Cosmic Age

Long after the defeat of Caesar's Legion and the liberation of New Vegas, the Courier and Lone Wanderer make use of the Theta Technology to bring humanity back from the edge of extinction and take to the stars. When they reach too far they discover that the galaxy is not always receptive to the adventurous.

I do not own Fallout or Mass Effect

Also, for anybody who is sick to death of stories where the Council members/Council Races are incompetent/evil/out of character/childish/any sort of combination of those things...this is for you.

Also, I will be taking SOME liberties with material from both Mass Effect and Fallout.

Another note: I intend to heavily edit this at some point, as I very likely made numerous mistakes and poor decisions with this chapter in how it was executed. I encourage you, the readers, to point these out to me so that I can fix or correct them before I move on. If I see the need then I will rewrite an entire chapter past a certain point, possibly changing the course of the story.

Xxx

Chapter One: Collision

March 8th, 2353

Turian Patrol 3-14 (Third Fleet, Fourteenth Flotilla)

Cruiser Valor

"Exiting relay in three...two...one," The Helmsman announced just before three Turian cruisers appeared back in normal space, all eight hundred meters of reinforced armour and weapons moving without a sound away from a vast two pronged construct with a bright blue core of element zero encircled by several rings.

Each cruiser had an angular shape, built with a pair of red and grey 'wings' that extended outwards, baring rows of GARDIAN laser turrets while their powerful mass accelerators occupied the central area, which was colored white, and smaller broadside accelerators lined the flanks of this section. All three cruisers were fine examples of Turian engineering, and each had enough fire power in them to level a city. Accompanying each of the vessels were six frigates, basically much smaller versions with greater manoeuvrability and speed, but sacrificing fire power in return. This fleet fell into perfect formation

"Transition achieved, drift within acceptable parameters, marking hub system." The Helmsman recited.

"Very good Ensign," Captain Kravos Prinius nodded in approval and rose from his chair, arms crossed. "Deploy sentry drones and mark every relay in this system. Give me a fleet wide status update and then stand down to alert condition one and resume standard patrol operations. Mark all hub relays and designate our target."

The small patrol fleet had been deployed to investigate on behalf of the Salarian Union to investigate a rather unexplored region of space close to its borders. During a briefing to justify this action Kravos had been informed of a recent development discovered by a team of Salarian scientists: an unauthorized relay activation.

Many centuries ago the Rachni Wars had been the result of irresponsible Mass Relay activations, and ever since the near annihilation of galactic civilization it had been prohibited by Citadel Law to open new pathways into unknown territories without first locating and investigating the connecting relay(s). This led to a momentary relay jump turning into months of travelling at conventional FTL across unknown space to scout out systems for new relays-if any were found at all. And this was if such an expedition could receive funding, official authorization and have sufficient armaments to be granted permission to depart.

Thanks to this paranoia Kravos was under orders to drag thousands of Turian soldiers to the edge of known civilization in some system that was only good for being stuffed with extra relays. Hub systems were a nightmare to protect unless the enemy you were defending against could only enter from one relay, so if who or whatever had activated this was foreign and about as friendly as the Rachni had been then they would have about a half dozen routes to travel from that would lead into the Salarian Union alone and twice as many into other territories.

But if it came to that they would first have to tiptoe past enough fire power to level a continent.

"Drone deployment finished, sir. All relays have been marked, so far no sign of anything besides us here." The sensor office reported and handed Kravos a data pad containing the information being streamed to her console by the dozens of drones now scattering throughout the system. "I've marked Relay 314 as you ordered, and as best I can tell it's active but has not been used for travel yet."

Kravos was known for possessing an appreciation for humor in his off time, but at the moment he couldn't even bring himself to crack a smile at the sheer coincidence of the matching identification numbers between the relay and his fleet. If anybody else on the bridge shared his mild amusement they didn't show it, not when their training demanded discipline and focus on the task at hand.

"Good work Lieutenant," Kravos sat back down. "We'll maintain a standard patrol course and wait for new orders. Until that point or otherwise we are to watch for any signs of travel through Relay 314. In the event of this being another pirate or smuggler group we will deal with it appropriately and contain any fallout from this incident. However in the rare chance that this is a first contact scenario we will abide by first contact protocols, which means that I had better not see any weapons firing unless I give the order or somebody else is firing at us."

