There was a period of tense negotiations due to the scale of what was being offered, but in the end the admiralty board approved the proposal so the Migrant Fleet subtly moved to human space, well as subtly as the largest fleet in the galaxy could, and the Human-Quarian Alliance was born. The next five years consisted of integration mainly between the humans on Mars and the Quarians, aggressive ramping up of the Mars project as it was no longer a topic of doing it to finish but a matter of survival for a species, and a ramping up of shipbuilding to allow humanity to remain independent from the Citadel Council.

Shepard knew all this yet currently did not care as his eyes scanned the pub before finding his friend at a table in the corner and moving to join him.

When Cain'Zorah saw him he raised his glass, "Hey Shep, I see Udina owes you fifty bytes."

Shepard raised an eyebrow, "He's coming? That's news to me, I thought he'd be held up by the stuff at Sol Station."

Cain'Zorah shrugged, "Got the message this morning. Guess he wants to surprise you. Or we could ask him."

Shepard snorted as he waved him over, "Speak of the devil and he shall appear. How you been, Douglas?"

Udina sighed and handed over the money, "How many times have I asked you not to call me that? And same as always, counting down the days until my contract expires and I can get back to doing something interesting."

Shepard smiled, "Well it's your fault for being the one stupid enough to take that job helping negotiations after the fun stuff died down. And why don't you like that name? It's a good name."

Udina shook his head, "Compared to yours every name is a good name, Bartholomew. At least no one can make plane jokes about your name."

Cain'Zorah grinned evilly behind his visor, "I really don't see what either of you are com-planeing about. At least neither of you are named Qwib-Qwib."

The other two groaned good naturedly and Shepard raised a glass, "To our people meeting and none of us being cursed with a name like Qwib-Qwib." At this he and Udina drained their drinks while Cain'Zorah drank his through the straw.

Udina grinned at this, "Shep, I believe our friend here needs to know just what that thing is called."

Cain'Zorah groaned, "One time, I call it that one time and you'll never let me live it down."

Shepard grinned, "It's more how emphatically you defended it being an Emergency Induction Port despite it really being nothing more than a sterile straw."

Cain'Zorah's reply was cut off by the television's loud beeping noise, "We apologize for interrupting your regularly scheduled programming. Earlier today Jump Point Research Station Gamma was attacked by unknown alien forces. All military personal are to report for duty and all Shanxi defensive forces and reservists are to report to their posts for orders. Civilians are to go to the nearest emergency shelters."

The three friends said nothing as they stood up in unison and ran to the spaceport. Once they arrived Cain'Zorah and Shepard looked at each other before nodding and moving to their respective shuttles. Udina did not even pause as he followed Shepard onto the shuttle heading to the Phoenix.

When the shuttle docked they both rushed to the bridge and Shepard began typing on his console, "You're reinstated."

Udina nodded, "Understood, ship status?"

"All crew accounted for and all systems operational," was Margaret's reply.

Udina didn't pause, "Patching you into command now sir."

The image of greying Admiral Clines appeared on the monitor, "Status?"

"HCS Phoenix is at one hundred percent readiness," was Shepard's immediate reply.

The admiral nodded, "Good, you're assigned to the first battlegroup." With that he closed the connection to coordinate other ships.

It was Udina who broke the ensuing silence, "So, how bad do you think this is going to be?"

"Hopefully just a quick skirmish so cooler heads can talk, otherwise," Shepard grimaced, "Well, you know how people can get."

Once again the bridge lapsed into silence until command began broadcasting to the fleet, "Okay people, the hostiles got the first strike in but reports indicate they're still trying to take the station, but only had two cruisers and four frigates still operational before destroying the defenses. First Battlegroup is to go to the relay and push the enemy out. Second Battlegroup will lie in wait at the exit relay to ambush them when they retreat. All remaining ships will remain in orbit in case this is just a diversion. Alright people, let's show them not to mess with us."

With that the group leaders dispatched coordinates to the ships and the two groups engaged their FTL.

While they waited to arrive Shepard asked, "What's the composition of our group?"

"A cruiser, six frigates, a light assault carrier, and us as the only survey ship. That comes to a total of nine vessels," was Margaret's reply.

Shepard nodded, it was a good mix of ships. Since there were no battleships or dreadnaughts the frigates would provide screening for the rest of the fleet with erratic patterns and concentrated fire on vulnerable ships while the cruisers would sit back and focus down targets with long range fire. Meanwhile the assault carrier would swarm the enemy with drones before moving to capture disabled vessels. Meanwhile the Phoenix's job would be to sit back and collect and feed sensor data to the rest of the fleet for coordinating forces while also performing electronic warfare.

The Phoenix, like all standard survey ships, was the size of a cruiser at six hundred meters long, though it only had the firepower of a three hundred meter frigate since about half of the space normally devoted to the guns was used for computers. This was directly related to the power of the sensors in the frontal cone which have been said to be only a few short tweaks from a maser battery. Due to this its jobs were to provide electronic warfare and additional sensor data for allied ships. As there was no command ship present it also gave Shepard the power to assume command should it be necessary.

