Happy new year all, and hope you had a good Christmas! So, the story moves forward a little bit now and the situation gets a whole lot more complex.
RR
IHateGenericCereal, Cheers for the comment, but yes, as I'm hoping you've noticed I've tried to give each species their own unique quirks as I would imagine if all aliens acted like us then they would be rather boring to read about.
Orionastro: I'm not sure humanity is going to discover something different, alteast not this early on. I have plans for them to be working on something, but they have been working on FTL in this story since we as a species ever wanted to visit the stars.
heartfanglives: We start to see some Batarian interference this chapter, also, yes, I want to go more into how this humanity would slot into the galaxy as a hole. Cheers
Jotun: I would follow your gut on that one...
ThePrimeCronos: Both of what you asked is coming, but one sooner than the other. For Sports, I was thinking something along the lines of Real Steel and I've already set up a Football (Soccer for you americans out there) scene earlier in the story.
Joe Fenton: Cheers, also no, that is my 'bon apple tea' moment, thanks for the corrections.
ralmon: Less world building this chapter to move things along, but good to know I eventually got the humans right. I plan on doing more like that in the near ish future. First a little obstacle to overcome though.
After a short morning run for some exercise, Shepard went for breakfast, only to find since it is a picturesque morning with blue skies, the hotel staff are serving food outside and in the hotels garden. Shepard does not mind this change in scenery for breakfast because she, like most other humans, enjoys the sun on her skin. The sun is something Shepard knows she does not get enough of as her service takes her off-world a lot of the time, resulting in the requirement for extra vitamin D in her food, among a few other additional supplements.
After ordering some breakfast from the polite hotel staff, Shepard looks down the garden to find two Asari sitting cross-legged in some grass, facing towards the local star that is slowly rising in the sky.
"They seem to be at peace, don't they?" A voice calls and Shepard turns her head to view the President, "Mind if I join you?" It is not like Shepard could say no if she wanted to, so with a nod from the Soldier, the President pulls a chair out and joins Shepard at her table.
The hotels waiters, unsurprisingly, are very quick to ask the President for his choice in food, and when left alone the President once more turns to Shepard, "I'm right in thinking your a type 2, correct?"
The marine nods, knowing the President is referring to what generation of Augment she is, "One of the rare few left, yes." While there are many augments in service, very few are of the rare type 2, mostly due to how much action the type 2's have been subject to.
"And your brother, John, he is a type...4?"
Shepard once more nods, "Yes, Space force don't need half of the type 2 augments, and I don't need half of the type 4 augments. Space and ground warfare are different arts requiring different artists."
The President takes to sitting on his chair at a funny angle so he can rest his hands on the backrest of his chair while facing Shepard, "Yes, one must imagine so."
Shepard, realising that the President is in a curious mood, puts her eating utensils down and turns to face him fully, "So, what would you like to know?" She asks, most people, even those who are opposed to Augments are curious about them.
"You type 2's," The President starts with, "Apparently your skeleton is replaced with metal and..." Shepard starts to smirk; she has heard of a lot of stories regarding her own generation of augments, most of it belongs in sci-fi books.
"A lot of that is a myth," Shepard responds with a wave of her hand in a dismissing motion, "But I'm sure you already know that. What you might not know is the story of us having metal bones rose after a battle with some Micky's on the space elevator above Mars. It started after a comrade had a wound which exposed his bone, which funnily enough had been replaced with titanium due to an earlier war injury. The medics at the time quickly spread the story we had steel skeletons. We let it spread because during that war, we needed the whole concept of us Augments being terrifying terminator like machines." The idea to let the story spread was that of a crusty old Colonel who was quite adept in psychological warfare, but his plan failed; instead of just being scared of Augments, people would often go to extreme lengths to terminate them. Augment casualties went through the roof as people would call in all sorts of heavy fire on Augment locations, no matter the cost of doing so.
"I keep forgetting how old you type 2's are to have fought that war," The President muses, "But you mentioned 'a lot of that', key words being 'a lot of', which must mean some of it is at least true."
"Some of it. When fresh out of the augmentation process we all had bones reinforced with graphene, muscles four times as dense as a standard human and a reaction times far beyond the norm, on top of a lot of other nasty things to help us survive in chemical and biological battlefields."
"I see," Reflects the President before greeting an Asari and two Turians who have decided to join them for breakfast. After the greeting are over the President turns back to Shepard. "The augmentation period must have been hard to allow for such adaptations."
Shepard shakes her head, "No, I was drugged up to the eyeballs for most of it, and what little I do remember, is very blurred, to the point I'm not sure if it is a fragment of imagination or not."
"Was the process worth it?" Asks the President.
