Onboard The UNSC Fortitude
"Captain we are receiving a signal from the center frigate. It appears to be a video transmission."
said Jessica calmly as usual.
"Bring it up on screen" said the Captain.
The crew watched in awe as a very female being came on screen and began speaking in perfect English.
"This is Matriarch Lidanya, on behalf of the Citadel Council we greet you happily under the banner of peace. We would like to open diplomatic relations with your civilization to further our understanding of one another. Our civilization is a collection of species that furthers the cause of peace." said the Matriarch
"It is great news that you have come under the banner of peace, I would like to start diplomatic relations with your civilization, to determine whether or not we may be able to co-exist." stated the Captain rather calmly
"Wonderful, you may board our vessel with a single craft and with the permission of the admiral you are permitted to bring an armed escort. Approach the ship at these co-ordinates." said the Matriarch.
"Will do we will arrive ETA 20 Minutes, over and out" replied the Captain.
With that the screen went blank and turned off.
"Why do I feel like something is wrong, as if this is so familiar captain?" asked Jessica rather sarcastically.
"Because Jessica, the last group of aliens we met waged a genocidal war that nearly brought us to extinction and we haven't fully reclaimed all of the lost worlds. You would do well to remember that" said the Captain angrily at the AI.
"I apologize, I didn't mean to be disrespectful sir"
"Gunnery Sergeant Poole, report to hangar bay 12 with your squad of ODST's and be ready for a fight" ordered the Captain
The Captain made his way down to hangar bay 12 and boarded the pelican with the 8 ODST's he had ordered, they were all equipped for CQB, they were sporting the MA5B assault rifles designed for ship boarding actions. As ordered the pilot flew the pelican out of the hangar towards the alien ship and boarded at the designated location.
Onboard the Turian Ship Steel Talon
General Arterius was waiting in the hanger bay for the alien craft to enter the hangar. He was not alone, he was with the diplomatic team along with 2 squads of Turian soldiers. He saw the craft enter the hanger and rotate so the rear was facing the group and deploy its landing gear from the nose and the rear. The hatch opened at the back and 8 aliens walk out wearing black coloured armour carrying assault rifles from the looks of it, then the captain walked out. His walk and stature seemed to demand respect but it was not aggressive. The alien walked up to General Arterius and Matriarch Lidanya, he stood still and gave a swift salute as did his men, but the his men slapped their rifles back into their arms and stood still.
"Welcome aboard our ship Captain Teague" said the Matriarch
" Glad to be here, making history and all that" replied the Captain
"General Arterius, Commanding Officer of the Turian Hierarchy Steel Talon" Arterius greeted the alien
"Captain Teague, Commanding Officer of the UNSC Fortitude and the patrol fleet." He replied.
" now that we have been introduced we would like to escort you to the negotiation table" Lidanya said
"Of course, lets get under way." The Captain replied.
After the greetings they were at the negotiating table to discuss various things such as the removal of the Citadel Fleet from UNSC space.
As the negotiations began Captain Teague explained he is not at liberty to reveal information about the human race other than what is in the system right now until they determine the situation. The Turian general then countered.
"We are in a strange situation captain, we have a colony on the other side of the relay and we usually lock-down both ends with a colony for security reasons. However if you plan on becoming a member species of the Citadel Council we will overlook this small discrepancy" stated Arterius
"Discrepancy? This planet has been a UNSC colony for more than 60 years, you cannot just demand us to abandon it, or pressure us into joining your civilization, we agreed to negotiate not submit." stated the captain rather angrily
Before this could get out of hand the Matriarch intervened.
"Of course we will not ask you to leave but the general has a point, are going to join the Citadel races?" asked Lidanya
"That's not in my power to decide, I said I can negotiate as in terms of peace, I cannot however decide for the entire human race whether we are to join you, but if you give me the conditions we will send them to our government and the population will decide." said the Captain taking a firm stand
"Of course we shall give you the main points and give you the rest on file along with a limited codex for transmission to your government." said Lidanya
after looking at the specifications the human Captain had come to a decision to make his final statement and leave.
"Im sorry to say but some of these terms are unacceptable, you expect us to allow a foreign fleet to patrol our space, you also outlaw AI's which I may point out have saved more lives than saved more lives than what has been taken by them which is to say roughly billions saved dead zero. But as I said these are for the people to decide not me. I will however ask that you leave the system the way you came until a decision has been made, return in 1 week and you shall have your answer. I must take my leave, good day General, Matriarch." with a quick salute he left for the hangar bay escorted by his ODST's as they left in the pelican the alien fleet turned to exit through the relay and they were gone within moments.
