Sceonn, there has been a few hints that there is a dislike towards augments from the general populace, this is just another one. As for the poisoning, it raises an interesting question. Should the Council step in and help them so readily?

Miro085, Cheers for the review and the constructive criticism. My main reason for doing this is because I essentially come out of school not know good england, and wanted a fun way to improve, so it is something which will help me. Many thanks again.

strongdeitarionSSokolow, Ah, a person of science. I did almost have an essay defining a second, but cut it back a lot due to the fact this is a story, not a science paper. I'll have a look at your suggestion and see if I can come up with something more suitable. Cheers. /strong/span/p

"Fallyna, Unfortunately, peaceful first contacts, and ones where Humanity aren't overly powerful, don't seem to do well at all with views. But I agree. I've been trying to find a good fiction book trying to realise the actual consequences of a first contact, written in a story form, but I've not come up with much. Contact by Carl Sagaan (same story name is by complete chance) started off well, but then I think he must have started smoking the good stuff near the end. I've not really come across any others though, but if you know any let me know. /span/strong/p

/.../

So for all of you who have been complaining about a lack of stuff happening, enjoy.

Grothan Pazness sighs, it has been a long day of nothing, much like the weeks prior. At first, his current assignment seemed refreshing and exciting, after all, who in the right mind wouldn't want to be involved in a first contact situation? When the state of affairs was briefed to Grothan, he genuinely felt excitement, his vessel was going to be used for something grand, something more than a mindless patrol in dark corners of space, something that would go down in the pages of history. Grothan mentally admits that the first week or so did provide some excitement; first of all, his vessel was serving alongside a Turian dreadnought, and the pride of the Asari navy, that being the Destiny Ascension. While working alongside Asari vessels is uncommon but not unheard of, for a Batarian vessel to work with Turian fleet, that is a once in a lifetime event, a one he is making the most of. He is sure the Grand Admirals will have him write reports on how they operated, and every Batarian aspiring to become an officer in the grand Batarian Navy will have to read his accounts.

Grothan releases a happy noise at remembering the first tactical situation brief he received from the Containment fleet, he fondly remembers reading of the ships made from Relay Metal, the Ringworld, and the Turian frustration with the Humans stealth vessels. Back then, he honestly thought that the next few weeks would bring around a wind of change, and a new species would come gracefully sailing through the Relays, but since, he has learned that not all was as he hoped. So far, this operational tour has seen his vessel sat idle in space in front of the Human Relay, just waiting. The phrase, 'Hurry up and wait' comes to Grothan's mind. Grothan's first real affair with Human tech was when three small spheres came through the Relay, they obviously served a purpose, but what function they serve is to this day still unknown. He watched them for hours with some excitement, hoping that something would happen, but nothing did. Soon it came apparent he was not going to see anything worthy of excitement from the spheres, and with news the Relay was powering back up, his attention quickly returned to the Relay. His excitement with the situation soon turned to frustration as asteroids and space debris was tossed from the Relay. It was quickly deduced that the Humans were testing the Relay, and were either not a Relay capable species, or just super cautious, but most agreed with the former. This got Grothan thinking, why then, did the Citadel send such a powerful containment fleet? Did they omit important information in their tactical reports?

The worst part about the entire situation was that any time the Relay powered up, he had to treat it as if this was the time the Humans would come storming through, and he would have to fight their angry hoards back to the hellish space they call home. This wouldn't have been too bad if he wasn't required to be on the bridge every time the Relay powered up, but as he was needed on the bridge, he found getting some rest had become a challenge in its own as the Humans seemed to send a constant supply of asteroids through the Relay. Maybe, it was a way of tiring out his people, Grothan thinks in reflection. By his own doctrine, Grothan should have charged the Relay, as the Human's sending a constant supply of asteroids through could have been seen as aggression, however, for better or worse, the Turian Fleet Commander held his reigns, and had a tight grasp of them.