It was a good ship, and the thoughts of the edge it gave to their forces gave Shepard a predatory smile, "I almost feel bad for them."

Udina had a similar smile when he saw something interesting, "Sir, looks like the Eal'xaub was assigned to our group." At this Shepard's grin only grew wider.

By the time they arrived and assessed the situation the station was a little more than halfway overrun by the boarders, however the communications equipment embedded in the sensors still worked and that section had yet to fall. The order was given for it to begin transmitting targeting data before the fleet moved in closer.

The relief fleet approached at the five o'clock position and thirty degrees below the local solar plane relative to the enemy force. By the time they finished their jump the station was already transmitting targeting data allowing for near instantaneous shots.

The results were devastating, one of the cruisers and two of the frigates had the shots penetrate though the weaker shields surrounding the droplets they were using for heat dispersal and punch into the hull, at which point several were revealed to be experimental slugs holding chlorine triflouride.

While the ships' crews were still trying to come to terms that three of their ships were just rendered combat inoperable and were currently burning in space the assault carrier jumped below their fleet and released a cloud of drones which swarmed the frigate docked with the station.

The current drones were a rather ingenious response to the heavy reliance on kinetic barriers by known species and one of their fatal flaws, slow objects. They were shot at enemies using modified mass accelerators but would perform a burn before impacting with the barrier to pass through and clamp onto the hull. In the current battle they proved their worth as they moved over the hull and disabled the GUARDIAN emitters before targeting any other vulnerable points they could find, such as the engines, and beginning to dig into the hull.

Meanwhile the remaining two ships found out just why the wreckage they found indicated three spinal mounts as they came under a seemingly relentless bombardment. It was not long before the cruiser's shields began to buckle and the commander was forced to order a withdrawal through the relay.

Shepard grinned as he saw the ships vanish from his sensors, "And the prey falls for the trap. Udina, did we remember to sync up the generators before we left?"

Udina nodded, "We did and it's already warmed up to transmit the message on your order."

"Do it and open communications to the Eal'xaub," Shepard leaned back in his seat as the image of Cain'Zorah came up, "Are you going to complain about our ship designs anymore?"

Cain'Zorah shook his head, "No, they did decent given that it was an ambush which is good, because those were Turian ships."

Shepard frowned and clenched his jaw, "Damn. Udina, get this news to everyone who needs it."

"On it, and message sent, Code Citadel," with that he leaned back and began chewing on his old stylus while they all began to wait for the other shoe to drop.

It did not drop that day, nor the next, nor even the day after that, but a whole two weeks after the initial patrol was driven off. It dropped in the form of a fleet of three dreadnaughts supported by approximately fifty cruisers and seventy five frigates along with various support craft.

On the bridge of the Dauntless Admiral Sparatus frowned as he looked at the wreckage of what was a small monitoring station and muttered to himself, "That was too easy, where's the stations with shields and firepower to take on a patrol fleet, the ships that never stop firing their main guns, or those drones that disabled a frigate?" His frown worsened, "Coms, what's the status on the fleet?"

"Last ship just cleared the relay. All ships awaiting your orders," was the instant reply.

Sparatus nodded, "Good, instruct all ships to jump to rally point Gamma. From there scouting elements are to begin scouting for the enemy world starting with the closest star to the relief force's trajectory."

With that the Turian fleet jumped to a point one parsec away from the relay unaware of the observation probe attached to the relay or the multitude of accompanying probes in the surrounding area all searching their path for where the distinct energy signature of a mass effect drive ended.

Human Space Warcraft

Average tendencies across ships:

Human design tends to play off of the original Orion-class Battleship's design with a conical look with length increasing significantly more than width. Normally there are three full length mass drivers in a triangular pattern around the nosecone, sensors located in the nosecone, and an insulation layer that separates the areas the crew normally inhabits from the power generators and drive core to protect from overheating and static discharge. They also have a tendency to have a relatively small crew to their size and rely on onboard AIs to help automate ship function

Ship categories:

Standard categories:

Corvettes: Small ships normally lacking more than one length gun (our parallel to the spinal mounts of other races), these ships performs their duty by acting as a flack ship with numerous point defense systems and heat sinks to allow for continuous battery fire.

Length: 100 meters (average 50)

Armament: point defense lasers and railguns. No more than one (1) length gun, oftentimes with none depending on class

Engine class: Cheetah

Roles: perimeter scouts, anti-fighter/point defense, pursuit ship, fast transport, blockade runners (those that are smaller than average)

Crew: two to three (2-3)

Frigate: Standard light combat ship of the Human Collective. Is used as a flanking ship and a screen for the heavier classes, is also the standard raiding class due to its balance between speed, endurance, and economic efficiency

Length: approximately 300 meters

Armament: three (3) length guns in standard circle pattern. Decent point defense armament though cannot maintain standard length gun firing patterns while operating defenses to a significant degree

Engine class: Peregrine

Roles: flanker, screen for heavier classes, targeting down of weakened vessels, privateering/raiding, patrolling all human space, miscellaneous long endurance missions

Crew: ten (10)

Cruiser: As the modern equivalent to the old ship of the line, cruiser class vessels can hold their own against practically any ship class out there and in groups can pose a serious threat against even a dreadnaught class warship.

