This is an AU story so it does not follow the Canon of both ST and ME. There are OC's and OOC's as well. So Reven207 and myself have taken liberties as the authors of this story. I DO NOT OWN STAR TREK OR MASS EFFECT.
SOP- Standard Operating Procedure
POW- Prisoner of War
QI'yaH- Curse, very strong expletive. One of the strongest in the Klingon language.
petaQ- Epithet; similar to "bastard" or "asshole."
ylntagh- Epithet; possibly a direct attack on the target's intelligence.
Gre'thor- Klingon Hell
'Internal monologue'
"Speaking"
Okay this is the correct chapter. Unfortunately I uploaded the wrong one before hand and I do apologize for that.
Chapter 2:
"Report!"
"Our engines have been destroyed! All systems failing!"
"They intentionally crippled us. Attention all hands to weapons lockers prepare to repel boarding parties! Defend your posts, do not let this ship fall into enemy han…."
One flash of light later and one hundred very confused Turians were in a large cargo bay.
USS Normandy
Ashley stepped off of the turbo lift and proceeded towards cargo bay nine. The Turians (as they were apparently called) were spread out in several of the Normandy's cargo bays, but the largest group was in cargo bay nine. Ashley Williams entered the cargo bay just as one of the Turians charged and bounced off the force field. The rest of the Turians were staring intently at the space between them and the Normandy's crew. The mix of shock and rage was actually pretty funny.
Just then another one of these Turians charge the force field full force only to immediately bounce back.
"That right there is a level 10 security field. It contains 4.0 gigajoules of energy and runs through all of the surrounding bulkheads of this cargo bay. So unless you would like to continue getting shocked I suggest you sit tight and get comfortable. I'm sure our governments will be able to work out this incident in due course, so until that time you will be our guests on this ship. Now who's the commanding officer here?" Lt. Commander Williams asked.
"I am, Lieutenant Adrien Victus, how did you move us off our ship?" Victus asked incredibly confused.
"First you need to make sure your people listen to me about hitting that force field all they're going to do is hurt themselves and possibly break something. Second I'll defer your question to my Captain, she should be here shortly and then she can explain that to you. How are your people? Is there anything you need?" Ashley asked.
Victus looked at the strange looking creature for a moment and noticed her skin was slightly darker than the other members of her race and she had slight ridges on her forehead. What he noticed most was how they resembled pale Asari with fur on top of their heads instead of crests.
"We could use some food and where is your captain? I want to make sure the men and women under my command are taken care of." Lieutenant Victus said.
"There is a replicator to your right you can get food from it provided it has the proper recipe for the request". Ashley told the Turian officer.
"Can it provide us with dextro acid foods? Our race is extremely allergic to levo-amino acid foods."
'You've got to be kidding' thought Ashley to herself. "I'll check on that, do you have food stores onboard your ships? We might have to get it for you".
"That won't be necessary commander Williams. We can program the replicators to make their food," announced an authoritative voice coming from the turbo lift.
"Understood Captain" Ashley responded back.
"Good now get a security team together and escort their commander to the briefing room." The Captain ordered.
"Yes ma'am," Ashley then turned around and barked out the necessary orders, "You heard the Captain now get off your asses and do it."
Briefing room
"So tell me Lt. Victus, is firing on all first contacts SOP for the Turian Hierarchy or was Colonel Narrinus just the exception and not the rule? And will the Hierarchy be sending reinforcements or possibly an invasion force?" Captain Shepard asked.
"Colonel Narrinus was a fool who had his eyes set on getting promoted even if it cost his subordinates their lives. As you now know activating a dormant mass relay is against Citadel law but seeing as how it was a first contact that should have been waved. Narrinus obviously ignored this when he found out that your species did not use mass effect technology and saw a chance to subdue your race and bring them into the Hierarchy to get a promotion. As for your second question it is more than likely on both counts." Victus answered.
"I see, well there happen to be Federation and Klingon reinforcements on their way, so I hope whoever is in charge of the next force is more level headed then the last." Shepard said.
