After the defense fleet went dark, the military garrison on the colony Macedyn had been on high alert; increased fighter and gunship patrols, many solders on shore leave being recalled, all GARDIAN cannons being activated, even the space station in orbit had been put on high alert, keeping them updated. But unbeknownst to any of them, nothing in their arsenal could stop the coming onslaught.

The station has been on alert a few hours ago when the defense fleet went dark and multiple explosions were seen. The Turian commander of the station was on edge, he needed intel and he needed it now! "Have there been any unknowns on the scanners or have any of the fighters reported anything unusual?"

"No sir, everything's quiet" replied the Salarian communications officer. The commander never liked the unknown; unknowns often lead to death, and deaths he could not handle. Even worse was that the defense fleet was dark. "Sir! Scanners are picking something up…we have a spike of energy in front of the station, unknown source!"

Across space, a few kilometers away from the space station seemed to change as a static base discharge occurred. As it died down, the commander was stunned speechless from the sight as an unknown ship had appeared, surrounded by a large shell-like construct reported earlier by the remnants of the defense fleet. After this, he ordered all fighters and interceptors along with what was left of the fleet to attack the ship to buy the colony some time to prepare for a counterattack.

As the station began to open fire with GARDIAN cannons, all direct hits that landed upon the unknown ship just flickered into oblivion when it hit the construct after some time ports within the thing opened up, releasing a swarm of missiles to attack the incoming fighters and interceptors. One by one, the numbers slowly depleted after they were destroyed—the last of the defense fleet put themselves in front of the station as they began to evacuate down to the colony. 30 of the swarm ships interlocked to form a massive ring-like structure that was the size of the station as the commander on station watched as a large beam begin to form which would engulf the enter station. He looked at his men one last time as the beam hit, vaporizing the entire station.

The General on the ground was in a state of horror, watching the sky as debris from the station and the remains of the defense fleet came crashing down into the colony and several of the bases, but the day seemed to worsen as the unknown ship with the swarms began to move over the city as the cannons around the colony began to fire upon the ship, but as before, none of the rounds penetrated that thing's shields. It wasn't long until tubular gun mounts began to form on the construct and opened fire on the GARDIAN cannons, leaving gaping holes after the cannons were destroyed, while beams started to slice up roads and cut off communications towers and power lines, leaving the colony deaf and blind. After this attack, the military bases were next. Instead of destroying the bases entirely, the ship sent small swarms against the bases wanting to keep causalities at a minimum on both the civilian and military; as the bases fell, the swarms began to from a massive shell around the entire colony, preventing any form of escape.

When this was done, the ship send a signal to the invasion fleet to occupy the colony and force for peace with the Turains, ether by destroying their fleet or the colony itself. The invasion fleet consisted of 47 different ships: 27 Paris-class heavy frigates, 10 Marathon-class heavy cruisers, 5 super-heavy destroyers, and 5 SDV-class heavy corvettes. After some time, the Marathon-class heavy cruisers begin deploying fireteams to the planet to lock down the colony.

…

Serpent Nebula/Widow

The Citadel

War room

15 hours after Macedyn went dark...

Within the tower, the Turain and Salarian Councilor gathered their best commanders and advisors to prepare the calm before the storm that was soon to come. Along with them in the debriefing were STG Captain Kirrahe, Commander Rentola, Lt. Ganto Imness along with their on handpicked team, next were SPECTRES Saran Arterius and Nihlus Kryik with the meeting on a holographic display turned on, showing footage along with clips about what they were about to face. One such image stopped on an alien cruiser (a UNSC Paris-class heavy Frigate) "This is one of the alien ships you will most likely encounter in space around the colony; as you can see, this ship is heavily armed and armored. (the footage continued to play, as it showed the ship firing many point-defense cannons, before it paused on that scene) One such weapon system mounted on these vessels are these point-defense cannons: as you can see they are capable of downing multiple fighters and even several of our ships, they also have a very advanced shielding system that is of a different strength from ours as they are able to withstand not only solid rounds, but also the lasers from our GARDIAN lasers as well. There two more weapons systems: this one is a rocket cluster that fires a single missile at a time, but don't be fooled by its simplicity for it carries over several dozen small missiles that can overwhelm GARDIAN systems with the rate of fire we've seen from it. The next and final weapon is a massive cannon, ( text footage cut to the front of the ship) according to STG, the cannon fires a 600-ton metal slug at 30 kilometers per second ( the footage keeps going showing a massive blast coming for the front as a Turian cruiser is cut in half)." Sparatus said.

