May 19 2457
Shanxi system
ESFS Baikal cruiser Steadfast
Admiral Jon Grissom, a man at the age of 146 with dark brown hair and a height of 6'2 was standing in the comms room staring at the holographic image of the ESF Lieutenant General Kim.
About a month ago one of the ESF's deep space probes that was launched from Shanxi; the newest colony to be developed, was searching the asteroid field for possible mining; instead they found a strange artifact that had two long, curved "arms" with what they believed to be set of revolving rings in between them, covered in ice. The Admiral assigned to protect the civilian workers charged with digging the artifact out of the ice and science teams charged with studying it.
"What is the status of the workers and scientists?" The Lieutenant General
"The workers are finished cleaning the ice off the artifact." Reported Grissom
"Have they found out what it is and its purpose?" Asked the General
"As far as they can tell it is not a weapon of the Reapers, they have been asking permission to activate it; I thought I'd better wait for your permission."
"Permission granted just… tell them to be careful, the last thing we want is for this device to blow up in our faces."
"Also what is the status of the Gundams that were supposed to be here?" Admiral Grissom asked
"The two Gundams we sent just arrived at Shanxi and will reach you via Trans-Am in ten minutes." The General says before he looks out of site before he looks back at the Admiral and says "I apologize but I have to go deal with something."
With that said the Admiral's image vanished with static.
Grissom turned around and walked through the ship towards the bridge where there wasn't any gravity because of the bridges set up and he takes his seat.
"Sir the science team is ready to activate the artifact and send a probe through." A crewman says looking at Grissom.
"Roger tell them to proceed." Says the Admiral before the vessel activates the object where a blue glow is seen as two rings start spinning and sends a probe through.
Exodus Cluster
Utopia system
Turian patrol fleet
Tonn Actuss, a Turian captain of the Turian hierarchy sat in his chair, staring out the bridge window into the void of space. His patrol fleet of three cruisers, six frigates and twenty five fighters had been searching the cluster for the past two months. They had been assigned this job to find any pirates that might be hiding in the unclaimed cluster. So far they had found no sign of pirate activity.
Actuss was a proud Turian; the military life runs in the family, he was very serious when it came to upholding the law in Council space and will do just about anything to make everyone follows it. Despite that though he was bored, several times they have been up and down the cluster and there had been no sign of pirate activity. He was thankful they only had a week left.
The sensors operator was looking at his console, he too was bored, and he prayed something would appear. As if his wish had been answered he noticed strange readings coming from an inactive relay known as relay 314. He checked to make sure this wasn't a glitch; it wasn't the. Relay had been activated.
"Eh, sir you'll want to see this." He called to Actuss.
Actuss stood from his seat and walked towards the operator, "What is it?"
"Sir relay 314 just activated."
"Impossible relay 314 is a dead relay; it leads to nowhere." Actuss responded.
"Sir, I am positive, I checked to make sure that it wasn't a glitch and… sir something just came out of the relay!" Said the operator.
"What is it?" Asked Actuss.
The operator turned back to his console to check "I think it's a probe, we may be dealing with first contact Captain." Reported the operator.
Actuss just stood there thinking 'this is obviously a new immature race, it was foolish of them to activate a relay and worse a dormant one, that's against Council Law, we'd better deal with this foolish race.'
He headed towards his chair before he sat in it giving out orders "Tell the patrol fleet to head for the relay 314 we must deal with this new and incompetent race."
The patrol started heading through the relay in hoping to put down these law breakers, but they might get more than they barging for.
Shanxi system
ESFS Steadfast bridge
"Are you positive that these reports are accurate?" Admiral Grissom asked the AI Francis once he finished reading the report.
Francis was an AI that took the appearance of an old American Civil war Union soldier.
"Yes sir it is and with this piece of technology we may be able to advance humanity but the problem is that it is an FTL relay and we don't need that since we have our GN FTL drives." Francis says and everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
"Yes I know we use advanced GN FTL drives right now but it wouldn't hurt to have access to more technology… what is this feeling?" Grissom grabs his head feeling a sense of dread as his and his crews eyes started glowing indicating the use of Quantum Brainwaves "Huh?! Get those civilians out of there now!" Grissom yelled the last part but everyone was already ahead of him but it was too late.
A fleet of unknown ships came through the relay and ten seconds later opened fire on the Laohu destroying it.
