June 1st, 2399 CE, Shanxi System, Commonwealth Space

Rear admiral Garvey was admiring her new desk. Ever since she had found that relay thing on Pluto, her career has shot up like a firework. To think that on her very first mission she made one of humanity's most important discoveries... Truly, she had known she was destined for great things, but she hadn't expected them to happen so fast. And now, here she was. Commanding an entire fleet with one of the navy's newest battlecruisers, the CSS Gorgon. Her new flagship was a beauty. Well, actually, it was blocky, and cramped, and maximized for efficiency and nothing else. But still, it was a beauty where it counted! All those laser turrets hidden under the hood, those plasma broadside batteries bristling with power, the teleporting fusion mines tucked at the front, the oversized, nuclear-yield Gauss cannon that ran across the spine of the ship... She still shivered with glee whenever she remembered the test fire of that gun. Gorgeous. Not to mention all those other bells and whistles that only she had, and of course, the newest edition of the TP Drive. She could make it to Earth and Arcturus and back again with only a handful of jumps. Imagine that! Not even Gunderson's new battleship was as advanced. Sure, his was bigger, but it wasn't as fast as hers. Her ship even had that new fancy element-whatever core installed. She wasn't sure exactly what it was supposed to do. From every angle she looked at it, the teleporter drive was better. But hey, she still had one of those, and Gunderson didn't. Ha! Suck it!

Damn it, she was thinking of that damn fairy again. Goddamn Gunderson... Every damn time. Haunting her damn life. Damn it! When she had gotten news of her promotion to rear admiral, she had been ecstatic. Finally, she would surpass that man. She had almost called him to gloat when she got the news that he had also been promoted. To admiral! Him! Damn brahmin money... It seemed she could only get so far before Gunderson got further still. And now here she was. With a new rank. With new orders. In a new ship. Still under Gunderson.

She sighed. At least now, with her new orders, she could stay as far away from him as possible. She had stood up and was about to reach her bed when she got a message on her holo Pip-Boy.

"Rear admiral. Your presence is requested on the bridge. We are ready to begin the expedition."

Ah. Right. The expedition. The whole reason why she was at this ass end of nowhere called Shanxi. Of course.

"Yeah, Nicky, I'll be right over. Tell them not to start without me"

She liked Nicky, her ship's AI. He was more polite than most of her other subordinates and he was smart enough to know when to shut up. With a grunt, she turned around midway through her cabin and headed for the door. As she walked through the corridors of the Gorgon, she thought back upon her mission. Many had said that opening up the relay network was pointless. That they could travel much more efficiently with the TP Drive. And yeah, they could. They didn't have to travel the absolutely huge distances and miss all the potential colony sites in between. They could expand closer to home, as they had done in the previous years. 40 colonies and counting. Most on inhospitable planets, but when you came from a nuclear blasted hellhole, every planet was basically an Eden, and with the Synth Zoological Initiative, they could completely terraform a planet in less than a decade. And even if they couldn't, with them PAMHUB things, they could build a self-sufficient colony in just a few weeks, so if they wanted to speed things up, they could. But expansion wasn't the point of their expedition. That was for the Colonial Corps. The Survey Corps was all about finding them aliens. Yes! And if this was just a few decades earlier, anyone who could have heard her musings would have thought she was insane. But not today! With the Prothean Ruins on Mars, they had indisputable evidence of alien life, not like those fools spewing conspiracies and rambling about Zetans. Real, alien life, was out there. And since the same tech that was in that alien base was in these relays, it stood to theory that the aliens would be using them as well. So that was her mission. Keep opening relays. Find and greet the Aliens. Sure, the official documents had described it in a few more words than that, but it was simple enough, truth be said

Christina Garvey liked her mission. It was clear enough that she had a definite purpose, but vague enough that she could have almost absolute autonomy on how she went about it. No Gunderson to keep her on a leash. As the elevator's door opened she came upon the crew of her bridge. Just another day at work.

"Admiral on the bridge!" one of the officers announced as soon as she stepped in.

Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and saluted. She would've told them to not do it, but truth be said, she kinda enjoyed the attention. She basked in it for half a second more before she got serious.

"As you were. Captain, what's the status of the probe?" she asked.

"All green ma'm. We are ready to send a ship through. Just waiting for your word." the ship's captain, Hornwood, said.

"All right, send the Fromer. It's the one that has those double forward shields, isn't it? Should be enough to deal with any sneaky aliens ready to ambush us on the other side"

"I doubt there are any those over there, ma'm. We've been monitoring that system for days now, and our stealth probes are state of the art. We'd have sensed them if they were around." Hornwood retorted.

"You're probably right. But still, better safe than sorry, James."

"As you say, ma'm. Ensign, tell the Fromer they have the honor."

