Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or Mass effect.
Chapter 4: First Contact
Aethena nebula, 4AU away from thessia.
The asari fourth fleet which consists of 7 asari heavy cruisers are en route to their home planet thessia. The fleet commander is Captain Nylis T' halyt. The fourth fleet is in fact a patrol fleet together with an orbital station that monitors the sector 3A of Thessia in orbit. The planet surface below the sector has higher concentration of eezo. Before their arrival, just then they had finished off a pirate group in the Attican traverse when Thessia command mentioned an illegal piracy in their asari controlled space in the traverse.
"Captain! Our ship's long range sensors picked up an unidentified vessel at 4AU in east of Thessia" said an asari officer in the bridge.
"Show me" said the captain. Captain Nylis T'halyt has strong reputation among the asari and even among the citadel races. Her fleet has engaged the highest number of pirate groups in the galaxy. So she's kind of an expert when it comes to hunting down the pirates and slavers. She thought she could do the same to this newly found vessel, if it turns out to be pirates only to her disappointment. The holo display showed the image of the ship causing everyone in the bridge to drop their jaws.
"Mam! The sensor readings shows the ship is 5kms in length...And also reading a fluctuating gravity distortions in the ships rear end. Bu-...There's not even a trace of eezo in it!" said the officer in shock and disbelief. Nylis was dumbstruck for a moment.
"By the goddess! How's that possible!" exclaimed the captain in terror as the largest ship in this galaxy is their super dreadnought 'Destiny Ascention' which is the citadel fleet's flagship. Also a ship that big needs unimaginable amounts of eezo. The captain wondered how this ship can even move without it. Eezo is the heart of this galaxy's technology. Also the ship's design was so strange and terrorizing for they have never seen anything like this since 'sovereign'. But even sovereign was only 2kms in length.
"Is it the Alliance, turians or the salarians?" asked the captain in tense.
"No mam! the ship's EM profile doesn't match any of them. They can't build anything that big and the design is completely different" replied the officer.
Even then, the captain had more doubts with the alliance, since they had been the council's more favorite. So there's likely a chance that the alliance can have resources to build this ship. But she knew she can't blindly conclude anything. She had be more careful. A 5km long ship near by Thessia is not something to be shrugged off, but at the same time, one wrong step could cost them anything. Nylis felt that size wasn't big of a factor and thought that this could be just a mere intimidation and nothing beyond it's striking appeal.
"Alright, open the fleet wide channel and begin transmission on my mark. Now get us close" ordered the captain. The officer opened up a channel and then the fleet made a short FTL jump to hold their position 100kms from the unknown ship.
UNSC Imperial Dawn
Master chief, Cortana and other blue team members didn't know what to do when Cortana said they were again in the Milky way galaxy. More to that, 7 unidentified vessels are en route to their position. The holographic image is displayed in front of chief.
"Chief, we got 7 unknown vessels approaching our position in FTL" said Cortana wondering how the sensors were able to pickup the ships moving in FTL without slipspace rupture. Cortana was analyzing the design of the ships. It was different. The Dawn's equipped with advanced sensors, so her technical eyes were able to see through the ship details. She got the information on the ship's technology and it was odd. Her digital eyes widened in confusion.
"That's strange, They don't use slipspace. Instead they move at FTL speeds in the normal space itself" Cortana said in a low voice which the Chief picked up. Cortana brought the hologram of a digital model of the unknown fleet moving at FTL speed in normal space with some numerical values around the ship's image. Cortana had to thank the sensors as it was able to track the objects moving in FTL speed in the normal space. Usually, slipspace ruptures are detected before hand by picking up the gravitational relativistic echoes that are generated in normal space seconds before the ships comes out. But neither UNSC nor the Covenant had the technology to track ships with in the slipspace itself.
Forerunners didn't have that too. But they were able to use the reconciliation effects generated due to the hydro static expansion internally from slipstream to normal space brane. This in turn distort the relative time and distance of travel. This effect was proportional to the mass transported through slipstream space. Forerunners had a greater understanding of this phenomenon and used it to their advantage and thus detecting movement across the 11-dimensional region through the normal space.
