Before we begin, I would like to apologize for the numerous errors present in the previous chapter. I'm working without a beta at the moment, and that chapter underwent extremely extensive rewrites before I posted it, and I apparently forgot to change some of the details. I have also changed the battle tactics somewhat to be more realistic. Thanks, and sorry.
By the way, I was unable to find specifics for the tactics or fleet sizes used by the Turians anywhere online, and all that the fanfics agree on is that the Turians use a wedge shaped formation. As stupid as that is, because it completely ignores the fact that space battles take place in THREE dimensions, not two, it seems to be cannon, so I guess I'll have to go with it. Beyond that, what I've decided is that Turian fleets consist of three dreadnoughts, with eight cruisers and sixteen frigates to a dreadnought.
Human tactics are both more reasonable, since I could make them up myself (though David Weber did influence it), and more complex, because of the extra ship categories. Basically, the idea is that you put your SDs and DNs together. The CRs will be a ways behind them, protected by a small screen of cruisers, destroyers, and frigates. The remaining ships are then spread into a semisphere, with the SDs and DNs as its center, and the BCs spread throughout the hemisphere to provide maximum coverage. Human fleets vary in size based on what they're needed for, but the standard formula is as follows.
1 battlecruiser, 3 heavy cruisers, 7 light cruisers, 4 destroyers, and 16 frigates to a dreadnought or carrier.
If superdreadnoughts or supercarriers are present, the numbers are increased by half(ish), to provide 2 BCs, 5 HCs, 10 LCs, 6 DSs, and 24 FRs. In addition, there will be one DN and one CR, minus their complements.
If no DNs or CRs are present, the formula is 1 HC, 3 LCs, 2 DSs, and 8 FRs.
If you can't get your head around all this, or don't care to, don't worry. It's not a big deal. It's just for those of you who, like me, enjoy the tactics of military science fiction. I have all the numbers and tactics written in greater detail in my notes (and in my head), and I will be following the formulas I've worked out. The numbers won't always follow these formulas exactly, but will rather use it as a base for me to work with and add things to, depending on the situation and the needs of the humans.
Similarly, I'm working on the design for the Empire's government system. I already had a vague idea of how it would work (it's really more like a constitutional monarchy), but now I'm fleshing it out more. I should be able to provide a rough summary of the government's workings soon-ish-y.
Lastly, I've decided to stop bothering to name the members of the bridge crews. From now on, only the commanders get names. It's too much to keep track of who's in what position, and what they've already said, and what names I've already used.
Also lastly, it's important to remember that the humans' and Turians' classifications differ. When I'm writing from the Turians' POV, the human BCs will be referred to as dreadnoughts, and the DNs and SDs will be called superdreadnoughts, and HCs, LCs, and DSs will all be called cruisers. This is because that's how the Turians think of these ships. However, the humans have learned of the Turians' classifications from the captured soldiers. This means that when I'm writing from the humans' POV, Turian dreadnoughts will still be called dreadnoughts. Likewise, the Turians will refer to the AMACs as MACs, because they aren't familiar with the arcane nature of the weapons, but the humans will know that the enemy weapons are Mass Effect weapons.
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Nulus Arterius took stock of his situation as he awoke. He was bound tightly to a chair at a plain metal table. His arms were in chains, and his feet were strapped to the floor. Looking around, he saw that the room he was in was more than a little strange. At first glance, it was a perfectly normal interrogation chamber- it was roughly three meters to a side, with the cieling being slightly taller, and plain walls. Upon closer inspection, Nulus noticed two odd features, however. The first was that the light didn't come from anywhere. Oh, it was there. There was plenty of light. It just seemed to be coming from the air itself. The second thing was the disturbing lack of an entrance. After straining for a minute to see behind him, he determined that there weren't any doors or windows. Hell, there weren't any cracks in the walls.
"Hello. It's good to see you're awake."
Nulus jumped as two aliens appeared out of thin air. The first one appeared to be a brown Asari with fur on the top of its head. It was wearing a navy blue and dark green, skin-tight suit, with an insignia above its left breast, and a strange, lopsided hat.
The other alien was a pinkish color, and apparently male. Rather than the skin-tight suit of its companion, it wore black pants and a black coat, with a white undergarment, and some strange black strip that hung from a knot under the creature's neck. The exposed skin on the alien's body was covered with strange, deep purple symbols.
"I am Lieutenant Commander Kristen Gallemore of the Imperial Space Navy," said the Asari-ish alien. "My friend here is Specialist Talon Lovewell. We're here to see what you can tell us. Let's start with the basics. What is the name of your species?"
