2 Weeks Earth time since departure through Charon Relay
Asari Diplomatic ship
On-board the Council Diplomatic ship heading for the small colony world of Shanxi, diplomat Nassana Dantius sat nervously in her chair. The blue skinned Asari was nervous, nervous that she had been chosen to broker peaceful communications with what sounded like a new species laying siege to the Turian colony of Shanxi.
Shanxi was a relatively new and developing Turian Hierarchy colony that had just recently been acquired after the Relay 314 wars with the now extinct race known as humanity, it was a relatively sad addition to the council history with such a young and ambitious species falling unintentionally to a lethal virus that wiped out the entire population some years ago.
Nassana remembered listening to the news, hearing about this species that were very similar to Asari in appearance. But despite the similarities they were much like the Krogan and even the Turians, savage, smart and ever so cunning. It had driven Turian generals mad with the tactics Humanity deployed in the short years of war they had against the council.
Ironically, the planet of Shanix would once more be home to another horribly case of hostile first contact between the Turians and an unknown space fairing species.
Sighing loudly, Nassana activate her Omni tool, creating an orange holographic construct surround her left arm. Using the device to access the recent reports, Nassana went over the recount of the only surviving ship that took part in the engagement with the enemy.
A Turian patrol had passed through Relay 314 on account of coms buoys going silent all across the Arcturus system and its surrounding regions. Upon investigation they discovered an unknown fleet of large warships in orbit over Shanxi which was broadcasting a short range distress call from the planet's surface.
Communication channels were open, but the unknown species didn't reply to the Turian hails and instead engaged the patrol despite the numbers. According to the Turians, they outnumbered the enemy 2 to 1 in terms of numbers. Yet they were defeated by these unknown ships that appeared to be almost as advance as an Asari cruiser.
Which was why the Diplomatic ship was currently being escorted by two Asari cruisers for protection in case diplomacy goes wrong. Not that Nassana was confident that the cruisers could possible hope to hold off against an adversary as powerful as the one that wiped out the Turian patrol fleet.
Reading over the reports once more, the Asari diplomat jumped slightly in surprise when her name was blurted out over the diplomat ships com systems. Causing her to look away from her Omni tool and towards the ceiling.
"Diplomat Nassana, report to the bridge immediately" came the stern feminie voice of the captain, sighing softly, Nassana stood to her feet and deactivated her Omni tool.
Straightening the helm of her robes to make sure she looked presentable, Nassana left the room and proceeded through the relatively small ship towards the equally small bridge of the civilian vessel. Upon arrival, Nassana was just in time to witness the vessel exit the Mass Relay and enter Shanxi home system.
In the distance Nassana could see the planet itself orbiting the glowing orb of a bright sun, however she also noticed the massive field of space debri and torn remains of Turian warships hovering in the space between them and the planet.
"Goddess!" said an Asari in the room, all eyes were fixed on the grave yard of dead warships.
"It's worse than we feared" muttered the captain sternly, a serious expression etched into her white painted face.
Some distance away from the wreckage, hovered a small fleet of whitish and red warships bristling with weaponry. Nassana didn't need to be a military practician to know that these ships were built with one purpose alone, to wage war against other vessels.
"Captain their sending a data package!"
4 Hours earlier Shanxi home system
The Normandy and its escort of Alliance Frigates slowly zoomed through the void of dark space, chemical engines burning fiercely as they propelled the warships towards their destination.
Some distance away the fleets Carrier was waiting with the rest of the First fleets cruisers and frigates, guarding the area between the planet known as Shanxi and the glowing relay in the far distance. It was a defensive measure to ensure the Normandy and her escorts could complete their mission without fear of being ambushed by hostile warships.
Since entering the Arcturus system, the Chimera Alliance had been rapidly destroying communication buoys to cripple galactic communication between systems. It was a simple yet easy way to cut ties between planets and the remainder of the council species, as the Chimera Alliance had no intention of surrendering any of humanities former territory to outside forces. They were determined to take back everything that was lost during the war, including the region where this all began.