"Hm, it looks like the dawn can still get a lock on them" said Chief who too was amused with the fact.
But the Chief couldn't help but think hard about this place. Cortana said that they had reached the Milky way contradictory to the place what they were briefed on. The other blue team members had the same feeling.
"I can't help but wonder how we landed in the same Milky way?" asked Chief in brooding voice.
"Me too. Didn't the monitor mention another galaxy?" asked Fred in that same tone.
"This doesn't make sense. Black holes are powerful enough to transport matter across several billions of light years, even possibly into a different realm" said Kelly curiously gazing at the details she still had of this place in her terminal at the top corner. But that was something Cortana instantly picked up. She rushed her sight towards Kelly as if she wanted to compliment her, but something stopped her from doing that.
"What do you think Cortana? asked Chief.
"I think of a million possibilities of might have happened and one of them is crazy enough to send you all into a power nap" said Cortana with a smile. But then again, before they could react to her statement, they were all diverted by an alarm in the hologram. She saw the fleet had entered FTL towards them.
"Ships are about to reach us. They might have sensed us at a greater distance. What should we do now?" asked Cortana turning to face the Chief.
"Then we better be ready. Kelly, lock and load yourself. We got company." said Chief.
"On it" replied Kelly and left to the armory.
"Linda, take care of the ship's on board systems from this terminal"
"Sure thing" Linda went to the terminal in the bridge and brought all inner ship's defense online. The sentinels were alerted.
"Fred, take care of the weapons systems. Attack them if they make a hostile move"
"Glad to" Fred nodded and then got to his terminal.
"Raise comm when they get near" said Chief turning to Cortana.
"But they are already here, Chief" said Cortana and the next moment. Everyone got to see the fleet of unknown ship designs exiting FTL through the glass window in the front. The ships positioned themselves 100kms from their ship. Chief stared at the fleet for few seconds. His promethean mind was calculating several possibilities of incidents and engagements that can happen when they meet face to face. He felt that they must be ready to do the necessary yet handle things as smooth as possible at the same time.
"Try hailing them" said Chief.
"Actually, they are hailing us. But their comm signal encryption uses a different algorithm. I've to study and replicate it to contact them." said Cortana to which he nodded. There was only one thing in his mind. It could be another first contact scenario.
Asari fourth fleet
After the fourth fleet exited the FTL, captain Nylis and her entire fleet crew saw a gigantic ship that dwarves the destiny ascension more than twice the size. Everyone got stunned after seeing the strange looking ship. Taking a detailed look, Nylis started to doubt whether if it's an advanced powerful race. The ship showed complete power. The crew members were talking to one another in murmuring voice about what they saw.
"Try contacting that ship" ordered Nylis.
"Sorry mam, but their comm systems are incompatible with us...Wait! They are hailing us. Looks like they have calibrated their comm to our standards" replied the officer. Nylis's anxiety rose high enough after getting the call. Still, she couldn't let go of the vacillation.
"What if...thing go awry? Are we prepared to face them?...Or, are they prepared to face us?" was the thought in Nylis's mind. Her fleet had fought several riders, pirates more then she could remember, but the history books don't have records of them facing a 5km ship. Her thoughts were immediately snapped by the voice that came out of the comm speakers. Everyone in the bridge were able to hear that voice.
"This is Master chief petty officer of the Navy, Spartan-117 of the UNSC Imperial Dawn. I need to speak with the commanding officer of the fleet."
Captain Nylis had been serving the asari navy for several decades. But what she heard in the comm didn't make any sense. "What is this UNSC? Are they a black-ops organization or any other military group?" asked a bridge officer in dilemma turning to the captain.
"Go through the copy of citadel's records and look for any group called the UNSC" ordered the captain to the officer. The officer did exactly what she was ordered to do. After a few minutes, she turned to the captain to reply.
"Captain, there are no records in the citadel database about this UNSC group" replied the officer. But something struck Nylis's mind about the name UNSC and the language the man spoke. It was English and the ranking and the acronym was very much attributed to humans. She roughly assumed that this group should be a human group. But again, that's brings another problem. Humans are represented in this galaxy as the systems alliance and the asari knew how much humanity had advanced but not this much.
