The light hummed to life. The blue beam concentrated midair, forming a shape. The shape was that of a ship, but none like any other encountered by the Alliance. It's shape was that of a sword, with wings, almost like a hawk.
Another shape formed beside it, this one not of a ship, but of a person. Except this person had mandibles around their mouths, horn-like protrusions cresting to the back of their head, and a strange carapace texture to their skin. It was dressed in armor, with a large, almost impractical, circular collar around their neck. Instead of ordinary shoes, its shoes showed that it only had two large toes.
None of us said anything.
"The images you are seeing were taken 4 hours ago. In that time, the ship had touched ground and the creatures shown here-" the army briefer pointed to the creature, and it grew in size "-Had occupied the entire city of Gradau, 300 klicks from here."
"Intel says that this ship-" the ship enlarged this time "-has since then been deploying troops and resources from the enemy fleet in orbit. To our knowledge, this is the only source of resources for the City's occupying force."
He looked between the other occupants of the room. Approximately sixty-four soldiers were seated, 8 squads with 8 men and women for each. The map changed to a view of the city, with an alien ship highlighted in one area.
"The ship has so far been landing in the same spot every time. Your respective squads will each pilot a mako-" the image changed to a small fleet of makos, moving towards the city."-and will engage in a pincer move." Lines sprung out from the armored vehicles. The lines split up, entering different streets around the city, and converging to a single point.
"Scans also show signs that the weapons are equipped with traces of element zero, which means that we are possibly dealing with kinetic weapons." There were worried murmurs at that. Kinetic weapons were theoretical, but the theory behind them stated that they could easily pierce the hull of a military-grade spaceship. "Go fast, if you encounter enemy troops unload all ammo into them. If you start taking too much damage, abandon your vehicle and continue on foot, and don't come back here. There are enemy troops already converging on this outpost, so we are throwing a last ditch attack. A route has been updated in your maps, to sneak past the enemy forces."
"Alright men. LET'S MOVE OUT!"
Boots hit the concrete floor, as soldiers ran in file. The hangar was filled with large wheeled, armored vehicles with mini-gun turrets on top of each, and were arrayed in rows of four. The back of each vehicle was opened, allowing the troops to enter each vehicle. A Caucasian middle aged woman with short black hair and N7 armor was standing at the opened entrance of a Mako.
"Move your asses, Move! Move! Move!" I shouted as I stood at the entrance of a Mako, my men running inside.
"Yes Sir!" They all shouted. I tapped each back as they entered, keeping count. She took notice of the new rookie's nervous expression.
"Still going with the stereotype, eh Squad Leader?" Corporal Brandon said as he took a seat by the door. He was of course referring to the 'Bitchy sergeant lady' stereotype.
"Stow it Bran, before I kick your ass." I said, playing along. Considering that we all had family at Gradau, I decided to go easy on him.
"You gonna kick this ass real good, Squad leader?"
"Shut your fucking mouth, Brandy." I said, referring him by his nickname for the alcoholic beverage. I sat at the passenger seat.
"Seriously Brandy, what the fuck is wrong with you?" Lance Corporal Jones commented from his seat. "Everyday you do this, playing the stereotypical squad clown."
"We all need a squad clown." The Engines roared to life. "It lightens up the mood."
"Not when the jokes are as numb as what your girl says about you." Jones said. Everyone inside chuckled.
The gates to the hangar opened, and one by one, the Makos took off.
"Do you think it's them?" Brandy asked. We had taken the route and sneaked past the enemies heading for base. Everyone would already be gone by the time they got there. We were currently driving through the streets when Brandy asked his question.
"Who?" a soldier asked.
"The aliens. You know, from mars? the ones who built the relays?" Brandy clarified. The Mako shook a little as we came up on a bump.
"I don't fucking know. Sure?" Jones replied, shrugging at the question.
"Intel said that they had Eezo equipment." Private First Class Peterson jumped into the conversation, "We just know how to make engines and grav-plating with Eezo. If these guys can make actual weapons and shielding with-"
"Whoa. wait. Shielding?" Brandy interrupted, "Who said anything about Shielding?"
"You fucking dummy. They scorched an entire fleet. 'Course they got Shielding." Jones responded. The Mako came to a clearing among the buildings.
"But that don't mean they have Eezo shielding" Brandy said.
"Course it does-what the fuck is that smell?" Jones said. I smelled it too. I grasped my nose. "Is it poison gas?"
I was almost about to call everyone to put their helmets on, when-"That's me."
We all looked to Wakka. "What the hell?" "Shoulda known." "Did you fucking fart?"
"It's a luck spray." Wakka said.
"Luck spray?"
"You know, for luck."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Jones asked in frustration, thumb and index finger clasping his nose shut.
"I got it at this cool mystic shop, at this town-colony called 'West Toros'."
" 'West Toros'? Wait. Is it that same shop on 34th Casterly Road?" Brandy asked.
