March 20, 2437
Hyperion Xi Sector
1131 Lambda System
At the edge of the star system, a mobile outpost Spirit of Frontier has been positioned at some distance from the artifact as the thawing operations of the frozen artifact continue. There are about ten ships from Hyperion Xi Sector Command and Shanxi Defense Force that participated in the thawing operations.
The ships are bombarding the frozen shell of the artifact with their beam cannons to melt the ice and use the 'Hellfire' missiles to crack the majority of the ice shell.
A few numbers of USN Strike Fighters are flying around the perimeter guarding the area from potential piracy and terrorism.
Spirit of Frontier
The station outpost is actually a mobile station equipped with thrusters, element zero core and warp coils. It is torus-shaped station, two torus rings over each other, with a central tower at its center which extends at both sides. The bridge/command center is over the shorter tower over the torus station.
It is 400 meters in total length, 600 meters in diameter, the command tower is 75 meters long and the thruster tower is 125 meters long.
The main MPD thrusters, using the plasma directly from the fusion core, are located directly below the torus station.
At the command center of the Spirit of Frontier, the operators and scientists are busy working all over their consoles and data. The head of the team, Dr. Ian Stuart, is overseeing the thawing operations and the science teams who will study the artifact.
"Dr. Stuart, the thawing process is about to be complete." One of the communications officer reported.
Standing by one of the command center's armored panoramic windows Dr. Stuart is watching the thawing operations. From her point of view, the last of the ice has been melted and reveals the large artifact.
"Yeah I can see that from here." He replied as he walked towards the command table at the center. He then called out to the science vessels through the comms.
"The thawing procedures are complete. All science teams proceed to second phase now."
Outside in space
The light cruisers are now leaving the vicinity and are taking position around the Spirit of Frontier and the artifact. They are now performing their primary task of protecting the Spirit of Frontier from any threats including from extra-terrestrial ones, due to the discovery of the alien artifact.
The science vessels, totaling five of them, are now moving in to examine the artifact. They are now proceeding to scan the whole artifact including its internal structures.
The science vessels are about 155m in length, and are equipped with fusion-powered beam thrusters and warp coils. They are also equipped with highly advance deep-earth scanners, capable of penetrating over 400m into the crust, and highly sensitive sensors.
The artifact is designed like a large tune fork with a sphere near at one end. It has a silver metallic polish and has no visible energy output.
One of the science vessels, Weikes-1, scanning the artifact, accurately the mass effect core, detects a large number of element zero in it.
"Sir, I'm detecting large amount of concentrated element zero here at the artifact's core." The scanner operator of Weikes-1 reported to the Spirit of Frontier. "This is a surprise. Who would have thought to detect this large amount of concentrated element zero here?"
Spirit of Frontier
Command Center
"Could you repeat what you just said?" Dr. Stuart said in surprise. "Did you just detect concentrated element zero?"
"Affirmative, Sir. I'm detecting large amount of it at the artifact's core."
"Is it active? Do you detect any electric field from the element zero concentration?"
"None detected, Sir. The core is totally neutral and no detectable power can be detected." The reply came over a minute later.
"Continue scanning. Find the artifact's possible power source."
Dr. Stuart then leaves the command table and heads towards the elevator. Capt. William Quincy, captain of the Spirit of Frontier, joins him in the elevator. Once inside and on the way down, Capt. Quincy speaks with Dr. Stuart.
"Can you tell me what that alien artifact is, Doctor?"
Dr. Stuart, who is streaming over his data pad which is being fed with the transmitted data, answers without looking up.
"Well, captain. I can only hypothesize two possible functions to the alien artifact."
"And what would those be?"
"By looking at its design and the presence of concentrated element zero at its core, it can either be a large kinetic weapon or a highly advance FTL transport system."
"An ancient kinetic alien weapon?" Capt. Quincy raised an eyebrow. "If it is, it's going to need a round the size of a large asteroid. That is one going to require one hell of logistics."
"That left us with the second option for it to be a FTL transport system." The elevator then opened up to the lab where the some scientists are present.
