-May 2157, Skyllian Verge, Shanxi. Alliance Destroyer Far Ranger -
The fleet dropped out of hyperspace on the edge of Shanxi's mass shadow, the gravitonic shadow that all planets produced and which could pull unsuspecting starships from Hyperspace. Laranth the Asari captain whistled as she saw what was waiting for them.
"That is a Golan II space defence platform." Said Skirata pointing out the window to the large oval station floating in front of the ship guarding the one and only entrance to the system both by hyperspace and by the relay. "Each one of them has as many weapons and fighters as one of our cruisers"
Past the Golan space station they could see a brilliant blue and green planet in front of them. Its space lanes filled with ships going from the planet to one of the two orbiting space stations or angling away towards the outer reaches of the system.
Getting conformation of the acceptance of their ID Admiral Williams ordered the ships to quickly make their way towards the planet before turning to address the Asari. "Shanxi should have the required material to help your ship. If not we can send off to Ord Mantel for parts."
"Ord Mantell? what's that a planet?" Asked Benezia, the fact that they were easily divulging all they had meant that it was probably common knowledge to Alliance citizens but it wouldn't hurt to know anyway.
"Ord stands for ordinance repository depot, it's a planet specifically for holding ships, units, and materials. I'm going to send our more damaged ships back there but I think we can fit your ship into one of the space docks here."
Over the next few days Alliance engineers alongside the Asari mechanics worked to repair the ships. As the asari used a different form of technology the engineers had to look for a workaround or create completely new devices. The ideas that the asari and human engineers came up with excited and impressed both the matriarch and the admiral. Every workaround, invention, and integration of technology was documented by Alliance technicians. Onboard the orbital dock the lunchroom was abuzz with scientists and engineers sketching out new ideas on napkins. The matriarch listened with surprise at the extent the Alliance was willing to go to help them, even upgrading the Sofia's tech to be more on their level. Little did she know that the alliance was using the ship as a test bed for Operation Clipeus.
Though that was not the only interesting thing she discovered. Benezia had been on her way to exercise at one of the gyms on station when she passed a hall where Hannah was busy sparring with two of the asari commandos. Benezia watched patiently as hannah fought her commandos, the woman seemed to dance around them as if they were stationary. Leaping, twirling, pivoting and never letting the asari tag her with a fist. Watching the match Benezia noticed the anger start to appear on Ashala's face, the girl has always been most hot headed and proud of her skills and not being able to hit shepherd was starting to annoy her. Angry at thee redhead human Ashala let her biotics flare up her body and wrap it in a dark blue glow as she readied her attack.
Rushing from the side Ashala sent a powerful biotic throw at hannah that took the woman by surprise and threw her across the room. The matriarch was about to step in until she saw the smile that had appeared on the red headed woman's face. "Oh I see you have some tricks of your own. This is going to be fun, watch closely or you might miss me" said Hannah has she drew the force around herself. Hannah shot forward in what appeared to be a biotic charge, the Asari barely able to track her movements as she closed the 10 meters between them. Combining the speed of her punch with the strength of her force abilities Hannah buried her fist in her the girls gut causing the woman to fly backwards. Seeing her partner being attacked the other asari stepped in to help only to find herself lifted up in the air and thrown towards one of the mats on the wall.
The Matriarch watched pride aside as the battle intensified, balls of biotic energy shot through the air only for Hannah to dodge and retaliate with her own powers. As the fight started to drag own Hannah began to tire. Though the force gave her great stamina and energy she was still starting to feel the effects her pregnancy had left on her body. Knowing it was time to end the training but also that she could not use anything to harmful or damaging she slipped into a Tersi Kasi stance and watched as the two Asari slowly approached. Tersi Kasi had been invented with the sole purpose of fighting force users and Hannah figured it should work of the Asari. The form was composed of fast closely ranged combos and attacks meant to deny the enemy the time or focus to use the force. Taking the force in her hands Hannah used it in an attack to immobilize whatever limb she hit.
