Chapter 4

Unpredicted Force

Author's Note: The First Contact War is heating up, Meta-Humans and robots have made their appearance, and now it's time to press forward.

XXXXX

"Is this everyone?" Williams asked. He was sitting in the back of a Rhino APC with its back door still down. Ten other APCs had gathered in the middle of the park, soldiers from all over the city loading into them while five vertibirds floated overhead. The colony of Shanxi did not have very much in the way of armor, and of the few tanks that they did have, Williams had only been able to spare two for this assault. That being said, the two Viper tanks at the front of the throng of vehicles were a welcome sight to see. They were the size of small houses and had dual main cannons in addition to a pair of machine-guns.

"Looks like it," Charon replied, taking a seat next to him and across from Fawkes. "Looks pretty sizable, I think it'll get the job done."

"All right then," Williams said, putting his hand to his ear again. "Have the sentry bots completed their scouting run?"

"Yes sir, unfortunately, they were detected and destroyed, but I was still able to recover their visual feeds."

"Damn it," Williams whispered. "just...just send it to my omni-tool."

"Understood."

"Also, have the Stalker units reported in?"

"Yes sir, they reached the position you ordered them to five minutes ago. They are waiting for your signal to strike."

"Tell them to be ready, we're on our way. Williams out." As the General lowered his hand, he raised his omni-tool and punched in a few commands, causing a holographic screen to appear above it. Williams was quite as the recording that the sentry bots and sent back before being destroyed. "Looks like they've got a couple of platoons there at the very least," he remarked, noting the size of the alien soldiers on patrol alone.

"They've got some mounted machine-guns too," Charon remarked, looking at the recording as Williams paused it.

"And see these?" he asked, pointing to two large square pieces of metal that seemed to be jutting out of the roof of the base. "Those look like AA guns. The vertibirds will have to hold back until we can take them out."

"So we are going in without air support?" Fawkes asked.

"Sadly yes," Williams said before taking another look at the still picture. "It looks like there's a ladder on the side, if someone could get to that he could get into the roof and take them out."

"You leave that one to me," Charon said, cracking his knuckles.

"Are you sure that you're up to it?" Williams asked, looking concerned, "I know that you're a Ranger, but you're still going into hostile territory controlled by an enemy that we don't know very much about."

"Hey, I'll be fine so long as Frankenstein here keeps his laser going."

As Charon said the word "Frankenstein" Williams eyes widened in horror as they swiveled to look at Fawkes. He was about to call out, to say what he wasn't sure, when he saw Fawkes throw back his head and let out a roar of laughter. "I...what?" Williams said, looking at Charon with a confused expression coating his face. "Why is he laughing? Every Meta-Human I ever met when completely berserk when someone used slang like that."

"Fawkes and I went through a lot together, he knows that I don't mean it,"

"Wait, he's Fawkes? Then that must make you Charon." The three of them turned to see Hannah and Adam approaching their APC, weapons in hand. "I've heard quite a bit about you two," Adam said, stopping in just short of the Rhino, "Heroes of the Washington Confederacy, you even helped found it. An impressive feat to be sure."

"A Left Hand commando?" Fawkes asked, "All the way out here? I thought that the Vatican barely had enough men to protect its boarders."

"A lot of time has passed," Charon pointed out, "We haven't been on Earth in...how long now? One hundred years? Two hundred years?"

"Two hundred and fifty-one," Fawkes answered. "We never had a point to, nothing important happens on Earth anymore, everything of significance in Sol is on Mars and sometimes Titan."

"Kinda sad, we fought so hard to make that damn rock safe and now people can't wait to jump off it."

"It could be for the best," Hannah pointed out, "it's a sign that we're moving forward, that we don't have to settle for trying to build makeshift shelters out of the ruins of Pre-War civilizations."

"That's a very glass half empty way of looking at our homeworld," Williams pointed out.

