CrazedBureaucrat69: I kinda took most of my inspiration for space-borne fleetgirls from 'acceptmyusernamealready's work Greenhorn and Greenhorn V2 (a KanColle/Halo crossover btw), which kinda handwaves the issue away by saying that fleetgirls can 'summon mecha backpacks and breathe vaccumn'. Hypothetically (though this might never be able to be confirmed because fleetgirls are, well, fleetgirls), if we bolt onto the metal hull (and thus rigging) of a fleetgirl a pressurized system in further addition to life-support, we might be able to see them fly around in space without the need for breather masks as they already have them incoporated into their hull. A bit like having an oxygen tank embedded surgically into one's body, if you will.
(although it still allows them to spawn whatever's inside their cargo holds as well as use their shielding and life support, unless said equipment was damaged and thus rendered unusable. Your bit about refrences is a good point however; I'll keep that in mind as I write this and the next chapters)
Guest:
As I had explained before, the primary issue with deploying a fleetgirl's rigging is that it causes her to light up on all sensors in the vicinity with the signature of her respective metal hull, and since there are at least three battleships in the platoon (Kirishima, Haruna, Erin) plus plenty of cruisers (Cleveland, Aoba), the result might as well be a pile of ships that just popped in and out of nowhere.
Also, you may have overlooked it, but the fleetgirls slowed themselves down significantly and disengaged their rigging prior to landing into the hangars of the enemy vessel, which kinda handwaves away the issue of them literally causing the atmosphere to burst into flames upon entry (and they won't be able to use their rigs in land warfare anyways). Their appearance did do some chaos easily enough (you can see a large chunk of the fleet already trying to face them only to get gunned down nonetheless). Also, the goal is to 'capture the flagship, all the data, and as many officers as possible'...considering how the intel the Alliance has on the batarians is limited to what essentially amounts to a galactic Wikipedia...given their experience with the Abyssals (twice), they're going to be bound to be paranoid. Because There's No Such Kill Like Overkill anyways
(The original challenge by Death Knight 1993 requires exotic human tech such as AI. Also hardlight is humanity's version of onimi-tools, which also use hardlight, apparently, or specially shaped mass-effect fields as opposed to antigravity. Amatsukaze's swords already have counterparts in the Citadel's military, IIRC)
Your feedback on the long combat scenes, however, is noted. I'll keep it in mind for when I write the next combat-focused chapters...probably another fifty chapters down the line...
(tbh I often make out in my headcanon for space battles to be fought between a few thousand strong fleets, hence the size of Battle Group Kirishima, although this may be because I watched too much Die Neue These before writing this whole thing...lol)
THOMASPENZHORN11: Personally, I more often think of the human superbattleship as a giant flying gun that bristles with so much armaments that it looks like a sponge...I'll log your suggestions and see if they can be incoporated into the story, however. Thanks
CoolDude101011: I kinda based the Leopard off how an HSTV-L is meant to function, as in using a rapid fire 75mm with a RoF of up to 60rpm to more than offset the firepower disadvantage of a 75mm vs a 100mm/120mm (and IIRC wasn't the HSTV-L's 75mm/80 gun roughly equal to a 105mm?)
I however, defend my use of four track pods and refute Spookston's video on that subject with the following: modularity. The pods, as noted in a few instances, are modular pop on/pop off sections that allow them to be replaced kinda like tires on a car, if you will, which means that a tank disabled in combat can have a damaged module popped off, replaced, and be back in the fight by noon, whereas a traditional two-track tank would need to have it's entire track section completely rebuilt on the field to achieve a similar effect. Take the Scorpion from Halo: It's four track design allows it to, if a plasma mortar shot hit in the treads, to simply pop off a slagged module and replace it, whereas a regular design would get a slagged mess of what used to be tracks, idler wheels, and sprockets fused to the hull, which would count as a write-off or need factory work to fix.
