Halo is owned by 343 studios (and their souls are owned by something small and soft)
Mass Effect is owned by Bioware (and their souls are owned by something that loves micro economics).
AN: For the most part I will use the ME canon names for most of the locations inside citadel space, I know some have human names, but is a lot less confusing if I don't change the names of all the planets and their location.
PrincessArien: Do not worry I am using Halo four as a guideline to start the fic, but I have no intention of following its rails, I thought that was kind of obvious with the humans mucking around requiem for weeks before they detected the chief and the lack of infinity.
ShadowCub: But sex with alien chicks is a classic of the space opera genre! You can blame Star Trek for that!... J/K.
In all seriousness, if it happens (and I don't feel myself comfortable with the idea of writing it... Implied? Maybe.) is going to be VERY limited, humanity just suffered under a policy of genocide they won't trusts aliens for quite a while, even the settlements in Venezia have a strained relationship with the aliens (kids playing with Kig-Yar?, no just no).
PyroSolracIII: Answered you on a PM, but others are probably asking themselves the same question; The Destiny Ascension in canon is four times as large as the largest SA ship, the human dreadnoughts are 888 meters "Everest class" and 1.2 kilometers "Kilimanjaro class", I went with the middle ground and used 3.6 kms.
Sovereign class reapers being 2 kilometers and "bigger" than the DA is a sad lore mistake that was never corrected, I blame the interns.
SpartanCommander: In canon (and this fic) the UNSC has garrisons in both Installation 03 and 05 (as 2556), the good thing is that the Halos cannot be activated by non reclaimers, so is not like they need to rush to claim all the rings worlds.
tco99123: As far as I know Turians live more or less the same amount of time humans do, so it is too early to have councilor Sparatus doing his trademark air quotes.
sami217: Whoa slow down a little...
The events of Halo 4 are "kind of" happening, just ahead of schedule and with some serious changes.
The Quarians are desperate, desperate people are more likely to take risky actions that may yield catastrophic results. (Hindsight is a bitch).
First contact with UNSC space... Well Asari act as the exploratory arm of the Citadel Council, but the salarians and batarians are closer to human space, so who knows what is going to happen next and who is going to meet who first.
The enemies beyond relay 347 are *gets shot*.
Chapter 3: Two betrayals.
Part 1: Cheap shot.
Council year 2631
In the borders of inner-outer council space lies the Widow Nebula and hidden deep inside the nebula lies the citadel, the seat of power where the citadel council creates the laws that are to be enforced through citadel space. Truly a member race of the citadel receives many benefits, a wide market in with to practice trade, protection from the most violent species that wish to prey in those weaker than them, assured enforcement and application of citadel law and the settlement of disputes without engaging in all out conflict. Truly there are no downsides to being a member race...
The small figure admired the scale model of the citadel, and reminisced on lost opportunities, if only his ancestors had been faster, if they had begun space exploration earlier... Maybe, yes maybe he would be councilor instead of ambassador.
The small creature stopped his admiration of his collection of models and began to admire a different collection, it was a holoscreen with a list of events, a list of achievements and embarrassing set backs, a grim reminder that no ambassador of his race was to ever be complacent otherwise their goals would remain as impossible.
It was sad to say that history had repeated itself many times for his people, missed opportunity after missed opportunity, his people had truly been blind, helping others as their warring economies struggled and demanding nothing in return aside promises of protection from the enemies from beyond their borders, all that free service, all that good will had been for naught, his people never went beyond second class citizens.
They had been the third race to discover the citadel just a little more than a century after the asari, and yet time after time his people had been sidelined in the favor of others, it was no wonder why his clan had taken this as a task worthy of their expertise, a task that may finally be completed in his generation by no other than himself.
The small figure went inside his closet and eyed his rust-red pressure suit.
"Yes, today I'll wear you."
As the small volus put on his suit he couldn't help to reminisce about his clan records, their struggle had been monumental, specially in the centuries following the Krogan rebellions.
Citadel space had seen many volatile events during the centuries following the Krogan Rebellions, and like a wounded prey being hunted by varren the vol had been herded into a position that had assured they would never be anything else than second class citizens. Yes the vol had exchanged their freedom for security, and they had done it gladly.
The small volus sealed his suit and walked towards the pressure chambers that would finally allow him to leave his premises.
As he did, he stopped next to the holo-vid of his role model, the vol that had turned everything around.
The Geth had been the game changer, they had destroyed the Quarians and their substantial empire in less than a year, and in doing so, had spooked everyone else into rash action, turians and salarians increased military spending to almost unsustainable levels, the asari gave away many of their priced patents, everyone had reacted in fear of the genocidal machines, and in doing so had created the opportunity the vol needed.
This had been specially true in the years following the Geth uprising, not as a direct result of actions taken by or against the Geth, but more for a lack of thereof, at the end of the subsequent arms race, the turians were left holding the largest fleet in citadel space bar none and the bill of the absurd maintenance cost of such a large fleet, the turian economy was poised to crash within the century, and everyone else was too busy fixing their own mistakes to help.
Once again the vol helped, once again his people took the burden of fixing the mistakes of others, but this time it was different, this time the vol were unified under the leadership of one clan, under the leadership of his clan.
As thus the turian economy was saved and their large fleet was put to use in the defense of citadel space and not scraped for marginal gains, all it took was some clever market manipulation and the foolish batarian hegemony, so easy to predict, so easy to instigate.
In the end the protectorate became more than a client seeking protection, the hierarchy and the protectorate were allies in everything but name, and as others struggled to stay afloat, the turian-vol interest grew in the volatile years that followed.
The asari meet the volatile situation with calm dread, knowing that political stability had been lost, but were others saw instability and possible war his predecessor had seen great opportunities to change and grow.
Yet change had not come easily, the Vol protectorate still had certain limitations as a client species of the turian hierarchy, limitations that were more evident whenever they attempted to influence others without the support of the turians.
