Terran Federation: Contact

by L4 of the WEST

For more than 20 years, the Terran Federation's path into the darkness beyond Earth has been marked by war, betrayal, and bugs. Every alien they met in the blackness of space has been hostile, pushing the region on a path to another great interstellar war. But sometimes, you get lucky, will the 6th time over Shanxi be it?

19. Chapter 15 (1-27-17)

Chapter 15

Edited by a person of many names Blood Raven AKA TimedRaven117. Go check out his story Mass Effect: X-Com Theory!

~[==|==]~

Terran Federation News Network

Federation Pushing Forward

After the Stellar victory over the planet of Cassandra, Federation forces are in the process of reconnecting with the forces that were separated during the Skinnie blitz in the last few months, and although several border worlds fell, their populations taken away into the Hegemony, Federation authorities affirm that the Hegemony will either return those stolen, or pay in blood for their crimes. And with our new allies, things look good, the Turian's doctrine in counter guerilla warfare, from their decades experience in taking on pirates just like these, has won over hearts and minds as they have freed tens of thousands of people. Cleaning up the Skinnie in Federation territory in the southern regions, leaving our boys and girls unworried about their backs, allowing them to prepare for the upcoming campaign into the Hegemony. And with the establishment of diplomatic ties with the Free Libertatum League, we now have allies inside the Hegemony that can help support our campaign.

It seems the latest chapter in the interstellar wars is about to come to a close, and things are looking better than ever for the Federation.

Would you like to know more? Continue.

~[==|==]~

Fighting on Zion

Fighting on the Mormon planet of Zion has reached a fever pitch, as the Federation deploys ever more troopers to quell the Skinnie forces invading the world. Zion, which originally held out against the Skinnie attack with their own planetary militia, acquiesced to allow Federation boots on the ground when the second wave of Skinnies was led by a traitorous Human going by the name of "Death Blade", a name most likely acquired in the gladiatorial arena, arrived on planet. The Human arrived with his own army of "Skinned", or Skinnie indoctrinated Humans, and has led a brutal campaign that has killed tens of thousands on the planet, civilian and soldier alike.

The Zion government has officially invited Federal forces in hopes of bringing an end to the fighting, but radicals in their military seized control of several cities and have begun attacking Federation forces, believing our boys and girls arrived to force the planet under Federation control. Until the mistake can be sorted out, Federation forces have elected to avoid confrontation and has focused on forcing the Skinnie out of the countryside and suburbs.

The flat pasture land and farms make it excellent tank territory, and newly designed tanks have begun to appear on the Federation side, taking up the old mantle of Panzer Warfare from the 21st Century after decades of fighting bugs.

However, the miscommunication between radicals and Federal commanders has resulted in dozens of deaths, and a revamp of communication protocols.

Would you like to know more? Continue.

~[==|==]~

The Battle of Shanxi Redux

It has been seven months since the Federation retook Shanxi, and to honor the memory of those lost, we bring raw footage from that battle. This was filmed from Fednet Reporter-Private Ailis Pedersen right after her drop-

Tel'Rock stopped the fednet broadcast as he saw his long time friend gunned down like a common soldier, seeing the look of surprise on his face before outrage and fear, pain and then death overtook him. Tears of sadness rolling down his face he screamed out in a rage, smashing his glass against the wall. "Change the bounty to include that bitch's name and face! And double the amount!" He ordered the commander who had found these images.

Regaining his calm, he slumped into his seat, "Thank you for showing me this. You will be rewarded at a later time when I can find something suitable to give..."

~[==|==]~

Tesla'Vir 2657 GS November /24/2329 AD

Tesel Modri sighed as she wrote a ticket up, and placed in on the window of the hover car, "Can't believe people are this stupid." She griped, looking again at how the driver had parked halfway on the sidewalk. She knew she should get back on patrol, but perhaps the driver was drunk, and foolish enough to drive manually, it would be no good to let them go driving with her ticket on their window. Gently scratching her head crest, she sat down on the edge of the car and waited.

She sighed sadly as she looked up at the sky, Tesla'Vir was a nice quiet place, on the border of the Skyllian Verge. But there really was not much going on here, even devoid of the occasional raid, being too far out of the way, and of too little importance to raid or bother, while still being close enough politically to get the defense they needed in case some four eyed species got a little too greedy.

There had even been talk a few months back about activating the relay in the system to see if it connected somewhere, hopefully with the newly found Fedration. Mainly by the Turian half of the colony, but the Asari half quashed that without mercy, not wanting this garden world possibly becoming a war zone. Frankly she was glad, this planet was too nice and civilized to be turned into a military outpost for some dumb Turian war. Although she shouldn't be mean like that. After all, the Turians had been responsible enough to increase their garrisons in the border worlds that had relays pointing in the direction of the Federal Zone. Just in case.

Looking up at the night sky, she thought there were more lights than normal, at first she shrugged it off thinking a major convoy of ships had come by to restock. Then one of the lights fired a glittering strand of light that destroyed another. She looked up at the sky much more attentively as she slowly had it dawn on her, "Oh…. Oh fuck." As she jumped to her feet, she saw more explosions in the sky followed quickly by her radio declaring emergency martial law and lockdown. Then the colonies warning sirens started blaring.

