Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox
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USM Anzio
"They didn't try to interfere with the shuttles. I suppose that's a good thing," captain Ramirez remarked to no one in particular.
Around him the combat operations centre had become a veritable beehive of activity as the command staff of the Anzio monitored both the flight of the shuttles, which were rapidly approaching the Calypso, and the new transmission that was being broadcast by the alien ship. Initially it had seemed as though the aliens had simply mimicked the Anzio's signal, repeating the powers of two in pulses of its carrier wave. However, the aliens had not stopped there. After a moment's pause they had switched to a new pattern. So far, there seemed to be no sign of repetition in this pattern and technicians aboard the Anzio were trying to analyze the data.
Inside the Virtual Reality environment created by her helmet, petty-officer Nika watched as the datastream took shape after shape, depending on her visualization choices. She had been working non-stop for over an hour, longer than was advisable for VR-duty. However, she had requested that she be allowed to stay on duty for the duration of the first contact and the captain had readily accepted. The petite, almost childlike blonde, who at first glance seemed woefully out of place onboard a warship, was by far the best computer-analyst on the Anzio.
Linear 1-D representation: useless. Linegraph produces no match. Wait, there that's the starting sequence again. They're repeating. Total number of data points 16384. That is... 128 squared. Moving to 2-D representation... Just high and low... Represent as black and white... There! It's a line drawing. Looks like some kind of bipedal...
"Sir, analysis complete!" She couldn't hide her excitement. She'd outpaced the ship's computers... again. "It's a drawing. Moving it to the screen, now."
Captain Ramirez looked at the image that appeared on one of the large screens on the wall.
"You've got to be kidding me."
USCSS Calypso
"We have a serious problem. The aliens will be here within minutes. I assume they'll board on this side of the ship, rather than using the cargo doors. That means they'll be coming in right on top of us. That is not a good scenario for first contact. Levarn is having some success with establishing communications, but he still has a long way to go and we've just run out of time. They seem to be be willing to talk. That's a good sign. They also seem to be unwilling to wait. That's not so good." Shiana looked around. "This bridge is too cramped. I want to be somewhere open, where we can see each other clearly. Suggestions?"
Liara T'Soni spoke up, somewhat hesitantly. "Captain.., there was this area, a few doors down the corridor. It looked to be some kind of kitchen. It was well lit and there seemed to be extra room for the crew to sit."
"Good. That's where we'll wait. Keep your weapons holstered and make sure they can see your hands. T'soni, no biotics, not unless you have too."
"Captain-"
"I mean it. We don't know if these people even know what biotics are. If they do, they'll see it as a threat, if not they might panic."
Shiana did her best to keep her voice relaxed to hide her increasing agitation from the two junior team members.
"Best case scenario: They recognize the situation and know how to deal with it. If they know these creatures and consider them hostile, they may have an efficient way to get rid of them. If that's the case all we have to do is remain calm. Given an opportunity, we may be able to open communications. Worst case..., well, I guess we all know what the worst case scenario is."
"Might be upset at trespassing," Solus clearly felt the need to spell it out. "Might be upset about killing of beloved pet. Might simply feel that creatures are in need of food."
"Yes, that would probably qualify as a worst case scenario," T'Soni muttered.
"Indeed! So, let's try to make sure that it doesn't happen."
Viking dropship on approach to USCSS Calypso
"Ten minutes to arrival" The voice of the pilot cut through the silence. Anderson looked at the crewchief who was standing by, ready to manipulate the docking collar.
"Ready to deploy sir," the man said. "I have the schematics for the airlock controls. The moment the collar is secured, I'll override the safeties and blow the doors on both ends."
The cargo modules attached to the two dropships had been specifically designed for this type of mission. Their docking collars had been strengthened to handle pressure variations. This allowed the marines to forego the normal use of an airlock. Instead of having to enter the airlock and waiting for it to cycle (an extremely vulnerable moment for a boarding team) they would be able to open both the inner and outer doors at once, giving the marines direct access to the ship's interior.
"Alright marines, you heard it. Seal your helmets and keep them sealed until further notice. Corporal Ishmael?"
Ishmael would lead the first entry from this shuttle. Anderson would follow with the rest of the squad.
"Ready to go, sir."
USCSS Calypso
Shiana forced herself to remain still as they waited in the kitchen area. Under other circumstances, this would have been the crowning moment of her career. Every officer in the survey fleet dreamed of making first contact with an intelligent species, but only a handful were so lucky as to experience it. Unfortunately, these were not 'other circumstances' and as it was, she could only hope that they would find a way to survive the next few moments.
CA-CLANCK!
