Valkrus: I voice type these chapters, so I didn't notice it.
coment9:
1. I added Xeno because I was getting bored.
2. They're are drones that fit the role of fighters.
3.165'th is a systems alliance corp as it is described in the codex.
Guest author: I'll think about it.
now onto the show...
Relay 314, ninth cruiser group , flagship, commodore Isaac Jackson
I stare at the relay with curiosity and some pride. I had participated in relay expeditions before-serving as a lieutenant on the SSV Montana during the relay 302 expedition, and on the SSV Gettysburg for the 213 expedition- but this was the first time I have been the head of the military escort for the expedition. My face lights up with excitement, in less than an hour, I would lead my dozen navy ships and 20 civilian ships thousands of light-years away into another supercluster that is destined to join the domain of humanity. My name would go down in history as one of the great explorers of my age.
Dr. Chang would also hold that title, but no one remembered the civilian leaders of the expeditions, they always remember in the military leaders.
"commodore, Dr. Chang wishes to speak with you, he's on the comms" speak of the devil, and he shall appear. I wave off the young lieutenant and tell her to put him on. A few seconds later the picture of a short, Asian man comes on the bridges main screen.
"Dr.Chang, good to see you, what is it you wanted to talk about?" I put on my best fake smile for the annoying man who's been bugging me since the expedition left Io.
"good to see you too commodore, I wanted to tell you that the relay activation is going according to schedule, but the Prometheus has been having problems with it's anti-astroid weapons. They keep sporadically powering up and down. I was wondering if you could send some engineers to assist the crew in fixing it?" Dr. Chang says.
What I want to say to this wretched man is 'fuck off, the ships a kilometer long, you should have enough engineers on that thing to fix a simple railgun. So don't bother me with your minor problems.' Instead, I have to say "i'll look into it once we are on the other side of the relay. Until then, it's a minor enough problem for it to not be dealt with immediately."
"Very well, I'll tell the crew of the Prometheus" he says, then he cuts the connection, leaving me alone with my bridge crew. 'Maybe my hometown will rename the high school after me? Yeah, Jackson high school, has a better ring to it than Einstein.'
FTL 5 minutes out from relay 314 ,192nd patrol flotilla, flagship, commodore Primus Evasius
I was making my rounds around the ship to check on crews morale when I started thinking about how the hell I ended up commanding an entire flotilla when less than a year ago I was a Frigate Captain.
It all started when I ended up catching a slaver ship trying to make a run to the hegemony after raid on a asari colony. We ended up catching the slavers and rescuing the slaves, including the daughter of a extremely influential matriarch, who told a bunch of her friends about the captain who saved her daughter. After that I ended up sucked in a PR campaign to get more asari support in patrolling Council space. The entire campaign was a failure, but at the end of it I was given the rank of second rate captain and my own cruiser. Then 5 months later i joined a policing action against a terminus race that was uplifted by some warlord to attack border worlds. I ended up taking command of the flotilla when the command ship got nuked by the primitives. According to the Admiralty, I did extraordinarily well killing off twice my number in ships (not exactly hard, considering how low tech those things were), I disagreed, too many lives that could've been saved, lost under my command. After the battle, I was given the 192nd as my command, and sent off to the 32nd fleet and I've been with the fleet ever since.
"commodore, we should be coming up to the relay any second now" my first officer says, her voice just as monotone as it always is. Maybe I should get her a book on vocal expression for her birthday, it's coming up in a few weeks right?
No one on the flotilla thinks will find anything noteworthy in the system. Some civilians illegally prospecting without permits, maybe a freighter converted into a research station so that someone can do experiments outside of the public view. These are the extent of what we think will find, and even those expectations are far fetched considering this systems over a dozen light-years from Goliath, and only patrolled because of the relay.
as we near the end of our transit, I take a sip of the abomination that the navy thinks is coffee. Savoring the bitter taste and the texture closer to soft mud then water, that is the best drink will have on this two month patrol.
"sir! 32 contacts around the relay, one of them is dreadnought sized!" I spit out the coffee onto my Console and ask myself if the spirits hate me.
Relay 314, ninth cruiser group , flagship, commodore Isaac Jackson
"18 contacts 14,000 km out, bearing 44 by 52! Three cruiser sized, 15 frigate sized, they do not match any known designs! Repeat, they do not match any known designs, high possibility of first contact!" I stare, wide-eyed at the main display as the sensor officer shouts in the background. 18 small dots come into existence on the model of the surrounding area, easily within weapons range for the cruisers, and only a few minutes closing for the frigates. I stare in shock for a few more seconds, until I decide to act.
