. We can't let those damn stubborn fools there die." his irritation at Captain T'Loni clear in his voice.
"Aye sir. Relaying Orders. Asteroid Contacts have left the field and are approaching the Hoplon in a wedge. Detecting energy spike coming from the Asteroid Contacts- what the- I'm reading some sort of high-energy pulses coming from the fighters! Hoplon reports severe damage to port engines. They're dead in the water!"
"How?" shouted Oraka, disbelief strong in his voice. "What happened? Are you telling me that these fighters have some sort of… directed energy weapon?
"Sir our sensors can't identify just what those fighters are firing! All we can tell is that its definitely some sort of energy "
"Spirits...' Oraka said bitterly, from a slightly more difficult battle to one where he would probably win at tremendous cost…
He knew he should've just blown up that spirits damned Artifact.
"General!" reported Lieutenant Galarn, joy clear in his voice, "the three contacts that were left outside the Silaris have gone and moved to engage the Asteroid Contacts."
"I want video of the three Alien contacts now!" Oraka demanded quickly.
"Relaying video feeds from both the Hoplon and the Scipio." replied Galarn, his optimism still clear in his voice." Video feed established."
And indeed, on screen, Oraka could see that the Aliens were opening fire on the ones coming from the Asteroid field. Perhaps-
"General! The Silaris is hailing us! Captain T'Loni wants to talk!"
"Put her up then!" snapped Oraka. That woman better have something to add to this situation...
"General! By the Goddess stop firing at the aliens we made first contact with!" T'Loni pleaded desperately, her face showing clear signs of desperation. " Their leader put his life in my hands for a while and I swear, that they aren't attacking us! Just watch the battle for evidence!"
Sure enough, as Oraka took a closer look at the footage they were receiving, he began to be convinced that the Aliens were… for the most part on their side.
In fact, the more he looked at the footage, the more he took note of some other things. Like how, despite the fact that the Hoplon and Scipio were wide open to attack, the Asteroid contacts didn't even bother to attack them once they noticed the Alien contacts. In fact, the more he watched their dogfight, the more he realized that the Asteroid contacts were flying very aggressively, taking risks in their maneuvers that no clear thinking pilot would have performed, and yet just minutes ago, these same fighters were performing a well coordinated attack on the Hoplon.
By the Spirits of Palaven, just what have they just walked into?
" Captain T'Loni is right!!" he said as he ordered Lieutenant Praxis " Temporarily designate those Aliens as friendlies, concentrate GARDIAN batteries on one fighter at a time. I want the entire fleet moving to their position at flank speed!"
"Aye sir! Relaying orders!"
Spirits, he hoped things wouldn't get worse.
___
Right Outside the Silaris
Tau 30 system
Things had nearly gone completely tits up. The Mollies have done and interrupted the talks and only after a frighteningly close encounter with Thatch's pistol was he able to get the Aliens to stop shooting at his lads and ladies.
That still left him 10 Mollies to deal with, and from the looks of it, they were fresh out of Aranmore… and rather ready to die for the cause.
"Right lads! Form up! Thatch, give me a status report!"
"Well sir, me and the rest of the lads have been having this wonderfully sunny stroll under these laser batteries-" Thatch crackled on the radio.
"Who are giving us this wonderfully pleasant suntan. We're talking nob quality here Commander! We all really wished we could give one back. Suh" exclaimed White with just a little bit of irritation.
"All of this while you were in there, chatting up that wonderfully charming woman. Then, suddenly, all these batteries decided to go and give our Molly friends the suntan instead eh? Bout bloody time those Miners had something right go their way eh? Anywho, the rest of us are still pleasantly tanned after that, while the Good Doctor has gone to wait at the gate, just in case.
"I should punch the lot of you for that. Luckily I deserve that, so onwards and upwards lads! ' He said as he began to lead his wedge of fighters forward.
"Right lads, Me and Thatch will lead a couple of em close to those batteries, the rest of you, peel off, hide under the frigate to the port side of the one me and Thatch landed on, then when we emerge on the other side of the ships, I want you to give the buggers we're chasing merry hell. No mines! They might go and attach themselves to our alien friends, and we wouldn't want that now would we?" Perkins replied confidently, a cheeky smile forming on his face.
"Roger that sir! Moving to position!" replied his flight, eager to finally do something.
Now for the tough bit. Here, he was going to try and pull off a reverse Hood on them. He put his engine to maximum speed, and did a straight run at one of the Mollies, his sensors showing they managed to nick away most of his shields.
"Well that got their attention, " said Thatch as he formed up beside Perkins. "I think we got them quite angry sir."
"No kidding Thatch. You still have a full load of bots and batteries?" Perkins asked, it never hurt to be to double check the essentials, especially something as life saving as nanobots or shield batteries.
"Yes sir." Thatch eagerly replied..
"Good. God knows we'll need it. One more direct run, see if we can nick away more of their shielding, then run for the designated ship. As soon as we get above it, thrusters to the max."
"Got it sir. Godspeed to you." replied Thatch, his voice practically brimming with confidence.
"Our Lady of blessed acceleration, don't fail us now…" Perkins muttered to himself. This was a flight that would put his skills to the limit, and by God would he need as much speed as possible.
This was it, one more run, then hit it all the way back. Perkins made sure to make his shots as accurate as possible, nicking as many of the buggers shields, but there were too many and they were all starting to angrily concentrate fire on either him or Thatch.
"Now Thatch! Run for the frigate!" Perkins ordered, clearly putting his weight into his voice.
"Way ahead of you sir!" said Thatch as he made a beeline for the frigate he mentioned.
"Right, the rest of you lot better be under there! We're coming in hot!" Perkins shouted into the comms.
"We're ready sir, just pass over and we'll do the rest!" replied White, confident and eager for action. A little part of him wanted to switch places with White, but he shoved that aside. He and Thatch were here for a reason, and that was they were the best bloody pilots in the flight.
Perkins was getting really worried now. A good three of the 10 Mollies were locked onto him, and were depleting his shields at dangerously fast levels. The only reason why he and Thatch were able to survive so long in the first place was because the Mollies were running comparatively ramshackle Bloodhounds and Wolfhounds. His Crusader, while clumsy compared to some border world or even other military fighters, was significantly better engineered than those hunks they call ships.
'There goes the shield, deploying batteries!" he shouted into the comm as he let the disposable supercharged capacitors fuel the shield array once more. Just a thousand more meters, and he'll make it to the Frigate where hopefully those laser batteries will do some good.
"They nicked my port wing sir! I've lost half my armaments!" declared Thatch, a little bit of panic in his voice.
"Hold on Thatch! You still have some bots and batteries! Just a bit longer!" Perkins cried out into the comms, worry very much breaking his normally rather calm and collected voice.
"Doing my best sir. These buggers are damned good shots!" Thatch replied, panic creeping into his voice.
Damn it, Perkins hasn't lost a man yet, and he'll be damned if he'll let Thatch be his first loss.
"Damn it" shouted Perkins to himself. "Thatch, enter cruise and dock with the ship we did so earlier. I'll cover you."
"But sir-"
"Goddamn it Thatch!" screamed Perkins" That's a goddamn order you better follow! I'll be damned if I lose a man under my command that isn't me.I'll buy you some time then finish the plan. Now go!" Perkins ordered, putting as much firmness as he could into this command.
As Thatch's Cruise Engines activated, he left one brief message, regret strong in his voice. "Give 'em hell sir."
"Thatch, I do expect you and the lads to pay for drinks back on the bar after all this." Perkins replied, his voice grim and heavy with the very real possibility that he'll die.
"Of Course sir." said Thatch, more of the regret showing in his voice.
Goddamn it. This was supposed to be a simple mission! This was supposed to be a mission where he would have some form of preparation but noooo. Bloody first contact happened and now things were absolutely going tits up.
"Okay Perkins." he muttered to himself " You've survived these bloody miners before. You've just got to strike fast and then gun it back to the bloody ship. " he said, trying to convince himself that for once in this mission, things will go according to plan, which as far as he was concerned in this situation, was to come out alive.
He launched his full arsenal of particle cannons at one of the Molly ships, this time, actually managing to do some severe damage, and then he pulled back towards the frigate, trying as much as possible to make it hard for the Mollies to get a lock on him.
900 meters to the bloody thing, and his shields get dangerously low
500 meters and he loses his shields, he manages to recharge them, but they were his last batteries.
100 meters, his shields go, and he's down to his nanorepairbots. Luckily the alien batteries start to pick the Mollies off a bit, his scanner now reading 8 instead of 10.
Halfway across the ship, and the Mollies are down to a very manageable 6 , his nanobots still finding the damage he was taking quite manageable.
As Perkins screamed right across the frigate, he could hear his flight's shouts of glee on the comms at him having made it, he couldn't help but wonder just what kind of luck he possessed.
"Damn sir! You made it! We manage to nail another three as they went over us. The rest of them seem to be making for the jumphole again. Should we engage?" White replied, his voice clear with both a desire for vengeance and at the same time, a little bit of tiredness.
"No Lieutenant White. Stand down." ordered Perkins, his voice a little distant. He still had trouble believing he was alive." We'll rest and wait here for the Stirling to come. Goddamn do I wish Lord Barstow would get here soon. "
"Well, sir, at the very least we made sure the aliens don't see us as a threat." White exclaimed rather confidently.
"I'm not too sure about that Lieutenant. I'm not too sure about that at all…" said Perkins as he stared into the damaged Frigate, its port engines clearly on fire…
"This is a beautiful ship you have here Captain." said Commander Perkins, genuine admiration in his voice.
"Thank you, though I am rather of the opinion that it is rather utilitarian." she said truthfully. The Silaris did her job, and did it well.
"You call this utilitarian?" he said, a little disbelief in his voice, " Then I would love to see just what you would call a beautiful ship. "
"It's honestly not that different." she said nonchalantly," Even our warships are designed to look somewhat similar to this. And while beautiful, I cannot help but feel that in comparison to your ships, they are rather… fragile. " she said truthfully, with just a little bit of her hoping he would divulge something.
"While I would love nothing more than to talk shop with you Captain," he said rather apologetically" I'm afraid that talking about the… details of the construction of our own ships would most certainly in violation of my orders.I can however agree with you that our ships are rather wretched in comparison to yours. They are rather robust and roguish compared to yours."
"Still… it has a rather… safe feeling. Like I feel like it is something that one can rely on" she said wistfully. She would most certainly love to have shielding technology like theirs.
"Once again Captain, no comment, though I suspect this is something you feel about your own ship." he continued in a diplomatic tone.
"Indeed. The Silaris is a reliable ship." she said with quite a bit of fondness. The Silaris has been hers for a few years now and she has served her well.
"So let's talk about something else shall we! Tell me more about your people, the Asari" asked Perkins, genuine curiosity in his voice.
"Well," there was a lot to say about the Asari, but where to start? "let me start with our gender, essentially, I assume that you humans are a dual gendered race yes?"
"Of course. I assume that is the galactic norm as well?"
" Indeed. We Asari are unique in the galactic community in that we are essentially single gendered, all essentially female."
A look of bewilderment was now stuck on Perkins face, and Dala couldn't help but laugh a little at that. " Don't worry, many who first learn of that have similar reactions as well."
"It's just that, don't get me wrong madam, but I always thought that you were just a race that was more Matriarchal than Patriarchal. It turns out I was more right than I thought. "
"Indeed Commander. We are also a rather long lived race, at least by the normal standards of the galactic community."
"Oh? And just how old is that?"
"Over a thousand years Commander Perkins. Only one other race can live that long, and most others only live to about a century old at best."
"Wow," said Perkins, astonishment visible in his expression, "I mean, just… wow. Most humans don't even live past the age of a 100 and even then, those are rare cases. So how do you do it? Is it biology, diet or better medicine? " he said a little astonishment and hope in his voice.
"I'm afraid it's a biological thing Commander Perkins, what we have isn't a miracle of medicine, it is a effect of evolution." she said apologetically.
"That's a right shame it is then, " genuine sadness in his voice. Perhaps they had aspirations of living much longer? "Now I know that one should never ask a lady just how old she is, but in this case, I'll bite. How old are you madam?" he asked, a little of his enthusiasm leaking back
"Why I'm only 547 years old commander. "
"Why if you hadn't mentioned that, I would've thought that by the standards of us humans anyways, you would've been no older than 30! " he exclaimed a little playfully.
"Why thank you commander."
"It is merely the truth I speak ma'am." he said, ending his compliment with a flourish of his hand. "I however must inform you of something." he said again in a more serious yet calm voice." While I am indeed here as acting representative of His Majesty's government, there will be a proper delegation to continue these rather pleasant conversations we've been having in a more official and I imagine cultured manner. I am merely only a small time Commander of no importance, with no training for this whatsoever." he said apologeticly
"For someone who has no training in this you are doing remarkably well Commander."
"I'd just like to think thats my natural charm coming out Captain." he said, a little confident smirk appearing on his face. "Still, normally, someone aboard the Stirling would handle this sort of thing but it was felt that our original job of clearing out the Mollies wouldn't need a diplomat. They don't offer any quarter and I've never met a Molly who wants to surrender. Anyways, I must apologize if I cannot answer some of your questions. The real diplomat will be coming in soon, and I do expect he'll handle these talks a lot better. " he said rather apologetically.
"It is no problem at all commander. I completely understand, but I must ask how will they be arriving, and when so that we may prevent any… hostile misunderstandings." she said rather worriedly. She would rather not have a war with these people.
"That is a rather good point you make Captain T'Loni." he conceded "I expect they'll arrive in a few hours time through the Jump Gate we arrived in. At the very least, the Battleship Stirling and her battlegroup will be there, so I must ask of you to not fire upon any ships that come out of that gate."
"Understood Commander, I will make sure that the fleet is informed." she said seriously. Oraka better follow the instructions she gives in this instance.
"But I must now ask Captain, what is this Citadel you keep mentioning, and could you kindly elaborate a little further on some of the aliens that we can expect to meet?" he asked rather curiously again.
"The Citadel" she said, her tone taking a more severe and important tone, " is the center of the galactic community. "
"Like the capital of a country, or in this case government?"
"Precisely." he caught on quickly. "While every member of the Citadel is still effectively independent, everyone is bound to help each other in times of need, and we are bound together on some mutually beneficial treaties."
"Such as?"
"Well, we have agreed not to use weapons of mass destruction on garden planets, planets that are easily capable of sustaining life. It takes millions of years to turn a planet into something habitable, to lose one of these planets to something as petty as war is simply a waste of something so incredibly rare. " she continued in a serious voice. The loss of Garden worlds was no laughing matter.
Perkins rather thought that made sense. Even with Planetform Inc, terraforming worlds took hundreds of years. "While I might agree with that personally, but forgive me if I cannot comment any further. To do so would have me possibly biding our government into something we aren't quite ready to accept yet. Have to read the fine print and all that. "
"I understand. Now, I do believe you also wished to learn about the other aliens you would expect to meet?"
"Indeed I do madam" he said excitedly. Clearly he wanted to know more about the others.
"Well let me start with the other species you will likely meet soon, the Turians. " she said as she produced an image on her omnitool.
"This is a turian," as she shows the picture of a rather avian looking creature with metallic skin, to Perkins. "They are best known in the galaxy for their role as peacekeepers and as members of the Citadel council. The Turians have the largest fleet on hand and are well known for their sense of duty."
"Should we be worried about them?" he said rather cautiously. Understandable, all things considered Dala thought. They may have perceived the Molly attack as a great threat. One they are willing to invade Bretonian space for.
"While they do indeed have the largest military in the Citadel, I must point out again that they are mainly there as peacekeepers, not warriors." she said, trying to reassure him.
"Thats good. While we in Bretonia are a peaceful folk, we understand the art of war and are willing to defend ourselves if push comes to shove."
"I understand, but there is no need to worry. Most of the Turian fleet is spread out dealing with pirates and other miscreants. "
"Ah, rather like most of our military then. Keep the peace, protect trade and commerce and so on? "
"Exactly Commander. You have them spot on."
"Then I feel we will have rather a lot to share on, like finding pirate hideouts."
"I'm sure you will, many Turians are members of law enforcement and culturally, they have all served some time in the military, so even a civilian will know how to "talk shop" as it were with you. But let us move on towards the others. "
"There are the Salarians" she said as she put up a picture of a race that rather reminded Perkins slightly of a newt with horns and large eyes, "a rather short lived amphibian race well known for their intelligence and scientists. For a race that lives only about 40 years, they do try and make the most of it. They have excellent memory, the second best known, and have a work ethic that would shame just about everyone else. They've been around for about 2000 years and were one of the founding members of the Citadel council along with us Asari."
"Interesting, do go on. I have questions, but I feel like they should wait for the end of this telling of yours."
"Then there are the volus," she said, producing an image of a rather rotund creature encased in a suit, "a rather short race that breath ammonia. They are rather unique in that regard and are considered the finest bankers and traders. They did after all create the standard unit of currency we in the Citadel use. Their entire society is centered around trade. Everything from land, resources, even other tribe members are bargained amongst themselves. So much so that they've tossed away the concept of war amongst themselves, deeming it too unprofitable."
"If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought you just described Liberty, but I'm interrupting again. Do continue."
While Dala did indeed have questions, she figured that continuing was best."Then there are the Elcor, " she said, producing an image of a rather large creature, hunched rather like an ape, with mottled brownish skin, "they are unique in that they speak in a completely monotone voice. They normally communicate between each other displaying their emotions through scent and other subtle changes that aren't noticeable to other species and so often express their emotions at the start of a statement. Thanks to living in a high gravity environment where the slightest fall could kill you, they have developed a cautious and highly conservative culture. You are unlikely to find an elcor outside of their home planets,seeing that they prefer to stay together in close knit groups. However, should you visit an Elcor, you'll rarely be wanting for something. They are a rather hospitable race.
"Then there are the Hanar,"producing an image of a… glowing jellyfish?" an aquatic race who believe in the Enkindlers, or Protheans, an ancient empire that once spanned the galaxy."
"Hold on. Protheans? Extinct aliens? I do believe that there are blokes in the University that would most certainly like to see that. They have had some alien ruins they keep digging up. Maybe they are one and the same?"
"I… doubt that Commander. You see, if you had discovered the Protheans, then you would most likely be making use of a certain aspect of their technology. Which you aren't, and we most certainly are. "
"Interesting...but I digress. Please do continue."
"The Hanar believe that the Enkindlers uplifted them and taught them all they know about civilization.That said, they are incredibly polite, in fact never referring to themselves in the first person. "
"We now go into the last of the member races, the Batarians." she said as she produced an image of a four eyed bipedal race,"They are a race with a caste based system where it is highly frowned upon to overstep one's bounds. They value this system so much that to place a value on one's caste position is considered a serious insult. They also practice… slavery, despite it being illegal."
"Why would you let them continue then if it is illegal?" Perkins asked a little disbelievingly.
"It's because that while many suspect their government to support slavers, most of them are independent and in fact target all colonies, even Batarian ones. They just sell them back into their society."
"Madam, just hearing their description just makes me feel dirty. But please, continue. I'm sure there are more… pleasant races."
"Now we go into the last ones I will introduce, the Quarians." she said as she produced an image of… an alien that from a distance looked quite human thanks to the suit, but upon catching the three fingers and the bent legs, Perkins realized just how alien it was.
"While many of the younger lived races look upon them with distrust, I remember when the Quarians still had a home planet. 300 years ago, the Quarians were engaged in a brutal war with an AI race they accidentally created, the Geth. They lost and have since been traveling the galaxy, from one place to another in their Migrant Fleet. The loss of their homeworld meant that they are now required to live in envirosuits. Their immune systems are simply too weak to handle most common bacteria. Despite all this though, they are natural mechanics and engineers. Even before the loss of Rannoch, their homeworld, the Quarians were skilled programmers, as evidenced by the evolution of the Geth, and roboticists. Since they became nomads though, they have picked up a rather undeserved reputation in my opinion, of thieves. I feel that all they need now is a new home for them to settle on, but that is complicated by their biology, they are dextro based DNA not levo, and their immune systems. "
"They do sound rather pitiful. But I must ask, why introduce them last?"
"It is because that while yes, they did violate Citadel law by creating an AI, we had no choice but to expel them for creating a threat such as the Geth. We couldn't afford to join them in their quest to retake their homeworld simply because the Geth may perceive us as a threat and try to wipe us out."
"I… see…" he said, a little disbelievingly.
"There are of course other races around that aren't members of Citadel society, but they are all comparatively minor players at best." she said. The Krogan and the Drell were around yes, but they were comparatively… inconsequential
"Thank you Captain for the introduction. Now I do have some more questions…"
_
Silaris docking bay
Tau 30 system
Over the past few hours, Perkins had essentially just been making small but polite inquiries into Citadel society and history, and it was… interesting to say the least while Dala had done the same about Bretonian society. It was an… enlightening experience. The humans were most interested in meeting and understanding other species and from the looks of it, they were rather intrigued with the prospect of leaving their systems and seeing new ones.
"I'm sorry Captain T'Loni, but I fear our time together here has passed." he said, with as much regret as he could muster "My superiors and the official diplomat assigned to these talks will be arriving shortly. May I say it has been a pleasure to know you and the rest of the galactic community. May we go and live together in peace." he said as he ended with a flourished bow.
"I thank you Commander Perkins, know that we of the Citadel look forward to meeting and interacting with humanity. Most of all, I must thank you and your men for saving the lives of many aboard this fleet. "
"It was my pleasure to have done so Captain T'Loni, now if you will excuse us, we must rendezvous with our Battlegroup by the gate. " he said as he and Thatch donned their helmets once more and headed to their fighters.
Now… now she waited. Soon she and her ship would get a grand view of the hu- Bretonian military.
Onboard the Silaris
Port observation Deck
Tau 30 system
Just about everyone who wasn't on-duty right now or could argue that observing the emerging fleet would be "in their interests" was gathered here in the Silaris' Port observation deck. Everyone was keeping an eye out on the artefact, just waiting for the thing to activate. Aela couldn't blame them. She too was incredibly curious as to what would come out of that artifact.
Dr. Aela D'Avo was, along with many throughout the fleet, in a deep state of thought. The fact that the aliens they had performed First Contact with had such an advanced grasp of technology, all without any eezo… It defied nearly every conventional school of thought in the Citadel.
"Dari, what do you think of all this?"
'I think that right about now, I would give my arms and legs for a chance to take back samples of their technology back to the fleet. If they could achieve FTL without eezo…"
"You could maybe find a new home."
"Or take back Rannoch. We could go Home!" she said excitedly "Not even the Geth could resist us with this kind of technology!"
"The big question though is, would they let you take something back?" she asked rather cautiously, she'd rather not dampen her hope, but … she had to be practical here.
"If they won't I'll find a way to get something. Even the wrecks of those other fighters could provide some insight. I'll take a shuttle and -"
"Look!" excitedly shouted Dari, " it's opening!"
Indeed the artefact was now opening, the artefact was once more forming the… wormhole in its center. Just what kind of ship or ships would come out of it now?
"Goddess…" she could begin to see part of one of the ships emerge and it was huge. Easily a dreadnaught to rival any the Citadel possesses. Like a great lumbering whale, it crawled out of the anomaly and into full view right in front of the gate.
"That is easily the size of the Gladius, maybe even a bit larger" said Dari a little bit of awe in her voice, "and those guns on hers… Keelah, if they fire energy weapons too…"
"It would likely bypass any barriers we have. All we have protecting us is a layer of armor…"
"It's a good thing they came in peace then right?"
"Indeed Aela. Yes indeed." she said hope strong in her voice. These people could be the key to going home...
___
Onboard the Gladius
Tau 30 System
General Septimus Oraka was not exactly pleased. First was the attack on his ships, then was the nasty surprise that the aliens had unleashed upon the Hoplon and crippled her, and now an alien fleet was now entering the system through that artifact.
"General, reading similar energy signatures around the artifact again. I think the fleet is arriving now."
"Good, right on schedule as the Silaris advised. I want all ships to observe the alien contacts, I want opinions on the functions of each ship and what their capabilities are."
"Aye aye sir. Relaying orders."
Oraka then kept a close eye on the visual feed. He could see the first ship, likely a dreadnaught from how big the ship was, he would guess a roughly a little bit bigger than the Gladius itself. Rough and tough, likely as a way to make sure the ship survived any breaches through its barriers.
Then came its escorts, cruisers based on the size of them. Heavily armed, practically bristling with gun turrets. A dedicated Point defence ship? A possibility. Wouldn't know till he saw it action, and Spirits willing, not against him.
Finally came a larger contingent of smaller ships, some of the more familiar fighters that he has come to recognize thanks to the earlier patrol, and larger, frigate sized ships, rather like a bird of prey those last ones. Likely fast and maneuverable do deal damage to the PD ships.
" I want your opinion men. What do you think of the Alien Dreadnaught?" he asked, it was always useful for another perspective.
"I think it serves as the command and control ship sir. Likely it relays all relevant orders it has to other ships in the fleet. " said Lieutenant Praxis, his voice confident in it's assertion.
"What makes you say that?" asked General Oraka, while he knew the answer to that, it paid to double check. Praxis was shaping up to have some potential for a promotion and if he could give the right analysis, it could only further solidify his thoughts on the matter.
"I'd say judging from the formation that its now in sir. " he said pointing at one of the visual feeds.
"There are cruisers at the bow, port, starboard and stern of it. Judging from the weapons emplacements on those cruisers, I think those cruisers are providing extra PD to the central ship, or perhaps covering its flanks, either way, they are protecting that ship, this suggests that it is rather important. Next up, the Frigates and the fighters, look at their patrols, they are still circling the ship, I think that ship is very important sir, not just from its size, but from the way the other ships are protecting it."
"Good point Lieutenant. As for the weapons?"
"I think that knowing their, tech, it'll likely still be an energy weapon, and I think that Dreadnaught is optimized to fight other dreadnaughts. Look at the size of those guns. I don't think they'll hit a fighter easily, I do think they'll deal some massive damage to anything we have."
"Good observation. Thoughts on countering them?"
"Well sir, I'd recommend out ranging them. Those energy weapons of theirs seem to dissipate after a certain range, likely the energy leaking out, so range and concentrated fire sir. A fighter screen of our own should also help take on any fighters they have, but the fleet only has a small contingent of fighters so…"
"It won't be much use against them, especially with those shields of theirs."
"Yes sir. Still, I do think we have a decent chance of taking on that fleet if need be. We could outrange them, and I do believe we can out maneuver them. Though I am rather worried about our ability to damage them. They do look rather well armored."
"If I may add to the discussion sir." asked Lieutenant Spica, one of the sensor officers.
"Go ahead Lieutenant."
"Well sir, based on what me and several other of the techs have been observing, as you know, any barrier's most basic function on a starship is not to block out enemy fire, but to block out microdebris from damaging the hull of a ship."
"Yes, and I assume that the barriers on the larger ships are weaker than we expect?"
"Thats just it sir, we aren't reading any barrier at all. In fact, we are reading that microdebris are in fact directly impacting the hull of the larger ships. I don't think those ships have any sort of barrier at all.The only thing me and the other sensor techs and I have managed to confirm is that there seems to be a rather strong corrosive on those ships, coupled with some light radiation. We detected it earlier on the fighters that we first encountered, but we wrote it off as a sensor fluke, now… Now we believe that these alien have a strong resistance to radiation because otherwise they would have gone and decontaminated it by now, I think."
That in itself had rather disturbing implications. If a race was naturally immune to radiation, they were more likely to resort to nuclear warfare… To them it would be a light summer day when bathing in that radioactive hell…
"Spirits, I hope you are wrong Lieutenant. I hope you are wrong…" he said as he looked onto the incoming fleet.
HMS Stirling, Captain's Quarters
Tau 30 system
Lord Edward Barstow was for the moment, like many aboard the Sitrling, quite a bit in awe at the alien fleet.Of particular note was the ship in the middle of the fleet; it was alien in design, all curves and chrome, with several other ships of a different make, all harsh predatory angles, surrounding it, including one rather thin looking Battleship.
Unlike many aboard the ship though, he had seen enough alien artifacts to know that these weren't related to the ones that many of the rich liked to collect. These aliens were different, and most importantly alive.
That led to problems. Problems he was here to hopefully prevent from ever surfacing. Now he foun himself in the Captain's quarters, rather tastefully decorated with choice pieces from some New London sculptor the Lord Barstow heard was starting to gain some noteriety for making great use of Liberty influences of some rather ancient Egyptian styles.
"What do you make of this situation, James?" asked Lord Barstow to Captain James Dunbar, his long time friend since their days in prep school.
"I think- no, I know we know nothing, Ed. We're treading on virgin territory here,and to be honest, that terrifies me." said Captain Dunbar as he poured Lord Barstow and himself a glass of scotch.
"You, the Stoic of Saint Bartleby's Academy? Terrified?" Lord Barstow asked disbelievingly as he accepted the drink, "If it wasn't for the fact that I myself am staring at that bloody alien fleet, I wouldn't have believed you. Now though…" said Lord Barstow as he downed his scotch in one go, "Now I'm just wondering what the bloody hell is going on here.What we have here is a complete mystery, and exactly why I cannot wait for Perkins to hurry up and get here. I want to interview the man myself and figure just how much he messed up."
"I know he made a right mess of the talks you are to head now ,Ed." Captain Dunbar said, understanding clear in his voice,"The man wasn't trained for this, hell, none of us are. The only reason King Alexander picked you was that firstly, you are his first cousin, and second, you have a talent for talking your way through things. I think he hoped you could work your special magic on the aliens." he said as he sipped his own drink.
"I'm not sure my 'magic' will work on the Aliens." he said a little sarcastically "It works in getting a little better trade concessions from those nice folks from Liberty yes, but these are aliens! We have no idea with what we are dealing with here, James," he said loudly, "Bloody hell, we don't even have a point of history to identify with! All we have is one flight leader who has encountered them, and who has likely damaged any foreseeable talks with them, ergo, the ones I'm handling."
"God knows there are far far too many unknowns for my liking here Ed. Large alien fleet, no idea as to their weaponry or defenses, not even the slightest hint as to whether or not this is a trap or if they can find out where the rest of Bretonian space is. There are just far too many unknowns here for my liking." he repeated as he sipped his drink, "If I had my way, I'd have asked for at the very least the Norfolk to join us, damn the trade lanes. This is far too important to not show up without being over prepared. " he said, as he finished his drink in one . "I've a flight of Crusaders with Starkiller Torpedoes ready just in case Ed. " he said rather seriously," If those aliens try anything, I'll launch that flight and tell em to unleash hell. All of their torpedoes if need be. I'll bet that it'll give em enough a thrashing for them to consider a retreat."
"I'd think you would hope that things wouldn't go to that James." said Lord Barstow, trying to reassure him that it won't come to that.
He hoped.
"Ed, in my line of work, assumptions won't get you anywhere else but an early grave. I'm deathly afraid, but I know that acting all timid like will likely end up with my men dead. The only ambition I have today is to come out of this situation alive with as many of my men alive, which ideally means that I won't be firing any shots today. Ideally. God knows that isn't likely to be happening." he said as he stared out of his viewport.
"Let's hope not James"... said Lord Barstow as he too stared at the mysterious alien fleet…
___
HMS Stirling Bridge
Tau 30 System
"What can you tell me about the data we received from the flight recorders of Perkins and Doctor Brent's flight?" asked Captain James Dunbar, the more he knew about the situation before interviewing Perkins the better.
"Well sir, as I'm sure you've taken notice of when you watched the recordings, the aliens seem to make use of laser based Point Defence. Unusually enough, when we reviewed the recordings, it seems that their lasers are quite weak. They barely drained the shields of our Crusaders, which considering that we make use of Positron shields, means that these lasers were hardly even denting our shields. However, while weak, they were incredibly accurate. Look at how when they concentrated fire on the Mollies, entire batteries kept track of single fast moving fighters, and managed to keep up their aim.I think that while they don't specialize in energy weapons, they do specialize in weaponry that requires very precise aiming" said Lieutenant Wilkins.
"So possibly they decided to go concentrate on missiles or traditional ballistics?"
"I think so sir, There do seem to be gunports on the front of their ships. It could be that their entire ships are built around the gun itself, which in itself suggests to me a concentration on mass drivers."
"How would our armor stand against these mass drivers of theirs?"
"I'm not sure sir. In theory, our armor could withstand us moving at full cruise speed into a station and go straight through it, sustaining only minor damage, Seeing as this has never been tested though…"
"Let's not test that today Lieutenant. Onto my next question then, what do you make of the weird energy signatures that we've found on our scans of their ships? It seems like there seems to be some sort of… gravitational anomaly on board those ships of theirs. It's as if… somehow parts of their ships are under entirely different gravitational fields, which according to our own understanding of anti-gravity, is entirely impossible."