"It's kind of sad but it's the truth, more people leave it every day, the Coalition is providing less and less funding to clear out and terraform red zones, let's face it, Earth is never going to be what it used to be. I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it's what's happening."

"And with aliens at our boarder we're going to be pushing out even further," Williams said. "Speaking of which, we were about to ask them to leave, care to join us? I imagine that they will take some persuasion."

"We would be honored," Hannah said, the two of them climbing onto the APC.

"All units, head out," Williams said into his COM unit as the door to their Rhino closed and the APC roared to life. "Vertibirds, maintain minimal safe distance from enemy stronghold until I give the all clear, enemy AA guns have been spotted. The enemy force is estimated to be somewhere from fifty to a hundred men. Stalker units will be providing us with support. Let's make this quick and clean. ETA is fifteen minutes."

"We've got a little bit of time to kill then," Hannah said as Williams lowered his hand.

"That we do."

"So, what was Earth like the last time that you were there Father?" Charon asked.

"Please, call me Adam. And as much as I hate to admit it, Hannah here has a point, development on Earth has been reduced to a crawl. No new settlements are established, existing ones barely expand, and while 2 billion people still live on it, by the end of the century I expect that number to be cut in half. I suppose people don't want to be reminded about what we once had and lost, and that they prefer to move on."

"Many were worried about Earth running out of resources," Fawkes commented, "I suppose it is good that that will no longer be an issue."

"There's a bright side to everything isn't there?" Williams asked. He was about to continue when his COM unit beeped again. "What is it?" he asked. A low gruff voice spoke to Williams. As it did, a smile spread across the General's face.

XXXXX

In orbit around Shanxi, the Turian dreadnaught Vigilant fired another round from its spinal mounted cannon, which soared through space and cleanly tore through an alien cruiser. With Desolas on the planet's surface, another Turian officer had taken command of the ship.

"What is the status of the enemy fleet?" he demanded, looking at the row of navigators in front of him.

"Most of it has been destroyed, only three ships remain, two frigates in a cruiser. The majority of our fleet is still intact, we only lost six ships, four frigates and two cruisers. The remaining enemy ships are holding back, just out of weapons range."

"Good. Are there any updates on the ground campaign?"

"General Desolas has not reported any major...wait." The navigator that was talking reached forward and began to type into the console in front of him, causing a message to pop up in front of him. "He just sent word...he...he wants the second invasion wave to be launched."

"What?" the officer asked, walking forward to where the navigator sat and looking at the screen. His eyes quickly scanned through the text, confirming what the navigator had said. "Why would he order that? Standard procedure dictates that reinforcements should not be deployed until the first wave manages to establish a firm foothold on an enemy world, and it is far too soon for Desolas to have done that."

"Perhaps he has run into trouble and requires support?" the navigator suggested.

"The men that he brought down with him should be enough to hold off any outlining forces," the officer said, but his voice lacked confidence. In the back of his mind, an uncomfortable thought was eating away at him. Just because they had just encountered this species for the first time, didn't mean that they had necessarily just discovered space travel.

The Rachni invaded Council space the moment they had been discovered, staring a war that dragged on for centuries. They had never been seen before but they had had the military might to nearly wipe out the Council. If they could do that, who was to say that these newcomers couldn't?

"As odd as it may be, the General's orders are final. Contact all ships, tell them to launch all predesignated dropships. In the meantime close in and wipe out the last of their orbital forces. I don't want to drag this battle out anymore than I-"

"SIR! I'm picking signatures that match the ones given off by the enemy ships!"

"What do you mean?"

"Ships are entering the system, not that far from the surviving defenders. I...spirits I count twenty five ships in this new fleet."

The officer looked up at the viewscreen that was placed at the front of the bridge. Indeed, dozens of ships were dropping out of lightspeed in a battle formation, closely clustered together and facing them. Already he could see the three ships that he had intended to destroy moving to fall in among the ranks of the reinforcements.

"Sir, we're outnumbered 2 to 1, we weren't prepared for resistance this heavy," the navigator said, panic in his voice.

