another one her you go,
enjoy,
...
'What is it now,' Rael thought, as the Ensign called out once more, 'Do they have Anti-matter to?'
"Admirals, we have a first contact package, at least we think so…" the Ensign spoke swiftly, "Should we send our own?"
"Yes!" the Admirals all answered at once, though in different tones of voice, "And put theirs on screen!"
The first thing they noticed was the image of the species in front of them, more so the fact that they seemed oddly familiar, looking like an color blind child had painted an Asari, only with hair, the strange thing was that this wasn't the only species, as several others were also projected beside the first one, the first a strange furred race.
'Probably from some kind of desert world,', Rael instantly noted, 'Heat resistant fur, and fat for insolation at night.'
The next few ones looked similar to the first one, same body type, only with different skin tones and brain-tails.
'Tails contain portions of the brain, likely empathetic in nature,' Rael though again, 'would allow them to sense emotions much easier, form bonds quicker, and perhaps sense lies, three different species, all similar in looks, but still with far different anatomy, likely evolved under similar conditions only on far different worlds.'
The last species appear to be plantlike in nature, with large amounts of grass and plants serving as clothes.
'Plantoid species, not ever seen before, but has been speculated on, Salarians would be interested, I am at least…'
"A confederation…" Shala muttered, and he agreed with her on that, it was the only logical conclusion, another body similar to the Citadel.
"That's impossible… never have two races evolved on the same world!"
"That isn't their Homeworld you fool!"
"Shut it Koris!"
"Can you both shut up?! You bosh'tet's!" Daro interrupted the two of them before they could get started, "This is far more important than your petty struggle for dominance!"
"Agreed, it appears we have found a foreign entity, one that doesn't have the same prejudices as a certain Council…" Rael trailed off, and he could feel the smirk of Daro and Shala, even as the two other male admirals skulked.
They were interrupted by the message continuing, images of peaceful interaction flashed by, interactions between the different races, romances, children playing, and all under the watchful eye of soldiers armored in red and black. Then they were presented with a glorious blue and green and red and yellow and white ball hovering in space, at first inspection it looked to be the perfect garden world, large and completely habitable.
Then the camera zoomed in, and the planet came at them at incredible speeds, and what Rael had thought to be a continent changed.
'That isn't a continent, it's a city…'
The streets of the city flashed by and a great tower was revealed, taller then any on the Citadel, soon they passed by the last sky-scrapers an into a park heading closer to the great tower, then came lines of soldiers thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, then millions, then there were twice as many Soldiers there then there were Quarrians in the Galaxy, and it scared him, and in some way reviled.
What had these races fought that warranted this large of an army stationed on one world, even Palavan had only 10 million Turian Soldiers stationed on it at any time, even though most Turians on Palavan were retired soldiers and would fight if necessary.
What had they gone though that warranted garrisons of that size, he shuddered at the thought, it would have to be terrible, something that dwarfed both the Rachni war and the Krogan rebellions, a conflict of such scale and scope that extinction was near inevitable would be the only way such a culture could come around.
"This will be worse than the Krogan rebellions if they go to war with the citadel, just looked at the size of some of them, they must be nearly 250 standard units tall, their muscle structure suggest infinitely regenerative muscles… only the Krogan and Vorcha have those, but their bone-structure is far closer to Asari meaning more flexibility and higher range of movement, likely have the ability to sweat like Asari thus well increasing endurance, jaw structure suggest omnivorous diet, jaw strength eclipsing that of the Krogan, strong enough to bite through some weaker metals…"
Daro went into analyzation mode, something that he had only seen happen a few times, and he still found it a creepy thing, her talking about these aliens as if they were animals.
"Eye anatomy suggesting quick adaptation to light levels, nearing that of night predators, legs not good for high speed running, likely persistence hunters, harass prey until they are too tired to fight back, redundant organs, two harts and two lungs two kidneys, liver able to regrown itself from smaller piece, likely able to survive wounds that would kill an Asari with little issue. Lifespan estimate… 200 to 250 standard years… species would be in third place for longest living, second place when the Krogan finally die out, though not far ahead of pre exile Quarrians, other species also interesting but would need time to study them all up close..."
This information was far more interesting to Rael, much could be said of the way a species waged war based on their anatomy, Asari using highly skilled commando teams because of their longer lifespan and general physical weakness, Krogan's using simple charge and destroy tactics due to their incredible durability, Salarians preferring infiltration to battle, and Turians preferring attrition combat because of metal like skin.
