Mass Effect is the property of Bioware. 20th Century Fox owns the Alien/Predator franchise.

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Shanxi, countryside

"Ambush!"

The explosion was strong enough to tip over the assault shuttle and send its occupants flying. The few turian soldiers that were still capable of movement scrambled to the doors, weapons at the ready, as the first bullets started rattling against the hull of the wrecked craft.

"We need reinforcements. NOW!"

Arcturus, USM HQ

The main conference room of USM headquarters was filled to the brink with officers in every possible uniform, listening as a tall, lean-faced man, who looked like he had been genetically engineered to play the role of witch hunter in a historical drama, went point by point through his presentation.

"We will go through the relay in three waves. First: all fourteen of our destroyers. Admiral Pressly will command from USM Rozhestvensky. They will clear the area around the relay of any hostile presence and defend it while the second wave makes transit. The second wave will be our main strike force. All four carriers, with a screen of frigates. This will be the most dangerous part of the operation. The carriers will launch their first strike package before making the transit, so our fighters will be ready to engage the moment they arrive, but there is still a window of vulnerability. The destroyers will have to hold off the enemy so that the carriers can open the range to the enemy ships."

Rear-admiral Pressly nodded. He had been recently promoted to fill the position of van Buren, who, if he had survived, would have been second fleet's screen commander. Pressly lacked van Buren's zeal and imagination, but for many of his fellow officers his promotion had been something of a relief. A solid, if unimaginative commander, he could be relied upon to do his duty, without chasing personal dreams.

"Excuse me," one of the marine officers spoke up. "Why not send the fighters through first? They can launch their strike before the fleet makes transit. That way the carriers can go through at their leisure."

Admiral Drescher spoke up before the commander could answer. "Not an option. Large groups of fighters need to be carefully coordinated. Our destroyers are not equipped to handle fighter actions on such a scale. Only carriers have that ability. We've been saying for years that we needed to go back to the old Airborne Warning and Control concept, or Spaceborne in our case: Dedicated mobile platforms that can go with the strike to coordinate large numbers of fighters. Perhaps people will finally listen to us." The admiral shrugged. "But that is for the future. Right now we need to play the hand we've been dealt, and that means that our carriers have to be in Shanxi space before we deploy our strike. Commander, Hackett, please continue."

"Yes ma'am. As soon as second fleet engages the alien warships, the third wave will make transit. This will be the main body of our invasion force. They will punch through to the planet. Admiral Grissom will lead nineteen rapid deployment vessels as well as five auxiliary carriers that have been loaded for planetary assault. The rest of our troops will be transported in cargo ships that have been modified to carry defensive laser clusters. Together they will deliver two marine divisions as well as a brigade of earth's homeguard to the planet."

There were a few smirks among the audience. The difference between the colonial marines and the homeguard had been largely cosmetic ever since the two organizations had been absorbed within the United Systems Military. Still, earth insisted on having its own, separate ground force, even if only in name. Now, for the first time, they would be deployed off-world, a belated attempt by earth's leading politicians to show solidarity with the colonies.

General Perez spoke up. "Our vanguard will launch in platoon-sized groups from the rapid deployment vessels. They will seize key-positions on the planet: Bridge and choke-points, communications centres. The main assault will, of course, be directed at Shanxi City, where we expect the enemy to concentrate most of their forces. Fire-support will be provided by our own Cheyenne dropships, so the navy can keep its fighters to deal with enemy warships. We have also received a number of the new combat drones. This will be their first operational deployment. If they perform as well as the tests suggest, we will even be able to use them inside buidlings."

"Yes sir. Assuming that the invasion goes according to plan, we will then redeploy second fleet toward the newly discovered mass relay through which the enemy entered local space, in anticipation of offensive operations."

Hackett stopped and looked at admiral Drescher, who now took over.

"We are expecting a number of reinforcements to arrive once we have secured Shanxi. Two of first fleet's carriers are standing by in earth orbit and will move to Arcturus as soon as we report success. They will take up a defensive position to cover the Shanxi relay. Also, Graf Spee and her escorts have departed from Thedus. Once we have retaken Shanxi, they will no longer be needed there. Instead, they will join up with second fleet, to give us a five carrier strike-force. Finally, a number of FTL haulers have left sol system with their cargoes."

