Unknown location near Terminus Systems
"Captain, your presence is required on the bridge."
"I'll be up in a moment." The captain replied through the intercom as he finished reading whatever's on his Omnitool. Standing up, the old Turian faced the mirror and checked his uniform, straightening it so it'll look more presentable.
"Captain!" He could hear the sensor station officer calling to him through the ship's speaker.
Just what is so important you have to broadcast a message?
He quickly stepped in the elevator and went up, he would have to discipline the officer for not following protocols.
He stepped in the bridge and went straight to the sensor station.
"What is it? " He stood behind the officer and asked, staring at the monitor in front of him as he clasped his hands behind his back.
"I'm detecting element Zero activity from a nearby secondary relay!"
Everyone on the bridge stopped what they were doing, in a matter of seconds the once lively bridge was dead silent.
"Matching signatures…. It's from a inactive secondary relay"
The old Turian captain took a deep breath. All eyes were on him, seeking for guidance.
No species would be foolish enough to trespass council space, except for the occasional pirates. Besides the relay wasn't activated before, this leaves them only one explanation.
"Prepare for a first contact scenario. We are near the Terminus systems after all."
"Cockpit" of the VSS Eternal Light
"Coward" A playful voice appeared as the hard light console in front of him flickered to life. Standing on it was a young woman, an A.I. to be exact. Luna was originally assigned to be the co-pilot of the Eternal Light, but now Lux was viewing her as more of a sister. Working closely together tend to form bonds between individuals, after all. Albeit it was a rather interesting relationship.
"I'm letting her gain experience so that she could..evolve, you're older than her, you should know that." Lux argued.
"Well, ordering a child to explore the unknown when us Adults are able to is quite cowardly."
"You're just six years old Luna, I'm 125. You're the child here, and it's standard protocol to let them scout first, and essential allowing them to grow up."
"That still doesn't justify sending her alone." Luna said while leaning forward, one hand on her hips and one pulling her eye down, trying to taunt him with whatever gesture this was. How she learnt this was beyond Lux, in Human years she would be around 18 years old. Her actions doesn't correspond one, though.
"I'm done arguing with you, Luna."
Luna, the ever playful A.I. continued to tease him, only to be answered with silence.
Unknown location near Terminus system, minutes later
"Unknown ship dropping out of FTL in…3…2..1, bringing up visuals."
Every Turian on the bridge stared at the screen, on it was a rather graceful ship. It's design was unlike anything they've seen .It looked like two scythes stuck together and in dark purple, coupled with dull grey with several teal lights on the vessel. It was also quite scaly with overlapping armor platings. The front has a single barrel , likely a primary weapon of the ship, with a total of four other holes on the "scythe blades", It also didn't have a bridge, or the "wings" or extra bits that one could see on most council vessels. The ship was beautiful.
" Definitely first contact, send them the package on all frequencies and hail them." The old Turian once again straightened his uniform, he would like to prevent another relay 314 incident with the humans.
X
Xenos vessels? Now this is exciting.
She pondered what to do. They've been taught to stay calm during a first contact and to send them a package full of peaceful messages, which was standard protocol. But she couldn't feel calm, as an AI, she still needs time to "discover" emotion, meaning that they'll have to experience all sorts of things.
The ships in front her, despite a few million kilometres away making it a bit difficult for the cameras, it still screamed militaristic. Turrets poked out here and there, the overall design was built for combat. And worst of all, they're in a defensive position like they expected her to come through.
She received a hail, which she delayed for a second or two to detach from the seat.
"Greetings, new species I am cap-,GETH?!"
The sudden outburst of the alien was frightening, and it's even more frightening that they could speak English.
"Please relax, I assure you I am no Geth, nor I have any knowledge of this Geth." The 'Geth' said.
The captain frowned before taking a closer look, the construct had synthetic muscle similar to Geth, thin flexible platings to cover most of the muscle and a few pieces of purple ornate armor. With a distinct triangular faceplates and two photoreceptors on its sides. There was also a sigil on its chest, made of a halo and a total of four elongated rhombuses pointing inwards.
