The Clans of Earth (Battletech/Mechwarrior X Mass Effect)

[Kadaeux]

Prologue;
Mother of all Misjumps.
2784. Operation Exodus
McKenna's Pride

The massed selection of WarShips and JumpShips extended deep into space as his orders continued to advance the fleet towards their destination. "Huh." The word was uttered so innocuously that at first Alexander failed to pick up on the significance of the word, and the sheer dread and terror it inspired in him as every soldiers instinct against the invocation of Murphy's Law fired at once.

"Report." He said turning on the unlucky officer manning the sensors.

The man looked untroubled by the scrutiny as he focussed fully on the task ahead of him. "Honestly General, I do not know how to report, we're getting some weird artifacts on sensors, thermal imaging is unreliable in a fleet this size as you know sir, but the magnetic anomaly sensors are... being weird."

"'Being weird' is not a proper status report Lieutenant." He snarled at the man and the man nodded.

He straightened his collar and turned to face the architect of the Exodus. "General, the magnetic anomaly sensors are proving to be inconsistent and unreliable sir. I lack the scientific expertise to explain what exactly is transpiring within the system. I would recommend that we have the units inspected by a maintenance crew, and if they find all the physical systems to be in order, some scientific staff to examine the data."

Alexander frowned, that was more like it, but they were under five minutes until they were scheduled to begin the next jump. "Very well Lieutenant. Once this jump is executed I want the maintenance teams on the issue immediately."

Exactly on cue, the fleet beg....

"MISJUMP! FLEETWIDE MISJUMP! MAGNETIC ANOMALY DETECTOR IS SCREAMING OFF THE RAILS!" The Lieutenant began to scream, he had to for what followed was the roughest most impossible jump that they had ever undergone. The words were being shouted over the sounds of tortured metal, all kinds of alarms roaring their warnings and the communications system shouting their terrified messages into the void before the universe blinked out.

*************************************************

Searing pain lanced through Alexander's eyes as he tried to open them, the agony from within his skull about equal to two Atlases using his nuts for a boxing speed bag. Sound returned slowly, the grunts and groans of people in pain coming to consciousness. As he clawed his way to awareness, he also began to claw himself to his feet. Younger men and women than he were more readily climbing to their feet, but nobody looked well, and both his vision, and nostrils, were assailed with the sight and smell of vomitus, and he flatly refused to consider the taste in his mouth.

"Tastur Eprot..." He coughed out at another spike of pain in his head before standing, straightening up, taking a deep breath and composing himself. "Status report?"

Another young man climbed to the consoles and blinked almost spasmodically as he tried to focus. "Catastrophic misjump. Sensors have no ide.... General, it's the entire fleet. The entire fleet suffered from the misjump, ships are still arriving. I need fifteen minutes sir."

"You have them. Send for a medic as soon as all critical cases are seen to."

The moans of pain began to subside, and various departments brought him reports on the status of the ship. And the bottom line of that status was that the ship was not in a great condition, and the crew were in not much better shape. It was only once the officer working on the major report walked over that Kerensky put down his coffee, and dry swallowed the two painkillers he had been given, all that could be spared.

The man looked troubled. And swallowed deeply. "Speak."

"Of the Exodus fleet, one thousand three hundred and thirty seven JumpShips survived the MisJump, and 399 of the WarShips survived. All attached Dropships survived the incident intact. However, compiling reports from across the fleet as well as consults with our scientific staff have determined that we have misjumped not just in space, but time as well and..." He handed over a sheaf of physical reports.

"I asked for a report, not science fiction." Alexander said angry as he began to read.

The man hesitated. "General. Our people have confirmed, with a ninety nine point three seven percent confidence that this theory is accurate, our misjump has brought us into a time and space shared by Terra. A Terra that appears to be uninhabited, the rest of the Sol System is accurate according to historical data for the year 1920. But there is no evidence of human habitation on Earth."

The bridge had gone silent. Everything he had sought to achieve might not be achievable at this stage. You couldn't reverse a misjump.

"Inform the fleet. We will begin initial settlement of the virgin world. We will found our new society here."

 

[Kadaeux]

Chapter 1;
The Challenges Ahead
2784. Operation Exodus
McKenna's Pride

Where the rising danger of a mutiny had begun to rise its ugly head, the misjump had averted that potentially catastrophic event and left them now with the spectre of colonisation. Nicholas had been studying the reports for some time now and had issued his series of recommendations to his father when the first news began to fall in. The surveys of the Earth that was not... there had never been a humanity, the evolutionary path of the planet was almost identical, except that the ancestor apes that had diverged to form the sapiens species, and its precursors, had never made it out of the trees. Initial landings were already underway and beginning the development of the first settlements, but only a third of them were slated to land on Earth.

The Bug Eyes had already begun to spread out and engage in searching the systems known to have habitable worlds for expanding their settlements. But the report that had just come across his desk was the one where he hesitated and stopped what he was doing, immediately.

"This is Nicholas to the General." He stabbed the Intercom. "I need to see you immediately."

"Come." Came the one word answer from his father and he stood, straightening his uniform and marched out of his own office and headed for his fathers. The door was open and he stepped in and coughed causing a woman presenting a report on the status of the ships perishables to rise, nod and step out of the office quickly. The door closed behind him and he stepped up to the table and presented the report he had been reading. "Now is not the time for practical jokes my son." He said sternly staring into Nicholas' face. Then saw his son was also not amused, and while he knew his son had... troubles... this was not that.

"Four ships doing survey work over Mars have identified the site independently and confirmed its non-human provenance." Nicholas explained as he remained at attention until his father waved a hand, indicating he could be at ease.

"I want our best people examining the site. And inform the next wave of Bug Eyes to be mindful of non-human artefacts in their surveys." Aleksandr said as he frowned at the report.

"Father, I think we should let everyone know, and be prepared to defend ourselves... and we need to consider significant repopulation. There are only about six million of us, we are vulnerable." The words came out only slightly forced which made his father frown.