Eventually, Grothan remembers the day when the Human diplomatic vessel arrived, at first, four stealth vessels came through the Relay, and he can remember the moment they did their thing and cloaked, becoming invisible to his sensors. He never truly accepted the Turian reports that the Human vessels were all but undetectable when they cloaked, but he believed now, and what his people would do for that technology. Shortly after, the bruiser of a diplomatic vessel arrived with the Salarian vessel in tow, and Grothan can remember his confusion regarding the Human vessel, at first it was drifting before power was restored, and it was heavy, way too heavy for its small size. In addition to its extreme mass and lack of power, it was facing rearwards and towards the Relay, as if it was ready to run back to where it came from, at first, the Human vessel caused some head-scratching, with people wondering what they had planned. It was a sensors expert who managed to deduce why it was facing backwards, the Human vessel was not designed to fight the containment fleet, it was supposed to destroy the Relay if it was attacked. At first, Grothan laughed at the idea, did the Humans not know it was made of Relay metal and almost impossible to scratch never mind destroy? But then he remembered that their vessels were also made from Relay metal, so if anyone knows how to damage a Relay, it would be this species. With a small 'Humph' Grothan can remember showing his appreciation of the tactic. The species is mad, but they at least knew what they were doing. Turning his attention to the Salarian vessel, Grothan fondly remembers his pleasure, it was about time someone put the Salarians in their place for their snooping. This was the last of the excitement Grothan can remember, since, it has been nothing but scanning for their Stealth ships, a dull duty, but a one he will carry out all the same.

After retrieving a hot drink Grothan takes to sitting once more in his well-worn Captain's chair, and the second he moves to take a sip all the monitors in the room go dark, before quickly flicking to a deep red colour. Grothan quickly looks around his bridge and notices each monitor in the room now features an insect looking creature. Before Grothan can make any comments, the lights turn off, artificial gravity fails, and a sucking sound can be heard as the atmosphere is slowly sucked from the interior of the ship. As Grothan struggles to make sense of what direction is up and down, a voice speaks over his ships internal speakers, saying, "Assuming Direct Control."

/.../

20 Seconds later

Despite being pulled into the corner of the room which is far away from anyone else, Fleet Commander Quirinus looks around to make sure no one is listening in before asking, "Define 'erratically?'"

The Ascensions captain hands a datapad over to the Turian, "Over the last 15 minutes we have recorded random engine bursts ontop of some unexplained stabiliser and eezo activity." Eezo activity is often a precursor to an FTL jump.

"Have we tried hailing?" When travelling in a fleet, it is expected that ships may move slightly to avoid space debris or even to test and warm specific engines and motion control systems, however, unless an emergency, movements are broadcasted before any such activities are undertaken. Revealing one's actions relating to fleet movement is a Turian protocol, however, and Quirinus knows how well 'trained' a Batarian crew can be.

"Nothing in response," Irissa replies as she looks over to the Batarian fleet admiral who is talking to a Human on the other side of the room, "And they shut down all networking 15 minutes ago. We have tried light signalling and tight beam." When travelling in a fleet, one would not typically shut down networking unless they had a very good reason. If there has been some sort of catastrophic failure, which means networking is no longer available, then light signalling should still work. If all comms options have failed, then usually, the reason why isn't a good one.

"Something smells," Quirinus says as he too glances up from the datapad and to the Batarian Admiral. "It looks to me like it is about to surge forward." If the ship is warming its engines, then Quirinus knows that it will be able to reach the Relay in under 10 seconds, it will then take the vessel a further 15 seconds to enter Relay transit.

As Fleet Commander Quirinus moves to approach the Batarian Admiral a bright flash can be seen out of an observation window in the room followed by a second blinding flash. The light is so bright Quirinus is initially forced to raise a hand to cover his eyes. Lowering his hand from his eyes a few moments later Quirinus takes stock of the situation and realises that there has been some sort of mega explosion near the Relay which has produced enough light to make it appear like there is a small star out there. Fortunately for Quirinus and all those in the room, the windows on the Ascension automatically dim for bright light conditions, if they hadn't, Quirinus has no doubts all those in the room would be blind right now.

Despite still being dimmed, Quirinus can see what looks like a small dimming star next to the Relay, but he knows from experience it is anything but. At just over 300,000km away, Quirinus is looking at an explosion of horrific proportions, and he knows only a few weapons capable of producing such a terrible sight. With a dawn of realisation as to what has just happened, that being the Batarian ship steaming ahead and either running into a mine or being attacked by the Humans, Quirinus knows he has two options. His first option is to stay here in this room and try to pacify the Humans, that he has had little interaction with, or, he can sprint to a Command and Control Centre on the Ascension in wait for the inevitable conflict. With a quick decision made Quirinus grabs his Turian negotiator by the collar and delivers a simple yet straightforward instruction to pacify the Humans. While his negotiator works, Quirinus makes his way to a war room, to defend his people. Quirinus wishes for peace, but his duty is to his people first and foremost.

Getting into a Command and Control room on the Ascension Qiruinus looks around, while he may be surrounded by Asari, he knows that to serve on the Ascension, you need to be some of the best in the Asari navy, so they are no slouches or wet bags. In his ear, Quirinus has already connected to his Fleet Orchestrator, who is waiting for any commands he gives relating to fleet movements. He has no doubt his own crew are already getting geared for a battle. They are well drilled and know exactly what to do.

