Alrighty, I am absolutely blown away by the amount of support this story has gained from just 1 chapter. 42 reviews (Wow) 222 favs, 322 follows, 7 communities, and 3,189 views. It honestly makes me question as to if my next chapter is up to scratch for that kind of support ha.
Anyway, my typical response to reviews is to answer the comments in the next chapter I push out, but for 42 reviews, I would need a chapter in its self to do that, so I've got to slim it down a bit so ill answer some with questions. I have appreciated all of your reviews however!
Frisbeeg70: Alot of your points will be addressed in story. If im honest however, the date selected was very much done as a last minute thing, originally I had 2,700's but for some reason that I can't remember (Thanks to the amount of time it takes to proof read an 8k story) I changed it. Thanks for your constructive criticism though.
SPARTAN-626 There will be many easter eggs to be found, but nothing direct.
Kira-117 The artefact is important, and related to the Protheans, (Thus the need for the Prothean experts) But no answer to what it is yet.
Effervescent Nova: Keep your eyes open for the number of Hanar ships mentioned in this chapter...
Orionastro: The answer to this is basically going to be related to how uninhabitable space actually is. There will be a more detailed answer coming in story.
Guest: Human space orcs? While it may look like its going to be a HFY! It's not in some sense. Humanity simply lacks the population to be a HFY!
SirMaou: If you want incest go watch game of thrones lol. No incest will be found here.
Shortly, spikey alien 1 and the blue woman returns with the General, prompting Shepard to stand with her half-consumed coffee and approach. As she walks to the General's location, Shepard can see that the man is having some fundamental conversations with the blue alien in Prothean, who then relays it in another language to Spikes.
Before greeting Shepard the General takes a look around the room, and he can't help but notice the fact that most of the aliens are either sleeping or attempting to stay awake. "Shepard," The General then greets her, "The mess managers have cleared 38 rooms in the Commodus Officers Mess. Get them bedded in." This order probably means the rooms have now been fitted with cameras and recording equipment in order to see what they can learn from the aliens when they think they are not being watched. Really, the act of installing all the equipment is a little creepy, but Shepard understands the need for it considering the circumstances.
"Any hopes of a translation software?" Shepard asks with little hope before taking the task on.
"None yet. Best we can do at the moment is to let the computers and language experts observe them speaking in their native tongue." The General looks like he is about to finish speaking, but then he adds on, "Oh, and move some of your guys into the extra rooms. See what you can learn by living next to them for the duration of their stay, as well as providing a security buffer."
"Roger that. If you don't have anything else for myself or my team, I'll take them to their rooms now."
"By all means," The General says as he lets her go.
Soon, Shepard has a few aliens crowded into one of the rooms that has been set aside for them, "Blue is cold water, red is hot water." She tells the blue alien who understands Prothean, "Blue is also drinking water. If you need heating, press this button up, or air conditioning this button down."
These details may all seem like very basic things to a human, common knowledge even, but Shepard has to treat the aliens like they have never seen a studio style apartment in their lives before today. "And, these switches turn the lights on and off. Do not put your fingers in these plugs, you will get frazzled by 5 kilo-Amps of raw electrical power." Next, Shepard comes across the food synthesiser, "This will make you snacks, scroll the screen and select an item like so." Shepard hits a button, causing an almost blinding light to be generated underneath the display. The marine then takes the Strawberry Crush Icecream that was generated in the blinding light and hands it to one of the blue aliens.
Shepard scans around the room before nodding to herself, that should be everything. "Alright, that is everything you need to know about your rooms, this entire corridor has been assigned to your people and a few of my platoon, 1 room per person. If you need me, I am in room..." Shepard stops herself just short of saying 37, knowing the aliens will not know how to read human numbers, so instead, she says, "The last door on the left. Now, go and back brief your blokes."
As the aliens leave Shepard ponders just how much of that the blue alien actually understood and was capable of relaying onto the others, she also wonders if she should have reiterated a point or two like not putting one's fingers into a power socket.
/.../
In an hours time, all is quiet in the officer's mess with the only sound being of Shepard and seven of her platoon members cleaning their weapons in the corridor. Unbeknown to most, space is actually rather harsh to weapons, the vacuum of space boils away the moisture used in the oils that help keep a firearm lubricated, and leaves behind a solidified dirt which can cause jams and internal damage. The reason they clean their weapons together in the corridor is that as simple as it sounds, the mundane task is a team building activity.
