Universe Earth-40* Alpha subtype
Solar System
Warsaw Time: 15.30
Anno Domini 2060
Namiestnikowski Palace (Former Presidential Palace)
The Crown of the Empire of the Rzeczpospolita of Poland
*Note to scribes : Not to be confused with DC Earth-40 or their MC counterparts and their subtypes and similar internal designations. You don't know how many times someone has gotten confused because of this.
For ordinary Warsavians it was just another ordinary day in this unseasonably hot summer, the first since the end of the Fifth World War, or the War of the Worlds as it was quickly becoming known in wartime. The war itself was also the first war that humans fought among themselves in space in different systems although it was not the first war of mankind in the galaxy. A huge amount of dust during the clashes on earth entered the earth's atmosphere which caused temperatures to plummet to those of the 18th century. Also not helping was the fact that wrecked spaceships and the former International Space Station fell onto the planet. Fortunately, most of the wreckage of the ships melted during the fall, a few wrecks arrived whole to be able to threaten the lives of people or through their fall generate so much dust that the Poles, quoting the already classic text from Kapitan Bomba "Tyle energii że ja pierdolę" (So much energy that I fucking). Unfortunately for their government this is another of the crisis days. Not that it would normally be better, but the circus that goes on in the Sejm is known to everyone and no one is surprised by what is happening there, and the wars of tribes in Africa are less important than, for example, Ekstraklasa football matches.
Coming back to the thread, it was an unusually hot 14th of June. All over Warsaw people were trying to avoid going outside, which resulted in a rather unusual view of an empty city. Unusual? Because we are talking here about the heart of a great superpower, its capital city of 3 million inhabitants. Add to this the fact that it is Monday and you have quite an interesting situation of the most important city in the world which looks deserted. Even traffic jams, which are the symbol of driving in the capital, disappeared, while schools are empty just as exceptionally all students are exempt from classes until the end of the week, not that the number of students who go at the end of the year is large, but still. For many it is a promise that this year's vacations will be extremely successful, while others mention that it is a sign that there will be more rain in the vacations.
Thoughts of vacations that fill the thoughts of students and their parents and all those who want to go on vacation and their joy about it unfortunately do not reach the conference room in the Namiestnikowski Palace on Krakowskie Przedmieście. The atmosphere in the hall is extremely grave and it has nothing to do with the air conditioning in the Palace being on. For the King-Emperor called much more often as an expression of affection as the Wódz (Chief) or more precisely Commander-in-Chief and the Council of Ministers the situation is extremely unpleasant to say the least. This problematic situation is called the Reapers who someone told how to enter one of the main worlds. Of course they didn't attack but it was certain that they would do it sooner rather than later counting on the effect of surprise. Unfortunately for them the Head of the Rzeczpospolita is one of God's Guardians who incidentally was the designated person to support Shepard and his team in his task of collecting poke... I mean heroes and armies to fight the Reapers.
Unfortunately, as is always the case with planning, the plan did not survive the clash with the enemy and must be , only the Wódz was to take part in the fight against the Reapers with a few units of Polish Army Commandos and his servants whom he gathered as a Guardian, while the Rzeczpospolita was not to take part in the fight as a whole. Unfortunately, Army of Heaven intelligence reported that someone had begun to interfere further in the Reapers' operations and that they were about to strike at their dimension.
This made what were supposed to be purely precision strikes to help other dimensions fight the Reapers, become a do or die for the sake of their homeland. Although not so long ago the country fought in the Fifth World War, which was also fought in space, and is currently recovering from the losses suffered and the lion's share of their reconstruction fund is taken up by rebuilding the German territories and making large loans to allied countries and occupied territories such as China, Japan and America. Fortunately, most of the country is in good condition and the most important space colonies, Mars and Kriejna, have not suffered serious war exhaustion. It will not be difficult for them to put the country back on the war track. The problem is that the Reapers will be an extremely stubborn opponent and fighting them even with support will take time, according to AI analysis and analysts even with the support of the other powers it will take time to force the Reapers to fight on their terms. Time that is extremely valuable and with many of the universes invaded in the future sure to be low tech in practice it will come down to minutes if not hours before they are annihilated.
-As you have heard gentlemen, our enemy is about to strike our home. And we don't have time to force him to fight on our terms.-said King-Emperor Bartłomiej Pluta
-If we want to save those who can't defend themselves effectively then yes, we don't have time, Cholera (Damn it), now I know how Shepard felt when he had to complete his breakneck task rushing at breakneck speed to make it before the Reaps kill everyone on Earth and in the entire galaxy - added Minister of National Defense General Tadeusz Zwykły.-If this was an ordinary political situation I would not agree with you that we do not have time, but unfortunately, like almost everyone in this room I played in the trilogy Mass Effect so I know that it's not fun and that for the good of all do not buy time by giving the Reaper exterminate civilizations, it just does not help us in anything, everyone knows why.- said Foreign Minister Andrzej Janukowicz Nosilcow.