"You have your ideas on how we should rebuild." His Father declared plainly and Nicholas frowned, but nodded.

Aleksandr stood and moved around the desk to face his son. Nicholas stood straighter. "I do General. The concept does require some refinement, and may not be popular, but if we are to survive we must enact some potentially radical changes."

"I want your initial proposals by the end of the day, then we can discuss them further and see that they get the development time they need. We will not act on your concepts until we have heard from our peoples working on the alien artefacts. We are under threat, we have a critically low population and lack established infrastructure. I want eighty of our Newgrange vessels to begin churning out the components for the colonies." Aleksandr turned back to his desk when Nicholas spoke next.

"Father. I would recommend first of all, we get the geneticists together and re-examine the artificial birthing chambers concepts. Such Iron Wombs might be used to increase our populations radically, and with creche based education systems we might be able to recover rather quickly on a population level." He said, trying to speak calmly and evenly, to avoid his eagerness for the idea.

The sharp expression from his father indicated that he had not entirely succeeded. "I will, consider, it."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Soon enough Nicholas left his quarters and Aleksandr moved back and took his seat. He needed to bring a united front to the Star League in Exile, and they needed a united purpose. Something in common, before the misjump tensions had been rising towards a potential mutiny that only the misjump had aborted so far. His people were not nearly as united as he might prefer, and his sons ideas would not be best liked by all, and may provoke a conflict of their own.

What he needed most was a common enemy. A threat that would draw together his people into a more unified front. One that would prepare, and be prepared, when things went wrong. He was not a young man, and he might not see his dreams to fruition. He sighed and released the breath he didn't know he held.

"This is the General, prepare the McKenna's Pride for rendevous with Mars orbit. And prepare a number of survey ships to join us. I will be sending out information in thirty minutes." He released the intercom with the bridge.

 

[Kadaeux]

Chapter 2;
The Future to Find
2790.
Sol

Enid moved through the facility growing around the ruins on Mars, her matronly expression cleared people from her path as surely as a laser pistol might have, she was headed for the archive room where the scientific teams working on the equipment there had been busy for the last several years as they began rebuilding civilisation. The reforms being introduced to the SLDF in Exile were not all to her taste, and yet she understood. The airlock hissed open and she stepped inside where it slammed closed once more. The teleconference with General Kerensky was due to begin in ten minutes and she intended to have all her ducks in a row.

The computers were all linded up and powered, her heads of department in place to feed her any answers that she required. "Are we all prepared?" She asked as she turned her expression, sharp as a large laser, on her deputy.

"We are Madam Director." He answered.

She stared at him for a few more moments and nodded. "Very well. Spin up the HPG." The orders were given and the people moved into action. Five minutes passed and a technician nodded to her. "General Aleksandr, we are online."

There was a pause. "It has been quite some time, begin your report Director." The rebuke held no sting. She was well aware that she had delayed on providing more than a cursory report for nearly two years now, the difficulty in extracting let alone translating the data had proven to be an almost monumental task in and of itself.

"As you know, the information available is relatively scarce and lacking in any sufficient information for our purposes. The species identified as 'Prothean' constructed these artefacts, and more before their disappearance from the galaxy. Or at least this part of it. Given the status of what we can find our only conclusion is that they were rebuffed or destroyed by some sort of external force." She began, following her mental script, recapping intelligence they had already provided. "However, as we have continued our research past the intial findings, we have found that in many, perhaps even all, respects these Prothean peoples were more advanced than our own."

"I have seen the reports indicating the expected developmental level. Do we have anything more ironclad?" He asked.

She stiffened and swallowed. "Yes General. The technology seems to be extremely pliant to study and retro-engineering, almost as if it were designed to be understood. And we have almost a hundred separate projects already underway to refine and reverse engineer the technologies involved." There was an intake of breath over the line, the General was quite elderly, so she continued. "We believe that we can make use of and even deploy many of these alien technologies in relatively short order, and use them to enhance and refine our own technologies. But General, these Protheans, were defeated or driven off. This much is certain, there are damaged but functional technologies, caches of the so-called Element Zero, but curiously little workable historical data."

Aleksandr spoke quitely. "You are saying that it is increasingly likely they were destroyed. And that their enemies might still remain. And, as you know the exploration ships and bug eyes are continuing their surveys of what should have been the Inner Sphere and in the Arcturus System a fifteen kilometre long construct was discovered matching the technological provenance of the one buried under Charon. Three more were detected near the Arcturus system." There was a sour note across the line.

"Yes, we are also discovering our habitability profiles do not match in this galaxy, some systems do in fact match our records others are significantly departed from our own. We are unsure if that is related to the presence of the material called Element Zero." She looked up from her script to the cameras for a moment. "We are sure however, that we need to design extractors and begin exploitation of this material, for while this technology appears almost designed to be easily understood, much of it requires some amount of element zero to function."

This time the pause was longer, she knew part of it was Aleksandr conferring with his people, also studying the written reports being included, the sheer data volume they were sending via HPG threatened to affect bandwidth. Then Aleksandr spoke.

"So it is our conclusion that it is likely the civilisation that built these artefacts was destroyed or driven off by a greater force, one whose presence has not yet been identified and studied?" She nodded at the screen.

"It is General. We might simply be rushing to conclusions, but the ruined starships, and the damaged mass effect core we have discovered and begun studying carry all the hallmarks of having been disabled or destroyed by weapons fire." Her words seemed to confirm something in him.

"Then the reforms suggested by Nicholas will have to be enacted, we need to prepare our societies, and that means shedding much of the weight of the old to build something new. Something stronger, harder and more vibrant than what came before. We must be prepared, and we will need the full weight of scientific development behind it. Director Enid Shepard, you will be given the full weight of resources needed to exploit the technologies of that site. Thank you." With those last words the HPG began to spin down.

Enid smiled to herself before turning. "What are you all loitering around for, do we look like we don't have a lot of work to do?"