"The Goddess is going on?" She exclaimed in horror, before she regained her faculties and ran with the crowds of people to the emergency bunkers and the garrison stations. Hearing voices in the crowd directing them, distinctly Turian voices, she started to join the growing ranks of the defenders.

~[==|==]~

Colonel Mar'Rack watched the fleet of unknown ships be burn or boarded, most likely merchant and civilian vessels. As most, if not all, didn't have powerful enough weapons to do any damage to his fleet. After the disaster at Cassandra, the Hegemony council had threatened to pull support from Tel'Rock, despite its loss being far from his control, and he had just barely held on thanks to the untimely death of a few of the council leaders. It was a clumsy and foolish move, but it had worked for now, Mar'Rack had no doubts that his lord would pay for it in time. Petolemaics did not let grudges lie.

In order to survive and gather support, he launched this new campaign in a hurry, this rabble of a fleet Mar'Rack had been put in charge of. He could lead anything to victory but this, this was going to be a challenge, the new offensive was a migration wave, which has helped improve his number of ships, and would allow him an increased ability to settle a world and hunker down. However the majority of his military forces was a joke, he could count on what was left of his soldiers from Shanxi, and miscellaneous raiders from all over the Hegemony. What he could not count on was the mass wave of refugees who had been kicked off their home worlds by the stronger tribes and kingdoms. They were waiting on the other side of the relay, and as soon as he gave the all clear, they would come through. Most would stop at this world to help in the attack, but only to gather loot and slaves before scattering to the winds, the others would go straight for the scatter, creating pockets of their civilization throughout this area of space.

This attack was a stop gap, and would only be helpful for the war if this system had any relations to the Turians. Which was fairly unlikely. Another problem was he had hoped that the system the device dumped them in would have been abandoned. That way he could approach and attack surrounding shipping and colonies and decide on a weak world to attack immediately on his own terms. But it was just their luck that they would be put in front of an inhabited world, which could relay that they had come. So in order for his strategic goal to succeed, he had to silence them before help could arrive, then deactivate the device and scatter until the attack blew over.

Groaning in annoyance he covered up his fatigue. This just made his comparatively cushy job a hell of a lot harder. He had no idea on how long it would take the Turians or local authorities to arrive, for them to get word, or even something as simple as how many lived on the colony and their number of troops. He was tempted to just wipe out the colony from orbit and then leave as soon as possible. Which was his plan as soon a he saw a hint of any enemy fleet, or dedicated resistance.

Taking a breath to calm himself, he looked down toward the planet and the lights of the city wondering if this was a wise move at all.

"Colonel." The captain of his Ship, Ty'Lon, called as he came up behind him, "We have cleared the skies and have confirmed Turian designed ships were here."

Knowing it was his turn to take part in this joke of an offensive he nodded, "Begin landings and send word back to the Migration Wave, they may begin landings as well. Bombard any AAA batteries or places of focused resistance. At the barest hint of enemy reinforcements, call me, we must be ready to retreat at a moment's notice. Inform the ground troops there will be no waiting for them if they fail to escape in time."

~[==|==]~

Tesel Modri held onto her rifle with a death grip, she never thought she would ever have to use one, she was rated on it of course, but she was much more competent with a pistol. So when the siege of the police station had begun, she had been holding it like it was a snake. Now she still didn't like it, but it was better than her pistol when it came to getting though the suits of the new aliens. These aliens were never encountered, and she had never heard of them, but her visor hud had identified them as "Petols", or "Skin-neys", whatever that word meant.

They had landed about six hours ago in numbers to rival the population of the colony, and since then, more and more shuttles were increasing that number, by the minute. The Skinnies wore for the most part suits made from some ballistic fiber or another preventing much of the small arms fire that was shot at them from doing much if it did any damage. They had swept through the city and surrounding suburbs, attacking defender and civilians alike using some kind of weird rifle that shot blue goo and constricted people to capture those who did not outright surrender, and looting everything they saw. Thankfully they really liked to loot it seemed, as they did it with glee and it had slowed their curb stomp to a crawl. They were literally taking everything that seemed to be worth at least something.

It was utter anarchy throughout the city, and fires burn uncontrolled to add smoke to the confusion. She had done her best wherever she ended up, but she wasn't a soldier, and this, this was nothing she had ever been prepared for. Or equipped for, she was still wearing her patrol uniform with hardly a hardsuit to go around, as if that would be enough against those rifles. Often times Kinetic Barriers didn't work properly against the semi liquid goo, and it had rapidly been learned that it was actually counter productive to go prone.

Taking a deep breath, she peaked out through the precinct's window. She and some other cops, with some civilians, had been cut off from the main body of resistance and had held up here, thankfully the looters who were scouring the city seemed less interested in a fight, so even though they were behind enemy lines they were not under constant attack. As she watched some Skinnie drive by in a hover car, loaded with anything and everything that looked valuable… wait wasn't that the hover car she ticketed? Looking closely at the hood she nearly laughed. It was.

"Tesel," one of the other cops, a Turian by the name of Guthe called, "they looking at this place yet?"

"No, they're more interested stealing from the stores behind us, I feel like we're in a riot and not a war zone." She stated.

