The Effect of Diaspora

by ReaderMike

In 2157 PD, A Turian patrol attacked a newly discovered race for attempting to activate a prime relay. Unfortunately, the race in question had been in space nearly as long as the Asari have. Unlike the Asari, this wasn't a race of diplomats. This race had a fleet far more vast than the combined citadel races, and the Turians managed to piss them off. Eventual Slash.

10. Cease Fire

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect nor Honorverse. I am merely throwing the two worlds together. Any original characters, however, are mine.

So there have been some people saying that I should end the battle already. Sorry to say, but a planetary invasion isn't something that you can start and finish in a chapter or two.

Chapter 9: Cease Fire

Matriarch Aethyta watched her former flame as she took solid command of the Transcendent Glory. True, Aethyta was the Matriarch in command of this ship, and would have been for the next ten years or so, but right now Benezia was the one in charge. This was more of a diplomatic mission than a combat one, and they needed a Matriarch with far more pull and oomph than Aethyta had herself.

"Ma'am we'll be entering the system in fifteen minutes."

"Good," Benezia said as the dark clothed Asari looked out the viewport. Fifteen minutes till she would face down incensed Turians and a very pissed off race of aliens. It would take all her skill in persuasion to keep the two sides from declaring outright war on each other. Though she doubted the fight would continue with an entire Asari fleet facing everyone down. From what reports the director of STG managed to forward to her, she could tell that the Humans were about as technologically advanced as the Asari themselves, though with a much larger military. She wondered if the Transcendent Glory, being the pinnacle of Asari engineering, would be able to stand toe to toe with what both the Turians and Salarians were calling the alien Ascension class dreadnoughts.

She'd also been poring over the histories that they'd managed to acquire from the Human ship. She needed to know everything she could about these aliens if she had any hope of bringing peace. She hoped she could rise to the challenge, otherwise her little wing might become an orphan.

-TED-

"Hard to port!" Hannah Shepard shouted as her ship rocked. The vessel tried to maneuver while being engaged by several Turian cruisers.

"Ma'am we've lost Missile Three."

"DCC estimates twenty minutes before Beta Node Six is online."

"Ma'am we've got a new report on their shielding technology from CIC."

"Forward the information to Commodore Hackett," Hannah Shepard ordered as she looked at her repeater, quickly taking a look at what information CIC managed to uncover about the Turian's defenses. During one of the many skirmishes between the Torch fleet and the Turians they'd managed to hack into one of their ships and download their system schematics. CIC had been probing the information for any weaknesses and her eyes lit up as she read the report. "Alex, how many energy torpedo launchers do we still have active?"

Dawning comprehension spread across Alex's face as he started to bring the weapons online. "We've got sixteen ma'am, eight on each side."

"Power them up. Rapid fire. Let's give the Turians a taste of our energy torpedoes."

"Aye aye ma'am!"

TLN Shilo began to twirl in space, trying to get as many of the Turian cruisers into her weapons envelope before she began spewing energy torpedoes, eight in each broadside every second. The energy torpedo had almost been removed from modern navies during the height of the Manticore-Haven wars, but with the introduction of Mesa's spider ships, energy torpedoes and their high firing rate proved to be an excellent deterrent for a spider-drive ship coming within energy range.

The energy torpedoes flew through space at lightspeed, ramming into the Turian vessels. A cruiser took five hits before the energy torpedoes started to deal severe damage to the craft, giving the Turians some protection from Shilo's fire, but the sheer volume of fire was proving too much. Panicked the ships tried to break away but were unable to outmaneuver fire spewing from Shilo's weapons bays. It only took another minute before the rest of Shilo's battle group began to follow her example, switching from their deadly lasers and grasers and peppering the Turian fleet with their energy torpedoes.

-TED-

"Alright have the boys form up on me!" Axel Rodriguez ordered his com officer as his LAC started to head towards a new offensive of fighters heading towards the LAC Carrier that was his ships mothership.

The squadron of Masamune LACs formed up around him in a wedge formation as they continued to bear upon the enemy fighter squadron.

"Alright boys and girls let's show these idiots the Triple Ripple!"

