The Cosmic Age

by Familiar47

Long after the days of the Courier and the Lone Wanderer, humanity uses the technology of alien visitors to build themselves back up. When they reach out into the cosmos however, they discover that the galaxy is not always receptive to the adventurous. Rated for violence and language. Bashing kept at a minimum.

3. Chapter 2: The Coming Storm

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 is 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.

And a big thanks to reviewers who have critiqued previous chapters. You've done so in a respectful and constructive manner, and I value your input.

Xxx

Chapter Two: The Coming Storm

March 11th, 2353

Shanxi System

BSF (Brotherhood Star Fortress) Chairman Benny

The colony of Shanxi was primarily a garden world, but as a secondary function it served as a colonial outpost for the Brotherhood of Steel. The Chairman Benny was not merely a hub of travel for civilians, but also a fortress from which the Brotherhood could operate out among the colonies. It was the first of its type, but as expansion continued there were plans for placing more out among future colonies to ensure protection of Alliance citizens.

Elder Thompson had been placed in charge of the Shanxi Brotherhood upon its founding, an honor that he bore with silent dignity and refused to allow it to alter his demeanor. A ghoul who could recall the days before the war when space flight seemed like a dream, Thompson had long forgotten his first name and only knew his surname because of a name tag that had remained attached to a work vest that he suspected had been part of a uniform for RobCo. After the alliance of New Washington and the Mojave Alliance Ghouls had become legible to join the Brotherhood thanks to the change in tradition brought about by Logan Mason and supported by Arthur Maxson. Thompson had risen through the ranks since that time and had proven himself a competent soldier and a reasonable leader; while by no means considered an impressive or outstanding individual he had enough merit to be granted the leadership of a minor brotherhood chapter that would require little of him.

That would change after today, as of the moment when the alarms in the Chairman Benny's command center went off, alerting Thomspon and his crew to the unscheduled return of two of the five deployed ships.

"They weren't gone for even a week." Thompson stared at the sensor screen. "Establish contact and keep watch for the rest of the exploration fleet."

"Elder Thompson, I'm reading reports of damage along the hulls of both craft!" One of the Brotherhood Scribes called out. "Captain Owen Mason has just sent his Command Code, it's authentic and he's declaring a state of emergency. Desert Ranger Protocol is to be enacted!"

Thompson bit back a curse at this statement. To declare Desert Ranger Protocol was as good as saying that barbarians were at the gates. There had never been cause for it before, but the only enemies to fear had been the woefully underequipped Manifest.

What did they run into out in the wild and unexplored star systems?

"Bring those ships aboard and put out an alert to all nearby systems." Thompson ordered. "Contact the Sol Chapter and bring back our patrol ships immediately. Send another message to the Terra Nova Chapter, they're much closer and have more ships to spare. And somebody get me Colonel Williams on the line and have him put the colony on high alert!"

Xxx

Thompson made it to the dry dock level when the Fawkes and the single remaining civilian vessel pulled in and were caught by gravity tethers.

"It looks like they took a hell of a beating," One of the dock workers muttered as the massive metal doors of the Chairman Benny closed behind the two vessels, sealing them within the safety of the massive space fortress and allowing for a boarding tube to be deployed. "What could have hit them out there? Manifest?"

Manifest had managed to hijack several vessels right out of the very shipyards over the past few years, and somehow had managed to make their own at a hidden location, perhaps in dark space or some unexplored system. But much of the damage on the two ships was not reminiscent of laser or plasma damage. It looked more like something had torn holes right through them.

As soon as the docking tubes were deployed a team of medics in quarantine suits were sent aboard to verify that there wasn't any viral infections brought back-better to be safe than sorry. Once the ships were cleared the surviving crew and passengers were brought off: eleven from the Fawkes and nineteen out of nearly forty from the civilian vessel.

A mere total of thirty out of nearly a hundred and sixty men and women had come home from unknown territory.

"Captain Mason!" Thompson called out upon seeing the second son of the legend himself.

Owen looked exhausted, shaken and even disheveled, but he was not as bad off as most of the survivors. He even managed to salute and stop shivering once he'd reached Thompson. "Elder Thompson, I have tactical data that you may wish to view concerning the attack on my fleet." His words may have been delivered calmly, but Thompson could see that the man was still shaken by the events behind the damage to his ship.

"It can wait until after you tell me exactly what hit you first." Thompson insisted. "We can discuss this in private while your crew undergoes medical treatment. Desert Ranger Protocol is enacted, we're calling back our patrol groups and preparing Shanxi for a fight, so we have to make this quick if we want to know just what kind of fight we're preparing for."

Xxx

Minutes later Owen was seated in a conference room. He had been given a medical evaluation and cleared for the debriefing, and now was calmly sipping from a mug of coffee.

Elder Thompson sat across from him while the leading members of the Shanxi Colonial Defence and Administration Board sat around them, either physically present or projected as holograms from the surface of the planet.

The first among these individuals was Colonel Williams, the commanding officer of the Alliance Garrison. He was a dark haired man and was already clad in his Alliance issue battle armour, a combination of conventional power armour with implemented Kinetic Barriers and a series of other additions that had been introduced to regular infantry ever since the Alliance had taken to the stars.

Next was the commander of the patrol fleets: Captain Deathstalker, one of the intelligent Death Claws who had been allowed citizenship in the Alliance. Like the rest of his kind he was big, scary and could rip the head off of a Super Mutant. Rather than wearing traditional Alliance uniforms Death Claws were permitted to wear clothing and armour specially tailored to their intimidating physique and even made them look scarier to be honest.

The third and final member of the Board was a Ghoul by the name of Jason Bright. Nearly a century ago he had led the Bright Brotherhood away from Earth in what was unofficially mankind's first exodus to the stars. As it turned out the supposedly simple rockets that he and his brethren had used to undergo their journey had been RobCo's first attempt at long distance space travel and had allowed them to fly all the way to Mars where they had crash landed on the far side of the planet from the Prolat settlement. After his flock was discovered and integrated into the Alliance Jason had decided to take his brotherhood further out, eventually becoming the Colonial Administrator of Shanxi.

"You may begin when you are ready, Captain Mason." Deathstalker growled, seating himself and making sure his tail was not in danger of accidentally hitting either person sitting next to him-even a casual flick could inflict a concussion to an unprotected skull.

Owen nodded. "Things were normal for about all of five minutes after we cleared the latest relay, only three jumps out and on schedule. We deployed our drones and waited for sensors to come back online, but then one drone spotted something further out from the relay. I had the fleet move to yellow alert before a group of seven unknown ships began to approach us."