"If only, then we would probably have no trouble quarantining this thing, but more than enough of them are real soldiers." Her Turian Police sergeant, Sergeant Kennam, commented from the table he was laying on, as one of the medics they had picked up did his level best to patch him up from a wound sustained by a 'real soldier', "I'd bet a hundred credits these are either the rear echelon, or organized looting teams by the enemy. Hence why they don't attack us on sight."

"Do you think a message about what's going on here got out to the Citadel?" Officer Chillum, a Salarian expat, asked the sergeant.

"Of course, even complete silence will tip them off once it reaches them. But the real question is how long until they get here, and what level of force they will bring. And who else will hear of what's going on before they arrive? It may get a lot worse before it gets better." The sergeant said, grunting in pain as the medic did his best to put his side back together, having just ripped a piece of his own carapace out of his body..

"What do you mean by others hearing? Anyone who comes will help us right!?" Tesel asked, looking out the window as she saw another ship leaving orbit, trying not to think about what was inside it's hold, 'Slaves and loot' popped into her head so she told it to shut up.

"There's a lot of factions out in the terminus systems that would see this as a great opportunity to raid us, a relief fleet a few days away, get it while the getting's good pops into mind, from everything between a warlord to a petty pirate leader. Most would be smart enough to stay away and play it by ear, but there's always idiots who gain power, and more than a few who could conceivably take on that relief fleet, or unscrupulous to charge us for helping. But considering those explosions we heard earlier, I very much doubt they would arrive to anyone they could help. In a few days the cities will be stripped bare of civilians, and all of us dead or prisoner. They have the numbers and the firepower to destroy us in less than a day if they keep this up."

"You don't really think pirates would show up here? It sounds like a recipe for disaster." Guthe said, everyone else but the medic were too stuck in shock at the admittance of defeat to speak.

"I think when it rains it pours, so I won't put any disaster from not happening." Tesel shivered visibly. Once the sergeant was deemed fit to move, he sat up. "What the fuck are you all just sitting there for?!" He roared at them, making everyone jump, "We may have lost the battle, but we can still make a difference. What we have in our minds and bodies is the ability to make an even greater victory, surviving this fight. And bring the intelligence we can to the military. Like who attacked us, from where, and how they did so! Now mount up, we're moving out in five minutes get anything we can use, but travel light."

"But sir! Where will we go? We have nothing and we know of nowhere that's safe!" An Asari civilian said in dismay,

"You're wrong! We have an objective: Survive. We have the means: Us. And we have a destination: My house." Everyone looked up at that, if only to scoff for some, "I got an underground panic room, enough supplies to last a few years for all of us, and an emergency escape hatch that leads to the city's service tunnels and out towards the woods. If we make it after a few stops at vital locations on the way, we will be secure. Now it won't be easy, I know this, but I know that we can all make it if we work together and don't lose hope," The sergeant told them all, giving a wink of hope in all the despair.

"But- but you just said-"

"I know what I said, but we can survive this, free of slavery. Follow me and you will survive. I guarantee it…"

~[==|==]~

Citadel station 2657 GS December /1st/2329 AD

The councilors looked in horror at the information they were seeing. What was coming out of the Tesla'Vir system was a very garbled distress signal, but one thing was clear, it was under a full scale assault. What was less clear was who was doing the assault, since no ship had escaped and the comm buoy system in the region had been annihilated in minutes before a more understandable signal was released. "Did some Pirate band decide to attack?" Tevos asked to her fellow Councilors in confusion, looking at Salarian Councilor Cenike for answers.

But the most horrifying thing was Councilor Cenike looked antsy, "No... the STG would have at least heard a rumor for an attack force this large, someone can't just hide a fleet this large after all, and beyond that, we have no agents on planet, so we have no intelligence on what is occurring." That statement terrified Tevos more than anything she ever heard before. She could always count on her Salarian counterparts having an idea, and it was always comforting in a way.

"It must be the Skinnies." Gallius said from where he sat.

"What makes you jump to that conclusion Gallius?" Cenike asked curiously.

Gallius sat up and played a garbled segment of the recording, "Oh Goddess! The entire System Defense Force is GONE! It looks like yellow lines just connected with them and…" Indecipherable static began to be cleared up in a few seconds, "... Repeat, it must be some kind of laser fire… Oh fuck! Incoming orbita-"

The message ended sharply after that, Gallius looked up to the others, "Reports of yellow lasers, they match the Skinnies energy weapons profile, and the relay in that system has been estimated to lead into the Human Federal Zone." Gallius commented as he sat back in his chair, looking grim.

"Of course it's possible that colony opened it themselves, they were considering opening that relay, some extremists or-" Tevos was cut off from hope.

Laughing humorlessly at Tevos, Gallius shook his head, "Despite the illogical nature of that, the idea was quashed by the local Asari government. And even if they did so, do you truly lack the idea of basic military preparation? An attack like this was planned at the least, so either we are dealing with a new species who just thought to attack the colony randomly, not impossible, but incredibly unlikely, or the Skinnies opened it. They saw us come through at Shanxi, probably figured out how to open them up on their own once they knew what they did, and what to look for." Gallius shook his head, "You know what that means, I assume?"

