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.
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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."
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"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."
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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!"