There was a stereotype throughout the galaxy that the Turian Hierarchy was the sort to shoot first and ask questions later, regardless of what the circumstances might be...and unfortunately it was proven right time and time again. Kravos had known Captains to do exactly that very thing, especially when it came to activating relays. Captains wouldn't spare any effort to force the offenders to stand down or even attempt to capture them alive. There had even been an incident in the previous decades of Captains believing they had stumbled upon a new species and immediately moved to acquire a new client race only to discover they'd found some hidden smuggler or pirate harbour-much to the embarrassment of the Primarch at the time once it reached the news.

This time was different, and Kravos had been selected mainly because he had a sense of self restraint. Neither he nor the Council wanted for some unknowing species' first contact with interstellar civilization to consist of a gun fight, possibly followed by a war. New additions to the galactic community meant new opportunities, new economic ties and resources, and best of all new ideas that could shape the future of the galaxy.

Many who were privy to this event believed that this was simply another effort by a Terminus group to set up shop in uncharted space, others thought it was some new race who had to be taught the hard way that they couldn't go around opening relays, but thankfully cooler heads had prevailed and insisted on sending somebody with the proper military experience and record of diplomacy. Even if it turned out to be far less climactic than a new species stumbling into the known galaxy Kravos would still have another well executed pirate or smuggler suppression to add to his record. And if it was just another two bit smuggling ring in action the Hierarchy at least wanted some members alive to interrogate., aorpses are never really talkative and anybody dumb enough to activate a relay on behalf of some client was usually somehow smart enough to wipe their computers of any evidence implicating this client.

"Ladies, gentlemen," Kravos stood up again after receiving a report from the other Captains in his fleet. "I will be in my quarters if needed. Maintain standard operations. Lieutenant Hen'ar, you have the bridge." He addressed the sensor officer, who saluted as the Captain departed.

Taking his place in the Captain's chair, Hen'ar was expecting to spend a few hours bored out of her mind before being relieved so she could go join her colleagues down on the training deck.

She would be correct in this assumption.

What Hen'ar was mistaken about would be that this peaceful boredom would last until the Council sent them further orders.

The peace didn't last for another two days.

Xxx

March 10th, 2353

ASV (Alliance Space Vessel) Fawkes

On route to Hub System dubbed 'Tartarus'

"Exiting Relay Transition in three...two...one."

The Fawkes appeared out of Relay 314 without a sound, followed closely by two more Wanderer Class Frigates and then two civilian research vessels.

The Wanderer frigates were blocky in design, made to be practical rather than look pretty. Their designs were vaguely derived from military ships that had been used for ocean warfare before the Great War: the bridge was set further towards the middle and a little higher than the rest of the ship, but was kept out of sight beneath several layers of armour and relied on cameras built into the hull or other peripheral sources for navigation and combat-though it was hard to remember this when the bridge was designed to make it seem like one was staring through a glass pane covering the whole front of the room. A single plasma cannon was nestled at the front of the ship's bow, and laser turrets dotted the top and sides while torpedo racks were hidden in armored compartments on the bottom.

On the bridge of the Fawkes, the twelve inch tall image of a Ghoul composed of a blue tinted hologram appeared on the arm rest of the vessel's Captain: Owen Mason, second born of the Lone Wanderer himself.

Unlike his older brother Alex he had not elected to join the Brotherhood of Steel, remaining a part of the traditional Alliance Navy. Despite being fifty years old in two months Owen had the appearance of a man almost twenty years younger, all thanks going to the wonders of medical science advancing more smoothly with help from the Prolat Scientists on Mars. He shared the appearance of his father and grandfather, and even had the latter's greying hair and voice and the former's intimidating disposition and piercing stare. Clad in the standard dark blue Alliance Navy uniform that had to be tailored to fit his large frame, Owen Mason was practically the poster boy for the ideal Alliance Commander.

"Relay Transition Successful. Sensors shall be online in seven minutes." The Class 2 Combat AI known as Grump grumbled...and yes, he always grumbled, so expect to hear those two words together more often.

"Make it six if you can," Owen replied, leaning back in his chair. "I don't like flying blind. Get me some visual surveillance all around and deploy the Gutsy Drones to be our eyes out far."

"Done and done."

