I had this story posted on AO3 for a while and decided to post it here on FFN. This is a Mass Effect/Frontlines (Markos Kloss) crossover.

For those unaware of the glorious series known as the Frontlines Universe (SPOILERS), it's a sci-fi worked where Earth is dangerously overpopulated, over-polluted, and overrun with conflict. Earth's nations, instead of focusing on Welfare and fixing the climate, spend much of their economies on war fleets and colonies.

The first 8 books follow a man known as Andrew Grayson, a simple young man wanting to get away from the soy-based crap he's been eating and hope for a simple life in the military. As usual, things go south when an Alien race decides to try and take over all of Earth's colonies and war breaks out.

Considering the Council's history of bugs, they probably won't fare well against the Lankies.

I wanted to write a Frontlines Fic. The universe inspired me to read more and to write fiction myself. Please, support Marko Kloos, his work is amazing.

Anyway, rambling over. Let's do this.


Chapter 1

2163 CE

THS Dominatable Will (Menae class dreadnought) (In FTL).

For the first time in many centuries, the Citadel Council was in a war.

And it was losing badly.

It started off when the prison world of Maitrum abruptly lost communications with the rest of the galaxy in 2157. Assuming that it was due to a mass prison breakout, the Turian Hierarchy sent a task force of a few cruisers and frigates to scout it out.

Instead of a mass inmate revolt, the fleet ran into an orbital minefield around the planet's orbit. 3 frigates were mauled and fell to the planet and a cruiser was torn apart. Only narrowly and with some quick thinking did the remaining of task force begin clearing out the orbital minefield.

And when they finally managed to get into the planet's atmosphere, the prison complexes were discovered to have been wrecked. The prisoners and guards are gone.

What surprised the fleet was that the planet's atmosphere was changing. Originally an atmosphere composed of Nitrogen and Oxygen, the ratio changed to that it was now 20 percent carbon dioxide, 50 percent Nitrogen, and 30 percent oxygen. And it was continuously changing.

A force of Turian marines were sent down to the planet's surface and several drones were mass-deployed across the planet to find out what had happened.

What they found made the Rachni look cute. 4 legged, 80-feet tall, gray-coloured abominations that weighed hundreds of tons and were immune to even anti-armour rocket launchers.

It took the combined firepower of an entire company of marines, three gunships, and half a dozen armoured vehicles to bring three down. And with 30% casualties for the infantry.

And to the STG's eventual disappointment, they couldn't even drag the bodies of the dead aliens off the planet as they weighed even more than a platoon of armoured vehicles.

The Turian force was forced to evacuate the planet as dozens of more 4 legged monsters advanced on their position. And thus the prison world of Maitrum became the first world lost to the beasts.

The Turian High Command was naturally furious when word got out that Maitrum was lost and so assembled a proper battlegroup centred around a Dreadnaught and several troop transports to retake the planet, capture either the beasts or their carcasses.

Only they wouldn't get the chance as before the landings could commence, half a dozen massive 4-kilometre-sized organic, rocky-looking ships appeared out of nowhere in the orbit of Maitrum.

Despite lacking any kinetic barriers and being as slow as an Elcor talking, the damn things didn't show up on any sensors like Radar and Lidar. The battlegroup tried first contact procedures but got nothing.

So the order was given and the Dreadnaught, along with 7 Turian Cruisers and 2 dozen frigates, fired upon the unknowns with their mass accelerators.

To the horror of the crews, the unknown simply shrugged off several dozen kilotons worth of mass accelerator shots. Fighter strafing runs were mere annoyances to these gargantuan beasts. Even the dreadnought was powerless as its spinal mass accelerator and Guardian Lasers did nothing. Disrupter torpedoes did ripe chunks off the beast but not enough could be thrown at the leviathans.

And then the beasts opened what were thought to be missile tubes, only to reveal that what was fired from them were massive corvette-sized kinetic penetrators that effortlessly cut through a wolfpack of frigates. Frigate kinetic barriers do little to stop the carnage.

Cruiser fared slightly better, only having jagged crevasses cut right through them.

The Dreadnaught fared the worst, being the primary target of the leviathan class vessel. Despite an attempt at knife fighting, the Dreadnaught became the first capital ship to be lost since the Geth rebellions.

