Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or the various X-COM games. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not written for profit. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
Chapter 1: Vacation, X-COM style
=SF=
Part 7: How we deal with uninvited guests
23:53, 12 August, 2176 AD
Athena District
Olympus City
Elysium
Vetus System
A flash of deep blue did it's best to blind me. However my improved eyes allowed me to see, despite the spots appearing in front of my vision. Something dark slammed in the Krogan with enough force to make him stumble back. The impact released a darkish blue shock-wave. Damn, if Shepard survived that she would be regretting it.
A quick blink cleared my vision just in time to see her savior – it was an Asari in skin tight commando leathers, the bloody fetishist. She had a dirty white shotgun in her hands, which she pointed at the head of the overgrown lizard and pressed the trigger. A sharp retort and the Krogan stumbled a step back, his defenses finally shattering. Another shot tore chunks from his helmet, yet the armor held. Then an emerald blob slammed just under his crest, vaporizing a part of the helmet.
The walking bio tank's agonized howl was interrupted by the aline woman. She used her biotics to pick him up and slam him in the ground. After that she calmly strode up to him, just in time for the Krogan to try standing up. That didn't help him, instead his move raised his burned head in such a way that made it easier for the Asari to shove her shotgun in the hole of his helmet and pull the trigger. A small fountain of liquified flesh erupted from the breach in the armor, showing that the damn behemoth was actually flesh and blood under after all. Then she did it again to make sure.
The next thing I knew was a SWAT member pressing a med-pack to my right hand. A moment later I sensed a needle piercing my flesh, before the discomfort was washed out by a wave of painkillers and stimulants. I shook as the drugs spread through my system. The pain and weakness vanished, leaving me with crystal clear head. Until the stimulants wore off. Then I would be crashing hard.
The policeman helped me up and I looked around. The last engagement was an almost complete one sided slaughter, yet there were more than a few wounded volunteers. The few people with medical training were providing first aid, while SWAT medic was kneeling over Shepard.
To make everything even funnier, there was a little armed standoff between our Asari helper and a few of the troops. Joy.
"What's the problem?" I went to ask after nodding a tanks to the cop who gave me the stimulants and picking up my weapon.
"She's an alien." One of the Marines pointed out the obvious.
"I noticed. She was our bartender, before the fun and games started. So, a mercenary, Council operative or just a retired Matriarch? My money are on all tree."
"A girl must have her secrets." She quipped in the gruff voice I was familiar with.
"I'll need something for the AAR." I shrugged. I wasn't about to shoot a potential asset, though I would be keeping an eye on her. Hopefully my rag tag unit wasn't going to make up my mind for me.
"You can't be serious!" The same trooper exclaimed.
"I'm X-COM, we are always as serious as a plasma round to the face. Besides, if I can work with her, by all that's unholy so can you. Am I clear, private?"
"Sir, yes, sir!"
"That's better. Now go help with the wounded. I'll talk with our friend here. Move it people!" I turned my attention to the medic handling Shepard.
"What's her condition?"
"Concussion for sure as well as a lot of broken and fractured bones. She should be all right if we can get her to hospital or stasis pod. I gave her enough drugs to keep even a corpse alive for the next few hours."
"Well, that shouldn't be an issue. We'll either be dead by then or the reinforcements will deign to arrive and save our collective asses. As for you, any particular reason why are you helping us?" I turned to the Matriarch.
"Would you believe that I was getting bored?"
"Officially? That's for command to decide. I've known a few folks who would consider all this," I waved at the burning city around us, "a bit of fun to kill some time."
"That's funny. So have I."
"Sarge, we have incoming. An enemy infantry column is heading our way, ETA 3 mikes." The sniper announced.
"Swell. Pull out the wounded back to the bunker. I want a few volunteers to help me scavenge a bit of enemy equipment and set up a few traps. We'll be pulling back under enemy fire."