The noise echoed though the ship as the shuttles slammed into the airlocks on either side of the hull. Shiana waited, expecting a delay as the aliens used the airlocks. Instead, there was a sharp hissing noise of escaping air. The next moment, the inner doors of the airlocks flew open and suddenly the corridors were filled with movement and noise.
Viking dropship
"GO, GO!" Anderson could hear sergeant Zim's voice over the open comm channel as the NCO personally led the first boarding team. Simultaneously, corporal Ishmael led a similar force from Anderson's own dropship. Running footsteps echoed through the corridors as the marines secured the crew quarters. Then, the voices of the marines.
"Corridor, secured!"
"Bridge, secured!"
"Sleeping room, secured!"
"Storage, secured, one corpse!"
"Kitchen! Three unknowns!"
Anderson and Vickers shared a look. This was the moment they had dreaded and Anderson braced himself for the sound of gunfire to tell him that first contact had turned into a disaster. Instead, there was a moment of silence. Then came a voice.
"You've got to be kidding me," that was sergeant Zim.
"What?!"
"Sir, I think you'd better see for yourself. I.., I don't think you would believe me if I told you."
"Very well, sergeant, I'm on my way. Ms. Vickers, wait here until I call."
USCSS Calypso
The aliens had swarmed over the ship, quickly occupying every room. Like the corpse that they had found earlier, their bodies seemed remarkably like asari, though generally taller and heavier. Unfortunately, that was all Shiana could observe. The new arrivals were uniformly dressed in some sort of body armour and, unlike her own people, they wore helmets that completely obscured their faces.
What was clear, was that they were exceedingly well armed. Every one of them seemed to carry both a pistol and some kind of assault rifle. The weapons themselves were obviously different from the ones in use in citadel space. Shiana would have been quite fascinated, if it were not for the fact that several of them were currently pointed at her and her team.
USM Anzio
"Captain, signal from lieutenant Anderson."
Captain Ramirez tore his gaze away from the images before him. "Put him on speaker."
A moment later, Anderson's voice came over the loudspeakers. "I repeat, this is lieutenant Anderson, calling Anzio."
"Anderson, this is captain Ramirez? What is going on, lieutenant?"
"Captain, we've secured the crew compartment of the Calypso. No casualties."
Ramirez relaxed slightly. "What is the situation on board, lieutenant?"
"No xenomorphs found, sir, but we have one dead body. Looks like he got ripped open by a chestburster. We have also detained three non-humans, sir. No resistance."
"I see." Ramirez looked back toward the images they had received from the alien vessel. By now there were three, simple line-drawings showing bipedal figures. "Tell me, lieutenant. What do our new aquaintances look like?"
USCSS Calypso
Anderson looked at the three creatures standing before him in the Calypso's mess hall and tried to find the correct words.
"I'm not sure how to say this, captain. To be honest, I don't think you'll believe me."
"Lieutenant we just received some images from the alien ship. You'd be surprised what I'm willing to believe right now." Ramirez' voice sounded wry.
"Well, sir, let's just say..., I think we owe several generations of cheap science fiction writers an apology. I have a guy here, who looks like his ancestors crashed in Roswell, and the other two... Honestly sir, 'hot, blue, space-chicks' seems to be the only description that does them justice."
"Wait a second," Ramirez answered. "They're blue?!"
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Nika was a character from TekWar. Since she was a hacker, it seemed fitting to have her use the equipment that I borrowed from the same series.
Once again thanks for all the comments.
RandomReader: You're right. A spaceship is, of course, a bad place for any kind of firefight and armour-piercing bullets are certainly a bad idea on board. That's why I had Anderson load the assault rifles with frangibles instead. The problem of over-penetration and basically wasting all the energy outside the target is another issue. Still, the ME universe uses these weapons against humanoid targets, so they should be reasonably effective against a xenomorph. I agree that using grenades inside a spaceship is a very bad idea, both because of the tight quarters and because you might accidentally damage something crucial. However, you could use the grenade launcher (20-30 mm) on the assault rifle to launch a solid metal slug, rather than a grenade; like a rifled slug from a shotgun. That should ruin the day of any xenomorph.
MEEKVERSEFAN2.0: I think elcor have mouths, or something like it. They have to absorb food somehow. Like krogan their size would be a problem for the facehugger though. From the events of Alien it would seem that the facehugger can get through a helmet (how else did Kane get infected?) So the suits of quarrians and volus would not protect them. A volus seems to explode if his suit is compromised, so that would be a problem, but a volus in his natural environment would be vulnerable (assuming that the xenomorph can survive there.) Vorcha are an interesting problem. Would their bodies reject the chestburster foetus, or would they adapt to having a xenomorph inside? And if they adapt, what form would it take? Right now I'm not sure how to handle it. I'll try to think of a solution. Alternatively, the xenomorph may be too much to handle even for a Vorcha's immune system.