Hey guys, TheDoctor1998 here with another chapter! Guess it's time to write about the beginnings of the First Contact war, like almost every Mass Effect crossover fic has to do at some point. Now, on with the show!
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30th June 2657
Shanxi City
Shanxi Prime
Shanxi System
Quiet days didn't exist anymore on Shanxi, much to the annoyance of Administrator Seelac N'ra. Ever since that rogue planetoid rammed into one of the moons of the gas giant Gargantua, it seems as if the system has been caught in the spotlight for every scientist of the United Earth Government and the Systems Alliance as a whole.
The event itself was interesting in both a scientific and cultural way, as an event like that is extremely rare. A planet just wandering into a system, while not unheard of, is not exactly a common occurrence. Thankfully the collision had almost no chance of endangering Shanxi, as Gargantua sat on the edge of the system, and most of the debris was predicted to fall into the gas giant itself.
And even if a piece of debris was on a collision course with Shanxi itself, it would take decades at the very least for it to actually reach the planet. More than enough time to, say, shoot the thing into oblivion with a MAC.
Seelac expected that, after the event was over with, the scientific community would take its gaze elsewhere. Likely over the borders of the known galaxy and into the great unknown, as people always do during peacetime. Unfortunately for her, that did not happen, as a megastructure of some kind was revealed within the now destroyed moon.
Seelac herself was the only Silurian on Shanxi, and originally came to the planet because she wanted to get as far away from her family as possible. Sure, she didn't move to one of the other governments that make up the Systems Alliance, but Shanxi itself served her purposes. Quiet, out of the way, and only about 10 lightyears away from the border between the United Earth Government and unknown space.
Some people were surprised to see her here. After all, Silurians were very much in the minority within the UEG, not counting any alien immigrants. Most of her people tended to stay on Earth or Venus, being more focused on repopulating their species in a century-long baby boom. There were only a few million of them left after they went underground from whatever threat destroyed their empire eons ago, and even now there's still less than 2 billion Silurians in the galaxy. Respectable for a planet-bound civilization, but nothing compared to the Humans, whose population is nearly in the trillions.
It was surprising, even to Seelac herself, when she was elected as the Shanxi's Administrator, making her the de facto leader of the planet. All that really got her there was her attempts at cracking down on a minor crime wave, which labeled her as a champion of the people. And her attempts at improving the layouts of the planet's cities and towns for efficiency and civilian happiness made her loved by the people of Shanxi.
Seriously, who's idea was it to put all the malls between the population centers? It practically made the things inaccessible for anyone that didn't have access to a car. Nobody wanted to travel 5 kilometers in bad weather just to get their groceries.
But even as the planet's Administrator, her job was fairly uneventful. Shanxi was, after all, just a developing colony on the outer edges of the System's Alliance. The population was fairly small, trade happened slowly, and most of her work time was just reading and approving building plans that could impact the cities. But that all changed when that megastructure, currently nicknamed the Tuning Fork due to its visual similarity to the small item, was discovered.
Now, Seelac didn't exactly hate what was happening. On the contrary, she was initially just as excited about the discovery as anyone on the planet was. It was just that this damn influx of paperwork made her job at least 50 times more complicated than it was before.
Granted, many people were also worried about the Tuning Fork. It wasn't exactly difficult to think an object of that shape might be an alien MAC of some kind, and a big one at that. It didn't help that it was a "cold" object, making it nearly invisible for most sensors. They likely wouldn't have found it in the first place if the moon that had formed around it wasn't cracked open like an egg.
If it was a weapon of mass destruction, it was extremely well hidden. And some were rightfully worried that more could be hidden in other systems within the Alliance. Nobody wanted to be the target of what could be a Forerunner MAC.
Seelac had just finished approving a request for a planetside laboratory just outside of Shanxi's primary city when a message came in on her computer. Looking at the ID, she saw that it was Shipmaster Danny Johnson of the UNSC Grand Discovery, the ship that was leading the investigation into the Tuning Fork. When she accepted the call, she was greeted with the image of the dark skinned Human. "Hello Danny, what do I owe you the pleasure for?"