In less than a minute both women were laying on the ground as they slowly regained full use of their limbs. Walking over to where Hannah was the Matriarch watched as the girl used her powers to call a towel down from one of the benches and wipe the sweat off of her face. " So would that be a demonstration of the unique powers you Jedi poses?"
Hannah smiled at the Matriarch trying to balance pride with humility. "A small one yes. There are many different ways one can use the Force and only a small part is for combat. What interests me is the attacks your commandos used, they were similar to a number of different force techniques yet I didn't feel either one of them drawing on the force " Hannah said watching the two commandos pick each other up off the floor with wobbly legs.
" What my commandos use is called biotics it's the ability to control dark matter that comes from exposure to element zero. Strangely, only a small percentage of people in most species become biotics but every Asari is a natural born biotic." said the matriarch
" Maybe my people were not the only ones who were visited a long time ago, seems like someone wanted to create a powerful warrior race." said Hannah her mind going off on a tangent following the hills and valleys until a thought crossed her mind. " Maybe it was the Protheans, they could have wanted to use you against the enemy or at least give you a fighting chance"
'Powerful, industrious, and intelligent. Fuck' The Matriarch's surprise that Hannah had quickly come to a conclusion it had taken the asari a long time to admit to was noticeable in the force "What makes you say that?" She asked, wondering if those abilities of hers could let her read minds.
"Because." Hannah said in a serious tone "It's what we would do".
Benezia was slightly started by that comment. Even the Salarians were not as forthcoming about their plans to uplift or interfere with other civilizations. " you mentioned this force before, how many of your people can access it" Benezia said trying to change the subject.
" We think it is around 25 percent but only 10 to 15 percent ever get trained as a Jedi. The other 10 percent either aren't strong enough to become a Jedi or would rather do something else" Hannah slung the towel over her shoulder and started to lead the way outside.
"But isn't it dangerous having people who cannot control their powers running around?" Benezia asked as they crossed over a few mats and around a number of boxing bags "In Asari space everybody is given training in school so they don't accidentally hurt anyone" As Hannah and Benezia talked Admiral Corso was having a conversation as well with the president of the collective Alliance Nations. "It's astounding, you didn't even leave the system yet and discovered to alien species and learned that an entire society of half a dozen species exist out there." The president said, the hologram showing the pure amazement and excitement such news had brought him. It wasn't even that it was an election year or that he would be going down as the first president to make contact with aliens. It was the sheer joy of a person finding out about relatives they didn't even know they had.
"I know sir, my men are amazed by the asari, to think we would find a species so much like ourselves. But what worries me are these Batarians " said the Admiral frowning at the loss of life his fleet suffered from the attack.
" I and the Joint Chiefs agree with you, that is why we are sending part of the fourth fleet and Grand Master Alinco out there to start diplomatic relations and see what we can learn about those Batarians."
While the GrandMaster and the Home Fleet were each well respected amongst the navy and civilian population Corso's mind was on where his fleet would fit in. Exploration and diplomacy were to be their job. And even if they hadn't left Alliance space yet he didn't see why his fleet should lose that privilege. "Thank you sir but what does this mean for my fleet?" he asked
" For now you are to remain at Shanxi, Once the Grandmaster arrives with his flagship you will escort the asari to the Citadel so we can begin the talks with them. By the time you arrive the Maw Installation should have some working ideas for Operation Clipeusthey can send you"
Light years away the mysterious alien fleet was preparing to make the jump into Shanxi space. The fleet believing that the small ships that had jumped out comprised the pirates entire fleet were confident that their small squadron ships could handle it. The ships in question, having made it back after the first day, had reported the group of unknown hostiles. Though the Admiral thought the chances of Shanxi being discovered was small he had still put his units on yellow alert and sent some of the smaller ships out to the edges of the system to scout. This plan left the Golan II undefended at the relay but the Admiral was confident that if attacked the fleet could respond in time.
