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

Ohhh can't wait for first contact. The Turian's militaristic society and the Clans Militant's permanent war footing will either get along like a house on fire or this will be a cold cold war.
 
Chapter 6; The Eve of War
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!"
 
thanks for the chapter and for writing' stupid birds start shit can't handle shit then lie and say they didn't start shit and hide behind laws that don't apply to a non contacted race
 
thanks for the chapter and for writing' stupid birds start shit can't handle shit then lie and say they didn't start shit and hide behind laws that don't apply to a non contacted race

Actually... I don't think the clans in this are even breaking Council Law. Council Law prohibits opening Mass Relay's that go to UNKNOWN destinations. The way I read the Clan procedure here, they are using KF drives to check out a Mass Relay that leads back to Clan Space in order to see if it is safe to open up a new system.

Council Law only gets broken if the Turian's decide to activate the Relay while not knowing where it leads. The Turian attack has probably killed off any desire the Clan's have to complete the activation of Relay 314.
 
"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!"

Pretty ironic since it was him the one who unleased those Rachni on themselves.
 
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Chapter 7; In Shadows Promise
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."

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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.~
 
I feel like this started to be the regular curbstomp/humanwank fic with you villainaizing the turians and the regular first contact. I hope that the council races have their own advantage and compelling narrative not just humanity bulldozing over one dimensional enemies.
 
I feel like this started to be the regular curbstomp/humanwank fic with you villainaizing the turians and the regular first contact. I hope that the council races have their own advantage and compelling narrative not just humanity bulldozing over one dimensional enemies.

Oh no, I'm not villainising the Turians at all, what they did in this fic is *canonically* what they did in Mass Effect. They saw humans opening a mass relay and immediately attacked them with zero attempt at first contact. That's why it was called the First Contact War. This fic isn't about the First Contact War, this is simply stage-setting for the "regular" Mass Effect timeline. (Why some things will be different etc.)
 
Great story so far! I can't wait to see the response from the humans!
 
I really never understood the reasoning why any fleet patrolling deactivated relays WOULDN'T have even a perfunctory diplomatic attaché just in case at this point.
 
I really never understood the reasoning why any fleet patrolling deactivated relays WOULDN'T have even a perfunctory diplomatic attaché just in case at this point.
Because the Turian officer in charge was arrogant.
Because they expected Council law to apply even to people who've never heard of the council.
Because of the Krogans, the Rachni wars and the sheer terror people get when one of these things open.
I mean take your pick.

You could make a case for any of these.
 
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But the clans weren't even going to open the relay yet. Hell they were following the law they didn't even know about, council law states that in order to open a relay you have scout out the other side first. This process can take decades if not centuries.
 
Hell they were following the law they didn't even know about, council law states that in order to open a relay you have scout out the other side first.

It is amazing really, by having FTL technology that doesn't really on Mass Effect the Clans can follow the law to the letter, it's just a shame that the Citadel Council is a high bound, arrogant, stupid, idiots ("Arrogance and Stupidity in one package how efficient of you") that think they run the galaxy an can impose their laws on anyone that has never signed them, thus the law do NOT apply to them.
 
Chapter 8; Reactions and Reflections
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.

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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."
 
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