Disclaimer:
Warhammer 40K is the property of Games workshop
Mass Effect is the property of Bioware
Authors Note
ttunikitashtobert - Don't worry its not another Shepherd & co soap, That's why i wanted to write this.
ATP - No Systems alliance in this nor make the imperials into the alliance, that approach had been milked to death, but might do something about ME version of earth later on though.
Note: I have read the fan-fics on this site for the last year or so nearly exclusively on the 40k and ME, so if I leave anything out or change a detail it would be intentional, though if there is something is amiss let me know.
and please forgive my hand fisted attempt at Latin/high Gothic. :)
CHAPTER 03 – COMMUNICATION
Location: High Orbit over Tribute, Fatum system
Timestamp: 6 Day since Fleeing of unknown contact
Inside the Aurem Ignis crew men and women were performing drills and maintenance in preparation for an impending xenos assault. Since the appearance of a xenos scout vessel in the edge of the system the entire fleet remnant was put on high alert. With production of spare parts and munitions increased over other goods, tasks rescheduled and advanced proximity sensors were placed in sensor dead zones of planets. But there was no higher hive of activity that in the command meetings of the higher echelons of the fleet. Lord Captain Matthias dreaded these meetings, not because of the dangers that usually were the topics of these meetings but the sheer tedium of planning, convoluted mental gymnastics needed in determining enemy intentions and strategy and the bickering…. there is always the bickering.
"We do not need to open a communications channel, we need to strike as soon as they appear" blustered the captain of the Mortis Vox. "With respect magos, we are scions of the Imperium of Mankind, we don't negotiate with Xenos". Magos Alexie didn't show any sigh of frustration, if his synth skin and augmetics on his face could make an expression. He simply looked at Matthias, prompting him to intervene. Both he and the magos have the most experience with dealing with Xenos races, while his subservient captains hail from the imperial navy and are renowned to be set in their ways. They have been arguing for the better half of a day on the best course of action if the xenos returned in force or in attempted a hand in diplomacy. The argument between the doves and standard imperial stance had been argued to death and which ships or attack patterns will suit best regarding an unknown enemy ships and capabilities and that knew that they alone knew best. Ah… the bickering - joy.
Location: System edge, Fatum system
Timestamp: 10 Days since First contact
A bright flash of blue tinged light and gravity wave heralded the entrance of am Asari Shira'la class light cruiser. Famed for being nimble and swift but with a respectable amount of shielding and firepower to boot and had proven themselves against pirate vessels that out classed her in tonnage and firepower. The smooth but deadly three pronged ship with her dual mass effect cores drifted slowly through momentum towards the inner system in serene grace. However inside the tension inside the hull was palpable. Sensor technicians were double checking their readouts and gunnery crews were calibrating the armaments all the while the command staff were gathered around the holoprojector in the CIC.
"Nervous agent?" asked L'nora Vinius, the Asari captain of the Thessian Dawn attempting to break the tension in the compartment. Solan could only chuckle in reply. He and his team had been integrated into the joint task force seamlessly, a dozen specialist in varying fields and crew of the Dawn included made up the preliminary peaceful contact, a proper diplomatic team will be brought in. however if contact became hostile the Turian battle group station outside of the systems Oort cloud will there for assistance. So what was there to worry about?
Location: Above Tribute, Fatum system
Timestamp: Sametime
"New contact, 8.3 AU by 030 by 043 degree above the ecliptic" the junior officer operating the sensorium shouted, indicating that an unknown contact has appeared near the last plane in this system, cerulean ice giant. Long range augurs have been placed in overlapping spherical grid by the frigates in case the xenos came again, now it seems the hassle had not been a waste. And it was hard not to miss the gravitational bow wave it made on the fabric of reality. Matthias was already on the bridge of the Ignis and he wondered if the timing had been too much of the coincidence, he shrugged the thought of thinking if the god-emperor will the events so be it then.
"Hail our Frigates and fighters, tell them to drop everything and assume defensive formation Rho-nine. Alert the colonies and tell them to ready the PDFs. And get me Magos Landus here now." Matthias bellowed. So far the preparations of the last few months have been leading up to this, he didn't like it, cut off from the Imperium's inexhaustible military might and surrounded by unknowns. But he was used to this, still he didn't like it. So far it's been only a single contact. Whatever stealth measures these xenos use don't work against human auguries so there won't be any nasty surprise. Still at this range the ship was just a blip in the augur screens it will have to get close to get a good picture of it. So far preliminary indications was that it was small frigate or heavy corvette class. Unless it was an advance scout of a larger force. Still no one would come alone in a potentially hostile system without some certainty that they will have some backup in case they need it. So probably they a fleet beyond sensor range, or in the ice & debris clouds at the heliopause. Or these ships have better stealth capabilities than the first instance. - Joy!
