Chapter 2
Revelations
Edge of Beta Centauri
SSV Everest
Rear-Admiral Jon Grissom
Jon found himself immensely annoyed, this was supposed to be a quick simple mission, recon and return but instead, they had found a huge ship that bore the name UNSC Shine Bright something that did not belong to the Systems Alliance and was also far larger and looked more advanced than any ship in the entire short history of the Alliance.
"God damn it." He grunted out and his XO Farah looked wearily at him.
"Farah we're going through that Phase-Gate and prepare a team of Marines for boarding action." He ordered.
"Yes, Rear-Admiral." She snapped off a salute and went about carrying out his orders.
The Everests thrusters roared to life and began to propel the mighty vessel through the void of space, the rest of the fleet followed, the 1st Exploratory Fleet was the most manoeuvrable with the 2nd Fleet being the most powerful as it was scheduled to have two Dreadnoughts the Fuji and the still under construction Mons Olympus, Drescher would end up with the most firepower in human history and they were all still shackled by the United Nations Security Council which was ruled by squabbling idiots.
The United States of North America and the People's Republic of China were at each other's throats constantly, the European Federation was playing the neutral party along with India while the Commonwealth of Great Britain acted as the restraint of the USNA while being allied to them and not wishing to see World War 3 breakout.
The Systems Alliance was created by all of these nations and all of them wanted control over the Alliance which was supposed to be neutral and not take sides in any politics or wars Earthside.
Jon often wished that the Systems Alliance would slip the chains of the Security Council with its politics and in-fighting it would lift so many restrictions on the Navy that humanity would truly ascend to an interstellar species because right now they were still earthbound in spirit.
"Sending data to the Phase-Gate now, jumping in 10." She announced.
In 10 seconds Jon found his ship and fleet in the same system where the Marathon Fields came from with frantic Captain and crew in tow.
"Found the signal, moving in now," Farah said.
A short journey later and Jon found himself staring at the behemoth of a ship and there very much was the words UNSC Shine Bright painted onto the hull of the ship, it looked massive and intimidating but it also looked completely dead, like it was running on emergency power.
"Find an airlock and send the Marines in," Jon ordered and it was instantly relayed to the shuttle of Marines who were waiting for the word.
"Maybe this could be the break we need to screw over those idiots back on Earth," Jon muttered to himself watching the shuttle approach the ship and search for an airlock.
He could only hope for that though.
Kodiak V1 Shuttle
Private 1st Class Fujiwara Kenta
Kenta swallowed, he couldn't stop his knee from bouncing his nerves were completely shot they were about to land on a vessel that looked like it could take on all 3 fleets that humanity had and now they were trying to get inside.
There could be actual Aliens inside that would rip them apart and eat them afterwards, or it could be people who shoot them the moment they lay eyes on just to stop them from taking the ship.
"Right the pilot's found an entry point that looks like an airlock, we're gonna dock and clear our first target is the CIC." Corporal Erica told them and took stock.
"Kenta stop your knee before I put a bullet in it." His friend Private 2nd Class David Hardy whispered harshly.
"Sorry, Dave I can't help it." He said back and put a hand on his leg to stop it.
"Hey man we're all nervous but we have trained and went through sims for this situation." He reassured.
"Like coming across a massive ship that looks like it might be humans," Kenta replied.
"Alright probably not exactly this but it's close enough." He argued.
"You two shut it we're leaving," Erica said and put her helmet on, clicking shut with a hiss of air. "We have around 2 hours of air so let's be quick about it people."
There was a loud thump and screech as the shuttle moved into position. "Right Marines that's as close as I can get, lucky for you the doors open." The pilot said.
"You heard him let's move people," Erica ordered and got her Assault Rifle at the ready.
Everyone else stood up and did the same, the team of 5 moved over to the open door and leapt out of the shuttle and into the ship.
The thing that stood out right away to Kenta was that the ship did seem to be running on emergency power the red and yellow flashing lights along with what was probably a klaxon alarm blaring though obviously since the door was open it was probable that all the air in the ship was probably sucked out.