Shepard does not shake her head, but nor does she nod it, "Don't ask a question you really do not..." Shepard stops speaking mid-sentence and frowns heavily as she looks down the hotels garden, "What in the name?" She asks no one in particular before rapidly making a move to stand up.
Turning his head, the President looks towards what has the Soldier alarmed, only to find the two Asari are consumed by what could possibly be described as a blue fire of some kind. While the President might describe the flames surrounding the Asari as fire, he knows from his observations that the 'flames' are not fire, they are something else entirely. The colour of the 'flames' is that of a dark blue, and the 'flames' behaviour does not conform with that of a natural fire. Instead of acting like a normal fire, the flames look like they are being controlled and manipulated to swirl around the Asari.
The lone Asari at the table grabs for Shepard's arm while making a calming gesture, and when Shepard turns to look back at the two on 'fire', she finds the 'fire' is no more, and the Asari are moving from their seated position.
/.../
After helping Benezzia onto her feet the two Matriarchs turn to walk up the grass, "The solider looks... uneasy." Benezzia says.
Tevos blinks out of habit, even though she knows Benezia will not see her eyelid movement, "She looks tense. If she could burn holes with her eyes, I believe we would be in trouble right now."
"Is that because she is unsure of our biotics and its nature, or because we used biotics in such a manner?" Ponders Benezzia, "In hindsight, they could see the use of biotics as aggression."
Tevos looks past the human warrior and to the President who is sat at the table while starring at themselves, "Well, the President looks puzzled. I'm going to go down the route of the Humans not knowing about biotics."
Getting to the table with the President Tevos and Benezzia are greeted by the man, and after an expression of 'good morning,' spoken in Standard Galactic by the Human leader, Benezzia and the President enter a conversation. As Benezzia speaks with the President Tevos turns to the others on the table, "Well?" She asks them.
It is a Turian who replies to Tevos, and from his face paintings, Tevos knows the man has served in the Turian navy, and is from a tribe on Palavern, "They are not familiar with it. The Soldier was on her feet the moment it noticed, and the President was looking on confused."
Tevos does not like the Soldiers reaction, "Did the Soldier look like it was going to be hostile?"
"Yeah, but if that was the Primarch sat there, and a Cabal saw something like that from an unknown alien species, you could bet the Cabal would react the same."
Tevos blinks, she knows that what she did was very risky, if the Humans reacted even slightly more hostile, then things would have turned south very quickly, but the Asari had faith. The Humans so far have gone to extreme lengths to make good relations, so she did not expect them to react with much hostility on impulse. "Yes, very true."
It is not long till Benezzia finishes speaking with the President and turns to Tevos, "Well, the President does not know about biotics, and neither does the Soldier. Both are very inquisitive."
"What type of questions are they asking?"
"They want to know why I was on fire." Benezzia half chuckles, "They honestly have no idea about it, most of their questions are child-like."
"So, they can build ring worlds, plasma weaponry, and stealth technology hundreds of years more advanced than anything we dreamed of, yet they are clueless about biotics." Tevos muses.
"Don't forget about fast elevators." The third Asari on the table chips in, resulting in Tevos rolling her eyes.
Benezzia blinks after a small chuckle, "Yes, so it would seem."
"So, that makes me wonder if they have harnessed element zero yet. These people could be stuck to this solar system."
"I'm not sure," Benezzia replies honestly, "But what is curious is the fact that the humans know the word 'biotics'. They have just never known what the Prothean word actually meant and have never been able to translate."
"Well," Tevos starts, "I am glad you have been able to provide a service. Have they asked for a demonstration at all?"
"No," Benezzia quickly replies, "So far, they only think we can surround our bodies with 'fire'. So, I believe a demonstration would be best left to a diplomatic party as this whole event has been themselves showing off. We do not want to steal their show, so to speak."
"Very true," Tevos concedes before changing the topic, "So, what is the next stop on their show."
The other Matriarch blinks before going back to chat with the President for a while, and once a fair bit of conversation has been exchanged, Benezzia comes back to Tevos. "We are to take an 'Elon' to the opposite side of the world, where we are then going to see some of the aquatic wildlife this planet has to offer, we will be on a boat for this bit."
Despite coming from a world with a surface that is 79% ocean, Tevos is not the most avid ocean goer, mostly because she is one of the rare few that suffers from sea-sickness. "Don't suppose you packed any sea-sickness tablet?" Tevos asks to which Benezzia simply raises a brow, asking if Tevos really asked that. "Thought not. Hopefully, the sea's are calm." Hopefully...
/.../
Two hours later
After finishing breakfast Tevos and her cohorts are guided into a sky car which takes them to an unusual looking building. Upon entering the building, the group go down a few flights of stairs till they come across a large open room. At either side of the room is a large hole which a tube comes out of.
"This system is called the Elonvator," Benezzia translates, "It will take us under this planet's crust, and deliver us to the opposite side of the world."