The officer couldn't blame him, already dread was filling his stomach, but he forced his voice to remain level. "Analyze the fleet, what classes are their ships."

"I...hold on," the navigator said, fingers flying across his terminal again. I count ten frigates eight cruisers and seven...I'm not sure."

"What do you mean you're not sure?" the officer demanded, looking confused and annoyed at the same time.

"Seven of their ships are of a design that I've never seen before, they're around the same size as cruisers, but their design is radically different."

"But it is a dreadnaught?"

"No sir, it is not nearly big enough."

"Good." A small smile crossed the officer's face. While it was clear that they were going to take heavier casualties than they had expected, he was confident that he could still turn this battle around. After all, his fleet had a dreadnaught, which could easily tip the scales of any battle in the favor of the person that controlled it, even if it was outnumbered. At least...that is what he thought.

Before he could give any orders to deal with the new threat, the viewscreen showed a flash from the distant fleet as a pure white beam shot through space and smashed into the Vigilant. The dreadnaught bucked wildly, causing the officer to slam into the console in front of him and the officer to fly into his back. "What was that?" he demanded as he got back to his feet.

"They enemy fleet moved into weapons range and fired at us with...I'm not sure," the navigator admitted. "But whatever it was our shields were useless against it. It impacted on the lower half off the ship. I'm getting reports of casualties and half of our point defense lasers are offline, as are our disruptor torpedoes launch tubes."

The officer fought back the urge to gulp, gritting his mandibles. He was a officer of the Turin Hierarchy, countless people were depending on him with their lives to make the right choice. He could not afford to panic. "Contact General Desolas," he said to the navigator. "Tell him that the enemy has reinforced their position and are using unknown weapons against us. We can't afford to stay here, if we do we'll all die. Tell him that we need to retreat, that he needs to withdraw his ground forces. In the meantime maintain battle formation, target those unknown vessels, I assume that they are the ones that used that weapon?"

"Yes," the navigator said, trying to ignore the blips on the screen in front of him that indicated that blasts similar to the one that had hit the Vigilant had destroyed a cruiser and a frigate. "Sir, what will we do if General Desolas refuses to order a retreat?"

The officer hesitated before replying. "Then I will give the order myself."

"But sir, disobeying the orders of a superior officer and abandoning our men? You'll be executed."

The officer gulped as the navigator's words echoed in his ears. "I know. But If it means preventing hundreds of good men from dying a pointless death...I...I will accept that."

"But...don't you have a son?"

The officer gave a weak chuckle. "He's a tough kid. He'll understand." He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself what he was saying was true.

"Sir...Lieutenant Victus...thank you."

A smile flickered across Victus' face before a fading away. "Get that main gun going! Every second we waste is precious!"

XXXXX

"Have you managed to reach any conclusions?" Desolas demanded. He was standing in the middle of the mess hall of his firebase. One of the synthetics that had attacked them half an hour ago was lying on one of the tables, three of his mechanics were gathered around it. They were going everything that they could to analyze the machine, even going so far as to cut it open and analyze the inner circuitry.

"It definitely appears to be designed for heavy duty front line missions," one of the mechanics said, turning to face him. "It possess three weapons, a missile launcher and a machine-gun, as well as...a third weapon."

"What third weapon?" Desolas asked, certain that he didn't want to know the answer.

"You saw them use it. An automatic laser, highly precise and designed to tear through armor with minimal effort."

"Lasers small enough to be put on portable units...Spirits," he muttered. "Anything else?"

"It appears to be designed to take advantage of long flat terrain. Do you see the wheels?" The mechanic pointed to the object in question, which was sticking out of the back of the synthetic's leg. "We took a closer look at it and realized that it is retractable. We reasoned that when faced with a rocky field in front of itself, this synthetic withdraws the wheels into its body and walks. It will no doubt be slower, but stable."