Moving into the upper orbit of the Shanxi atmosphere, the massive warship shuddered as it used its oversized mass drive to lower its molecular mass with a powerful field while also counteracting the forces of gravity. This prevented the Normandy from being pulled downwards by the planets gravity well and burning up upon entry.
Swooping fast over the planet, several tubes on the underside of the warship slid open to launch forth hundreds of beach ball size lumps of metal. The unguided gravity propelled projectiles fell through the atmosphere, creating small fire balls in the blue sky as they fell at near supersonic speed towards the surface below.
'N9's have been deployed Commander' Informed a Chimera from his console, turning around to sign the message to Shepard.
The red maned Chimera gave a nod in reply, tail swishing softly behind her in agitation as she watched a blue holographic screen materialise on a wall and showing the video footage of the metal spheres being launched to the planet below.
Growling slightly in agitation, Shepard wondered how the N9's would perform on the planet surface below. The N9's were a relatively knew parasite like species designed to fulfil the same purpose as the N7's, but utilising a dextro-amino acid lifeform as a host instead of the levo-amino acids of human.
Meaning the Turian scum bags who killed off her parents would hopefully be the parents of the next generation of Alliance Chimera. Shepard liked that a lot, there was only 32 million Chimera in total across Earths landscape, and they needed to build up their numbers quickly considering Humanity was well into the billions before they became extinct.
Scratching a patch of fur under her chin, Shepard turned and ordered a status report be sent to Admiral Anderson on their progress thus far. She didn't feel safe this far from the main bulk of the First Fleet, if anything came through the relay this second her warship would be needed instantly for its heavy weaponry and Mass Accelerators.
'Continue to deploy N9's then deploy Shock troops to secure vital military assets' ordered Shepard as she moved away from the command console and towards the helmsman.
Ears twitching as they heard Shepard's footsteps, the slightly crippled pilot spun around in his chair with a funny look on his face. The way he sat reminded Shepard of an old movie classic version of a villain, complete with evil grin and all.
Crossing both arms over her chest, Shepard regarded her pilot for a moment before looking past him and out towards the glowing planet below.
'Hey so I was thinking, were not going to get any promotions just sneaking around systems and infecting the bad guy's population with our own' signed Joker, catching Shepard's attention.
'Its tactics, we can't risk a full on engagement so soon and we need a labour force to farm and gather resources to support us once we enter the galactic community' replied Shepard calmly, Joker didn't look too thrilled about the news.
'Join the community? I'd rather date those Jelly fish things than join the species who killed my parent' growled Joker, lips quivering a little to show sharp pointed fangs.
'It's just a ploy, so we have room to mauver, build up our fleet and gather intel on our enemies' replied Shepard calmly, this seemed to ease the Chimera's anger as he stopped growling and spun back around in his chair.
'Either way, just say the word and I'll be ready to make the Normandy dance into battle… Commander' signed Joker before his hands began to fly across the control screens of the warship.
Grinning a little at her companion's antics, Shepard briefly spoke with the other bridge personnel near Joker who were all playing a big part in keeping the warship aloof and not plummeting to their death. Everyone was a little tense, tense because so far they hadn't encountered any real resistance apart from the occasional armed merchant ship that didn't like being commandeered by the Chimera Alliance.
Her little interaction however was cut short by her XO Miranda racing on all fours across the room and skidding to a halt beside her looking panic stricken.
'Commander, Jack is requesting your immediate presence down in engineering' she informed her, Shepard flinched at the name, but reassured her XO everything was fine before moving out of the bridge and entering an elevator.
However everything wasn't fine with this news, Shepard sighed loudly and began to wonder what had set the rather volatile Biotic Chimera off this time.
Jack was one of the few rare individuals who could naturally control mass effect field with her mind, it's an extremely rare talent and a rather powerful one at that. Most Chimera simple call it space magic, despite the official name of Biotic.
Then there was Jack's unique personality, Shepard rolled her eyes and leaned against the elevator wall as she remembered their past conversations.