"If this is indeed an alliance group, then they had simply breached the treaty of 'farixen'" thought Nylis. According to the treaty, every race should only have limited dreadnought ships and respective sizes. This was imposed to limit the extensive use of rarely obtained Eezo.
"I would love to send these people to the citadel and help them suffer a hardship for violating the treaty" muttered Nylis and then proceeded to respond to the summon.
"This is Captain Nylis T' halyt of the asari fourth fleet. I need know what race you represent and I remind that you have infiltrated asari space without authorization" There was a slight pause and then came the reply.
"We are humans and we are not hostile forces" came the voice. Everyone was shocked with the reply. They couldn't believe that the owners of this strange vessel are humans except Nylis.
"Bingo! Then it's proved. No matter the name they came themselves with, I can arrest them and surrender them to the citadel. This will be lucky day" thought Nylis, laughing her brains off.
"I need to talk to you, captain. We will have a conversation in our ship" said the Master chief. Nylis couldn't help but to accept it as she don't want any incidents in this first contact. Perhaps, it would be an opportunity for her to study them.
"I will come aboard a drop ship with a small security" said Nylis.
"Very well. We are sending a signal to your ship from our hanger. Follow that." said the Chief and closed the transmission. Nylis sighed and called her XO, Priosla M'Loor.
"Priosla, come to the bridge and take control. I've got a job to do" said Nylis.
"Yes, captain. Be there in 5 minutes" replied the XO over the comm.
She then asked for 3 soldiers to accompany her in the meeting. Then, they entered the drop ship and her pilot flew out and followed the signal to land. Everyone saw the lengthy side of the massive ship. They were totally dumbstruck with its design. They saw a wing like insignia with the ship's name below it. The owners call themselves humans, but this ship doesn't have any human touch. Finally they reached the hanger part of the ship where the party's waiting.
UNSC Imperial dawn
"Everyone get to the hanger" said the Chief and then turned to Cortana.
"Well, looks like its another first contact scenario after all" said Cortana. Chief was silent for a moment. Then he spoke.
"Who are these asari?...Are they some new race we haven't explored?...where did they come from?" asked Chief in confusion. Honestly, that was the question also in Cortana's mind. She can answer with the previous assumptions, but she need information to confirm that.
"John, we will know everything when we see them. Now go, I'm through out the ship, meet you there." said Cortana to which chief simply nodded and left the bridge.
He decided not to take any weapons to stir up the situation. The blue team were now waiting in the hanger with sentinels moving here and there. The hanger door opened and the hard light shield was deactivated. A drop ship entered the hanger and touched the ground and again the shield was activated immediately. From the drop ship, out came 4 blue skinned females with tentacled hair in a military attire. The captain was in the front and the 3 soldiers at the back. The blue team saw those females having blue skin and some strange facial markings along with tentacled hair or whatever. They all immediately glanced at each other in amazement. They have never seen people like them before.
"Ok, that's not something you see everyday. Are these people new to the stage?" asked Fred using the inter armor communication. Others responded by acknowledging the question with a green light in their HUD.
"We'll know what we have missed so far" replied Linda.
On the other hand, the 4 asari were seeing 4 massive figure with one standing 7'3" tall and the others almost 7'. They were terrified with their size as they had never seen humans grow this big and also their armors. The asari can very much say that the armor looked more advanced like these were made specially for people like them.
"By the goddess! Those are pretty advanced technology! Who are they really and how did they get this tech stuffs?" exclaimed Nylis in her thoughts.
They also saw what looked like drones flying here and there. A 100 mts above their head was a docked SAHARA class heavy prowler with a big door of its size nearby it. The asari were stunned with the interior. Then they saw the 7'3" figure in a strange armor walking towards them. Nylis thought that he should be the leader, and also tensed with his approach. The asari team could hear bass thuds while he walked. As he closed the distance, he grew up bigger and bigger. For a moment, she thought she thought she could use biotics to apprehend them if the situation turned hostile.