"So they have some sort of better understanding of anti-gravity than we do then. That they can somehow remotely fine tune the gravity in certain sections of their ships? Make some parts more massive and some less and so forth?
"From that our scans show us, yes. There seem to be a rather unusual amount of mass disparity on their ships. Their ships somehow have less mass than they should have. This should be impossible yet I'm seeing it right here sir. "
"Then I think we better keep a close eye on these aliens. No telling just what tricks they can pull..."
___
HMS Stirling
Debriefing Room
Tau 30 System
"Commander Perkins, I'm going to be honest with you" said Captain James Dunbar, regret strong in his voice as he poured Perkins and himself a glass of scotch, "you've gone and buggered up the talks. Now now, I admit it wasn't your fault Perkins, but Command will want someone to blame for us not having every advantage we could have in the talks. From what you've told me, you've gone and told them we're not the only humans around here.' he said as he sipped his scotch, "That means that we can't go and reveal them as needed. Command is asking for someone to blame, and sad to say Perkins, but you are the logical fall man for this. But I have to tell you Perkins, that was the bad news."
"That I'm buggered sir? That I'm likely to be assigned to hunting and subsequently dying to a Corsair or Outcast patrol?" he asked, the sarcasm strong in his voice.
"You could do that if you choose to continue with us here in His Majesty's Armed Forces..." he said as he continued to sip his drink, "Or you could take our deal."
"It would depend sir, what deal? he asked a little suspiciously.
"We could let you go from the Armed Forces with an honorable discharge and all wages due to you."
"An what sir? Go and end up working on Leeds and dying in some Mining accident? Go work for BMM or Bowex and die working under either of them?"
"No Perkins. Here is what Command is willing to offer to you" Dunbar said as he finished his drink, "Command is willing to let you go honorably with your Crusader. Fully armed and repaired. You could be your own man Perkins, a freelancer. You could do anything you wanted to within the colonies."
"So sir, you are essentially offering me either death by patrol, or an 'honourable' discharge while I go Freelance working whatever hours I want and for whoever I want?" he asked , sarcasm strong in his voice, " I think my answer there is obvious sir, as much as I love serving His Majesty, I like living as well. I'll take the Freelance option sir, see what else this galaxy has to offer."
"Excellent, Perkins,and if I may offer a suggestion, ?"
"Yes sir?"
"I expect talks here will continue for quite a while. I can expedite your honourable discharge and make it official within the day. Provided things go well… You can offer your services to the aliens as their unofficial tour guide. And funnel a little bit of what you know to us. We'd pay you for your services to them and at the same time, I expect they'll pay you in some other form, raw materials and such. We learn a little bit more that can help us in our diplomatic talks, and you can go and earn two pays for one job."
"That's a mighty smart idea sir. I think I'll take your advice sir."
"Good job lad. I'll forward your first payment soon and I expect you'll update us every week on what you manage to learn of the aliens.You are now essentially a deniable asset to the Kingdom of Bretonia. God help you lad."
"Sir, I'll be honest. I'm only doing this because I have no idea what I can do after this. I don't have the credits for Liberty, I'd have trouble finding work in Kusari and Rhineland is in shambles. I think working for Bretonia, no matter how indirect is my only choice here. Sir."
"I understand Perkins. You've been caught between a rock and a hard place."
"No kidding sir. Still, things could be worse." he said as he downed his own drink. So much for leaving the aliens...
Onboard the Silaris
Tau 30 system
All things considered, Captain Dala T'Loni thought things were going well. These aliens, humans, had managed a mostly peaceful first contact. If it wasn't for those… Mollies, then Dala was confident no shooting would have happened. The Molly incident was rather fortunate though. It led to some rather interesting revelations; namely the existence of other powerful factions within their sector of space, all fellow humans. They also seemed to have some sort of problem internally, or at least with worker's rights. Then there was the fact that this entire sector was all human owned, but from different factions. Furthermore, these humans were all essentially wartime refugees fleeing from some war over their homeworld but had no intentions of going back and fighting whoever won that war centuries ago. Not to mention all the advanced technologies these people seemed to posses, super hard armor, directed energy weapons, wormhole generation...
All in all, the humans were shaping up to be a very… interesting race. They were most certainly going to disrupt the balance of power within the Citadel and now she had to prepare her own diplomatic team to go and greet the humans aboard their dreadnaught.
"Dr Aela D'Avo, I want you with me, your experience with linguistics may come in handy if our grasp of their… English fails."
"Me? I'm a Xenoarcheaologist yes, but I'm not exactly a dedicated translator…" said Dr D'Avo rather hesitatingly. To be put in such a position… It was not something she was mentally ready for.
"But you cracked their language rather well, yes? That is most certainly good enough Dr D'Avo." said Captain T'Loni reassuringly," You will come with me. I'm sure you will do well and I'm sure your services won't even be needed."
"Lieutenant Shala, you are with me as well" said Captain T'Loni as she pointed her out,". You will be our technical advisor for this mission." Then,turning to Dari, Captain T'Loni explained in as gentle a manner as she could, " If we were simply investigating the artifact, I would have picked you Miss vas Neema,, but…"
"No need to explain Captain" said Dari, holding her hand up to stop her". I understand your reasoning. Just get me onto one of their ships when we can and I'll be happy to explain things away. Lieutenant Shala can go and relay her findings to me and I'll go and do what I can."
"Right then, I want a small Commando detachment for security, 2 at the most. "
"Two? I think you should be bringing aboard with you a lot more than that Captain." rebuked General Oraka, " Who knows what could be aboard that ship? Or even if this is one great big elaborate trap?" he said strongly. He did have good security points, but by the Goddess, they needed to show that they could be trusted!
"I understand your concerns General, but I think that two Commandoes should be able to handle what they are needed to do." said Captain T'Loni in her now well used reassuring tone of voice," Enough for security, but not too many to threaten. Just the right amount for diplomacy."
"Fine Captain, but be aware, if they do hold you hostage in some plan of theirs, know that I will fire with no hesitation." he said gravely.
"I understand General. Now, Ladies, let us proceed to the shuttle."
"Yes Captain" echoed the selected members of the delegation. If the talks with Commander Perkins was anything to go by, things were only going to get more interesting.
HMS Stirling Docking bay
Tau 30 system
Lord Edward Barstow was right now understandably nervous. He was here, right at forefront of first contact with alien intelligence. Here he was, representing His Majesty's Government, and for a brief moment, perhaps all the Colonies of Sirius, to these aliens.
God he could use a drink right about now.
And now… now there was the alien shuttle making its slow, almost graceful approach. The shuttle certainly reflected the same design style as the alien ship, all chrome and curves in one package. It was beautiful in that it was clean and simple, yet elegant in ways he hasn't seen often.
Nonetheless, he had more important things to take note of right now. The security detail was ready with their rifles by their side and ready to unleash some of the finest weapons to come out of the Detroit Arms Depot…
As the shuttle opened its doors however, despite Perkins' description and picture of them, he couldn't help but be a little entranced by them. Somehow the blue ladies walked with a grace that came naturally only to the most refined and dignified Bretonian Noblewomen. Unlike most of them though, the way they walked, even the ones visibly armed with weapons, it somehow… just made them altogether beautiful in a dignified manner.
Still, best keep his guard up. Many a diplomat has been laid low by feminine wiles and he won't be one of them.
"Greetings on behalf of the Asari Republics" said the lead one in a shimmering and oh so clingy silver dress, "We are the Asari, and we welcome you into the Galactic Community. We come in Peace."
Time to work his magic then. "On behalf of the Kingdom of Bretonia, and Humanity here in the Sirius systems, we also greet you in the name of peace. Let us move together forward into an era of mutual prosperity and stability." he said in that special way of his, as if greeting a fellow friend that was also nobility, cool, open and friendly, yet somehow keeping it understood that there is business to be done today.
"Indeed we shall. I am Captain Dala T'Loni, effective exploratory leader of this fleet." she said, still managing that calm tone of hers.
"I am Lord Edward Barstow of New London, first cousin to his Majesty King Alexander II of the Kingdom of Bretonia, appointed ambassador to this most esteemed occasion." he said, keeping his voice firm yet friendly. "Let us proceed to the official talks if you don't mind?"
"Yes. Let us indeed. We have much to talk about."
"We do madam. Would you kindly now follow me to our conference room, where we can begin our discussions? I do so hope you enjoy our hospitality here." he said as he signaled his escorts to follow him. He walked down the halls of the Stirling towards its conference room, careful to stick to the best maintained and aesthetically pleasing portions of the ships.
Captain Dala T'Loni meanwhile couldn't help but think that this ship reminded her of Krogan engineering, tough enough to likely outlast the user. What differed was the occasional wall ornament near the ceiling that seemed to represent some sort of beastial version of humans, horns coming out of the tops of the… heads of the ornaments. Possibly a reminder of strength? Though what struck Dala the most was that as they walked down the corridors, she couldn't help but think, the Krogan built their things tough because they had to be tough. Tuchanka wasn't the most pleasant planet around, what with it essentially being a post-apocalyptic wasteland. What sort of environment did these Humans live in to necessitate such a tough and comparatively utilitarian design?
She was however snapped from her thoughts when the human, Lord Barstow, opened a door and she entered a marvelously decorated room. A table, hewed from real dark wood, likely some valuable and rare one, sat at the center of the room. Carvings of some sort of leaf pattern dotted the frame of the table and its legs were even curved, likely trying to mimic the tree trunks it was hewed from. The chairs were similarly decorated and had some likely rich and rare, red material as cushioning. The floor was carpeted in some magnificent scarlet material, soft and springy, while the walls and ceiling seemed to be paneled with real wood, this time of some reddish brown colour.
Truly, when these people wanted to decorate, they went with something that just seemed to be so… timeless. A scene from something before travels into space. Not even the oldest Matriarchs chose to decorate their own homes in such a manner. It was beautiful.
"Now, normally at this point of any talks, I'd offer one some tea and biscuits, or some sherry or whisky if alcohol was their preference, but seeing as we don't quite understand each other's physiologies that much…" Lord Barstow said apologetically.
"There is no need to explain Lord Barstow," said Dala understandingly, "I understand your caution, but I would like to try out your food and drink as well. Our… hand held computers will be able to scan and tell us if it is safe for us to eat and drink. I'll take the tea and… biscuits if you don't mind."
"Capital!" he said rather energetically. He then pointed out one of his escorts, "Smith, could you kindly grab a kettle and prepare the Earl Grey? Bring along some cream and sugar as well, our guests may want some. Tell Rogers down in the bar to bring up my stash of pastries as well." then he turned to Captain T'Loni, "Oh and I wouldn't mind if you feel it necessary for one of your escorts to look after the tea and biscuits. I understand completely that caution is something that is necessary in this situation."
"I understand Lord Barstow, but there is no need for that. Your man may continue."
"Right then. Smith, get to it." Lord Barstow ordered.
"Right o sir!" said the Smith, saluting briskly then quickly making his way out of the room.
"Now then madam, while we wait for our tea, please, sit. I'm sure you have many questions and sitting would be preferable yes?"
"Thank you for the offer Lord Barstow. Let me begin with some of the most pressing issues that I feel as a representative of the Citadel Council need to be addressed, namely your general location. We wish to know the extent of your territory within the galaxy."
"Of course we may address that issue." he said as he seamlessly took a seat and typed something into a panel on his side, and a holographic display appeared on the table, there was likely some hidden projector either on the table or on the ceiling, probably to keep the feel of this room."Now, as I've been told, Commander Perkins has graciously told you Ladies of the other Houses yes?"
"Yes he has." Dala replied...
"I best mention all our claimed systems then." he said as he zoomed into a particular portion. Dala recognized it, this was where they were, a rather remote location bordering the Skyllian Verge and the Terminus systems. It was largely unexplored due to it being rather distant from most Mass Relays. The Seventh fleet only barely found this particular system in range, and even then, it was only considered for visiting because of the suspicion that a major pirate group had a base of sorts here. Dala imagined that freighters would find this within their range but why bother? No one lived here, and as far as many knew there was nothing of value here. Till now at least. "We are here, in the Tau 30 system, a recently claimed system by us, the Kingdom of Bretonia. It lies to the galactic northwest of several of our other systems, and is directly connected to one of them. You will forgive me if I do not tell you the specific locations of them for now, at least until we have some sort of formalized trade treaty going on, which I suspect we will be going into later. But I digress," he said as highlighted several areas on the map in red, "these territories are ones directly claimed by the Kingdom of Bretonia. Adjacent to us," he once again highlighted several worlds, this time to the galactic north and south east, "are these border worlds. Neutral territory so to speak, of our Houses. These are actively patrolled by members of both our Armed Forces and the neighboring Houses." he once again highlighted another area, this time in black to the galactic northeast, "These are the Independent systems, notable only for a holiday planet and their direct connection to Liberty Space." he once again highlighted several areas, this time a set of purple ones in the galactic north, a set of green ones in the south, and a set of blue one in the center. "These are the areas claimed by the other houses: Liberty in blue, Kusari in purple, and Rhineland in green. They are all our friends and allies here in the Sirius systems. I must inform you that due to the… nature of this contact, in that it is our first, we have informed them of this situation." he said seriously with a hint of regret in his voice. He would've kept it a secret from them for as damned long as possible, but Perkins messed that up. Alex wanted to lead Bretonia somewhere to the future, but without some sort of leverage, he had nothing here in these talks that might keep Bretonia definitively in the lead. Perkins ruined that.
"We understand completely," Captain T'Loni replied, if a large unknown fleet appeared, she would've tried to inform others of said fleet. "If I may ask, what do they think of us?" she asked curiously.
"Honestly, we don't know. They haven't replied yet, though I dare suspect that their fleets are silently mobilizing as a precaution."
That was something that alarmed Dala, unknown fleets of warships with unknown technologies possibly mobilizing for war? That was bad in any circumstance. "Tell them we mean no harm, we wish only to invite you, Humanity, and that means all the systems you highlighted, to join the galactic community."
"And what sort of benefits would we get? Within the Sirius systems we are quite self-sufficient. Each of the Houses have something that the others want."
"Trade of technology for one thing. I'm very sure that you would be quite interested in that. We would also be able to facilitate the exchange of culture and learning. We can also provide more traditional forms of trade, raw materials, food, consumer goods, whatever is needed. I'm sure that the introduction of new markets is something that all the companies within this area would be most interested in. We could also tell you of other habitable systems nearby."
That struck a certain point to Ed. Most notably food and the habitable systems part. It isn't commonly known, but the main reason that Planetform was funded by the government was that Bretonia is looming on the brink of famine. There were far too many heavily industrialized planets and not enough planets growing food. If- no not if, when famine struck, the other houses would intervene… at a cost. Bretonia could face a Rhineland situation. With these aliens however… maybe just maybe, they could get better prices off them, or more importantly colonies. Yes, they would have to share with the other houses, but the potential here…
"While this does sound like a good idea Captain," Lord Barstow calmly replied, "I can't help but feel that there are certain… catches so to speak here."
"Catches, Lord Barstow?" replied Captain T'Loni, confusion in her face, "A moment please." she said after giving Barstow's words some thought.
"What does he mean by catch Aela?" Dala quickly asked Dr D'Avo, remembering to stick to Thessian.
"I think he means there is too much going for him here that he can't help but feel he is being baited into a trap…" she tentatively replied
"And thus get caught in it. We'll just have to convince them otherwise." she replied with a slight smile.
"Apologies Lord Barstow, I had to clarify some things with my colleague here. I do get what you are saying now though. Believe me when I say that joining the Galactic Community, the Citadel, can only lead to benefits to your peoples. Yes there are some treaties that all members must sign, but these are all just things that we believe are necessary to maintaining peace throughout our space." Dala replied in as calm a manner as she could.
"Such as?"
"Well, there are the treaties limiting the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction on garden worlds. Even with FTL, as I'm sure you know, worlds that can support life are few and far between, and bringing one planet to life supporting standards takes millions of years."
"That does make sense, but I'm sure there are other treaties we need to know about. But first, explain to me just what is this Citadel you keep referring to?" he inquisitively replied. Perkins explained a little about it, but hearing from the aliens was always nice.
"Around 3000 years ago, we the Asari discovered the Citadel, an ancient and gigantic space station created by an ancient and extinct race we call the Protheans. It lies at the center of a series of what we call Mass Relays, something similar to what we suspect are your… wormhole generators, except that the Protheans built them. They are our major form of travelling throughout the galaxy. We, along with the Salarians who came soon after, decided to form a collaborative government on the Citadel, seeing its central location as the logical location for a government. We formed the Citadel Council, a group to call judgement on those who break Citadel laws, settle disputes, and enforce the peace. Take note however that the Citadel Council has no overhanging authority over the still sovereign nations. They provide arbitration and oversight. All species who join are thus protected under Citadel Law and can enjoy the many benefits of being an associate member. A Council member is a species that proves itself worthy and thus earns its seat on the Citadel Council."
"Hmm…" thought Lord Barstow. While on paper it sounded good, general peace, protected trade, prevent war between the others, essentially the Boorman Treaty with an oversight committee, it still sounded like there would be a catch. There always is. Years of dealing with Liberty had taught him that.
"For something like this, I cannot act without the approval of my King, Captain T'Loni. This is simply far too important. I would request copies of the treaties that we would be required to sign so that I may properly review them. Of course I understand it'll take time for you to translate those into English, so those can wait or later talks no?"
"I understand completely Lord Barstow. Let us move on to other things, we have questions on your FTL."
"Our Jump Gates?"
"Indeed, we are very much interested in them. What would you want in exchange for their schematics?"
And there was the catch. No one has access to those schematics outside of DSE, Aegira and the highest echelons of the Liberty government. Oh the other houses have tried for years to get their hands on them, but taking apart an already functional Jump Gate would arouse too much suspicion from Liberty and the white boxes on them were very well designed. No one has managed to crack them open.
"We may have a problem there Captain." he replied a little embarrassedly, "You see, we don't know how they work."
"You mean some ancient race built these gates as well?" Dala replied. Did these colonists take out a race capable of building these gates only for them to be unable to replicate them?
"Not exactly ancient, more like it is our neighbor, Liberty, who built them." Lord Barstow replied a little awkwardly. "I suspect you want to build your own copies of them." he replied once he saw the Captain's suddenly hopeful looking expression, "Don't bother. We've tried for centuries to get them to share their tech, but they hoard that patent very close to their hearts."
"Then how do you build new ones?" Dala replied a little unbelievingly. "You all just go to this… Liberty and ask them to build you a new gate?"
"Not exactly ask. More like… agree to whatever payments Ageira or DSE wants."
"Ageira and DSE?"
"Ageira Technologies and Deep Space Engineering hold a monopoly on building any and all Jump Gates and trade lanes within the colonies. They are the only ones who know how to and are completely backed by the Liberty government."
In Dala's mind, this brought a whole new meaning to megacorporation. That these two companies held so much power over sovereign states… It's clear now that talks would have to happen between all these Sirius Houses, at the same time in the same place. It'll probably give the Citadel the best chance at a good deal. However… she couldn't just leave these talks without something. Trade of sorts would be good, or perhaps telling them of Element Zero? No, regular trade, and an open appearance as well could be more beneficial. It'll show peaceful intentions yet willing to trade things, from tech to material goods.
"I… see. This is something that I imagine will require me to talk to someone from Liberty, yes?"
"Yes indeed. You must understand that we in the colonies are very dependent on each other." which in Lord Barstow's mind was 'even though we wish we weren't' "We each specialize and provide a certain trade or service to each other. Liberty specializes in Finance and Travel Technology" And make sure to lord it over the rest of us , "we in Bretonia specialize in manufacturing, and certain material extraction," best not mention BMM's worker policy, "Kusari, IT and specialized components and fuel," and they really try their best to make sure that they keep things IN Kusari, "and Rhineland ,raw materials and basic machinery" mostly because that's all they have left. "We've found rather much like your interspecies alliance, different competing societies with very diverse areas of focus leads to a much more effective growth in both our societies and economies. "
So, in the absence of other races, they found that different societies would help facilitate growth and change. Dala just couldn't form a picture of what these humans are like. Everything that she has seen so far has just been… so hard to figure things out. Still, it sounds like Bretonia has things that could be traded for. "It sounds like you Humans are indeed quite an interesting species. It is true that we have found that each species has their own particular disposition on the Citadel, we Asari tend to specialize in Hi-Tech products while Turians would be more along the line of security. Now that we hear you humans have some products and materials nearby, perhaps trade of sorts could be arranged?"
There we go. Now she has caught the scent of something she likes. "While I'm not opposed to it," Lord Barstow replied, careful to not show his interest too much, "this is something that bears great weight on what will affect the future of our peoples. I am however open to openly announcing the first contact with your peoples. You could follow us, into the Jump Gate, and we can take you onwards towards New London, where you will most certainly be well received by the King." A public appearance would also incidentally raise Bretonia's image quite a bit within the colonies. The Brave Bretonians who encountered the unknown and greeted it with warmth and peace, ushering a new era of exploration etcetera etcetera.
Meanwhile, Dala was seriously contemplating this. First Contact and the meeting of the monarch of these people? The First users of a brand new form of FTL?
She would be moving so far into the unknown, but that thought merely sweetened it for her. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, even among the Asari. It wasn't every day you met a species like the Humans.
"While most certainly a… tempting offer Lord Barstow," she replied cautiously, it wouldn't do to offend her hosts, "I fear I must consult with my superiors first. This, like you said, is a most momentous decision."
"I understand completely. Take your time and-" a bell rung, not an alarming one, a slight tingle, just enough to grab one's attention, "Ah! The tea is ready. Let's start our recess. I do believe you will enjoy our time honored tradition of tea."
Dala personally had no idea what tea was but she did suspect that with the amount of reverence these Bretonian humans had for tea, it must be an important part of their culture. When she turned towards the door, there entered a human in a sleek black outfit with a with a white layer under. He walked upright and carried in his two white gloved hands, what looked like a tray of incredibly fragile looking ceramics. She carefully turned to her resident Xenoarchaeologist for some ideas.
"Dr.D'Avo, any ideas on what this ceremony is about?" she quietly asked.
"I can't be too sure Captain," Aela replied hesitatingly "but I do suspect that it's a drinking ceremony of sorts. Not alcoholic for sure."
"Ah Smith!" Lord Barstow laughed cheerily, "You went and decided to go for the Jeeves outfit for this occasion eh?"
"I do believe that for this occasion, you should call me Jeeves, suh. It is after all, my actual first name." replied Smith calmly and professionally.
"Capital, Jeeves! Now if you would kindly serve us?"
"Of course sir." said the man, Jeeves, as he carefully laid down the tray at the center of the table.
"Now, would you like to have your tea strong and sweet? Or smooth and subtle?" Lord Bartow asked Dala.
"I'll have it the way you'll have yours Lord Barstow. I wouldn't know the difference." she apologetically replied.
"Of course!" Lord Barstow replied a little embarrassed, "I'm terribly sorry about that. Let's do move on. Jeeves, one sugar and one cream for the both of us please. "
"Of course sir." said Jeeves as he carefully took the pot with the little spout and poured some sort of black steaming liquid into the tiny cups. He then took another pot with a spout and poured a rather small amount of white liquid into it. Finally, he took some powdery substance from one pot with a silvery looking spoon and scooped a spoonful into each. He then very carefully stirred each of the dainty looking cups with a silver spoon, and then grabbed each them and proffered one to herself and Dr. D'Avo then finally to Lord Barstow
Lord Barstow then, after delicately balancing his cup in his hand, and gently sipped his drink. "Mmm… It's been a long time since I enjoyed a nice cup." he said after a long while, clearly enjoying his drink.
Dala then decided to follow his motions, after remembering to do a quick scan with her omni-tool for any possible poisons that could affect her. Seeing that her tool sensed nothing beyond a mild stimulant, she then sent the results to the Silaris for a quick analysis of both the drink and some of the nearby foods that Lord Bartow was now eating. After about a few minutes, she received the go ahead to have the tea from one of the scientists aboard, having meanwhile listened to a little bit of life as one of the Aristocracy of this… Bretonian society.
It was warm, hearty and earthy with a smoothness to it along with a slight hint of sweetness. "This is most delicious Lord Barstow." Dala gladly complimented. "I'm sure I wouldn't mind taking this back to Thessia for some of the Matriarchs to taste."
"Please do so! I shall gift you with some of my personal blends and instructions on how to prepare them, along with your own tea set and some sugar and cream."
"Thank you Lord Barstow." it was indeed a generous gift if such a prized beverage was being gifted from this man's stores. Surely this was a sign that from here on in, things could only go smoothly?
"Thank you, though I am rather of the opinion that it is rather utilitarian." she said truthfully. The Silaris did her job, and did it well.
"You call this utilitarian?" he said, a little disbelief in his voice, " Then I would love to see just what you would call a beautiful ship. "
"It's honestly not that different." she said nonchalantly," Even our warships are designed to look somewhat similar to this. And while beautiful, I cannot help but feel that in comparison to your ships, they are rather… fragile. " she said truthfully, with just a little bit of her hoping he would divulge something.
"While I would love nothing more than to talk shop with you Captain," he said rather apologetically" I'm afraid that talking about the… details of the construction of our own ships would most certainly in violation of my orders.I can however agree with you that our ships are rather wretched in comparison to yours. They are rather robust and roguish compared to yours."
"Still… it has a rather… safe feeling. Like I feel like it is something that one can rely on" she said wistfully. She would most certainly love to have shielding technology like theirs.
"Once again Captain, no comment, though I suspect this is something you feel about your own ship." he continued in a diplomatic tone.
"Indeed. The Silaris is a reliable ship." she said with quite a bit of fondness. The Silaris has been hers for a few years now and she has served her well.
"So let's talk about something else shall we! Tell me more about your people, the Asari" asked Perkins, genuine curiosity in his voice.
"Well," there was a lot to say about the Asari, but where to start? "let me start with our gender, essentially, I assume that you humans are a dual gendered race yes?"
"Of course. I assume that is the galactic norm as well?"
" Indeed. We Asari are unique in the galactic community in that we are essentially single gendered, all essentially female."
A look of bewilderment was now stuck on Perkins face, and Dala couldn't help but laugh a little at that. " Don't worry, many who first learn of that have similar reactions as well."
"It's just that, don't get me wrong madam, but I always thought that you were just a race that was more Matriarchal than Patriarchal. It turns out I was more right than I thought. "
"Indeed Commander. We are also a rather long lived race, at least by the normal standards of the galactic community."
"Oh? And just how old is that?"
"Over a thousand years Commander Perkins. Only one other race can live that long, and most others only live to about a century old at best."
"Wow," said Perkins, astonishment visible in his expression, "I mean, just… wow. Most humans don't even live past the age of a 100 and even then, those are rare cases. So how do you do it? Is it biology, diet or better medicine? " he said a little astonishment and hope in his voice.
"I'm afraid it's a biological thing Commander Perkins, what we have isn't a miracle of medicine, it is a effect of evolution." she said apologetically.
"That's a right shame it is then, " genuine sadness in his voice. Perhaps they had aspirations of living much longer? "Now I know that one should never ask a lady just how old she is, but in this case, I'll bite. How old are you madam?" he asked, a little of his enthusiasm leaking back
"Why I'm only 547 years old commander. "
"Why if you hadn't mentioned that, I would've thought that by the standards of us humans anyways, you would've been no older than 30! " he exclaimed a little playfully.
"Why thank you commander."
"It is merely the truth I speak ma'am." he said, ending his compliment with a flourish of his hand. "I however must inform you of something." he said again in a more serious yet calm voice." While I am indeed here as acting representative of His Majesty's government, there will be a proper delegation to continue these rather pleasant conversations we've been having in a more official and I imagine cultured manner. I am merely only a small time Commander of no importance, with no training for this whatsoever." he said apologeticly
"For someone who has no training in this you are doing remarkably well Commander."
"I'd just like to think thats my natural charm coming out Captain." he said, a little confident smirk appearing on his face. "Still, normally, someone aboard the Stirling would handle this sort of thing but it was felt that our original job of clearing out the Mollies wouldn't need a diplomat. They don't offer any quarter and I've never met a Molly who wants to surrender. Anyways, I must apologize if I cannot answer some of your questions. The real diplomat will be coming in soon, and I do expect he'll handle these talks a lot better. " he said rather apologetically.
"It is no problem at all commander. I completely understand, but I must ask how will they be arriving, and when so that we may prevent any… hostile misunderstandings." she said rather worriedly. She would rather not have a war with these people.
"That is a rather good point you make Captain T'Loni." he conceded "I expect they'll arrive in a few hours time through the Jump Gate we arrived in. At the very least, the Battleship Stirling and her battlegroup will be there, so I must ask of you to not fire upon any ships that come out of that gate."
"Understood Commander, I will make sure that the fleet is informed." she said seriously. Oraka better follow the instructions she gives in this instance.
"But I must now ask Captain, what is this Citadel you keep mentioning, and could you kindly elaborate a little further on some of the aliens that we can expect to meet?" he asked rather curiously again.
"The Citadel" she said, her tone taking a more severe and important tone, " is the center of the galactic community. "
"Like the capital of a country, or in this case government?"
"Precisely." he caught on quickly. "While every member of the Citadel is still effectively independent, everyone is bound to help each other in times of need, and we are bound together on some mutually beneficial treaties."
"Such as?"
"Well, we have agreed not to use weapons of mass destruction on garden planets, planets that are easily capable of sustaining life. It takes millions of years to turn a planet into something habitable, to lose one of these planets to something as petty as war is simply a waste of something so incredibly rare. " she continued in a serious voice. The loss of Garden worlds was no laughing matter.
Perkins rather thought that made sense. Even with Planetform Inc, terraforming worlds took hundreds of years. "While I might agree with that personally, but forgive me if I cannot comment any further. To do so would have me possibly biding our government into something we aren't quite ready to accept yet. Have to read the fine print and all that. "
"I understand. Now, I do believe you also wished to learn about the other aliens you would expect to meet?"
"Indeed I do madam" he said excitedly. Clearly he wanted to know more about the others.
"Well let me start with the other species you will likely meet soon, the Turians. " she said as she produced an image on her omnitool.
"This is a turian," as she shows the picture of a rather avian looking creature with metallic skin, to Perkins. "They are best known in the galaxy for their role as peacekeepers and as members of the Citadel council. The Turians have the largest fleet on hand and are well known for their sense of duty."
"Should we be worried about them?" he said rather cautiously. Understandable, all things considered Dala thought. They may have perceived the Molly attack as a great threat. One they are willing to invade Bretonian space for.
"While they do indeed have the largest military in the Citadel, I must point out again that they are mainly there as peacekeepers, not warriors." she said, trying to reassure him.
"Thats good. While we in Bretonia are a peaceful folk, we understand the art of war and are willing to defend ourselves if push comes to shove."
"I understand, but there is no need to worry. Most of the Turian fleet is spread out dealing with pirates and other miscreants. "
"Ah, rather like most of our military then. Keep the peace, protect trade and commerce and so on? "
"Exactly Commander. You have them spot on."
"Then I feel we will have rather a lot to share on, like finding pirate hideouts."
"I'm sure you will, many Turians are members of law enforcement and culturally, they have all served some time in the military, so even a civilian will know how to "talk shop" as it were with you. But let us move on towards the others. "
"There are the Salarians" she said as she put up a picture of a race that rather reminded Perkins slightly of a newt with horns and large eyes, "a rather short lived amphibian race well known for their intelligence and scientists. For a race that lives only about 40 years, they do try and make the most of it. They have excellent memory, the second best known, and have a work ethic that would shame just about everyone else. They've been around for about 2000 years and were one of the founding members of the Citadel council along with us Asari."
"Interesting, do go on. I have questions, but I feel like they should wait for the end of this telling of yours."
"Then there are the volus," she said, producing an image of a rather rotund creature encased in a suit, "a rather short race that breath ammonia. They are rather unique in that regard and are considered the finest bankers and traders. They did after all create the standard unit of currency we in the Citadel use. Their entire society is centered around trade. Everything from land, resources, even other tribe members are bargained amongst themselves. So much so that they've tossed away the concept of war amongst themselves, deeming it too unprofitable."
"If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought you just described Liberty, but I'm interrupting again. Do continue."
While Dala did indeed have questions, she figured that continuing was best."Then there are the Elcor, " she said, producing an image of a rather large creature, hunched rather like an ape, with mottled brownish skin, "they are unique in that they speak in a completely monotone voice. They normally communicate between each other displaying their emotions through scent and other subtle changes that aren't noticeable to other species and so often express their emotions at the start of a statement. Thanks to living in a high gravity environment where the slightest fall could kill you, they have developed a cautious and highly conservative culture. You are unlikely to find an elcor outside of their home planets,seeing that they prefer to stay together in close knit groups. However, should you visit an Elcor, you'll rarely be wanting for something. They are a rather hospitable race.