"Spook inbound, boss," Ashley says, prompting Shepard to look up towards the entrance of the mess. Sure enough, there is a thin man with an intelligence insignia on his arm allowing himself inside. Shepard figured her team would be visited sooner or later by someone from the intelligence community.
"PMR?" She asks as she continues to clean her own weapon.
"Yes, we need to debrief you." As the man says 'you' he looks around all of Shepard's men, letting them know that this is a group event.
Shepard nods before gesturing to a spot on the floor, "Then pull a chair up, should be one available in the room behind me."
The man does as asked and begins his interrogation of her team, "I'm not here for your typical post-mission report," He tells them, "Instead, I want to know about the alien craft and its occupants. What I am looking for is anything that can tell us about them, how the ship was designed internally, how it operated, what did you notice about the aliens, how were they operating."
"Slow down big man," Shepard says as she pulls out a new tool from her rifle cleaning kit and begins to use it, "One thing at a time."
The man takes a moment to pause before looking down to a notepad and asking, "How was the ship internally designed..."
"You have the video footage," Kaiden tells him as if it holds all his answers.
The man nods, "Yes, but the footage only shows so much, I want you to tell me what you saw, what your opinions of it were, and how it made you feel."
Vega raises an eyebrow at that last bit, "How it made me feel? Like did it make me feel like going out and having a steak or..."
"James, you always want a steak," Ashley tells him in jest, "I would be more concerned if it made you stop wanting to eat."
"Please," The slim man tells Shepard's group, obviously not amused by their banter, "It is important I get these opinions so we can try and deduce more on how the aliens operate, and surely I do not need to tell you how important that is."
"Alright," Shepard says to her group, "Let's stop getting his knickers in a twist."
/.../
Intelligence Room 042 - Star Base 1
A man looks across a few of the screens in front of him, "So," He then asks a few in the room, "Anything interesting on TV tonight?"
One of the men in the room nods, "Sure, channel five recently had some good stuff on it."
The first man looks to a screen that is labelled 'Room 5' before approaching it and rewinding the footage. Soon, the man is watching as an Asari strips from her oily clothes and climbs into bed, "Huh," The man says, "This will keep most men happy." The Asari has more than a few human features.
"Yeah, happy indeed. We have also noticed a few other things, got it all in this notepad." After saying 'notepad,' the man holds up an A4 notepad and waves it slightly in the air.
The man approaches the second and takes the notepad from his hand. Sitting down in a nearby chair he starts to flick through the pages. "Spikes sleep with their weapons in their bed...No surprise there, in unknown territory and will likely have been drilled to sleep with weapons." The man flicks through a few other uninteresting facts like one or two of the Blue aliens were sleeping in the same room, "Horns used their 'glowing gizzmo' to either take pictures of or scan most of room?" The man looks up from the notepad, "Glowing gizzmo?" He asks, looking for further information.
"Don't know how best to describe it other than a holographic device of some kind. The device is projected by a bracelet worn on the right hand, and most of the aliens are wearing one of these bracelets."
"Interesting." The man says before burying his nose once more in the pages of the notepad. Eventually, he starts reading aloud again, "Alien leader and blue alien 1 regularly speak with blue alien 2?"
"Yeah," The second man says, "Noticed it the second we had eyes on, it is potentially someone of interest so we have been keeping an eye on it, and so far I think blue alien 2 is someone they are trying to hide."
"I see," The man says with some thought before once more going back to the notepad. "Great interest in the food synthesiser?"
"All of the aliens have shown great interest in it. Some of them just kept making random things, but not eating it, others have tried a few things, but seem more interested in the synthesiser itself. Looks to me like they have never seen one."
"You would think a FTL capable species would have come across a synthesiser."
"Well, that's just what we observed."
The first man shrugs before going back to the notepad, and eventually, he says, "The Spikes are only drinking water?"
"Yes. The Blue's and Horns have eaten a few of the fruits in the anteroom and tried some food produced by the synthesisers, but the spikes are yet to eat anything."
"Hmm," The man thinks before standing and handing the man his notepad back, "Excellent observations so far, keep up the good work."
/.../
Commodus Officer's Mess
The man with the intelligence logo on his arm spends a good hour interrogating Shepard and crews memory, where the group tell of everything they figured was important, including Shepard hunch that one of the blue aliens is someone of significance. Just before the slim man finishes his interrogation of the group Shepard turns her head to where a red light has begun to flash, and very quickly a voice comes over the space stations internal intercom, "All hands man battle stations. This is not a drill."
