24th April, 2157
Taiyun Base, Shanxi. 20 kilometres from Objective 02.
1st Lieutenant Mari Bridges wiped the sweat from her brow. Despite how cool and temperate Shanxi was, it was a lot of work scrubbing the BETA guts off of her F-62 Comet. Especially since the TSF was 18.2 metres tall. It had taken the maintenance crew eighteen hours so far to clean the gunk out of the jump-engines alone, and they were still going. Then there was still all the maintenance to be done on the mechanical and electronic systems, not to mention the downtime repairs to her reactors.
She looked around the hangar, taking in the sight of so many damaged and battered TSFs. Of the forty-four pilots that had entered the hive, only eighteen had emerged, and of those, five were going to be unfit for combat for years to come. Orbital bombardment, no matter how powerful, no matter how devastating, would always miss a few Forts and most of the BETA that were deep underground.
After Mari and Sasha had linked up with the Phoenix II's from the 81st Light Assault and the Sentinel Tanks and Thresher IFVs from the 43rd Light Armoured, they'd been redirected, along with the rest of the overwatch units from the 54th, to support the Marines from the 258th Light Armoured who were clearing the area where Taiyun Base was being set up.
And once the important areas of the base were set up, namely the vehicle repair hangars, the base medical centre and the barracks, Mari was able to sit and watch as the battered remains of the assault battalions stagger in. Despite the fact that they successfully destroyed the Hive, less than half of the forces that had gone in had managed to return.
Much of 3rd Squadron had been among the casualties, along with Colonel Locke, the Helljumpers commander. They were reorganising into five five-pilot TSF squadrons, with Captain Smith being promoted to Battalion Commander. Mari had managed to score herself a promotion to 1st Lieutenant.
The base had also been reinforced by two companies of Phoenix-IIs from the 81st, who had been dropped a few kilometres from the hive; something about "rescuing a few VIPs." The whole explanation seemed fishy, but she wasn't going to question it. They hadn't taken very serious casualties, despite having been dropped right into the middle of a regiments-worth of BETA. Because of that, they didn't need much in the way of repairs or reorganisation, and had been assigned as the primary base defence unit until the area was cleared enough for the fleets' frigates to land and pick them up.
Mari stopped scrubbing and admired her handiwork. She had managed to scour the BETA gore from the left shoulder block of her Comet. And it had only taken her three hours.
Sasha climbed up next to her on the scaffolding. Despite her TSF being equipped as an Impact Guard, the loadout for which included a Melee Halberd, Sasha's Comet was significantly less gore-plastered; she'd finished cleaning up her fighter over an hour ago. They didn't even need to de-gunk her engines.
"Yo, Bridges, did you hear the scuttlebutt about the fleet?"
"No," Mari looked at her, puzzled, "I've spent all my time cleaning my bird. What's the word?"
"There's something big going on up in the fleet. Something big. Apparently Lt General Williams cancelled his visit the base and stepped down as commander of the Expeditionary Fleet because of it. Rear Admiral Rush is in charge now."
"Hmm….."
"It might have something to do with the pilots from the 81st Battalion. The ones who went to pick up those 'VIPs'. A few of us were going to ask around and see what we can dig up. You in?"
Mari paused, and then looked at her still coated fighter.
Sasha got the message. "Come find me once you're done. Then we can really get digging."
UNS Athens, in orbit over Shanxi
"General, the translation program is finished."
"Good. Upload the program to my neural hardware. And tell everyone who worked on it 'good job'."
"Yes General."
"Have Lieutenant Commander Shepard join me outside our guests' quarters. Time for some negotiations."
Lieutenant Sorus Vakarian stood up as the human known as Williams entered the room. Behind him were Shepard, and another human female, a shorter one with short yellow fur.
Sorus was expecting another probing mind-meld, so he readied himself.
What he was not expecting was for Williams to being speaking in turian standard.
"Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Lieutenant General Frederic Williams of the United Nations Marine Corps." He gestured to Shepard, "You've already met Lieutenant Commander Hannah Shepard, United Nations Navy. And who you haven't met before, is Professor Anita Goyle, our governments' representative."