"Then there are the Hanar,"producing an image of a… glowing jellyfish?" an aquatic race who believe in the Enkindlers, or Protheans, an ancient empire that once spanned the galaxy."
"Hold on. Protheans? Extinct aliens? I do believe that there are blokes in the University that would most certainly like to see that. They have had some alien ruins they keep digging up. Maybe they are one and the same?"
"I… doubt that Commander. You see, if you had discovered the Protheans, then you would most likely be making use of a certain aspect of their technology. Which you aren't, and we most certainly are. "
"Interesting...but I digress. Please do continue."
"The Hanar believe that the Enkindlers uplifted them and taught them all they know about civilization.That said, they are incredibly polite, in fact never referring to themselves in the first person. "
"We now go into the last of the member races, the Batarians." she said as she produced an image of a four eyed bipedal race,"They are a race with a caste based system where it is highly frowned upon to overstep one's bounds. They value this system so much that to place a value on one's caste position is considered a serious insult. They also practice… slavery, despite it being illegal."
"Why would you let them continue then if it is illegal?" Perkins asked a little disbelievingly.
"It's because that while many suspect their government to support slavers, most of them are independent and in fact target all colonies, even Batarian ones. They just sell them back into their society."
"Madam, just hearing their description just makes me feel dirty. But please, continue. I'm sure there are more… pleasant races."
"Now we go into the last ones I will introduce, the Quarians." she said as she produced an image of… an alien that from a distance looked quite human thanks to the suit, but upon catching the three fingers and the bent legs, Perkins realized just how alien it was.
"While many of the younger lived races look upon them with distrust, I remember when the Quarians still had a home planet. 300 years ago, the Quarians were engaged in a brutal war with an AI race they accidentally created, the Geth. They lost and have since been traveling the galaxy, from one place to another in their Migrant Fleet. The loss of their homeworld meant that they are now required to live in envirosuits. Their immune systems are simply too weak to handle most common bacteria. Despite all this though, they are natural mechanics and engineers. Even before the loss of Rannoch, their homeworld, the Quarians were skilled programmers, as evidenced by the evolution of the Geth, and roboticists. Since they became nomads though, they have picked up a rather undeserved reputation in my opinion, of thieves. I feel that all they need now is a new home for them to settle on, but that is complicated by their biology, they are dextro based DNA not levo, and their immune systems. "
"They do sound rather pitiful. But I must ask, why introduce them last?"
"It is because that while yes, they did violate Citadel law by creating an AI, we had no choice but to expel them for creating a threat such as the Geth. We couldn't afford to join them in their quest to retake their homeworld simply because the Geth may perceive us as a threat and try to wipe us out."
"I… see…" he said, a little disbelievingly.
"There are of course other races around that aren't members of Citadel society, but they are all comparatively minor players at best." she said. The Krogan and the Drell were around yes, but they were comparatively… inconsequential
"Thank you Captain for the introduction. Now I do have some more questions…"
_
Silaris docking bay
Tau 30 system
Over the past few hours, Perkins had essentially just been making small but polite inquiries into Citadel society and history, and it was… interesting to say the least while Dala had done the same about Bretonian society. It was an… enlightening experience. The humans were most interested in meeting and understanding other species and from the looks of it, they were rather intrigued with the prospect of leaving their systems and seeing new ones.
"I'm sorry Captain T'Loni, but I fear our time together here has passed." he said, with as much regret as he could muster "My superiors and the official diplomat assigned to these talks will be arriving shortly. May I say it has been a pleasure to know you and the rest of the galactic community. May we go and live together in peace." he said as he ended with a flourished bow.
"I thank you Commander Perkins, know that we of the Citadel look forward to meeting and interacting with humanity. Most of all, I must thank you and your men for saving the lives of many aboard this fleet. "
"It was my pleasure to have done so Captain T'Loni, now if you will excuse us, we must rendezvous with our Battlegroup by the gate. " he said as he and Thatch donned their helmets once more and headed to their fighters.
Now… now she waited. Soon she and her ship would get a grand view of the hu- Bretonian military.
Onboard the Silaris
Port observation Deck
Tau 30 system
Just about everyone who wasn't on-duty right now or could argue that observing the emerging fleet would be "in their interests" was gathered here in the Silaris' Port observation deck. Everyone was keeping an eye out on the artefact, just waiting for the thing to activate. Aela couldn't blame them. She too was incredibly curious as to what would come out of that artifact.
Dr. Aela D'Avo was, along with many throughout the fleet, in a deep state of thought. The fact that the aliens they had performed First Contact with had such an advanced grasp of technology, all without any eezo… It defied nearly every conventional school of thought in the Citadel.
"Dari, what do you think of all this?"
'I think that right about now, I would give my arms and legs for a chance to take back samples of their technology back to the fleet. If they could achieve FTL without eezo…"
"You could maybe find a new home."
"Or take back Rannoch. We could go Home!" she said excitedly "Not even the Geth could resist us with this kind of technology!"
"The big question though is, would they let you take something back?" she asked rather cautiously, she'd rather not dampen her hope, but … she had to be practical here.
"If they won't I'll find a way to get something. Even the wrecks of those other fighters could provide some insight. I'll take a shuttle and -"
"Look!" excitedly shouted Dari, " it's opening!"
Indeed the artefact was now opening, the artefact was once more forming the… wormhole in its center. Just what kind of ship or ships would come out of it now?
"Goddess…" she could begin to see part of one of the ships emerge and it was huge. Easily a dreadnaught to rival any the Citadel possesses. Like a great lumbering whale, it crawled out of the anomaly and into full view right in front of the gate.
"That is easily the size of the Gladius, maybe even a bit larger" said Dari a little bit of awe in her voice, "and those guns on hers… Keelah, if they fire energy weapons too…"
"It would likely bypass any barriers we have. All we have protecting us is a layer of armor…"
"It's a good thing they came in peace then right?"
"Indeed Aela. Yes indeed." she said hope strong in her voice. These people could be the key to going home...
___
Onboard the Gladius
Tau 30 System
General Septimus Oraka was not exactly pleased. First was the attack on his ships, then was the nasty surprise that the aliens had unleashed upon the Hoplon and crippled her, and now an alien fleet was now entering the system through that artifact.
"General, reading similar energy signatures around the artifact again. I think the fleet is arriving now."
"Good, right on schedule as the Silaris advised. I want all ships to observe the alien contacts, I want opinions on the functions of each ship and what their capabilities are."
"Aye aye sir. Relaying orders."
Oraka then kept a close eye on the visual feed. He could see the first ship, likely a dreadnaught from how big the ship was, he would guess a roughly a little bit bigger than the Gladius itself. Rough and tough, likely as a way to make sure the ship survived any breaches through its barriers.
Then came its escorts, cruisers based on the size of them. Heavily armed, practically bristling with gun turrets. A dedicated Point defence ship? A possibility. Wouldn't know till he saw it action, and Spirits willing, not against him.
Finally came a larger contingent of smaller ships, some of the more familiar fighters that he has come to recognize thanks to the earlier patrol, and larger, frigate sized ships, rather like a bird of prey those last ones. Likely fast and maneuverable do deal damage to the PD ships.
" I want your opinion men. What do you think of the Alien Dreadnaught?" he asked, it was always useful for another perspective.
"I think it serves as the command and control ship sir. Likely it relays all relevant orders it has to other ships in the fleet. " said Lieutenant Praxis, his voice confident in it's assertion.
"What makes you say that?" asked General Oraka, while he knew the answer to that, it paid to double check. Praxis was shaping up to have some potential for a promotion and if he could give the right analysis, it could only further solidify his thoughts on the matter.
"I'd say judging from the formation that its now in sir. " he said pointing at one of the visual feeds.
"There are cruisers at the bow, port, starboard and stern of it. Judging from the weapons emplacements on those cruisers, I think those cruisers are providing extra PD to the central ship, or perhaps covering its flanks, either way, they are protecting that ship, this suggests that it is rather important. Next up, the Frigates and the fighters, look at their patrols, they are still circling the ship, I think that ship is very important sir, not just from its size, but from the way the other ships are protecting it."
"Good point Lieutenant. As for the weapons?"
"I think that knowing their, tech, it'll likely still be an energy weapon, and I think that Dreadnaught is optimized to fight other dreadnaughts. Look at the size of those guns. I don't think they'll hit a fighter easily, I do think they'll deal some massive damage to anything we have."
"Good observation. Thoughts on countering them?"
"Well sir, I'd recommend out ranging them. Those energy weapons of theirs seem to dissipate after a certain range, likely the energy leaking out, so range and concentrated fire sir. A fighter screen of our own should also help take on any fighters they have, but the fleet only has a small contingent of fighters so…"
"It won't be much use against them, especially with those shields of theirs."
"Yes sir. Still, I do think we have a decent chance of taking on that fleet if need be. We could outrange them, and I do believe we can out maneuver them. Though I am rather worried about our ability to damage them. They do look rather well armored."
"If I may add to the discussion sir." asked Lieutenant Spica, one of the sensor officers.
"Go ahead Lieutenant."
"Well sir, based on what me and several other of the techs have been observing, as you know, any barrier's most basic function on a starship is not to block out enemy fire, but to block out microdebris from damaging the hull of a ship."
"Yes, and I assume that the barriers on the larger ships are weaker than we expect?"
"Thats just it sir, we aren't reading any barrier at all. In fact, we are reading that microdebris are in fact directly impacting the hull of the larger ships. I don't think those ships have any sort of barrier at all.The only thing me and the other sensor techs and I have managed to confirm is that there seems to be a rather strong corrosive on those ships, coupled with some light radiation. We detected it earlier on the fighters that we first encountered, but we wrote it off as a sensor fluke, now… Now we believe that these alien have a strong resistance to radiation because otherwise they would have gone and decontaminated it by now, I think."
That in itself had rather disturbing implications. If a race was naturally immune to radiation, they were more likely to resort to nuclear warfare… To them it would be a light summer day when bathing in that radioactive hell…
"Spirits, I hope you are wrong Lieutenant. I hope you are wrong…" he said as he looked onto the incoming fleet.
HMS Stirling, Captain's Quarters
Tau 30 system
Lord Edward Barstow was for the moment, like many aboard the Sitrling, quite a bit in awe at the alien fleet.Of particular note was the ship in the middle of the fleet; it was alien in design, all curves and chrome, with several other ships of a different make, all harsh predatory angles, surrounding it, including one rather thin looking Battleship.
Unlike many aboard the ship though, he had seen enough alien artifacts to know that these weren't related to the ones that many of the rich liked to collect. These aliens were different, and most importantly alive.
That led to problems. Problems he was here to hopefully prevent from ever surfacing. Now he foun himself in the Captain's quarters, rather tastefully decorated with choice pieces from some New London sculptor the Lord Barstow heard was starting to gain some noteriety for making great use of Liberty influences of some rather ancient Egyptian styles.
"What do you make of this situation, James?" asked Lord Barstow to Captain James Dunbar, his long time friend since their days in prep school.
"I think- no, I know we know nothing, Ed. We're treading on virgin territory here,and to be honest, that terrifies me." said Captain Dunbar as he poured Lord Barstow and himself a glass of scotch.
"You, the Stoic of Saint Bartleby's Academy? Terrified?" Lord Barstow asked disbelievingly as he accepted the drink, "If it wasn't for the fact that I myself am staring at that bloody alien fleet, I wouldn't have believed you. Now though…" said Lord Barstow as he downed his scotch in one go, "Now I'm just wondering what the bloody hell is going on here.What we have here is a complete mystery, and exactly why I cannot wait for Perkins to hurry up and get here. I want to interview the man myself and figure just how much he messed up."
"I know he made a right mess of the talks you are to head now ,Ed." Captain Dunbar said, understanding clear in his voice,"The man wasn't trained for this, hell, none of us are. The only reason King Alexander picked you was that firstly, you are his first cousin, and second, you have a talent for talking your way through things. I think he hoped you could work your special magic on the aliens." he said as he sipped his own drink.
"I'm not sure my 'magic' will work on the Aliens." he said a little sarcastically "It works in getting a little better trade concessions from those nice folks from Liberty yes, but these are aliens! We have no idea with what we are dealing with here, James," he said loudly, "Bloody hell, we don't even have a point of history to identify with! All we have is one flight leader who has encountered them, and who has likely damaged any foreseeable talks with them, ergo, the ones I'm handling."
"God knows there are far far too many unknowns for my liking here Ed. Large alien fleet, no idea as to their weaponry or defenses, not even the slightest hint as to whether or not this is a trap or if they can find out where the rest of Bretonian space is. There are just far too many unknowns here for my liking." he repeated as he sipped his drink, "If I had my way, I'd have asked for at the very least the Norfolk to join us, damn the trade lanes. This is far too important to not show up without being over prepared. " he said, as he finished his drink in one . "I've a flight of Crusaders with Starkiller Torpedoes ready just in case Ed. " he said rather seriously," If those aliens try anything, I'll launch that flight and tell em to unleash hell. All of their torpedoes if need be. I'll bet that it'll give em enough a thrashing for them to consider a retreat."
"I'd think you would hope that things wouldn't go to that James." said Lord Barstow, trying to reassure him that it won't come to that.
He hoped.
"Ed, in my line of work, assumptions won't get you anywhere else but an early grave. I'm deathly afraid, but I know that acting all timid like will likely end up with my men dead. The only ambition I have today is to come out of this situation alive with as many of my men alive, which ideally means that I won't be firing any shots today. Ideally. God knows that isn't likely to be happening." he said as he stared out of his viewport.
"Let's hope not James"... said Lord Barstow as he too stared at the mysterious alien fleet…
___
HMS Stirling Bridge
Tau 30 System
"What can you tell me about the data we received from the flight recorders of Perkins and Doctor Brent's flight?" asked Captain James Dunbar, the more he knew about the situation before interviewing Perkins the better.
"Well sir, as I'm sure you've taken notice of when you watched the recordings, the aliens seem to make use of laser based Point Defence. Unusually enough, when we reviewed the recordings, it seems that their lasers are quite weak. They barely drained the shields of our Crusaders, which considering that we make use of Positron shields, means that these lasers were hardly even denting our shields. However, while weak, they were incredibly accurate. Look at how when they concentrated fire on the Mollies, entire batteries kept track of single fast moving fighters, and managed to keep up their aim.I think that while they don't specialize in energy weapons, they do specialize in weaponry that requires very precise aiming" said Lieutenant Wilkins.
"So possibly they decided to go concentrate on missiles or traditional ballistics?"
"I think so sir, There do seem to be gunports on the front of their ships. It could be that their entire ships are built around the gun itself, which in itself suggests to me a concentration on mass drivers."
"How would our armor stand against these mass drivers of theirs?"
"I'm not sure sir. In theory, our armor could withstand us moving at full cruise speed into a station and go straight through it, sustaining only minor damage, Seeing as this has never been tested though…"
"Let's not test that today Lieutenant. Onto my next question then, what do you make of the weird energy signatures that we've found on our scans of their ships? It seems like there seems to be some sort of… gravitational anomaly on board those ships of theirs. It's as if… somehow parts of their ships are under entirely different gravitational fields, which according to our own understanding of anti-gravity, is entirely impossible."
"So they have some sort of better understanding of anti-gravity than we do then. That they can somehow remotely fine tune the gravity in certain sections of their ships? Make some parts more massive and some less and so forth?
"From that our scans show us, yes. There seem to be a rather unusual amount of mass disparity on their ships. Their ships somehow have less mass than they should have. This should be impossible yet I'm seeing it right here sir. "
"Then I think we better keep a close eye on these aliens. No telling just what tricks they can pull..."
___
HMS Stirling
Debriefing Room
Tau 30 System
"Commander Perkins, I'm going to be honest with you" said Captain James Dunbar, regret strong in his voice as he poured Perkins and himself a glass of scotch, "you've gone and buggered up the talks. Now now, I admit it wasn't your fault Perkins, but Command will want someone to blame for us not having every advantage we could have in the talks. From what you've told me, you've gone and told them we're not the only humans around here.' he said as he sipped his scotch, "That means that we can't go and reveal them as needed. Command is asking for someone to blame, and sad to say Perkins, but you are the logical fall man for this. But I have to tell you Perkins, that was the bad news."
"That I'm buggered sir? That I'm likely to be assigned to hunting and subsequently dying to a Corsair or Outcast patrol?" he asked, the sarcasm strong in his voice.
"You could do that if you choose to continue with us here in His Majesty's Armed Forces..." he said as he continued to sip his drink, "Or you could take our deal."
"It would depend sir, what deal? he asked a little suspiciously.
"We could let you go from the Armed Forces with an honorable discharge and all wages due to you."
"An what sir? Go and end up working on Leeds and dying in some Mining accident? Go work for BMM or Bowex and die working under either of them?"
"No Perkins. Here is what Command is willing to offer to you" Dunbar said as he finished his drink, "Command is willing to let you go honorably with your Crusader. Fully armed and repaired. You could be your own man Perkins, a freelancer. You could do anything you wanted to within the colonies."
"So sir, you are essentially offering me either death by patrol, or an 'honourable' discharge while I go Freelance working whatever hours I want and for whoever I want?" he asked , sarcasm strong in his voice, " I think my answer there is obvious sir, as much as I love serving His Majesty, I like living as well. I'll take the Freelance option sir, see what else this galaxy has to offer."
"Excellent, Perkins,and if I may offer a suggestion, ?"
"Yes sir?"
"I expect talks here will continue for quite a while. I can expedite your honourable discharge and make it official within the day. Provided things go well… You can offer your services to the aliens as their unofficial tour guide. And funnel a little bit of what you know to us. We'd pay you for your services to them and at the same time, I expect they'll pay you in some other form, raw materials and such. We learn a little bit more that can help us in our diplomatic talks, and you can go and earn two pays for one job."
"That's a mighty smart idea sir. I think I'll take your advice sir."
"Good job lad. I'll forward your first payment soon and I expect you'll update us every week on what you manage to learn of the aliens.You are now essentially a deniable asset to the Kingdom of Bretonia. God help you lad."
"Sir, I'll be honest. I'm only doing this because I have no idea what I can do after this. I don't have the credits for Liberty, I'd have trouble finding work in Kusari and Rhineland is in shambles. I think working for Bretonia, no matter how indirect is my only choice here. Sir."
"I understand Perkins. You've been caught between a rock and a hard place."
"No kidding sir. Still, things could be worse." he said as he downed his own drink. So much for leaving the aliens...
Onboard the Silaris
Tau 30 system
All things considered, Captain Dala T'Loni thought things were going well. These aliens, humans, had managed a mostly peaceful first contact. If it wasn't for those… Mollies, then Dala was confident no shooting would have happened. The Molly incident was rather fortunate though. It led to some rather interesting revelations; namely the existence of other powerful factions within their sector of space, all fellow humans. They also seemed to have some sort of problem internally, or at least with worker's rights. Then there was the fact that this entire sector was all human owned, but from different factions. Furthermore, these humans were all essentially wartime refugees fleeing from some war over their homeworld but had no intentions of going back and fighting whoever won that war centuries ago. Not to mention all the advanced technologies these people seemed to posses, super hard armor, directed energy weapons, wormhole generation...
All in all, the humans were shaping up to be a very… interesting race. They were most certainly going to disrupt the balance of power within the Citadel and now she had to prepare her own diplomatic team to go and greet the humans aboard their dreadnaught.
"Dr Aela D'Avo, I want you with me, your experience with linguistics may come in handy if our grasp of their… English fails."
"Me? I'm a Xenoarcheaologist yes, but I'm not exactly a dedicated translator…" said Dr D'Avo rather hesitatingly. To be put in such a position… It was not something she was mentally ready for.
"But you cracked their language rather well, yes? That is most certainly good enough Dr D'Avo." said Captain T'Loni reassuringly," You will come with me. I'm sure you will do well and I'm sure your services won't even be needed."
"Lieutenant Shala, you are with me as well" said Captain T'Loni as she pointed her out,". You will be our technical advisor for this mission." Then,turning to Dari, Captain T'Loni explained in as gentle a manner as she could, " If we were simply investigating the artifact, I would have picked you Miss vas Neema,, but…"
"No need to explain Captain" said Dari, holding her hand up to stop her". I understand your reasoning. Just get me onto one of their ships when we can and I'll be happy to explain things away. Lieutenant Shala can go and relay her findings to me and I'll go and do what I can."
"Right then, I want a small Commando detachment for security, 2 at the most. "
"Two? I think you should be bringing aboard with you a lot more than that Captain." rebuked General Oraka, " Who knows what could be aboard that ship? Or even if this is one great big elaborate trap?" he said strongly. He did have good security points, but by the Goddess, they needed to show that they could be trusted!
"I understand your concerns General, but I think that two Commandoes should be able to handle what they are needed to do." said Captain T'Loni in her now well used reassuring tone of voice," Enough for security, but not too many to threaten. Just the right amount for diplomacy."
"Fine Captain, but be aware, if they do hold you hostage in some plan of theirs, know that I will fire with no hesitation." he said gravely.
"I understand General. Now, Ladies, let us proceed to the shuttle."
"Yes Captain" echoed the selected members of the delegation. If the talks with Commander Perkins was anything to go by, things were only going to get more interesting.
HMS Stirling Docking bay
Tau 30 system
Lord Edward Barstow was right now understandably nervous. He was here, right at forefront of first contact with alien intelligence. Here he was, representing His Majesty's Government, and for a brief moment, perhaps all the Colonies of Sirius, to these aliens.
God he could use a drink right about now.
And now… now there was the alien shuttle making its slow, almost graceful approach. The shuttle certainly reflected the same design style as the alien ship, all chrome and curves in one package. It was beautiful in that it was clean and simple, yet elegant in ways he hasn't seen often.
Nonetheless, he had more important things to take note of right now. The security detail was ready with their rifles by their side and ready to unleash some of the finest weapons to come out of the Detroit Arms Depot…
As the shuttle opened its doors however, despite Perkins' description and picture of them, he couldn't help but be a little entranced by them. Somehow the blue ladies walked with a grace that came naturally only to the most refined and dignified Bretonian Noblewomen. Unlike most of them though, the way they walked, even the ones visibly armed with weapons, it somehow… just made them altogether beautiful in a dignified manner.
Still, best keep his guard up. Many a diplomat has been laid low by feminine wiles and he won't be one of them.
"Greetings on behalf of the Asari Republics" said the lead one in a shimmering and oh so clingy silver dress, "We are the Asari, and we welcome you into the Galactic Community. We come in Peace."
Time to work his magic then. "On behalf of the Kingdom of Bretonia, and Humanity here in the Sirius systems, we also greet you in the name of peace. Let us move together forward into an era of mutual prosperity and stability." he said in that special way of his, as if greeting a fellow friend that was also nobility, cool, open and friendly, yet somehow keeping it understood that there is business to be done today.
"Indeed we shall. I am Captain Dala T'Loni, effective exploratory leader of this fleet." she said, still managing that calm tone of hers.
"I am Lord Edward Barstow of New London, first cousin to his Majesty King Alexander II of the Kingdom of Bretonia, appointed ambassador to this most esteemed occasion." he said, keeping his voice firm yet friendly. "Let us proceed to the official talks if you don't mind?"
"Yes. Let us indeed. We have much to talk about."
"We do madam. Would you kindly now follow me to our conference room, where we can begin our discussions? I do so hope you enjoy our hospitality here." he said as he signaled his escorts to follow him. He walked down the halls of the Stirling towards its conference room, careful to stick to the best maintained and aesthetically pleasing portions of the ships.
Captain Dala T'Loni meanwhile couldn't help but think that this ship reminded her of Krogan engineering, tough enough to likely outlast the user. What differed was the occasional wall ornament near the ceiling that seemed to represent some sort of beastial version of humans, horns coming out of the tops of the… heads of the ornaments. Possibly a reminder of strength? Though what struck Dala the most was that as they walked down the corridors, she couldn't help but think, the Krogan built their things tough because they had to be tough. Tuchanka wasn't the most pleasant planet around, what with it essentially being a post-apocalyptic wasteland. What sort of environment did these Humans live in to necessitate such a tough and comparatively utilitarian design?
She was however snapped from her thoughts when the human, Lord Barstow, opened a door and she entered a marvelously decorated room. A table, hewed from real dark wood, likely some valuable and rare one, sat at the center of the room. Carvings of some sort of leaf pattern dotted the frame of the table and its legs were even curved, likely trying to mimic the tree trunks it was hewed from. The chairs were similarly decorated and had some likely rich and rare, red material as cushioning. The floor was carpeted in some magnificent scarlet material, soft and springy, while the walls and ceiling seemed to be paneled with real wood, this time of some reddish brown colour.
Truly, when these people wanted to decorate, they went with something that just seemed to be so… timeless. A scene from something before travels into space. Not even the oldest Matriarchs chose to decorate their own homes in such a manner. It was beautiful.
"Now, normally at this point of any talks, I'd offer one some tea and biscuits, or some sherry or whisky if alcohol was their preference, but seeing as we don't quite understand each other's physiologies that much…" Lord Barstow said apologetically.
"There is no need to explain Lord Barstow," said Dala understandingly, "I understand your caution, but I would like to try out your food and drink as well. Our… hand held computers will be able to scan and tell us if it is safe for us to eat and drink. I'll take the tea and… biscuits if you don't mind."
"Capital!" he said rather energetically. He then pointed out one of his escorts, "Smith, could you kindly grab a kettle and prepare the Earl Grey? Bring along some cream and sugar as well, our guests may want some. Tell Rogers down in the bar to bring up my stash of pastries as well." then he turned to Captain T'Loni, "Oh and I wouldn't mind if you feel it necessary for one of your escorts to look after the tea and biscuits. I understand completely that caution is something that is necessary in this situation."
"I understand Lord Barstow, but there is no need for that. Your man may continue."
"Right then. Smith, get to it." Lord Barstow ordered.
"Right o sir!" said the Smith, saluting briskly then quickly making his way out of the room.
"Now then madam, while we wait for our tea, please, sit. I'm sure you have many questions and sitting would be preferable yes?"
"Thank you for the offer Lord Barstow. Let me begin with some of the most pressing issues that I feel as a representative of the Citadel Council need to be addressed, namely your general location. We wish to know the extent of your territory within the galaxy."
"Of course we may address that issue." he said as he seamlessly took a seat and typed something into a panel on his side, and a holographic display appeared on the table, there was likely some hidden projector either on the table or on the ceiling, probably to keep the feel of this room."Now, as I've been told, Commander Perkins has graciously told you Ladies of the other Houses yes?"
"Yes he has." Dala replied...
"I best mention all our claimed systems then." he said as he zoomed into a particular portion. Dala recognized it, this was where they were, a rather remote location bordering the Skyllian Verge and the Terminus systems. It was largely unexplored due to it being rather distant from most Mass Relays. The Seventh fleet only barely found this particular system in range, and even then, it was only considered for visiting because of the suspicion that a major pirate group had a base of sorts here. Dala imagined that freighters would find this within their range but why bother? No one lived here, and as far as many knew there was nothing of value here. Till now at least. "We are here, in the Tau 30 system, a recently claimed system by us, the Kingdom of Bretonia. It lies to the galactic northwest of several of our other systems, and is directly connected to one of them. You will forgive me if I do not tell you the specific locations of them for now, at least until we have some sort of formalized trade treaty going on, which I suspect we will be going into later. But I digress," he said as highlighted several areas on the map in red, "these territories are ones directly claimed by the Kingdom of Bretonia. Adjacent to us," he once again highlighted several worlds, this time to the galactic north and south east, "are these border worlds. Neutral territory so to speak, of our Houses. These are actively patrolled by members of both our Armed Forces and the neighboring Houses." he once again highlighted another area, this time in black to the galactic northeast, "These are the Independent systems, notable only for a holiday planet and their direct connection to Liberty Space." he once again highlighted several areas, this time a set of purple ones in the galactic north, a set of green ones in the south, and a set of blue one in the center. "These are the areas claimed by the other houses: Liberty in blue, Kusari in purple, and Rhineland in green. They are all our friends and allies here in the Sirius systems. I must inform you that due to the… nature of this contact, in that it is our first, we have informed them of this situation." he said seriously with a hint of regret in his voice. He would've kept it a secret from them for as damned long as possible, but Perkins messed that up. Alex wanted to lead Bretonia somewhere to the future, but without some sort of leverage, he had nothing here in these talks that might keep Bretonia definitively in the lead. Perkins ruined that.
"We understand completely," Captain T'Loni replied, if a large unknown fleet appeared, she would've tried to inform others of said fleet. "If I may ask, what do they think of us?" she asked curiously.
"Honestly, we don't know. They haven't replied yet, though I dare suspect that their fleets are silently mobilizing as a precaution."
That was something that alarmed Dala, unknown fleets of warships with unknown technologies possibly mobilizing for war? That was bad in any circumstance. "Tell them we mean no harm, we wish only to invite you, Humanity, and that means all the systems you highlighted, to join the galactic community."
"And what sort of benefits would we get? Within the Sirius systems we are quite self-sufficient. Each of the Houses have something that the others want."
"Trade of technology for one thing. I'm very sure that you would be quite interested in that. We would also be able to facilitate the exchange of culture and learning. We can also provide more traditional forms of trade, raw materials, food, consumer goods, whatever is needed. I'm sure that the introduction of new markets is something that all the companies within this area would be most interested in. We could also tell you of other habitable systems nearby."
That struck a certain point to Ed. Most notably food and the habitable systems part. It isn't commonly known, but the main reason that Planetform was funded by the government was that Bretonia is looming on the brink of famine. There were far too many heavily industrialized planets and not enough planets growing food. If- no not if, when famine struck, the other houses would intervene… at a cost. Bretonia could face a Rhineland situation. With these aliens however… maybe just maybe, they could get better prices off them, or more importantly colonies. Yes, they would have to share with the other houses, but the potential here…
"While this does sound like a good idea Captain," Lord Barstow calmly replied, "I can't help but feel that there are certain… catches so to speak here."
"Catches, Lord Barstow?" replied Captain T'Loni, confusion in her face, "A moment please." she said after giving Barstow's words some thought.
"What does he mean by catch Aela?" Dala quickly asked Dr D'Avo, remembering to stick to Thessian.
"I think he means there is too much going for him here that he can't help but feel he is being baited into a trap…" she tentatively replied
"And thus get caught in it. We'll just have to convince them otherwise." she replied with a slight smile.
"Apologies Lord Barstow, I had to clarify some things with my colleague here. I do get what you are saying now though. Believe me when I say that joining the Galactic Community, the Citadel, can only lead to benefits to your peoples. Yes there are some treaties that all members must sign, but these are all just things that we believe are necessary to maintaining peace throughout our space." Dala replied in as calm a manner as she could.
"Such as?"
"Well, there are the treaties limiting the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction on garden worlds. Even with FTL, as I'm sure you know, worlds that can support life are few and far between, and bringing one planet to life supporting standards takes millions of years."
"That does make sense, but I'm sure there are other treaties we need to know about. But first, explain to me just what is this Citadel you keep referring to?" he inquisitively replied. Perkins explained a little about it, but hearing from the aliens was always nice.
"Around 3000 years ago, we the Asari discovered the Citadel, an ancient and gigantic space station created by an ancient and extinct race we call the Protheans. It lies at the center of a series of what we call Mass Relays, something similar to what we suspect are your… wormhole generators, except that the Protheans built them. They are our major form of travelling throughout the galaxy. We, along with the Salarians who came soon after, decided to form a collaborative government on the Citadel, seeing its central location as the logical location for a government. We formed the Citadel Council, a group to call judgement on those who break Citadel laws, settle disputes, and enforce the peace. Take note however that the Citadel Council has no overhanging authority over the still sovereign nations. They provide arbitration and oversight. All species who join are thus protected under Citadel Law and can enjoy the many benefits of being an associate member. A Council member is a species that proves itself worthy and thus earns its seat on the Citadel Council."
"Hmm…" thought Lord Barstow. While on paper it sounded good, general peace, protected trade, prevent war between the others, essentially the Boorman Treaty with an oversight committee, it still sounded like there would be a catch. There always is. Years of dealing with Liberty had taught him that.
"For something like this, I cannot act without the approval of my King, Captain T'Loni. This is simply far too important. I would request copies of the treaties that we would be required to sign so that I may properly review them. Of course I understand it'll take time for you to translate those into English, so those can wait or later talks no?"
"I understand completely Lord Barstow. Let us move on to other things, we have questions on your FTL."
"Our Jump Gates?"
"Indeed, we are very much interested in them. What would you want in exchange for their schematics?"
And there was the catch. No one has access to those schematics outside of DSE, Aegira and the highest echelons of the Liberty government. Oh the other houses have tried for years to get their hands on them, but taking apart an already functional Jump Gate would arouse too much suspicion from Liberty and the white boxes on them were very well designed. No one has managed to crack them open.