Everyone in the fleet froze with looks of horror.
"They just killed the science team!" A crewman yelled in horror.
"Sir it seems to be a first contact with a hostile race!" Francis yelled.
"Then we shall respond in kind! All ships deploy your mobile suits and launch a barrage of missiles and charge Particle cannons!" Grissom yelled and then 66 missiles launch from the three ships as the started to deploy 32 GN-XIV's.
Turian fleet
Turian cruiser
Advent Justice
Actuss stood over his seat watching as the alien vessel went up in flames thinking 'This race doesn't even have shields. This will be easier than I thought.'
"Captain missiles incoming!" A sensors operator yelled and Actuss turned his head to see 66 missiles fly through space and to his curiosity there was a trail of red particles behind them.
"Shoot them down!" Actuss yelled before the ships GUARDIAN defense system activated and attempted to shoot them down but the missiles were too fast because only 43 crashed into the vessels with most of the missiles striking a frigate taking down its barriers and one striking its Eezo core causing a chain reaction which destroyed the vessel.
"Where did those missiles come from!?" Actuss yelled getting his balance.
"Sir it's to our port!" The sensors operator yelled and Actuss turned his head to see
Actuss saw what looked to be three vessels with two of the vessels being block like while the third looked almost like a boat from what he could remember from history lessons. All 3 were color blue and the two smaller vessels were 349 meters long while third ship was 680 meters long.
"Why didn't you pick them up?" Actuss asked the operator who responds saying "I was about to say that our sensors are down sir it seems that they are producing a type of jamming signal."
"Sir I'm barely picking up any signals from the other ships!" The communications operator yelled in surprise.
"What is that!?" A crewman yelled and everyone looked and their eyes widen when they see 32 flying bipedal machines with four glowing eyes and red light particles shooting from their back but 10 of them had different colored armor while 22 of them were colored green the rest were colored grey.
"Is the short burst transmitter still online?" the communications officer nodded his head "Then tell them to engage the three vessels and tell the fighters to engage those mechs!"
The Turian fleet moved into position but before Actuss could give the word to fire he was surprised when red beams shot from the vessels and struck one of the cruisers destroying the vessel.
"What the hell was that!?" Actuss yelled in surprise.
"It seems this new race use energy weapons!" A crewman yells and Actuss looks to the mechs to see them also using beam weapons before his surprise grew when out of one of the ten models shoulders came a hilt and when the mech grabbed it the mech flew at a fighter and swung where a beam came from the hilt and cut the fighter in half before both pieces explode.
"Spirits they can form blades out of energy!" a weapons operator yelled as the Turian fleet opened fire before to their surprise they struck an red barrier.
"They have shields as well!?" Actuss gawked in surprise as the three vessels came closer.
Steadfast bridge
"How much of our shields were lost?" Grissom asked a systems operator.
"Shields are down to eighty seven percent and steadily rising." Francis said with a hint of amazement.
"It seems they rely on rail guns instead of beam weapons." Grissom muttered watching an alien ship go up in flames before a smile slowly came to his face.
"Tell our mobile suit teams to split into two groups with one group engaging the alien vessels while the other group engages the enemy fighters."
"But sir what about those point defense cannons?" A weapons officer asked.
"Focus on trying to get those aliens to focus on us." Grissom said hoping that they would only focus on him.
"Sir missiles incoming!" The sensor operator yelled.
"Shoot them down!" Grissom yelled before some mobile suits and the vessels opened fire but 13 missiles broke through and struck the vessels.
"Shields have dropped to seventy four percent and dropping, whatever those missiles were they weakened our shields!" Francis yelled as the ship shook.
"What is the ETA of the Gundams?" Grissom asked?" They'll be here in four minutes!"
Advent Justice
Actuss stood their smiling seeing that the disruptor torpedoes worked.
"Tell all ships to use disruptor missiles to take down the shields!" Even though the message may go scrambled it was best to try.
The three vessels fired again this time destroying a frigate and damaging another.
"Sir enemy mechs approaching!" Actuss looked too see 16 mechs coming at the fleet.
"Order all ships to focus GUARDIAN lasers on those mechs!" Actuss ordered and he was grateful that the order came through before that vanished when he saw the mechs evade the rounds while some created barriers from the red particles.
