Chapter 4
So as i promised in previous chapter, we will take a look at the UEG reaction on the NBE-1 AKA Mass Relay and we will begin with Mass Effect universe discovery and exploration. Finally we have got to it lol. Btw about the huge MAC/SMAC issue, i have decided i will count it by myself, someone gave me the formula so i don't think i will use the numbers and calcs from lore, because the numbers are too big. About the chapter, i think this one will be shorther maybe. But i hope you will enjoy anyway.
Chapter 4 – NBE-1
-
New York, Earth, one day after the discovery of the NBE-1, March 4, 2594
Eric had a very hard day today, that's the way it is with basically every politician, there's always something going on, you just sit in the Senate, you listen to the shit of some politicians, sometimes you „jump down their throats", you mess them up and you add your comment to the discussion. But today was different, the President of the UEG called an emergency meeting of all politicians, colony representatives, generals, admirals and multi-admirals for this morning. Yes, it was about NBE-1, discovered one day ago.
Everyone received the report, Eric had to skip breakfast and coffee because of it, he didn't sleep well either, just threw on a quick suit in the morning, made some adjustments, and headed out.
He was currently in the senate building, walking through the halls and stopping by the cafeteria since he had a little more time.
"Eric, what are you doing here this early in the morning?", an unfamiliar voice asked.
Eric looked up from the file with more detailed information and the stranger was none other than Thomas Lasky, the long ago promoted Vice Admiral.
"What do you think?", he closed the file, set it aside on the table and took another bite.
For breakfast he had an egg omelet, vegetables and bread. He had tea beside it.
"I see…you look terrible though.", Thomas replied and sat down next to him.
Eric grinned and said: "That's what happens when you skip your morning coffee and breakfast, plus you get a bit cold."
The Rear Admiral chuckled and replied: „So you're catching up while you can."
"Exactly.", Eric confirmed, pointing his finger.
"I wonder what kind of shit some delinquents will come up with.", he said with a blank expression.
"I'm not very involved in politics, so I'm not really interested." he said frankly.
"Military matters, at least you find it more entertaining than I do…sitting in an armchair for 7 hours listening to all that nonsense and endless babble…it would drive a person crazy, but Earth needs normal, smart, and strict people in government, not some buffoons with stupid remarks and other useless stuff, that's why I got into politics in the first place.", Eric explained.
Lasky just nodded, Eric finished his breakfast and sipped his already lukewarm tea.
"You seem to feel at home in the Senate," Thomas remarked.
Eric laughed at that and replied: "I'm sure you do."
He finished his tea, looked at the time, and said: "Well, it's about to start, I guess you're here for the meeting too, or you wouldn't have shown up like this."
"Oh yes, I hear they discovered something on the edge of the Orion Arm. I didn't get around to reading the file unfortunately, you know…paperwork.", he Vice Admiral replied, grinning at the last part.
Eric grinned at that last part as well and added: "Paperwork…worst nightmare…if I could, I'd rather burn it all and be done with it…unfortunately that's not the case."
By this time they were both on their way to the conference room, Eric carrying his file in his hand.
"Otherwise don't worry, I didn't get to the file before either, I'm finishing it now.", he smiled and winked at Lasky.
Thomas was relieved that at least he wasn't alone. When they arrived in the room and took their seats, they all talked together, debating the issues at hand while waiting for the others to arrive.
But most of the debate was about tonight's emergency meeting, called by the president himself.
Eric looked around, taking in his surroundings. There was an overwhelming number of politicians, representatives of the various colonies, military experts, generals, admirals, multi-admirals, scientists, and so on.
After a while, the President himself entered with his entourage and things got going.
"So as you all probably know, yesterday, on the edge of the Orion Arm, the UNSC ship Gargantua and its escort managed to make a great find. After the outer colony called Thasilli reported the strange anomalies measured the UNSC sent a couple of ships to the site to check it out.", he began to speak.
The hologram in the center of the room displayed the object in question.
"The object, called NBE-1, appeared out of nowhere. Why our sensors didn't pick it up sooner is still a mystery. Scientists believe that NBE-1 must have gotten here because our scans show that nothing was in this location until 100 years ago. The building is made of material not found in our periodic table of elements, we have already ruled out the possibility of a predecessor simply because the architectural style does not match it.", continued one of the generals who came with the President.