"We may have a problem there Captain." he replied a little embarrassedly, "You see, we don't know how they work."
"You mean some ancient race built these gates as well?" Dala replied. Did these colonists take out a race capable of building these gates only for them to be unable to replicate them?
"Not exactly ancient, more like it is our neighbor, Liberty, who built them." Lord Barstow replied a little awkwardly. "I suspect you want to build your own copies of them." he replied once he saw the Captain's suddenly hopeful looking expression, "Don't bother. We've tried for centuries to get them to share their tech, but they hoard that patent very close to their hearts."
"Then how do you build new ones?" Dala replied a little unbelievingly. "You all just go to this… Liberty and ask them to build you a new gate?"
"Not exactly ask. More like… agree to whatever payments Ageira or DSE wants."
"Ageira and DSE?"
"Ageira Technologies and Deep Space Engineering hold a monopoly on building any and all Jump Gates and trade lanes within the colonies. They are the only ones who know how to and are completely backed by the Liberty government."
In Dala's mind, this brought a whole new meaning to megacorporation. That these two companies held so much power over sovereign states… It's clear now that talks would have to happen between all these Sirius Houses, at the same time in the same place. It'll probably give the Citadel the best chance at a good deal. However… she couldn't just leave these talks without something. Trade of sorts would be good, or perhaps telling them of Element Zero? No, regular trade, and an open appearance as well could be more beneficial. It'll show peaceful intentions yet willing to trade things, from tech to material goods.
"I… see. This is something that I imagine will require me to talk to someone from Liberty, yes?"
"Yes indeed. You must understand that we in the colonies are very dependent on each other." which in Lord Barstow's mind was 'even though we wish we weren't' "We each specialize and provide a certain trade or service to each other. Liberty specializes in Finance and Travel Technology" And make sure to lord it over the rest of us , "we in Bretonia specialize in manufacturing, and certain material extraction," best not mention BMM's worker policy, "Kusari, IT and specialized components and fuel," and they really try their best to make sure that they keep things IN Kusari, "and Rhineland ,raw materials and basic machinery" mostly because that's all they have left. "We've found rather much like your interspecies alliance, different competing societies with very diverse areas of focus leads to a much more effective growth in both our societies and economies. "
So, in the absence of other races, they found that different societies would help facilitate growth and change. Dala just couldn't form a picture of what these humans are like. Everything that she has seen so far has just been… so hard to figure things out. Still, it sounds like Bretonia has things that could be traded for. "It sounds like you Humans are indeed quite an interesting species. It is true that we have found that each species has their own particular disposition on the Citadel, we Asari tend to specialize in Hi-Tech products while Turians would be more along the line of security. Now that we hear you humans have some products and materials nearby, perhaps trade of sorts could be arranged?"
There we go. Now she has caught the scent of something she likes. "While I'm not opposed to it," Lord Barstow replied, careful to not show his interest too much, "this is something that bears great weight on what will affect the future of our peoples. I am however open to openly announcing the first contact with your peoples. You could follow us, into the Jump Gate, and we can take you onwards towards New London, where you will most certainly be well received by the King." A public appearance would also incidentally raise Bretonia's image quite a bit within the colonies. The Brave Bretonians who encountered the unknown and greeted it with warmth and peace, ushering a new era of exploration etcetera etcetera.
Meanwhile, Dala was seriously contemplating this. First Contact and the meeting of the monarch of these people? The First users of a brand new form of FTL?
She would be moving so far into the unknown, but that thought merely sweetened it for her. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, even among the Asari. It wasn't every day you met a species like the Humans.
"While most certainly a… tempting offer Lord Barstow," she replied cautiously, it wouldn't do to offend her hosts, "I fear I must consult with my superiors first. This, like you said, is a most momentous decision."
"I understand completely. Take your time and-" a bell rung, not an alarming one, a slight tingle, just enough to grab one's attention, "Ah! The tea is ready. Let's start our recess. I do believe you will enjoy our time honored tradition of tea."
Dala personally had no idea what tea was but she did suspect that with the amount of reverence these Bretonian humans had for tea, it must be an important part of their culture. When she turned towards the door, there entered a human in a sleek black outfit with a with a white layer under. He walked upright and carried in his two white gloved hands, what looked like a tray of incredibly fragile looking ceramics. She carefully turned to her resident Xenoarchaeologist for some ideas.
"Dr.D'Avo, any ideas on what this ceremony is about?" she quietly asked.
"I can't be too sure Captain," Aela replied hesitatingly "but I do suspect that it's a drinking ceremony of sorts. Not alcoholic for sure."
"Ah Smith!" Lord Barstow laughed cheerily, "You went and decided to go for the Jeeves outfit for this occasion eh?"
"I do believe that for this occasion, you should call me Jeeves, suh. It is after all, my actual first name." replied Smith calmly and professionally.
"Capital, Jeeves! Now if you would kindly serve us?"
"Of course sir." said the man, Jeeves, as he carefully laid down the tray at the center of the table.
"Now, would you like to have your tea strong and sweet? Or smooth and subtle?" Lord Bartow asked Dala.
"I'll have it the way you'll have yours Lord Barstow. I wouldn't know the difference." she apologetically replied.
"Of course!" Lord Barstow replied a little embarrassed, "I'm terribly sorry about that. Let's do move on. Jeeves, one sugar and one cream for the both of us please. "
"Of course sir." said Jeeves as he carefully took the pot with the little spout and poured some sort of black steaming liquid into the tiny cups. He then took another pot with a spout and poured a rather small amount of white liquid into it. Finally, he took some powdery substance from one pot with a silvery looking spoon and scooped a spoonful into each. He then very carefully stirred each of the dainty looking cups with a silver spoon, and then grabbed each them and proffered one to herself and Dr. D'Avo then finally to Lord Barstow
Lord Barstow then, after delicately balancing his cup in his hand, and gently sipped his drink. "Mmm… It's been a long time since I enjoyed a nice cup." he said after a long while, clearly enjoying his drink.
Dala then decided to follow his motions, after remembering to do a quick scan with her omni-tool for any possible poisons that could affect her. Seeing that her tool sensed nothing beyond a mild stimulant, she then sent the results to the Silaris for a quick analysis of both the drink and some of the nearby foods that Lord Bartow was now eating. After about a few minutes, she received the go ahead to have the tea from one of the scientists aboard, having meanwhile listened to a little bit of life as one of the Aristocracy of this… Bretonian society.
It was warm, hearty and earthy with a smoothness to it along with a slight hint of sweetness. "This is most delicious Lord Barstow." Dala gladly complimented. "I'm sure I wouldn't mind taking this back to Thessia for some of the Matriarchs to taste."
"Please do so! I shall gift you with some of my personal blends and instructions on how to prepare them, along with your own tea set and some sugar and cream."
"Thank you Lord Barstow." it was indeed a generous gift if such a prized beverage was being gifted from this man's stores. Surely this was a sign that from here on in, things could only go smoothly?
Planet Manhattan
New York System, Liberty
Approximately 50 standard hours ago a Bretonian patrol encountered an unknown fleet. One hour later, Lord Edward Barstow, one of Bretonia's better diplomats is quietly but quickly moved to the HMS Stirling. Approximately 40 hours later, Bretonia sends a message to all other Houses best described as 'We've encountered aliens. Things look peaceful so far. We've sent diplomats to talk to them. God help us all.' Our initial analysis suggests that since the Bretonians are still talking, we've encountered an alien race that is willing to talk. We are still awaiting word from Operative Laslow for further data.
Colonel Frederick Tanner
Liberty Security Forces
They say that in Liberty, Manhattan is basically one great big city separated by unusually large parks.Thousands of skyscrapers littered the skyline and millions of ships littered it's airpace, from luxury skycars to heavy duty fighters for freelancers, to freighters filled with the goods that Manhattan desired. If a trend started, and it was expensive, chances are, it started here.
At the center of this massive city lies the original Liberty sleepership. Converted into the seat of the government of Liberty, it was in here that Richard Wallace, 182nd President of Liberty, had his office, the old Captain's Quarters of the ship.
Right now, President Richard Wallace was not a happy man.
Though to be fair to him, he is a man who is in charge of the most powerful nation in the Sirius systems and could effectively cripple the other houses with but a few words, yet suddenly unable to do anything in what is now perhaps the most momentous event in the history of the Colonies. An alien fleet had appeared on the outskirts of Bretonian space and no one but the Bretonians could do anything but prepare and hope for the best.
"Can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on in Bretonia!" Richard roared at the men and women before him. These were some of the most influential men and women in both the Colonies and Liberty, but as President of Liberty he could change all that easily with but a snap of his fingers.
"Well sir," Admiral Ballantine, of the Liberty Navy, answered back professionally, "all we know is what the Bretonians said, quote 'We've encountered aliens. Have sent diplomatic fleet to talk. God help us all.' end quote."
"You know that's not what the hell I meant!" Richard angrily retorted, "I meant did we have anything to tell us we should have expected this? Did the Valhalla Project say anything about this? This situation is a political shitstorm in the making!"
"Well..." Dr Harold Craxton, one of the top researchers in Ageira Technologies, shakily replied, "We all knew about the Alien Artifacts all over the Colonies, we had no reason to suspect that we were alone in the universe. We figured it was only a matter of time before we met some sort of alien life..."
"Well then wake up doctor and smell the shit! It's happening now!" Wallace shouted, "We've met these goddamn aliens, and now here is the million credit question, are these aliens in anyway related to what we found in Valhalla?
"
"There's… no way to be sure sir," Dr Craxton hesitatingly responded, "We are however rather confident that these aren't the Dom'Kavash." he continued, his voice slightly steadier
"Then these are just aliens we've never seen a trace of before?" Richard replied.
"Essentially… we think so sir. This isn't as unlikely as you think sir!" Dr Craxton quickly replied upon seeing the President's face contort further towards rage, "Just finding these ruins proves we aren't alone in the universe. The fact that they found us and not the other way around doesn't change things." The President's face continued to redden and Dr. Craxton desperately spoke out the first idea that came to his head, in an attempt to save his job, "I mean, this could just prove to be one massive business opportunity for us!"
The President paused. Business was always good for Liberty, and it would always be in its interest to keep it good. "Explain."
Seeing his chance, Dr Craxton speedily replied, "Well… just because we are the ones who were discovered doesn't mean that we are the primitives here. We may be the veritable New World here, minus the inability to defend ourselves. These aliens may want something that we only have, or have in abundance. And if we are the only ones who have something…"
"We can charge them through their asses for it." continued the President. This has been the cornerstone of Liberty's business policy, especially in regards to the Jump Gates and Trade Lanes, for centuries. It would simply be bringing it to the next step were he to apply it to an alien race.
"Not to mention the market for our cheap goods. Think of the thousands of new markets, all waiting for exotic Liberty products, Synthpaste, Pharmaceuticals, Guns, Tech, Clothes, Art, you name what we make and chances are we could probably sell it! " continued the Dr Craxton, continuing to grasp at the straws of that he thought would work.
Which incidentally was what the CEO's of Ageira Technologies, Deep Space Engineering and Interspace Commerce were now thinking. So long as there was trade, these three companies would flourish. Ageira for the Jump Gate and Trade lane Parts for access to new systems, DSE for the construction, and IC for the insurance premiums it would make from the traders alone. They could possibly even go back to financing companies and other Houses! We're all going to be so rich.
Still, this was a rather risky venture, and it all ultimately relied on them having a peaceful first contact but the opportunity to tap virgin markets that have never yet seen Liberty methods… The payouts would simply be tremendous. Then a thought entered President Wallace's head.
They could be just like us.
They could try and flood our markets with their products. That means less profit.
They needed to get copies of the Alien merchandise and figure out how to make them to get back market that are rightfully theirs!
"Ladies and Gentlemen," he said, breaking the silence, "as much as Dr Craxton here is correct, it sadly works both ways. We've never seen their products before, and like it or not, chances are the people of Manhattan will want it, and that would mean credits going out of Liberty." he ended, letting that statement sink in for a bit. He could already see the frown forming in several of the CEO's before him. "What we need to do is buy time to fend off the fuckers from taking our markets."
"But Mr President," replied George Taggart, current CEO of Ageira Technologies, "Despite our excellent ability to produce high quality products, we can't possibly reverse engineer those products quickly enough to prevent the aliens from conceivably grabbing a significant portion of the market."
"Then we'll just have to make a deal with the devil, and call in the experts." President Wallace ended ominously.
__-
Planet New Berlin
New Berlin system, Rhineland
Bretonia seems to have encountered an alien fleet. Based on the message they sent out, the alien seem peaceful but we don't know for sure if the aliens are really benign. Agent Dieter has yet to find any other information on the situation.
Hauptmann Werner Braun
Rheinland Military Intelligence
New Berlin is a planet of extremes in every sense of the word. A single day or night lasts almost one standard year, with the night facing extremely bitter winters, and the day side facing a more temperate summer where the temperatures rise a little above freezing. Despite all this though, this was the capital of the former Rhineland Empire, now the Federal Republic of Rhineland. It was here, in a place of both extreme wealth and extreme poverty that the current Chancellor of Rhineland, one Erik Reinhardt, had his office.
"Are we in any way capable of doing anything here?" he asked the men and women before him, some of the most intelligent and influential people within Rhineland, ranging from the corporate world, such as Daumann Heavy Construction, to members of what was left of the Rhineland Navy.
"No sir." Replied Admiral von Richthofen, the leading member of the Rhineland Navy and the Captain of the only Battleship left in Rhineland, the Westfalen, "It may have been over 50 years since the 80 Year War, but we are still feeling the loss. We've plenty of fighters ready to defend planets, but the Westfalen is our only sort of true mobile offense and defense. We did have a theoretical plan for this situation but…"
"It requires resources we simply don't have." Reinhardt grimly repled. A grim fact of life is that while Rhineland had nearly everything it needed, it had debts to pay. Crippling debts because of a war the old government lost to a bunch of miners because a bunch of old men didn't know when to quit. "So how can we take advantage of this situation Ladies and Gentlemen? Do we have any sort of plans to deal with this sort of situation ? Anything that could be applied at all?" asked Reinhardt.
Silence echoed throughout the room. No one was really prepared for this kind of situation. Rhineland had more important and pressing issues than some out of the way theoretical situation that was likely years or even centuries in the future.
"There… is one thing I can think of sir." one of the aides to Daumann hesitatingly replied.
"Quiet Sabine!" hissed Werner Daumann, current CEO of Daumann industries.
"No." Erik interrupted, "Let the woman speak." and he motioned for the woman, Sabine to continue.
"Well…" she continued still a little hesitant, "back when I was studying in the University of New Berlin ,my ex was taking a political science and economics double major, and he came up with a rather radical thesis." she ended a bit, waiting for the Chancellor's approval to continue.
"Go on," he said tersely.
"I remember him saying something along the lines that Bretonia has a lot of manufacturing and such but we do a lot of finished goods and machinery, and our focus on product quality ensures that we alway have superior products." she replied, a little more confidently, "The aliens seem benign, and I suspect they will want to conduct trade. My ex suggested that Bretonia, with it's historically neutral and peaceful state, could theoretically become our greatest trade partner. Now that they've made contact with the aliens, they now seem to be the key to exporting goods to the aliens, and importing products from them as well. They will be recieving a huge influx of alien raw materials, and finished goods, all ready for shipping to us Houses, seeing as it is unlikely that they could make use of all that material, but I digress from his thesis. In it, he suggested approaching Bretonia, ask them to be our long term allies. He predicted that should there be a lot of long term and highly active trade between our Houses, which his thesis also recommended, it'll be a huge tempting target for their traditionally peaceful area of space. They would need military expertise to guard against the various criminals that would pop up. Expertise we can provide thanks to our many veterans. We provide protection in exchange for raw materials and a favorable price on our products. In exchange, our superior goods can get a more favorable share of the market. With a good share of the market…"
"We can start paying off Liberty, maybe even start implementing the reforms that we promised…" continued Reinhardt. The idea could work. Yes it needed to be refined a bit, but… it could be the key to Rhineland's salvation. "Sabine," Reinhardt quickly asked, "do you still have any form of contact with this ex of yours?"
"No sir," she grimly replied, "he disappeared sometime after he presented his completed thesis, I never got a letter or anything from him."
A rather unfortunate turn of events that. If he had disappeared it meant he was either dead, or now a criminal, possibly even one of those Bundschuh revolutionaries… Still, they could work without him.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we now have an idea on how to pull us out of this mess." he then pointed to Sabine, "Miss, go get copies of that thesis from the University of New Berlin. You have my authority to jump any and all procedures to get them as quickly as possible." then he pointed to the various executives in front of him, "I need plans drafted for manufacturing more goods. Take into account the materials Bretonia would need, and whatever you think the aliens could possibly want. Refine the processes and I want you to start getting the factories running again." then finally to Admiral von Richthofen, "Admiral, I want plans drawn up for patrol routes escorting the trade lanes to the Omega systems. I want better coverage of our flights, and I want you to move the Westfalen to the Stuttgart system as well. That should help deter any pirates. I also want you to begin negotiations with the Bundschuh and LWB. With this alliance, we could possibly start enacting the reforms that they demand." he finished.
"Yes Chancellor," they all quickly replied. There was a lot to do now in Rhineland, aristocrats to tame, criminals to talk with, workers to negotiate, but for the future of Rhineland, and their pockets, they would move heaven and hell to achieve this.|
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New Tokyo
New Tokyo System, Kusari Empire
My Lord Shogun
We regret to inform you that beyond what Bretonia has sent, we have learned little of the situation that is going on in the Tau 30 system. Agent Ro has yet to report in more details. Nonetheless we can still speculate based upon the message Bretonia has sent to the other Houses. We suspect that these aliens will be seemingly benign. That does not mean they do not have hostile intentions. They could try to subjugate us quietly, infiltrate us with goods, culture, their way of thinking. These aliens could be the greatest threat to the stability of Kusari since the Blood Dragons.
Chu-Si Roku
Order of the Red Lotus
In a little twist of fate, when the Kusari arrived in the Sirius sector, they found that the planet they selected was much like their old home, Japan. New Tokyo is a world of gentle oceans and island chains. Much like their ancestors, the Kusari made do with the land they had, and built as economically yet aesthetically pleasing as possible; constructed huge graceful skyscrapers, fitting as many people as they could into a single location, using the latest technology that Kusari could reverse engineer and get away with.
All of this could not have been done, at least in the view of many in the Kusari government, without the strong rulership of a Shogun, who could lead and direct Kusari towards a bright and shining future. It was now this Shogun, one Gendo Masamune who was now listening to his 'advisors' from throughout the Empire.
"This can only be bad news for us my Lord," replied one Ozu Samura, Samura's current President, "Already those Liberty gaijin have a poisonous influence amongst the youth. The youth want change, and some already suspect that they may eventually wish oust you completely, change things such that you are merely ceremony, like the Emperors of old."
"Then how can a bunch of aliens worsen things for us?" asked Shogun Masamune incredulously, "They speak not our language, and most definitely know not of our culture. They are more gaijin than even Liberty. I do not see how Agent Roku's report could possibly come true."
"It is exactly because they are so alien that they may gain a toehold here. The young are fascinated by what is new and different. To see something so alien, instilling and even encouraging ideas and values that are not Kusari…"
"Could only weaken us by making the youth forget their past." the Shogun gravely replied. "Assuming that they are peaceful, then we likely cannot wage war upon them. The other colonies would most definitely disapprove of that action. What do you think we should do?"
"My lord, I believe that the best thing we can do is to… better fund Samura and Kishiro." Ozu painfully admitted, " Even with Samura's great labs and resources, we admittedly, do not have the… expertise Kishiro has in these situations when it comes to reverse engineering."
Masamune could clearly see the discomfort that admission caused Ozu, and incidentally the great smile on the face of Yoshi Kishiro, the current president of Kishiro Technologies. "As much as I would like to keep this within Kusari. I cannot see a situation here where we can feasibly fund you. As I'm sure you know, our… support of the Gas Mining Guild, has cost us dearly in their war against Rhineland. We may not be feeling it too badly, but for something of this scale… we cannot possibly fund this."
"Then who can we go to for funding? We can't go to Bretonia, they are much too close to the aliens, and we trust not their monarch. Rhineland actively distrusts us and has nothing to offer anyway. Liberty would likely help, but we would be selling our own children in the process." Yoshi replied back gravely.
Masamune gave this much thought. Was it better to go into the unknown with someone you hated at your side, or alone?
"Gentlemen, it is better to deal with the devil you know than the devil you don't. We must therefore go to the devil we all know." he said , seeing the widening eyes of the people before him. "I decree that Kishiro and Samura must work with Liberty to help protect us against the alien gaijin." he finished imperiously.
Though the various executives before him were quite visibly disgusted by it, they could only mumble a "As you wish My Lord." before gracefully leaving the room.
New York System, Liberty
Approximately 50 standard hours ago a Bretonian patrol encountered an unknown fleet. One hour later, Lord Edward Barstow, one of Bretonia's better diplomats is quietly but quickly moved to the HMS Stirling. Approximately 40 hours later, Bretonia sends a message to all other Houses best described as 'We've encountered aliens. Things look peaceful so far. We've sent diplomats to talk to them. God help us all.' Our initial analysis suggests that since the Bretonians are still talking, we've encountered an alien race that is willing to talk. We are still awaiting word from Operative Laslow for further data.
Colonel Frederick Tanner
Liberty Security Forces
They say that in Liberty, Manhattan is basically one great big city separated by unusually large parks.Thousands of skyscrapers littered the skyline and millions of ships littered it's airpace, from luxury skycars to heavy duty fighters for freelancers, to freighters filled with the goods that Manhattan desired. If a trend started, and it was expensive, chances are, it started here.
At the center of this massive city lies the original Liberty sleepership. Converted into the seat of the government of Liberty, it was in here that Richard Wallace, 182nd President of Liberty, had his office, the old Captain's Quarters of the ship.
Right now, President Richard Wallace was not a happy man.
Though to be fair to him, he is a man who is in charge of the most powerful nation in the Sirius systems and could effectively cripple the other houses with but a few words, yet suddenly unable to do anything in what is now perhaps the most momentous event in the history of the Colonies. An alien fleet had appeared on the outskirts of Bretonian space and no one but the Bretonians could do anything but prepare and hope for the best.
"Can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on in Bretonia!" Richard roared at the men and women before him. These were some of the most influential men and women in both the Colonies and Liberty, but as President of Liberty he could change all that easily with but a snap of his fingers.
"Well sir," Admiral Ballantine, of the Liberty Navy, answered back professionally, "all we know is what the Bretonians said, quote 'We've encountered aliens. Have sent diplomatic fleet to talk. God help us all.' end quote."
"You know that's not what the hell I meant!" Richard angrily retorted, "I meant did we have anything to tell us we should have expected this? Did the Valhalla Project say anything about this? This situation is a political shitstorm in the making!"
"Well..." Dr Harold Craxton, one of the top researchers in Ageira Technologies, shakily replied, "We all knew about the Alien Artifacts all over the Colonies, we had no reason to suspect that we were alone in the universe. We figured it was only a matter of time before we met some sort of alien life..."
"Well then wake up doctor and smell the shit! It's happening now!" Wallace shouted, "We've met these goddamn aliens, and now here is the million credit question, are these aliens in anyway related to what we found in Valhalla?
"
"There's… no way to be sure sir," Dr Craxton hesitatingly responded, "We are however rather confident that these aren't the Dom'Kavash." he continued, his voice slightly steadier
"Then these are just aliens we've never seen a trace of before?" Richard replied.
"Essentially… we think so sir. This isn't as unlikely as you think sir!" Dr Craxton quickly replied upon seeing the President's face contort further towards rage, "Just finding these ruins proves we aren't alone in the universe. The fact that they found us and not the other way around doesn't change things." The President's face continued to redden and Dr. Craxton desperately spoke out the first idea that came to his head, in an attempt to save his job, "I mean, this could just prove to be one massive business opportunity for us!"
The President paused. Business was always good for Liberty, and it would always be in its interest to keep it good. "Explain."
Seeing his chance, Dr Craxton speedily replied, "Well… just because we are the ones who were discovered doesn't mean that we are the primitives here. We may be the veritable New World here, minus the inability to defend ourselves. These aliens may want something that we only have, or have in abundance. And if we are the only ones who have something…"
"We can charge them through their asses for it." continued the President. This has been the cornerstone of Liberty's business policy, especially in regards to the Jump Gates and Trade Lanes, for centuries. It would simply be bringing it to the next step were he to apply it to an alien race.
"Not to mention the market for our cheap goods. Think of the thousands of new markets, all waiting for exotic Liberty products, Synthpaste, Pharmaceuticals, Guns, Tech, Clothes, Art, you name what we make and chances are we could probably sell it! " continued the Dr Craxton, continuing to grasp at the straws of that he thought would work.
Which incidentally was what the CEO's of Ageira Technologies, Deep Space Engineering and Interspace Commerce were now thinking. So long as there was trade, these three companies would flourish. Ageira for the Jump Gate and Trade lane Parts for access to new systems, DSE for the construction, and IC for the insurance premiums it would make from the traders alone. They could possibly even go back to financing companies and other Houses! We're all going to be so rich.
Still, this was a rather risky venture, and it all ultimately relied on them having a peaceful first contact but the opportunity to tap virgin markets that have never yet seen Liberty methods… The payouts would simply be tremendous. Then a thought entered President Wallace's head.
They could be just like us.
They could try and flood our markets with their products. That means less profit.
They needed to get copies of the Alien merchandise and figure out how to make them to get back market that are rightfully theirs!
"Ladies and Gentlemen," he said, breaking the silence, "as much as Dr Craxton here is correct, it sadly works both ways. We've never seen their products before, and like it or not, chances are the people of Manhattan will want it, and that would mean credits going out of Liberty." he ended, letting that statement sink in for a bit. He could already see the frown forming in several of the CEO's before him. "What we need to do is buy time to fend off the fuckers from taking our markets."
"But Mr President," replied George Taggart, current CEO of Ageira Technologies, "Despite our excellent ability to produce high quality products, we can't possibly reverse engineer those products quickly enough to prevent the aliens from conceivably grabbing a significant portion of the market."
"Then we'll just have to make a deal with the devil, and call in the experts." President Wallace ended ominously.
__-
Planet New Berlin
New Berlin system, Rhineland
Bretonia seems to have encountered an alien fleet. Based on the message they sent out, the alien seem peaceful but we don't know for sure if the aliens are really benign. Agent Dieter has yet to find any other information on the situation.
Hauptmann Werner Braun
Rheinland Military Intelligence
New Berlin is a planet of extremes in every sense of the word. A single day or night lasts almost one standard year, with the night facing extremely bitter winters, and the day side facing a more temperate summer where the temperatures rise a little above freezing. Despite all this though, this was the capital of the former Rhineland Empire, now the Federal Republic of Rhineland. It was here, in a place of both extreme wealth and extreme poverty that the current Chancellor of Rhineland, one Erik Reinhardt, had his office.
"Are we in any way capable of doing anything here?" he asked the men and women before him, some of the most intelligent and influential people within Rhineland, ranging from the corporate world, such as Daumann Heavy Construction, to members of what was left of the Rhineland Navy.
"No sir." Replied Admiral von Richthofen, the leading member of the Rhineland Navy and the Captain of the only Battleship left in Rhineland, the Westfalen, "It may have been over 50 years since the 80 Year War, but we are still feeling the loss. We've plenty of fighters ready to defend planets, but the Westfalen is our only sort of true mobile offense and defense. We did have a theoretical plan for this situation but…"
"It requires resources we simply don't have." Reinhardt grimly repled. A grim fact of life is that while Rhineland had nearly everything it needed, it had debts to pay. Crippling debts because of a war the old government lost to a bunch of miners because a bunch of old men didn't know when to quit. "So how can we take advantage of this situation Ladies and Gentlemen? Do we have any sort of plans to deal with this sort of situation ? Anything that could be applied at all?" asked Reinhardt.
Silence echoed throughout the room. No one was really prepared for this kind of situation. Rhineland had more important and pressing issues than some out of the way theoretical situation that was likely years or even centuries in the future.
"There… is one thing I can think of sir." one of the aides to Daumann hesitatingly replied.
"Quiet Sabine!" hissed Werner Daumann, current CEO of Daumann industries.
"No." Erik interrupted, "Let the woman speak." and he motioned for the woman, Sabine to continue.
"Well…" she continued still a little hesitant, "back when I was studying in the University of New Berlin ,my ex was taking a political science and economics double major, and he came up with a rather radical thesis." she ended a bit, waiting for the Chancellor's approval to continue.
"Go on," he said tersely.
"I remember him saying something along the lines that Bretonia has a lot of manufacturing and such but we do a lot of finished goods and machinery, and our focus on product quality ensures that we alway have superior products." she replied, a little more confidently, "The aliens seem benign, and I suspect they will want to conduct trade. My ex suggested that Bretonia, with it's historically neutral and peaceful state, could theoretically become our greatest trade partner. Now that they've made contact with the aliens, they now seem to be the key to exporting goods to the aliens, and importing products from them as well. They will be recieving a huge influx of alien raw materials, and finished goods, all ready for shipping to us Houses, seeing as it is unlikely that they could make use of all that material, but I digress from his thesis. In it, he suggested approaching Bretonia, ask them to be our long term allies. He predicted that should there be a lot of long term and highly active trade between our Houses, which his thesis also recommended, it'll be a huge tempting target for their traditionally peaceful area of space. They would need military expertise to guard against the various criminals that would pop up. Expertise we can provide thanks to our many veterans. We provide protection in exchange for raw materials and a favorable price on our products. In exchange, our superior goods can get a more favorable share of the market. With a good share of the market…"
"We can start paying off Liberty, maybe even start implementing the reforms that we promised…" continued Reinhardt. The idea could work. Yes it needed to be refined a bit, but… it could be the key to Rhineland's salvation. "Sabine," Reinhardt quickly asked, "do you still have any form of contact with this ex of yours?"
"No sir," she grimly replied, "he disappeared sometime after he presented his completed thesis, I never got a letter or anything from him."
A rather unfortunate turn of events that. If he had disappeared it meant he was either dead, or now a criminal, possibly even one of those Bundschuh revolutionaries… Still, they could work without him.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we now have an idea on how to pull us out of this mess." he then pointed to Sabine, "Miss, go get copies of that thesis from the University of New Berlin. You have my authority to jump any and all procedures to get them as quickly as possible." then he pointed to the various executives in front of him, "I need plans drafted for manufacturing more goods. Take into account the materials Bretonia would need, and whatever you think the aliens could possibly want. Refine the processes and I want you to start getting the factories running again." then finally to Admiral von Richthofen, "Admiral, I want plans drawn up for patrol routes escorting the trade lanes to the Omega systems. I want better coverage of our flights, and I want you to move the Westfalen to the Stuttgart system as well. That should help deter any pirates. I also want you to begin negotiations with the Bundschuh and LWB. With this alliance, we could possibly start enacting the reforms that they demand." he finished.
"Yes Chancellor," they all quickly replied. There was a lot to do now in Rhineland, aristocrats to tame, criminals to talk with, workers to negotiate, but for the future of Rhineland, and their pockets, they would move heaven and hell to achieve this.|
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New Tokyo
New Tokyo System, Kusari Empire
My Lord Shogun
We regret to inform you that beyond what Bretonia has sent, we have learned little of the situation that is going on in the Tau 30 system. Agent Ro has yet to report in more details. Nonetheless we can still speculate based upon the message Bretonia has sent to the other Houses. We suspect that these aliens will be seemingly benign. That does not mean they do not have hostile intentions. They could try to subjugate us quietly, infiltrate us with goods, culture, their way of thinking. These aliens could be the greatest threat to the stability of Kusari since the Blood Dragons.
Chu-Si Roku
Order of the Red Lotus
In a little twist of fate, when the Kusari arrived in the Sirius sector, they found that the planet they selected was much like their old home, Japan. New Tokyo is a world of gentle oceans and island chains. Much like their ancestors, the Kusari made do with the land they had, and built as economically yet aesthetically pleasing as possible; constructed huge graceful skyscrapers, fitting as many people as they could into a single location, using the latest technology that Kusari could reverse engineer and get away with.
All of this could not have been done, at least in the view of many in the Kusari government, without the strong rulership of a Shogun, who could lead and direct Kusari towards a bright and shining future. It was now this Shogun, one Gendo Masamune who was now listening to his 'advisors' from throughout the Empire.
"This can only be bad news for us my Lord," replied one Ozu Samura, Samura's current President, "Already those Liberty gaijin have a poisonous influence amongst the youth. The youth want change, and some already suspect that they may eventually wish oust you completely, change things such that you are merely ceremony, like the Emperors of old."