"Might I ask the Commander a question Captain?" Victus asked.
Shepard looked at Williams who just shrugged her shoulders. "Sure she doesn't seem to have a problem with it."
Victus gave Williams a curious look then spoke. "What species are you Commander? You resemble the Captain, but at the same time you do not."
Ashley gave the Turian an odd look before answering. "I'm half Human and half Klingon. Before you ask I get the ridges from my father and he'd claim my temper comes from him too. My mother is a Human and she met my father, a Klingon warrior, on vacation many years ago. Several drinks and a few broken bones and torn ligaments later they got married, and a year later here I am".
"Oh I see, are the Klingons like the Krogan?" Adrian asked.
"If you mean war like and can drink to hell and back and still fuck then yes, yes they are. But they are a warrior culture that does share some similarities with your own culture." Ashley responded.
'Spirits what did Narrinus get us involved with?' Victus groaned to himself while dragging a talon down his face. "One more question Captain Shepard. How did you transport us from our ships to yours?"
"We used a device which we call a transporter. It breaks down matter into an energy pattern then beams it to another location where the pattern is then rematerialized. This allows us to transport persons or objects from ship to ship or to and from a planet's surface." Shepard responded trying and failing to suppress the smirk growing on her face at the look of shock on the Turians face.
"Amazing, there is nothing like that in Citadel space. How was your race able to figure out how to make effective energy weapons?" Victus asked.
"I'm terribly sorry Lieutenant, but that's a conversation for another time. I'm afraid I have some ships business to attend to. The security team will escort you back to cargo bay nine, I assure you we will talk again soon. The replicators have been reset to accommodate your species biology. Thank you for your information Lt." Shepard said.
The security detail then escorted Lt. Victus back to the cargo bay.
"Ash I need you to assemble the rest of the command staff for a briefing as soon as possible." Shepard said before turning to head to the turbolift.
USS Normandy
Briefing room
Shepard listened to everything that her command staff told her, including the information that councilor Zunen had passed a few hours ago, bringing the casualty count from the engagement to two. She was worried about a possible invasion fleet showing up before the Federations reinforcements arrived. In her fretting she almost missed Williams question about said reinforcements.
"Captain when will the Federation arrive and what will they be bringing?"
"They will be here in a few hours. Admiral Janeway is bringing a task force of fifteen Defiant-class escorts, fifteen Akira-class escorts, three Federation-class Dreadnoughts, thirty New Orleans-class Frigates, four Centaur-type Destroyers, five Intrepid-class starships, ten Klingon Birds of Prey, two Vor'cha-class attack cruisers, and one K't'inga-class battle cruiser".
Ashley whistled upon hearing this. "Eighty-five ships, that's a lot of fire power they are sending us. Are they sure that is a good idea to send that many to us with the Breen still out there after all?"
"Starfleet can spare the ships, the ship yards are producing seventy ships a month. Add to that there has been no Breen activity since the assault on Chin'toka. Regardless of that all stations and planets are on full alert, and the patrol forces are out on the borders just in case." Shepard said. "What's the status on repairs?" The Captain then asked.
"The force of the kinetic impacts shorted out several relays and backup systems though out the ship, our engineering teams are repairing the systems as fast as they can. We've patched the up the impact points to the outer hull, but several hull panels will need to be replaced in space dock. The shorts have caused some issues with the Mass Effect Core, Commander Mera and Lieutenant Jaco are analyzing the problem right now. Chief Adams replied.
"Understood I think I'll head to engineering and check on their progress. Everyone is dismissed except for you lieutenant Williams." Captain Shepard called out.
As the rest of the Command Staff filed out of the briefing room Captain Shepard said.
"What is it Captain Shepard?" Ashley asked after the room cleared out.
"I just wanted to let you know that your father will be with the battle group as well." Desiree couldn't help but smirk at the look on Ashley's face.
"M-my fa-father is going to be here? Ql'yaH what does that petaQ want. The fucking ylntagh" Cursed the now red half Klingon. She was interrupted by her Captain before she could throw anything around.
