Sorry for the wait, but you should get used to it.
EDIT 18/9/11: After looking at the chapter again, I have decided to remove the final Cylon segment since I admit it was quite over the top, which has been pointed out to me. Sadly, due to my current work load, I haven't gotten around to starting the next chapter, but I will get around to it in due time, don't worry. I'm watching BSG Season 4 at the moment too, and I'm considering implementing the Cylon civil war later on, which was suggested by a reader and the Final Five may also join the party. Just a heads up.
The Terran Expanse
One week later
SSV Kilimanjaro
Arcturus System
Citadel Expeditionary Force
00:31 TCUT
The fleet was almost ready, over forty starships from the majority of the Council races, and the Geth, had been assembled in the Arcturus system. The fact that it had just taken a mere week to assemble this fleet was nothing short of a miracle.
The three major capital ships, two Dreadnoughts and one Carrier, served as the soul of the fleet. They were at the centre, and were escorted by Cruisers, who were placed in strategic positions around the three capital ships. The Frigates were split up into two flotillas, one serving on point, whose job would be scout ahead for the fleet and the other flotilla served as the rear guard for the fleet, they made sure that no hostile ships were tailing the fleet. Frigates also had a company of troops on board for boarding/counter boarding operations and planetary assaults.
Two of the capital ships were from the Alliance Navy, the Dreadnought Kilimanjaro, named after the largest mountain on the African continent on Earth and the Carrier Chester Nimitiz, otherwise simply referred to as the Nimitiz, named after Admiral Chester Nimitiz, commander of the United States Pacific Fleet during World War II in Earth's 20th Century. The final capital ship was the Turian Dreadnought Palaven. While it wasn't a new ship, the name was changed to reward the main Turian ship which helped liberate Palaven, the Turian homeworld, from the Reapers.
Officially, this fleet had been assembled to partake in joint exercises so that they could develop tactics that were made on-the-fly during the Reaper invasion. That was the story which was leaked to the galactic media, anyway. The story wasn't false, but like always, the public was never given the full picture until the powers at be believed that they are ready for the full truth. The story was simply inserted simply for the reference of civilians looking out from Arcturus Station or the military enthusiasts who use privately owned ships to observe Fleets to fulfill their obsession.
Unofficially, the fleet was assembled as an expeditionary force whose job it is to explore the uncharted region surrounding Earth, dubbed the Terran Expanse by some, and search for new forms of alien life. They knew that there was something out there, whether they were hostile or not was anyone's guess, but the Council obviously didn't wish for a prolonged first contact conflict scenario. The famous Commander Shepard was sent into the area a week before with his stealth frigate, the Normandy. While they hadn't heard from him since the start of the operation, they were getting clear signals from the comm buoys that they were dropping.
The decks of the Kilimanjaro were filled with crew members and several marines moving from one compartment to another, it was all part of the process of getting this beast ready for operations, they were also waiting for final authorisation from Alliance Command to commence operations. Captain Jack Carter knew all of this was extremely important, especially the paperwork from the bureaucratic arm of the Alliance. Everyone hated to admit it, but the backbone of the Alliance Navy wasn't its fleets, it was the bureaucrats that sat behind the desks that handled most of the paperwork.
Carter knew this first hand, before he had the honor of commanding ships, he was a bureaucrat himself, working for the Intelligence arm of the Navy. He originally joined up to see the galaxy but that was apparently never to be. He saw where his career was going, and he was determined to change it. He started publishing papers on large-scale Fleet tactics in both ship to ship engagements and orbital assaults on planetary bodies. These papers revolutionized Alliance Naval Doctrine, and were quickly adopted. It also propelled him from his pencil pushing post directly into his first ship posting, Tactical Officer of the SSV Tokyo. Ten years later, he was now commanding one of the largest warships in the Alliance Navy, a far cry from the world one witnessed from sitting behind a desk.