"Then how can a bunch of aliens worsen things for us?" asked Shogun Masamune incredulously, "They speak not our language, and most definitely know not of our culture. They are more gaijin than even Liberty. I do not see how Agent Roku's report could possibly come true."
"It is exactly because they are so alien that they may gain a toehold here. The young are fascinated by what is new and different. To see something so alien, instilling and even encouraging ideas and values that are not Kusari…"
"Could only weaken us by making the youth forget their past." the Shogun gravely replied. "Assuming that they are peaceful, then we likely cannot wage war upon them. The other colonies would most definitely disapprove of that action. What do you think we should do?"
"My lord, I believe that the best thing we can do is to… better fund Samura and Kishiro." Ozu painfully admitted, " Even with Samura's great labs and resources, we admittedly, do not have the… expertise Kishiro has in these situations when it comes to reverse engineering."
Masamune could clearly see the discomfort that admission caused Ozu, and incidentally the great smile on the face of Yoshi Kishiro, the current president of Kishiro Technologies. "As much as I would like to keep this within Kusari. I cannot see a situation here where we can feasibly fund you. As I'm sure you know, our… support of the Gas Mining Guild, has cost us dearly in their war against Rhineland. We may not be feeling it too badly, but for something of this scale… we cannot possibly fund this."
"Then who can we go to for funding? We can't go to Bretonia, they are much too close to the aliens, and we trust not their monarch. Rhineland actively distrusts us and has nothing to offer anyway. Liberty would likely help, but we would be selling our own children in the process." Yoshi replied back gravely.
Masamune gave this much thought. Was it better to go into the unknown with someone you hated at your side, or alone?
"Gentlemen, it is better to deal with the devil you know than the devil you don't. We must therefore go to the devil we all know." he said , seeing the widening eyes of the people before him. "I decree that Kishiro and Samura must work with Liberty to help protect us against the alien gaijin." he finished imperiously.
Though the various executives before him were quite visibly disgusted by it, they could only mumble a "As you wish My Lord." before gracefully leaving the room.
Tau 30 system
Battleship Stirling
Conference Room
"So it's decided then," Captain T'Loni started, "we have ourselves a trade agreement, and each of our companies may trade basic goods and services, these include but not limited to, food, water, raw materials, and basic alloys." a good start for any sort of first contact really, "In exchange, The Kingdom of Bretonia agrees to contact the other Houses of the Sirius systems regarding this first contact." better they give the message than we do, "At a later date, to be determined by the Sirius Houses, representatives of the four houses will meet and negotiate with Citadel representatives regarding the inclusion of the four Houses into the Citadel on the Planet Curacao in the Cortez system." and give us that beautiful technology of theirs "In the meantime, a representative of my ship, to be chosen by me, shall be granted leave to explore the Sirius systems with an escort to be chosen by the Bretonian government. Do you agree to all these conditions?"
"I, Lord Edward Barstow, First Cousin to King Alexander I, Count of Ashtonbury, Official Ambassador to these talks, agree to these conditions." he said calmly, as he signed the documents, one in English and the other in Thessian.
"Excellent, we look forward to an especially bright future ahead of us, Lord Barstow." finished Dala confidently. With such a treaty, these humans were opening the doors to Citadel influence. Surely, with the doubtless millennia of experience we have, we can surely leverage a treaty that would favour the Citadel, especially with the fact that these Humans seemed to be rather fractured. It should be easy pickings for whatever Matriarch they send in to negotiate at this Curacao place.
"Capital. I look forward to meeting and promptly escorting your selected representative. We have just the man for her to be escorted by as well." replied Barstow jovially. It'd mean a job for Perkins, well enough out of sight, all while learning about these Asari. A win for the BAF, for picking up intel, and a win for Perkins for the credits we would be paying him. Everyone wins.
___
Tau 30 system
Battleship Stirling
Docking Bay
"Dr. D'Avo, I think you are the most qualified person from those among us here to explore these Sirius systems." she said, taking note to keep her voice calm and collected.
"What?" she replied disbelievingly, "How? I'm just an archaeologist. I'm not trained in diplomacy or any of those things that I imagine you need." babbled Aela. She was just a humble archaeologist in a mission she wasn't trained for at all!
"But you are trained in understanding other cultures and languages. You can pick up on the tiny cultural nuances that I imagine many of us here would completely miss." countered Captain T'Loni.
"Besides, you will be going in with an escort. Lord Barstow is personally picking one of his people to escort you as you explore these Sirius systems." she said, trying to reassure the panicking doctor.
"But-"
"No buts here Dr. D'Avo." she replied, putting that steely captain's voice to use, "This is something too important for us to miss. I cannot go because I have to brief the Council on the events that transpired here. You are the next best thing, having translated the human language and interacted with them on occasion." she finished.
Aela could only sigh. She didn't really expect to be caught up so heavily in this. She just wanted to study a new species that was most probably extinct. Right now, she would've settled for going back to her apartment on Thessia and snuggle up in her bed with a nice Illium red. "Yes ma'am." she replied dejectedly, "I'll do my best."
"Excellent," replied Captain T'Loni, sounding cool and confident, "pack what you need, and we'll see about upgrading that omni-tool of yours to handle the I expect rather large amounts of data you will be collecting. Follow me."
As Aela followed Captain T'Loni, she couldn't help but feel that the next few weeks would be a most… memorable time in her life. Probably something that would seriously make her consider settling down earlier.
___
Tau 30 system
Battleship Stirling
Briefing Room
"So this is it then?" Perkins cooly replied, "I've been honourably discharged, sir? Left to my own devices, roam the galaxy, make my own fortune and all that?"
"Yes indeed Perkins." jovially replied Captain Dunbar, "That isn't to say that we haven't done you any favours. Look, we've outfitted your Crusader with some of the finest weapons Bretonia has to offer, even loaded you up with a full armament of torpedoes, mind you!" he cheerily continued. "We've even gotten you your own Freelancer license all ready to go. You're all set for your brand new and exciting career! Furthermore, Lord Barstow has a job just waiting for you." he finished with a slight smirk on his face.
"Oh? Does it involve me taking on some Corsair base all alone with no backup for a ludicrous amount of pay, sir?" Perkins calmly replied, yet the snark was clear in his tone.
"Nothing of the sort! It involves a ludicrous amount of pay to babysit some representative of the aliens as she explores the space in the Sirius systems." he continued "Naturally that mean that she will be visiting New London, and despite how diplomatically important this is, we can't afford the Stirling to be too far away from Leeds for too long." he replied apologetically, "So, you'll be her… bodyguard, so to speak."
"Just how much is Lord Barstow offering for a job like this?" inquired Perkins.
"500,000 credits." Dunbar quickly replied.
Perkins just looked at Dunbar as if he just grew a second head or decided to retire to Leeds. You didn't just get fired then get handed a deal like this."There has to be a catch here sir. 500,000 thousand credits for a babysitting job?"Perkins replied disbelievingly.
"There is no catch here. We'll give you half up front for your personal use plus another 300,000 for any expenses she may incur while under your protection. Which I imagine she'll use up once she visits Manhattan." he continued, calmly outlying the details of the payment to Perkins.
Perkins just couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had effectively been fired from his old job, only to be offered a new one by the people who fired him to go do the easiest job he'd ever heard of while being offered what he would essentially make in a couple of years for a few weeks worth of babysitting.
He didn't like the situation one bit. His gut told him that this could lead only to interesting times, in the ancient Chinese sense. Still… it was a lot of credits, and it wasn't like he had many alternatives.
"I'll take the job, sir." he grudgingly replied.
"Excellent, I'll upload the credits into your neural net. We expect you'll keep her safe, Perkins. She'll ride co-pilot with you on your Crusader." replied Dunbar, keeping up that annoyingly cheeky tone of his.
At that, all Perkins wanted was to take advantage of the drinks his lads owed him in the bar. He most certainly could use them.
Tau 30 System
Battleship Stirling
Recreation Bay "The Old Shanty"
Dr. Aela D'Avo has had much better days. Most notably back on Thessia, working in her nice comfortable office, though she was now really starting to regret not taking up something more traditional like economics or software development. It was thanks to her stupid archaeology doctorate that she got assigned exploring this unknown area full of aliens. She grudgingly admitted were exotically beautiful in their own strangely familiar way, but that wasn't something that should so easily win her over. Especially considering her surroundings.
According to her current guide, one Ensign Smith, her escort would be found here with his flight mates celebrating. He was apparently one of the members of the flight that fended off the Mollies. She could most definitely hear the carousing that a large group were doing near what looked like a bar counter.
"To Commander Perkins! May you do well in that cakewalk of yours, then retire nice and comfy eh?" roared one of the men, a rather familiar one too… was that Thatch?
"Hear hear!" roared the rest of the flight, as they downed whatever alcoholic beverage they were drinking. She figured one of them, possibly even Thatch or Commander Perkins himself, would be escorting her throughout the systems, so she politely coughed loudly to grab their attention.
"Oi! It's one of 'em Asari ladies! What's she doing here?" one of them drunkenly shouted.
"Shut it Lincoln!" shouted the one man she was most familiar with, Commander Perkins, "Mind your manners here. We've ourselves the equivalent of a Lady here, so at your best manners gents." he commanded with that voice Aela guessed came naturally to leaders.
"Yes suh!" replied the men, having placed their drinks down to stand at attention. This was a man who knew how to make use of that voice.
"Hello... Commander," Aela hesitatingly spoke, "I'm here looking for the person who would escort me in my travels."
"Ah! That bit of business." said Perkins, clearly a little tipsy from the drinks he had. " Right lads and ladies!" he said turning back to his men, "It's been an honour leading you all through the valley of death, so on and so forth. Thatch you blighty bastard, you take care of the men you hear?" he jovially responded.
"Right O' sir!" Thatch replied, raising his own drink "To the Commander!"
"To the Commander!" roared the rest of the flight, then they all promptly downed the rest of their drink.
"Thank you lads and ladies. Good Flying!" he then turned his attention back to Aela.
"Sorry about that there," he said sincerely, "The lads were toasting my early retirement."
"Early retirement? I thought you would be escorting me throughout the Sirius systems?" she asked, her confusion rather evident in her face.
"No need to worry ma'am." he said reassuringly, "This simply means that I've retired from the military. They handed me a ship, a full load, and enough supplies to go where I want. I'm a Freelancer now!" he jovially replied.
"A what now?" she asked.
"Freelancer! I work whatever jobs I want, whenever I want." he jovially replied. "Anything from bounty hunting to trading, it's all open to me. The Galaxy is now my Oyster!" he replied, a little too happily for Aela's taste. "My first job is to infact be your assigned escort! Given by Lord Barstow himself in fact!"
"Oh." was all she could say in reply. At least it was someone she was somewhat familiar with. Though it make sense when Aela thought about it. One couldn't just have a military officer flying around outside his nation, that would spark a diplomatic incident. A mercenary on the other hand, wouldn't bat too many eyes. A minor technicality, but a practical one, Aela conceded.
"Oh indeed madam. Anyways, we'll be taking off in a moments when we go through the Leeds system via the Stirling here. From there, we'd be on our own." he replied as if it was the most natural thing to happen.
"Nothing too special I understand." he continued, "we'll take off when the Stirling hits orbit around Leeds, then we go take off and we should hit New London by brekkie, and we'll have you a nice Bretonian breakfast before you meet with the King. Meanwhile, take a seat and enjoy the view, we're going to enter the Jumpgate soon."
That got Aela's attention, she would soon be entering uncharted space, wIth such advanced technology, surely whatever was on the other side would be something she would never forget. She quickly took a seat by the window, hoping to get a really good look at both travelling through a wormhole and what the Human systems would look like.
As the Stirling approached the Jumpgate, Aela started to get this feeling of just how huge the thing was. As the arms extended, she could clearly see the arms easily enveloping the entire length of the Stirling. it may have been no Citadel, but the fact that these Humans built something like this… Truly they must be masters of engineering to accomplish such a feat.
Soon enough, the increasingly familiar wormhole appeared in the center of the gate. It's entrancing white glow as a pattern of lights danced before her, clearly in the center of the anomaly. Aela could have watched the lights dance there forever.
And then there were only lights. The entire ship was surrounded in it, and Goddess, she could see they were in a tunnel of light. They were traveling through a wormhole! The first Asari to do so, and just the lights! She could stare at the tunnel and it's entrancing white center forever.
"It never gets old." sighed Perkins contentedly beside her.
If even the Humans could never get tired of this, then surely there could only be more wonders for her to experience in Sirius space.She could just look at the entrancingly blue of the tunnel that seemed to converge on a ever growing white center that they were approaching.
Soon enough, they reached the literal light at the end of the tunnel, and Aela saw a sight she would never forget.
Battleship Stirling
Conference Room
"So it's decided then," Captain T'Loni started, "we have ourselves a trade agreement, and each of our companies may trade basic goods and services, these include but not limited to, food, water, raw materials, and basic alloys." a good start for any sort of first contact really, "In exchange, The Kingdom of Bretonia agrees to contact the other Houses of the Sirius systems regarding this first contact." better they give the message than we do, "At a later date, to be determined by the Sirius Houses, representatives of the four houses will meet and negotiate with Citadel representatives regarding the inclusion of the four Houses into the Citadel on the Planet Curacao in the Cortez system." and give us that beautiful technology of theirs "In the meantime, a representative of my ship, to be chosen by me, shall be granted leave to explore the Sirius systems with an escort to be chosen by the Bretonian government. Do you agree to all these conditions?"
"I, Lord Edward Barstow, First Cousin to King Alexander I, Count of Ashtonbury, Official Ambassador to these talks, agree to these conditions." he said calmly, as he signed the documents, one in English and the other in Thessian.
"Excellent, we look forward to an especially bright future ahead of us, Lord Barstow." finished Dala confidently. With such a treaty, these humans were opening the doors to Citadel influence. Surely, with the doubtless millennia of experience we have, we can surely leverage a treaty that would favour the Citadel, especially with the fact that these Humans seemed to be rather fractured. It should be easy pickings for whatever Matriarch they send in to negotiate at this Curacao place.
"Capital. I look forward to meeting and promptly escorting your selected representative. We have just the man for her to be escorted by as well." replied Barstow jovially. It'd mean a job for Perkins, well enough out of sight, all while learning about these Asari. A win for the BAF, for picking up intel, and a win for Perkins for the credits we would be paying him. Everyone wins.
___
Tau 30 system
Battleship Stirling
Docking Bay
"Dr. D'Avo, I think you are the most qualified person from those among us here to explore these Sirius systems." she said, taking note to keep her voice calm and collected.
"What?" she replied disbelievingly, "How? I'm just an archaeologist. I'm not trained in diplomacy or any of those things that I imagine you need." babbled Aela. She was just a humble archaeologist in a mission she wasn't trained for at all!
"But you are trained in understanding other cultures and languages. You can pick up on the tiny cultural nuances that I imagine many of us here would completely miss." countered Captain T'Loni.
"Besides, you will be going in with an escort. Lord Barstow is personally picking one of his people to escort you as you explore these Sirius systems." she said, trying to reassure the panicking doctor.
"But-"
"No buts here Dr. D'Avo." she replied, putting that steely captain's voice to use, "This is something too important for us to miss. I cannot go because I have to brief the Council on the events that transpired here. You are the next best thing, having translated the human language and interacted with them on occasion." she finished.
Aela could only sigh. She didn't really expect to be caught up so heavily in this. She just wanted to study a new species that was most probably extinct. Right now, she would've settled for going back to her apartment on Thessia and snuggle up in her bed with a nice Illium red. "Yes ma'am." she replied dejectedly, "I'll do my best."
"Excellent," replied Captain T'Loni, sounding cool and confident, "pack what you need, and we'll see about upgrading that omni-tool of yours to handle the I expect rather large amounts of data you will be collecting. Follow me."
As Aela followed Captain T'Loni, she couldn't help but feel that the next few weeks would be a most… memorable time in her life. Probably something that would seriously make her consider settling down earlier.
___
Tau 30 system
Battleship Stirling
Briefing Room
"So this is it then?" Perkins cooly replied, "I've been honourably discharged, sir? Left to my own devices, roam the galaxy, make my own fortune and all that?"
"Yes indeed Perkins." jovially replied Captain Dunbar, "That isn't to say that we haven't done you any favours. Look, we've outfitted your Crusader with some of the finest weapons Bretonia has to offer, even loaded you up with a full armament of torpedoes, mind you!" he cheerily continued. "We've even gotten you your own Freelancer license all ready to go. You're all set for your brand new and exciting career! Furthermore, Lord Barstow has a job just waiting for you." he finished with a slight smirk on his face.
"Oh? Does it involve me taking on some Corsair base all alone with no backup for a ludicrous amount of pay, sir?" Perkins calmly replied, yet the snark was clear in his tone.
"Nothing of the sort! It involves a ludicrous amount of pay to babysit some representative of the aliens as she explores the space in the Sirius systems." he continued "Naturally that mean that she will be visiting New London, and despite how diplomatically important this is, we can't afford the Stirling to be too far away from Leeds for too long." he replied apologetically, "So, you'll be her… bodyguard, so to speak."
"Just how much is Lord Barstow offering for a job like this?" inquired Perkins.
"500,000 credits." Dunbar quickly replied.
Perkins just looked at Dunbar as if he just grew a second head or decided to retire to Leeds. You didn't just get fired then get handed a deal like this."There has to be a catch here sir. 500,000 thousand credits for a babysitting job?"Perkins replied disbelievingly.
"There is no catch here. We'll give you half up front for your personal use plus another 300,000 for any expenses she may incur while under your protection. Which I imagine she'll use up once she visits Manhattan." he continued, calmly outlying the details of the payment to Perkins.
Perkins just couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had effectively been fired from his old job, only to be offered a new one by the people who fired him to go do the easiest job he'd ever heard of while being offered what he would essentially make in a couple of years for a few weeks worth of babysitting.
He didn't like the situation one bit. His gut told him that this could lead only to interesting times, in the ancient Chinese sense. Still… it was a lot of credits, and it wasn't like he had many alternatives.
"I'll take the job, sir." he grudgingly replied.
"Excellent, I'll upload the credits into your neural net. We expect you'll keep her safe, Perkins. She'll ride co-pilot with you on your Crusader." replied Dunbar, keeping up that annoyingly cheeky tone of his.
At that, all Perkins wanted was to take advantage of the drinks his lads owed him in the bar. He most certainly could use them.
Tau 30 System
Battleship Stirling
Recreation Bay "The Old Shanty"
Dr. Aela D'Avo has had much better days. Most notably back on Thessia, working in her nice comfortable office, though she was now really starting to regret not taking up something more traditional like economics or software development. It was thanks to her stupid archaeology doctorate that she got assigned exploring this unknown area full of aliens. She grudgingly admitted were exotically beautiful in their own strangely familiar way, but that wasn't something that should so easily win her over. Especially considering her surroundings.
According to her current guide, one Ensign Smith, her escort would be found here with his flight mates celebrating. He was apparently one of the members of the flight that fended off the Mollies. She could most definitely hear the carousing that a large group were doing near what looked like a bar counter.
"To Commander Perkins! May you do well in that cakewalk of yours, then retire nice and comfy eh?" roared one of the men, a rather familiar one too… was that Thatch?
"Hear hear!" roared the rest of the flight, as they downed whatever alcoholic beverage they were drinking. She figured one of them, possibly even Thatch or Commander Perkins himself, would be escorting her throughout the systems, so she politely coughed loudly to grab their attention.
"Oi! It's one of 'em Asari ladies! What's she doing here?" one of them drunkenly shouted.
"Shut it Lincoln!" shouted the one man she was most familiar with, Commander Perkins, "Mind your manners here. We've ourselves the equivalent of a Lady here, so at your best manners gents." he commanded with that voice Aela guessed came naturally to leaders.
"Yes suh!" replied the men, having placed their drinks down to stand at attention. This was a man who knew how to make use of that voice.
"Hello... Commander," Aela hesitatingly spoke, "I'm here looking for the person who would escort me in my travels."
"Ah! That bit of business." said Perkins, clearly a little tipsy from the drinks he had. " Right lads and ladies!" he said turning back to his men, "It's been an honour leading you all through the valley of death, so on and so forth. Thatch you blighty bastard, you take care of the men you hear?" he jovially responded.
"Right O' sir!" Thatch replied, raising his own drink "To the Commander!"
"To the Commander!" roared the rest of the flight, then they all promptly downed the rest of their drink.
"Thank you lads and ladies. Good Flying!" he then turned his attention back to Aela.
"Sorry about that there," he said sincerely, "The lads were toasting my early retirement."
"Early retirement? I thought you would be escorting me throughout the Sirius systems?" she asked, her confusion rather evident in her face.
"No need to worry ma'am." he said reassuringly, "This simply means that I've retired from the military. They handed me a ship, a full load, and enough supplies to go where I want. I'm a Freelancer now!" he jovially replied.
"A what now?" she asked.
"Freelancer! I work whatever jobs I want, whenever I want." he jovially replied. "Anything from bounty hunting to trading, it's all open to me. The Galaxy is now my Oyster!" he replied, a little too happily for Aela's taste. "My first job is to infact be your assigned escort! Given by Lord Barstow himself in fact!"
"Oh." was all she could say in reply. At least it was someone she was somewhat familiar with. Though it make sense when Aela thought about it. One couldn't just have a military officer flying around outside his nation, that would spark a diplomatic incident. A mercenary on the other hand, wouldn't bat too many eyes. A minor technicality, but a practical one, Aela conceded.
"Oh indeed madam. Anyways, we'll be taking off in a moments when we go through the Leeds system via the Stirling here. From there, we'd be on our own." he replied as if it was the most natural thing to happen.
"Nothing too special I understand." he continued, "we'll take off when the Stirling hits orbit around Leeds, then we go take off and we should hit New London by brekkie, and we'll have you a nice Bretonian breakfast before you meet with the King. Meanwhile, take a seat and enjoy the view, we're going to enter the Jumpgate soon."
That got Aela's attention, she would soon be entering uncharted space, wIth such advanced technology, surely whatever was on the other side would be something she would never forget. She quickly took a seat by the window, hoping to get a really good look at both travelling through a wormhole and what the Human systems would look like.
As the Stirling approached the Jumpgate, Aela started to get this feeling of just how huge the thing was. As the arms extended, she could clearly see the arms easily enveloping the entire length of the Stirling. it may have been no Citadel, but the fact that these Humans built something like this… Truly they must be masters of engineering to accomplish such a feat.
Soon enough, the increasingly familiar wormhole appeared in the center of the gate. It's entrancing white glow as a pattern of lights danced before her, clearly in the center of the anomaly. Aela could have watched the lights dance there forever.
And then there were only lights. The entire ship was surrounded in it, and Goddess, she could see they were in a tunnel of light. They were traveling through a wormhole! The first Asari to do so, and just the lights! She could stare at the tunnel and it's entrancing white center forever.
"It never gets old." sighed Perkins contentedly beside her.
If even the Humans could never get tired of this, then surely there could only be more wonders for her to experience in Sirius space.She could just look at the entrancingly blue of the tunnel that seemed to converge on a ever growing white center that they were approaching.
Soon enough, they reached the literal light at the end of the tunnel, and Aela saw a sight she would never forget.
Leeds System, Kingdom of Bretonia
Battleship Stirling
Recreational Bay "The Old Shanty"
Brown. The entire system was varying shades of brown. Aela had never seen so much of the colour in space. In fact, as far as she knew, this was supposed to be impossible. "How?" was all she could muster to respond.
"Most of it was a result of early Bretonia, you know." Perkins casually explained, "What you are seeing is the results of centuries of industrialization."
"You mean-"
"Yes. You are looking at the largest smog clouds in the Sirius systems. I would've said galaxy a few days ago, but I've no way of knowing that now." he said apologetically, as if he didn't know the full extent of what Aela was seeing.
"How?" was all Aela could repeat after a brief moment of silence. How could any one species create this much pollution?
"Centuries of industrialization I suppose. The Bretonia was the last of the colony ships to land, and we ended up with the most resource poor area of Sirius. Leeds was the closest system with a good number of resources to New London, so logically, after the initial colony was established on New London, BMM was given carte blanche to do whatever they wanted with the system, so long as it could help Bretonia. There are hundreds of abandoned refineries and mining stations in this system and thousands of orbital manufacturing centers around Leeds. I can better explain once we go in orbit of Leeds itself." he replied, keeping his casually contented tone of voice.
She could only wordlessly nod, and sit, silently watching the nebulae of smog drift by. Just… How?
She then noticed the Stirling approach a strange set of platforms just casually drifting in space. Then a sort of white ring of energy, somewhat similar to what she saw in action earlier in the Jumpgate appeared, and she could see it just getting closer and closer.
Then, the light just became one long tunnel of light again, but this time, she could see the space around her. She could see how the smog clouded even the sun of this system, and in the distance, she could see one refinery near a small planetoid, belching out great amounts of smog, all of it speedily passing by. "What-"
"It's a trade lane." Perkins interrupted, sensing the question she was about to ask, "Don't quite know exactly it works, but it basically brings the ship to FTL speeds, allowing us to get from one end of the system to the other pretty quickly."
So they had no FTL on their ships? Or perhaps their engines could only bring them up to light speed itself? She was no physicist or engineer, so she really had no idea how. Still though… that they had such an understanding of physics that they could manufacture their own wormholes, yet have a comparatively slow engine? It made little sense to her.
As the Stirling exited the trade lane, since the view she got on the window visibly slowed, Aela got a close up look of one of the space born refineries that Perkins mentioned. It was a massive ugly thing, with huge plumes of smoke coming out of its massive smokestacks, probably refining some rare minerals of some sort. She felt like she was staring at some incredibly crude construct, belching out its meal.
"That's Stokes Mining Station, oldest continuously running mining and refinery in all of the Colonies." Perkins said, clearly deciding to play tour guide to Aela, "she's been providing raw and basic materials to Bretonia and Kusari for centuries." he finished, a little pride in his voice.
Centuries. That… thing had been operating for centuries, belching who knows what into the system. They managed to create artificial nebulae from their industrial output alone? In mere centuries? No one in the Citadel could even feasibly find a way to perform such a feat of stellar engineering, and yet to do it as a mere byproduct of their industry alone? For a single system to have done this, even with the most efficient means possible, it would surely have required nearly the entire output of the factories of all three Citadel species to perform an equal amount of production. Even if this system isn't producing at it's peak, she could easily imagine it capable of outproducing at least one or two of the Council member species and the Volus.
Soon enough though, the Stirling went through another one of these Trade Lanes, quickly bringing the ship to the Planet Leeds.
From orbit alone, Aela could see what looked like massive smog clouds forming in the atmosphere of the planet. Aela couldn't even begin to imagine what it was like to live down there. What sort of… nightmarish conditions do these humans live in as they doubtlessly worked in what she imagined were hundreds of thousands of factories and mines, producing countless millions of tons of products.
"Planet Leeds, 3.3 billion people live on that planet alone, another 200 million if you count the people in orbital facilities, working in everything from refineries to mines on that planet, all of it fueling the ever growing demand for Bretonian products. " Perkins lectured, pride still strong in his voice. "See those two rings there?" he pointed out to two rather distinct rings, rather much like the Jumpgates, but much smaller, "Those are Docking rings, we use those to maintain a clear corridor to land in the planet. You can't just land or take off from any point on our planets, there are far too many orbital facilities and trash for it to be done safely." he cautioned. "Anyways you'll get a better look see in a bit. We're going to go take off, and I'll do a quick flyby so we can satisfy that curiosity of yours, eh?" he said rather far too cheerily for Aela's taste. How could one be so cheery in the face of… this? "If you could kindly follow me to the Docking bay, we'll go visit your new home away from home" he said as he motioned her to follow him with his hand.
"Yes." she said, "Please, lead the way." she would much rather try to take her mind off the disturbing implications of what she just saw.
____
Battleship Stirling
Docking Bay
Aela got herself a good look at what Perkins said would become something like her second home. It was definitely one of the ships that had taken on the Mollies, with its distinctive aquatic animal look.
"Meet the BA-907F Heavy Fighter Crusader!" Perkins exclaimed proudly, "Born from the great minds in both the BAF and Cambridge, this here is 20 tons of the finest Bretonia has to offer! This particular model has been modified to hold a copilot seat, for My Lady of course," he said with a flourish and a bow towards Aela," and has been outfitted with a Torpedo launcher, Mine layer, the latest in countermeasure technology, and finally, my personal choice of main weaponry, with three Skyrails and three Rippers, all primed for maximum amounts of lethality!" he finished, clearly proud of his machine.
She honestly had no idea if this was well equipped for Human standards, but by Citadel ones, based on the battle earlier, she was pretty sure a fully armed Crusader could quite feasibly take on a Citadel frigate, and maybe just barely win.
"Please," he said, as he gestured toward the open cockpit, "climb in, I'm right behind you."
Aela could only silently gulp, as she steadily climbed up into the cockpit of the Crusader.
It was something kind of familiar to her. Surprisingly enough, these Humans still seemed to make generous use of what looked like analogue equipment for one thing, she could see something that resembled a keyboard on one side and a joystick on the other. She could also make out a few other displays, likely displaying some sort of information that she couldn't figure out. It was also pleasantly roomy inside, with enough space for her to stand up and walk a bit.
"Right," said Perkins as he entered the cockpit, "This is our home away from home for the foreseeable future." he said, waving his arm about, "This here, is as I'm sure you've figured out the cockpit, the one on the left is main, and the one on the right is yours. " he said as he pointed at each of the seats, "You are strictly a passenger on this flight, so pending any horrible accident, don't expect me to teach you how to fly this thing." he said jokingly.Goddess, Aela hoped she wouldn't need to fly this. She had enough trouble flying an aircar, what more with something like this?
"Here,take this," said Perkins as he tossed a suit and helmet her way, "It's one size fits all, so you should do fine. The suit and helmet should help keep you alive in the highly unlikely event we have to bail out." he said jokingly. She wasn't sure if that was a topic to be joked about, but she put on the suit nonetheless. It was quite light, and very snug in a comfortable manner. She was reminded a little too much of some of her more… risque Maidenhood exploits. Then she put on the quite heavy helmet. She could hear some air moving about, likely a seal of some sort. then she noticed her visor had a HUD on it. "I'm pretty sure you don't have any implants that are compatible with the helmet," Perkins continued to explain, "so I've taken the liberty of putting the helmet on visor HUD mode. It should be showing you some of the more relevant data you would doubtless want to know to ease your mind, and to help me as a co-pilot, speed, shield, hull and energy levels, etc. In combat, it'll be best if you keep an eye on those and remind me of it." he said seriously, "a co-pilot can save lives, especially an attentive one."
"Of course." Aela said, after gulping a bit. She really hoped she wouldn't need to do any of that.
"Right then. Red bar is hull, blue is shield, yellow is energy. The number by the circle is for the number of auxiliary shield batteries we have left, the grey bar tells you how many liters of emergency repair nanobots we have left." Pekins continued, "Now please, do sit down, I'm going to do some pre-flight checks then we'll take off and head for New London." she promptly did so, and tried to relax a bit, and take in what she could see.
The ship was certainly well kept, though everything was rough in appearance, it was quite clean and probably well maintained. This fighter didn't have a… lived in feel, as if it needed to prove its worth some more, but it had earned some details, a little splash of what she assumed was non regulation colour, a very vivid shade of crimson, by the left side. On it she could see a few marks, ten golden mining picks were on that wall, perhaps a list of the kills he made?
"Everything is ready for launch. Please stay quiet as I obtain the necessary flight clearance." Perkins steadily commanded.
"This is Freelancer Hotel four dash zero to Battleship Stirling, requesting permission for liftoff ."
"This is Flight Control, you're cleared for take-off. Good flying."
"Thanks Flight Control. Take care of Thatch and the lads."
"Yes sir." replied Flight control.
"Right then." replied Perkins, "Time to show you the wonders of Bretonia." he said, as he pressed a few buttons on his dashboard, and then suddenly the ship was moving. Slowly, gently, Perkins maneuvered his ship towards the doors, using clean, well practiced movements to nudge the ship in the right direction. Then the ship came to a stop, and a pair of doors closed behind them, probably the airlock. Then the door below them opened, and Aela could see that they were on the bottom of the Stirling, one of it's massive turrets mere meters away from her. She imagined it could easily destroy a frigate in one volley.
"Engaging cruise engines. Let's give you a quick close-up of Leeds on the way to the Trade Lane eh?" Perkins cheeringly told Aela as he gently nudged the ship towards the Docking rings.
"We're now close enough for you to see the Space Lifts. Can you see it? It's by that mooring platform above the Docking ring." he pointed out.
"Yes I can see it." and she wa pretty sure she could see other elevators as well. Multiple space elevators on one planet? As far as she knew, no planet in Citadel had one, let alone several of these.
