6/5 2035
Onboard the German destroyer DKM Herzog.
"You would think they could handle this stuff on their own by now. Can't see why we need to babysit every fucking time." Captain Arnold Bruckmann remarked as he took a sip of his coffee. Time read 5:46 am, in Germania at least. Time was funny out here. The great big space, spanning before him, not so much smaller than it used to be. He looked over the files again, a relay they called it. They had opened at least a dozen or so of them by now, yet the Kriegsmarine still had to escort the science ships around.
"You know that it's official procedure for us. The chance of first contact and all of that stuff. I think it's fair enough." First officer Simon replied. "Besides, It's a hell of a lot better than just guarding a relay like most of the fourth fleet is doing." Simon added while taking a sip of his own hot coffee.
"Try being the first and second fleet. Stuck guarding the Sol relay. You know, I started to think all these aliens died out. We haven't seen shit but ruins. All of them predating human civilization." Arnold theorized, taking another look at the overhead clock. "Get me a connection to Lorber, let us see how they are doing."
"Jawohl!" The communication officer replied with a salute. He quickly began to establish a connection to the lead science vessel. It took but a few seconds before the relatively young scientist appeared on screen.
"Captain Bruckmann. What can I do for you?" Ansgar Lorber asked, and he seemed equally as annoyed as Arnold.
"Are you getting on with this thing or not? I need to send a status update to Admiral Schütz soon." Arnold asked.
"We are. Shouldn't be too long before we have the relay open. Then you can send a few vessels through." Ansgar assured him. Arnold nodded.
"Great, that's all I needed to know. I'll have the Admiral bring out reinforcements soon." Arnold promised and hung up. "Alright, get me a connection to the Admiral asap. If this goes to plan, we'll be done with the next five hours and then we can go back to Göringstadt and have some shore leave." Arnold said, and the other officers gave a cheer at the news. They had been out on patrol and escort duty for the last 30 days, and the trials of space were wearing a bit on them at this point.
Space travel was still new to the Reich. The Kriegsmarine had picked up the mantle, and had converted itself to a proper space faring navy. Within a short period of time, the Reich had managed to build itself a sizable navy, who most people believed was capable of defending anything it would come across. But there were also still the old guard in the leadership who didn't approve of the rapid change. Those who still wanted a big navy on the seven seas.
The hologram flickered a bit, but finally the admiral appeared before Arnold. Admiral Schütz was a prominent admiral, having shown himself capable of the new change in tactics. Some said he was the closest advisor to Großadmiral Gerhardt, and would probably be the one to replace the great admiral once that time came. All the medals and the pristine uniform showed as much.
"Captain. How is the mission proceeding?" The Admiral asked, his voice deep and uninterested.
"Everything looks good, sir. Lorber said they are ready to launch the mission soon, so I'm formally requesting the exploration team to come as soon as possible." Arnold requested in the most formal way he could.
"Granted. I'll send them out now, they should be with you within the next 30 minutes. Once they arrive, you still stand relieved of duty. Return to Göringstadt for shore leave and reassignment." Schütz ordered.
Arnold did a salute. "Jawohl Herr Admiral! Heil Germania!"
The Admiral did a nod, and the hologram disappeared. That was the best news that Arnold had heard all week. 30 minutes and then he would stand relieved? He couldn't wait to sleep in a comfortable bed, and have a nice beer.
Arnold smiled as he drank the last of his coffee, and neatly placed the cup on the desk. He decided to take a little walk around the CIC, making sure everything was alright. He paced himself slowly, and mostly daydreamed of how wonderful that shoreleave sounded right about now. He did this for a little while, just enjoying the moment. Arnold requested one last status update on the ship, but while he was waiting for it to come through, one of the crewmen in the CIC noticed something.
"Captain! Come take a look at this!" The communication officer requested. Arnold raised an eyebrow, but quickly went over to see. He saw the problem, several unidentified signatures on the scanner were showing up. This wasn't all that unusual.
"Probably just merchant ships or some Japs. Hail them and tell them to stand clear from the area." Arnold ordered.