Jack's parents had been part of some drug dealing biker gang in LA, meaning she had quiet the attitude about her and a rather short fuse so to speak.
Exiting the elevator, Commander Jane Shepard moved through the cramped interior of her warship, ducking under low hanging pipes and dodging fellow crew members as they rushed about their ship doing their jobs.
Darting through the Normandy's interior, Shepard eventually walked down a flight of stairs and entered a rather reclusive area of the ship.
A loud snarl and box being thrown across the room made it clear Shepard was in the right place.
Standing in the shadows of the room, a tall scaly looking Chimera stomped back and forth across the room, battle harness strapped around her lower waist housing the collapsed form of a shotgun ready for battle.
What one assumed to be scales however, were actually woven fibres of fur that created a thick and strong natural armour. The closet comparison to humans would be their finger nails, or the horn of a rhino. What made Jack interesting however, was the labyrinth of tattoos decorating her body, almost like a montage of art stamped into a living canvass.
The enraged biotic turned about, black lipstick lips pulled apart to reveal sharp flesh tearing fangs of a predator.
As Jacks eyes locked with Shepard's, the biotic stormed across the room and japed a claw rather painfully in the Commanders chest.
Shepard held her ground, growling at Jack to back off. Jack snapped her teeth, before taking a few steps back and raising her hands to speak.
'This is fucken bullshit Shepard! I should be on the ground fighting those plate ass freaks!' she raged, snarling and barking as she signed away aggressively.
'Send me down, let me crush those mother fuckers!' she then howled angrily, encasing her body in a biotic field of energy.
Shepard remained calm, standing tall and firm she hoped to retain her authority over the troublesome Chimera bursting with the energy to fight. Jack was rather… radical in her hatred for the Turians, it was understandable to see such hate but Jack took the issue way too far. Regardless she was one hell of a biotic, and despite her hatred she was level headed during combat simulations the past few years.
Raising her hands, Shepard held them in the air making sure Jack was paying attention before signing her reply.
'You'll be going down in the second wave to secure locations, we need prisoners for labour Jack, you'll get your payback' Jack jaw dropped slightly, before she threw her hands into the air and garbled something.
Before Shepard could continue to sign, her MPC flashed indicating an incoming call. Raising her left arm she tapped the bracelet around her wrist and activated the blue holographic contraption.
A miniature holograph of Miranda appeared on her wrist, causing Jack to snarl with hatred at the XO. Ignoring the biotic Shepard payed attention as Miranda began to sign frantically.
'Commander Admiral Anderson has detected several ships exiting the primary mass relay, we are to regroup with the First fleet and prime weapons for combat' Shepard's heart skipped a beat, then without warning she turned and sprinted as fast as possible towards the elevator, she was needed on the bridge immediately.
Meanwhile near the massive glowing blue form of a Mass Relay, several ships glided silently through space, long angled hulls pointed forwards with large bird like wings flanking either side of the hull. The warships looked a little a bird in flight, but no bird looked as bulky or war orientated as these ships.
They were Turian hierarchy warships, a combination of 5 cruisers and 17 frigates moving in a wedge formation towards the colony planet of Shanxi in the distance.
Across the other side of the system, the first Fleet regrouped itself into several battle clusters. The battle cruisers formulated into a loose V formation with several frigates locked in a protective cluster around each capital ship.
The fleet's flagship, the pocket carrier Einstein however moved away from the main fleet with 3 frigates as an escort. Suddenly all four ships disappeared into FTL, disappearing from the hot zone and towards a safe distance from the battle.
On-board the Turian Flagship Undaunted, fleet Admiral Septimus Oraka stood proud and tall aboard his cruiser. Oraka was a seasoned military official, on the verge of retirement Oraka was sent on one last mission to discover the source of an entire system going silent without warning.
What he saw wasn't a good sign.
"I want readings on those ships, weapons shields anything, and someone get me identification specs I want to know who's responsible for this crime" ordered Oraka sternly, prompting his men to rush about the bridge, claws hammering away at holographic control screens.