Onboard the UNSC Fortitude
"Jessica you were monitoring that weren't you." quizzed the Captain
"aye aye sir standard procedure" replied Jessica
"Good I want you to send an update, as well as the limited codex of information, on the situation to UNSC highcom and the UEG, this is gonna get a lot more interesting." Said the Captain
"May I ask captain why you stated that harvest was a colony, that's against regulations, revealing crucial information." stated Jessica
"I know it is but they would have realised that themselves, I didn't want my fleet to look like it was all we had." shouted the Captain his eyes glaring at Jessica
"Highcom will most likely find that an acceptable reason" stated Jessica
"okay now, the patrol fleet will remain in system until after 2 weeks time for security measures, everyone back to your posts" ordered the Captain over the intercom.
Relay 314 system Comm room of the TH Steel Talon
"These aliens do not seem that interested in our laws, why don't we teach them a lesson about respecting their superiors" the Batarian Admiral Balak
"Because Admiral, they have not shown any hostility towards us or the other Council Races" said General Arterius
"Fine, but I request to remain here with my fleet for the defence of this system until the Council delegation returns, I don't want more competition for my race in the Skyllian Verge" said Balak
"Very well, but im not going to let you do that without a few Turian ships with you, you can remain here with your 5 frigates and 1 cruiser, I will leave my 5 frigates and spare cruiser in the defence of the colony and leave for the Citadel with my ship, but first refuelling on the colony of Orphus in this system." stated the General
"Fine just be quick about it" said Balak
With that the comms turned off and the Turian ships left for the colony.
Onboard the Batarian Hegemony Cruiser the Bahak
"Have you received the forwarded files about these aliens" asked Balak to the Hegemony agent with him.
"Yes and I believe it is best that we move forward with the plan, if we pull this off we will be so close to a council seat that it will basically be ours anyway, then we will be able to sway things in our favour for a change" said the mysterious agent.
"Very well, for the Hegemony, you had best take your leave then" stated Balak,
Without saying a word the agent left for the hangar to depart this ship for Batarian space.
One day later after everything was ready. Balak signalled the captains of the other ships to fire on the outdated frigate in the bunch after retrieving the majority of the lives aboard it and setting up a fake communications recordings.
"This is Admiral Balak to the Steel Talon are you hearing me?" shouted Balak
"This is General Arterius, what is your problem now, ive been gone for a day and your already missing my company?" said the General rather sarcastically
Balak smiled before replying "Have you not received my earlier transmissions? Ive been calling for help for the past 20 minutes" shouted Balak " The aliens came through the relay, the 4 cruisers and the dreadnought, I tried to signal them hoping it was a diplomatic envoy but they just closed the channel and opened fire, they gutted one of my frigates but we managed to scare them back through the relay with sustained fire on their dreadnought, the dreadnought managed to star venting atmosphere before they all left. I demand blood for the blood we have lost General" shouted Balak convincingly.
"All ships move to the relay we need to see this for ourselves" ordered the general.
Two cruisers and 5 frigates under the generals command were moving to the relay and saw the obliterated frigate along with hull damage on 2 of the surviving 4 frigates.
"This demands justice" said general Arterius "the Turian Hierarchy stands with you against such an unprovoked attack, be ready to move through the relay in 30 minutes, we need to a valuable lesson in manners, bloody barbarians" ordered the General.
"Thank you" Balak replied " if I may general can we talk in private over the comms?" asked Balak
"Of course" was the reply from Arterius
Balak left for the comms room and ordered the men out, and General Arterius did the same on his ship.
"Well that went better than expected" said Balak relieved
"Yes it did, Im pretty sure they bought it, im glad the diplomats are off to the citadel, no doubt they would be an annoyance, im looking forward to acquiring another client race for the Turian Hierarchy, given what this species can build im sure they will be a fine addition." said General Arterius
"And for our assistance we will have the vote of the Turian Hierarchy for full council member status and the privileges that come with it." stated Balak
"Well with our two nations working side by side we should be able to sway the galaxy to our favour, no doubt the Salarians will see following the Asari is not so wise any more and vote in favour of your government" said Arterius as he let out a little laugh " lets not get ahead of ourselves we need to pull this off first and don't forget that the foolish alien stated it was just a colony, we may have to deal with reinforcements. then it will be a new era of peace under our dominance"
"Agreed, let's get under way shall we?" asked Balak.
"Yes, lets get this over and done with" stated the General.
All ships then turned for the relay and headed through one by one, all 9 frigates and 3 cruisers.
The council however does not know what is going to emerge in the next week.
Well looks like things just got interesting eh? Let me know what you think about the current situation in the reviews or PM's