The vol protectorate usually had to request the turians to argue their case in their stead to get anything done, a strategy that often worked, but only when both of their interest aligned. This meant that without the turian hierarchy the vol protectorate had little influence of their own.
Not to be discouraged by this challenge, his aging predecessor focused his efforts in showing everyone the vol had become more than the helpless wealthy clients of the turians, using their mercantile expertise and contacts to develop both economies, he did not live long enough to see the results, but in less than a century both economies had grown to support each other in a symbiotic relationship unlike anything seen in the known universe.
The small volus in his rust-red suit went through the airlock to enter the domain of those that breathed nitrogen/oxygen.
"Today (hiss phss) I'll honor you."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Citadel Embassies, Volus Ambassador office.
Today Ron Vlar ambassador for the vol interest to the citadel council wasn't going to waste his time, the incident of relay 347 and the lost of more than two dozen military ships could be of use to promote volus-turian interest and even more so the threat those that had attacked the fleet represented.
'To begin with this unfortunate event could be used to increase security scrutiny and trade law restrictions in the sectors relatively close to relay 347. That translated to increased security scrutiny in asari and hanar relay checkpoints, such scrutiny would slowdown their economies twofold, increased security-patrols cost and the reduction of trade efficiency. The protection of the rest of citadel space from whatever attacked the relay activation fleet and terminus pirate gangs just makes the whole deal much better.'
The small rust-red suited volus began to fiddle with his omni-tool, running simulations of possible reactions from his fellow ambassadors.
"How to (hiss phss) make it happen?"
The asari-turian relations had been strained for decades and the rumor lounge was that the turians were purposely delaying their reinforcements of the blockade of the relay 347. No their relationship with the turian hierarchy would only make their proposals suspect in the eyes of the asari and breed more animosity in the council.
The small volus shifted slightly as his omni-tool presented him the results of the simulations on his hanar counterpart.
The Hanar ambassador would agree to anything, eager to prove the hanar were ready to step in the council as equals, that eagerness made him easy to predict, sadly in the end the hanar ambassador would end up siding with the asari if they were to challenge this proposal.
'The last thing i want is for the inner council territories to bear part of the economic burden of the increased security in outer council space.'
(Hiss phss)
'What if those proposals were spearheaded by someone else? someone with a more stable and neutral relationship with the rest of the citadel races?'
The Elcor could make the proposals and no one would think there was an agenda behind the gentle giants suggestions, only concerns for citadel security.
"It is (hiss phss) perfect."
The little volus took a deep breath of his slightly modified suit atmosphere and continued to read the analysis report in his omni-tool.
'The hanar wouldn't risk their candidacy to a council seat, so if this proposal were to gain enough momentum they would agree to anything'.
The small volus took another deep breath of his slightly regulated cocktail.
'With the appropriate incentive Calyn will give me the support I need, but...'
"Still (hiss phss) Not enough (hiss phss) Need more."
His omni-tool flared, at the next name, the batarian ambassador would not work in support of his proposals, not after he had been the designer of the many trade sanctions that plagued the four eyes after the incident with the Raloi.
"I need (hiss phss) something else."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Planet Aratoht, third command bunker, Victory island.
'The Batarian Hegemony relishes the challenge' those had been the words spoken by the Batarian leadership four centuries ago when they had lobbied to have the colonization rights to the planet Aratoht in the Viper Nebula and the results couldn't be disputed.
After some terraforming snafus, Aratoht grew at an astounding rate, and its status as point of contact between the core worlds of the Hegemony and the rest of citadel space served to make what was originally going to be a mining colony into a trade hub and military stronghold. And in this military stronghold of great importance a battle unlike any other was being waged by the hegemony, a battle they had almost no hope of winning.
Targeting suites sabotaged.
Off system communications jammed.
The relay defense fleet retreating or worse.
Panic through all mayor cities as the slaves and their sympathizers seemed to be staging a revolt.
This had been staged and planed of that there were no doubts, the fact that the fusion reactors inside his base had been compromised spoke of high level infiltration, one that he had thought impossible.
"Tell me why the damn reactors are still offline!"
His second in command had lost color and his breathing had become increasingly ragged with each passing second, he was obviously a case of promotion thanks to family contacts and not experience.
'Fuck my luck.'
"Ss-ir the engineer teams confirm that they should be online in thirty minut-"
"Thirty minutes! a Krogan could get them operational faster! I'll have them ki-
"Commander incoming orbital bombardment!"
Every batarian in the large CIC suddenly stopped to look at the deep space sensors and the thirty eight incoming projectiles that were bound to hit them in a matter of minutes.
"You!" The commander grabbed by the neck a younger batarian that was to his left.
"You said no ships were in operational range of our weapons."
He squeezed, if he was going to die, he was going to make sure to not be the first one to do so.
"But no ships appear in the sensors!"
In his blind rage he almost missed the words of his second in command, but he didn't, as thus his grip sagged.
He focused his four eyes in the deep space sensors again and the incoming projectiles that would surely end them, with effort he focused in the point of origin of the salvo, and in it he found nothing.
'Stealth ships?'
He focused once again on the sensors and the now closer ordinance that would end his life.
'One point five percent the speed of light?'
His throat went dry and his vision clouded, approximately thirty six seconds to impact.
"Fucking stealth dreadnoughts."
No one else spoke a single sentence, whatever was in their minds was going to be left unsaid.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
One hour later.
Bahak system, Planet Bastzuda third moon, newly formed debris field.
"General Victus, the salarian fleet just sent a frigate with a status report of their operations and they highlight a certain unusual event."
The experienced eyes of the turian general hardened as his officer transferred the relevant data to his omni-tool.
"Unusual? Explain."
"Their mission went without so much of an issue, their stealth ships eliminated the main military compounds on planet Aratoht and the batarian chain of command is in shambles, however."
The turian officer seemed to be at a lost of how to explain the issue at hand, but his hesitation was only visible for a few seconds as he continued.