"Stow that anger commander, if you have a problem take your ass to the holo deck and work it out. Otherwise I will beat the ever living shit out of you then spit on your bruised mangled body. Am I understood?"
"Yes ma'am. I'll be in the holo deck if you need me." With that Ashley barged out of the briefing room almost knocking an ensign on their ass.
Shepard was always amazed by the violate relationship that Ashley and her father had. Ash's mother and Zaeed had always had a strong relationship. Shepard had always seen Zaeed as a father figure and none of Ash's other sisters had issues with their dad at all. All Shepard could do was hope that one day Ash and the old man could work out their differences. Shepard finished her musing as she left the conference room and proceeded towards engineering.
USS Voyager
Federation Reinforcements
Admiral Janeway walked through the corridors of her old ship. She had been offered a new Sovereign class starship as her new command, but she turned the offer down in favor of remaining in command of USS Voyager. Not just because of her history with it but because she knew how far she could push the ship.
Voyager and its crew had been to hell and back, but though it all the crew had remained a family. Now she was being called out to hopefully stop a war before it starts. These newcomers called Turians, had chosen to open fire first instead of initiating proper first contact. The reason given was that it was in response to a violation of one of their laws. A law that the small task force had no knowledge of to begin with.
"Admiral Janeway to the bridge. We're about to drop out of warp at Shanxi." Said the navigator through her communicator.
"I'm on my way, Janeway out". Kathryn made her way to the turbo lift and once on she gave her destination as the bridge. In a few moments she stepped back out onto an all too familiar bridge just in time to see the ship drop out of warp.
"Scan for any vessels in the area that match the silhouettes of the Turians."
"Active scan only detects several inactive contacts reading only four active ships in the system, three Federation and one Klingon." Replied her weapons officer.
"Good have the rest of the fleet assume defensive formations around the gateway. Hail the Normandy let them know we are here so we can assign them a position in the formation."
"Yes ma'am sending hail." Replied the communications operator.
Just as the communications officer initiated the transmission, the image of the Normandy on the view screen began to flicker as the starship appeared to being listing.
"The Normandy appears to have suffered a power failure," announced Commander Tuvok.
"Keep trying to raise the bridge, move us closer the Normandy we may need to evacuate the crew." The Admiral said looking at the view screen.
"Understood moving to assist the Normandy."
USS Normandy
Ashley emerged from Holodeck two, following a sudden and violent rocking which shook the entire ship.
"Bridge report!" Ashley ordered.
"We're experiencing an extreme gravimetric surge emanating from the Mass Effect core!" engineer Adams yelled back through the communicator.
"I'm on my way!" Williams said running towards a maintenance shaft.
Suddenly there was another violent shake which threw Williams to the ground.
"Breach! We have a core breech! The Mass Effect Core is leaking Element Zero into the compartment!" Adams shouted through the comm system.
"Initiate containment protocol, shut down the core immediately!" Williams said getting back up and continuing on her way.
"We can't! Lieutenant Jaco and Commander Mera are still in there. We're trying to get a transporter lock but there's a lot of interference from the Core…. No, no, wait Captain don't go in there!" Shouted Adams.
"Adams, Adams, respond!" Shouted Williams into her communicator. Ashley ran as fast as she could towards the Mass Effect core room. She had just made it to the corner before the core room when she saw Shepard emerge from the room dragging both Jaco and Mera out into the corridor.
"Adams we're out, initiate containment protocol!" Ordered Shepard.
"Understood Captain, beginning containment protocol now!"
"Des! Des! Common look at me you crazy bastard! Open your eyes, common look at me!"
Shepard slumped down onto the corridor wall. As the emergency medical teams arrived to carry the three to sickbay where, given the unknown effects of Element Zero exposure, the entire medical team including the ships EMH where ready to receive the three patients.
"Get them onto the Bio-bed's prepare for full medical scans." Dr. Chakwas ordered.