 

[Kadaeux]

Chapter 3;
The Threads of the Future
Sphere of Terra
2884

"It is my distinct pleasure esteemed colleagues of the Collegiate of Terra to be here presenting this class on the eve of our first century in the new universe in which we have found ourselves." The media program began as the current ilKhan of the Clans Martial stood in front of the cameras at the Founding Ceremony on Terra. "One hundred years ago, the catastrophic misjump of the Fuckening occurred that displaced the Star League in Exile into the universe we now know as home. One hundred years ago they began an attempt to resettle the Inner Sphere."

A dramatic pause as they looked down then up. "A century since the radical restructuring of our society began to bring about peace by preparedness. Since the civil branches were remodelled and the military was born into the Clans Martial, each to represent a different school of combat." She studied the cameras. "Since the discovery of the Prothean Archives, working with our scientist castes we have reinvigorated and accelerated the pace of discovery, finding ways to blend this alien technology with our own to produce heretofore unforeseen results. Today, I am host to people who will highlight the growth and development of the new Sphere of Terra. I leave you now to the Director of the Martian Institute of Technology."

A much younger man took the stage, clearly in his thirties, or early forties. "It is my distinct pleasure to be speaking with you all on this auspicious day. And we have achieved much, since the introduction of artificial gravity technology into our ships we have gained a reach among the stars never before achieved. And our achievements have not ended there, with mass effect cores and drive technology augmenting the Kearny Fuchida drive, we have the ability to surpass the speed of light in two ways giving us much more freedom to move, and the use of mass effect fields to conduct lightening of our ships has also allowed us to bypass previously thought hard limits to the amount of mass we could transport." He smiled, "Additionally, the technology has been used to augment our weapons technologies in many ways, heavier mechs are now less cumbersome due to their armour and ballistic technologies have been augmented with the weapons technology found in the Prothean ruins."

A display came up next to him.

"The Extended Range Ultra Autocannon system uses mass effect fields and magnetic loading technologies to produce velocities comparable to the Gauss Rifles prior to their own augmentation with the same, the ER-Gauss is augmented in a like manner, all ballistic weapons have been augmented with the same, from the ER-ME Machineguns to the ER-Gauss and ERUACs. Fortunately, these technological developments do permit the use of specialty or even programmed munitions." Each of his words highlighted by short footage of the weapons in question.

"In the field of defence our AMS systems have improved targeting systems owing to the improved computing power now available, and as many of you know we have begun rolling out kinetic barriers to all armour across the entire Terran Sphere, from individual combat armour, experimental combat armour, armored vehicles, battlemechs and the first units are being trialled on WarShips this month. It is also feasible, and being investigated, that we might use small scale high density mass effect fields to create a lensing effect that will improve our laser technology while testing has shown that we can certainly use mass effect fields to improve the effect power of particle projectile cannons." He smiled and turned, "Dana, I believe you were next."

The woman who took the stage was older than the man, by a fair margin, no less than ten years though a casual look had difficulty saying by how much. "Thanks Mr Arze."

"Please call me Jack." He said giving up the podium.

"Of course Jack Arze." She said nodding towards him, the slight tightening around his eyes the only giveaway at her action. "When we arrived in this galaxy, perhaps universe is a stronger term, we had a mere six million people. Through the genetic reforms and repopulation programs put forth by the Little Nicky Creche Connections Group." The name referred to the thought tank established by Nicholas Kerensky. "We have grown from six million, to ten million in the first ten years, to twenty in the second decade doubling every ten years. We now have a human population in excess of five billion and growing. The expansion of the educational creches, community growing and production of the Iron Womb have made it clear we can expect to maintain a similar growth curve of our population every ten years for next next century and beyond. But our work is not done, we all still have our parts to play, from partaking in the creche education programs, to maintaining the growth of our economic and agricultural support on this scale."

Other figures were displayed as she spoke. "Be aware. Be attentive. Be part of our future. The new Star League has been born from the ashes of disaster and many might see what we have achieved as a golden age, but now is not the time for complanceny. The Protheans created the constructs we see in several of our Star Systems, and yet all we find are the remains of their once great civilisation. We will not be caught unawares. We will not be unprepared. The Clans Martial stand as our shield, and we must support them."

With a bow towards the statue of Aleksandr Kerensky she moved onto the next speaker.

 

[Kadaeux]

Chapter 4;
Growing Pains
Sphere of Terra
2884 (2020)

The meeting was one held behind closed doors, with all too few present to discuss the events of note. The ilKhan of the Clans Martial was present, along with the First Lord and several other key figures in the new Star League's government. And they had not come together to discuss the patriotic nonsense that was broadcast to the rest of the people. They were here to discuss the harder truths.

"Our rate of growth is proving almost as problematic as poor growth would be. The majority of children are now being raised in the creches and educated in sibling companies, but we are still having to put the young to work in order to fuel our expansion, and while the oldest generations are passing on, there is still some opposition to the eugenics and genetic engineering programs, the most vocal being from the Clan Martial Wolverine." The ilKhan said plainly examing their datapad.

The First Lord nodded in response before the Director of the Martian Institute of Technology spoke up, the defacto Governor of Mars was plainspoken. "This is an issue in the civil branches as well, with the rate of growth sibkos as young as 12 are being directed into service in various fields, only the Scientist Caste has avoided the necessity of pressing their own children into service, the educational requirements simply cannot be skipped over. The idea of doubling our population every ten years is most certainly appealing, but it has left us with a population of predominantly children, children being raised by the state no less."

"What do you propose?" The First Lord asked turning to the Director.

"In truth, I do not know, at this stage we still need the growth and expansion. But we cannot sustain it forever, logistically or otherwise. I would actually suggest a conscious stepping back of growth to more manageable levels more than anything else, instead of doubling every ten years, adjust for fifteen years..." A raised hand cut off that line.