"Were they Manifest vessels?" Williams asked.

"Negative, they were definitely not of a human design. They utilized some manner of laser technology, but the tactical data will show that their primary weapons were a form of spinal mounted gun which fired projectiles that could tear through our barriers in one or two shots. But they didn't open fire until the Manifest fleet followed us through and started shooting."

"Manifest got ships through to the expedition route? How the hell did they slip past us?!" Deathstalker growled. "I had a patrol group watching the relay at all times and this is the only one that leads out there!"

"It doesn't matter how, only that their trigger happy nature caused the aliens to then return fire...and they didn't distinguish between us or them. They probably thought we were part of the same fleet and didn't notice us shooting at one another among the chaos...or maybe they didn't care." Owen shook his head. "Maybe the aliens would have shot at us anyways, or maybe they were just trying to initiate contact. Maybe they were as bad as the Prolat Military, or maybe they just saw us and got curious; hell if I know or even care...all I know is that they saw us as enemies and blew apart two of my ships before we got away."

Jason shut his eyes, issuing a silent prayer for those lost...and for the safety of those who were now at risk. "So this means that there is yet another people from another world who would wage war against us."

This fact sank in for several moments as silence washed over the five individuals who now had the responsibility of defending an entire planet from an unknown and hostile alien race.

"All those years spent practicing for this scenario and it still just leaves us off guard when it finally happens." Williams groaned as his projected image showed him rubbing his brow. "We've got maybe a dozen ships that can be here within the next day, thirteen if one of the Mother Ships can be sent out our way. I've got about fifty thousand men and women groundside and barely ten percent of them are real soldiers with armour and military grade weapons. Then we have a couple thousand of your Brotherhood Knights and Paladins who I can have relocated into the city pretty quick but I don't see what good it'll do if we get a whole fleet on our door step."

"I've already arranged for a message to be sent back to the home system. It will have arrived by now, and they can have an entire fleet here within three days." Thompson assured the group. "Right now we need to focus on preparing Shanxi for a possible alien incursion. To start with, all vessels are to purge their navigational data banks of the locations of Garden class worlds and the home system. Civilians are to be relocated to the vaults and provided adequate arms and supplies to sustain them, and all reserve military assets are to be activated."

"I can get the anti air defences online," Williams answered. "We also have the orbital deterrence arsenal up here, and we can try testing out the Shell."

While a small colony by Alliance standards, Shanxi had been provided the usual amount of military protection that was required as a minimum for every Alliance world. This included vaults capable of holding the population (which was thankfully just under a quarter million), flak and energy cannons designed for repelling landing attempts, and most of all the Shell: a new type of kinetic barrier system that had been improved upon by Zeta scientists to provide protection from an orbital bombing.

It had worked to protect Terra Nova from a bombing run by Manifest, and scientists estimated that nothing short of continuous bombardment or a meteor could shatter the Shell once it was activated. The only problem was that the Shell had only been used in that one instance, and it had been to just protect a single city from several bombers for a span of an hour before Alliance fighters had finally arrived and wiped out the attackers. Nobody wanted to test it limits by breaking it out right in the middle of an invasion.

"We'll have to make do with what we have," Jason Bright said as he rose to his feet. "I shall gather the people and herd them to the vaults in a calm and orderly manner. Perhaps I could make them believe that it is another attempt by Manifest to attack us so that they will not panic."

"That might just work," Thompson agreed. "People here are used to threats from Manifest; some of them were on other colonies threatened or even attacked by those fascists. We can just explain that a Manifest fleet has recently been spotted heading towards this system and that we are taking precautions in case it is another terrorist attack."

"That'll help me keep the garrison calm enough to get the defences online," Williams added. "We can have the capital ready to fight off a whole army, and as long as the groundside generators aren't hit we can keep the Shell up for years and power the defence grid."

"The enemy may be aware of the single flaw in the Shell in that case," Thompson replied while looking over a data pad listing details on the alien craft. "They use Prothean technology like we do, probably more than we do, and the Shell is derived directly from the same thing minus a few alterations."

He was referring to the Shell's one weakness: it worked by picking up on incoming masses moving above a certain velocity, and if the enemy chose to launch a ground invasion instead of just bombing the city from orbit the Shell would be entirely useless to the defence effort.

"My men are ready for that scenario." Williams stated firmly.

"And my fleet shall be ready to protect this station," Deathstalker added. "But if I may remind everyone: this is all purely precautionary. These aliens have not attacked yet, and if they are reasonable and intelligent or at least can think and act rationally like we can then they could realize after reviewing the battle that we may not entirely be at fault. It might provide us a slim opportunity to establish a non violent contact at best."

Thompson knew long ago that the day Death Claws spouted words about reasoning and peace the world would go to shit, and this was just proof in his eyes. "Perhaps, but while we hope for the best we shall prepare for the worst and mobilize every military asset we have available until the Alliance can dispatch a fleet. You all have your orders, so follow through with them and make sure we're ready if these unknowns come through the relay with guns blazing."

As the men departed from the conference room, Owen finally spoke up again. "The worst part of that happening is that we wouldn't have much reason to blame them if they did. Fucking trigger happy Manifest probably just declared war in our name."

Xxx

March 11th, 2353

Hub System Tartarus

Turian Cruiser Valor

Ever since the brief engagement, which had been named 'The Relay 314 Incident' in reports the Turian Hierarchy had been quick to react to what had just presented itself as a hostile new species. Within hours several Turian flotillas had arrived from nearby systems and arranged themselves to keep an eye on the relay. If anything popped out it would find itself faced by over fifteen Turian cruisers, dozens of frigates and even one of the Hierarchy's mighty Dreadnaughts.

Several ships were scavenging from the wrecked vessels of the enemy. Of the six wrecks there were four frigate sized warships, the slightly larger but unarmed craft and the cruiser sized warship that had fielded full plasma weaponry. Three of the frigates had been reduced to scrap metal by the fighting, being the victims of swarms of frigates and torpedoes tearing them apart, but the fourth frigate had been retrieved relatively intact with all hands lost. The unarmed transport had been struck by what seemed to be friendly fire, as it had numerous holes burned through it similar to the damage done to the Turian vessels of the 14th Flotilla.

The cruiser however was the biggest prize of all for one reason: one of its powerful plasma guns had been taken intact and was now sitting in the single hangar bay of the Valor.