It took Sorus a moment to realise that Williams wasn't actually speaking the language; instead, the sound was emitting from a small speaker sitting near Williams's mouth. Williams himself wasn't actually moving his mouth. Hmm, neural implants?
Sorus thought for a moment, before replying. "I am Lieutenant Sorus Vakarian, ground forces commander, assigned to the cruiser Indomitable, of the Turian Hierarchy Navy and the Citadel Defence Fleet."
Williams scratched his hairless head. "Good to meet you, Lieutenant. Now, my government has asked me to begin negotiations with your people on their behalf. But before that, since you are military, would you care for a tour of our ship?"
"Certainly, General. But first, I have to ask, on behalf of my men and the Hierarchy, what were those monsters that attacked us down there before? And what shot us down?"
Williams paused, before switching off his translator and saying something to Goyle, who nodded and walked away. Then he turned back to Vakarian.
"If you'll follow me, I'll show you."
Williams and Shepard led Vakarian, Karick and Piran to what appeared to be a briefing room. There was a large screen built into the wall, and what appeared to be a large holo-projector in at the centre of the 'stage'. Sorus made sure that they were all recording. They needed some evidence that they could use in their reports.
"Now, those things that attacked you, we call those 'BETA'," he said the word in his own language, "which stands for 'Being of Extra-Terrestrial origin that is the Adversary of the human race'." He repeated the acronym an approximation in turian. He pulled up a hologram of the red ones that had attacked his downed shuttle. "They come in numerous varieties. The ones that attacked you are called 'Tank-class'.
"Now, to explain this, we need to give you some background for why we fight these things. You were on that shuttle because you were observing the battle, correct?" Vakarian nodded. Williams pulled up a hologram of a planet. Its surface was rust red. "This is Mars, the fourth planet in our home system, Sol. During our early unmanned exploration of our solar system, we encountered the BETA on Mars. We lost contact with the probes immediately afterwards."
Williams pulled up another hologram, this time of a blue-green-brown planet with a large grey moon orbiting it. Williams stepped back. "This is Earth, our homeworld. If negotiations work out, maybe you can visit some time. Anyhow, a few years after our encounter with the BETA on Mars, we found them on our moon, Luna. They destroyed our bases and killed all of our personnel, leading us to wage war against them for six years on the surface. We lost, and they began to land on Earth." The hologram shifted to focus on Earth, and a red circle appeared on its largest continent. Then the red slowly began growing in random directions, and off to the side there was a number shown in both human and turian numerals, which Vakarian assumed to be the year that the events had taken place. 1973, 1974, 1975…
Williams continued, "Eventually, after decades of defeats, we lost the majority of Eurasia." The most massive of the continents was completely red, aside from a few large islands and a large chunk of land on the eastern side. The year counter read 1998. "That continent was the most populated on the planet, with over seventy percent of our population. By this point the population of Earth was down to around one billion." The counter continued to tick, and the red slowly expanded.
"After a series of desperate attacks on the main hives," Williams pulled up an image of a BETA hive on the wall-screen, "we managed to stall the BETA enough to wipe them from the face of our planet."
Vakarian watched as the red marks on the globe began to recede. It was a slow process, and Sorus watched the counter tick over from 2001, continuing until it hit 2012, where there was no more red on the map. It stopped counting.
Piran spoke up, "Those numbers there, those are the years, correct?"
"Yes, Trooper Piran," said Shepard.
"Then what year is it now, by your calendar?"
"It is currently 2157. The last BETA on Earth was killed 145 years ago. There aren't any humans left alive from the time." Piran nodded.
Williams stepped back up to the holo-projector. "Now, to your other question, Lieutenant Vakarian, what shot you down?" Several small creatures appeared on the projector. Sorus recognised the Tank-class that had attacked his men, along with two much smaller figures representing humans and turians. He noticed that each and every one of the creatures was shown as being larger than them.
"Is this to scale?"
"Yes."
"Hmm..." Vakarian didn't show it, but inside he was completely astonished. Some of them were over thirty times the height of a turian. "So which one shot us down?"