"Their reports explain that their secondary force, the one tasked with the location and elimination of batarian stealth assets ran into something that may complicate our pacification efforts."
General Victus was sure whatever the salarians found had to be a big problem, captain Lenides emotions could be read easily, a fault that any general would have found reproachable, it was only the confidence in his own judgment on the capabilities of captain Lenides himself that made him ignore the showcase and focus on the report of the salarians.
The report had been detailed, painstakingly so; the equipment used, the ships that participated, the approach to what they believed to be a ship of impressive stealth capabilities; there are even remarks on how it had been its lack of proximity to any other mass that had allowed its detection.
The salarians test fired on the vessel to confirm their suspicions, if they were right the shots would miss as the vessel had ample time to dodge and the ordinance would end inside the gas giant Urmola, instead there was a spike of radiation and then the possible stealth ship was gone, it even states preliminary analysts suggested the short lived burst of radiation was similar to the one produced by black holes, completely discarding a malfunction of a element zero core as the cause of the ship disappearance.
General Victus could only read the report again paying attention to every detail the salarians had given to his forces, no element zero or mass effect bubble detected, the salarians had been sure of that even before test firing.
"Either the STG failed in their task, or the asari have kept one more toy for themselves."
"General sir?"
"Doesn't matter, captain we are splitting our fleet, this system is almost assured to fall under our might, however, General Magnus and the main pacification force must be made aware of this... Situation before their assault on the batarian core worlds in the Kite's Nest."
General Victus eyes went to his omni-tool and the salarian priority message.
Splitting the fleet was indeed the best option, General Magnus fleet lacked salarian support and only their frigates had such a large array of detection tools, if the batarians had such advanced stealth technology then General Magnus was going to need their sensors and if not, well the asari hoarding tendencies were no secret, not anymore at least.
As the new orders were being issued fleet wide general Victus couldn't shake the small feeling that there was another possibility one that he had not considered, one that was so improbable that he had just dismissed it outright.
Part 2: Gems of blood.
UNSC Military Calendar December 18 2556
Great Schism
Beginning: October 20th 2552
Status: Ongoing skirmishes/Perpetual War.
Covenant Loyalists/Covenant Separatists
Favored: Covenant Separatist.
Sangheili Civil War
Beginning: March 2553
Status: Ongoing.
Servants of Abiding Truth/Arbiter Loyalists
Favored: Arbiter Loyalist.
Human Insurrection
Beginning 2494
Status: Hostile Relations
UNSC/URF
Favored: UNSC
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Undisclosed Location, Sol system.
The Sol system, cradle of the human interstellar empire and the system with the highest casualty count of the Human-Covenant war, to any human civilian the death toll was a truly horrific testament of the brutality of the alien menace, it was no small wonder her campaign to become the president had gone so smoothly, she had the track record and the mentality the people wanted in their next leader.
She had promised to work tirelessly to never allow humanity to suffer anything like that again, and the subtle tones of angry retribution had sweep the competition.
"If I had known..."
The things the UNSC had been hiding from the general population were supposed to be known to anyone with a high enough clearance in the civilian branches of the government, but she like many had been truly oblivious to the true magnitude of the cover up.
She ran her campaign almost solely on promises of protection and retribution only to be informed the UNSC didn't have the capabilities to fend off a truly commited covenant fleet like the ones used against planet Reach or the forces that in the end overwhelmed the sol system.
They certainly had enough ships to have a presence in every system under their care, however their presence would be too insignificant to deter any kind of committed attack.
'He who defends everything defends nothing'
The colonies would have to get by with minimum initial UNSC support, the colonies important enough to warrant it would be in the patrol routes of the sector fleets, the rest would have to use the new slipspace communications to request support from the main sector fleets and hope they would get there on time to neutralize the threat.
It was hardly perfect, but it was the best they could do in the present state of affairs to protect the colonies, and that had been hard enough to achieve.
The tired woman took another sip from her coup of coffee, and eyed the doors of her provisional office.
Truly, the battle to regain functional power had been a difficult and tiring one; she had been little more than a figurehead during the first few months of her mandate as the president of the United Earth Goverment, and the hardships of turning an emergency military government into a working democratic parliament were very significant, specially a parliament that would include representatives of each and every surviving human colony left in the wake of the war.
Things had become more manageable thanks to the "alliance" signed by Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood and the Sangheili Arbiter Thel Vadam, it turns out many of the admirals in HIGHCOM had their own plans and agenda to follow, and signing a peace treaty with the Sangheili had not been part of them; as a result by the end of the year HIGHCOM had polarized into two or three factions all working with and against eachother, looking for any way to gain legitimacy over the rest, with provided a fine opportunity to take back the power she was supposed to held, a fine opportunity she did not waste.
"They are late... Diana any updates in regards to our guests?"
The red form of a semi transparent small woman appeared next to her, her outfit was rather bizarre with twenty century overalls a form fitting tank-top and a huge sun hat.
"Admiral Ysionris Jeromi just went through the second security checkpoint, he is the only Admiral in the facility, but the others such as Admiral Lord Terrence Hood should be arriving shortly."
"Thank you Diana."
The avatar of the small red woman did not banish, eying the office of the president with small hints of distaste.
The office was dimly lit with sparce decorations in its walls, in the center of that austere office stood a simple titanium desk, the chairs for the guests to sit were hardly ergonomic, they were cheap metal slabs, but they served their purpose well.
AI and President stared at each other for a few meaningful seconds, and then Diana banished.
"(Sigh) Honestly sometimes I wonder what is wrong with my life."
The pause wasn't meant to be a long one, as an arguably genderless voice addressed the president before she could return to her cup of coffee.
"I can't believe it, you are really going to do this."
"You gave me all that information, acting on it is the least I can do."
"That information is not enough to engage them openly, the risks are too high, they will murder you if you try to fight them."