By sheer luck the roving patrol ships were at the farthest distance from the relay and the golan defense station when the relay activated and spat out a dozen alien ships. " Attention unknown vessels this is the Galactic Alliance Golan space station. You are now entering Alliance space, declare your intent or be fired upon." Came the message in both English and Asari, thanks to the Asari they were able to use a file from the asari ship itself instead of the proto-asari dialect their computers had constructed. Facing their shields towards the enemy and preparing for battle the space station awaited the aliens reply. While watching the alien ships with every manner of scanner available to them including the good old eyeball mark 1 they sent out a message on the hyperspace communicator telling the closest ships to get bac now. They had also tried contacting the Admiral and Matriarch, though both were out of touch at the moment and it would take a while for security to track them down.
About a minute passed before they heard the gravelly response of the alien ships captain. " This is Commander Ducceluss in command of the Turian 4th patrol group to the pirates that attacked an Asari Diplomatic shuttle. I am giving you one chance to surrender and face punishment before I open fire." Said the captain ordering his ship to fire a warning shot at the station. The shots struck the shields causing it to flair but do little harm.
From the beginning of space flights shield had been made to keep rocks from tearing holes in a ship. And on a station where the generators it didn't have to spread their power between engines, shields, and weapons the shot posed little threat by itself. "Captain we are not pirates, our ship encountered the matriarch fleeing from a batarian fleet. We defended ourselves and protected the Matriarch from the fleet, we then escorted her back here and are in the process of repairing the ship." said the officer wishing that they would hurry up and find the Admiral.
"Sir," Said a young tan faced com officer who had only recently graduated from the academy "They said they were Turian. According to the briefing those guys are the Council's space police. Destroying those ships may be a very bad idea"
Jonas, the command duty officer of the watch waffled between praising the young ensign for reading his briefing material or scolding him for telling him something he already knew. With the Admiral out of contact and time quickly slipping away to wherever it goes during stressful situations Jonas wished the fleet had shown up just a few hours later when this wouldn't be his issue anymore.
"Right we can't shoot 'em" He said looking at the enlarged ships on the viewscreen. "And even if we could their are to many of them and only one of us. We could win but I'm not sure what would be left of us after a slugging match." Turning to his crew he took the time to look at each and every face before asking for suggestions.
"Sir I may have a suggestion." The chief tractor beam operator said. "We can use our tractor beams to pull their guns out of line with the station. The Asari had never encountered the technology before and since all of Citadel space seems to be working off the same blueprints I would doubt the Turians have either."
"Wonderful plan but we only have thirteen emitters to their dozen ships. And it would take at least two or three to move those larger looking ones." Jonas said, not really arguing against the plan but trying to work out the kinks to it.
The tractor beam operator smiled and continued on as if he hadn't interrupted her. "While the ships are fighting against the emitters we can have out B-wings fly out and start hitting the ships with their ion cannons."
This time it was the gunnery sergeants turn to speak up. "Kinetic bombardment weapons are relatively low tech. There is a chance that the B-wings ion cannons don't affect them. Especially with the size difference. It might be best to have them attack the engines instead. It would be easy enough to spin them around once their thrusters are offline."
Jonas looked at the clock and saw that their time was up. Even the quickest fighters were a half minute out and the larger ships would take a few minutes to arrange themselves for a fleet this size and jump their way. "Ok people you heard the plan. Relay orders to the fighters and divert are non-necessary power to the shields and tractor beams."
Onboard the Turian dreadnought the Commander watched the timer tick down with all the attention of his raptor ancestors. He was only a year away from promotion and he was sure that bagging another pirate group and saving some soft Matriarch who had gotten herself captured would push him even further up the rungs towards an Admiralship.
"Time is up. Move all ships into a firing line and give the command to fire as soon as their cannons are spun up." The Commander stared up at the large space station. While two and a half times the size of his dreadnaught the lack of element zero or any sort of mass effect fields gave him a sense of confidence and invulnerability. On a more intelligent commander the fact that the pirate ships had used some unknown form of ftl may have clued him into the station also having non-traditional defenses.
