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/-/ 3rd March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/ Arcturus System /-/
/-/ Command Deck of Pan-Human-Union/Xcom "Survivalist" Class Frigate "Omaha" /-/
Stood within the primary cockpit of the Omaha was always an odd sensation for John, first of all because this vessel could be considered his first true "Command" but secondly down to the fact that despite the star-scape that played forth across his vision, they where in fact in the centre of the ship and the view surrounding him was entirely holographic; chosen as the preference of the ship's main pilot Jeff "Joker" Moreau.
In the distance to the ships starboard was the two other vessels of the "Survivalist" class, a combination of sleek XCOM issue Alien Alloys alongside Pan-Human design elements of sharp right angles and impact armours held on struts on several points of the ship, designed to take blasts and detonate the force away before being detonated away themselves. All three vessels had Conn pods extending slightly away from the starboard side just before the engines and their 800 meter lengths where dotted with a mix of point defence laser and plasma weapons, and jutting out from the underside of each vessel was a significantly sided hangar and cargo bay with kinetic barriers to hold oxygen in and the void beyond out – alongside Alien Alloy drop doors several meters thick. Although no one had ever tried the everlasting rumour of the Survivalist class was that it could easily land a Pan-Human Corvette or a citadel frigate vessel within it's gaping maw.
As John looked across the various sensors within the Omaha's bridge locked on to his retinas and by extension his line of sight and a series of target boxes appeared over the other two vessels of the trio, marking their IFF signatures for "Green" signifying friendlies and then aligning vessel names over the top – the PHU/XCV "Normandy" and "Utah" which alongside the "Omaha" made up the current trio of the extended 7 of the vessels named after the World War 2 Normandy landings. In the final stages of construction the remaining vessels "Gold", "Juno", "Point Du Hoc" and "Sword" where some either weeks away, or short months away from being finished and put through their own initial test runs.
Which is precisely where John and his crew came in. He himself was a PHU/XCOM operative who had undergone the rigorous years of training in both arms of the Pan-Human armed forces, Including the Cross-Species-Specialised-Combat-Training alongside Human, Skirmisher, Turian, Asari, Salarian and even Krogan combat doctrines and then Pan-Human-Armed forces own N-7 training before moving along to XCOM's own classified Officer Training School within the last few years.
Although the Pan-Human-Union and the Citadel council had effectively been in a state of Cold-War since the end of the Second Contact War both sides had made concessions and even put forward attempts to work together on several occasions, the CSSCT being one of them – where both sides, or selected nations therein would perform war games against either side in different environments and then cross-compare each others tactics and abilities.
For the Citadel Council having better prepared troops and foreknowledge of Pan-Human and XCOM tactics was a boon in case the two sides should ever come to bear arms towards each other again.
For the race and sub-races of Humanity is was a chance to drive home just how dedicated they where towards the goal of survival – and any chance to not only train the other races against the Reaper threat they had known was coming for a little over 150 years could not be missed.
After their original introduction the Pan-Human Government had left the designs for thermoelectric recollection batteries and static recollection flywheels to not only reclaim but actively generate power from the static charge created by Mass Effect Cores and vessels in FTL on the desk for the Citadel Council to use, despite the fact that they had left the Citadel races sitting at the negotiation table.
After the Turians flat out ignored the technologies and the Asari had scoffed at their usefulness the Salarians did what Salarians always do, took the designs apart and put them back together again simply to see if they could. Once several months of testing where undergone (a practical lifetime for some Salarian scientists given their usual projects that last week are considered a long term investment of proverbial manpower) the Salarians sent forth an Envoy with thanks to the Pan-Human diplomatic corps whilst at the same time approaching the Turians and Asari within Citadel session to show them the actual results of these devices and the fact that these had been both from the Pan-Human designs left at the table and the Salarian designs that had been engineered from those original plans.
From there Johns parent's generation had put forth individual treaties with each Citadel race, with varying results.
