3025 C.E
Aephus
Coalition Forward Operating Base Gamma
Command Center
Through the reinforced windows of the command center, Major David Anderson had an expansive view of the surrounding coastline. Days ago, it had been nothing but a rocky shore, with the waves battering against its rugged shore, the imposing bulk of the industrial complex some distance away from the water; now, a veritable forest of buildings had popped up, with ground transports rumbling across the makeshift asphalt road, and aircraft settling down gently at the nearby airfields. Squat, armoured cylinders housing portable oscillation generators provided electrical power through thick cables housed in trenches, being covered up by marines and infantry; sentry turrets maintained a watchful vigil with their tireless optics; engineers and construction drones supervised the ongoing construction efforts, as they hastened to enlarging the base. Meanwhile in the distance, the arks Harbinger, Nova Scotia, and Waterworld floated serenely on the alien ocean.
"Technology is such a wonderful thing." he thought, leaning back into his chair. Down below, a construction drone plopped down a assembler, the device unfolding itself and automated machinery emerging from within. A small convoy of flat-bed transports came up beside it, drones unloading their cargo of raw materials and minerals into the assembler's hungry nanoforge; the nanoforge's nanomachines would purify the metals and transform them into useful building materials, removing any impurities and expelling them as waste products. Soon, thin black tendrils extended from the assembler, arranging themselves into grid-like structure; sheets of reinforced carbon, titanium, and steel inched their way up the grid, clinging and molding themselves around it. Mechanical assembly arms danced around the building structure, sparks flying as their fusion welders fused the walls together, while flying drones sprayed sheets of protective nanites onto the walls. Within moments, the walls and exterior of an armoury had taken shape, while the assembler and its swarms of nanomachines continued work on the interior.
It helped soothe Anderson's nerves to watch the well-oiled operations of the Coalition military machine. Marines, infantry, and armoured vehicles moved along in platoons, heading towards the airfield for their next deployment; there was a flash of light on the teleport pad, as a pile of supply crates teleported onto it, air transports swooping down upon them to grasp the containers with their zero-point energy field manipulators (or as others called, gravity guns); engineers were setting up the first direct teleport link to Coalition space, which would allow a steady, but not huge, amount of reinforcements and supplies to arrive to the battlefield instantly. While the xen-based teleports that the engineers were building allowed a virtually unlimited teleportation range, they were only capable of transporting small quantities of cargo, and required a receiving teleport at the destination to actually work; large amounts of material would have to be transported by the wormhole-based portal, which, directly opposite of the xen teleports, were limited in range. With no starfleet orbiting above the planet, if a large scale retreat had to be called, their only option was to retreat back to the arks and hold out long enough for Coalition starships to teleport them off world.
Fortunately, the assault on the Combine factory world had gone very smoothly. Combine forces had apparently been taken by surprise by the naval assault, and the Coalition's teleport and portal technology had lent them an enormous tactical advantage. Combine soldiers guarding the coastal industrial facilities had been utterly annihilated; even now, Coalition engineers were working on repairing the facilities and bringing them back online, which would augment their current manufacturing capabilities considerably. The Combine's logistic and storage centers had been destroyed by air strikes; their military bases sabotaged and captured by marines and infantry. Combine communications were utterly ruined; fiber-optic and wire cables cut and severed; radio communications and towers jammed and destroyed; orbiting communication satellites had already been destroyed by the initial Coalition fleet, and the mass relay in the system had been disabled, preventing any Combine reinforcements from arriving quickly; powerful automated defenses had been set up in orbit, effectively isolating the planet. All remaining Combine soldiers on the planet had pulled back to the solitary city on the planet.
Of course, there had been some trouble during the initial assault. Casualties had been higher than expected, owing to several surprising pieces of technology, and there had been reports of Combine soldiers being able to conjure up "balls of glowing blue energy". His aid was going to bring him more news and updates about that. Speaking of which…
A small hatch in the roof opened up, and a round sphere came out of it, traveling briskly along the metal rails imbedded within the roof. The sphere's wide green optic twitched around, before settling on Anderson, and stopped just short of him.
"Ahh, Major Anderson, I've brought the reports you wanted look out." Anderson's assistant, the AI core Aeneas said. A nearby computer display popped up, a series of neat, labeled files displayed on it.
"Thank you Aeneas." Anderson nodded appreciatively. "Let's get to it shall we?"