Williams pointed to two of the figures. Both looked like asari brains with eyes and legs. The one with two eyes stood around three metres tall, while the other one, the single eyed one, looked to be around twenty.
"This is a Laser-class, and this is a Heavy Laser-class. The BETA use them as anti-air platforms. Although since your shuttle crashed instead of being vaporised, we can assume it was a regular Laser-class."
Karick pitched in, "Laser-class?"
"Explaining it would require a biophysicist, a particle physicist, an engineer, and a tanker full of alcohol. It's complicated, but the BETA originally deployed them in response to our air forces decimating them during the initial Earth landings."
"So what did you use to win?"
"I believe that you three have already seen them. We call them Tactical Surface Fighters. I'll show you some combat footage that we have for training purposes." A vid loaded on the screen. "This footage is from 159 years ago, from the Fall of Kyoto. This footage was taken recovered from the TSF of a young pilot named Yui Takamura, who was fourteen years old at the time of the battle."
Before he had realised it, Sorus had spent hours watching old combat footage and discussing strategy with his men and General Williams. Shepard had left a while ago, saying something about "duties that had to be attended to".
Williams had decided to call it a night, promising to give them the tour later.
Taiyun Base
Mari followed Sasha into the hangar that normally housed the Phoenixes used by the Marines of C Company, 81st Light Assault Battalions. It had taken them quite a bit of digging to figure out that the Marines who had rescued the "VIPs" the other day had been part of the battalions' C and E Companies. Unfortunately, nearly all of the pilots from those companies were out on patrol or on scout missions.
Except for, according to what they'd dug up, a single squad from C Company, who were down for maintenance and repairs.
Mari turned to one of the TSFs, since her neural net had tagged a Marine in that direction as a pilot from C Company. As she walked over to it, she could see a pair of short, slim legs in rolled up work coveralls poking out from underneath AWS-38 assault cannon. She could hear a quiet voice mumbling from under the TSF scale gun.
As she got closer, her implants tagged the pilot as one "PFC Yoruda, Shizuka; Pilot, 5th Squad, C Company, 81st Light Assault Battalion. Age: 17. Service Number: 25963-84571-SY."
"Ariel, I've calibrated the secondary targeting array. Try to –"
Shizuka shuddered and went quiet as she felt two very curious presences approach her. She slid out from under the assault cannon. And was greeted by two women in their mid-twenties, one with a devious grin on her face, and the other looking obviously curious, but also had a somewhat worried look in her eyes.
The grinning one looked down at her. "Hey there, Private, do you have a minute?"
Shizuka felt a chill run through her small body.
25th April, 2157
UNS Athens
Arys Daela's eyes opened, and she found herself staring up at a white ceiling. By the Goddess, her head was throbbing, like she had been out drinking with some maidens. Her hearing was coming back, and she could hear voices. Except that they weren't in any language she recognised.
Then she heard a shout, there were footsteps that seemed to be coming towards her, and then there was a face looking down at her. Rather, more of a darkened visor than a face. The mask spoke, again in that unknown language. Arys shook her head. I don't know what you're saying. I don't understand!
"Are you alright? Can you tell me what your name is?" Huh? What? I understood that!
It took her a moment to realise that the unknown being was speaking turian. Her translator recognised it and switched itself to project in turian.
"Who are you?" Arys croaked out the words. It felt like she hadn't spoken in years.
"Hold on, I'll inform the General." The 'turian' spoke a few words at nothing in the unidentified language, before looking back at her. "Now, what was your name?"
"Arys. Arys Daela."
"I see. Do you know what happened before you crashed?"
The memories came back to Arys somewhat blurred. But the images cleared and she remembered.
"I was on a shuttle. From the Indomitable. We were supposed to observe and if possible make contact with the aliens from the ships we encountered. I don't remember anything after that. Medicae, do you know if we made contact with those people?"
"You're speaking with one right now."
Huh?!
The medicae depolarised the visor, and Daela found herself staring at a face that was so much like her own.
