This chapter was meant to be rather short as it was just to introduce the inter species fleet. I rather think that Star Fleet had it right by mixing their member races. Anyway, I'm rewriting the fourth chapter and then I'll write the next chapter.

2333 SE, 2189 CE

The solar system had been untouched since its creation at the beginning of time. None of the space fairing species in the universe had been to this system. And with no warning, a massive disk of energy opened, and out of the disk poured a very interesting fleet of ships. The ships remained stationary for a moment as they regained mass as their mass effect fields deactivated. The design for the ships in the fleet was interesting to say the least. The ship design was around a central spine with wings starting from the bottom, sweeping down and going both ahead of the central spine and slightly past the back of the spine. The wing extends to a central hub above the central spine with two spires running from the central spire. The wings also have a spire running between the two wings (Common Wealth war ships, Andromeda). The central spine of the different sized ships had a different number of MAC cannons running along the bottom of them. They also have multiple plasma, missile and flak cannon gun ports running along the wings and the central spire. The dreadnaught sized ship (the only one in the fleet and twice the size of a citadel council dreadnaught) had a whapping seven MAC cannons and had a reactor for each, not including the five for ship functions, the cruiser sized ships (numbering fourteen, the size of a council dreadnaught) had four MAC cannons with three reactors for the MACs, not including the three for ship functions, destroyers (numbering twenty, fifty percent bigger than a council frigate) had two MAC's with one reactor for them, not including the two for ship functions, the frigates (numbering twenty-five, a quarter bigger than a council frigate) had just a single MAC with, the firing rate rather slow as they had to share the reactor with the rest of the ship. The support ships (numbering in the fifties), from cargo carriers and troop transports to dedicated medical ships, lacked the heavy hitting MAC cannons. They were armed with shields and different weapons platforms, from anti-fighter/missile Guardian lasers and flak cannons, to missiles and small mass drivers. Even though they had noncombat roles to play in the fleet, they would remain armed In case they had to make an escape move.

The 110 ships of the fleet swooped in from the outer edge of the four planet system. A thorough scan of the system was initiated once a stable orbit in system was established. The dreadnaught 'United Horizon', flag ship of the First Unified Fleet, was conducting the first deep scan of the system. In the bridge of the ship, the sangheili A.I. Radeem Jar Satee's avatar rose from her display, "Admiral, the scan had been initiated. The star is a white dwarf type. There are no planets sitting in the life zone, one is in the deep freeze zone, two are gas giants lie in a twin orbit at a Saturn distance and the last lies to close to the star to make any mining effort extremely difficult and costly. So far we've discovered a high concentration of Element Zero on both of the gas giants. Minor concentrations of titanium and platinum sit on the ice ball. In my opinion, it's worth building a base in system for mining the planets." The quarian admiral steeped his fingers in contemplation of what Radeem told him. "I like to be thorough, so what can you tell me about the planet close to the planet."

Admiral Advara'Tpal, the admiral assigned to command the first interspecies fleet, was well known for his tactical expertise. In his first assignment, then captain of an older model quarian guard ship stationed to guard Rannoch 2 in the Harvest system in 2320, rallied the scattered armed ships in orbit in to a very adequate defense against a group of Batarian slave ships that launched a surprise raid against the newly established quarian world. The batarians stalled seeing the small group of ships in orbit. The ships were a mixture of different species' ships. Human, quarian and sangheili light cargo and freighters marked the largest ships in the motley defense fleet. Captain Advara was well aware what the Batarian presence represented in the system. As the quarian people had had a completely expected population boom with the suddenly free space, most of the females were or planned to become pregnant, the batarians must have wanted some of the newborns or the pregnant females to take back to sell as slave labor and entertainment. He wasn't about to let that happen on his watch as guard captain of the planet. Captain Advara made sure to send a warning that the batarians had entered restricted space and they should turn away from their current course making sure that they knew they would be considered hostile. When the batarians responded by laughing and sending back a surrender notice, he sent back the well known human expression 'fuck off' in every language he had access to. Needless to say the batarians were unimpressed.

When the batarians began to move in to an attack position, he ordered the sangheili ships to fall back around the batarian attack force and the planet, thus using the gravity of the planet to slingshot around for more speed in their attack run. What the batarians were unaware of, was the fact that though the ships were light and heavy cargo freighters, they were still armed and shielded. Even the small number of quarian ship had been outfitted with shield generators. He planned to use these to his full advantage. After the sangheili began to fall back around the planet, he ordered the human ships to pick off any ship headed toward the surface for a slaving run, while also sending a message to the surface to prepare marine intervention. A message was also sent toward another Allied Species system to call for a battle group.

