From: George Cristian810

A: They have over 2000 years old space economy and over 1000 years weren't challanged by any outside forces which made them stagneiting. In MassEffect 1, Anderson cleraly said that founding of the prothean ruin speed human technology up 200 years which make them engough powerful to match Turian military(in terms of technology). And Asari have even functional Protean VI on Thessia. All this combine explain why Citadel was able to advance so quickly, both in terms of technology and numbers. But this is only my thoughts.

From: James Porter (Guest)

A: A Garmillas will be something beetween orginal, 2199 and some of my thoughts.

Chapter 1

= place: Elyzium, November 7, 2179 =

It all started as usual on the flagship of the SDF Battle Group 1. All crewmembers performed their duties. Of course, the level of readiness was elevated, but only the officers and the AI knew the reasons. After the first 100 AIs were very helpful in many areas and accelerated many projects on the System Alliance planets, more new AIs began to emerge. Sure, not at some extraordinary speed, but there were over 10,000 now. About 2% chose to join SDF or the SA Navy. Elysium, as one of the largest colonies and also on the border with the Batarian Hegemony, which definitely doesn't finance any pirates to attack the colonies, had one assigned - Miltiades. The Petra region, of which Elysium is its capital, approached its defenses differently from most human colonies. Instead of investing in defense platforms and a light defense flotilla, it has mostly heavier ships, with their flagship, the Blue Noah, being comparable in size to the Berlin-class cruiser, but with much more advanced armament. Sotos Spiros, the ship's commander and Vice-Commander of the Region-wide SDF, sat in his cabin reading the daily report.

"Miltiades." - Sotos said.

"Yes." - the AI replied. Miltiades chose his appearance to be the standard Greek hoplite armor with a helmet but no weapons.

"Did Coalition Command find these 400 Terminus pirate ships?" - Sotos asked.

"Still no." - said Miltiades. Sotos just shrugged his head worriedly.

"You don't worry too much?" - Miltiades asked.

"If these ships cannot be found, they must hide somewhere where we do not have full access to our intelligence. Such places are the space of the Council and the Hegemony. And I doubt that the Council, and especially the Turians, allowed such a BIG pirate force to pass unnoticed. The only remaining option is the Hegemony with which the Alliance has a political dispute over Verge, of which we are the proverbial capital. Additionally, there are also many batarian colonists here who have fled the Hegemons looking for a 'better life', another damn good reason to attack us. We should just take all the Coalition fleets and sweep them off the face of this galaxy."

"The Hegemony is an official member of the Citadel. Any move against them, without any particularly good evidence that they are invading our colonies, will be like a declaration of war on the Council. Even the conflict with Batarians alone will cost us thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of lives. As for the Coalition, everyone knows that the Quarians, despite having a powerful Navy, will not be able to carry out any offensive actions due to their small population and an even smaller economy. The Geths can indeed help us, but the Batarians can use this in their propaganda against us. Plus, their fleets mostly keep the space between us and the Perseus Veil against pirate attacks, because SDF ships are simply not enough."

"I know, but if we had defeated the Hegemony, the millions of people on the Coalition's borders wouldn't have to worry about becoming a slave. Without the Hegemony as the main slave-buying site, it simply wouldn't be profitable for pirates."

"What about the Terminus states? The hegemony is their main client, so there is a good chance that at least some of them will fight on its side."

"They are mostly little states with a fleet at best slightly larger than that of the Hanars, but much worse in terms of technology and quality. A large proportion of their ships are civilian armed ships anyway."

"These 'little states' have a combined fleet larger than the Asari Republics and with more experienced officers, thanks to the almost constant conflicts in Terminus. Besides, even if we win, if we devour all the Hegemony to ourselves, we will have to make HUGE economic and cultural reforms on their worlds and withstand a huge number of terrorist attacks. Additionally, these grounds can serve as a back door for STG agents and other spies and saboteurs. And if we want to put another Batarian state in place of the Hegemony, we'll have to start 'Nation Building, and that will take many years and funds."

"What about this 'Rebellion'?"

"We have almost no information about it. Hegemony's public inspection is not helping. The only information we have is what we get from the Hegemony itself. Hundreds of years of defense against the intelligence of The Citadel has made Hegemony intelligence service exceptionally good at hiding information. However, they are weak in catching information from other countries. As Sun Tsu said, 'Invincibility is about defense. The possibility of winning lies in attacking. ' They are the best example of-. ALARM! Unidentified ships entering the system have been detected. The number is 40... 50... 60... and it's growing fast!"

"Miltiades, connect with the fleet. Also, send a message to the ground garrison and Alliance HQ." - Sotos said, taking their uniform jacket from the closet when AI prepared the communicator. After a while, Sotos spoke. - "To the entire fleet. A fleet of unidentified ships entered the system. We have to assume they are hostile. All personnel to combat positions. Inform civilian ships to flee immediately, anywhere but here."

Sotos took his captain's hat and headed for the bridge. When he arrived, he saw all the officers ready for a potential fight. Started quickly asked. - "What is the tactical situation?"