The Turians had a silent respect for the Pan-Human-Union not only because of the events of Relay 314, but the Unions fighting prowess and military might and approached the Union to organise a form of military training regimen for the two races, but had never had the concept of "War-games" before – and when the Union introduced the Turians to the "Innovative" concept of non-live fire combat between races they took the concept in earnest and forged what could have been a bond of animosity over the events of Shanxi into a quiet respect. After the first decade of this, the Pan-Human-Union offered the Turians the design specifications for Carriers that had been proofed on the Turians own Dreadnought specification vessels, allowing the Turians to perform massive operations in deep space whilst also cutting down on supply lines and logistical vessels. With these designs taken in earnest the Turian Hierarchy had begun constructing Carriers in equal measure to their Dreadnought class vessels and the concept moved through to the other vessels of the Citadel.
The Asari, unwilling to back down on their own methods of diplomacy kept forcing the issue of Citadel membership becoming mandatory for every race of the galaxy, to which the Pan-Human-Union insisted that the Citadel should first offer the fallen races of the galaxy aid, primarily the Quarians and Krogan whilst at the same time lifting the Volus to being a full member of said Council for forming the galactic economy based around the Citadel Credit, and while they where at it – giving the Drell a membership of the Citadel, and removing the Batarians for their blatant disregard for Citadel law. With the Asari refusing to back down and the other races finally voicing their opinions towards this using the Pan-Human stance to hide behind.
The Krogans could at least use aid to survive on their home-world even without the Genophage.
The Quarians broke Citadel Law 6 generations ago by their own time and could at least use the aid of worlds to use capable of matching their Dextrose-Protien needs.
The Drell had survived under the Hanar and would eventually need to move out and colonise more worlds when the time came for them to rise back into ascension.
The Elcor had member status but where forced to share their own embassy as a sovereign state with the Volus, the Hanar and the Batarians.
The Hanar had much like the Turians taken the Drell in as a protectorate race, and having saved another race from extinction put themselves onto a pedestal of respect within the Pan-Human stance. So why should the Hanar not also have Citadel Status within the station that in their very religion is the highest point they can achieve under their religious believe based upon the Protheans.
The last point was that of the Batarians, who retained membership despite actively preying on the other races under the guise of "cultural reasons" for their slavery. Pan-Humanity based their final point on this – if the Council could keep a race of scum and slavers within their ranks but deny another civilization based on laws and reasons that race was never aware of at the time then the Citadel could go forth and rot in their station that would in fact be their downfall.
Since that point onwards the other races formed their own agreements, the Quarians where allowed free travel within Pan-Human space alongside the use of shipyards and material sciences to upgrade their fleet and even build new vessels in exchange for the Quarian's expertise in ship building techniques and maintenance, and John knew that the first All-Quarian O'Neill cylinder was being constructed in the Arcturus System despite the cries against such an act within the Citadel.
The Krogan came forward to Pan-Humanity not asking for help, but seeing if the two could engage in their own War-games alongside the Pan-Human government behind the leader of Clan Urdnot, Wrex.
While these War-games took place, Wrex was using his own political acumen within the Krogan people using Pan-Humanity as an example of how far a species could rise in the face of sheer extinction.
Like Earth, Tuchanka was a death-world. Like Krogan, Humanity was nearly wiped out at the hands of a coalition of aliens but unlike the Krogan, Pan-Humanity pulled ahead and pulled together and where now determined to survive at all costs.
And like the Krogan, Humanity had a planet they where still trying to reclaim from the past.
So the diplomats of the Pan-Human-Union left the table and the most decorated Admirals and Generals of the Pan-Human forces entered with an emissary from XCOM Central Command within the Sol system and lastly the head of the Reaper faction on Earth. Knowing that Wrex's fellow Clan leaders would not submit to mere diplomacy as Krogan culture dictated actions, not words – Xcom and the Reaper faction would set up a base on Tuchanka whilst the Krogan would do the same on Earth – and both races would actively engage in trying to reclaim sites, resources, items of historical value and technologies with an "open hand system" in which either side could keep what they found, provided they shared with the other.
So a significant portion of Clan Urdnot took to Earth and faced against the billions of Chrysalids and the Lost which still remained and in exchange XCOM and members from the Reaper Cell involved would set up base on Tuchanka and actively clear out Krogan cities. Although casualties and deaths where taken on both sides, each side raised a massive boon of camaraderie for the other and cemented the very beginnings of Krogan actively choosing to undertake their Rite of Firsts, Rite of Union and Rite of Passage on Earth due to the sheer danger involved on the planet.