"I want to see you develop that into a hard proposal, at this stage I would be uncomfortable in reducing our population growth significantly, if at all. Just resettling Earth posed unexpected challenges, and it has taken some effort from genetic engineering to reintroduce domesticated life, and suitable crops, I understand that our growth curve is posing risks right now, but our population levels are still far too low for the safety of our species. What about the Mars Archives, and related discoveries?"

The irritation on the Directors face was masked and wiped away in moments. "We have found numerous reserves of element zero available for mining, but we are finding increasing evidence the Protheans civilisation was fairly expansive, until it was not. We are preparing for the activation of the Charon Relay to initiate a test connection, we believe it may be targeted at the Arcturus Relay." The First Lords face went stony. "We have requested the fleet under the ilKhan place a squadron of Battleships nearby in preparation, as well as requested a Bug-Eye to perform the first relay jump to test whether it performs as expected, we would be sending probes through first, and we have requested a fleet to wait by the Arcturus Relay to intercept, and return, them."

"So, you want us to step back our growth programs," The First Lords voice was low, troubled and perhaps angry, but not to a dangerous level yet... "Step back on the eugenics and genetic engineering reforms, all the while you play with the fire and hope whatever erased an entire civilisation before our arrival doesn't come to knock your teeth in?" The last words were hissed, an accusation.

The ilKhan stepped in by speaking, "No First Lord. We only wish to apprise you of potential pitfalls in our current course and ameliorate risks. My Lord, we wish to activate this relay to test the technology only, determine its limits and potential and then, and only then, perhaps activate one of the other relays near Arcturus and send through a recon expedition."

"It is our theory," The Director interjected, "That these relays were placed strategically either from an economic or military perspective, and will likely be found near clusters of habitable worlds. The faster than light travel the Protheans utilized as best as we can tell were quite significantly limited in range and speed, even without combining the technology with a Kearny-Fuchida Drive, on an individual level a JumpShip with access to recharging stations was faster than a mass effect drive vessel. We can reach further from the Relays in an acceptable amount of time than their own ships could."

The First Lord calmed. "An excellent point. But that does not address the risk of opening up such things, while we continue to have teething problems like our population growth. So this question I direct back at you ilKhan Drummond. Can we realistically secure our space well enough to protect it?"

The ilKhan nodded. "I believe that we can. With five percent of the population being assigned to the military caste and assigned to the various Clans Martial we do have a significant military force to call upon, and the improvements to our technology the Prothean technology has allowed us to enact has begin significant efforts to increase our military capability, the Omnimech projects are well underway, and powered Battle Armour has been demonstrated as far more feasible with the Clan Wolf Elemental design, we believe with the use of mass effect fields we might even be able to get sustained flight from their jump jets, and our WarShips are undergoing periodic cycling back to the Newgranges for upgrades to be installed, at least until the Martian Shipyards are fully completed."

"But, is it enough." The First Lord stressed.

"First Lord, I cannot answer that, we simply lack the knowledge of the enemy that eliminated the Protheans, or forced them to retreat from this region of space. But we cannot find out this information sitting back behind the inactive relays and waiting for an answer to appear." the ilKhan answered bluntly.

"I want proposals for the test on my table, in excruciating detail, by the end of the week. Until then, pending final approval, you have pre-approval to begin moving resources for a possible test. Good day."

 

[Kadaeux]

Chapter 5;
The First Forays
Star League
2961 (2097)

Seventy seven years had passed since the reborn Star League had celebrated its century of revival as a new Star League. And now Diana Ryder of the Clan Wolverine stood on the bridge of her McKenna class WarShip as they hovered in front of the Charon Relay. The survey vessel Donetsk was significantly closer as its large lasers vaporised chunks of the ice that had been Charon away from itself and the relay, a new complex broadcast array had been in communication with the device for some hours now as they followed the instructions found in the Martian Archives.

"This is Galaxy Commander Diana Ryder of the SLS Alamo Avenger to SLSS Donetsk the fleet is positioned and ready for security, HPG uplinks to the SLS Montgomery have confirmed that they are in position at the projected endpoint relay in Arcturus." She broadcast to the survey vessel.

"Aff Alamo Avenger. Final protocols are being loaded into the Mass Relay. Prepare for... something." Came the only reply.

A young man manning one of the targeting arrays frowned. "Star Commander Ryder, with the speed of the Kearny-Fuchia Mass Drive, is there a reason we are bothering with this artefact? We can already jump thirty lightyeas instantly. Might not this allow for whatever wiped out the Protheans to.."

Ryder shook her head. "Neg. This relay pair, according to the information available, is relatively short ranged, and even so could allow short ranged Jumpships with only the Mass Effect Drive to transit longer ranges. But the current strategic intent is that we would prefer to open relays and explore to their other ends and face any enemy out beyond the reach of our homeworld, instead of having them activate the gates before we can prevent it."

"Permission to speak freely?" Williams asked.

Ryder frowned but had time so nodded. "Is that not kind of a flimsy reason?, one that leaves us with having opened the hellmouth ourselves potentially?" A flash of light erupted and their eyes were drawn towards the forward viewport. A lambent blue glow filled the heart of the rings that had just begun to rotate on their axes. Lights coming to life across the entirety of the device.

"All hands. Ready stations." Ryder said out of habit rather than necessity.

And... nothing. The rings continued to spin without end, the lambent blue glow of the devices mass effect core illuminating near space. It wasn't doing anything until... three probes shot from the Donetsk and hurtled towards the relay broadcasting the pre-programmed signals. Cerulean lightning leapt from the core to connect each of the probes and... they hurtled off into space.

There was a degree of sighs around the bridge as some of the stress bled out of the chamber. But Diana arrested that before the enthusiasm grew to a problematic level. She did so by simply leaning on the railing and frowning at the vision they were studying. The tension in her prevented the complete loss of preparedness and... five minutes later... the probes all returned carrying their affirmations of success.

