Hello fans thank you for writing and what you thought of my story and I would like for you to keep writing to give me some pointers and ideas, help me help you to keep this story going. Anyway, this chapter will be about the discovery of the mass relay and the beginning of the second contact war. I've done my homework by looking on the wiki of both mass effect and halo so you will see some changes to the weapons of halo because I believe that over time weapons and technology advance instead of staying the same, the mass effect side will be the same but don't worry this won't be a one sided fight where halo over powers mass effect it will be fair.
May 19, 2657
Shanxi system
UNSC Cruiser Budapest
Main Bridge
Admiral Jon Grissom a man at the age of 46 with dark brown hair and height of 6'2 is sitting in the captains chair overlooking at the operations on the holographic projector. About a month ago one of the UNSC's deep space probes 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 we believe to be a set of revolving rings in between them, covered in ice. The admiral was assigned to protect the civilian workers charged with digging the artifact out of the ice and science teams charged with studying the device.
"What is the status of the workers and scientists and can they tell me what this artifact is?" asked Grissom
"The workers are finished cleaning the ice off the artifact, but the scientist are requesting permission to turn it on for more information." said the comm. officer
"Permission granted just tell them to be careful the last thing we need is for this device to blow up in our faces." said Grissom while trying to relax in his chair
"Admiral haven't you heard the expression nothing ventured nothing gain." said Cassandra the Budapest's smart AI
Cassandra appeared next to the Admiral as a full size adult a height of 5'9 in holographic form, Grissom turned his head to look at Cassandra she had the appearance of a young 26 year old scientist with a white long sleeve coat, and black long pants with golden brown hair that settled at her shoulder length. Cassandra is a seventh generation AI capable of incredible processing speeds and hacking. A hundred years ago UNSC AI's had a life expectancy of seven years thanks to forerunner knowledge they increased that by fifty, they still make them through flash cloned human brains of course.
"Cassandra a hundred years ago when humanity ventured out in the galaxy we discovered the Covenant which resulted in a five year war, and I thank whatever god is out there that it didn't drag out longer like many thought it would. Then there's classified information I can't tell to anyone under the rank of Admiral, but it was the worst thing humanity ever encountered, (in his mind he was referring to halo and the flood), so forgive me if I'm not jumping for joy over a new artifact." replied Grissom with a look of annoyance
"Yes admiral there has been a hard bumpy road getting hear, but look at the accomplishment Humanity has made, surviving the Covenant war then reconstructing it to form the Orion Systems Alliance the center of galactic government of the Orion arm of the galaxy which Humanity is part of the Council. Then you have uncovering Forerunner knowledge and technology that lead to amazing advancements to not only your military but Humanity as a whole, you made cures to many diseases that plague Humans, and increased your life expectancy to hundred and seventy-five years." said Cassandra
Before the admiral could say a thing the comm. officer alerted the Admiral of the activation of the artifact. "Admiral the scientists are ready!"
"Very well, alert the captains of the Chimera, the Augustine, and the Achilles to be ready." replied Grissom
"You would think the UNSC would send us another cruiser then just three frigates!" asked the weapons officer
"Lieutenant the one thing the UNSC has learned from all the experience's are lovely AI has gladly reminded us is that we are always prepared, you don't know it but there are ships ready to jump in at a moment's notice if things go south for us." said Grissom
Exodus Cluster
Utopia system
Turian Patrol fleet
A Turian patrol of three cruisers and six frigates is patrolling the Utopia system in search for any pirate activity.
Tonn Actuss a Turian captain in the Turian Hierarchy is in charge of finding any pirates that might be hiding in this unclaimed cluster, Actuss is a proud Turian. The military life runs in his family, he is very serious when it comes to upholding the law in council space and will do just about anything to make sure everyone follows it.
"Captain relay 314 just activated." said the sensors operator
Actuss turns around and walks toward the operator. "Impossible relay 314 is a dead relay it leads to nowhere." Actuss responded
"Sir, I am positive and something just came out of the relay." said the operator
"What is it?" asked Actuss
The operator turns back around at his console to check. "I think it's a probe we may be dealing with first contact captain." reported the operator
Actuss just stands there thinking, 'This is obviously a new immature race that doesn't know the dangers when activating a relay, and worst a dormant one, that's against council law they need to be taken care of'. He heads back to his chair and sits down and begins giving out orders. "Tell the patrol to head for relay 314 we must deal with this new incompetent race." said Actuss
The patrol starts heading to the mass relay in hoping to put down these law breakers, but they might get more then what they barging for.
