A/N Hello all, welcome to Chronicles of a Divided Galaxy. I thought of this the other day and couldn't get it out of my head, so I decided to put imagination into written form. Please, let me know if I should continue.
I don't own Mass Effect, but all OC's, the plot and new races in this story are my own unless otherwise specified.
September 5th, 2157
Captain Harrison was not having a good day. He wasn't necessarily having a bad day, nothing had gone wrong yet, but it most certainly could have been better.
The grizzled, forty year-old man was in command of the garrison guarding the colony of Shanxi, a fairly important colony in the ever-expanding territory of the Alliance. He knew it was an important posting, but sometimes the monotony of it all made him want to quit sometimes. Between an endless cycle of repeating the same patrol route over and over again, and filling out a stack of paperwork that never seemed to get smaller, Harrison would have been glad for just about anything to happen outside the norm. So when he learned that a research expedition was being sent through the systems relay to map out the other side, he was all too eager to jump at the chance to do something new.
So when he learned that he would not be accompanying the expedition, merely waiting for their return on his side of the relay, Harrison was upset, to say the least.
What the hell kind of sense does this make he thought with an internal scowl, keeping his face neutral so that his crew didn't see his dissatisfaction with his orders. Glancing around, he watched the controlled chaos around him on the bridge of his ship, the Mercy, and it calmed him down somewhat. He would do his job, regardless of how stupid he thought it was. Still, he couldn't fathom why his superiors had decided to order him to stay and guard his side of the relay instead of accompanying the researchers. If they encountered trouble, they would be caught defenseless, and that would undoubtedly result in a lot of dead innocents.
He glanced at the holographic display in front of him again, its blue glow calming him down even further. He was glad that it wasn't some aggravating color like red. He had enough stress to worry about without the colors around him subconsciously stressing him out even more.
Before that train of thought could really leave the station, however, Harrison refocused on the holographic display. The systems mass relay was highlighted in light blue and situated in the center of the display, while his ships were highlighted in white and were all around the relay. He arrayed his small fleet in a standard defensive position around the relay should something other than the researchers come through. He had the Mercy, a cruiser, in front and above where anyone coming from the relay would be, both weapons and shields ready for anything. Around the relays drift zone, where a ship would drift into upon using the relay, he had his eight frigates surrounding the area and slightly above it, aiming down. Having all his ships above the drift zone would make it take just a little bit longer for any enemy ships to align their main guns. Harrison was hoping that, should worse come to worse, that bit of extra time would ensure his victory.
The Mercy itself was an Alliance cruiser, coming in at 750 meters, it could punch holes in anything equal to or under its weight class. Thanks to an oversized mass effect core that allowed for more power-draw on both the weapons and shields, the cruiser acted as back-up to the faster moving frigates in the Alliance armada. While the frigates would pepper the enemy ships with rapid fire and too quick to target movements, the cruiser would blast the enemy with mass accelerated rounds from afar, and hopefully draw fire away from the frigates.
The frigate, on the other hand, was smaller by about 200 meters and was all about firing as many shots at the enemy as possible, and getting the hell out of dodge before the enemy could fire back. Acting more like fighter craft, they would swarm enemy ships from all sides, making sure that the enemy never had a chance to rest. They were equipped with three small spinal mounted guns that could either fire one at a time in a rapid swarm of rounds, or all at once for a larger, concentrated shot. While deadly, the power required to keep the frigate both moving and shooting leaves little power left for the shields, requiring that frigate pilots be the best of the best in order to dodge enemy fire.
Alliance ship design, based off original Lokataen design, made their spacecraft look more like something meant to fly in atmosphere, rather than in space. They were very streamlined, the wings of the craft were pulled back, making them look like birds in the middle of a dive. The smaller, and subsequently faster, the ship, the "bigger the dive", or the further back the wings were pulled. Alliance ships were also painted a bright blue, giving them an almost aquatic feel, creating a spacecraft that looked like anything but.
Feeling secure in his formation, Harrison looked at the clock in the top right corner of the display and frowned. It was 1132 Earth time. The researchers had left little over an hour ago, and should have been back by now. Today was just supposed to be a preliminary scan of the relay on the other end of this one, to see if they could find out where it went. He wouldn't be surprised if they decided to go through it themselves, all in the name of science. Damn coats. They always made a mission more difficult.
"Sir." his sensors operator, Lieutenant von Ehrenstein-Smith, referred to simply as Smith by the rest of the crew due to an unwillingness to say his full name every time someone needed to talk to him, called out. "Somethings coming through the relay. Looks like one of the research ships judging by my readings." he said with an almost undetectable sigh of relief. I guess I'm not the only one who thought this was taking too long Harrison thought.
Before he could reply, the relay glowed a bright blue and spit out the researchers. The condition they were in brought one question to his mind.
What the hell?
"Sir," Smith called out, tension thick in his voice. "The research vessel has been damaged."
Harrison could only grumble at how big an understatement that was. The researchers ship had obviously fallen under attack. Just by looking at it on the display, he could see fires spewing out of the ship, and by how fast it was moving either most, if not all, of its engines had been blasted. Soon Smith scanned the ship, knowing the captain would only tell him to anyway. The reports indicated that most of the ship was depressurized, and that most of the crew had been killed. The thought brought a grimace to Harrison's face. He hated being right sometimes.