The two then steps into the laboratory as the elevator closes behind them. Dr. Stuart then leads Capt. Quincy to the central holo-table with three HD glass screen over it. The holo-table projects a three-dimensional hologram of the alien artifact, and the glass screens display the schematics and details of the artifact.
"If this alien artifact is for FTL transport…" Capt. Quincy pointed to the 3D-hologram. "How do you think it operates?"
Dr. Stuart studies the details and schematics of the artifact which is collected from the science vessels before answering.
"It is hard to deduce, Captain." He replied more solemnly. "This artifact may function differently from our latest warp coil technology. But I can deduce that it reduces the mass of an object to a point where faster-than-light can be achieved."
Dr. Stuart then pauses as he recalls some details of Mass Manipulation Physics and the additional theoretical usages of element zero.
"It is also possible that it launches the said object to faster-than-light which is possibly very much faster judging by the size of the artifact and the large concentration of element zero."
"I see." Capt. Quincy replied as he held his chin and processed the information. "Thanks for your input, Doctor. I'll be taking my leave for my report."
"Glad to help." Dr. Stuart returned to studying the data being collected.
Capt. Quincy then heads to the elevator and reaches for the level where his quarter is located.
Three days later
Artifact Site
USN Light Cruiser New Moon
The USN light cruiser is an upgraded version of its predecessor the ISA Cruiser. It has stronger dispersive armor, 'Hellfire' long-range missiles, M44 AA Quad Railguns, single turret pulse lasers and the prow-mounted beam cannon which doubles as the main beam-heated MPD thruster.
They are equipped with force field system which is built due to the presence of energy shielding by Stahl's personal cruiser without the use of irradiated petrusite. The warp coil installed in the cruiser is designed to be smaller than the Helghast counterparts, as with all of the military vessels in the USN.
They are powered by the latest generation of fusion reactor which becomes the dominant source of energy due to the loss of petrusite supply along with the loss of Helghan. The maneuvering thrusters at the 'head' of the cruiser are also using beam-heated MPD thrusters.
Bridge
At the sensors section of the New Moon, the sensors operator is currently relaxing in his chair with his feet crossed over the console. His console them sounds an alarm at the deep-space section of the LED screen.
"What the hell?"
He quickly removes his feet over the console and sits himself upright. He looks at the main screen displaying seven targets in FTL moving inbound.
"Sir, I'm detecting seven unknown boogies at FTL moving inbound!"
Commander Lawrence Howard, executive officer of the New Sun, runs to his position from the back of the bridge.
"Where is its point of origin?" He ordered.
"Outside the system from the unexplored space." The sensors operator then gathered his thoughts. "It looks like we are about to have an alien contact."
Cdr. Howard eyes slightly bulges as the thought of meeting aliens for the first time catches up to him. He quickly sends a series of orders to the bridge crew.
"Comms, contact the rest of the ships and inform them about the aliens! And get Capt. Smithson to the bridge now! All hands on their stations!"
The communications officer opens an intercom channel to contact the captain before contacting the rest of the ships. The rest of the bridge scrambles to get the ship battle-ready. The rest of the ship is now scrambling to get themselves ready and the pilots run to the Strike Fighters.
Outside in space
The USN Light cruisers are now taking defensive formation before the possible drop-point of the aliens in vertical position. The Spirit of Frontier is moving behind the formation also in its vertical position. All ships have activated force fields and missiles ready in case of the aliens are hostile. The USN Strike Fighters are in the cruiser hangar bays ready to be deployed.
USN Light Cruiser New Sun
Bridge
Capt. John Smithson, a middle-aged navy officer serving the New Sun for over seven years, is standing in the middle of the bridge overseeing the fleet formation. He has black tamed dreadlock-like hair, green eyes, lightly muscular and has lightly fair skin.
"ETA?" He ordered in a deep voice.
The sensors operator checks his screen console before answering.
"They appear to be slowing down." He said first. "Calculations suggest that they will reach sub-light speeds in… less than fifteen minutes."
Capt. Smithson then nods before going over the intercom.