Carter was on his way to the Kilimanjaro's shuttlebay. He had gotten word from Alliance command that they were sending someone from Arcturus. He had even dug out his dress blues. The shuttle bay's size betrayed the scale of the ship itself, it could only carry ten UT-46 Kodiak shuttles, which were assigned for crew transport and Marine operations. The Nimitiz, however, was a refurbished Kilimanjaro class Dreadnought, many of it's armaments and magazines were sacrificed for space for fighters and interceptors. There were plans for a Deadnought/Carrier hybrid prototype, with two flight pods with hangar bays attached to the sides, which was pending Council approval for development. The new class of ships was planned to named after great Human military Commanders. If they got the go-ahead, the new ships would be designated Shepard class, with the first ship being named John Shepard
As if on cue, a UT-46 flew into the Kilimanjaro's shuttle bay. It was painted dark blue and was marked with the Alliance insignia. The shuttle set down on the landing pad several metres away from Carter's position and the door opened immediately, two people stepped out, one person instantly made Carter snap to attention.
"Permission to come aboard, Captain." Andmiral David Anderson said. Beside him was Doctor Kahlee Sanders, an ex-Alliance military scientist that was widely recognised one of the galaxies foremost experts on artificial intelligence.
"It would be an honour to have you on board Admiral." Carter replied, Anderson and Sanders then stepped down from the shuttle.
"First things first. I'm sure you have heard about Kahlee Sanders, Captain?" Anderson asked
"Of course sir. Captain Jack Carter, CO of the Kilimanjaro" Carter introduced himself, extending his hand, which Kahlee took.
"Nice to meet you, Captain. Permission to assist with your science lab." Kahlee asked. While she was now a civilian, the old habits that were hammered into her during basic died hard.
"Of course, Doctor." Carter nodded. "I'm sure the guys down there would love to hear your input." He then nodded to a Marine who was standing guard.
"This Marine will escort you to the lab."
"Thank you Captain." Kahlee said sincerley, giving Anderson a small smile before following the marine out of the hangar. Once she left the bay, the two Alliance officers also left the bay, walking side by side. Carter couldn't help but feel that something was wrong, Admiral Anderson was the head of the Alliance Navy, why was he coming aboard just before they set off? And where was Admiral Hackett?
"With all due respect, sir." Carter started as they entered the main elevator "Why are you here? Where is Admiral Hackett?" Anderson answered immediately, anticipating the question.
"Admiral Hackett has been forced to take emergency leave due to family problems. With all of our fleets either on leave or deployed, there wasn't any experienced Admirals available on short notice to coordinate the Fleet during this operation. Therefore, I decided to take the initiative and assumed command. I had a deputy take up my work while I was deployed. The politicians argued, but to be honest, they can take their political agendas and shove them up their ass, just this once."
"Agreed, sir." Carter nodded, slightly shocked at Anderson's bluntness. The elevator then arrived at the CIC.
Like all Alliance ships, the CIC was in close proximity to the bridge, where the helmsman manned the controls. In fact, they were esentially the same entity, so much so that it the entire deck was usually referred to as either the CIC or the bridge. The deck was raised above the main super structure of the ship and was had three quarters of the hull in front of it. The deck also had a massive viewing port at the front. Both the positioning of the CIC and the viewing ports puzzled other races, in which their layouts greatly contrasted. Their CICs were buried deep in the ship so that it offered the greatest protection for the commanding officers and that it didn't present a critical target for enemy fire. Human engineers understood these problems, but their species still hadn't quite gotten over the romantic side of interstellar travel, and many crew members loved observing planets with their own eyes.
In the centre of the bridge facing the viewing port were three large chairs for the Captain, XO and the Fleet's Admiral. The seats were raised slightly so that they could see over the head of the helmsman, who sat at the controls seven metres away from the chairs. To either side of the command chairs were two stations, one for the tactical officer, and one for main weapons control. The CIC was arranged in a semi-circle, terminals stretched along the deck starting from the command chairs. Behind the command chairs was a large holographic projection system which was capable of displaying a galaxy map for plotting FTL jumps, the status of both the Kilimanjaro and other ships in the fleet and three dimensional battle plans, known as '3DTAC', used for large scale fleet tactics by combining the galaxy map's system maps with sensor readings from both the Kilimanjaro and recon sorties. During this operation, while the main function 3DTAC was useless until the last moment as the vast majority of systems were unexplored, nearly sixty years worth of telemetry from recon drones and ambitious explorers had given them about 50 systems, all of which were dotted around the Expanse. None of them had any planets that could support organic life. While it was nearly useless for the operation, it did given them a sort of navigation marker, it allowed them to arrange a stop to discharge their drive cores into a planet's magnetic field and, in the case of the Normandy SR-1 class frigate Stalingrad, vent their internal heatsinks. There were two charted systems in the general direction of Commander Shepard and the Normandy.