The next ship that was seen on video was about the size of a frigate (a UNSC Charon-class frigate) firing at a squadron of fighters as well as firing a large mass accelerator cannon at one of their cruisers, destroying the vessel. After this, the screen paused to another one, Sparatus continued. "This is a smaller craft, but they pack about the same amount of fire power as their cruisers—the only difference is size and shield strength." As the video kept going, showing how both vessels were destroyed by concentrated fire. "This seems to the only efficient way to bring down one of them as attacking them one-on-one is not advised." Sparatus flicked his Omni-Tool again, this time to show a massive ship firing several different weapons systems that no one had ever seen before: the first one that they saw firing was from its wing like structures on the left and right side was a bluish missile that slammed into the side of two of their cruisers broiling away the hull and ignoring the Kinetic Barriers; the next were turret-like cannons firing purple bolts of energy at two incoming frigates that were able to dodge the first volley, but what shocked everyone was that the bolts simply turned around and hit the frigates in the back, causing their Mass Effect cores to detonate; the last one was another turret that behaved like a much more refined version of their GARDIAN lasers as they were not only capable of swatting away fighters but were also capable of destroying our ships as well."

After this, Sparatus stepped down, Valern taking his place to give an overview of the ground operations and the enemy soldiers they were most likely to encounter as well their war machines. A new image came on the viewscreen, this time showing a group of the aliens firing at a squad of Turians. They watched as some of them were gunned down with wounds similar to those seen at Huerta Memorial; this was when the image paused again on one of the alien weapons. "As you can see, this race uses a form of chemical-propelled weapons that are capable of causing very severe injuries and can lead to heavy blood loss; the designs of the weapons vary, but these are the most common patterns: (the image changed to show weapons resembling an assault rifle, a pistol, a submachine gun, a shotgun, and a sniper rifle) primitive as they are, there is no doubt that these weapons are effective. They also have forms of weapons that are very different from anything we've ever seen; (an image appeared; this time showing a strange-looking pistol firing green bolts) these are handheld energy weapons." As he finished this, several gasps and chatters from the crowd had filled the air, for no race in the galaxy had ever been able to achieve such a feat. "According to our studies of the survivors at the hospital, and from video footage, we have learned much about their weapons' capabilities. While the ballistic weapons are simple enough to understand, the energy weapons are what baffles us…"

As this was going on, the SPECTRES Saren Arterius and Nihlus Kryik left the room to have a private to talk about the upcoming battle "You know your brother would be proud of what you're doing," Nihlus said knowing what had happened to his brother Desolas. "Yes he would, and when we come back victorious over this race with them beaten into submission, we'll have a drink to celebrate it!" said Saren, confident that the combined fleets and armies would be enough to destroy the small alien fleet that had occupied their colony. Before they could say more on the subject, Sparatus arrived and told them they were deploying now, and they begin making way to the shuttles to meet up with fleet which had a total number two-hundred and twenty five ships.

…

Citadel Council Tower

Tevos' Private Chambers

As the shuttles left, Tevos began speaking with the diplomatic teams on their roles of what they were to do once second contact was made. "You are to go behind the fleet, and if everything goes as planned, you are to make contact with the aliens. And if those Fools Sparatus and Valern don't destroy them, we could get a good head start at ending this madness before it escalates any further." She then handed data pads to them to show what they were to do. After some studying, they looked back at Tevos who began to speak again. "Once the fleet goes though the relay, I want you to go after they are-" she's shuddered at the thought of what was to happen to the aliens and looked away; knowing what she was thinking, they bowed and shook hands before heading off for the Asari cruiser.