"They can try; besides I cannot allow this situation, this blatant disregard of commonsense to continue, I have to get things under control and to do that I need to know where the allegiances of HIGHCOM lie."
"ONI has a significant amount of influence in the navy, the war killed too many navy officers and only ONI had the experienced personnel to replace them. You should be very careful."
The president could only dismiss the warnings, certainly she had already taken sufficient precautions, her office was located inside one of the most secure facilities on earth, and her security detail were elite and loyal troops with clear parameters of who could give them orders and who couldn't, not to mention the fact she had her own contacts inside of ONI.
"You are warned, the people you are planning to confront are very powerful, nevertheless I do hope you succeed, I don't like how they are ruling our lives from the shadows."
"Those that spend their whole lives in the shadows can only learn to fear the light."
A small genderless laugh echoed in the office for a few seconds.
"I wish you the best luck in your idealistic crusade."
The person did not wait for a response; he left with muffled footsteps giving credence to his status as an agent of section zero.
The president could only roll her eyes at the simplicity of some people, and went to grab her cup of coffee only to find it already empty.
"Diana is Admiral Ysionris Jeromi in the conference room?"
"He just finished all the security checkpoints and is headed that way with his escort.
I must also report that the representative of ONI is in the first security checkpoint."
"Perfect."
The woman made a couple of adjustments to her formal attire and went for the same exit that had been used by that person, and as she walked out her office with uncharacteristic bravado, two small ripples of bending light followed her.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Undisclosed location.
The meeting had begun in a fairly standard way; report's of the status of the reconstruction and cleaning efforts in the Sol system and other colonies, followed by reports from the different military branches of the UNSC in regards to the states of the fleets and the readiness of the United Nations Space Command forces. The only interesting event so far had been the the report by Admiral Ysionris Jeromi and his recent tour towards the few colonies that had refused to rejoin the ranks of the United Earth Government in a misguided attempt to claim independence, she had appointed Admiral Ysionris Jeromi a few months ago as the envoy and negotiator claiming his reputation during the war would be the key to solve the issue and to the apparent surprise of many, the ploy had indeed worked, and only Venezia remained 'reluctant' to rejoin.
The positive aura of the meeting was irrevocably broken when Rear Admiral Serin Osman the representative of the Office of Naval Intelligence began her report.
The report had been about the latest results of the monitoring operations being undertaken in former covenant territories, and the situation was indeed very grim. The fighting had died down meaningfully in the immediate territories around Sanghelios to the point that it could be said the whole area was unconditionally united under the direction of the Arbiter, a few like Admiral Terrence Hood would probably find a silver lining in the situation, but to most of them the reality was different.
"What are the intentions of the Sangheili, are they mobilizing against the rest of the covenant?"
"That is unclear, our latest report says the Sangheili would have an important meeting of Kaidon's, in the following hours, ONI will report the results of the meeting as soon as we get them."
Rear Admiral Serin Osman continued to outline the results of their monitoring operations on other sectors of the former covenant hegemony, and the results were mixed, while the covenant were still warring and killing each other, the fighting had died down in a noticeable way, this could be the result of the loss of equipment during their Schism, but it could also be the result of some of their elements getting ready to launch offensive operations in Human territories. Either way all simulations pointed at a possible covenant attack happening in the next four to ten weeks, either by bold Kig-Yar pirates or by remnants of the Covenant ideology.
The later was a much preferred outcome, the Kig-Yar were driven by profit and greed not sheer malice, they would attack, take what they could and leave, the Covenant remnant wouldn't be so lenient during their attack.
"What steps have been taken to protect our colonies?"
Serin Osman seemed to have taken little offense for the interruption. As Admiral Lord Terrence Hood the chief of naval operations answered the question.
"Madame President, reports from the Office of Naval Intelligence suggests two different kinds of possible objectives for the covenant remnant; they would either target population centres or systems with forerunner artifacts.
Fleet Command has positioned the sector fleets keeping this in mind, and we have increased the garrisons of the forerunner installations currently under our control; the Kig-Yar-"
-.-.-.-.-
Later.
Admiral Nautious Drake UNSC commander of the entirety of FLEETCOM Sector Two and secret sponsor of the New Colonial Alliance could do little but feel bored.
For the last hour he had listened to another standard meeting about the progress of the reconstruction efforts of humanity, and the well-known results of the intelligence gathered by ONI, everything that had been discussed in the meeting had been standard knowledge to him, and in fact he couldn't help to question the purpose of the meeting or at the very least the reason he had been invited to attend.
"It's time to address the last point of the agenda."
'The last point of the agenda was already addressed by Admiral Alexander Reaves'
"Diana, please upload the pertinent files."
Admiral Nautious Drake could see the new pair of files that had been sent to his personal data pad with the implicit connotation of being classified files, intrigued he began to read the first one of them.
The first file contained a list of candidates mostly officers that had performed admirably during the war and had survived to tell the tale, yet had not been selected for promotions for one reason or another, he could see a pair of familiar names in the list, a pair of young commanders he had tried to recommend for promotions; both of them were brilliant men with unquestionable loyalty towards humanity, in the end they had both been rejected.
He could see it now, someone was probably being recommended to early retirement by Margaret or Hood, their silent pissing match should had ended months ago with Margaret's victory, but maybe he had dismissed Hood's too quickly.
'But what is on the second file?'
The first file had been intriguing, and offered a good opportunity to further his own agenda; the second was in simple terms a punch to the gut of everyone present.
The first list was indeed a list of possible replacements; however the second were the names of those that would be replaced, and going through the second list with ever increasing speed revealed the list to be full with the names of high ranked UNSC personnel.
"What is this nonsense!?"
To his surprise it wasn't the president the one to answer the question, it was admiral Ysionris Jeromi.
"Sadly it is as it says, evidence has come to light of certain questionable decisions made during the war with the covenant, of decisions that while justified during war cannot go unpunished, let alone be rewarded."
"Let me continue admiral."
