Prologue:
"Humanity. We're a fairly arrogant species, in all honesty. A violent, vengeful one, that is far too obsessed with killing each other in various ways. In fact, we literally invent new things to do just that literally every day, whether its a new device, or simply a new tactic. And not only are we too busy slaughtering each other in the hundreds, thousands, or even millions, depending on the day, we were also arrogant enough to think ourselves the superior force in the galaxy. Maybe we could be, but with our projections on Colonial stability, along with these new bastards that showed up, the UEG, even with the UNSC, CMA, and even ONI, are too overstretched. I know you approved Halsey's project, Margaret, and I've seen all the figures on it. The kids, the money, the dead trainers, all of it. So I expect you to give me a chance with N-7. Or I'll leak all the data I have on SPARTAN II right now. And I know you hate threats, so I'm not making one. This is a promise. Besides...with the way things are going, you are going to need me. We both are smart enough to see that." -Lieutenant Natalie Sarrow, ONI Section Three
UNSC Charon class Frigate Force Of Will, Shanxi System, UNSC Outer Colonies, April 20th, 2525
"Commander, we're exiting slipspace in 5...4...3...2...1. Entering normal space now."
A moment later, Commander Raina Sanders felt like puking, the frigate transitioning back from the strange dimensions of slipspace. Still, she made an effort to shake off her disorientation and mutter "Status report, Lieutenant", in a quiet voice. Fortunately, the man heard her.
"Weapons systems are ready, hull is at 100% integrity, and most of the crew are reporting no ill effects from the jump. Our Pelicans are primed for launch as well." Lieutenant Winters was her XO aboard the frigate, and the only member of her bridge crew, besides herself, to have ever seen actual combat. The two had both seen action above the world of Scyllion, their destroyer engaging a captured Innie frigate and several freighters. They had won, but at the cost of the ship being crippled and the CO killed. So the two had both received promotions and were assigned to this ship...just before it was sent off on a reconnaissance mission.
The colony of Shanxi had went dark several days prior, and as the closest ship, they had been told to go investigate the suspected Insurrectionist activity. They could have used the Relays to get there faster, but HIGHCOM wanted them to do a slipspace jump, to prevent an ambush from occurring at the relay. So here they were, a day behind behind schedule. And that meant they had to get a move on.
"Helm, take us into an orbit around the planet. And Ops, try to contact the people down on the surface. Particularly the militia HQ and the planetary reactor complex."
"Yes, ma'am." Winters comments as he starts working on the communications, while the Ensign in charge of piloting the ship, also starts working, doing as instructed. The almost 500 meter long human ship begins moving, around a minute later achieving the desired orbit and passing the planet's moon...revealing five unknown ships. And the wreckage of a pair of UNSC Mako class corvettes orbiting the planet as well. One of the unknown corvettes was docked with the station at the top of the world's orbital elevator. The rest were heading for the Force of Will.
Winters' voice almost surprises her as he speaks up. "Comm from the reactor complex. Do you want me to patch it through?"
Her weapons officer also starts talking. "Five enemy corvettes, one of which is docked onto the station, but seems to be detaching now. And...enemy frigate, just showing up on sensors. I have a firing solution for the MAC, as well as some for Archer missiles."
Raina sighs as she sees an unknown frigate somehow...warps into position at the center of the corvette group. "Patch it through. And launch some Pelicans to reinforce the ground. Also, target unknown frigate with the MAC, and arm a Shiva."
Her crewmen nod, and moments later a male voice fills the bridge. "Allied Vessel, this is Sergeant Xavier of the CMA militia on the planet. We need reinforcements down here. We were forced to abandon the training center, along with most of this godforsaken planet's cities. I only have two understrength militia companies, a fireteam of marines, and a few 'Hogs. The enemy has air units, as well as tanks. And these alien bastards also seem to have energy shields for their infantry. We're fucked down here unless you send help."
"Sergeant, we're only a frigate. But I sent another company of marines, and some armor. The ETA is an hour, assuming they aren't intercepted." Raina responds quickly, keeping an eye on the enemy corvettes, one of which seemed to be approaching her dropships. "Weapons officer, shift MAC strike to that corvette. but don't fire until I give the order."
"A Goddamn half hour is too long, we need men down here now." He replies, before the sound of rifle fire can be heard in the background.