…

The relay into Macedyn began to spin faster and faster until a ship appeared out of FTL: a Turian dreadnought, The Light of Palaven came out of the relay, the ship leading the fleet as the rest of the ships begin to appear a mix of Turian and Salarian all ranging from frigates to dreadnoughts as the fleet began to move into the system moving to Macedyn. As they neared the system, their scanners picked up twenty seven new signals of the ships that were in the first encounter, but also picked up ten unknown signals of different classes of ships; but according to the scans the ship were 1,192 meters long with a mass of 100,000 tons, along with a massive power source from this type of ship. As they got near, a message was sent to them; seeing that this was a First contact message, the caption told them to delete the massage and get ready the fire as the first priority was to fire at the fleet. The rounds hit their shields, and after this a massive energy buildup was detected from the thirty seven ships. The captain was about to shout out orders to let out another volley when 32 of his ships were destroyed by a wave of metal slugs that were travelling at speeds so high that their monitors could not track. After this, he began to order all shuttles to begin the ground invasion as he started to keep the alien fleet from interfering with the ground force but many were destroyed before they even make it to the surface.

The STG teams and the two SPECTERES were arming up and loading their weapons for the skirmish to come. The shuttles would be touching down soon, but that did not help matters any as everyone had fears as to what may be waiting for them on the surface. "First objective: we secure this area here to stage an assault on their fire bases," began Saren, pointing to an area of the map on his omni-tool, "once that's done we will take back the city and force them out of the system after this."

Before long, the view screen came up showing Commander Vyrnnus with a desperate look on his face. "The fleet holding for now, but we lost another four cruisers within the past thirteen minutes. If the enemy forces on the ground are not pushed off the planet's surface, we could lose this battle. we well be landing soon the-" he was cut off as a Type-27 Anti-Aircraft Cannon fired on the shuttle formation. The shuttle that STG member Lt. Ganto Imness was blown out of the sky, shattering into multiple pieces, the other pilots seeing that the area that was the drop off point was too heavily-defended by those cannons were forced to land outside the staging area.

After the first wave landed, they came under heavy fire from a large group of tanks that were not seen in the meeting (it was hovering and firing what appears to be a form of energy weapon) as this was happening, large squads of enemy infantry began to advance toured them along with other forms of vehicles moving in. Commanders tried to rally their squads only to get picked off by enemy snipers; Saren seeing this, began heading for the front lines to try and push the them back with orders to take out the AA guns and allow reinforcements to land. As he neared a debris field of a downed shuttle, he saw Nihlus Kryik trying to break the enemy's formation "How has the attack gone?" he asked.

"Bad, we're losing on all fronts! We never seen this before, they're attacking us with different forms of weapons and vehicles, and in space we have only been able to destroy two of their dreadnoughts at the cost of ten more frigates and a cruiser. If we-" he was cut off as the ground started to shake around them, and the aliens began to fall back. The tremors got worse, as from the corner of their eye, a small building collapsed. What came from the dust had caused many of their solders to break formation and run for it as a massive walker the likes they have never seen before began stomping its way towards the ranks. "Fall back! Fall back" shouted both SPECTERS.

The MAKO tanks tried to hold the titanic beast back as the tanks began open fire on the massive machine while Saren Arterius and the other infantry men fled. It wasn't long until explosions filled the air before he looked back at what happened to the tanks…he was shocked to see that the tanks were being destroyed as the monster charged a green pulse in what would be its mouth before it fired a beam that engulfed each tank. After this, they fell back to a small base that was set up to command the forces, but when the forces arrived at the base. Fortunately, they found that the base was deserted, until a few solders threw up their meals they ate before this mission—within the base, they found the remains of the Turians posted. Most were cut to bits, some had gashes that went though their chests. The communications officer immediately sent a request to the ship in orbit for evacuation. "Commander Vyrnnus do you read?" No answer, he tried again only to hear static after some time before he tried again. This time, a call came from a young General. "This is a full broadcasts to any remaining ground forces for a full retreat! I repeat, a FULL RETREAT NOW!" The fear in his voice told him something bad had happened in space, that's when he contacted the General again about what had happened. This time, the signal went through! Praise the spirits! "Commander Vyrnnus, we are outgunned and outmatched. Requesting immediate evac! What's happening in orbit? What's happened to the fleet and The Light of Palaven?"