"Scanning, all three subjects have absorbed a tremendous amount of dark energy. It's causing a great deal of strain on their internal organs. We must attempt to purge the dark energy from their systems." Said the EMH designated as Michel.
"This is amazing the Element Zero is being absorbed into their cellular structures. We need to move quickly." Said Chakwas.
"Dr. Chakwas will the Captain be alright?" Ashley asked.
"It's too early to say for sure." The doctor responded, not turning away from her charges.
"Lt. Commander Williams, please report to the bridge." Came Edi's voice through the communication system.
"On my way." Ashley responded. She looked back at Shepard laying in the Bio-bed before turning and leaving the sick bay.
USS Voyager
"The Normandy appears to be coming back online," said Commander Tuvok.
"We're receiving a response from the Normandy," Lieutenant Kim said.
"On main viewer," Captain Janeway said.
The viewer flickered and then came to life. The screen showed a lot of activity and confusion on the bridge of the Normandy as the crew of the ship seemed to be analyzing or repairing every system on the ship. What was most notable was the fact that Lt. Commander Williams was sitting in the Captain's chair and not Captain Shepard or Commander Mera.
"This is Normandy, we read you admiral." Lt. Commander Ashely said.
"We read you as well Normandy, Lt. Commander Williams where is Captain Shepard?" Admiral Janeway asked.
"She is in sickbay with Commander Mera and another member of the crew. We've just finished our preliminary analysis. It would seem that the projectiles that the Turians use in their main cannon also contain Element Zero. Several of our ship relays and backup systems shorted out after the attack. We thought they were simply overloaded by the concussive force of the impacts. But it would appear that some residual charge was left behind by the impacts and was traveling through the affected systems, this continued until the charge reached our Mass Effect core. This in turn caused a breach of our Mass Effect core and element zero began to leak out into the compartment. Lieutenant Jaco and Commander Mera were in the compartment at the time and suffered tremendous exposure to dark energy. Captain Shepard entered the compartment to get her crew out and was exposed as well. They are under intense medical observation at the moment and I don't know what they're current status is." Ashley stopped to not only take a calming breath but to give Janeway the chance to process what she said. Once she saw that the Admiral was waiting for more she continued. "Before the breach engineering picked up a surged from the core. It sent an electrical pulse throughout the ship causing a cascade failure of many of our systems and backup systems. Weapons, propulsion, shields, scanners, they're all offline." Ashley Williams finished relaying the Normandy's issues to Admiral Janeway.
"Understood Normandy, we'll have two vessels from the fleet break formation and tractor you back to the planet so you can begin repairs. Lieutenant Kim, tell the starships Churchill and Sutherland to tractor the Normandy…." Admiral Janeway's orders were interrupted by tactical.
"Admiral detecting an energy surge from the relay it's active."
"Red Alert! All hands we have incoming ships," stated Commander Tuvok over the fleet frequency.
"I want the defiant class escorts and 10 of the New Orleans class frigates to form a skirmish line at Shanxi's moon. Two Century type destroyers and the Klingon birds of prey to form up behind them to provide cover in the event of a retreat. I want all remaining ships moved to form a staggered defense line 10,000 kilometers away from the gateway." Janeway ordered.
"Admiral the Normandy is dead in the water."
"Normandy, what is the status of your engines?" Admiral Janeway said over the fleet com.
"Warp and impulse are still down Voyager. Engineering says we should have propulsion restored in an hour." Lt. Commander Williams said.
"I'm ordering the Churchill and the Sutherland to provide you with cover, standby." The admiral said watching the gateway.
"Here they come!"
Turian side of the 314 Relay
Two hours earlier
General Orinia looked out from her flagship the PFS Digeris. Orinia gazed over the fleet of one hundred and eighty ships that had been assigned to the invasion fleet. She was less then pleased to have General Desolas Arterius in charge of the landing forces. In her opinion he was the shoot on sight type of Turian and if reports were to be believed she wanted to force the four enemy ships to surrender with diplomacy and the fact that she had one hundred and eighty ships at her command should help in that regard.