"We should send them a language packet, to see if they might be able to develop a translator, we don't have the resources to do so ourselves." Shala suggested, as always on point and focused on the issue at hand, "I would prefer peace over war with these Aliens."
…..
"Captain we have receive an FCM, I am already working on a translation, but it will take a while."
"Good work Nostra keep at it and play the FCM."
The message play itself out rather quickly, a few images of the species, some kind of bipod the rest of their form was hidden by a sort of tight-fitting hazmat suit. Hmm, weakened immune system perhaps, or lacking one entirely?
Nomadic… well that was interesting, most projections show that a species would not be able to survive purely in space for more then 400 years without aid, what would drive them from their worlds, perhaps some kind of xenophobic exterminators had attacked them?
"Are you sending the data to Highcom Nostra?"
"Of course, Captain, and I'm sure the eggheads are already having the best day of their lives with it."
"How long til-"
"A few days at best on the translator, I don't have a lot of information and this is more complicated then Sanscrit and Nabatian combined."
He frowned, Nostra must be stressed as well, she hated cutting people off, and only did so when necessary.
"Hold a minute, I have language packets, give me an hour and I will have a written translator, spoken will require a mind-meld though." Nostra spoke up happily, this brought a smile to his face.
"Excellent, send them our language packets as well, to show we understand."
"Roger." The Ai responded, "Uhh… Captain we have additional contacts coming through! Lots of them!"
"So they are truly Nomads then…" he muttered softly, before opening a Hyperwave to the rest of his fleet, "All ships hold you fire, do not initiate hostile action, I repeat take no hostile actions but keep weapons charged."
A chorus of acknowledgements came to him, and he turned his eyes to the new arrivals, most were smaller then the first to come through, and I worse disrepair if that was even possible. Some were missing entire compartments, others had large holes in their hulls, one even looked to be a puzzled together beast, using engines from one ship and the hull of another.
"This better end well… it would be a war crime to fire on those things, I've seen Junkers with ships in better condition…"
…..
The next hour passed tensely, as quarrian ships kept arriving and the dominion ships steadily became more and more outnumbered, Harlock was understandably nervous the Arcadia had taken up position on the right of the Nostradamus.
"How long until reinforcements arrive?" he asked his ships AI.
A large avatar appeared before him, 'walking' to the center of the bridge, though if anyone could call the seductive strutting a walk then they were obviously blind, the avatars shape was that of a green skinned woman of incredible beauty, he smiled, Mimay always like toying with his bridge crew, and this avatar was one of her favorites.
"The patrol fleet is already on the way, but their three weeks out at best," She responded, "Ships from Fenris and Veridian have already been dispatched to reinforce us, 3 and 5 days out respectively, that's another 3 Victory Classes, 7 Acclimators, 12 Ironclads, and about two dozen smaller frigates."
"Not much…" he said as he stroked his chin in thought, Nostra the AI on the Nostradamus, had already run calculations on the Alien ships and their abilities, thanks to their use of element zero, they were fast and nimble, but small and had far less raw firepower, there exact attack power would remain unclear for a while, but simulations had shown that Ezoo based spinal cannons and mass accelerators hit with roughly half the force as equally sized plasma weapons, but fired twice as often, better in close to mid-range engagements then, where all of their shots could hit.
It also appeared that the Dominion despite of their lower numbers had the advantage in small craft, from what the sensors could detect the Aliens had no dedicated carriers, and all Dominion ships had at least a small compliment of fighters and bombers, in addition the dominion could also get reinforcements from planet side as well in the early stages of a space battle, this would fall anyway after troops landed planet side however.
"Logan, make sure we are ready for highspeed maneuvers." A nod from the young man answered his command, and the one-eyed boy began yelling commands at the pilots he had personally chosen for their positions. Harlock meanwhile opened a line to engineering.
"Yulian, make sure that we are ready for Spinal MAC barrage, any hostile action and I want you to destroy their largest ship, designation Rayya."
…..
The Admirals were all standing around the large meeting table, each staring silently at the others, not an uncommon occurrence, the Admiralty often had disputes that resulted in arguments. This however, this was on a whole different scale and scope.