UNSC cruiser Budapest
Main Bridge
Admiral Grissom was just finish reading the reports the scientist's found on the artifact. A transportation device capable of sending you a thousand light years instantaneously to another star system. "Are these reports accurate?" asked Grissom
Cassandra was the one to respond. "Yes sir they are, this is obviously a very interesting piece of technology that will change a lot in the UNSC and OSA."
"Yes it will, a device capable of sending you instantaneously to another system! I know the shaw-fujikawa drive has advance ever since we came into contact with our allies and forerunner knowledge, but it still takes at least one or two days to get to a star system in our own space, but this could help us fix that." said Grissom
Before anyone could celebrate the success of the mission the artifact's inner rings moved rapidly and out came nine unidentified ships that started attacking the civilian and science ships. before anyone could respond both vessels were destroyed.
"WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPEN?" asked Grissom shouting at the top of his lungs
The sensors operator turned to face the admiral. "Admiral nine unidentified contacts came out of the relay and began attacking the civilian and science teams ships, I believe this is first contact with a new alien race."
"Admiral do you want me to try and make contact with them?" asked the comm. operator
"Their obviously a hostile species! They just attacked innocent civilians." said the Admiral. "I want you to tell the captains of the three Frigates that came with us to get their weapons online." The Lieutenant did as he was told and began sending the message to the ships.
"Cassandra charge the Mac and get one through four lancer missile pods ready." said Grissom. Cassandra did as she was told and was already getting the lancer missiles prepped and ready to fire. The Lancer is successor to the Archer missiles. On cruisers there are more than five hundred pods contain fifty missiles, in each missile contains plasma that are designed to do damage on energy shields.
The outside on the Budapest four hidden compartments opened up and out shot four pods racing to the alien ships in these four pods contained over two hundred missiles.
Turian cruiser The Hammer
CIC
Captain Actuss is standing in front of the projector looking at the battle, he thinks to himself. 'How can a race build ships that large and blocky to fly them'. Obviously he is referring to the three frigates and cruiser, the frigates length is 438 meters, width 152 meters, and height is 112.3 meters; the cruiser's length 1,192 meters, width 300 meters, and height 450 meters. Actuss turned and face his comm. officer. "Tell the frigates to swarm the three smaller vessels while we and the other two cruisers handle the bigger one." The Turian acknowledged this and was about to send the message until the sensors operator detected what appeared to be missiles of some kind launched from the bigger vessel.
"Captain I am detecting what appears to be four large missiles heading to the cruiser midnight shadow." said the operator.
Actuss just chuckled. "What do they hope to hit a planet with those oversize things just get ours and the other two cruisers guardian lasers to shoot them down."
Just as the weapons officer was about to turn the guardian lasers on, the Turians were shocked to now see over two hundred missiles come out of the pods. The guardian lasers attempted to shoot down the missiles but was too over whelming and only took down fifty-eight the other hundred and forty-two slammed against the midnight shadow. The ships kinetic barriers protect it from the explosion but the hot plasma scorched their ablative armor that caused hull breaches and other damages to the ship.
Captain Actuss was furious that one of his own ships took serious damages. "It would seem we underestimated this new race." said Actuss. "Tell the frigates to continue as plan and target those three ships while we handle the bigger one!" said Actuss fire burning in his eyes, he looks at the weapons officer. "Fire disruptor torpedoes it's time to return the favor for what they did to my cruiser."
UNSC cruiser Budapest
Main bridge
Admiral Grissom is looking at the battle on the holo projector, he sees the damages to one of the alien ships by the lancer missiles, and six of the smaller ships breaking off course heading to the three Frigates.
"That's interesting!" said Cassandra. "By studying the impact of when the lancer missiles collided and after, It would seem their shields are not the same as our shields as the plasma was able to pass right through them."