Outridge rippled through the Turian Hierarchy, with a mass mobilization occurring as millions of troops were mobilized for a potential war with this new Alien Race. The other Citadel Council members, not entirely aware of the full situation, attempted to halt this unexpected mobilization.

And then the Asari colony of Tevura went dark.

A scouting force of Asari frigates was sent in to investigate, only to be blindsided by half a dozen of these Leviathans and leaving no survivors.

Attempts by the STG to sneak drones onto the surface had success in discovering that these massive beasts had taken control of the planet and all of the colonist's inhabitants were missing. And then said drones were hunted down by these ginormous beasts.

It became pretty clear that these beings were hunting down anyone with electronic tech with the drone hunt.

And so the galaxy mobilized for war.

And were in the process of being curb-stomped.

As it turned out, when the galaxy's conventional weaponry was meant to fight things generally smaller than a house (and even a squad of Turian riflemen could bring down a Rachni quickly), they definitely struggled to bring these beasts down. On the ground, Citadel Forces were being violently grounded down to a pulp as even the fabled Krogan Warchiefs and Asari Commandos were simply overwhelmed. These beasts, nicknamed Friskies by some troops, were a real pain to kill off.

In Space, the Citadel Council did manage to temporarily stalemate the Leviathans by marshalling their dreadnaughts in squadrons of 6 or more. Coordinated fire from 6 dreadnaughts and their escorts could bring down a Frisky mothership (as the STG coined).

But it wasn't enough. Even with 6 dreadnaughts, you still needed dozens of escorts to deliver hundreds of disruptor torpedoes to kill a mothership. And for every dreadnaught the Citadel races could bring to bear, 3 Frisky motherships would just be sent after the destroyed one. And it seemed that there were always plenty of reserves to be sent after the Citadel Council, who only had so many dreadnaughts.

Over 60 planets and colonies were now under Friskies' control. Loss and loss, dreadnought smashed after dreadnought smashed. It was hurting the Citadel forces and Admiral Ravis Kandros acknowledged that.

But a faint hope echoed through the stars. And that was why Ravis was here with her dreadnought and collection of escorts. Odd signals could be detected somewhere behind Frisky lines. Signs of another civilization.

Perhaps they were fighting the Friskies. Perhaps they were the creators. Perhaps the Council could bring a truce or an alliance.

Admiral Kandros shook her head. Better not to raise her hopes too high.

"Admiral, we are coming out of FTL." the helmsman stated.

"Understood. Inform all ships to be combat prepared." Admiral Kandros ordered.

Her dreadnought and a tiny force of 3 Asari cruisers and several Turian and Salarian Frigates were on a trip to investigate these signals.

If they were to run into Friskies, they were to run at all costs.

"Coming out of FTL in three, two, one….now!"

The Domintable Will, their cruisers, and frigate escorts leapt out of FTL.

Just out of a battle zone.

"Contacts!" the Sensor operator responded. "Frisky Mega dreadnaughts, over a dozen and a half-" Kandro's heart sank. "Wait, 12 regular-sized dreadnaughts spotted! Unknown designs. They're fighting the Friskies!"

"What! Who?" Kandros turned

"Unknown! By the spirits, also detecting Nuclear emissions. They're throwing nukes." the Sensor operator reported. "Spirits!"

It was at that moment that a Frisky Mega Dreadnaught exploded in a brilliant bright flash.

"Frisky dreadnought destroyed." the sensor operator reported and Kandros just stared at the holo-table.

"What in the spirits?" Kandros whispered.

What kind of mess did they jump into with exploding Frisky Seedships?

()

Willoughby, Capella system.

NACS Vancouver (Joint Task Force Trident's Tip)

For the last few decades, Humanity and the Lankies had been in a tug-of-war match over the Capella system. It was one of the few systems that linked the Human core worlds and the Lanky homeworld together. Each side would bash the hell out of the other before one retreated or was destroyed.

And General Mills was grateful that Humanity always had the former option. Despite the fighting, Humanity was able to keep most of its capital ships whenever engaged while racking up dozens of Lanky Seed ship kills.