"We couldn't find much of anything else intact that we can specifically identify," A technician informed Kravos, who was standing near the wreck. "The computers were easy to decrypt, but they appeared to have been wiped, and explosive charges placed throughout the ships appear to have eradicated certain important pieces of hardware. It's likely a failed form of scuttling to keep vessels out of enemy hands, and it was possibly set off by the damage your flotilla inflicted rather than by intent."

"Their folly is our gain in that case," Kravos decided. "We have samples of fully energy based weaponry taken right from their ships, intact and functioning. What little we have will be transported back to Palaven for analysis and hopefully we will have some method of defence against this new threat."

"We've also managed to deduce several things about the enemy ships from the combat footage on your ships, Captain." The technician continued as he followed Kravos to the central elevator that lead up to the primary operations section of the cruiser. "The kinetic barriers and manoeuvring capacity on their smaller ships are actually not very impressive compared to their weaponry, if I had to guess their understanding of Prothean technology is relatively minimal. The substandard quality of what little Mass Effect based technology and computer software on their vessels indicates that these aliens may have only recently come by the technology."

"So they have stronger weapons, but we possess stronger shielding." Kravos summarized.

"Yes, but their cruiser was obviously able to stand up to at least one of our own cruisers, even if it was in a surprise attack." The technician nodded as the elevator, which seemed to take forever to get up even a single floor, finally stopped and let them out. "Between their possessing energy weapons of greater power than our mass accelerators and shielding adequate enough to protect them from at least an opening salvo..." Kravros saw the technician shudder, "If these aliens had been more organized in their attack or possessed greater numbers they may have been able to defeat your flotilla."

Kravos grunted, not appreciating the idea that such violent primitives might have prevailed. "We'll see about that, once I chase them back to their home and smash the rest of their fleet."

They walked towards the infirmary, which was where the retrieved bodies of the alien crews had been sent. Kravos nodded to the technician without stopping. "You stand relieved for now, soldier, take a break and then report to the Cruiser Paradox to return to Palaven where you will have the honour of providing all relevant tactical data compiled since the incident to R&D for further examination and reverse engineering."

"Understood Captain," The technician nodded and turned, heading back the way he had come from while Kravos entered the infirmary where bodies of the alien crew had been placed in pods to preserve them for study.

Now that he had a good look at them, Kravos was torn between fascination and repulsion. Rather than a single species the Turian could count as many as three or four out of the dozens of retrieved bodies.

Some appeared to be like Asari with hair, and obvious differences in physiology indicated different genders resulting in what was basically a male Asari.

Others were bigger than Krogan and had warped features possessing different colours and abnormal shapes.

Another species looked more reptilian, with horns and claws that made a Turian look feeble in comparison.

And the final species looked like the first, Asari like, but they appeared as though they had been rotting for weeks rather than being dead for little over a single day. To put it simply: they looked like corpses that had been given years to begin the process of necrosis, but had somehow held together even in the vacuum of space.

"By the spirits...what am I looking at?" Kravos asked as he examined the specimens one by one. "What a collection of mismatched species." He knew that it might sound hypocritical, given that the Council races came in all shapes and sizes, but these four looked absolutely ridiculous when clumped together and in matching uniforms.

"The larger cruiser and two of the frigates only contained members of this species, sir." The Chief Medical Officer lead Kravos over to a row of the smooth skinned Asari look alike. "I've classified them as Specimen 314-1 for convenience's sake. The larger ones are 314-2, the reptilians 314-3 and the...other set of specimens are 314-4 until proper designations can be appointed."

"Tell me what you know of them so far." Kravos requested, regaining his composure.

"I can only deduce three things after my preliminary analysis of the bodies, Captain." The CMO replied. "Firstly...species 1, 2 and 4 share certain genetic traits while species 2, 3 and 4 all share signs of extreme genetic alteration with lesser evidence of this in species 1. I'm basing this off several dozen comparisons I've run between them all."

"Are you telling me that we have encountered some collective of...mutations?" Kravos could barely believe he was hearing this.

"Yes sir. Species 4 differs from 2 and 3 in certain ways that I can't even begin to explain." The CMO gestured to the specimens in order. "Whereas species 2 and 3 appear to be the result of intentional alteration that carries a sort of pattern which can be seen among them, species 4 just...just shouldn't ever have been alive at all from what I can see."

Taking note of his Captain's confusion, the CMO struggled to explain himself. "Their bodies are simply chockfull of radiation, and their bodies are in what should be a stage of necrosis, yet somehow these beings were alive and walking about just as you and I are now until only recently. It's why I've had every specimen contained in pods and issued orders for all medical personnel to be wearing protective gear when handling the bodies, just to be safe. In fact all of these specimens appear to have been affected by radiation to some degree and over a long period of time. If I had to make a comparison, sir, I would attribute this radiation to a nuclear device, or at least the fallout from one."

Whatever this motley assortment of races were, they had been exposed to levels of radiation that could even make Turians uncomfortable, and in some cases even be considered lethal. What confused him more was how these different sub species managed to coexist aboard what were obviously military vessels.

"Species 1 appears to be the most common form of subspecies among this race, Captain. They appeared to fully crew the enemy flagship and were found most often on the rest of the enemy vessels retrieved." The CMO showed him the Turian equivalent of what humans would know as a bar chart he had made to account for every retrieved body. "If we are to assume that all four categories represent an alliance of sorts similar to the Citadel races then this may just be their dominant species, their counterpart for our people."

"Are there any other unwelcome surprises I should be aware of, doctor?" Kravos sighed, leaning back against a work desk. "Will you tell me that they have AIs and Rachnii next? Do continue, I need a justification to start drinking."

"I'm glad to say that the situation does not yet seem that dire," The CMO shook his head. "Although many of the specimens had implants within their bodies...rather effective implants I might add."

He gestured for Kravos to follow him over to one of the Species 1 pods. "This one here: Specimen 314-1-176. He has an optical implant that enhanced his vision to a point where this man must have been an ace marksman, or at least possessed immense hand-eye coordination, or even both."

He moved on to another pod. "314-3-008," He patted the pod of one of the reptilian aliens. "This had a fully synthetic brain and spinal cord that I haven't even managed to view in depth yet. The most notable augmentation I have discovered however is right here."

The CMO directed Kravos to another member of Species 1, a female by the look of her. "She has a sub dermal implant in the form of armour somehow grafted directly beneath her epidermis. It is similar to the skin weave augmentation available, but more...thorough, with a higher damage threshold based on the tests I've run."