Koris and Gerrel were continuously at each other's necks and had to be physically pulled apart… twice. Daro and Shala were both staring at the text projected, and Rael's mind was going at incredible speeds, calculations and plans being made and discarded by the hundreds every minute. The text was written in perfect Kalish, with the exception of some missing mannerisms common in the written Quarrian language it was perfect.
Something was no right here, it should have taken them at least twice as long, even with the language packet, to create a translator, but he put his mind of it, the message was more important.
Written in the name of the God-Emperor,
I Markus Marius Anderson,
Captain of the Nostradamus,
Leader of the Meridian defense fleet,
Servant of the Emperor and the Dominion,
Bid you welcome too,
The Terran Dominion;
Sector: Aurlian
System; Khorus
Orbit of Planet; Meridian
I hereby invite the leader or leaders of your government to meet with the governess of Meridian, Governess Delarosa Di Meridian, and myself Captain Markus Marius Anderson, in the Meridian planetary fortress at your earliest convenience too exchange information and allow for diplomatic relations between the Dominion and your Government.
In the name of the God-Emperor I swear to your safe return to your fleet but know that any hostile action against any Terran will be interpreted as a declaration of war upon the Dominion by the Quarrian people, and you will be annihilated.
We have sent flight paths and a translator program with this message and hope to hear you will be willing to negotiate.
Honored be the God-Emperor, blessed be we under his rule,
Captain Markus Marius Anderson.
The admirals stared silently at the message then at each other, it had been nearly 300 years since the Quarrian Government had been called a foreign government by any other race and it gave Rael a warm feeling, most races in citadel space would not even speak with the Migrant fleet, with the exception of the rare Asari born to a Quarrian that had made it in the, often literally, murderous political climate of the Asari Republics.
"We have to go…" Shala muttered, and he voiced his agreement, this was a chance they could not ignore.
"Someone will have to stay behind, I nominate Gerrel." Koris said happily Rael smiled, and spoke up before Gerrel could respond, even if it was funny it was also for the best, Gerrel was an aggressive Bosh'tet, but he would not risk lives by attacking.
"Agreed."
The Daro and Shala agreed with them as well and Gerrel quietly stalked to the corner of the meeting room to skulk and scowl at them beneath his mask.
"Looks like we are going to be allowed to bring a fighter escort, 4 fighters and a shuttle, and up to 12 armed guards," Daro said as she skimmed through the flight paths, Rael meanwhile read the message again, and found himself minutely amused at the way these aliens seemed to worship their Emperor, sure many of the species of the council worshiped as well, the Turian's had a sort of ancestor worship with their spirits.
The Asari had their goddess, and let's not forget the Elcor with fanatical worship of the Enkindlers, the Quarrians had had a kind of druidic religion before the exile, and still a small priesthood existed aboard the live-ships worshiping the few plants and trees they had managed to take from the home-world.
"How long will it take to prepare the shuttle and escorts?"
…..
Hail honored Terrans,
We, the Quarrian Admiralty board, accept your invitation, we will arrive in 2 hours, we hope for peaceful and prosperous talks.
We ask that a complete hold fire order be issued to all on the planet and in orbit, and in exchange we shall do the same.
Greetings,
Admirals of the Quarrian Migrant Fleet.
Governess Delarosa smiled, perhaps bloodshed could be stopped here today, orders from high command had come through, along with praise for the actions of all involved, Markus it would seem, would get of lightly for his near mistake.
She was to get the Quarrians to agree to a non-aggression pact, something they had basically already asked for, and also to test the waters on getting them moved to a more easily monitored system until the shroud storm passed, so that a 'Diplomat with instructions directly from his Glorious Majesty the Emperor' could see to true talks with them. She just had to get such a Zealous highcom officer.
She stood in the courtyard of the planetary fort, Markus beside her, both surrounded by Xcom troopers, the giant form of the MEC Trooper 'Montaigne' behind her softly stroking the massive cannon in his mechanical hands, the heavy weapon specialists 'Nuke' and 'Crater' to her left and right, the flight pack equipped 'Valk' and 'Hermes' were overseeing the setting up of defenses in the city, and Pious, sitting on overwatch on top of one of the forts towers, would not tell her where "Rex' or 'Vigil' were.
In addition to the Xcom troopers where the 8 legionaries of General Williams Legion, each in their black SHIS armor and holding their Tri-barrel Laser Cannons tightly, and the then there was the rest of the forts garrison, numbering 1000 well trained legionaries.
