Hello, esteemed ladies and gentelmen, this is his most holy and glorious JugdementOfCarrion, here is the very first chapter of his very newest story, a story where the galaxy is not what it is because of one single incident in Humanities past!
For those of you who wish to critisise, I would suggest you do so in an orderly, constructive manner, as I or any other knows it is diificult if not downright abominable to be insulted without giving any way to show the author a way to improve.
Another point is, this is NOT REAL! Yes you heard me it is not real, there are no Asari, no Turians, no Krogan, no robotic army of death (yet), so I would ask you to compose yourself as such, do not believe it is real for if you do I suggest you visit you local doctor whos pecialises in mental development or health!
For a disclaimer it is simple, Mass Effect is not mine, nor is anything I have inadvertantly stolen or perhaps unknowingly copied as their are many, a great many Sci-Fi's in the world and perhaps such an idea I have is not so unique.
Read on my enthusiastic audience and continue to dream, think and most of all imagine!
7th April, 2018
Moscow
"The American dogs and their Slaves want to bury Glorious Russia; they want US to be like them, all lazy, all fat, all corrupt, they want everything that is Russia to be gone….Why, it is because they fear us, because we are powerful, because we refuse to bow down to them, because we fight, because we struggle and most important we are RUSSIAN!"
The speech was met with thunderous applaud from the gathered crowd, many of them being the Old guard, Communists, Imperialists, Ultra-Nationalists, Patriots and Militarists, each one a staunch supporter and eager participant in 'Putin's' Russia, each one not only dreaming for a strong Russia but also a Russia that is on top, domineering over each nation; untouchable.
"That is why we are here, today; we are here to announce to the world that Russia will take its place as number one, that we will be sitting upon our throne on top of the world with our boots upon the throats of the Western demons!"
More encouraging screams roared from the immense crowd, some fifty thousand gathered just outside of St. Basils Cathedral, all wanting the same thing. Shouts of 'Death to the Americans', 'Rise Russia' and 'Glory to us' were bellowed out in competition with other innumerable catchphrases.
This demonstration wasn't the only one within Moscow, throughout the beautiful capital, there were hundred more, all in unison denouncing the Americans and their allies, each one nurturing or renewing Russia hatred and anger of the West, but as in all things there was opposition; a handful of liberal groups ranging from gay communities to the oft despised 'biznesman' of 'New Russia', were the others found support in the domineering hierarchy, these groups suffered as militia, police, opposing protesters, military personnel and politicians quickly berated or assaulted them, many were arrested and a quiet few simply disappeared never to be seen.
This single city wasn't the only to suffer, all over the indomitable Russia, the people rose up in two camps the minorities packed out with the more 'western' or Islamic sympathizers and those in the overwhelming majority; the Russophiles. All around this chaotic country, people were turning on one another over the future of the Motherland, Millions wanting to return to the days of power, strength and above all world fear of Russia.
These protest, demonstrations, marches and rallies have been occurring almost every day for the past three months, almost causing problems for the economy until the government was forced to ask the population to reign in their zeal until after they stop working and between that moment to their sleep to ensure it was orderly and peaceful, thing was it didn't go as planned but wasn't frowned upon. All of this was leading to an immense culmination of Anti-West attitudes amongst the populace.
Truth be told, this same issue was occurring all over Eastern Europe, mirroring their elder Brother/Sister. All of this a direct response to NATO's increase in military presence, spending and political strong arming of dozens of nations around the world but also in threatening Ukraine with military intervention if they did not join the EU, naturally this sparked outrage and before long American and Western citizens were urged not to travel to the former Soviet Bloc as 'partisans' began hunting any foreign national, often with backing from local authorities.