"Here comes that fleet spikes was telling us of." Shepard concludes as she and her comrades jump to their feet.
/.../
T-5 mins - Hierarchy War Vessel Accipitridae - Dreadnought.
Fleet Commander Rouse Quirinus is nothing but an experienced military man, having spent the vast majority of his long life on war vessels of one sort or another once he spread his wings and left Palavern. Many argue that in his grand age of 89 Palavern years that he should retire from active front line service and take up a position in Naval Headquarters, advising the politicians on what their fleets can and can not do. It would be a job well within Quirinus capabilities, in fact, it is widely recognised that he would excel in it, but the man would find little to no fun in it, and this is something he knows. Quirinus loves the thrill peacekeeping can give him, the challenges of capturing emboldened pirates, and the risk of just living in the most hostile environment known to Turians, other than the middle of the ocean of course. There is little about peacekeeping Quirinus does not enjoy other than those dark days where he loses men or when politics gets involved with his missions.
Eyeing the newly opened Relay that the Avian has fled through Quirinus takes a moment to think, he does not know what lies in wait at the far side, he could make an assumption, but assumptions are known to be the mother of all fuck-ups. In this particular situation, Quirinus knows he should send through a recce party of two or three ships, to make sure the waters are safe, so to speak, but this mission requires getting to the Avian's aid as soon as Turianly possible, so time-saving measures need to be taken when and where possible. Had the Avian not been carrying the Asari Councillor and a 'Priority 1 level artefact,' Quirinus would follow protocol and send the recce, but today, the protocol is out the proverbial window. To combat this lack of time, Quirinus has made and delivered a diverse set of orders that encompass the most likely set of discoveries, and the most dangerous set of discoveries, that way, people should know how to act if any situation arises across a broad spectrum of possible situations. The most dangerous discovery, of course, is a new hostile species equivalent to the Rachni.
Looking out his dreadnoughts forward observation window Quirinus sees what looks like the last ship to assume its position in the fleet, prompting him to ask aloud, "Fleet Orchestrator, has the assigned disposition been assumed?" The Fleet Orchestrators job is to ensure that everyone in the fleet is where they are supposed to be.
"It has, Fleet Commander."
"Then initiate phase 2, take us through the uncharted relay."
"As you command."
Slowly the fleet of 31 vessels begin to approach the relay and Prothean megastructure begins to toss the ships across the galaxy at unfathomable speeds. 31 Vessels is a typical number of ships in a Turian fleet because in Turian mythology, 31 is a lucky number, but it is also used because a Turian Fleet Commander will struggle to use any more than 31 vessels effectively.
Arriving in a new and unmapped system mere seconds after entering the Relay corridor Quirinus allows for a few moments in order to allow the helmsman to rapidly jump 10,000km away from the relay, in order to make his vessel a hard target should anyone be aiming at the relay exit point. This small time period also allows people to do some work before he asks, "System breakdown." This request should surprise none of his officers.
The officer responsible for intelligence answers his Commanding Officer first, "Avian emergency broadcast system detected at pushed co-ords, I can not ascertain the condition of the ship at this location. Additionally, Unidentified Satellite in orbit of the relay has been detected, it lacks markers to signal its creator."
Friend Foe Identification officer speaks next, "No additional blue, red, green, orange or black forces on Ladar." Blue forces are friendly forces, red are enemy, green is civilian, orange is for people who are neither enemy, nor friends, and black is criminal networks.
The signals officer is the next to answers Quirinus, "No artificial signals identified outside of the Avians distress call, the system is quiet. The Relay is accepting and transmitting our communications to HQ. Time for messages to reach HQ is 27 hours 13"
Finally, the Combat Terrain officer speaks, "System has 4 planets, 3 of which are gas giants, and the forth is a category 3 dwarf planet. Star is a G2V Main sequence star. Solar system is aligned at 63 degrees to galaxies plane, no additional relays detected."
Quirinus takes a second to process all this information and make some deductions before saying aloud, "The Avian was being chased by 6 Hanar Whirlpools and was carrying battle damage, meaning I do not for one second believe the Avian destroyed all six Hanar vessels." Hanar vessels may not have the weaponry of a Turian vessel or the shields of an Asari warship, but traditionally Hanar vessels have more than respectable armour and hull designs, allowing them to take a stern beating most Turian vessels would be outright destroyed in.