Location: Outer planets, Fatum system
Timestamp: few minutes later
"Ma'am, we have complied sensor readouts on screen" Solan watched captain L'nora acknowledged the STG technician one of Solans underlings, bringing up the Holo projector highlighting the system, planetary bodies and alien ships. Dozens of ships were moving away from planets and debris fields and were converging near the moon of the systems brown Dwarf. Zooming in he could see that there were many orbital installations around one moon, looking at the profiles he realized that these weren't space stations but the enigmatic super ships. "Damn they were big" he heard the captain mutter o herself, he wondered if she was trying to understand what kind of firepower or range they have.
"Looks like they are rallying at that moon" added major Remus, the Blackwatch commander was the head of the security division of the expedition. "So it seems" Solan replied, he agreed with him professionally, to the point, civil and brief but you wouldn't want to anger him. Like him and the captain, no one wanted another Parnack and that was an epic disaster, whoever decided to skip the cultural studies of the Yahg should have been spaced for manslaughter and negligence. This time it will be done right, no shortcuts or glory hogging on her watch as the captain specifically mentioned on their entry to the ship. But gave the Turian a glance, his instincts said that he had something to add. "But I assume that there is something that is troubling you?"
The Turian nodded, "do you see something off in the way that the alien ships are moving? " Solan again looked at the holographic projection of sensor data. His trained metabolically sped up mind only took a minute to see the aberration of standard flight patterns of the alien vessels. "They are too slow "he replied.
"Yes that as well as that they are following ballistic trajectories to the moons. Do you know what that means?" Solan took a moment to let the implication settle in. All ships that mass effect drives can technically jump between two points in space since when the ship reaches FTL speeds and the reduced mass causes the ship to ignore traditional celestial mechanics dictated by gravity. Therefore they don't need to follow ballistic trajectories unless they are drifting. Here the alien ships are burning towards their destination, drifts until the y for a while by and then later decelerating once near their destination.
"So they lack mass effect drives then?" Solan said while furrowing his over sized Salarian eyes. This wouldn't be too much of a shock as it has been hypothesized that a civilization without access to Eezo should develop without it or create workarounds but then it did resolve the size of the super ships. They weren't bound by the size restrictions of mass effect drives. Then again they would be ungainly and ponderous in maneuvering. Even a dreadnought could dance around one if needed. Still it open up new technological deviance's from citadel standards, which makes predictions of the alien's capabilities all the more harder.
"I may not be a naval tactician but even a grunt like me realize the implications, and if I were the captain I would adjust our approach accordingly". He left with a quick nod and left Solan there to ruminate on the insights they had just learned.
And that's why the ship is now travelling at sub light speed. Sure it's excruciatingly slow but better approach slowly so that the aliens could see them, akin to someone approaching a wild animal. It's better than FTL from the edge of the system to their doorstep and scare a trigger happy gunner or commander. And will help to hide the tactical advantage their ships have against the aliens. But still at this rate they will enter the brown dwarf's gravity well within the day.
"Helmsman, adjust heading to 030 degrees, I want a keep a clear distance from any installations they have." Captain L'nora turns to Solan, "Have your team manage to break their communication encryption yet?"
"Almost done, there are several encryption patterns we have detected, we have broken some, which we assume are their civilian bands, I suggest that we send a first contact package on those channels so that we won't appear to have broken their military channels." His voice probably sounded tired as well.
"Alright well start transmitting now then, it will give them time to digest it. Slow down to half of c, but send the Numerical primer and language pack first. Then the watered down codex" L'nora commanded and with that command the Thessian Dawn made the first move.
Location: Above Tribute, Fatum system
Timestamp: half an hour later
"Lord Captain, we are recieving a radio transmission" yelled the comms operartor across the bridge of the Ignis "what kind of transmission?" Mathias had yet to leave his command throne, receiving regular reports through his neural shunts, but he left some functions to the crew. He had been intrigued that the small ship had accelerated to 0.73 c within a few minutes of arrival, but then slowed down to 0.45 when the transmissions arrived. Probably want to arrive at effective communications range then? Still that kind of propulsion was rare expect maybe some Eldar ships but. It provided insight into the enemy's capabilities. Imperial ships weren't built for speed necessarily maybe except for the ships of the White Scars chapter, they were built to survive, to take punishment like a pugilist and not to dance with the stars, so they were akin to driving a fully loaded and armored cargo-8 on an iced road.
"The machine spirits identifies it as a data packet, I had the rite of scanning performed to discover any malicious scrap code or data djinns, but it seems it's a numerical primer, language pack and an archive, mi 'lord". Matthias smiled , looks like both He and the magos would be winning the little wager put out between his captains on whether the first contact would be friendly or not. Still it was too soon maybe they wanted to taunt them personally before asking for their surrender. Still he would avoid a confrontation if he could emperor willing. He turned to Magos Alexie, "Good, magos would you want to take a look at the data package?" He knew that from experience there was no other drug for the follower of the Omnissiah than new data.