The witch hunts and increasing levels of Military deployment, readiness and of aggressive realpolitik in Russia towards the United State of America eventually culminated in a rogue attack by exiled Russian Ultra-Nationalists on the U.S.S Lincoln on 22nd of June at 11:34 pm, a nuclear aircraft carrier, using over two tonnes of C4 all around the hull and further boarding the carrier, the Russians killed the commanding staff, radio operators and all crew that were within the CIC, shutting down alarms and setting explosives within the reactor and engines, jumping ship the Russian terrorists escaped soon detonating the explosives. The ship sunk with no hands surviving less than a minute after the detonation, alerting several escort vessels that had lagged behind or otherwise outpaced one of America's largest and certainly most expensive vessels. The fall out as one would imagine set both Russia and America at each other's throats, fingers were close to pressing the big red button and begin the apocalypse but as fate would have it the men and women responsible were caught attempting to parade their victory within Russia, swiftly acting the FSB arrested them and on hearing the news the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, ordered their deaths. The almost Armageddon stopped, both nations powered down their significant world ending assets, thought the tension remained. Later it was found that the Ultra-Nationalists were originally imprisoned within one of Siberia's Gulags for being insane, while adding to America's scrutiny and constant berating of Russia's penal systems, it allowed for steady decline of the pressure that had been created from the event.
"We are Russia, a people of ancient and strong origin, we have weathers, Huns, Vikings, Mongols, Teutonic Germans, Poles, Swedes, Austrians, Prussians, Chinese, Japanese, French, Germans, and Turks, with each nation we have come out on top, we were the ones to destroy and collapse their 'grand' nations, we were the ones who have saved Europe, not Once, no, no, no BUT TWICE!" More cheers and encouragement sounded off. "We are the only ones which should be in power, we are the only ones who can be in power, we are the only ones who are responsible, after all we do not arm Muslim fundamentalists, we do train them, we do not support brutal madmen to become dictators in Africa and South America, we do not enter countries because we want oil or we want them to be American, we do not target civilians, we do not hide in bunkers and bases bombing our enemies, we do not police the globe and we do not spy on our allies!"
A thunderous applause began; he allowed it to continue on for some time before raising his arm and slowly silencing the noise.
"My brothers and sisters, their always comes a day were we must choose, a day we're we either stand up tall facing the storm or kneel down and whether it under some rocks, it is a choice….
Suddenly, without alarm, a massive sound simply boomed off, shaking the earth, knocking many of the demonstrators over including the orator, moments later and the ground began to split, spurting forth fire, noxious fumes, sewage, rubble and water, claiming a few of the poor people who happened to be closest to these gaping wounds. The activist immediately gathered their wits and quickly aided one another to avoid further loss of life, quickly evacuating to a safe distance, watching in abject horror as the earth simply tore apart the cobblestones of Red Square, to the side of them a single wall of the Kremlin collapsed due in no small feat to the tremors and violence occurring at the moment.
Within five minutes hundreds of Military, Fire, Ambulance and Police vehicles, crew, troops cordoned off the area, sealing it and conducting their own procedures to save lives and fix the problem. Within the hour after blaring reports of 'Tragic' Russian gas explosion and the like amongst Western Media, the Russian moved in Cement trucks and began to fill in and bury hundreds of entrances, exits and tunnels that comprised of the entire Moscow Metro system, sealing thousands of unlucky passengers within.
An hour later and the official report was sent out to the world; Russia had been attacked by an American deep cover agent, an active agent who had been contacted by the CIA to perform an act of Mass Destruction by setting off a Nuke close to the Kremlin, however the Russians were able intercept him on his way and after a shootout had been able to kill the agent. Worse was that the nuclear device was linked to his heart, as the American intelligence officer lay dying, the Russians attempted to disarm the device firstly, second to prolong his life and eventually by the heroic actions of Colonel Tanya Durova attempt to make the bomb less damaging then it could be. Durova had picked the bomb up and threw herself into a ventilation shaft, one that as it turned out was close to 14 km deep, the explosion rippled and most of her comrades died of exposure, bystanders soon died of the intense radiation and in an effort to stop the invisible killing force from spreading the Metro's on authority of the President were shut by cementing them over in eight meters of solid concrete with a two metre outer layer of led lined steel domes. Estimates put the death toll at four hundred and seventy three thousand, the single worst loss of Russian life and in fact within the world in a single day.
