Chapter One: First Contact
UNSC Research Vessel Epiphany, Shanxi System, UNSC Outer Colonies, April 18th, 2525
POV: Lieutenant Commander Victor Daniels, UNSC Research Division
"We know what we're doing Commander, we've done it a dozen times. Besides, you and your men have our back if something happens." He cuts off the comm, deciding to focus on his crew for the time being, who were mostly civilians, and needed, well, babysitting, essentially.
The message was going to the CO of the small task force protecting the colony, which happened to be only a pair of Mako class corvettes. Hardly a sturdy defense, but all they were supposed to do was discourage an Insurrectionist attack on the Orbital Elevator, or failing that, assist with rescue efforts. But what they had no idea of, was that they would soon be Shanxi's first line of defense, against a threat no one in the UNSC had expected. But back to the Epiphany...
"LC, we've used our maser to send the message to the relay. I'd estimate an hour until its fully powered, if its like all the others." His crewman responsible for Ops comments quietly, getting a single nod from the lieutenant commander, who was simply studying the power readouts that covered his screen.
Victor was fascinated by the alien technology of things like these relics, which was why he had volunteered for the job. He didn't join the UNSC to die fighting Innies, thank you very much. He just wanted to explore the stars, and as such, was one of the members of a lobby group that advocated that the UEG start gleaning more technology from the Relays, and not on what they all viewed as archaic tech. But their movement had been strongly opposed, so it had more or less backed down recently, especially as the Innies started getting...braver. Everyone, even in a remote outer colony like this, had seen vids on Waypoint that showed the passenger liner National Holiday being ripped in half by Innie explosives...and heard recordings of the captain of the vessel's final words, calmly directing other ships out of the way of the debris as it fell into Reach's atmosphere.
It shook everyone to the core...which was one of the reasons why he had petitioned that they be allowed to activate the Shanxi relay. It would be a distraction from the horrific news, as well as hopefully new territory for the UEG. As the man shook himself out of his memories and refocused on the screen, he noticed the power readings were fluctuating more than usual.
"LC? What the hell is happening?" He heard several of his crewmen ask, them obviously having noticed as well.
Victor clears his throat, thinking for a moment, before deciding to play it safe. "I...don't know. But helm, put fifteen thousand kilometers between us and the relay."
He hears murmured words of agreement, the ship turning around and starting to move, when one of his crew gasps and calls out "LC! Eight contacts are coming through the relay!"
"Helm! Full burn away, get us back to Shanxi by yesterday." He says abruptly, feeling the ship start to accelerate, before a loud crack sounds out, and his face is smashed into the console. The officer lifts it up a moment later, seeing his blood decorating it, though he does care, hearing alarms as he checks a status report on the ship...before noticing that the entire rear of the relatively unarmored ship is flashing red, big letters telling him that the main engines have failed. victor then checks the sensor data, eyes widening when it shows that seven corvettes, and one frigate sized vessel, have started to surround them already, slowly closing in.
In desperation, he activates the maser on his own, not waiting for his comms officer to do it, and sending a message to the officer in charge of the CMA forces defending Shanxi. Under attack by Unknown ships. Six Corvettes, one frigate. He types quickly, sending it on a high frequency pulse...when the alien ships open fire again, the ship bucking and shaking.
"Don't worry. We'll be okay." He says quietly as he looks at the terrified faces of his crew. The man then types one last thing. Don't recover. There won't be survivors. Exactly six second after he hits send, his world ceases to exist.
As the ruined ship is torn apart under the fury of the alien weapons, a trio of the corvettes accelerate towards the planet, where the pair of human ships wait for them. A dozen missiles launch from each Mako, along with streams of bullets from their point-defense cannons. Of course, the alien ships easily blast the projectiles apart with their laser systems, before returning fire with their GARDIAN systems, the lasers burning away patches of hull as the faster ships easily evade most of the point defense fire, they quickly pass by the human ships and quickly turn around to fire again, targeting engines and managing to disable those. Its clear the human corvettes can't compete with the speed offered by the alien vessels, nor with the rather strange tactics, with the enemy warships preforming strafing runs more similar to fighters than actual corvettes.
After several runs, the reactor on one of the Makos goes critical and detonates, all three alien corvettes now preparing for an attack run on the survivor. Its point defenses had gone silent, and as the enemy ships rapidly approach, it remains still, though its evidently near destruction. At the last possible second, though, it fires its emergency thrusters and shoots off to the side...right into the path of one of the alien warships. The two collide with a violent explosion, the kinetic barriers failing with the impact, and the two wrecked ships meshing together for a brief second, before the reactor on the Mako ignites, the fireball it produces consuming everything, with only a few molten pieces of the alien ship surviving the point-blank nuclear detonation. Still, as the small alien battlegroup regroups, one thing is clear. Unless someone can pull a miracle, the colony would fall before reinforcements could even arrive.