The president changed her posture and leaned forward placing both elbows on the conference table, interlocking her hands and glaring; it was rather cute of her to behave like this considering how many times she had simply agreed to follow every suggestion proposed by many of the men and women present today.
"Here." Her voice was the apparent trigger that made the holotable come to life. "Is a list of several operations undertaken by our military forces during the war, alone they are embarrassing footnotes in the moral compass of the United Nations Space Command, against an enemy that wanted to exterminate humanity, but together they pose a real threat to the stability of our struggling unity, and that I cannot allow."
He couldn't take his eyes off the woman that he had considered nothing more than a puppet a couple of months ago, the woman had a completely different air about her, her pasive and soft demeanor had changed into something completely different.
'Politicians are truly excellent actors and liars.'
"I understand the reason behind these operations, humanity as a whole was under the threat of extermination. I understand these decisions were not taken lightly and the only goal was to ensure the survival of our species, however, I cannot gamble humanity's future, our short-lived unity on blind hope that others will understand the situation, not when we have spent the last couple of decades lying to them. When these facts hit the public, and make no mistake sooner or later they will, our unity will be put to the test, and is my intention to be ready for it."
The conference room exploded with the voices of a dozen admirals as they tried to talk in support or against the current issue and as they did so, he couldn't help to notice that five of them were oddly silent, Rear Admiral Serin Osman the representative of ONI and Admiral Terrence Hood among them.
'Hood you bastard old dog!.'
-.-.-.-.-.-.
Part.3 Paper Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
In politics and war, preparation and improvisation were among the key elements that would determine the outcome of every situation, as such and because of this, Ruth Charet had been completely sure the meeting with the admirals of HIGHCOM was going to end with favorable results.
Rear Admiral Serin Osman was the carrot, the misdirection, the fact that she had appeared as the official representative of the Office of Naval Intelligence pretty much confirmed the rumors that Margaret Orlenda Parangoski had gracefully stepped down on her personal suggestion in exchange of being allowed to hand pick her successor.
A few of the high ranking admirals in the "discharge" list had already prepared themselves to this situation and erroneously assumed they would get the same deal as Margaret; the fools had really overestimated their true value, but that only made getting rid of them that much easier. The only real problem were the snakes that were too poisonous to leave them unsupervised it was safer to keep them within arms reach in a glass cage than to set them loose, for that very reason it was with a measure of apprehension that she had agreed to have a meeting with arguably the most dangerous of them all.
Admiral Mattius Drake was a man of limited, but powerful influence, during the earlier days of his military career he had been always described as a brilliant young man of questionable loyalty, his feelings towards the colonies had always been a sour note in an otherwise excellent record, a sour note that was always taken into deep scrutiny; that had changed when the covenant attacked, it was considered the best option to send brilliant men like Drake to deal with this new threat, this new enemy would never tempt them with defection, unlike what had happened with Robert Watts and many others.
The more loyal elements of the United Nations Space Command would be relegated to analyse the movements and tactics of the new threat and dealt with the rogue elements of the insurrection that failed to fall in-line in the wake of the alien attack.
"Admiral Drake, I am a busy woman, I granted your request we are alone in my office, so out with it, what do you wish to talk about?"
"I must say that for a second you had completely fooled me, Madam President I honestly thought you had switched sides and had decided to support Lord Hood, instead of Margaret."
"My only interest is the safety of humankind, whatever-"
"Excuse me Ma'am, but please let me finish."
The man raised his hand in a placating gesture and took a cursory look around the office.
"Am I wrong to assume there are Spartans in this office?"
President and Admiral exchanged long stares, as if trying to analyze what the other was thinking.
"You and Margaret are birds of the same flock, similar values, similar behavior, only a fool would believe you suddenly decided to go against her, you both have the same agenda, and the only difference is the method and how far you are willing to take things to deal with problems."
For the third time in the same day the temperature of the office dropped a couple of degrees.
"It took me longer than I would have wanted to figure out… the goal of the actions you have undertaken for the past two months."
She couldn't help, but to raise an eyebrow at the offhand comment.
"Yes? And what are my goals?"
"That is what I truly don't understand; you are taking steps to undermine the influence the Office of Naval Intelligence has on the rest of the United Nations Space Command and the government, however, you are also weakening the influence Hood has on our military forces, no one is gaining anything from this-"
"Besides you?"
"Excuse me!"
"Were you about to say something else? Don't flatter yourself Mattius, as you have so eloquently put it, Margaret and I, are very similar."
"So you know-"
"About your little adventurism? Yes, we also know you are keeping the radicals of your organization under control."
"So that is how it is, I have been an unknowing pawn from the very beginning."
She could hear his voice crack and his muscles tense. She was actually surprised he had been so open to confront her about it, but it was natural for people like him to abhor the thought of being manipulated as a pawn in a game of chess, that is why she had to be honest with him right here, right now, less he would do something incredibly stupid.
A simple gesture of her hands was all she needed to make two of her Spartans break cloak directly behind her, she needed him in the right state of mind before the conversation could continue.
"The answer to your question is fairly simple, and I think I answered it during my opening speech almost four years ago, I won't allow humanity to become the victim of aggression, to do that we have to stay together and protect each other, you are valuable in this regards, you have the means to keep the colonies under control, or to unleash the second coming of the insurrection."
'I know you have evidence of how the signals released by the signal corps had been tampered with and how it led to the progressive sacrifice of many colonies to the covenant.'
"During the last five years of the war, you were especially ruthless against the insurrectionist extremist in sector two and used all the resources at your disposal to make them all disappear, and who could blame you, they were resorting to use nuclear bombs on civilian targets.
I guess a closet insurrectionist like you couldn't bear the fact that monsters like them claimed to be part of the organization you represented, I guess that was what pushed you to make hundreds of them disappear."
She got up her chair and stared directly at Drake eyes.
"That tells me a lot about you Mattius, the information you have enrages you, but you have enough sense of reality to know that acting on it, is only detrimental to your end goals, and just like you are restraining yourself, so am I."