As the scientists explained what they had found, or that it was something like a space highway, at that moment the debate was stirred up, and Eric looked around with a grin, joined his palms together, placed them on the table in front of him, and leaned back against the arm of the chair.
"We need to get rid of this! I will not risk endangering the inhabitants on our colony!", one of the people shouted.
It was the representative of the Rasylon colony.
"We need to send a fleet to investigate the other side! There are so many possibilities!", another echoed.
The representative of the Thasilli colony, the colony closest to NBE-1, responded to this next to him: "With all due respect, colleague, I am not going to risk endangering the residents on the Thasilli colony, if you haven't already realized, we are right next to this facility and the citizens are already starting to panic. I agree with the suggestions to get rid of this facility, but make it quick!"
And so it went on, with everyone shouting over each other. The President, along with the generals and admirals who had their own thoughts on the matter and were debating together on the sidelines, watched the situation unfold with mild amusement. It wasn't that he didn't expect it, what he was interested in was Eric, normally he would have actively participated in such a debate and given the rest of them hell.
Instead, he chatted with the multi-admiral to his left, almost as if he was unsure of the situation.
In general Eric was very shrewd, he knew when to engage, when to wait, he was very careful.
"What do you think, Vice Admiral?", Eric asked Lasky.
He looked at him and gave his opinion: "I'm a little skeptical about it, honestly the possibilities of new planets are tempting, but we don't know what's on the other side. I might be looking for ways to defuse it."
Eric listened to the opinion while sending a message to his counterpart at ONI to see where their search teams were at.
"How are they?", Thomas asked later.
"Judging by the anomalies that led Thasilli to discover this object, they've started looking for similar anomalies in our space, getting all the Prowlers involved in the search. Osman says they haven't found anything yet, but they haven't had time to search all of space, which will také some time.", Eric replied.
The situation in the Senate was getting pretty heated, with a lot of people voicing their concerns and proposing crazy measures, and others wanting to investigate. Eric was weighing all the risks, that's why he was focusing on the debates between military experts, admirals and generals, because they knew how to have a normal conversation about such things and still in a civilized way, not like the other bunch of screaming chimpanzees.
"It's starting to escalate.", the Vice Admiral noticed, becoming concerned.
"I see.", Eric replied dispassionately.
"Your weapon please, I have been waiting for this moment for a long time.", Eric confused Thomas for a moment.
Lasky suspected what he wanted to do and handed him his gun. Eric took it, nodded to Lasky as a sign of thanks, stood and waited a few seconds.
Only a few people in the Senate noticed and preferred to remain silent, but the vast majority continued to argue. Eric rolled his eyes, aimed at the ceiling, and interrupted the entire room with three shots.
The entire room instantly fell silent and looked at the standing Eric, returning the gun to the Rear Admiral.
"Gentlemen, I would like this debate to be at least a little civil! If you wish to voice your opinion, please do! But don't you guys go over here like a bunch of screaming kids in a sandbox!", he declared, sitting back down.
"I mean, we can't allow something like that to roam around near my colony, I'm not going to take that big of a risk.", the Thasilli colony representative spoke again.
"I couldn't agree more with that statement…for God's sake…until relatively recently we went through a brutal war and it left us in a devastated state, if, as much as I dislike myself more, if the Sangheili hadn't intervened we wouldn't even be here talking to each other anymore and now we have another potential alien race on our hands beyond NBE-1? I mean our citizens barely get along with the Elites, there is still a high percentage of hate, do you realize what it would do to our society if there was contact like that?", another politician spoke up.
"So it's not hard, just color the information and reporting a little bit and the public can accept it easier.", Eric noted.
"Perhaps the experts could express their opinion?", the President addressed the question to military analysts and experts.
"Well, to be honest, we're still recovering and we're not at full strength like we were before the war, we can't afford another conflict of this magnitude, anom…we may win the battle, but we're not ready for war. This is too big a risk and we should work to safely remove this object.", said one expert.
"But there is a second problem, the fact is we don't even know if this is true, if it is we have no way of knowing the extent of such a threat until we send a reconnaissance fleet there to find out for ourselves. Quite simply, we're blind, we're deaf, without information or evidence. There is also the possibility of uninhabited mineral rich planets, which might make our situation easier, but again, we don't know, we don't know anything. And that scares us.", another analyst spoke up.