"She has body armour...under her skin?" Kravos asked skeptically before being shown a full body scan taken earlier. "What sort of people would butcher themselves with such frequency? These implants look like they could easily be replicated in a less extreme fashion."

The Turians had implants and prosthetic limbs for soldiers, mainly those wounded in battle, and there were organizations that partook in genetic therapy to assist in overcoming genetic disorders-the Council was fine with it as long as there weren't any serious alterations to an otherwise normal physiology. But these aliens appeared to be physically fine before their deaths, and with the limited time that the Valor's crew had been able to analyze the bodies and technology taken from the enemy fleet they could only confirm that many of these beings had a different assortment of implants, mutations and oddities about them that were ridiculously diverse.

None of these implants appeared to be standard issue, as they were spread almost randomly throughout the ranks of the enemy crew. The aliens taken off of the flagship and some of the smaller ships had almost no mutations within them whatsoever and had very few implants, but the bodies retrieved from several others were the ones that shocked and intrigued Kravos. It was like the vessels had been jammed full with a random assortment of individuals or crewed entirely by one species in different areas, and this lack of organization served to frustrate the already irritable Captain.

"Have these bodies transferred and scheduled for shipment back to the home system," Kravos decided. "Mark them for quarantine and leave proper safety instructions for safe handling and opening these pods. I will see to it that they are shipped directly to an off world research facility, just to be safe."

"By your command, Captain," The CMO saluted and rushed off to execute the orders given to him.

Kravos' next destination was the bridge, which was a Varren hive of activity just like the rest of the glowing fleet. His crew had been lucky enough not to sustain casualties or even any injuries in the earlier encounter, but around a half dozen frigates had been blasted apart with all hands lost and the Seeker would have to be towed back to Palaven and possibly disassembled and rebuilt from scratch. If this alliance from beyond Relay 314 possessed an entire fleet or similar warships in sufficient numbers then the Turian Hierarchy could not afford to turn its back on this looming threat.

"Sir, General Arterius' battle group has arrived and he is requesting a conference with all Fleet Captains, he's waiting for you in the CIC." Hen'ar informed him.

"I'll be there in just a minute," Kravos collapsed into his seat. "I have a headache that's only getting bigger with every passing minute as I learn more about our new foe."

"I'd heard the rumors, sir." Hen'ar nodded as she stepped up next to his seat and gazed out through the forward view ports of the bridge. "And here we were sent out to prevent a fight...it's rather ironic in a grim sort of way."

"Don't remind me." Kravos rested one hand over his eyes. "A lot of green recruits practically salivate for a good skirmish these days, but for all their training it's never fun to waltz into unknown regions and invade planets. It's a bloody nightmare, and they should be happy to contend with just pirates that have second rate weapons and the odd rogue mercenary ship."

Hen'ar turned her gaze down to her commander. "I can't imagine what else we can do at this point, sir. They opened fire on us first."

"I know that, and it's not the problem." Kravos rose to his feet. "Lieutenant, how many battles have you been in?"

"Eight pirate incursions, two slaver interceptions and I saw some of the action over on Laeross'e (Lay-rose-ey)," Hen'ar answered. "Four of these events while under your command."

"And in every case you have either been on board a fully armed warship of the Hierarchy, or equipped with military issue weapons and armour while backed up by your fellow soldiers against inferior firepower or numbers." Kravos presumed. "I know that you've served diligently and with integrity throughout your career, but a war with an entire species is something else entirely. And we are now at war with four or more different races."

He walked towards the forward view ports and stared at a second Turian Dreadnaught now dangling in the void with an escort of three new cruisers and a dozen frigates trailing behind it. Kravos folded his hands behind his back and continued speaking. "The Hierarchy will likely attempt to envelope this group as a vassal state, which will require near or total domination of their territories. We know that they are a space faring coalition of sorts, that they possess energy weaponry ranging from hand held to ship based and that their cruisers can tear apart our frigates and their own smaller vessels can stand up to them. For all we know they may have whole armadas that stretch across dozens of systems and a dedicated army waiting for us to come through that relay."

Kravos turned towards Hen'ar again. "Even if they are just a motley collection of scavengers with a few dozen ships at their disposal this will turn into a blood bath until the Hierarchy is satisfied that any threat beyond Relay 314 is neutralized. That means hundreds, perhaps thousands of Turian soldiers are going to die."

Hen'ar saw her Captain's shoulders sag a bit as he walked past her, whispering softly to himself. "Why did they have to fire...why did they have to kill my men and bring this on themselves?" He shook his head and took a deep breath. "I will take part in the pacification of this collective Lieutenant, and I may have been the first to declare a bloody vengeance against them...but don't expect me to be jumping for joy at the prospect of what shall follow in the next few days."

Kravos left the bridge and relocated to the CIC just a few dozen feet aft. The crew within vacated while the lights dimmed and the seasoned Captain stepped into the heart of the room. A moment later Kravos found himself standing before the holographic image of Desolas Arterius, a respected and even feared Turian General who had earned his rank in the more gruesome fights that the Turian Hierarchy still took part in.

"Captain Prinius, welcome." Desolas greeted him. "I have gone over the salvaged technology and medical reports and was wondering if you could verify these findings for me."

"I can, sir." Kravos nodded while standing at attention.

"Good, then you might also verify certain details surrounding the initial engagement with the enemy," Desolas nodded, folding his hands behind his back, "I received a copy of your combat footage, but I decided to wait until we could gather and view it together to analyze the enemy fleet's actions, tactics and weaknesses as well as discuss any actions you took in the span of this engagement." He nodded to somebody out of view before the images of the Turian General vanished, replaced by a representation of the battle compiled from drone footage and ship board sensors.

"Begin," Desolas' disembodied voice commanded, and the image of Commander Onkari's battle group began to move in towards the five initial enemy ships. "Captain, kindly provide details as these events occur."

"Of course General," Kravos nodded, "Commander Onkari chose to approach the enemy fleet. He sent a message stating his intent to initiate contact, and that he would hold fire unless given proper reason. I chose to allow this."

Moments later the relay flared as the additional three enemy ships appeared and immediately began to fire...however Kravos took notice of something. Now that he had a clear visual of the battle's opening he could see that the three new enemy ships appeared to be dividing their fire between his vessels and the original enemy group. One of the unarmed ships was hit immediately, suffering damage all along its length as red bolts of laser fire and green globules of plasma tore into its hull. The three armed ships in the original group returned fire.

"I...at this point Onkari issued an alert stating that he had been fired upon, and had already lost a frigate." Kravos continued, a chill running up his spine, "I issued an order for the fleet to make a short range tactical jump to come to his aid."