And the lankies committing large quantities of force to the Capella system meant that Humanity could go on the offensive everywhere else. Worlds once lost to the Lankies were taken back and re-terraformed, while new colonies were established on distant worlds and moons wherever possible to fuel Humanity's war effort. And hope for a less crowded Earth became more apparent as millions were able to leave the planet and settle in new homes every year (even if it was a drop in the bucket).

The first 12 Avenger Battlecarriers soon grew to 2 dozen, then 4 dozen, and finally the low hundreds. Combined with thousands of cruisers, frigates, assault ships, and other vessels.

New technology meant that instead of the poultry twenty thousand SI that the UN coalition threw at Mars instead grew to the tens and hundreds of thousands of potential troops that could be landed instead. Plus accommodating armour and exo-suits.

New weapon systems also came online. Ion particle cannons turned anything bigger than a light cruiser into a Lanky killer. Portable rail guns could finally oneshot Lankies with ease. Fighter sized lanky killing missiles. And brand new fusion missiles that allowed frigates to not be lanky chow.

Still, the Lankies could pull new tricks out of their sleeves, stunning Humanity with a 10-kilometre seed ship that took a trio of Avengers and 18 Orion missiles to kill. New strains of Lankies were spotted, tougher than the ones before. Smaller Lanky ships that made Human escort ships useful. And Seedships became more maneuverable.

But still, Humanity was on the offensive and slowly, but surely pushing the Lankies back.

This was why Task Force Trident's Tip, a joint Japanese, NAC, Oceanic, and Korean strike force was here to once again kick out the Lankies. And this time, they were here to stay.

12 Avenger Mark 6s, dozens of Hammerhead and other assorted Cruisers, their escorts and 6 SI divisions loaded onto supercarriers accompanied by armour, exos, and artillery.

Their goal? To fully retake the Capella system and ensure the Lankies don't have a straight shot to Sol and to fully turn the system into a fortress after decades of hit-and-run devastation strikes.

They were here to stay and take back Willoughby.

Which leads to now.

"Wonderballs have detected a Lanky Seeship, standard class. Designated as Sierra 6. They are just within minimum Orion range." a sensor operator reported.

"Weapons, you have the trigger. Blow that seed ship out of the sky." Mills ordered.

"Aye, sir! Targeting Sierra 6 with Orion number 2." The weapons officer responded.

"We have a lock." the sensor operator reported.

"Firing!"

One of Vancouver's massive missile tubes shot out 10,000 tons of ice and pykrete accelerated with a simple electrical thruster.

When the mass block of pykrete was thrown far enough, it began dropping its payload: a couple hundred high-yield nuclear weapons as propulsion. Popping a nuke every few seconds turned the mass block of ice and wood into a deadly piece of ordinance travelling at a few percent of the speed of light.

The Lanky seed ship, have been accustomed to fighting the Humans, attempted to dodge the shot. But no amount of maneuvering could save the beast.

"Impact….now!"

It was simple physics, large amounts of mass plus high velocity equalled kaboom!

Or in this case, ten thousand tons ripping into the heavy hull of a seed ship and ripping it inside out.

"Splash 1. Sierra 6 is no factor." the weapons officer reported.

"Good shot people. Stay focused. Lankies could-"

"Sir, a report from the Jap's Crus-Div 4. Kongo reports that Sierra 8 has been destroyed. Sierra 7 is trying to withdraw, frigates are finishing it off." the communications operator responded.

"Nice, looks like things are going to plan," Mills muttered.

Of course, things didn't always stay to plan.

"JDS Kyoto has reported. Sierra 10 is destroyed and Sierra 9 is no factor thanks to Korean frigates." The communications officer responded.

"Tell them nice work. Have the ROKS Busan and the ODFS Melbourne begin supporting ground forces on Willoughby. Have all other Avengers and cruisers prepped for taking on the last Seedships. Is Recon still on the ball?" Mills sent orders out.

"Aye sir! Counting the ones the Kyoto just killed, that tallies up to 10-" another Seedship plot icon winked off the plot tabke. "11 kills. That just leaves 9 more seed ships orbiting the gas giant." the Communications officer responded.