POV: Staff Sergeant Damien Xavier, Ninth CMA Company
To be fair to the CMA officials on the planet, it took less than an hour for the entire world to start evacuating and retreating to the capital. But it wasn't enough, so as the alien corvettes began deploying forces just outside the capital city, blocking roadways and making escape impossible, the humans had their own surprise ready. A Mass Driver, essentially a small MAC cannon, was located just in the mountains outside the city. In addition, the roughly sixty militiamen and eight marines were already mobilized. But as there was one other city on the planet, a dozen militia and one marine were sent there to help out with the evacuation. since the roads weren't an option, they were heading there via the rail system that transported cargo for the orbital elevator from one city to the other.
Damien was almost ready to piss himself, if he was being honest. Just a day ago, he was...well, lets just say there was two reasons he was on CMT duty. There were no Innie attacks in system since the colony's founding, and he had a bad habit of visiting places with...nice women, if the meaning is clear. He had most certainly not thought that he would be defending the place against aliens. Despite all this, though, he was more than a bit proud that the men with him, that he had helped train, were standing tall and as brave as they could manage. It made him feel a bit more confident, and ten minutes later, as the container grinds to a halt, he slides into the driver's seat of one of the two M12 "Warthog" LRV's, both of which now had a driver and a gunner each.
"Alright, 'Hogs, we go engage the bastards now, while you guys start getting the civvies onto these two containers. We know they're alien, so if you see anyone not human, blow their fucking head off." He revs the engine, seeing the doors slowly slide open, before gently easing his vehicle down the ramp, seeing the large crowd of civilians part from his way. The marine calls out "Everybody, get aboard, no shoving. And Adams?" He turns to see a female militia member walk forward and look at him.
"Yeah?" She says over the crowd, looking at him curiously.
"You're in charge here. Make sure they get out of here."
She responds with a quick nod, before she begins calling out orders, Damien and the other Warthog begin moving towards the edge of the crowd, before getting the chance to accelerate and race down the road, occasionally weaving between abandoned cars. Part of him wonders where the aliens are, before he hears screaming and guns the engine. About a hundred meters away, he sees a woman scream in pain as she's shot in the arm and shoved towards a building, her fighting back against them despite the pain. Behind the scene, at least a dozen of the strange, almost birdlike aliens wait near one of their landed corvettes, all armed.
Not wanting to hit the woman, he slams his hand on the 'Hog's horn, the female turning, eyes wide, before sropping to the ground, the aliens confused before the M41 Vulcans on the back of each LRV open fire, sending a storm of bullets at the enemy. It doesn't take long for them to react, though for the briefest second they hesitate, allowing the kinetic barriers on several to fall, before the 12.7x99mm rounds tear them apart.
The sergeant pulls out his handgun, leaning around the windshield and firing a few shots at them, causing the aliens to all dive for cover. The vehicle skids to a halt next to the woman, the gunners on both 'Hogs keeping their adversaries behind cover as Damien quickly pulls her aboard and puts her in the passenger seat. "Anyone else?" He quickly asks her.
"N..No one alive..." She quickly replies, stuttering a little as she starts to look a bit shell shocked.
"Well, hold on." He informs her, before quickly reversing, the other Warthog doing the same, causing the aliens to cautiously raise from cover and fire at the retreating vehicles, their rounds sparking and deflecting off the hood. Well, until a projectile slams into the other hog, blowing it up instantly. Barely even relizing what it was, he starts to turn around, briefly glimpsing an alien armored vehicle, before a trio of JOTUN crop dusters crash down on the area, obscuring it from view, and likely causing quite a bit of damage to the alien forces.
Damien scans the two bodies from the other hog, sighing when neither move, before quickly going down the road. A semi-snarky voice then speaks up in his radio.
"You're welcome." It says quietly, with the voice fairly obviously female. The voice was that of the planet's AI, who managed everything, from City management, to Agricultural work, and even the single orbital elevator the colony had.
"Thanks Allison. But maybe you could've done that sooner. Anyways, are the containers loaded?" He quickly replies, trying to focus on driving.