"Send the order for the fleet to head through the relay."
"Yes ma'am, order relayed and the fleet is responding ETA to the other side two hours" replied the helmsmen.
"Good" Orinia responded. 'Hopefully Arterius doesn't shoot on sight' she thought to herself.
USS Voyager
"Contacts should be arriving in 3,2,1, mark. I'm detecting one hundred and eighty contacts all of them appear to be charging weapons." Commander Tuvok stated.
"All ships raise shields and charge weapons, remember low power seatings on all weapons, the last thing we need is a massacre on our hands." Admiral Janeway said over the fleet frequency."
The Turian ships drew closer to the fleet, while on approach one of the Turian ships broke formation and went directly for the Normandy.
"Admiral that ship is targeting the Normandy, she's firing!" The voyager's chief of security yelled out as the Turian ship opened fire on the defenseless Normandy.
PFS Digeris
"WHO FIRED THAT?" demanded General Orinia.
"General Arterius ma'am" responded the captain of the Digeris.
To say that Orinia was furious was an understatement. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" she demanded of Arterius's image once her hail was answered.
"I'm educating a primitive race" was the General's response.
"Are you stupid General? Four of their ships took out a whole patrol flotilla. Now they have eighty-five hopefully I can save the situation your idiotic pride caused." With that she cut the connection before Desolas could respond. "Hail those ships and pray to the spirits they forgive us".
USS Voyager
"Admiral Janeway we are being hailed by the Turians"
"Put it through". Janeway then stood up from the Captain's chair and walked towards the view screen. After a moment the image of a female Turian appeared. Before she could say anything the Turian began speaking
"I apologize for the overzealous nature of one of my subordinates. To whom am I addressing if I may ask?"
"I am Admiral Janeway of the Federation of Planets and Commander of not only USS Voyager but the assembled fleet you see before you. I'm giving you one chance to stand down and avoid a costly and devastating war for the Hierarchy".
USS Normandy
The ship shook from the force of the impact as the Normandy was once again struck with its shields down. There was another console explosion on the bridge and several crewmen were thrown by the impact.
"Is everyone okay?" asked Lt. Commander Williams picking herself up off the deck. "Status report" she then barked out.
"Engineering is reporting an outer hull breach, emergency force fields are in place. It looks like the Turians increased the mass of the round. All stations are reporting minor injuries. Medical reports one casualty, its Private First Class Jenkins of the Marine detachment, looks like there was a plasma conduit rupture in the barracks. He suffered extensive plasma burns and radiation poisoning evacuating the barracks." Edi said.
"We need to get the shields back online!"
"Look one of the Klingon cruisers is charging that Turian ship!"
USS Voyager
"Admiral the cruiser G'boj is charging the Turian starship." Said Tuvok
"Zaeed." Janeway said.
The Vor'cha class attack cruiser descended on the Turian ship. It turned to face the newcomer, but it was too late, a few quick flashes of green disruptor fire and the Turian ship was destroyed.
"Turian ship destroyed. The G'boj is assuming a defensive formation above the Normandy." Tuvok said.
"He's defending his daughters, status report." Janeway ordered.
"Admiral, I'm getting a report from the Normandy that they suffered one casualty, a member of their Marine compliment was killed by a plasma conduit rupture. They have sustained further damage including another hull breach." The Voyagers XO reported.
Janeway closed her eyes and sighed in annoyance before opening them again and glaring at the Turian commander. "I would think that as the commander of your fleet you would have a better grasp on your subordinates. I do not take the deaths of those under my command lightly General. I was hoping to resolve this peacefully but this may prove a fools folly."
"Admiral please accept my apologies and know that if General Arterius survived that he will be punished severely. I too wish for this to be solved peacefully and am aware of the fact that as a new space faring species you are not aware of the Citadels laws. I-"
Janeway cut Orinia off with a harsh laugh. "A new space faring species you say? No I think not, humanity has been traveling the stars for almost four hundred years general. We have fought many interplanetary wars between multiple species so please do not patronize us."
