AN: I once again provide my followers with entertainment, this rewrite has been in the works for sometime now, I have my research donkeys and grammar Nazis working overtime, to provide only the finest.
Stratcat has worked his magic once again, special thanks to you pal, and the other lot who chipped in and caused nothing but fucking trouble and sent me on God knows how many tangents.
My is still a work in progress, but I have made headway on the SSV Lion BS-106 arm patches, still only as concept drawings at the moment but hopefully I can provide them to my fans as full fledged merchandise, if you happen to be interested...
April 19th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Turian Hierarchy Space, Outer Colony Space.
Centurion Sector, Dessous System, Dessous De-Commissioned Listening Post.
Joint 17th Fleet and 209th Battlegroup Assembly Point Alpha.
[+6 Months since HNV Invictus was Declared MIA with all hands.]
[Play: The White Stripes: Elephant - Seven Nation Army] (Rock)
It had been the greatest deception the Turian Hierarchy had undertaken since its founding all those centuries ago.
One-hundred and forty some vessels consisting of 1 Menae class dreadnought, 20 formerly reserved Apian class battle-cruisers, 26 modern Valiant class cruisers and 100 frigates of which were of various classes and tonnage, some of an older pedigree, but far from obsolete.
Admiral Gavilan Nyx stood ready, his mandibles twitching in anticipation for what was going to be nothing but a short range slugging match against 'pirates'. As every race knew, but couldn't prove, the 'pirates' were legitimate navy vessels of the Batarian Hegemony.
The plan, which was six months in the making, was bold to say the least, using one of the few back doors to the Hegemony 'claimed' Skyllian Verge. A claim not officially recognised by the Citadel Council.
The fleet would jump into the system issuing a single declaration; "heave to and surrender for boarding action, or die where you stand."
Knowing the batarian stance against being boarded, Gavilan knew they would rather fight. Only, he wouldn't give them a chance, at all, as painted on his dreadnought's hull were a group of multi coloured rectangular markers.
All. Slavers. Pirates. Fail. Surrender. No. Quarter.
It was archaic to say the least, but the message was clear, as was the intent. The turians were using their cultural right to openly commit actions that directly opposed the Batarian Hegemony's own declared cultural right to freely commit slavery.
With this one move the Hierarchy had declared that they were taking matters into their own hands. They had, in two very simple words, had enough.
Following such an open declaration, the Salarian Union, alongside the Asari Republics, would have no viable means to act, as they could not interfere with a matter of clashing cultural rights which were protected under Citadel law.
As such, they could not revoke one race's claimed cultural right without revoking the other. The Council could not be seen to take sides, lest they bring their impartial rule into question.
Opening a fleet-wide communication Gavilan Nyx spoke with his usual authoritative tone. "Men and women of the Hierarchy, today is the day we declare with one voice, no more! No more shall the Hierarchy sit idly by while slaving scum ravage our galaxy!"
Gavilan paused for a second or two before continuing. "It is our cultural right to see those who openly commit to actions such as slavery and piracy hang by the neck for their crimes. If the animals of the Hegemony fail to surrender the first time, we will give them no quarter, put them down like the rabid animals they are, for they contribute nothing to civilized society. May the Spirits bless our cause!"
Taking a moment to glance around the staff that occupied his bridge, Gavilan nodded to himself before issuing the order that would tear the walls around the Hegemony's slave markets down.
"All vessels. all ahead full! We head for the Skyllian Verge, let's show these animals how real warriors wage war!"
The turian war cry of "For the Hierarchy!" rang throughout the corridors.
The fleet of one hundred and forty some vessels lit up their fusion torches to maximum thrust, quickly approaching the tuning fork-like device before flashing out in a brilliant blue streak.
It would take weeks until the Council finally managed to assemble a hearing to learn just what was happening in the Skyllian Verge.
May 10th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Serpent Nebula, The Citadel, Council Chambers.
[21 days since Anti-Slaver Action Taken.]
[Play: Super Furry Animals: Songbook: The Singles, Vol.1 - The Man Don't Give a Fuck]
Matriarch Tevos had been suffering through endless calls from the batarian embassy for the last three weeks so they could address (see: demand) why a turian fleet was openly declaring a war on their cultural right to openly commit actions of slavery.
A right protected by Council law.
The salarian Councillor just two weeks in office had taken to finding the reasons for such actions, finding in his own words 'no cause for such a violent action from the premier fighting force of the Citadel Council.'
Whilst the turian Councillor, who held the office for the Turian Hierarchy, remained stoic and refused to openly comment on just why one of the Hierarchy's fleets was committing actions against the Hegemony's declared cultural right.