The Human simply gave her a friendly smile. "Just giving you an update on the Tuning Fork, that's all."
Seelac rolled her eyes. "So, I'm finally allowed to know if this thing is a danger to my people or not?" That was one of the biggest annoyances for her. A bureaucrat back on Earth had decided that most data about the Tuning Fork aside from its existence was classified, and Seelac herself was considered too far down the chain of command to be given the clearance to know about the megastructure. While she tried to calm the unrest on Shanxi down, truth was, even she didn't know if the device was either harmless or some kind of Halo prototype.
"Yes." A hologram of the Fork was shown to her. "We've managed to detect large amounts of energy inside the object itself. Enough to destroy the entire system if it's severely damaged." Panic welled up inside Seelac, and she was already planning for a planet-wide evacuation. "Thankfully, it looks like it's about as sturdy as Forerunner tech, and it's very unlikely that it's gonna blow up any time soon.
"That brings me to my second point." Images appeared next to the Fork, all kinds of Forerunner ruins and technology. "It's very unlikely that the Fork has any connection to the Forerunners. Not only is the architectural style of the Fork vastly different from the style of the Forerunners, but our own analysis puts the device in a different timeframe from when we know the Forerunners were active.
"Granted, we were unable to perform any sort of carbon dating on the device. Its durability prevented us from even taking a sample, but the same can't be said for the moon that formed around the Fork. From what we're able to tell, its last activation was about 50 thousand years ago, well after the extinction of the Forerunners."
Seelac raised the scales that made up her species' equivalent of an eyebrow. "Just because its last activation was after the end of the Forerunners doesn't mean it's made after their extinction."
Danny smiled in approval. "True, but it's the closest we can get right now when it comes to guessing the Fork's age. For all we know it's even older than the Forerunners, and it simply took a while to shut down after their extinction."
Seelac frowned a bit. "Okay, but what does it do?"
Danny started looking uncertain. "Well, it's unlikely to be a weapon. We haven't managed to turn it in any way, and it seems to be constantly sending a signal. It's possible that this is some type of FTL communication system, but we're not sure about what it actually does."
Seelac sighed. She still didn't have the answer she was looking for. "Danny, level with me. Do I need to make evacuation plans for Shanxi or not?"
The Shipmaster shook his head. "That's a negative. Whatever this thing does, it's unlikely to just attack the planet. If anything, it's more likely to act as a weapon against hostiles to defend the system." He did frown though. "It does share some similarities with what we know of Space Bridges though, so it's possible that the Fork is one of those."
Seelac was surprised. Space Bridge technology was something that the Cybertronians used during their Golden Age, which allowed them to travel across vast distances in mere minutes. They were originally made by the long extinct Quintessons, and the Cybertronians managed to replicate them after their rebellion against the Quintessons. Nobody really knew what happened to the Quintessons, but considering their complete absence during the Cybertronian Golden Age, the sheer amount of time that's passed and the Halo's, it's almost certain that they're extinct.
Unfortunately, the knowledge on their workings and how to actually build Space Bridges was lost sometime after the collapse of the Cybertronian Empire, just like how the technology for Quantum Displacement Gateways was lost during the hibernation of Seelac's people. People have been trying to replicate both technologies for nearly a century, but without any schematics or working examples, it's been an uphill battle that nobody's close to winning.
But Danny could be right. If the Fork is a Space Bridge, it's possible that it was a leftover of the Quintessons that the Cybertronians missed. After all, what little documentation of that time survived did say that the Cybertronians only managed to find a single Quintesson Space Bridge. It could also be a Cybertronian Space Bridge that drifted into the system. The chaos of the Cosmic Rust left little time to document which Space Bridges were destroyed by the plague. It could even be a Space Bridge made by another civilization that found either Quintesson or Cybertronian ruins.
Then again, it could also be a case of a technological convergent evolution. It's not unheard of. After all, just look at Slipspace technology. While most civilizations in the Alliance had either reverse engineered it from Forerunner technology or been gifted with it by other members of the Alliance, Humanity developed the technology on its own.