"All right everyone. We are about to meet real aliens so God forbid someone screw this up." He said first through the intercom. "So check everything. And may God forbid that they are hostile."
15 Minutes Later
USN Light Cruiser New Sun
Bridge
"They are about to reach sub-light speed, Captain." The sensors operator reported.
"Get ready, everyone. This is our big moment." Capt. Smithson called out.
Everyone in the New Sun tenses as the countdown to the arrival of the real-life aliens approaches to zero. Similar atmosphere are present to all of the ships as the idea of being the first to meet the aliens.
The alien ships appear before the USN Fleet with their engines facing them. The said ships then somersaults to reorient themselves. The ships are having designs of a predatory bird-of-prey with multiple facets around the surface.
There are six smaller ships, having lengths of 300 meters, and one larger ship, having a length of 700 meters.
As soon as the aliens ships finished reorienting their ships, Capt. Smithson quickly gave the order.
"Open communications. Let's greet our guests."
The New Sun sends a communications link and newly-made greetings to all of the alien ships before them. As the attempt of contact happens, everyone tries to stay calm through most of the time. But the aliens are still not answering the phone.
"Try all frequencies. Contact them as soon as you can." Capt. Smithson ordered.
He is having a very bad feeling about the ships especially as they reorient themselves before them. As he looks at the new formation of the alien ships, he quickly realizes what is happening.
"Oh shit!"
The sensors operator then shouts a warning.
"Detecting multiple energy spikes!"
"EVASIVE ACTION!"
The New Sun's thrusters push the ship just in time when the alien ships fire their weapons. The other ships are able to notice what just happened and take the initiative to evade.
One of the cruisers is caught by one of the shells. The force field is able to withstand the shell but the force is able to shake its crew.
The rest of the ships launch a barrage of hellfire missiles at the alien ships. Pulse lasers start shooting out of the alien ships and take nearly half of the barrage. The rest slams over their kinetic barriers.
One of the smaller ships is taken down when its kinetic barrier fails and a hellfire missile slams onto its hull. The remaining six alien ships launch torpedoes at them.
The M44 quad railguns and single turret pulse lasers from the USN light cruisers fire a storm of hypersonic rounds and very thin beams of lasers that easily take out the torpedoes before they are able to reach the force fields. The alien ships then resume firing their main cannons and manage to destroy another USN light cruiser.
Spirit of Frontier
Bridge
The bridge shakes as the crew hold on to anything they can grip on when a shell from the alien ships. Capt. Stuart holds on the railing at the command post and pulls himself upright.
"Get the warp coil ready for jump! Get us the hell out of here!" Capt. Stuart ordered. "We need to warn them!"
Engineering Bay
At the engineering bay, the large warp coil cage is being charged up. The warp coil is designed to be a spherical cage that that is made up of two warp coils with an element zero core, which is physically shielded, at its center.
"It will take us five minutes before we can go to warp!" the head engineer said into the intercom. "Better try to get us away from here."
The New Sun evades a shell from the aliens by moving to its left using its thrusters. It then orients it bottom tip and fires its prow-mounted beam cannon. The beam lances through the hull of a smaller vessels and the alien vessel explodes.
New Sun
Bridge
The bridge shakes again as one of the alien shell hits the force field of the New Sun and sends some of the crew of their seats. Capt. Smithson is standing from the floor and groggily gives an order.
"Get us out of here! Call all ships to retreat back to Shanxi! Initiate the warp coil!"
All of the USN Light cruisers, numbering only six left out of ten, activate their thrusters where their beam cannons are. They quickly orient their ships before pushing the thrusters to maximum as their warp coils charge.
The alien ships didn't pursue them due to their lost in numbers, from seven to three, and position themselves before the alien artifact. But one ship stays in position facing the retreating the USN cruisers watching them. The rings at the core start spinning in a slow rate as the core slowly glows in blue. After a short while, the artifact is fully active as its core glows with bright blue light. The alien ships then use the artifact to transport themselves out of the system to beyond.
Back at the fleeing USN ships, their warp coils are fully charged, the charge of the element zero cores remain constant, and activate them. The warp coils shoot the USN ships to warp heading back to Shanxi.