Now here they all stood before a full assembly of spectators, Tevos called the session open. "Ambassador please make your opening statement, to establish your government's side of the facts."
The four eyed, ambassador snarling throughout the entirety of his opening statement spoke with both a passion and a rage the three councillors seldom witnessed.
"The facts are, Councilor, that the Turian Hierarchy has openly committed actions that breach our cultural rights! Our heritage which was openly declared and protected by citadel law, on a vote of two to one when we made official contact with the Citadel, has been stamped on by the turian military as we speak."
"Is this true Primarch?" Tevos pointedly asked.
The Primarch, showing little emotion, spoke up beside the Hegemony ambassador. "From a certain point of view, yes, but to be diplomatic about the situation. WE have decided to act on OUR cultural heritage which was agreed upon unanimously when we joined the Citadel Council, when we fought a war for the COUNCIL'S survival."
The sharp intake of breath by the salarian Councillor beside her made her realise how serious of a situation had come to light. "Could you please enlighten those present just what your declared cultural right is?"
"Our cultural right is that any privateers, pirates and slaves caught taking action unlawfully in citadel space will be tried and possibly executed for crimes against turian society, to put it simply so there are no miscommunications." The Primarch paused.
"If any vessels refuse to heave to and surrender to be boarded for inspections, they will simply be given no quarter as per turian law. As an open declaration of our intent all fleets in the Hierarchy have had legally recognised markers as agreed by all species apart of the citadel space painted on their hulls."
Images appeared on the council chamber displays.
Tevos now realised how well and truly stuck they were, both sides were using the law as written to commit to actions against one another; neither side could have their singular right revoked to bring peace, as both species would have to have the law protecting their cultural rights revoked to remain unbiased.
To put it plainly, the Turian Hierarchy had in one move neutered any possible action that the Council could levy upon them to prevent further actions or prevent an outright escalation of the coming conflict.
"We see, Primarch, with the law as written protecting both parties, the Council must be officially recognised only as mediators in this conflict and will therefore declare greater citadel space a neutral zone. No action shall be taken against the other in this neutral zone, any vessel that does will be declared persona non grata, and will meet a swift and decisive end by any one of the COUNCIL fleets."
The scream of outrage from the batarian was like music to turian ears. "Now is either party willing to negotiate here and now, to end the conflict before it brings further bloodshed?" Tevos's answer was given when the batarian ambassador turned his back on the Council and stormed out of the chambers.
The Primarch stayed behind all the while clicking his mandibles before addressing the council again.
"The Hierarchy navy, will agree to the terms set before us, we would be remiss to not state our reasoning behind our actions however. Nearly six and a half months ago, a batarian slaver fleet openly engaged and destroyed one of our cruiser battle groups along our border with the Attican Traverse; the battlegroup has since been recorded as lost with all hands, and we are working towards securing our border against all aggressors."
The news coverage of the war was in depth with detailed analysis, interviews and reports would show fit and walking wounded turian soldiers on multiple worlds pushing forward under a hail of gunfire, whilst pirate and slave bases which called the Attican Traverse their home, were put under siege and taken one backwater world at a time.
The war however wouldn't be one sided by any stretch of the imagination. Borders were changing on a bi-weekly basis as illicit funding from the Hegemony increased dramatically, basically paying out blood money to throw bodies against the Hierarchy army and navy.
It wouldn't be until seven months into the war itself, before something drastic had to take place, so under the orders of the Hegemony ruling council a fleet of 300 in service Hegemony vessels including three of their dreadnoughts took up position beside the Alpha Relay, which was currently realigning itself to keyhole and back-door the turian navy's staging ground the industrial colony world of Agamemnon.
This mission was do or die, the Hegemony economy was close to crashing, as the government continued to lose money due to a lack of slave imports, which was compounded by the fact that the Hegemony were simultaneously paying higher and higher premiums to pay for Pirate and Slaver groups to take action against the Hierarchy.
November 29th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Hegemony Combined Fleet Alpha, Dreadnought Divine Right.
Bridge / Combat Information Centre.
[Play: Jack Hall & Sam Hulick: Mass Effect OST - Bring Down The Sky (Suite)]
"This is Grand Admiral Trentch, for too long have the councils attack varren slighted us, today we return those bastards a favour, kill every male, raid their cities and towns, rape and enslave the females, it's time we prove that the turian's are not invincible!"
With the Alpha mass relay finally aligned, the fleet charged forwards, little did they know that in the scant few seconds before transit they would find themselves before a gauntlet of death, because though the turian's hadn't anticipated just which colony they would attack, the admiralty had prioritised upgrading the defences of the High-Risk high reward systems.