"Right people we move fast and keep your head's on a swivel any movement is to be reported." She said taking point.
They moved quickly through the ship it was like it was completely abandoned, the hallways were empty but the most worrying thing was all the signs, every one of them was in English and directed to things that would be one any Alliance ship, Armoury, Mess Hall, Engine Room and of course one leading to the CIC which they were following.
"A lot of corridors and locked doors," David commented through the radio.
"Like they were at Battlestations and the ship was locked down," Erica said as she walked rifle at the ready.
"This does seem like a human ship," Kenta said as he looked at what was fire extinguishers on the walls along with other tools and even first aid kits which had these strange canisters attached.
"Biofoam anyone ever heard of that?" Another Private 1st Class asked, Kenta thought his name was Augustus or something similar to that.
"Take it, some egg-head'll love it," Erica said sarcastically.
"Alright." He replied and picked one up and attached it to one of his Mag holders.
"Gus she was being a sarcastic asshole." Their other member said Kenta knew her name was Julia and that David wanted to break some regulations with her.
"Hey she's not wrong though, the Scientists will come here and rip this ship apart if it's safe," Gus replied blithely.
"Up ahead bulkhead door," Erica reported to them.
"I've got a cutter," David said.
They reached the door and the rest of the squad took up defensive positions while David knelt in front of the door and began cutting a hole through it.
"How do you think the Artificial Gravity is being maintained when we haven't detected any Element Zero." Gus mused as he tapped his foot on the ground.
"Centrifugal force maybe," Julia replied as she kept her eyes down a corridor.
Kenta was watching the corridor where they came from even though he was pretty sure that there wasn't going to be anything coming down it.
"Got it," David told them as he pulled the panel he cut it out off and passed it off to Kenta. "Keep hold of this for the egg-heads."
"Entering," Erica said and she crawled through the hole.
"Holy shit!" She exclaimed and the rest of the squad rushed in after her.
Kenta gasped and would have sworn as well but his breath was completely gone, there were human bodies each one dressed in a uniform, they were laying all across the floor dead, blue lips and pale skin.
"UNSC Captain Richard A. Kirk." Erica read the obvious identifier on one of the bodies uniforms.
"Never heard of a Captain Richard," Julia commented as she stepped over the bodies carefully.
"What the fuck is this," David said looking shocked and confused.
"Kenta check the consoles, try and get me anything," Erica ordered.
"Yes, Ma'am," Kenta replied and made his way over to what was the main console.
Thankfully there was an actual hardware QWERTY keyboard, so he looked for a power button and after a little bit of messing around, he managed to get it on.
"This is a ship of the United Nations Space Command, a Marathon-clas heavy cruiser," Kenta reported reading what was on the screen in front of him.
"Nothing you just said made sense," David said honestly.
"Enough, Kenta takes what you can we're getting back to Everest," Erica said angrily.
"Got it," Kenta replied and began to see if he could even download any data from these strange yet familiar computers.
Kenta truly hoped that this would not be the harbinger of some war or benefit the Alliance enough that they could stand on their own two feet instead of being subject to the whims of the USNA, China and the EF.
2 Days Later
Rear-Admiral Jon Grissom
Jon had every analyst in the fleet parsing through the data and compiling reports on it to be sent directly to him for review, he had issued a total communication blackout on his fleet no communication in or out apart from with his direct permission.
He had continued to send the usual updates but withheld the revelation of a massive ship, and simply reported the system itself and what it contained in terms of colony viability and raw materials, which was one of the better systems they found, there was a lot of Hydrogen to be harvested along with a large supply of Iridium and Platinum on one the planets as well.
Right now he was sat within his quarters and reading up on the initial reports sent to him by the data analysts.
"Oh my god." He muttered in shock.
The report that he received on 'history' was completely baffling like something out of a bad Sci-Fi pulp.
The United Nations Space Command was founded by the United Earth Government (UEG) in the early 22nd century which was already impossible since it was only 2150, then of course there was the Interplanetary War between Earth, Mars and the Jovian Moons, and no mention of Prothean Ruins on Mars itself. It painted a picture that Jon could not believe on so many levels.