"Copy that. Attempting communication." The officer replied as he turned his attention back to the console in front of him.
"This is the DKM Herzog speaking. You are in Reich space. Identify yourself." The officer demanded. There was a moment of silence before anything was heard. Some noise came in over the comms, but it was unlike anything they had ever heard.
"Is that Japanese?" Arnold asked. He knew very little of that language, so it was unlikely.
"No sir. It sounds very weird. You don't think that it might be-"
"It's possible. Send them another warning." Arnold ordered. The comms officer did just that. As the comms officer finished the demand, a request showed on the screen. The unidentified vessel attempted to establish communication. They granted it, and Arnold prepared himself. He was expecting to be greeted with pirates, or merchants gone astray. But what he saw was beyond him.
The creature that stood in front of him was unlike anything he had ever seen. It looked somewhat like a bird, but humanoid. Judging from the full size hologram form, these creatures were tall, standing quite a bit taller than Arnold. All were speechless as they looked at each other.
"That can't be…." Arnold said, not more than whisper.
The figure spoke, but it was not a language they could understand… So foregin that they knew it wasn't anything from Earth. All were dumbfounded, they just stood there as they watched the figure on the hologram rant and rave about something.
"What are the first contact protocols again?" Arnold finally got his speech back.
"Don't provoke, and do not attack unless attacked first." First officer Simon replied, but never took his eyes off the figure standing before them.
Captain Tiberis Doniran was looking at something he had never seen before. Creatures unknown, standing on two legs. Their skin looked soft, hair on their head like the Quarians had. It hadn't taken them long to figure out that these creatures were a new species. At first they had suspected the Batarians or some pirate faction was messing with the relay. Not an entirely new species.
From down below cameras showed several squads of unarmed figures standing on the planet's surface, scanning and probing around until they too had noticed the ship orbiting just above them. Unarmed mostly, with only a small contingent of guards armed with primitive looking technology.
This would not be the first time a citadel race had discovered some new form of life out in the great beyond of space, however that mainly relegated itself to amoeba's, bacteria, or far less developed forms of sentient life, and ones that couldn't use guns either.
"Captain? The unidentified vessels are facing directly towards us, what are your orders?" the second lieutenant said from the terminal.
"Any signs of hostile action?" the captain asked back. The new species were in fact breaking citadel law. Some action had to be taken soon.
"None yet sir. But there is a transmission coming in."
"Pull it up on comms." The captain ordered and his lieutenant did as he was told.
"Es ist der DKM Herzog sprechen. Du bist im Reichsraum. Identifizieren Sie sich bitte" the words transmitted through the intercom were, to say the least, unintelligible. In all his years in the fleet, Tiberis had never once heard anything close to this, and as someone who prided himself on being able to pick up on languages quickly, it hurt in more ways than one.
"This is Captain Tiberis Doniran speaking with the authority of the Turian hierarchy as well as the Citadel Council. We demand you cease your operation immediately or face legal repercussions for breaking Citadel Law Section 463, Delta 9 under the Rachni containment act."
"Was? Wir bitte dir, kein Feindseligkeiten." The figure spoke, his voice sounded… worried? That was the best Tiberis could describe it as.
"Clearly there is a bit of a language barrier here…" the Captain thought for a second on the best course of action. To go down there meant possible danger for both his people and these new contacts, for a number of reasons. "Septis, try and run through every translation program we have to see if there's anything stored in the databanks. Send word to the Hierarchy as well, tell them what is going on, and have them send reinforcements."
"Already have sir, if there was we wouldn't be hearing gibberish right now. Word has also been sent to the main fleet."
"Then try and give them some signal that we're not being hostile. Last thing I want is to be put on a war crime board." The captain ordered. The council would not look favorable on that….
"Very well sir…" the lieutenant turned back to his monitor, but froze for a moment. "And uh… what exactly would that signal be sir?"
"Rusty, what have you got for me?" he turned over to the chief engineer currently going through his omni-tool in a frantic motion.
"A dump truck of nothing sir. We can't give them any of ours, least I don't think we can or else we might risk offending them somehow."
