Came to the Wrong System Motha'
What happens if the reapers chased the Normandy through an unopened relay into an unexplored arm of the Milky Way? Who knows what terrifying and all-powerful races live there. This is a oneshot and a look at the epic OP-ness of Halo vs. Mass Effect. Enjoy.
"Joker get us through that relay now!" Shepard yelled as a whole reaper fleet was running them down. The scouting mission to the Hades Nexus had gone from bad to worse to a downright disaster. An anomaly from the system led the Alliance to send the Normandy to investigate. It had been a Reaper trap. One sensor ping and a whole fleet was bearing down on them. They immediately jumped to FTL to the next nearest system. It was recently discovered just days before the reapers invaded and had yet to be explored. As soon as the Normandy dropped out of FTL, with the Reapers in pursuit, they were greeted with a dormant Alpha Relay.
"Are you crazy commander? Who the hell knows what's on the other side?!" Joker yelled back even though they were only about a foot apart.
"Well we sure as hell know what's on this side and its out to kill us so just go the fuck through damn it!" Kaiden yelled from the copilot's seat. Shepard just nodded in approval while tightening his grip on the back of Joker's chair. Jokers hands flew over the controls, dodging fire from the reapers and heading toward the now warming up Relay.
"Okay well if we're all killed by some crazed insect race other than the Rachni, im blaming you two." The pilot said as pure energy arced out from the Relay and engulfed the Normandy.
"Carolyn can you forward Major Jensen's report on power fluctuation from reactor one to the next engineering shift. Let them deal with the problem" Captain Elizabeth Banks said toward her ships AI. Carolyn perked up from her position on the holo-table.
"Already there Liz." She said just as she got some anomalous readings from the sensors. "Whoa! Okay, im getting some anomalous readings from the ice moon of Epsilon Indi Five. It appears to be breaking apart from some sort of dark energy."
"What the hell? Get us over there!" Liz yelled to the helmsman and fell back into a nearby chair, contemplating what was going on. Her ship, the UNSC Fires of Retribution and the second Infinity-class ship to be produced, was assigned to scout the Epsilon Indi system and the planet Harvest. It was to be turned into a monument to the Great War and her ship was to secure the system as well as give prospects back to HIGHCOM if that was actually possible. The initial readings were good. Granted that the planet had been heavily glassed, radiation levels were on the decline and only a year or two of terraforming would be needed before preservation could begin. It was a completely trivial assignment through and through, at least until one of the moons of Epsilon Indi Five decided to blow up.
"Uh hey Liz I did some active scanning and it turns out that the ice moon was actually just a build up from billions of years of inactivity. There is some sort of device inside. Its what's causing the dark energy readings. Im brining up all I can at the station your occupying." Carolyn said as a few readings and long-range images appeared. Liz looked them over and saw that the object itself looked kind of like a massive tuning fork in space. The only difference is that in the middle were two spinning rings and a blue glow emanating from the center of them. Liz left the station and walked to the front of the bridge and stared out the large viewing window as the massive gas giant, and much smaller debris field of the shattered moon.
"Nothing is every easy is it, eh Carolyn?" She said back casting a look over her shoulder to the holo-table in the middle of the bridge. Their relationship was an odd one at best. Almost all AIs were the pinnacle of protocol, however her and Carolyn had developed quite a friendship over the past five years of her commanding the Retribution. It had even become a regular occurrence to see the two having random conversations in the mess from Liz's data pad. She didn't remember when Carolyn had stopped calling her captain and started using her name, but she did remember that it made her feel special. Like their friendship actually was real.
"No it's not. Were coming up on the debris field now. It appears that the device is pushing away any debris using mild gravitational fields. As of now all debris is now at least one thousand kilometers away from the device." Carolyn said manipulating a few holographically displayed windows. Her avatar, a young-looking woman in business attire and braided hair, looked over toward the window at Liz. "And before you ask, no it will not affect us in the slightest. The gravitational field is passive and relatively weak. As we speak it's already dissipating."
