…
"We know that peace is the condition under which mankind was meant to flourish. Yet peace does not exist of its own will. It depends on us, on our courage to build it and guard it and pass it on to future generations. George Washington's words may seem hard and cold today, but history has proven him right again and again. "To be prepared for war," he said, "is one of the most effective means of preserving peace." Well, to those who think strength provokes conflict, Will Rogers had his own answer. He said of the world heavyweight champion of his day: "I've never seen anyone insult Jack Dempsey."
(Ronald Reagan)
…
Pacem Proving Grounds, June 29th, 2:51 PM, 2183
…
I carefully watched over the marines that were running the outdoor obstacle course, making sure to keep an eye out for any discrepancies over the course of the run. Sira and I had begun work on the new, up-armored Gen IV exosuits, which would be purely military in nature. These suits looked very different from the Gen IIIs, but functioned on a similar level.
The Gen IVs biggest and most noticeable feature is the armor plating that now covered the entire suit. Since the exo already augments the wearer's strength and speed, we could afford to saddle it up with a stupid amount of armor. That consisted of a unique blend of standard ablative ceramics, interweaved with lightweight sheets of titanium. The end result was a thick, yet surprisingly light piece of armor plating that could shrug off upwards of 100 to 200 standard mass accelerator rounds before serious damage occurred. For a single soldier, this was unheard of.
The real challenge came with designing how entering and exiting the suit worked. Despite the quarians and their envirosuits, Rael specified that the suit must be able to hold an atmosphere for emergency purposes. This required that we not only make the suit easy to enter and exit, but that it would seal perfectly as well. We eventually came up with a system where the back of the armor "blossoms open" to allow it's user to enter, then when the suit detects that it's user had pulled themselves in, it shuts back up and seals with the assistance of a rubber lining on the seams.
Other features included an on-board computer that interfaced with a quarian's envirosuit, beefed up kinetic barriers, and even an extendable six-inch knife concealed in the right gauntlet.
It looked fearsome just sitting the lab. Out here in the proving grounds, it looked like a siege tank with legs.
Private Cinta'Harra smashed through another wooden wall, sprinting up a dirt hill. Once at the top, he charged down the other side. He did this while being peppered with small caliber mass accelerator rounds being fired by two little turrets. With the boosted kinetic barriers and thick armor plating, he might as well had be running through a hail storm.
Once past the kill zone, he bounded over the concrete barriers, tossing two dummy grenades at the nearby structure and disabling the turrets.
"Time!" I shouted over the loudspeaker as the buzzer rang, ending the test. "Good job, Cinta. You just killed your previous score by three point seven seconds."
"Thank you, sir." He replied over the radio as he walked back up to my observation platform.
"So, did you run into any problems with the new actuators?" I asked, pen at the ready to write down any new information. "Any stickiness or stiffness?"
"No, they perform a lot better than the old ones." Cinta answered, turning slightly to look at his knees. "I was able to run slightly faster, but the armor on the lower half of the leg scrapes against the top half with the increased range of movement."
"Right, so I'll have to shave the armor down to prevent the two from coming into contact with one another." I replied, quickly jotting the fix down in my datapad. "Feel free to take the suit back to the lab, I think we've gotten plenty done today."
"Yes sir." He finished politely, turning on his heel and breaking into a brisk run.
I milled over the notes I had taken, relieved to see no major issues as far as I could see. At this point, I couldn't imagine any reason why the new suit couldn't go into production. Right as I was about to go back to the lab, my omni-tool began ringing, playing Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better".
Mara was calling.
"Yeah, I'm here." I answered, putting down my datapad and looking out the window towards Camp Dolor. "What's up?"
"You need to get back to the lab now." She said in a deadpan voice, sounding slightly worried. "Something big is going down on the Alliance News Network, and Richard is freaking out about it."
"I'll be there in two minutes." I remarked, closing the line, grabbing my datapad, and running off at full speed.
My mind was racing as to what could be going on. Everything had been so quiet since Richard and Powell returned, and now that had apparently all changed. I could only imagine the worst was happening.
I flashed my ID to the guards as I ran through the doors and into the decon chamber. Once inside, I could see everyone in the lab, including the technicians, gathered around one of the video screens, watching intently as the new report went on.