As the battle played out the Turian fleet began to unload with everything it had. The entire time Kravos managed to keep his eyes on the ships who Onkari had been approaching, the two survivors who had managed to flee through the relay...

They had fired on his ships, but only in the process of trying to flee back towards the relay and protecting the single remaining unarmed vessel. The ships from the second group continued to fight to the death, taking many Turians with them and trying to take out the ships from the first group with an almost frantic persistence. It became clear to him that these two groups had been fighting one another as much as he had been fighting both of them.

"...spirits," Kravos whispered, realizing the colossal mistake that he had made. "Those other ships...they weren't enemy reinforcements...they were pursuing the first group, they were attacking them and my ships at the same time!"

Desolas reappeared, rubbing his chin as he examined these events. "Indeed..." He murmured, "A rather...tragic misunderstanding if I do say so." He looked over at Kravos and saw the Captain's horrified expression. "...Captain, you know that you aren't responsible for this."

"Aren't I?!" Kravos demanded, "If I had stopped and looked at the sensors for maybe five seconds I could have-"

"You would have been focusing on something besides rushing to the aid of your fellow soldiers and minimizing the casualties in your fleet." Desolas cut him off. "The moment that Onkari sent that distress call you reacted the way any soldier is expected to: moving as quickly as possible to eliminate the enemy and protect his comrades. You panicked, yes. Your fellow captains panicked, yes. You all only could think that some new, strange race had opened fire and declared war against you and was about to wipe out a whole battle group with new and powerful energy weapons that can carve through our ships easily."

He set a hand on Kravos' shoulder, the hologram mimicking the physical contact on both ends of the link. "In the rush of battle it is easy to miss details that can be spotted from the sidelines, when under pressure it is easy to jump to action and not stop until your instincts tell you it is safe. The moment your fleet arrived at the site of that battle they did the only thing they were trained to: attack until there was no enemy left to fight against."

"And you were one hundred percent justified in it," Desolas finished his lecture.

Kravos sighed, relaxing his posture. "...you're right sir...thank you."

Desolas retracted his hand and resumed his previous pose. "Onkari probably could have told us this himself if he'd survived, but with how everything happened so fast that the last thing I expect anyone in your fleet would be doing is pausing to think. Hindsight can be cruel, but rest assured I will not allow you to be made a scapegoat when the fault clearly lies with these aliens," He turned and looked at the frozen images of the alien ships, "Which is why I am authorizing you and your remaining ships to accompany my fleet as we pacify this new race."

That took a moment to reach Kravos. "What? Pacify? But sir, this new information-"

"Changes nothing," Desolas said dismissively. "Let me tell you the facts Captain: your fleet was attacked without provocation by one group of ships that happened to be attacking a similar group of ships, which perhaps belonged to two different factions. These ships use a powerful array of energy weapons that might take us years to even begin to replicate or create defences against. They might have an entire fleet employing these weapons with such effect that they can pose a threat to a fully armed Turian armada and potentially begin encroaching on Council territory by force of arms if left unchecked."

Desolas continued on without stopping, pacing slowly in front of Kravos. "Now let me tell you what we can only speculate on. Perhaps the faction that fired on you was a group of pirates, or perhaps they were a military fleet pursuing a group of pirates. We know absolutely nothing about these people and I will not run the risk of them returning to this system and having free run of Council space where they might attack other ships or perhaps entire colonies. And most importantly, even if they do not have any hostile intentions their very presence is a threat to the delicate balance of power in Council Space, even if we somehow reverse engineer what you have retrieved from them and apply it to our own ships."

Desolas fixed Kravos with a piercing stare. "Now tell me, Captain Pridius, can you think of any reason that I should allow this new race to run rampant after this? Over three hundred Turians are dead, their families will cry out for answers as to why...and I intend to give them that answer."

Under the General's stare and his cold but honest words Kravos couldn't offer any defence. "I...I can't give you any reason sir." He whispered.

"Good," Desolas replied, "We will wait for repairs to be finished on your ships, and then we shall conduct reconnaissance to track these ships back to their port of harbour. Once we have an identifiable target...we strike with overwhelming force and take control of it or destroy it if necessary. The Hierarchy will send further reinforcements as we proceed, and once this race is pacified and under control we can sort out the facts behind the events that have occurred in this system."

Kravos could see Desolas pick up a data pad. "As a General of the Hierarchy I'm using my own authority to authorize this counter attack. The Council will see the sense in this, though they'll likely give me grief for it I always did prefer asking for their forgiveness instead of their blessing...at least then I have some chance instead of no chance at all of getting anything from them."

This was...amoral, it was wrong to even consider.

Kravos' righteous fury had been extinguished with doubt by what he had seen. Could it be that the people who Onkari would have made contact with were peaceful? Would they still have attacked anyways? He might never know, his men might never find closure after this, but he didn't want to support an invasion that might result in countless deaths on both sides if there was reasonable doubt to cast on the idea that the Hierarchy was truly at war. He needed all of the facts, he needed to know what had been going through the minds of the crews of the three aggressive ships when they had seen Onkari's group and elected to attack.

This went against everything that Kravos valued.

It was easy to see that Desolas would not give him any choice on this. He could declare Kravos mentally incompetent, traumatized from the deaths of so many men under his command, appoint somebody more cooperative. Kravos would be humiliated, stripped of everything he had worked so hard for...but was his rank and reputation more important to him than pursuing the truth behind this pointless battle?

...

This was the only path that Kravos could follow now.

"Yes sir," Kravos closed his eyes and prayed to his ancestors for forgiveness, "I will prepare my fleet to join you once repairs are complete."

Desolas nodded, setting aside his data pad, "Excellent," He replied, "I'll leave you to your work in the meantime and signal you when the fleet is prepared to deploy for pursuit through Relay 314. Desolas, out." His image vanished, leaving Kravos alone as the lights slowly turned back on.

Xxx

March 11th, 2353

Shanxi, New Taiyuan

The capital of Shanxi was constructed on a wide and flat plain several miles from a coastline, part of the city cut off by a river that ran through the western sector and towards the ocean. Many of the smaller structures under four stories were the basic Alliance design for colonial settlements: white and built up by several floors, connected by exterior stairwells. The larger buildings held more...variety to them, many bearing designs reminiscent of New Taiyuan's namesake back on Earth. After the colonial board had finished setting up the bare basics of the colony they had allowed architects and community boards to get more creative in how they wanted their city to be designed, and for the most part they had allowed anything to go so long as it kept the city within the established perimeter of New Taiyuan's fifteen meter high outer wall, which was dotted with mass driver turrets and rotary laser cannons.