When the pair entered the CIC, the presence, or rather Anderson's, was announced by the Marine sentry. In an instant, every crewman in the CIC lept from their seats to attention. Anderson straightened a bit before dismissing them, they then continued with their duties. A female officer of about 35 then approached the pair. She had average length dirty blonde hair and deep blue eyes. Anderson couldn't tell if either or both were natural, as they were both genetically recessive genes in this modern age, making them very rare. Humanities' distincive diversity was slowly disappearing. He would have also considered her very attractive if it were not for a pronounced scar that ran down her left cheek. The scar wasn't terrible, but it was still very pronounced.
"Admiral Anderson" she smiled pleasantly "On behalf of the crew, welcome aboard the Kilimanjaro. I'm Commander Helen Breen, Executive Officer." She then offered a firm salute, which Anderson returned
"Thank you Commander. How is the ship doing? Is she ready to go?" Anderson asked
"Just about sir. We have just recieved final authorization from both the Council and Alliance Command, let me just say, sir, that they were not happy that you assumed command." Anderson chuckled lightly and Breen smiled
"A few Turian Cruisers are finishing final checks, then we will be ready to go." she finished
"Good." Anderson replied. He took several seconds to observe the scar on Breen's face. Before he looked away, she knew what he was thinking
"Torfan, sir." Breen stated, Anderson nodded. Nothing more needed to be said. She saluted again and continued with her duties. Anderson then walked forward and sat in the central command chair. This is my fleet now he thought to himself. Before he could savour the moment, a voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Admiral, the Turian Cruisers report that they are ready to go." The communications officer said
"Good" Anderson said "Order all ships to power up their drive cores Anderson ordered.
"Aye Aye, sir." the comm officer replied
"Navigation, are we getting a good signal from the Normandy's comm buoys?"
"Yes sir, I'm getting clear signals on all 14 buoys. The 15th one is coming online now." the Navigation officer replied. Anderson then noded to Carter.
"Helm, power up the drive core." Carter ordered
"Helm, power up the drive core." Breen ordered in the routine of an XO
"Power up drive core, aye." the helmsman acknowledged.
"Navigation, set course for the first comm buoy." Carter ordered
"Navigation, set course for the first comm buoy" Breen repeated
"Course has been set, sir" the Navigation officer replied
Everyone then looked to Anderson. He was never one of speeches, so he got over and done with.
"Engage." he ordered. The pun wasn't really intended, but nearly half of the CIC nearly exploded with laughter. It turned out that a vid series that was nearly two centuries old was still popular with Human Navy crews. The ship shuddered slightly as it accelerated to FTL speeds. The core fleet kept it's formation while the recon flotilla sped ahead.
This 'expedition' would either be one of the most important undertakings in recent times or a monumental waste of time and resources. Anderson sincerely hoped that it would be the former.
SSV Normandy SR-2
Deep Space
Comm Buoy #15
04:89 GST
"Comm Buoy 15 is away." Joker reported. "I'm recieving a good signal commander, where to now?" he asked. Behind him, Shepard sighed loudly. They had been on this operation for nearly a week, and they had found absolutely nothing. As a commander, this fustrated Shepard. He knew that the expeditionary fleet was now only starting to come behind him, it may take them another week to catch up. They had almost zero intelligence going in, Shepard was beginning to regret accepting this mission, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Shepard then had an idea, he mentally kicked himself for not thinking of it earlier. The problem was a lack of intelligence, he figured out how to possibly obtain some. It paid to have the Shadow Broker as a friend.