"This is Captain Ryder to SLSS Donetsk, you are clear to attempt transit." She stood straight. "Good luck. And fair travels."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The experience of travelling nearly forty lightyears in moments was a new one to Captain Lawson. The sight of the barricade fleet appearing on their sensors as they slammed into the Arcturus system with the same velocity they had entered. "Ok. Everyone, status updates." It took nearly ten minutes for the reports to filter in as the crews worked overtime to check every single system with obsession to detail. They had arrived in another system. "This is Captain Marcus Lawson of the SLSS Donetsk to SLS Montgomery, I would like to confirm our clocks with you?"

"Congratulations Captain on a successful test. Our current shipboard time registers as 20:21:34." She was watching the clock as the Captain read it it, the numbers matched with the only variance being on the seconds which could have been explained by the time it took to say it.

"Thank you Montgomery, travel time confirmed to be as close to instant as makes no significant difference. Communications, spin up the HPG and report in to the SLS Alamo Avenger. Operation STARSHOT is a success. We will continue with Stage 2 and with escort from the SLS Montgomery will proceed to the nearest Secondary Relay and commence activation and testing." She began to turn to other tasks when the officer turned from her console.

"Captain, the First Lord has issued instructions that Stage 2 is to be held for further study." The words crushed Diana's hopes.

Once more the paranoia of the Clans Martial and First Lord were going to hobble her and the science castes from the voyages of discovery until they were content they knew everything they wanted before they'd be allowed to proceed. For all her hopes and dreams, this, this moment would forever be the capstone of her career.

She swallowed bitter words, and mentally threatened her tear ducts to hold their corrosive contents back. The crew need not see. "Understood. Standing down for orders." She stood, "XO, you have the conn. I am proceeding to my quarters for some sonic catharsis."

Her husband nodded knowingly. Screaming at the void in your soundproof quarters was always preferable to shouting at the crew.

 

[Kadaeux]

Chapter 6;
The Eve of War
Relay 314
3021 (2157)

Star Colonel Michael Shepard looked down from the podium on the bridge of the Nightlord class Battleship that served as the Flagship of the Collective Fleet. Produced through Clan Snow Raven ingenuity, Clan Wolverine was leading the expedition that had been dispatched to the relay that some were calling 314. The Science ships were going through the motions, trying to read the list of connections that might become available through the connection of the Relay to its partner, or list of partners. The operation held little direct interest for Shepard, he knew that a daughter of his gene banks had been born and was proving a promising prospect in her Sibko and the potential of his bloodline was enough to almost drive him to pride, though he was uncertain who the other partner of her gene-pairing was. And inquiring would be impolitic of him.

"Star Colonel, the survey vessel reports readiness to begin activation protocols. They indicate it will take some time to complete." The report came through dry, almost disinterested. Of course, the comms officer was disinterested, after the initial relay activation of Charon, and the universe failed to implode in forty years since, the Science castes were given free range to begin activation of relays without requiring direct authorisation, only requiring that a Clan Navy task force was available to oversee security.

"Naturally." Shepard leaned back into his chair and studied the screens ahead of him. "We will wait." He began to slouch fractionally, not enough to draw notice. Was there even a boogeyman for them to fight anymore? That was a question that had been echoing through Clan Wolverine's halls even as the First Lord censured the doubt. There WAS a boogeyman, but all the evidence they had found was fifty thousand years old.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vivek leaned forwards as the sensors of his patrol group sighted the inactive relay hanging there as they knew it would be. The problem was, the sensor readings they were getting indicated that the Relay was rising from its dormancy. And there was a clutch of ships surrounding the Relay, several smaller craft were close to the device, the transmissions between it and they difficult to detect, but there if you knew what you were looking for.

But the real item of concern was the six vessels further out, one was a Dreadnought of some sort, with the others fluttering between Cruiser and Destroyer sized. "Sensors, what can we determine?"

There was a long time before answers, and Vivek turned to the operator whent he woman manning the console looked back for a moment. "Working. It is unconventional."

"Unconventional is to be expected, we haven't encountered whoever these people are before. I need information." He snarled.

"I am working sir. And I say unconventional, because it does not appear to have the same technology base we do. There are elements of familiar technologies we can discern all across the vessel, however, there's a great deal we can't identify." That was not the most comforting interpretation that he wanted to hear. His patrol fleet was numerically superior, but the presence of what looked like a Dreadnought troubled him.

"Does that Dreadnought have a spinal mass accelerator, or doesn't it?" He finally asked.

"No Sir. They have what appears to be a heavy weapons loadout, but no evidence of a spinal mass accelerator cannon." She responded confidently.
"A poor decision on their part... I want four ships focussing on that vessel, the remainder are to pick their targets and try and keep them from regrouping. Everyone is to concentrate on using main guns as long as possible." Vivek declared. "And someone send a message through the nearest buoy about this."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Contact. Contact. Contact. Two five zero, descending thirty degrees.." The words rang out across the bridge as the sensor operator picked up ships to their starboard ventral side.

Shepard stood and studied the readouts. "This is Star Colonel Shepard, We have detected incoming unidentifieds at two-five-zero, descent thirty, relative to CWLV-Normandy. Survey vessels. Cease communication and commence immediate emergency jump to point alph..." The ship rocked as the mass effect fields were struck by smaller object going a little over half a percent of light speed. "Now." He cut his own comm feed. "Sensors, speak to me."

"Looks like twelve ships, they are not Clan-built.."

Shepard frowned, and blinked, and then his face fell slightly, so there was a danger still beyond the Rel... no, they hadn't come through the relays. Wherever they came from was close enough to this location they hadn't used a Relay to get here. That was intelligence Terra needed.