Lieutenant Vakarian, with Troopers Karick and Piran, was being led down the corridor to what was presumably the hangar bay of the ship by General Williams and some of his Marines. Since Williams had said "hangar", Sorus had assumed that he was on-board a dreadnought, since by Citadel standards, only a dreadnought was large enough to warrant having a full size hangar. Or maybe it was one of those super-dreadnoughts that had been spotted by the Indomitable.
Williams stopped and looked at Sorus. "Lieutenant, I have some good news for you. Your asari scientist, Doctor Arys Daela, is awake. We'll visit her later in the tour. Now then, this is TSF Hangar Three."
Sorus was amazed at the sight. More than forty TSFs, much larger than the ones that rescued him on the surface, stood silently, locked to the hangar walls. Retractable walkways crossed infront of the sleeping giants, as maintenance crews worked on the machines.
Williams was still talking. "These are UN Navy F-60 Yukikaze II Heavy-TSFs. As you can see, they haven't been launched. I would say something about Navy flyboys, but it wouldn't be polite to do that in front of guests. Especially since, in reality, these machines are going to be used to hit the next Hive." The General caught on to the turians gaping. "It's always amazing to see how far humanity has come from walking tanks and hydrocarbon jet engines. I'd ask you boys if you wanted to take one for a spin, but the Navy is oddly adamant about their 'neural-only' systems, and this is a Navy carrier. Sorry about that."
"It's not a problem General. I should also point out that Piran is female."
"Oh. I meant no offence, Trooper Piran. I couldn't tell."
Piran nodded. "None taken. You aren't likely to meet a female turian outside of turian space."
"I see."
"General, if I may ask, how do you have room for all of this? Where are the primary gun batteries? The broadsides? There's no way you could fit this all on a dreadnought."
"This isn't a dreadnought. It's a type of ship we call a 'carrier'. Primary armaments in space combat are strike fighters and bombers. The other carrier in the fleet, the Atlantis, mostly carries ground troops, vehicles and TSFs."
"Interesting concept."
Indomitable, near Relay 314.
The assault fleet was finally ready to jump through Relay 314 to take on the law-breaking aliens who were bombarding the garden world on the other side. And to avenge my men, thought Captain Decius Fortix.
The plan was simple. A probe would be sent through the relay, and if no enemy forces were present, the entire fleet would jump through as a single unit. Following the relay transit, the fleet would FTL jump to approximately 300,000km from the planet, now designated 314A1-4[G], which stood for Relay 314, Primary System, Fourth Planet [Garden World]. Once the fleet was in range, they would order the aliens to stand down and surrender to the might of the Hierarchy. Then they would be made into a client race. If they didn't surrender, their puny fleet would be annihilated.
"Sir," reported Lieutenant Victus, "probe telemetry is being downloaded to the fleet. Scans look clear."
The communications officer, Lieutenant Varulis, spoke up, "Captain, General Arterius has ordered the fleet to jump."
Fortix nodded, before setting his omni-tool to transmit across the whole ship.
"All hands, prepare for relay jump."
UNS Athens
Williams was continuing the tour, and was about to detour the turians to the medical bay so they could meet their asari companion, when the alarms began to sound.
"Deja, what's going on?"
"Admiral Rush has ordered the fleet to full alert. A few minutes ago, the probes orbiting the Theta Relay detected a very large number of ships similar in design to the Indomitable. It is highly likely that this is in response to our bombardment of Shanxi, and the turians may have associated the Expeditionary Fleet with the crash of Lieutenant Vakarian's shuttle two days ago."
"Dammit. Tell Rush not to do anything rash." He turned to his turian guests. "Lieutenant, looks like you three get to go home. I'll have a dropship prepped. If you would be so kind, could you please keep your friends from shooting at us?"
"We'll try, General." Vakarian saluted, Piran and Karick following suit within a heartbeat. Williams returned their salute, before nodding. "Oh, and General," said Vakarian, "tell Lieutenant Commander Shepard that I'd love to meet her daughter some time, once this is all over."
Williams nodded, before turning to the Marine guard. "Get these three to the hangar. They've got a war to prevent."
Deja pinged him again. "Sir, the ships have jumped. They are most likely on their way here."
