Okay guys here it is chapter 3 please rate and review the story, on a side note what did you guys think to Hilary William's speech

Rise of the commonwealth

Chapter 3

Commonwealth space: Arcturus system

Star date: 25th June 2196 (commonwealth standard time)

Arcturus station

On board Arcturus station Fleet admiral Hackett looked at the reports coming in from Shanxi, it has been almost 3 days now since the attack by Turian forces on the colony and things were looking bleak, the space forces had been either destroyed or forced to retreat they had linked up with the Shanxi relief force yesterday, it was comprised of the 10th, 11th, and 12th, fleets with the newly re-tasked battle group Terror bulking up their numbers. The relief force had an impressive 400 frigates, 200, cruisers, 100 destroyers, 75, dreadnoughts, and 66 Crackens also it possessed the only 'relay metal' capital ship in existence the CWS Human Hope and they departed for Shanxi in 1 hour after the ground forces had been loaded up among them were 500 ENDERS, humanities super soldiers.

Hackett looked back at his reports; they told him the situation on the ground could be worse. The Turians had begun orbital bombardment which was against their standing orders, which Hackett knew thanks to 'friendly' chats with Turian POWs, and were now forcing his troops underground into the Labyrinth of tunnels and passageways they were keeping the Turians at bay with minimal loses, but they were running out of energy reserves and raw materials.

Replicator technology could synthesize anything if given the necessary materials and a constant source of energy, once the Turians realized this they began sabotaging power generators cutting off the necessary power to the defenders, the Shanxi force currently only had enough power to sustain two forges, not enough to feed the population and provide troops with what was needed for them to continue fighting.

The troopers had replicator forges built into their weapons but they required a constant feed of energy and coolant to prevent them from overheating and melting the weapon and they were running out of both fast.

Hackett looked up as Prime Minister Hannah Shepard walked in.

"I've heard that you are sending my daughter's ship in the relief force to liberate Shanxi"

"Yes ma'm is this a problem?" Hackett cautiously asked

"No, no problem, I was just wondering where she was so I could see her off and wish her good luck and to be safe"

"Oh well she is currently in dock 43, I'll take you there" Hackett placed the report on his desk and walked his long time friend down the hall

"So how are things on Shanxi, I haven't heard"

"Bleak, space forces have been destroyed or forced to retreat, and the ground forces have been forced underground by Turian Bombardment"

"That bad huh"

"Aye ma'm" there was silence for a few seconds

"Do you ever think about the trouble we got up to back on earth" Hackett laughed momentarily caught off guard by the abrupt change of topic.

"I remember when we went to London"

"OH GOD!" she burst out laughing "you mean the time when you walked up to one of the guards at Buckingham palace and stole his hat" Hackett chuckled

"I've never seen one move so fast he chased me around the fence for about an hour before the police got me" they chuckled

"Do you remember… forget it"

"What is it?" Hackett looked at Shepard questioningly

"Do you remember when we both sat on that hillside together" Hackett thought back to his child hood the time when he and Hannah Shepard had been inseparable friends.

"Yes I do actually you were as drunk as a fish out of water" she chuckled

"Do you remember what I said about how I… how I felt about you" Hackett felt something move in his chest "Why is she bringing this up?"

"Yes I do"

"Those feelings haven't faded" Hackett looked at her wide eyed like he just seen her appear out of thin air, "And I would… like to… ask you on a date" she said timidly. Hackett was floored his mind was wiped his boss the ruler of the commonwealth had asked him on a date eventually he formed one coherent thought in his head.

"I would love to" they continued to the dock in a comfortable silence

UNKOWN SPACE

Star date: 25th June 2157 (council standard time)

Turian command post

General Desolas was conversing with his lover over a secure QEC channel "We have the surface, but the underground tunnels are going to be a problem, they are well fortified and the Hoomuns-" he says completely butchering the word "-have superior armour, shielding and weaponry and the Orbital Bombardement only helped put them there"

"Speaking of which who authorized that" she asked narrowing her eyes

"I did"

"Damn it Arterius" she only called him that when she was pissed

"Now hold on if we hadn't used an orbital bombardment then we would have lost a lot more troops than we already have"

"Primarch Fedorian was pretty clear there was to be no kinetic strikes against the planet"

"I know but the Primarch isn't here and all my men agree that a kinetic strike was the only way to dislodge these savages from their surface positions"

"Very well, also I just got a call from our son" Desolas smiled

"How is Saren?" (A/N in this fic Saren is Desolas's son)

"He's fine misses his parents very much and want's them back home on Palaven"

"Heh, did you tell him what we are doing?"