"I am glad that you were able to tell me this, but I think that you know what my primary concern with these things are. Where they being controlled remotely or where they thinking independently?" All three of the mechanics stiffened, looking at Desolas nervously. "Well?"

"Sir, we cannot say for sure. Our equipment here is limited so we cannot draw a solid conclusion and-"

"You sound nervous," Desolas said quietly, "what did you find?"

"I...sir, part of the synthetic's memory banks survived its destruction. We were only able to get a couple of scraps of data out of it. Among the files that we found was a recording of the synthetic talking to one of the aliens. We used the data on the alien's language that we managed to recover from their destroyed ships at the 314 Relay and-"

"Get on with it," Desolas growled.

The mechanic flinched at Desolas' voice. "I...sir we managed to partially translate the conversation. It...it appears that the alien was asking the synthetic its opinion on the status of the colony. The synthetic replied that...that it though, it THOUGHT" the Turian repeated, "that it was pleasant. It...it formed its own opinion."

"Spirits," Desolas whispered, looking at the dead machine again. "Are these aliens insane? They create synthetics that are capable of thinking for themselves and then proceed to give them weapons? Don't they have any idea of what could happen? This is the Geth waiting to happen all over again. No, this is even worse, at least the Quarians weren't stupid enough to give the Geth guns for arms!"

"What does this mean sir?"

"This has become a much more serious matter of an ignorant race activating a dormant Mass Relay. If these newcomers willingly make sentient synthetics, then the security of every last galactic power is threatened. We could be looking at a much longer and larger war than any of us could have predicted when we first made contact with these creatures."

"Sir...what...what should we do?"

"Get this one and the other two loaded onto dropships. I want them taken back to friendly territory to see if we can get anything out of them. Dismissed." The General turned and walked out of the mess hall, only to find Saren waiting for him outside.

"You handled yourself fairly well out there," the Turian said to his younger brother, smiling slightly. "Keep it up, we're going to need a lot more men like you soon."

"You're saying that this could turn into a full scale war?" Saren asked.

"Eavesdropping are you? Sadly...yes. These aliens are breaking more Council laws than simply expanding outward too far without considering the consequences. Their actions endanger the lives of every last living thing in the Council and beyond. I-" he was cut off as his COM unit beeped.

"What?" he asked, his talons flying to his ear. "I...say that again...WHAT! Confirm that!...I give the orders here!...I did not say that, I said that I gave the orders, not that I disagree. Sadly...it appears that that is what we must do. I will give the order now, I will start sending up dropships as soon as I can."

"What happened?" Saren asked, the two of them coming to a sudden halt.

"Enemy reinforcements," Desolas grunted, "They're proving to be too much for our forces. We're going to have to cut our losses and fall back." He raised his hand to his COM unit again. "All units! This is General Desolas. I am ordering a full retreat, the enemy presence here has proven itself to be more powerful than we can hope to deal with. Return to your dropships as soon as possible, all of our ships will depart in half an hour. We will not wait after that."

"We're running?" Saren exclaimed. "We attacked these damn things on their own turf and now we're running?"

"I understand your frustration," Desolas said, putting a hand on Saren's shoulder. "It irritates me to no end to leave this planet under the control of these fools, but we need to accept in this scenario, they have the upper hand. In war, that happens sometimes, you go into a battle thinking that everything with factor in your favor when in reality fate is on the side of your enemy. It is impossible to win every battle, and only a fool presses on when it becomes clear that the odds are against him."

"What are you saying? It's our duty as soldiers of the Hierarchy to defeat threats like this. How are we doing that by running away?"

Desolas let out a low chuckle. "In many ways you're still a child. Things are not as simple as we would like them to be. It is true that it is our duty to destroy threats to the Hierarchy and by extension the Council, but the straightforward way is not always the right way. Remember that Saren, sometimes you must abandon more obvious path of action in order to accomplish what needs to be done. By retreating here, we avoid deaths that would accomplish nothing and by extension we have more men to fight a battle in the future that we actually have a chance of winning. Do you understand?"