Owen hated relay travel for one particular reason: it fucked with the sensors of smaller Alliance vessels like the Fawkes. At first it would cause electrical surges and even once crippled most of a Wanderer class frigate before adjustments were made to the design of the entire fleet back in the days when the Alliance was confined to just Sol. It had something to do with an electrical discharge created by the Relays when they launched ships through the mass free 'corridors' to the target relay. It was like an electromagnetic pulse with such power that Alliance vessels simply hadn't been designed to handle except for the Zeta ships.

It was just one thing about Relays that frustrated him, to be honest. Owen had an entire list of reasons why he thought the Alliance would be better off scrapping these things...if they knew how to. The fucking things were next to indestructible against conventional weapons, and some egg heads had a theory about a Relay being destroyed leading to an entire solar system being wiped out by some chain reaction.

So the Alliance was stuck with the giant space forks and made use of them despite Prolat FTL allowing for travel between the colonies. Sure, conventional FTL engines took hours to travel between neighbouring stars and almost two weeks to cross from one side of Alliance territory to the other but it was better than having a much too convenient network of relays that didn't discriminate in who they transported hundreds of light years in the blink of an eye.

Back to the topic though: the Alliance's smaller vessels still experienced minor system errors after going through mass relays, and unfortunately that usually included the sensors. His fleet had passed through three of the oversized forks for this expedition, and if nothing went wrong they would have to go through several more, stopping every time to let their systems reboot and survey the system for several days, marking colonisable planets and areas with vital resources to harvest.

"Hey, boss!" Grump spoke up after barely two minutes. "One of the drones just spotted something."

"Can you bring me a visual?" Owen inquired, tensing in his seat along with the rest of his bridge crew.

"Nothing that you'd be able to notice with your limited vision, I only had a brief glance before whatever it was flew off, and I only saw it because whatever it was altered course and hightailed it away. I think it saw us at the same time we saw it."

Owen came to a decision immediately, "That cuts it then, I'm not taking any chances. Raise fleet status to yellow alert." He sat back in his chair as view ports across every ship in the fleet was covered by a protective layer of armour and crew rushed to man gun controls.

Xxx

Turian Cruiser Valor

"We have a confirmed arrival at 314!"

"Flotilla reforming into battle formation and standing by for orders!"

Kravos had been in the middle of his designated sleep cycle at the time, and didn't arrive on the bridge until three minutes later (which he mentally kicked himself for). "Status report, now!" He barked, vaulting into his chair before it was raised into the air and moved to the back of the bridge where he could see his subordinates spread out before him.

"Sir, five vessels have appeared out of Relay 314 and deployed a series of unmanned devices," Hen'ra reported from her console. "I believe they are reconnaissance drones, and they spotted one of our own sentries-," She stopped in mid sentence. "Captain, Commander Onkari is moving his battle group towards the relay instead of returning to our position."

"What? Damn him, is he planning to start shooting?" Kravos muttered.

"I'm receiving a message, sir." The Communication Officer announced. "Message begins: Intend to initiate contact as soon as possible to avoid risk of unknowns departing or activating other relays. Will hold fire unless given proper reason. Initiating communications blackout to hide location of fleet. Message ends."

Kravos exhaled in relief. Onkari wouldn't have sent that message unless he intended to follow through on his promise; it would only be evidence to be used against him at a tribunal if he turned this into a battle without good reason. "At least he's using his head. Monitor the Seeker battle group and continue reforming the rest of the fleet. We can move in to help if required."

Xxx

ASV Fawkes

"There they are!" Owen rose from his seat as images were streamed from several of the drones, showing an approaching group of vessels. One of them was about the size of a Paladin class cruiser while the other six were close to the size of the Wanderer class frigates. "So you really did see something."

"I'm seeing signs of weapons, especially on the big one." The Tactical officer stated. "No sign of any barriers though."

"Want me to have a shot at hacking their systems?" Grump asked.

Owen shook his head. "No, not yet. This might be a nightmare made real for me but we're following first contact protocol, and supposing we live through this I'm going to drink myself to sleep tonight. Hold position, monitor the enemy fleet and-"

Suddenly the Fawkes violently shook as alarms began to ring. "Did they just fire on us?!"

Xxx

Several moments beforehand

Turian Cruiser Valor

"Visual uplink established," Hen'ra announced, keeping her voice soft, "The drones are transmitting."

