Mass Effect: The Great War

by Mister Smallville

The Citadel Council and the Turian Hierarchy has been at war for a good half of a century. Eager to break the stalemate, The Hierarchy seeks out a new ally in a rising Systems Alliance, bringing the war back to full speed. The Alliance now goes through it's trial by fire, as it emerges from obscurity into the galactic stage. (AU no Krogan Rebellions/First Contact Wars)

2. Ep 2 Contact

HNS Heart of Courage, En Route to Utopia System, 2945 PSC

Lieutenant Commander Quentius Trevanian, was given command of the 23rd expeditionary force. If the operation had happened a month earlier, he would have been serving as XO (Executive Officer) on the Heart of Courage. Fate had a different idea however. Only two weeks ago, a large Batarian force made its way to the colony Gallop. The Batarians had already overrun the orbital defenses, and had begun landing troops. Quentius, at the time under the command of Captain Kitus Ovanian, was sent to retake the colony. While the Turian navy did indeed defeat the Batarian force in the system, a missile from an enemy cruiser had slammed into the side of the Heart of Courage's bridge, thankfully it was a dud and did not detonate. Most of the crew inside the bridge was ejected out into the void however. It seems that the only reason that Quentius was alive is because of pure luck.

'Luck won't save me if I mess this up'

"We'll be exiting Relay transit in a few minutes" the navigation officer said

"Excellent. Communications, I want you working with the sensor department to make sure that we can actually talk with them"

A few minutes later, the Heart of Courage and the rest of the 23rd expeditionary force dropped out of Relay transit

"Sensors, what do you see?" Quentius said

"There are 7 planets in the system, two of which have breathable atmosphere. We're also detecting several Mass Effect signatures in the system, 29 to be exact. Hang on, we're receiving something" The sensory officer paused for a few seconds "It seems to be a first contact package. I'm going to send this to communications to try and have it translated"

"Good, we need to inform them of our intentions. Make sure that we're shooting at the same guys and not each other" Quentius said "Meanwhile, I want all ships on defensive positions, just in case things do go bad"

Nodding in affirmative, the helmsman coordinated with the other ships and moved to defensive positions near the Relay, with the Heart of Courage at the front of the formation.

Several minutes go by as the crew in communications translated the package as fast as possible. It helped that these aliens included their language in it.

"Sir, we have a basic translator suite ready for use" the communications officer said.

"Excellent work. Open a line to the enemy ship"

The communications officer nodded and prepared a line for Quentius to use

"Line open, you can speak now"

Quentius readied himself. Whatever it is he says to these aliens, it could affect relations in the long run. He took a deep breath, and spoke out

"I am Lieutenant Commander Quentius Trevanian, serving the Turian Hierarchy. A hostile race called the Batarians are coming here as we speak. We are here to help." Quentius said, nodding at the communications officer, who proceeded to close the line "I hope that the translator works. Send them our first contact package and a copy of the translator suite. Let's hope they know how to use it"

-000-

SSV Black Typhoon, Over Eden Prime, 2192 AD

"They managed to get a translator running that fast, I'm impressed" Pressley said "They probably have some really nice computers"

Hackett agreed, looking over the tactical display, he watched as the package was translated from the alien's language. It had helped a lot that the aliens sent a copy of the translator

"Sir, we have translated a part of the data. Sending it to your tactical display now"

Hackett opened the files and read through. From the rough translation, he could figure out that these aliens were called Turians, an avian-like species with metallic plates covering their bodies. They were bipedal, like humans, and had two hands. The cultural part of the package detailed that the Turians were a militaristic race. Their entire society revolved around service to the Hierarchy. The package also contained a piece about the larger galaxy. Apparently this part was the easiest to translate

'They didn't make this part, according to communications, the code base was slightly different. Likely it was made by someone else. But who? The Batarian's computer capabilities weren't as advanced. More aliens out there then? It's possible that these Turians just took the other alien's first contact package and included them in theirs'

Reading further, it turns out that Hackett's suspicions were right. There was a larger community out there. A conglomeration of races, calling themselves the Citadel Council, based on a large space station. From the data about this Citadel Council, the Batarians were a part of this organization.