The Friend Foe Officer speaks in response to his commanding officer, "We have nothing on sensors, sir."
Quirinus clucks his tongue in thought before turning to look at a screen which has the local system broken down into its component parts, "The Gas Giants, what are their main atmospheric elements?"
"Hydrogen, Helium and traces of Methane."
Quirinus thinks for a moment, Hanar vessels can enter very dense atmospheres that most citadel vessels would be crushed in, and can even operate under oceans as sea fairing vessels, which in itself is an amazing technological feat. Quirinus knows from experience that the Hanar can and do use their unique hulls to hide from Turian sensors in thick atmospheres such as those found in gas giants or deep oceans. With this in mind, the Fleet Commander issues a set of quick battle orders, "On each Gas Giant, I want a sentry doing constant surveillance, if the Hanar are hiding in them then I want them found. Formation C is to guard the relay in order to prevent escape from this system, a further tasking is to study the unidentified satellite. The rest of our battle group are to proceed to the Avian at maximum fleet velocity."
/.../
UNSC
A General studies a screen with great interest, the fleet he was warned of has eventually shown itself, and he can't help but admire the predatory design of the Turian vessels. To the General, they scream of power, danger, and the will to fight.
"What do you make of them?"
The General can not really say too much on the design of the vessels other than highlight the huge cannon on the dreadnought, this is because he simply does not know enough about how their tech works to make any assumptions. However, the general can talk about some of the tactics he has seen, "In short, experienced and drilled. The hard targetting out of the relay was unseen by any of the previous ships, and it is a tactic our troops use that was developed over hundreds of years of war in urban environments meaning I assume these too know of war, further, the fleet formation is tightly controlled. Their whole formation reminds me a lot of how an Aircraft Carrier once roamed the sea's with its escort, so I would assume they also have a stealth vessel or two somewhere we are yet to discover. So, to answer your question, we are not dealing with pirates here but a drilled military."
The President nods before turning to a woman in the room, "Cerberus, how are your preparations?"
The woman in command of Cerberus looks up from the screen showing the Turian ships and to the President, "As we speak defences are being re-located to suitable locations, but our main effort has been achieved."
"Excellent." The President says before asking, "Have we made any more progress in establishing a method to communicate with the new fleet?" When it was learned a fleet would be coming, it very quickly became apparent that a method of communicating would need to be found. The Turian captain when asked had tried to give some insight and direction but was unable to help past providing some insight into how the ships communicated using light at a certain frequency as a means of sending data. Part of the problem for the limited help was the fact the Prothean language was not easy for the Turian to express exactly what he meant.
"We are going to start by broadcasting a simple pattern in the EM spectrum. The turian mentioned 9.3 Ghz so we will start there."
This causes all eyes to look at the man responsible for establishing communications. "You mean like in that old film? You have to be jesting me."
"I'm open to suggestions." The man hits back.
The room enters a small silence till a knock is heard on the door of the room, followed by Shepard entering with the blue alien and the Turian Captain.
/.../
HWV Accipitridae
As the fleet begins its approach towards the Avian Quirinus begins to think some more, why did the Avian find itself where it is right now, as in why did it head in the direction it has. After a few minutes of travelling the Combat Terrain Officer says, "Sensors have detected a second Dwarf Planet. Category 2." Cat 2 means the dwarf planet is in the solar systems Goldilocks zone, meaning it could harbour life and liquid water.
Turning the Fleet Commander looks once more to the solar systems break down before asking, "What is the atmosphere of this dwarf planet?"
The Combat Terrain officer replies, "None detected, it's just a small dwarf planet barely larger than a moon." Unlike on the Avian, with a Salarian sensor expert and some of the most modern sensors, the combat terrain officer fails to notice anything wrong with the small dwarf planet and its dubious gravity well.
Quirinus knows the Avian will have better sensors than his own fleet, so he asks, "Then why did the Avian head towards this dwarf planet? Do we have visuals?"
"Not yet, Sir. I deduce that there must be a fine dust cloud in between ourselves and the planet preventing a clear image."
After five minutes a zoomed in visual is available of the planet and Quirinus spends many long minutes studying the image. The world is evidently occupied, and by an advanced species if the phenomenal ringworld in orbit of the planet says anything. Turning to the Combat Terrain officer, the Fleet Commander says, "This does not look like a Dwarf Planet, and it most certainly has an atmosphere, not to mention unknown habitants."