"Looks like they're hightailing it out of Capella. Heading to their jump node, right where Washington reported it. 2.5 Million Klicks and growing." the sensor operator responded. "Wait…hold on."

The sensor operator frowned as he tapped his console. "General? Both our wonder balls and our sensors are picking up 13 new unknown contacts. They're not seed ships."

Unknowns? That was new. Some sort of new Lanky superweapon? "Give me rough displacement, size, design, distance and location," Mills ordered.

"Standby. Going over optics. They're definitely not Lanky or Human sir. All ships are smaller than an Avenger. The largest one is around a kilometre long, the size of our old Pacific class carriers. I can pick our cruisers and Frigates. Along with three 550-meter-long ships and 9 200 to 300-long vessels. All differing design styles. The carrier size is around 200,000 tons, rest in the ballpark of 20,000 to 80,000 tons in displacement. There are around 3 million klicks out and- They're in the path of the Lanky retreat!"

Now that was bad news. Even an Avenger and three Hammerheads couldn't take on nine Seedships without heavy losses.

Mills internally swore. "Navigation, flank speed. Get us behind the Lankies. Looks like we're mopping up their force. Communications, route any units we have available to follow."

"Aye, sir! Flank speed!" The Vancouver's Fusion drive began pushing the 500,000-ton behemoth at 25 Gravitons.

"JDS Kyoto, ODFS Wellington, and NACS Tijuana have acknowledged. Rerouting to pursue Lankies." the Communications officer responded.

"Sir, Lankies are CBDR to unknown vessels. We could fire Orions but we risk damaging the unknowns." the weapons officer reported.

Mill scowled. "Very well. Have all of our escorts follow us in. Looks like we're knife-fighting these lankies. Warm up the Coilguns, Nukes, and Ion Cannons. Helm, take us in. Redline us."

"Aye General. Full speed, pushing us to 110% speed." The Helms officer reported.

It was an odd sight. 4 Avenger class battle carriers and their escorts chasing after 9 Seedships. Decades ago, it was unthinkable. But now it was the norm.

"Unknown Carrier and cruisers turning to engage Seedships. Frigates and destroyers appear to be fleeing. Hand on." the Sensor operator tapped their console. "Carrier redesignated as a battleship, they appear to be firing high-velocity slugs at the Lankies."

"Effects?" General asked.

"Stand by….negative no effects on the Lankies. Looks like those slugs aren't packing much power." the sensor operator reported.

"Spinal Magnetic Launchers. Seen concepts for ships pre-war. Never came to fruition due to various battlefield constraints and budget issues." the weapons officer added.

"Yield?"

"20 to 30 kilotons, but it looks like they're keeping a steady rate of fire of a shot every 3 seconds. Not bad." the weapons officer responded.

"Still going to get steamrolled by the lankies." Mills muttered. "Keep pursuing."

Then the bridge crew of the Vancouver winced as the lankies got within 40,000 kilometres of one of the cruisers that charged into the Lanky swarm of seedships before taking a faceful of Lanky kinetic penetrators.

"Unknown vessel, designated as Nova 3, has been destroyed." the Cruiser winced off the holographic plot.

"JDS Kyoto is in range of Sierra 13. Engaging." the comms officer reported as the Japanese Avenger class charged up its own particle cannons.

"Kill them," Mills ordered.

The Kyoto promptly fired one of its particle cannons, particles accelerated nearly at the speed of light slammed into one of the Lanky Seed ships and promptly vaporized a portion of it.

"Sierra 13 is mission kill." the communication officer reported.

"Keep the pressure on the Lankies. Let's keep them off our friend's back." Mills responded.

So much for a quiet mission.


Codex: The Lanky War.

Sometimes called the First Contact War or the First Space War, the Lanky War is an ongoing conflict between the nations of Humanity and the Omnear against the species called [unintelligible] but simply nicknamed Lankies or Friskies. It is an ongoing conflict that has raged for over 6 decades.

The Lankies are starfish-like aliens with multiple limbs that outsize and out mass even some of the heaviest armoured vehicles in service, and their primary concern is the terraforming of worlds into barren husks for their own life. It is unknown where these Lankies come from but Human forces have believed they have found their homeworld (though unconfirmed information at best). Humanity by contrast is a primarily Levo bipedal mammals originating from the world of Earth or Terra. Divided amongst several nation-states, the Lanky War caused most of these nations to band together to fight the Lankies.