"What about standard Citadel ones? The ones you see plastered on all those bars and casinos." The Captain suggested, his mind running at high speed trying to figure it out.
Rusty snapped his fingers and pointed at the captain. "You're a genius sir." Soon he was back to scrolling through his Omni-tool and in a flash had gotten to exactly the right one Tiberis had wanted. "This one sir?"
"Perfect, Septis, bring it up, and let's hope our friends know what firearms look like."
"Kapitän... what the fuck is that?" The chief communication officer asked as he looked at what the aliens had sent through.
"Looks like a… gun? Probably some of theirs, don't know why it looks like a fucking camel made it but whatever." Arnold replied, but he was equally as confused. What did they mean by this?
"Seems to be they're trying to show they're not hostile sir." Simon suggested, and that was probably the most likely answer.
"Or could be trying to lure us in, false sense of security is all they would need to wipe us out. Any word from the ground squadron yet?"
"Yes Kapitän, patching you through now Herr." The chief communication officer obliged as he typed in a few things on his terminal.
"Kapitän, what in the hell are we looking at?" staff sergeant Obnerr spoke through the intercom. "I got about 15 different labcoats here currently staining their space suits with piss asking if they should just surrender or not, what are your orders?"
"Hold your ground for now Unterfeldwebel, and calm those pencil pushers down. We're currently still trying to determine if they're going to try and attack us yet, contact has already been made with the 5th fleet and they are coming in to provide support."
"Roger that, do try and tell us in advance how the chat goes. Obnerr out." The staff sergeant locked out the intercom and the brief window of silence was quickly replaced with another message coming through.
"Sir?! One of their vessels is going closer towards the relay!"
"What? Under no circumstance do you allow them to get any closer Septis. Fire a warning shot if you have to."
"Tiberis no! They might consider that an act of war." Rusty chimed in quickly, and it was becoming clear that panic began to seep in amongst the captain's crew.
"Any better suggestions then Rusty?"
"Septis, shoot a flare, red one. They might be primitive but I hope they can understand that at least."
Michael Obnerr looked on in silence as the two ships stood completely still, with him, his men, and a gagle of panicking scientists in between. 'Always thought I'd die fighting those damn Mujahadeen in Afghanistan, not dying of old age on some random moon out in fuck knows where.' he thought.
"Unterfeldwebel Obnerr, get us out of here already!" one of the scientists grabbed onto Obnerr's uniform and frantically shook from head to toe, if he wasn't sure it would break his glass helmet he would have smacked the man across the check this very instant. If he kept this act up he just might.
"No can do, four-eyes. Captain's orders are we stand our ground for now. So calm the fuck down!" Obnerr was acting under a lot of stress at the moment, a wrong move here and it could spell war. And war was never pleasant, he could only imagine what one on a galactic scale would look like.
Suddenly all got quiet, even the whining scientists managed to shut themselves up. All of them held their breath. Then, almost blinding, the aliens fired something from their vessel. Bright as the sun, it almost had to be a flare of some sort.
"What are they doing? Is that a signal? Are they going to fire upon us?" another scientist spoke in a jittery fashion.
"Orders sir?" private Hansen asked as he sterred the ship as best he could.
"Slow and steady Hansen, we wait and see what their first move is."
"Don't you understand you blubbering baboons?!" the spectacled scientist started screaming, not at Obnerr, not at Hansen either, but rather to the whole ship. "They're trying to tell us to stop you morons! Clearly whatever is over there is not worth it if it means having to deal with facing these things!"
"And under what pretense are you basing this assumption off four eyes?" Obnerr remained calm, as calm as he could with this snot-nosed oaf yelling in front of him.
"Red, what else could it mean. It means stop!"
"Sir?" Hansen turned to the sergeant once more, it was clear from the boys body language he himself was having doubts.
Obnerr thought for a moment on their next move, he could either trust the ramblings of these deranged fossils, or his own gut instinct. Eventually, he made his decision. "Straight forward Private, not a step back."