"…a devastating attack this afternoon when a massive Geth fleet entered the system, tearing through the Citadel Defense Fleet and attacking the station itself. The Alliance Fifth Fleet, led by Admiral Steven Hackett, arrived in time to save the Destiny Ascension and the Council, but at the loss of many of their own ships. There are hundreds of reports still coming in, but the death toll is looking to be climbing into the thousands as we speak." The report announced as video flashed by showing the attack as it took place.
There were what looked to be several hundred Geth ships tearing through the Defense Fleet, but then something came into focus that actually disturbed me.
A large ship, almost pitch black, was pictured literally plowing through a turian cruiser as it sped towards the station itself. Nothing seemed to have any tangible effect on it, not even the main gun on the Destiny Ascension. It seemed to resemble a squid or a jellyfish, but just gave me a bad feeling in my gut just by looking at it.
I looked off to one of the storage rooms, seeing Richard and Powell through a window as someone spoke to them off to the side. I quickly walked over, entering to see everyone turn to look at me. Everyone was here, even Dan, who had stayed behind at Serenity Valley to work on some of the Explorer's weapon systems.
"Richard… was that Nazara?" I asked, still feeling that sick sensation in my gut as I began to sweat. "Was that one of those Old Machines, a fucking Reaper?"
"Yes." He nodded in confirmation with a scared, frantic look in his eyes. He was obviously freaked out, his hands were shaking and he was pacing back and forth constantly. "We're dead, we're dead…"
"We're not going to die, Richard!" Mara said, almost yelling at him. "We're going to work the problem! Come up with solutions! We'll be fine!"
"You don't understand!" Richard yelled full force, stopping and pointing at her. "These things have been doing this for millions and millions of years! None of the previous civilizations have stopped it! How do you think we're going to change anything?!"
"Calm down!" Dimitri demanded, grabbing Richard by the shoulders and looking him straight in the eye. "We can find way to beat this threat, but only if we can all work together as team! Now take a deep breath and sit down, you will feel better."
Richard nodded quickly to the mountain of a man, taking in a few deep breaths and sitting down on a nearby crate.
"So, what are we going to do about this new threat?" Sira asked after a short moment of silence, looking at all of us with some worry on her face as well. "My people built the Destiny Ascension to take on any ship in the galaxy, yet even it wasn't strong enough to stop that… thing."
"Something ha-happened to it shortly after the ar…arms of the station opened b-back up." Dan observed, rubbing his chin in thought. "Something weakened it enough to allow it to be de-damaged."
"It looked like it had extremely powerful kinetic barriers." Jack added, tugging on his beard as he looked off into space. "If all of that damage was being shrugged off by armor alone, they never would have been able to destroy it."
"What about the nuclear option?" Dimitri suggested, causing everyone except Dan to look at him with bewilderment.
"This isn't the time for jokes, Dimi." Mara chastised, as he maintained the serious look on his face.
For some reason, his quip reminded me of something.
"Actually, I have a better idea." I said, opening up my omni-tool and browsing through the dozens of concept drawings I had created over the last few months.
"I'd love to hear it." Jack remarked, just as I found the one I was looking for.
"This." I announced, projecting a hologram into the center of the room where everyone could see it.
"What the hell is that?" Mara remarked with confusion clearly evident on her and everyone else's face.
"This is something I came up with a month ago. It's an Orbital Defense Platform, or ODP for short." I began, walking around the hologram as I showed it off. "In concept, the ODP is simply a gigantic gun with a space station built around it. The gun, if used at full power, would be capable of firing a three-thousand ton slug at thirty percent of light speed. It would also be equipped with twelve two-hundred and fifty millimeter point defense guns, four entire GUADIAN grids, and its very own built-in garrison of LOKI and YMIR mechs to repel any boarding attempts."
"You are absolutely insane." Sira remarked in disbelief, looking at me as if I was crazy.
"This is a-awesome." Dan said shortly after her, smiling as he looked at the hologram. "With that amount of fir…firepower, you'd be able to trigger an extinction-level event o-on a planet with one shot."
"I can't imagine anything surviving hit from such a weapon." Dimitri supported, pointing at the midsection. "This would surpass any mass accelerator weapon in existence in size alone."
"Is this a reciprocating recoil system built into the structure of station itself?" Powell quipped, highlighting part of the superstructure in the hologram.
"Correct. The recoil from the main gun would be too much for traditional thrusters to handle." I pointed out, distorting the hologram slightly as I poked my finger into it.