"Hold on station here Joker, keep the stealth systems running and the sensors on." he ordered "Open a channel to Liara." he added as he turned towards the CIC.
"Aye-Aye" Joker replied as he prepared the comm channel. He didn't have to ask why he wanted to speak to Liara, and he agreed. Patrolling a 200 light year area with just a grainy picture of a fighter to go on was a waste of time without proper intel. He could almost feel the vibrations coming from Wrex down in the cargo hold, he knew not to mess with a bored Krogan. The fact that they had the resuorces of the Shadow Broker at their finger tips meant that they can get the intel that they needed.
As Shepard entered the communications room, the desk retracted as a grid of red lines rose from the floor. The Quantum Entanglement Communications Array worked in ways that Shepard couldn't begin to fathom. It was orginally implemented by Cerberus to allow secure communications between Commander Shepard and The Illusive Man. During the Reaper War, it was used to help coordinate strikes with other Captains in Shepard's ever growing fleet. As the red grid surrounded Shepard, the image of a room showed up, it was the Shadow Broker's ship, which was still in hiding in the volatile atmosphere of Hagalaz. Despite the fact the data was being relayed through comm buoys galaxy wide, there was no time lag in communications.
Shepard was standing in the centre of the main control room on the ship. In front of him, Dr Liara T'Soni stood at the main console, coordinating her espionage network. She accompanied Shepard during his final battle with the Reapers, using the Normandy as the Shadow Broker's temporary base of operations. She was invaluable in gathering intelligence on both the Reapers and planets that they were going to assault. However, once the Reapers were defeated, she left the Normandy and returned to Halagaz to continue her work aboard her ship. While the Normandy was more than adequete for her work, she thought that the Shadow Broker's cover would be blown if she stayed, as the Normandy was becoming a galactic icon. While Shepard wasn't happy at loosing another team member, he understood.
Liara turned when she heard the communications device power up, and smiled when she saw Shepard standing there.
"John! What can I do for you?" she asked
"Hey Liara, I need your help."
"Of course." Liara replied
"I'm on an operation for the Alliance in an area of sp-" he started
"Yes, I know" she cut him off "An Alliance probe found some sort of spacecraft. The Normandy was sent in to recon the area. However, the Council's response was perculiar. Over 40 ships left Arcturus Station several hours ago including three capital ships."
Shepard sighed in defeat, he wasn't surprised.
"How?" he asked
"You'd be surprised how easy comm buoy traffic is to intercept. All governments use them to transmit classified documents thinking the channels are secure." Liara replied somewhat smugly. Shepard nodded.
"I'm sending you a diagram of the area of space that we've been sent to recon. We're flying blind out here, is there any intel that you can find about the area?" Shepard asked. A second later, a holographic image similar to the one Anderson made appeared beside Liara. She turned and started typing on her terminal.
"That area has been the subject of myth and legend even before humans arrived on the galactic stage."
"They won't be of very much use to us out here." Shepard replied.
"Yes, I understand." Liara said as she stared at the monitor.
"Apart from the rare private exploration missions, the area is largely unexplored-wait." Liara said, her 'eyebrows' furrowed together as she skimmed through something with interest.
"What?" Shepard asked, intrigued.
"Just over a week ago, a rich Turian businessman was leading a private mission to explore the area. They stopped at a system's gas giant to discharge their drive core, their sensors then detected a ship that 'came out of nowhere', which didn't match any known ship configurations. The captain claimed that they appeared 'in a bright flash of light' . They paniced, thinking that it was the scout for a larger assault force and retreated back to the nearest Mass Relay, where they then went to the Citadel and reported it to C-Sec, who have chosen to not follow up on anything and recomeneded the captain and the helmsman for psychatric evaluation." Shepard nearly laughed at the end, it reminded him of the 'UFO' sightings that appeared in Earth's history. The circumstances surrounding the exploration vessel were also ironic. However, something told him that this was what he was looking for.
"Did they provide the coordinates for the sighting?" Shepard asked
"Yes, I'm sending them to you now, along with everything that I have on the area." Liara replied
"Thanks a lot Liara, I owe you one." Shepard said
"Anytime Shepard." she replied as the comm array disengaged.