A red tinted hologram appeared in the shape of a sphere in front of Kravos' ascended seat. Within it was a representation of the area surrounding the unknown vessels and Commander Onkari's group, represented by green and blue figures specifically.

Kravos leaned forward and addressed Hen'ra. "Magnify on unknowns, compare to known vessel military designs." The sphere shrunk down, the blue Turian vessels vanishing to leave the green three dimensional outlines of the five unknown ships, two of which were larger and rounded while the other three were smaller and blockier.

"Running database comparison," The tactical officer scanned the contents of his holo-screen, "No conclusive match with any military vessel designs, sir. Features are not reminiscent of Batarian design."

By that he meant they weren't floating junkers.

"Expand comparison to include civilian corporations," Kravos instructed, rubbing his lower mandibles as he stared at the images. "Also expand to cover paramilitary groups."

"No conclusive match," The tactical officer shook his head and turned in his seat, "These ships are designed in a way that I can't match to any known race. But I am reading minimal amounts of element zero and mass effect fields. It isn't even the amount used by a frigate sir, but it's there."

Kravos hopped down from his seat and looked over the tactical offiver's shoulder, one hand set on the back of the younger Turian's chair as he examined the readouts for himself. "We might just have something new on our hands...you're fully certain that these ships do not match the profiles of any known vessel in Citadel or Terminus space?"

"Affirmative sir. If this was made by any group on record they've somehow kept it out of sight of even the STG." The Salarian STG made sure to keep on top of all new military developments, be it a new form of infantry weapon or class of warship-and made sure to sabotage or hijack it if it was deemed too dangerous. While the organization had a history of dishonesty it still shared its findings in this area with the Hierarchy so the Turians could make an informed decision.

For Kravos this could be the moment that defined his future career. First contact with a new species was always treated very seriously, most especially in how it was conducted by the party representing the Council, and if this was handled correctly he could find his military career ending at a rank far higher than that of a Captain. While not a greedy man, he was ambitious like many other Turians...thankfully that ambition did not lead him to take extreme action. He would proceed cautiously and first verify the validity of this 'new species' and then stick to First Contact Protocol; after that, and assuming that this was really happening, it would be up to the politicians back on the Citadel to handle the long and tedious work of establishing full contact. All he was expected to do was launch a First Contact Package.

Suddenly the relay, highlighted in bright blue behind the unknown fleet, began to flare brightly to indicate an activation.

"Sir, three new contacts have just appeared through the relay, two matching the profile of the smaller unknown ships but another is cruiser sized!" The tactical officer had the image zoom in on the larger contact. "Receiving an alert from the Seeker battle group. They've been fired on!"

Xxx

ASV Fawkes

"Did they just fire on us?!" Owen Mason demanded.

"Negative sir! It came from the Relay." The Tactical Officer answered before accessing one of the drones, showing footage on a side screen of three new ships popping out of the relay that the Fawkes and her fleet had come from minutes ago. One was a full sized Paladin cruiser that had been heavily modified, flanked by two Wanderer class frigates; each ship had any markings of the Alliance removed in place of an E surrounded by a circle of stars.

E for Enclave, but the actual Enclave used the Alliance symbol on its ships and facilities.

This could mean only one thing.

"Manifest!" Owen looked to Grump. "Get our shields up and raise fleet status to red alert!"

"Done and done, but we took one right to our hangar. All our shuttles are gone and we lost two hands. The cherry on top of this crisis is that our sensors still won't be up for another minute, so we won't even have a good firing solution unless anybody here besides me can run the numbers in their head." The AI briefly glitched, "And Manifest also fired on the alien fleet."

The hijacked Paladin cruiser's plasma cannons had already blasted one of the smaller alien vessels in half. The other five and their larger counterpart broke formation and began to accelerate.

Xxx

Turian Cruiser Valor

"Captain, Commander Onkari is sounding an alert. He has lost a single frigate in the opening salvo and is requesting support!"

This was the exact scenario that Kravos had been trying to avoid. In an instant a day dream of being praised for calmly and rationally handling this delicate situation turned into a nightmarish reality as his subordinate's words hit home.

"Spirits," Kravos cursed, returning to his seat, "All vessels prepare to enter FTL, raise alert status and prepare for battle. We're executing a short range tactical jump."