The Admiral turned his head and looked at Cassandra. "So what your saying is their shields protect them from kinetic weapons and not plasma." asked Grissom
"Yes admiral but I believe that are Mac gun would be able to..." Before she could finish that sentence the sensors operator reported of incoming weapons fire from the larger vessels. Grissom orders for the shields to be at maximum strength and tells the crew to brace themselves.
The entire crew on the Budapest braced for impact as the disruptor torpedoes slammed against the shields of the Budapest. As soon as the bombardment was over the crew began assessing the damages, but Cassandra was already ahead of everyone. "We have hull breaches on decks four and seven shield strength is down at 86%." said Cassandra
"What the hell did they hit us with?" asked Grissom
"What I can tell from the sensors is that it was torpedoes that when impacted against our shields created some kind of warhead that creates random and unstable fields in a localized area." said Cassandra. "These Torpedoes put incredible strain on the shields, We were lucky their wasn't that many or they would have collapsed."
"We can't let that happen again!" said Grissom determined to make sure of it. "Get the laser canons and rail guns online and target those missiles." said Grissom to the weapons officer. "Cassandra what's the status of the Mac gun." asked Grissom
"Charged and ready Admiral! Do you have a target in mind." asked Cassandra
"Target the already damage one make that ship go away." said Grissom
Cassandra maneuvers the Budapest's Mac gun and aims it at the Turian cruiser. The Mac gun one of the UNSC's primary weapon on ships. A hundred years ago the Mac gun was capable of firing a 600-ton ferric-tungsten projectile with a depleted uranium core at 30,000 meters per second it had a standard destructive output of 64.53 kilotons (TNT-equivalent)! today the standard Mac gun on ships has 750-ton tungsten round firing at 55,000 meters per second with a destructive force of 86.73 kilotons, but requires a two minute charge for every fire.
Turian cruiser The Hammer
CIC
Captain Actuss is listening to the weapons officer of the successful direct hit from the disruptor torpedoes, and understanding that the enemy's shields went down a notch from the warhead of the mass effect fields. Now they have a way to beat them. "Order every ship to use disruptor torpedoes to target the enemy ships they seem the most effective."
"Sir I'm detecting a buildup of energy that far exceeds anything that of a Turian dreadnought can put out from the larger vessel." said the sensors operator. "I believe they are planning to fire!"
"Get are shields at full strength and ready guardian to shoot it down." said Actuss
As the crew on the bridge works to get everything ready the midnight shadow blows up in a gulf of fire. The entire crew looks out in shock as to what happen Actuss runs towards the weapons officer. "What just happen?" asked Actuss
"I believe it was a mass accelerator that puts any of our dreadnoughts to shame." said the weapons officer
Actuss wasn't happy about this, but he still believe he can win this fight "have the frigates concentrate all their fire on one of those ships while we take ours and move back and to get away from the range from that weapon." said Actuss
The two Turian cruisers moved out of weapons range while the six frigates concentrated all there fire power on the UNSC Augustine.
UNSC cruiser Budapest
Main Bridge
On the bridge the crew is rejoicing over the destruction of the Turian cruiser, but the excitement had to wait as the comm. operator spoke out that the Augustine is being overwhelmed and their shields are about to collapse.
The admiral acted fast. "Open up a line to the captain of the Augustine." asked Grissom. "Admiral this is captain Littlefield we are being overwhelmed by the enemy, laser cannons are picking the missiles out of the sky, but there's too many; shields will soon collapse." Grissom thinks fast. "Captain get your crew to transfer power from non critical systems to the shields and try to get the Chimera to give you some support." said Grissom
"Were doing that now captain but I don't think the Chim...'' Before captain Littlefield could say anything the Augustine was destroyed from a mass accelerator from the Turian cruiser the Hammer.
Everyone on the bridge saw the destruction of the Augustine and could not believe it, the admiral however did not let this break his resolve. "Cassandra call in the reinforcements it's time we end this". said Grissom
Just as he finished his words out in space around the battle six Slipspace portals opened up and out came four frigates and two cruisers. this caught the Turian's by surprise and cost them four frigate and one cruiser. Captain Actuss was not happy but like all military strategists they know when to retreat and the Turian's began retreating back to the relay, before the last frigate could escape admiral Grissom ordered Cassandra to take its engines out with the laser canon. The laser canon on the Budapest shot out in a red beam and struck the engine of the Turian frigate leaving it dead in the water.