With that the Masamune's fired their nuclear missiles. The first set exploding far enough from the enemy fighters to deal no damage, but close enough to scramble their sensors, allowing the second set through. The second group of missiles also exploded without targeting the enemy fighters, instead utilizing the electromagnetic pulses of the blasts to disable the fighters themselves, before the third set slammed into the enemy fighter squadron, destroying them utterly and cooking the pilots alive in their seats.

"Damn that's what I'm talking about! Don't fuck with the Torchese!"

-TED-

Bellona cursed as the aliens switched up their weapons from their deadlier, but far easier to outmaneuver, laser weapons to those thrice cursed energy torpedoes. Now her crews had to brave their energy fire to get close enough to damage them, and her losses her climbing. Furthermore, the enemy corvettes were starting to use small yield nuclear weapons to decimate her fighter squadrons. What sort of beings freely used WMDs like that?

"Regroup the fleet on the far side of the planet. We need to rethink our strategy," she ordered. This whole battle had been one disaster after another. Luckily she had no need to worry about the planet's surface to orbit weapons, the blitz managed to take care of those. And it seemed that their orbital defenses were focused on battles taking far away from the planet itself, these people wouldn't dare fire on her ships when they were hugging the planet's atmosphere, for fear of missing and striking the planet.

To be honest, she was surprised that the battle was still continuing. What the hell was Fleet Commander Scipio thinking? Their fleet, while obviously dwarfing the enemy fleet in sheer size, simply could not continue throwing themselves at them. They may have thousands of cruisers and destroyers, but their heavier ships were very few in number. And these people didn't know or limit themselves to the treaty of Farixen. The sheer number of dreadnoughts facing them was proof of that fact!

-TED-

Commodore Tadius Ahern watched the Turian armada break away to reform at the other side of the planet. He had to hand it to Hackett's flag captain. Hannah Shepard clearly knew what she was doing. Switching from lasers to energy torpedoes definitely prevented friendly fire, since energy torpedoes were unable to penetrate a gravity side wall like a laser could.

His ship, the TNS Springfield bucked as Turian fire pierced its sidewalls. "Captain V report!" Tadius bellowed at the man that popped up on his screen. The younger man with fiery red hair and a rather stern visage looked grief stricken. "Sir, they've taken out the secondary bridge."

Tadius winced, the secondary bridge was where the XO would be during battle. "I'm sorry Mako."

"Don't be, we got the bastard that did it. It seems that they're withdrawing."

"Sir! I've got a massive group of ships tunneling their way here!" his astronavigator called out.

Tadius scowled as he looked at his repeater. "Hard to starboard, keep our broadside facing these newcomers."

"They're coming out a fair distance from the planet, in full range of the system pods."

Allies? Reinforcements? They were going to get slaughtered if they tried to engage Home Fleet from that range. It was the perfect range for the fleet to use its missiles, though they couldn't use the missile pods. The Turians had a tendency to go after the pods first. Either way TNS Springfield was a battlecruiser, and she would face any enemy that came her way.

-TED-

The Transcendent Glory arrived at the battle of Shanxi in a burst of blue shifted energy. The beautiful Asari Dreadnought sailed through space surrounded by two of her weaker sisters and several dozen Asari cruisers. The rest of the Asari fleet was filled with hundreds of frigates and thousands upon thousands of fighters. Amongst the assembled ships was a small flotilla of Salarian cruisers, all bearing STG personnel.

Aethyta was surprised at the destruction her scans were revealing. So many Turian ships littered the space, hundreds having been destroyed and as far as she could tell the loss ratio was something around one Human ship for every twenty Turian ones. "Quickly, start contacting the Humans and tell them our intentions. If we appear to be a threat they'll tear through this fleet!"

-TED-

Admiral Williams glowered as another fleet of ships appeared. From what he read of the Codex given to him by the Quarians, these ships must belong to the Asari and Salarians, allies to the Turians. "Tell Admiral Houseman to transition his ships to N-space, right behind this fleet. We'll sandwich them and blow them apart if they try anything!" he ordered.

-TED-

Aethyta's eyes widened when not even five minutes after the arrival of the Asari Second Fleet, another fleet of ships appeared behind him. From her tactical officers exclamations she could see that an additional five hundred dreadnoughts were behind her, a hundred being the size of her own command ship, effectively sandwiching her between the two fleets. "Benezia, get your ass in gear," she ordered her former flame.