On the far side of the system, the Manifest fleet that had been sent in pursuit of the Alliance exploration fleet had been surprised and horrified to see the alien vessels. Acting on their first instinct, they opened fire and began to divide their attention between their intended Alliance prey and their new targets. As far as Manifest was concerned all aliens and anything not strictly human deserved one thing: the business end of a plasma cannon.

The Turian vessels had reacted quickly to the destruction of one of their own. The Seeker had been the first to fire, its Mass Accelerator propelling small projectile at a fraction of the speed of light and hitting its target with enough kinetic energy to level part of a city.

The shields on one of the two hijacked Wanderer frigates flared dangerously. The two smaller vessels were relying on targeting data transferred from their larger counterpart, and had been focusing their attention on the Alliance civilian vessels-one of which was crumbling to pieces already and the other was badly damaged by the opening salvo. This fixation cost the usually agile frigates when a second shot from the Seeker completely gutted its target, tearing through metal and exposing most of the ship to vacuum.

The Paladin cruiser immediately responded with another barrage of plasma from its main guns. The green globule of energy slammed into the bow shielding of the Turian cruiser.

While Kinetic barriers could not deflect energy weaponry, the magnetic field surrounding the plasma dissipated against the barrier and left what amounted to a cloud of super heated plasma that washed over the hull of the Turian vessel. This still caused noticeable damage to the outer hull, which was made of ablative armour designed to boil away and negate the full effect of a DEW, but the Seeker was still operational and able to return fire while its five remaining frigate escorts swarmed over the Paladin. Laser fire flashed between the larger vessel and the wolf pack, with one unlucky frigate having a hole blown in its side and spinning away slowly while the other four managed to get around behind the Paladin and begin to unleash a payload of disruptor torpedoes at knife fighting range.

The torpedoes were cold launched, only activating their thrusters once the frigates had finished peeling off in time to escape the devastating effect as the projectiles detonated against the aft shielding of the cruiser and unleashed randomized and unstable mass effect fields that bent space-time, ripping apart hull armour and damaging critical systems beneath. This barrage left the Paladin cruiser venting oxygen rapidly from several aft compartments, its design having never been tailored for minimizing the destructive effect of the torpedoes the way Turian ships were.

While the Turian fleet took on the Paladin cruiser the three Alliance frigates attempted to protect the remaining science vessel. The Manifest controlled frigate, which was now relying on a hastily deployed swarm of drones for targeting data was almost zealously attempting to destroy the civilian ship, remaining close enough to it that the Alliance escorts could not simply destroy it without risking critical damage to their charge. They attempted to blast away at its engines with laser strikes or even manoeuvre between it and the research ship.

Suddenly the rest of the Turian fleet jumped into the vicinity, seeming to pop into view and loom over the smaller craft like Goliath overshadowing David. Two cruisers the same size as the Seeker accompanied by a swarm of twelve frigates charged in, Mass Accelerators firing on the human vessels.

Unfortunately Kravos was unaware that only two of the remaining ships were hostile, and as a result one of the Alliance frigates was blown apart in the first thirty seconds of the engagement, taking a torpedo to its engines after its barrier fell and suffering a series of explosions as the mass effect fields triggered a chain reaction. The Manifest frigate was swarmed by four of the Turian frigates and was soon torn open by a blue laser beam to its belly from a passing Turian frigate while the remaining Alliance ships tried to fight off their own pursuers while fleeing towards the relay.

Xxx

ASV Fawkes

"Retreat to the relay!" Owen coughed as he batted aside some smoke that was beginning to fill the bridge. "Cover the civilians, they're safety is our priority!"

"The Neo-Enclaves are keeping them occupied." Grump informed Owen as the Manifest Cruiser blasted a hole clean into the bow of the first alien cruiser while the other two moved to assist their sister ship. "Let's make this fast before these aliens finish with them and turn on us next."

The Fawkes and the other two remaining Alliance vessels fled towards the relay at best speed, laser turrets fending off strafes from the alien frigates. As they closed in on the relay however the other remaining Alliance frigate, the Apollo, lost its shields and was quickly overrun by two of the alien frigates. Its hull rippled with explosions as the wrecked ship began to drift aimlessly, every light aboard dying and crewmen being torn out into the vacuum.