"Sir Ships of an unknown faction, large eezo signature present in the three largest ships all cruiser size sir" informed an officer from his terminal.
"Unknown faction, no it can't be not again" muttered the Admiral in thought, there was just no way there could be another first contact scenario in this star system.
"Lock onto the flagship of the enemy fleet, prep First Contact package and send it immediately, ready yourself men I don't want another disaster like the Relay 314 war!" declared Oraka sternly, his men gave him loud confident acknowledgement of the orders and proceeded to fulfil the task demanded of them.
After a few minutes, the First Contact package was sent towards the unknown fleet, and Oraka only prayed that his military career wouldn't end in fire and flames. Everything was quite as the Turian patrol fleet moved into position a few thousand kilometres from the opposing fleet, weapons cold as a sign of non-aggression towards the possibly new species.
"Admiral were being hailed, video only" informed the communications officer, Oraka stood to attention and looked in the Turians direction.
"Put it on screen" he declared stoically, unaware of what was about to happen next.
A moment later, a holographic screen appeared before Admiral Oraka and the Turian was momentarily taken back by what he saw.
He was staring at some creature covered in what he assumed to be fur, a short muzzle filled his vison as well as two different coloured eyes that seemed to glare at him almost hatefully.
But Oraka couldn't be sure, as this was an unknown species with entirely different body language to the other races he's met on the Citadel. The unknown alien stared at Oraka for several minutes, until it made a gesture with its hand, a gesture he only knew one species to ever perform.
It raised the middle finger of its hand at him before the transmission was terminated on the other end, leaving a shocked Oraka standing in stunned silence on the bridge.
"Admiral enemy fleet is preparing weapons!" bellowed the weapons officer in alarm, Oraka snapped back to his sense and began bellowing orders.
Meanwhile on board the Normandy, Shepard grinned cheekily as she terminated the transmission to the Turian fleet. She just had to do something, anything to piss them off after they had the audacity to try and hail them, it was far more than they offered her parents 13 years ago.
So she gave them the bird, which earned her a few grunts and howls of approval from the bridge personnel.
But now it was time to get serious like a true Space Captain, standing at her command console Shepard cast a brief look at her battle ready crew all waiting for her orders.
'Charge Mass Accelerators, load all Mag cannons with anti-ship projectiles and reruit power to the primary and secondary kinetic barriers' she signed away, causing her crew to explode into action.
'But Commander, the enemy fleet out numbers us 2-1!' someone signed in fear, Shepard grinned in reply.
'Than it's an even fight, all ships fire at will! Burn their mongrel hides!' ordered Shepard, her eyes casting down to look at the micro map of the star system which the Einstein and her escorts had just reappeared several thousand kilometres below the battle field.
Things were going according to plan.
Outside the Normandy's interior, the battle cruisers primary spinal mounted cannons began hurling 15kg projectiles at a devastating velocity of 3100km/s towards the Turian fleet. Four massive cannons on the bow of the Normandy rapidly fired its ordinance, shooting glowing orbs down range, the other battlecruisers followed suit. Unleashing salvo after salvo of ordinance towards the enemy.
In reply the Turian warships opened up with their slightly more powerful, dual mounted Mass Accelerators towards the enemy. Kinetic barriers flashed as the invisible fields deflected the deadly projectiles on both sides, the smaller and weaker Frigates began zooming about in an effort to avoid the deadly main guns of the capital ships, firing their smaller weaponry towards the enemy when available before moving back to avoid the main onslaught of heavy weaponry.
However while the long range battle continued between both sides, no one seem to notice the cruiser size carrier open up its main cargo bay. Deep inside the warship, a swarm of small fighter craft clattered to life like a hive of bees.
Around the Einstein a dark cloud materialised around the vessel, a cloud comprised of thousands of small remote controlled fighter craft and bombers swirled about in perfect synchronisation as they began to stream upwards towards the unsuspecting Turian fleet above.