The commander was already pinning another ribbon on his chest as warning klaxons started to go off and his ship lurched to the side. "Stations, what is that? What hit us?" he barked as he held himself tightly to his command chair.
"We don't know sir. There are no reported impacts to the ship and the shield hasn't registered anything. We've all of a sudden started listing to the side." A technician said from the crew pit in front of him. "And it's not just us. The Graviton and Tinitus are also reporting that they are being pulled out of firing line with the station."
"How is that possible?" Commander Duccelus demanded. "What sort of magic are they using to do this?"
"Not magic sir but science fiction." A tech said with equal parts fear and amazement "A strong gravatonic beam is being emitted from different points on the station and latching onto the ship allowing them to push and pull us in different directions."
"Well have the smaller ships target the emitters and fire on them. The sooner we can get the big guns aimed at the station the sooner we can move past it and deal with the pirates." In his rage the Commander forgot the two most important facts about space defenses. The first being that one could simply just go around them if their were no reinforcements. And the second being that a space defense platform was created to stall until those reinforcements could arrive. Suddenly the lights dimmed on the bridge and the forward viewport was filled with a blinding white light that seemed to sputter and spread through the walls and over the consoles causing small explosions and electrical fires all over the bridge. "What in the hells was that?" he bellowed as his own chair shocked his arm.
"I can't say for certain sir but I think it may have been some sort of directed ionic weapon" at the commanders obvious lack of understanding the tech continued on. "Basically they shot a big ball of electricity at us and fried all of our components. The bridge is out sir."
Though not the fastest on the uptake it didn't take long for the military implications of such a weapon to flash though his mind. A weapon like that could disable a ship with no damage to its hull or weapons. Then those strange gravitonic beams of theirs could reel in a ship allowing their boarding parties to clear it from the inside out like a swarm of turian blood carvers. "All ships full reverse. Maintain fire on those gravity emplacements and start backing away at full power". Outside the window he could see webs of blue energy wash over the engines and bridge of his only other dreadnaught. Instead of being pulled into the station he found the dreadnaught and his own ship being pushed between the station and his own fleet. Meaning that at least his fleet would have to spend a few minutes moving to a new firing angle to not hit their impared comrades.
As his ships started to maneuver out of the way the sensors started to blair with additional contacts. A dozen more fighters of unknown make and three slightly avian ships seemed to appear from nowhere above the station. In the middle of this small flotilla was the refurbished Sofia Fas, her hull returned to the showroom gleam it had sported before the attack. Though it now held a few new aftermarket additions.
"Hah so they have come to bargain." Duccelus barked, all of a sudden forgetting what was being done to his fleet with just one station and a dozen small craft. "Their shields must be on their last legs and they decided to give up their prize." Duccelus was about to bark out an order for his ships to target the three large vessels when the comboard lit up with an incoming message.
"Commander this is Matriarch Benezia aboard the starbase Axial III relaying my message though the Sofia Fos. I am ordering you to halt your attack on the space station and await for one of my officers to come aboard and explain the situation to you."
Duccelus bristled at having a Matriarch give him orders. In his eyes the Asari acted to much like they ran the council and not like a part of it. Plus why would she be relaying her message though the Sofia and not be aboard it. The pirates must be trying another trick to keep their prize. "It's a trap. They are probably expecting us to take that ship abroad and then blow it up, or use it as a way for their boarding party to take over our hanger." Duccelus turned towards the comms officer " Have all non immobilized ships change targets and fire at the three new contacts."
Despite some hesitation from the younger and more cosmopolitan of the turian officers all ships started to rotate the noses of their ships up towards the three Majestic class cruisers that flanked the Sofia Fos. Before the ships could finish their rotations each of the three cruisers twenty ion cannons sent wave after wave of ionized energy splashing against their hulls. The energy not having enough mass to be affected by the ships shields impacted the bridges and main weapons of the smaller frigates and cruisers leaving them defenseless as the numerous B and K wings systematically took out their engines.