"As loaded as they can be. But a squad got past you...they started killing civilians. And both Adams and Cho are dead. Cho was the first one shot, and Adams...she charged them, and died by blowing up one of the fuckers with a grenade." The Artificial Intelligence's voice shows a hint of anger. "Anyways, I had to start moving it, though there's another station near the city's edge. What's your speed?"
He briefly checks, somewhat confused on why she needed to know. "Seventy KPH. Why?"
"Just stay that speed. And you can drive right into the station. It's...turn left at this corner."
He takes her word on it, which is a good thing, he sees, because as they turn, he catches a glimpse of several alien soldiers. "Thanks, Allie. But I need to know the route to this station."
"Right turn here, then hang another left. Then three blocks straight, and a final right. you'll see it."
He does as she says, occasionally glancing at the injured civilian beside him, and then at his militia gunner, noting the almost shell-shocked look on their face. Soon enough, they're on the final turn, and he doesn't see any station. "Uh, Allison?..."
"Well...I lied about it being a station, but see for yourself." She says in a slightly guilty voice, one of her JOTUN combines being visible lifting a pair of cars up to form a ramp. An empty car can also be seen drifting closer on the rail, raised several meters above the street, doors open. "Speed up to one-ten. I can handle the rest."
"We are going to have to have a serious talk about your people skills." He mutters, though he obeys the 'order', accelerating the vehicle to the requested speed, before there's a bone jarring thump as the 'Hog hits the ramp, the speed quickly dropping a bit, though it ends up soaring into the air, him slamming on the brakes as the vehicle roughly hits the container floor, skidding seven meters and breaking through two different shelves, before crashing into the wall of the container.
A few seconds later, as the container's doors close, he immediately crawls from the Warthog, groaning. "That's a hell of a headache...but we're alive." He glances back at the vehicle, seeing the gunner picking himself off the ground, and walking over to help the civvie. Damien slowly rises to his knees, thinking of a question to ask. "How many made it out?"
A few moments later, the AI, Allison, quietly speaks into his helmet. "Six thousand, four hundred, and forty three. Out of roughly twenty-five thousand."
He curses loudly, slamming a fist onto the metal floor of the cargo container. "Please tell me its going better in other areas..."
"Regarding casualties, or territory lost?" She queries, examining her databases.
"Both."
"It isn't going much better than here. While out of the planet's Six hundred thousand people, over half of them have made it to the capital...Many are now dead. The rest are hiding in the city. Regarding the territory, we've lost almost all assets outside of the city, with the exception of the reactor complex, up in the mountains. Though out of squad's 1A and 2A, over half of them are dead. An enemy corvette tried to land nearby, and I blasted it with the Mass Driver. But they somehow managed to get special forces there regardless, and have it surrounded. Anyways, the city should be able to be held for maybe a day before we're pushed back. Also...Captain Howe is dead. He insisted on fighting with his men."
The marine looks a bit shocked, though he manages to focus on one problem in that long statement. "Wait...aren't your datastores in the reactor complex?"
She lets out a bit of a virtual sigh. "Yes. And Staff Sergeant King has made it clear that I'm to be shut down if they break in...but I'm happy to die if it keeps people safe."
He stays quiet for a few moments, before he yawns. "Allison, if you're still active by then...wake me up when we arrive at the city. I don't want to die in my sleep."
A hint of amusement comes back to her voice. "Yes Sergeant...I'll be your alarm clock. Cause that's not a waste of my abilities at all."
He sighs, shaking his head a bit, before slowly drifting into the world of unconsciousness.
POV: Recruit Lucy Sarrow, CMA Militia Bravo Platoon
The trainee wakes up with a bit of a cry, her hearing nothing but a ringing in her ears, and feeling a dull throbbing in her skull. The young woman suddenly feels the urge to throw up, her faintly realizing that she had a concussion, though that thought is in the back of her mind as she hears the muted cracks of gunfire, followed by the sounds of the alien weapons. And as she realizes someone is dragging her by her arms.
"W..What's happening?" She asks quietly, though her voice sounded a bit slurred and she had a slight stutter. The next thing she sees in her blurry vision is a face only a foot from her own.
"We're defending the reactor from these alien bastards.. Can you walk? Cause I should probably go back and help out your buddies. Lord knows they'll end up eating a bullet without someone to keep them in line."
Lucy recognizes the voice of the staff sergeant in charge of her platoon. She manages a short nod, feeling the man release her and run off back down the concrete hallway. She collapses to the ground without him to hold her up, taking a few breaths before slowly and painfully sitting up, her eyes widening when she hears a shrill scream. The recruit forces herself to stand, seeing her MA5B assault rifle on the ground and picking it up, briefly checking the ammo. Forty three rounds, plus the extra clip she had left. Enough for now, she thinks, before she sprints back towards the firefight, mostly trying not to trip on her own feet or run into a wall.