"Corporal Nulus Arterius, 51st Infantry, 59BR28A1," Nulus said.
Kristen's lips turned up to show her (?) teeth. "Name, rank, and serial number, eh? Look, we can do this one of two ways. Option one- I ask you questions and you answer them. Option two- Specialist Lovewell tears the information straight from your mind. From what I understand, it's an extremely painful process, and there's usually permanent damage. So, let's try this again. What's the name of your species?"
"Corporal Nulus Arterius, 51st Infantry, 59BR28A1."
"Very well, Nulus. Let's give you a small taste of what you're in for. Talon, if you would. Just the basics for now- species name, home planet, government, that sort of thing."
The male alien nodded and stepped forward as the symbols on his body began to glow. The light slowly intensified until the entire room was bathed in an eerie violet light. Talon looked Saren in the eyes, and suddenly the Turian was in more pain than he'd ever been in in his life.
Nulus screamed as he felt the intruder tear through his mind mercilessly. The pain was more intense than anything he'd ever imagined. The searing agony left no room for coherent thought, not even begging for it to end. Nulus's body was on fire, and freezing, and being stabbed with a million million needles, all at once.
Suddenly, as abruptly as it began, the pain disappeared and Talon stepped back. The male alien said something to Kristen. While Nulus couldn't understand the language, he was able to make out the words "Turian" and "Palaven."
"So," began Kristen, "now that you have an idea what we can do, why don't you cooperate with us a little more?"
Nulus said nothing, simply glaring at the alien.
"Why did you attack us?"
"Corporal Nulus Arterius, 51st Infantry, 59BR28A1." While the question was innocent, Nulus wasn't going to give the aliens the the satisfaction of an answer, even if they were just going to read his mind.
Kristen let out a long breath. "Very well. Specialist Lovewell, go ahead and go all the way. He clearly isn't going to cooperate."
The glowing resumed as Talon stepped forward again, and everything went pain.
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"What can you tell us about this species, Admiral Harper?" Councilor Miranda Cole asked the man on the holoboard. The Imperial Counciil had gathered together to hear the AEA's (Agency for External Affairs) report on the alien species. Present were Councilor Cole, the Councilor of the Armed Forces; Marvin Gibbor, the Councilor of Economics; Ashley Furr, the Councilor for Diplomatic Relations; Georgio Lombard, head of the Department of Arcaneotech Research; Ransom Watton, the Councilor for Education; Tiberius Tongate, the Councilor for the Public Welfare; James Bartlett, the Councilor for Environmental Control; and, of course, Emperor William Tyson.
"Quite a lot, councilor. Our psi-agents were able to retrieve quite a great deal of information. The race that attacked us is a species called the Turians. They make up the military branch of a galactic government called the Citadel Council. Apparently, they attacked us for activating the Tuning Station (they call them Mass Relays, and use them for FTL travel), which is against their law."
"You're telling me that they initiated First Contact by attacking us for breaking a law we couldn't have possibly known about?!" exclaimed Gibbor.
"Apparently so, sir," answered Agent Jack Harper, "But things get worse. You see, for some reason the Citadel races believe that it's impossible for organic life-forms and Artificial Intelligences to coexist. Something to do with a race of AIs called the Geth. Since we used AIs in our boarding actions, the Turians all think that we're a race of hostile AIs. They fully expect the Citadel Council to wage a war of extermination against us."
"You're kidding me. Just because we used AIs to defend ourselves, they're going to try and commit genocide?" asked Tongate.
"Well," began Furr, "they wouldn't think of it that way. If they think AIs can't coexist with organics, then they'd think that we're going to commit genocide against them. From their perspective, it's a matter of kill or be killed. Now, it's obviously completely idiotic of them to assume that we're a race of hostile AIs, but that can't be helped."
"Well, if they're dead set on a war of extermination, I vote we give them one," proposed Councilor Cole. "They can go the same way as the Fortigal and the Triating."
"No."
Everybody looked at Emporer Tyson as he broke into the conversation.
William Tyson was an older man, in his mid sixties, but he still cut an imposing figure. His well groomed hair, close trimmed beard, tall stature, and immaculate clothes were enough to make anybody overlook the slight paunch he had developed in his old age, and when he spoke in his surprisingly soft voice, everybody listened.
"I will not be responsible for beginning a third Galactic War if it can be avoided. If this Citadel Council attacks us, then we will defend ourselves, yes. But first we must make all possible efforts to prevent that. If they intend to attack us because they believe that we are a race of hostile AIs, it should be simple enough to prevent war by simply proving them wrong." Tyson turned to the hologram of Harper. "Do we have coordinates for this Citadel Council's base of government?"
