Gs: I altered how eezo works because it makes no fucking sense. It is stated that it alters mass and its actual name says it alters mass, but it works in most ways by manipulating gravity. I had to either decide to forsake both its name and the entire series name as being incorrect, or I could alter how everything works to make it somewhat make sense. I decided the ladder and so how everything works was changed.
Prometheus: I believe it was my fault for not properly explaining what his role was. He was the leader of the civilian fleet as the commodore was for the military fleet. They each had total control of their part of the expedition, so he was explaining to the Commodore what was wrong. I apologize if his role was unclear
5: Not exactly good at writing yet, so I'm sorry if it came off like it wasn't happening all at once.
Ships: I don't remember anything stating that Volus ships were dreadnought sized, nor do I remember any of the stations being implied to be mobile, I might've missed that though. The Andromeda initiative arks do not exist yet. While I will not deny that it is possible for there to be dreadnought sized civilian ships, I still say it was rare and considering how much my fuel something like that would require, I don't think it would be feasible to be operated outside of heavily develop space (for the transports and giga yachts) or under a extremely large support system (the dreadnoughts). Still, the civilian ships in citadel space are not armed so he would've come up with possibility, A or possibility B.
Options: For the possibility C you proposed, it has merit, but considering the rarity of first contact, and the fact that the ship was still powering its weapons immediately upon contact, it wasn't likely he would've come to that conclusion (in my opinion).
Main weapon: Citadel ships do not have secondary spinally mounted weapons so the sensor officer noticed the activation of the spinally mounted weapons, and believe that they were the primary weapons (they were, but they were designed to make holes in astroids, not ships). That is what she told her commanding officer. He then acted on the information he had at hand. Turians are trained to act quickly in dangerous situations, and considering what it looked like (a fleet with twice their numbers and a dreadnought activating a relay and powering their weapons once they detect them) he came to the conclusion that the destruction or delaying of firing of the Dreadnought was of the utmost importance.
10: Starting to agree with you, might remove that segment.
11: Sorry, I thought you were meaning something slightly more absurd (insert flying around like the millennium falcon, something like that). I thought it was implied that they were doing that. Guess I never added anything specifically saying they were. Something like that is the reason I think horizontally aligned engines need to be shown more in science fiction then their aft, or even forward mounted cousins, we are in agreement.
12: The fighters are still active, using their own reaction control to stay in the proper place. Not exactly perfect and probably is significantly draining on the pilots, but it should work.
13: I change how Ftl worked, it takes time to prepare, and during that time the eezo can't be used for anything else, like kinetic barriers. If a ship tried to do that in the middle of a fight, they would be torn to shreds.
14: Perhaps, but I had a migraine with just the Superclusters and ships, I decided to create a president where I didn't have to give every little thing in Mass Effect it's own alien name.
Stories: I'm considering dropping the Babylon 5 story as a possibility, because I have no clue how I would actually write and finish it. If I actually tried, I'd most likely end up unable to tell the story and abandon it.
Human Conversation:
A: Perhaps it is an over simplification.
B: Codex: Human Defense legion: A organization created with the stated goal of protecting humanity in the event of first contact. It collects donations from all of human space to create a defensive militia to protect humanity. Many consider it a scam, and the group began to fall apart after a investigative journalist discovered that 60% of it's funding goes to the "administration department" consisting of 15 of the founders and their closest friends. After this, the central organization collapsed, and the components either dissolved or split off into remnants. Two notable remnants were the Terrae Bellum, the faction that ended up retaining most of the earthbound components, and the Human Defense Front, a faction that retained multiple components on many colonies including, Benning, Eden prime, Belladonna's Landing, New Jerusalem, New California, Eternity's Rest,and Shanxi.
C: Glados has a population of 1.7 million, not billions.
D: Yes, they are comparing it to what they know, which are human fleets.
Turian:
A: Thank you for noticing the spelling mistake, though I don't like the insinuation that I am going to abandon the story. I am planning to continue the story until the end of the first contact war, with maybe doing a sequel consisting of events further in the timeline.
B: They are eliminating the threat to the system, they are not committing genocide, though the humans will not know that.
C: They use the same principles for Ftl. This means that the millennia of technologies and techniques (which humanity doesn't have) for tracking down ships when they go Ftl allow them to determine the probable destination. They also noticed that the technology of humanity did not deviate in capability's significantly from their own, and so it would be logical to put limitations within an order of magnitude on the capacity of their Ftl from their own.
D:Yes, but see point 14.