Just a few hours ago this place had been bustling with thousands of Alliance citizens travelling to work, shopping in the market areas, enjoying time off in parks or sitting down for some food in the cafes. Now as Owen walked through the plaza at the heart of the city the only life he could see were several patrols of Alliance marines scouring for anybody who had not yet evacuated to the underground vaults.

Before any bricks could be set for New Taiyuan itself, the Alliance had spent a fortune digging down several miles, constructing protective shelters large enough to hold thousands each and sustain them for months. Each vault was rated for holding up to eight thousand in relative comfort, but was intended to handle five thousand so that supplies could be stretched out for longer periods. There were almost a dozen of these vaults in New Taiyuan, and over three times as many constructed in the surrounding countryside for the scattered settlements and to help evenly displace the city's population in case any of the vaults were discovered.

A honking drew Owen's attention just before a vehicle slid to a stop alongside him. It was a large armored scout vehicle mounted on four large tires and wielded a mounted rotary cannon. The side popped open, a door being pushed up and out of the way so a man in dark brown Alliance Marine armour could offer him a hand. "We're your ride sir, welcome to Shanxi."

Owen accepted the helping hand and climbed into the ARV (Armored Recon Vehicle), otherwise known as a Hummer based off of the old Pre-War vehicle favored by the American military. It was spacious, mainly because it wasn't jammed full of marines or weapons, and the only other occupants were three humans, two in the front and one sitting next to Owen.

"Comm. Centre, right?" The driver asked, waiting to receive a nod from Owen before he moved the ARV forward, cruising through the empty streets without having to worry about even driving on the right side of the road.

The marine sitting next to Owen looked over at the older man. "We uh...heard that your fleet was the one that got hit by those aliens. Is it all true, everything they're saying? Are we being invaded?"

Owen gave a weary sigh and turned to the Corporal. "Son, trust me when I say that you don't want to be thinking or chatting at a time like this or about this particular topic. It gives you time to just get afraid of whatever your mind thinks up. Just know that these things can die like we can and just as easily, and that puts them well within our area of expertise, just like with raiders or hostile mutants or renegade robots." He clapped the man on the shoulder. "So if they do come looking for a fight then you show them that we humans are a little too kickass for their tastes."

The Corporal nodded, Mason's speech having had some effect on him and the two marines listening from the front, boosting their confidence a bit. Mason's words were not exactly lies, but he didn't know the first thing about what these aliens were, what they looked like, how they fought or how they would react to Manifest's blundering.

But he couldn't let the troops feel as shitty as he did.

After several more minutes and casual chatter the ARV slowed to a stop outside of the colony's Communication Centre. Owen climbed out and thanked the marines before stepping inside and flashing his ID to a guard, who allowed him into a large and empty circular room lined with raised platforms that were linked to a series of FTL Communication arrays (compliments of the Martian Cache).

Owen stepped up onto one of the platforms, causing a floating hologram in the shape of a menu to appear. He tapped on different options, selecting a system, followed by a planet and then a specific contact number that his call could be forwarded to. After that he waited for several moments, wondering what time it was at the location of the recipient...

"Connection established. Linking you to Lost Hills, California, Earth, Sol System."

The hologram of an older man appeared in front of Owen, clad in the standard power armour of the Brotherhood of Steel (although greatly slimmed down compared to what it had been decades ago anmd sleeker than what marines and Paladins wore). He also wore a long coat as a symbol of his status, and lacked a helmet. His age was in the early sixties, thirteen years older than Owen, but if anything the man somehow looked even younger.

"Owen," Inquisitor Alex Mason greeted his younger brother with a smile, "I heard about what's unfolding over in Shanxi. It's good to see that you're alright."

Owen cracked a smile and nodded. "I'd be glad to see me too, Alex." He replied, "Just thought that I should give you a call in case things go south here."

"It sounds to me like they already have," Alex replied, crossing his arms. "It's just the family luck that one of us would be present when a new war starts. If I could I'd already be flying over there, but Parliament is insistent on having us prepare the rest of Alliance space for a possible invasion, and unfortunately that means they're cutting free relay travel for the time being."

"Figures," Owen huffed, "We should already have three times as many ships here, but they're pissing themselves so much that they'd rather just have us stall the enemies."

"It's not just them, Owen. People are frightened." Alex explained, trying to placate his irritated sibling. "They disclosed the basics of what's happening at Shanxi to justify the sudden security precautions, and the people need to know that their safety is the priority. In the short time since things went public we've already had a few riots, and some big nosed politician went as far as to accuse you of causing that battle...High Inquisitor Maxson only blackened one of his eyes for that, by the way."

The accusation didn't surprise Owen. He was certain that for many years after this, assuming humanity still existed by then, people would seek some way to pin the blame on him, the second 'inferior' son of Logan and Sarah Mason. People liked to build up a person in their heads, and just loved to watch them fall. Owen had seen how many believed the fact that he had not endured years of isolation from a safe and loving home as Alex did in his youth had left Owen with an 'inferiority complex' (all it really made him feel was grateful that he wasn't even born before their parents had gone to the Forbidden City over fifty years ago. The paparazzi and social circles had convinced themselves that Owen, the inferior child with something to prove, would do many stupid and reckless things in a misguided effort to leave his mark in the Mason family's history.

Owen let out a chuckle. "Good to know that Jason's still got our backs."

Alex nodded. "He's getting ready to send the whole Fifth Flotilla out to help, it just needs some final preparations before it can get moving. And Hannah let me know that she'll be leading the charge if they give her battle group the all clear to move out."

Knowing that there were many old faces ready to rush to his aid made Owen thankful, especially since said old faces were powerful and influential in many circles.

"I can't stay for much longer," Owen said after several moments, "They're going to cut off any open transmissions in a few minutes, I only just got away to place this call."

"I understand," Alex replied, "Owen...be careful out there. Our families have suffered enough losses, and I don't want to bury you too."

"Me? Buried?" Owen smirked. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, big bro."

"I'm serious," Alex glanced around as if checking the room on his end of the link for any prying eyes or ears. "There is something else too. I need you to keep your eyes open for somebody who would have arrived in Shanxi only yesterday. If she was still there when you triggered Desert Ranger protocol then she'll still be there now."

Owen raised one brow. "Who is it?"

"An Inquisitor from Terra Nova, Victoria Grey."