"Aye aye, sir."

As the CSS Fromer accelerated towards the colossal alien construct, it seemingly blinked out of existence on the Shanxi side and blinked into existence on the other. And its exit position was in almost perfect view of a certain asteroid, with a certain construct, from a certain amphibious species.

Year 2899 GS, STG Observation Post for the Relay 314 System

STG Agent Baemal was awakened with a cacophony of alarms. He quickly got up and rushed to his workstation. As soon as he sat down, his annoyed expression became one of worry. An unidentified ship had just jumped in from the 314 Relay, one that was supposed to be dormant. He quickly directed the STG's probe to run passive scans on the ship. Not much could be identified. Ship didn't have any apparent weapons, the electronics could not be breached. Little to no signs of eezo. Comparing it to database, and finding no matches he quickly compiled a report. Judging from the ship's blocky design, it was either some previously unseen quarian ship - unlikely, Migrant Fleet monitored extensively, couldn't keep a cruiser sized ship hidden for almost 500 years - a new ship from some mercenary group, which had opened a relay to maybe hide a base in. Also unlikely, such a course of action would be extremely foolish, Council not lenient to those who tampered with relays. And then came the last probable possibility. A new species, carelessly opening new relays, ignorant to inherent dangers. Waiting for a few more hours, the rest of the ship's fleet crossed the relay. 9 ships in total. 2 Corvette analogues, 2 other cruisers, similar to the first one, 3 slightly smaller cruisers of a different design and a... Baemal paused at the largest ship to cross the relay. Slightly larger than the rest, he supposed it was a dreadnought equivalent, but it didn't really measure up to the size of even a Salarian dreadnought. A heavy cruiser, perhaps? This last ship seemed to have some traces of eezo in it, equivalent to a small core. Not anywhere enough to power a ship of that size, however. Finishing up his report, Baemal sent it to his superior. He would keep watch of the system, but for now, he'd done his duty. Now it was the Council's business.

Year 2899 GS, the Citadel, Salarian Councilor's Office

As Councilor Welus looked over the most recent STG report that had been forwarded to him, he stopped drinking his Asari honey mead. This was worrying. An entire fleet had crossed from a dormant relay. What was most likely a primitive species, judging from the lack of eezo, was running around doing one of the most dangerous things they possibly could. This had to be rectified. Standing up, he summoned the Citadel Council for an emergency meeting.

3 hours later, the Citadel, Council Chambers

Tevos was annoyed. That new Salarian councilor had summoned her for an emergency meeting in the middle of her massage session with that cute maiden. She had almost gotten to the good part when the notice came to her omnitool. Whatever. Nearing her thousandth year of existence, her centuries of on the job had shaped her reaction, and her face gave no tells of how she truly felt. For all those who witnessed her, she was the perfect picture of Asari noblesse, and not a pissed, aging matriarch who had just been cockblocked. As she entered the Chambers, she found both Welus and the Turian councilor, Oriencus, waiting for her.

"Well, she's here now, Welus. Can you finally tell us what has gotten you in such a fuss, or do I have to wait another hour?" Oriencus asked

"Of course. Around 11 hours ago, an unidentified fleet of 9 ships crossed Relay 314. I am forwarding the STG report."

"What?! How?! Why didn't you tell us before, then? Instead of waiting until now? When dealing with unknowns like this every second counts, and you wait 11 hours to tell us?!" the Turian barked.

"I was only informed of the fact 4 hours ago. This development is fairly recent." Welus answered.

"That is still 4 hours too long! This was happening in Turian space! You should have sent us this report as soon as you'd received it!"

It seemed Oriencus did not yet know how to contain his anger, Tevos mused. Then again, very few of the numerous Turians she had worked with had known how to. Sure, that frog Welus should have told them sooner, but if this report was accurate, then they didn't have much to worry about. These primitives were likely just wandering about without any real idea of what they were doing. Yes, opening relays left and right was how they had come across the Rachni, but according to the STG's report, they didn't even have practical eezo drives. Only one of their ships had a core, and even then, it was undersized for it. They had probably just opened their first relay, and their homeworld was on the other side. This "fleet" was probably all that they could muster. Surely, only but a new client race to add to the collection. Tevos pondered for a bit, ignoring the bickering of her two colleagues, before choosing to take charge of the situation.

"Enough! Yes, with a matter like this, Welus should have told us as soon as he found out. But he didn't, and what is done is done. There is no point in arguing about it now. Let us decide on how to resolve the matter. I propose we send a Citadel fleet to greet these primitives and welcome them to the galactic stage."

"How can you be so calm about this? We aren't even sure if they are a primitive species. For all we know they... Spirits, why do I even try? You know what? Forget it." the Turian retorted "With regards to this fleet, the Hierarchy shall deal with it. There is a patrol fleet nearby to resolve the issue. The Relay 314 is in Turian territory, and as such we shall deal with it ourselves."