=SF=
00:05, 13 August, 2176 AD
SSV "Berlin"
High Orbit over Elysium
Vetus System
"Status of the fleet?" Captain Michaels asked.
"We are down to three cruisers and four frigates. Enemy fleet is at about sixty percent intact."
"After you factor our reinforcements?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Well, isn't that nice. What was the response time for fifth fleet?"
"They can have units here within thirty minutes of alert getting out."
"If Murphy is feeling generous and Dauntless managed to raise an alert, we should be getting some help in twenty minutes or so." The Captain mussed.
"I'm not feeling particularly lucky tonight, Captain."
"Neither am I. We should be getting most of our remaining patrols back in the next ten minutes. Let's make sure that we are alive to greet them. I want a Warp jump to the following coordinates…" Holly spoke, signifying a spot in space where four enemy cruisers were acting as long range artillery. "XO, coordinate with Madrid. I want her and Agincourt on our flanks. We are opening fire the the moment we re-emerge."
The cruiser shuddered when solid slugs slammed in her shields, straining them to the limit. The improvised enemy artillery had struck again.
"Barriers down to fifteen percent!"
"Dump the laser canon capacitors into the shields!" The Captain ordered. The ever present hum of the ship increased in volume as her energy network strained to redirect sorely needed power.
"Ma'am, a bit of good news. We have another wing of Strike craft ready on the surface." The Comm officer reported.
"It doesn't help us much right now."
"Jump coordinates ready and transmitted, ma'am." The Navigator all but shouted with excitement.
"At least try pretending to be professional, people." Michaels chided. "FTL at my mark." She said, studying the tactical plot.
Soon enough the icons representing Madrid and Agincourt swung in the right direction. In the ten or so seconds, a pair of enemy frigates vanished and one of her one changed her color to amber, announcing heavy damage.
"Jump." The Captain ordered.
Moments later, the reality itself shifted, making everyone on board feeling a profound sense of sheer wrongness. As soon as it started, the event was over and the three human ships were in range of their prey. Wasting no time, automated sub-routines kicked in. Weapons tracked their assigned targets and opened fire faster than an unenhanced human grain could process the FTL event.
The closest enemy cruiser stood no chance. The old ship flew apart after a single alpha strike. In the same time, the secondary weapons of the human cruisers were busy brutalizing the six enemy frigates acting as escorts. Two of them died before their crews knew they were in danger. The next pair suffered moderate damage while maneuvering out of range and only the last two got out unscratched. However, before running safely in FTL, two of the light ships managed to launch a salvo at their attackers.
Another pirate cruiser died, before the remaining two started hammering the human craft with their broadsides. The mix of Alliance and X-COM ships disregarded the incoming fire, plowed through the scattering remains of their destroyed targets and continued pouring death at the enemy. Their point defenses shot down all but two of the incoming torpedoes, which slammed in Madrid's nose, depleting her barriers. The next broadside shattered them and the cruiser flew straight in the next. Chunks of relativistic metal slammed themselves in the vahlenite alloy protecting the human ship. The armor held up well under the first volley. The next three salvos that struck before the enemy cruisers were silenced forever, were another matter. The first weakened the alloy, with shots from the second compromising the armor. The third bit deeply in the cruiser, shattering bulkheads and turning the forward decks into a slaughter house.
"Madrid reports heavy damage in her forward sections. Combat capability reduced to fifty percent."
"Ouch. They are to pull out. Agincourt are to remain on our flank. Navigation, plot me a jump right there..."
=SF=
00:07, 16 January, 2176
X-31 Spirit Interceptor
Above Olympus City
Elysium
Vetus System
"Damn, it." Major Chow grunted as missiles slammed in the barriers of his interceptor.
The situation was going from bad to worse. There were only two interceptors and a single Dragon strike craft in the area. They were trying to do their best to keep what little ground forces were still fighting alive as well as stop enemy reinforcements from landing.