The Hanar and Volus where finally admitted to have stakes within the Citadel Council – and plans where put forth for both races to finally take seats within said council to raise the total from 3 member races to 5 – on the grounds that Pan-Humanity finally adhered to the rules. Pan-Humanity again declined on the basis of the Batarians and so the plans remain but the seats are untaken.
The Elcor gladly shared Combat VI systems with Pan-Humanity in exchange for the technologies behind MEC and SPARK systems which in turn helped the Elcor further survive combat within their chassis systems.
The Drell took part in a Cultural Exchange which led to Pan-Humanity learning of Kepral's Syndrome. Whilst Pan-Humanity and their sciences where not advanced enough to be able to reduce or reverse the effects of the Genophage on behalf of the Krogan, they could at least aid the Drell with this condition. Through the use of technologies left behind by the Ethereals within the Gene Therapy clinics, Pan-Human scientists developed a "vaccine" for the disease which would allow 85% of the species to be completely unaffected and would in turn be based down into their children and effectively wipe out Kepral's within one generation, but they could do little but ease the suffering of those whom already had the condition.
The Salarians eventually moved into a series of scientific treaties with Pan-Humanity, exchanging scientists and materials on both sides to develop Pan-Humanities own expertise with Mass Effect based systems whilst at the same allowing the Salarians access to civilian handheld laser weapons to allow them to finally created handheld lasers of their own. As result of this eventually lead to the "Tantalus" drive core which was a three way technological drive between Pan-Humanity, the Turians and the Salarians to include every races knowledge of the systems involved whilst integrating Ethereal Alien Alloys as well as Static Recollection and Thermoelectric recollection systems directly into the drive core.
The Asari maintained a cold distance due to Pan-Humanities insistence on sticking to actions and methods they considered not to be the norm, maintaining an embassy but little else whilst the Batarians raged in anger against the completely undisguised contempt Pan-Humanity had for their open use of slavery as well as ignoring the very laws that Pan-Humanity was being continuously told they should adhere to.
As result of this, John still bore the scars of too this day when a massive fleet of Batarian Slavers hit his home colony of Mindior and used every trick in their arsenal (being funded directly by the Batarian government) used decoy SOS messages to draw ships away from the defence fleet and then used FTL ramming attacks to decimate the vessels that remained before jumping their ships directly into atmosphere and butchering the civilian population before they could even arm themselves properly – and the Batarians used every method they could to both kidnap human slaves and steal human technology.
Since that event he still carried the scars of the Batarian Neural Whips across his back where he had been forced at gunpoint to watch his friends and family forced to kneel and be shot in the back of the head one by one for his fathers crime of raising a weapon against them. Even if that moment had been the point where his Psionic powers finally manifested and he managed to maul, shred and dismember every last Batarian he could find with the untrained power of his mind alone he still carried the unrestrained hatred of their species and the memory's he carried from them.
But that was then, and this is now.
He turned his eyes from the star-scape and returned to his position just behind Joker as the pilot moved between displays with a practised ease.
"The Arcturus Prime Relay is in range, initiating transmission sequence . . . . aand we are connected. Calculating transit mass and destination." Joker started aloud as the ship started to speed up by orders of several thousand meters per second as the massive tuning fork structure of the Mass Effect relay began to spool up in advance of the coming trio of vessels.
"The Relay is hot, acquiring approach vector. All stations, secure for transit." He finished as he closed the last few holographic displays and watched as the Prograde marker on his HUD within the Omaha aligned with the system display from the Arcturus station, putting their orbit directly into the path of the coming relay.
"Board is green, approach run has begun. Hitting the Relay in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . " He continued and shortly finished as the Omaha took the lead of the three ships and lightening sparked from the Relay and onto the first of the vessels and the Omaha began speeding up considerably as the Mass-Free field took hold and the Omaha moved alongside the twin spokes of the Relay and shot forth at several times the speed of light to be followed seconds later by the Normandy and the Utah.