"I understand. I'll deploy ODSTs, who should be there in twenty. Now, I need to focus on space." She cuts the comm before he can reply, feeling the deck vibrate a bit as a dozen pods are launched towards the planet. "And ensign, prepare to fire."
Her subordinate nods, their hand resting on the button to fire the weapon. All of them watch as the alien ship gets closer, and closer to the dropships. "Now?" They ask nervously.
"Hold it.." Raina says quietly, letting the corvette get until its less than a kilometer from the dropships. "Fire!"
The ship vibrates before the deck violently shakes, the sound being emitted sounding a bit like if someone hit a church bell with a sledgehammer, expect more than twice as loud. Not expecting the attack, the smaller ship doesn't evade as an ultra-dense depleted uranium slug, weighing six hundred tons, leaps from the barrel of the frigate, and in a yellow streak collides with the alien vessel. It doesn't stand a chance, its kinetic barriers trying to repel the round, though they're shattered in a instant, the frigate also being shattered by the massive round colliding with it.
The enemy ships sit dead in space for a few seconds, almost seeming surprised, before they suddenly accelerate, the Charon class quickly trying to reorient itself to face its new attackers. It doesn't quite get the chance, the enemy corvettes all beginning to pound the ship with low-grade weaponry. While the enemy ships swarm the UNSC frigate, distracting its point defenses, the larger alien ship maneuvers to get a line of fire with its main weapons, which were fairly light mass accelerators, though much heavier than the guns on the corvettes.
Aboard the bridge of the human warship, all of the crew have strapped themselves in, to prevent being sent flying by the constant, violent impacts of the alien weaponry. Suddenly, the ship shudders much more than previously as the enemy frigate opens fire. Raina's head snaps back and hits her chair, her groaning quietly as her ship is repeatedly shaken around by its larger guns. "How much damage did that do?"
"Commander, starboard engine pod has been sheared off by that gun's repeated strikes, and our hull has failed in many places from those corvettes' weaponry. Our reactor may soon go critical." Her XO comments, glancing over at the woman.
"Shiva is primed for launch, Ma'am. And I can fire off the Archers at any time." Her weapons officer cuts the commander off before she can respond.
She sighs, before clearing her throat. "Fire off missile pods 1-32, target the surrounding corvettes, with eight pods targeting each ship. Fire the rest at that enemy frigate, along with our Shiva."
"Eighteen pods for one ship? And a shiva?...Yes ma'am." The officer does as ordered, the deck thumping repeatedly as 1501 missiles are launched from the ship at once. The results end similarly to what one would expect, since what she had just ordered was overkill by almost all standards. The second the missiles are launched, the enemy corvettes open fire with a type of laser defense system, stopping about a third of them in the seconds following the launch. Still, while impressive, the closest pair alien ships are consumed in fire, their shielding failing soon after, though the missiles continue pounding the vessels even after they're destroyed. The next to see the wrath of the UNSC is another corvette, though its further distance allows it to shoot down even more missiles. Though rather than be hit with the missiles, it ignites with a fire coming from within, the ship self destructing. This actually is a huge favor for the last surviving corvette, as the blast actually detonates all of the missiles targeting it, as well as all but fifteen of the missiles targeting the survivor.
Those miss as well, when the small ship jumps into FTL, emerging around two kilometers from their larger ally. The two ships then open fire together at the roughly five hundred missiles aimed at them. They take out over half of the projectiles, though seeing the hopelessness of continuing to fire, the enemy frigate accelerates into the missile swarm and detonates. What they had failed to take into account, though, is the Shiva within said swarm of Archers. It is detonated as well, and then ten kilometers of empty space between it and the alien frigate do little to help the ship as its kinetic barriers fry instantly, the nuclear inferno vaporizing the alien metals, along with the bodies of the alien crew aboard that ship.
The UNSC frigate wasn't exactly in good condition, though, the warship crippled and nearly out of ordinance. Add that to the fact that it would soon be pulled into the world's gravity well, and Raina knew that things were bad. So she did the only thing she could do. "Alright people, we might have won this round, but we're still royally screwed if we don't abandon ship. Winters, set the reactor to self-destruct in five minutes. Everyone else, lets get off of this ship. Now."