While you still bring up a good point about the setting of the 1st Abyssal War nonetheless, it's kinda an oversight on my part, my knowledge of KanColle has been limited to the most part on the movie and some random fanfics I chanced across every here and there. Also, the 1st and 2nd Inner Planets War were also mentioned in the series, and I needed somewhere to bolt them to the timeline without compressing things too much. I thought sticking the Abyssal War in the 1980s would be the most optimal solution since, as the Inner Planets Wars (essentially WW1/WW2 in space) need some superpowers to dunk it out with each other. Which, as the latter was mentioned as starting in 2171, kinda needs humanity to develop and perfect space travel by the mid-2050s, at the very latest.
Because of a number of issues revolving around the concern of WW2 equipment being used 300 years past their sell-by date (lol!), however, I decided to handwave it away by rebuilding their hulls altogether...in this AU the SA has like 8 fleets of 160,000 ships each, I think they could spare some dockyards to rebuild some fleetgirls. Although I might be stretching things a bit
Btw: The Alliance's capital is at Vienna, Austria. Largely bc it's the world's de facto capital of culture irl
(and yeah, plenty of the original historic cast are doing their own things at home, they'll just come back into the ranks if things go south, at their own will, of course. They're what essentially amounts to GIs who served in WW2 and Vietnam in a real world sense after all)
Interplanetary space, Relay 313, 04.14.5717 0733HRS Galactic Standard Time
Vulture-class dreadnought PFS Enforcer
To call the ensuring mayhem that unfolded 'chaos' would be a gross understatement for the mayhem that unfolded all across the banner bridge of the Enforcer. Alarms blared, crew shouted out reports, officers gave orders, and the alarms...oh god the alarms. It was almost as if the god of alarms and klaxons himself had gotten bored and decided to gather all of his noise-makers together for one grand concert. Every console on the bridge might as well have exploded or something just as equally catastrophic had happened for the mayhem to have unfolded...at least they weren't under fire. Trans-relay ambushes were the worst out of the worst out of any nightmare a tactican would have to deal with, and it was even worse if the enemy had assembled themselves perfectly into formation.
"Everyone, get everything in order and give me a sitrep! Sensors!? What's going on here!?"
"I'm reading different markings on passive, active, and FTL sensors that are all telling me different things about just about everything, Admiral!" came the response. "I've only narrowed it down to...dozens of radiological signatures presumed to be from the detonation of multiple Class Four nuclear weapons in the vicinity...also we're detecting a large debris field in the area alongside eezo signatures from a large space battle, Admiral! A large fleet of unknown contacts is all over the place, gravitimetrics of them are scrambled all over the place, our VIs can't make heads nor tails of them at all!"
"Vanguard is reporting the prescence of multiple dreadnought class vessels in the unknown fleet's vanguard!" Comms also added to the chaos as he filtered through the conflicting reports coming through both of his earpiece.
"General location of the unknowns are confirmed, multiple cruiser, large cruiser, and dreadnought class contacts directly ahead..." Sensors reported as more data began to feed through. "Spirits...Admiral! The warbook is going haywire!"
"Tactical!" Arterius shot to his tactical officer even as the Enforcer's banner bridge decended into yet more chaos. "Tactical! What's happening here!?"
"Sensor returns indicate the prescence of 2-9-8 dreadnought class contacts in the unknown fleet alongside 7-6-9 cruisers and 4-3-2 larger cruisers for a total fleet count of 1-5-1-7, the warbook's arguing that the ratios are wrong for such a fleet, Admiral! It's reclassifying the dreadnoughts as heavy cruisers and the cruisers as frigates! Large cruisers retain their cruiser designation—"
"DREADNOUGHTS!" Sensors reported as more of the return ping came through. "Eight vessels, length 2-2-2-0, firepower estimated to be equal to that of the Destiny Ascension!"