-Why not? I need time to put the whole economy back on a war footing. We've barely recovered from the last war and returned to normality, and here comes another one. - Said the Minister of Economy and Finance Tomasz Neupolek who comes from Kriejna and who doesn't necessarily care about other people's lives, in the sense that it's obvious to him that you have to sacrifice someone if you have to, he would sacrifice himself for a good cause.
-Because apart from the obvious moral evil of it, it will make it harder for us to defeat the Reapers. Not only have there been a lot of Reapers of different powers in their cycles, we've only met a small part of them in the games, but every human, elf, dwarf or other alien left at the mercy of the Reapers increases their combat power because they either turn him into their own lowly monster to fight on the planet or build more Reapers out of them. Which will make an already difficult task more difficult, and everything depends on this crucible,- Nosilcow answered him.
-And we don't know if the crucible will work! - answered Neupolek. - We know, we know it will work, but those from the other world don't know. Just knowing that it will work should clearly increase the morale of those working on it. -Neupolek tried to resist, -But something might have chan...
-Calm down!- said the Wódz in a calm but firm tone, interrupting the unproductive argument. -We have little time to prepare for battle, we came here to discuss how quickly we can be ready for battle and not to discuss strategy. - He stood up and began to look around with the look of a veteran of hundreds if not thousands of battles, a look that sent goose bumps down everyone's spine, a look that showed that he had already seen things that many ordinary people would go mad if they saw them.
A look which said clearly and distinctly that pointless discussions would not be tolerated, and anyone who had a problem with it might as well leave the room. -We have two or three weeks at best before they arrive, Shepard's war is already in full swing and the Reapers will soon be sending their first forces to other dimensions if intelligence is correct.- So what do we need to do to speed up our preparations and what will we probably sell to our future allies?-asked Bartek. -I've got a few ideas about what we should do, Wódz. -Said the deputy minister of economy, adjusting his tie. -I'm listening. -Added by the King, he began in a calm tone. -As I was saying, we should do...
28 June 2060
System: Nolona/Epsilon Eridani
16 Destroyer Squadron
ORP Naprzód do Świtu N-284
System Boundary
For Komandor Jakub Stalinowski, it was just another day in the life of the Navy. Although the entire Navy has been on a heightened state of combat readiness for three weeks, unlike many of his comrades, he does not complain about it. After all, this is what he enlisted for, to shoot at enemies, not to make money and get easy money. Of course he understands their concern, hell he's worried about getting out of this alive himself, after all they wouldn't mobilize the entire existing fleet and keep them on alert for no reason.
The last time the entire Navy, be it space or naval, was mobilized for total war against the New Order of Mankind, or as it is more colloquially and aptly known with Nwo, the New World Order. The scale of losses that were then suffered among the light ship classes was enormous in the early stages of the war. Fortunately for them, this period passed quickly and the experience gained then allowed for the development of more effective methods of protecting spaceports and ships such as destroyers and smaller ones have since undergone a profound modernization.
The orders were simple but puzzling, namely constant patrols of single squadrons of smaller ships on the outskirts of systems belonging to the Rzeczpospolita. It was strange considering the fact that known FTL drives allow jumps up to half the distance from the star and standard space fleet entries were not on system boundaries but more in the depths of the system, no one jumped on the system boundary or before the system and the orders were to focus on the system boundary and look for unknown ships with strange characteristics. What was also more surprising was that explicit data was given on what ships to look for. Not bad, unknown ships about which we know almost everything with strange characteristics. It doesn't make any logical sense. -Komandor(Captain) Stalinowski, Komandor porucznik(Commander) Bałer would like to see you on the bridge,- said the voice of a young girl. Hearing this he turned off the tactical simulator he was using before thinking. He then headed out to the bridge.
Upon arriving on the bridge, he approached a visibly disturbed Bałer -Porucznik, what is it? -Kmdr por. turned to the commander and said with considerable anxiety. -I have perhaps good and bad news, Commander, the good news is that we found a ship with the characteristics we are looking for and the bad news is that it is not alone and is speeding towards us with great speed.- Hearing that, he asked, -When was it spotted?- to which Bałer replied, -It was spotted half an hour ago, at first we thought it was some ship with a damaged FLT drive, you know what I mean.-
The Captain nodded remembering and hearing about cases of FTL drive failures that eject in a different place than the crew wanted, while on military ships this is extremely rare among civilians it's not that uncommon especially if you have a post-military ship and hopeless engineers on those ships among their crews. Fortunately, most of the problems are rather due to the age of these drives, many of these ships are among the first starships to be built and were the first steps between the stars. Many of these ships were either sold to the civilian market because of their age, or are rebuilt wrecks, a large number of which are circling the solar system. A souvenir of the first space war of mankind, between Earthlings and Versians as they called themselves crazy Martian colonists led by Elon Ksum. The war ended in victory for Earth and and the beginning of the legend of ORP Nieulękły, the first Polish battleship.