"Yes, your Eminence. We were able to pull the information from one of the captured officers. It's in a space station that they call the Citadel."
"And have we worked out a translation software for their language?"
"Yes, your Eminence."
"Good. What I propose is that I take an ambassadorial ship to this Citadel, protected by a military task force, in order to attempt peaceful negotiations. I will, of course, require reparations for the lives lost in the Turians' unfounded attack on my people. In addition, I must make it clear to the Citadel Council that we are a sovereign nation- they have no right to enforce their laws on our people."
"I'm not sure we should send miliitary forces, your Eminence," interjected Councilor Furr. "If they expect us to be hostile, then they may assume any military ships to be an invasion force."
"But if we don't send a protection detail," argued Cole, "they might destroy the ambassadorial ship just for belonging to 'evil AIs.' Can we afford to risk the Emperor on a mad gamvble like that?"
"If we were to just send a single ship, surely they would recognize that our intentions are peaceful," Furr retorted.
"That didn't stop them from attacking our research ship, now did it?" Gibbor pointed out. "What if we were to just send a fairly small protection detail, but have a larger one nearby in case they attack? If we send a small force, they shouldn't think it's an attack, but we can keep a larger defense fleet a wormhole away in case the Turians attack our ships. The protection detail should be able to keep the Turians at bay until the reinforcements arrive."
"That... actually, that seems reasonable," said Cole. "But it would have to be a damned good task force, if His Emminence is going to be going. And I'll have to insist that the fleet stay together until they get near the Citadel."
Furr nodded. "As long as the protection detail isn't too imposing, it shouldn't be a problem. Also, it occurs to me that rather than using wormholes, we should use the Tuning Stations, since that's what these aliens are familiar with. If we use a method of travel they aren't familiar with, they may panic and shoot on sight."
"Very well," said Tyson. "All in favor?"
All of the councilors raised their hands, and Tyson nodded. "We're agreed then. Councilor Cole, I want you to work with Councilor Furr to decide on an appropriate, non-threatening protection detail. Work with Agent Harper to decide on an appropriate reinforcement group. I want both tasks finished within a week."
"Yes, your Eminence," replied the two councilors and the special agent.
"In that case, meeting adjourned," Tyson finished, standing up.
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"Very well," said Councilor Tevos. "That should be all for today. Unless anybody has anything to add that isn't on the agenda?"
"Actually," began Sparatus, "Primarch Fedorian has relayed some rather disturbing news to me. A patrol task force recently encountered a race of hostile AIs near Relay 287. If you would care to watch, I have some recordings from the battle."
Tevos's face paled slightly, and she nodded. "I... I think that would be wise."
Sparatus punched a few keys on his Omnitool, and the holo-projector began playing a recording of the encounter, starting with the small vessel activating the Relay. The councilors watched silently as the alien fleet came to the rescue and opened fire upon the Turian task force. Tevos gasped when she saw the aliens' use of ship-to-ship energy weapons, something that all conventional science said was impossible. When the corpses of the fallen Turians began to reanimate, she nearly fainted.
After the video was over, Sparatus turned off the holo-projector and turned to his counterparts.
"As you can see, this race is extremely dangerous," stated the Turian councilor, "The intelligence and combat abilities displayed by the mechs used to board our ships make it clear that these were in fact AIs, not simply remote controlled mechs or VIs. What I find even more disturbing, though, is these AIs mastery of biological warfare. The crews of three frigates and two cruisers were completely incapacitated by biological weapons, even to the point that they were unable to obey the order to retreat, and the entire task force is under quarantine. Then there is the ability to reanimate corpses. The only possible way my analysts have figured out that it could be possible is if the AIs are using some form of nanotechnology. Again, this is extremely disturbing."
The other two councilors said nothing- Tevos, because she was too shocked by the implications of this new species; Perlip, the Salarian councilor, because the STG had already sent him the records of the battle, and he was already fully aware of the situation. For once, the Salarian actually agreed with Sparatus's analysis- these AIs were clearly a threat to galactic peace.
"What do we do?" Tevos asked.
"I already thought of that. It seems obvious that we should send an attack force through the Relay to exterminate the threat that these synthetics clearly pose. I would also like to request the authorization of orbital bombardment on the synthetic's worlds- we need to be able to eliminate them with minimal casualties."
"Agreed," said Perlip. "I will order an STG probe to be sent through the Relay to gain information on the forces of the synthetics."
"Good. There's already a blockade around Relay 287, with orders to shoot down anything that comes through. Once the probe comes back, we'll launch the attack."