Commander Shepard watched the swarm fighters from the bridge of her warship, eyes glancing occasionally to check their shield strength and slowly growing temperature of the main guns heat sinks. Space battle between capital ships came down to several factors, power, defence and stamina.
A capital ship needed to have powerful guns able to hammer enemy kinetic barriers, have the barriers to protect itself from enemy retaliation fire and also the correct systems to sustain long engagements. In space the constant firing of guns and usage of key systems generate tremendous heat energy, energy that slowly rises the internal temperature of the warships to deadly and inhospitable levels that can cause heat stroke or electrical fires.
Thankfully for Shepard's fleet, they were equipped with highly advance heat sinks that could last for hours in intense combat. However the Turians were another story.
'All ships cease fire, reroute power from weapons to frontal barriers and move in to knife fighting range' ordered Commander Shepard as the swarm entered weapons range of the enemy fleet.
Amongst the Turian battle cluster, the capital ships were momentarily surprised by the sudden arrival of the swarm fighters. In conventional space combat amongst the citadel species, space battles were primarily done between ship to ship engagements with Fighters classing as support vessels.
The point defence laser turrets called the GARDIAN system, were design to fight off torpedos and small attack squads of large bulky fighters using heavy weapons. However the swarm that engulfed the Turian fleet was nothing they'd ever seen before.
Several Frigates just disappeared beneath a wall of black moving mass, while red lasers arced through dark space with small explosions as they terminated the Alliance ships.
Meanwhile sneakily closing the distance between the two fleets, the Chimera Alliance capital ships drifted into effective firing range of its secondary guns.
When the swarm eventually retreated to form a physical barrier around the Battle Cruisers, several Hierarchy frigates lay as crumbled wrecks, their hulls burning from the harassment of small arms fire and torpedos launched from Alliance bombers, however the main cruisers still operation, however their kinetic barriers were dangerously depleted. Leaving them as prime targets for the approaching First fleet.
'Prepare to broadside!' signed Shepard excitedly, at the exact same time Admiral Oraka yelled his own orders to his crew.
"Enemy Cruisers entering knife fighting range!" bellowed the weapons officers before flinching as sparks flew from his console.
"Load broadside cannons, weapons free concentrate your fire!" Oraka bellowed back.
Outside the warship, the Normandy and Undaunted crossed paths, hulls bristling with cannons opened up with devastating salvos that rattled against kinetic barriers with violent explosions of energy. Both ships erupted into a display of muzzle flashes and armour shattering explosions that rattled both warships.
Inside the Normandy's broadside weapons bay, Chimera rushed about moving crates of small propane tank size heatsinks to load into the Mag cannons that were pounding the enemy warship.
A Mag gun was a specially designed weapon that fired complicated large gauge ordinance down range instead of high velocity slugs, anything from disruptor ammo to armour piercing shells were loaded into the hull mounted guns. Which blasted their payload against the enemy ship.
Suddenly a shell from the Undaunted managed to penetrate the Normandy's barriers, slamming a solid slug of metal into one of the Mag cannons and engulfing the room in a flash of fire.
'All batteries fire fire!' bellowed the weapons officer on-board the Normandy, in reply the dual barrel turrets lining the Battle Cruisers hull adjusted their aim and concentrated their fire on the middle of the Undaunted hull.
The warships barrier flashed, and several shells slammed against armour plating in violent explosions that knocked Admiral Oraka off his feet from the sheer force of the impact.
Suddenly the Undaunted began to waver, its hull glowing hot from the weapons fire and its engines flickering as power began to fail across the warship.
'All ships concentrate your fire on the cruisers, fighters target the escort ships' informed Shepard with a victorious grin on her muzzle, however Shepard had grown a little over confident with the capability of her warships system.
An overconfidence which would cost them dearly, as the slaughter raged on, a Hierarchy frigate managed to slip away from the battle and rushed into FTL, retreating to the relay and exiting the system to warn other fleets of the new danger.
Present Time Shanxi system.
Nassana eyes watched the holographic screen as it displayed a very childish amination for everyone to see, it was an unusual data package for a first contact scenario but what she saw seemed more like a warning.