Codex:
A: Replace every time I say sub-legion with division
B: It was meant to both give the hierarchy an edge, and restrict it (in my opinion). If you look at the numbers, the other two council races have a combined superiority compared to the hierarchy. If it restricted the number of Dreadnought, and not the number in comparison to how many the turians have, it would allow the other council races to resist possible invasion while also giving the turians enough firepower compared to the other races to act as guardians. Simultaneously making the hierarchy more powerful, and securing the position of the other council races. Like how, even though it restricted Japan to a smaller navy than the US or UK, the Washington naval treaty helped Japan by not forcing it to be in an arms race it could not afford.
C: they used political pressure
D: see point B
E: I know it is not unique, but something like this would not be the size of a star.
Remember everyone to look at chapter 2 and decide which story you want.
Xìngyùn cluster, Dà Líng Sān system, outer system, patrol drone command station alpha
90 AU away from the system's star, a small outpost designed to control patrolling drones in this sector of the outer system stands. The station is 10 m wide, 20 m tall, and 100 m long, with dozens of antenna reaching out into space, like hands, grasping for the knowledge of the universe, and dozens of dishes sending out signals into the night. Inside the station resides a 60 m long room filled with dozens of people sitting at stations, monitoring patrol drones.
One of the observers notices something and calls his boss "ma'am, drone 47 has something, 5 contacts, frigate sized. They match the profiles of the frigates used by the aliens." he said nervously,
Petty officer second class Aurelia Schwarzkopf went over to her subordinate with extreme urgency "Can you confirm?!"
The seaman checked immediately "Yes ma'am, 300 m by 30 m by 60 m, one spinally mounted mass accelerator and multiple guardian lasers, two midsize engines at the rear, complete match. It's them, they're here in Dà Líng Sān, what should we do?!" The Seaman was almost hysteric at this point.
" Calm down soldier. First we need to get the lieutenant, then we need to tell command. Seaman Jones, get Lieutenant Jennifer, seaman Elizabeth, send the data to the admiral on the Montana immediately. We've got some aliens barging in, time to prep the welcoming committee" Aurelia hid her shock and terror behind a sadistic smirk to protect morale. Both enlisted persons did as they were ordered.
The turians we're in human space, and they were preparing to strike.
Xìngyùn cluster, Dà Líng Sān system, outer system, turian 637th frigate squadron command ship FG-6942, bridge
"We're in the system sir, beginning scans," The sensor officer tells captain Pilius Secundus. there is silence on the bridge until "scan complete, 2 terrestrial planets showing signs of development, astroid belt beyond them with five dwarf planets 300-1400 km in diameter, 3 showing development alongside several dozen astroids. Several dozen significant contacts corvette size or larger, several hundred to several thousand smaller artificial contacts in orbits or in transit. One contact nearby, 143 port by 21 vertical, 2100 km, appears to be a drone sir"
Pilius stares at the holographic representation of his squadrons surroundings, his gaze falling on the single red dot. He thinks to himself 'It's out of effective range for the guardians, but a concentrated bombardment should work', he begins giving orders "fire the squadrons upper port guardian lasers at the drone" silence followed him as his subordinates faithfully enact his command.
If one were to watch the scene with human eyes, they would see nothing but the moving of three small spherical turrets on each ship, focusing on a single target which would then begin to burn. If one were to gaze upon the scene with eyes capable of seeing infrared, they would stare as over a dozen bright lances of light charged into the uncaring void to strike a target thousands of kilometers away.
Seen through the foggy gaze of humanity, or from a more informed view, the results are still the same, one second, a watcher of humanity, ever vigilant, gazes into the night to warn it's creators of danger, the next, a bubbling pile of scrap stands in its place.
Xìngyùn cluster, Dà Líng Sān system, Inner system, Shanxi orbit, SSV Montana
Admiral Hawkins stairs at Shanxi, the area below her a vast mountain range surpassing any on earth, the centerpiece of a continent she can't even pronounce. She consumes every small detail like she has 1000 times before. She wasn't truly staring at it, the bridge of the Montana didn't have windows, 100 m deep into the hull in the most defended part of the ship, instead, she stared at a screen displaying the planet. Dà Líng Sān was a backwater post but a few days ago, a steppingstone to higher positions. Now, it's the frontline of a war that could be but a small skirmish, consigned to history as a footnote, or the end of human civilization, absorbed or exterminated by a species they didn't know existed last week.
As she consumed herself with the image, a lieutenant comes up to her urgently, concerned about something "Ma'am, report from one of the outer system drone command stations, alien ships spotted," this snapped her out of her gazing and brought her full attention upon the junior officer, for which he appeared quiet nervous about.
"Numbers and specifications," she asked her subordinate.
"five ships, frigate class, appear to be a scouting force , destroyed the closest probe and started scanning. Visual shows they left about five minutes after they came in." The officer responds.