A few minutes later
High orbit of Shanxi
Command SD Platform
Command Center
At the sensors console, alarms blare as the sensors detect multiple objects moving at FTL. After a few seconds, the objects drop out of warp revealing the Spirit of Frontier, New Sun and the remaining five more USN light cruisers.
The commanding officer, General Ronald Forge, quickly orders for a communications link to the New Sun. As soon as the communication link is connected, the face of the Capt. Smithson appears at one of the main screens.
At the screen, sparks and light smokes can be seen behind Capt. Smithson. This gets the outmost attention of the Gen. Forge.
"What happen back there, Smith? It looks like a storm just hit your bridge."
Capt. Smithson coughs first before answering.
"We got hostile alien contact, General." He then lowered his face with some grief. "And it looks like we're about to meet more of them."
"Oh fuck!" the general cursed. "Get your ships reach the docks. Be at HQ within the hour."
Capt. Smithson nods before cutting the link. The deafening silence fills the space of the command center with the exception of the beeping of the consoles. No one really expects or even dreams of meeting a hostile alien race.
Gen. Forge breaks the silence by giving an order to every crew of the command center. This snaps the crew of their trance.
"All hands ready for battle." He ordered to the crew loudly. "Get the SD network prepped for battle. Move!"
The crews quickly run to their stations and starts preparing the SD network in the event of an alien invasion.
Other side of the relay
Turian Hierarchy space
Un-colonized Sector
The turian vessels are currently idling in deep space. At the bridge of the large vessel, there is a conversation going on.
"You say that these beings attacked you with powerful energy weapons?" the hologram of a high-ranking turian officer asked.
"Yes, admiral." The turian captain lied. "They must have detected our ships while we are slowing down because we already found them in formation after we reorient our ships. We have no choice but to defend ourselves."
"But how did you manage to escape?"
"We are able to take out two of those cruisers." The turian captain explained confidently. "After destroying two of those 'cruisers' they flee using an unidentified FTL. We return to turian space using the mass relay at the edge of the system."
"Were they activating the mass relay?"
"It is possible, admiral. The mass relay is freshly uncovered. Ice deposits can still be seen over its surface indicating excavation. They must have planned to activate it but our arrival prevents them from doing so."
"I see. Good work, Captain." The tuian admiral commented. "Head to the nearest naval base, we're going to subdue those beings. Their technology will be very useful the whole Hierarchy."
The hologram of the turian admiral then winks out. The turian captain grins as he knows that he is about to be one of the most distinguished turian in history. All he needs to do is to make sure that those beings are subdued.
One hour later
Hyperion Xi Sector
1131 Lambda System
Shanxi
SDF Headquarters, Garson City
The SDF Headquarters is the main base-of-operation of the Shanxi Defense Force which coordinates the planets and the system's security. It is situated within Garson City, the capital of Shanxi, which is one of the five cities at the planet. Garson City holds a population of near one million citizens and holds the space port at the edge of the city.
At the conference room of the SDF Headquarters, a meeting is going on discussing the hostile alien contact by the site of the artifact. At the conference room are Capt. Smithson of the New Sun, Gen. Forge of the Shanxi Command SD Platform, Dr. Stuart from the Spirit of Frontier, Gen. Daniel Bussard of the Shanxi Army, and Admiral Helen Keyes of the Shanxi Defense Navy along with other officers. They are currently conversing with the high officers of the Hyperion Xi Sector Command and the USN High Command through video conference in a highly secured FTL communication link.
"Our first contact with aliens has gone down to hell. The alien ships fire the first shots after we sent our greetings." Capt. Smithson reported. "We lost two cruisers, the Iowa and the Ohio, from the main weapons of the ships."
"This is grave news. To think our first contact with real ET's is a shootout." Gen. Carlos Seene grieved from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Now we have to deal with a very possible invasion."
"You're not alone on that matter." Sec. of Defense, William Varnz, told him. "This is going to be hard to report to the president. The stakes are high and can we even fight them effectively?"