'They must be where the Batarians are getting their resources'

From what little Hackett had read about the Batarian territory, they we're abundant in minerals like iron and lead, but not in the likes of element zero.

'Directly or not, this Council is funding the Batarian's aggressions towards us.'

Hackett marked that part of the package as important, so that he could come back to it later. Now he needed to address the Turians

"How's the translator?" Hackett asked to his communications officer, Rob Chambers

"The ones that they sent us was pretty crude" Chambers said "We managed to improve the translation accuracy by 47 percent. Lesser chance of accidentally insulting their mothers that way"

Chuckles could be heard from around the bridge. Chambers always did manage to ease the tension

"Good work, send them a copy of the improved translator and open a line to the Turians"

After a moment, Chambers nodded to Hackett

"Greetings Turians, I am Captain Steven Hackett, of the Systems Alliance. We thank you for not shooting at us immediately. However, must question the nature of your… arrival."

It wasn't long before a reply was sent

"Apologies for urgency, know Batarians at war with you. We at war with Batarians as well. Hierarchy proposes mutual partnership"

Hackett thought over what the Turian had said again

'They're looking for allies.' Hackett thought to himself 'If they're at war with the Batarians, then it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to consider them at war with this Council too'

Hackett looked over his options. Refusing the Turians would give the Batarians the edge, which would eventually lead to Eden Prime being lost. If he accepted however, the Turians may ask them to return the favor, probably to become their allies in their war.

'Either way, we still have to face the Batarians. Might as well go with the one that has a higher chance of succeeding'

Hackett called for a live call to be opened to the Turians, who accepted the invitation

"I can't exactly make that kind of decision. But if you do help us with the immediate threat, it would gain favor with the ones who can"

"Understand. Will help on defense, this is your system. Your orders"

-000-

HSC Shadow of Bahak, En Route to Utopia system, 2412 CC (Citadel Calander)

Real Admiral Narahash Dov'tok of the Hegemony Navy had been given the honor of destroying the repugnant human colony of Eden Prime. Under his command are 117 ships. Enough to beat down whatever puny defenses the Humans had on Eden Prime. Ever since the Hegemony had taken over Shanxi, raiding Human colonies had been even easier compared to the start of the war. With the Human forces spread far too thin to properly stage a counter attack, the Hegemony had ample time to fortify their positions on the planet. By the time the Humans had mustered a force enough to retake Shanxi, they were ready.

The Human counterattack was to be applauded. They fought ferociously for their colony. 133 ships flew in to retake the colony. 133 ships never came back. The Humans hadn't counted on the Hegemony turning captured ships from the Shanxi port and turning them into impromptu warships, piloted by slaves and hostages. The Hegemony only lost one of their actual warships, using the slave ships as shields. The Humans that were attacking hesitated when they found this out, and that was their mistake. After that crushing defeat, the Humans had focused on shoring up their defenses. No doubt that it came across as a devastating defeat.

Now the pitiful Humans are going to suffer an even more embarrassing defeat. With the fighting force, Dov'tok was going to start the chain of events that was supposed to bring the Humans to their knees.

"Sir, we are exiting Relay transit" a Batarian said

"Good, we will show these Humans who is the superior race! I want ground forces deployed as soon as possible. Take as many of them alive as possible"

"Yes admiral"

-000-

A/N

31 followers already? That's way more than I thought I would have gotten! Thanks a lot guys. I couldn't exactly fit in an actual action scene for this chapter, I actually wanted to include the fight between the Batarians and the Humans/Turians in this chapter, but I still need to figure out the Batarian's fighting capabilities, since they aren't detailed in standard canon, and also something the Humans would have that could give them an edge towards the Citadel. It wouldn't be anything OP. Yet.

Anyways, this part was already done and i thought 'What the hell, it ties up most of the things mentioned, might as well as throw it in

Thanks for reading as always, put your thoughts and suggestions into your review if you want. And have a good day.