The fallout turned hot as Russia immediately annexed all of Eastern Europe while simultaneously striking Alaska and sinking the 2/3rds of the American Pacific Fleet with few losses and to the considerable ire of the West. All American operations were on the defensive as the Russians rolled their advance, knocking aside the more technologically capable yet less war orientated forces of the ground. On the back foot and constantly slipping behind as vast cyber warfare regiments and specialised EMP weaponry were utilised to cripple the American military machine, the President, then Barack Obama sought any way to halt the advance, even going so far as getting their allies to either join the war against Russia or to force a cease fire while the evidence was reviewed. However on review of the evidence provided, the CIA personally and quickly discovered that it had been a rogue operation and declassified it to members of the American government, many wanted to continue to fight and force the Russians off but, with the evidence once it was out it clearly point the finger at the U.S as having little control of their intelligence agencies. Wanting to restore peace but also trust with its Allies, the President communicated to President Vladimir Putin and negotiated amazingly a cease fire not three days after the onslaught.
The UN served as the arbiter between the nations with America forced to hand over Alaska and all Eastern European nations formerly recognised as states of Russia, Russia was to pay out an immense sum to cover the damage they had inflicted and was forced to provide free gas to Europe and America for ten years, attempts were made to refuse, but with the entire world literally pointing a barrel at their heads now that they were ready, there was no choice but to accept.
The cost was almost too high, but with their own forces being severely mauled the West accepted much to the many Eastern peoples of these nations disappointment, what followed was a yearlong second cold war, with Russia putting down hundreds of rebellions and America manoeuvring the world to accept a united earth government, as they formerly called it; the Systems Alliance, of course without Russia. Five months and the world was saved from WW3 but the price was a single rogue nation that continued to harbour bitter thoughts, cold rage and undiluted disgust for the enemy that had killed more of their own then they did while they fought. A single nation that was not only excluded but actively ignored for the immediate future often deemed as unstable and unfit to re-join the human community, a nation that had committed terrible crime despite all evidence to the contrary.
That was over a hundred and thirty nine years ago.
11th of March, 2157
Shanxi
They came out of nowhere, massive ships, blocky, angular and without any beauty to them, their entire hulls lined and filled with deliverers of ordnance, hundreds of thousands of cannon, rail gun, plasma weaponry, torpedo tubes, missile batteries, rocket launchers, and laser mortars, the ships were distinctive, they were known throughout all of Human space, very little was needed to identify such heavily armed and armoured beasts of war, even flags and names etched in the blackened hulls were unneeded as the ships silhouettes were all that were needed to recognise and terrify many of the inhabitants of this peaceful planet, but as usual little warning came, invisible shells, munitions, objects punched armour, pounding their immense kinetic force into shields, balls of plasma contained by magnetic fields simply sprayed their ultra-hot cores upon the target ships as mass effect shields retarded the containment fields, missiles soared against the backdrop of black space leaving behind trails of blue, impacting already weakening shields and slamming into hulls with uncaring glee, rockets not far behind left red rails, impacting and spreading either thermite, some poisonous gas and EMP charge into the now exposed armours, Torpedoes using their immense payload simply finished the stricken vessels and defence platforms, gutting hundreds of these objects, engulfing many in impressive yet silent explosions of blue, red and white, leaving the wrecks and debris to forever drift in space.
Not five minutes had passed and the entire fleet stationed to protect the verdant earth like planet had been absolutely crushed, leaving the planetary defence forces paralysed, fearful and without support.