Miltiades' hologram showed up quickly. - "523 ships passed through the relay and are headed straight for the colony. They drown out any communication outside the system. This resulted in a massive loss of connectivity. Most likely, the Alliance command has already guessed the situation."

"What about MDPs?" - Sotos asked. Although the region's SDF relied mostly on heavier ships, Elysium still had 4 MDPs and 16 smaller auxiliary platforms.

"They'll be set up in 10 minutes. The enemy fleet will be in range in 20 minutes. Wait, sensors show 51 ships breaking away from the formation. They are speeding up and they will be within reach in 6 minutes. Mainly corvettes and light frigates."

"Show on the tactical map." - Sotos ordered, and a holographic tactical map appeared almost immediately. It shows the entire system and all ships. For all types, the same indications are used in each category, but which category is marked first. And so there were from the smallest triangles for still unleashed fighters, squares for corvettes, diamonds for frigates, parallelograms for destroyers, rectangles for cruisers, hexagons for dreadnoughts, hourglasses for aircraft carriers, and circles for defense platforms.

"A group of 51 enemy ships changes course." - said Miltiades - "Calculating a new route. They plan to fly over 20,000km from our position. They will clash with one group of platforms on the way."

"They will have a 10: 1 advantage and they are small and fast ships." - Sotos said - "They'll most likely want to get past them and start kidnapping slaves."

Sotos was quick to consider his options. He can move his fleet and intercept this group but will open to attack from the rear. The platforms will not be moved on time. There are not enough fighters on Elysium to intercept such a group, and they will be needed to repel the next attack by the main enemy fleet. Only one option remained.

"Prepare a Super Shock Shotgun." - Sotos said. The version installed on Blue Noah is a kind of superweapon with a range of 30,000 km. Unfortunately, it had two drawbacks. The first was a loading time of almost five minutes. The second was even more serious.

"Commander Spiros, I am compelled to announce that after firing this ship will have no energy to fight for half an hour." - said Miltiades.

"I know, but it should scare the enemy to hesitate, maybe even withdraw completely." - Sotos said before turning to the tactical officer, Olaf Jenssen - "Olaf, target me this enemy task force."

"Aye, sir." - Olaf said.

After a few moments, the ship began to turn, still charging the Shock Shotgun. Within five minutes, everything was set perfectly as Sotos wanted. Blue Noah was aimed at a hostile task force and no allied ship or installation stood in the way. It was now or never.

"Fire!" - Sotos gave the order and the cannon thundered. The blue energy beam flew straight into the group of enemy ships. On the way, it split into many smaller bundles. Everyone on the bridge watched as enemy ships were destroyed at an unimaginable pace. After the light show ended, the crew cheered at the sight of the destroyed pirate ships. Of the 51 ships, 43 were destroyed or disabled, the remaining 8 hobbled as far away from Elysium as possible, unwilling to test their luck.

= place: the flagship of the 25th Batarian fleet =

"Damn it with Adharem." - cried the furious Admiral Pragar Grom'gapos on his dreadnought - "That idiot must have rushed for glory to himself."

Adharem was the commander of a flotilla of small ships. He was a respected pirate to whom the Hegemony even provided the Thanix cannon for his flagship. But now it was all lost by collecting a large group of pirate ships behind his back and carrying out a hopeless charge and being massacred with all his renegades by some human SUPER WEAPON. He had heard reports of some extremely powerful new equipment for Coalition dreadnoughts, but not for SDF cruisers.

But then he realized something. And that made him very happy.

"An order to all ships." - he said with a smirk to himself, then made his speech calmly - "Humans have superweapon. However, this is not the cause for fear. Our intelligence confirmed their possession of this weapon as a potential threat, but as you can probably guess, this weapon consumes a huge amount of energy. They can only fire once an hour. So now we're going to overwhelm them with numbers as planned. And if anyone wants to disobey orders, let him go alone and end up like Adharem "

And the transmission cut off, and the armada again set off towards less than 20 SDF ships.

"Admiral, why didn't you tell us about this weapon before?" - the first officer asked.

"Because you didn't ask. Now get back to WORK!" - Pragar replied. Of course, it was all just guesswork, but sooner the Geth would sit on the Council than he would show himself to the Hegemon with no success after he had assembled the largest fleet since the Krogan Rebellions.

"Hostile orbital platforms open fire." - the officer said and the admiral saw the destroyed cruiser.

"All ships, full speed and distance apart! The faster we get closer, the sooner we get rid of these platforms. All ships may fire only at my mark." - Pragar shouted. The platforms continued firing at his fleet, destroying or piercing ships right through. Their huge speed and weight compared to normal MassEffect guns easily eliminated barriers and penetrated ships right through. By the time they reached the range where their own guns could be effective, 20% of his ships were either destroyed or heavily damaged, which still gave him a 10:1 advantage over defenders in terms of defensive platforms.