"Come about, bring the three forward-facing ER-Medium Naval Gauss cannons to bear on the leading ship, forward Augmented Medium Naval PPC to bear on the second most leading ship. All the Naval Lasers and ER Ultra Naval Autocannons on the third and fourth, shooters choice. All pilots to their fighters." Shepard frowned. "Gunnery. Fire at will."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Dreadnought leading the alien formation turned to face them and... the three ships closest to the relay winked out in a flash of light, they had not used the Relay, it was still dead as far as Vivek could tell, but the others had turned to bear on his formation. And though the range was closing, the enemy projectiles were slower than their own, the mass accelerated slugs augmented by another system. And so while they were slower and not firing as often, it didn't really matter much since the inert slugs weighed four hundred kilograms. As such the first he really understood he was being fired at was when the slug crashed through the Kinetic Barriers.

And his own ship was the fortunate one. The barriers did succeed in shedding the projectiles of much of its power before it impacted armour and hull. And so his own ability to return fire on the enemy ship whose own kinetic barriers were holding up significantly better than he had expected was undiminished. The same could not be said for the Valkr and Srrixi. The former reporting that some sort of incredibly powerful particle beam weapon was striking its hull and according to their own sensors the Valkr's hull was glowing a cherry red. The Srrixi was less fortunate. They had not even realised they were under attack when the lasers ignored their kinetic barriers and begun acting on the hull directly, warping the spinal mass accelerator barrel as it fired. The destruction of the forward third of the vessel was its reward.

"Lasers! They're firing laser weapons!?!" Came the cry from the sensors operator. The continued rumbling of his own ship before the helmsman hauled it around onto a crosswise course to bring their broadside batteries to bear succeeded in compromising the kinetic barrier of the enemy and scoring two direct strikes on the enemy's hull. "And particle beams!" Called the other operator as if he didn't have access to the same information they did.

"Srrixi, fall back from the engagement. Carry word to the Council and the homeworld. This upstart race cannot be allowed to break Council law and risk unleashing another Rachni war upon us!"

 

[Kadaeux]

Chapter 7;
In Shadows Promise
Turian Heirarchy
3021 (2157)

The Captain of the Srrixi felt the pressure of high command coming to bear on her as she settled into geosynchronous orbit. Her position in the CIC as the communications channels opened and she poured out their sensor data and reports of the encounter by the inactive relay. It did not take long for the expected contact to arrive. The holoprojector came to life with the face of the current Primarch. "Captain Nera, according to my subordinates, when you were assigned to the fleet lead by Captain Vivek you were issued an entire Starship, should we be docking your pay for the missing third?" The tone of voice made Nera quail slightly unable to tell if he was trying to be amusing, or if it was genuine anger.

"I apologise Primarch. You see space is cold, so we shrank a bit." She answered, gambling on the slight amusement. And wsa proven completely and utterly off base.

"WHAT THE HELL KIND OF ANSWER IS THAT CAPTAIN! Vivek leads a police action to prevent the unauthorised opening of an unidentified Relay, without prior authorisation, and gets smacked hard enough back that he felt it prudent to send you here, and you WANT TO CRACK FUCKING JOKES." He snarled. He stopped, straightened himself up, and Nera spoke.

"Gravest apologies Primarch. I failed to determine if you were reprimanding or attempting to take some of the sting from the encounter. I apologise." She refused to beg, that would only lessen her further. He waved a hand, and his body language shifted, a lot of the tension bleeding out of the gesture.

"I will decide what to do about your insubordination later, for now we have a larger concern." The Primarch said dismissing her conduct for now. "We have been analysing the information that you brought back regarding this unknown force. And my people, and I, are quite worried. It has been a long-held truism that lasers were unsuited for ship to ship engagements due to their relatively short ranged nature."

She took the chance to speak. "It is Primarch. But their technology base was wrong, it incorporated technology we are familiar with, to the point we can tell, but it also used a significant number of independent technologies we are not familiar with. Laser and particle beam weapons with effective ranges comparable to our own mass accelerators." Nera sighed and stiffened her posture, "We did not even understand we had been fired at intially, closing to within eight thousand kilometres, Captain Vivek gave firing orders, almost immediately after we began the attack, we were struck by extremely potent laser technology which warped the barrel of our mass accelerator when it fired."

At this the Primarch turned a full faced frown at her, and despite the holographic distance, she shuddered. "Are you telling me you disregarded failsafes?"

"You know full well we did not Primarch, the reports included all pertinent information. The damage was not recognised until we fired and destroyed a third of our own ship. The..."

The Primarch held up a closed fist silencing her as he listened to something out of his vision, a moment later, she was receiving a similar report. The remainder of the Patrol had returned, clutching its tail between its legs. Of the heavy cruiser Vivek had captained, there was no sign at all, nor of two thirds of the other ships in the patrol.

"I will contact you later Captain. Be ready for a potential inquiry."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vivek blinked twice. The floor was pretty far away from where he was sure he was a moment ago. And then it came flying straight towards his face as the next hit from the enemy dreadnought hammered the ventral surface of his ship cracking its belly open. It was some time before consciousness came to him, or he thought it was some time.

Gravity had been restored, and the lights were back up to full, he began to gently open his eyes, the oppressive headach...

This was not his CIC. Or his ship. It wasn't even guest quarters. He was in bindings, and those bindings were bolted to the table he was on. He knew that because the ceiling was reflective enough to see himself in. His heart began to pound blood around his body as the strange surroundings and being bolted to a fucking table, drove his anxiety from 'oh this isn't good' to 'ohfuckohfuckohfuck'.

The sound of a door opening rang out with a terrible finality. And a monster entered the chamber, followed by a second. They moved to flank the door Vivek couldn't see. A strange Asari walked in, the woman was more generously proportioned and top-heavy than most Asari he'd ever met. But her skin was dark, extremely so. And she lacked the crest Asari had, the tentacle-like structures framing the head. Instead there was a fine fur. She held up the strangest omnitool that he had ever seen, it lacked the familiar holographic displays, instead being a ruggedized physical design. When she spoke, he struggled to understand her. And then her omnitool began to crow in Turian.