Tevos suppressed a frown. That was not what she wanted to hear. Yes, from a legal point of view, he was right, and if this had been on Asari territory, she would have used the same argument to keep the other two away from the Asari's new client race. But it hadn't. And now she had to convince them to share.

"Councilor Oriencus, this is a potential new member of our great galactic civilization. We can not simply welcome them with the sight of a Turian armada, lest we scare them away. A mutual delegation is the best course of action, to welcome them as one, unified front."

"No, Tevos. I've had it with your political games, and I refuse to sit idly while you debate with your kind on the best 'course of action', and choose the most politically favorable between three hundred possible diplomats all the while an unknown and potentially dangerous fleet advances on Turian space." Finishing his rant, Oriencus breathed deeply "As we speak, I have already warned the Primarch of this development. At this point, he is most likely giving the order for the nearby patrol group to intercept these newcomers. The Hierarchy shall have this resolved by the end of the day."

That damned bird! The nerve of him. Not only to sneakily go through with this plan of his while they still deliberated, but to speak to her like that. By the end of the day, he would be out of a job, she could promise him that much. And that stupid idea of his. It would fail, she was sure of it. Turians were a lot of things, but they were not diplomats. She could already see them attacking the primitives for some idiotic perceived slight. Then the Asari would have to step in before they go and do something stupid like bombing the primitive homeworld. Huh... That... That would actually be a great thing. The Asari swooping in and saving the primitives from the warlike Turians, guaranteeing their loyalty until the heat death of this galaxy. She'd had to make some calls, maybe have some reports rewritten as to guarantee a more bellicose attitude from whoever was commanding that patrol fleet, but it was doable.Yes, that could work. If all went to plan, Oriencus will have played right into her hands. But she had to play nice for now, so a neutral smile was all she would give him.

"Well, by law, the Turians are certainly in their right to deal with this themselves. Very well, Oriencus, you'll have it your way."

All the while, Welus simply stared at his colleagues in silence. Yes, he had forwarded the report. But not before editing some parts...

June 1st, 2399, Unexplored System

Rear Admiral Garvey hadn't expected much from this particular mission. She had known for a while that there was nothing on this side of the relay, but to actually see it... she had to admit, it was a bit disheartening. From the one who had discovered the relay network on her first command, finding nothing now was a bit underwhelming. Guess she must've been expecting to find something new with every other lightyear she crossed. Oh well, life went on. She was sure would find at least some other great thing before too long. The crew around her was listing something or other about the unexplored space they were in. Surely some very interesting facts about all the barren rocks and amalgamations of various gases that composed the system. There was another relay nearby, so she guessed this hadn't been a complete waste of time. After almost a day of doing nothing but scanning empty asteroids, she supposed they should prepare to open the next relay. Refocusing on Lt. Adams talking her ear off by her side, she decided enough was enough.

"- and finally, when the Fromer entered the system, it picked up a small signal, but our own repeated scans showed have showed nothing, so we suppose it had to be a simple bug in the systems, probably due to some freak electromagnetic fre-"

"Alright, alright. Enough of this. This system is completely empty. Nicky, are we done with the scans?"

"Almost, ma'm. A few asteroids the science ship hasn't analyzed yet, but that's about it."

"Good enough. Tell the eggheads they can take a look at them on our way back. Garret, set a course for the next relay. Adams, tell the other ships to pack up their probes. Hornwood, you're in charge of the fleet. I'll be in my cabin if you need me."

A series of "yes ma'am" would've marked her exit from the bridge, if not for one of the junior officer's panicking at his station.

"Rear admiral! You've got to see this! We've just received a ping from the probe we sent to the other relay. An unidentified fleet just jumped in!"

Well then. Maybe her lucky streak wasn't over just yet.

"Are you sure? Do we have visuals?"

"Yes ma'am. 30 ships so far and counting. One of them is almost a kilometer in size. None of them match any of our records. They are definitely not ours."

"Well I'll be..."

That was a lot of ships. Maybe those Prothean weren't all dead yet. Was this really it, though? Had she really found aliens?

"Alright, tell everyone to man their stations. All hands on deck. This is it everyone. The whole reason we're out here. We just found live aliens. Where's that first contact package?"

"Rear admiral, I can't detect any form of signal, radio or otherwise, coming from them. How should I send it?" Her comms officer asked.

"Uhh... Well, if they are smart enough to develop that many spaceships, they must be smart enough to detect radio messages. Broadcast on every frequency, surely they'll catch on to one of them."

"Ma'm, the unidentified fleet is closing in on our location. They're coming at us at full speed." said Garret.