"Thrusters, Check. Navigation, Check. Recollection systems are active and engaged. All Systems green. Omaha drift is just under 1500k" Joker continued.
This was the point where the only non-member of the Pan-Human forces spoke up. Alongside John Sheppard was the council Spectre Nihlus Kryik, he was tall even for a Turian and was wearing what appeared to be wearing the standard issue Phantom Armour in black with vertical red stripes that had been modified by its wearer for additional magnetic hard-points for grenades and weapons.
"1500 is good, very good. Your Captain will be pleased" Nihlus said to Joker, which was when Shepard spoke up.
"Your right, I am pleased" John said aloud as he turned to Nihlus.
"Sorry Shepard, I was under the Impression Anderson was in command of this vessel?" Nihlus returned with an air of confusion.
"Captain Anderson is the PHU Attaché for this mission, much in the same way you are the council Attaché for this shake-down cruise. You are right, but shall we walk for a moment?" John put forth as the pair turned to talk down the central walkway from the cockpit and down the Gunnery command deck where recessed seats had their own displays for weapons and targeting systems.
"Nihlus, whilst we head to the briefing room – I do have an admission to make, I am the XCOM Attaché for this mission and I was under the impression before this crew even left that the Omaha would be under Anderson's command . . . unless a Winter Contingency was declared" John spoke in lowered tones as they passed the Chief Navigator Charles Pressly at his post of the central holo-pit just past the gunnery deck and into the elevator behind where they would then move down a floor to the briefing and operations rooms.
"Winter contingency?" The Turians flanged voice spoke, both confused and curious "Wasn't the last time that was declared -"
"Yes, You're 'Incident at Relay 314' our Second Contact War" John finished the Turians sentence for him.
"Shepard, Call it the war – we both fought long enough and had enough dead to not call it anything else" The Turian spoke aloud. In that moment John felt the briefest psionic pulse of both pride . . . and camaraderie? Pulsed from the Turians usually militarily well organised thought processes. Obviously he policed his thoughts very well in the presence of PHU or XCOM psychics and that was a momentary break in those barriers.
The Elevator doors opened and the pair both walked through to the Briefing room where Anderson stood waiting.
"Commander, Spectre – you'll have to excuse this momentary lapse but I have to handover command and move over from my command to yours" the Captain said aloud as he moved between the pair still in his Pan-Human-Naval captain Dress-Blues.
"This mission was originally meant to be a retrieval mission between the Pan-Human-Union and the Citadel Council, that all three of us already know. What I am about to show and tell you now does not leave this room." he continued as he moved to the holographic displays at the end of the briefing room as Shepard took a seat and Nihlus stood a short distance behind.
"What the council knew and the reason why Nihlus is here is a concession on our behalf to the Citadel Government, a construction team discovered this not days ago on the surface of Eden Prime. It's a beacon, and it appears to be Prothean." Anderson continued as images appeared on screen of the Beacon being unearthed. The ghostly green hue casting shadows of the light on the silvery metals used in it's construction.
"We where going to share this beacon with the Council as a matter of good faith, god knows we need it. But here Nihlus is where our Intel shared with you ends, and where Commander Shepard's begins." Anderson stood to one side of the display pedestal and motioned for John to rise from his seat and come across.
"The digging team was joined with a group of research students from the Eden Prime University who helped in the un-earthing of the site. Their equipment kept picking up resonant echoes of other materials and another active power source close to the beacon. Once the Prothean Beacon was unearthed and ready to be moved they extended the dig site and in doing so, found this." Anderson continued again as Shepard stood in silence, his XCOM level authorisation started the system display to start projecting a second object. Unlike the cool green glow of the Prothean device this one had a central spire surrounded by three arching sides and the remains of what used to be three smaller rings scattered about in pieces on what would have been the tiles of a millennia old smooth Prothean floor.
"Is that a-" Nihlus began.
"Yes." Shepard declared "An Ethereal Hyperwave Beacon, the second ever found by us. The first was during the assault of the first Alien base during the first Ethereal War."