No Mass Effect technology and no mention of the Phase-Gate within Charon, instead there
was talk about the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine and something called Slipspace which was another dimension that allowed for FTL.
The implications about this were both enormous and terrifying, because from his read of the situation that meant that the ship and people were from an alternate or parallel universe where Mass Effect did not exist which was both good because it meant that there were more humans out there in the universe or all of creation and that was comforting that if humanity ended here then they still survived elsewhere but it was also scary since it brought the question of free will into question since if these parallel universes existed then did their actions matter at all in this one.
He had his fleet secure the entire system and sent even more Marines onto the ship and retrieve every single body aboard and placed them onto the contingent of science vessels he had to be examined, of course, they also had sent them weapons and even the cutting of metal to be scanned.
"This is an even greater discovery than the Prothean Ruins." He mused to himself. It was true as well, the ruins jumpstarted humanity into the space age but this one would put them right onto the galactic one.
His Omni-Tool pinged with a high-priority message from Dr Natasha she was the chief science officer on the SSV Einstein which was the largest scientific vessel in the fleet.
Rear-Admiral,
Please attend Einstein ASAP.
Dr Natasha.
Short, quick and to the point and that made Jon uneasy, Natasha was always meticulous and always used proper language and excessive detail for her to send a message like this something must have went wrong.
Jon left his room right away, he couldn't afford any delays for this.
SSV Einstein
Jon arrived on the ship within 10 minutes and had been brought straight to the main lab on the ship where Natasha was present.
He found the woman looking out of character, her usually impeccable bun of black hair was flowing and free along with a scruffy look that he had never seen the woman have before.
"Rear-Admiral good you're here." She said as soon as she spotted him and rushed over, grabbed him by the hand and dragged him over to an autopsy table.
Jon gasped when he saw the giant lying dead upon it, the man was easily 7ft in height and had a body that would make even the best olympian jealous.
"This is Subject-057 we found him dead in the most advanced armour I have ever seen and inside some sort of pod that we think is an entry device." She explained quickly.
"However when we began deep tissue scans and taking cuttings we've just found out that this is a genetically enhanced human, they have a coating over their bones composed of ceramic and another material. Their muscles are far denser than anything I have ever seen before, there is another layer on their eyes as well and the brain is better than ours as it has been altered to think and react faster than a normal human." She continued growing more and more manic.
"This is more like the next step in human evolution rather than a normal person." She finished pointing at the body.
"By God." That was all Jon could muster, he had generally expected just humans like them maybe with a few genetic enhancements like what all their soldiers had but this was beyond the pale.
"I think we need to take this to the UN and earth all of this is far beyond my abilities." She admitted. "We need proper labs and equipment to fully analyse this technology."
"We will after we find a way to get that ship moving," Jon said and looked out of the window to the Shine Bright which was still drifting.
"I have a team on the ship now trying to reactivate the reactor on the ship to see if we can get the engines back on line, but the basis for their technology and ours are completely different it's like trying to learn a new language or counting system," Natasha told him and stood beside looking at it too.
"This is going to change everything," Jon said.
"Yes it shall, I still have more analysts going through the data and they have discovered that this UNSC was at war with a coalition of alien species called the Covenant, of course, I doubt that they exist here but I believe caution should be used from now on when we explore space." She said wringing her hands, a nervous gesture he had never seen her use before.
"Don't worry we'll be ready for anything after this." He reassured her with a pat on the shoulder.
"I hope Rear-Admiral, I truly hope so." She said.
AN:
Here you go Chapter 2, hope you enjoyed the read.
Think I'm going for a time skip next chapter and I have messed with the timeline a bit as well, according to the ME Timeline Humans discovered Mass Effect in 2148, found the Charon relay in 2149 and then the first contact war is in 2157 which is a very short time and I was shocked at just how small the timeframe is.
So I'm thinking of having first contact in or around 2167 giving an extra 10 years. A lot of this story is still in flux and I'm still deciding on just who to have first contact with.