Less than a minute later, just as she rounds a corner, she barely has enough time to throw herself to the ground as a body surrounded by purple energy flings itself into a nearby wall. Due to her current position, she can't actually see who it is, though as two alien soldiers approach her, she decides on playing dead. The pair walk over her motionless form, focused on the sergeant struggling in their biotic hold. She hears one start yelling in its alien language, Lucy slowly rolling onto her back, seeing the two both facing their captive, not realizing it as she crawls a few feet backwards, before rolling a frag grenade at their feet.
She looks past them to see the sergeant grin widely, before a loud bang and a brief explosion cloud her view, and overwhelm both of the alien's shields, as well as knock both of them over. She feels a small piece of shrapnel bury itself in her arm as she shields her face, before she aims her rifle and fires at the two fallen enemies, firing a short burst into each of their heads and chests, before quickly rushing over to her ally.
"Sergeant?" She asks, kneeling next to him and almost getting out a can of biofoam, before she sees a shard of metal lodged in his throat. The young woman almost loses her breakfast again, as she sees that. Though she manages to get to her feet as she hears footsteps behind her, her starting to run when several of the alien bullets tear into her legs and hip, her barely managing to fling herself around the corner, throwing her remaining grenade back around it, before she manages to stand, though she's leaning heavily on the nearest wall. Regardless, she starts limping deeper into the facility, wanting to get away from the aliens. Fortunately the grenade seems to discourage the aliens from following for now, buying her about thirty seconds. In that time, shes able to get through a set of metal blast doors, which slide shut behind her.
"Good job, trainee. But I'm afraid that door will only hold them maybe a minute or two, depending on their breaching charges, Get to my core room, I can seal you in there until reinforcements arrive." Allison's voice comes through a nearby loudspeaker, sounding fairly comforting and reassuring at the moment.
Lucy finds herself getting even more dazed now that her adrenaline begins to fade, the young soldier falling to her knees and trying to blink the spots out of her eyes, before giving up on that and crawling forward about another fifteen meters, before she passes through another doorway. She then hears a loud bang and instinctively ducks into a prone position, luckily missing a hail of gunfire, before she notices steam filling the room, hiding her from the enemy. "Thanks." She mutters under her breath, realizing that the AI had done that, before she quickly scrambles through the door, turning and emptying what remained of her rifle's clip wildly into the fog, before the half-meter thick titanium door slides shut.
The recruit feels her strength start to wane, mostly from blood loss, as she crawls slowly over to a console and sits against it, letting out a small sigh as she pulls the can of biofoam out once more. Though as she presses it to her wounds and prepares to inject it, she ends up dropping it, it taking a few tries to pick it up again with her blurring and rapidly darkening vision. Still, after a few seconds she manages to fill all of her injuries with the rapidly hardening substance, wincing a bit, before she hears a familiar voice speak up once more.
"Take some rest and recover, soldier. I'm watching the cameras, and it doesn't seem like they have the explosives to get through. I've sealed off the reactor too. You're safe here with me." Allison quietly says, having noticed that Lucy was having problems staying awake regardless.
"M..M..My squad. Th..The rest of the platoon..." She hesitates a bit, her lips struggling to form the words as her eyes start to involuntarily close. "Are they...alive?"
"There is no human alive in this complex besides you. I'm sorry."
Lucy looks more than a bit dismayed, though she can't stay awake any longer, and as such, passes out seconds later.
Authors Note: So...some questions that need answering. If it wasn't clear enough from the dates, this is about two days earlier than the previous chapter. Secondly, TheIrishWriter, UNSC Ships do not use Eezo, and human soldiers don't have kinetic barriers. My reasoning for that is that since they advanced without this technology for so long, they decided to utilize it as little as possible in order to not become dependent on it. Keep in mind, they discovered Prothean technology in my technology about a hundred years after the Systems Alliance did in the Mass Effect timeline. Anyways, TheRealMasonMac, I'm unsure about making the Forerunners be featured, but I can say this. Its unlikely that the flood will show up. They're just going to derail the story's plot later on from being about conflicts between the Council and the UNSC, and later on, the Reapers. They tend to overcomplicate things. To Zero, Spartans'll be mentioned in about Chapter four. And finally, CheesusChrist15, I'll take your comment/criticism, and try to improve my story with it. Thanks. And for everyone else, thanks for reading, I'll have the next chapter out as soon as I can. Bye