"It's a fact that it could give us a strategic advantage, but turning a blind eye to it and shying away from it is not the solution.", one of the generals said.
Eric listened to this exchange and formed his opinion from it. They all had valid points, so it was relatively difficult, which was why he still consulted Thomas.
They whispered amongst themselves for a while while the discussion was going on.
"What about the Guardian Conglomeration? What's their approach to that?" came one question.
Eric straightened up and listened.
"They have a man aboard the Gargantua, I'm sure they've already received the information, anyway I've advised them to search their territory and report anything suspicious. Of course, we can't force it on them, the final decision falls on them, so they don't even need to inform us.", one of the admirals explained.
"So what do we know…we know absolute shit, we're out of information and other bullshit. My suggestion is the following…the captain set up a quarantine in the area, which was very smart of him. I suggest a full quarantine, deny access to civilians, shoot anything that comes through from the other side and send more ships to the facility to enforce it, in the meantime we send a small scouting fleet to the other side, including the captain's fleet, I will not be sending a full contingent of scientists and science vessels , only a few scientists and they will be aboard warships. Depending on the extent of the potential threat, we will come up with other procedures.", suggested Eric.
No one seemed to object to this compromise. He satisfied both sides.
"Does anyone have any objections?", the president asked the room.
It was quiet, so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
"Very well, prepare a reconnaissance fleet and send ships to the facility. Reporting every twelve hours. I hereby declare the meeting over, you can leave.", he announced and the room slowly began to clear out.
UNSC Gargantua, location: NBE-1
"What do they want to do?", the captain spewed out a cup of coffee after delivering the message.
"The UNSC is planning to send a scouting fleet to the other side, we should be a part of it as well.", answered the young lieutenant.
"Which idiot came up with this…idiocy…", scolded the captain.
"Well, we should prepare for the arrival of ours. Richmond, open the ship's communication.", said Jack.
Richmond nodded at the captain, the captain pressed some button on the back of the chair with his hand and began to speak: "Attention all personnel, the captain is speaking to you, I received a message from HIGHCOM, the UNSC fleet will arrive at our position in about 5 hours and we will go on a reconnaissance together with the fleet on the other side of this facility, so everyone prepare for the unknown. Captain, over.", he released his hand from the button, nodded at Richmond, and the communication was cut off.
"Morgan, send a message to all ships in the fleet to prepare.", the captain ordered
"Message sent Captain.", announced the ship's AI.
"Well, now we can only wait.", the captain relaxed in the command chair.
-
The UNSC Vengeance, a Vindication-class light battleship, slipspace, few moments before arriving at NBE-1
Admiral Douglas was looking at the list of ships of the space exploration fleet on the other side of the NBE-1 facility. His light battleship Vindication, two upgraded Valiant super-heavy cruisers, four upgraded Mangonel destroyers, and two upgraded Hannibal-class stealth frigates. Most of these ships have proven themselves well during the war, the UNSC has done a lot of upgrades to these ships but they are already starting to become obsolete, like most war era ships by 2560.
These cruisers are to be slowly replaced by much more modern and advanced Andromeda cruisers, which are still only in the development and testing phase.
The Mangonels with Warriors will also be slowly coming to their end along with the frigates Anlace and Hannibals. The UNSC is slowly starting to look for replacements for these ships and there are already a few proposals on the table. But for now only on paper.
Douglas wondered why the UEG, by extension the UNSC, decided to send such a fleet, why even a battleship? Was the situation that bad? Who knows, they were about to find out. The UNSC obviously didn't want to risk anything.
"One minute to leave slipspace.", announced the ship's AI named Eliot.
Eliot's avatar appeared before the Admiral. He had the appearance of an American WWII admiral even with his WWII uniform and naval cap.
"Excellent, run a diagnostic on the ship's systems, I'd hate for anything to surprise us upon arrival.", the Admiral said.
"Understood, anything else?", the AI asked.
"Send out a message to everyone in the fleet to prepare for possible conflict once we pass through that facility on the other side, combat alert level three.", Douglas added.
"Message will be sent.", with that Eliot disappeared.
"Leaving slipspace in 20 seconds!", one of the officers announced.