"Master chief petty officer of the Navy, Spartan-117 of the UNSC Naval special warfare. This is my team spartan-104, 087, 058" Chief said lending out his hand. He didn't divulge their names as the spartan IIs in general always kept their names to themselves and only used among them. Chief was even more protective of their names and they only say that to those who are trust worthy.
The asari captain nodded in acknowledgement, though she was wary of these people calling themselves as 'spartans' followed by a code number. Asari are gifted to read body languages. Nylis watched their movement, tone well enough to conclude that these people were soldiers to the core.
"Captain Nylis T'halyt of the asari fourth fleet. But if you are humans, then why don't you give your real names instead of giving these code names" said Nylis in a slightly militaristic tone and giving a hand shake in response. But the spartan IIs were not even shook by an inch with her authority because, their authority lies with the UNSC and UNSC alone. What troubled them was the name 'Asari'.
"What the hell is an 'Asari'?" thought Linda who was staring at the 4 aliens. Others had the same question their mind, but Chief proceeded to answer them.
"Names are classified for soldiers like us. So just go by our ranks" replied Chief. Nylis warily nodded in acknowledgement, wondering what kind of military would classify personal names.
"Ok then, Master Chief. What is this UNSC you are talking about? Is it a part of the Human Systems Alliance, government of humanity?" asked Nylis.
The whole blue team was confused with this question and shared a glance towards each other again. They wanted to assume that this race evolved isolated from the rest of the parties like the Covenant or the UNSC. But they couldn't because, when they told that they were humans, these aliens called them as Human Systems Alliance which is enough for them to know that these people already knew humanity for them to call with such an organizational name. This however brings another problem. The blue team doesn't know if these aliens call the human government as HSA for their own reference or something had really went plummeted.
Cortana was already in the hanger area hiding herself silently observing the conversation. She slowly felt that one in a million crazy possibility is getting it's odds in favor. She watched as John gave explanations.
"UNSC stands for United Nations Space command, a naval military, scientific and exploratory group once under the Unified Earth Government, now an independent body. But we don't know any Systems alliance" replied the chief whose curiosity rose to peak.
Nylis was totally confused with what she heard. She couldn't believe these humans don't know about the systems alliance. She still proceeded with the next array of questions.
"You call yourself spartan. What is the meaning of that? Also, your ship, your armors, doesn't match this galaxy's standard" said Nylis. The blue team knew that they would come to this question.
"Spartans are super soldiers trained for special naval operations" replied chief. The word 'Super-soldier' drew a lot of attention from the asari group.
"Super-soldiers? Like biological augmentations?" asked Nylis shrinking her eyebrows and letting a mild glare. The citadel government had imposed a lot of rules and regulations regarding the bio-enhancements. She's annoyed that this group had violated another citadel law, but was ambivalent whether this would apply for these people.
"Listen people, Do you have any idea what sort of problems you have got yourselves into? Bio-enhancements, big ships that break the Farixen treaty's limits. The citadel council will ground you for violation" said Nylis.
Chief and his team were blinking what she was talking about. Chief realized that something's amiss as they can't be in the dark, this much. First, a new alien race with totally different technology, then calling human government as SA, then this citadel council which they have never heard of.
Cortana who was listening to the conversation had been into their ship's systems, infiltrating for possible data extraction and the results shocked her. First, she was wondering why there aren't any AI in a ship that are advanced enough to be space faring. But the data packets she obtained from their flagship's computer stunned as she had never seen anything like that before. Her hunch was proven right. She just found out what had really happened all the time.
"Chief, I think I just know what the fuss was all about and you guyz are not gonna like it" said Cortana directly in to the internal speakers. Chief didn't respond anything to that.
"Sorry mam, but we also don't know this Citadel council you speak of" said Fred. Nylis and the asari escorts blinked at their statement, wondering how could they not know them.
"Then they must be a splinter group operating outside citadel's jurisdiction. That explains their technology and a big ship. They must illegally mined the resources to advance themselves like this" thought Nylis. Her eagerness to bring these people to the council increased tenfold. But one she didn't understand was, even a splinter incognito group should have known about the council as the government almost spans the entire galaxy. These people claiming to be humans says they don't know any council. Nylis prepared her mind in a possible engagement if this group's statements turned out to be ruse.