This caused a few raised eyebrows. The FTL haulers were something of a relic. Relying on the old tachyon shunt drive rather than the newer element zero drives, they were hopelessly slow by modern standards. Their crews relied on cryogenic suspension to keep them asleep during most of the voyage. Their one great virtue was the ability to transport enormous loads, many times larger than could realistically be achieved with the more expensive element zero drives, which made them ideal for hauling large cargoes of raw materials. However, their long travel times had made them obsolete for any purpose that required a quick voyage.

The admiral smiled briefly at the general response. "I know, it came as a bit of a surprise. However, it seems that the folks back home are finally starting to do some long-term planning. The haulers will, of course, take about two months to reach Arcturus, but from there they can transit through the relay to Shanxi. One of them will bring a complete colonization module with housing and equipment. It was scheduled for a new colonization effort. Instead we will use it as a disaster relief for Shanxi. The other haulers are pulling military equipment, in particular a prefabricated fleet battlestation that will be put in Shanxi orbit. It comes complete with docking facilities as well as hangars for five fighter squadrons to bolster local defenses. We will keep the haulers here, and use them to ferry supplies forward to support fleet operations. The delay caused by their long transit time, is a pity, but it cannot be helped. Second fleet will not wait for their arrival. Instead, we will push forward to the new relay, and, if we see the opportunity, fight our way through. We will also complete Auriga's original mission and activate the dormant relay where we originally met these turians. I don't want to have a potential back door into our rear-area just sitting there, waiting to be exploited. We need to know where that relay leads, and who, or what, may be sitting on the other side.

However, all this relies on our ability to successfully retake Shanxi, which is not without its risks. Let's be absolutely clear about this, ladies and gentlemen. Once we engage the enemy, we'll be committed to see this plan through. I will NOT leave our invasion force stranded on the planet and that means we HAVE to evict the alien naval force from Shanxi space. No matter what happens, second fleet will not withdraw from Shanxi, no matter the cost."

Shanxi City

"General Williams, I grow increasingly tired of this."

It was not the first time that the turian commander, who had introduced himself as one Desolas Arterius, had insisted on having this conversation. In fact, for the last few days he had visited Williams daily in his cell and Williams was heartily sick of it. So far, the only useful result seemed to have been a steady improvement of his translation software, which, by now was working exceedingly well.

"That makes two of us."

"General, I believe you do not understand how serious the situation is. This pointless conflict must be brought to an end. Otherwise the consequences will be... severe"

Williams sighed. The alien was sounding like a broken record. "And as I've stated before, you are talking to the wrong person. My authority was limited to the military forces on this planet. No more. For any debate regarding your war against the United Systems, you need to talk to our civilian leadership."

The turian tapped the surface of the table with one talon in an oddly human gesture as he thought for a moment.

"Very well, then let us speak first of matters on this planet. Frankly general, your people are making things very difficult for themselves. I was prepared to put up with a certain amount of passive resistance to our presence here, but there has been an increasing number of violent incidents."

"Really? A hostile occupation force meets with violent resistance. Who'd have thought?" Williams was unsure if the translation software could pick up sarcasm, but the alien seemed to understand his meaning.

"This is no cause for amusement, general. As I have said, I was willing to put up with a certain amount of resentment, but I am NOT willing to lose any more of my soldiers in such futile attacks. Not now the battle for this planet is over."

"Perhaps you should have stayed home then. Failing to plan for the aftermath of battle is a classical mistake in warfare."

The turian seemed to smirk. "It is fortunate that the hierarchy is not without experience in these matters. Having the correct policy in place makes individual planning largely redundant."

"Is that so?"

"It is. For example, one of my shuttlecraft was ambushed as it landed near one of your settlements. Some sort of improvised bomb, I believe, followed by a short firefight. One of my people died and several others were injured." He activated a device attached to his arm and a holographic image appeared. "This is all that is left of the settlement. I don't think your people will try a similar action again."

The image showed a cluster of impact craters, partially filled with rubble.

-o-o-o-

For what seemed like an eternity, Williams stared at the image. Then he said, very softly, "Let me understand this perfectly. You actually bombed that settlement in revenge?"

"Not revenge, general, a warning. As I stated before, I believe your people will refrain from such actions in the future."