"GET THE GUNS ONLINE NOW" roared General Williams
"SIR THEIR OFFLINE, THE RUSSIANS JAMMED THEM" equally bellowed out a young private
"FUCKING HELL, GET EVERYONE INTO SHELTER, INTO BUNKERS ANTHING" shouted out Williams
"SIR EVACUTATIONS ARE 93% COMPLETE, ONLY A FEW STRAGLERS HAVE BEEN LEFT BEHIND, ON ROUTE TO THE BUNKERS" answered frantically a lieutenant
"WHAT ABOUT OUR FORCES" asked Williams
"SIR WEVE LOST CONTACT WITH 133RD MANCHURIAN RIFLES, 282ND BALTIMORE GRENADIERS, 866TH COLDSTREAM RIFLES, 1011TH KREIG PANZER HEAVY TANKS, 2111TH WUHAN MECHANISED, ONLY 38 % HAVE REPORTED IN AND HAVE CONFIRMED ORDERS SIR" reported another lieutenant
"FUCKING HELL, GET THEM TO THE AA TOWERS, PREPARE DEFENSIVE LINES SECTOR 5.8/3 FACING WEST, 18.1/16 FACING NORTH, LAY THE ENTIRE SECTION IN BETWEEN WITH ANTI TANK AND PERSONEL MINES, DIG A SERIES OF TRENCHES BEHIND FOR OPTIMAL FALL BACK POSTIONS AROUND EACH LINE" ordered Williams
Hoping that the rubble from three skyscrapers that the Russians had hit in their preliminary strike would not only stop their armoured vehicles from traversing it but also their infantry from climbing it but also with the mines, the general was attempting to direct the Russians into two killing fields, the likelihood of that he knew to be incredibly low as the superior Russian troops simply ignored most tactical concepts of the Alliance. His numbers were low, with five regiments out of action or severely depleted he was left with only three regiments comprising of the 121st Washington Assault Marines regiment, the 801st Bordeaux Dragoon Mechanised, the 114th Zulu Rifles, most of which was fresh faced, probably their first time in combat. His position was relatively secure, with over 14km of ruined city between the front and his makeshift command centre, his supplies were descent with plenty of power, munitions and food, but with few soldiers, tanks, transports, AA batteries and in general few military equipment, his east and south were protected by a series of impassable mountains with no trails or tracks capable of supporting more than ten troops at a time, he hoped that deploying what was left of the police garrison was capable of not only alarming but holding off any incursion from these areas.
His enemy, the Imperial Russian Army and Imperial Navy, the two most brutal forces in Human history were at the current moment getting ready to deploy en mass and secure the city, they were numerically inferior to any Alliance battle group but had equipment and training which simply evened the odds if not promoted them in their favour, their departure or inability to secure Prothean tech ensured that they could toy with a much wider array of technologies which secured their position of power to the Alliance, it was a problem which the Alliance either through ignorance or belief that Mass effect technologies were superior that led to hundreds of millions of deaths to the Imperial Russian Empire. Their tech was expensive to manufacture but sturdy, solid and reliable as opposed to the cheaply mass produced and highly unreliable Alliance military crafts ranging from Armour to Guns.
"Intelligence what do the Ruski's have?" asked Williams
"Unsure sir but from the last transmission from Captain Nadine says it was the Black Fleet" replied a captain
"Jesus" all around him people were silent, their heads slightly bowed to coming slaughter, the Black Fleet was the Imperial Navies second greatest and most skilled fleet, which spear headed every major naval action in the first Russo-Alliance war, won the Sino-Russian war, destroyed the 3rd Fleet during the War of Sorrows, wiped out the entirety of 8th and 12th Fleets in the First Domination war and claimed the destruction of 52 alliance dreadnoughts in less than six hours in the Butchering of Tercius Prime, they were the elite of elite, feared by all and their load was the infamous, 233rd Preobrazhensky Life Guard Regiment, the terrifying 551st Muscovy Guard Grenadiers, the indomitable 777th Pavlovsk Grenadiers and the silent 812th Egersky Guard Regiment, coupled with these dangerous regiments was the 418th Guards Motor rifles, the 653rd Life Guard Tank Regiment, the 1536th Life Guard Paratroopers and the 2801st Guards Marine regiment. All of them were veterans of every major conflict in human history and personally were favoured by the Tsars and Tsarinas of Russia.
Hope was gone, but he would do his best to at least make this battle an annoyance to what would be a simple curb stomp.
22nd of Pratus, 2657
Dreadnought Palaven's Hammer, unknown system
"Sir what do we do?" asked his second in command Captain Tyrea Adricus
Looking out in the void, watching as hundreds of vessels simply fired upon the garden world exterminating resistance, the aged Admiral simply shuddered, he for once didn't know what to do, after all he did attempt to communicate to the military patrol that had attempted to open a relay on the other side of this one – relay 314, but they either ignored him or at least that's what he kept telling himself, then they powered up -assumed as weapons and he ordered their destruction, only one survived, limping to this side of the relay to try and warn its own people, it never made it as the amount of force it went through to reach this system simply broke the ship apart, killing the survivors.