Turning to the Identify Friend Foe officer, Quirinus asks, "Any unidentified vessels on LADAR?"
"Negative, Sir."
"Well, I doubt that a species capable of building a ringworld like that lacks a navy." Quirinus spends another minute collecting his thoughts before speaking again, "Fleet Orchestrator, assume formation B3, and raise the threat level to 4. Rules of engagement are to reduce to Omega. Communications, attempt to hail the Avian." Under these rules of Engagement, the Turian fleet can actively defend itself; however, it is not allowed to destroy hostile vessels outright, instead, they are to cripple if possible.
As the Turian speaks, because of the increase of threat level, thick steel composite shutters slowly lower into positions over windows, adding a little extra protection to the ships weak points. The shutters contrary to popular belief, aren't to protect from direct shots; instead, they are for protection against fast moving shrapnel from other damaged vessels.
/.../
UNSC
A man sat behind a computer screen speak aloud, "Sir, detecting a large surge of power in all vessels." As the man says this steel shutters can also be seen to lower over Turian windows.
A general turns to the Asari looking for an explanation, and eventually, after consulting with Corvinus, he tells her, "They have assumed formation B3, and I suspect at the sight of your world, they have also raised the threat level to 3 or 4, resulting in the lowered window shutters. This means their shields are powered and weapons are pre-loaded. We need to contact them now before anything else happens." Benezzia then translates this the best she can to the General.
"We have been trying." Someone tells her.
Corvinus flares his mandibles downwards a bit when Benezzia tells him this, a Turian nod, before saying to her, "The Avain had Salarian sensors, meaning the best we have, and we still struggled to see their world because of whatever cloaking tech they are using. I suspect the signal is still too weak for them to detect through this cloaking technology." Benezzia once more translates this to the best of her capabilities.
The General nods after recieving some explanation from the blue alien, "Then we up the power." A simple solution, so one would think.
/.../
HWV Accipitridae
By now Quirinus fleet is 350,000km away from the unidentified planet, and only 15,000km away from the battle damaged Avian. On the planet, megacities can be seen that make Illium look small, and the Ringworld above the planet only looks that much more substantial and intimidating now Quirinus knows its circumference is 5,000 km.
"Fleet Commander, I have compiled a report on the Avians Status. We have also discovered 5 Whirlpools..."
Quirinus flares his one mandible a little before turning to look at the officer who spoke, "Whirlpool status?"
"KIA. Showing a visual now." Soon an image of a whirlpool is on screen, however, it can not be easily identified as such due to its extreme hull disfigurement. "All five whirlpools feature similar disfigurement Sir, this is the least disfigured."
The Turian brings a hand to the bottom of his jaw at the sight, showing his deep thought. These Whirlpools look like they have been within extreme proximity to a star, but how on good Plavern did they end up like that here? Thinking through the possible answers to this question Quirinus comes to the most likely answer, "Turians," He says after a moment, "It would appear like these waters have bigger fish than these Whirlpools. Our mission has come more complex than initially thought." Turning to his intelligence officer he asks, "What is the condition of the Avian?"
"Mission killed, Sir. Battle damage would indicate it has taken a direct shot from a Super Heated Tungsten round."
"Crew?"
"No life signs detected."
Quirinus looks to the floor for a moment before looking back up, "Send a party to board with the Avian, we will not assume all hands are lost till we can confirm it with boots on the ground."
"As you command."
"Fleet Orchestrator, alert all vessels to regroup, once we have confirmed the condition of the Avians crew I intend on advancing to this new world. Comms, find me the protocol for initiating first contact." Had the Avian not carried the Councillor Quirinus would have advanced on the alien world immediately. "Also, we are still one Whirlpool down, so we are to maintain our original goal of apprehending all Hanar assailants till we know of their fate."
It takes half an hour to get some boots on the Avian, and soon Quirinus is hearing a report from the men he sent aboard. "Sir, this place is all but evacuated, only a few dead bodies left in the medical bay. Additionally, the computer cores are scrambled, without a doubt this ship has gone under an electronics purge. We have also reclaimed the level 1 artefact, it was hidden under the floorboards." A typical Turian hiding location.
"Is there any signs of forced boarding? Any sign of the Councillor?" If there was forced entry it would be unmistakable, not only from firearm damage but from fortifications made, doors welded shut, barricades and bloodstained walls.
