First Contact part I

HMS Ingenuity – Science Vessel

''Sir! We're detecting energy build up from the artifact!'' the operator in command of the sensors all but screamed.

''what kind of energy?'' always the calm, nquisitive man that Captain Williamson was,

''It's consistent with the readings on an AF or Union ship but on a much larger scale, thousands of times larger sir!'' the operator clearly knew his captain would want more specifics.

''Pull back, semd word to the other ships to do the same. We need to know what we're dealing with before we ge ourselves killed'',

''Understood sir'', a few moments later the comms. Operator addressed Captain Williamson ''Captain! The Union Ship Jaeger is refusing to pull back, orders?'',

''Leave them'', ''sir?!''.

''If they refuse to pull back and we open fire then we'll start a war. But if they refuse to pull back then that's not our problem if it backfires, and we'll have guinea pigs to see what happens'',

''Understood sir, shall I inform AF-S Rising Sun of the developments?'', The rising sun was the flagship of the battlegroup assigned with patrolling this region of space, as it was AF territory after all.

''Yes, and send word to the HMS Duke of Cambridge to send a battlegroup to the very edge of the system, just in case'', ''aye aye, word away''.

THV Spirit of Palaven – Turian Dreadnaught

Captain Tarquin Desolias was an un-happy turian, just 6 months ago he, and his patrol fleet, had been scouting around turian space when a report came in that a notorius group of Batarian pirates was believed to be in his sector. Ever since that damned call he's been chasing these pirates through system after system, relay after relay – 2 dreadnaughts, 8 destroyers and the requisite frigates and fighters all to track down a bunch of pirates with no more than the equivalent of a small dreadnaught and 5 destroyers.

Don't get him wrong, hes glad to get some ation but this is seriously overkill for chasing pirates. Ah well, no matter. We're coming up on the edge of known space, no more relays and no where else to run.

''Captain, sir!'', ''at ease corporal, what do you have?'',

''we're set to come out of FTL in 2 minutes sir. Batarian signatures haven't moved, they're set around the relay and there formation says they may be desperate enough to open the relay''.

''Understood, get Victus on the comms.'', ''sir!''.

''Ah, captain desolias, what can I do for you?'',

''General, we'll be exiting FTL soon. Have your many ready to board and repel boarders. We need prisoners for the Hierarchy'',

''Of course captain, we'll be ready. Out''.

''Sir, exiting FTL now!''

3rd person in conflict

The patrol fleet was fired upon as soon as it exited FTL, a hail of Mass accelerator's and photon torpedo's lighting up the shields. Before the fleet could even return fire two frigates were killed and a destroyers shields were almost gone. Upon firing their own salvo the slaver fleet was lit up, their poorly maintained shields struggling under the salvo.

The Turian Captain was about to order another salvo when the relay came online, both fleets too surprised at the occurrence to fire – until a jumpy batarian gunner lit up the small ship that came through, outright destroying it.

AF-S Rising Sun

''Captain Xing! We've lost contact with the U-S Jaeger'',

''is that thing a weapon?'',

''negative sir, sensors show the ship was transported quite a distance before we lost contact on the other side!''

''Order the battle-group through, if it's pirates I want them in the brigg last week, and shoot ANYTHING that isn't human'', that last order was met with a lot of blank stares before the training kicked in.

HMS Ingenuity

''Captain, the AF ships are prepping to jump through the gate. Orders?''

''Send word to the Cambridge, I want them in-system. And hail the Rising sun and ask her to hold til the cambridge gets here''

''cambridge reports 'aye' sir, the Sun is ignoring our hails''

''God help them if its these protheans''.

3rd person in conflict

Both fleets just eyed each other, both captains to stunned by the carelessness of the gunner. Both captains prepping to band together to repel another rachni attack, the rachni would have been a blessing.