Agamemnon was one such system.
Seeing as the system itself held the third highest concentration of space dock facilities whilst producing enough raw materials to supply and build at least three fleets worth of vessels every year, two heavy cruiser patrol fleets were on active station whilst two more fleets were moored inside the orbital berths, the one hundred plus defence satellites had been drastically up gunned by quarian contractors since the war had begun, whilst fifty additional satellites had joined their number.
Each and every one of those satellite's were in range of the one Relay pointed towards the galactic South-East, the only relay in system with a direct line of sight to batarian space proper. The initial volley had been a devastating one just as the fleet emerged 1800 metres clear of the relay, the frigates and light cruisers were the first to detonate as their shields failed to absorb the sheer volume of firepower.
The debris field forming proved deadly as vessels careened through the multi million tonnes worth of wreckage depleting shields and impacting the hulls proper on those vessels which had forgone any sense of regular maintenance.
Even if turian quality control proved the better method of committing devastation, batarian numbers proved better in distributing the workload, after all sheer numbers worked out in distributing heat build-up, whereas the turian's had to reduce their rates of fire to stay in the fight longer.
The four heavy cruiser fleets of the Hierarchy had however rid the batarian forces of one key advantage, surprise, and now with the rest of the Hierarchy on high alert, the nearest battlegroups and dreadnought fleets were well underway to committing a counter attack.
All the turian forces had to do was delay, with the confirmation of three active Hegemony dreadnoughts spearheading an invasion into turian space it wouldn't be long until the Council got wind, maybe resulting in harsher sanctions being placed against them.
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Deep Space, Unmapped System.
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre.
[+419 Days Since Departure.]
[Play: Two Steps From Hell: Battlecry - Flight of the Silverbird]
Standing beside the war table of Lion, now sporting a well-trimmed full beard, Liam watched as the montressian observers took to their light duties with gusto, he could now name any turian officer by face with or sans colonial markings, hell he'd even say he could read turian expressions as well as any human ones.
Ka'mara, had even proven to be a true captain in the making, Liam's reports and personal opinions reflected on that fact, he would even admit it to himself that he found Ka'mara attractive in her own exotic way, he may even act on his feelings when the good commander was once more, well and truly in the ranks of the Hierarchy fleet.
The Lion for the last three days sat in geo-synchronous orbit of a viable colony world, one of six which the ship and crew had discovered in total throughout the journey; two of which were now well and truly inside what the Systems Alliance recognised as montressian sovereign territory.
The other four, including the newly named Shanxi would have several colony ships journey to them using our provided star-charts, cutting travel time by something as ridiculous as six to seven months, by using their ludicrously oversized jump drives to leapfrog multiple systems at a time.
Shanxi was something of a happy accident; however, what we were looking for was the mass relay sitting securely at the edge of the system. I'd seen it fit to give the crew some shore leave, before the lion made up for lost time utilising the first mapped relay pair on the outskirts of Hierarchy space.
Relay 314.
Utilising this relay was going to cut out the last leg of our journey, making up for the lost time we'd made in being guest's, using the word loosely of course, in the Montresor System.
Ka'mara had for the last three days managed to link into the mass relay comm buoy to see if any information was dumped in the device.
It was a long shot, but she had a small hope that stray bits of information had been caught in the memory, as all buoys utilised something similar to our quantum entanglement system to send and receive day to day updates.
"Sir." Lieutenant Smollet addressed me. "Are we all accounted for Lieutenant?" Liam asked the communications officer of the Lion, who had decided to let her hair grow out a tad over regulation length over the past couple of months. "Aye sir, all hands accounted for, all birds are safely in their roosts sir."
"Excellent, Helm make best possible speed towards the relay. Retract flight-pods and secure stations for mass transit, put out a general alert to brace for potential turbulence." Ka'mara nodded alongside the rest of the CIC crew as she picked up her own wireless.
"All hands, all hands secure stations for a mass transit and brace for potential turbulence, this is not a drill, I repeat, all hands are to secure stations for a mass transit and are to brace for potential turbulence."
Ka'mara looked at me after placing down her wireless. "How bad are we talking, turbulence wise Liam?"
Liam smirked to myself, thinking through my answer for a good few seconds before replying. "It could go either way, we're keeping the jump drive's spooled which may or may not cause us some issues by destablising the mass transit corridor, while inside the bloody thing, let's just hope we don't need them during the deceleration, things tend to fuck up when blind jumping at speed."
Ka'mara clicked her mandibles a little in thought. "You sound like you know from experience." Liam shot her a look that said all that needed to be said on the matter.