She felt reasonably safe in meeting with these aliens, even if they decided to try and kill her. She wasn't the strongest Psion but she still had one of the best shields in her school class, which was now boosted by the small gallop on her belt she should be able to survive at least a few shots, enough to get in cover at least.
But all of that was assuming that the aliens would attack, which to her seemed unlikely, the information they had sent had shown clearly that they had to wear environmental suits to survive and fighting in such a suit would likely result in infections and maybe death for them.
She was broken from her thoughts as a shuttle broke the clouds above her its 4 escort fighters looking quite flimsy compared to the 4 Vikings that followed them, the shuttle itself was also not in the best condition, a few clear scratches and burns marked its hull of faded grey.
The Vikings transformed to their mech form and landed on the walls of the courtyard, massive plasma guns aimed down at the aliens, while a patrol of Hellfyres passed above.
It landed with a heavy thump upon the stones of the courtyard, and a ramp lowered itself down to the ground, from it emerged a group of armed guards, small bipods compared to the average human, who stood 220 cm without gene mods, these aliens stood 200 cm tall on average she guessed.
Their weapons were small, likely foldable mass effect accelerators, a novelty in the Dominion, as the things had a tendency to explode and shower all nearby with highly dangerous Element zero radiation, well that and they didn't have the punch that a gauss cannon had.
After the guards came a small group of aliens in slightly better decorated suits, likely the leaders, or Admirals as they called themselves, 4 of them, not unexpected they likely left one of their own with the fleet in case of an ambush, she smiled as they approached.
…..
Rael looked at the massive aliens with apprehension, the size might not have said much on a screen by up close the aliens were massive, the black armored troopers were big, Krogan big even, but the three near the Governess where on entirely different scale.
The two beside her and the Captain were simply massive, walls of flesh and armor, a male and a female both taller and larger than most Krogan, one holding what appeared to be a rotating rapid-fire weapon, the other a larger size longer barreled gun.
But the one behind them, now there he had no comparison to, a mountain of a male, standing nearly 350 units tall, massive hands equipped with the distinctive form of a flamethrower, while he held a large glowing gun with both hands, the thing looked like it could have fitted on one of the fighters that followed their own escort fighters, on his shoulders sat two weapons as well, he guessed, as they glowed with green energy.
Daro seemed to be interested as well, looking at the man like a Varren looked at a skittish and fat Salarian. He was mildly amused and mildly scared by her look, and he seriously considered telling her that she wasn't allowed to dissect any of them, before dismissing the idea.
Shala it seemed did share his apprehension of the aliens as he could see her form was tense, Koris however seemed strangely amused at something, but he didn't feel like asking, the man was probably just happy that Gerrel wasn't here.
The alien woman stepped forward towards them, she looked so much like an Asari that Rael was almost stunned, beyond the skin color and hair on her head she matched the Asari perfectly. He shook his head and stepped forward as well, the others had chosen him to lead the negotiations.
The Governess brought up a blue screen from her wrist, he was surprised at the likeness to an Omni-tool.
Greetings Admirals, I am Governess Delarosa of the Dominion, I govern this planet, Meridian until it can once again be given over to local administration. I welcome you to the Terran Dominion, and I come with a request if you are willing to hear it?
He brought up his own Omni-tool, smiling at the brief flash of surprise of the face of the woman, and began to type.
Greeting Governess, I am Rael Zorrah vas Alderai nar Rayya, Captain of the Alderai and Admiral of the civilian fleet of the greater Migrant fleet. We are glad to listen to your request.
The woman nodded something Rael realized they had in common with the Asari, and once again began to type on her own tool.
My thanks Admiral, my request is simple, I would like to form a mind-meld with you too allow us to share knowledge of your spoken language.
He simply stared for about a minute, she had to be kidding, if these aliens could meld it would probably cause an uproar with the Asari, never had another such species be found, he shook himself out of his shock and typed again.
I will allow it, as long as you promise to only take knowledge of our language.
Her message came immediate.
Agreed.
She put out her hand and motioned him to do the same, he did and when she grasped, he was surprised at her strength, then her eyes glowed purple and he knew felt every nerve in his body light with a feeling of pain and pleasure, then he knew nothing, until he awoke on his knees.
…
Bit shorter with no codexapedia, but here you guys go,
Later,
Tombstone signing off,