Commanding Officer's Log:
Local Calendar Date: Unknown
GRA Calendar Date: 27-03-07 x 07:13:31

It has been seven weeks now into our survey of this galaxy in our neighboring galactic group and I am starting to wonder if the ships that Ark Roanoke picked up in the galactic void are natives of this galaxy or another civilization planning to colonize this region of space. So far we have found no signs of interstellar civilization despite the energy emissions that we have detected during the survey. When I first received my orders to take command of the Icarus class Fast Attack Frigate Truth's Light, I was giddy; I had for the last eight years wanted to command a ship of the Star Forces like others in my family. When I first received orders to report to the Supreme Commander of my assigned Task Force I was afraid that I had done something wrong or that a member of my family had been lost. Unlike with other members of the Star Forces all of my immediate family served in the Star Forces, my sister Annalisa is a scientist on one of the few Destiny class Deep Space Explorers that last I heard is in the Kobol Galaxy Group mapping and laying out a series of Stargate Networks.

My eldest sister Morganna serves about the HMS Queen's Hope as one of the top combat surgeons in the Medical Corps. At the time the Queen's Hope was operating out of the Tollan Home Fleet, which is located deep within allied territory; so Morganna should be safe and sound. My bother Myrddin works in Research and Design in Sol-Terra out of the Jupiter Station near Io working on ship design; he takes after our father's loving of creating and in fact at the time I had received my orders had just finished building Truth's Light. That left the my mother and father, both whom I am certain were perfectly fine; especially considering that they both serve on the flag ship of the First Fleet and the Task Force that I am assigned to the Aurora. So many things passed through my mind during the Jumper flight from Titan's Forge to the Aurora; I had been serving as Quartermaster XO for the past thirteen months since my promotion to captain. Unlike some of my friends from the Academy who celebrated their promotions with colleges, I had celebrated with my family and it was easy enough considering that when I received my promotion I was reassigned from Starbase duty to a ship in none other than the First Task Force of the First Fleet.

I am shaken from my thoughts by the pilot announcing our final approach; looking around I notice the Sangheili next to me in a Star Forces uniform. Every since the First Contact Sangheili war and the knowledge that the Great Races Alliance have Forerunners as a founding species, more and more Sangheili have joined the Star Forces. I have keep only marginal track of the status of the Sangheili request to join the GRA as a full member; every time I have asked my father, his response has been "The Sangheili wish to join for all the wrong reasons; the Council knows this and when the Sangheili truly see the Forerunners as equals and not gods will they be allowed full entry and gain their seat on the Council." To me it makes no sense, why do the Sangheili see the Forerunners as gods; but then again for over four thousand years the Twelve Colonies of Kobol had done the same with the Lanteans. I decide to introduce myself and asked if I could like his name; he looked at me for a moment when he noticed my rank immediately replied with his rank and name. I laughed at the look on his face when I asked him to ignore my rank; I guess that the officers he has worked with like formal interactions.

We spent the remaining time talking a little; when we landed we both had to report to the Supreme Commander's Office. I remember the meeting like it was only yesterday; oddly enough both of my parents were present along with none other than the Sangheili representative Thel 'Vadam himself. Both Rtas and I stood at attention and saluted; we stood at attention until the Supreme Commander told us to stand at ease. It was then that we received our new orders; the two of us were to be assigned to the new Icarus class ship the Truth's Light, First Lieutenant Rtas 'Vadam as ship XO and myself Captain Laura Mazikowski as ship CO. To say that we were both surprised would be an understatement; Rtas perhaps was more than ready to be a ship XO, but me, I was more than certain I was no where near ready to be a ship XO let alone CO. Before I could protest the Commander explained that if and when a combat situation would arise the Rtas and I would work together as needed, but for the most part combat was predicted to be near zero in possibility during the mission ahead of us and that my analytical skills would be want is needed most. The assignment is to investigate the strange energy emissions being detected by Ark Roanoke from the neighboring galactic group secondary core galaxy; we also learned that a fleet had been detected in the galactic void between the core galaxies of the neighboring group, but a Titan class ship would be assigned to monitor the unknown fleet. After receiving our orders a nod between the Commander and Sangheili Representative was all the warning we had before Rtas and I were pounced by my mother; she dotted over the two of us, saying how proud she is of me and how she was certain Rtas' mother is as well. That day Rtas and I learned we are more alike then we first though when I learned that Representative Thel 'Vadam is Rtas' father and Rtas learned that our Supreme Commander is my father.