"Sir they are getting closer!" The weapons operator yelled before the ship shoot and he continued using the weapons systems until a mech got too close and the GUARDIAN lasers shot it and the lasers overwhelmed the mechs barriers bringing it down and instantly destroyed the mech.
"That's it… tell most of the fleet to focus on the enemy ships while the Advent Justice, Victory Honor, and Vindictive Metal focus fire on the mechs and tell the fighters we will be rendering them assistance!"
"Yes sir!"
Steadfast bridge
"Sir we just lost a GN-XIV!" A crewman yelled.
"It was a luck shot sir, the enemy ship's laser defense systems overwhelmed the GN-Xs GN fields causing the field to drop and the beams destroyed the suit." The sensors operator yelled before the ship shook.
"Shield strength at sixty nine percent!"
"The Viking is at thirty seven percent while the Boston is at fifty six sir!"
"Another alien vessel has been sunk sir!"
"Sir two more mobile suits have been destroyed sir!"
"What!?" Grissom yelled in surprise before he looked at the alien vessels and saw small lasers shooting the mobile suits.
"They're using their laser defense systems as a means to deal with our mobile suits!" Grissom yelled in realization "Order all ships to fire another barrage of missiles!"
Battle field
The number of Turian vessels dropped from nine to five vessels.
The mobile suits continued their attack but the three alien vessels defense lasers made it difficult but they were so focused on the alien ships they didn't see the enemy fighters before it was too late and 5 mobile suits were lost leaving only a small group of GN-X.
"Damn it they have us out numbered!" The pilot yelled before a missile flies towards his GN-X and he brings up a GN field but when it struck the field vanished before a round strikes the GN-X's chest destroying it and killing the pilot inside.
The Turian fleet continued their attack with 3 frigates focusing fire on the Viking.
The remaining mobile suits were being out matched due to the alien vessels aiding their fighters and the fighters moved too quickly striking down 8 GN-X's.
Steadfast bridge
"Sir the Viking is at 11 percent and dropping fast!"
"The Boston is running out of missiles and particle supply!"
"Damn it, order the Viking to revert power from non-critical systems to shields!" Grissom yelled as the vessel shook.
"They can't sir they just lost they're shields!" The operator yelled before the Viking was struck by accelerator rounds destroying parts of the ship before the entire vessel erupted in flames.
"The Viking is sunk!" A crewman yelled.
"Sir an alien vessel is in front of us and closing!" A crewman yelled in fear while the Boston took down another alien vessel while one of the larger vessels came closer to the ship lining up a shot.
"Evacuate to the escape pods!" Grissom yelled.
"It's too late they have a lock!" Francis yelled and Grissom watched as the alien ship moved into position to fire both its accelerator and its missiles.
"Men it has been an honor fighting with you." Grissom said losing hope. But that hope was not lost too long.
A beam punches through the center of the vessel destroying it.
"What the hell?" Grissom asked surprised.
"Sir they've arrived!" The sensors operator yelled in joy.
"Reinforcements have come." Grissom said with a smile.
Advent Justice bridge
"What the hell happened!?" Actuss yelled in fury because the last cruiser not counting the Justice was destroyed.
"Sir over there!" A crewman yelled and Actuss turned to see what had happened.
Flying towards the battle were two more bipedal mechs but there were some differences too this and the mechs they were fighting now.
The machines was custom that much he could see because one was white and blue with what looked like wings with a rifle in its right arm and a physical shield on its left while the other was different because it was colored grey, looked thinner with curved feet, large objects on its shoulders, long arms, and two containers on its hips but what both had in common where two antenna's coming from their heads in what looked like horns and instead of red light particles they used green ones. The main thing that caught his attention was that the white and blue one's wings formed from two parts that were on the sides of the gun which made him realize that the mech was the one that fired that beam that gutted the Honor.
"All fighters engage the new mech; leave the wounded ones for the fleet!" Actuss yelled and the fighters did as told with the 15 fighters closing in.
1.5 Gundam and Arche Gundam Drei
(Play song Gundam 00 OST Strike)
"It seems they see us coming but it was to be expected since I gutted one of their ships." Shepard said from his Gundam's cockpit.
"Yeah you did!" Nena says with the Arche Drei flying next to the 1.5.
"Well it seems the fun is about to begin." Shepard said before both of the Arche Gundam Drei and 1.5 Gundam's eyes flash.