The first file on the display expanded into a lab report, pictures, figures, alphanumeric symbols, and equations Anderson couldn't even begin to hope to understand scrolling down. The display stopped at an exploded diagram of various pieces of captured alien weaponry and technology, neatly placed figures and explanations annotating the blueprints.
"The first reports have come in from the Ark labs about all pieces of captured Combine technology. Upon analysis, a rather peculiar fact was discovered: all technology possessed by this thrall race are based upon the use of element zero."
"Explain." Anderson said.
"Their technology utilizes element zero's ability to raise or lower the mass of objects through its manipulation of dark energy fields. Take their weaponry for example." Aeneas explained. The display zoomed in on what appeared to be a crude assault rifle.
"This weapon appears to be standard issue amongst this thrall race, much like how the old OSIPR was distributed to all Overwatch soldiers stationed on Earth during the occupation. It is primarily kinetic in nature, and utilizes a magnetic accelerator to accelerate its projectiles. Ammunition however is not bullets or conventional projectiles; rather, it appears to be a solid block of metal positioned in the center of the gun. Miniscule metal shards are shaved off this block, and accelerated via magnets down the barrel. This effectively gives the weapons unlimited ammunition. An onboard computer also calculates the necessary mass to inflict optimal damage, based on atmospheric conditions, gravity, environment, and distance, allowing operators easier aim."
An animation of the weapons firing was shown, hundreds of shards shaved of the metal block and fired down the barrel.
"This is where it gets interesting though." Aeneas continued. "Going by the equation that force is equal to mass times velocity, or if you prefer, kinetic energy is one-half mass times velocity squared, these shards are too small to do any real damage. However, along the barrel, there are a series of element zero projectors, that project a mass effect field that lowers the mass of the shards even further, allowing them to be accelerated by the magnetic accelerators even faster then normally possible, causing them to do terrible terrible damage. Due to the nature of this firing system, it is possible for hundreds or possibly even thousands of projectiles to be fired every second."
"How are they able to keep that firing rate up?" Anderson questioned. "At that speed, such a weapon would quickly overheat and melt."
"The weapons are built in with automatic safeguards to prevent such a thing from happening." Aeneas clarified. "The fortunate thing is that upon testing, we discovered that these weapons do overheat fairly quickly, so operators are forced to fire in short bursts. Prolonged fire is risky and dangerous, but even with that limitation, their fire speed is still fast enough to effectively strip our shields."
"Anything else?"
"Their shields. Their shields are also based on element zero technology; the project a mass effect field that effectively stops any physical object in its path. However, it is incredibly inefficient compared to our disrupter shields; it is far more energy efficient to simply project an energy shield that disintegrates objects passing through it than creating one that must actively block every single projectile that hits it. Additionally, these shields only protect against kinetic weaponry, and even then, they only stop object heading at a rapid velocity. Protection against directed energy weapons, toxins, temperature, and radiation is virtually non-existent. Our weapons were able to easily bypass their shields and primitive armour."
"Why would the Combine outfit their thralls with technology that is lacking in so many obvious ways?" Anderson questioned. "Even on Earth, Overwatch soldiers were outfitted with dark energy weaponry and shields. Why not here?"
"As of this point, we don't know. As of this moment, we simply do not know enough about this thrall race or their relation to the Combine."
Anderson stopped to muse for a second. "Send all captured technology and all relevant acquired data back to Aperture. They can probably come up with a better analysis then we can."
"Right away sir. The nearest local branch, or main headquarters back on Earth?"
"Send it to Earth. Inform the science council and GLaDOS that this is of highest priority and importance. What about vivisection results from the captured thrall?"
"Results from the interrogation have revealed something shocking about the neural physiology of the thrall." A picture of a slice of brain tissue was displayed, magnified a hundred times. There was something odd about it, but Anderson couldn't quite but his finger to it, until his attention was drawn to the plethora of blue spots peppering the image.
"What are those?" he asked, gently tapping one such spot.
"Further analysis revealed that those spots were actually nodules of element zero, imbedded within the brain tissue."
Anderson involuntarily took a step backwards. "What!" he exclaimed. "Are you telling me that this creature had one of the most toxic substances known to science embedded in its brain, and was in fighting condition!" Element zero was notorious for causing fatal and deadly cancers in humans and vortigaunts, even with modern medical technology; one of the reasons why research into element zero had been banned after the discovery of the Prothean archives. Many of the first explorers of the archives had died shortly after, after contracting incurable brain cancers.