~I am Doctor Anastasia Reese with the Xenobiology Directorate of Venus, I was brought in to assess those taken captive on board your vessel. You in particular required my veterninary skills.~ The translator barked.

"Veterinary skills! I am not some animal th..." He began to bark and she held up a hand. Apparently the translation of his speech was faster, or perhaps not working. She spoke once more.

~More slowly please. But I would guess you misunderstood. Alien, the only intelligent species we have encountered prior to this encounter has been our own. Our Doctors and Surgeons are trained and experienced at treating our own medical injuries. A veterinary doctor is generally trained in cross-species medical intervention, being able to identify and act on issues that a practicioner of medicine for our own species could not do.~ She moved around the table, ~You have several compound fractures, including a compound fracture of the skull that had to be treated. Immediately.~

Her words were translated, and he felt the terror lessen.

"Where is my crew!?" He demanded. The woman waited and nodded looking down at him.

The expression on her face was difficult to read. But her eyes pierced his own and he felt transfixed. ~Ninety percent of the crew of your vessel perished in the engagement, of the remaining ten percent, a third were killed in the boarding actions. The remainder are being studied and or interrogated or treated for injuries.~

"I deman.."

The human looked down at Vivek and his words fell to liquid in his mouth. The expression on the Asari was one he was rarely a victim of. Contempt. Even hatred. ~We don't care what you demand. You attacked us for no justifiable reason. Such errors in judgement are not so easily forgotten by men and women of honour. Take him to his people. And find something their weak biologies can actually digest.~

 

[Kadaeux]

Chapter 8;
Reactions and Reflections
Relay 314
3021 (2157)

Shepard studied what was left of his escort fleet. The devastation of the engagement had been surprising, all three Fredasa class Destroyers had been destroyed and two Corones and an Essex II had been crippled, the only vessel to escape with less than superficial damage had been his own Nightlord. But now the fleet was growing. Almost a hundred WarShips were now present at Relay 314. And the alien prisoners had been taken to Terra for study and interrogation. The wreckage of their twelve ships lay within his sphere of influence however, and right now he was on a shuttle over to the Newgrange yard that had been deployed to disassemble the enemy wreckage into pieces and bring them back for study.

"Star Colonel?" A womans voice asked.

"Yes Star Captain?" He turned to the Captain of one of the crippled Essex who had chosen to join him while her vessel was being repaired.

She collected her thoughts and sat straight in her seat. "The enemy fleet outnumbered us, but I could not help but notice that the only time they appeared to deploy laser weaponry was in a point defence role against missiles launched by the Preyseeker." Her Essex class was the only ship in his task force with capital missiles.

"I noticed that as well, they also lacked any kinds of particle projection weaponry. Our naval autocannons, augmented with mass effect technology appeared to be significantly less effective. I do believe that its possible that their vessels are only protected by kinetic barriers, they may not have invested in defending against a wider array of technology. They also did not deploy any missile technologies until knife-fight ranges, and only their smallest ships fired them."

The woman frowned at the datapad in their hand. "The point defence weapons of our WarShips were able to handle them well enough, but the quartet of warheads that found the Luminescent," One of the three dead Fredasas, "were responsible for virtually all damage, the strange mass effect warheads of those torpedoes makes them ill suited for anything but point blank launches. But..."

"And yet, our losses were still heavy. Seven against twelve, and though we only lost our lightest vessels, the Normandy was the only one to avoid significant damage." Shepard finished. "You are concerned about this?"

She nodded. "I am."

Shepard collected his own impressions, "Star Captain Williams, I would not grow too concerned about it, the enemy projectile weapons were light, but they are using the majority of their ships length to house a spinal weapon insofar as we can see. I know what you are afraid of, and I don't think these were the aliens who defeated the Protheans." Tension departed her shoulders marginally. "But that does not mean they do not represent a threat. Do not become complacent."

There was no answer but an offended glare for a moment before she wiped it out hoping he did not notice, he chose not to.

---

Terra:

First Lord Kerensky sat in his office with a distracted expression. The images projected on his desk computer were fascinating, a distinctly alien species, one that did little to resemble the human race, instead looking almost avian, and yet bipedal. That they were intelligent had not been in question, the damage they had wrought on a task force protecting a relay activation team was not doubted either.

But their technology was so familiar, but not the same. "I want to know your thoughts on the matter Director?" He asked the current Director of the Martian Institute of Technology. The man was new to the role, and had been transferred from the Clans Martial after failing out of his Sibkos physical testing, but showing a higher than average intelligence.

He leaned back in his chair and considered how to word his response. "When we discovered the ruins on Mars, we were an established society, if displaced, we had an existing interstellar technological base, and a fair number of technologies not represented in the Martian archives at all. So when we began to study it..."

"I do not need the full history lesson Dire..."

"Excuse my interruption First Lord, what I am saying is extremely pertinent." The interruption would have angered him, and yet it was said in such a way that he simply nodded for the man to continue, "When we began to study it, we incorporated the technology into our own we did not replace anything. We merely melded it with our own. A society however, were it to discover such ruins early in their exploitation of space might not be so lucky, such a development might leapfrog them from crude rocketry, to advanced supercomputing, faster than light travel and more."

Kerensky nodded and turned to face the Director more clearly once more. "I understand, you are saying that these 'Turian' peoples may have been influenced more completely by the technologies than we were?"

"No. I'm saying that their own native technologies, whatever they had, were wholly displaced by technology derived from Prothean technology." The look on his face cemented the idea that he was being entirely serious in Kerensky's mind. "These people's entire technology base is derived from Prothean."

The light came on in Kerensky's eyes. That possibility meant that they would very likely have more refinements of the Prothean technology than they did, but the lack of hybridisation meant they were lacking in fields. "Thank you Director. The only instructions I have for you now are to build a team of your best xenobiology specialists and send them to Relay 314 immediately on the next Jumpship you can commandeer. I will arrange for a full diplomatic party to travel with you on the Cameron's Pride." By committing Aleksandr' Kerensky's McKenna to the mission it would lend it the personal support of the First Lord.