The batarians came in swinging, their mass effect cannons firing at full capacity. None of the initial shot got past the shields, and a small missile response was sent in return. Most of the A.S. missiles were picked off by the batarian Guardian Laser Net, but a few got through, and several batarian light craft vanished in to the dark. By this point, Advara had already given the evasion order, as the batarians launched another wave of shots. Most of the shots went wide, but a few hit, and a single human ship vanished in a massive explosion. The batarians began to launch their landing craft when it looked like the defense fleet was breaking off the engagement. When the landing craft got closer to the planet, the human part of the defense fleet swooped down on them almost red-lining their reactors, firing missiles and small mass drivers' straight threw them. They swooped around them multiple times, as the defensive weapons on the landing craft were all on the nose of the craft. And soon all the landing vehicles were destroyed or disabled, and the human vessels regrouped with the quarians. The batarians weren't laughing now, as all their landing craft had been blown out of the sky. Their main attack ships began to move in to begin attacking the defense fleet again, as the sangheili force came around the other side of the planet with plasma batteries rolling. The few armed with plasma torpedoes launch their full spread, knocking additional ships from the sky, as the rest of the defense fleet came forward in a pincer attack run. Caught between the two attacking sides, the slaver force completely broke. Some tried to run, others tried to fight back. It was at this point that the backup battle group came in to the system and took control of the defense as the remaining batarian ships were destroyed and the defense fleet pulled back. In the end, over seventy percent of the defense group was destroyed, but the slavers had been completely destroyed. Every member of the crews of the destroyed and still active ships received numerous medals and places of honor in history. Captain Advara received a promotion to admiral and was awarded command of the First United Fleet because of it.

Now he was in charge of the exploration and mapping of the area known as the Skyllian Verge and potential task of 'first contact' with any new species they may find along the way. They had deep scanned six systems since they had launched. They had found two different systems that had the potential for colonization. Neither had the necessary radiation levels for his people, and sent the message, and they were then claimed by the sangheili and the Lekgolo. The humans accepted the claim and two different colonization fleets left for the two systems. So far all six systems had the capability for mining, but some would be costly. They were aware of the batarian claim on the whole of the Verge, but disregarded that claim. They had been monitored and no large scale move to colonize the Verge had been launched by the batarians in the last forty years. Thus the A.S. government allowed the two species to claim the systems.

So far, the First United fleet had fought off different pirate groups multiple times. The batarians were an old favorite, as they had equipment in the worst possible condition. The Eclipse and the Blue Suns were the longest lasting fights, but even they didn't like tangling with anything dreadnaught class. The Blood Pack was stupid enough for it though, and had decently kept equipment for it to be something of a fight. Not much of one, but there you go.

For the past couple of days they had been getting unknown signals from a couple of systems, and wanted to go investigate them, but had yet to receive the go ahead to investigate them. If they got the go ahead, they would put the exploration mission on hold to go see if they might find a new species.

"Admiral, I'm receiving a message from Highcom. They are giving us the go ahead to find out who is putting out those signals. They also inform us that if we do find a new species, that we're to make first contact, depending on the level of their space travel, we may be introducing them to their first example of interstellar travel. Message ends there." He nodded, "You heard him helm, make the course toward the signals. Com, inform the rest of the fleet that as soon as the scan is complete we're moving out." The two officers nodded at their orders and got to work. "Sir, fleet reports ready." "Course is calculated and input." "Very well, let me know as soon as the scans complete." With that he left the bridge and headed for his personal quarters to wait and relax.

Three hours later, Advara was roused from his book by the intercom; "Admiral to the bridge, the scans complete." Radeem's voice rang out over the intercom. He out of his chair and made his way to the bridge. As the door opened, he walked to his chair. "Did the scan find anything interesting, or is this system simply a mining arena?" The A.I. actually looked interested in the results. "Actually, the scan shows that there is a structure below the atmosphere of the far gas giant. The evidence suggests that this was a mining planet. The mining platform is still operational; however they don't seem to be mining the same thing we would. The element zero has remained untouched, while a substance we have no use for is contained in the processing banks. I am unaware whether the mining facility is connected with the signals coming from the uncharted area. I have yet to record any signs of known FTL, so I don't believe that they are connected." "Are there any life signs coming from the mining platform?" Radeem looked down to the right for a moment, and then looked back up, "Yes, I'm picking up crew for in 15 different sections of the mining station. They seem to be going about their daily lives." Advara looked thoughtful for a couple of minutes, as he thought about the situation he found his fleet in. "Alright, we'll wait for a couple of standard earth days to see if any ships enter the system. If they do, we make contact. If they don't, we'll leave a scout satellite to monitor the system for ships. The next time any ships enter the system; we'll be aware of it and can send a group of ships back to contact this new species. In the meanwhile, we'll be heading toward the signals coming from that system. Send a report back to High-Com stating that the system is pending further investigation as to the viability of using the system as a mining base. Set fleet course to star system 'Sig Alpha'." With that, the entire fleet changed direction from the in system star toward star system labeled 'Sig Alpha' and massive disks of energy opened, allowing the fleet to proceed to the higher dimension known as 'slipspace'.