"You fool. You bloody FOOL!" Disbelieve and rage were striving for dominance in Williams' mind. "Do you have ANY idea what you have done, you maniac?!" He struggled a moment to compose himself. "It is one thing to bombard a building that is occupied by soldiers. But a demonstration strike on a village because of something that happened nearby? Retaliation against civilian targets is expressly forbidden by the laws of war. Do you have any idea of the can of worms you have opened?

The turian seemed confused for a moment.

"I... have no knowledge of these, eh, worms, nor do I understand why they would be in a can. As to the rest of your statement. I find that incomprehensible as well. This is war, general. The only law of war is that one does the utmost to achieve victory. Surely you understand that?"

General Williams shook his head in disbelief.

"God help me, every time I think you xeno-scum couldn't sink any lower you somehow find a way. You may not have any laws for conduct in war. We, however, are just a little more civilized. The ONLY thing that could possibly justify indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets is in response to similar actions by the enemy. From this moment on, any one of your people that were even remotely involved in this matter faces trial, imprisonment, and possibly execution for war crimes, if they are captured. Not to mention that you just gave the United Systems Military a valid excuse to drop nuclear weapons on any one of your cities they might chose."

This time the turian seemed genuinely amused.

"You presume, general Williams, that your military would ever be in a position to do so. That is never going to happen. I would have thought that your own experience so far would have taught you the futility of fighting the hierarchy. You did the best you could, and failed. As for the rest of your people, cowering on the other side of the mass relay, I hope you'll forgive me, but I am less than impressed by a species that actually thinks they can fight a war governed by rules and laws."

Williams almost felt his jaw drop. For several moments he was simply speechless, then he started laughing

"You fool! Why do you think we came up with these rules? Because we had no choice. Our species has spent its entire existence fighting over everything and nothing. We've fought over land, and resources, over political and religious doctrines. We've fought over skin-color! Can you imagine a more trivial reason to fight? Hell, we've fought wars where we couldn't even tell afterwards what the war was about. We needed rules to limit the violence, to limit the death toll. You bomb a village from orbit and you think that makes you look tough? To us it's old news. Bombing a town is pretty much the first thing we did the moment we learned how to get airborne. It's the way our species thinks: every advance in technology we've ever made has been driven by the desire to built better weapons. You look at new technology and say 'oh, shiny.' Humans look at new technology and pretty much the first thing they think is 'how can we use it to kill people.' It took millions of deaths as well as a few nuclear explosions, but we finally realized that indiscriminate bombing just slaughtered the innocent without achieving military objectives, so we outlawed the practice. That doesn't make us weak, it makes us sane. But sanity only goes so far. Trust me, one way or another, there'll be a reckoning. I just hope I'll be around to see it."

Citadel, the presidium

"[With nervous anticipation], What is the latest news from the war?"

They had assembled in Tevos' private quarters, rather than one of the formal meeting rooms. After all, this was supposedly a small dinner party, rather than an official diplomatic meeting. However, for a purely social occasion, the mood was rather grim. All three councilors were present, as were the volus and elcor ambassadors. Matriarch Benezia, recently arrived from Thessia had joined as well. The only two non-diplomatic invitees were matriarch Lidanya and captain Shiana Armali, the latter feeling distinctly out of place in this company. Notably absent were the ambassadors for the Hanar and the Batarian Hegemony. The hanar had always maintained a rather distant relationship with the council, unlike the Volus, who were a turian client race; and the elcor, who were closely affiliated with the asari. As such the hanar ambassador, though informed of the situation around the newly discovered species, had elected not to get involved with what he termed 'a turian matter'. The batarian ambassador had been informed as well, that had been inevitable, but no-one had wanted to risk involving him deeper than necessary in what was already an extremely volatile situation.
Councillor tevos looked at the elcor ambassador.

"It seems we are reaching a critical stage." She turned toward her turian colleague. "Councillor?"

Sparatus nodded stiffly. "Yesterday, I received a message from general Oraka, the second in command of the occupation force. He believes, with good reason, that the humans are preparing a counter-attack. According to his estimates, our occupation force will not be able to contain them, which means that not only will we likely lose a significant number of soldiers and equipment, we may well face an incursion in citadel space in the near-future. When that happens, it will be almost impossible to stop this conflict from escalating."