Anyway I need to get something to eat before the start of my shift.

Captain Laura Mazikowski
Commanding Officer of Truth's Light
First Task Force of the First Fleet, Galactic Star Forces

As I shutdown my terminal, I think about what I will say in my vid-letter to Mom and Grandma; knowing Dad he will prefer to hear if I have found any love interest over hearing tactical reports despite always going over any report with a fine tooth comb like any high ranking officer should. I grab my uniform jacket from the back of my chair and slip it on as I walk out my door heading for the small mess we have on board. I consider the crew and myself lucky to be assigned to a ship of the new Icarus class design; big brother really did take advantage of the haul's design to give us as much room as possible. Normally a ship that is barely a hundred meters long would have hot bunking for even command officers and with a crew of nearly forty, Rtas and myself would have to share not only a rack but also an office and command chair. In the past the Icarus class would not operate beyond a range of three hundred light years from at least a Daedulas class Battlecruiser; but as time goes on and we meet other sentient races designed adapt some new are made and some old are pushed aside.

Just as I reach the mess, I see Rtas at the end of our normal table with what appears to be my breakfast in front of his; moving to join him the smell of fresh coffee waltzes up my nose. Taking a seat he hands a cup of hot coffee to me, "Bless you" and just as quickly I sip some down to help me wake up; how my father can operate without morning coffee I will never know. "Morning Laura, I take it that you were recording your log this morning" Rtas give me his I am right smile when I nodded to him. Since the start of our mission over twenty nine weeks ago, he and I have become good friends; I surprised him when I told him about being born on Gemenon, he told me it was hard to fathom that I was born over fifty million light years from what we both considered our home galaxy. We both had grown up for at least apart of our lives on ships; for me it was the Aurora during the seven years it took for the fleet to travel between Kobol and Earth. Rtas told me about growing up in the fleet between Sangheilos and New Sangheilos; that was something we had in common with our past and childhoods. For Rtas his people had lost their world when the system primary had lost the ability to maintain fusion and went dark causing the surface of Sangheilos to be covered in ice. For me, it was when the Cylons destroyed the Colonies of Kobol and the Aurora helped lead and protect the survivors to humanities ancestral home-world. We both had grown up on ships that were apart of a fleet containing the remains of a once great civilization; but with Rtas, his people did not have FTL flight and for at least three Sangheili generations traveled space looking for a new home.

That was something that hit me the hardest and one of the things that ended the First Contact war with the Sangheili so quickly; when the people of the colony that the Sangheili had been attacking learned that their world was the first the Sangheili could colonize are living in space ships for nearly four hundred years, it was like a near reversal of the conflict up until that point. The colonists in a unified decision had immediately asked the Star Forces to request that the Sangheili surrender by landing as many ships as possible on the planet and help colonize the surface. Rtas told me about how all of the adults of the fleet found it odd that for nearly three weeks they had fought against such resistance to take the planet so that they can have a new home, but then to suddenly have the terms of surrender be that they had to colonize the world they had been fighting to take procession of with all they had; it scared them. That was when our fathers first meet each other, Rtas had seen my father inform the Sangheili leadership that the reason for the sudden change was when a Sangheili whom had been captured by the locals informed them of the loss of Sangheilos; the local population felt the need to help the Sangheili find a new home, something they had to do themselves barely over a decade before and since the Sangheili were using non-lethal means had made the decision to welcome the Sangheili all the easier.

During our track to this galaxy, we traded stories about our respective childhoods and our parents; Rtas was short of an outcast among his peers after colonizing New Sangheilos. He never revered the Forerunners as gods; of course his father never did either, both revered the Forerunners as an advanced civilization that was more than likely long gone. Of course when his peers back on New Sangheilos learn that he is working with a Forerunner's daughter, I laughed saying he is going to have to beat them off with a stick. Rtas' face became pale at the thought of what would happen when that happens. "So Rtas, are you ready to look at that object at the system rim just inside the Oort cloud? It appears to be apart of the reason for this mission after all." Giving me a bald look "I think so, but I have to wonder who built it and put it at the edge of the system. Of course the real question is what is it suppose to do, is it a communications relay or a space station or is it an Ark to hold the remains of a civilization?" I shrug my shoulders in response, what ever it is out there at the system rim, and it is going to be the first real clue to the whole mission.