"Sir, we're making the final approach to the relay now sir." The Lion's Chinese helmsman piped up next to the female turian flight lieutenant who was now our acting Navigation Officer. "Navigator, has the relay been plugged in with the necessary information?"
"Aye sir, Relay is hot and ready for transit sir."
"Excellent, let's see if your superior calibrations are up to the task Vakarian, 2000 metres or better Lieutenant, make the Hierarchy proud." Nodding to herself she began to count down. "Transit is on my mark… three… two… one…. MARK!"
The sensation of horizontal vertigo hit the crew, the moment the lightning bolt of pure Eezo energy struck the bow of the Lion, it took thirty seconds for the Lion to be propelled some ten-thousand lightyears.
The turbulence was bearable if not a little unpleasant but the Lion had cleared the other side, and not a plate was out of place. "Navigation checks out sir, stars matching up with Hierarchy records, sir, you'll be pleased to hear drift was 1760 metres."
"Congratulations people we made it; and congratulations Lieutenant Vakarian for accomplishing a feat beating the current record drift of a mass transit by 200 some metres, Liam owe you 200 credits to remind me when I'm off duty to organise the cash."
Celebrations broke out but were soon cut short however when every turian's omni-tool lit up like a christmas tree, Ka'mara and her fellow turians all cancelled their alarming out Omni-tools, and proceeded to display a message in coded turian.
"Sir, I'd hate to ask any more of you than what my crew already has, sir, but… the Hierarchy is under attack, a hostile force of 300 vessels has backdoored one of our systems as of 24 hours ago the Hierarchy is at war."
"Ka'mara answer me honestly do you see our crew as family, because I sure as hell do, nobody slights my family with impunity, so tell me Ka'mara are we family?" Liam watched as Ka'mara thought long and hard on what he just said.
"I do, I see our crew as family, a family of mavericks and psychopaths and I wouldn't change it for the world." Liam smirked viciously. "Smollet patch me through to the crew."
"Aye sir."
"Action stations, action stations, set condition Alpha One throughout the ship. This is not a drill, ladies, gent's and psychopaths of all dispositions we are at war! All stations are to report to CIC when ready."
Looking to Ka'mara, he spoke up once more. "You've got ten minutes to get me as much information as you can."
"Aye sir."
"Lieutenant Vakarian, I take it you've got all of the necessary information to plot me a jump." Lieutenant Vakarian gave a single curt nod, before speaking up. "Sir, if the relay on the far side of this system is the mass relay pair joined to our destination, if my hunch is right it'll be the same relay the enemy backdoored to access our system."
"Your point being Lieutenant."
"Sir, if we utilise the relay on this side to transit into the Agamemnon System, we'll effectively reset the relay, effectively locking the bastards out of how they got in, they'll have to transit at least six other turian systems to make it back to neutral space."
"Lieutenant, do it, helm; make best possible speed to that relay. FTL ready for an emergency jump, oh and Lieutenant this enemy of yours will they be smart enough to be facing the relay?"
"No sir."
"Those calibrations of yours think you could increase our drift to say ten thousand metres?" She took a minute to think about it before nodding. "Do it."
"Ka'mara put out a general call, all non-essential personnel are to evacuate from frame forty forward, bow batteries are to remain retracted…. CGO load torpedo tubes ready to fire for a full spread, have the warheads set to heat seeker."
"Aye sir."
"Alert, Vipers are in their tubes waiting for orders." Smollet chimed in from her post. "Sir, 180 enemy vessels are in action, one of the three command ships had last been reported to be stationed just outside activation range of the mass relay right on our exit window."
"Helm, as soon as we hit that Relay, flank speed." Turning to Smollet she smirked as she once more pulled out the I-pod of old. "Bismarck, sir?"
"Aye DJ Smollett, Bismarck."
To Be Continued….
AN: I, as your benevolent overlord, wish to thank all of the followers who've taken the chance in submerging their beings into the hellscape that is my Discord, poor buggers the lot of them.
If any of you would be interested I may or may not have some plans to create a podcast or the likes, of myself and various guests drunkenly ranting about other fanfics, topics and whatever else takes my bloody fancy after a few pints.
The name is a work in progress, any suggestions join my discord and bully me until I either use it or die of alcohol poisoning. Whichever comes first.
Signed.
The God Emperor of Mankind His Divine Holiness the Manperor of Mankind, by grace of himself of the United Imperium of Man, and of all Sectors and Sub-Sectors therein, God Emperor, Head of the Ecclesiarchy, Defender of the One True Faith and Avatar of the Machine God and the one true God of the Warp.
#Fuck you Tzeentch you're a nerd!
#Bemperor of Mankind.