"get all combat drones in the air, move the warships between the contacts and the expedition flotilla! Power shields, but don't power weapons! Repeat, do not power weapons, I don't wanna start an interstellar war because some aliens thought we were going to do a first strike!" I yell out as fast as I can. The crews of all the ships obey. In less than a minute, 12 warships stand between half again their number unknowns and 23,000 civilians of the Systems Alliance. In an instant 1776 trident and 256 tanto drones were setting between the warships and the contacts. None of the human weapons were powered, or at least, none should've been.
Relay 314, relay exploration flotilla, Hyperion class heavy exploration ship Prometheus, captain, Elizabeth Vork
"What do you mean the railguns are powering up! We've got first contact and our guns decide they wanna come out to play!" I yell at the engineer through the comms.
no yelling will end the power up of the Prometheus's main weapons. And as has happened in many universes before, a ship named Prometheus will throw humanity into a interstellar war.
other universe, unknown location
A egotistical asshole sneezes as his superiors decide whether they should give him as a sacrifice to the minbari to end the war he started.
relay 314 ,192nd patrol flotilla, flagship, commodore Primus Evasius
"Tell me what's out there, NOW!" I yell out, trying to gain control of the situation before one of the captains do something stupid.
"32 contacts, 16 Corvette sized contacts, lightly armed, most likely scout ships, three large cruiser contacts lightly armed, profile suggests transports, eight heavily armed frigate size contacts, three heavily armed cruiser sized contacts, one moderately armed cruiser sized contact that appears to be launching extreme amounts of fighters, and one dreadnought sized contact with what appears to be 2 spinal mount weapons." The sensor officer says in a hurry.
I stare at the contacts on the display. It was obvious they were attempting to activate the relay, something banned in Council space, and punishable by death after the rachni war. But they were obviously a new species who wasn't bound by council law. I weighed my options, I could either attack now, possibly start a war, but prevent the activation of the relay, or I could initiate contact and try to convince them to not activate the relay.
Alas, fate has taken away the choice from either side.
"dreadnoughts powering weapons!" Shit!
"all ships open fire" I say without thinking, the protection of my crew outweighing the concerns of starting a war.
and with that, the first contact war begins.
Relay 314, ninth cruiser group , flagship, commodore Isaac Jackson
" Unknown contacts have fired! 18 projectiles heading towards the Prometheus!" The sensor officer screams.
We all watch helplessly as the projectiles rush towards the exploration ship, with three of them going far ahead. The rounds from the cruisers ripped through the pathetic barriers and hull of the ship, creating massive holes in the front section, the Prometheus starts drifting. The ships fate is sealed when the 15 frigate rounds puncture the hull, with one of them hitting the reactor. What was but seconds ago, a colossal ship, meant to explore the galaxy and meet new species for humanity, became a new star in the sky because of one of those species.
"All civilian ships, retreat! Frigates, stay back, cruisers fire at will and launch cruise missiles, trident operators, prepared to intercept enemy ordinance, tanto operators, initiate electronic warfare!" the crews already began the work before I said anything. The civilians began running, the frigates stayed back, the cruisers attacked, the Tridence, prepared to intercept ordinance, and the Tonto's began belching out ECM targeted at disrupting enemy's ladar and passive sensors.
If the aliens want a war, will give them one.
relay 314 ,192nd patrol flotilla, flagship, commodore Primus Evasius
"hostile contacts opened fire, salvo ETA 15 seconds, brace for high G evasive maneuvers, heavy ECM distorting sensors, we can't get a lock anymore" the sensor officer says. Immediately after I feel significant pressure as the ship goes through 5 G maneuvers in order to get out of the way of the rounds.
"orders, sir?" my first officer asks, without a moments hesitation, I respond
"frigate squadrons two and three scatter and tight beam targeting data once you get out of the ECM. Frigate squadron one fire a salvo disruptor torpedoes at target beta-one. All cruisers focus fire on beta-one."I order. And all the ships obey.
From inside the magazines of frigate squadron one, 100 disruptor torpedoes, 20 m long and 2 m wide launch and fire their engines, racing to their target at 250 G. Before they can reach their target, the fighters in front of the enemy ships destroy them all, not even a single torpedo gets within 1000 km of the target, who is dodging the cruisers inaccurate fire.
Things seem to be going poorly until "frigate FG-6762 is feeding targeting data to the flotilla, they've made it out of the ECM." my communications officer says, and I almost want to kiss her for it. The fire from the cruisers becomes significantly more accurate, and they score multiple blows on the target.
Then the entire world seems to shake and warning sirens screech.
"report!"
"strikes from enemy missile salvo, 6 made it past point defense from the first salvo to reach us. Shields down on upper port, and secondary battery turrets A,C, and E are gone, decks 12 and 11 are depressurizing."