The Turian fighters grew closer and opened fire but thanks to the GN drive the Gundam's evaded the rounds and opened fire with its beams striking a two fighters before they started passing him as they continued to fire on the Gundam's but the 1.5 and Arche Drei drew a beam saber and swung cutting down two fighters before it spun around in time to see the fighters turn around to continue their attack.
"Not gonna happen!" Shepard shouted as he moves the wings to the rifle and sparks form before a large pink beam shoots from the rifle surprising the pilots and shot down most of the Turian fighters and only leaving four left.
"Fly Fangs!" Nena shouted launching four fangs out for the fighters.
"These things a monster!" One of the surviving pilots cried before his fighter explodes from a GN fang punching through the fighter.
"The fight was over before it even began." Shepard says as the other Turian fighters were cut down by the fangs.
With all the fighters destroyed the 1.5 turned and flew towards the battle as the Boston and Atlantic continued to fire on the remaining Turian ships which now numbered to 2 frigates and a single cruiser.
Advent Justice bridge
Actuss was seething with rage as he watched his fighters get cut down by what he described as a demons.
"Sir those mechs are approaching!" A crewman yelled as the enemy mechs drew closer.
Actuss stood there frozen in fear knowing that he lost this battle.
"All ships turn around and fall back! We need to warn the Hierarchy!" Actuss yelled and everyone did what he said and all 3 remaining ships turned around while the Boston which was missing most of its armor and the Atlantic which had some impact craters continued to open fire before stop.
Atlantic bridge
"David it is good to see you again. We need info and a way to infiltrate their network and since your Gundam has a powerful weapon do you think you can help?" Grissom asked his friend and the Gundam meister smiled saying "Don't have to worry about that."
The 1.5's eyes flash before it aims its rifle and the wings move and adjusted with the tips pointing where the barrel was aiming before electricity started forming between and then the rifle fired a large beam that struck the alien frigate that was at the end of the fleet destroying its engines and leaving it defenseless.
"We now have a way to infiltrate their network." David Shepard said with a smile as the two remaining alien ships retreated through the relay.
(End song)
"Admiral the ship is dead in the water." Shepard said to the Admiral who says "Thank you David we shall send boarding parties now."
Turian frigate Gorgas bridge
Every Turian was moving trying to get systems back online before they feel the ship shake.
"Captain we just lost the engines! That white and blue mech destroyed them!" A crewman yelled from his console.
"Why didn't they just kill us unless, spirits they plan to board us! All hands prepare for boarding parties!" Yelled Turian Captain Callus Surtax and the Turians moved to grab weapons.
Steadfast hanger
In the hanger stood two GN-XIV standing next to what looked like a transport shuttle but the front had what looked like a four pointed spear.
"This is Boarding team Alpha ready to launch on your go!" The pilot of the boarding shuttle says.
Inside the shuttle arming themselves were 14 Federation marines wearing their standard issue combat armor (Think the ME3 Alliance armor but in ESF colors and with the ESF symbol instead of the Alliance symbol) while sealing their suits not knowing what was on board and activating their infantry issued shields.
"I guess this will be the best chance to test the shields." One of the marines says.
"Hopefully we don't get killed." Another says before they hear Grissom over the PA saying "Boarding shuttle you are cleared for launch."
The shuttle shook signaling their departure.
"Alright you know the drill, use your Quantum Brainwaves to see what happened and take down those who attack but remember we need some of them alive so we the brass can interrogate them! Am I clear marines?" The marine Captain yelled.
"Sir yes sir!" Was the collective response.
"Arrival at alien vessel in T-minus 3… 2… 1!" They feel the ship lurch signaling they arrived before the spears separate revealing the inside of the vessel before all 14 marines run out but when the first one set his foot on the ground his shields ping.
"Contact!" The marine yelled aiming his rifle before firing five beams at an alien that was avian in appearance and the beams cut through the aliens barrier killing him instantly.
"They have shields that only respond to kinetic assaults sir!" A marine yelled and the Captain nods his head saying "Squad 1 secure the hanger and the rest of you come with me!"
"Sir what about engineering?" A marine asked before the Captain just pointed behind the marine and he turns to see… the alien drive core.
"Oh…" The marine said with embarrassment and other marines laugh.
"Move out!" The Captain yelled and they all rain with 7 men making their way to the hanger and the other seven running to the bridge.