"What is the current galactic year?" asked Kelly who had been observing the conversation. It prompted her to compile the information exchange and ask the right question that might make some sense in this situation.
"Wha-...the galactic year is 2185" replied the captain confused with the question. She contemplated their question, wondering this was totally unconventional as of then.
The blue team was dumb with the answer she gave, a moment of silence prevailed. They instantly got the idea of traveling through time into the past. But they already knew their history accurately from their beginning till as of 2557. According to them, 2185 was the year that saw the rise of human expansion, UEG and the UNSC. By that time, humanity had never acquainted with the other alien races. But these people claim to know humanity already, another piece of the answer to the uncertainty.
Cortana lost her patience and decided to show up, "Alright, time for a show off" muttered the AI and revealed herself out of a pedestal nearby the asari captain and her escorts.
"Did you say 2185, mam?" asked Cortana. This alarmed both the captain and her guards and they immediately raised their weapons at her. Other blue team members raised their M6G magnum upon them immediately.
"Easy now. Put your guns down!" said chief in a raising tone.
"What are you!?" asked the captain in a loud trembling voice
"I'm UNSC AI CTN 0452-9. You can call me Cortana." Cortana greeted them with a smile. The 4 asari were terrified after learning they have a AI on board.
"Are you mad!? You have an AI in your ship!" the captain yelled at Chief and holding her weapon even more firmly. But others excluding Cortana were surprised with their reaction to an AI. Cortana having sneaked into their database had found out the reason for their negative reaction already.
"Stand down! First, no weapons raising in my ship, Second, AIs are common among UNSC. They are more like our family" said the Chief, warning the new people. The spartans didn't understand why they reacted harsh towards the AI as these must be common among all space faring species.
Captain and her guards lowered their weapons left with no choice, but still held their weapons loaded with a tight grip.
"Now, I can clearly see your frustrations of seeing an AI, but seriously, you don't want to piss them off" said Cortana, hands crossed and eyebrow raised, pointing to the spartans. Nylis was shocked to see how the AI interacted more like human. Everyone in the galaxy had seen only the advanced VIs which marginally pass for UNSC's dumb AI.
"Listen, AIs are banned in the galaxy. If the council learns of this, its gonna be a very big problem" said the tensed captain. The blue team seemed to hear the same citadel council again. They thought that this council should be a galactic body serving as the political overseer of all the races in the Milky way.
"Chief, I managed to peek into their systems to look for answers and trust me when I say I know what this citadel council is. Just ask them to take us there. I'll explain things later" said Cortana into his ears inside the helmet. Chief knew Cortana's abilities especially after her rampancy was cured. So he trusted her and went along with her idea.
"Can you take us to the council? I think it's best if we talked to them, explain everything in detail" asked the chief. Nylis and her escorts hesitated at first, but so far they haven't made any hostile move, so she thought can believe them for now though she can't resist the warily towards them. This day might be her best or the worst.
"Alright, We will get you there" replied the captain.
"Before that, we need information about the council like who are they and what they do" said Fred. Nylis looked at the spartans and the AI who were waiting for answers.
"The council is primarily comprised of an asari, a turian, a human and a salarian councilor. They are housed in a massive space station called 'The Citadel' - the heart of the galactic civilization. You being humans can seek help from the human embassy of the citadel." explained the captain. The spartans again confused with the term 'Turians' and 'Salarians'. They assumed them to be another new races. This time Chief didn't hesitate to ask Cortana.
"Cortana?"
"Chief, I think that crazy one in million possibility was what had happened. Not just these 3 new races. But there are several others and their influence spread among the UNSC controlled and Covenant controlled zones yet we don't know about that" replied Cortana.
"What the hell do you mean by that?" asked the rattled Chief.
"Not now. I need to create a new database for the upcoming records. I will explain it once we get to the citadel" replied Cortana. Chief mentally sighed at the response and spoke to Nylis.