Aeneas's optic nodded. "It appears so. These nodules have hundreds of different nerve endings attached to them, completely integrating them with the subjects nervous systems. When we subjected tissue samples to synthetic neural impulses, something extraordinary happened."
On the display, a video of a brain tissue sample, sealed within a containment chamber, played out, the tissue glowing bright blue, various nearby small objects floating and bobbing in mid air.
"Neurological activity appears to stimulate these nodules, allowing them to generate miniature mass effect fields. While along, these nodules are insufficient and too disorganized for any real application, surgeons did find another device implanted within the base of the thrall's skull."
Another diagram appeared, this one showing a gray box, roughly 2 centimeters by 2 centimeters.
"This device allows the thrall to synchronize the nodules within its brain, allowing the creation of larger and more potent biotic fields, large enough for combat operations."
"Have there been any more reports about such an ability?"
"Not at the moment, no sir. It currently appears to be an isolated event. What's disturbing about this ability is that the mass effect fields generated seem to have adverse reactions upon contact with disrupter shields. Reactions include immediate shield failure, or in extreme cases, explosive failure and death. We haven't been able to determine the reason of these failures, as our science facilities onboard the arks are too primitive, but our engineers believe that it has something to do with the dark energy signatures synchronizing and overloading the shield capacitors."
Anderson rubbed his eyes warily. "Run another series of tests on our prisoner. I'm authorizing the use of invasive procedures and nano-probes; ship it back to Aperture after we're done with it. Soldiers able to control dark energy fields; god, what will the Combine think of next?"
"Squid shaped giant starships maybe?"
Anderson could only sigh.
3025 C.E
Planet Aephus
Turian Hierarchy Secure Command Base
It was a curious weapon to be sure.
Grasping the alien device in his hands, Victus turned it over peering at the strange symbols engraved on its surface. While there was a trigger, a stock, and a scope, the gun had no discernable barrel or firing mechanism Instead, there was a short fat capsule at the very tip of the gun; the only thing that looked remotely like a barrel was a long curved tube, that stretched from an elongated ammunition magazine all the way to the end. It wasn't like any mass
Unfortunately, there was no way for him to fully understand how the weapon work; the few pieces of alien weaponry they had recovered had some sort of locking device, that prevented it from working in unauthorized hands; the weapons had effectively froze up, unable to do anything. An unlucky technician had died when he had accidently triggered a weapon's self-destruct mechanism while trying to physically cut open it; there were still bloodstains in the lab. The only thing they knew that the dark energy signatures that were radiating of the weapon did not match that of any mass effect device; instead, they more closely matched that of the theoretical substance known as exotic matter.
Whoever had attack had done so with a ferocity and coordination unlike anything he had ever seen before. They had lost control of the coastal industrial regions within an hour; inland facilities had been captured within less than one standard planetary rotation; all Turian soldiers had been pushed back to the capital city, and even then, combat analysis and VI's had predicted that the invaders would attempt a final push on the city soon. In accordance with Turian military defense protocol, the local militia had been mobilized; as of now, every single eligible and able bodied Turian was stationed at the outer perimeters, maintaining a watchful vigil on the horizon. Not that the added numbers the militia provided would do any good.
The unknown alien coalition had technology that far surpassed anything Victus had seen. Energy weapons capable of smashing through even the toughest defenses, dissolving and ripping apart soldiers without a second though; shields capable of sustaining ridiculous amounts of gunfire; power armour, mass produced on a scale never before seen or imagined; aliens capable of unleashing devastating energy attacks that gave biotics a run for its money; actual AI's,, abominable machines working side by side with the aliens, something that had terrified soldiers, and sparked rumours of Geth.. Kinetic shields were completely ineffective against the aliens, and the tri-layered armour that all Turians fielded was similarly ineffective. Most astounding of all, most reports suggested that the aliens possessed teleportation technology, something even the STG had said was impossible; the use of teleportation had utterly decimated the Turian armies neat formations and lines, that had served them well for hundreds of years. Faced with an incredibly agile, adaptable, and flexible opponent, the Turian formations had quickly collapsed into anarchy.
There was one source of information that they could use. It had been incredibly lucky find; a company had managed to successfully ambush an isolated enemy patrol vehicle; in the midst of the confusion and chaos, the company had managed to knock out and capture the occupants of the vehicle, though not without significant casualties and injuries. The prisoners were currently being housed in a maximum security military facility, with armed guards and heavy weaponry guarding their cells; giving how effective these aliens were at combat, nothing was left to chance.