We finish breakfast in silence and make our way to the bridge; unlike the Icarus class of the past, our bridge is located roughly twenty meters into the ship from the bow. Our bow being design with a breaching ram so we can delivery marines into an enemy ship using the PVS (Phase-Shift Vibration System) Armor means that the first fifteen meters has to lack ship systems. Stepping onto the bridge "Corporal, set course for the object we detected on the system rim and I want to transverse the distance in normal space." Our helm officer acknowledges the order and we bring our normal space track to the unknown object; while we transverse the distance we can scan the area to ensure that we do not get caught off guard.

Roughly half an hour later we have reached our destination and begin a full survey scan of the object; for some strange reason looking at it reminds me of a Light Speed Doughnut used to launch the Destiny class ships into deep space. To that end I asked our resident AI named Bob to compare the data from the sensors to the known information about the LSD that we have back home. After nearly three hours of scanning the object and comparing the sensor data, we come to the conclusion it is the native version of a space ship based Stargate. Just as I was about to order a sensor sweep to locate other gate units Bob looks startled for a moment before looking at me, "Captain, I just picked up a distress call from the neighboring star cluster. What appears to be a human colonized world is under attack by unknown forces and they are being overrun." Not even thinking I order Bob to provide the helm with the world's coordinates and order our helm officer to get us there in order to help.

Breaking off from the gate unit, we dive into hyper-space; during the track to our new destination I look at Rtas his only answer to my silent question is to put a hand on my shoulder and nod. I am glad he agrees with me that helping people is more important at the moment; Rtas turns and beings barking orders to have the three marine teams on board to prepare for combat drops, what I wouldn't give to have a Spartan on board right now. The Spartans were our answer to the Gou'ld Super Soldier, but unlike the ones fielded by the Gou'ld our Spartans are volunteer only and had to be the best of the best to even make the cut; for us to have a Spartan on board was thought to be overkill. Just as the marines confirm ready for drop, we emerge into normal space to see two ships in the planet's atmosphere; the first one appears to be insectoid in appearance and nearly one kilometer in over all length, the other more along the lines of an Icarus class but its length is barely thirty meters for the main body. As we slow to drop speeds the comm. Officer signals me "Ma'am we have a connection from the smaller ship." "Put it through to my station Corporal" and not sparing a moment the holo-screen display what can easily pass for a Human.

I am Captain Anderson of the SSV Normandy to unknown ship, identify your self immediately are you with the force attacking Eden Prime?

"Captain Anderson, I am Captain Mazikowski of the Star Forces ship Truth's Light; we are here answering the distress call sent from this planet. I take it from your question that this is one of your colonies?"

That is correct Captain, I don't know who these Star Forces are but if you are willing to help I will gladly take the offer.

"Okay, than I think the first thing we should do is contact the other ship here in the atmosphere that is hovering over what appears to be a space-port and have them withdraw their forces."

What ship? We haven't detected any ships over the space-port?

Before I could confirm that they have been unable to detect the other ship the comm. Officer signaled that the marines are calling in, "Please standby Captain, our marines on the ground are calling in. I will have you patched so you can listen to their report." I order the connection opened so that Captain Anderson can hear as well, "Marines report."

"Ma'am this is Team-1 we just encounter one of the galactic natives, he calls himself a Specter with the name Nihlus Kryik. There was another with him that he has identified as Saren Arterius, when we showed up this Saren guy had his sidearm trained on Nihlus and might have fired if we had not called out to identify ourselves. The moment they saw us, this Saren opened fire; I have to admit that he is a good shot, he managed to hit me center mass but my armor held out. Before we could return fire he withdrew to another location, we called in for orders to; standby, shit marines go hot. Ma'am we have company standby"

The sounds of P-90 rounds firing filled the comm. channel for a few moments, while that was happening we confirmed that the unknown ship was withdrawing. When the shooting final stopped the marines resume communication.

"Sorry about that Ma'am, something that Nihlus has identified as Husks attacked our position; managed to get them pined in a cross fire with the help from Team-2 and some local marines under the command of a John Shepard stationed out of the Normandy. Team-3 is with a group of civvies at the moment, Shepard and Nihlus want to push forward to the space-port something about a beacon."

Looking to the holo-screen with the channel to Captain Anderson, "Captain, did you get all that?"

I did, we're lucky you came to answer the distress call; I don't want to think about what would have happened to Nihlus had your marines not shown up when they did. Can you have your marines accompany Nihlus and Commander Shepard to the beacon and secure it; we should be able to land at the space-port in about ten minutes.