The animation showed the unknown fleet sitting in one large circle encompassing most of the star system, it showed 3 icons she assumed to be their ships crossing the line resulting with the icons shattering and an Asari skull with cross bones behind it being displayed on the screen.
That clearly meant death even if she wasn't familiar with the symbol, but what happened next was interesting. The Animation showed a slight bubble in the circle, a bubble where one ship from each side would enter and more childish draws of a blue stick figure and weird fluffy thing met.
"I think they wish to open negotiations with us" stated Nassana openly, earning her a few shocked looks and glares from the rest of the crew.
However she was only partly right, as a moment later Turian text began to appear on screen with some kind of request.
"They want us to escort one of their ships to the Citadel….. How do they even know about the Citadel?" questioned the Captain in confusion, this first contact was becoming stranger and stranger by the minute.
"Never mind that, open a channel I want to try talking with them" declared Nassana confidently.
A moment later, the animation changed to reveal a black and red fur creature with multi coloured eyes. The alien made a whine noise, before slapping a hand… paw to its head and making funny gestures towards something off screen.
"Hello can you understand me?" asked Nassana, what the Asair assumed to be horns suddenly twitched as she spoke and the alien looked towards her again.
It then did something odd, it raised a paw and seemed to knock on an invisible door. Nassana had no clue what the gesture meant, but it was clearly a reply to her voice.
Then the alien made a blue Omni tool looking device appear on its arm and began fiddling with it for a moment, before a very synthetic sounding voice split the air in Turian dialect.
"Yes" the alien looked at her waiting for a reply.
"I am Diplomat Nassana Dantius of the Asari Republic, may I know your name?" asked Nassana trying to sound as friend as possible, the alien made a garble noise and moved its hands once more towards something off screen, was it communicating with someone else.
The alien seemed focus on something off screen before there was a slight bark in the background followed by the alien fiddling with its Omni tool once more.
"I am Commander Jane Shepard of the Chimera Alliance, we mean harm" came the synthetic voice, followed by a chirp in the background and a confused looking alien.
Nassana held her breath, but as the alien fiddled again the words changed to something a little more friendlily.
"We mean no harm, words hard" apologised the alien known as Jane.
"Are they having problem translating the words?" muttered someone in the room, but they were hastily hushed into silence as Nassana continued to speak.
"How are you translating our language so quickly?" asked Nassana cautiously, hoping that maybe they could provide a better way to communicate than this odd synthetic voice, did the aliens not have a vocal language, how did they communicate if not by sound?
Jane fiddled for a long time with her Omni tool before the synthetic voice split the air.
"Parents spy on Turia, gave knowledge to children, children use turia to placate" this generated a little confusion in the room. Turia could only be the name they used for Turian considering the language they were using, but what was this stuff about parents and spying, and how did that equal a full on space battle between the two species?
Jane then seemed to look annoyed and bared her teeth at Nassana in a rather intimidating manner before she hastily fiddled with the Omni tool more.
"No talk, take to Council now" and with that Jane waved her hand paw thing and the transmission was terminated.
To be continued…..
Note and apologies, this was written over a very busy day on my end and I wrote it over 5 different times in one day in between farm work. Sorry if its a little messy and unsatisfying.
If your unsatisfied with the battle scene, please let me know what I could've done better so the next space battle is more interesting to read and not as messy, still I hope some of you find this enjoyable.
A top view of the NORMANDY battle cruiser will be posted online at Deivant art on the user page RedLightningNOD608.
Also if people want to make a few 'minor' OC I could experiment with a few OMAKES for the story just for fun.
Anyway hope you all enjoy! OH! PS: I need some input, how do you all think the Council would react to the Chimera Alliance? Your opinions would be greatly helpful in composing the next 2 chapters. And for records: Turian Cruiser: 500meters long
Chimera Battle Cruiser: 730meters long
Pocket Carrier: 730meters long
Turian Frigate: Unknown
Chimera Frigate: 520meters long