Regardless, if the Fork is a Space Bridge, it would revolutionize the Alliance as a whole. Trips that could take hours or even days with conventional Slipspace drives would only take mere minutes, and if they managed to link up to another Space Bridge with this one they could take exploratory missions in areas that they'd otherwise never get to in her own lifetime.
Seelac was shaken out of her thoughts by Danny's next words though. "I am, however, not just calling you to tell you what we think the Fork is. Some of the higher ups back on Earth have decided that we've gotten all the data that we can with passive analysis alone, and I've been ordered to activate the Fork."
Seelac was shocked. "What?! Are they insane?!" She was extremely worried for Shanxi's safety, as they simply didn't know what the Fork was going to do. While she understood people's desire to know what it did, she wasn't willing to risk harm to her people.
Danny appeared sympathetic though. "I'm sorry Seelac, but my hands are tied. There's just nothing else we can learn from the Fork without activating it. I brought my own protests for your people's sake, but the pencil pushers have already made up their minds."
Seelac pinched the bridge of her nose. "There's no way I can even delay this, is there?"
The Shipmaster was genuinely sorry for the Administrator. "No. In fact, we're going to activate it in approximately 3 hours. If it helps, the Second Fleet is planned to go near this system in about 30 hours from now."
Seelac wasn't pleased. "A lot can go wrong in a day Danny. There are stories about ancient Silurian colonies being cut off for a day due to a fault in a QDG, and quickly turning to anarchy from having its supply lines being cut off." Whether or not that was true was anyone's guess. A lot of data about the Silurian Parliament was lost when the Halo's fired, and it was nothing short of a miracle that the stasis pods managed to remain functional. Her people may not have cracked the code of proper FTL travel on their own, but they made sure their tech was as durable as possible.
Danny sighed. "I tried my best to delay the activation until the fleet arrived, but it seems that the people in charge are starting to get impatient. I suggest you prepare the local garrison, just in case. Shipmaster Johnson, out." He then cut the transmission off, leaving Seelac alone with her thoughts.
The Silurian woman decided to heed the Human's advice and placed a call. "General Williams, I've got a request for you."
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30th June 2657
UNSC Grand Discovery
Gargantua's orbit
Shanxi System
Shipmaster Danny Johnson wasn't a happy man. He'd finished his talk with Shanxi's Administrator almost 3 hours ago, and it was time to turn the Fork on.
He did sympathize with Seelac, he truly did. Just like her, he thought that the bureaucrats in charge of the operation were being too hasty. They just can't seem to get it through their thick skulls that if something isn't inherently dangerous that it can't be dangerous in the right circumstances.
Anything can be a danger to people in the right circumstances, and in Johnson's book it's always best to leave something alone if you don't know what it does. The Covenant didn't know what Halo truly did, and would've committed a genocide against all life in the galaxy if the legendary Master Chief didn't stop them.
That's not even mentioning the fact that there was no small amount of an unknown element within the device itself. While this element initially seemed to be neutronium, an element made only of neutrons and lacking any protons or electrons, it was in fact something else entirely. The best that the scientists that were researching it could figure out was that it was a strange variant, with what seemed to be dark energy being woven throughout the atomic structure. While it was a major scientific breakthrough, much about this "dark neutronium" remains a mystery.
And unfortunately, he couldn't disclose the existence of this element to anyone without clearance. He couldn't even tell Shanxi's Administrator, despite the fact that she's got more of a right to know what the Fork does than most people on his ship.
Regardless of his own feelings though, he was ordered to do this, and he did everything he could to delay this to a safer moment. And, at least, there's the 5 ships currently under his command to deter possible threats. Even if only his ship was a dedicated warship. "Sauron, are we ready to activate the Fork?"
A hologram of a flaming eye appeared next to the Shipmaster. For some reason, the AI assigned to the Grand Discovery was somewhat dramatic and had a weakness for fantasy, causing him to take up the identity of a major villain in one of the most well known pieces of fantasy in the Alliance. Such things weren't unheard of, quite a few Sangheili AI took up the identities of various Arbiters over the years.