Taiyun Base
Shizuka lay in bed, clawing at her ears as the extremely loud noise dug its way into her skull. Until she realised that it was the bases alert siren. And that the bed she was in wasn't her bunk in the enlisted barracks. And that she was completely naked. And that next to her lay the equally naked 1st Lieutenants Sasha Ivanova and Mari Bridges. And that there were empty bottles scattered around the room. Her face went bright red.
Oh God, what did I do last night!?
Still slightly hung-over, the young pilot dressed herself as quickly as she could and woke up the unconscious Lieutenants with a volley of underwear and uniform pieces, before taking off towards the hangar bay.
UNS Athens, Dropship Launch-bay 03
Sorus Vakarian was seated next to the human communications officer on the shuttle, which he had learned was called a D-22 Sabretooth, frantically tapping on his omni-tool, trying to sync the shuttle's long-range communications system to it. In the seats behind him, Piran and Karick were shuffling through the data they had collected, chopping together a report that would, hopefully, convince the fleet to stand down. They had included just about everything, from their own mission reports, casualty reports from the crash, their combat footage of the BETA, plus as much as they could piece together from their recordings from their time aboard the Athens.
A voice came over the radio. "Badger 2-4, you are cleared for launch. Godspeed, boys."
"Roger that, Athens Control. Badger 2-4, lifting off," replied the pilot.
Sorus was slammed into his seat as the shuttle was accelerated down the carrier's launch rails.
Indomitable, CIC
"Captain," said the Indomitable's helmsman, "FTL jump complete. We are within the fleets' safety margin, and are in position at the front of the firing line."
"Captain, General Arterius is ordering all ships to standby, awaiting orders."
Athens, CIC
"General, turians ships detected emerging from FTL one light second out, within ecliptic."
Williams watched the ships appear on the holo-projector. Some of them were quite large. But not a big as my carrier.
"Vector Badger 2-4 towards the fleet. All ships, rotate primary weapons towards the turian fleet. Assume neutral unless fired upon."
Indomitable, CIC
"General!" shouted Lieutenant Victus, "shuttle detected vectoring towards us at high velocity."
"Target it. If it gets too close, destroy it." An eye for an eye, huh.
Badger 2-4
Sorus set the shuttle's communications system to transmit on every turian and Citadel frequency he was privy to. He turned to Piran, who gave a 'thumbs up', as Williams had called it, and held up her omni-tool, which was ready to transmit a large, hyper compressed data packet.
Sorus nodded, and then turned to the human seated next to him. "You ready?"
"Nope, but really mate, who could be ready for something like this?" The human let out a broken laugh. "Alright, here goes." The human switched on the transmitter.
"Turian Fleet, this is Lieutenant Sorus Vakarian of the cruiser Indomitable. I repeat, this is Lieutenant Sorus Vakarian of the cruiser Indomitable. Stand down. The humans are not hostile. I repeat the humans are not hostile. Transmitting verification codes."
Indomitable, CIC
Lieutenant Adrien Victus stood up from his console. "Captain, the shuttle appears to be transmitting. Multiple frequencies." Victus looked puzzled. "Captain, each of the frequencies is Hierarchy military or Citadel Defence."
Fortix stared at him, before turning to the communications officer. "Lieutenant Varulis, put it on the loud-speaker. I want to hear this."
" –rian of the cruiser Indomitable. I repeat, this is Lieutenant Sorus Vakarian of the cruiser Indomitable. Stand down. The humans are not hostile. I repeat the humans are not hostile. Transmitting verification codes."
He's alive? It can't be.
"Lieutenant?"
"Sir, the codes check out. It really is Lieutenant Vakarian."
"Dammit. Crew, stand down. Varulis, open a channel to that shuttle."
"Right away sir. Also, General Arterius demands to know why the Indomitable is standing down."
"Tell him we are in communications with the alien shuttle."
"Yes, sir. And sir, the link to the shuttle is ready."
"Good. Patch me in."
A familiar face appeared on the three main view-screens.
"Captain Fortix, Good to see you again."
"Lieutenant Vakarian. Care to explain why you are on an alien shuttle?"