"all frigates, wait for a package, then charge"
A plan begins to form, it will be bloody, but we will win.
Relay 314, ninth cruiser group , flagship, commodore Isaac Jackson
Things appear to be going well. Two of the enemy cruisers are damaged and a cruise missile ripped one of their frigates to shreds. Though it's not like we haven't taken a pounding ourselves, the scars on the outer hull of the Mombasa prove that.
"Enemy frigates are charging, and enemy cruisers are following behind them." the sensor officer says
Not bad, send the frigates in first to clear out the drones and distract the point defense, getting it to overheat, only for the cruisers to take us out. I make a decision.
"Send in the frigates and anti-ship equipped drones"
"yes, sir, frigate squadrons 1 and 2, light drone squadrons 11-20, intercept the enemy frigates"
In front of the cruisers of both sides, a brawl is happening a thousand km away and closing from the human lines. Eight alliance frigates and 240 light drones fight against 14 turian frigates. Missiles, swarms, and nuclear shaped charges versus guardian lasers and mass accelerators. No one truly wins, the alliance frigates are cut to under half their number and the anti-ship light drones are all destroyed alongside hundreds of their antimissile brethren, with the frigates and those remaining overheating from the intense combat. While the hulls of the turian frigates are all but molten slag under the pressure of hundreds of nuclear shaped charges. But from within their cargo holds, a final weapon begins to prep. Bursting from their fallen comrades broken vessels, come 96 turian fighters, fresh and undamaged compared to the limping remnants of what ships and drones of the alliance came out of that clash. As the alliance ships learn that they are there, they begin charging at the cruisers, unhindered by escorts and drones.
The alliance ships desperately tried to destroy them, to no avail. They continued nearly unchallenged until they get within 50 km of the cruisers.
relay 314 ,192nd patrol flotilla, flagship, commodore Primus Evasius
"Fire" at my command 96 of the best fighters in the galaxy (in my humble opinion) loosed their payloads upon the helpless cruisers. Each fighter deployed six micro disruptor torpedoes, -each barely larger than the pilot- meaning that 576 micro torpedoes were launched against the cruisers. Their guardian lasers put up a valiant defense, but at this range it was all but futile, the cruisers are struck by the torpedoes, and they break as the very molecules that make them up rip themselves apart as each atom changes mass by the second. Of the three cruisers, two of them were left as little more than drifting hulks, their radiators destroyed, weapons nonoperational, and large chunks of the ships decks venting. The third ship is doing better, some of the radiators are still intact, and the engines appear to be fully operational, but I doubt after this engagement, it will be operational.
Relay 314, ninth cruiser group , flagship, commodore Isaac Jackson
"retreat, all ships retreat!" I say. How could I have let this happen? Edinburgh and Beijing are destroyed and Mombasa isn't much better, five frigates joined them in death. This position isn't tenable anymore, we have lost most of our firepower, and the unknowns still have all of their cruisers, even if one of them is heavily damaged. It's time to leave and warn the alliance.
As the pufferfish jumps to FTL, a single tear falls down my face for all the people I lead to their deaths.
relay 314 ,192nd patrol flotilla, flagship, commodore Primus Evasius
I frown as cheers go up around me at the victory. Each of those frigates had a crew of 80 soldiers, that is the blood of 1200 of my people on my hands, just for this victory. There will be more battles, with more blood than this spilled. Much of it will be turian, and much of it will be of this species I know nothing about and have just challenged to work.
For the first time in my life, I feel fear for the future, and what it will bring.
Codex: FTL
When a particle moves faster than light through a medium, it produces Cherenkov radiation. When light -affected by Mass Effect fields- moves faster than light should, it produces Fujikawa radiation. FTL drives, believes to be designed by the Prothiens, are propelled through negative mass light being sent through the engines. If the light around the ship has been given negative mass, like the light being sent out of the engines, it will allow a ship to travel faster than light.
This does have limitations, element zero is destabilized by large amounts of Fujikawa radiation (equivalent to the amount required to move 10 light years) without time to stabilize in between jumps. The amount of element zero required to obtain higher speeds also becomes excessive. most council ships are designed for speeds of around five light years per day with 24 hour stabilization periods in between trips, frigates usually reach 7.5 L per day and asari frigates can reach 10 light years per day. Most human ships go for a lower speed of 2-4 light years per day because of higher element zero costs from high demand and low supply.
Hope you enjoyed the first actual chapter. Also, first person to name the science-fiction reference, and which franchise it's from gets an imaginary cookie and a pat on the back.
I changed how FTL in mass effect to something that I find to somewhat make sense without turning the Mass Effect species into God (being able to completely remove the mass from an object. the engines on the Normandy should just be pin-pricks, and every soldier would have an unlimited Jetpack if it worked like that).