"Fortifications look like they were started in some key locations but never finished, so to me, it looks like it was abandoned by choice. No sign of the Councillor, but we are yet to check the bridge."
"Understood. When you arrive on the bridge endeavour to find if the Captain left a log behind. If needed, use council authorisation codes to access any locked electronics." Quirinus knows that if possible, the captain would have left some sort of log to say why he abandoned the ship and where his people have gone - it is common procedure among all space fairing vessels to do so, in order so that any rescue vessels can find the crew.
Sure enough, after a bit of searching his men onboard the Avian find something. "Sir, we found council encrypted video in the captain's chair, uploading it now."
After a few seconds Quirinus is looking at a video, showing the Captain of the Avian if the rank slide says anything.
"To whoever is watching this, this is my last log as captain of the CV Avian. My vessel has taken heavy damage from Hanar Whirlpools and needs to be evacuated. I have given the order for my crew and all! Asari workers to join our new alien friends on their stealth vessel. I made this choice freely and was not coerced into making such a choice. Like how Xiavia was forced to flee to higher ground when the oceans rose, I suppose." This last little bit refers to a well known Turian story from the history books regarding how a city was required to flee an impending tsunami. It is only a story Turians would really know, and it goes to tell Quirinus that the captain is actually making his decision to evacuate through his own choice. "As far as I know, my people are to head back to their world, the third planet in this solar system, but we are yet to establish any proper means of communication. I should inform any Citadel affiliated vessel, however, that they are being watched, and are in the range of powerful weapons. We do not know the weapons nature, only their power, and they are capable of eliminating Hanar Whirlpools with a single shot.
Spirits providing, this is helpful information, and I shall see my family soon. Spirits be with you."
Quirinus clucks his tongue twice, he now knows this new species has stealth vessels and some incredibly powerful weaponry to boot. Tapping a button Quirinus speaks to the away team, "Good work retrieving the artefact Captain. Get it and yourself back onto my vessel." After cutting the comm line to the boarding party Quirinus takes a small relieved breath, small hope building within him that the Avians crew may still be alive.
Soon, the away team are back onboard their vessel and the Fleet Commander gives permission for the fleet to begin its advance onto the new world.
/.../
UNSC
"Distance, 300,000km. Still no response to hails."
The president pulls a hand down his face, he can not let such a powerful fleet so close to Earth, yet at the same time, he can not do something provocative. "We have suggestion." The Asari speaks to him.
The president looks to the blue alien, "Please go ahead." The Asari and Turian are allowed in the room to provide insight on the Turian fleet.
"Captain Corvinius tells shot across ship bow, no closer 50,000km. Turian ships stop."
A General hearing this frowns, "Doing so would give away the fact we have defensive platforms around Earth."
"We can do it from the moon. Less collateral if it goes wrong."
The president takes a second before nodding. "Do it."
/.../
HWV Accipitridae
"Detecting power surge from planets moon." Someone cries out in order to alert Quirinus.
A second later before Quirinus could say anything another Turian shouts, "Some sort of shot has just passed our bow. Maybe plasma, or some superheated gas. Distance 78,000 km."
"All ships halt in place." Quirinus quickly says, "That was a warning shot if I ever did see one. Comms, do we still not have anything?"
"Nothing yet, Fleet Commander."
Quirinus walks back and forth on his bridge for a minute, thinking. He knows that this species is capable of reason and thought, they would not have offered to rescue those on the Avian if they were not. He spends half an hour thinking, and with still no comms established he says, "Fleet Orchestrator, send the Goshawk forward 25,000km."
/.../
UNSC
The president is starting to get annoyed if he was honest, the Turian fleet is either ignoring the signals being sent to them or have not realised they are being sent a signal. For this reason, the Hawkings has been dispatched to rebroadcast the signal in space so that the signal is unmissable.
Seeing a ship move forward out of the Turian fleet the president leans forward. "What if we can convince this one ship to come here?" He asks.
"It would solve a lot of problems." A General tells him, before looking to the Asari in the room, "How would we convince that ship to follow one of ours?"
The blue alien and the spikey alien talk for some time between themselves before the Asari responds to the General. "Ship fly in circle," She walks to the screen that has the Turian fleet on and draws her finger around the forward Turian ship, "Then fly here." She finishes by pointing to the ground.
The president spends a minute before nodding, "I like it. Tell the Hawkings."