"Right. Some ships are simply too big, or too bulky to go back into atmo." he said casually, trying to keep things calm and relaxed. "So we use those to transport goods down onto the surface or as a staging area for freighters to go pick up goods to bring to the facilities orbiting the planet. I'm sure you can see the traffic from here, clogged as always."
Indeed, Aela could make out large numbers of bulky ships, all going in and out of various orbiting facilities she could make out, some even went towards the mooring platform, towards some of the huge train-like ships over there now.
"There is always a ship doing traffic of sorts around orbit of Leeds here you know. From here, they go everywhere, from New Tokyo to New Berlin, these goods always have somewhere to go." he said casually as he directed them back towards one of the Trade Lanes, where even now, Aela could see many dozens of ships, particularly the long train like ones, were approaching. "Don't worry, we should be fine. The traffic in the trade lane is still perfectly manageable." he said, trying to make sure Aela was as comfortable as possible.
"You know…" Perkins said, as they gradually approached the Trade Lane, his hands casually at the back of his head, likely the ship was on autopilot, "I never did get your name." he said quite apologetically. "For that I'm quite sorry, and at the same time you have me at a disadvantage. Let's introduce ourselves again shall we?"
"Okay." Aela shyly said, she wasn't too comfortable with revealing her name to Perkins, but since they would be working together for quite some time it would only make sense to do so. "I'm Dr. Aela D'Avo, of the University of Thessia. I'm a… discoverer of the past?"
"An academic," Perkins said, as if he was completely expecting this, "I figured you for the type, kind of nervous, taking great big looks at everything, and very quiet when someone is lecturing. And I do believe the word you are looking for is archaeologist. You studied ancient cultures and all that?"
"Indeed." she said, slowly getting more comfortable, "I specialized in Prothean culture and language, which was why I was originally assigned to investigate your Jumpgate in the... Tau 30 system you called it?" she said a little hesitatingly. It would be embarrassing to forget the name of a system where such a momentous occasion happened.
"Yes, though please do go on." Perkins said a little encouragingly.
"We thought it was some ancient alien device," Aela continued, "so they decided to send in an expert…"
"Only it turns out it was completely unrelated." Perkins finished, "Don't worry Aela, may I call you Aela?"
"I'd prefer it if you did Commander." Aela replied, a little more lively
"And I'd prefer it if you just called me Perkins, Aela." Perkins replied, with a little smirking twinkle in his eyes.
"Alright then Perkins. So, how long to New London?" she asked curiously. She wondered what their capital world would be like. It must surely be unlike this… Leeds place.
"It'll be maybe a half hour till we get there, so sit back and relax. This thing flies itself unless we get into a scrap." Perkins replied, visibly relaxing and laying back in his seat.
Aela saw that she had quite a lot of time till they reached New London, so she decided to start writing down notes on her Omnitool. She had start with her report, she figured that it would only get much much longer.
Snip 18
New London System, Kingdom of Bretonia
Near the New London - Leeds Jumpgate
The first thing Aela noticed after the jump through the wormhole was that space was a rather normal shade of black again.
The second thing she noticed was the huge field of debris just to her right. What had happened here? The after effects of some battle, kept around as a memorial perhaps?
"I see you've noticed the Southampton debris field," said Perkins, still a little pride in his voice, "that there is the result of early Bretonian industry. Centuries worth of discarded ship parts, from engines to plain hulls, anything that wasn't deemed useful was thrown out by the Southampton shipyards, which we will see in a bit by the way," he said, as if she was worried about missing some sort of monument. "All of this was a result of early Bretonia expanding her fleet at any and all costs. When I said earlier that BMM had carte blanche, I really meant that they could do just about anything short of replacing the King." finished Perkins as he directed their ship towards a Trade Lane.
To think, this field, this giant… junkyard was created by a single nation? Goddess, imagine what they could learn just by investigating these ruins. She imagined that even an old outdated engine of the Humans would have thousands of lessons to teach to even the finest of Salarian scientists.
"Gotta be careful around that field though," said Perkins, as he visibly tensed up clearly expecting trouble of some sort. "Corsairs use the combination of radiation from the discarded engines and the debris field itself to mask their presence. They often hit the trade lanes around the entire system." he finished.
"But isn't this your capital?" Aela asked, a little confused. Pirates were able to strike this deep into their territory?
"New London is indeed the seat of our government, from the administration to the military." Perkins replied.
"Then why don't you just… hunt these Pirates down?" she said. It was common sense, when pirates got bad, the military was sent to hunt them down. Yes they can hide for a while, but surely it couldn't take that long to destroy a rag-tag team of pirates?
"I think you severely underestimate the size of space Aela." Perkins countered, his tone quite serious. "We've patrolled these debris and asteroid fields for years, always searching for any sign of pirate activity. It's very easy to convert an asteroid into a space station, or make use of one of the many abandoned stations throughout the area as temporary staging posts. Space is mind bogglingly big, and there are many places to set up a base. We've yet to find any active illegal bases in the area, save Trafalgar, but we have an understanding with the Junkers." he said, a little embarrassed.
"Junkers?" Aela asked. What kind of name was that?
"A group of people who just salvage the debris fields for scrap metal and components. They then go on and sell these to BMM or whoever wants them," he replied. "We are also sure that they smuggle in certain… unpleasant objects through their stations. Criminals love to go there and use it as a neutral zone of sorts," he finished as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "We let them operate, they throw us a bone when it comes to apprehending a particular scoundrel or two."
Aela wasn't quite sure what to make of that. The world wasn't quite black and white like what many of the Justicars would think, but… it sounded like these Junkers were rather like Ilium. There, just about anything was legal, despite it being frowned upon in the rest of Citadel space. They even practiced slavery under the label, 'indentured servitude'. Perhaps these Humans weren't so different after all?
"I'd rather apprehend them too, but this is all for the greater good," Perkins said as he saw Aela's face slowly scrunch in disapproval. "We've caught more than our fair share of criminals who were hiding out on a Junker station because they handed them over to us.Those arrests often lead to more information as to where to find the bastards," Perkins said a little righteously, but then his face drooped again. "We're pretty sure now that the pirates are coming in from Jumpholes within the fields. They are practically beyond our reach now," he said, the disappointment deep in his voice. "But enough about that," he said suddenly after a bit of silence, "lets not dwell on such unpleasant topics. I'm supposed to be your tour guide throughout the colonies after all," he said, his voice trying to be a little happy, just as the ship exited the Trade Lane.
Aela guessed these must be the Southampton Shipyards. A massive Space station that drifted in the middle of the system, clearly designed for one thing; the production of even more ships. She'd never seen such an enormous station created by a sentient species in what looked like the middle of nowhere. She was pretty sure, judging from one rather large shell in one of the bays, that they were also building a new Dreadnaught. She has seen some shipyards before, but never one so massive. She was confident that this single shipyard could build three Dreadnoughts at the same time, while still retaining the ability to construct smaller ships. Though there was something that was nagging her. Perkins mentioned Jumpholes as the source of the pirates. What were they? She was about to ask Perkins when he suddenly started to talk.
"Aye, she's a beauty isn't she," Perkins proudly proclaimed, seeing the curiosity in Aela's eyes. "The Southampton Shipyards have been producing ships for almost as long as there has been a Bretonia. Over 10,000 people live on that station permanently, and over 100,000 people work there, all towards building the future of the Bretonian Navy. I'm sure you can see the new Battleship, under construction too. She'll be the one replacing the Hood." he said as he directed the ship towards another Trade Lane. "We'll be at New London in a few minutes now," he said, a little bit of excitedly with a hint of childishness. "I'm going home and meeting the King! It's practically every boy's dream come true."
She understood excitement at meeting the most influential man in the government, and going home, she herself was starting to miss Thessia, but she wasn't quite sure what to make of the youthful exuberance. "I'm not quite sure why you would dream of meeting the King since your childhood. Why?" Aela asked.
"I wasn't nobility you know, back on New London. Was practically a pauper there. Not by colonial standards mind you, but by New London I was. Parents were a bunch of bureaucrats for some government department regarding titles I do believe. Worked hard all my life to try and get into the Military Academy, and even then, I had to compete with my betters. Did well enough, not bad for a pauper boy, and never destined for greatness like some of my other mates at the academy. Now I get to have an audience with his majesty himself, thanks to you," he said, genuine gratitude in his voice.
She… honestly didn't know what to make of that.
Soon enough, the ship exited the Trade Lane, and Aela got a good look at New London. It seemed so… cloudy. Not smog, but actual natural clouds. She could make out glimpses of a continent or two, and she definitely caught glimpses of a rather large ocean as well. It seemed like an unusually cloudy, but otherwise normal, garden world.
What caught her interest though was the sheer number of orbital facilities she could make out. There were hundreds of little stations, some of them even had what looked like great glass domes, likely for parks or something. Then there was the huge station, dwarfing the others. She'd never seen so many facilities orbiting any one planet, let alone this massive station. It wasn't on the scale of the Citadel, but considering these Humans definitely made it… She was starting to think these Humans had a rather healthy love of space.
"That's Waterloo station," Perkins said, continuing to play the tour guide. "Basically... the Foreign Corporate hub of Bretonia. All the foreign companies have set up local headquarters there, though everyone knows that's really an Interspace Commerce station, one of Liberty's three biggest corporations.They're basically the guys who insure all shipping throughout the Houses. From Oxygen to Gold, these guys will insure your cargo. Anyways, we'll be landing shortly, so please be quiet while I talk to the Docking authorities."
Aela was starting to get an image that these Liberty folk were a lot like the Volus. Very good with money, and very good with making a good trade. She was sure they would get along swimmingly.
"This is Freelancer Hotel four dash zero, requesting permission to dock."
"This is Planet New London Traffic Control, you are clear to dock in bay four."
Aela kept her eyes clearly glued towards the window. As the ship got closer to the planet, she could see that Perkins was subtly turning the ship, directing it towards wherever it was they were going. Then they hit the atmosphere and she couldn't see anything but cloud
Suddenly, they broke through the cloud barrier, and Aela could hear the rain dash against the ship as it descended towards a city of brownish-grey skyscrapers, with the occasional dash of brilliant color: a neon sign here, a giant stained glass window there. This was, despite the gloomy weather, a city that looked to be full of life.
Soon enough, Perkins approached a rather flat looking area, probably a landing pad, and then engaged what he said was called the gravimetric gears, a landing gear of sorts probably. Perkins didn't contact any other authorities, so Aela figured this one must have been assigned to them in adva- Wait. Perkins just called his landing gear gravimetrics. Surely he's not talking about true gravity or mass manipulation. That's just not possible. Everyone knows you need eezo to do that. Perhaps an error in translation?
Right?
"Come on," said Perkins as he stood up, "best get dressed and all that." He removed his helmet and proceeded to go towards the ladder.
Aela followed suit, taking care to leave the helmet on her seat, and set foot on a Human world for the first time.
Aela's first impression of New London could be summarized very neatly in one word. Wet. If a planet could smell wet, yet not as wet as a jungle, New London was probably it. As she and Perkins raced towards one of the many buildings nearby, she didn't think that this sort of rain would stop anytime soon. When they got in, Aela could recognize the tell tale signs of a cargo room. Huge containers, a couple of people, nothing much else in sight.
"Well," said Perkins, panting a little. "you've gotten but a taste of New London's weather. If it isn't raining, it's foggy, and often it can be both. You just caught it on a merely rainy day," he said as he dusted his suit of water and walked towards a door. "Come on, might as well get you all cleaned up before meeting the King. We're going to my place."
Islington, New London
New London System
It took Aela and Perkins a few minutes to get to the apartment. They had to take a monorail to get to his building and she got a few looks from what few locals were around, but they didn't approach or gawk like she expected. "Why aren't they… shocked or surprised?" Aela asked quietly.
"There is a visiting Liberty convention full of the latest and greatest in media Liberty has to offer," Perkins whispered. "All the kids from across Bretonia are dressing up in a costume of some sort and heading towards the convention center. You look fairly human, minus the blue skin and the tentacles, so they probably think it's just a rather well made costume for some show or game they never touched or even heard about."
So Humans dressed up to emulate a fictional character or species? For what purpose? Prestige? A form of admiration? Imitating something is a sign that its good, so Aela figured it was the latter, though it could also be some way of attracting a date.
Still, as the train approached the next stop, which Perkins said was theirs, Aela couldn't help but ask Perkins, "Why would someone dress up as a fictional character?"
"Many reasons really," Perkins said as they both stepped off the train, "Some cosplayers do it because they simply love the show. They want to be the characters they loved," he said cheerily. "Some do it because its a job to them, it's a good paycheck and publicity," he continued as they approached one building. "Finally, some just do it for the fun of it," he finished simply as he typed in something on a keypad and motioned for Aela to go in.
Aela entered and got her first glimpse of what she guessed was the typical Bretonian way of decorating a building. Tall arched windows graced the taller parts of the lobby, each of them covered in stained glass, causing the room to have a rather muted and surprisingly somber atmosphere. The floors were left rather barren, just a rather muted dark, well polished metal. The walls were rather the same, but in-between a window or two lay the occasional rather bestial mix of human, and she guessed animal, statues. Just what were they? Were they mythical beasts or demon? What was it all for? A reminder of their… purpose? To emphasize the rather dark atmosphere? The entire lobby felt as if she were being judged, and should be very very quiet as they walked toward what she suspected were the elevators.
--
Aela most definitely did not expect stairs. Especially up to the 5th and top floor. So it was rather understandable that she was panting a bit once they were up top.
"Yeah, it is quite a walk." Perkins apologized. "I remember back in the Academy, I'd end up walking up those stairs drunk and it was the absolute worst." he said, laughing a bit.
She would rather not imagine her doing this drunk but she could imagine that someone more physically fit like Perkins wouldn't find it as much as an issue. While she was rather more physically fit than your average academic due to her field experience, she felt she was rather lacking in her fitness, at least compared to some of her colleagues. Perhaps she should start exercising more, especially since she had this strange feeling that crime would become a bigger problem in the future.
"So anyways," said Perkins as he opened the door to his apartment. "Welcome to my humble abode."
Aela was starting to get a better feel for these Humans. It seemed that they kept their private and public decorations very different from each other. On one side of the room, tall and wide arched windows dominated, letting in what little natural light there was into the apartment. On another side, a massive screen dominated the wall, and a couch was facing it. Opposite the windows was what she assumed was the kitchen, seeing what looked like a stove and a fridge there. She couldn't help but feel that this apartment wasn't well used though. There was far too much dust on the floor.
"I don't really stay here often. Not anymore anyways. Work took me everywhere but here. Parents gave it to me as a gift before heading off to the Academy," Perkins said as he motioned for Aela to follow him as he went towards one of the doors.
She could recognize a bathroom when she saw one. Toilet, sink, shower, all there. It seemed that with a species that resembled the Asari a lot, it made sense they would share a lot of similarities when it came to hygiene.
"Right, I imagine you madam would like to freshen up and the like. Set your bag down and I'll let you do your womanly thing." He said as he moved toward the shower. "Move the handle left for hot water, right for cold. Pull towards you for stronger water," he explained. "I'll leave you be now, I'll just watch the telly outside. Let me know if you need anything else."
_-
The shower was unsurprisingly normal. Water was water, wherever you went in the galaxy, and for such a technologically advanced civilization, these Humans still kept cleaning simple with the use of the shower. Some things just can't be improved on Aela figured as she dried herself off.
The dress she brought for her eventual meeting with the king wasn't actually hers to begin with. She hadn't expected to need to dress in such a manner when she was recruited on to the ship. Captain T'Loni actually had to lend her one of her own dresses since they were roughly of the same measurements. It was a simple white thing with a few violet lines that vaguely reminded her of what the Consort's assistants on the Citadel would wear; a simple white thing that hugged her in the right places, and flowed everywhere else. It was a typical and simple Asari dress, not some Illium billionaire's dress, but still, Aela hoped it wouldn't offend anyone..
So when Aela stepped out, she most certainly did not expect to see Perkins sitting on the couch and wearing a brilliant red coat with some gold… things hanging on his shoulders. Coupled with the gold buttons and the white pants he looked quite handsome in an alienly fierce way. It made her feel like her dress was rather plain. That made it a little disturbing to see him so quiet and staring at her, his mouth drooping slightly. "Is something wrong?" she replied worriedly. It wouldn't do at all to meet the King and shock them all into silence because she was so offensive.
"No…" Perkins replied after a worrying moment of silence. "It's nothing." He looked back at the screen, which appeared to be showing a news report of sorts.
"Breaking news," the reporter, one that looked a lot like an Asari, Aela guessed she was a female, said. "The HMS Stirling has reported encountering intelligent alien life. We are not alone. More details at Six."
"That's after your big meeting," said Perkins worriedly as he stood up and turned off the screen with a remote. "Expect Reporters, especially Liberty ones. Be careful, and whatever you do, don't mention who you'll be travelling with or what you'll be travelling on."
Aela nodded, she guessed some things would stay the same throughout the galaxy. The paparazzi would clearly forever try to hound her during her explorations here. Best to avoid them if possible.
Still, she was quite excited. Here she was, about to meet what would surely become one of the most powerful people in the galaxy, representing not only her people, but billions of others as well. It was most frightening, but at the same time, she couldn't wait for it to happen. This would be the first steps towards a bright and shining future.
Battleship Stirling
Recreational Bay "The Old Shanty"
Brown. The entire system was varying shades of brown. Aela had never seen so much of the colour in space. In fact, as far as she knew, this was supposed to be impossible. "How?" was all she could muster to respond.
"Most of it was a result of early Bretonia, you know." Perkins casually explained, "What you are seeing is the results of centuries of industrialization."
"You mean-"
"Yes. You are looking at the largest smog clouds in the Sirius systems. I would've said galaxy a few days ago, but I've no way of knowing that now." he said apologetically, as if he didn't know the full extent of what Aela was seeing.
"How?" was all Aela could repeat after a brief moment of silence. How could any one species create this much pollution?
"Centuries of industrialization I suppose. The Bretonia was the last of the colony ships to land, and we ended up with the most resource poor area of Sirius. Leeds was the closest system with a good number of resources to New London, so logically, after the initial colony was established on New London, BMM was given carte blanche to do whatever they wanted with the system, so long as it could help Bretonia. There are hundreds of abandoned refineries and mining stations in this system and thousands of orbital manufacturing centers around Leeds. I can better explain once we go in orbit of Leeds itself." he replied, keeping his casually contented tone of voice.
She could only wordlessly nod, and sit, silently watching the nebulae of smog drift by. Just… How?
She then noticed the Stirling approach a strange set of platforms just casually drifting in space. Then a sort of white ring of energy, somewhat similar to what she saw in action earlier in the Jumpgate appeared, and she could see it just getting closer and closer.
Then, the light just became one long tunnel of light again, but this time, she could see the space around her. She could see how the smog clouded even the sun of this system, and in the distance, she could see one refinery near a small planetoid, belching out great amounts of smog, all of it speedily passing by. "What-"
"It's a trade lane." Perkins interrupted, sensing the question she was about to ask, "Don't quite know exactly it works, but it basically brings the ship to FTL speeds, allowing us to get from one end of the system to the other pretty quickly."
So they had no FTL on their ships? Or perhaps their engines could only bring them up to light speed itself? She was no physicist or engineer, so she really had no idea how. Still though… that they had such an understanding of physics that they could manufacture their own wormholes, yet have a comparatively slow engine? It made little sense to her.
As the Stirling exited the trade lane, since the view she got on the window visibly slowed, Aela got a close up look of one of the space born refineries that Perkins mentioned. It was a massive ugly thing, with huge plumes of smoke coming out of its massive smokestacks, probably refining some rare minerals of some sort. She felt like she was staring at some incredibly crude construct, belching out its meal.
"That's Stokes Mining Station, oldest continuously running mining and refinery in all of the Colonies." Perkins said, clearly deciding to play tour guide to Aela, "she's been providing raw and basic materials to Bretonia and Kusari for centuries." he finished, a little pride in his voice.
Centuries. That… thing had been operating for centuries, belching who knows what into the system. They managed to create artificial nebulae from their industrial output alone? In mere centuries? No one in the Citadel could even feasibly find a way to perform such a feat of stellar engineering, and yet to do it as a mere byproduct of their industry alone? For a single system to have done this, even with the most efficient means possible, it would surely have required nearly the entire output of the factories of all three Citadel species to perform an equal amount of production. Even if this system isn't producing at it's peak, she could easily imagine it capable of outproducing at least one or two of the Council member species and the Volus.
Soon enough though, the Stirling went through another one of these Trade Lanes, quickly bringing the ship to the Planet Leeds.
From orbit alone, Aela could see what looked like massive smog clouds forming in the atmosphere of the planet. Aela couldn't even begin to imagine what it was like to live down there. What sort of… nightmarish conditions do these humans live in as they doubtlessly worked in what she imagined were hundreds of thousands of factories and mines, producing countless millions of tons of products.
"Planet Leeds, 3.3 billion people live on that planet alone, another 200 million if you count the people in orbital facilities, working in everything from refineries to mines on that planet, all of it fueling the ever growing demand for Bretonian products. " Perkins lectured, pride still strong in his voice. "See those two rings there?" he pointed out to two rather distinct rings, rather much like the Jumpgates, but much smaller, "Those are Docking rings, we use those to maintain a clear corridor to land in the planet. You can't just land or take off from any point on our planets, there are far too many orbital facilities and trash for it to be done safely." he cautioned. "Anyways you'll get a better look see in a bit. We're going to go take off, and I'll do a quick flyby so we can satisfy that curiosity of yours, eh?" he said rather far too cheerily for Aela's taste. How could one be so cheery in the face of… this? "If you could kindly follow me to the Docking bay, we'll go visit your new home away from home" he said as he motioned her to follow him with his hand.
"Yes." she said, "Please, lead the way." she would much rather try to take her mind off the disturbing implications of what she just saw.
____
Battleship Stirling
Docking Bay
Aela got herself a good look at what Perkins said would become something like her second home. It was definitely one of the ships that had taken on the Mollies, with its distinctive aquatic animal look.
"Meet the BA-907F Heavy Fighter Crusader!" Perkins exclaimed proudly, "Born from the great minds in both the BAF and Cambridge, this here is 20 tons of the finest Bretonia has to offer! This particular model has been modified to hold a copilot seat, for My Lady of course," he said with a flourish and a bow towards Aela," and has been outfitted with a Torpedo launcher, Mine layer, the latest in countermeasure technology, and finally, my personal choice of main weaponry, with three Skyrails and three Rippers, all primed for maximum amounts of lethality!" he finished, clearly proud of his machine.
She honestly had no idea if this was well equipped for Human standards, but by Citadel ones, based on the battle earlier, she was pretty sure a fully armed Crusader could quite feasibly take on a Citadel frigate, and maybe just barely win.
"Please," he said, as he gestured toward the open cockpit, "climb in, I'm right behind you."
Aela could only silently gulp, as she steadily climbed up into the cockpit of the Crusader.
It was something kind of familiar to her. Surprisingly enough, these Humans still seemed to make generous use of what looked like analogue equipment for one thing, she could see something that resembled a keyboard on one side and a joystick on the other. She could also make out a few other displays, likely displaying some sort of information that she couldn't figure out. It was also pleasantly roomy inside, with enough space for her to stand up and walk a bit.
"Right," said Perkins as he entered the cockpit, "This is our home away from home for the foreseeable future." he said, waving his arm about, "This here, is as I'm sure you've figured out the cockpit, the one on the left is main, and the one on the right is yours. " he said as he pointed at each of the seats, "You are strictly a passenger on this flight, so pending any horrible accident, don't expect me to teach you how to fly this thing." he said jokingly.Goddess, Aela hoped she wouldn't need to fly this. She had enough trouble flying an aircar, what more with something like this?
"Here,take this," said Perkins as he tossed a suit and helmet her way, "It's one size fits all, so you should do fine. The suit and helmet should help keep you alive in the highly unlikely event we have to bail out." he said jokingly. She wasn't sure if that was a topic to be joked about, but she put on the suit nonetheless. It was quite light, and very snug in a comfortable manner. She was reminded a little too much of some of her more… risque Maidenhood exploits. Then she put on the quite heavy helmet. She could hear some air moving about, likely a seal of some sort. then she noticed her visor had a HUD on it. "I'm pretty sure you don't have any implants that are compatible with the helmet," Perkins continued to explain, "so I've taken the liberty of putting the helmet on visor HUD mode. It should be showing you some of the more relevant data you would doubtless want to know to ease your mind, and to help me as a co-pilot, speed, shield, hull and energy levels, etc. In combat, it'll be best if you keep an eye on those and remind me of it." he said seriously, "a co-pilot can save lives, especially an attentive one."
"Of course." Aela said, after gulping a bit. She really hoped she wouldn't need to do any of that.
"Right then. Red bar is hull, blue is shield, yellow is energy. The number by the circle is for the number of auxiliary shield batteries we have left, the grey bar tells you how many liters of emergency repair nanobots we have left." Pekins continued, "Now please, do sit down, I'm going to do some pre-flight checks then we'll take off and head for New London." she promptly did so, and tried to relax a bit, and take in what she could see.
The ship was certainly well kept, though everything was rough in appearance, it was quite clean and probably well maintained. This fighter didn't have a… lived in feel, as if it needed to prove its worth some more, but it had earned some details, a little splash of what she assumed was non regulation colour, a very vivid shade of crimson, by the left side. On it she could see a few marks, ten golden mining picks were on that wall, perhaps a list of the kills he made?
"Everything is ready for launch. Please stay quiet as I obtain the necessary flight clearance." Perkins steadily commanded.
"This is Freelancer Hotel four dash zero to Battleship Stirling, requesting permission for liftoff ."
"This is Flight Control, you're cleared for take-off. Good flying."
"Thanks Flight Control. Take care of Thatch and the lads."
"Yes sir." replied Flight control.
"Right then." replied Perkins, "Time to show you the wonders of Bretonia." he said, as he pressed a few buttons on his dashboard, and then suddenly the ship was moving. Slowly, gently, Perkins maneuvered his ship towards the doors, using clean, well practiced movements to nudge the ship in the right direction. Then the ship came to a stop, and a pair of doors closed behind them, probably the airlock. Then the door below them opened, and Aela could see that they were on the bottom of the Stirling, one of it's massive turrets mere meters away from her. She imagined it could easily destroy a frigate in one volley.
"Engaging cruise engines. Let's give you a quick close-up of Leeds on the way to the Trade Lane eh?" Perkins cheeringly told Aela as he gently nudged the ship towards the Docking rings.
"We're now close enough for you to see the Space Lifts. Can you see it? It's by that mooring platform above the Docking ring." he pointed out.
"Yes I can see it." and she wa pretty sure she could see other elevators as well. Multiple space elevators on one planet? As far as she knew, no planet in Citadel had one, let alone several of these.
"Right. Some ships are simply too big, or too bulky to go back into atmo." he said casually, trying to keep things calm and relaxed. "So we use those to transport goods down onto the surface or as a staging area for freighters to go pick up goods to bring to the facilities orbiting the planet. I'm sure you can see the traffic from here, clogged as always."
Indeed, Aela could make out large numbers of bulky ships, all going in and out of various orbiting facilities she could make out, some even went towards the mooring platform, towards some of the huge train-like ships over there now.
"There is always a ship doing traffic of sorts around orbit of Leeds here you know. From here, they go everywhere, from New Tokyo to New Berlin, these goods always have somewhere to go." he said casually as he directed them back towards one of the Trade Lanes, where even now, Aela could see many dozens of ships, particularly the long train like ones, were approaching. "Don't worry, we should be fine. The traffic in the trade lane is still perfectly manageable." he said, trying to make sure Aela was as comfortable as possible.
"You know…" Perkins said, as they gradually approached the Trade Lane, his hands casually at the back of his head, likely the ship was on autopilot, "I never did get your name." he said quite apologetically. "For that I'm quite sorry, and at the same time you have me at a disadvantage. Let's introduce ourselves again shall we?"
"Okay." Aela shyly said, she wasn't too comfortable with revealing her name to Perkins, but since they would be working together for quite some time it would only make sense to do so. "I'm Dr. Aela D'Avo, of the University of Thessia. I'm a… discoverer of the past?"
"An academic," Perkins said, as if he was completely expecting this, "I figured you for the type, kind of nervous, taking great big looks at everything, and very quiet when someone is lecturing. And I do believe the word you are looking for is archaeologist. You studied ancient cultures and all that?"
"Indeed." she said, slowly getting more comfortable, "I specialized in Prothean culture and language, which was why I was originally assigned to investigate your Jumpgate in the... Tau 30 system you called it?" she said a little hesitatingly. It would be embarrassing to forget the name of a system where such a momentous occasion happened.
"Yes, though please do go on." Perkins said a little encouragingly.
"We thought it was some ancient alien device," Aela continued, "so they decided to send in an expert…"
"Only it turns out it was completely unrelated." Perkins finished, "Don't worry Aela, may I call you Aela?"
"I'd prefer it if you did Commander." Aela replied, a little more lively
"And I'd prefer it if you just called me Perkins, Aela." Perkins replied, with a little smirking twinkle in his eyes.
"Alright then Perkins. So, how long to New London?" she asked curiously. She wondered what their capital world would be like. It must surely be unlike this… Leeds place.
"It'll be maybe a half hour till we get there, so sit back and relax. This thing flies itself unless we get into a scrap." Perkins replied, visibly relaxing and laying back in his seat.
Aela saw that she had quite a lot of time till they reached New London, so she decided to start writing down notes on her Omnitool. She had start with her report, she figured that it would only get much much longer.
Snip 18
New London System, Kingdom of Bretonia
Near the New London - Leeds Jumpgate
The first thing Aela noticed after the jump through the wormhole was that space was a rather normal shade of black again.
The second thing she noticed was the huge field of debris just to her right. What had happened here? The after effects of some battle, kept around as a memorial perhaps?
"I see you've noticed the Southampton debris field," said Perkins, still a little pride in his voice, "that there is the result of early Bretonian industry. Centuries worth of discarded ship parts, from engines to plain hulls, anything that wasn't deemed useful was thrown out by the Southampton shipyards, which we will see in a bit by the way," he said, as if she was worried about missing some sort of monument. "All of this was a result of early Bretonia expanding her fleet at any and all costs. When I said earlier that BMM had carte blanche, I really meant that they could do just about anything short of replacing the King." finished Perkins as he directed their ship towards a Trade Lane.
To think, this field, this giant… junkyard was created by a single nation? Goddess, imagine what they could learn just by investigating these ruins. She imagined that even an old outdated engine of the Humans would have thousands of lessons to teach to even the finest of Salarian scientists.
"Gotta be careful around that field though," said Perkins, as he visibly tensed up clearly expecting trouble of some sort. "Corsairs use the combination of radiation from the discarded engines and the debris field itself to mask their presence. They often hit the trade lanes around the entire system." he finished.
"But isn't this your capital?" Aela asked, a little confused. Pirates were able to strike this deep into their territory?
"New London is indeed the seat of our government, from the administration to the military." Perkins replied.
"Then why don't you just… hunt these Pirates down?" she said. It was common sense, when pirates got bad, the military was sent to hunt them down. Yes they can hide for a while, but surely it couldn't take that long to destroy a rag-tag team of pirates?
"I think you severely underestimate the size of space Aela." Perkins countered, his tone quite serious. "We've patrolled these debris and asteroid fields for years, always searching for any sign of pirate activity. It's very easy to convert an asteroid into a space station, or make use of one of the many abandoned stations throughout the area as temporary staging posts. Space is mind bogglingly big, and there are many places to set up a base. We've yet to find any active illegal bases in the area, save Trafalgar, but we have an understanding with the Junkers." he said, a little embarrassed.
"Junkers?" Aela asked. What kind of name was that?
"A group of people who just salvage the debris fields for scrap metal and components. They then go on and sell these to BMM or whoever wants them," he replied. "We are also sure that they smuggle in certain… unpleasant objects through their stations. Criminals love to go there and use it as a neutral zone of sorts," he finished as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "We let them operate, they throw us a bone when it comes to apprehending a particular scoundrel or two."
Aela wasn't quite sure what to make of that. The world wasn't quite black and white like what many of the Justicars would think, but… it sounded like these Junkers were rather like Ilium. There, just about anything was legal, despite it being frowned upon in the rest of Citadel space. They even practiced slavery under the label, 'indentured servitude'. Perhaps these Humans weren't so different after all?
"I'd rather apprehend them too, but this is all for the greater good," Perkins said as he saw Aela's face slowly scrunch in disapproval. "We've caught more than our fair share of criminals who were hiding out on a Junker station because they handed them over to us.Those arrests often lead to more information as to where to find the bastards," Perkins said a little righteously, but then his face drooped again. "We're pretty sure now that the pirates are coming in from Jumpholes within the fields. They are practically beyond our reach now," he said, the disappointment deep in his voice. "But enough about that," he said suddenly after a bit of silence, "lets not dwell on such unpleasant topics. I'm supposed to be your tour guide throughout the colonies after all," he said, his voice trying to be a little happy, just as the ship exited the Trade Lane.