All heads turn to the Capt. Smithson who has the battle recordings from the databanks of New Sun. He then collects his thoughts before nodding to an officer in the room. The officer then inserts a data chit into a slot at the conference table.
A three dimensional depiction of the space battle with the alien ships at the artifact site is the projected over the conference table. The friendly ships are colored blue while the alien ships are colored red.
"The alien ships seem to be using a type of kinetic weapon similar to a coilgun as their main ship-to-ship weapon." The scene of the alien ships firing their main weapons and the rounds hitting their force fields can be seen at the hologram.
"They also have laser weapons that are used against the hellfire missiles." The scene where the USN light cruisers launch a salvo of hellfire missiles towards the alien ships then appears at the hologram. Lasers are then fired from the alien ships destroying at least half the missile salvo before hitting the shields of the alien ships. One of the smaller ships is then destroyed by three hellfire missiles.
"They have shields, I wonder if they strong enough to block our main weapons?" Admiral Keyes inquired.
"That's the funny thing, admiral." Capt. Smithson said.
"Could you explain why so, Captain?"
The hologram then shows the New Sun firing its main beam cannon towards a small alien cruiser. The beam lances through the hull with no visible effect at the shields,
"As you can see Admiral the energy beam from our main cannons is not affected by their shields." Capt. Smithson answered. "Our sensors show no detectable effect on their shields."
That surprises the rest of the officers as they didn't expect an alien race with no capability of blocking energy weapons. The force field technology has been in the USN Navy for over twenty years after less than five decades of research.
"Dr. Stuart, do you have any assessment on the alien ships?" Admiral Korhal of the Hyperion Xi Sector Command asked.
Dr. Stuart consults his files at the datapad before answering the admiral's question.
"According to the sensors at the New Sun and the Spirit of Frontier, the alien ships' shielding uses a type of gravity force field that blocks any type of solid objects." Dr. Stuart first said.
"Their main type of kinetic weapon fires very small slugs at subluminal speeds. The strength of the kinetic weapons varies from each ship according to the sensors. The pulse lasers have the power ranging from 200 to 300 kilowatts, which is well in range of our own pulse lasers."
"How about the propulsion and the type of FTL that the alien ships use?" Admiral Korhal asked.
"Sensors detected plasma ejections at very high temperatures from their thrusters which can only be generated from fusion reaction." He then checks his datapad for the alien ships' FTL. "The sensors detected decreasing gravity distortion field around the alien ships which is similar to the point-zero mass from the element zero."
"This aliens use element zero?" The intrigued Capt. Smithson asked. "You're telling me that these aliens use element zero."
"It's possible."
"That is troubling." Admiral Antonio Kane said for the first time. He is the commanding officer for the USN Navy. "Are they related to the creators of the artifact?"
Dr. Stuart shakes his head before answering.
"We don't have enough proof that they are related to who ever created the artifact. All I know is that they have more extensive knowledge in the use of element zero than what we know."
"Well I don't really care much about those aliens' relation to the artifact." Gen. Forge said. "But I'm not letting this world of ours and everyone here suffers under them. If it is a fight they want, it's a fight they will get."
The rest of the high-ranking officers agree to Gen. Forge's statement. Their primary concern is defense of Shanxi and the security of its people.
"We'll show those aliens that we're not going down without a fight." Gen. Bussard added with some pride.
Dr. Stuart is then asked to left the conference room before the military officers discuss their plans for the defense of Shanxi.
The order for the possible invasion is then sent to all commanding officers. Preparations is then immediately initiated as every military personnel are gearing up as the orbital defenses are placed on high alert.
Well that wraps this chapter up. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
The USN ships and the ME ships are fairly equal in terms of shield strength and ship defenses. But the advantages of the USN ships are beam cannons, better propulsion systems and weapon strength.
For information on the new Warp coil of the USN, the 100 light-year per day speed can only be achieved at point-zero mass (or the maximum mass decrease) provided by the element zero core (mass effect core) which consume too much power and takes longer time to charge. For emergency FTL jump, only the warp coil is used. The element zero core is only used for fast long voyages.
Any suggestions to this story will be appreciated. See you soon.