Vakarian clicked his mandibles. "Ugh, right. Long story, sir. Anyway, I have Troopers Piran and Karick with me, and we've compiled a report of the shuttle crash, along with what we've learned about the aliens. They're called humans, by the way. Oh, and Doctor Daela is still alive as well. She woke up this morning, and we were about to visit her when your fleet jumped into the system."
"I see. Transmit me your report then. I need a reason to convince General Arterius not to blow up your new friends' fleet."
"Yes sir, although I should notify you that it's a fairly big report." Vakarian turned away for a moment. "Piran reports that we are ready to transmit the data packet."
Lieutenant Varulis spoke up. "General, we are receiving the data now. It's a large transfer."
"I see. Isolate one of your consoles from the system, and run the package in safe mode."
"Yes sir. Items are indexed. First item is a video recording. It appears to be from three synced helmet cameras. Time-stamped to not long after the shuttle crashed two days ago. Attached is a casualty report."
"Vakarian, we've received the package and are verifying it now. Have your shuttle standby at 20,000 kilometres off the bow of the Indomitable."
"Yes, Captain," came the reply.
"Varulis, put it up on the centre screen."
Decius Fortix watched as Vakarian, Karick and Piran ran for their lives through the forest, dragging Doctor Daela with them, as the red monsters devoured Sergeant Vierius and Trooper Rakal, before proceeding to tear apart the shuttle, which still contained the bodies of Flight Lieutenant Haxal and Troopers Bentar and Warick.
"The humans call them 'BETA'. They've been fighting them for nearly two of their centuries. Those ones are 'Tank-classes'."
"I see."
On the screen, Vakarian and his men reached the clearing, only to find themselves completely surrounded. He heard the heavy thumps, which was followed by the ground team looking around frantically. There was a shout, and dozens of 9 metre giants were surrounding the team, firing into the hordes. Vakarian and his men were dragged aboard a shuttle that landed nearby.
"By the spirits, what were those?"
"The humans call them Tactical Surface Fighters. Seems that they've been their primary weapon for combating the BETA since they first encountered them. Think of it as a giant security mech, only piloted, and capable of flight and near-perfect optical stealth. Apparently they were an offshoot of their atmospheric fighters. We've seen some of their combat footage from before the humans left their solar system, and there is a type of BETA that is capable of producing lasers capable of destroying warships."
"You really expect me to believe that?"
"Sir, the Laser-class are the very reason they developed TSFs and their active camouflage systems. Apparently, during the early invasion, they were only able to hold the BETA back with massed numbers of airdropped munitions, which failed once the Laser-classes appeared. TSFs were the human's response to that. Their active camouflage systems are a further development to defend against Lasers. The reason we were shot down was because the BETA saw us. The active camo allowed the humans to rescue us. It's all in my report, sir."
"I see. I'll pass this intel along to General Arterius. I'll try to convince him to stand down."
"Thank you, sir. Now, I'd better return General Williams' shuttle." Vakarian raised his hand to his head in salute. Fortix returned the gesture.
Codex:
Technology: Neural Networks
One of the staples of human society and military, the neural network implant has become ubiquitous throughout humanity. The network is constructed of nano-chelated circuitry connecting to the various centres of the brain. The basic components are a dispersed microframe computer, cortical stimulators, and wireless interfaces for various kinds of technology.
Additional functions vary depending on the type of implant issued by the UN government. They range from simple visual display systems and touch interfaces, for say, opening a door; to the full body neural interceptors implanted in TSF and Strike Fighter pilots.
The neural interceptors interrupt signals all signals from the motor cortex to the body, instead interpreting them into movements for the vehicle to perform. In a sense, the vehicle becomes the pilots body. For Hardiman drivers, it is a simple process, since the suit instead copies the users' neural signals and uses them to amplify the users' movements. It is a more complicated story for TSF and Strike Fighter pilots, since operating those requires a whole area of movement unavailable to normal humans. As such, additional systems are grown into the brains of pilots corresponding to the necessary parts of the vehicle. For pilots, this is necessary to allow fluid, precise and instinctual control over their vehicles during flight and combat.
Military personnel and enthusiastic civilians often modify their hardware, software, and their wetware interfaces. Some, who enjoy the "classical" feel of keyboards, employ a simple visual interface along with haptic stimulators in the motor cortex to emulate the feeling of using a real keyboard.
