Mass Effect is the property of Bioware. 20th Century Fox owns the Alien/Predator franchise.
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Again, this took longer than I had hoped. Typing is still a bit painful, but my hand is getting better.
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July 25, 2228 Human reckoning
Near Relay 288
Like most ships built for the USM naval forces the frigates were severely lacking in aesthetic qualities, but where most ships looked like a set of boxes with a couple of engines strapped to them as an afterthought, frigates went the other way: Four huge engines with in the middle, rather as an afterthought, the hull. Their appearance reflected their design philosophy. For frigates their engines were everything, giving them the necessary acceleration to move in and out of trouble without getting caught by a more powerful enemy. However, the three frigates that moved slowly into the system had shut their engines down almost completely. Acceleration wasn't required. Not yet.
Mounted on the outside of the hull of each frigate were a pair of missiles. The missiles were huge, sharing the same fuselage with the ASAT missiles carried by destroyers. Not that they actually had much in common with ASAT missiles. Rather, the navy, finding itself lacking funds for its missile program, had applied the same missile body to a different, more peaceful project to get it past the civilian oversight committees. Then, as soon as funding had been secured, most of it had been transferred to the actual ASAT program. Of the missiles that had officially been funded, only a handful had ever been produced with the intention of deploying them from USM Auriga for exploration duties, but even that plan had come to nothing because the missiles had not progressed beyond the prototype stage by the time Auriga departed on its fateful first deployment. Now, in a move both desperate and brilliant, these prototype missiles had been pressed into service.
As the frigates moved in-system, navigational data was loaded into the missiles' computer systems, which started plotting their respective courses. Then, one by one, the missiles detached from their motherships and gently floated away, using the momentum imparted by the frigates own motion to send them on their way, even as the frigates themselves veered slightly off course.
A minute passed, two, as the missiles' onboard software evaluated the situation. Some were satisfied, others made a few small course corrections. Then each missile send a short burst transmission to its launch vessel.
USM Dagger
"All missiles active and on course, madam."
"Good. Let's hope they stay that way. We'll give them one hour, then we move to phase two." Commander Farnsworth looked at the navigational display. The system itself was rather uninteresting, a handful of small planets, none of them even remotely inhabitable, two gas giants, both of them very much average, all of them orbiting an equally average G-type. As a star system it was utterly unremarkable. The only thing that mattered was the mass relay that a scouting party had discovered twenty four hours earlier. It was fortunate that her frigates had already been equipped with the new missiles, otherwise there would have been a significant delay before they could carry out their mission.
Finding the the relay that had allowed the aliens access to this part of space had been a major achievement, but it was not enough. Humanity had to know more, and that meant going past the relay, and past the alien force that was guarding it. That was what today's mission was all about.
-o-o-o-
"Coming up on the one hour mark, ma'am."
"Good, signal the other ships: Initiate phase 2"
A second passed, two, then all three frigates lit of their drives and accelerated quickly toward the relay.
HNV Blade of Palaven
To commander Hieratus, in charge of the turian cruiser guarding Relay 288, the sudden appearance of the three human frigates didn't come as much of a surprise. The humans had to be scouting the surrounding systems as diligently as the turians and they were bound to find Relay 288 sooner or later. In fact, the cruiser had briefly picked up some sensor echoes almost a day earlier. While they had initially been dismissed as background noise, the commanding officer had been nervous enough to deploy a fighter patrol. The search had come up up empty, but that was not much reassurance. His ship, the Blade of Palaven was the only surviving cruiser of Recon Squadron 24 to remain fit for duty. So far Hieratus had survived two engagements with this new species and he preferred not to break that winning streak through overconfidence. Unfortunately, the tactical situation was not good. A view days earlier, lieutenant Saren Arterius, acting on orders from his brother, had taken all available frigates out of the system to search for the origin of the human ships, leaving the Blade of Palaven on its own to guard the relay. Additional force waited on the other side of the relay connection, but they were under strict orders not to deploy without orders from Palaven command, leaving only the one cruiser to face whatever the humans decided to throw at it.