"Sergeant, as soon as we leave slipspace, prepare communications, I'll contact Gargantua.", ordered Douglas.
"Yes sir!", the sergeant replied and rushed to carry out the order.
"We leave slipspace in 5…"
"4…"
"3…"
"2…"
"1…"
"0…"
At that moment, the dark space of the slipspace in front of them began to open up and the first stars began to appear.
The entire fleet had left slipspace and now they had an awesome view of the Captain's fleet and NBE-1 behind UNSC Gargantua.
"UNSC Gargantua, this is Admiral Douglas from the UNSC Vengeance, HIGHCOM sends warm greetings.", Douglas called out to the largest ship in the group.
"This is Gargantua, accepting greetings, awaiting permission to activate NBE-1.", came the reply.
"Hang on a minute, there's a dropship with a small delegation from the Guardians heading your way right now.", the Admiral replied with a smirk.
"No one was talking about a delegation. You're not pulling your leg I hope.", came from the comms.
"Don't worry Jack, my ship has the exact same delegation as well. I hear they insisted on it.", Douglas said.
There was a sigh from the other side and silence for a while. After a moment, voices came from the other side and Jack spoke into the comm: "Okay, they just boarded. Otherwise, we're ready to activate."
"Permission granted.", the Admiral said, cutting off communication.
"Okay…let's get this over with.", Douglas noted to himself.
A quartet of Sangheili entered the bridge, clad in dark red and black armor with golden patterns lining the entire helmet and black cloak hanging from their shoulders, each with an energy sword at their waist and a plasma pistol on the other side. On the back of their cloaks was a large Swords of Sangheilios emblem in dark red, and they also had the same emblem on the right chest in front. It looked amazing.
"Gentlemen…I would like to offer you some seating, but as you can probably see…there isn't much room.", the Admiral said with a slight nervousness.
"Alright Admiral, that won't be necessary.", one of the elites assured.
"This mysterious object captivated me greatly.", one of the elites named Set ‚Tarumai said.
"Indeed brother.", his companion responded.
"It looks like an oversized supervillain.", Douglas replied disinterestedly.
"To me it looks more like a Sangheili energy sword on a larger scale.", the officer said.
The elites looked at him, then looked back at the object.
One of the elites took his own energy sword and activated it to také a look.
"Also a possibility.", said the Admiral.
After a moment, the sergeant said: "Admiral, Gangantua reports completion of modifications, launching NBE-1."
The Admiral fixed his gaze, along with everyone on the bridge, on NBE-1. After a moment, the core glowed, and the rings began to rotate in various directions around random axes of the core.
The first Prowler could be seen slowly approaching the object until it stopped and was suddenly shot away at tremendous speed somewhere in the direction of NBE-1's two arms.
"Gargantua and her fleet are initiating an approach, the patrol fleet has just arrived and is taking up defensive positions at a safe distance from NBE-1.", the radar operator reported.
"All personnel, we are initiating an approach to the object, we don't know what it will do or what effect it will have on us, I suggest you hold on to something, it might be a bit of a toss up.", the Admiral announced to everyone on the ship as he watched his ships also approach and disappear into the distance as the object shot them one by one.
They were the last to approach the object, as they approached the ship was starting to shake slightly, it looked like the object itself was locking the ship in place as they stabilized after a few seconds, then they fired and there was a massive jolt.
-
UNSC Vengeance, unknown space on the other side of the NBE-1, 18:21, May 5, 2594
"Systems recalibration in progress, please stand by." The ship's AI responded.
The tremor was incredibly strong, enough to knock everyone on board to the ground. Everyone on the bridge was slowly coming back to themselves, those who had already recovered were running around everywhere, medics had arrived on the bridge after the crawl. Douglas groaned, the Admiral was thrown out of his chair by the concussion and lay about a meter in front of the command chair.
"Fuck…", he cursed, slowly starting to lift himself off the ground, his face slightly bloodied.
At worst it would be a mild concussion, he thought.
The Elites had apparently absorbed the tremors, one helping the Admiral to his feet.
"Thanks…thanks…", he nodded to the Elite, he nodded back.
"Is everyone okay?", the Admiral called to the bridge.
One of the medics was about to check him over, but Douglas sent him away. He sat back in his chair and tried to process what had happened.