Technology: Electronic Camouflage Fields
Electronic Camouflage Fields, or ECFs, are mounted on all United Nations combat vehicles, from Hardimans to TSFs and Dropships. The system works by generating an energy field that bends light around it.
ECF was developed to try and mask aircraft and TSFs from Laser-class BETA, after testing proved that they located their targets using a range of infrared and visual light. As such, the field refracts light around the machine, and absorbs as much heat as possible, while dispersing the rest carefully. As a result, the field can be disrupted by running a vehicles energy output above a certain point. During TSF Orbital Dives, there is an altitude called the "safe level", the altitude above which a TSFs required deceleration thrust is beyond what the field can sustain. Running close to the limit will cause the field to shimmer, as the heat begins to leak into the air around the vehicle.
Weapons fire will also cause ECFs to break, due since the field projectors cannot keep up with the rapid electromagnetic discharges within its confines. This is, however, limited to electromagnetic accelerator weapons, so traditional chemically powered weapons will work within the field. However, these are rarely used, due to the reduced firepower and ammunition capacity of chemical propelled weaponry.
ECF systems can also be used by regular infantry units, but each individual must carry an enlarged fuel cell to power the device. The weight is offset by the fact that most United Nations Infantrymen are equipped with light-exoskeleton systems as part of their combat gear.
So, I tried to fix my writing pace by hammering out this chapter today, but I've spent something like 8 hours on it, and I'm pretty tired, so I'll try to work out something I'm comfortable with.
Alright, now review question time:
-HolyKnight5: I really don't want to give anybody the stupid stick. I might give someone the ignorance stick, but that would be balanced out by making them reasonable. Thats something I never understood about Mass Effect. Nobody seems to think clearly, and it comes down to someone overreacting to something. Turians attacking a race that is new to the galaxy for trying to activate a relay, Quarians attempting to wipe out the geth because they accidentally created AI, the Council refusing Krogan expansion after the Rachni wars. Nobody ever seems to sit down and think things through. So I'm not going to dump the blame on Desolas. Hell, I might not dump the blame on anybody. Oh, and I'm thinking about a future events where turians and maybe salarians have TSFs, due to their combat utility.
-Ordo Rolanberry: Yeah thanks for pointing out the error. I adjusted it, but it didn't feel powerful enough for what I was looking at. So I increased the mass of the rounds by an order of magnitude. Now its fun.
-To Mr Guest: right...sure...first time fic...ok then. And I already did the timeline. And if you actually played Mass Effect, you would notice that most of the codex entries in Aliens are rewritten entries from the games.
-Imabot: I really want to avoid one of the cliche curbstomp First Contact War scenarios. While they can be interesting, in the end it comes down to "our tech is better because X". Sometimes it can come out good, where humanity is only slightly better, or humanity is made ridiculously powerful for the sake of hilarity. But the middle ground is just annoying. So here, human ships might be more diverse and some of them might be more powerful than their Citadel counterparts, but they are balanced by a complete lack of Element Zero, slower FTL, and space combat tactics based purely on theory. Even the fighters, which don't have use Eezo cores, have to manoeuvre in a completely different way. And no disruptor torpedoes. UN Anti-ship missiles rely completely on their impact velocity and the energy from the warhead detonation, hence the nuclear anti-ship missiles. tl;dr, The only real advantage that UN ships have in this fic are more diverse tactics, bigger dreadnought guns. And particle cannons. How did I forget particle cannons?
-Kinunatzs: The way I see it, the reason espers are able to translate the "thoughts" of BETA minds is because the BETA don't have a language; It's all concepts and emotions. Hence why Shepard has to absorb the memories and emotions associated with the language. As for "canon" Muv-Luv, its still Alternative, but 150 years is a long time to advance technology. And considering how rapidly the technology advances in Muv-Luv anyway...
Until next time, guys.
EDIT: Some formatting and grammar that I missed. I posted this at 10pm last night, after spending around 8 hours total writing, and I had a very early start at work this morning. So I missed a few things.