"Excuse me, but can we please discuss how this actually helps us?" Mara inquired, looking none too pleased. "Even if we could somehow convince the Admirals to let us build this monstrosity, how does it help anyone else?"
"That in there lies the problem." I remarked with a slightly more downtrodden tone. "For now, even after this attack, I highly doubt that everyone is going to accept the idea that a highly advanced race of machines is coming to eradicate all intelligent life in the galaxy."
"How can they not accept that after one just wiped the floor with them?" Sira asked, sounding very skeptical.
"Sean is right, this attack isn't going to be enough to convince them of the truth, and even if it does, they won't publically admit it." Jack agreed, nodding his head slightly. "From what I've seen in the news reports alone, they're more interested in their own politics than they are the truth."
"The best thing we can do for now is prepare ourselves for the worst." I said, closing the hologram and bringing it back to my omni-tool. "If we can just buy ourselves time until the Reapers being arriving in mass and establish ourselves in a position of strength, we can further develop countermeasures and other tech to combat these machines."
A slight nod of agreement circulated around the room, as everyone seemed to side with my thinking.
"There's still the problem of actually convincing the Admirals to let you build this station, Sean." Richard remarked, still looking down at the floor. "I don't think the Admirals are going to be much more receptive to your idea than the Council."
"Oh, I've already got something planned for that." I reassured, letting a small smirk cross my lips as I looked over at the camo Geth platform. "Powell, remember when you were telling me about the ships the Geth have at their disposal?"
…
MFV Neema, June 30th, 10:01 AM, 2183
…
I was seated on the side of the room near the Admirals and a few key members of the Conclave, along with Richard in an "emergency" conference. We were almost ready to begin, we were just waiting on two of the captains.
Last night, taking advantage of the news of the Citadel attack and some information Powell had picked up while in Geth space, we fabricated a report describing a massive dreadnought that the Geth had "recently" finished building. While this dreadnought was actually real and larger than any of the others that fell under the Treaty of Farixen, it was only halfway finished. Knowing that the "true" Geth had no intention of leaving the Veil anytime soon, we could safely inform the Admirals of this and fire "hypothetical scenarios" at them like a Gatling gun without actually "lying".
A little fear-mongering wouldn't hurt the Migrant Fleet. After all, if it wasn't for Themistocles striking fear of another Persian invasion into the Athenian people, their navy would never have been strong enough to take them on during the Battle of Artemisium. I honestly felt that this would eventually save lives in the future, much like that had.
It was hard to convince Richard to play along, considering the fact that this could further fan the flames of hatred between the Quarians and the Geth. Luckily, Powell agreed with my plan, and was able to get Richard to cave. If anything, this would help the Admirals trust Powell, and if we could get Powell accepted in the eyes of the Admirals, maybe they'd be a little… accommodating towards him and Richard in the future.
"I still can't believe it, first the attack on the Citadel, now this." Gerrel mused as we waited, shaking his head in frustration. "Are you sure this information is one-hundred percent accurate?"
"Powell is never wrong when he gives you "one-hundred percent" as an answer, Admiral." Richard remarked, almost in a mocking tone, as he took a clean rag out of his left pocket and wiped off his cybernetic eye. "This dreadnought is not only real, but bigger than any other ship we've seen."
"Please, be silent on the matter until the last of the captains arrive." Raan shushed, as silence filled the room once more.
Two minutes later, Captain Kar'Danna vas Rayya and Captain Ysin'Mal vas Idenna arrived. I didn't know much about Kar'Danna, but I was very good friends with Ysin'Mal. He was one of the biggest voices to support my Haven Plan back when I first proposed it in January, and led one of the first scouting missions to find suitable systems for colonization.
Taking their places, the meeting could now begin.
"Thank you all for arriving on such short notice." Raan thanked, looking to each of the captains as they all stood at attention. "I realize you're all probably wondering why we called this meeting."
"That's an understatement." Captain Mal commented in a slightly annoyed tone as he crossed his arms.
"I think it'd be easier just to go right into it, Raan." Zadie urged, as Raan looked back at her.
"You're right." She nodded back, before looking to the Captains once more. "In the last twelve hours, we've come across some disturbing information regarding the Geth that we need to discuss with the Conclave. Captain Michaels, Dr. Richards, please."
We both walked forward, standing next to the Admirals as we looked out over the Captains.