It wasn't going well. There were frantic calls for air support or air denial strikes all over the place, not to mention the need to avoid flying at predictable vectors, to make it harder for enemy orbital strike to shoot them down. Fortunately, that was a tough job for the pirates, because their GUARDIAN lasers didn't have the juice to really harm his machine after passing through the atmosphere. What was keeping the major at edger was the probability of kinetic strike. Unless such shot landed very close, he would be safe.
The district he was flying over at the time, less so.
Unfortunately, while the enemy didn't have any fighters, there was a real horde of gunships, which were trying to act as a CAP. While they were woefully lacking in ability compared to the human craft in the air, there were too many of them. They also had missiles that could lock on and actually hit his interceptor, though the damage they did was rather low. That was the only reason why he was still in the air.
"Razor-1, this is Achilles Actual. We'll have partial control over the PDG in five, ten for what's left of the ODG."
"That will be appreciated. Any word on reinforcements?"
"Unknown."
"Roger."
Chow put his interceptor in a dive, heading for an enemy tank column which was wrecking havoc in downtown. How the hell did the pirated got their hands on that much equipment, damn them?!
=SF=
Alliance Codex: X-COM Capital ships
Subsection 1, Dreadnoughts;
Class: Bastion Dreadnought;
Manufacturer: Rubicon Fleet Yards;
Roles: Fleet Command ship, Suppression of enemy forces, Orbital support of ground forces;
Commissioned: 2144
Technical specifications:
Length: 2571.4 meters
Width: 883.1 meters
Height:693.2 meters
Engines:
6 Mitsubishi Sunfire-11 Ion drives; multiple maneuvering thrusters;
4 X-Tech Messenger "Gravity wave" drives /also knows as inertialess drives. While they do not cancel inertia, the drive units create a "drive field" around the ship which allows to redirect the vector of the inertia. This provides unparalleled maneuverability; while active, the drivers could be tweaked to reduce the mass within the so called "drive field", however that is at the expense of the speed of inertial vector redirection. This combined with conventional Ion drives and internal dampeners allows for unparalleled acceleration and sustainable speed;/
FTL drive:
1 X-Tech Hermes XZ-3 Warp Drive /55 ly day/;
Shielding: Rheinmetal Kyber 05 Kinetic Barriers;
Armor: Between 250 and 350 centimeters of Vahlenite Alloy;
Sensors:
Radar, LIDAR, Spectroscopes; hyper-wave sensors;
Power plant:
10 X-Tech Hercules Elerium Reactors; 10 X-Tech X24E Elerium Generators /secondary/
Armaments:
2 Ares series PAC - spinal mounted / for long range anti-capital ship warfare and assaults on hardened space facilities; Primary long range armaments/
2 Hades XO-21Z spinal lasers;/ Primary long range armaments/
1 Zeus Class Railgun;/ primary long range armament/
20 TM* Fusion lances;/medium range energy weapons/
40 TM* Dual-Plasma cannons;/close range energy weapons/
10 TM* EMP cannons;/close range support weapon/
426TM* Quad-Lasers /point defense and anti-fighter/
45 Torpedo Tubes: 10 Front; 5 Aft; 15 Starboard; 15 Larboard;
120 Rapier Missile pods /10 missiles per pod; secondary armament/
*Turret Mounted
Aerospace and ground compliment:
Rhino/ cargo transports; 2/
Dragon Strike Craft;/1 squadron/
Spirit Interceptors; /2 squadrons/
Lancer Bombers;/1 squadron/
Avenger MK VI assault transport/1squadron/
Wraith /stealth transport; 2/
Predator HWPs /modular/
Manticore APCs
Crew:
Total Crew - 7,641
Naval Crew - 4,521
Marine/X-COM ground troops – 3,117
Intelligence - 3
Additional:
AI Claudia: X-COM Vahlen patterned Artificial Intelligence KLD 0941-VC1
300 repair drones;
Nano-forge; 8 Fabricators;