Cenike nodded, "Yes, they are becoming a danger to everyone, opening relays without consideration."

Gallius shook his head, "Partly, although I can presume the Skinnies aren't foolish enough to send just a lone scout vessel, if what we saw is true, they're willing to send an overwhelming fleet out. No, this means that they can double, triple, maybe even quadruple their territory and resources, and be permanently out of reach of our retaliation forces. Meaning their use of slave labor to extract the resources they discover won't particularly impact their population numbers as much. This is a strategic nightmare of unimaginable proportions, since even if we destroy them there, they will take it as a success and pour ever more resources into spreading even faster." That made both the councilors pale at the realization the Skinnies could conceivably rival the Citadel Council itself in worlds eventually if they continued to spread so quickly.

"Tevos I know you wanted to keep this little scuffle away from the larger galaxy, and wanted to keep the Federal Conflict small, but that was when the Terrans were a legitimate buffer for us, now we have no protection from the species in the Federal Zone, and if one of them could find a way to attack us-" It was his turn to be cut off.

"Gallius… Burn them out, the Citadel Council is officially at war with the Petolemaic Hegemony, and all assets are to be used as such. Inform Ambassador Maghernus, I'm sure he wants to make good on his half of the deal."

~[==|==]~

Citadel station, Zakera Ward, K-Drop NightClub 2657 GS December /1st/2329 AD

Sitting in one of the VIP booths at the K-Drop, Maghernus was sharing the new club's experience with the Volus and Turian Ambassadors. He had also invited the Council, but they told him they had been busy with emergency issues.

Din Korlack, the Volus ambassador, had been talking with Maghernus about possible trade agreements and manufacturing deals, while the Turian Ambassador, Uliya Naxus, was merely here to observe Turian Human relations in the club.

"So Terran-Clan... why did you… Name the club K-Drop?" Din asked as Maghernus brought him his drink. the drink was a sealed pressurized container of ammonia ethanol concentrate, with several fruity additives from the Volus homeworld. The K-Drop prided itself on having drinks available for any species.

Smiling, Maghernus waved across the entire club, playing a mix of Electronic Rock. Most of the patrons were Human, but a few off duty Turian sailors and soldiers were mixed around with their newfound comrades at arms. He even thought he had seen an Asari or two earlier. He had given a general order to the Terran garrison to play nice, and so far the Humans were accepting enough of the Turians with a minimal of fights.

"Wasn't my idea actually. You see most of the Terran Garrison are Klendathu Veterans. Klendathu is the homeworld of our enemy, the Arachnids. Many of these men and women below you are those who were left behind after the horrific combat drop. They named it." Maghernus said mysteriously, as he took a sip of his beverage. "The K-Drop. They call it that ironically, every time they get up they face the horrors of what they saw, go outside and mingle with the aliens who they have done nothing but fight for a long time in their lives. Here they can relive the excitement of the combat drop, and after their moment of excitement, they go back to Klendathu, the unknown, the fresh hell. Or in this case, the Citadel."

Din thought about that for a moment, slurping up his drink from a tube, while Naxus walked over, "Are all Humans warrior poets?" Naxus chuckled out as he noticeably bumped his head up and down with the beat. The song was speaking a Terran dialect known as German, and the song was not auto translated. It kept its mystique and charm when a non native speaker couldn't translate it with the song, otherwise losing the tempo and rhythm.

"Not at all. But when you're on a hell hole for a decade or so, you tend to find humor where you can." Maghernus chuckled as they all toasted to the K-Drop. "I'm happy to see your boys getting along well with mine." Maghernus complimented as he looked down to the club's dance floor, where the Humans and Turians were dancing together.

"Indeed, I think the corresponding goals of both our governments have helped that, and the welcoming atmosphere we have made for you." They both got a laugh at that, a little joke that the Klendathu vets had, was when they first arrived at least they could breath the air without dying slowly of suffocation.

Like a lightswitch however, the mood in the club froze. The Turians and other aliens in the club paused as they saw all the Humans looking at various data pads or electronic devices, and then started to hurriedly leave the club. "Maghernus-" Naxus started but then he saw the Human looking extremely pale at his own omni-tool.

"The Skinnies just attacked a Asari-Turian colony." He said grimly, before turning on his heel and leaving the club with the mass of Humans.

~[==|==]~

Tesla'Vir 2657 GS December /4/2329 AD

Dahlia Dantius watched the cold blackness of space as her ship FTLed past the Petolemaic patrols. 'I can't believe these fools have sensors this bad.' She mused to herself. Word had gotten out about what had happened here, and like any self respecting pirate, Dahlia wanted in on the looting.

So she marshaled her crew and let a few comrades in piracy know about her plans, and so far they had been lucky. For the past two days they had been running the blockade the Petolemaics had set up, and been stealing anything and anyone they could. They had mostly stayed out of the aliens' way, who were too busy trying to finish off what was left of the Citadel forces. But they had caught a few unprepared groups who had appeared to have been trying to set up farms in the country side of the planet. Dumb fucks, they would have been wiped out from orbit by the Turian counter attack if she didn't kill them first.