So far the odds were not too bad. One cruiser, with a full complement of fighters, against three frigates. A reasonable match, except the cruiser could only be in one place at the time and the frigates, with their superior acceleration, could dance all around the larger vessel. They might not be able to destroy the Blade, but if all they wanted was to push through to the relay, it would be nearly impossible for one ship to stop them all. Still, Hieratus had his orders and he had no choice but to try and defend the relay to the best of his ability.
-o-o-o-
USM Dagger
The frigates advanced in line abreast, bunched up more closely than commander Farnsworth would have preferred. As a tactical deployment it was definitely substandard. However, they were not here to fight. Not really.
"Enemy fighters approaching ma'am."
"What about the big guy?"
"No movement so far."
"So, we've got a cautious one this time."
"Not surprising," her first officer spoke up. "According to the energy signature, this is the same ship that got away from admiral van Buren. They've seen what can happen."
"Perhaps." Farnsworth felt some ambivalence toward the current situation. On the one hand, she much preferred to stay out of range of the bigger ship. The after action reports from the two earlier engagements had shown that the alien ships, like the navy's destroyers, relied heavily on large spinal mass accelerators and she was perfectly happy to stay out of range of that kind of firepower. On the other hand, she really needed that ship to move away from the relay.
"Alright, we'll have to push them a little. All ships, advance and engage the fighters."
-o-o-o-
Eight turian fighters bore down on the three frigates, sweeping in across the starboard flank in an attempt to concentrate their fire on a single ship. As they approached, defensive lasers reached out. The line abreast formation was rather sub-par when it came to fighting off flank attacks, but the close proximity allowed the frigates to overlap their fields of fire and the frigates themselves were sufficiently manoeuverable to be able to adjust their positions accordingly.
One fighter suddenly spun out of control as a laser beam sliced into its engine. A second fighter was hit but continued its approach seemingly unaffected. Mass accelerator slugs from all seven fighters tore into the frigate Glaive, which was the most exposed of the three ships. Her shields failed in one spot, an hull plating tore lose under the incoming fire even as a second fighter exploded. Within a second the fighters crossed the width of the formation, spreading out and twisting away in order to get out of range.
-o-o-o-
HNV Blade of Palaven
Two fighters lost and one damaged in exchange for minor damage to one frigate. It was not unexpected, but nevertheless extremely unwelcome news. Still, at least the little exercise had given Hieratus some information on the firepower of the human ship, which would be useful.
"Order the fighters to retreat and take up position around the relay; then take us out on an intercept course. But slowly. I don't want to stray too far from the relay."
-o-o-o-
USM Dagger
"The big ship is moving, commander"
"Good," Commander Farnsworth allowed herself a brief moment of satisfaction. What is the ETA on the missiles?"
"Ten minutes, ma'am."
"Excellent. Come about forty-five degrees starboard and prepare to cross its T as it closes. We'll have to keep that ship occupied for a little while."
-o-o-o-
The three frigates spread out in line ahead and adjusted their course. Unlike the oncoming turian cruiser they had no spinal weapons but carried their main armament in turrets. It reduced the power of individual mass accelerators, but gave them more tactical flexibility. The cruiser slowly closed the distance, seemingly reluctant to abandon its position near the mass relay. As it approached electronic warfare systems on both sides started to probe the enemy's defences. By now both sides in the conflict had learned a few things about each other's systems and it showed. Displays suddenly flared up with random noise as systems overloaded with random noise, or showed echoes that jumped around wildly as fake targets replaced the real ones.
Suddenly a burst of fire crossed the empty space between the formations as the turians opened fire at extreme range. the first salvo missed, apparently aimed at a false target, as did the second. The human frigates responded, rapidly firing their low powered weapons. At this stage of the engagement the humans had the advantage as the rapid fire of their mass accelerators allowed them to quickly adjust their aim. Still, the range was extreme and neither side had much chance of delivering a serious blow. Turians shields flared as a metal slug tore into them, then a second, a third. Still they held as the humans failed to score sufficient hits to overload them. Meanwhile, turian gunners checked their targeting solutions and carefully adjusted their aim. A new salvo sped away and within moments a cheer went up among the turians as one of the human frigates suddenly fell out of formation, trailing debris and atmosphere.