Length: 500 to 700 meters depending on class

Armament: standard length gun configuration. Low point defense for size (space is allocated to other systems)

Engine class: Persistence

Role: garrison of planets, heavy combat ship in engagements not calling for heavier warships, heavy combat ship

Crew: fifteen to eighteen (15-18) depending on class

Battleship: As the largest class save for the dreadnaught and the unnamed ship in construction at Sol Station One, battleships have fulfilled the heavy combat role in one shape or form since the first Orion Mk. II was constructed in the Earth's first spacedock. These warships are only deployed to choke point relays, vital incidents of note, or are rotated through the fast response fleets.

Length: 1 kilometer

Armament: standard ship weapons along with no less than twenty (20) megaton and one (1) gigaton yield nuclear warhead.

Engine class: Persistence

Role: Heavy warship/fleet leader, orbital bombardment platform

Crew: twenty-five (25)

Dreadnaught: The heaviest warships currently in service, dreadnaughts are one of the prides of human engineering alongside the xenoforming of Mars and the Dyson Swarm around Sol. Recently there has been a class wide refit due to design innovations produced from collaborating human and Quarin engineers which has all dreadnaughts in dry-dock save for two that have recently finished their shakedown runs.

Length: 1.5 kilometers (formerly 1.2)

Armament: Standard along with no less than forty (40) megaton, two (2) gigaton, and no more than one (1) cobalt nuclear warheads

Role: heavy warship, orbital bombardment platform (rumored to be a vital component of a clean slate operation)

Crew: forty (40)

Unknown ship under construction at Sol Station One: Not much is known about the behemoth save that once complete it will be the largest known warship and that its design is a significant departure from the human norm fueling rumors that it is a hybrid ship with a specific, though unnamed, purpose in mind.

Length: classified though larger than a dreadnaught

Armament: classified

Engine class: classified

Role: classified

Crew: classified

Specialist ships: It should be noted that due to the import of these ships to navel doctrine information may be classified

Carriers (light, medium, heavy): this group of ships has the double role of a drone carrier for space combat and transporting the war automatons for invasion. While no numbers on crew or capacity are available it is known that military commanders doubt the ability of most worlds to resist a group of medium carriers given the information provided by the Quarians. Leaked documents also state that heavy carriers will only be deployed in cases of total war and should they fail to take a world then a Clean Slate operation is likely.

Length: light: 200 meters; medium: 400 meters; heavy: 600 meters

Armament: combat drones and point defense weapons

Engine class: unknown

Role: carrier

Crew: unknown

Destroyer: These ships are missile boats with the explicit goal of destroying important enemy ships, though not much else is known

Length: 150 meters

Armament: various missile weaponry that is not known at this time

Engine class: Cheetah

Role: missile boat

Crew: seven (7)

Survey: A common ship type in the frontier this class has both peacetime and wartime roles. During peace it acts as a science vessel and uses its powerful sensors to collect any data available. These sensors have recently allowed for unprecedented breakthroughs in the Gateway Project. During wartime these ships act as either a command and control platform or a just a sensor ship. In either case it relays advanced sensor data to the rest of the fleet, however this does come at the cost of significantly reduced firepower

Length: 700 meters

Armament: classified (believed to be frigate level main guns)

Engine class: Persistence

Role: Sensor ship

Crew: thirty (30)- due to technical stations that need organic capabilities

A/N:Okay, shorter chapter on the actual plot thingies, but i figured that it would be better to get the human ship equivalents out of the way so it would make sense that their cruisers wouldn't blink at slugging it out with a Turian dreadnaught (though it should be noted that a constant barrage significantly increases heat generation cause, you know there's constant energy usage) and yes i know they're massive (at least compared to numbers i've seen before on the size of ships) but my logic is that they've had twenty years of unified slightly paranoid expansion (before first contact, not including the five years of access to Quarian engineers) vs. canon's nine years of disjointed expansion (which brings the time of unified government to four more years than canon if after first contact is included) and in canon three dreadnaughts are constructed by humanity in three years, it's just that here they've been funneling what would be considered an ungodly amount of resources into researching construction techniques if one knew the scale that they'd be facing (it should be considered that there was nothing to scale to before first contact so we'd naturally attempt to build bigger better ships in an attempt to catch up to the expected titans out there (we do seem to have a species wide pessimism on our chances so it'd be safe to assume we'd think we were behind) and then once contact is made it's with a race that operates what should honestly be considered a wonder of the modern galaxy with their liveships, that are massive again making humanity go on another design drive but also gives them access to what has to be the best organic engineers in the galaxy

should be noted that i haven't been able to find any hard numbers on ship size (really is annoying) though some things I've run across indicated that the Destiny Ascension was at most around a kilometer long so from there i went and decided on smaller ship sizes, though there are obvious problems with that

actually, if anyone could provide me with actual ship sizes I'd be appreciative!

(also separated codex files by line for readability)