She walked towards a perfect copy of 'Admiral Cole's Last Stand', it was a tasteful painting that was bound to have a deep emotional effect on everyone that saw it, especially on those that had participated in said battle.
"I restrain myself because we are weak, I am restraining myself because we can't afford to attack each other when the galaxy is so big, and it has readily provided evidence that others do not wish to share it with us.
My vision of the future is of an united humanity, a future in with we protect one another, a future in with we are not under threat of genocide."
She turned once again and focused on his blue eyes.
"Mattius I am giving you the chance to make the voices of the colonies louder in our organization, that is the future I envision for humanity and is the reason I am giving both you and Ysionris more power and influence, do not let me down, do not let all of us down."
Her words had caused a profound effect on the man, or more likely his own memories had been stirred up by her unsubtle actions.
"I see… I have one more question Ma'am."
"I hope it's a good one."
"What do the new Nova bombs being produced right now have to do with the future of humanity?"
She couldn't stop the small smile from appearing on her face.
"A lot."
-.-.-.-.-.-
Admiral Mattius Drake could do little at this time but to admit defeat, he had come to this office sure he woud walk away with the answers he needed or he woudn't walk away at all, instead he was leaving with more questions than answers and with the unpleasant thought that he was being manipulated as a pawn.
"Everyone has a role to play Mattius, but in the end we are the only ones that can decide whether to play it or not."
He had been thoroughly defeated, his heart no longer held the voices of those long gone, all that was left were the people that had taken the ultimate sacrifice to save humanity and how their sacrifice would be wasted if he were to act on his own outrage... But there was one more answer he needed, to leave without it was inexcusable.
"President, are aliens part of the future of humanity, are they part of your vision?"
"Yes they are... however, whether they are our friends or exhibitions in a zoo is up to them."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Council Year 2631, Planet Sur'Kesh
Narra compound.
'Priority Message Alpha, from comm buoy XL3439'
Passive sensors of spy probe L7C7095 detected massive heath signatures corresponding to the Batarian experimental fleet in high orbit over planet Ploba, course and acceleration suggest the fleet is moving towards the Batarian core worlds at FTL speeds, this suggest our plan has succeed as the assault from the Union and the Turian Hierarchy won't be underway until tomorrow; we proceed as planned with the agreed objectives.
May the dagger of our enemies break in our skin, may their pen run out of ink, may the pain inflicted to our ancestors be repaid in kind.
L.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Turian Dreadnought, Ancestral Spirits.
The battle had been much fiercer than what he had been expecting; the Batarians were known to be undisciplined cowards that would surrender or retreat when confronted with unfavourable odds, but this had not been the case today.
The hierarchy had given him command of five thousand vessels to subdue the forces of the hegemony and he had already spent eighty nine of them securing the mass relay and the dirty rock closest to the relay, the ice planet known as Spekilas.
The next step was to secure Verush, a campaign that would be much more costly if he were to take an orthodox approach to the situation, the Batarians had clearly been tipped off by someone that much was clear by the ambush that had been waiting his forces on this side of the relay, he had to brute force his way out of the situation and as a result thousands of Turian lives had been lost.
'Very well then.'
"Captains assume long range bombardment formation, our shots will be staged as per the parameters that are currently being uploaded to the fleet, the targets are the refueling stations in orbit of planet Verush and other military and civilian complex, we are destroying all refueling infrastructure as per my orders, the ambush was a clear indication that we cannot proceed as we wanted to and some sacrifices will have to be made to secure the system. If any of you has any objections you are free to raise them using the proper channels to do so, meanwhile everyone assume your positions as per the formation uploaded and get ready to shot, frigates first, then cruisers then dreadnoughts the objective is saturation at the point of contact with the enemy, we will use the principle of the shotgun and our great numbers to overwhelm their defences and collapse their barriers."
The general used his haptic interphase to create a new formation around the partial sphere that was currently forming.
"All ships are to deploy all fighters and interceptors that are currently in condition to fly, they will replace our frigates as our early warning system for the duration of their volley, once their volley is over the frigates will resume their positions and radiate excess heat."
With exemplary discipline each ship took their place and prepared to shot at the offending planet, light lag was a problem to determinate the location of enemy ships, but space stations were a lot less manoeuvrable and the staged nature of the attack would ensure that almost all of the ordinance would reach the approximate location of the target within thirty seconds, frigates could only fire at 0.3% the speed of light so they would be the first ones to fire at all targets, cruisers would follow several minutes later, and the two dreadnoughts under his command would be the last ones to fire at the targets, he could only hope the Batarians would not sent a response fleet to stop his forces until the entirety of the operation was complete at with point it would be too late to engage them as they would be long gone by then.
"General Magnus, we are receiving a priority quantum entanglement message from Beta base, they state is a priority report from Palaven."
"Acknowledged, transfer the message."
Priority Message Code Black:
General Victus has evidence of Batarian advanced stealth capable ships in the form of a super stealth corvette sized vessel that uses advanced technology to mask its heat signature and reduce its visual profile; this is in addition to the information on their experimental warships that the Salarians have shown us.
This is a clear indication that the Batarians have indeed found a cache of technology of unknown origin and not only have decided to keep the discovery a secret to further their own agenda, but seem to also have begun to produce advanced warships in secrecy.
Palaven acknowledges this threat; expect more reinforcements in the form of the twelfth and fifteen fleets.
Objectives and Parameters of the mission have been updated and all Batarian warships are to be treated with utmost prejudice, capture of enemy vessels has been relegated to priority class 6, however the location of the facility currently building these specialized vessels is to be considered priority class 1.
"Ensign respond back, and acknowledge the command. We will proceed with my orders, but will increase the saturation, secondary mass accelerator canons on cruisers and dreadnoughts will be fired before their main guns, the fleet will proceed to use micro jumps to change our position in system, inform the rest of the fleet we will be doing micro jumps to avoid being followed by stealth ships."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"You want to be an engineer?"