"Everyone, fire! Focus on this heavy cruiser! Send all the fighters." - ordered Pragar. Each gun in the fleet fired, then each ship began firing at its own pace. Simultaneously, Shock Cannons from human ships and smaller defense platforms began firing. The numerous explosions in his fleet were completely overshadowed by the tearing of the Human's flagship. No matter how advanced it was, it could not survive the simultaneous fire from hundreds of ships. After that, there were no more tactics or specific maneuvers. Only sheer, brute force of numbers allowed Paragar's fleet to gain the upper hand and allow him to start destroying both defense platforms and, more importantly, SDF ships. Admittedly, several boarding attempts were made by independent captains, but all ended up simply being shot by human cannons. After just a few minutes, all human ships were destroyed and the rescue capsules were fired from the disabled ones that exploded moments later. Human orbital forces were completely destroyed, but the Hegemony Pirates paid a heavy price. Almost 100 ships were destroyed and another 100 damaged. The 25th fleet suffered only minor losses as it stayed mainly in the rear.

"Begin landing. Take as many slaves and technologies as possible. Hand over the fleets of the five countries of Terminus to scatter the system in search of human ships and block the relays. Certainly, not all of them escaped." - Pragar shouted, and he began to watch from the bridge of his ship to the ferries, smaller ships, and fighters that escort as they headed for the planet.

= place: merchant ship Adonis =

"Helmsman, full power to the engines!" - Captain Blanca Oleastro shouted.

"Ma'am, it's full power already." - the helmsman replied. The ship purchased from Quarian did great for the first few years, but eventually, something broke. And it was just the engine. They were going to make repairs on Elysium, but they had to flee the Enormous pirate attack without completing them. Now they made their way at a snail's pace to the nearest Relay to escape from the system, but it wasn't fast enough and the pirate corvette would catch them before they could use it to escape.

Only one option remained.

"Turn the ship around, power shields and get ready to fight!" - Blanca ordered.

The merchant ship had defense equipment in the form of 2 twin-mount 14 cm high-pressure laser cannon turrets. After the First Contact War, several such turrets fell into the hands of the Council. This, combined with the wider introduction of Shock Cannons, energy shields, and modified kinetic barriers, made the cannons too weak for the SDF, which while still having some restrictions, were much smaller than before 2170. Thus, they came into the use of civilian ships. Despite their age, they were still sufficient to defend themselves against pirate attacks under normal circumstances.

But these were not normal circumstances.

"The enemy shoots!" - the navigator will shout. The entire ship shook when hit.

"Shields 72%! 3 more of them and we'll get open to boarding!" - sailor shouted in panic.

"Don't panic me here and return fire." - the captain said quickly.

Lasers fired at the pirate ship. One missed and the other barely scratched. The pirate ship fired another hit shot at the ship, which quickly responded with another volley, but after the attack, the ship shook again and the volley was as effective as the previous one. The next round hit the ship and reduced the shields to a paltry 16%, to which he finally responded with an effective hit, burning a hole in the side of the corvette. Before it could land a decisive hit on Captain Oleastro's ship, immobilizing it and giving the pirates a chance to board it.

And then, the corvette exploded.

"Helmsman, run for the relay, fast! We won't get another chance!" - Blanca shouted - "Someone tells me what happened there. Our hit was certainly not the direct cause of this explosion."

"Ma'am, there might be something left on the camera." - said the first officer. There was a camera mounted on most ships that recorded the entire time. In the event of an attack, it made it possible to identify exactly who was behind the attack, where it came from, how many there were, and a few other things.

After going through the relay, the first officer fired the recording and they will immediately postpone it to the last exchange. The video was played in slow motion and several crew members watched what was happening. When the explosion took place, it was noticed that it came from the rear, but there were no ships on the radar, which narrowed the possibilities considerably.

"It must be some Stealth ship." - said the Steersman - "It explains why he was not on the radar."

"Even the best Stealth ship has to show herself before the attack." - Blanca said - "There's nothing on the radar. Even for a millisecond. It wasn't on the camera either, and the current Stealth technology only hides it from radar and other scanners, not from visual contact."

"Couldn't he just be painted completely black and with the signal lamps off?" - asked the navigator.

"Even so, that doesn't explain the earlier problem of being kept hidden from scanners despite this pirate corvette being attacked, and the reason why they helped us." - Blanca continued - "The races of the Council make little use of missile technology and have no interest in helping a merchant ship while exposing themselves to detection. The SDF and SA Navy use this technology only to a small extent and it is relatively ineffective compared to the Salarians and the Geths. I have already told you the first ones, and the Geths are logical beings. There is no point in risking yourself and your mission, whatever it may be, to save a merchant ship."

"This leaves us with the new race." - said the steersman. The crew was shocked.

"What?"- the helmsman asked as the crew stared at him. - "That explains why we didn't detect them on scanners when they fired, or visually on camera. They just have better cloaking technology, plus making a hero-style exit first is a big plus in initial negotiations. Imagine those headlines 'New Race Saves Merchant Ship From Pirates' or something like that."

"You're right." - Blanka said quickly - "It explains most of our questions, but also adds a few others. But, if this really is a new race, we will leave it to the negotiators."

The ship continued its route to the nearest colony. Due to the damaged engine, despite passing through the Relay, it will not get there until the 5th fleet reaches Elysium.