"I told him mummy and daddy are fighting bad guys"

"Don't treat him like a 3 year old Alyana he's 6 now"

"Yes but he is still my baby"

"That he is, I'd better get back to it my men are just about ready to begin the final push, we'll have the Hooman's home world before the day is out then we can spend some time with our son on Palaven"

"Very well I'll get my ships on patrol duty to make sure none of the hoomans can get out of the system"

"See you soon Alyana…my love"

"You to Desolas… my husband"

Commonwealth space: Shanxi system

Star Date: 26th June 2196 (commonwealth standard time)

Shanxi C&C

Brigadier General Hilary Williams looked at the 3D hologram, her eyes were bloodshot from a lack of sleep and there were dark swollen bags under her eyes, she had been up most of the night trying to coordinate the defense of the entire colony from her underground bunker, she looked towards the armory where she had given her heroic speech and she wondered whether the doubt she had harbored had been well founded, the Turians were making a hard push and for their underground facilities most of which they were outside the doors of, they couldn't hold much longer if they were to survive they needed help she turned to the pedestal beside her.

"Martha what is the update on relief forces?" the facilities AI appeared on the pedestal, she wore boots, jeans and a t-shirt that said "I'm in my own world its ok they know me here".

"Currently they are 2 minutes out, and about damn time too, I much like this life I don't want to see what happens to dead AIs" her thoughts casting back to the citadels laws against AIs

"You won't, not today anyway" Williams looked up as the sound of gunfire came from the other side of the door, she and the rest of the command staff grabbed their weapons and prepared to fight for their lives.

Commonwealth space: Shanxi system

Star date: 26th June 2196 (Commonwealth standard time)

CWS: Human Hope

Captain Jessica Shepard looked through the viewing screen, travelling through warp space never got boring there were a multitude of colours constantly passing by the screen "how can anyone get bored of this" she thought to herself there was a chime behind and she turned around and saw the ships AI and her good friend Bill there, he had modeled himself off the left 4 dead character of the same name and had endeared himself to her.

"Jess how are you" Bill asked in his casual tone

"Fine Bill just thinking about the fact that for the first time we are going to fighting alien life. What's the status of the ship?"

"Worried about it?" he asked sarcastically and Jessica whirled on him

"This ship is the only relay metal capital ship it is the largest ship we have (4km long by 3km wide) and has the only weaponized replicator gauss cannon we poses so yes I am friggin worried about it do you know how much Humanity has put into this ship"
"yeash sorry forget I asked, don't get your knickers in a twist" if Jessica could have she would have slapped him then he burst out laughing "how did we become friends"

"I have no idea"

"Ma'm we are entering the system" the multi coloured light show faded as the 800+ ships entered back into real space to be facing the remaining 300 ships to the Turian fleet at various points of the system

UNKOWN SYSTEM

Star date: 26th June 2157 (Council standard time)

THS: Spirits honour

"MA'M ENEMY CONTACTS JUST CAME INTO THE SYSTEM" Oraka turned to the sensor operator

"so it's just those ships that escaped earlier send a patrol to finish them off"

"But ma'm there are over 800 ships in their fleet" "WHAT!" was all Oraka could think she brought up the hologram of the system and sure enough a fleet of 800+ enemy contacts had jumped into the system

"Get a our patrols back here NOW!"

"Ma'm patrol group Martus is moving to engage"

"Get me a line open now" the comms channel opened and showed her the captain in charge of the patrol

"Captain you will move your group back to regroup with the main fleet or-" the comm. Was cut as a round from the largest ship in the fleet, a ship at least 5km long, fired. A shell raced through space and impacted the ships shield the round smashed the shield to pieces but the round carried on but upon impact the shell splintered and a weird substance splashed across the hull, it then began to before her very eyes dissolve the hull.