"I...I think that I do."

"Good," Desolas said, smiling slightly. "Now then, we need to assist in the evacuation of this base, I want you to-"

"SIR!" a voice thundered over the COM lines, so loud that Saren could hear it clearly, "there is an enemy convey heading right this way! They have tanks and gunships with them! They can't be more than five minutes. We-GAH." A blood curdling shriek filled Desolas' ears, a sickening ripping noise faintly present. He heard gunshots over the lines before more screams and ripping noises overtook them.

"What's going on?" Saren shouted.

"I don't know. Follow me." Desolas turned and ran up a flight of stairs, Saren right behind him. They emerged onto a set of catwalks, overlooking the field in front of the base. Several Turian bodies were laying on the ground, massive gashes in their chests with purple blood still flowing out. Desolas gasped in disbelief as he saw the cause of this.

A massive creature with claws that were easily a foot long and horns on either side of its face lunged at a nearby Turian, swinging both of its arms as it did. The soldier fell to the ground, lifeless as its head rolled off to the side. Five of the creatures were slaughtering his men with ease, completely dominating them in the close quarters that they were fighting in. One soldier a fair distance away attempted to line up a shot, only for two of the creatures to turn and face him, shooting at him with shoulder mounted machine-guns. The combined firepower proved to be too much for both his shields and his body.

Grabbing the handles to a nearby machine-gun, Desolas swung the massive weapon around and opened fire on the nearest creature. It barely had time to register the noise before rounds tore through its body, killing it almost instantly. The Turian was about to turn and fire on another creature when suddenly they grew faint, becoming harder and harder to see before they disappeared all together. "Active camouflage?" Desolas shouted, furious at how the monsters that had slaughtered his men had slipped away.

Grinding his mandibles in rage, he looked up and saw the enemy convey that had been reported bearing down on them, no more than a minute or two away. "ALL FORCES!" he roared into his COM unit. "Defend this base with every last bit of spirit that you have! We WILL hold out until all of our forces have been evacuated!"

CODEX UPDATED

ENTRIES ADDED

Coalition Destroyer: Pre-War scholars are often baffled by the choice of words in classifying this particular warship. The Coalition destroyer is, in fact, designed for long range combat, as opposed to its naval counterpart. It is a very good example of the Coalition's original technology combining with Mass Effect technology, for the destroyer's spinal mounted cannon was replaced with a Tesla cannon, a weapon with unique properties that allows it to dominate space combat.

The Tesla cannon is an energy weapon, therefore kinetic barriers do not hinder their progress in any way. This is true for all energy weapons, and despite the best efforts of the Coalition to create a type of shielding to block them, they have had no success, limiting themselves to only being able to block solid matter.

The destroyer forwards the majority of its power supply to its cannon, allowing the blast to travel massive distances without dissipating, making it invaluable in long range missions, especially for attacking heavy enemy fleets. It is not without its flaws though, while the Tesla cannon passes through kinetic barriers, it lacks the same stopping power as mass accelerators and merely fries enemy electronics in the area hit, meaning that multiple shots will be needed to take out heavier ship if the engines cannot be targeted. Also due to the Tesla cannon's massive power draw, the destroyer has relatively weak shields and poor maneuverability, a single frigate will be able to destroy one if it gets close enough. To be used to their full potential, destroyers must seamlessly be woven into a fleet with sentries to defend it.

Rhino APC: As it expanded into space, the Coalition realized that it would need a ground based vehicle to ferry its men to the front lines. The first model was the Mako, which, despite high exceptions, was widely regarded as a failure. It was constructed at a point where the Coalition was still struggling to master Mass Effect technology, as a result the inner mechanisms of the Mako conflicted with each other, making it difficult to drive and prone to frequent accidents. It was quickly scrapped and replaced with the Rhino.