"I will allocate 5.6 Petahetrz of processing power for this" Matthias knew he was giddy, and gave a nod to the comms operator to transfer the data package. The mind of a mechanicus adept, far into the cult as Alexie was something far removed from baseline human as an astartes was to a serf. It had taken less than a 5 Pico seconds to unpack the numerical primer to establish a baseline of reference and 25 Pico seconds to unpack the language pack. Alexie spent the next 5 nano second in an approximate of a shit eating grin.
"Lord Captain, It seems that our xenos friends would like to have a constructive dialogue with them". Said the magos, Matthias raised an eyebrow. "It's going to be like the Tau again isn't it?" well at least it wasn't Dark Eldar or Orks. "Alexie, If you can effectively communicate with them, open an isolated and warded channel in the Meeting hall, and tell my other captains to link with us there in one hour. I don't want the crew to be exposed to whatever they have to say unless I approve of them, understood?"
"Yes, lord Captain" answered the magos.
An hour later the waist high circular plinth that made up the holoprojector in the meeting hall flickered to life showing the stern visage of captain Paulo, to his right and left were the captains Nahum and Inmanis. Paulo now serves on the orbital that was the converted colony ship, while the other two captain now flank the Ignis. "Gentlemen, the xenos have initiated communications and are awaiting our response. But they have not declared any deadline though."
"Does it matter, we were caught while still vulnerable, with no access to reinforcements or fallback point outside of this system. They have the advantage." A dour retort came from Inmanis. "Even if this is the largest vessel the local xenos could field they could still out number us enough to cost us dearly" Added captain Nahum. "We have been strategizing on our own and you don't have to convince us if you want to…. Diplomatically engage them" he said the last few words as if he had swallowed a bitter pill.
Matthias raised his eyebrow at his captains, they were of imperial navy stock and they were not the kind to roll over when It came to a fight, like him they have on their own come to the realization of the situation they were in even after fifteen years it was a bitter pill to swallow, that they had to hide away hoping that no one would notice them at their weakest.
"Yes, we are at a disadvantage. But if these xenos are naïve like the damnable Tau then we can buy enough time to strengthen ourselves and claim this region for the emperor and mankind. But yes the xenos could bring more ships bigger or more of them, but understand that I will be there with you if they demand a pound of flesh then we will make them bleed for it." Matthias said while looking at each of the captains in the eye". That seems to bring back confidence into them. "So I propose that we open communications to them, so shall we brethren?" A nod of approval went from all the captains, usually as a Rogue trader he doesn't need to coddle his lesser but he had learned to foster camaraderie with them, as they were an important cog in his enterprise as any ship. Something that has enabled them to move through the last fifteen years together.
Matthias nodded to magos Alexie who had been in the background until now, who then initiate the rite of activation and wards to the holoprojector. The device projected a distorted visual in the center of the device while the images of the captains were moved to the periphery. Once the handshake protocols were complete the image of the alien representative stabilized and the image it produced caused Matthias to spew out an involuntary "well frak me sideways"….
Location: Outer planets, Fatum system
Timestamp: sametime
Solan gulped down the last of his Jawa Juice, he needed the sugars in it as his excitement and natural metabolism had been burning through his reserves like a wildfire in an arid forest. Now it seems to kick into overdrive as Ulan notified him that the aliens were hailing them on the frequency as directed in the contact package. He ordered the linguists to initiate their VI's and xeno-biologists and other experts to star their analysis as soon as possible. Today will either be a day of infamy like the Yahg and Rachni or another momentous occasion that added another race into the arms of the Citadel.
Captain L'nora took her position on in front of the holoprojector, she gave a nod to Ulan to accept the hail, the projector fizzled into life indicating that the handshake protocols had yet to initialize, since this particular channel had to be isolated from the rest of the ship to avoid a cyber-attack or espionage form them if they proved hostile. The projector finally stabilized and the pregnant breath that everyone had been holding released in an average approximation I each native language of "Well, Damn"
The aliens were Asarieque, if to put it mildly, there were four of them and biped from the stance, each seems to be covered in elaborate clothing, similar in base design but tailored and modified to an elaborate degree, whether it was to each one desire or to denote rank was uncertain. Looking at them in detail, five digit fingers from the looks of it and it that a sword? But what caught his eye and that of the xeno-biologist was the face, two equidistant and forward facing eyes, great predators then. Two small ear like appendages and a nose like that of an Asari so, primary sense is visual then? But unlike an Asari was the fur that covered them, most had fur on the scalp except for one who seemed to lack it. All had fur on the lower half of the face with each been meticulously groomed, again was this a sign of individualism or rank? The sociologist and the others were going to have a field day in deciphering the clues. Sometime the most mundane items can provide insight into the inner workings of a culture one of his mentors back on Surkesh once said.
"I am Captain L'nora Vinius of the race Asari and I serve the Citadel council, to whom am I speaking? She said, and that snapped the crew out of the fugue that had taken a hold of them. An imperceptible frown passed over the one with the bald head, however the individual with the most ornate set of clothing stepped forward. "I am Lord Matthias of house Brusilov, and these are my captains, we are Humans and together we serve our god-emperors Imperium of mankind".