When they did that the first time, she was sure the Aliens would come down hard on their ships, and try and stop their raiding. But the aliens had ignored them for the most part if they weren't on the way to their destination. After the third group had been taken and some alien tech added to their own arsenal, she had realized the guy in charge didn't care. His ship stayed in geocentric orbit with the capital, and the numbers of alien ships in orbit was less and less with each run she made.

It was about this time she realized that most of these aliens were no better than her own crew and friends. She had decided that once the Citadel was done with whoever the fuck these aliens were, she was going to check out whatever was left, might be a great place to get crew and resources.

"Captain, we're through the patrol zone. Where should we set course for?" Her first mate, another Asari, a matron who had lived and grown up in the Terminus her entire life, asked her.

"Hmm haven't been to Mesophania in a while, let's drop off our goods there."

~[==|==]~

Tesla'Vir 2657 GS December /6/2329 AD

Mar'Rack looked over the latest reports from the surface, there was not much left to wipe out, a few holdout units, some stubborn fighters, and most likely people who had found good hiding spots, but besides that the world was cleaned of easy to get resources. They had some problems the last few days with local bandits, who saw an opportunity to get their hands on the loot, and at first he had let them do as they will, since they were wisely not picking a fight with his forces, but things had gotten more troubling. So he was considering what to do about them.

In all reality, he saw these bandits as a way to help his own forces. They most likely made terrible soldiers, but they could give him great intel and tech from the Citadel, the problem was trying to talk to them, he doubted they spoke Terran or had a translation software. To add to that trouble a few of the ships had actively attacked them when they could. In all fairness it was a great idea but it was not something he could pull now, but in the future, well time does heal all wounds, it would give new and grand opportunities.

Anyways he had done his job here, there had been something like a hundred and fifty refugee vessels with his fleet at the start of the campaign, and another hundred raider ships with his personal fleet of two dreadnoughts, four Republic Cruisers, and a dozen Terran Corvettes. Now most of the refugees had left the system, with him threatening to destroy any clan who wished to use the planet below. They could not have any indication they were here for as long as possible. Still about forty elected to follow him to find another world, to help make a way station for his fleet. The rest of the raiders returned to the Hegemony with vital combat telemetry and technology. It was time for him to leave this system and strike out on his long range mission. He did not want to face the Citadel forces until he had plenty of time to prepare his ships for combat with them.

"Sir!" A young Petolemaic said as he rushed into his office, "Captain Ty'Lon has asked for you on the bridge, a fleet of unknown ships have arrived in the system's edge."

'That would be the Citadel relief force.' Mar'Rack thought, "Tell him I'm on my way, but to begin pulling out now."

"Sir but there still some of your soldiers down on the ground as well as the refugees." the young one asked.

"The ships and what we have learned here in our attack, is more important than those who must be left behind. We will send a warning to them of course to retreat, but we cannot risk what few combat ships we have for them." They were going to need these ships to last for their campaign through the Citadel planets, and he was confident that he could evacuate most of his personal forces, the refuges could die for all he cared. "Oh, and destroy the primary cities on the planet, they're empty anyways. Best not leave anything for the enemy."

~[==|==]~

Tesla'Vir 2657 GS December /6/2329 AD

Captain Morgan took a long drag on his cigar, god how he missed them, letting it out as he looked out from the camera at a destroyed spaceport. "Looks like Fednet got something right for once." He muttered as his troopers moved down the corridors of the ship to their drop locations, many still wearing the old patched up Raider armor they'd been issued before Klendathu, though they had a few units of power suits, exo suits, and marauders under his command, but they had yet to be blooded in proper battle, and the troops were itching to fetishize them with trophies from battle. These new guys weren't his old crew, they never served on Klendathu, but they had volunteered to help rebuild Blackburn's Raiders. He Straightened his long coat and the Blackburn strapped to his back, making sure the melted blade was not going to come loose. This would be their opprotunity ot join his men in blood.

Sitting on his own dropship with his command staff, he had a few Turians aboard it as well, "What did Fed-net get wrong?" Turian General Septimus Oraka asked, as he watched his own armored troopers move with the Terran forces on the planet's surface. Both Captain Morgan and Oraka were coming down in the second wave. Since the Skinnies had destroyed the primary cities, they were fighting in the suburban areas and half destroyed ruins.

"The Media said that the famous Blackburn's Raiders were being reconstituted, and they haggard a guess that we were to be shipped to the South to fight. But because we were, you know, behind enemy lines, being essentially a POW for 7 years on Klendathu, gives you a lot of built up vacation days. Unfortunately, for us, they were fucking right in a wrong way!" He said, feeling his dropship land quite comfortably and open the drop doors. Raising his old single lens Snooper to his one good eye, to watch a battalion of armored transports move into the Capital's edge cautiously.

"Klendathu, I've heard that often, that was the arachnid's homeworld. They sound as mean as the Ranchi were, if not more so judging by the variety of bugs you must face." The Turian said watching the troops unaided with his exceptionally keen eyes.

