The size of an A.S. dreadnaught is only slightly smaller than a Covenant super carrier. The A.S. dreadnaught is smaller than a covenant super carrier, but way more heavily armed, armored and shielded. The Citadel species, on the other hand, still use the size scale outlined by the council. Thus the asari dreadnaught guarding the citadel is still the biggest ship in citadel space, though A.S. intelligence believes the council has commissioned a much larger vessel from the turians.
2333 SE, 2189 CE
It took four days for the fleet to reach its destination. Only one system existed between the mining colony and the system that the signals existed in. They passed it by, leaving only a few scout probes to monitor the system till they could come back for a full scan later. The journey was uneventful. They encountered no pirates or any obstacles in the way. Half-way through the four day trip, Advara thought to ask the A.I. what she thought about the signals and what they might find.
"Can you get any reads on the signals yet, Radeem?" Advara asked of the A.I. Radeem looked thoughtful for a couple of moments as she compiled the data, "Yes, they are definitely communication signals, though carried by a different energy channel then we or the council uses. We use slip space relays, while the council uses subspace. Whoever these people are, they use quantum based signal relays. The assumption can be made that they hoped that by sending their messages by quantum channels, the messages might go through some time dilation and the message would arrive before they sent the message, and help would arrive right when they needed it," she thought for a moment, then spoke up again, "I don't think it would work the way they planned it though. The quantum channels are just too narrow for the signals to gain any leeway forward or backward through time. Other than that, I haven't finished braking down the language yet. There are four different languages being spoken in that system, and all four of them are completely different than any language spoken in the known galaxy. With me trying to break down all four of them, they are taking a while to translate. I can tell you they are conversing."
The admiral nodded in thought, "Alright, when you're finished let me know," the A.I. nodded, "com, when you get one of the language packages I want you to go over it as quickly as possible. If you have to, upload it and use the universal translator. I would just prefer to hold that in reserve though."
The human officer nodded, the admiral turned to a sangheili officer, "Weapons, I want all seven MACs charged to thirty-five percent. Don't have the missile pods loaded, but charge the plasma turrets to fifty percent of full. I don't want any charge traveling through the energy projector, that thing is a very last resort weapon at best, and a war crime at worst. I want this down at an hour out of system. I don't want them to think we're here to take over, but I'm going in to this situation at least cautiously." The sangheili officer nodded at that and got to work.
"Radeem, give me fleet wide." She nodded, "You're on admiral." "Thank you Radeem. Fleet personal, we're two days out of a system that has four undiscovered species in it. We don't know the situation of this system, or what type of species they are. Whether they have anything to do with the mining facility we discovered two days ago is unknown. We do know that they aren't attacking each other, and they have a space presence. We'll be dropping in to the system in two days, and I'd like to think that everything is going to go excellent, but we're a realistic group of species. We'll be coming in to the system with MACs thirty-five percent of power, missiles will remain un-armed, but charge plasma turrets to fifty and shields up. We will not be taking the first shots, as we do not want a repeat of the Turian/Human War.
"I have Radeem Jar Satee, A.S. Smart A.I. number 08996, working on braking down the alien languages so we can get a dialogue going between the A.S. ambassadors and the native ambassadors. Once down I will be sending the language package to the ambassadorial ship, the 'War's Break', and I will be sending the package to all the captains in the fleet so that their com officers can study up and hopefully learn the language and we won't have to show off the universal translators. Be prepared, be cautious and don't be foolish, and we just might come out of this ahead of the citadel council," all over the fleet, chuckles were heard as they thought about what the council would have to say about pulling four new species in to the political arena, "I want the captains to have their weapons armed at an hour out of system. That will be all, dismissed."
The other two days passed quickly.
Radeem finished breaking down two of the four languages, while the other two would take several more days to finish breaking. One of the languages, the A.S. species was capable of speaking, while the other was not as the language required a liquid gland in the mouth to produce. The evidence spoke that one of the species was most definitely bipedal with a similar structure of the mouth as humans, while at least one of the others was evolved from an ocean world. The fleet dropped out of slip space at the very outer edge of the system, and began to make their way toward the inner system.
Radeem picked up numerous stellar bodies, some natural, but the vast majority were not. She made the admiral aware of them, but was told to focus more on what was obviously a defense fleet forming quickly out of amalgamated ships from all four species ranging from what would be a Citadel corvette to the largest that was about the size of an A.S. cruiser.