-o-o-o-
USM Dagger
"Dammit! Get Glaive out of here!"
The frigate, previously damaged by the fighters had taken a direct hit on its hull. Fortunately her engines seemed undamaged, sparing Farnsworth the decision as to whether or not to abandon her. Still, with one ship fleeing the battle and the enemy targeting clearly improving, the situation was rapidly becoming critical.
"Commander! Our missiles are at the relay!"
-o-o-o-
The six missiles had slowly, but steadily, moved along their trajectory. Having fixed their approach vector within seconds of being launched they had had no further need for course corrections. Now they had reached their destination and it was time to stop hiding. From each of the missiles a short transmission went out toward the mass relay. The relay answered, providing the missiles' onboard computers with the data they sought: the coordinates of the relay that had been used by the last ship to pass through. Within a fraction of a second the computers made their evaluation. A new signal went out and suddenly the surrounding space lit up as the relay started powering up. Simultaneously all six missiles activated their engines.
-o-o-o-
HNV Blade of Palaven
"Sir, the relay is activating!"
"What?"
"Signal from the fighters. They're detecting missiles on approach. Low speed."
As Hieratus looked on a small group of signals appeared on his tactical display: relatively small objects, tentatively labelled as missiles, that seemed to converge on the relay.
The relay activating, missiles... What in the spirits' name are they shooting those missile at? There is no way they can hit the fighters, besides-
It took only a moment to put it all together. "Order the fighters to engage!"
"But sir-"
"Do it, you fools! Those aren't missiles. They're scouts. They're trying to get through the relay."
-o-o-o-
USM Dagger
"Enemy fighters engaging the missiles."
"They seem to have figured it out." It was all out of her hands now and commander Farnsworth could only watch as the alien fighters swooped down on the relay probes. As a program it had always seemed a bit far-fetched: Unmanned probes based on ASAT missile bodies that could not only pass through a relay in order to scout the other side, but could actually reactivate the relay and, potentially travel from one relay to another as long as their power supply held out. In theory their onboard computers were smart enough to map out a system of interconnected relays and then make their way back toward the point of origin. That was complicated enough. Their current mission took it to a whole new level. No one had ever intended for the probes to be deployed under enemy fire. Their best defence was to stay hidden. Unfortunately, their was no way to hide the activation of a relay.
One probe disappeared from the plot. The probes' stealth systems an delectronic counter measures were state of the art, but by now the alien fighters were on top of them and could engage based on purely visual targeting. A second probe vanished, but by then the remainder had reached the relay. A blinding flash of light, then the relay powered down.
"Not bad. Four out of six have gone through. Now all we can do is wait. Get us out of here."
Careful not to stray any further within range of the alien warship, the two frigates turned away to follow their damaged squad mate and accelerated toward the outer reaches of the system.
HNV Talon Strike, Shanxi, outer system
Saren Arterius felt a cold satisfaction as he looked at the data that the scouts had brought him. It was remarkable really. A system with both a mass relay and a garden world, right on the doorstep of council space and nobody had ever known. Such a waste, really, that it was already inhabited. Still, this was precisely the sort of data that his brother had wanted. They had found the humans' base of operations. Finally, the Hierarchy would be able to strike back and avenge the loss of captain Livestian and his cruisers.
"Lieutenant?" One of the bridge crew called for his attention.
"Yes?"
"The fighter patrol is changing course." That had been another surprise, though perhaps it shouldn't have been. The humans had not employed fighters in either of the two engagements near Relay 314 and some of the turians had speculated that perhaps they didn't use such small craft at all, which would have given the hierarchy a considerable advantage if it came to a full size fleet engagement. Saren had been unconvinced from the start. No one achieved space travel without first achieving atmospheric fight, and it was unlikely that an aggressive, warlike species, like these humans clearly were, would have developed aircraft without exploiting their combat potential. From atmospheric fighter to space fighter was not all that big a step and Saren had found it hard to believe that a species would simply ignore such an obvious possibility. As it turned out he had been right. Although this star system seemed only lightly defended, there was a definite fighter presence with multiple squadrons operating from a platform in orbit around the garden world.