Besides, those AI that took on a "villainous" role never took the identity of actual horrible people, all of them looking like fictional characters. You never see an AI take on the appearance of Hitler or the Prophet of Truth, just to name a few.
Regardless, the flaming eye looked at the Shipmaster. "Ready and waiting. If my calculations are correct, which they are 99.99997% of the time, all we need to do is send a signal containing the mass of whichever vessel is within the Fork's range. The UNSC Giant Leap is standing in position."
Johnson nodded, and glanced at the clock. He delayed this as long as he could without reprimand. "UNSC Giant Leap, you're cleared to activate the Turning Fork."
Seconds later, a bright blue light emanated from the Tuning Fork. The gigantic gyroscope started moving, a blue energy core forming in its center. The remnants of the moon the Fork was trapped in for eons that still managed to cling to the device after the collision started breaking away, the device somehow tearing the mountain sized boulders apart with ease. Some of those boulders weren't even near the gyroscope, and had logically no reason to float away from the Fork.
Sauron decided to speak to his Shipmaster. "Shipmaster, we're detecting multiple gravitational anomalies around the Fork. It seems that the device does indeed utilize dark energy, and it currently seems to use the anomalies to break itself free from the moon."
Then, without warning, something that looked like a massive bolt of lightning shot out from the Fork and struck the Giant Leap, which subsequently seemed to be turned into a blue bolt of energy that was shot into the unknown.
A moment of silence passed on the bridge. "Sauron, any idea on what happened?"
Sauron's avatar seemed to blink. "It appears that our hypothesis of the Fork being a Space Bridge is indeed correct."
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30th June 2657
UNSC Giant Leap
Interplanetary space
Unknown system
Alice Smith, current Shipmistress of the scientific vessel Giant Leap, was staring in wonder at the system she found herself in, having traveled here in less than a minute. She never got tired of this feeling, discovering something new. Expanding the borders of sentient knowledge. This was what she lived for.
She shook herself out of her thoughts. "Liz, where are we and what are we looking at?"
A hologram of a teenage girl appeared, the avatar for the AI assigned to this ship. "I'm still calculating our possible location, ma'am. We're still within the boundaries of the Milky Way, but it seems that the Fork has transported us far beyond known space. In addition, another device identical to the Fork is currently drifting several thousand kilometers next to us."
Alice looked at the holographic projection depicting this system. There was, indeed, another Fork, this one pointing in the opposite direction of her own ship. There were also (unsurprisingly) several planets within the system, though none of them seemed to be habitable for anyone outside of the Cybertronians, or people who were comfortable with living their lives in airtight buildings. "So it is a Space Bridge after all."
Liz spoke again, just as another science vessel jumped into the system. "Indeed, it seems that the Fork has slingshotted us several thousand lightyears away from Shanxi, a trip that would take days at the very least through conventional Slipspace travel. Even Forerunner Slipspace engines aren't capable of traveling at these speeds. The only known comperasant would be the Slipspace Portal connecting Earth to the Ark."
That last sentence didn't surprise Alice. She knew that the portal and others like it allowed for near instantaneous travel through Slipspace, similar to what the Fork did. By her mental calculations though the Forerunner variant was much faster, considering it can transport things several hundred thousand lightyears in roughly the same amount of time that the Fork transported her ship to this system.
What Liz said next did surprise Alice. "Shipmistress, I'm registering 146 contacts, unknown IFF."
Alice breathed, suddenly filled with anxiety at facing something that Humanity never had any luck with before. "First Contact."
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30th June 2657
THV Bird of Prey
Interstellar space
En Route towards System 314
Admiral Desolas Arterius, dedicated war hero of the Turian Hierarchy, slayer of thousands of pirates and bane of the galaxy's criminal underbelly, was bored. He was a man of action, the kind of man who'd rather claw out the faces of countless slavers until his own claws were nothing but stumps when the alternative was deciding who gets to kill which pirate from the safety of Palaven. Why the Primarchs decided to put him in charge of a patrol fleet at the ass-end of civilized space to "cool his blood" truly baffled him.