In a quarter of an hour a squadron of Turian ships had been disabled without a single loss of life on either side and without any damage to the invading fleet. By the time the Turian ships had been able to restore power to their downed systems the rest of Admiral Corso's fifth fleet had formed up around the defense platform and the Sofia Fos had docked with the Graviton.
Duccelus now eyed the three armored figures that stood beside the Asari commandos. Each one wore some sort of metallic body suit that had been painted in personalized colours and designs. The apparent leader of the warriors, a man named Major Vau, stood next to the leader of the Asari Commandos and listened patiently as the captain of the Sofia Fos used the long range transmitters on the Graviton to try and contact the Citadel. Many of the younger members of the crew couldn't help but stare at the aliens. They were nothing like the insectoid rachnai or the monstrous krogan. They seemed to be molded from the same soft frame that the Asari were. Though these aliens at least tried to make up for their lack of bone plates with strong looking armor. Still to the Turians their was little difference in the two species other than colour and the strange fluff on top of their heads.
Still Duccelus was weary of these newcomers and the way they had taken out his fleet. Even the way the Asari seemed to be already at ease around them worried him. As soon as was possible he was going to send a report back to the Hierarchy and make sure that his people were aware of what had happened here.
As the two fleets floated around the defense platform the relay started to spin up for only the second time since the discovery of the system. Out of the relay came wave after wave of Batarian ships. Dozens upon dozens of frigates and cruisers surrounding five large dreadnaughts. The fleet dwarfed not only the one the Sofia Fos had fled from but even the upper projection of what the Citadel thought the Batarians were capable of.
"Either the Salarian STG has been getting bad intel or they must have pulled away half of their entire navy just for this fight." Laranth said looking over at Commander Vau as they stood on the bridge of the Pearl Harbor. "You guys must have really pissed them off"
"So numbers like this aren't normal in your space?" Vau started to pull his helmet over his head. The reassuring glow of the heads up display overlaying the visors image.
"No, in fact that was something the Matriarch was going to talk to your Admiral about. We have a treaty that limits the number of ships for different classes that each member can have." Laranth was puzzled by the sight in front of her. But despite being outnumbered by a large number she didn't feel the usual fear that came with impending combat.
"Is there any chance that they could have been building this fleet in secret?" Vau switched from his speakers to internal suit com for a moment to order his company into their shuttles as Laranth thought it over.
"Possibly. But even if those things are just flying death traps with the minimal amount of materials necessary to build it I don't know where they would have gotten enough Element Zero to power them all. Let alone build them this quickly."
"How would you like a chance to fly one my companies shuttles?" Vau smiled behind his helmet even though no one could see it. "We didn't get a chance to study any of their ships after they all self destructed and with what you just told me it seems like it would be a really good idea to take one of those ships intact and study it. Maybe even some of the crew."
The tone of his voice slightly creeped Laranth out and she all of a sudden pictured a batarian captive spread out on an exam table. The humans were most likely going to be learning about Batarian biology in a much different way than they had been learning about Asari biology in the past two weeks. Still it wasn't any different than the way some of the Salarians she had worked with talked. And goddess knew the Batarians probably deserved every moment of it.
"Well it's not a fighter but I'm sure it will beat cruising around in the Matriarchs yacht for a while" Laranth and Major Vau headed down towards the large open hangers of the Pearl even as Vau relayed his plans and reasoning to the Admiral. The Admiral quickly greenlit the operation and selected a suitable target for the raiders. One of the small cruisers at the center of the outside formation. It seemed important enough to hold crucial data in its memory banks while still being small enough for the one hundred and thirty mandalorian raiders to be able to handle themselves.
"Andy give me tactical on the center holo display" A large holographic sphere appeared above the table in front of the admiral. The bright colours and 3d models always made it look more like a game board than a life and death struggle. But the twenty two cruisers, thirty three corvettes, fifty frigates and five dreadnaughts were not just an AI from a video game. Even with what they had learned from the previous two battles with the Batarians and the Turians Andy was giving a very slim chance of his 14 ships being able to pull out a win.
