Chapter 5- Gateway Station

June 11th, 2158

Relay 314 system

General Septimus Oraka stood at the bridge of the Resolute. It was the latest turian dreadnought to be built, 200 meters longer than any other turian ship, incorporating what little human technology the turian hierarchy had managed to get its hands on. In short, it was an oversized turian dreadnought with a few non turian tweaks built in. It was the pride of the turian fleet, and it wouldn't last three minutes in a fight against a human ship. Judging from what little he had seen of the human navy on training maneuvers, a single one of their super-dreadnoughts could wipe out the entire salarian fleet. If the hierarchy could just get their hands on a human ship, the technology that could be gained from it would secure turian dominance. Even now, turian scientists were researching alternatives to human tech, and had so far prototyped a short range antimatter cannon that drained the ship's entire fuel supply in three shots, while having piss-poor accuracy. They had also managed to design a device similar to human null barriers, although in order to run effectively it needed a hyper-advanced VI package that cost almost as much to make as a cruiser, in addition to bearing a significant risk of becoming sentient. In short, almost no progress had been made towards replicating human technology for turian use.

"General, we have a message coming in from the human starship 'Leviathan'. Patching it through to the CIC." The voice of the communications officer snapped him out of his thoughts. His human counterpart in the relay 314 patrol fleet appeared in front of him, in holographic form.

"General Oraka." He said.

"Admiral Hackett." Oraka replied.

"I am calling to remind you that the initial group of trading post construction vessels will be entering the system in 2 minutes." Hackett said.

"I know. How many ships?"

"We have approximately twenty modular freighters, each filled to capacity, as well as one mobile asteroid fortress."

"I must have misheard. I thought I heard you say 'Mobile asteroid fortress.'" Septimus said, disbelief apparent in his voice.

"Well, its technically not a fortress anymore. 1036 Ganymed has been recently re-appropriated as a civilian station, but it still has its defensive emplacements, so its considered a fortress. The mobile part means that it has been equipped with several fusion torches, as well as a prototype jumpdrive. Hopefully it will come through in one piece." Hackett said, nonchalantly. "Speaking of which, it should be coming through any moment now."

The fabric of reality opened, growing into a monstrous portal. The size of the thing stunned the crew of the Resolute into silence. It had to be at least the size of the citadel! Then, a massive asteroid slowly exited the portal, propelled by scores of fusion torches embedded into its surface. Oraka caught a glimpse of the hundreds of antimatter cannons lining the massive rock's surface. Then, the ugly silhouettes of human freighters began to appear out of the portal. Each ship was massive, at least two kilometers tall, twice that in length. At the very front of the behemoth starship sat an almost comically undersized command bridge. The asteroid slowly decelerated, retrograde mounted fusion torches slowing its velocity until it came into a stable orbit. Then, four of the human freighters approached the massive docking hangars built into the behemoth asteroid's sides. An hour passed, then the freighters emerged, all the attached cargo containers gone, a tiny freighter, only half a kilometer long being all that remained of the hulking ship that entered. As soon as they were clear, a second group of freighters entered the docking bays. The human ships had, in that time, moved very close to the asteroid, maintaining a defensive formation. General Oraka ordered his ships to form a defensive screen around the massive asteroid as well. It was a purely ceremonial gesture, as judging by the asteroid's defensive armament, it could likely hold off an entire fleet on its own. As he came in closer, Oraka saw massive circles built into the sides of the asteroid. There were six total, four forming a ring around the middle of the asteroid, while the other two were arranged at the rock's poles. Each one was covered with small protrusions, each indicating a site to which construction materials were to be attached. 'How did I not see those areas earlier? They are massive!' Oraka thought, as his dreadnought came within twenty kilometers of the asteroid's surface. At that distance, he saw something odd. Out of the circle, hundreds of metal beams appeared, growing quickly, assembling themselves into a skeletal structure, metal flowing like liquid. He hailed one of the freighters, asking "What are you making this station out of?"