Okay, he did nearly cause an international incident when he fired on a slaver fleet during the Batarian Police Actions, resulting in the death of the only child of a highly influential Asari Matriarch whilst also pissing off higher ups within the Batarian Hegemony for "destroying their property", but that was no reason to put him and his men in this position damnit!
Some said he should be thankful that this was all that happened to him. That Matriarch was demanding his head for causing her daughter's death, causing some of the Asari diplomats to "politely ask" their Turian counterparts to put him on trial for doing his job. Hell, the main reason the Turians refused was because of the simple fact that nobody would've given a damn if the Matriarch was an average citizen of the Asari Republics.
And don't get him started on the Batarians. The Hegemon was, quite literally at one point, calling for his blood because of his policing actions, conveniently ignoring the fact that those same slaver ships had just finished raiding an Asari colony on the outskirts of the Republics.
Part of him wondered why the Turians didn't just attack the Batarians outright. After all, they were in blatant violation of basic sentient rights due to their caste system and slavery practice. But then he remembered the answer he was given back when he'd just entered bootcamp 'Without the Hegemony to keep the Terminus Systems in check for us we could be facing so much worse.'
He was very much aware of this fact. The Hegemony was a major power within the criminal underworld, and if they were removed it would create a massive power vacuum. While this would result in a lot of infighting for the various little empires plaguing the Terminus, whichever faction would end up victorious would likely be a lot less accommodating for the Citadel. The recent raid that got him here in the first place would be nothing compared to what they could face in that situation. So, as much as he loathed to let those four eyed bastards run loose, he ultimately didn't have a choice.
"Admiral, entering System 314 in 1 minute."
"Thank you, helm." He nodded to the helm. Part of him hoped to find another slaver ship here, hiding from someone while en route to or from Khar'shan. It was unlikely to happen, but considering that this area was effectively neutral territory between the Hegemony, the rest of Citadel Space and the Terminus Systems it would still be possible. Hell, he'd settle on bullying some suit-rat ships away if he found one of their migrant ships out here.
He just wished he had something to do other than jumping from system to system to see if nobody did anything stupid with the local Mass Relays.
And then, just as they dropped out of FTL, it was as if a malevolent spirit heard his wish and decided to grant it. "Admiral, we have two unidentified ships in the- Spirits, Relay 314 is activated!"
That certainly got his attention. The Batarians have been demanding the Council to open more Relays for them, sometimes even going as far as to state that they were going to do it themselves if the Council didn't comply. Some of the dumber warlords within the Terminus were no better, but they tended to be killed off by people like himself before they did anything. 'Guess some idiot pirate finally decided to act before we got there.'
"Sir, combat VI's have intercepted an electronic package. I think the ship just tried to hack our database." The woman in charge of e-warfare stated. "I have isolated the package, no systems were infected."
"Then those pirates have just dug their own graves." Desolas spoke. The admiral then said two words that would cause countless deaths, and nearly set Citadel Space ablaze. "Destroy them." His dreadnought and the rest of his fleet then fired on the closest supposed pirate ship, the sheer amount of firepower overwhelming its civilian grade shields.
Before the crew of the UNSC Humpty Dumpty even knew what happened, their reactor started going into an unavoidable meltdown while most of the ship had turned into swiss cheese. The ship's AI, realizing that all the souls aboard the ship were doomed, enacted an instantaneous self-destruct system, denying the obviously hostile aliens as much intel as they possibly could.
All the Turians saw was a miniature star appearing, before vanishing as quickly as it came, leaving nothing but rapidly cooling dust behind.
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And that's a wrap. I wanted to show that even good people can make grave mistakes, especially when they don't have all the facts. Given the location of the Relay, and the fact that no advanced technology had been detected by the Turians, it seemed far more likely for Desolas that this was indeed a group of pirates, possibly backed by the Batarians.
After all, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
They will realize what they did, of course, but for now it's an anti-piracy action in their eyes before things start to spiral out of control.
TheDoctor1998 here, signing out!