"My apologies, they are one the more…dangerous species in the galaxy. Speaking of which, what is your species?"
"I am Helena, an Artificial intelligent of the Vanu Sovereignty. As for my creators, they call themselves, Humans."
The Turian was stunned, Humans of all species? They joined not too long ago and now they're breaking laws again? First by opening dormant relays and second by creating A.I.s? Simply unacceptable.
"You've broken council laws, synth ." The avian alien turned his head to his right, " fire at will!"
Why would they shoot us? And how did they know English?
Dozens of slugs impacted
Shields at 65%
Helena's processing unit was running at peak capacity, attempting to control the ship which was unable to catch up with her thoughts.
Incoming shells
She sent a signal to the engines at the back of the ship, forcing the ship to pump more juice and gaining a boost in speed.
The small purple ship rolled to the left, evading two third of the incoming slugs.
"What?!" The Turian exclaimed. "What kind of manoeuvre is that? "
The damn human ship actually dodged their volley, that is impossible!" It was common to do barrel rolls with fighters, but not with a 150m ship and at such frightening speed.
"Incoming!"
A beam went pass them, it was unlike anything they've seen, lasers? No, if it's a laser they would be dead by now. Plasma? Made more sense, but with current technology it is impossible.
"All power to forward shields!"
"It's no-" the ensign never finished his sentence as the ship was cut in half by the plasma beam.
X
Shields disabled! Hull integrity at 80%
The small Vanu ship shook again as another volley of mass effect rounds impacted them.
Activating nanite auto repairs, charging wormhole drives, disengaging from combat
The nanites onboard went to work, fixing the ship the best they could do, but the damage was simply too overwhelming.
The small purple ship stopped their dodging and just…stopped doing anything, at least that's what the Turians thought. One rather major issue was that when a ship is charging its wormhole drive, it must divert almost all of its power to it, rendering it unmovable and in a vulnerable state before it gets sucked it. The second in command in the small patrol fleet took over,
" Ceasefire! Check if we've received any messages."
The commander stared at the screen, looking out for any sudden movements.
"Sir! I'm detecting weird energy signals!"
"All power to forward shields!"
"No sir! The energy signal matches a wormhole, they're opening a wormhole!"
"Fire all weapons! Don't let them escape! And how the hell can they open a wormhole?!"
Helena pondered for a moment, the wormhole drive still needs at least fifteen seconds to charge and the alien ships weapons were already firing, she could only survive two more salvos, maximum. And from what she could observe, their weapons fire extremely fast.
Hull integrity at 15%
Several ideas raced through her mind once again. Should she fight to the end? Or should she surrender? Then she remembered the term 'respawn".
Self destruct sequence initiated, overloading wormhole drives.
Cockpit of VSS Eternal Light
Luna flickered into life once again, this time, her face was of an anxious and worried look.
"The IFF of Captain Helena's ship disappeared, it's marked as….destroyed. What should we do?"
Lux clicked his tongue before speaking. " We wait until she respawn here, then we'll go to the ship's last known location. Charge the drives in the meantime."
Destroyed? It would be ridiculous to have such a device pointed at an asteroid field. This rules out accident, could it be aliens? Probably should ask the poor AI later, at least she gained some experience.
Helena respawned within the systems of the Eternal Light. Respawning, was originally restricted to organics, Humans to be precise. But thanks to advancement in interstellar communications technology, A.I.s are able to respawn-by downloading themselves to another computer.
She was nervous and afraid, nervous of meeting the Centurion, she had failed him miserably and she died, too. It was quite interesting for young AI to feel such emotions, perhaps the battle helped her in gaining it?