When they received word from Palaven to supress the Natives to negotiate a complete surrender to the Hierarchy he complied hesitantly, something that earned him a few scolds for, now he was here he simply watched along with his crew in mute horror at the carnage, they arrived not a minute before the void painted fleet came through and simply eviscerated the - what he and the crew assumed were the native people, closer inspection revealed similar designs, meaning same species and a civil war, something that caused this situation to spiral out of control, he simply didn't know what to do, but as the saying goes 'if you don't know send it to someone with a bigger credit check than you'.
"Send a burst transmission to Palaven, everything including footage, and request orders" ordered Admiral Septimus Oraka
"Confirmed Sir" replied his Comms Officer
"Helm, relay to all ships of the fleet to make for the gas giant 3.8 million KM away from us, we hide behind while we receive orders, every ship is to conserve power and limit all chatter, we do not want to alert the native fleet or fleets" commanded Oraka
A chorus of aye, aye sirs rang out, followed by the subtle change in gravity aboard the Dreadnought, then a pitch and lastly a steady acceleration towards their destination that would hopefully mask their presence but also allow them to receive communications from Palaven.
11th March 2157
Dreadnought Pyotr Veliky
"All ships, ignore the unidentified signatures for the moment, Battle Group 18 you are to deploy close to Cixi approx. 3 AU away, stealth is paramount so activate the drives and mask your travel corridors, get ready to begin combat action against the unknowns" ordered Admiral Anastasia Voronstova
A single confirmation replied which indicated that Battle Group 18's leader; Counter Admiral Anton Ushakov had acknowledged but was also in the process of following through, his Dreadnought, Imperator Katerina I, leading the detaching group.
With her usual calm reserve, Admiral Voronstova viewed the planet below; it was writhing in pain as shell after shell, missile after missile, beam after beam, impacted, melted, exploded or carved the ground of the green earth, turning the area into an angry blackened wound upon the continent. Yet still there would be no pity, no mercy, no remorse, the shells and objects will continue to fall, the missiles, torpedoes and rockets will continue to be launched, plasma batteries and beam cannons will continue to unleash immense heat upon the already ruined capital city, it was, in a single word, beautiful.
"Continue preliminary bombardment, deploy all fighter and bombers, supress their air capabilities and burn them out of their holes, second wave deploys ten minutes after aircraft, General Alexey Solokov has field command once on the ground"
Another chorus of affirmatives rang out, this time a noticeable tone of glee permeating the voices, her marines, crewman, and soldiers were ready and eager to fight the enemy, the new hostiles, and possibly new Alliance designs simply added to the euphoria of excitement.
22nd of Pratus, 2657
STG Vessel, Unmarked, Unnamed
"This is problematic" with a sigh Captain Kirrahe quickly continued on his comm "Send a message back to Surkesh and the Citadel, Turians have engaged and destroyed new species patrol group, hunted them into their own system with express desire to add new species as a client race, stumbled upon new species civil war, possibly waiting for reinforcements or orders" relayed Kirrahe
"Done sir" replied his communications specialist
With a nod, Kirrahe simply stared back out into the void, in the centre, a garden world that was being bombarded by hundreds of weapons, extinguishing all life below, to his figurative left in the view scree the Turian fleet hid behind the biggest and most furthest from the sun gas giants hoping to avoid detection while the waited, not even a million kilometres away a detachment of native vessels had positioned themselves to either ambush or spearhead an attack on the unsuspecting Turian battle group. His limited or non-existent knowledge on the new race had already begun to file and document everything he saw, for example he knew they were a highly militant race, very cunning and clever, barbaric, and fighting a civil war, he noted in his mind that it would be difficult to integrate such a volatile species into the Citadel.
"And so it begins once again" spoke Kirrahe to know one but understanding his entire crew had heard.
So how was it?