"Yesterday, we finished decoding some of the data we've retrieved from beyond the Perseus Veil." Richard started off, grasping his datapad tightly as I felt well over a dozen eyeballs train on us. "What we've discovered is… disturbing. The Geth have recently finished constructing a dreadnought almost three-thousand meters in length, making it the biggest dreadnought to ever exist."
Murmurs immediately permeated through the Conclave as the news sunk in. We certainly had their full attention now.
"Is this the same dreadnought that attacked the Citadel yesterday?" One of the Captains asked, as I expected.
"No, it's not." I answered, taking a step forward as silence filled the room once more. "The ship that used to attack the Citadel was of a completely different design, and was destroyed during the battle."
"Then what kind of ship was used during that attack?" Kar'Danna inquired, raising his hand slightly. "I saw the footage of that attack, and that thing shrugged off rounds from the Destiny Ascension."
I pondered his question for a few seconds, trying to think of a good explanation that wouldn't make me sound like a loon.
"We still aren't sure what kind of ship was used, but we have reason to believe that a rouge Council SPECTRE named Saren Arterius used it in the attack." I put together, getting a few odd looks from the Captains. "Whether he found it or built it using his own money, we have no idea. All we know is that it bears no resemblance to any of the designs the Geth have utilized."
"So, what of this Geth Dreadnought?" Another Captain asked out loud, sounding almost annoyed. "Why should we be concerned about it?"
"Why should you be concerned about it?" I repeated in confusion, feeling insulted. "If the Flotilla ever tries to take back the homeworld, thousands could die trying to destroy this behemoth. What if the Geth somehow caught wind of the developments my team have been contributing to the Fleet? They could attack the Flotilla, or even the Klenot system, and nothing we have would be able to stop it."
"Only the combined effort of the Fleet would be able to destroy this… if they attacked the Klenot system, nothing would be able to stop it." Koris hypothesized, just as had hoped he would. "We'd lose all the resources we've fought so hard to find."
"Captain Michaels, does your team have any suggestions?" Raan asked, getting the room silent once more.
"Only one." I remarked, taking out my datapad and projecting my design out into the open for everyone to see. "I've envisioned something powerful enough to knock out any dreadnought in existence. I call it the Orbital Defense Platform."
The Conclave went wild with chitter-chatter as the Admirals got astonished looks in their eyes.
"This space station… its one gigantic mass accelerator weapon." Rael stated, sounding dumbfounded.
"The Orbital Defense Platform would be capable of firing 3,000 ton projectiles at 30 to 30.2 percent of light speed, and the impact would be equal to that of 51,625 megatons of TNT." I delved further, as everyone had actually stopped talking to listen to me. "This is a one shot, one kill weapon. Nothing else in the galaxy would be able to match it in pure destructive power."
"Why does it have to be so powerful?" Zadie asked from behind me, actually sounding more curious.
"I'll be honest, I did scale it up slightly after seeing the footage of the attack yesterday." I lied, gripping my datapad slightly harder. "After seeing how many deaths had been caused by one ship, I wanted to make something that could end any threat before it can cause serious damage."
"Even if we did agree to make this beauty, it would be an incredible undertaking to build." One of the captains remarked from near the front. She was wearing an all-black envirosuit, even the faceplate was black. "It would take many months, and a lot of raw resources."
"I've already calculated that." Richard chimed back in, fumbling slightly with his datapad. "All the raw resources we need are already located in the Klenot system itself, and with a full complement of 2,000 volunteers, we could have this station finished by the end of the year."
"That's not all." I added, looking specifically at the Admirals this time around. "If this station is built, we could have all the leftover components needed to jumpstart a dedicated shipyard. We could slowly begin bringing in ships, upgrading and up armoring them to bolster the Fleet's combat effectiveness."
I could feel Richard's cybernetic eye as it bore into the back of my skull. He knew I was eluding to war with the Geth. Still, despite how he felt about my allusions, I think I caught them in my net.
"With our own shipyard, we could begin prepping our ships for a war with the Geth." Rael said to himself, but within earshot of the other Admirals.
"This meeting is not about war with the Geth, Rael!" Koris quietly rebuked so that the Captains could not hear him.
"Even disbarring the possibility of war with the Geth in the future, having our own shipyard just for the purposes of repairing and retrofitting the many underperforming ships in the Fleet would be a major step forward for our people." Gerrel mused, rubbing the bottom of his mask as he thought.
Things progressed into assorted conversation from there. When things had finally calmed down, a vote was held to see what would become of my idea.