"Have we been detected?"
"It would seem so, sir." The sensor analyst took another look at the data. "Definitely, sir. They are on an intercept course."
Saren hesitated for a moment. Part of him wanted to stay a little longer and allow the fighters to come into weapon range. That would allow him to finally engage the humans directly and vent some of his frustration at having been denied a part in the earlier battles. However, common sense won out. There was no telling how powerful the weapons on these fighters were and the unexpected defeat of Reconnaisance Squadron 24 had shown that the humans should not be underestimated. Four fighters were unlikely to defeat a frigate, but there was always the chance of a lucky hit and the information he had gathered was too important to run any foolish risks.
"Take us out of the system. Set a course for Relay 288."
Shanxi, planetside
General Williams, military commander (groundforces) of the Shanxi system, sighed as he read the report. The fighter patrol had spotted the alien frigate on the edge of the system and tried to intercept, but distance and relative speed had been against them and the alien ship had escaped long before they managed to reach engagement range.
"Well, I suppose it was inevitable. There aren't that many viable star systems around here. They were bound to find us sooner or later. Still, I could have wished we'd had more reinforcements before they found us. We must look like the perfect target."
The assembled officers wisely remained silent. It was not the first time the general had complained about the lack of reinforcements and it probably wouldn't be the last. Worse, everybody knew that plenty of reinforcements were available at Arcturus, only one relay jump away. Unfortunately, they might as well have been in a different galaxy for all the good they were going to do to Shanxi, unless the Assembly gave them permission to deploy.
"So, now that we all know the bad news, what is our status?"
"We're doing everything we can planetside, sir," Colonel MacGruder, his senior battalion commander, answered. "The marines are as ready as they'll ever be, we've called up the militia and we're training them as hard as possible. It'll take a few more weeks to bring them fully up to standard, but they're coming along."
Williams nodded. "Good. And in space?"
There was an awkward silence, while everybody carefully avoided looking at the only naval officer in the room who nervously adjusted her glasses. Lieutenant Sosa was in an difficult position. As the naval liaison to general Williams' staff she had had the unenviable task of repeatedly telling the general that the navy could not provide him with the support he needed. Today was not going to be much different.
"We'll have plenty of advance warning," she began, trying to paint as positive a picture as possible. "There are three frigates near the enemy relay at all times. They'll be able to alert us if the enemy comes through in strength. That will give admiral van Buren time to redeploy and either attack them, or fall back on Shanxi."
"And then what?" One of the army officers asked. "Will we get reinforced or not?"
"That... that is a political decision, sir."
"I see," Williams said. "So, in other words, nothing has changed. As far as the rest of the navy is concerned, we're on our own." It was a rather unfair statement and Willimas knew it, but right now he didn't particularly care.
"General." Lieutenant Sosa hesitated a moment. "There is one more thing we can do. So far it's purely theoretical, but we believe we can improve the defences around Shanxi quite a bit."
"Oh?"
"Yes, sir. We've been looking at our local ASAT stockpile. There are far more missile there than we can possibly use and we've been looking at alternative ways to deploy them." She pulled out a datapad. "The main problem is command and control. We simply don't have enough telemetry links. However..."
3 days later, Geneva, Earth
"... and so I must protest most vehemently against the needlessly aggressive stance, forced upon us by the officials of the United Systems Military. Surely any well meaning person would realize that if we could only bring ourselves to meet these beings with an open mind and an open heart we cannot fail but achieve-"
As he listened to yet another gutless wonder bleating about how the care-bear approach to interspecies diplomacy would save humanity from both the aliens and itself through the power of love, general Spears wondered once again how long chairwoman Hammerstein thought she could drag out these proceedings. By now Spears was convinced that that was her game. Whatever he thought of Hammerstein, and by now that was a long list of mostly unprintable things, she was far from stupid. She had to know that this was pointless. The endless debate had been going on for more than two weeks now and nothing, absolutely nothing, had been achieved.