Shepard then jogged to the bridge.
"Did you get that Joker?" he asked
"Yeah, EDI's programming the navigation systems now." he replied.
"Shepard" EDI started, her blue hologram appeared beside Joker "I have finished programming the navigation systems. The coordinates that Dr T'Soni provided lead to a system that has been designated by ZE-6354 by Earth based observatories. It will take us just over fifteen hours to arrive. Since the report indicated that they were discharging their drive core, it is logical to assume that they encountered the unknown vessel somewhere in the vicinity of a gas giant."
"Good work" Shepard said "I want you to open a channel to the Comm Buoy, audio and visual transmission." Shepard ordered. He then walked out of the bridge and approached the on-board communications station two stations from the bridge on the right, which handled conventional communications, i.e. those not covered by the Quantum Entanglement Array. The station was manned by a young Serviceman 3rd Class, the Navy equalivent of a Marine Corporal. As Shepard approached, he straightened in his chair.
"Serviceman..." Shepard started
"Newman, sir" the serviceman finished.
"Okay Newman, I want you to prepare a secure data burst to store along with this transmission, containing all of our intel. When I'm done, send it to the 15 comm buoys that we have laid, I don't want someone on the extranet intercepting it."
"Yes, sir." Newman replied
"EDI, send the data and your analysis to this station" Shepard ordered. Several seconds later, the C-Sec report, coordinates, it's position relative to their patrol area and EDI's analysis appeared at the station, where Serviceman Newman started compression and encryption. He also configured the station's camera, a bright red light above the monitor confirming that it was ready.
"Look straight at the camera sir, when the red light blinks off, begin." Newman stated, Shepard nodded. Several seconds later, the light turned off and he began
"Kilimanjaro, this is Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy, broadcasting from Comm Buoy 15. We have obtained intel on the possible whereabouts of a space faring race, they were spotted seven days ago in a system known as Zulu-Echo-6354. The details have been included in the encrypted data burst that was received along with this transmission. We are en-route, ETA is fifteen hours. I have suspended comm buoy drops until this intel has been verified. Shepard out." Newman then turned off the camera and compressed the file alongside the intel. Once that was finished, he sent the packet to the comm buoy, which was then transmitted to the other 14 buoys that were dropped by the frigate. The Normandy then manoeuvred towards their destination and accelerated to FTL speeds.
Battlestar Galactica
ZE-6354
4th Planet, 5th Moon
In orbit
Day Four of Mining Operations.
15:24
Mining tylium was a long and painstaking process. It was for this reason that Admiral Adama decided to split up the fleet. The Galactica would escort the mining vessels and the refinery to the moon of the large green gas giant where the deposits were found. The remainder of the civilian fleet was left in the hands of Commander Jack Fisk and the Pegasus. If they were attacked by Cylon forces, they were to execute numerous diversionary jumps before linking up with the Galactica in their current system. Otherwise, they had scheduled a rendezvous after 10 days.
The mining vessels had just begun drilling the moon's crust for the tylium. While the tylium was in abundance on the moon, it was mixed with traces of an unknown element, which had to be discarded during the refining process, which took even longer. The majority of the last four days had been spent transferring the equipment from the mining vessel to the moon's surface and making sure that everything was in the green, much to the dismay of the military on board the Galactica, which was holding on station in orbit, conducting regular DRADIS sweeps, deploying Vipers for the Combat Air Patrol (CAP) and Raptors for re-supply runs and system recon.
"You know Bill" an annoyed Colonel Tigh said from the end of the central table of the CIC "Mining operations were so much easier when the Cylons left their equipment for you." he said, refering to the mission where the Galactica took over a Cylon mining facility. Adama nodded in agreement.
There wasn't much to do other than wait for the miners to finish and pray that the Cylons wouldn't find them in their current position. They were far too exposed.
Three Days Later
SSV Kilimanjaro
Deep Space, approaching Comm Buoy #8
09:51 GST
At the behest of command, the Citadel Expeditionary fleet made it's first stop when they arrived at Comm Buoy 8. Since they had been in FTL transit for nearly three days straight, they decided to stop, take inventory and determine whether any ships were in need of a core discharge.