"[Hopefully], Could we use the citadel defense fleet to interfere before they attack?"

"No, even if we deploy the citadel defense fleet right now, it may not arrive in time. Getting from Relay 288 to the human colony takes about a week. And if our ships arrive in time, what would they achieve? The humans will come through the mass relay, ready to fight. We cannot reasonably expect them to stop at the last moment. Matriarch Lidanya would likely have no opportunity to speak before her ships would be forced to defend themselves. And, once our ships join the battle, it will be far more difficult to persuade the humans to negotiate with us at all. We have to remain neutral to have a chance at diplomacy."

"Exactly." Tevos agreed. "And that is why timing is of the essence. We cannot move before the humans strike. The primarch is simply not listening to us. But neither can we wait until the humans come looking for vengeance. In between these two moments lies a small window of opportunity. We, not the primarch, will be the first to send reinforcements to stop the humans. That way, we'll finally be able to dictate the course of events. We'll present the humans with a new face, a new organization, and new people to interact with. Hopefully that will be enough to convince them to wait and start talking. We'll push for a ceasefire. Now I don't expect that to be easy, but to be honest, I'm willing to give in to almost any demands they might have to be able to put an end to this madness."

"And with a ceasefire in place... You can present the primarch... With a done deal." The volus ambassador sounded like he was laughing inside his suit. "I could wish I'd be there... To see his face... when he hears the news."

"If all goes according to plan, yes. However, there are three major obstacles. FIrst of all, we need to send only asari and salarian ships. The turian detachment of the CItadel Defense Fleet has to remain behind, because the humans would recognize those ships as their enemies. That means that we have to persuade the turian commanders that it is their duty to stay behind, preferably without them alerting the primarch. The last thing we need is for a turian reinforcements to arrive while we are in the middle of negotiating a truce."

"Agreed," Lidanya said. "I have been laying the groundwork for this move, letting the ship commanders know about my worries with regard to the situation and putting the fleet on high alert, just in case it becomes necessary to defend citadel space. They will not be surprised when I tell them to deploy. As for the turian detachment. I believe that I can handle that with the help of councilor Sparatus."

"So," Tevos continued. "That leaves two problems. Unfortunately, their solution lies primarily with these humans, and we simply don't know enough about them to predict how they will react. We need to get them to talk, rather than shoot at our ships, and, once that has been achieved, we need to make sure that they keep talking. For the former, we hope that the appearance of a powerful force, especially the Destiny Ascension, will at the very least give them pause. When general Arterius attacked their colony, he had a brief conversation with the commander of their warships. It was futile, but at least they were willing to answer him. We have a copy of the translation software that an asari team developed before the invasion. While not perfect, it seems to have worked reasonably well. By now, the humans themselves may have made progress toward a working translation as well, so we will at least be able to communicate. That leaves the final problem. Can we persuade them to give formal negotiations a chance? That will be Matriarch Benezia's responsibility."

Matriarch Benezia smiled. "Yes, of course. I do expect that it will be something of a challenge to get them to agree. After all, their first impressions of galactic society must have been less than favorable. Still, thanks to the efforts of captain Armali-" she nodded graciously at the captain."-and her crew, we know that they can be reasonable, when given the chance. Of course, we will have to approach them carefully, but I'm sure that, once they have seen the benefits that membership of the galactic community offers-"

Shiana listened as the Matriarch explained her vision for the integration of this new species into galactic society. After the frustrations of the preceding weeks it was good to have a more hopeful vision of the future. Still, the couldn't quite shake a sense of unease. Before coming to this meeting she had had a last opportunity to speak to Benezia's daughter, Liara, who would be returning to Thessia, now that her internship aboard the Light of Dawn was finished. Liara's reaction to the news that her mother had arrived and would shortly set out on a diplomatic mission to the humans had been... curious.

"You seem worried. Do you believe the humans would harm her?"

Liara gave her a strange look

"That's the least of my concerns captain. I'm more worried about the results of her mission. My mother..., she may not be the best choice for this assignment."