"Yes."
"Dude, that's a fucking pawn shop."
"No it's not."
"Yes it is."
"How would you know?"
"I used to live in-"
The pilot's head exploded. A wetness was sprayed on my face.
"AMBUSH!" Someone shouted. I ducked down as the entire car was peppered in holes, everyone else following my lead.
On the outside, alien soldiers were propped at the windows of buildings, guns erupting in blue lights as they fired on the lone Mako. On the ground of the cockpit, I reached out for a terminal. My hand erupted in blood when it was hit.
"Argh!" I clutched my wounded hand, could feel a finger or two missing. Screw it. I quickly reached my hand out and pressed the auto shooting icon. I heard the sound of the turret above us move, and the sound of the mini-gun filled the outside. I could hear screaming and shouting, but not in English.
After a while, the sound stopped, and everything was quiet.
A hundred thoughts branched. Thoughts that could watch, listen, and speak. The thoughts produced their own thoughts, predicting actions and outcomes. The thoughts attempted to sway the attackers for peace, but found that they were blocked...by a million more thoughts that didn't belong to them.
The thoughts retreated into themselves, and, in what was a million years to them, contemplated a plan of action. They found that they could form no action against the other. So they called on another being, greater than them, to take on the challenge. A message was sent in a hundred words.
A message was received in a thousand.
"Are you Insane?!" Saren shouted at me, slamming his hands. I was in my cabin, reviewing reports from our long range scanners, when my brother barged in and yelled at me.
"What the spirits are you talking about?" I said, turning away from the terminal I was sitting at.
"You know damn well what I'm talking about! Your attack is completely unprovoked and against all ethics!" That absolutely shocked me. Not because it was my own brother saying all this, but he was saying it just a few hours of agreeing that offensive action needed to be taken. Our race were the guardians of the citadel. We couldn't let a primitive race like this open relays. It would be the Rachni wars all over again.
"You were just okay with all of this a moment ago! You even provided advice on dealing with guerrilla attacks." At this, he hesitated. He removed his hands from the desk, and stood back, eyes having a confused look on them.
"I..I...I don't what was wrong with me, but I just had thought this all over." He began to pace, head down. " The race we are dealing is not in contact with the Citadel, or any of the non council races. They don't seem to be that advanced. I mean-" He stopped to look at me. "-They still use bullets and gunpowder for spirit's sake! How the hell are we going to explain this to the Council?!"
"You leave the Council to me." I stood from my seat, looking him in the eye. "This was just a routine law enforcement. It's the job of the entire Turian Hierarchy." Really, what could cause this sort of reaction from my brother?
I walked around my desk, to my brother. "Everything's going well for us, so far. You should get some rest, Brother." I placed a hand on his shoulder. "You look exhausted, despite the fact that you were just sitting around all day."
"I know, I just..." He didn't complete his sentence. I stood there, hand on his shoulder, looking at him. The Turian Hierarchy always protected the council races. The Rachni, the Krogan, and the geth. Saren always believed that too. The fact that he is questioning my orders regarding a hostile species, unnerves me. He wasn't the only one either. I've received a fleet wide report of men questioning orders. They were immediately placed in the brigs of their respective ships from becoming violently vocal. If Saren is also voicing his concern, we could be looking at a fleet wide mutiny. I have to find a way to quell this, fast.
Finally, I released him.
"Report to Med-bay then. In the meantime, I have to give permission for a ship to leave the fleet. We've detected a signal from the outer rims of the system." I told him.
He sighed, "Fine brother."
He turned and walked for the door. It opened with a swoosh automatically. As the door closed, I activated my Omnitool, contacting Med-bay. "My Brother is coming down for a check up. Can you give him any Sedatives?"
We bagged their bodies, and took their dog tags for good measure. We decided to leave them by the Mako, in the event they are found when the navy comes back to retake Shanxi.
When the fire stopped, we did a count. Brandy and Jones were silent. We exited the vehicle and checked the surrounding area. We found aliens in the surrounding buildings, rattled with bullet holes. When I say rattled, I mean that there were at least one or three wounds on their bodies. Whatever armor they wore, it was strong enough to resist armor piercing rounds. My right hand had lost 3 fingers. We sprayed it with medi-gel.
The Mako, in comparison, looked like a fucking block of -and I'm not kidding when I say this- Swiss cheese. The metal part of the armor didn't even slow down whatever the hell they use as ammo. The only thing that saved us from becoming a crimson pool in the Car, were the sections on the sides that were shielded in prototype Eezo tech.
But some were shooting from above, at the unguarded sections.
I looked at what remained of my Squad. Luckily, we squished to the sides of the Mako. All that's left is me, the Rookie, Private First class Peterson, and Private first class Wakka. "Alright now-"
I looked at Wakka. He was crying. "Hey!" I shouted at him.