The voice at the other end of the communication was not the commander, but the communications officer. The tone of voice he used sounded beaten and hopeless…something that the troops did not need now. "Five unidentified ships had appeared, each of them the size of the Destiny Ascension. The fleet has been cut down to half its strength and we are losing more. You need to evacuate now, a wave of shuttles is heading your way, ETA: fifteen minutes—if you're not on them, then there's nothing we can do for you." The remaining troops that had regrouped at the base, including Saren Arterius along with Nihlus Kryik began a head count of of the ground invasion—only two-hundred and fifty were left for the STG and Salarian forces which had lost more than the Turians, with only 40 of their forces left watching the Salarians.

The STG members Captain Kirrahe and Commander Rentola, but Rentola had been severely injured by a wound that looked similar to some of the corpses with crystals in their wounds at the base they found; the only difference was this wound did not look like he was shot—he was stabbed. "Captain Kirrahe, what happened to Commander Rentola?" asked Nihlus. In response, Kirrahe look at him with fear in his eyes; his next words would haunt them for the rest of their lives. "We're not fighting just one species."

Saren, along with Nihlus, looked puzzled at what he was saying. This time, it was the latter's turn to ask. "What do you mean we're not fighting one race?"

The traumatized look on Kirrahe's face made it clear that he did not want to recount what happened…but at the same time, he knew that it was important. "We saw several different species that we have never seen before. I saw one of the taller ones kill a Turian by ripping his throat out before eating the body; the next ones we saw were small and weak, but overwhelmed us with sheer numbers; the next one would be considered a walking tank that had some sort of shield on its arm which took everything we threw at it, and it had a weapon on the other that had the capability of destroying our MAKOS in a few shots; the last were brutal-they literally cut are troops to pieces, the wound that Commander Rentola is suffering from was caused by a knife made out of a crystal shard that when it priced his skin, it exploded in-" he was cut off by the arrival of the shuttles that had come to get them. "We'll finish this later…get him on the shuttles we'll keep the aliens occupied while you get the rest of the injured onto the shuttles."

As they began to do this, a mortar blast form one of the aliens' hover tanks smashed right into their group killing, two Turians and injuring five others one including Saren that suffer the worst of the blast for his left arm has been nearly incinerated before knocking him out. Nihlus recovered to try and find his commander as more blasts hit the base, melting walls and making way for the aliens to enter. There was no time to waste! He dragged Saren to the shuttle as the aliens flooded the base. Nihlus soon saw that the aliens would be reaching the shuttle and so he handed over his injured friend over to Captain Kirrahe to take him to the shuttles as he tried to hold off them long enough for them to leave. As the shuttle door closed, he saw Nihlus being cut down by an energy sword from an invisible enemy.

As the shuttles left for orbit, they saw one of the massive ships firing a red beam cutting a frigate into pieces and many more falling the same way as they reached the last dreadnought. Once the last shuttle was loaded, the ship, along with the last of the fleet made the jump to FTL to warn the Citadel of what they had seen near the relay. The diplomatic ship awaited the signal and the return of the fleet to begin the second contact with the race. Victus watched over the bridge, waiting for the go-head but they had lost contact with the fleet, and after two hours of waiting, he was about to give the go head for the mission until a badly-damaged frigate that made it past the relay exploded, causing it to spin out of control and crashing into the Mass Relay. The crew was shocked at what had just happened; after this, they saw the fleet, or what's left of it was mostly badly damaged. As they neared the diplomatic ship, they sent a message through the Relay and warned the council of what had happened as they began to move though it as well as the fleet. Unbeknownst to them, a ship was tracking them

Beta by Kurogane7