Both squads encountered little resistance because they mainly came across dead bodies that were either killed from explosions that went through the ship when the ESF or Gundams shot or from impacts.
Turian frigate Gorgas hanger
Squad 1
"This is squad 1 we have reached the hanger and have encountered only 3 survivors and one of them by the looks of it is crippled." Squad 1's leader says watching as two aliens carry a wounded one to a shuttle.
"Don't let them escape squad 1." The Captains voice said over the radio.
"Roger that." The marine says before all 7 ran out of cover.
They open fire with their beams passing their shields but when one alien spun around to raise a pistol he was met with a beam to the face which took ignored his barriers but the other two were taken down mainly due to the fact that one was carrying a wounded comrade.
"Hanger secured sir, one alien KIA and two POW's here." The leader said with satisfaction.
Squad 2
Roger we just reached the entrance to the bridge and from what I can hear I count 12 hostiles on the bridge." The Captain said reloading his rifle.
"Sir shall I toss a flash bang?" A marine asked and the Captain nodded his head saying "Toss when the doors open."
The marine nods his head before all 7 got into position.
"Breaching!" The Captain yelled opening the door before the marine tosses a flash bang as the sounds of gunfire erupt before a loud bang is heard and then several cries of surprise and pain are heard.
"Move!" The Captain yelled and all 7 ran in to see 12 aliens trying to catch their bearings from the grenade before 6 at the front were knocked out by 6 marines before the Captain notices an alien raising a rifle but he shot it three times and the beams went through its barriers and killed it before it even hit the ground.
The remaining 5 aliens regain their senses and look in time to see the marines aiming their rifles at them.
"Surrender and you will live." The Captain said using his Quantum brainwaves to communicate and it surprised the aliens from what they could feel.
The aliens stood there for the last 4 seconds before what looked like an officer stood up saying "Can you guaranty my men's safety?"
Even though they didn't understand the words that came from his mouth at first they used their Quantum brainwaves to understand what the alien was thinking since brainwaves work like walking before the captain mentally says "We shall."
"Very well we surrender." The Turian Captain says and 5 marines approach them with handcuffs.
"Alright, men take them to the shuttle." The Captain says before he approaches a Turian terminal and presses several keys which engages a signal to the Atlantic.
"Atlantic this is Captain Delgado I have connected the alien terminal to the cruiser and am sending over some POW's." The now named Delgado said as he looked out the window seeing an Ahead.
"Roger that Delgado we shall send the info to Veda once we have the right frequency to not get caught by the enemy." Francis says over the line.
Steadfast 2 minutes later
Grissom took a sip of his tea as he sat in a chair in his office which had artificial gravity while David and Nena Shepard sat on the other side of his desk and all three were reviewing the info they retrieved while on a holo screen was Tieria.
"So we're dealing with an alliance of aliens? This is screwed up." Grissom said setting his tea down.
"From what Veda and I can see they call themselves Turian and they originated from a planet called Palaven which has a distance of 1.15 AU from its sun and it has a weak magnetic field which exposes the planet to its suns radiation. The Turians are a militaristic race from what I can find and they provide the military arm to what I can find as the Citadel Council."
David takes a sip before saying "Do we know about their military strength or they're future tactics?"
Grissom was confused before Tieria says "You believe that they are going to attack again?"
"They saw our mobile suits and our GN drives, if they return they will attack Shanxi with an invasion fleet." Shepard says and Girssoms eyes widen in realization.
"You think that they are going to go and invade the colony?" Grissom asked quickly standing up and Shepard nodded his head causing the Admiral to fall back into his chair.
"There is some good news though; from what we can tell they rely mainly on kinetic weapons and they're shielding technology revolves around the energy from that 'Mass Relay' from what I could read in the data." Tieria says.
"Tieria did you contact the Federation assembly?" Shepard asked and the Innovade nodded his head.
"Yes I told the president what happened but he is going to make an announcement to the entire Federation in five hours."
"Do you think the others will be able to help us fend off against this threat?" Shepard asked and Tieria looked uncertain.
"Aeolia predicted humanity would make first contact with the dialogue but they attacked without just cause so we will have to wait and see what will happen."
"But what about the four Gundams?" Nena asked from her spot.