"Yes mother, I want to go to the Lurech Academy on planet Beckenstein."
"Well, is much better than what I did at your age, safer too."
"Mother, I-"
"Hey a-"
It had been a standard operation, nothing abnormal about activating a dormant relay, the risks were low and the chances of encountering another hostile race capable of overwhelming the fleet were non-existent.
"The relay activation fleet is one of the most exciting assignments in the Citadel Fleet, you get to be among the first people to visit these systems, to gaze upon new planets and see new frontiers!"
"I think sh-"
"Evidence around the galaxy seems to indicate that docents of civilizations one day just ended, scientist and theologist still debate to this day on the nature of this event, however one of the reasons we exist is to find the answer."
"Quick give her some-"
"Chief Engineer Lidena! I need full power."
"Captain what is-"
"All hands brace for impact."
"Oh goddess! she is regaining her consciousness! Are you alright? What is your name?"
She couldn't see anything, but the voice was one of a fellow Asari, probably a young maiden, if the loud and nervous voice was any clear indicator of her age.
"I am…"
No there are no other Asari in engineering, who is this girl, does she have clearance to be here? Why is everything so dark? There is no way I can get anything done in such a dark place and the captain…!
"Who are you? Where am I? Why is everything so dark!"
"I am Silia and-"
"We are prisoners; we are in a prison, and you are blind."
A second voice? Another Asari, wait prisoners? Blind?
"What happened? Where are we?"
"Just shut up and try to remember yourself!"
'Remember?'
'The sirens, the sirens are going off, the escape pods, must reach the escape pods before the reactor goes critical.'
'Why is no one else moving, why do I feel so sick?'
"We were attacked?"
"No joke? What part of "We are in a prison" you don't understand?"
"But how… why?"
"You should ask our great saviors when they return to pick someone else, the Turians survivors are all gone, and there is only one Salarian left, so I think it's safe to say that we are next after the Salarian."
"Our saviors?"
"The assholes that attacked us and destroyed our fleet."
"How are they our saviors?"
"I think she is saying that because of the radiation..."
The young one again wait…
"Radiation?"
"Yes, whatever the weapon they used, released a ton of it, our cruisers were blown to smithereens and the frigates that were not disabled by the large dose of radiation were peppered with mass accelerator rounds until they exploded at least that was what one of the Turians said."
"The Turian said that we all were showered in lethal amounts of radiation, however they were protected by their metallic carapace and our 'saviors' gave us some injections that helped us."
"Only to apparently torture us to dead later."
"We don't know that!"
"Girl, I am a commando, I know about these things, they may be a completely new species, but anyone with a shred of experience can tell they are quite vicious bastards, and I am not saying that just because of their appearance."
Their appearance?
"How do they look?"
"I have only seen one out of armor, he… it was very muscular, with red eyes and very sharp teeth, everything about it screamed violent predator-"
"They are very scary."
"Have you tried to talk to them?"
Their silence was the only answer i could expect for such a foolish question
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Codex Entry:
Aratoht
Location: Milky Way / Viper Nebula / Bahak System / Second planet
Species: Batarian
Population: 2.7 Billion (Free), 2.6 Billion (other).
Terraformed in the early 2300s the Batarian colony of Aratoht is often used by the Batarian Hegemony as an example of the prowess of their people and their ability to colonize hazardous garden worlds.
As the easiest and shortest point of entry towards Batarian space, the colony of Aratoht quickly became an important trade hub with the rest of the citadel space, however, as relations continued to sour the colony of Aratoht quickly became a military stronghold not unlike Oma Ker.
Information on the colony itself is restricted by the Hegemony's Department of Information Control, but a few facts are known. Slave labor is largely reserved for the planet's manufacture and farming industry as the mining industry moved to the rich asteroid belt. The colony is home to several batarian military installations and space stations showcasing the strength of the Hegemony.
The citadel council maintains a watchful eye on Aratoht as it is only two relay jumps away of Irune the Volus homeworld.
Codex Entry:
Frigates
Length: 180 m
Width: 65 m
Height: 25 m
Crew: +80
These values are approximates and change with design.
Frigates are light escort and scouting vessels. Frigates often have extensive GARDIAN systems to provide anti-fighter screening for capital ships, and carry a squad of marines for security and groundside duty. Unlike larger vessels, frigates are able to land on planets.
The most important role filled by frigates is reconnaissance. Sensors, unlike ships and communications employing the mass effect, are limited to the speed of light. Subsequently, a stationary observer can only detect a vessel one light-year away when its light arrives at the observer's location, one year after leaving said vessel.
Because faster-than-light attackers always arrive before defenders can detect them with luminal sensors, attackers can always surprise defenders. For defense, fleets surround themselves with spheres of scouting frigates scanning for enemy ships and transmitting warnings to the main body of the fleet.
Frigates achieve high FTL cruise speeds because of their high-performance drives. They also have proportionally larger thrusters and lighter design mass, allowing them greater maneuverability. In combat, speed and maneuverability make frigates immune to long-range fire of larger vessels.
In fleet combat, frigates are organized into "wolf pack" flotillas of four to six. Wolf packs speed through enemy formations, hunting enemy vessels whose kinetic barriers have been taken down by fighter-launched disruptor torpedoes. The wolf pack circle-strafes vulnerable targets, using their superior maneuverability to evade return fire.
Codex Entry:
Cruisers
Length: 560 m
Width: 250 m
Height: 120 m
Crew: +600
These values are approximates and change with design; this is especially true for Asari cruisers.
Cruisers are middle-weight combatants, faster than dreadnoughts, and more heavily-armed than frigates. Cruisers are the standard patrol unit, and often lead frigate flotillas. Cruisers cannot land on medium or high-gravity worlds, but do possess the ability to land on low-gravity planets.