"Helm, stop well outside of what would be our effective weapons range." The Lekgolo colony nodded, "Com, patch me through to the 'War's Break' and put it on the display." The image of the ambassador's bridge came on the screen, "Ambassadors, you're on." The ambassadors; human, quarian, sangheili and the recently added Lekgolo, nodded as they cut the connection.
Radeem observed the ships as they gathered. They moved quickly, and efficiently. Even though they were of four different species, they moved with the quick efficiency of a well oiled navy. She had noticed all the artificial satellites, but only now focused on the fact that there were five different satellite designs. That meant that either they wiped out the fifth race, which was doubtful as there were only four planets in the life zone, or they had been invaded at least once.
"Sir, they might attack before we achieve anything of significance. Evidence shows that they might have been invaded at least once in the last hundred years. I suggest that we pull back further to prove that we mean no harm!" Advara snapped to the com officer, "You heard the lady, tell the fleet to pull back to double the effective weapons range!" the com officer sent the message. It took a minute, as the defense fleet continued to gather quickly.
The fleet started to pull back, as the ambassadorial ship continued to make its way in to what they believed was the aliens' effective weapons range and took a holding steady position inside the kill zones, with only shields active to present the least threat possible. The message was a standard; we come in peace and would like to speak to some people in charge, and have not come to start any hostilities. The native species ignored the message and continued to gather their forces behind their dreadnaught sized vessel. "Ambassadors, pull back now." The admiral's voice went over the com channel, as the alien forces picked up speed in their build up.
The ambassadors' small U.N.S.C. shuttle flipped around and headed back toward the main fleet at full speed. The com officer, Lt. Sarah Keenan, looked up at the admiral, "Sir, we're receiving a message from the aquatics, spoken only." He looked at the human and nodded, "Put it on speakers." The human com officer reached out and touched a button, and a voice that sounded as if it was running through a bit of water and lightly accented but clearly female, rang out over the bridge com. "You are trespassing in the sovereign territory of the Arakainian Federation in the Ritneer System. As you have yet to launch any sort of attack, we are inclined to believe that you are not connected to the Wickedian Empire and as such are not here for any nefarious purpose in this system. As you arrived in system due to an unknown means, and did not travel through the void between systems, we will allow you to speak your peace and hope that it is not a waste of time. Your force may out number us, but do not expect that this will be an easy fight. Our peoples will fight till the last breath against you if you prove hostile!"
The entire bridge crew looked intrigued over the message. Advara looked thoughtful for a few moments, then looked at Sarah and gave the order. "Tell the ambassadors to do their jobs. Weapons officer Daneer, power down everything but the MACs and leave them at 35%. Let the rest of the fleet know to do the same but keep the shields active. Radeem let me know when we have a development in the negotiations. Everybody, I suggest getting as much sleep as you can before the interesting things start." With that, he walked off the bridge heading toward his personal quarters.
It took over four earth hours to get over the initial negotiations out of the way. The initials covered who both parties represented (the Arakainian Federation consisted of four sentient species, the Arkainian (they looked like the grays of Twentieth century lore, except that their eyes were bright green as opposed to imagined black and their skin was a dark yellow), the Arakus (a bipedal feline race, their fur was short, soft and came in all colors. Their eyes had an Asian slant, with straight slanted pupils. They came in all colors as well), the Dariaus (a species that evolved from a tentacle bearing ocean species. They evolved in to a bipedal species as well. Their species was a light purple, with very ephemeral skin. They have a beak instead of a mouth, and need a mask circulating water around their beak and numerous mobile tentacles instead of hair) and the Barakus (a species that evolved from an insect species with many legs like an earth centipede. They had many arms and hands, making them perfect for building work. Their many faceted group of four eyes, gave them a clarity that none of the other species in the Federation that were all two eyed, could achieve), what the goal for the negotiations was and a whole list of other things that wouldn't interest normal citizens.
During the negotiations, Radeem kept picking up phantom signals originating from one of the land based planets heading toward the direction the fleet had arrived from. She tracked it back to the very base it originated from on Arkain (the Arkainian home world), and was tracking it in the direction it was heading for. Ten minutes after the negotiations ended, she discovered where the signals where headed. There was an entire fleet of ships heading for the Ritneer system. The fleet was massive; the number of ships equaled the old Migrant Fleet (over a thousand vessels) that the admirals' people used to use. "Admiral, there are signals originating from the Arkainian home world to a flight in deep space. The fleet is heading here at high sub-light speeds. The current speed will put the fleet in system in a week." The admiral looked interested at that, and turned toward Sarah. "Ask if the Federation is expecting any visitors, and if not let them know that they have a fleet in coming."