I walked over to him and punched him in the face with my good hand, "Get your fucking shit together! We do not have time for this!"
His hand was on his face, eyes wide and directed at me. "Do you understand, soldier?"
"You don't have to hit him." The rooked shouted from behind me, "He just lost-"
"I didn't ask for your opinion, Rookie." I turned to her. "You just entered my squad. You don't question my command. Especially at a time like this."
I walked towards her. She didn't budge at all, standing proud. As I stood tall above her, I looked straight into her angry eyes with my own.
I then pulled my left fist back and punched her straight in the face.
She fell to ground, clutching her face, blood seeping through her hand. "Or do you want me to just shoot you and leave you here?"
She looked at me anger still on her face. I shot her a look too. She looked down, hand still on her face, a look of submission on her eyes.
"No Sir."
"Good."
"...And then we'll force them in a pincer move, around the planet. We'll hit, hard and fast, then retreat. We'll cover the retreat with a launch of debris, from a Mining ship-" He pointed at a section of the holographic star system, at an asteroid belt, "-here. It's Captain has offered to help in the retaking Shanxi, considering that he's from there originally." He looked around the room. In it, was a circular table, empty in the middle. Sitting around the table, were about nine admirals, including myself.
It had been a day since the Alliance Navy had recovered a drone carrying a message from Message from a far off colony, Shanxi. It's Orbital Defense fleet had been completely decimated. The enemy, of unknown origins, had come through the relay, destroyed the fleet surrounding the relay, and engaged in a short battle with the fleet surrounding the planet. The speaker in the message was the Captain of the last ship, and it ended abruptly as his ship was exploding inside. We eventually sent a stealth drone to survey the situation.
We've been planning a retaliatory strike ever since.
"But we have no way of knowing if our weapons OR the debris would even affect them." An admiral said, "The Information report stated that all of their missiles had absolutely no effect on them."
"We have to remember-" I started, "-that this was an orbital defense fleet we are talking about. They're only equipped with enough weapons to handle simple pirate or terrorist attacks. Not a military invasion."
"And we aren't equipped for an attack from another space-faring race," Admiral Bolus, what a funny name, piped up, "let alone the same race that could've built the Relays."
"That hasn't been confirmed."
"Yet still, we didn't even prepare for a prothean invasion. The guys in our R&D Divisions ran a model based on Prothean technology capabilities. According to them, any engagement we'd have with the protheans would be a curb stomp." He tapped his two fingers on his desk, emphasizing the last two words. "With OUR teeth on the curb."
"Every information we have on them state they are nothing like them." I interrupted, "In fact, the description of their weaponry is almost identical to the prediction model of what we might attain in the next three decades."
"That doesn't-" Bolus was interrupted, when all our terminals lit up, displaying a report from a patrol fleet within the Solar System.
An unknown fleet had just came through the relay.
"What is it captain?" An ensign asked. I was wondering the same thing.
We'd had arrived at the coordinates given to us by General Desolas. Here, we discovered a spherical object of unknown origin, just floating here. We feared that this could possibly be an enemy mine, but our scans came up empty, which is strange because nothing of what we've seen regarding the aliens says that they are advance enough to hide from our scans. This brought up the possibility that they are receiving military aid from a species within civilized. It could be the batarians hegemony wanting to stir up trouble, krogan mercenaries continuing the Rebellions, the Quarians trying to get aid from another species, or even their creations...
This situation had just way more complicated.
"Contact the other two patrol ships," I didn't to take a chance, "We're returning to the fleet-"
"Sir!" A bridge crewmen shouted, "The object is moving!"
The Outer surface of the Sphere was shifting, not mechanically, but as if its surface was made of some sort of liquid.
The liquid-metal sphere began to burst, and thousands shifting metal shards flew at us.
CODEX ENTRY
Auto War: an adaptive war machine, capable self replication and carrying out long term wars on their own. They are fabricated by AutoWar (AW) seeds. AutoWar Seeds come in three variants: BAW (Bio), JAW (Jovian), and SAW(Solar). A BAW utilizes organic matter or lifeforms to construct autowars, and are used for stealth, psychological, and biological warfare. JAWs are more metallic and mechanical, and produces much more combat effective and armored AutoWars. SAWs are launched inside a star, using technology no one but its incomprehensible creators understand, where it uses hydrogen from the star to either create nanoswarms to engulf a the star's system, or poisons the star with matter viruses.
Transapient: A mind that has evolved beyond sapient level intelligence. These beings are less like a life-form, more like an entire sentient location.
Caretaker God: A transapient, usually of artificial origin or copy of another, that has isolated an area inhabited by primitive life, protecting them until they deem them ready.
Author's Note: For those of who you aren't aware, this story is a crossover between mass effect and the Orion's arm world building project (Which I do not own). I'm pretty new here (sorta), but I've gathered enough information on my own to write, and I welcome any reviews that help me with my writing. I'd also like advice primarily on character development.