"And just like that, I now have a very bad feeling." Garvey muttered under her breath "Tell the Fromer to take point and raise their repulsion barrier. In fact, tell everyone to raise the barriers. Keep our guards up, but don't power the weapons just yet. This might just be standard procedure to th-."

"MA'AM! Detecting concentrated energy from their largest shi- WEAPONS FIRE CONFIRMED! THEY ARE SHOOTING THE FROMER!

The entire bridge was paralyzed at that. Was this really happening? Another war? Just like that? They haven't even had the chance to talk it out. Hell, they didn't even know who were shooting at them. She had hoped for a new discovery, and she'd be lying if she said she had any thoughts this would happen. She had been expecting to find aliens, but she thought they'd be unlike what her own kind had been in the past. Aparently not. She, too, was speechless for a moment. But just as as the words had left her mind, they came back just as soon. She was this fleet's commanding officer. These people were looking up to her to solve this. She couldn't panic now.

"Fuck. We're sitting rad-ducks here. Adams! Plan Delta! Tell the fleet to teleport out of here. Garret, have the Gorgon go in front of the Fromer, we'll cover their retreat. Nicky, launch a probe back to command. Tell them what's going on here! Hornwood, buy us some time"

The paralysis spell affecting the crew seemed to have been broken as a series of "Aye aye!" could be heard. Garvey spared a brief thought on what has happening. She had hoped to be an explorer, not this. But she was an officer of the Commonwealth's navy, tasked with protecting it from all threats. She had trained for this. And she'd be damned if she would back out from a fight.

June 2nd, 2399 CE, CSS Emerald, Arcturus System

Dominic Gunderson was annoyed. Sitting on his desk, the admiral contemplated on why he had to be in this end of nowhere shithole of a colony. Sure, he had been happy with his promotion at first, being given a brand new fleet to command as well. But if he had known that he would've had to leave the comforts of the Lexington station to be out here in the middle of nothing, maybe he would've refused it. Unlike some of his subordinates, like that homewrecker Garvey, he wasn't too keen on this whole exploration duty. He'd much rather have stayed close to home, in the orbit of the Moon. Maybe then he'd be able to see his husband more often. Sometimes he thought he had done something to piss off one of those big shots in Central Command, and this post was some kind of punishment. He sighed. It is what it is. As he finished reviewing the day's reports, he turned off his personal computer and made his way to his cabin's bar. A nice glass of Ol' Flakey would be enough to relax after a stressful day. He had no idea how managing a fleet sitting idle in the middle of nothing could be so stressful, but that was his job. As he poured the whiskey, his holo Pip-Boy started to chime. Seemed like there wasn't a minute where he didn't have to be busy doing something. As he brought up his Pip-Boy to read his new message, a frown appeared on his face. Then an expression of worry. Then he dropped his glass, and didn't even react when it broke against the floor and all that expensive whiskey went to waste.

"Admiral Gunderson, the 5th Exploration Fleet reports the presence of 37 unknown hostile ships on the other side of the Shanxi relay. We're under attack." the message simply read.

This wasn't what he had been expecting. Immediately making his way to the bridge, the admiral had increasingly worrying thoughts. They were at war. Again. This time with unknown ships, most likely aliens. He had a coarse laugh. It seemed that even in what was supposed to be a bright future, when they had tried to leave it behind them, this would be a constant in their history. It really was true what they said: War never changes.

CODEX - Human Repulsion Field

Unlike most mass-effect based force fields, the Repulsion Field employed by the Human Commonwealth is not projected as a bubble, but rather as a wall. The most obvious disadvantage of such configuration is not the fact that a pair of projectors can only protect one specific direction, but the fact that because nothing can cross them, they have to be temporarily turned off for the larger weapons of the human ships to be used. Furthermore, because said projectors are not only extremely unwieldy but also have a high energy consumption, the technology cannot be scaled down for handheld use, meaning that most of the Commonwealth's infantry lack personal barriers. However, there are many advantages that makes the Repulsion Fields superior in some areas in comparison to ME kinetic barriers. Unlike it's Citadel analogue, the repulsion fields can block laser-based weaponry as well as physical projectiles, meaning that the Commonwealth's naval doctrine of close range hit and run tactics proved to be extremely efficient when faced against the Citadel's close weapon systems like the GARDIAN lasers. Also, compared to the mass effect tech, the fields are much more resilient, being practically invulnerable until they are either overcharged with multiple disruptor torpedoes or a lucky shot can damage the field projectors themselves. Miniaturized Repulsion Fields projectors can also be set up around a perimeter, creating a sort of force field fence. Neither projectiles nor personnel can cross such fences, meaning that they are excellent to impede the passing of troops through an area. The large energy consumption of such fences is negated by the Commonwealth's highly efficient cold fusion generators, allowing them to stay on indefinitely.