Aela guessed these must be the Southampton Shipyards. A massive Space station that drifted in the middle of the system, clearly designed for one thing; the production of even more ships. She'd never seen such an enormous station created by a sentient species in what looked like the middle of nowhere. She was pretty sure, judging from one rather large shell in one of the bays, that they were also building a new Dreadnaught. She has seen some shipyards before, but never one so massive. She was confident that this single shipyard could build three Dreadnoughts at the same time, while still retaining the ability to construct smaller ships. Though there was something that was nagging her. Perkins mentioned Jumpholes as the source of the pirates. What were they? She was about to ask Perkins when he suddenly started to talk.
"Aye, she's a beauty isn't she," Perkins proudly proclaimed, seeing the curiosity in Aela's eyes. "The Southampton Shipyards have been producing ships for almost as long as there has been a Bretonia. Over 10,000 people live on that station permanently, and over 100,000 people work there, all towards building the future of the Bretonian Navy. I'm sure you can see the new Battleship, under construction too. She'll be the one replacing the Hood." he said as he directed the ship towards another Trade Lane. "We'll be at New London in a few minutes now," he said, a little bit of excitedly with a hint of childishness. "I'm going home and meeting the King! It's practically every boy's dream come true."
She understood excitement at meeting the most influential man in the government, and going home, she herself was starting to miss Thessia, but she wasn't quite sure what to make of the youthful exuberance. "I'm not quite sure why you would dream of meeting the King since your childhood. Why?" Aela asked.
"I wasn't nobility you know, back on New London. Was practically a pauper there. Not by colonial standards mind you, but by New London I was. Parents were a bunch of bureaucrats for some government department regarding titles I do believe. Worked hard all my life to try and get into the Military Academy, and even then, I had to compete with my betters. Did well enough, not bad for a pauper boy, and never destined for greatness like some of my other mates at the academy. Now I get to have an audience with his majesty himself, thanks to you," he said, genuine gratitude in his voice.
She… honestly didn't know what to make of that.
Soon enough, the ship exited the Trade Lane, and Aela got a good look at New London. It seemed so… cloudy. Not smog, but actual natural clouds. She could make out glimpses of a continent or two, and she definitely caught glimpses of a rather large ocean as well. It seemed like an unusually cloudy, but otherwise normal, garden world.
What caught her interest though was the sheer number of orbital facilities she could make out. There were hundreds of little stations, some of them even had what looked like great glass domes, likely for parks or something. Then there was the huge station, dwarfing the others. She'd never seen so many facilities orbiting any one planet, let alone this massive station. It wasn't on the scale of the Citadel, but considering these Humans definitely made it… She was starting to think these Humans had a rather healthy love of space.
"That's Waterloo station," Perkins said, continuing to play the tour guide. "Basically... the Foreign Corporate hub of Bretonia. All the foreign companies have set up local headquarters there, though everyone knows that's really an Interspace Commerce station, one of Liberty's three biggest corporations.They're basically the guys who insure all shipping throughout the Houses. From Oxygen to Gold, these guys will insure your cargo. Anyways, we'll be landing shortly, so please be quiet while I talk to the Docking authorities."
Aela was starting to get an image that these Liberty folk were a lot like the Volus. Very good with money, and very good with making a good trade. She was sure they would get along swimmingly.
"This is Freelancer Hotel four dash zero, requesting permission to dock."
"This is Planet New London Traffic Control, you are clear to dock in bay four."
Aela kept her eyes clearly glued towards the window. As the ship got closer to the planet, she could see that Perkins was subtly turning the ship, directing it towards wherever it was they were going. Then they hit the atmosphere and she couldn't see anything but cloud
Suddenly, they broke through the cloud barrier, and Aela could hear the rain dash against the ship as it descended towards a city of brownish-grey skyscrapers, with the occasional dash of brilliant color: a neon sign here, a giant stained glass window there. This was, despite the gloomy weather, a city that looked to be full of life.
Soon enough, Perkins approached a rather flat looking area, probably a landing pad, and then engaged what he said was called the gravimetric gears, a landing gear of sorts probably. Perkins didn't contact any other authorities, so Aela figured this one must have been assigned to them in adva- Wait. Perkins just called his landing gear gravimetrics. Surely he's not talking about true gravity or mass manipulation. That's just not possible. Everyone knows you need eezo to do that. Perhaps an error in translation?
Right?
"Come on," said Perkins as he stood up, "best get dressed and all that." He removed his helmet and proceeded to go towards the ladder.
Aela followed suit, taking care to leave the helmet on her seat, and set foot on a Human world for the first time.
Aela's first impression of New London could be summarized very neatly in one word. Wet. If a planet could smell wet, yet not as wet as a jungle, New London was probably it. As she and Perkins raced towards one of the many buildings nearby, she didn't think that this sort of rain would stop anytime soon. When they got in, Aela could recognize the tell tale signs of a cargo room. Huge containers, a couple of people, nothing much else in sight.
"Well," said Perkins, panting a little. "you've gotten but a taste of New London's weather. If it isn't raining, it's foggy, and often it can be both. You just caught it on a merely rainy day," he said as he dusted his suit of water and walked towards a door. "Come on, might as well get you all cleaned up before meeting the King. We're going to my place."
Islington, New London
New London System
It took Aela and Perkins a few minutes to get to the apartment. They had to take a monorail to get to his building and she got a few looks from what few locals were around, but they didn't approach or gawk like she expected. "Why aren't they… shocked or surprised?" Aela asked quietly.
"There is a visiting Liberty convention full of the latest and greatest in media Liberty has to offer," Perkins whispered. "All the kids from across Bretonia are dressing up in a costume of some sort and heading towards the convention center. You look fairly human, minus the blue skin and the tentacles, so they probably think it's just a rather well made costume for some show or game they never touched or even heard about."
So Humans dressed up to emulate a fictional character or species? For what purpose? Prestige? A form of admiration? Imitating something is a sign that its good, so Aela figured it was the latter, though it could also be some way of attracting a date.
Still, as the train approached the next stop, which Perkins said was theirs, Aela couldn't help but ask Perkins, "Why would someone dress up as a fictional character?"
"Many reasons really," Perkins said as they both stepped off the train, "Some cosplayers do it because they simply love the show. They want to be the characters they loved," he said cheerily. "Some do it because its a job to them, it's a good paycheck and publicity," he continued as they approached one building. "Finally, some just do it for the fun of it," he finished simply as he typed in something on a keypad and motioned for Aela to go in.
Aela entered and got her first glimpse of what she guessed was the typical Bretonian way of decorating a building. Tall arched windows graced the taller parts of the lobby, each of them covered in stained glass, causing the room to have a rather muted and surprisingly somber atmosphere. The floors were left rather barren, just a rather muted dark, well polished metal. The walls were rather the same, but in-between a window or two lay the occasional rather bestial mix of human, and she guessed animal, statues. Just what were they? Were they mythical beasts or demon? What was it all for? A reminder of their… purpose? To emphasize the rather dark atmosphere? The entire lobby felt as if she were being judged, and should be very very quiet as they walked toward what she suspected were the elevators.
--
Aela most definitely did not expect stairs. Especially up to the 5th and top floor. So it was rather understandable that she was panting a bit once they were up top.
"Yeah, it is quite a walk." Perkins apologized. "I remember back in the Academy, I'd end up walking up those stairs drunk and it was the absolute worst." he said, laughing a bit.
She would rather not imagine her doing this drunk but she could imagine that someone more physically fit like Perkins wouldn't find it as much as an issue. While she was rather more physically fit than your average academic due to her field experience, she felt she was rather lacking in her fitness, at least compared to some of her colleagues. Perhaps she should start exercising more, especially since she had this strange feeling that crime would become a bigger problem in the future.
"So anyways," said Perkins as he opened the door to his apartment. "Welcome to my humble abode."
Aela was starting to get a better feel for these Humans. It seemed that they kept their private and public decorations very different from each other. On one side of the room, tall and wide arched windows dominated, letting in what little natural light there was into the apartment. On another side, a massive screen dominated the wall, and a couch was facing it. Opposite the windows was what she assumed was the kitchen, seeing what looked like a stove and a fridge there. She couldn't help but feel that this apartment wasn't well used though. There was far too much dust on the floor.
"I don't really stay here often. Not anymore anyways. Work took me everywhere but here. Parents gave it to me as a gift before heading off to the Academy," Perkins said as he motioned for Aela to follow him as he went towards one of the doors.
She could recognize a bathroom when she saw one. Toilet, sink, shower, all there. It seemed that with a species that resembled the Asari a lot, it made sense they would share a lot of similarities when it came to hygiene.
"Right, I imagine you madam would like to freshen up and the like. Set your bag down and I'll let you do your womanly thing." He said as he moved toward the shower. "Move the handle left for hot water, right for cold. Pull towards you for stronger water," he explained. "I'll leave you be now, I'll just watch the telly outside. Let me know if you need anything else."
_-
The shower was unsurprisingly normal. Water was water, wherever you went in the galaxy, and for such a technologically advanced civilization, these Humans still kept cleaning simple with the use of the shower. Some things just can't be improved on Aela figured as she dried herself off.
The dress she brought for her eventual meeting with the king wasn't actually hers to begin with. She hadn't expected to need to dress in such a manner when she was recruited on to the ship. Captain T'Loni actually had to lend her one of her own dresses since they were roughly of the same measurements. It was a simple white thing with a few violet lines that vaguely reminded her of what the Consort's assistants on the Citadel would wear; a simple white thing that hugged her in the right places, and flowed everywhere else. It was a typical and simple Asari dress, not some Illium billionaire's dress, but still, Aela hoped it wouldn't offend anyone..
So when Aela stepped out, she most certainly did not expect to see Perkins sitting on the couch and wearing a brilliant red coat with some gold… things hanging on his shoulders. Coupled with the gold buttons and the white pants he looked quite handsome in an alienly fierce way. It made her feel like her dress was rather plain. That made it a little disturbing to see him so quiet and staring at her, his mouth drooping slightly. "Is something wrong?" she replied worriedly. It wouldn't do at all to meet the King and shock them all into silence because she was so offensive.
"No…" Perkins replied after a worrying moment of silence. "It's nothing." He looked back at the screen, which appeared to be showing a news report of sorts.
"Breaking news," the reporter, one that looked a lot like an Asari, Aela guessed she was a female, said. "The HMS Stirling has reported encountering intelligent alien life. We are not alone. More details at Six."
"That's after your big meeting," said Perkins worriedly as he stood up and turned off the screen with a remote. "Expect Reporters, especially Liberty ones. Be careful, and whatever you do, don't mention who you'll be travelling with or what you'll be travelling on."
Aela nodded, she guessed some things would stay the same throughout the galaxy. The paparazzi would clearly forever try to hound her during her explorations here. Best to avoid them if possible.
Still, she was quite excited. Here she was, about to meet what would surely become one of the most powerful people in the galaxy, representing not only her people, but billions of others as well. It was most frightening, but at the same time, she couldn't wait for it to happen. This would be the first steps towards a bright and shining future.
New Windsor, New London
New London System
The room Aela entered was a lot simpler than she had thought it would be. The floor was covered in a soft azure material, much like her own skin. Great arched windows graced the right side of the room, giving her a good view of what looked like a garden of sorts, likely the interior of this palace, while the left showed more pictures of what she assumed were very important people. The walls were paneled simply with a light brown wood, and all the furniture she could see was made of the same coloured wood. They also made use of the same azure material on them, save for the one in which a particularly big and regally dressed Human as sitting with his back against a red tapestry with those two animals she saw earlier, the regal Varren and the Horned creature, on its background in the center. Aela guessed that he was probably the King of the nation, and her nervousness only grew.
She caught Perkins giving her a little look. "Please," he said steadily, trying to keep her relaxed. "Stay calm and follow my lead. Don't speak unless spoken to and try and answer all his questions honestly. Understood?"
Aela could only nod and follow Perkins as they slowly approached the man who led what Aela suspected would be one of the most influential nations in the galaxy.
King Alexander I of the House of Windsor was a very worried man right now. Though few know it,Bretonia was in a very bad situation. Centuries of overindustrialization had led to what his analysts were telling him would be an inevitable famine within a few generations, even with Planetform's projects on Harris and Aeia. Neither Terraforming project would be able to finish in time to stave off famine. At that point, they would have to go to Liberty for financing for food from what would probably be their Synth Paste company, eventually leading to another Rhineland.
That would basically be signing the death of Bretonia. That simply could not be allowed to happen, so Alex swore to himself upon learning of it from his advisors. So when he had heard they had made real First Contact with Aliens, Alex saw his chance. These aliens were quite possibly the key to new territory. New arable territory that BMM won't touch. He just needed to get on their good side, show them just how much more reasonable Bretonia is compared to the other nations. Knowing the Kusari, he suspected that they wouldn't even want the aliens near them if possible. Liberty just saw an open door for new people to exploit while Rhineland… Rhineland was something else entirely. They used to be a giant, his father had told him of the old Empire, and they were indeed the only force that could have definitively rivaled Liberty. Since the war though… They were a broken people, and they could lash out. They were another problem to solve, though… if he handled things right, new Anglo-Germanic relations could be improved considerably with a potential economic alliance. Bretonia would be the gates to the new world, while Rhineland guards it.
In theory at least.
So it would be best to smile and wave and be the courteous host to this alienly beautiful woman who was now approaching him. Another reason why, unlike most situations, he was entertaining them here in his home and away from other eyes. He trusted his security well, and while he was no George X, he was certainly no slouch when it came to any of the martial arts. He was reasonably sure he could defend himself in the absolute worst case scenario here today. Now was the time to represent the absolute best of Bretonia.
He personally saw the fact that these aliens being eerily familiar, full of an easy feminine grace one wouldn't be hard pressed to find amongst the nobility or richer ladies of Liberty, as a good sign. If they looked like humans, maybe they'll act like them. That would most certainly help reduce the potential problems he could have.
"Welcome!" he said cheerily, as he rose and approached to meet them halfway. "I am King Alexander the First of Bretonia, ruler of this humble nation. May I have the pleasure of knowing who I am greeting?" he said, looking at the young lady before him.
Alexander could easily sense her nervousness when she replied, "I am Dr. Aela D'Avo of the Asari Republics, here representing the Citadel Council in these most fortuitous times."
Really, looking into that very human face of hers, Alex could've sworn he was talking to some young noblewoman trying to make a good impression on him. With that elegant white dress of hers that both hid and accentuated, she could've been yet another of the many ladies of the court.
"Please, relax." he said encouragingly. "Though I am King, here we may dispose with much of the protocol involved. I find that such tends to slow things down far too much, especially in this kind of situation where you wouldn't know protocol anyway."
She seemed to relax a bit, though her escort, the Commander Perkins, was clearly starting to sweat. Typical for your average commoner really when they were in the presence of their king.
"Yyyes your Highness," Perkins stammered.
"Please relax," he said firmly to Perkins. It seemed to do the trick and he assumed to have gone into a familiar military-style at rest. Whatever worked for him Alex guessed. Then, he turned to Aela, "Now, I understand that you doubtless have many many questions Dr. D'Avo. Please feel free to ask them. I hope to entertain anything you may ask, and if I cannot answer them, I shall deign to direct you to someone who can," he replied cheerily. After all, these people would have the good sense to take notes on her as well. Learning is a two way street after all.
The Asari, Aela, looked a little surprised at that. Alex figured she didn't expect a Monarch to be so blunt. Still, she made an admirable recovery. "Your Highness," she continued formally. Good call on her part, though whether it was something that was conscious or not was not something Alex knew. "While I do have many many questions, I was more hoping that you would be the one to ask me them."
Ah. Offers of knowledge. Always good, but for this, Alex thought he would need a more relaxed atmosphere. That would help loosen the clearly green diplomat's tongue. "Since you so kindly offered," Alex replied, trying to keep his voice as charming as possible. Just the same way he won over Miranda. "Please prepare the table. It is approaching dinner time, and it wouldn't do to have our guests starve. Please tell Terry to prepare the 'diplomatic' dishes please," he said into his communicator via his Neural Net.
"Please, sit down," he said to both Perkins and Aela, gently indicating towards the chairs. "We shall have dinner here soon, and I have many many questions about this Citadel and your Asari Republics." If he could find out how they worked, or if they were anything like the other Houses, he was confident he could put Bretonia firmly on top in any of their negotiations.
With a little luck, he might even bring about a new Pax Bretonnia, and eclipse his ancestors.
__
New Windsor, New London
New London System
Dinner in Aela's eyes was an exotically lavish affair. They were still in the same room, except now, where normally in front of the King was a corridor between chairs, there was a rather grand dining table, carved from a wood so dark it was almost black. Several exotic looking dishes were on top of the table and three places had been prepared right next to the King. She could make out familiar utensils at least: delicate looking glasses, plates, several spoons, forks, and knives. She could see little differences between the utensils, so she wasn't sure which to use. It looked like Perkins wouldn't be of much help here either because she could see a little bit of worry in his face.
Still, from her seat, she patiently waited, deciding to mimic the one person who definitely knew what to do in this situation; the King himself. Soon enough, one of those black suited servants came in with a tray loaded with a few bowls. He set one down in front of her and she was pleased to discover the aromatic orange soup with a little dash of white on top. She carefully waited and observed both the King and Perkins, not touching the food for a while. She saw the King take a widebrimmed spoon and she carefully mimicked him as he ate. She had a little spoonful of the soup, careful to mimic his actions. The soup itself proved to be a wonderfully creamy and earthy soup. Simple yet hearty, it was one she would try and duplicate if possible. When the King took a small sip out of his glass filled with a little clear liquid, she did so, and was rewarded with a light alcoholic beverage that reminded her of Thessian red wine. It was a little fruitier though and seemed to compliment the dish before her.
"Your Highness," she cautiously inquired. "I'm rather curious as to the nature of your… environmental policies." It was indeed an issue. When the Krogan touched a world before the Genophage, they tended to destroy or devastate garden planets. It reduced limited living space for everyone. Efficiency is important in Citadel society; there were only so many places one could live in, despite FTL. Though she did hope that with these Human Jumpgates, exploration could increase and help expand the amount of living space.
"I'll be honest with you madam," King Alexander said severely as the servant took away the bowls and brought in small plates with what looked like a salad. "I'm sure you have seen Leeds, the Southampton debris fields, basically the effects of Bretonia Mining and Minerals when they have been… unregulated so to speak."
"You mean a single company has managed to do this, all because you didn't regulate them?" she asked incredulously. It was hard to believe this was all the effect of a single company. Several yes, a whole government yes, but a single company?
"BMM has a government charter. My ancestors were… desperate. Bretonia was the last of the Houses to arrive, and in order to compete and not be swallowed by the others, we had to industrialize quickly. We effectively gave BMM carte blanche to do what they needed to do, damn the effects. Look what we have now though." he ended, looking her in the eyes.
"We Bretonnians only have three planets. Three planets to feed and clothe over 12 billion people. Most of that from a single planet. Even if most of my people don't actually live on planets, they still need food and clothing, and all that has to come from somewhere. What our ancestors were thinking when it came to trying to match ourselves to the other Houses to have their children bear the cost, I have no idea. What I'm trying to do here is to fix my ancestors mistake. Ever so slowly, I'm beginning to convince Parliament that BMM's operations aren't necessarily in the best interests of Bretonia. Sadly it took the Founder's Day Rebellion for some of them to see it, but now I'm able to start regulating them better. We in Bretonia intend to fix our mistakes, no matter how long it may take."
So these people have realized their mistakes then. That was a good sign, the Krogan have yet to learn from the Rebellions. They were still their crude selves, and while they could in fact theoretically recover from the genophage with their birthrates, they still refuse to stand and learn from their mistakes. These humans meanwhile were seemingly trying to improve things.
"I'm glad to hear that Your Majesty," Aela said diplomatically. "While the sheer scale of production Leeds is capable of is impressive," terrifying even, especially in comparison to what many Citadel planets were capable of. "The pollution I witnessed there was frankly disturbing."
"I understand. Many visitors to Bretonia often comment as such when they pass through Leeds," King Alexander sorrowfully replied.
A little thing caught her attention though. King Alexander mentioned five sleeper ships, yet there seemed to be only four Houses. What happened to that last ship, the… what was it's name? She decided to ask him only after the next course was served, what looked like a cut from some land animal, with a little slightly translucent sauce served with it and some more green vegetables.
"Your Majesty," she said carefully. "I must ask for the sake of my curiosity. I remember you mentioned earlier that there were five ships that left… Sol. What happened to the fifth? The… Hispaniola I believe?"
"The Hispania…" King Alexander said slowly after a brief period of silence. "No one really knows what happened to it. We never found the ship even after over 700 years here. There are however whispers that we have in fact been in contact with them for a long while now. Rumor has it that two of the most powerful criminal syndicates in the Sirius sector are the children of the Hispania. The Outcasts, and the Corsairs."
"These Outcasts from their name alone don't seem very threatening to me your Majesty," Aela replied a little light-heartedly. After all, if they were outcasts, how would they recruit new members?
"These Outcasts are the source of a drug that plagues the Sirius sector, Doctor. Cardamine is a narcotic with a near 100% addiction rate. It creates an intense sense of euphoria and energy in the user. Many people don't even build up a tolerance for the drug, and so choose to dose themselves up with it continuously to avoid the inevitable withdrawal symptoms, of which include severe psychosis, occasional respiratory problems, and in the case of long term users, even death. We've also recently discovered that long term use also results in genetic damage. They've used this drug to effectively string and addict several other criminal groups. Their web of influence is steadily growing and more and more people are getting addicted to the drug."
"The Corsairs meanwhile are pirates pure and simple. Unlike most however, they are smart, coordinated and very good pilots. Few can match them in a one on one fight, and those few are often the very best of the House Navies, and a select few other groups. Only the Outcasts can really lay the claim to match them pilot for pilot. They raid shipping in nearly every system known to us, and they rarely leave survivors."
Shocked wasn't quite the word to describe Aela's feelings on the revelation. It was, however, close enough. How could they let such groups continue? Even though Mercenary bands back in Citadel space were powerful, they were still constrained by the law, if only just. Pirates back home didn't even come close to the level of organization these groups sounded like they had.
"Why don't you just… hunt them down?" she asked.
"We've tried," King Alexander replied despondently. "The thing is however, that no one has ever found their bases. I mean obviously someone knows where they are based, but no one is reporting it to us, and frankly I understand their worry. These are amongst the most powerful groups in the Sirius systems, and chances are, those groups are based somewhere in the very distant parts of the Sirius sector, on the Edge worlds. Barely explored territory, accessible only through dangerous Jumpholes, full of hazards and of course, those two groups trying to make sure they keep their bases secret. The only thing that seems to work in our favour is that these two groups actively hate each other, though no one knows why."
Wild space. The way he described these… Edge worlds, thy sounded like a miniature version of the Terminus systems, yet somehow more lethal. Though she did wonder, what were these Jumpholes?
"I think I'm beginning to understand the situation here in the Sirius sector Your Majesty," Aela cautiously replied. Her understanding being that it was practically the Terminus systems here, despite the veneer of law and order these Humans claim to profess. While true that space is big, it's just not possible for there to be so many criminals that can escape unnoticed right? "Which is why I believe that it is in Humanity's best interest to join the Citadel."
"Oh? Pray do enlighten me how it would most definitely help us. I've received the reports Lord Barstow has mentioned from your Captain. Is there something that your Captain T'Loni failed to mention?" King Alex inquired.
"The Citadel fleet can most certainly aid you here in this situation. We have the ships and people to help you hunt down these pirates. Also, after seeing what I have seen, I'm almost sure that Humanity will quickly gain a Council position. You would most surely be able to quickly get a say in the most important alliance of species in the galaxy," Aela said, trying to win over the King. If they could get Humanity to join, think of all the technology, the improvements in lives! She was also sure that they could expand further, enabling more and more people to no longer be crowded on planets. It would usher in a new age of exploration!
King Alex's face though, was scrunched up in what Aela thought was deep thought. "This is something that I will have to think about for quite a while."
"I understand completely Your Majesty." Aela said. This was indeed a very important decision to make. It would take both time and effort to convince others that it was the right course.
"In the meantime though," he said, switching to a more jovial tone of voice. "Let's have us some dessert."
Dessert was a simple green jelly that Aela personally found very refreshing. The King, meanwhile, had elected to ask some of his own questions now. "Tell me, what are the Asari Republics like? What are you Asari known for?"
That… was going to take a while to explain.
"Back home on Thessia, I think the best way to describe things are run there is that we are a very active democratic society. Everyone participates in government decisions though we often listen to the what the Matriarchs, our eldest and most respected members nearing 1000 years old We all participate and voice our concerns on the extranet, our version of interconnected computers which I'm sure you have as well."
"The Neural Net, but please, do continue."
"Because of this level of democracy and the fact that each of our planets are effectively a different government, sort of like a city-state but on a planetary scale, we're known as the diplomats and mediators of the galaxy. Each of those planets are a republic in themselves, hence the Asari Republics. We're also the technologically and culturally dominant species in the Citadel, being both a founding member and the oldest known FTL species. That is until we encountered you Humans. Until we can match our timelines we've no way of knowing how long you have had access to FTL, and judging from your mastery of physics, I must say, chances are you must have been exploring space for quite some time."
"But that is just speculation on your part yes?"
"Indeed it is Your Majesty."
"Then I must be of the opposing opinion that we aren't as old as you think. Perhaps the Coalition, if they are still there at least, but not those of the Sirius sector. Our scientists think that it took us several millennia to get here from Sol. Several millennia of us in cryostasis, our culture, our technology, all frozen in time, so that the Coalition could never catch up with us and catch us off guard, and free to rebuild. "
Millenia. Generations of Asari could have been born and died in the time it took these few human to reach their new homes. Goddess, she couldn't think of anything that would lead to something like that being enacted by the Thessian Government.
"All the same, I think we've had a wonderful time getting to know you Doctor D'Avo. This was a wonderfully educational dinner here, no?"
Aela thought about what she had learned here tonight. Humans were essentially exiles, and have no plans on going back. They were most definitely capable of changing and learning from their mistakes. Most importantly of all, they seemed like decent and reasonable people who tried to make do with the situation they had and solve their problems, however ineffectually, in terms of the pirate problem at least.
Things could have been a lot worse.
__
New London System
The room Aela entered was a lot simpler than she had thought it would be. The floor was covered in a soft azure material, much like her own skin. Great arched windows graced the right side of the room, giving her a good view of what looked like a garden of sorts, likely the interior of this palace, while the left showed more pictures of what she assumed were very important people. The walls were paneled simply with a light brown wood, and all the furniture she could see was made of the same coloured wood. They also made use of the same azure material on them, save for the one in which a particularly big and regally dressed Human as sitting with his back against a red tapestry with those two animals she saw earlier, the regal Varren and the Horned creature, on its background in the center. Aela guessed that he was probably the King of the nation, and her nervousness only grew.
She caught Perkins giving her a little look. "Please," he said steadily, trying to keep her relaxed. "Stay calm and follow my lead. Don't speak unless spoken to and try and answer all his questions honestly. Understood?"
Aela could only nod and follow Perkins as they slowly approached the man who led what Aela suspected would be one of the most influential nations in the galaxy.
King Alexander I of the House of Windsor was a very worried man right now. Though few know it,Bretonia was in a very bad situation. Centuries of overindustrialization had led to what his analysts were telling him would be an inevitable famine within a few generations, even with Planetform's projects on Harris and Aeia. Neither Terraforming project would be able to finish in time to stave off famine. At that point, they would have to go to Liberty for financing for food from what would probably be their Synth Paste company, eventually leading to another Rhineland.
That would basically be signing the death of Bretonia. That simply could not be allowed to happen, so Alex swore to himself upon learning of it from his advisors. So when he had heard they had made real First Contact with Aliens, Alex saw his chance. These aliens were quite possibly the key to new territory. New arable territory that BMM won't touch. He just needed to get on their good side, show them just how much more reasonable Bretonia is compared to the other nations. Knowing the Kusari, he suspected that they wouldn't even want the aliens near them if possible. Liberty just saw an open door for new people to exploit while Rhineland… Rhineland was something else entirely. They used to be a giant, his father had told him of the old Empire, and they were indeed the only force that could have definitively rivaled Liberty. Since the war though… They were a broken people, and they could lash out. They were another problem to solve, though… if he handled things right, new Anglo-Germanic relations could be improved considerably with a potential economic alliance. Bretonia would be the gates to the new world, while Rhineland guards it.
In theory at least.
So it would be best to smile and wave and be the courteous host to this alienly beautiful woman who was now approaching him. Another reason why, unlike most situations, he was entertaining them here in his home and away from other eyes. He trusted his security well, and while he was no George X, he was certainly no slouch when it came to any of the martial arts. He was reasonably sure he could defend himself in the absolute worst case scenario here today. Now was the time to represent the absolute best of Bretonia.
He personally saw the fact that these aliens being eerily familiar, full of an easy feminine grace one wouldn't be hard pressed to find amongst the nobility or richer ladies of Liberty, as a good sign. If they looked like humans, maybe they'll act like them. That would most certainly help reduce the potential problems he could have.
"Welcome!" he said cheerily, as he rose and approached to meet them halfway. "I am King Alexander the First of Bretonia, ruler of this humble nation. May I have the pleasure of knowing who I am greeting?" he said, looking at the young lady before him.
Alexander could easily sense her nervousness when she replied, "I am Dr. Aela D'Avo of the Asari Republics, here representing the Citadel Council in these most fortuitous times."
Really, looking into that very human face of hers, Alex could've sworn he was talking to some young noblewoman trying to make a good impression on him. With that elegant white dress of hers that both hid and accentuated, she could've been yet another of the many ladies of the court.
"Please, relax." he said encouragingly. "Though I am King, here we may dispose with much of the protocol involved. I find that such tends to slow things down far too much, especially in this kind of situation where you wouldn't know protocol anyway."
She seemed to relax a bit, though her escort, the Commander Perkins, was clearly starting to sweat. Typical for your average commoner really when they were in the presence of their king.
"Yyyes your Highness," Perkins stammered.
"Please relax," he said firmly to Perkins. It seemed to do the trick and he assumed to have gone into a familiar military-style at rest. Whatever worked for him Alex guessed. Then, he turned to Aela, "Now, I understand that you doubtless have many many questions Dr. D'Avo. Please feel free to ask them. I hope to entertain anything you may ask, and if I cannot answer them, I shall deign to direct you to someone who can," he replied cheerily. After all, these people would have the good sense to take notes on her as well. Learning is a two way street after all.
The Asari, Aela, looked a little surprised at that. Alex figured she didn't expect a Monarch to be so blunt. Still, she made an admirable recovery. "Your Highness," she continued formally. Good call on her part, though whether it was something that was conscious or not was not something Alex knew. "While I do have many many questions, I was more hoping that you would be the one to ask me them."
Ah. Offers of knowledge. Always good, but for this, Alex thought he would need a more relaxed atmosphere. That would help loosen the clearly green diplomat's tongue. "Since you so kindly offered," Alex replied, trying to keep his voice as charming as possible. Just the same way he won over Miranda. "Please prepare the table. It is approaching dinner time, and it wouldn't do to have our guests starve. Please tell Terry to prepare the 'diplomatic' dishes please," he said into his communicator via his Neural Net.
"Please, sit down," he said to both Perkins and Aela, gently indicating towards the chairs. "We shall have dinner here soon, and I have many many questions about this Citadel and your Asari Republics." If he could find out how they worked, or if they were anything like the other Houses, he was confident he could put Bretonia firmly on top in any of their negotiations.
With a little luck, he might even bring about a new Pax Bretonnia, and eclipse his ancestors.
__
New Windsor, New London
New London System
Dinner in Aela's eyes was an exotically lavish affair. They were still in the same room, except now, where normally in front of the King was a corridor between chairs, there was a rather grand dining table, carved from a wood so dark it was almost black. Several exotic looking dishes were on top of the table and three places had been prepared right next to the King. She could make out familiar utensils at least: delicate looking glasses, plates, several spoons, forks, and knives. She could see little differences between the utensils, so she wasn't sure which to use. It looked like Perkins wouldn't be of much help here either because she could see a little bit of worry in his face.