"Listen, if this citadel is your galactic ruling body, then it's better if we sought them. So, we formally request you to take us there" said the Chief. Nylis was having a tough time to make decisions, but if she get them to the citadel, it would be their headache then. So that she can carry out her work.
"I will, but there's a problem. The citadel space can be reached only through a mass relay. As your ship doesn't use eezo, you cannot use the relays for long FTL travel." said Nylis.
"A mass relay?" asked Linda, demented.
"Listen we don't need any mass relays you talk about. We have our own way of FTL travel" said Cortana.
"Just give us the coordinates to the citadel. And it would be nice if you assist us coz we're not willing to enter the citadel for some nasty surprises" said the Chief.
But Nylis was still stuck with the first statement that their ships don't use Eezo or mass relays for the FTL. Nylis trembled a little as all the ships can reach the citadel only through the relays and the citadel security team would know if someone is approaching them. Entering the citadel space all of a sudden by unknown means will just stir things up for worse.
"What do you mean you don't need relays! With out that, its gonna take decades for you to reach the citadel with conventional FTL" said the captain in a raised tone.
"Listen, We don't have to waste time in this pointless conversation. We need the help of the citadel council. Please give the coordinates as we requested" said Fred who got slightly irate with this non-sensical situation.
Captain Nylis thought for a moment. Though the people in front of her are perfect strangers. They meant no harm, so she decided to help them at her own risk.
"Alright. I'll assist you to the citadel. Before that let me send my fleet to the orbital station" Nylis said to which Chief and the others nodded in acceptance. Nylis then sent a message to her fleet XO and asked them to report to the sector 3A station over Thessia.
"Before going to the citadel, I would like see this mass relay. Is there one nearby?" asked Cortana in eagerness.
"Yes. There is one in this system. Before we leave, you can have a closer look" said the captain.
Then they reached the bridge. Kelly, Fred, Linda went to their respective terminals. The asari group was stunned to see the blissful sight of the ship's bridge. Chief stood nearby his seat with Cortana showing herself in the nearby projector. Then the ship accelerated towards the position of the relay. There everyone saw a structure, tuning fork shaped with a circular ring at the end having a glowing energy with 2 gyroscopic rings rotating around it. But Chief was not that much impressed as they had seen bigger things.
"Quite impressive. So this is how you jump from one cluster to another?" asked Cortana raising her eyebrow to which the asari nodded her head with a sense of pride in her face to be in possession of something like this. But Chief, Cortana and the others never gave any expression regarding that.
Nylis and her guards holstered their weapons in the bridge. On their way, they saw jelly squid like creatures which for them looked similar to a hanar.
Chief asked the captain regarding this galaxy's story. Nylis then explained everything starting from the asari's discovery of mass relays and the citadel. Then followed by the arrival of other races like turians, salarians, humans, volus, elcor, hanar etc., Humanity's first discovery of the mass relay at the edge of their solar system called the 'charon' relay. They also learned about the humanity's first contact with the turians, when humans opened the dormant mass relays causing the battle of Shanxi. Followed by the intervention of the council and bringing up new regulations for opening up new relays. This reminded the UNSC members of their first contact with the covenant and how it almost wiped humanity from existence. Also the inner struggles they had before the covenant's arrival.
They also learned of the Rachni wars caused by a similar relay incident 2000 years ago. This reminded chief of the Flood parasite and the threat it posed the entire galaxy. Then the up liftment of krogans by the salaraians to win the rachni war. The threat of krogan population explosion which was ultimately settled by an Bio-engineered sterility plague called the 'genophage'. Also they learned of this humanity's struggle in the colony of skillian blitz that suffered heavy casualties at the hands of pirates. Though not on the level of losses the UNSC suffered in the 26th century, Still the Chief and the others felt that this galaxy has faced a fair share of troubles.
Meanwhile Cortana's face frowned and turned bilious at the sight of the mass relay. Chief caught up to her face expression and talked to her.
"Any problem, Cortana?" asked Chief with concern while the 4 asari were looking at her.