"Thanks Carolyn. Summers, position us five hundred kilometers away from the device. Mister Iwate, spin up all MACs and warm up the Energy Projector. Denser than Many, how are our shields?" Liz said. The helmsman and gunnery chief confirmed and the Huragok correspondent on the bridge grabbed a nearby data pad.
[Shields are at 100% capacity and operating at optimal efficiency] It said though the data pad's speakers and then drifted back to its station. Liz nodded in acceptance at the Huragok's report and looked back out the window as her ship cleared the debris field and parked itself at 500 km. Just then a corvette appeared next to the device in what seemed to be some sort of FTL deceleration. It appeared to have some minor damage but amazingly also had the word "NORMANDY" scrolled across the middle of the ship.
"Carolyn! get me a reading on that ship! Where the hell did it come from and why does it have English writing on it?" Liz yelled at the AI.
"We're through and... HOLY SHIT!" Joker yelled just as the Normandy exited the Relay. Everyone on the bridge was in awe at the display of raw military power. "That ship is FIVE kilometers long! its more than twice the length of Harbinger!"
"Joker shut up and open a line NOW!" Shepard yelled. After a second joker gave a thumbs up and Shepard pleaded, "This is Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy. We are under attack and a fleet of extremely powerful hostile warships ships were following us. We request any aid you can provide."
"Shepard, they appear to be using a type of active scanning on us. I cannot block any of it." EDI said as her 'body' entered the bridge. The AI stood on the opposite side of Joker's chair and brought up her omni-tool. "Also I must point attention to the name of the ship. It is in English. If you wish to check for yourselves just look toward the front, midway up the bulkhead."
Everyone took her advice and looked out the window and scrolled proudly across the front was UNSC FIRES OF RETRIBUTION. The English, sheer size of the ship, and the fact that it had not one but four massive cannons was beyond Shepard's belief. He thought he had died for the second time. The comm started beeping grabbing everyone's attention from the massive ship. Joker hesitantly reached for the accept button and pushed it.
"The is Captain Elizabeth Banks of the UNSC Fires of Retribution. We will provide assistance on the condition you dock immediately with our ship. You and your crew shall be questioned on why your ship is outside of UNSC space and how it using this artifact. Coordinates are being sent. Comply immediately or you will be considered hostile and fired upon immediately." The voice crackled over the comm. Gentle yet stern and commanding at the same time. The threat however caught everyone off guard.
"Understood Captain Banks. We will comply immediately, however we have some questions of our own as well." Shepard said, trying to be diplomatic even through the constant fear that the Reapers would exit the Relay right behind them before they could receive help. It seemed as though the universe wished to prove his fears true as the Reaper fleet pursuing them came through the relay. "Shit! Captain Banks that is the hostile fleet! we are activating out stealth systems and will rendezvous as soon as we escape!"
"Understood Commander Shepard, however escape will not be necessary. We shall handle all hostiles. Please move your ship to the fourth planet of the system." Captain Banks said over the radio, seemingly unimpressed at the reaper fleet even though it consisted of ten sovereign-class capital ships, and seventeen destroyer-class. The reapers immediately opened fire on the Normandy and the Retribution. Joker quickly engaged the stealth systems and dodged any fire at them as they fled the battle.
"Joker, train all sensors on the battle and project it in the War Room. I want to keep an eye on this. I don't believe Captain Banks knows what she's up against." Shepard said as he walked out of the cockpit.
"Carolyn, launch all Strident frigates and give me solutions on the three cruisers. Designate all Stridents hunters one through ten and task them on eliminating all other ships." Liz said still stating out the window at the enemy fleet. The small corvette, Normandy, took off after hiding its emissions. How that counted as stealth she'll never know but it seemed to throw the hostiles off. Red-orange beams were striking the Retribution but they were almost pathetically weak. The only saving grace was that they could fire in quick succession. She walked back behind the helm and Mister Iwate's station and noticed that shields had barely fallen twenty-five percent. "Fire at will Mister Iwate."