"Any relation to the old NCR president?" Owen asked.

"Negative, but the Grey's were generous enough to lend her the surname. She...is a valuable asset to the Brotherhood, and if you see her I would appreciate if you could make sure she joins the civilians in the shelters."

That set off alarms in Owen's head. "Whoa now bro," He saved both hands, "Time out. Soldiers aren't supposed to be in the shelters during an invasion, especially not Brotherhood Inquisitors, only colonial militia members."

"Damn it Owen listen to me!" Alex raised his voice, now aggravated. "She's been given exclusive authorization to be an exception to this rule by Jason himself. We cannot lose her. If you find her or hear of her whereabouts you are to make sure she receives this!"

"Alright, alright," Owen backed off, "Why didn't you just contact her yourself?"

"She likely doesn't realize that she's been ordered to the shelters. She has no reason to suspect anything is different." Alex explained. "All I can do is put out the word. Please Alex," His voice took on a...pleading tone, "You have to make sure that no harm comes to Victoria Grey."

"I'll make sure that she hears about this order," Owen promised, "But what makes her so special anyways?"

Alex sighed, "I suppose that you do deserve an explanation for this...but I can't promise that it'll make you happy. Victoria's real name is-" Suddenly the image began to glitch.

"Alex? Hey, you're not coming in clearly!" Owen waved his arms. "Hey!"

The image vanished, replaced by a holo-screen informing Owen that public FTL communications had been cut.

"Damn it all," Owen sighed, "Victoria Grey, Inquisitor, gotta remember that." He mumbled to himself as he turned and left.

Xxx

March 12th, 2353

Shanxi, BSF Chairman Benny

They had done all that they could to prepare in the past day that they had been given. In the end they had managed to scrape together eighteen patrol ships consisting of fifteen Wanderer class frigates from nearby systems, two Paladin class cruisers and a single Liberty class carrier that had scrambled from picking up a shipment from a mining colony to rush to Shanxi's defence. When added to the usual six defence frigates that were stationed at Shanxi by the Brotherhood of Steel this gave the planet an admirable amount of ships (by human standards that is). When combined with the Chairman Benny's defences along with the smaller defence satellites stationed around the planet this small fleet could be very effective...in theory anyways.

The main issue with this defence was that nobody had ever expected to ever be attacked by aliens. Once the civilians were put into the shelters and the ground defences had been established the SCDA Board had disclosed the true purpose of this sudden state of alert. They had kept their cool, but now that they were aware that they would be fighting more than a few terrorists the colonial marines and even the Brotherhood Knights and Paladins were feeling tense. The only reason they weren't questioning the validity of this claim was because Thompson had dropped the 'Desert Ranger Protocol' bomb, which would have gotten him executed if he had raised a false alarm.

Williams had gotten to work on emptying out the smaller settlements of anything useful to put towards the defence of the capital. Throughout the streets barricades of metal and even a few rare force fields had been erected to protect the anti-air emplacements strewn throughout the population center while the entirety of the garrison was still hard at work in setting up choke points and defence rings centering around The Shanxi Citadel.

The eighty story building was the heart of Shanxi and served as its center of government and military in addition to being the location of the Shell's primary emitter. Other emitters were scattered throughout the city, many of them redundant and simply to increase the likelihood of the Shell still working even if several were destroyed.

Williams and Deathstalker had pulled out every ace they had up both their sleeves and their asses-and even a few that they didn't to make Shanxi ready for any invasion. They and Elder Thompson would have been more comfortable if they at least had a mothership or a couple more Paladin Cruisers to support them, but there wouldn't be any reinforcements for at least a few more hours.

The second issue with the defence was that for all the advancements that they had made in the past few decades the Alliance's most powerful warships were the Zeta type motherships and their special long range fighters, which were ridiculously expensive to make material wise. The Wanderer Frigates and Paladin cruisers didn't have any Prolat energy cannons or shielding on them, just human designed plasma or laser weaponry and kinetic barriers. Many had felt uncomfortable with Kinetic barriers for the reason that they were nearly useless in battle against Manifest ships, which used energy weapons just like the Alliance did; at best they could disperse the damage of plasma artillery or deflect a missile barrage. Unfortunately even Paladin cruisers weren't able to provide enough energy to power Prolat made shielding, and the egg heads back in the home system had yet to improvise a Theta Energy reactor for purely human vessels.

This left the defenders with the fleet they could scrape together in a hurry, a garrison manned by green colonial marines and brotherhood soldiers who hadn't expected to be in a real fight and a shield that hadn't even been fully tested for fighting off a continuous barrage by even a single full sized warship. And on top of this mess they had to worry about the civilian population being safe in their vault shelters, which certainly wouldn't protect them for long if the Shell collapsed.

It didn't take a genius to know that they were anything but confident that this paltry defence could fight off a full scale invasion if these mystery aliens pursued them through the relay, and nobody dared to send a drone through to get a peek at the system on the far side.

Elder Thompson had remained aboard the Chairman Benny to coordinate the Celestial Defence Line with Captain Deathstalker and Captain Mason, who would be with Thompson to personally assist in coordinating the fortress' fire if or when the aliens arrived. Everybody had changed out of their regular fatigues and robes and now wore a trimmed down version of Alliance Power Armour that still provided the physical enhancements that the old models did, but were a lot less bulky and were equipped with Kinetic Barrier generators. The heavy shock troopers wore variants closer to what the Brotherhood used to tote around, but they had all been sent down below to the capital.

"Terra Nova is scrambling their own fleet," Mason informed Thompson, snapping the ghoul out of his thoughts. "They've promised that they'll be here with the rest of the fleet that Sol has promised to send."

"The entire Third Fleet along with chunks of the First from Sol, the Second from Arcturus and two entire Flotillas from the Brotherhood." Thompson counted off. "I'll be a hell of a lot happier if we have that much fire power on our side, but I'll also be a hell of a lot deader if these aliens don't show up at all."

"I'm the one who came to you with this info," Mason said, watching as the Paladin Class Cruiser Sharon of Rose drifted by outside, accompanied by a wave of regular interceptors. "It was my fleet that encountered these aliens, and my testimony that led you to make the call. They won't execute you, and I doubt they'd even have enough justification to lop off my head either."

"Oh you underestimate the power of politicians," Thompson chuckled. "I miss the days back when it was just a few people in charge of the Alliance. One faction had a leader, they all came together and talked about a problem, and then they blew that problem's face off and had lunch before discussing the next problem to kill or talk down."