"Dammit, they're not backing down?" Tiberis slammed his fist against the handle of his chair, the matter was escalating, far more than he wanted it to in the first place.
"Doesn't look like it sir…" Septis replied.
"Fine then, any other brilliant suggestions Rusty?" he turned to the chief-engineer who looked at his omni-tool in a panic once more.
"No… sir…" he said dejectedly, finally letting his arm rest. He had done all he could.
"Septis, fire a warning shot, show them we mean business."
"Yes sir, firing a warning blast in 3… 2… 1…"
The laser fired from their ship could have gone anywhere. It could have hit the ground beneath them, the endless void above them, some distant star light-years away. Instead however, it fired, and hit a ship just coming out of hyper space. Everyone was in shock, it all happened so fast, the ship must have just come out of a nearby relay, but soon the ship caught fire, that was put out by the vacuum of space, and began to take evasive maneuvers.
Though he couldn't understand the next few words that came out of the intercom. Tiberis' ship laid silent on what they heard come next, because they all knew what it meant.
"Feuer!"
War.
"WHAT IN THE SAM HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!" Generalfeldmarshall Kürger stomped through the halls of the Reichskanzlei, a storm of insults and shouts soon followed as many of the staff hurried to their posts, a sense of panic and shock breathing across everyone's necks.
A storm was coming over Germania, one no one could have predicted. Except one.
"Ulfric!" he swung open the doors to his friend's office as he saw the Führer sit at his desk, not a hint of exhaustion or fear showing. "What is this?" Kürger slammed a file on the desk. It was reports on the latest research operation to an as-of-yet undiscovered Mass Relay.
"That would be what had gone down about 5 hours ago." Ulfric replied as took a sip of his brandy, followed by a quick drag of a cigarette.
"Please tell me this is some sort of practical joke that the luftwaffe and that pansy ass boy Siegfried pulled. Aliens? Really? Don't make me laugh!"
"You know you two should really sit down sometime and get to know one another, I believe you would make fast friends with how similar you both are."
"I will pave your goddamn skull on Germania's streets."
"Yes Gottfried, Aliens. We have just received news of first contact. And unlike my previous predictions and the many safety measures we have all put in place to prevent something like this from happening, it would appear we have now entered into a war with said aliens."
"Is it those Protheans? Like the ruins on Mars?"
"Maybe… Maybe not. We don't know yet. They hit one of our ships just as it came out of a relay. From what the DKM Herzog told High Command before they were destroyed it looked as if the vessel almost predicted where and when the ship would come out of the relay. If this is true, well, we might just have a fight on our hands."
"Bullshit, there's not a radar alive that can predict the future."
"That we know of Gottfried. No matter what happened, Gerhardt is scared shitless and has ordered all fleets on full mobilization, with my support of course. Latest news seems to suggest mass traffic around the relay…" Ulfric handed Gottfried another report. Which Gottfried quickly skimmed through.
"They're going for Göringstadt?" Their newest colony, not too far from where it all went down.
"Unknown but it's the best bet we have. Right now we're facing a possibly technologically and tactically superior enemy. They might also outnumber us in terms of both manpower and ships."
"Should we call up the reserves?" Gottfried asked. His mind had entered war mode. It felt like so long ago since he had been in active combat, that the Wehrmacht had faced a worthy foe.
"No, a state of national emergency will be called if necessary however for now we can't put all of our eggs in one basket. We face them head on, with all the strength we can muster yet keeping an ample amount in the back lines just in case."
"And the Reichkomissariats?"
"What do you think this is for?" Ulfric pulled a neatly tied A4 paper from his desk. "I'm about to give a speech to the entire to the Reich on how our very way of life is at stake, on how our people and our traditions are being attacked and-"
"Yadda yadda yadda yeah the same spiel we always use. Don't you think they would have caught on after that scuffle in the Middle-East?"
"Weapons of mass destruction Gottfried, either that or we're going to blame it on the Red Army." Ulfric got up from his chair. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to oil up the masses, there is a new Krieg around the corner."
All of a sudden, the German war machine springs to life… It opens up one eager eye. A new target arrives, and the war machine is hungry.