Initially, Spears had thought that is was purely a matter of local politics, that Hammerstein and her friends were making sure of their own re-election by showing how they gave earth, and its people, priority over the colonies, while paying lip-service to the pacifist agenda and the very attractive peace dividend that it had achieved over the past decade. However, as he watched, day after day, while one pointless speech followed another, a different picture had begun to emerge. Hammerstein was staying too much in the background, letting other people do the talking and the stalling. She was simply not vocal enough to impress the voters and profit directly from the current political deadlock. There had to be another agenda.
"General, sir." One of his aides had entered the room and handed him a note. "A message form Arcturus, sir. It is flagged as the highest priority."
Spears took the note. It was short and to the point.
To: Gen. T. Spears, Chief of Staff USM
Hostile scouts spotted at Shanxi. Risk of invasion: high
Requesting permission to deploy second fleet to Shanxi space.
Adm. K. Drescher, CO second fleet
General Spears cursed under his breath. Drescher's request was perfectly understandable... and impossible to approve. As much as he wanted to, he could not send second fleet into Shanxi without the approval of the Assembly.
"Get me an appointment with chairwoman Hammerstein. Today if possible, tomorrow at the latest."
"Yes, sir." The aide hesitated. "Sir, there is a second message. It's from a mr. Harper."
"Harper?" Spears searched his memory, but drew a blank. "Never heard of him. Who is he, and what does he want?"
"According to his credentials he works for the USM Intelligence Branch, sir. He says that it's imperative that he speak with you right away. He asked me to tell you that he can answer all your questions. That's a direct quote, sir."
"Really?" Spears hesitated. He didn't like the idea of leaving the Assembly chamber. Politicians tended to have fragile egos and might take it as an insult if he walked out during a speech. Still, two weeks of boredom and wasted time had not bought him anything but frustration. Perhaps it was time for a change and if the intelligence branch could help him he wasn't going to turn it down..
"Tell this Harper I'll be available within the hour. But warn him, this had better be good."
July 29 2228 Human reckoning
General Desolas Arterius studied the datadump that his brother had send him the moment his frigate reached Relay 288. To say that it was a surprise would have been an understatement.
Right on our doorstep, and we never knew! Desolas had his own opinion on the rigid council laws that had effectively stopped exploration since the Rachni war, and the news that he had just received only increased his disgust. More than a thousand years of hiding under the bed, too scared to look around, and what has it gained us? Nothing! We still met a hostile species, we still have to fight a war. Might as well have explored as much as we could. Still, recriminations could wait. He had a strategic situation to deal with and it was a curious one to say the least. Two secondary mass relays, close together, but apparently not connected. We hold one, the humans the other. It's a meeting engagement and a recipe for wholesale slaughter. Two sides feeding ships into the battle through their respective relays. The handful of systems between them changing ownership again and again in a stalemate that never ends. If the humans have any strength at all the cost would be terrible, unless-
He checked the data again. If Saren's estimate of the humans' naval strength was correct...
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In canon Harper started out as just a mercenary, but I prefer to give him a solid background in intelligence work.
I was feeling a bit lazy, so I borrowed the names of Sosa and Farnsworth from Wingcommander IV.
In answer to several suggestions in the reviews: I'm thinking of the ASAT missile as a very versatile platform. Element zero really helps in that respect, because you can use the same engine configuration for both steady performance and short bursts, depending on how you manipulate the mass. So if you want to use the ASAT as a cruise missile, that is an option. You want it to be a homing torpedo, that is also possible. It's just a matter of giving the onboard computer a set of instructions for the desired approach patten, or, alternatively, letting the computer pick one. Keep in mind though, that a relatively slow approach under power is very difficult to perform in space. The missile cannot fly 'under the radar', so it would be very vulnerable to defensive fire.