"They're meaner than you can imagine, trust me when I say it. The so called second bug war may be over, but it will pick back up within a decade or two, their side wants to rule the universe, and my side has suffered too much pain at their hands to not want them wiped out of existence. Bastards likely wouldn't accept a peace treaty anyways." Morgan explained, noting some Skinnie scrambling out of hiding and running away. The Turian point man almost ran after him, but his power suit partner just fired on the Skinnie, shooting him in the back.

"It's a trap." Morgan's Lieutenant betted to his Communications Officer. Oraka looked back disapproving to both Morgan and the Lieutenant who were already offering their bets.

The Turian soldier looked ready to argue, but he was shut down by his power suit partner as he lead a squad forward, and jumped up to the second floor of a nearby building, the Skinnie had been running past. As the Soldiers held onto the side of the wall, holding onto the ledge of the broken window, they all pulled up simultaneously, and fired long bursts into the room.

"Want to borrow my pair of snoopers? It will enlighten you to the truth." The Lieutenant, man in his late 40s, offered to Oraka, who took the pair of binoculars and activated its main function, looking through one of the lenses, he saw the squad of power suits were firing into the building, at very Skinnie heat blobs, who fired back at the Powersuits.

The squad pulled themselves into the building, and began to clear the floor professionally. While he didn't doubt the instincts of his soldiers, Morgan had released a breath of relief, happy that they didn't embarrass all of the MI in front of the Cits by shooting civilians, "But enough about my fucked up life," Morgan continued nonchalantly, as they all walked forward, "how about your fucked up life? You're in the military, I'm sure you got some horror stories that could try and turn my hair white." He commented as he brushed one of his grey brown locks back under his peaked cap. He had so far avoided regulations regarding hair length with the use of a hair net, but Morgan was considering getting a mullet or pony tail in the near future.

"... I'm not exactly sure of that euphemism, but I'm pretty sure I haven't seen anything that will do that. But I do have a few stories, you know what a Krogan is right?" Oraka replied to Morgan, who nodded. He had seen some info on Fednet, heard stories the one time he got a ticket to the Citadel, and even met a few of the real deal. Large, nasty, but not very intimidating once you've stared down your fifth bug charge, "Well I've been in charge of fighting campaigns against renegade Krogan warbands who think the rebellions are still going. It's a nasty business, as they were once heroes who stopped the Rachi. And they're nasty fighters, hard to put down. Thankfully they don't exactly got a lot of tanks at their disposal. Lost a lot of good soldiers fighting them."

"Yup, this job sucks sometimes." Morgan stated, reaching into his long coat and pulled out some rum he kept for emergencies. He took a swing then offered some to the Turian General.

"Thank you for the offer, but despite the unprofessionalism, drinking Levo designed alcohol has an increased effect on Dextro races. And I'd rather not be drinking while on duty anyways."

Morgan shrugged, "Well this isn't much of a fight, and not enough to get me drunk anyways. But I see your point, once we make camp, I owe you a drink." The year of unobserved fighting had turned not just his force but the entirety of the Klendathu veterans into something of an undisciplined lot. But what they lacked in formal discipline they more than made up in combat capability.

~[==|==]~

Tesla'Vir 2657 GS December /6/2329 AD

Tesel shook her head clean of dust as another wave of laser fire tore into the upper floor of Kennam's home. The plan to use his panic room had worked, until about two days ago. Unfortunately his escape tunnel was collapsed when the orbital bombardment to destroy the cities began, rendering it nearly impossible to dig their way out that way. To make it worse, the Skinnies found the door to the panic room and thought it was a vault or some shit.

Thankfully Kennam was a paranoid one, and the door had held despite the Skinnies doing everything they could to open it, But it had gotten so bad that the new plan was, once they had stopped for the night, to reoccupy the house while the Skinnies slept, and hold out in hopes of buying time or breaking out once more and escaping to another place. So for the past two days they had to fight a never ending siege. She hadn't slept in the last 24 hours, and even before then, her sleep had not been restful.

"Will these assholes give it a rest?" One of the soldiers who they picked up since they started their trek muttered. Sitting next to her against the wall, head hidden between his legs.

"I doubt it," Tesel countered, chewing on a piece of dehydrated ration bar, "mayb-"

"INCOMING! GET TO YOUR POSTS!" Kennam hollered from up stairs, in a sniper's nest. The Turian was using a Kishock Harpoon Gun from his own personal stash of weapons. Many of the survivors actually had odd or exotic weapons, which were more effective than their previous weapons due to their unusual way of inflicting harm.

Tesel didn't have time to speculate as she pulled herself up, and began to fire at the wave of figures charging forward, most of them didn't even look like the Skinnies she'd seen before. They were shorter, with Asari frames and skin. she'd almost think them Terrans, if they weren't working with the Skinnie, and the horrific and crude metal modifications giving them Skinnie horns and claws. She fired tight controlled bursts from her now worn and heavily modified rifle, but they kept coming, firing a mix of weapons, tearing the window still around her to shreds. Forcing her to cover and to move to the next window.

Her rifle had overheated thanks to battle damage it had received earlier, despite everyone's attempts to fix it, damaging the heat sink. So while it cooled for a while, she drew her service weapon and began to fire into the aliens trying to climb their way into the ground floor windows.