"I will have my marines provide assistance until both our ships have landed." Captain Anderson nods and the channel is closed. "Marines, until we land you are to assist Commander Shepard and Mister Kryik."

"Confirmed Ma'am, see you when you reach ground side Team-1 out."

After the channel to the marines is closed I order the helm officer to bring us in for landing at the space-port near the marines. It takes us about six minutes to reach the port and land, during that time the marines called back in for a medic for Commander Shepard. Wasting no time our medic team and I disembark and meet up with the marines, the medics immediately begin working on Commander Shepard. After a quick report from the marine Sergeants, I turn to one of the native non-humans "Captain Laura Mazikowski of Truth's Light." The being took my offered hand and replied "Nihlus Kryik, Citadel Council Spectre. I want to thank you for coming to aid Eden Prime, had it not been for your men I might not be alive; I did not expect Saren to be a traitor." Just as I was about to respond the Normandy came in for a landing; we agreed to continue after meeting with Captain Anderson. With the Normandy now on the ground we approached the opening bay ramp; at the top stood Captain Anderson two what appeared to be marines and a woman with slightly graying hair. Captain Anderson was the first to reach the bottom of the ramp, "Nihlus, good to see that you're okay. Where is Commander Shepard?" I moved forward "He was injured and is being treated on Truth's Light, there was some kind of energy surge from the beacon you are here to secure and Commander Shepard was hit by the shock wave." The woman stepped forward, "I am Doctor Chakwas, I want to see him." I signal one of my nearby marines, "Of course, a marine will take you to him." Both my marine and the doctor nodded and then headed off to the Truth; turning back to Captain Anderson and Nihlus, "Perhaps we should talk?"

Both of them agreed and Captain Anderson started, "Captain, I want to thank you again for your help. Who knows what Saren would have done had you and your marines not arrived when you did. But I would like to know more about this Star Forces that you are apart of, you are clearly human." "I agreed with Captain Anderson, you appear human but I have not heard of this Star Forces from any world in the Human Systems Alliance." I look to both Nihlus and Captain Anderson, "I can answer some of your questions and obviously any thing classified is off limits. Is that okay with the both of you?" Both of them agree and I offer that we continue on our discussion on the Truth; with the three of us in agreement we move to the Truth. During our approach Captain Anderson whistled, "Big ship to be capable of landing on a planet." Shaking my head, "The Truth is an Icarus class Fast Attack Frigate with a standard length of ninety-seven point eight meters and a standard crew of thirty-nine with fifteen of those being marines for surface combat deployment." As we step inside the rear landing bay, Nihlus looked around during our brief walk to the hatch leading further into the ship; reaching my office I offer them both a seat. "Captain Mazikowski, I am surprised that you have so much room on board; normally Zero Element Drive Cores would take up over half your ship's internal space." I looked at Nihlus for a moment and then "I am unsure what this Zero Element you're talking about is, but our Engineering is the entirety of the Truth's only other deck just below us." Both of them looked confused, but before either could speak Rtas knocked and entered the office and this caused both Captain Anderson and Nihlus to stare at me then Rtas and then back again.

After a few minutes Captain Anderson was able to ask "Captain, why is there an alien on board your ship?" For a moment I was confused but answered "This is First Lieutenant Rtas 'Vadam, my XO; I guess you don't have multi-species ships in your alliance." Both nodded their heads while Rtas took to standing behind me, I decided to ask "Do your peoples have a unified government or separate governments?" Nihlus answered for the two, "Both with each race having its own government and then there is the Citadel Council that handles galactic affairs that affect all races within Citadel space. Such is the case with the Prothean beacon here on Eden Prime. Do you have a unified government?" I looked at Rtas then back as I answered, "Yes and no; for the majority of our home region, a good example is the relationship between the Sangheili and the GRA. The GRA, the Great Races Alliance is a unified government for over seven member species, with each having a seat on the Supreme Council and each world having a seat in the General Assembly. The Sangheili have a seat in the General Assembly, but not a seat on the Supreme Council due to the fact that they are not a member species at this time; they have a voice in our government because they live within our territory of their own free will. There are other species within our territory, but they do not have a voice within our government due to a few different reasons. The main being that their respective world has yet to either develop space flight or use the Stargate, the other primary reason is because they do not want a part of our government and so their given area is marked as their territory that is within our own territory."