She activated the hard light console and stood in front of the centurion who was sitting in the pilot seat. Unlike the Legio Auraxia, his armour was much more ornate and specialised. As of now, all drones and enlisted used the same chassis, used the same equipment and weapons, after all they are still robots ,but from what she've learnt at the academy was that Great War era soldiers had what they called "classes" , infiltrators , light assault ,medic ,engineers ,heavy assault and last but not least the infamous MAX suit, which none of them had seen it before.
Of course they still technically have different classes, but it's less specialised, for example a machine gunner would only carry a Pulsar LSW instead of the standard issued Pulsar VS-1, but the rest of the equipment stays the same. As for medics, most soldiers were robotic, so there was no need for it. They do have medical kits for the rare human soldier which healed about everything, so medics have kind of disappeared. Engineers now only carried a repair tool instead the huge amount of equipment from before. Though snipers were equipped with hunter cloaks which allowed them invisibility for a short period of time.
From what she could observe, the centurion is using the heavy assault class with composite armour, on his hip was a huge revolver and on the rack next to him was Polaris VX29 with a holosight and a grip.
She would die to see it in use. There was also a force-sword, similar to a force-blade only much longer.
"Captain Helena, what happened on the other side?" Lux asked.
"I was attacked by xenos vessels, Centurion." For some reason he seemed extremely calm, and she herself, an AI , had more emotion than a living being like the Centurion.
"Xenos? Did you send a first contact package?" He answered in his mechanical voice.
"I did, they fired at us nonetheless, I've also noticed that they speak English and they mentioned a species similar to me, called the Geth."
Now she definitely saw him surprised for a moment despite he still had his helmet on. Though he quickly returned to his calm state.
"Well isn't that interesting? Luna, take care of Helena. We shall greet our dear Alien friends."
"Set a course for the last known location of her ship." He told Luna.
He immediately saw the point defence turrets came online, which were literally Saron Laser cannons used on scythe fighters. the barrels glowed a faint green, indicating its status. A halo appeared in front of the ship a few seconds later , it was completely black inside while glowing on the edge, a tunnel through space and time. The 150m ship swiftly went inside, leaving the mining system empty once again.
Unknown location near Terminus system
Two Turian frigates drifted in space, they were damaged, but not too heavily that they couldn't move.
The two frigates were literally crawling back to the relay leading back to council space in terms of galactic speed, trying to not strain the engines. About an hour ago they were collecting the escape pods, not like that many made it out.
"Casualties?" The acting-commander sighed.
"We've lost the lead frigate, 62 dead. Numerous injured throughout the patrol fleet."
He sighed again, there was nothing they can do, the damn AI was using energy weapons! Wait..it mentioned Humans ?
"Ensign, do we have a recording of the conversation?"
"Yes, captain, putting it up now."
The black monitor came to life, showing the blank faceplate of the machine.
He stared at the screen, the robot on it was clearly not Geth, nor did it looked like anything the System Alliance would create.
Thinking about this Vanu Sovereignty, with the species being humans, he couldn't figure why would humans activate another dormant relay, even if it's a secondary one. Friends of Cerberus? Definitely not.
The designs were different, not even close to a known species's ship, and energy weapons. Must be my brain acting weird
As for the reason for why no element Zero was detected on the purple ship other than when they exited the relay, he couldn't explain.
Could it be another lost colony of humanity? Many more questions raced though his mind, should have talked to them instead of shooting them.
He would have to report this incident and his assumption later, for now, they would have to return to the nearest base for repairs. In the meantime, the Turian navy have dispatched two flotillas just in case these "humans" decided to come again.
XXXX
"Councillor Udina! What is the meaning of this!" Sparatus slammed his fist on the table, causing a few cups to shake.
"I can assure you that the alliance navy has nothing to do with this." He glared back at Sparatus in return.
"A Turian frigate destroyed in a supposed first contact scenario! And what do we find? Artificial Intelligence made by Humans! It's relay 314 all over again."
"And what is your proof that they are associated with us?" Udina fold his arms together on the table.
"Is a recording available Councillor Sparatus?" Tevos asked.
Sparatus remained silent and tapped a few buttons, the holographic screen in the middle came to life and a robot appeared on it.