/.../
HWV Accipitridae
By now, it has been an hour since the warning shot across the bow of the ship, and Quirinus is beginning to wonder if they are looking at this the wrong way. The civilisation in front of them is obviously advanced, the ringworld speaks for this, so maybe these people don't use light as a means of communication anymore, and maybe they aren't looking for his own comms. A good way of thinking about it is if he was asked to send a message he would send a message over light based comms, but a Turian a thousand years back would send a man on foot to the where the message needs to be delivered. Maybe, in this circumstance, he is the Turian searching for the messenger that was sent on foot, and this civilisation is looking for the light signal.
As Quirinus muses to himself he hears some one call out, "Fleet Commander, Unidentified stealth vessel detected 50,000km to the bow."
"On screen." There is only one species that vessel can belong to, the Turian thinks.
Soon, there is an image of a small stealth vessel on a viewing screen, and Quirinus watches as it slowly approaches and circles the forward vessel twice before stopping in front of it and slowly moving back towards the planet just in front of his fleet. "Fleet Orchestrator, have the Goshawk follow that vessel."
"As you command."
Over the next five minutes, Quirinus watches with great interest and concern as the Goshawk follows the stealth vessel. Usually, he would not allow a single vessel to get so separated from his fleet when there are unknowns such as stealth vessels, but when a new civilisation is discovered, some usual protocol needs to be discarded for a successful first contact, or so he thinks. "Fleet Commander, we have lost comms with the Goshawk."
The Turian leader turns to face comms, "Technical issues?"
"Don't think so, their signal power dropped over the last five seconds substantially, it is more like they are being blocked."
Quirinus does not like this one bit, and alarm bells are ringing inside his head, "Do we still have comms with the rest of the fleet?"
"Yes."
Quirinus walks back and forth a bit before saying, "Send a comms buoy forward 50,000km to relay our messages forward."
"As you command."
/.../
UNSC
Corvinius was trying his best to calm the room, these humans did not seem to appreciate the comms buoy that the fleet in orbit dispatched, "Communications relay." He tells them. "Communications relay."
It is then that a man in the room asks, "If they use light-based comms, will it be able to penetrate our EM shielding?" The EM shields have been in operation for hundreds of years, its purpose is to protect Earth from solar flares. Its need became apparent after a solar flare in the year 2284 wiped out half the electronics on Earth, which directly resulted in millions of deaths. The day is known as the darkest day in human history, not only due to the massive amounts of death but also because of how humanity plummeted into darkness as electric circuits failed.
This causes a few in the room to stop doing what they are doing and eventually one says, "Never thought of that." Because the EM shielding has been around for so long and does not actively play a part in protecting Earth from hostile intent, many in the room often forget the EM shield even exists. To most, the EM shield is just a bit of infrastructure they never see, like the vast servers that allow the internet to operate or the water processing plants that turn sewage water into safe clean water that is safe to put back into the ocean.
"Can we turn it off?" Asks the president.
"No, at least I don't think so. I've never heard of it being turned off." Turning the General who just spoke asks another man, "Have you ever heard of the EM shield being turned off?"
"Can't say I have."
The President looks at the men for a moment before saying, "Do you have Google on your phones?"
The men spend a minute googling before someone begins to read off their phone, "The Global Electromagnetic Shield was designed to never be shut down. The system incorporates enough redundancy that numerous generators can be individually shut down for maintenance, which will result in additional generators in the system stepping up to temporarily cover the power loss of these generators."
The man scrolls down on his phone before reading some more, "The EM shield was not designed to be shut down.." The man then scratches his nose before adding, "This was written in the year 2876."
The president raises a brow before saying, "It appears the EM shield has been seriously neglected. Someone find me an expert who can give us an answer in case our latest plan falls through."
/.../
HWV Accipitridae
"Fleet Commander, we have re-established communications with the Goshawk."
Quirinus flares a mandible slightly, relieved to hear that he now has comms with his away ship. "Excellent. If we start to lose comms again, send another comm buoy 50,000km past the first comms buoy to rebroadcast the first comms buoy."
"As you command."
For the next half an hour nothing happens, the Stealth ship just continues to guide the Goshawk to a relatively small space station above the planet. As the Goshawk gets closer to the space station it comes evident that the ship will be required to dock, but the docks do not appear to be compatible with the Goshawk. "Fleet Commander, the Captain of the Goshawk is going to land in the space station on a shuttlecraft."