-Fortunately, Bosman (petty officer) Kobajaski quickly realized that it was something else, helped a lot by the fact of the great speed at which the target was moving and the appearance of many similar ones around it. - Stalinowski reflected, looking at the sensor readings recognizing the reason for all the mobilization -Predicted time of arrival? - This question was answered by the AI on board Ewelina -The enemy is located 5 light hours from us. Estimated time of arrival at our position is less than 24 hours. -Shaking his head in dissatisfaction the Commander said- Cholera, send a message to Admiral Rajski about the ships encountered and their number and their speed of travel.-He then walked over to the command chair and sat in it and began giving orders to his Squadron -To OORP Ostatnia Szansa, Duża Burza and Mała Burza, you are to deploy mines in Random formation and then turn back to ORP Naprzód do Świtu and form Tango battle formation.-He then looked at Komandor Porucznik Bałer- Porucznik, your job is to constantly monitor our opponents and check how the mines are set up and correct mistakes in their placement.
-Komandor, I'm sorry to bother you, but why did you order a random deployment of mines and a formation typical of a fast retreat? From what I can see from my sensors their largest ships are only twice the size of me and my sisters and we are only destroyers, we could rather fight in an Wyklęty formation.-Komandor Stalinowski lifted his head and saw a brown-haired and green-eyed young girl of 13 wearing a Navy uniform.
If he didn't know who she was he would probably be angry at the High Command for allowing children to serve on ships.-You see Świt, first of all the enemies are too many for us to fight them in this way because most of them could avoid us, secondly even Hercules doesn't give a shit when there is a whole heap of enemies, and thirdly we have to fight them on our own terms, there is no way in this place.- Nodding her head Świt asked -I understand but what is so scary about them? Many of my older sisters have also fought an opponent who outnumbered them and won, but why are you so afraid of these space squids?- Astonished by her perceptiveness, he nodded and asked, -Is it that obvious?-
-You can see it clearly but I don't know why- Jakub raised his hand and began tapping his fingers against his chair back- When did they build you and wake you up?- Świt thought and after a while she answered -They built me 3 months ago and woke me up 2 and a half months ago and what's the matter?-Hearing this answer he nodded and said- I understand, I understand, not only are you a freshman which I had forgotten, but you haven't discovered many things about human pop culture,-he raised his head and looking into her eyes said-Search the internet for images of the Mass Effect Reapers keyword and compare with your sensor data and then read the wiki article about them, then you'll understand why I preached that.-
With a puzzled look on her face Dawn pulled her phone out of her pocket, which by the way she doesn't need to use since she can use her mind to access the internet but somehow to her and many of her ilk it is strange to do it that way. And as for using the Internet, the ship's AI effectively blocks any signals that might give away the ship's position when someone on board is using the Internet, one of the many boons the AIs offer which allowed for some surprising tactics using the Net at times.
From what Świt didn't know, the crews including the AI began betting on what Świt's reaction would be to what she would learn from the Internet. This was nothing new, many ship crews bet on when their ship's spirit or shipgirls or Kanmusu in Japanese would react to something. Needless to say when the first ships appeared and a method was developed to wake them up when the ship was finished their behaviors quickly made their way onto the internet and became one of the most popular entries on Youtube next to cats, children and other funny things like Russians.
The footage of the first Awakened Shipgirl ORP Błyskawica and the drunken first Space Shipgirl ORP Nieulękły has passed into legend. It is even more ridiculous that we are talking about a hundred year old destroyer chasing the first human space battleship and the first Polish battleship in history. Although you say "shipgirl", you should rather say "shipspirit" because they are spirit and spirit have no gender and there are many ship ghosts who are men and consider themselves as such, at least this is the form they take. The role of Shipspirit in the Polish Navy is simple, namely they play the role of a living AI taking care of the ship's and crew's state. If necessary, they can move the ship themselves and operate without a crew, although this is not very convenient for them. The successes of the Błyskawica, which responded to the call to arms of its fatherland and during the Russian invasion of Gdynia in World War 3, it moved its ship and supported the defense of the city, effectively tipping the scales of victory to the Polish side. They gave a lot of support to this approach and action of awakening the spirit of the ship to life in the human body.