The conflict began when a Lanky force of unknown size sized the colony world of Willoughby and wiped out the North American Colony in 2108. Efforts by the Supercarrier NACs Manitoba managed to cripple Lanky Terraforming efforts but Human forces were eventually forced to pull back. Over the course of 5 years, Human forces would be routed, destroyed, or annihilated and most of their colonies lost. A massive blow came in the form of the Invasion of Sol, where a massive Lanky force annihilated the Human colonies on Mars and dismantled over ⅔ of Humanity's shipbuilding facilities in 2113. However things would take a turn for Humanity when three events happened: 1) the desperate joint defence of Earth lead by three SRA and NAC carrier battle groups and several smaller other national formations managed to destroy a seed ship with the help of the NAC Indianapolis, 2) the battle of New Salvarb exposed a major Lanky weakness to large masses being accelerated at high speeds, 3) the discovery of a pair of NAC battleships being built by a renegade NAC government faction that was finished and put to use by Earth Forces, and 4) the development of weapons capable of defeating Lanky foot units.

After a year of rebuilding, Human forces would launch Operation Invictus, a joint effort to reclaim Mars in 2114. Though only partially successful due to the capture of Mars's orbit and all Humans being evacuated, the information gleaned from this operation would go on to serve Humanity well. 2118 would see the fortunes shift in the favour of the NAC as the introduction of the Avenger class battle carriers allowed Humanity to claim a 3-1 kill ratio with Lanky Seedships over New Svalbard. 2121 to 2124 would be a drastic shift with the disappearance of the NACs Washington for three years in the Capella System. When they returned (time dilation caused by Lanky FTL meant they only experienced 6 weeks) would lead to the discovery of the Lanky Capella jump nodes and the Lanky Homeworld in the Corvus Constellation. This would cause the Capella system to turn into a grinding stalemate where vast numbers of Lanky Seedships would pour into the Capella system only to be whittled down by Human warships. It would also be learned that the Capella system is of two major interstellar highways from Lanky-controlled space, with Human forces actively cutting off vast portions of Lanky reinforcements.

2124 to 2163 would be known as the Long War period by Human historians. Unable to actually attack the Lanky homeworld but now with the ability to detect Lanky Seedships and develop new weapons, Human forces would go on a slow general offensive to evict the Lankies from old colonies. Breakthrough in terraforming tech and the capture of an extremely rare Lanky Terraforming station allowed Humanity to terraform a world in just a decade instead of half a century. Dozens, then hundreds of new colonies would be founded to fuel the war effort and feed Earth of resources. A number of small but heavily terraformed colonies like Arcadia and Reach would become homes to tens of millions of Humans, slightly relieving Earth of mass overpopulation.

During the Long War period in the 2130s, the Lankies attacked the fox-like race known as the Omnear. Though finding more success in their initial war against the Lankies when compared to Humanity, the Omnear were driven out of several of their colonies and their homeworld was attacked. A valiant defence from the Omnear fleets plus with a heavy Avenger recon force as relief, the Lanky force was thrown out and the Omnear joined the war on the side of Humanity.

Human forces would continue to battle Lanky seed ships across space, effectively eliminating all Lanky presence in a 70-lightyear radius from Sol. The Mars shipyards would be rebuilt, new colonial industries built up, and Humanity's militaries expanded. The Lankies responded by deploying even large Seedships, new Lanky variants, and more nimble spacecraft. Time will tell whether or not which side will come on top, though the contact with the Citadel races may prove to be a turning point.


Codex: Avenger Class Battlecarrier

The Avenger Class Battlecarriers (also nicknamed Destroyernators or Nukestars) are dreadnought-sized warships each around a kilometre long and weighing in at 500,000 metric tons dry mass. The Avenger class is the first class of warship jointly constructed by the Human nations (primarily the North American Commonwealth, Sino-Russian Alliance, and European Union) and the second generation anti-lanky vessels. They are the pride and joy of any Human fleet, each with more than enough ordinance and firepower to level entire planets.