At the moment, there are 5 comm buoys relaying the messages to and from the Goshawk. Whatever shield or electronic warfare is in operation above the planet, it is impressing Quirinus.. "Understood."
/.../
Captain Remus of the Goshawk looks across the ten men in the shuttlecraft with him, they are all good men that have served on his scout vessel for numerous years. "Ready to meet a new species?" He asks them with some cheer in his voice as he feels the shuttlecraft land on the alien space station.
"As long as they don't shoot at us." One man quips back to Remus.
"If they do, just remember your training and all will go well, that and the dreadnought Quirinus has aimed at this station." Standing Remus makes his way to the shuttlecrafts door, "But, are you ready to live forever?"
"Sir?" One of his subbies asks with a flare of his mandibles.
"Were about to meet a new species Consus, our names will go in the history books." With that said the Captain presses a button on his Omni-tool and says, "Goshawk, we are about to disembark the shuttlecraft." Despite having a camera on his armour that is being streamed back to the Goshawk, and then back to the Accipitridae, Remus tells them what he is doing out of habit. After receiving confirmation his message was heard he hits a button on the wall next to him and the door slowly opens.
When the door is fully opened it quickly comes clear to Remus that he is not going to be going down in any history books today, a Turian and an Asari stood by a new unidentified group of aliens will take that glory. Stepping out of his shuttlecraft he approaches the unidentified aliens and stops short just before them.
On the ride to this location, Remus had thought of what he would say at this precise moment in time, he thought of many awesome things to say, and many things he would love to say, but at this moment in time he comes up blank. Not knowing what else to say, he decides to go for the classic, so clearing his throat he then slams a hand to his heart and says, "Captain Remus, Turian Navy."
The new pink and brown aliens look to an Asari who says something to them in an odd language before a man in a dark navy blue uniform brings his right hand up to his right eye, palm facing downwards, a classic Russian salute. The alien then says something back, and Remus looks to the Asari for an explanation.
The Asari takes the hint, "Captain Remus, this is General Anatoly, of the United Nations Space Command. He welcomes you to Sol, their solar system."
Remus quickly realises that all conversation is going to have to flow through the Asari, "Please tell the General, the Turian Navy thanks his species for welcoming us to Sol, and for inviting myself to their station." As the Asari speaks to the Human Remus looks to Corvinus, and asks, "Everything in order?"
Corvinus gives the Turian equivalent of a nod as he says, "We are being treated with great respect and care. If anything, my time onboard this station has been pleasurable. Please relay back to your fleet, that any communications with these people will need to be done in Prothean."
Remus taps the camera on his armour, just as the Asari begins to say, "The General says it is Humanities pleasure to invite you here, however, he asks that before we go any further if you could request the fleet that remained behind at the relay to stop interfering with their satellite."
"I will relay the request on." Remus waits for the Asari to translate this to the General before bringing his omni-tool out and pressing a few buttons. With a connection established he says, "Fleet Commander Quirinus, the aliens have requested for you stop C Formation from investigating their satellite." Unbeknownst to the Turians, they are currently playing around with a satellite that has a very dangerous anti-matter core at its heart.
It takes a second for the great Fleet Commander to respond, "Captain Remus, I have relayed the order on out of good faith."
Looking to the Asari Remus then says, "I have relayed the request on and the Fleet Commander is obeying." The Turian then looks to the General, "I am sorry, but I did not get your species name."
After hearing the Asari's tranlsation the man says a long string of words before holding a hand out, prompting Remus to look to the Asari, "The General says his species is known as Human. He thanks you for accepting his request, and offers his hand. He says a..." The Asari frowns a little as she tries to think how best to describe what she just heard in Prothean, bearing in mind she is not the most proficient Prothean speaker, "...joint hand wave is common among his people to show trust, respect, balance, and equilibrium." This is what the Asari thinks he was trying to say.
"Am I to grab his hand?" Remus asks the Asari.
Again there is some collab between the Asari and the General before the Asari tells Remus, "Yes," With a quick blink of her eyes, the Asari equivalent of a human nod.
Remus slowly reaches out for the Generals hand and the two share an uneasy handshake, but the act seemed to do something as the General was giving what the Asari would call a smile. The General then says something, which the Asari once more translates, "The General says we should move this conversation to somewhere more comfortable."
"We are his guests, and it would be rude to say no," Remus says with his own Turian smile.
Thanks all.