"Nothing, a simple error in my calculations. That's all" said Cortana pretending to be nothing. Chief can see that in her face but didn't wish to press it for now.
Alright, What can you tell us about the technologies your people use?" asked Kelly.
Nylis continued with her explanations. The blue team then learned of this strange element they call eezo that can alter a mass of an object by passing an electric current through it. This helped them develop technology based on that property like weapons, transport, artificial gravity, FTL travel etc., Also the same element exposed on a living being's body giving them abilities to manipulate dark energy to create something they called 'mass effect'. This unique ability is called as 'biotics'.
Finally, the captain gave them information on the 50,000 year old race called the Protheans. Once a highly flourished empire and technologically advanced. The current galaxy believes that the protheans build the mass relays and the citadel as the pinnacle of technological advancements.
This very much reminded Chief of the forerunners and their mantle of responsibility, having fought and killed one before coming here. Humans and every species of the Milky way viewed the forerunners as a something as the old masters, though humans saw them only as technologically superior than everyone.
With that they finished their conversation. For brief study, Chief opened a mini holo computer in his left forearm armor part and interfaced with an orange hologram gauntlet style computer in the asari's forearm. Then chief downloaded the galaxy's info archive called the 'codex' which he can study for more details. The other 3 spartans instantly shared it from John.
It was very much clear for the blue team that this galaxy though named the Milky way is no where same they knew of. The history of this galaxy is strangely different, deviated and above all, they felt they have reached an alternate version of the Milky way like those in comic books and science fiction. But the Spartan IIs were trained as kids with not only the realistic lessons but also taught them fictional events and incidents as an exemplar for the truth about a situation's realistic nature.
So far what they had read and learned from this new Asari group prompted them to think of the impossible, an alternate reality whose existence was very much in debate. They knew things about black holes and how it is believed by the scientific community that it can transport matter across a different space-time dimensions. It wasn't a blind premise, but things have turned out the way such that the theory of alternate realities was what that made sense. Anyway, the Spartans don't want to conclude things by themselves without consulting their highly fast and intelligent friend, Cortana.
Then Nylis asked about the UNSC and their story to which the chief replied that she will know while explaining it to the council.
"Thanks for the history. Now its time we were in the citadel." said the Chief.
"Cortana, ready when you are" said the Chief.
Cortana nodded and uploaded the coordinates that Nylis gave her, into the slipspace drive. The drive in turn returned the acknowledgement signal.
Nylis and her escorts were pretty excited to see the live functionality of their non-Eezo FTL travel.
"Initiate the slipspace rupture, Cortana" said the Chief to which she nodded with a smile and prepared the ship to jump.
The asari couldn't understand this 'Slipspace' they talked about. After getting safe away to a distance from the mass relay, the next thing the crew spotted was a big portal with a black void and bluish white energy in the edges appeared in front of the ship. The hologram in front of chief showed a deep spatial distortion. The asari were dumbstruck with the portal's appearance and before they could say a word, the ship entered slipspace and the portal closed completely the next second.
In the Citadel Space.
The citadel space was having its usual patrol fleets including DA on the run. Since sovereign's attack, The security has been doubled and many new regulations had been brought on by the council regarding the incoming and outgoing of ships from and out of the citadel space. The headache that the former council rogue turian spectre, Saren brought almost costed the entire citadel.
Admiral David Anderson is a renowned former alliance N7 soldier from the Arcturus station with exceptional records. He was also offered a position as a Spectre. Thanks to Saren arterius, that was ruined. Now, he acts as an advisor to councilor Udina. Commander shepard of the alliance, after defeating the sovereign and saving the council, chose Udina as the human councilor as he very much knew the ways of a politician. On the contrary, Anderson is a soldier and the only thing he was best was in fighting a war.
He's also quite upset with Shepard working currently with the human black-ops organization, 'Cerberus' to take down the mysterious collectors when they started taking out human colonists. But he know that Shepard always does the right thing. Though the council reinstates his spectre status, they still denied to help him with the collectors going so far to call them as myths.