Looking at an Asari who is stood in front of a glass screen that highlights the local solar system, he barks a simple phrase, "Tactical Status." He doesn't need to ask what happened as he could make a strong, educated guess.

The Asari is quick to respond, "Fleet status unchanged, all but one vessel accounted for and fully operational. Batarian vessel destroyed, Human vessel Praetorian is glowing with what appears to be intent to shoot the Relay. We have a few reports of casualties, mostly eye damage from those who witnessed the explosion. We also momentarily discovered a further 53 unknown vessels. By all evidence, it would appear they are Human."

"Show me," Quirinus demands at learning his fleet may be outnumbered.

The Asari points to a few spots on her glass screen, "Observed stealth vessels are here, here, here and here." These are the known types of Human stealth vessels that occasionally decloak, "One unknown vessel here gave a series of warning shots in front of the Batarian vessel prior to the explosion. We have a detected a further 48 of unknown class here. They are spread out erratically."

Quirinus's mandibles flare wide, "How did we discover them?"

"The anti-matter explosion happened behind them, we just happened to capture shadows in the explosion before the sensors were overwhelmed. We have since lost their position."

Quirinus breathes out deeply as he stands upright, hands tucked neatly behind his back, "Estimated vessel types, sizes, and weight class?"

"Unknown. We only have very rough outlines."

Quirinus flares his mandibles again as he stalks around the room, he knows what his doctrines calls for, he is outnumbered at least 34-54, and those opposing his people are willing to deploy anti-matter weaponry. Quirinus knows he should request for the Primarch's chosen to send reinforcements, he also knows he should change fleet formation, his current formation is not suited to fighting off such a high number of stealth vessels, but should he? Quirinus knows that his next decision will be studied in Naval school for hundreds of years to come, right or wrong.

/.../

Alexei Shepard takes a deep breath, inhaling the clinically dry and clean air that his environment suit provides him. Like everyone else on his ship, he too hopes that he can hold off the radiation sickness for long enough so that he does not vomit inside his helmet. Cleaning a helmet full of vomit is not a fun job, and once the smell gets in, no matter what you do, the smell always seems to linger. On top of this, there is no atmosphere at the moment, so if he does vomit in his helmet, he is stuck with the vomit till the tactical situation allows the removal of his helmet. His mind, however, is quickly distracted from the results of vomiting in one's helmet.

"Atmosphere vented." Someone says, and from the voice emitted into his ear by his helmet, Shepard knows it belongs to the vessels second in command. "Weapons are primed, shields are charged. We are now battle capable." With this comment, Shepard presses a button on his console which allows other military assets in near proximity to know his vessel is now ready for conflict.

While Alexei's sister is a foot soldier serving in the Marines, Alexei's talent is away from the horrors of ground warfare and instead is focused in space, where he commands his own Stealth Vessel. This is not to say that space warfare lacks its own horrors, to the contrary, space warfare can be just as horrifying if not more so. The difference is that where the horror in ground warfare comes from enemy combatants, in space, the very environment you operate in comes with its own set of horrors and difficulties to contend with.

There are other differences too between the two siblings, the most prominent being while Alexei's older sister is a Mark 2 Augment serving with the Marines, he is a Mark 4 serving in the Navy, meaning his genetic makeup and augmentations are more suited to extended periods in space. Moving away from genetics, his sister is generally more grumpy and quick to violence, whereas he is more charismatic.

Looking at one of the many screens in front of him, Alexei analyses the situation before tapping on a screen, and an electronic order is sent to the vessel's primary helmsman, indicating where Alexi wants the vessel moved to. If the primary helmsman does not accept the order in short time, then the 2nd and 3rd helmsman will receive the order. In every human warship, there is redundant systems for redundant systems, this is to ensure that even with significant battle damage, a vessel is still mission capable. As the vessel moves to the designated location, Shepard asks a question into his helmet, "Ultron, what happened?"

The AI is quick to respond, "A vessel from the Citadel fleet attempted to use the Relay, it collided with my mines. I provided ample warning shots prior to mine detonation."

Alexei shakes his head at the thought of someone trying to rush the Relay; surely the Citadel forces would have completed a combat estimate and realised that his people would have set up a defensive perimeter around it? "Understood, are your platforms ready?"