Going back to Świt, at first when she saw the Reapers she was surprised when she compared them to her own data, then the surprise turned to fear when she started reading about them. By the time she had finished, her fear had turned to anger. -I understand Commander now why- while in her mind she was already making a note to buy herself the Mass Effect trilogy so she could understand what she was dealing with in its entirety. -But I hope that I will be able to disembowel those sons of bitches with their cyberbiological insides and put the head of one of them on my battering ram - she said in a sinister tone, with eyes without a smile but full of hatred. -I understand that there will be no problem with obeying the order from your side. -Acknowledging her silence as a confirmation of his words, he returned to commanding the squadron.
30 June 2060
System: Nolona/Eridani Epsilon
Planet: Nowe Mazowsze/New Mazovia
Planet's population: 6 Million inhabitants
Affiliation: Disputed, there is a bloody struggle between the WP and the Reapers
-Kolejna Fala tych skurwieli idzie! (Another wave of these motherfuckers is coming!) -Shouted one of the guards who were watching at the entrance to the city's subway, if something with two lines can be called a subway. For the WP soldiers in the metro area of the planet's capital it was the second day of fighting in the city, exhausting but bearable. Luckily for them they were the only group cut off on the planet, unluckily they were the only group of soldiers who were in the city the rest withdrew as soon as the inhabitants were evacuated. The fighting was fierce and both sides were not letting up.
The planetary defenses, along with the fleet, inflicted heavy casualties on the Reapers trying to invade the planet. Needless to say, many of the Reaper landing zones were smoking craters after the use of weapons of mass destruction from the ships. Wherever the Reapers managed to disembark and survive there was fierce fighting and in some areas the Reapers triumphed, though at the cost of heavy losses, usually 3/4 of the total desanting forces, though there was one area where they had no losses and began their march towards the dead. In the latter the Polish Army was also victorious, paying a heavy price, although not as much as the Reapers, since they usually fought until all the living civilians got out and then retreated, turning the landing zone into a death trap if they used a lot of explosives or into a firing range for ground artillery or into a huge nuclear death zone and magnetic cannons, although this did happen in places where the destruction was either easily reversible in the short term or would not harm the planet and its inhabitants in the overall balance
Coming back to the soldiers from Nowy Płock Garrison, the survivors from the Territorial Defense Division and from the Land Forces Division, the 23rd Infantry Division and the 20th Air Cavalry Division who together constituted the Operational Group "Nowy Płock". At its head was Generał Dywizji (Major General) Stanisław Leszczyński who was the last living general in the city, the remaining commanders were killed in battle, the General Commander being unable to send someone else to command and there was a fierce battle going on in space.
Suddenly a soldier rushes into the improvised headquarters located in the main subway station, then salutes the commander.-Generał, the enemy is attacking our positions upstairs - he paused because of the bang and the movement of the ceiling -Why don't you report by radio, soldier?- asked Leszczyński. -The enemy hit our commander, tearing him to pieces, and the rest of us don't have radios to get that deep. -The general looked at the soldier's armor noting the Territorial Defense symbols and the older pattern of equipment worn. -Understood, Sergeant Orłow carry one of your radios and go upstairs with him.-One of the soldiers at headquarters stopped checking the radio, saluted, and said- Tak jest Generale (Yes, sir)- then called the reporting soldier to come with him. Together they picked up their radio and headed up the mountain.
-What is the status of Nowy Gród Station? -The generał asked. -Hopeless Generał, the enemy has been repulsed but the soldiers are running out of of them have already fought hand-to-hand. - answered one of the staffers -Send some ammunition to them from the Mieszko I station, their entrance was recently collapsed by them and send the wounded the other way. The staffer nodded. -Zrozumiano Generale(Understood, General)-One of the radio operators turned to the general -Generał, Kapitan Cięty from the support ship ORP Duch Ognia asks where they should send the ammunition supplies- General looked at the battle map and said -Let them drop on the Plener Wyższy but first let them collapse the buildings in the area it will make the defense easier and allow them to establish a safe base of operations and evacuate the wounded and civilians. -The radio man answered - Yes, sir - and then started to transmit information. For fuck's sake let them hurry up with this counteroffensive, these sons of bitches are not in short supply and we don't have infinite ammunition. The general thought and then returned to giving orders.
Welcome to all those who have made it this far in our adventure. I would like to apologize in advance for such a long absence but unfortunately my computer got crashed so I had no way to write and writing on the phone is a torment. I would also like to encourage those who have made it here to leave a review, given that this is actually my first serious fan fiction that I put on the Internet and I would like to get opinions on it out of curiosity. For those of you who like to search for clues, I recommend searching the untranslated English words. I hid some easter eggs. They're also kind of an apology because this chapter was supposed to be earlier and be an introduction to a character and a country before the action in Sydney was supposed to end and just be a short interlude to get back to the action. But coming back I wish you a nice time of the day reading this and may the next chapter come sooner.