Now Anderson's currently on his routine work monitoring the feeds from the alliance fleet to his personal terminal in his office in the embassy. While he himself commands a ship, that's only around their home world. Still as an admiral, he have his duties to maintain the human fleet that serves as the humanity contributed citadel patrol. While this is marginal compared to the Asari fleet and razor thin compared to the Turian fleet, The human fleet was the one that took down Sovereign 2 years back.
"Admiral Anderson, This is captain Milller of SSV Fuji. Our sensors are picking up a massive gravitational distortion just outside the citadel defence perimeter"
Anderson tensed a lot instantly as there weren't anything weird that happened for quite a long time. Now a gravitational anomaly near the citadel is a head spinning trouble.
"What is it captain!?"
"Don't know sir! whatever it is...It's massive!...never seen readings like this!" said the captain who was frantic.
"What readings are you talking about?" asked the admiral.
"Our sensors picked up the energy spikes as bright as Times square" replied another bridge officer of the SSV Fuji.
Anderson immediately ordered the ship to get to the position to have a clear view. Even the turian, asari fleet were alerted of this energy readings and held their position to face whatever it is. The next thing they saw made their jaws to drop. There was a big black void with bluish white energy in the edges that immediately formed an accretion disk of the nebular cloud.
Anderson received a live video feed in his terminal directed from Fuji. A massive, 5km long ship came out to everyone's shock. The portal then closed rapidly after their exit. Anderson was stunned to the core as he had never seen a ship and this big in his life before. It was totally alien yet had a marginal human touch to it. The hull was deep blue black. But what grabbed Anderson's attention was the eagle insignia and English letters on the available hull space.
"Sir! A massive ship and it's nothing like we have ever seen!" said the captain of SSV Fuji in terror.
"Did you scan the ship?"
"Yes sir, but the signals are bouncing away by an unknown field that's giving off high energy signatures from the ship"
"What is it?" asked Anderson. This time the captain replied.
"A high power source with out the galactic chart readings. Sir! Trust me when I say that the source can power a whole goddamn planet for several years" barked the Captain.
Anderson was completely taken back with what the captain told him. He then saw the display of that ship in his terminal that was sent by the Fuji. Anderson couldn't believe what he saw. That ship easily dwarfed all the ships in the galaxy. It also carried a sense of immense power in it's appeal, a mighty warship. But there were no fleet in the Alliance that had ships this big or even the design it had. What intrigued him even more was the ship's arrival with out the use of mass relay and that too close to the citadel itself.
"Holy shit! That ship, it's got something something written in English. But does it mean they are friends. What if it's a lie and an unknown enemy is trying to infiltrate? Could it be collectors?" Anderson thought flooded his brain with tension. All the citadel fleet were now facing that new ship.
"Admiral! Incoming transmission from the ship in all available frequencies"
"Turn ON the translation software and put it on the speakers" said Anderson.
To everyone's surprise it was a human voice that spoke in English. He was sure that the other race's ships would do the same in translating the language.
"This is Master chief Petty Officer of the Navy, Spartan-117, NavalSpecialWarfareDivision, of the UNSC Imperial Dawn"
After the entire citadel fleet and Anderson heard this, This was totally unexpected for them. It was perfect English and had the human vocal touch in the tone.
"I'm not a hostile force. I'm here to speak with the council members. We also have an Asari captain Nylis of the fourth fleet aboard our ship to act as our mediator. Requesting permission to enter the citadel's docking bay. But if we are greeted with hostile actions, then I will be forced to defend myself anyway possible"
This was even more alarming as the ship had an Asari crew member. This is when the councilors intervened and asked the citadel command to grant them entry in to docking bay. Then the fleet relayed this information to the UNSC Imperial Dawn.
Anderson was totally glazed with what happened a few minutes ago. One thing was clear for him. This was something he never expected. Anderson's worry was that if the people of the citadel learned of a behemoth of a ship entered citadel space with out mass relay, there's definitely gonna be a mass hysteria questioning the safety of the station. The results would be simply a riot of epic proportions.
"Everything's fine for the day and here comes the catch. First the Sovereign, then the collectors...Now What!?" muttered Anderson irately.
...
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