In a landslide vote, I got the approval for my Orbital Defense Platform.
…
Serenity Valley, July 7th, 9:34 PM, 2183
…
I looked casually at my omni-tool, checking for any new updates before looking back to Jack. He was currently in the process of developing an experimental shielding system for use on ships, but he had hit a wall with its development.
"So the problem is with emitting the shield, not necessarily with the generation of said shield." I pointed out, looking over his hand drawn designs.
"Yes, I've solved the problem of power balance and directional control, but I've still been unable to get an emitter design that meets my expectations." Jack agreed, further explaining the problem. "What I need is something that can project away from the surface of an object, but even the military-grade ones are insufficient."
"That's a pretty tall order, Jack." I said, slightly blown away at the specifications he had set out for this. "There's only one thing I can think of that could do the trick, but…"
I paused, realizing that I had unknowingly stumbled into old, uncomfortable territory.
"But what?" Jack asked, suddenly very curious as to what was now going through my head.
"Let's just say… I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of treading into my… past projects." I stammered out, thinking back many years.
"Ok then… so you can't help me with this?" Jack probed further, sounding a little disappointed.
"Yeah, I'm sorry, but I just… can't." I finished, letting out a small sigh as I excused myself from his quarters.
Once outside, I stared up at the stars above us for the longest time, thinking back to that red-letter day, the day when everything changed. Even to this day, I still get those very same shivers of fear and hopelessness going up my spine whenever I recall those final moments. I thought Dan and I were dead. Just recalling that chilling cold, the smell of the ozone in the air, it gave me cold sweats.
"Hey." I heard Dan greet from behind me, snapping me out of my trance. "What's going on?"
"Oh, I was just… thinking back to Area 51." I answered honestly, looking back to the stars. "You ever still think about what happened?"
"Sometimes I still get n-nightmares about it." He admitted, taking a seat on the rock next to me before we sat in silence for a few moments. "Even after what hap…happened to us, I still wonder w-what we could have done with it."
"All that potential was there, just waiting for us." I reminisced, holding out my hand towards the sky and grabbing at it. I shook my head in denial as I thought back to my parents, specifically my father. "Do you think I've done the right thing?"
"What do you mean?" Dan questioned, looking over at me as I continued to stare up at the stars.
"Do you think my parents would have liked what I've done?" I asked, feeling the smallest bit of moisture building up in the corner of my eyes. "Have I done enough to help people?"
"You've he…helped give an entire race of p-people a better chance of surviving in this galaxy, Sean." Dan said, looking back up at the stars with me. "And that's not even c-counting everything you've done for us. Saving us from Lynda and those Cerberus mo…monsters, giving us a safe place to live by negotiating with the Q-quarians… I think they would have been very p-proud of you."
I leaned back up, nodding to his words as I fought back tears. I took in a deep breath, looking back to him.
"Thanks Dan." I replied with a lowered voice, standing back up and looking down at him. "Just promise me one thing… if I ever do something stupid that could put us, the crew, or the Quarians at risk… you stop me, no matter what I do or say."
"I promise, don't worry." He agreed, standing up and shaking my hand.
With that, we went our separate ways into the darkness, with nothing but moonlight to guide us.
Once again, I silently hoped to myself that I could do proud by them.
…
A/N: Things are heating up around the galaxy, and the crew of the Explorer seek to speak softly, and carry a big stick. What will become of their shiny, giant gun, and what will happen in the future? Tune in to find out!
I've been taking advantage of my Spring Break to pump a few more man hours into this poor story. I hope you guys appreciate it!
And for future reference, I'd like to clarify a few things regarding the sizes of these ships. The biggest thing is that I've rescaled the Geth Dreadnought to be around the same size as a Quarian Liveship, roughly 2,817 meters (Liveship) to 2,950 meters (Geth Dreadnought). I did this to make it more of an immediate threat, and also because I didn't find it all that threatening in Mass Effect 3. Second, the canon length of an Orbital Defense Platform is 1,336 meters, but I rounded it up to 1,500 meters just to make it more interesting. For reference, a Sovereign-class Reaper averages out to about 2,000 meters. And finally, most of the calculations and specs for the ODP were worked out by the lovely people on the old forums.
Let's be real here, the impact from one of these projectiles releases five times more energy than what was released by the Tsar Bomba. This gun can kill a planet. Imagine what it can do to a Reaper.
I'd love to read any reviews, I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism! Stay tuned!