"Sir," A computerized voice said. "I do not predict a successful engagement if we stand and fight. I would also like to add that while the defense of the Alamo was a noble goal I do not wish to go down in history for repeating that sort of last stand."
"Neither do I Andy." Admiral Williams took his time looking over the forces available to him. He still had a few minutes before the large fleet would be able to move itself into an attack position. and it was better to take that time to iron out his strengths and weaknesses than it was to rush in headlong. So far the most apparent strengths of his forces were their speed, firing arc, maneuverability, and that the Batarian shields couldn't stop their weapons. However the Batarians still had number, a longer distance they could fire at, and again the numbers.
Though numbers didn't mean anything if they couldn't catch the fleet. "Ok guys here is what we are going to do. Have the pickets escort the Sofia Fos back to the starbase. Neither of them are going to be doing any good here. Then I need our cruisers and frigates to split themselves between our destroyers. We are going to retreat in a triple helix formation back towards the inner portion of the system. Were going to need to stay just in front of the Batarians so that the destroyers and cruisers can fire back at them when they are crossing in front of them."
"Sir what about the Gollan II? They are requesting orders" A com officer asked as the crew listened to the panicked toned of the Gollan II's crew over the mic.
"That is where the Turian Fleet hopefully comes in." Williams turned towards the Matriarch and blushed slightly. "I hate to ask for favors so early in our relationship but I could really use your help with this part." He said with a grin.
"I suppose in the service of greater cooperation between our states in the future I could assist you." The Matriarch said. She was enjoying the way these Humans reacted to danger. Most like the Turians except without the stick up their azure sector. "I suppose you are going to want to use the tractor beams to let the Turians pull the station behind them?" With great age came great wisdom and she had spent enough time with her husband to be able to think like a warrior.
"Usually it would be ships tractoring onto the station and pulling it but the stations tractor beams should be strong enough for this to work. And it will give our fighters and bombers a good place to rearm as they defend the station and harry the enemy." The hardest part of the plan wasn't having the Turian ships pull the station but convincing its commanding officer that this was a better plan than standing their ground and fighting. Reluctantly he had agreed to do it as long as they would be allowed to engage the enemy once they had made it back to Shanxi.
For Major Vau and his raiders this plan required a slight change to their mission. "You know," Laranth said calmly even as she dodged between streams of bullets from a railgun emplacement. "I've never gotten the chance to drive a cruiser before. A frigate once but never something that big" Laranth sent the ship into another spin, practically turning it straight up on its tail to let a stream of accelerated metal shoot below them.
"Well I'm glad I can give you another first" Vau said smirking from inside his helmet.
"It will be the last first you give me if those fighters don't take out those gun emplacements so I can land this thing." Laranth put the ship into a final dive as the twin rail gun emplacements that had been tracking her exploded in giant balls of flame from a pair of proton torpedos. "Ok now we can land. I hope you don't mind if I stay in the shuttle until you and your guys secure the bridge."
"Well it doesn't look like we are going to be able to make a quick escape if we need to so I would sit tight" Vau said as the five shuttles squeezed into a small hanger that was made to fit maybe three of them at the most, four if they didn't mind scraping the paint. "Ok people, buckets on and remember to keep the fire lanes clear. We are going to be making splitting up into two groups. One going for the engines and the other to secure the bridge. Fast and clean and remember that this is going to be our ride out of here." A few shouts of acknowledgement met the command as the troopers started to dash out of the transorts and towards the hanger doors.