"Listen to it, it said its creators are Human, HUMANS!" Sparatus pointed at the screen, enraged.
Udina viewed the footage with a confused look, "It, no..she said something about the Vanu Sovereignty, which is unheard of in Human history."
"I would prefer to look at the combat footage, I've heard that these humans possess energy weapons?" Councillor Valern who has been silent up until now spoke.
"Yes, which is impossible with our current technology." He tapped a few buttons again, showing the councillors the combat footage.
"I see, once again I assure that the alliance is not associated with these people and I shall contact them to figure this out."
"Very well, but is it possible that they are from a lost colony? It did happen once after all." Councillor Tevos said.
"Possible, but I'm not sure, I would have to che-" Udina was interrupted by Sparatus suddenly holding his hand up, eyes on his Omni-tool.
"Forget about contacting them, they've just declared war on us."
XXXXXXX
One week ago ,before council meeting
Shortly after the two damaged frigates returned to council space, the two flotillas came in to replace them, to their surprise, there was only one wreckage and it was from a Turian ship. From the reports of the surviving ships, the enemy ship should be destroyed, yet there is nothing. Not a trace of their existence other than the recorded footage.
Admiral Palidus was appointed for this mission, despite not having particular sounding records, he ascended through the ranks, earning respect from the men.
"Admiral, I'm detecting the same wormhole signature from the previous reports!"
Here they come
"All hands prepare for combat." He said through the intercom, signalling the other captains in his small fleet , which is composed of two cruisers and ten frigates.
The fleet formed a defensive position around the assumed exit point of the wormhole, which was about ten kilometres away, they couldn't see it yet, but the sensors said otherwise.
A slight distortion through space and time appeared , growing larger and larger until it's almost 50 meter wide in diameter. By now the wormhole was visible, a halo of some sort appeared.
The wormhole only opened for about thirty seconds before closing, returning to normal space-time. From it emerged…nothing.
"Sensors?" He immediately asked.
"Nothing Admiral! Perhaps they are still inside?"
He suddenly noticed a faint glimmer and the last thing he saw was two torpedoes going in his direction.
XXXXX (Vanu POV)
"Exiting wormhole in 3…2…1."
"Activating wraith cloak." Luna said"All weapons online and charged. You're good to go."
"Prepare to fire torpedoes on my command." Lux said as he glanced at the map, twelve red dots surrounded him in a semi-circle formation.
He waited until his ship fully emerged and was pointing towards a cruiser.
"Torpedoes locked on." Helena, who was working Luna reported.
"Fire!"
The xenos vessel never knew what hit them.
The escort moved swiftly between the formation, trying to find its way out. The Eternal Light went out of the encirclement and fired the plasma projector.
The small yet agile vessel turned at an absurd speed, which in turn made it going backwards, even for a ship of such size, one would think that it's impossible and unbearable for the crew. The ship turned slightly and faced one of the cruisers' starboard, which was firing its own volleys of little slugs the moment the Eternal Light turned.
A purple beam appeared and made its way to the cruiser, hitting it for a second before completely cutting it in half.
Said weapon was named "Plasma Projector", Which was was reversed engineered from the Vanu shipyard on Tauxis, It was one of the weapons that helped them win the final battle for Auraxis.
X
"Admiral, enemy ship weapons confirmed to be energy weapons! Advanced stealth systems are also present."
"Damn it! Our kinetic barriers have no use against DEW! And our armour platings are shit!"
"We can't see them!Ahh-" another frigate exploded. With the two cruisers and a frigate destroyed, and facing an unknown enemy, the rest fled.
"Luna, what's the status of the plasma projector ?" Lux asked the ship AI, who was inspecting the battlefield through the ship's external cameras.
"Fully charged, should we shoot the other frigate?" The little hologram asked.
"Denied, return to Vanu space immediately, I guess our lives are destined to be filled with war." He mumbled the last sentence, which was with an emotion unknown to both A.I.s.