Liz felt the deck rumble as four, six hundred ton slugs took off toward their targets. This was closely followed by four volleys from the Archer missile pods. Each slug from the MACs blew clean through the cruisers and the Archer missiles obliterated the debris. Meanwhile the Strident frigates each dealt their own blows to the 'frigates' destroying them with relative ease. Each fell after only two rounds from the Stridents and again, Archer missiles eliminating the remaining debris. After the opening volleys this left six of the cruisers and seven of the frigates left. Immediately the enemy fleet dispersed attempting to avoid any further fire.
"Carolyn, tell Hunters one through ten to pair up and engage remaining frigates and tell Captain Blaze to ready Razgriz squadron. Mister Iwate, Warm up all Onagers and spin me up four more MAC rounds. We'll handle the remaining cruisers." Liz commanded. Just as she turned back to the window she saw four pitch black F-41XMSF Broadswords rocket past. She overheard some of the conversation from the CAG's station.
"Man I can't believe that I had to draw short straw today!" a male voice said.
"Chopper, cut the chatter." Another voice, female and obviously exasperated at her wingman, said.
"C'mon guys. Let's go blow shit up and make the captain proud" another male voice sounded. Liz recognized this as Captain Blaze. She remembered that he was promoted to squadron lead after their old Captain, a man named Bartlett, was KIA during the battle of Requiem.
Razgriz Squadron immediately took off after a cruiser as they received and in-flight briefing from the CAG. Liz turned her focus back to her own ship as it sped toward a formation of three cruisers. The Onagers began firing peppering the enemy ships causing shield failures in two of them. Two more MAC slugs obliterated them and a third punched through the last ship. The Cruiser Razgriz was after suddenly detonated in the nova of a nuclear explosion. Various shouts of victory and elation were again heard through the CAG's station. 'Man that guy likes to micromanage' Liz thought to herself. The two remaining cruisers attempted making a run back to the Artifact. By this time all the Strident frigates had eliminated all the enemy frigates and were returning to cover the Retribution.
"Carolyn, order all Stridents to return to their hangars for repairs and Mister Iwate, let's try out that new Energy Projector the skunkworks turned out for us." She said looking over the man's shoulder to see how shields were doing. Still at sixty-four percent. Not bad for more than two to one odds. As she looked back up a blue-white beam lanced out from the nose of the Retribution and easily sliced through both of the cruisers. Mister Iwate brought the beam back around several more times slicing up the enemy ships into neat little chunks.
On the Normandy, the whole crew, even Shepard who was going to watch the battle on the holo-display in the war room, was in the starboard observation deck watching. All were in awe at the power of the new ships. Not only had the Retribution launched CRUISERS from itself, it had completely destroyed a Reaper fleet out numbering them two to one. Along with that the capital ship used some sort of energy weapon that just went right past the Reaper's shields and cut them apart.
"Keelah, I HAVE to get a look at their ships!" Tali yelled in a mix of awe and excitement. Kaiden looked over and sadly shook his head.
"I don't know about that Tali. They threatened to blow us outa the sky if we didn't comply immediately with them, and that was even after we asked for help." He said somberly.
"Well, I just hope they decide to help us out. We could use firepower like that, especially on Palaven." Garrus said scratching at his scars.
Shepard on the other hand was near horrified at what may happen. Granted that this ship was probably human because of the English but why would a race even need ships that big? There were so many ways he could see this turning into another Rachni situation only they were unstoppable.
"What have I unleashed?" He whispered to himself. Just then Joker came on over the intercom.
"Uhhhh commander it looks like I have an.. open line? from the Retribution. I'll play it for Ya." He said as other voices came on. Most notably one. Probably the culprit for hitting a wrong button and hailing them in the open.
"Looks like Ya came to the wrong system Motha'!" Screamed the voice before it suddenly cut off.
Well that's the end folks. Review please and let me know of any severe issues. Thanks for reading =]