Outside the hanger the Mandalorian Raiders made their first major discovery of the trip. Their vaunted shock trooper armor was as good as tin plating against the riffles the Batarian marines carried. Sol, nor the Milky Way didn't have any of the beskar'gam or mandalorian iron that the holologs on the crashed ship had talked about. Instead they were made of the strongest polymer that they could create, a polymer that had been created to withstand traditional slug throwers and plasma weapons. Mass Effect rounds weren't impeded at all by the armor. Though luckily for them the Batarians armor was equally ineffective against their blaster rifles. The wounded soldiers were brought back to the hanger bay and laid down on the deck for the medics to deal with as the raiders switched tactics. Lateral entry into rooms in concert with smoke and emp grenades allowed the raiders to flank and take out the Batarian marines in the hallways. What was going to be a lighting raid was now turning into a much more bloody and brutal battle for control of the ship.
Outside of the Mandalorians personal battle inside the ship a larger battle was going on. The Batarian fleet continued its march in system as fighters and bombers swarmed around its flanks like gnats and long range turbolasers peppered the front of the armada. The helix pattern had been designed to allow ships to spend a minimum amount of time in the firing range of the enemy ships and giving them a long enough time outside that range to recharge their shields. However this also reduced the amount of guns they could point at the encroaching fleet and sooner or later the larger force would start to chip away at their numbers.
This concert of ships was being conducted again by Hannah Sheppard. Her web of battle meditation stretching out to all the ships in the fleet ensuring that each one spent the best amount of time firing on target as well as outside of the range of the Batarian ships recharging their shields. This time she did extend the web to the Asari and even the Turians. A fighting retreat could be done with or without the meld and she knew that the council would want a report on if it was possible. Gently touching each mind she found the Turian's to be rigid and formulaic. All hard edges and straight lines that created a cage around a strong will. They were less susceptible to her mental assurances than the Humans or Asari but with practice and their help she was sure they could be successfully integrated into a battlefield in the future. With the Asari it was the problem of flying to near a black hole. Their centuries of life experience acted almost like a black holes gravity well and she found that it would be so easy to slide down it and get lost. Instead she had to stay around the metal accretion disk of their minds. Despite that problem the Asari were much easier to deal with, their minds practically reaching out to beckon and embrace her. It wasn't the force but it was a connection that would need future study.
The Matriarch tried to stifle a yawn as they passed over Shanxi's moon. The running battle had lasted for over nine hours. Normally an incoming fleet would use the speed of a mass relay to slingshot insystem and attack a planet in a matter of minutes. But stopping at the relay and having to regroup and use their engines in system took significantly longer. Space between the relay was littered with Batarian ships and the rescue beacons of dozens of Alliance spacecraft including most of its frigates and a couple cruisers. Even the destroyers were having trouble keeping their shields up and had suffered a number of hits to their hulls and rear engines. And at this point the Gollan II was being carried just to deny any of its systems to the enemy after its turbolasers and ion canons had been wiped out.
Overall the Alliance navy had came out the better. Only losing a quarter of its fighter wing and seven ships while the Batarian navy was down to seventy five ships, only a dozen or so of which were at full strength. In fact the Batarian ships that were in the best shape were the five corvettes that was chasing Major Vau's cruiser across the other side of the solar system.
"Shanxi's planetary shield isn't up and running yet." A voice from out of the air behind her stated. It was Andy again giving the Admiral an update on the fleet position. She had yet to meet the person who seem to act as both their tactical officer and logistician for the fleet. "Its installation wasn't scheduled to be finished for another month. At least the second Golan II is up and running. They have also had time to prepare some ground to space weaponry for when the fleet gets close to it."
"A planetary what?" Benezia was pulled away from the sight of the moon and the blue planet coming over its curve to the conversation between Andy and the Admiral. "Do you mean that you have a shield that can cover an entire planet? She couldn't imagine the amount of power it would take to shield an entire planet. Or with that much power strain what good it could possibly be. But apparently these people could envelop whole planets like a cocoon.
"This one doesn't. Not yet at least. Which is a shame because if it did we could slip under its protection and wait them out indefinitely. Or at least until help showed up." Williams was about to issue another command when every warning claxon on the ship seemed to go off at once.
"Computers are detecting a massive object nearing us in hyperspace. Prepare for possible collision." a com officer said. Instead of finding something to steady himself with Admiral Williams grabbed the Matriarch and pulled her towards an observation bubble that would allow her to see all of the space around the ship.