"Eliot, report!", the AI called.
"No one has reported any deaths, 118 crew members have sustained minor injuries, 12 have sustained moderate injuries and 3 have sustained serious injuries, they are currently in the infirmary. The ship's systems appear to be in good order, I have completed the recalibration of the ship's systems. There are no suspicious ships or any sign of civilization in our vicinity, a second object identical to NBE-1 has also been found a short distance behind us, there are a couple of planets within slipspace of the object, two are habitable, the rest are not life-supporting, I am currently determining our location sir.", Eliot reported.
"Well…it could have been worse…", the Admiral admitted.
"Indeed.", one of the elites confirmed.
„According to my navigation data we are approximately 2.6 million light years from our original position, it may be a new and unknown galaxy, I will try to get more data.", replied the AI.
The Admiral stared in disbelief, all the people on the bridge stopped their activity and stared at the Admiral.
No one could say a word, there was complete silence on the bridge.
"Alright, send a message to the Captain and his fleet, we will split up, the Captain and his ships will explore and possibly map the area further away from the facility. We'll head to the other side and look deeper, save our current coordinates, we'll be returning to them. Load weapons systems, prepare MAC cannons, missiles, plasma torpedoes, maximum combat readiness, initiate first jump.", the Admiral took the word, they needed to move, he needs the crew ready.
Eventually, the Admiral's fleet disappeared into the slipspace. The two fleets went in different directions, not making long jumps, it was too risky. Instead they made short jumps with breaks to scout the area, and of course stored the coordinates of every place they were at. Many uninhabited planets were full of minerals, mineral rich asteroid belts and more. It was beginning to look like they weren't going to find anything but planets when they actually did find something.
"We're leaving the slipspace!" the lieutenant announced on the bridge.
"What do you think? More uninhabited planets?", the sergeant asked boredly as the ship popped out of slipspace and stars appeared.
"It could also be empty space-"
"Admiral, we've got something here!", the Admiral was interrupted by the officer to his right, gaining the attention of both the Elites and Douglas.
"What do you have there?", the Admiral asked.
"I'm getting a lot of data from the surface of this planet, I'm picking up signs of life on the surface, no sign of a fleet around the planet, orbital platforms, the planet is densely populated, a little further away from the planet it looks like there is a second object matching NBE-1.", the officer replied.
"Are we dealing with a young race?", Douglas asked in amazement.
"It already looks that way.", Seth confirmed.
"I'm picking up activity on the planet's surface.", Eliot announced, displaying a more precise location on the hologram.
"Have they noticed us?", the Admiral asked uncertainly.
"I don't think so, they haven't reacted to us yet.", replied the other Elite.
"An unknown object has just been launched, it is heading for the orbit of the planet, it appears to be some sort of space telescope.", replied the AI.
The Admiral and the rest on board became curious, they had just witnessed an unknown race launching what may be their first space telescope. It was just amazing for some reason.
"Let's try and say hello to them. Get us closer to the helmsman, proceed with extreme caution.", the Admiral ordered.
The helmsman nodded and adjusted the battleship's path.
"Eliot, send a message to the rest of the ships, we are slowly moving towards the planet, maximum caution, send two Mangonels back to NBE-1 to alert HIGHCOM, we have first contact.", Douglas said.
"Message has been sent.", replied Eliot.
The ships sped up, the two Mangonels broke off from the group and later disappeared into slipspace.
The remaining ships have approached within safe distance of the planet. They waited a moment to assess the situation, then Douglas spoke: "Send the first contact package."
-
UNSC Gargantua, unknown space
"We're leaving the slipspace, Captain!" the helmsman announced to the captain.
It's been about three hours of travel and they've found quite a few planets. But no sign of alien life.
The UNSC Gargantua has just left slipspace with the other ships.
"I'm picking up a strange anomaly several hundred kilometers into the fourth hour sir! The anomalies are consistent with those of NBE-1! Potential appearance of a similar object!", announced the young man on the bridge.
"Well, this looks interesting.", the Captain straightened up and focused.
Jack also had a quartet of Sangheili on the bridge, identical to Admiral Douglas'.
"Try to approach us slowly, hands on the battle stations, get the guns ready, load the MAC gun, arm the warheads and torpedoes! Raise shields. Combat alert level two.", Jack said.