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"Admiral, the Relay is activating," said the sensors officer on the HNV Maverick. "A number of ships are coming through... It looks like... Spirits," the officer swore quietly as an enourmous dreadnought appeared on his array. "One Destiny Ascension sized ship, and one even larger than that. There's also three standard sized dreadnoughts, thirty roughly cruiser-sized ships, though most of them are small for a cruiser, and fifty frigates."
The Turian second, fourth, and seventh fleets were currently sitting in formation around the Mass Relay. Each fleet consisted of three dreadnoughts, twenty-four cruisers, and forty-eight frigates. Together, there were nine dreadnoughts, seventy-two cruisers, and 144 frigates.
Admiral Alsia Linscus frowned as the numbers were reported, and looked at the formation of the invasion force (it was obviously an invasion force- it was simply too large to be anything else) carefully. It was extremely unorthodox- rather than the wedge shape that the Citadel races used, it was shaped like the front of a sphere. The Destiny Ascesion sized ship was towards the front, while the largest ship was towards the back, surrounded by a small screen of ships. There was also a single cruiser in the center of the curve, flanked by two dreadnoughts and a screen in addition to the superdreadnought.
Linscus considered the arrangement carefully. The three kilometer ship was, judging by the location, a support ship. It probably carried ground troops for the invasion, he decided. The cruiser in the center, though, that was peculiar. Then it struck him- the entire formation was designed to protect that ship. He didn't know why, but it was clearly extremely important to the synthetics, and therefore a high value target.
"Exec, what do you think that ship is?" Linscus asked his executive officer. "It's clearly important judging by the way the synthetics are protecting it."
"It's probably a command center, sir. Think about it- with this many synthetics in one place, they'd have to have a central computer to run everything."
Linscus considered that for a moment, then made his decision.
"Order all our ships to fire on that vessel in the initial volley," Linscus ordered, punching in the command. The hope was that if all of the ships fired on the ship in the initial volley, then something had to get through the wall of protective point defense that the sphere represented.
"Orders transmitted, sir," said the tactical officer, then, "Confirmation recieved from all ships."
Linscus watched the vidscreen in satisfaction as his forces opened fire simultaneously, all letting loose their Mass Accelerator roundsat once. There was no chance they would fail to hit their target. As the projectiles sped towards their target, the semisphere tightened, the ships drawing closer together in an attempt to provide more coverage. The enemy's point defense activated, shooting down Mass Accelerator rounds by the hundreds, and alien ships maneuvered to intercept the projectiles, taking out dozens more. Unfortunately for them, the rounds were present by the thousands. The screen around the target ship closed up, maneuvering to get in the way of the Mass Accelerator rounds, but there were too many, and the ships were simply blasted out of the way.
The Turian admiral flared his mandibles in triumph as he watched the remaining Mass Accelerator rounds hit the target, and then the ship exploded.
Suddenly, all the synthetics' ships froze.
Linscus watched the aliens' ships carefully- had his exec's guess been right?
"Sir... the alien fleet is transmitting a message to the entire fleet."
Linscus looked at his exec in confusion- if they'd destroyed the command ship, how were the synthetics able to transmit a message?
His exec just shrugged.
"It was only a guess."
"Play it," Linscus ordered after glaring at his executive officer.
To Linscus' surprise, the comm officer hit the key to put the message on the vidscreen. He had expected the synthetics to just send audio- after all, an AI didn't really need a body, so they would only use them when they needed to.
To his shock, the creature the vidscreen showed wasn't an AI at all. It was a pinkish, Turianoid alien in a skin-tight suit, with a lopsided hat on top of its fur-covered head.
To his extreme shock, the alien appeared to be on fire.
"Turian fleet," said the alien, "this is Admiral Alan Prewitt of the Imperial Space Navy. We were on our way to your Citadel to discuss peace negotiations. These negotiations are already over." The alien paused and took a deep breath. "You just killed our emporer. I just wanted to let you know that whatever officer gave the order to attack that ship, you are going to be singlehandedly responsible for the extinction of the Turian species."
Linscus felt the blood drain from his face as the vidscreen turned off.
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Well, there it is. I'd like to give a huge thanks to Emily of FantasyNamegenerators .com. Without the enormous amount of effort she puts into making accurate names, I never would have even considered writing a Mass Effect fic. I'm terrible at coming up with names, and while Turian names are easy enough (just pick a Roman name), the other races would be impossible for me. Hell, I have a hard enough time with human names that I use her website for those, too.
I'm still not gonna name the members of the bridge crews, though.