Deciding to find out what this Zero Element is, "Can you tell me what this Zero Element is all about and why it would be needed for a ship to be able to land?" Captain Anderson leans forward and responds, "Zero Element is a material used to generate Mass Effect fields. Any Engineer within Citadel Space can tell you more than I can, but what I can tell you for certain is that every ship of every race uses Zero Element cores." Before we could continue we are paged to come to Medical because of Commander Shepard's status; nodding in silent agreement we move to Medical. Quickly reaching Medical we find both CMO's looking over the med scanner display while a man that I presume is Commander John Shepard is on the med-bed having what appears to be a nightmare. On either side are two people, one a man wearing black armor and the other a woman in white and red armor; the woman looks up from Shepard to the two CMO's "Doctor, isn't there anything you can do for him?" "I'm sorry, but I have never seen anything like this before. I am at a loss as to how to help Commander Shepard." Doc Cottle sighed, "Actually because of my work with Heindol, I have a fairly good idea what is happening to him. Unfortunately Doctor Chakwas is correct that we can't do anything to help him."

Walking up to the doctors, "Doc, what is Commander Shepard's status?" The old Colonial Major, who I had come to know during my childhood, turned to look at me before he dug out a cigarette and gave it a quick tap to light it. "Nice to know you care about the newest brat to enter my Life Station," I leveled a stare at him; despite him still having the rank of Major, we both know that I was given command and that as CMO he can relieve me of duty if need be. "Okay, look the brat here basically had what ever data was in this 'beacon' downloaded directly into his head. I am not certain about when he will wake up, but he will and with a headache to boot; but the reason I called you down here is to get these two grunts out of my Life Station, Doctor Chakwas can stay for now, but I want the others out. And don't think for a moment that I forgot about any of those stunts you pulled as a child young lady, now get these grunts out." I shake my head and look to Captain Anderson silently asking him to order to two marines out of Medical; turning to the two by the med-bed Captain Anderson ordered them out. The male now identified as Alenko saluted and exited after a quick glance to Commander Shepard; the woman stood and saluted while identifying herself as Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams and also left Medical with us just behind her.

As I am the last one to leave Medical, I see Doctor Chakwas jump back slightly when Doc Cottle called for Bob; I guess they don't use AI's or holo-tech much. Rejoining Captain Anderson, Nihlus and Rtas, it is decided that for the moment we should remain on the planet; "Captain Mazikowski, I must report to the Citadel Council and inform them of Saren's betrayal. I would also suggest that you accompany us back to the Citadel in order for the Council to fully understand and accept that Saren is a traitor; also I am certain that the Council will want to meet with you considering that you represent an unknown multi-race government." Looking at Rtas for a moment, we both agree; "That sounds agreeable, so can you provide us with coordinates to our destination and how long it will take in FTL flight?" Captain Anderson and Nihlus look at one another for a moment and than Captain Anderson answered, "We will use the Mass Relays, using standard FTL would take decades if not centuries to which the Citadel that way. It is over three thousand light years from here." That left me and Rtas confused, these people had a slow form of FTL and something called the Mass Relay that they used for FTL flight. Deciding to ask "What is the Mass Relays, is it some form of FTL flight booster used to transverse larger distances that your normal FTL is unable to handle within a relative amount of time?"

They both looked at me and Rtas, obviously confused by my question about these Mass Relays and what they are; Nihlus recovered first and "Where are you from not to know about the Mass Relays? Better question, how do you travel between star clusters within your life times?" Thinking about it carefully, it is not like I am telling them exactly where we are from and the information is not classified; so "We use our primary FTL method of either hyper-space drives or the Stargate Network for interstellar and inter-galactic travel. We were sent from our home galaxy on a mission to investigate strange energy emissions that have been detected in this galaxy; we left space-dock nearly eight months ago and have been in this galaxy performing surveys for about seven weeks now." The two just stared at us for roughly a minute before they both said in unison, "You're from another galaxy?" I nod affirmative and wait for them to respond; I guess this is there first inter-galactic first contact, I wish dad was here to deal with this.


Next Time: The Citadel Council and Hyper-space Drives

In the next chapter the crew of Truth's Light is going to meet the Citadel Council and the Council is going to learn that not only is the Truth an inter-galactic capable ship, but that humans have been seeded across multiple Galactic Groups by the Forerunners/Ancients/Lanteans