Shiana was shocked. Matriarch Benezia had had a long and distinguished career, both in government and diplomacy. Who could be better suited to-

"Benezia is a racist." Liara ignored Shiana's shocked exclamation and kept staring into her drink. "It's subtle, but that doesn't change the facts. She believes, honestly believes, that asari are inherently superior to all other species. She doesn't want to kill them, or anything like that, she just feels sorry for them. It's really a gentle sort of racism. She just thinks that our words should count for more than the words of others. That the other species should be guided by our wisdom, the poor things, because we know so much better." At last, Liara raised her head and looked at the Shiana. "I just don't think that the humans will be in the mood to be condescended to; and when that happens... For all her diplomatic accomplishments, my mother is not very patient when people refuse to listen."

Shiana allowed herself to relax as she listened to Lady Benezia's plans for integrating the humans into the galactic community. The Matriarch's confidence was reassuring and Shiana found herself envying the older asari for her ability to inspire those around her. Still she couldn't quite silence the nagging little voice in her head. They were planning the future of another species. Would it not be better to actually consult these people before making such detailed plans?

Arcturus System

The area around the mass relay was more crowded than it had ever been in recorded history. Four fleet carriers, five auxiliary carriers, fourteen destroyers, nineteen rapid deployments vessels, and eighteen frigates were spread out around the relay. The greatest concentration of firepower humanity had produced in its long and bloody history, they were ready, waiting for the signal.

-From fleet-flagship USM Ark Royal to All ships: Clear for action.

-From fleet-flagship USM Ark Royal to All ships: Formal notification: Second fleet at full readiness. Expect immediate engagement.

-From fleet-flagship USM Ark Royal to USM Rozhestvensky: Deploy.

The mass relay spun up, enveloped by the blue-ish glare of its mass effect field. Then, in an instant, fourteen destroyers vanished from local space.

-Received through the mass relay. From USM Rozhestvensky to fleet flagship USM Ark Royal: Relay secure, enemy sighted, moving to attack.

-From USM Ark Royal to second fleet: Deploy

Again the mass relay spun up. Led by the four fleet carriers, the balance of United Systems Military's second fleet departed for its long delayed appointment with destiny.

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Cue Basil Poledouris' music for the Klendathu Drop. It's taken me a while, but we're finally there.

Pressly from ME1 had a father who served in the First Contact War and the ages work out pretty well for him to have been a senior captain or junior flag officer.

Obviously, my reading of Benezia is strictly a personal interpretation. In canon we know very little about her. However, what we know does not inspire me with much confidence. She was very powerful and respected, but we never find out for what. The one thing we see her do, she messes up completely: Saren. Seriously, what was she thinking? She finds out that the council's favourite spectre is a megalomaniac, and a racist, with violent tendencies. What does she do? She allies herself with them in the hope that she can 'guide him toward a gentler course'. I don't know what is worse: the arrogance, or the stupidity of this care-bear approach. She was a powerful person in her own right. She could have gathered evidence and exposed him, or have him assassinated. Anything but this. To me it sounds like she was a bit of an ivory-tower intellectual. Intelligent, maybe, but not very practical.

I'm trying to stick to my naming conventions. Admiral Rozhestvensky commanded the Russian fleet that sailed around the world only to be destroyed at Tsushima. I always felt sorry for the guy. He had an impossible job and he knew it. It is actually quite remarkable that he managed to keep his fleet together and reach his destination. So, in my universe history has rehabilitated him and the navy has named a ship after him.
Tannhauser Gate was obviously not a real amphibious operation. It's actually from Blade Runner, but it was a landing operation, and I liked the name.

The FTL haulers space-going tug-boats like Nostromo from the first Alien movie. A very practical concept, as long as you can afford to take your time.

I have received some questions regarding the military parades and locations I described in the last chapter. I kept the descriptions fairly vague, because it is seen through the eyes of an alien who has no idea what she is looking at, but I did use real life locations/organisations. In order of appearance:

The Black Watch, Royal Regiment of Scotland (location not specified)

Brandenburger Tor, Berlin. The nighttime parades with the torches are authentic, you can find it on youtube.

Washington Monument, Washington DC

Red Square, Moscow

Arc-de-Triomphe, Paris

Entrance to the Forbidden City, Beijing

Swiss Guard, St Peter's church, Vatican City

Polish Winged Hussars (location not specified, but Spears said he wanted them on the streets of Warsaw). While originally light cavalry, the Polish 'Hussaria' evolved into a powerful strike force, heavily armed and armoured, that resembled medieval knights more than the Western European hussars.