Still, from her seat, she patiently waited, deciding to mimic the one person who definitely knew what to do in this situation; the King himself. Soon enough, one of those black suited servants came in with a tray loaded with a few bowls. He set one down in front of her and she was pleased to discover the aromatic orange soup with a little dash of white on top. She carefully waited and observed both the King and Perkins, not touching the food for a while. She saw the King take a widebrimmed spoon and she carefully mimicked him as he ate. She had a little spoonful of the soup, careful to mimic his actions. The soup itself proved to be a wonderfully creamy and earthy soup. Simple yet hearty, it was one she would try and duplicate if possible. When the King took a small sip out of his glass filled with a little clear liquid, she did so, and was rewarded with a light alcoholic beverage that reminded her of Thessian red wine. It was a little fruitier though and seemed to compliment the dish before her.
"Your Highness," she cautiously inquired. "I'm rather curious as to the nature of your… environmental policies." It was indeed an issue. When the Krogan touched a world before the Genophage, they tended to destroy or devastate garden planets. It reduced limited living space for everyone. Efficiency is important in Citadel society; there were only so many places one could live in, despite FTL. Though she did hope that with these Human Jumpgates, exploration could increase and help expand the amount of living space.
"I'll be honest with you madam," King Alexander said severely as the servant took away the bowls and brought in small plates with what looked like a salad. "I'm sure you have seen Leeds, the Southampton debris fields, basically the effects of Bretonia Mining and Minerals when they have been… unregulated so to speak."
"You mean a single company has managed to do this, all because you didn't regulate them?" she asked incredulously. It was hard to believe this was all the effect of a single company. Several yes, a whole government yes, but a single company?
"BMM has a government charter. My ancestors were… desperate. Bretonia was the last of the Houses to arrive, and in order to compete and not be swallowed by the others, we had to industrialize quickly. We effectively gave BMM carte blanche to do what they needed to do, damn the effects. Look what we have now though." he ended, looking her in the eyes.
"We Bretonnians only have three planets. Three planets to feed and clothe over 12 billion people. Most of that from a single planet. Even if most of my people don't actually live on planets, they still need food and clothing, and all that has to come from somewhere. What our ancestors were thinking when it came to trying to match ourselves to the other Houses to have their children bear the cost, I have no idea. What I'm trying to do here is to fix my ancestors mistake. Ever so slowly, I'm beginning to convince Parliament that BMM's operations aren't necessarily in the best interests of Bretonia. Sadly it took the Founder's Day Rebellion for some of them to see it, but now I'm able to start regulating them better. We in Bretonia intend to fix our mistakes, no matter how long it may take."
So these people have realized their mistakes then. That was a good sign, the Krogan have yet to learn from the Rebellions. They were still their crude selves, and while they could in fact theoretically recover from the genophage with their birthrates, they still refuse to stand and learn from their mistakes. These humans meanwhile were seemingly trying to improve things.
"I'm glad to hear that Your Majesty," Aela said diplomatically. "While the sheer scale of production Leeds is capable of is impressive," terrifying even, especially in comparison to what many Citadel planets were capable of. "The pollution I witnessed there was frankly disturbing."
"I understand. Many visitors to Bretonia often comment as such when they pass through Leeds," King Alexander sorrowfully replied.
A little thing caught her attention though. King Alexander mentioned five sleeper ships, yet there seemed to be only four Houses. What happened to that last ship, the… what was it's name? She decided to ask him only after the next course was served, what looked like a cut from some land animal, with a little slightly translucent sauce served with it and some more green vegetables.
"Your Majesty," she said carefully. "I must ask for the sake of my curiosity. I remember you mentioned earlier that there were five ships that left… Sol. What happened to the fifth? The… Hispaniola I believe?"
"The Hispania…" King Alexander said slowly after a brief period of silence. "No one really knows what happened to it. We never found the ship even after over 700 years here. There are however whispers that we have in fact been in contact with them for a long while now. Rumor has it that two of the most powerful criminal syndicates in the Sirius sector are the children of the Hispania. The Outcasts, and the Corsairs."
"These Outcasts from their name alone don't seem very threatening to me your Majesty," Aela replied a little light-heartedly. After all, if they were outcasts, how would they recruit new members?
"These Outcasts are the source of a drug that plagues the Sirius sector, Doctor. Cardamine is a narcotic with a near 100% addiction rate. It creates an intense sense of euphoria and energy in the user. Many people don't even build up a tolerance for the drug, and so choose to dose themselves up with it continuously to avoid the inevitable withdrawal symptoms, of which include severe psychosis, occasional respiratory problems, and in the case of long term users, even death. We've also recently discovered that long term use also results in genetic damage. They've used this drug to effectively string and addict several other criminal groups. Their web of influence is steadily growing and more and more people are getting addicted to the drug."
"The Corsairs meanwhile are pirates pure and simple. Unlike most however, they are smart, coordinated and very good pilots. Few can match them in a one on one fight, and those few are often the very best of the House Navies, and a select few other groups. Only the Outcasts can really lay the claim to match them pilot for pilot. They raid shipping in nearly every system known to us, and they rarely leave survivors."
Shocked wasn't quite the word to describe Aela's feelings on the revelation. It was, however, close enough. How could they let such groups continue? Even though Mercenary bands back in Citadel space were powerful, they were still constrained by the law, if only just. Pirates back home didn't even come close to the level of organization these groups sounded like they had.
"Why don't you just… hunt them down?" she asked.
"We've tried," King Alexander replied despondently. "The thing is however, that no one has ever found their bases. I mean obviously someone knows where they are based, but no one is reporting it to us, and frankly I understand their worry. These are amongst the most powerful groups in the Sirius systems, and chances are, those groups are based somewhere in the very distant parts of the Sirius sector, on the Edge worlds. Barely explored territory, accessible only through dangerous Jumpholes, full of hazards and of course, those two groups trying to make sure they keep their bases secret. The only thing that seems to work in our favour is that these two groups actively hate each other, though no one knows why."
Wild space. The way he described these… Edge worlds, thy sounded like a miniature version of the Terminus systems, yet somehow more lethal. Though she did wonder, what were these Jumpholes?
"I think I'm beginning to understand the situation here in the Sirius sector Your Majesty," Aela cautiously replied. Her understanding being that it was practically the Terminus systems here, despite the veneer of law and order these Humans claim to profess. While true that space is big, it's just not possible for there to be so many criminals that can escape unnoticed right? "Which is why I believe that it is in Humanity's best interest to join the Citadel."
"Oh? Pray do enlighten me how it would most definitely help us. I've received the reports Lord Barstow has mentioned from your Captain. Is there something that your Captain T'Loni failed to mention?" King Alex inquired.
"The Citadel fleet can most certainly aid you here in this situation. We have the ships and people to help you hunt down these pirates. Also, after seeing what I have seen, I'm almost sure that Humanity will quickly gain a Council position. You would most surely be able to quickly get a say in the most important alliance of species in the galaxy," Aela said, trying to win over the King. If they could get Humanity to join, think of all the technology, the improvements in lives! She was also sure that they could expand further, enabling more and more people to no longer be crowded on planets. It would usher in a new age of exploration!
King Alex's face though, was scrunched up in what Aela thought was deep thought. "This is something that I will have to think about for quite a while."
"I understand completely Your Majesty." Aela said. This was indeed a very important decision to make. It would take both time and effort to convince others that it was the right course.
"In the meantime though," he said, switching to a more jovial tone of voice. "Let's have us some dessert."
Dessert was a simple green jelly that Aela personally found very refreshing. The King, meanwhile, had elected to ask some of his own questions now. "Tell me, what are the Asari Republics like? What are you Asari known for?"
That… was going to take a while to explain.
"Back home on Thessia, I think the best way to describe things are run there is that we are a very active democratic society. Everyone participates in government decisions though we often listen to the what the Matriarchs, our eldest and most respected members nearing 1000 years old We all participate and voice our concerns on the extranet, our version of interconnected computers which I'm sure you have as well."
"The Neural Net, but please, do continue."
"Because of this level of democracy and the fact that each of our planets are effectively a different government, sort of like a city-state but on a planetary scale, we're known as the diplomats and mediators of the galaxy. Each of those planets are a republic in themselves, hence the Asari Republics. We're also the technologically and culturally dominant species in the Citadel, being both a founding member and the oldest known FTL species. That is until we encountered you Humans. Until we can match our timelines we've no way of knowing how long you have had access to FTL, and judging from your mastery of physics, I must say, chances are you must have been exploring space for quite some time."
"But that is just speculation on your part yes?"
"Indeed it is Your Majesty."
"Then I must be of the opposing opinion that we aren't as old as you think. Perhaps the Coalition, if they are still there at least, but not those of the Sirius sector. Our scientists think that it took us several millennia to get here from Sol. Several millennia of us in cryostasis, our culture, our technology, all frozen in time, so that the Coalition could never catch up with us and catch us off guard, and free to rebuild. "
Millenia. Generations of Asari could have been born and died in the time it took these few human to reach their new homes. Goddess, she couldn't think of anything that would lead to something like that being enacted by the Thessian Government.
"All the same, I think we've had a wonderful time getting to know you Doctor D'Avo. This was a wonderfully educational dinner here, no?"
Aela thought about what she had learned here tonight. Humans were essentially exiles, and have no plans on going back. They were most definitely capable of changing and learning from their mistakes. Most importantly of all, they seemed like decent and reasonable people who tried to make do with the situation they had and solve their problems, however ineffectually, in terms of the pirate problem at least.
Things could have been a lot worse.
__
10
Sirius News Service
New London, New London System
It is a historic day here in the colonies as Humanity has made official First Contact with an alien race. Today, His Majesty, King Alexander I of Bretonnia greeted the representative of this Citadel Council, one Dr. Aela D'Avo, an Asari, aliens who look rather like women, but instead of hair have tentacle like fringes and blue skin. She greeted His Majesty in the "name of Peace. We of the Citadel hope that we will have a bountiful future together Your Majesty."
When asked for her thoughts on Humanity as a whole she said "Every day I continue to be surprised by Humanity. I imagine that in the future, Humans will certainly make an impact on Citadel society."
We of the SNS hope that Dr. D'Avo continues to have a safe trip throughout her tour.
Planet Malta
Omicron Alpha System
When the Hispania first arrived in the Sirius sector, and the people had awoken from cryostasis, the passengers were shocked to find that their engines had been destroyed and that they were drifting towards an unknown star system. The people aboard were terrified. There was no guarantee that the system they were heading towards would even have a planet that could support life. The ship eventually became split into two parties: those for taking the escape pods and try to push their luck somewhere else, and those for nursing the Hispania onwards to its final destination.
Those who elected to stay steadily directed the Hispania towards a star system that, luckily enough, contained a single habitable planet. They took what escape pods and shuttles were left and found themselves on a planet with gray skies, acidic green seas, and endless plains of orange grass. The survivors named the planet Malta.
Several decades after establishing themselves on their new home, they managed to set up enough infrastructure to begin exploration of their home system. However, for some reason the further an explorer went away from Malta, the sicker they would become, only to miraculously recover upon landing. Doctors were baffled and only after doing a thorough genetic scan did they discover the answer to why.
Their entire genetic structure had been altered considerably. Several strands had become identical to that of the orange grasses on the planet which some of the colonists had begun to take recreationally, Cardamine.
Further investigations showed that trace amounts of it could be found everywhere. From the air they breathed to the water they drank, trace amounts of Cardamine could be found in it. Even the plants and animals they had managed to save from the Hispania's seed and animal bank had been slightly altered. Everything they were taking into them was altered, and thus changing them. These people of the Hispania were now the Outcasts of Humanity. They could never really expand beyond Malta now, they depended too much on Cardamine.
Still, with the initial problem discovered, they could compensate by bringing with them processed Cardamine, and exploration could continue beyond the system.
When they encountered the other Houses around 600 A.S., the Outcasts came up with an idea; rot them from the inside out with Cardamine and grow rich off the profits. So they began their work, slowly building connections, getting criminals to build a dependency on them for their fix of Cardamine.
Now the Dons of Malta live rich comfortable lives, with a level of wealth unrivalled throughout the Sirius sector, and even Citadel space. Everyday, more and more Cardamine is exported from Malta to satisfy the growing need of the Sirius sector.
Now… things could change. Drastically. In the villa of one of the most powerful Dons of Malta, one Don Michael Sforza, who owned a full third of the fields on Malta, was reading a news report that he was confident would dramatically increase the number of people who would answer to the Outcasts.
Aliens. A whole new galaxy of opportunity had opened up to the Outcasts. Billions, no, trillions more people to get hooked on Cardamine, and thus for the Outcasts to profit from. Trillions in credits all just waiting for the right moment to strike.
But patience would be required. The Outcasts hadn't learned how to communicate with them yet, not to mention how to even get there. That would require exploration of Jumpholes from relatively unknown systems, bases to set up if necessary.
But so long as there were people, there would be someone who would want their fix of Cardamine. All the Outcasts needed was time.
They had plenty of that.
___
Planet Crete
Omicron Gamma System
The other half of the people of the Hispania landed in what was for all intents and purposes a barren planet. It was a planet full of extremes from icy cold mountaintops to bone dry deserts. Between these extremes, there was hardly any arable land for the survivors to eke a living, and starvation was often to be expected.
Still, after a few centuries, a stroke of luck for the people of Crete hit them. A Rhineland expedition landed on the planet, and seeing this opportunity, the descendants of the survivors of the Hispania killed the crew and took over their ships.
Within a few decades, these Corsairs had managed to expand their raiding operations, hitting House shipping and isolated outposts wherever they could, striking quickly and efficiently before retreating into their hidden jumpholes.
Today, with the help of the huge demand for alien artifacts that were so common throughout their home system, the Corsairs had managed to set up a thriving smuggling route, selling their artifacts to whoever wanted them at prices they dictated. With these funds, they no longer had to fear things like starvation, now bringing in much of their food from the Zoner bases in the neighboring systems. They established a thriving shipbuilding industry and now possessed some of the finest ships and equipment throughout the Sirius Sector.
Today, the Council of Elders, the effective ruling body of the Corsairs, convened to decide what to do with a startling new piece of information. Though they were separated from the rest of the Houses by many Jumpholes, that did not mean they did not receive news, and this particular piece caught the Council's eye for one reason alone. Aliens.
"This… is troubling." said Elder Jose worriedly. The fact that maybe he didn't hallucinate what he saw at his trials was what really worried him. The fact that maybe… these aliens knew what he saw.
"Where you see trouble, I see opportunity." retorted Elder Carlos. Typical, though to be fair, true. More people meant more targets, and the fact that they were new meant they would, initially at least, not expect the Corsairs to raid them.
"I must agree with Carlos, Jose." replied Elder Lourdes. "This is more an opportunity than a threat. While the occasional Bounty Hunter may find us here, we are the finest pilots in the Sirius sector, and have the finest equipment as well. Some of our scouts have even filed reports that we can in theory take on Rhineland and win, though at a cost I would find far too expensive. What is there to worry about?"
"You of course know of the trials," Elder Jose replied after a brief moment of silence.
The other two nodded. It was the Corsair right of passage. To prove oneself worthy of continuing to live and earn their right to eat, every young Corsair had to take an unshielded ship into the Malvada cloud. They were to go in, retrieve a single artifact, and return. If they failed, then it meant that the radiation took them, and thus no longer a burden on Corsair society. Thus the other name of the cloud, the Graveyard of the Innocents.
"When I took my Trial, in an attempt to take an artifact that I thought would be most worthy of me, I stumbled into a Jumphole, where I ended up in an unknown system. There… there was only darkness. No stars, no lights, nothing, yet scanners said they were detecting objects nearby." he said slowly, as if reliving the moment again.
"It took me a moment to realize that the reason why I wasn't seeing anything, was that I was surrounded by hundreds, possibly thousands of black ships. All blocking the sun and stars. I quickly fled back into the Jumphole and grabbed the first artifact I could find. I never spoke of that again, thinking it was only a fevered dream of perhaps being exposed to the radiation a little too long. Till now at least." he ended, letting that final statement hang in the air for a while. He could see his fellow Elder's eyes slowly dawn in comprehension.
"I fear that, since there are other creatures out there as intelligent and determined as we are, those black ships must therefore be owned by someone. I fear that maybe… one day, the owners of those black ships will come for us."
__
The Citadel
Serpent Nebula
Once again, the Council, the three most powerful people within Citadel Space, convened in a room that wouldn't be unusual anywhere else in the Citadel. Just like a little apartment really.
The main difference really, was that it was guaranteed no one would be watching that little discreet room, where some of the most important decisions in the galaxy were made. Especially now, in light of what Captain T'Loni reported.
"Advanced energy shielding, energy weapons, super hard armor, and most importantly, wormhole generation…" Councilor Sparatus, the Turian councilor, read through the list worriedly. It was supposed to be just an investigation into an unknown artifact. But now… "First contact with a race so advanced, miners took out one of the newest ships of the fleet,"
"Then it is a good thing these people seek peace with us." Councilor Tevos, the Asari councillor, countered. "In fact, these people seem very open to talking to us. What's more, these Humans are incredibly factionalized. The damage to the Gladius was caused by one of these factions, a group of rebelling miners called the Mollies. I think we can definitely use that to our advantage in our future talks with them. It should be trivial for our Matriarchs to get them to share their technology when we convene to meet at this… Curacao place."
"I'm far more worried about what these technologies mean." Councilor Raleh replied worriedly. "They speak of an understanding of physics that is simply… beyond us. Even if they were to provide complete technical details and the fundamental theories behind them, I fear that it would still take several Salarian generations for us to just catch up to their basics."
"Then we would obviously need their teachers." Councilor Tevos argued. "We would just need to include that as part of the provisions in our future talks."
"And we can take advantage of this factionalism as well," added Councilor Raleh after a bit of thought. "From the sound of it, these Humans have underlying problems with their society, especially if miners could revolt so effectively. Sowing discontent and supporting separatist groups should be relatively easy, at least if these Humans prove to be too stubborn."
"I don't think you understand just what we are dealing with, Raleh." Sparatus growled. "Spirits damned miners crippled the Gladius! Just think about how that could come back to haunt us,If these regimes or factions we support turn out to be uncooperative even after getting what they want, or worse, try attacking us. We would face something far more terrible than the Krogan Rebellions."
"Sparatus has a point, Raleh," Tevos gently replied. "We need to think of the long term… effects of making use of separatist groups. It could easily come to haunt us in the future. We need to find some way to take advantage of the factionalism in Humanity, without any… unpleasantness on our part if at all possible "
"T'Loni suggested in her report that there were other major nations as well, for a total of four. The Republic of Liberty, The Federal Republic of Rhineland, The Kusari Empire and finally, the only one we have definitively made contact with, the Kingdom of Bretonia. We could play one faction against each other, plant false information, or even truthful ones. It could make all the difference in encouraging… violent activities. Even on just the diplomatic level, it should be easy to obtain information and supply them with what they wish to know about the others." Raleh suggested.
"See Sparatus? With the amount of factionalism there, it should be relatively easy to keep things in our control," Tevos said reassuringly.
"If we are caught though… the repercussions could be worse than anything we could imagine. With their advanced technology, it is doubtful that we could force them to the table with something like the Genophage." Sparatus replied gravely. "We should consider slowly expanding each of our respective militaries. I know I will be suggesting it to the Primarch as soon as possible. These Humans have the advantage in technology, so we should, if possible, try to get the advantage in numbers."
"I'm not sure that would be the best message to send to them, Sparatus," Tevos countered. "If they find out about it, they could interpret it as a hostile action. No amount of misdirection could possibly cause them to not unite against a perceived threat like us."
"Then we should do so subtly," Raleh argued. "Sparatus makes an excellent point. Where we cannot win in terms of technology, we must try to catch up. Take any destroyed ships, whether bandit or not, and salvage the technology. Fundamental analysis can be done later. What matters more is that we produce copies through tried and true, trial and error. Understanding can come later, what matters most is that we copy the devices. The underlying principles can be taken on much later."
"All of these are for worst case scenarios of course," Tevos said cautiously.
"Plan for the worst, and we will not be too surprised when it happens." Raleh retorted.
"Very well then. On to the more peaceful plans. How do you think will the humans affect the economy? Big or small, I'm sure they are bound to leave their mark on the galaxy," Tevos said optimistically.
"Unless their advanced technology allows them to produce huge amounts of goods quickly and cheaply, I don't think they will make any very visible changes in the economy when they first arrive, not to mention the possible logistical problems. We don't quite know how they will transport their goods to us," Raleh reported.
"It is something that needs to be discussed with them then, the establishment of trade routes and handling the safety of said routes." Tevos replied. "Trade will be essential to the growth of their economies after all, and I suspect it will also be essential to their expansion as well."
"Their crime," Sparatus replied suddenly, "is something I would be worried about. If criminal groups attack shipping, I doubt there would be many survivors, if any. If the reports are accurate, and that the Gladius was crippled by mere miners, imagine what criminal groups who may have access to better weapons could do, especially if they were more organized."
"Then we would need to inform the Humans that it is imperative they control their crime problem as part of any treaty they would have with us," Tevos countered. "Relax Sparatus, after all it would be in their best interests to protect trade between our systems and theirs. We have the situation under control."
"I suspect Tevos, that things will not be as simple as that..." Sparatus ended as he looked out of the apartment window over a peaceful view of the Citadel.
New London, New London System
It is a historic day here in the colonies as Humanity has made official First Contact with an alien race. Today, His Majesty, King Alexander I of Bretonnia greeted the representative of this Citadel Council, one Dr. Aela D'Avo, an Asari, aliens who look rather like women, but instead of hair have tentacle like fringes and blue skin. She greeted His Majesty in the "name of Peace. We of the Citadel hope that we will have a bountiful future together Your Majesty."
When asked for her thoughts on Humanity as a whole she said "Every day I continue to be surprised by Humanity. I imagine that in the future, Humans will certainly make an impact on Citadel society."
We of the SNS hope that Dr. D'Avo continues to have a safe trip throughout her tour.
Planet Malta
Omicron Alpha System
When the Hispania first arrived in the Sirius sector, and the people had awoken from cryostasis, the passengers were shocked to find that their engines had been destroyed and that they were drifting towards an unknown star system. The people aboard were terrified. There was no guarantee that the system they were heading towards would even have a planet that could support life. The ship eventually became split into two parties: those for taking the escape pods and try to push their luck somewhere else, and those for nursing the Hispania onwards to its final destination.
Those who elected to stay steadily directed the Hispania towards a star system that, luckily enough, contained a single habitable planet. They took what escape pods and shuttles were left and found themselves on a planet with gray skies, acidic green seas, and endless plains of orange grass. The survivors named the planet Malta.
Several decades after establishing themselves on their new home, they managed to set up enough infrastructure to begin exploration of their home system. However, for some reason the further an explorer went away from Malta, the sicker they would become, only to miraculously recover upon landing. Doctors were baffled and only after doing a thorough genetic scan did they discover the answer to why.
Their entire genetic structure had been altered considerably. Several strands had become identical to that of the orange grasses on the planet which some of the colonists had begun to take recreationally, Cardamine.
Further investigations showed that trace amounts of it could be found everywhere. From the air they breathed to the water they drank, trace amounts of Cardamine could be found in it. Even the plants and animals they had managed to save from the Hispania's seed and animal bank had been slightly altered. Everything they were taking into them was altered, and thus changing them. These people of the Hispania were now the Outcasts of Humanity. They could never really expand beyond Malta now, they depended too much on Cardamine.
Still, with the initial problem discovered, they could compensate by bringing with them processed Cardamine, and exploration could continue beyond the system.
When they encountered the other Houses around 600 A.S., the Outcasts came up with an idea; rot them from the inside out with Cardamine and grow rich off the profits. So they began their work, slowly building connections, getting criminals to build a dependency on them for their fix of Cardamine.
Now the Dons of Malta live rich comfortable lives, with a level of wealth unrivalled throughout the Sirius sector, and even Citadel space. Everyday, more and more Cardamine is exported from Malta to satisfy the growing need of the Sirius sector.
Now… things could change. Drastically. In the villa of one of the most powerful Dons of Malta, one Don Michael Sforza, who owned a full third of the fields on Malta, was reading a news report that he was confident would dramatically increase the number of people who would answer to the Outcasts.
Aliens. A whole new galaxy of opportunity had opened up to the Outcasts. Billions, no, trillions more people to get hooked on Cardamine, and thus for the Outcasts to profit from. Trillions in credits all just waiting for the right moment to strike.
But patience would be required. The Outcasts hadn't learned how to communicate with them yet, not to mention how to even get there. That would require exploration of Jumpholes from relatively unknown systems, bases to set up if necessary.
But so long as there were people, there would be someone who would want their fix of Cardamine. All the Outcasts needed was time.
They had plenty of that.
___
Planet Crete
Omicron Gamma System
The other half of the people of the Hispania landed in what was for all intents and purposes a barren planet. It was a planet full of extremes from icy cold mountaintops to bone dry deserts. Between these extremes, there was hardly any arable land for the survivors to eke a living, and starvation was often to be expected.
Still, after a few centuries, a stroke of luck for the people of Crete hit them. A Rhineland expedition landed on the planet, and seeing this opportunity, the descendants of the survivors of the Hispania killed the crew and took over their ships.
Within a few decades, these Corsairs had managed to expand their raiding operations, hitting House shipping and isolated outposts wherever they could, striking quickly and efficiently before retreating into their hidden jumpholes.
Today, with the help of the huge demand for alien artifacts that were so common throughout their home system, the Corsairs had managed to set up a thriving smuggling route, selling their artifacts to whoever wanted them at prices they dictated. With these funds, they no longer had to fear things like starvation, now bringing in much of their food from the Zoner bases in the neighboring systems. They established a thriving shipbuilding industry and now possessed some of the finest ships and equipment throughout the Sirius Sector.
Today, the Council of Elders, the effective ruling body of the Corsairs, convened to decide what to do with a startling new piece of information. Though they were separated from the rest of the Houses by many Jumpholes, that did not mean they did not receive news, and this particular piece caught the Council's eye for one reason alone. Aliens.
"This… is troubling." said Elder Jose worriedly. The fact that maybe he didn't hallucinate what he saw at his trials was what really worried him. The fact that maybe… these aliens knew what he saw.
"Where you see trouble, I see opportunity." retorted Elder Carlos. Typical, though to be fair, true. More people meant more targets, and the fact that they were new meant they would, initially at least, not expect the Corsairs to raid them.
"I must agree with Carlos, Jose." replied Elder Lourdes. "This is more an opportunity than a threat. While the occasional Bounty Hunter may find us here, we are the finest pilots in the Sirius sector, and have the finest equipment as well. Some of our scouts have even filed reports that we can in theory take on Rhineland and win, though at a cost I would find far too expensive. What is there to worry about?"
"You of course know of the trials," Elder Jose replied after a brief moment of silence.
The other two nodded. It was the Corsair right of passage. To prove oneself worthy of continuing to live and earn their right to eat, every young Corsair had to take an unshielded ship into the Malvada cloud. They were to go in, retrieve a single artifact, and return. If they failed, then it meant that the radiation took them, and thus no longer a burden on Corsair society. Thus the other name of the cloud, the Graveyard of the Innocents.
"When I took my Trial, in an attempt to take an artifact that I thought would be most worthy of me, I stumbled into a Jumphole, where I ended up in an unknown system. There… there was only darkness. No stars, no lights, nothing, yet scanners said they were detecting objects nearby." he said slowly, as if reliving the moment again.
"It took me a moment to realize that the reason why I wasn't seeing anything, was that I was surrounded by hundreds, possibly thousands of black ships. All blocking the sun and stars. I quickly fled back into the Jumphole and grabbed the first artifact I could find. I never spoke of that again, thinking it was only a fevered dream of perhaps being exposed to the radiation a little too long. Till now at least." he ended, letting that final statement hang in the air for a while. He could see his fellow Elder's eyes slowly dawn in comprehension.
"I fear that, since there are other creatures out there as intelligent and determined as we are, those black ships must therefore be owned by someone. I fear that maybe… one day, the owners of those black ships will come for us."
__
The Citadel
Serpent Nebula
Once again, the Council, the three most powerful people within Citadel Space, convened in a room that wouldn't be unusual anywhere else in the Citadel. Just like a little apartment really.
The main difference really, was that it was guaranteed no one would be watching that little discreet room, where some of the most important decisions in the galaxy were made. Especially now, in light of what Captain T'Loni reported.
"Advanced energy shielding, energy weapons, super hard armor, and most importantly, wormhole generation…" Councilor Sparatus, the Turian councilor, read through the list worriedly. It was supposed to be just an investigation into an unknown artifact. But now… "First contact with a race so advanced, miners took out one of the newest ships of the fleet,"
"Then it is a good thing these people seek peace with us." Councilor Tevos, the Asari councillor, countered. "In fact, these people seem very open to talking to us. What's more, these Humans are incredibly factionalized. The damage to the Gladius was caused by one of these factions, a group of rebelling miners called the Mollies. I think we can definitely use that to our advantage in our future talks with them. It should be trivial for our Matriarchs to get them to share their technology when we convene to meet at this… Curacao place."
"I'm far more worried about what these technologies mean." Councilor Raleh replied worriedly. "They speak of an understanding of physics that is simply… beyond us. Even if they were to provide complete technical details and the fundamental theories behind them, I fear that it would still take several Salarian generations for us to just catch up to their basics."
"Then we would obviously need their teachers." Councilor Tevos argued. "We would just need to include that as part of the provisions in our future talks."
"And we can take advantage of this factionalism as well," added Councilor Raleh after a bit of thought. "From the sound of it, these Humans have underlying problems with their society, especially if miners could revolt so effectively. Sowing discontent and supporting separatist groups should be relatively easy, at least if these Humans prove to be too stubborn."
"I don't think you understand just what we are dealing with, Raleh." Sparatus growled. "Spirits damned miners crippled the Gladius! Just think about how that could come back to haunt us,If these regimes or factions we support turn out to be uncooperative even after getting what they want, or worse, try attacking us. We would face something far more terrible than the Krogan Rebellions."
"Sparatus has a point, Raleh," Tevos gently replied. "We need to think of the long term… effects of making use of separatist groups. It could easily come to haunt us in the future. We need to find some way to take advantage of the factionalism in Humanity, without any… unpleasantness on our part if at all possible "
"T'Loni suggested in her report that there were other major nations as well, for a total of four. The Republic of Liberty, The Federal Republic of Rhineland, The Kusari Empire and finally, the only one we have definitively made contact with, the Kingdom of Bretonia. We could play one faction against each other, plant false information, or even truthful ones. It could make all the difference in encouraging… violent activities. Even on just the diplomatic level, it should be easy to obtain information and supply them with what they wish to know about the others." Raleh suggested.
"See Sparatus? With the amount of factionalism there, it should be relatively easy to keep things in our control," Tevos said reassuringly.
"If we are caught though… the repercussions could be worse than anything we could imagine. With their advanced technology, it is doubtful that we could force them to the table with something like the Genophage." Sparatus replied gravely. "We should consider slowly expanding each of our respective militaries. I know I will be suggesting it to the Primarch as soon as possible. These Humans have the advantage in technology, so we should, if possible, try to get the advantage in numbers."
"I'm not sure that would be the best message to send to them, Sparatus," Tevos countered. "If they find out about it, they could interpret it as a hostile action. No amount of misdirection could possibly cause them to not unite against a perceived threat like us."
"Then we should do so subtly," Raleh argued. "Sparatus makes an excellent point. Where we cannot win in terms of technology, we must try to catch up. Take any destroyed ships, whether bandit or not, and salvage the technology. Fundamental analysis can be done later. What matters more is that we produce copies through tried and true, trial and error. Understanding can come later, what matters most is that we copy the devices. The underlying principles can be taken on much later."
"All of these are for worst case scenarios of course," Tevos said cautiously.
"Plan for the worst, and we will not be too surprised when it happens." Raleh retorted.
"Very well then. On to the more peaceful plans. How do you think will the humans affect the economy? Big or small, I'm sure they are bound to leave their mark on the galaxy," Tevos said optimistically.
"Unless their advanced technology allows them to produce huge amounts of goods quickly and cheaply, I don't think they will make any very visible changes in the economy when they first arrive, not to mention the possible logistical problems. We don't quite know how they will transport their goods to us," Raleh reported.
"It is something that needs to be discussed with them then, the establishment of trade routes and handling the safety of said routes." Tevos replied. "Trade will be essential to the growth of their economies after all, and I suspect it will also be essential to their expansion as well."
"Their crime," Sparatus replied suddenly, "is something I would be worried about. If criminal groups attack shipping, I doubt there would be many survivors, if any. If the reports are accurate, and that the Gladius was crippled by mere miners, imagine what criminal groups who may have access to better weapons could do, especially if they were more organized."
"Then we would need to inform the Humans that it is imperative they control their crime problem as part of any treaty they would have with us," Tevos countered. "Relax Sparatus, after all it would be in their best interests to protect trade between our systems and theirs. We have the situation under control."
"I suspect Tevos, that things will not be as simple as that..." Sparatus ended as he looked out of the apartment window over a peaceful view of the Citadel.