She presses a button on a nearby console, the lighting turning red and alarms blaring. All around the ship, the surviving crew were scrambling to the escape pods, with the exception of her bridge crew. She sighs. "Ensigns, when I give an order, follow it. Me and Winters will be right behind you all. As soon as I make sure no one gets left behind."
The lower ranking men and women look at their CO for a few seconds, before reluctantly walking out the door, leaving only her and her XO. He smiles slightly, looking at Raina. "Well, the reactor's going to go critical in five. So want to take one last walk around the ship?"
She rolls her eyes, standing from her seat when the ship's artificial gravity fails, being replaced by the planet's, causing the commander to stumble, Winters steadying her, to her slight embarrassment. "Alright. Since I assume you know what sections aren't compromised, lets do a quick check."
He nods and the two officers jog down the ship's now empty corridors and rooms, taking four minutes to do so, every few seconds feeling the hull shake as it gets further into the colony's gravitational field. Suddenly the hallway changes into a steep slide, Raina leaping into an adjacent doorway, catching her friend as he falls past her. "You're not getting away that easily, lieutenant." She says with a bit of a grin.
Its now his turn to roll his eyes, before the two hurry to one of the life pods. There's only one left, and it happens to be their bridge crew, who quickly pull the two inside and get them strapped in. The pilot speaks up. "Only thirty seconds. You two were cutting it close. Anyways..." The pod launches away from the ship, the crew watching in silence as the ship glows orange from re-entry, before suddenly detonating into a fireball. Transfixed by the scene, most of them don't hear the pilot mutter "Shockwave incoming..." before their heads all get smashed into the hull as the pod bucks and shakes, knocking over two thirds of them unconscious. The last thought that goes through Raina's head is "Maybe I should've took the desk job." before her vision fades to black.
AU Timeline:
2160-2170:
Humanity Experiences the "Interplanetary Wars", a series of conflicts between the United Nations, the Koslovics, based on Mars, and the Frieden Movement, based in the Jovian Moons. Outcome: The devastation of much of Earth's natural resources, along with a United Nations victory. The United Nations Space Command is officially formed, to act as Humanity's Military and Exploratory arm of government.
2291:
Doctors Wallace Fugikawa and Tobias Shaw develop the Shaw-Fugikawa slipspace drive, allowing humanity to colonize other systems.
2296:
Strange gravitational readings are found on Pluto's moon of Charon, which is revealed to have been a long dormant alien device. Scientists begin to speculate why this has occured now and not earlier, though none are able to figure it out yet. Regardless, humanity discovers these 'Mass Relays' in many of their systems, and decides to use them for faster supply transport. The slipspace drive is still used for transport to some systems that lack a Mass Relay.
2310:
The Colonial Administration Authority and the Colonial Military Administration are formed.
2490:
The Insurrection begins, with various rebel factions, mostly the United Rebel Front, taking up arms against the UNSC.
2525:
Communications cease from the agricultural world of Shanxi, in the UNSC Outer Colonies. The UNSC Frigate Force of Will is initially dispatched to investigate the disturbance, with HIGHCOM expecting an innie attack. Though when the frigate loses contact with them as well, Battle Group 4, consisting of CMA destroyer Heracles, along with frigates Arabia and Vostok, is sent as well.
The Turians make first contact with an unknown species trying to activate a mass relay. Initial attempts to halt their actions turn violent, and a single Turian frigate is crippled, along with two of the alien's frigates. This battlegroup soon loses contact with their superiors, though one final transmission can be heard, trying to explain that they need reinforcements when the message abruptly ceases.
(Current Year)
Author's Note:
Alright people. So this is my first story, so before you get too harsh with your comments, just remember that I will accept criticism as long as it is constructive. And now to explain a bit about the plot. The alien "frigate" was a Turian cruiser, it's just called that because its around frigate/destroyer size for the UNSC. So you'll be seeing a lot of stuff like that as I switch POV's between factions. And as for Mass Effect characters, I'll be moving birth dates and stuff forward so that many are still as they are shortly before the first game. Anyways, second chapter'll be up soon, so if you have any questions, I'll try to clear them up in the author's note of that chapter. Or a PM, provided you send me one. Bye!
"Italics" equal a comm transmission, an AI, or an alien language.