"2 platforms have received superficial damage, one platform is recharging and will be combat-capable in 33 seconds. All others are prepared for 'delay' actions." Delay is used as a military term, meaning to slow an enemy advance, it is something Alexei understands well, his own orders are to delay the enemy, allowing the Praetorian to destroy the Relay. Once the Relay is destroyed, Alexei knows that his people will either be killed by the Citadel fleet or suffer a slow agonising death as they run out of food and breathable air. Of course, which fate he will suffer depends on the outcome of the battle.

"Captain," Another AI voice says, "The President is on line 4, talking with Captain Melchett."

"Figures," Alexei grumbles, knowing full well that Captain Melchett would rather be preparing his ship for conflict right now like himself, and not speaking with the President, "Put it on my monitor EDI."

Alexei initially watches the exchange of conversation, his initial thoughts are that the President looks to be dressed in a random assortment of clothes, but doing some quick maths Alexei figures that the President has been awoken in the middle of the night. The initial questions the President asks are to be expected, he wanted to know the who, the what, the why the when and the how. As Alexei listens in, he looks at what information he knows about the Turian fleet, and the information does not add up in his mind. The Turian vessels are not completely facing the Relay, and have what he would call a guarded but none aggressive stance. Many ships would have to move position to get a clear shot at the Relay, and none of them has their main armament facing the Praetorian. If he was going to do something stupid, like charge a vessel at the transport device, he would want at least a few ships aimed at the Praetorian in case of any nasty backlash.

Out of curiosity, Shepard looks at the two other vessels which are not apart of the Citadel fleet, the small stealth vessel, and the large prawn looking stealth vessel. On looking at recorded footage from the last 15 minutes, it would appear to Shepard like the small stealth vessel is acting more cautiously, whereas the large vessel extended its small 'legs' that decorate its hull. If this was a live creature, Shepard would think nothing of it; however, he has not yet seen the ship extend those little leg things; he, for the most part, believed they were decorative. "Ultron?" Shepard asks to the AI, "You are still shadowing this ship, correct?"

"Correct." The AI informs.

"What do you think would happen if you accidentally dropped the cloak on one of your drones?" If this was a Human vessel, and a random alien Stealth vessel dropped their stealth cloak next to a stealthed Human ship, then it would be quite a nasty surprise.

"Commander Shepard, I would not advise antagonising another species." This is the AI's polite way of saying 'no' to the Commander.

Eventually, after receiving orders, Captain Melchett hails the QEC box that was gifted to the QRF fleet above Earth. It takes a small while, but eventually, the Fleet Commander answers, "Captain Melchett," The Turian says when he accepts the hail, "That was a hell of a light show, are your men unharmed?"

/.../

Quirinus looks into the human holographic form in front of him as he tries to read the Human. As Quirinus waits for the Human to respond, he notices that the man is in an environment suit, and from reading his negotiator's reports from their visit to the Human vessel, he knows the Humans get into these suits when they expect a battle.

"A light show I wished I would never have to witness Fleet Commander." There is a small pause before the Human continues, "I have my orders to defend Human space, and we will see it through." There is a delay before the Human goes on to say, "But, I want to deescalate. For that to happen, I need to know why one of your vessels charged the transport device."

Quirinus must wait for his translation device to work, converting the Humans Prothean to Galactic before he can give his response, "I am glad you wish for no further escalation." In truth, Quirinus really is thankful, his last decision was to do nothing, and allow the Humans to make the next move, a one which would have cost him should the Humans reacted poorly. "As for why a Batarian ship charged the Relay, we are unsure; the vessel belonged to a Batarian admiral who is on this vessel, I have sent him to investigate why one of his ships decided to charge your space. You should rest assured, however, that the Batarians will be punished for their transgression." In truth, when the Primarch finds out, Quirinus can foresee some heavy sanctions, even the Asari are probably going to react poorly when they find out.

There is a pause before the Human Captain says, "Well, let us know when you find out. As for ourselves, you have seen what our mines can do, and you have lost a crew, which is never a good day, so I'm going to take a leap of faith. The rest of your vessels don't appear to be stood up, so I'm standing down my vessels." The Captain takes a small pause before going on to emphasise, "Just be aware, we will be watching."

When the call ends, Quirinus lets out a Turian sigh before sitting down in a chair, a disaster has been averted, and it would appear like he has made the right decision. After taking a deep breath to gather himself, he looks to an Asari, "Alert the Primarchs Chosen, I am expelling the remaining Batarian vessel, and let him know our current strategic and tactical situation. Have all recordings sent also." After a moment Quirinus stands up and begins to walk back to the celebration, hopefully, the negotiators are still on friendly terms, and he doesn't have a second battle brewing on one of his own vessels.

Cheers