"Sir," the communications officer, Lieutenant Garcia, called out to him, grabbing his attention instantly. "They're hailing us." she said with wide eyes and eagerness in her tone. It was obvious she wanted to know what happened to them as much as he did.
"Patch it through." he said sternly, harsher than he meant to. Garcia almost flinched at his tone, but complied all the same. Harrison internally kicked himself for not restraining himself while bringing he brought his attention back to the display. He needed to keep calm, if only to keep his crew calm as well.
A few moments later the image of the research ship disappeared and was replaced by the image of a Lokatae in a white lab-coat. Harrison recognized it as the head researcher, Filna Lilup. Unlike last time he saw her, her blue feathers and head-crest were now all ruffled, poking out in all directions, instead of the clean, combed back look that most Lokatae sported. Her big, blue eyes were as wide as they could possibly be, and her beak clicked open as she spoke.
"Captai..." she said, all sound from the connection fading for a moment before coming back, a sign that their communications had been damaged. "Captain Harrison, do you read me?" her head crest feathers were drooped and her voice was wavering. She was clearly terrified.
"Yes Ms. Lilup, I read you." Harrison replied, voice neutral, but he was having trouble locking down the concern and confusion that seeped through his eyes. "What is going on?" he asked, not really wanting to know but knowing he had to.
Filna was silent for a long time, the fear in her eyes never dying down. For a moment Harrison wondered if she even heard what he said, but before he could repeat himself the Lokatae mumbled something, so quite he couldn't hear it.
"Say again Filna, what happened?" he said, forgoing formalities and trying to appeal to her. Every second she stared at him in silence, her fear grew ever more apparent, creating a mask of petrified terror on her face that only served to fill Harrison with dread. When she spoke again, it was barley above a whisper.
"They're here."
Harrison blinked, realization dawning on him slowly. When he glanced around the bridge, he saw the same reaction on everyone else's face, one of terse consternation. Was she really saying that...
"They're here." she said again, louder than before, interrupting his train of thought. Her voice was saturated with fear, but also conviction. He thought about asking if she was sure, but he knew damn well that she was. Any Lokatae would be.
Masking the dread he felt inside him, his face took on an expression of grim determination. He looked around the bridge and saw all eyes on him. The controlled chaos of before turned into a pressing silence. On the faces of the bridge crew he saw worry, fear and despair. But he also saw anger, determination and hope. It was the last three he needed to rally in everyone, for the fight ahead of them would likely help determine either the destruction or the continuation of the Alliance, of both the Lokatae and of Humanity.
"So be it." he said, loud enough for everyone to hear. He then set his gaze back on Filna, who still looked terrified out of her mind. He tried to pour as much confidence as he could into his next words, giving her a look filled with sincerity.
"We're going to get you out of here, and then we're going to kick their asses."
The simplicity of what he said did wonders for the moral of the crew. Those who had just seconds ago been filled with fear were now rallying with those who had no doubt. Cheers erupted on the bridge, at first making Filna flinch from the abrupt noise, but it soon began to calm her down. She then nodded and looked back at the captain, her eyes no longer threatening to pop out of her head.
"Then I wish you luck." she said with a nod. Her thanks went unsaid.
"I don't need luck." Harrison said with a slight smirk, earning a slight perking up of Filna's head-crest, the Lokatae equivalent.
Harrison looked up from the screen, eyeing his crew once more, silencing the crew without any command. His smirk grew into a grin, and he saw it echoed on many faces of his crew. They would beat the bastards, and everyone on his crew was willing to die to do so. It made him proud.
"They're already dead, am I right?" he asked, and the crew answered with a thunderous "SIR, YES SIR!"
Harrison nodded. "Then let's get to it."
Immediately the crew saluted as one and then went about their business. Ensigns ran about bringing reports from one station to another, and fingers danced across consoles. The sight made Harrison completely believe what he had said. If it came to it, he would see to it that his ship was the last thing the alien bastards ever saw.
In the 21st century, mankind learned two truths. That there is other life in the galaxy, and that some of it is hostile.
In the year 2016, an alien race landed on Earth, thereby changing the very fabric of human existence in a single instant. Fortunately, the aliens that landed were peaceful, and wanted coexistence. The aliens that forced them to flee to Earth, however, weren't and didn't.
The aliens were soon able to complete a translator so that they could communicate with humanity. What they had to say was frightening. They called themselves the Lokatae, and told humanity about how they were forced to flee from their home world, Inopor, due to an invasion by a hostile news shocked humanity to its very core.
Though debated heavily, the Aliens were allowed to take refuge on the planet, an operation made much easier since only several thousand were able to flee Inopor. Eventually the nations of the Earth, petrified by the fear of an invasion of Earth, ended their petty squabbles and united with the Lokatae under a single banner. Simply called the Alliance, they vowed that no alien species would do to humanity what happened to the Lokatae, and that they would defend each other, together.
A/N I was going to do a timeline, but then I figured it would be better to just get right into it, instead of forcing you to read a giant wall of mostly unimportant text.
Anyway, let me know what you think. Thank you.