"Come on, you are not going to want to miss this." He said as the comms officer counted down until reversion. In the space between the planet and the moon space rippled for a second before something appeared in front of them. At first she didn't know what she was looking at. It was simply to large, to massive to be any kind of ship. She wasn't sure if there was enough eezo in all of Citadel space to be able to move the long cigar shaped piece of coral that now floated in front of her. She didn't notice, or at least didn't care about the destroyers or cruisers or corvettes that appeared all around it like a shoal of fish around a whale. She didn't even care about the seventy five Batarian ships still chasing them.
All of a sudden her entire universe shrunk down to a single ship, a single instance in time filled with relief and a burning burning dread. What sort of monsters were about to be released onto the galactic stage. Beings who could wrap whole planets in protective shells of light, whose ships were not limited to the same restraints as Citadel technology and who could punch well outside their weight class, beings who could create something as large as the object in front of her and propel it from one system to another.
In an instant beautiful hypens of light started to shoot out from the ship in synchronized waves from the front to the back of it. The turbolaser bolts shooting over the fleeing Alliance ships and ripping into the Batarian navy. Each bolt seeming to turn whole sections of the ships into heated plasma. For the thousandth time that week she was glad it had been the Asari who had made first contact instead of the Batarians or even the Turians. A man like Commander Duccelus would have pulled them into a war they had no hope of winning.
The Matriarch watched in fear and wonder at the light show as the giant ship continued to reduce the Batarian ships to atoms. The smaller ships racing around the rear to ensure none of the Batarians could escape. It was less a battle than a massacre and by the time it was over the Matriarch wasn't seeing the ship anymore but two visions. One where Thessia and the other home worlds were in flame. Where these ships controlled the stars and her people were at the pleasure and mercy of this powerful force. And another were Thessia was cocooned in a web of protective light. Where the children of the humans and all Citadel races played together under the benevolent protection of such ships.
Benezia was pulled out of the vision by the Admirals voice. His face like that of a prospective suitor showing off a gift and his voice filled with well earned pride. "That is the Avalon. One of our Viscount class Star Defenders. At 17km long it has its own wing of starfighters as well as more firepower than fifty of my destroyers combined."
Benezia grabbed onto his arm to steady herself. 17Km was well over a quarter of the length of the Citadel itself. Their science said that being able to produce a ship that large and have enough energy to propel it, let alone give it shields, weapons and life support was impossible. "Just one?" She squeaked out.
"Well one of three." Williams said trying to politely maneuver her to a handrail where she could steady herself. He didn't think the ship would come as that much of a surprise to her. "The Avalon is the Flagship of the home defense fleet as well as the Grand Master of the Jedi Order. Though when I say three I should clarify that the Atlantis is still eight months away from its shakedown cruise and the Shangri-La is only now having its hull fitted to its skeleton." He didn't mention that they were being built as a last ditch option in case the enemy ever showed up and was able to beat them. The Viscounts could easily house 200,000 refugees each and could work as a mobile home as they made their trip to the Andromeda Galaxy.
The fact that the ships took time to build steadied her nerves slightly. At least they couldn't make items magically appear out of thin air. But still she found herself both terribly afraid of what was to come as well as blessed to be able to witness the beginning of what could become a wonderful alliance. A part of her worried that the Asari would no longer be the top dogs in the galaxy. The Humans seemed much less willing to be led around on a leash like the Turians or distracted with intrigue and technology like the Salarians. They would not let the Asari run roughshod over the Council like they had for so long. Looking over at the Admiral she smiled and reached for his arm again.
Maybe it was time the Citadel Council was shaken up. And it was about time someone stood up to the other Matriarchs on Thessia. And if they would be forced to share power or even answer to the Galactic Alliance at some part in the future the humans seemed intelligent, industrious, and attractive enough to make it more than a bearable sacrifice for continued safety and stability.