"I know how you feel about that, believe me." Owen Mason sighed. "But times have changed. Civilization has come back and unfortunately that means rules and rights and due process and the one bad part about it all: politics."

Thompson nodded and stepped out of the command center, Mason following alongside him. "At least when Arthur was still running things they all bowed their heads and shut up. Jason Maxson's an alright leader, but people considered his old man to be the collective incarnation of Jesus, Achilles and Grognak the Barbarian. If he said 'we have to do this' then you could be damn well assured that it would be done. Now they just keep moaning about the Brotherhood having too many ships, accusing us of hording some new technology or are back to doing what the business suits of old would do: count their money."

"I know things aren't perfect, but I think you're overstating the matter." Mason replied as a squadron of armored Brotherhood marines marched past them, pausing to salute the Elder and receiving a lazy salute in return before resuming their circuit. "This isn't Pre-War America and our government isn't the Enclave even if some are descended from it. Besides, you like Irons, don't you?"

"That's only because he has the capacity for common sense." Thompson knew that Senator James Irons had big shoes to fill, given that his grandfather was the legendary Enclave President who had helped set the foundation for the entire Alliance. "And because he isn't riding the High Inquisitor's ass every other week. Don't get me wrong Mason, I know that not everybody who goes into government is some self serving rat, I just miss how simple things used to be before all this talk of government oversight and required paper work crawled its way out of the corpse of the old world and decided to latch onto the Alliance."

Mason fought the urge to snort or even smile. "If you'd prefer I heard that the Outcasts are setting up their own independent colony, and they plan to run it like the Brotherhood from before my old man stepped in. Less paper work, more technology hording and shooting stuff."

Thompson huffed. "Heh, as if they'd let a Ghoul in."

The two finally arrived at the docks where the Fawkes was still undergoing repairs. From the observation deck they had a good view of the Frigate, which had entire sections of plate armour cut away to allow repairs to be made to the skeletal structure beneath by teams of engineers. "I don't think that we'll have the old girl flying for another week at this rate, and just when we need every ship we can get."

"I'll wait a month if that's what it takes to get her back in the air and with the use of her own wings," Mason vowed, leaning against a metal guard rail and staring down at his vessel.

The Fawkes had been in his care for several years now, and in that time it had become more than just a ship to him and his crew had become more than subordinates. He knew the full name of every man and woman who served on it, knew every inch of it inside and out and had long ago grown used to the hum of the engine core and the stale recycled air that built up over long missions away from any planets. Hell, he didn't even feel claustrophobic in it anymore; if anything just being on this beast of a star fortress made him feel like he was exposed.

She may not have been his first command, but the Fawkes had served him well for six years and he would not allow her to be decommissioned until she flew and fought for at least six more.

"First we need to actually survive the next week," Thompson beckoned Mason over to a different section of the observation deck to a window overlooking a section of hangar where dozens of fighters and gunships were being prepared for deployment. "We have bogeymen on the far side of the relay who have us wetting ourselves for fear of them popping through and not nearly the amount of ships or troops that I'd prefer to tackle this with. If these aliens do come looking for a second round then our odds won't be looking too good based off of your run in with them."

The Ghoul turned his head towards Mason, showing one pale eye and another bloodshot. "We only just got away from one planet that was flattened by nuclear war; I don't want to see just what our first real interstellar war would do to the few colonies we have. Not even humanity has enough luck to survive two apocalyptic events."

Mason couldn't argue with the Elder's fears. Ever since he had engaged the aliens he feared that single battle resulting in an escalation, perhaps a full war that set the Alliance back to the pre-spaceflight era, or worse. He had no idea what their culture was, if they were reasonable or if they would have sought to enslave or exterminate even without Manifest's intervention; for all he knew they could have been an invasion force positioned in Tartarus that had reacted to his fleet crossing the relay in the first place.

"I guess we'll find out for sure just how forgiving they are if they ever send any ships after us," Mason rubbed his eyes. "In the meantime I'm going to try and get what little rest I can, haven't slept since yesterday."

"I'll sound your alarm if anything happens," Thompson promised as Mason saluted. "Who knows? Maybe we'll get lucky, they won't send anything and you'll get a full night's rest."

Almost as soon as he finished speaking alarms began to wail as red lights flashed throughout every ship in the fleet.

"Alert! Unscheduled relay activation in progress! "

Mason slowly turned his head to glare at the armored Ghoul. "...Elder, I am well aware that the following statement could get me disciplined later...but I hate you so much right now, fucking jinx."

Xxx

CODEX OPENED

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, but the arrival of Desolas Arterius had eliminated any chance of the Turians seeking a diplomatic solution. It is believed that the General, fresh from another pirate suppression campaign at the time, saw the Alliance as a threat to galactic stability with their new technology and potentially hostile intentions. He had acknowledged that the Manifest ships were the sole aggressors in the 314 Skirmish, but chose to act in spite of this information on the justification that he could not take the chance that the ruling faction beyond the relay was truly hostile, nor could he allow them enough time to prepare for his intended counter attack.

When he arrived in the Shanxi system Desolas found elements of the Brotherhood of Steel's 4th Flotilla and the Alliance Navy's 3rd Fleet ready to face his armada, supported by the Brotherhood Star Fortress Chairman Benny.

FIRST CONTACT WAR CASUALTIES SUSTAINED AT TARTARUS

Alliance: ASV Apollo (lost with all hands, 26), ASV Canaan (lost with all hands, 26), ACSV Fire Ant (lost with all hands, 40), 15 casualties from ASV Fawkes, 21 casualties from ACSV Columbus. Total: 128

Hierarchy: THV Delphai (lost with all hands, 45), THV Tharacae (lost with all hands, 45), THV Athenon (lost with all hands, 45), THV Seeker (189 casualties). Total: 324

Manifest: Patriot (lost with all hands, 26), Banner (lost with all hands, 26), Lexington (lost with all hands, 130). Total: 182

WARNING, UNAUTHORIZED SYSTEM OVERRIDE IN PROGRESS...

Ah, there we go, let's add one last line...

Total amount of people killed due to Manifest and Desolas' collective idiocy: Too fucking many.

End of Chapter

A/N: Now this chapter I am particularly worried about. I have gone back to it numerous times fixing small thing, adding new scenes, editing or removing some other things. I just feel that putting this up now was a mistake, but I'm trying to keep to my 24 hour posting pattern for at least a few more chapters. So I am relying on you to be as firm as you can in pointing out flaws, mistakes, inconsistencies and what not.

I temper my sense of self confidence in anticipation.