She thinks to herself 'Shit, they're hiding in the Oort cloud, close enough for rapid reconnaissance, far enough away we won't get a warning for another few months, far too late. They're CO is good, or at least they're standard procedures weren't written by idiots' "Inform the general and governor, have all forces on high alert, get the Pufferfish and Mombasa out of dry dock, we might need them soon." The Lieutenant walks off, fulfilling his orders, leaving her to contemplate the situation.
The situation would turn from concerning to grim before she saw that mountains range again.
Xìngyùn cluster, Dà Líng Sān system, Oort Cloud (0.5 light years from the star), vindicator
Septimus gazes around the room, it was packed with two vice admiral's, six commodores, Desolas, his 2 Lieutenant generals, and eight sub generals all crammed into one room, whether physically there or holographically. As he was the highest ranking officer, besides Desolas (who's command only came into effect when he was the ground and had to follow Septimus's orders when space bound), he began the meeting.
"This is the system the aliens came from, we just got The report from the frigate squadron that was sent in," On the table everyone was around, a hologram appeared, showing a system with two planets and an extremely large astroid belt. The first planet was not really notable, large but with no atmosphere, it most likely didn't have many population centers. The second planet was a garden world with a truly impressive amount of moons, 10 orbited the planet alongside a mass relay. The belt was truly massive, almost 40 AU and coming to half a AU thick in some areas. Most of it was dispersed with low density's of astroids, but the edges on each side were filled with astroids and chunks of ice. Overall, a good system to colonize. Unfortunately, the aliens got to it first.
"This isn't they're home system," one of the lieutenant generals said "they're are no shipyards capable of producing the cruiser sized ships the 192nd encountered, this is a colony."
"Agreed," one of the vice admiral said "What type of defenses are there?"
"There are a large number of corvette size ships spread around the system. Alongside that, there are 41 frigates, seven cruiser, including the two that got away from the 192nd in the battle around the relay, and one ship of intermediate size between a cruiser and a dreadnought." Everyone looked concerned after he said the last component of the enemy fleet.
"Any idea on the specifications of the last ship?" One of the more Junior Commodores asked.
"It is significantly wider than most warships of its size and does not appear to have a mass accelerator, we are unsure of its purpose." Septimus said.
"It's most likely similar to that cruiser size ship without a mass accelerator that fought during the relay battle, filled with drones to support the fleet " One of The vice admirals says
The meeting continues for another half an hour, a plan is formed, and the pieces are put in place for it to be enacted. Septimus comes out of the meeting ready to fight and win.
Xìngyùn cluster, Dà Líng Sān system, Inner system, Shanxi orbit, SSV Montana
"Contacts!" The sensor officer of the Montana says "Alien fleet detected, 104 contacts, 85 frigates, 18 cruisers, one dreadnought"
Admiral Harkins, gazes at the display with shock, 'that's a full fleet, we can't win. Best thing we can do is hold out until the second fleet arrives, and hope they can defeat them.
"Get me the General and the Governor on call," The com officer fulfills my order as a sense of dread overcomes me.
The invasion has begun
Codex: Solar System Object Classification
Many objects in the solar system are orders of magnitude different in scale, so calling them all one thing appeared to be ineffective. In the waning years of the 21st century, a international classification system for different objects in the solar system was created. This classification system continued in use into the 23rd century and was the system used during first contact.
Dust: Defined as anything with a mass under 10 g, dust is usually considered irrelevant for space travel with the exception of interstellar flight, where it must be accounted for.
Debris: All objects of between 10 grams and 500 kg, debris is commonly picked up in large numbers during a type of space mining called belt stripping. Belt stripping consists of ships using an extremely thin, but multi kilometer wide net to catch debris and small astroids while moving at extremely low speeds. The net would then be closed up and the materials transported to a processing facility.
Astroids: Astroids consist of any rocky, metallic, or icy object over 500 kg but not having enough gravity to become fully or semi spherical. They are the smallest objects considered for colonization. There are multiple sub categories of astroids that are made of different materials.
Dwarf Planets: Objects that have obtained a semi or fully spherical shape, but have not swept their orbits of the majority of its debris, dwarf planets are usually prime candidates for resource extraction, fitting into a nice middle ground of enough resources to keep the colony operational for an extremely long time, while being easier to extract than on full sized planets.
Planets: Objects that have obtained a semi or fully spherical shape, and have swept their orbits of the majority of its debris, planets are usually extremely large, and have powerful gravity wells that makes leaving the planet difficult. Planets are usually prime candidate for colonization. They are the classification with the widest range of sizes (alongside stars), from small rocks, barely larger than dwarf planets, to colossal gas giants sitting at the gap between planet and star.
Stars: Objects that can initiate nuclear fusion naturally, stars are colossal objects that are usually the centerpiece and core of a solar system, or are one of a few in a system.