The relay lit up once more, though this time instead of a single small ship – 1 dreadnaught class ship accompanied by 3 destroyers and a dozen frigates came through. Guns blazing. The dreadnaught plowed through a Batarian destroyer and opened up its bow on another, rendering it dead in the water. Both fleets opened up on the new comers with a salvo before the batarians jumped to FTL bringing them out in the turian formation and adjusting their positioning to fill the gaps of the turian ranks. Over the next few volleys the THV Dawn of Parthia lost it's shields and a third of all destroyers and frigates present were lost at the cost of all but the enemy dreadnaught and a single shieldless destroyer.

The Turian-batarian fleet prepped all weapons to finish off the fleet before sending a transmission asking for the unconditional surrender. There answer was dumbfounding to say the least.

TSV Spirit of Palaven

''Sir, message away'',

''Sir! The relay's lighting up, contacts! 1 dreadnaught class, 6 destroyer class and 48 frigate class!''

''Sir! Readings show no sign of eezo, different design from original contacts. Energy build-up detected!''

3rd person in conflict

Upon arriving in system, the HMS Duke of cambridge scanned the system, and the captain didn't like what he saw: 2 fully functioning dreadnaughts and 1 shieldless dreadnaught with an assortment of destroyers and frigates. The cooms. Officer told him current readings showed that AF forces and Royal Navy forces only stacked up to 2 Dreadnaughts, 7 destroyers -one all but killed- and 48 frigates compared to the 3 dreadnaughts, 16 destroyers and 41 frigates. Not a good situation.

The AF captain hailed him and said they were fired upon and wanted revenge, Captain Hawthorne was going to go for a peaceful solution but the AF dreadnaught opened fire and in return the enemy fleet opened up aswell.

HMS Duke of cambridge

''Damage report!''

''Shields holding at 82%, no significant damage reported''

''Fleet losses?''

''HMS Invinible was lost as was 3 of her frigates''

''Understood, divert the remaining frigates to bomber duty. Get me a targeting solution on the flagship, have the o-destroyers do the same for the other of that class and then have the frigates strafe their lines. Get the Rising Sun to light up that damaged Dreadnaught!''

''Sir! All away and confirmed sir!''

''Two shots from the mark 2, and a trident on the flagship. Overcharge the Mark I's and hit some of those frigates!''

''Sir, shots away''

THV Spirit of Palaven

''By the spirits!, what was that?!''

''Enemy ships using directed energy weapons! By-passed our shields, severe damage to upper levels, weapons offline! Drive core damaged!''

''We lost the Parthia!''

This stunned everone on deck, the parthis and palaven were both new Primarch class dreadnaughts – meant to be nigh indestructible.

''Bombers incoming!''

''Damage report''... ''We've lost 60% of the fleet, their PD weapons were charged and hit the frigates, sir we need to leave now if we want to survive''

''Understood, get us out of here''

''Sir''

HMS Duke of Cambridge

''Sir, ships are leaving! Should we engage?''

''Negative, I want them tagged. See where they run to, if this escalates we might need somewhere to strike at ASAP''.

''Understood sir, shall I alert the Sun?''

''No, I want this a HME affair only. They caused the conflict, lets see if we can dissolve it without complications''.

''Sir, suns hailing us''.

''Captain Xing, we are aflling back through the gate. Do you require assistance?''

''No captain Hawthorne, you have given us enough aid. I hope to see you in more peaceful times and let us pray we did not just start a war, Xing out''.

''Comms. Get me high command''

''putting them through''

''I assume youve seen the report?''

''Reading it now captain''

''Orders regarding the situation?''

''Come back through the relay, then jump to where you pick up their tag. I'm trusting you on this hawthorne, use force if neccesary. For queen and empire.

''Understood, for queen and empire''.

''Take us through, do you have there location?''

''Sir, they jumped to a nearby system then jumped a good 120 light years in seconds. Im assuming they used another gate, they altered course a light year out from where they are now''.

''Right, take us to the first gate. Once we're through we go slip-space to there current location, give them a surprise.''

''Understood, ETA til arrival – 27 minutes''.