"Admiral do you want us to finish the job." said the weapons officer
Grissom looks at him and says. "No we need answers on who they are and why they attacked us get boarding parties ready were sending them over."
UNSC Budapest
Armory
Major Jenifer Hale a UNSC ODST is getting her and her team of twelve ready to board the enemy ship, she straps on the standard ODST armor and checks her energy shields! ever since the UNSC got their hands on advance technology they found a way to equipped all their foot soldiers with energy shields, not as strong as a Spartans but protects them from getting their asses shot. Admiral Grissom walks in the armory and sees the boarding party getting ready the ODST's stop what they're doing and salutes the admiral.
"Major I wanted to debrief you on what your team will be doing." said Grissom as he continues. "You will be transported via the teleportation grid to what Cassandra believes is the bridge and once aboard you will set up a link between the Budapest's computers to the enemy's understood."
"Yes sir we do and we won't fail." replied Hale
Turian Frigate
CIC
The Turian Captain was giving out orders to be ready to repel enemy boarding party's but just as he was about to finish a bright light appeared once the light died down there were twelve strange looking creatures in the eyes of the Turian's that almost resembles the Asari started taking down his people. There were shots fired but thanks to the shields of the ODST they were okay the captain looked up from the ground he was knocked down by one of the aliens he looks up at one of them the alien went up to the ships computers and started messing with it.
"This is Major Hale setting up the link now." As she did that streams of information was going through the holographic projection.
UNSC Budapest
Bridge
Cassandra was going through the information the aliens had and found something surprising." Admiral you need to see this!" said Cassandra. she sets up a link between her and the admirals neural implants, he begins looking at the information in English thanks to the translation program and found something shocking.
"It looks like we did the Unions job for them and more." said Cassandra
"I have to tell you when we started this fight I thought we were fighting a hostile race I didn't expect this." said the Admiral. "Send this Intel to General Williams of the Shanxi Garrison, the UNSC High command and the OSA Senate they will definitely want to see this." As the UNSC ships tows the Turian frigate to the Shanxi anchorage admiral Grissom looks back at the artifact now known as the Mass Relay and asks himself what the future might become from this encounter.
So this sets up the stage for discovery of the mass relay and contact with the Turians, next chapter will be the second contact war. And I want to ask keep writing criticism is welcomed but be professional please.
CODEX ENTRY-HUMANITY AND THE UNITED NATIONS SPACE COMMAND
The United Nations Space Command or UNSC for short is the representative body of Earth and all Human colonies in UNSC space. Backed by the UEG, The UNSC has become Humanity's military and exploratory spearhead for the UEG.
MILITARY- The United Nations Space Command Defense-Force, or UNSCDF is the defensive military force of the UNSC, consisting of the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy, which serve as a joint air, land, sea, and space force. The UNSC is governed by the most high ranking personal from all branches in the UNSCDF they are station at High command the UNSC main base of operations on all personnel, equipment, facilities, and ship deployment used by the UNSCDF. The UNSC has the ability to build ship's crew them and maintain their ships operations, it is currently unknown how many ships the UNSC has under their control but they are able to call upon vast amounts at their disposal to deal with any threat.
GOVERNMENT- The Unified Earth Government, or UEG, is the central civilian government that administers Earth and its colonies throughout a majority of the Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy. It houses the Colonial Administration Authority or CAA, the UNSC, as well as the UN. The UEG is governed by senators from all the colonies in UNSC space, but the UEG is controlled by an elected official from the senate to be the voice of the UEG.
ECONOMY- The UNSC is a major player in the galactic economy with several large human corporations taking their market share. The UNSC has control of over five hundred colonies able to take the full resources to help fuel the UNSC and trade these resources with their alien allies.
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS- Humanity is part of the Orion Systems Alliance the center of galactic government in the Orion arm of the galaxy. The OSA is under the control of a council which Humanity is also a part of along with the Sangheili and San'syhuum the founding members of the OSA. Through the OSA Humanity has good relations with the other races and are great trading partners with them.