"R-right. Begin transmitting our statement. Make sure you send it in Khelish, they should be able to understand the Quarian language."

-TED-

"Sir, the alien fleet is sending a message. It's translated into Khelish sir."

Admiral Williams frowned, his own ship didn't have the Khelish language, but he knew someone that did. "Forward the information to Commodore Hackett. His ship has access to a Khelish translator."

"Copy that, transmitting the message sir."

-TED-

Commodore Hackett was a little nervous. The Turians didn't respond to any message that his ship sent out, but it seemed that this group of aliens was willing to talk, and thank god his communications arrays hadn't been damaged in the fighting. He would've been pissed as hell if his ship had to be bypassed and Webster got the chance to speak to another set of aliens.

"Bring up the Vid," he ordered as he looked at his repeater with interest. A blue woman appeared on it dressed in a rather dark dress and wearing a black headdress.

"My name is Matriarch Benezia, and I have come to negotiate a ceasefire between your species and the Turian Hierarchy. The overzealous and illegal actions of the Turian Hierarchy has forced the Asari Republics to send the Asari Second Fleet to ensure the Turians keep the peace. Rest assured, the Asari Republics and the Citadel Council will ensure that the Turian Hierarchy pays reparations for the damages done to your colony. I await your response."

"How did she know that Shanxi was just a colony?" He wondered aloud. He was sure these Turians thought that it was their homeworld, what with the ferocity of their attack. Hell he was sure that if he were in a First Contact conflict that a planet as heavily defended like this would have appeared to be a homeworld.

"Maybe these Asari have more knowledge than the Turians do?" His Flag Lieutenant opined.

"If that's the case, than that begs the question. Where did they get it?"

-TED-

Fleet Commander Scipio was livid with rage. His best troops, his best pilots, his best commanders, and nothing was getting through! The aliens were wiping out anything that came at them. His fighter squadrons were getting nuked, his ground forces were getting ripped apart, and now his fleets were being torn apart by the new weapons that the enemy was deploying.

But now with an Asari fleet here he was sure that they could turn the tide of war. An Asari Cruiser by itself could handle any fleet in the Terminus systems, and with three Asari Dreadnoughts here, he was sure that he could easily deal enough damage to get these aliens to surrender.

"Sir, we're receiving a hail from the Transcendent Glory."

"This is Matriarch Benezia of the Asari Republics. Turian fleet you are ordered to cease hostilities with the humans and report to Citadel space for detainment."

"What! You need to help us defeat these humans! They're breaking Citadel Law, they use WMDs in combat! Surely you can see that they are a danger to the galaxy!"

"You are out of line Admiral!" Benezia snapped glaring harshly at the Turian. "You're actions here today are more of a threat to the galaxy than anything the humans have done! Do you have any idea what you've done! You could've started a war far worse than the Rachni War!"

"That's why you've got to help us finish this!" Scipio shouted back. "The majority of the enemy fleet is here. If we take their homeworld we can ensure that they won't ever be a threat to the galaxy!"

"And if I were to tell you that this isn't the homeworld? That this is just a colony of one of the minor human star nations?"

"Preposterous!"

"Admiral, if any Turian ships engage the humans again, the Asari Second Fleet will destroy them."

"That's an act of war!"

"If going to war with the Turians will prevent the Humans from waging war on the Galaxy then so be it!"

Scipio took a step back shocked. He'd never seen an Asari so furious. To think that the Asari were willing to wage war on the Turians over this? While his people were the premier military in the galaxy, that was only because they had the numbers. He knew for a fact that fighting the Asari would be a losing proposition. Hell the Transcendent Glory had more fire power than his entire fleet. And this was just the Second Fleet! If the Asari Sixth Fleet went to war, he was sure the entire Turian Navy would be unable to stop them.

He clenched his mandibles as he glared sharply at the Matriarch before finally relenting. "Order the fleet to stand down."

-TED-

"That was the gist of the message Admiral," Steven Hackett said after they'd reviewed the message at least twice. It seemed that the Asari Superdreadnought was here to ensure a cease fire was made between the two fighting fleets.