Tevos turns her head when a Salarian speaks, "How are they doing that? Extreme pressure makes it infeasible." Even Tevos knows that the pressure below the planet's crust would crush 99% of metal structures. Either the Humans are lying, or they have some serious material science that citadel wants into - not that the ringworld above their planet doesn't already have Tevos salivating at the idea of getting her hands on their material science.
I'm just translating," Benezzia replies, "And lack the terminology to get the scientific explanations for you."
When the next 'Elon car' arrives the group strap themselves in and within an impressively short amount of time they are arriving at their stop. Why they did not use a sky car Tevos is uncertain, but if she had to bet, she would say they were showing off the 'Elonvator'. Building such a structure below their planet's crust could not have been an easy feat - harder yet would be maintaining the structural integrity. What no one in the away team knows yet, is that it is this structure which pushed humanity into discovering the metal used for creating the relays.
At their stop, the away team are quickly whisked away and onto a skycar which takes them a short distance to a harbour. Getting onto a relatively small boat, about 50 meters long, the away team find themselves sat down in front of a screen, where the safari man from the day prior begins to explain a few different animals. Apparently, there will be an opportunity to swim with a few of the aquatic beings, and with a few other creatures, they dare not put a toe into the water.
The boat ride out from the harbour was slow, as are all boats, but eventually, the boat arrives at its first stop, where the Humans point out to a few sea creatures which are occasionally seen jumping out of the ocean. It is explained to the group that these are dolphins, which are one of the most intelligent sea creatures known after the blue whale and killer whale. The group of dolphins were quickly enticed to come to the boat when some human workers threw some fish overboard, allowing all onboard a closer look at the creatures. Surprisingly, they looked a lot like some sea predators from Thessia.
Moving on from the dolphins the group find themselves floating above some coral reefs, where they are offered to go snorkelling, and as the waters are calm Tevos finds only the Turians opt to stay on board the boat. After an hour or so swimming among countless different types of sea creatures to be found in the corals, Tevos returns to the boat to find that there is a certain tense atmosphere on the boat. Tevos can not help but think that in her time off the boat, something has gone ghastly wrong.
Looking around, Tevos notices that Benezia is sat waiting for her, the Matriarch must have left the water some time ago as she looks dry. "Is all in order?" Tevos finds herself asking with some concern.
Benezia's facial reaction instantly causes a frown of concern to cross Tevos's face. "What has happened?"
Benezia does not initially give a verbal response as she pulls up an image on her omni-tool. "Have a look." She tells Tevos.
The Asari councillor takes the omni-tool as she sits down next to Benezia, she no longer cares about the fact that she is dripping wet. Looking at the picture on the omni-tool Tevos quickly realises what has gone wrong, on the omni-tool there is a picture of 65 Batarian vessels in tight formation. "Are they in Human space?"
Thankfully Tevos sees a slight clench in Benezia's fists telling her that no, the vessels are not in human territory, "No, but interestingly, the Humans are the ones that alerted us to this. The fleet is sat at the opposite side of the Relay needed to enter this system."
The Councilor breathes out a deep breath through her nose before closing the image of the fleet, "How have the humans reacted?"
Benezia once more clenches her fists, "I do not believe they are reacting well. The President has mentioned he will be leaving shortly to make 'Preparations'. I can only assume he means to make ready for a potential conflict."
Tevos raises a hand to her forehead, trust the bane of the Galaxy to ruin this First Contact, "Please tell me you told them they will not dare to try anything against a Turian fleet."
"The Humans have no reason to believe that." Benezia tells Tevos, "All they see is 30 Turian war vessels in their system, and 65 more which looks like they are about to join us. If this was an Asari system or even a Turian system, battle preparations would be made."
"I can't even think about how we can move them on," Tevos sighs, "The space that Relay connects to is Batarian owned. The Council can not force them out without serious concessions. And more concerningly, what happens when the Council fleet arrives? The Humans see two fleets just waiting to enter their system? Turians would see that as a pre-emptive strike waiting to happen, as would the Matriarchs. I can already hear the Human war calls."
Seeing Corvinus approach her position Tevos looks to the Turian Captain, knowing Benezia will most likely have already consulted with him, "What are your thoughts?"
The Turian is straight out with his answer, "We need to leave this system in order to let things calm and try to move the Batarians on. If these people think anything like my own, then we are in increasingly dangerous waters."
/.../
2 hours later
The President takes a seat around a large circular table with his most senior military advisers, as he sits he says, "So, our friends have confirmed they are Batarians. Give me options."
One of the military advisors pushes a strategic military map to the President, displaying the location of assets in the region of interest, "We have 51 Ultron platforms on the far side of the Relay; they have not been detected yet."