Building upon the lessons of the NACs Agincourt and SRA Arkhangelsk, the Avenger outmasses even prewar Supercarriers. The Avenger's four key roles are 1) Orion missile launch carriers, 2) Command and Control ships, 3) Troop transports, and 4) Close range battleship duelers. Layered in a special alloy armour scheme that is resistant to Lanky kinetic penetrators, they are the toughest warships Humanity can field. They are propelled by massive fusion drive engines and fueled by some of the most energy-productive fusion reactors in civilization space.

The most important aspect of an Avenger MK 6 (the most modern variant) is its weapon systems. It's two primary weapon systems are the Particle Coil Beam Cannons and the Orion Seedship Busting missile. The former is a magnetic coil weapon that accelerates particles at the speed of light, faster than any traditional railgun. The latter is a crude but effective missile delivery system, using nuclear 'warheads' (warheads, not nuclear engines, nuclear warheads) to propel 10,000 tons of pykrete into a target at a fraction of the speed of light. This means that a single Avenger carriers more nuclear weapons than ever employed during the Turian Unification wars. Bolster this formidable weapons suite are 24 high velocity automatic coil gun turrets, a laser and kinetic defence suite capable of melting Lanky Kinetic Penetrators, 40 vertical launch missile tubes with Nuclear weapons, and a kinetic missile interception system. With a weapon loadout this varied, a single Avenger class can engage targets up to 2 million kilometers away and all the way to knife fighting range.

However this weapon suite is nearly useless without advanced detection systems. Humanity employs some of the most advanced sensors and cloaking tech detection systems. Most Human ships employ a hybrid of Lidar, Radar, and Gravitonic sensors to detect Lanky seedships at ranges of 5 million or less. Supplementing this advanced sensor suite is hundreds of Laser Detection grid drones, commonly called wonderballs that use dozens of high powered lasers to detect stealthed Lanky Seedships. In Addition, an Avenger MK6 carries up to 4 dozen advance recon drones used for general recon operations.

One of the most important portions of an Avenger is its onboard sub-light transport craft and onboard Spaceborne Infantry Marine Regiment. Each Avenger class carriers 4 squadrons of space to ground dropships, either the newer Mistaya or the Dragonfly, 2 squadrons of dedicated ground support gunships, and 2 squadrons of Shrike ground attack aircraft that can be used for anti-shipping or de-mining operations. In Addition, each Avenger also carries 6 Blackfly Stealth Dropships for use by the onboard Special Tactics Teams. On average, an Avenger will carry a regiment of Spaceborne Infantry, each regiment is two battalions numbering roughly 500 personnel per battalion. Accompanying each regiment is a company size for Special forces. In the NAC, this will be either Space-borne Rescue, Combat controllers, SEALs, or Force Recon. Supplementing this abnormally sized force is either 2 companies of heavy combat exo-suits, a company of Grizzly or Mule APCs, or artillery units, though the former is best preferred for combating Lankies.

The first Avenger class, the NACs Ottawa, earned its first battle kills during the siege of New Svalbard where a combination of Orions, Railguns, and Particle Beam weaponry managed to destroy a trio of Lanky Seedships. Its sister ship, the NACs Washington, would become the first vessel to become an Ace killer, destroying 6 Lanky Seedships, though also receiving the dubious distinction of being the first Avenger class to be decommissioned and turned into a museum vessel due to the damage it sustained during it's trip to the Lanky Home System. More vessels like the SRAs Beijing, JDS Tokyo, and EUV Brussels would claim their own Lanky kills, slowly but surely evicting Lankies from Human space. Though supplemented by upgraded and mass-produced Hammerhead class Cruisers and Versailles class Frigates equipped of updated Ion Particle Beam weaponry, the Avenger, especially its current MK6 model, is considered the most effective weapon against the Lanky Seedship.

As of 2163 CE, over 200 Avenger class battle carriers are in operation in Human and Omnear national navies. This makes it the most mass-produced dreadnought-class vessel in civilized space. With enough ordinance to rival any Citadel fleet in terms of firepower, the Avenger, along with its Citadel copies, will go down in history as the ship that stopped the Lankies in their tracks.