"I apologize once again Admiral I meant no offense. I'm ordering my ships to stand down and invite a representative aboard my ship to begin peaceful negotiations." Stated Orinia hoping to avert a war that she feared would end horribly for the Hierarchy.
"I'm sorry but I can't and won't send a representative to your ship after the display that was shown. You can send a representative to my ship however and we can begin negotiations. You can take our Turian prisoners off of the Normandy's hands afterword's if that round didn't impact where they are being detained." Said Janeway
"Wait this Normandy ship has the Turians from the patrol flotilla aboard?" asked a shocked and highly irritated Orinia.
"Yes they do. The very ship that your deceased General attempted to destroy." Janeway said.
"So I see, still I do not think it was necessary to destroy that ship." Said Orinia.
"My honor demanded it." Came another voice over the communications link.
"Who is this?" Orinia demanded.
"I am General Zaeed, Son of M'pach. And that petaQ I just killed tried to kill my daughters when they lacked the means to defend themselves. Pray that none of your other officers are foolish enough to try the same or I will send them straight to Gre'thor myself." The irate General responded before closing the communications channel.
"You speak of lack of discipline Admiral?" Orinia said.
"General Zaeed is from the Klingon Empire. Which we have a mutual defense treaty with and often times run joint missions in matters such as this. Part of the code of conduct of the United Federation of Planets is that we abide by the laws of other races as well. To the Klingons what Zaeed did in defense of his daughters honor was perfectly legal. And we would have abided by your laws with regards to activating the gateways as we call them if we had been informed about them, rather than being attacked without provocation. Stand by your station General I will inform you when you may send your representative aboard end transmission." Admiral Janeway said, the image on the screen fading away.
Serpents Nebula
Citadel Tower
Councilors Chambers
Sparatus looked over the reports from Palaven, forwarded to him from the fleet sent to the 314 relay. He was glad that General Orinia was in charge of the fleet since she tended to err on the side of caution. The report he was reading at the moment was from Orinia and he was less then pleased with Arterius's actions almost causing the death of Turian POW's and a war that would have been disastrous for the Hierarchy. Before he could continue reading both the Asari and Salarian Councilors burst into his office.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS SPARATUS?" Tevos and Valern demanded in unison.
Sparatus looked at them for a moment before responding. "I have no idea what you mean my dear fellow councilors?"
"Why have you sent one hundred and eighty vessels to the 314 relay?" Valern said tossing a data pad at the Turian councilor.
Sparatus cursed internally before leaning back in his chair. "We found a new race activating the relay, the patrol flotilla fired upon them and it ended horribly with the capture of the entire patrol and the destruction of one dreadnought. The fleet that was sent in response is currently in peace talks with this race as we speak".
Tevos was glowing with biotic power, "why are they not here.? As a new space faring race they should be brought to the Citadel and made a member race." She said irritably struggling to contain her rage.
"New to us yes, but to space no they are not. They have been a space faring race for almost four hundred years Tevos. They are also a member of a collation of planets known as the Federation of Planets and each race is extremely advanced. More so then us I dare say." Sparatus said.
"Need to overwhelm them and force them to join the Citadel before they become a problem for us." The Salarian Councilor replied stroking his chin deep in thought.
"Yeah that is not going to work unless you want to fight a horrible war that make both the Rachni war and Krogan rebellions look like a school yard brawl." Spartaus said trying not to laugh at the arrogance of his two fellow councilors. "I will send a message to the Commander of the Turian fleet informing her to pass on your message that you want to meet this new species. If they chose to come that is up to them I'm certainly not going to order General Orinia to force the issue."
With that the Asari and Salarian Councilors left to assemble their diplomatic teams. Sparatus knew that it was only a matter of time till news of all these new spacefaring races being discovered would be plastered all over the extranet. Life in Council space would never be the same again.
Chapter Three is being rewritten right now. As always Reven207 and myself hope you enjoyed this newest installment and continue reading as the story progresses.