"Yes First Lord. Immediately." The Director Stood, "They attacked us without even attempting contact, do you think we can even try diplomacy?"

"All thinking beings face the reality of diplomacy sooner or later, whether it is at the point of calm contact, or the blade of a dagger at their throats. If you will, I have to arrange for another ten divisions sent to Shanxi, it is the closest colony to Relay 314. And I want to find out where those fleets came from. There are two messages I might send this alien race."

"Two First Lord?" The Director asked curious.

"They can have peace and apologise." He paused, "Or they can learn the Ares Conventions do not protect aliens."

 

[Kadaeux]

Chapter 9;
Round Robin
Relay 314
3021 (2157)
The taste of ashes in their mouth from their defeat the Turian Hegemony fleet was commanded by the Primarch himself. Standing on the CIC for the Turian flagship the fleet headed for the Mass Relays and hurtled itself through space towards the relays and the unidentified relay that the prior engagement had occurred at. Seven Dreadnoughts, and almost five times as many Cruisers with half that number of Destroyers in attendance made their way forcefully towards the enemy position, one where they had been last seen.

Hurtling into the edge of the system where the Relay was found the Turian fleet began moving in at a more conservative pace as their sensors searched for the relay and its attendants. The reaching sensors energy eventually found a quartet of ships standing off a thousand kilometres from the Relay. "Four ships, sensors estimate a length of four hundred metres, they have some kind of sail extended towards the star and are separated by a distance of one hundred kilometres."

A sense of unease filled the bridge. "Status of the relay?"

"Dormant." Came the reply.

"Sensors, do we have any unusual activity?" Came the request.

There was a long time before a response was forthcoming. "We have significant electromagnetic emissions coming from all four vessels at extremely regular intervals, but those signals disappear almost immediately after leaving the pulsing dish. We are receiving some kind of backscatter from return pulses, but they're just pure chaotic electromagnetic pulses."

"Pulse intensity has increased." Came another. "Vessels tagged two and four have just disappeared after withdrawing the sails, the other two vessels are also withdrawing their sails."

A series of cursing continued for a few moments as the Primarch turned to face the screens once more. "Resume acceleration, let's see if we can disable and capture those vessels." His order rang out and they moved to obey all the while he stood there, a sense of something gravely wrong with the entire scenario deep in his soul. There was no Dreadnought here, no cruisers...

"Picket ships to separate to one million kilometres and stand off. Line ships separate to one thousand, slow acceleration to two and a half gravities. Cruisers, all formation, two thousand kilometre separation while closing at three gravities until there is a six thousand kilometre separation and match velocities to the line ships." He wanted them to spread out the formation, and get the pickets far away, "All pickets are to await instruction."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Incoming fleet travelling FTL. Co-ordinates and course to follow confirmation. Estimated fleet size, fifty ships, seven Battleships, approximately thirty mid-sized vessels, approximately fifteen or so others." The reports came in calmly as the recon ships waited and watched for the incoming alien vessels. "Recon Charlie and Delta. Commence Jump. Recon Bravo, bring transmission of jump co-ordinates to Fleet of the First Lord, fifty kilometre spacing. And Star Captain Malthus we need perfect precision please."

"Aff Star Captain Ward. Do you think we are prepared for this?" Came the frank question.

"I do. From what I understand, the First Lord has mustered a full half of the Battleships under the toumans of the Clans Martial. Annother sixty Cruisers besides and . This lagrange point makes for an exceptionally large jump point. Let's make the Blood of Kerensky Proud."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Alien ships, four lightseconds out. Ship tagged as three signal intensity has reached peak. We're getting some seriously weird readings around the alien electromagnetic signals, the signals don't seem to be going anywhere, yet... I think they are." The confused report drew the Primarch's attention, and potential ire. His mandibles clacked and he snarled.

"Explain that!" The words bitten off.

"Since our arrival, the electromagnetic pulses increased to a rate of one per second. They appear to leave the array and just disappear. But if they were superluminal pulses..." She postulated.

"We would detect the mass-free corridor of a communications relay." The Primarch said in answer.

"Only if they were using one." Came the almost disrespectful answer that shook the Primarch up short.

"Primarch..." The sensor operator cried out. "We are now detecting ships..." They focussed their entire attention on the suddenly appearing vessels. Almost three hundred ships arriving in as many seconds, arriving in such a way as to be clustering in fifty kilometre wide bubbles that did not even partially infringe on another. A hundred and ninety varied in size between Cruiser and Destroyer.

The remaining hundred and ten were the size of Dreadnoughts ranging from eight hundred metres to one and a half in length. The Primarchs heart stuttered at the sight. And then came the next shock. A signal was beamed directly towards his own flagship, though later it would be confirmed that they had transmitted directly at all seven of his Dreadnoughts.

"I am First Lord Ulric Kerensky, direct descenandy to Aleksandr Kerensky of the Star League. You have intruded on a Star League survey mission and engaged in direct combat with our people, without warning, without explanation, without contact. The Turian Hegemony has committed war crimes against humanity and the peoples of the Star League, the Clans Martial have declared you a potential existential threat." The words continued, translated perfectly into Turian, their carrier wave having a signature matching the translator programs of a Turian omnitool. "It is my decision that you will be given the opportunity to stand down and open dialogue."

The Primarch stood proud, trying not to shake as he saw the fleet arrayed against him. Had they stumbled on a territory near their capital, one that had been missed by prior surveys? "I am the Primarch of the Turian Hegemony to the alien vessel transmitting. And if we refuse your offer of dialogue?"

"Then maybe your successors will be of more intelligent stock." The answer came clearly.

"Order the Picket ships to withdraw. Line ships to close up to protect the Dreadnoughts." The Primarch ordered. "We are willing to... talk."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ulric turned to the communications officer. "Bugeyes to follow retreating elements. Let's stall them until we have our... lesson plan... in place."