"The Zabanya, Harute, and Raphael are already complete but the 00 Qan[T] is still in the final stage of construction so Setsuna will have to use the 00 Raiser."
"Admiral the shuttle just returned and the mobile suits are loaded up." Said a communications officer.
"Good and what are our loses?" Grissom asked.
"142 dead, 27 wounded but only 3 in critical but we were able to stabilize their condition." The officer says and Grissom grabs his forehead in sorrow.
"Tell the fleet to enter Trans-Am and make way to Shanxi."
"Yes sir."
The room fell into an uneasy silence before Shepard broke that silence saying "Tieria when will there be an assembly meeting?"
"The meeting is tomorrow why?" Tieria says
"Then I ask that you tell them to send the Celestial Being in case the enemy fleet is much larger than we think."
Tieria nodded his head in understanding before the screen cuts out.
"I pray to god that we can hold them." Grissom muttered as the two surviving vessels made their way to Shanxi.
Ptolemy
ESF territory
colony Arcadia right after first contact
The Ptolemy flew through space patrolling the ESF colony Arcadia but on the bridge everyone was working as usual but around them were debris of outdated Hellions.
"E-sensor not detecting anything." Feldt Seiei nee Grace says from her spot on the bridge.
"Not even an asteroid." Lasse says from the helm.
"Miss Noriega we just got an urgent communication from Shanxi!" Mileina Vashti says from her spot.
"What kind of communication?" Sumeragi asked from her seat.
"It says that the fleet investigating the alien artifact were attacked by a hostile alien species!" Mileina says causing everyone on the bridge to look at her like she grew a second head.
"What were their loses?" Sumeragi asked knowing she wasn't going to like the answer.
"They lost 2 vessels the Viking and the science vessel while they lost 19 GN-XIV but thankfully Shepard arrived in time to save the rest and the aliens lost 6 vessels and from what I can read all of their fighters."
Sumeragi was surprised and she looked at Mileina and said "The aliens don't have mobile suits?"
"No they don't." A voice says from behind them and they look to see Tieria entering the bridge.
"I was able to access their database and it said that the only kind of machine they use are machines they call mechs which are more or less Automatons." Tieria says and Lasse chuckles saying "Well at least we have an advantage."
"Did I forget to mention that they use mass accelerators instead of beam cannons and they're shields respond to only kinetic energy?" Tieria asked humorously and Lasse laughed saying "Okay we have a big advantage against them!"
"Do you know what we are facing Tieria?" Sumeragi asked as she stood up.
"The species that attacked us were called the Turian Hierarchy and they are a part of an alliance called the Citadel Council. The Turians provide the Council as the military arm enforcing Council law all over the galaxy."
"But why attack us?" Lasse asked confused.
"A thousand years ago the Citadel opened a Mass Relay which is what the artifact was called and they came into contact with a hostile insectoid race called the Rachni. Since then the Citadel has banned the opening of new mass relays and made it illegal to do it but when the science vessel did they attacked."
Lasse gripped his controls hard and growled "Those idiots think they are so mighty."
"The president will inform the Federation assembly tomorrow and we will be preparing for a Turian invasion fleet."
"You gathered that from the data?" Sumeragi asked.
"Yes I did and I found that if the surviving ships inform their leaders then the Turians will invade but if they inform the Citadel then there will be a diplomatic meeting and it will be the former rather than the later." Tieria said and Sumeragi sighed.
"Let's just hope that we are ready… do you know about the Gundam's completion?" Sumeragi asked.
"Gundam's Harute, Zabanya, and Raphael are complete but the 00 Qan[T] will take four more days to finish."
"Hopefully we don't have to worry until the invasion." Sumeragi says before making her way out of the bridge but stops and says "Tieria I want you to give me all the data you can on both the Turians and this Citadel Council."
Tieria nods his head before Sumeragi leaves the bridge as the Ptolemaios prepares for GN FTL.
"I believe we should meet up with Ian to see if we can upgrade for full combat." A voice says from the hall and they turn to see Lyle and his wife Anew entering the bridge.
"That sounds like a plan." Sumeragi says with a smile.
"Isn't Graham meeting at the same station Ian is at?" Mileina asked curiously.
"Yes he is and I'm sure he would want to be in the fight as well." Tieria says nodding his head in agreement as the Ptolemy entered FTL.
"I pray to god that this conflict will end quickly." Sumeragi whispered.