"You're talking about a pre-emptive strike. "
"No." The man replies bluntly, "Because I would consider a first move is sending a Stealth vessel into our space." Shortly before the Batarian fleet was detected a Stealth Vessel was discovered entering Human space by the Ultron Platforms at the far side of the relay. This stealth vessel has many of the military advisors concerned as many see it as a reccy for an invasion.
"What are we doing about the Stealth vessel?"
A man representing the Martian navy speaks up, "We have one of our own stealth vessels shadowing it. We have some Micky's ready to force entry on a moments notice." Micky's are slang Martian Marines.
"Do we know if the vessel belongs to the Batarians?"
The man gives an uneasy look, "We are not 100%, but it arrives just before them, which tells me its a Batarian reccy vessel, then to further the point we have discovered one shadowing the Batarian fleet."
The President sighs, "What is the one in our system doing at the moment?"
"Performing some data gathering on Jupiter."
"No attempts to establish comms?" The President asks.
The Martian shakes his head, "No. It's silent in the EM Spectrum and its running deathly cold. Whoever is in command of that vessel doesn't want to be detected. If you were to invade a system, you can be sure I would advise you to do something similar to this vessel here."
The room is quiet until the President says, "I'm thinking board it if we can't establish comms."
"Mr President," An older advisor in the room speaks, "Can I advise against that. We board it now and we let them know we can detect their stealth vessels. If we let them think they are still able to operate undetected, we can gain more intel, we can find out where they are interested in and bolster our defences there."
"I disagree," Another speaks up, "Every second its out there, its finding things to attack. If we take it out now, those Batarians come in blind, giving our people precious time to work. If we board it, we take the soft approach, and can return their people once we know they are of no threat. Also, I must advise against establishing comms, it would just give it time to plan an attack, run, or send what data it has gathered back to whoever owns the vessel."
The President taps the table, torn over what to do. Eventually, he asks, "What else can we do?" The room is quiet, so the President breaths in, nods and then says, "Get me the detailed plans to board it." Upon this command, numerous assistants in the room set to work. "But! Before we do anything, how can we bolster the defence of this system?"
A woman speaks up, "We have people ready to drag broken up pieces of what was once Charon in front of the relay and detonate them into a million bits. Any vessels that come out on our side would be forced into emergency slow manoeuvres, giving our Stealth vessels easy pickings. We can also mine it with either more Ultron platforms or Tritium mines."
The President swallows a little; a Tritium mine would be a hell of a surprise to whoever was unfortunate enough to run into one. "Alright, do it. Are we redeploying the fleets at all?"
"Yes." An admiral at the table says, "We are sending our fleet to the outer rim, for now, we are going to have to hope Ultron can handle the fleet above Earth. May I also suggest we advise the Turian fleet of our plan to mine the relay, it may cause them concern to see activity around it."
"We will." The President guarantees, "Once the Asari translator is back on board her vessel to translate for us."
1 hour later
The President cracks his neck before nodding to an assistant who hits a red button on a black box, which connects him to the fleet in Orbit where Benezia is waiting. "Matriarch Benezia," The President greets.
"Mr President," Benezia returns, "I have Fleet Commander Quirinus waiting for you."
"Fleet Commander Quirinus, we must advise you to leave our system." The President tells the Turian, "We will be mining the device you used to enter imminently." It takes a while to translate this message as 'mining' and 'imminently' do not register with Benezia, so other words need to be found that can convey the same meaning.
"As you desire," Fleet Commander Quirinus returns, "Can we maintain communications through this device?" Some military advisors find it odd that the Turian is not wanting to stay in system.
The President nods once the message is converted enough for him to understand. "Yes."
"Then we will speak again when the diplomatic part arrives. Is there anything else?"
"Yes. As you seem to know them, please inform the Batarians not to enter our system, we will come to them if needed."
"Understood. Fleet Commander Quirinus out."
When the Turian ends the call the President turns to his military advisors, "If the Stealth Vessel does not leave with the fleet, we will give it a few hours for the Turians to tell the Batarians our message, and then if it still makes no effort to turn tail, we will board it."
6 Hours later
After no sign of the Stealth Vessel turning around the President give the nod which allows the Martian crew to board the unidentified vessel. The initial attack was a swift strike at the engines of the ship to immobilise it, followed by a strafing run to eliminate its close defence platforms. With these destroyed the Micky's were green-lighted to force entry.
After a few minutes of watching a video feed from a marines helmet-mounted camera the President pulls a hand down his face, realising he has boarded a ship filled with Salarians, not Batarians. "Ship secure," A voice of one marine calls, "We have 13 captives."
Standing from his chair the President breathes out as he removes a tie, "I believe," He starts, "I may have just kicked a hornet's nest."
Cheers for reading! Next chapter we go back to The Primarchs Chosen.