Near Relay 314, 2157 CE

Space was silent, dark and vast. Here at the very edge of the nearby solar system, its star was only the brightest pinprick of light in a sea of others. The system was unremarkable and uninhabited and no one had ever given it or its star a name. Two huge gas giants orbited the star, amongst countless asteroids of varying shapes and sizes, that had never formed into planets due to the gas giants' gravity.

The only reason anyone ever came here after the initial survey by a batarian science expedition in 1952 CE was the dormant relay that had been found on this occasion. Since the Rachni Wars, relays where only to be activated when the council specifically allowed it. So this one was catalogued under the number 314 and left alone, save for routine patrols that regularly visited this border region of council space.

One such patrol currently dropped out of FTL. Five spaceships with clear, angular lines that gave them a predatory look reoriented themselves and set for a course through the system. It was a standard Turian patrol consisting of four frigates and a cruiser.

The Vigilant Beholder was a reconnaissance ship typically used to provide tactical data in battles or for patrols such as this one. It sacrificed some hangar space for a powerful sensor suite, enabling it to search a larger volume of space than other ships of its size.

On the bridge of the Vigilant Beholder captain Dalen Salonikus expected no surprises in this border system. It was too far away from the next inhabited world or space station to make mining profitable. For the same reason pirates rarely used it as a hideout. But it was Council Space and so they came here to look if everything was in order.

"We have plotted a course through the system and are now en route captain" said the ship's navigator, a young Turian named Tiranus. He had graduated from the Academy a year ago, and the posting on the Vigilant Beholder was his first assignment. He lacked the experience of most of the other crew members, but was a quick learner. Salonikus saw him as fitting in his position, which meant he had quite a positive view of him. In Turian culture, finding one's place to serve the common good was held in higher regard than trying to climb the career ladder for personal gains. Declining a promotion to keep a job one was good at was not frowned upon, on the contrary.

"Good. Begin sensor sweep pattern eight. In three hours we will make our next FTL transit towards the outer gas giant. Engine room, make preparations to discharge drives there. Comm, relay this order to the fleet."

There were no acknowledgements of the captain's orders. On a human ship you would have heard an "Aye, sir!" but the Turians simply followed their orders, silently and efficiently, as they had been taught to do. Salonikus was proud of his crew. They were efficient teamworkers, and knew how to do their respective jobs.

In the engine room, Nyris Pavak got the order automatically transmitted to her by omnitool and set to work. She had served as chief technician on the Beholder for nine years now, seven of them under captain Salonikus. The discharge cables had to be prepared and the properties of the gas giant's magnetic field and other details had to be taken into account, which differed from planet to planet. This involved number tweaking, like most tech related tasks on a starship, and Pavak was very good with numbers. She prided herself in keeping the ship's systems precisely tuned as close to optimal specifications as possible and had little tolerance for sloppiness.

Kurias Pindus was responsible for sensors and communication. He was one of the older crewmembers, having a service record of over thirty years. He was from the colony of Taetrus, where an inclination towards independency from the Hierarchy still existed among a minority of the population. While far from being a separatist himself, he was proud of his origins and held his facial markings in even higher esteem than most other turians.* He not only spoke a number of old Turian languages but was also able to understand the most common Volus tongue without a translator, which was quite a feat. Speaking it was out of the question, the anatomical differences between the two species were simply too great. His language skills combined with an interest in history made him perhaps the most educated person on board.

At this moment though, languages and history were the last thing on his mind.

"Captain! The sensors show the status of Relay 314 as active! I also get readings of four ships and nine shuttle sized craft in its vicinity!"

"What? This relay is not scheduled to be activated. Either someone is really looking for trouble or this is done by an outside party. Send a priority two message to command immediately. Activation of a relay is a serious matter."

Outside party, captain? asked Tiranus.

"Possible first contact. This could be a new race exploring the relay network. Granted, we haven't met a new species since we discovered the Yahg, but unauthorized relay activations are almost unheard of. Even Terminus pirates are aware of the risks. And of the repercussions should they get caught. Pindus, can you identify those ships yet?"

"No we are still too far away, I get no clear identification. This should change in a few minutes though."

Indeed, soon after they had come close enough to get more conclusive scans. "The ships match no known configuration. Also one of them is quite big, around dreadnought size".

So it was highly unlikely that these were some particularly crazy pirates or smugglers looking for new hideouts and secret routes, Salonikus concluded. Outside of the regular military fleets, only very few Terminus warlords and the three biggest mercenary groups had an old dreadnought or two. None of those groups were eager for another Rachni War, nor prone to so brazenly provoke the council. His train of thought was interrupted when he saw Pindus pause and then check his readings again.

"What is it, Pindus?"

"Their drive cores seem to be powered down. I detect no mass effect fields from any of the craft."

This stroke Salonikus as strange. Ships usually did not power down their eezo cores except when they were docked or their drives were damaged. „This is odd. Anyways, we have to investigate this. Update command of the situation. From now on, regularly send them sensor readings and situation updates every two minutes. They want to be informed of this. Flag those messages as priority two like the first one. Nav, prepare FTL transit to this position", Salonikus ordered, sending the coordinates to the navigator's terminal. These coordinates were two million kilometers away from the mass relay and the unknowns. Close enough to get a good look, but far enough to be save from unpleasant surprises. And not to spook them more than they inevitably would, if this was indeed first contact, Salonikus added in thought.

"Course plotted captain, the frigates are standing by." "Good. All ships, accelerate to FTL. Let's see who we are dealing with."

*The facial markings/tattoos seen on Turian characters in the games display which (colony) world is their home. It is an important part of their identity and "barefaced" is a deriding term that usually means someone who cannot be trusted.

Author's Notes

As a crossover, this is AU. I will make a number of changes to the canon material to fit with this story or where I feel that canon doesn't make sense/hits a logical wall. Example: Asari reproduction. I will certainly change that. I will also fill in stuff that canon doesn't cover. If you encounter differences or things that do not exist in canon: It is likely intentional, though I don't know every tidbit of information. So please do not tell me I got something "wrong" just because canon says otherwise. If something strikes you as weird or illogical though, feel free to point it out. Changes will (hopefully) make sense in the context of the story. I will also explain them in author's notes and sometimes within the story itself, if it fits in. The council not completely stopping the activation of relays after the Rachni Wars is the first obvious change, but more will follow. I also assume that Relay 314 is not inside the Shanxi system, but in another solar system nearby. The colony on Shanxi would have been discovered earlier by Council patrols, were the relay in the same system. Where exactly Shanxi and Relay 314 are within the Mass Effect galaxy is to my knowledge not mentioned in canon and I have not decided on that yet. It makes sense though to locate it in proximity to the Attican Traverse or the Skyllian Verge, at least in terms of the relay network.

Edit: This chapter has been updated. I have changed the quotation marks from German to English (thanks for pointing that out). I also introduced more Turian characters, to flesh out the plot and make the first chapter more lively. I am aware that the first chapter is indeed a bit short. The following chapters will be longer though. In the next chapter there will be background info on my stories' universe, mainly technology (not everything at once though, just some basics). Other topics, like history and political relations will partly be covered in-story, when they become relevant. Then I will move on to the humans currently exploring the relay, before first contact happens in the third chapter.

Well, this is my first story here, reviews are welcome. Expect an update about once a week.

Best Regards, NAFB