Cruiser-weight starships are the standard combat unit. Nimble scouting frigates have neither the punch nor the stamina to stand up to serious combat, and the mighty dreadnoughts are a limited resource, carefully hoarded and committed to the most critical battles.
Cruisers perform routine independent "show the flag" patrols in settled systems and lead flotillas of frigates in small engagements, such as pirate suppression campaigns.
Codex Entry:
Dreadnoughts
Length: 1160 m
Width: 300 m
Height: 250 m
Crew: +1400
These values are approximates and change with design; this is especially true for Asari dreadnaughts that are usually twice as big as the standard dreadnaught's.
Dreadnoughts are kilometer-long capital ships mounting heavy, long-range firepower. They are only deployed for the most vital missions. A dreadnought's power lies in the length of its main gun. Dreadnoughts range from 800 meters to one kilometer long, with a main gun of commensurate length. An 800-meter mass accelerator is capable of accelerating one twenty-kilogram slug to a velocity of 4025 km/s (1.3% the speed of light) every two seconds
Dreadnoughts are so large that it is impossible to safely land them on a planet, and must discharge their drive cores into the magnetic field of a planet while in orbit. The decks of large vessels are arranged perpendicular to the ship's axis of thrust, so that the "top" decks are towards the front of the ship and the "bottom" decks are towards the rear of the ship.
Historically the turians have only twenty active dreadnaughs within their patrol fleets and ten more as part of the citadel fleet, the turian hierarchy refuse to build more and have long since switched to produce a much larger amounts of heavy cruisers and carriers this has made dreadnaughs a rarity outside of fleet flagship duty.
Codex Entry:
Carriers
Length: 800 m
Width: 400 m
Height: 350 m
Crew: +3000
These values are approximates and change with design.
Introduced in the early 2500s by the turian hierarchy as an answer to the harsh stipulations of the Treaty of Farixen in regards to the construction of dreadnoughts, carriers are almost dreadnought-sized vessels that carry a large number of fighters and drop ships. All races provide their fleets with organic fighter support. Cruisers fit a handful in the space between the interior pressure hulls and exterior armor; carriers however are ships that wield fighters and interceptors as the main armament.
In fleet combat, carriers stay clear of battle, launching fighters bearing disruptor torpedoes. Fighters are the primary striking power of the ship; if a carrier enters mass accelerator range of the enemy, things have gone very wrong.
It is possible to recover and rearm fighters during combat, though most carriers seal the flight deck and try to stay out of the way. The flight deck is essentially a corridor through the armor and into the heart of the vessel. A single well-placed torpedo is enough to gut a carrier.
Combat Support Craft
Fighter
Length: 14 m
Width: 10 m
Height: 2 m
Crew: 1
Fighters are one-man craft used to perform close-range attacks on enemy ships, they use disruptor torpedoes to try and gut the barriers of bigger ships in a single salvo, or if lucky the ship themselves.
Like warships, Fighters use heavy ablative armor that allows them to survive sustained enemy point defense GARDIAN lasers for a few seconds, hopefully giving fighters a chance to survive long enough to unload their payload on an enemy ship.
Interceptors
Length: 12 m
Width: 8 m
Height: 2 m
Crew: 1
Interceptors are one-man craft optimized to use mass accelerator weapons to destroy opposing fighters, as fighter armor is optimized to survive GARDIAN laser weaponry; it is vulnerable to the heavy mass accelerator canons used by interceptors.
Shuttle
Length: 16 m
Width: 10 m
Height: 6 m
Crew: +16
Shuttles facilitate personnel transfer between large ships without the need to dock, or between a starship and the ground. Some models are capable of independent FTL travel, and are usually equipped with both mass accelerator cannons and prototype stealth systems.
Drop ships
Length: 35 m
Width: 25 m
Height: 12 m
Crew: +35
Drop ships are capable of deploying personnel, vehicles, weapons, and supplies. Drop ships serve as craft capable of delivering troops and supplies wherever needed once a landing zone has been secured. Drop ships are lightly armed with mounted mass accelerator canons and light mass accelerator turrets.
Corvettes
Length: 40 m
Width: 20 m
Height: 8 m
Crew: 10 - 15
Corvettes are small, ten-man craft usually tasked to perform light combat and survey missions on planets.
Codex Entry:
Treaty of Farixen.
The Treaty of Farixen is a treaty signed by Council races limiting the number of dreadnoughts among the different Citadel races in their given fleets. At the Farixen Naval Conference, the Council races agreed to fix a ratio of dreadnought construction between themselves due to their destructive potential. At the top of the pyramid is the peacekeeping turian fleet which makes up most of the Citadel Fleet. Second, are the other Council races - the asari and the salarians. Council associate races, like the hanar and volus, are at the bottom of the list.
The ratio of turian to Council to associate dreadnoughts is 4:3:1, which essentially means for every four dreadnoughts the turians construct, the asari and salarians are allowed three, and all other Citadel races one. Signing the Treaty of Farixen is a requirement for any race wishing to open an embassy on the Citadel.
Carriers are megalithic ships that have a similar general design to that of Dreadnoughts. The only difference is that Carriers are designed to carry and transport mass amounts of vehicles, fighters, interceptors, and troops across the galaxy. Dreadnoughts are specifically designed to combat enemy ships in a space combat environment and/or bombard planetary targets. The construction of Carriers is not included in the Treaty of Farixen policy resulting in no legal limit upon building any number of Carriers for any race.
Volus ambassador cables
Council year 2450.
From: Turian Primarch Lenerien Vakarian
transcript:
I find myself once again in awe of your sharpness my friend, you are correct the asari are indeed controlling us through our dreadnaugh production, we have been blinded by our good nature and the asari harmless appearance. Indeed there is little point to having more dreadnaughs if theirs are always twice as big as our own and any attempt to match them only puts us more and more in their debt. I will take your wise counsel to heart, the treaty of farixen allows us to dictate how many dreadnaughs everyone can field is high time (touch to continue)