Unknown to Oraka the shell that was fired contained billions of weaponized replicators coordinated by an AI like hive mind, these replicators ate anything their AI perceived as a threat, meaning anything it's users programmed it for.

The hull of the ship was quickly dissolved exposing it's crew to the vacuum of space where they suffocated in the freezing void with in mere seconds all that remained of the once mighty dreadnought was a mass of grey sludge.

The rest of the patrol group followed it as they were destroyed by a mixture of gauss slugs and streams of superheated plasma. Then the alien fleet moved towards her fleet, she knew the battle was lost the moment she saw the capabilities of that fleet, she couldn't win.

"Get me a line to all ships" the comms officer nodded a few seconds passed then he gave her a thumbs up

"Attention all ships power down and surrender. We. Have. Lost." There was silence as their fleet powered down weapons and the enemy fleet closed in

Commonwealth space: Shanxi system

Star date: 26th June 2196 (Commonwealth standard time)

CWS: Human Hope

"Captain the enemy fleet is powering down weapons" Shepard smiled.

"Get me a line to their flagship" the vid screen changed to show a female Turian standing on a podium in the middle of what she assumed to be a bridge "Turian commander, I am Captain Jessica ship onboard the capital ship Human Hope, we request that you surrender yourselves to our custody"

"I Admiral Oraka surrender my fleet to your custody… captain" Jessica looked at Bill

"Round up boarding parties, I want their ships searched and under our control"

"Aye Ma'm" the AI winked out she turned back to the screen "Now Admiral I would like to ask you to tell your troops on the ground to surrender as well"

"They are not under my command, they are under the command of General-"

"Desolas Arterius" Jessica finished the admiral looked at her wide eyed

"How do you-"

"Know that, me to know you to never find out" the admiral frowned slightly but let the matter drop "Now that is out of the way contact Arterius and tell him to surrender or prepare die.

UKNOWN SPACE

Star Date: 26th June 2157(council standard time)

Turian Command post

Desolas looked at the hologram of his lover in front of him "Good day Alyana we have yet to capture their control centre but we are close we can have it by the end of the day"

"I'm afraid that won't be possible" Desolas frowned

"The-" she was cut off as something occurred on screen then she put her hands in the air and stood aside as one of the hoomans took her place.

"Good day Desolas you are probably wondering what is happening" Desolas clenched his fist in rage the hooman either didn't notice or didn't care "well my ship and a fleet of over 800 ships have just captured your fleet, you will surrender or we will kill everyone in the fleets and proceed to land troops and exterminate you" the hoomans voice was cold and deadly serious Desolas seethed with anger looked at Alyana and she nodded her head and the rage left him. He sighed

"I General Desolas Arterius commander of Hierarchy forces on Shanxi do here by surrender"

Codex:

Weapons: Humanity employs a variety of weapons on multiple scaled weapons:

Gauss: the staple of human weapons it is reliable, deadly and easily maintained it is the standard issue fire arm for most human forces and ships standard issue rifles able to fire 50 caliber slugs at 0.5% light speed.

Laser and plasma: used mainly for ship to ship combat or for the ENDERS these energy weapons are capable of doing moderate to extreme damage to anything in their path, plasma can also be contained in a shell for use by artillery or tanks

Anti matter: a WMD in any ones books anti matter is not allowed for conventional warfare and any anti matter generators are carefully protected and monitored, a single anti matter missile can destroy a relay metal capital ship (according to simulations)

WARNING IF YOU READ BEYOND THIS POINT WITH OUT PROPER CLEARANCE YOU RISK EXECUTION

Singularity weapons: a newly developed class of weapons yet to be mass produced singularity weapons are planet killers, they upon impact create a miniature black hole with strong gravimetric forces that can easily rip a planet the size of earth to pieces, the singularity then explodes with the force of a 10 Gigaton bomb

A/N okay guys third chapter is up next chapter is negotiations with the council and a rather unexpected demand. Also a specil shout out to K0H who gave me the idea for the weaponized replicator cannon, and to all those people who have reviewed the story.