"AI controlled nanosteel. We have about forty construction AIs managing trillions of nanobots, building the skeleton of this station. When the nanobots are in position, the AI locks them, freezing them in position. If we had this stuff back when we were building our stardocks, we would have had them done in months instead of years, plus our navy would be at least three times as large! Problem is, it was only perfected three years ago. This is the first project to use it." The freighter captain replied. "Its not relay steel, but damn is that stuff strong!"

"Wait, relay steel?" Septimus said.

"Yeah, we've figured out how to make that stuff mass relays are made of. The stuff is expensive as hell though. The cost of armoring a frigate with that stuff is astronomical. We could build three dreadnoughts for that price!" The captain replied. "I'd give the scientists twenty years, thirty tops, before we can cost-effectively make that stuff. You can bet your scaly hide that as soon as its available, the navy is gonna be covering its ships with it."

Septimus said a quick thank you, before cutting the channel, needing a few moments to compose himself. The humans could make mass relay material! And it was only a matter of time until they armored their ships with it! If they did that... their fleets would become even more formidable than they already were! A turian dreadnought could barely scratch a relay, and the humans were going to cover their ships with it!.

"Send a message to palaven command. They need to hear about this." He said to his comms officer. He complied.

October 19th, 2158

Relay 314 system

Admiral Hackett watched as the final touches were applied to the station. It was MASSIVE. It was by far the largest construct that humanity had built to date. The station stretched for just over 100 kilometers in every direction, the six columns extending out of the main asteroid each being 35 kilometers long. The four equatorial columns were linked together by a massive 5 kilometer thick ring. Said ring was covered in antimatter cannons. Should any troublemakers attempt to attack the station, they would run into a fleet's worth of cannons. The polar columns were linked to their equatorial counterparts by four massive curved arcs of metal, each kilometers thick and studded with antimatter cannons. The columns themselves were covered in docking cradles, both council and human sized. The center of the station was the asteroid itself. Inside was a city, with over 200,000 humans living inside already. Should the station come under attack, the entire structure could extend a massive metal screen around itself from the equatorial-polar arcs. This screen contained the most powerful null barrier in the galaxy, capable of taking 200 kilotons of simultaneous damage. The entire station was powered by over thirty giant antimatter reactors in its core, with thousands of eezo cores lining the station, extending mass effect fields throughout the behemoth starbase. Finally, the starbase now was in control of the relay, giving its commander the ability to open and close the passage into human space. A simple ping of an incoming message alerted him that the base, christened 'Gateway Station' was complete. He hailed his turian counterpart.

"Greetings, General Oraka." He said. He and the turian had become good friends during the months that they guarded the station.

"Likewise to you, Admiral Hackett." He heard in reply.

"I have been thinking, general. We have spent so long out here in space, guarding this place, watching as it was built."

"That we have, Admiral."

"I propose that we dock with this station, and have ourselves some shore leave. We've been cooped up aboard these ships so long that we've been growing restless. Shore leave would work wonders on crew morale." Hackett said.

"I wholeheartedly agree with you on that! The whole crew's getting restless, and unfortunately our two best hand-to-hand combat specialists keep ending up in a draw. One has reach, and the other has flexibility, and the crew's long since stopped betting on the results. However, the station would be unguarded while we are enjoying ourselves. We would be vulnerable to attack."

"This station has more firepower than all our ships combined. It can take care of itself."

"Very well, Shore leave sounds nice after months in space like this." Septimus said, before cutting the channel. Hackett then opened a fleet wide communication channel, and spread the news. The fleet was due for some rest and relaxation.

There we go. A break from all the politics as I think of what major storyline to run next. I am trying to decide between who to include next. The choices are: Batarian separatists, Quarians, or discovering some ruins on Eden Prime.

Also, I have been wondering if I should include Shepard and the Normandy in this story.

Next chapter will be the Humans and Turians enjoying their shore leave on this new human Citadel equivalent.

Until next time!