"And proof that the Ethereals where not only active during the time of the Protheans, in direct contact with them – and hopefully enough proof to convince the Council they need to listen to us and increase their Military and Naval standing above and beyond what they currently have before it is too late for us all." Anderson interjected.
"And the Winter Contingency?" Nihlus asked to Anderson directly.
"Winter Contingency!?" Anderson nearly shouted in shock.
"This old friend is where I have to take over" Shepard placed his palm on the pedestal again as his Omni-hook and Psi-Amp connected and in turn authorised his rise in command.
"I received the Winder Contingency call moments before we hit the relay, so we sill have time to brief – but keep in mind not even I know what we are about to see" Shepard finished as the SOS call came through, unfiltered and uncensored on the display.
The footage was undeniably from a soldiers combat helmet as the target reticules could be seen above their field of vision – track the soldiers eye movements and marking IFF friendlies or non friendlies as they did so. A woman wearing PHU issue Carapace Mark IV armour in a local camouflage pattern was carrying a MAG rifle to her shoulder and firing in controlled three-shot bursts.
She saw something off-screen and turned to the soldier and pushed him from the shoulder and into the dirt yelling "GET DOWN!" as she did so before firing another 5 3-shot bursts to targets not seen by the soldier as she did so.
Then the soldier turned to his presumed squad leader as the leader raised the soldier to his feet and tapped his Omni-tool several times for an open broadcast signal and slapping the soldiers helmet – being the point where the soldiers helmet cam and squad leaders Omni-tool connected to begin transmission.
"We are under attack! Taking heavy casualties from unknown hostiles! As the last Squad Leader I am declaring Winter Contingency! I repeat! Winter Contingency has been declared! We need urgent assistance, they came out of nowh-"
The squad leader never had a chance to finish his sentence as a blue-shifted bolt of plasma connected with the side of his helmet, ignoring the kinetic barrier and burned through the alien alloys protecting his head before ripping out the other side and the unfortunate soul dropped to the floor dead.
The soldier now starting to panic, dropped his rifle and attempted to scoot backwards on his hands and feet away from the corpse as more blue-white plasma impacted his former leader and turned his vision to the sky as a massive glowering form of what looked like a hand of blue metal could be seen dropping through the clouds and the signal cut out to nothing.
"With Winter Contingency declared I'm afraid I have to take over Anderson." Shepard spoke as he offered his old friend a hand to shake, to formalise the handover.
"You have it son" Anderson replied taking his hand and shaking it. "Anything you need."
Shepard spoke aloud "Open Intercom" and the ship opened a full voice channel across the ship over every available speaker.
"We where already heaving to the world of Eden Prime but XCOM command has just issued a Winter Contingency so I am taking command of this vessel on the behalf of Captain Anderson. Joker – how long until we reach the colony?"
"We are about 17 minutes out Commander." Joker replied over the same channel.
"Get this ship to combat alert status – and inform the Normandy and Utah, any suggestions Anderson?"
"I recommend getting a ground team with yourself ready from the Omaha and having all ships prepare for skyranger launches and getting a defensive orbit around the planet." Anderson suggested, glad for his protege. Even if Anderson had now lost command his insight was still needed.
"You get that Joker" Shepard said aloud to the intercom once more.
"Yes Sirs, I'll transmit now." Joker said as he cut the intercom from his end and began transmitting the original SOS and his superiors suggestions.
"Nihlus, care to join us?" John said to his counterpart.
"Gladly – if you'll have me?" Nihlus asked in return.
"All hands on station" Shepard said as he turned his glance to the cold blue steel of the vessel that was frozen in the final frame of the transmission. "Looks like we're going to need every helping hand we can get".
/-/ A Moment from Scythe himself /-/
Aaaand there we go, the Omaha – I said there would be an explanation as the ship is one of three of the future 7 based off of the Normandy landings.
As for John Shepard himself – he's the standard preset John from the trailers, start of each game ect.
Fitting in space and history for the N7 Program, CSSCT and general history also helped with his backstory as well as why he would be Psionic rather then Biotic and his place within XCOM also.
Replies and Reviews will of course be appreciated, as I've been really surprised so far at the levels of acceptance I've seen since I've started writing this – thanks to you all who have done so far.
Tarrah for now.