"So it sounds like one of these Citadel species went rogue and attacked us without the other's knowledge?"

"That appears to be the case sir. The Asari are here to enforce the peace."

Admiral Williams' eyes narrowed as he thought about the possible ramifications. This spoke of several alien species living in unison, much like what the Codex had said. What worried him the most from what parts of the Codex could metion was the Batarian Hegemony. Their practice of slavery would attract the wrong sort of powers. If the remnants of the Mesan Alignment were to join with the Batarian Hegemony he had no idea what harm they could do.

"Sir, the Asari are awaiting a response." Hackett reminded him as he continued to contemplate exactly what to do in this situation.

"Alright, tell them to enter Shanxi's orbit. They can speak with Her Mousety. If the Turian ground forces surrender than they could start speaking about prisoner exchange…and we'll probably have to ask the Quarians for food for the Turians because I doubt that we have enough food stuffs from Grayson to keep them all fed."

"Maybe we can convince the Asari to take them home?"

"Leave that sort of stuff to the politicians. Put Matriarch Benezia in touch with the Queen."

-TED-

Benezia T'soni waited as the human told her that her communications would be forwarded to their Queen. That was rather interesting. Where these people like the Rachni? Were they a hive species? Was this one singular person responsible for birthing the entire population of humanity on this planetoid? Or where they ruled by some sort of Monarchy, like some of the many ruins here people had found spoke of.

Needless to say she was astonished when she came face to screen with the woman ruling this world. True the woman was elderly, her skin wrinkled and her mane grayed, but the similarities to the Asari were astounding. The regal, and admittedly short, woman was watching her wearily. Maybe these people worked similar to the Asari, with their elders leading and the youth following? It was far too early to decide and she hadn't time to go through Humanity's history like the Salarians did. She'd only had time to go over the Salarians threat assessment of the humans and that was enough to tell her that she didn't want to be at war with Humanity.

"So you were the one that forced the Turians to surrender?" the woman asked with a rather frigid voice. The Treecat perched on her armrest watching Benezia with assessing eyes.

"Yes, the Turians were wrong to attack your people without informing the Council. The fleet will be taken into Citadel Space and placed under arrest for ignoring first contact protocols. The Primarchs responsible for the decision are also being brought in for questioning. I am here to facilitate peace talks between the Asari Republics and Humanity."

The woman seemed to nod for a moment. "Peace Talks are not required. As we speak a diplomatic envoy of the Grand Alliance is heading to the Citadel to demand answers from the Council. Negotiations for Reparations will occur with the ambassador already sent. All I want right now is for all Citadel Forces, especially the Turians out of my sovereign space. Depending on how the talks go, that will determine if Grand Alliance goes to war with the Turians or not," she said before ending the transmission.

"Damn that ladies a real hard ass," Aethyta drawled. "Still I didn't think they'd act so quickly. That means they already knew where the Citadel was. Poor Tevos, she's got a lot of shit heading her way and it's all Russus' fault for busting his quad early. Think I'll get the chance to say I told you so to the other Matriarchs before our world is blown out from under us?"

"That's enough Aethyta," Benezia snapped. "Contact Fleet Admiral Scipio, we're evacuating his forces and taking them back to Citadel Space."

-TED-

Codex Entries:

Energy Torpedoes: An Auxiliary Starship weapon, Energy Torpedoes are self-sustaining balls of plasma that are fired at near the speed of light with an effective range of 300,000 kilometers. Because of their inability to penetrate gravity side-walls Energy Torpedoes were never utilizes as a starships main energy weapon. Instead the torpedoes have proven an effective counter to Spider-class ships when used as defensive fire.

Anti-LAC Combat Doctrine Triple Ripple: A combat strategy developed by the Republic of Haven, the triple ripple utilizes three consecutive nuclear attacks to blind, disable, and destroy enemy LAC squadrons that are clumped too close together. This proved an effective deterrent to LACs engaging capital ships until the development of the Katana-class LAC.

-TED-

Alright here you guys go. I managed to add a few characters I know were at the battle of Shanxi that I had initially forgotten, or didn't know about. This chapter was a little on the hard side to write and I'm not sure if I did it well enough. So, please give me your thoughts on it.