"Relay transition in fifteen seconds!" The Helmsman shouted over the alarms while crew members rushed to put out fires around the bridge.

"Shields at twenty percent and dropping!"

"Come on now, just another few seconds." Owen whispered, speaking to his ship as much as to his crew. "Just hold it together for a few more seconds!"

Fortunately the alien frigates seemed to veer off and were rushing to assist the three larger cruisers, the first of which now had considerable damage thanks to a barrage of plasma and anti-ship lasers, a second one had lost its main cannon while the third had a wing sliced off by a precision shot from one of the anti-ship laser cannons on the Paladin.

The Fawkes and its charge finally reached the relay and vanished, being ferried back towards human space.

Meanwhile the Turian vessels managed to finish off the cruiser after losing another frigate. One final shot from the Valor tore through the side of the cruiser and cut it clean in half near the middle, finally ending the battle.

"Sir, two of the smaller ships managed to escape through the relay." Hen'ar glanced up. "And...the Seeker has taken heavy structural damage...she's broken sir, and Commander Onkari was killed by an explosion on the bridge along with the rest of his command crew."

Kravos clenched the arm of his chair tightly. "This attack...will not go unpunished." He growled. "Three frigates and one cruiser...hundreds of brave soldiers...oh this certainly won't go unpunished." The Captain stood up. "Establish contact with the Citadel and inform them of what has happened...and send a request for reinforcements from the Hierarchy immediately. These aliens opened fire on our comrades without provocation and will be made to pay for the blood spilt here today!"

Many who knew the Turian often considered Kravos to be of sounder mind than most others despite his flaws, and he was inclined to agree after talking sense into many colleagues...but after seeing the merciless and unwarranted slaughter of soldiers under his command the only thing he could think of was making those responsible pay.

Xxx

CODEX OPENED

Acessing file...

Opened file: SHANXI

The Alliance of Nations' fifth colony, Shanxi is primarily an agricultural colony designed for shipping supplies to Terra Nova. It also serves as the next 'stepping stone' system from which further exploration of the relay network and the galaxy at large is meant to resume for the first time in several months (view file: EXPANSION). Shanxi possesses a population of approximately 250 000, primarily humans with elements of Ghouls and Meta Humans. The Brotherhood of Steel has established a presence on Shanxi, as it does for all colony worlds to ensure it is able to respond to any crisis across Alliance space.

Life on Shanxi is considered to be dull compared to the constant challenge represented by Earth, but it is also seen as a Garden of Eden where its people are able to flourish without threat of slavers, bandits and mutants. In its short existence Shanxi has started a sports league for youths focusing on base ball. While officially the colony is affiliated with the New Chinese Empire, its inhabitants speak a mix of mandarin Chinese and English (mainly English) and most citizens are of European and North American descent.

File closed

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Accessing file...

Opened file: EXPANSION

In Janury of 2352 the Alliance Parliament chose to temporarily shelf all further relay exploration plans in favor of focusing on development and population settlement of current colonies and exploring systems in close proximity lacking relays, aiming to take stock of its current resources and ensure all colony worlds would be self sufficient before authorizing the deployment of the ASV Fawkes, Apollo and Canaan along with two civilian research vessels, the Fire Ant and Columbus to scout out six new relay systems as an opening step for continued expansion.

The initial decision to delay relay exploration was encouraged by High Inquisitor Jason Maxson, who insisted that rather than stumbling out blindly into the galaxy the Alliance should take care to ensure that its worlds would be protected and provided for in the event of a Manifest attack or any other potential crises. It was also at his insistence a year later that the exploration fleet be dispatched with the goal of discovering new systems and spending several days at each stop for the purpose of analyzing planets and asteroid belts for resources. The intended goal was to travel only through seven relays, spending a maximum of fourteen days out in unknown territory before returning to Shanxi.

It was this two day delay that led to first contact between the Alliance of Nations and the Turian Hierarchy. (see file: FIRST CONTACT WAR)

File closed

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Accessing file...

Opened file: FIRST CONTACT WAR

If there is one thing that all sides can agree on: the presence of Manifest is solely to blame for what occurred following the initial skirmish in the Tartarus System between elements of the Turian 3rd Fleet and the Alliance Exploration Fleet...

End of Chapter