"All ships accounted for?" Admiral Anderson asked. He was warming up to his fleet command position, although it was still a completely new experience for him. However, he had fancied himself as a extremely fast learner throughout his military career.
"Negative, Admiral." a young enlisted serviceman stated from behind him. Anderson lept from his chair and turned towards the holographic projector, where 3DTAC was being used to display real time sensor information on the various ships in the fleet and their locations. The serviceman was visibly intimidated by Anderson's presence, but he pressed on.
"The Stalingrad isn't showing up on our screens, sir." he stated Anderson didn't wait for final confirmation, he moved across the CIC towards the communications station.
"Comm, get me the Hastings." he ordered
"Aye Aye" the operator replied "Channel open, sir."
"Hastings, this is Fleet Actual." he stated
"Fleet Actual, this is the Hastings. We read you." the CO of the frigate Hastings replied several seconds later.
"Hastings, where is the Stalingrad?" Anderson simply asked
"When we arrived on station an hour ago, the Stalingrad detected a planetary body on their long range sensors. They left on a solo recon mission to scout out the system." he replied.
"Roger that Hastings." Anderson replied. "Thanks. Fleet Actual out." The comm officer then cut the link. It did make sense. The Normandy class frigates were designed for those missions, the other frigates would give them away.
"Helm, how's the core?" Captain Carter asked
"About 59%" he replied "Sir, I recommend that we should, if we can, discharge our core in the nearest system. Better safe than sorry." Carter simply nodded, the helmsman then turned around and continued working. As much as it pained him to say it, Anderson missed Joker and his sense of humour.
"Sir, I think I've got something." the communications officer spoke again. "The Comm Buoy had data burst stored on it. It's from the Normandy, video and audio transmission." Captain Carter and Commander Breen then joined Anderson at the station, the officer then patched the transmission it. A recording of Commander Shepard then appeared on the screen.
"Kilimanjaro, this is Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy, broadcasting from Comm Buoy 15. We have obtained intel on the possible whereabouts of a space faring race, they were spotted seven days ago in a system known as Zulu-Echo-6354. The details have been included in the encrypted data burst that was received along with this transmission. We are en-route, ETA is fifteen hours. I have suspended comm buoy drops until this intel has been verified. Shepard out."
"Did you get the data burst?" Carter asked the communications officer.
"Yes sir, it has the coordinates and all of their intel. I'm sending it to your omni-tools and to the rest of the fleet."
"Good." Carter stated "So, we'll wait for the Stalingrad to report back, discharge our drive cores and link-up with Shepard. Navigation, how far is the system?"
"About three days FTL, sir." the navigation officer replied "Two and a half if we pushed the core." Carter nodded.
"Sensor contact!" someone in the CIC shouted "It's the Stalingrad, and they're broadcasting." The sound of the Stalingrad CO's shouting filled the CIC speakers.
"Kilimanjaro, Kilimanjaro; this is the Stalingrad, do you read me?
"We read you Stalingrad" Anderson replied. "Report"
"We've found them, sir."
I would also like to ask for ideas, if any of you have any. I have several things mapped out, engagements, contacts etc. But I honestly don't know how I should go about it after all that. Should I destroy the Cylons, go back to the Colonies and terraform them back to liveable conditions? Things like that. The whole Thirteeth Tribe thing is also bothering me. I have some ideas, but I would like to know what you, the readers, would like to see in a BSG/ME crossover, since one has never been completed. With regards to the team, they will play a bigger role when the alien races become known to the Colonials, until then, Alliance Marines will be conducting the operations, of which will probably be just one.
Since we have't seen Alliance or Turian dreadnoughts, I'll try to descirbe what I think they would look like. The Kilimanjaro class would actually resemble a Battlestar, without the flightpods and the raised command deck, similar to Stargate's X-304s (e.g. Daedalus). The Shepard class Dreadnought/Carrier that I mentioned is a step towards a Colonial Battlestar. The Turian dreadnought is just an enlarged version of a Turian cruiser, see the Mass Effect box-art for what they look like.