She would have kept fighting if she didn't suddenly feel something impact her back, feeling her kinetic barrier fall, and a projectile from the weapon tear apart her firing hand. She fell back in blinding pain, as a Skinnie like monster and two of its friends came through the stairwell behind her. Looking for help the soldier who had been with her had already fallen. She could hear other weapons fire from nearby rooms and upstairs but that was a cold comfort to her. She was on her own, she reached with her good hand to try and grab her service pistol.

The monster kicked her gun away, and reached down, grabbing her by the throat lifting her her into the air. It was the only then that she realized just how tall the monster was, her feet hovering off the ground.

Her only weapon left, her biotics, would do nothing in the state she was in but put the creature off balance for a second, and allow her to do nothing but be killed by his buddies, "Damn, look at this waist we have to give the blue ones to Lord Ja'Ka. They look Human enough to keep for ourselves." His friend laughed, as he started to take anything of value from the dead soldier.

Having trouble breathing, with his hand tightly wrapped around her throat, Tesel spat the words out, "Go. Fuck. Your. Self." The monster turned to her, smiling.

"Oh bonus! We don't even need to teach her our language!" He said happily.

She didn't have time to respond, as a massive shock wave rocked the house, sending everyone to the ground. Shaking her head clear of stars, she saw fire licking at the windows, and heard a barely used geiger counter app clicking on her omni-tool.

The Monster's friends were the first ones up, looking out the window in shock and terror then they both fell over, heads non existent after being shot. "Jeremy! Fatihma!" The monster screamed, then the window exploded inward. Propelling the Monster and herself back to the ground. From where the window had once been, jumped in a soldier wearing fully sealed black and grey armor she had never seen before. Holding a huge assault rifle that looked fit for only a krogan.

"Kill 'em all! Let the devil sort them out!" The armored figure screamed out as she walked up to the Monster, and pinning him down with an armored boot, then fired her underslung shotgun, completely destroying the Monster's chest, his limbs blown outwards in wild angles, coating a wide space with rich crimson blood and a sickening smell of shit and organs. Tesel looked up at her in fear, as she kneeled down next to her. The Terran was covered in red blood from the monster, But she gently picked up her arm, examining her what was left of it, before pulling out a vial of transparent goo, and dispensing the contents on the stump that was once her hand, she immediately felt a distinct lack of anything from that area as it went numb, the goo hardening to stop the bleeding.

"Stay down, and wait for the all clear soldier!" The warrior told her, before standing and stalking into the next room.

The Terran soldier breached the next room, and finding only a dying Salarian, she went to work trying to patch him up as well. "Colonel, we got survivors here! Two so far, but there may be more, requesting medical support!" Tesel could here the feminine voice yell from the next room over, as the Asari leaned herself against the wall and waited, pain all over, feeling like her stomach was trying to eat itself, and so exhausted she could barely keep her eyes open. She didn't want to think about how the radiation would affect her life span either.

Tesel was quietly having a nervous breakdown now, after just watching someone get blown apart into literal limbs. The Warrior stalked back into her room, Chillum her Salarian coworker, over the giants shoulders. Placing him down right next to Tesel, the Warrior removed her helmet as two more similarly clad Warriors hopped in behind her and began to clear the rest of the house. She had been imagining her to look no better than the monster with how brutal she'd been. However she looked goddess damn hot in a veteran battle matron sort of way. The short yellow top fur on her head, spiked out, presumably with gel but bent from the helmet, and golden eyes only adding to an exotic look. Her facial features were scared extensively with lateral scars across the left side, as if impacted by a sand blaster once. But it was the look on her face that allowed her to offer her hand, if the Terran was indeed a monster, she bore no ill will to her. And she would love to be ravaged by such a monster.

She lets out a weak and pained laugh at the absurdity of that thought in the context of all that had happened. Fuck this adrenaline high was awesome!

To be continued

Author's Notes:

HaywireEagle chapter 18 . Jan 3

Spectre not Specter. Special Tactics and REcon

L4: DAMN DYSLEXIA!

Lord Foul: sorry, that's my job to fix, I'll try to do better.

Bloodraven117: Mine too. admittedly I knew in my heart I was doing it wrong, but I couldn't get the fucks to do it right. Sounds harsh but I run on a cycle of Immense inspiration to do shit, to a low points where I have to grind it out, no matter what it is.

ThunderGod Stormbringer chapter 1 . Jan 3

There is only one book and source for Starship Troopers and thats the book written by Heinlein, anything else is NOT accepted

L4: yes and no the CGI used the book heavily unlike the movies which did not use the book more than a coat of paint.

Lord foul: I prefer the book immensely, but I'm not going to pretend it didn't inspire other pieces of fiction.

Bloodraven117: We also included bits from the movie, like Light Infantry, the failed invasion of Klendathu, a few characters, and the uniforms, mixed with a bit of the pseudo fascism that actually acted as a thought experiment.

erdervv chapter 18 . Jan 3

I love the fact you decided to ditch that stupid relay 314 incident first contact, most crossover are just a repetition of that and then some kind of silly roflstomp (oh god the halo/me folder, can't unsee), and the council is actually acting smartly and not like half trained monkeys, you are setting the bar here guys, great work :)

L4: THANK!