His aid walked up beside him. "Sir, the asari team reports that they are ready to begin." Victus nodded in satisfaction. It also just so happened that an asari archaeological team from the University of Thessia had also been present on Aephus during the position; the asari, while not trained military personnel, just scholars, had volunteered to utilize their mind melding abilities to extract whatever information the captured soldiers possessed. It seemed too good to be true to Victus, that a team of Asari had just happened to be on the planet at the time of the attack, almost like it was planned , but Victus was not one to pass up an opportunity, no matter how suspicious it was. He would just have to dismiss it as a very lucky coincidence.
"Let's go." he said to his aid. Looking at the weapon one more time, Victus set it down gently on a nearby table, and left the room.
"Bring in the next one."
The Turian guard nodded in confirmation, and opened the door, motioning for the next prisoner to be brought in. Liara T'Soni rubbed her face, mentally bracing herself for the next mind-probe. She had come to Aephus for an archeological expedition on behalf of the University of Thessia, after hearing rumours of Prothean ruins on the planet. Interrogating hostile unknown aliens by mind probing them had not been in the description.
The last alien she had interrogate, one of the hunchback one, had been extremely painful; upon beginning the meld, she was bombarded with hundreds of millions of different voices, yelling at her to leave, yelling so hard that she was still physically in pain. Liara had immediately told the guard to take it away; whatever the alien was, it possessed considerable mental and psychic powers, far beyond that of an asari.
The thick blast door leading to the room screeched open again, and two guards marched in, dragging another prisoner behind them. They threw him roughly into the chair, securing him not to gently with thick bundles of metal chains, before assuming position behind it, guns pointed at its head.
The greatest surprise was how asari the alien look. Stripped of its intimidating black power armour, the alien looked remarkably like an asari, but with a more yellow skin tone, and what appeared to be black fur situated on top of its head. It was the eyes that drew the most attention; those eyes seemed to bore into Liara, burning stars of unimaginable hatred and disgust, for whatever reasons Liara was unsure off.
Bracing herself, Liara bent down, her hands glowing as she prepared to link her mind with the alien. "Embrace eternity!" she declared, as she placed her hands onto the temples of the alien; the alien's eye opened in fear, and it was about to yell before their minds connected.
Her mental abruptly crashed into a barrier, preventing her from accessing further into the alien's mind. She frowned. Most beings with natural mental resistance felt warm and yielding when probed, but flexible enough to push probes away. But this was different; it felt cold, hard, and artificial, a solid slab of metal preventing any access at all, like a thick layer of rigid armour protecting a creatures vital regions.
But rigid armour could split if bent too far.
Instead of diverting all her mental energies across a wide area, Liara focused all her efforts onto one specific point. Surely enough, the mental armour began to split; a small crack at first, but soon expanding into a raging crack, and soon, an unobstructed mental connection was established.
A torrent of images and thoughts began to pass through, not just from the alien to Liara, but both ways. Panicking, she tried to limit her thoughts but to no avail; the connection was two way. Images passed through her mind; towers that seemed to stretch forever into the sky; tripodal war machines marching through streets; fighting between masked soldiers and armed civilians, with a strange symbol painted in yellow on their arms; rods of steel falling from the sky, smashing into the ground with devastating effect. A word rang throughout the alien's mind, and using her new found knowledge of the alien's language, she was able to understand it: "Combine...Combine...Combine." And above all, she could detect horror and shock permeating throughout the alien, no, human's mind, as it suddenly understood who Liara was, and what they were attacking.
3025 C.E
Palaven
The space around Palaven was crowded, hundreds of fighters zooming around on patrol loops, frigates and dreadnoughts placed in defensive orbits around the heart of the Turian Hierarchy. News that an alien armada was approaching Palaven fast had caused a complete lockdown on Turian space, and the military had been mobilized to defend Palaven.
A space telescope, orbiting in a high geosynchronous orbit, focused in on a disturbance 500 million km away. Zooming in, it detected what appeared to be ripples in space, emanating out of a central point. The VI onboard was about to dismiss the images as a malfunction of its instruments, before more movement was detected at the disturbance.
Hundreds of ships, some tens of kilometers long, and an uncountable swarm of fighters snapped back into realspace, all heading towards Palaven.
The Coalition fleet had arrived.