Jack's group has slowly began to approach the object.
"Let's see.", the Captain straightened up and watched the area carefully.
One of the elites looked at the captain in surprise for a moment, then focused on the area in front of the ship. For a moment, nothing…well…nothing could be seen for several minutes.
"We will enter visual range in five minutes.", the AI announced.
Five minutes of careful observation passed, Jack had already noticed something white in the distance and pointed to the spot, „There."
The object in front of them grew larger and larger as they approached. After a while the warning light on the bridge beeped, they were about 95 kilometers from the object.
"The object is active! It's starting to trigger sir!", another man on the bridge shouted.
"What have you done?", the captain asked in irritation.
"We did nothing…it's launching from the other side sir!", the young officer tried to explain.
They all část glances towards the object, which had meanwhile lowered, and after a moment, ships, lots of ships, began to pop out of the object. Everyone stared in amazement as a 5-6km long ship and the rest of the alien fleet jumped out.
"What the hell…", Jack spoke up.
-
Earth, somewhere in the Sydney
Eric walked down the street wearing one of his black suits, a white shirt, tie and a gun including a knife for self-defense, he was also wrapped in a black coat so he couldn't be recognized, trying to avoid open areas.
He turned down an alleyway towards a bridge at the edge of Sydney. He crossed the small bridge, turned into another unlit alley, and slowed his pace. Erik looked around, surveying his area.
Suddenly he had a strange feeling. Something… something wasn't right. He turned abruptly behind him, suddenly there was an energy sword around his neck, glowing blood red and illuminating Eric's face beautifully. An elite in armor was revealed in front of him, staring him right in the eyes, but Erik was calm because he had his pistol drawn at the same time, the barrel of which was touching the chestplate of the elite in front of him.
„Impressive…," the Elite said slowly.
„You know… a backup plan.", Eric remarked.
The Elite slowly withdrew his sword, Eroc slowly withdrew his weapon, and they continued to stare at each other.
„He's expecting you.", he informed Eric, turning and walking away, Eric took that as his cue to follow, so he parted after him. The two walked for another hour and a half or so, arriving at a clearing where there was some sort of cloaked dropship. They both boarded, it was quite spacious inside, you could fit the entire Spartan firing squad inside. The Elite was the first to enter, Erik followed and looked around for a moment.
„He has arrived.", Elite spoke into the darkness.
That caught Erik's attention. Seconds later, a tall and muscular figure, about half the size of the Spartan himself, emerged from the darkness, wearing armor, helmet on his head, holding a massive hammer.
„Erik…", he spoke in a deep voice.
„Atriox.", Erik nodded, seemingly undaunted.
„I see you've already met Jega ‚Rdomnai.", he said.
„Axh yes…nice chat.", Erik replied with sarcasm.
Jega, snorted and moved his fangs into a smirk at his comment.
„Why are you here man…", Atriox asked, glaring at Erik.
Erik didn't say anything, just tossed a file in front of him regarding the discovery of NBE-1.
Brute glanced at the folder, carefully picked it up off the ground and looked inside. Even though it was small to him, he could see what was going on.
„We need information, we sent two groups of ships out there but they aren't able to investigate enough, they managed a second object matching NBE-1 a few hours ago, UNSC will reach the object in one week. It's simple, I want you to go to the other side before they will reach the object, you have faster slipspace engines i hope, and gather as much information as you can and send it to me, the location of the object is inside, don't worry, only ONI, viceadmiral and president knows about this meeting, because i told them, no one, ONI is on the place and they are awaiting you.", Erik spoke up.
Atriox snorted, dropping the file he looked at Erik.
„That kind of information won't be free though man…", Atriox replied, straightening up.
„I'm offering six and a half million credits for it, such information is too valuable for us.", Erik replied with a smirk.
Jega looked at Erik with a surprised expression, Atriox started to laugh lightly.
„You can be very persuasive…offer accepted.", he replied and held out his hand in that familiar human gesture, Erik took it and they shook hands.
So…yes, well, this was only about exploring and small politics, as you can see, i have shoved two races from the ME universe, so you can guess now…about the ending…this was a small experiment…i am kinda worried about this chapter success to be honest.
I hope you liked it and in the next chapter we will take a closer look at the two species i shoved in this chapter. See ya later!