The Rhino was designed to take punishment, and while it cannot be considered a tank, it has enough shielding and armor to withstand several shots from light to moderate anti-tank weapons. It is even durable enough to survive the same drops that were commonly used to deploy the Mako. Rhinos tend to vary in size, but on average, a dozen soldiers can be comfortably fitted into a single one, with extra space for Meta-Humans and Deathclaws. However, while the Rhino is considered superior to the Mako in many aspects, it is lacking in firepower. While the Mako was equipped with a cannon, the Rhino only possess a mounted machine-gun that must be operated manually, making it far less of a threat in combat. Currently, no other variants of the APC exist, although rumors exist that the designers of the Rhino are hard at work on them.

Viper Tank: Without a doubt the heaviest tank made by the Coalition, the Viper combines its massive size with overwhelming firepower to create a terrifying and demoralizing affect. Deployed usually for cracking strong defensive lines, the Viper is a valuable asset for any commander to have under his command. Even more devastating is the Viper's close cousin, which, while more rare, trades in a Viper's normal primary canon for a plasma cannon.

However, this massive machine of war is not without its flaws. Its large scale makes it resistant to all but the heaviest of weapons, but at times it becomes a liability. The Viper is slow compared to most tanks and fairly clumsy at times. It also maneuvers poorly, requiring wide spaces to turn, and is nearly helpless in wooded areas. Air units will have an easy time picking off the Viper as it possess no anti-air capabilities. What is more, the Viper is simply expensive, making it impossible to deploy everywhere in large quantities. That being said the Viper is loved dearly among the Coalition, for as one First Contact War veteran said "there's nothing quite like driving around a house sized mass of (censored) you"

Stalker Corps: For the longest time, the Coalition had difficulty finding a place for Deathclaws in the armed forces. The only weapons that they are capable of using are shoulder mounted machine-guns and cannons, and while they do posses powerful limbs, they lack the same strength that Meta-Humans do, forcing the weapons to be fairly light. It was discovered that Deathclaws preformed poorly around those not of their species, ineffective at tactics of the light infantry and lacking the firepower needed for the heavy. Finally, the Deathclaws were given their own unit, the Stalker Corps.

While Deathclaws can use weapons, they preform poorly at standing still or holding a position due to their size and hunter instinct. They preform much better as an on the move pack, which the Stalker packs are designed around. They are fast moving units designed to reach the enemy in the blink of an eye and end the fight before it even starts, playing to the advantages of the Deathclaw's body. Stalkers tend to prefer claws over their weapons, with them being weapons that they were born with and are very comfortable with. However, in the last century, Stalker units were given a deadly upgrade. Cloaking devices.

XXXXX

Author's Note: The quote in the Viper tank entry was referencing something Cookies to those who know what. Also quick bit of trivia for how I came up with the Stalkers. I took Deathclaws, arguably one of the most deadly enemies in Fallout with their powerful claws, long jump, ability to ignore armor, silently run at a fast rate, and being able to survive an armor piercing .50 round to the face and asked myself "How can I make this more deadly?...make it invisible."

Well, there's the next chapter, what do you think? Also please tell me what you think about the Codex entries. I want to make the Coalition powerful and having enough resources to pose a threat, but I don't want to push them into God Mode territory, so I'm giving their new ships and vehicles exploitable flaws. The Viper can't maneuver well, is vulnerable to air units and is expensive, the destroyer is helpless up close, the Rhino only has a machine gun as opposed to the Mako's cannon, tell me if you think I'm pushing them too far.

Sorry that it was short, but the main purpose of this chapter was to set up the end of the Shanxi arc. Also a couple of things I want to say, I have been beta reading Lord Tyrannus Star Wars/Mass Effect crossover, and I have to say it has serious potential and with the ideas that he's been bouncing off of me, I can't want for it to be realized. Check it out. Also, Darth Revan the Second is currently working on a fic that will criticize and poke a little fun at bad fics, it isn't out yet but Tyrannus and I are chipping in so when it is you might want to take a peak. Well, that's all I got.