Lord foul: we try :)

Bloodraven117: Yup, I was happy to see that too. Here how L4 wrote it it made sense that the Turians would be chums with the Terrans instead. TnT Alliance for Life!

Dinodude7 chapter 18 . Jan 4

I wonder when the batarian Hegemony realizes that making an alliance, secret or otherwise, with an enemy of the Federation will only come to gloriously bite them in their soon to be endangered asses?

L4: probable 10 minute after get an example of anti Skinnie tactics that were used in the book

Lord foul: give them some credit. half hour till they're steamrolled

Bloodraven117: Hence why the Advisor was like "Are you fucking stupid? Politically speaking it's a dumb idea, militarily speaking it's a dumb idea, lawfully speaking it's a dumb idea, and diplomatically speaking it's a dumb idea!" More on that, later.

Poliamida chapter 18 . Jan 5

Hahaha, Leeroy!

Anyway, good chapter, I'm a bit sad to see Desolas yet again as the 'token bad guy' but Sindri's attitude might suggest there's something else going on.

By the way, am I the only one who didn't believe for a second that the Terrans had destroyed the artifact?

Keep it up!

L4: That's a conspiracy theory

Lord foul: *whistles innocently*

Bloodraven117: Give Carl some credit, he's not a moron, he listens to his clairvoyants and them telling him "This thing will turn you into a zombie" Is a pretty compelling argument to just get rid of it.

Also I am painting Desolas to be a misguided person, he never wanted to attack the Terrans because that was just plain dumb, after all they could have just as easily said, "Hey, you know that thing that seems to be just pain in the ass? Here's some reputable technology in exchange for it so we can test it and dispose of it when we are done, if you want to you can watch." Since he has nothing to hide and the whole thing seems to be a test for him anyways.

Lord Foul: "not a moron" we are still talking about the guy who (briefly) used his telepathy on a brain bug for dramatic effect right?

The Darkness Writhes chapter 18 . 18m ago

Great story you have here I found it one day just by chance I thought hey wonder if there is a mass effect and starship troopers crossover and I found one and I hoped that it was a good and well done one that gets updated and what I found here well surprised me as I find a lot of ME and INSERT GENRE whenever I look but this it's one of the better stories I've ever read on ffn but I'm not any sort of expert on either game or in starship troopers case book/movies/cgi/etc but while I read it on the wiki will the e-44 or e-88 pulse rifles make an appearance I realise that they were phased out in the movies and it said so on the wiki but could they be brought back? I realize I'm just a person who comments in the comment section and it's only an idea and in sorry for rambling on about this and the bad grammar of it but for a story as great as this where the stories good and the bugs are crispy I just can't stop singing the praise for this badass story.

L4: ah that address' a problem I have with the guns and armor as well, but I'll start with your main question: I say that though movie (Mostly) didn't happen, the concepts and tech are well within my use. So yes those guns can be used and I may use them, but like the Morita Marauder Rifle, I have to come up with a reason they are not used as much on the main lines that makes sense (Wait for Bloodraven to explain later)… of course I could just say the Morita Arms Company payed of some people in the military.. have to think about that.

Any way the problem I have with the guns is they don't work on the same system, an example would be the rifle from the first movie is called Morita MK I , however in the mini books it's called Morita TW-201 if it was only that, it'd be a simple fix, but there weapons from the second movie and the third and the fourth that don't translate, not to mention the animated series. and then their arbitrary naming of armor, so this had left me with only one thing to do, start renaming weapons and armor so they're on the same naming system at least. I'll try not let it be noticeable but there may be some continuity gaffs on that part while I get that settled.

Lord Foul: wow, high praise. much appreciated, yeah pulse rifles mostly or completely bypass standard shields (Reaper shields Geth shields and a few specialist shield configurations like Tech Armor or Fortification have a greater or lesser ability to block plasma and particle weapons), so with the combat paradigm shifting they'll probably see more use.

likewise, the ME guys will probably shift development more towards armor more able to handle the SST guns

Bloodraven117: Luckily for you, I said that we should have all the weapons and equipment listed out so I can put some flavor text on them and look it up when we need some specialty weapon! And congratulations, I've finished the E weapon series.

Yini-mina E-pulse 44 Assault Rifle: An alternative of the Standard rifle, only veteran units have the option of taking the rifle. Its unique projectiles and slower rate of fire makes it a good variant for MI use. In side by side tests it is noted to have an equal combat efficiency, and slightly greater in experienced hands. But its exorbitant cost per unit has foreclosed it from being the standard issue and limits it to a few million units.

Yini-mina E-pulse 88 Light Machine Gun: The bigger brother to the Assault Rifle, its use as an LMG has seen much more success. By sucking from an inbuilt battery or a back mounted generator, the weapon's "bottomless clip", has garnered a reputation and a desire for it in all units of the Federation for its assignment, with entire units and indeed regiments pooling their money together to finance its production in extreme cases. Its weight is standard of LMGs, equaling that of the "Little Nukey" assault rifle.

Me and L4 have been working together to get this stuff and add a little bit of our own lore to the universe. What does "Little Nukey" mean? Will you see more of this stuff? Perhaps. ;)

Author note: Almost completed mass effect 1 and I could watch Anderson punch that diplomat all day.