Arterius shuddered internally at the report, he didn't let it show on the outside, obviously, but the revelation itself was something that would give even the best admiral during the Krogan Rebellions nightmares. The Destiny Ascension was a good two thousand meters tall, boasting the heaviest firepower of any dreadnought in the galaxy, as well as being, amongst all the dreadnoughts within any Council race, commissioned, built, or lost, the biggest of the big. Well, it was the largest warship in the galaxy. Was. Past tense. The fact that there were eight vessels larger than that...was something that would've given him pause, and he knew it was the same for anyone else.
"Sensors, can you get me an active sensor reading on those ships?"
"I'm trying, Admiral, I'm trying...and it's...it's not good...you should see for yourself, Admiral. Displaying results on the main display."
Arterius leaned in closer towards the holotank to see it better as the static cleared from the display and began to build a three-dimensional image of the ships within the unknown fleet's ranks...and he was impressed. Very.
Asari ships were built to look on parades and propaganda, their sleek, pristine curves resembling more like a work of art rather than a true warship, almost like some spaceborne creature that achieved flight and then spaceflight. Salarian ones, while focusing less on looks and more on functionality design wise, still bore a distinct resemblance to an aquatic creature in space with their sleek, hydrodynamic curves broken up every here and there by the bulges of their electronic warfare suites and other, similar equipment, while turian warships had a robust, avian design to them, looking less like ships at a first glance to any outside observer and more like a metal bird with their wings protruding away from the hull at a downwards angle in silent displays of power.
The ships in front of him were completely crap in terms of aesthetics, nothing more than giant flying bricks of jagged metal, huge, lumbering, and imposing as they all held a formation at a respectable distance away from his fleet. These ships looked like they were purpose-built and designed for getting the job done rather than looking good on media, if their visual appearances was of any indication, and any attractive lines were evidently by accident or coincidence as they were largely drowned out in the jagged mess of weapons and armor plating ugly enough to make an asari shipbuilder cringe out of sheer horror alongside more than enough torpedo launchers and broadside armaments lining their sides to make salarian shipbuilders die of tryophobia. And they weren't a single, unified base design, either. The cruiser-sized frigates bore a passing resemblance to a rifle with engine pods to the sides further adorned by loads of extra armor and weaponry; the heavy cruisers (which were the size of dreadnoughts) had stubby protrusions to either side like the wings of a turian cruiser, but both much more heavily armored and falling away from the hull at an angle to expose the bow to resemble the combination of a tank's turret and gun mantlet. The 'cruisers' within their fleet; vessels nearing the size of his dreadnought, in fact, falling short by less than two hundred meters, ended up being an ugly mix of both, looking like a giant arrow-head with two squarish protrusions on the bow and a pair of hangar pods on the sides, or rather, what looked to be one, both of them bristling in weapon emplacements. The dreadnoughts, on the other hand, were truly 'dread'noughts, essentially nothing more than giant, lumbering beasts of armor, engines, and armaments. Each one of which made the Destiny Ascension seem like a joke in comparison.
He could feel the blood drain from his face as he took the visual in, and he was sure that his fellow officers and crew could as well, the sheer size of the fleet was staggering, and their appearance alone was enough to make them look intimidating. He didn't need a readout on their weapons to know that they could do a great deal of damage if they got the drop on his fleet, and he'd be damned if he didn't take the opportunity to learn all he could.
"Tactical, I want a full assessment on the capabilities of the unknown fleet, as well as a readout on those...vessels' capabilities, specifically, the cruisers."
"I'm sending it to you now, Admiral. And the readings aren't very pretty..."
"That bad, is it?"
"Worse."
Arterius looked over the data, and his heart skipped a beat. He felt his knees go weak. And he had a feeling his face had paled a few shades. "This...this is a fleet. A fleet the likes of which we have never seen before."
"...no eezo?" Sensors echoed Arterius's thoughts almost perfectly as he studied his own copy of the report.
"It appears that their mass effect drive cores are offline or unpowered," Tactical reported. "Also, their heavy cruisers, Admiral. Those were a class of super-cruisers only before built by the suit rats...I mean the quarians, Admiral. Obsolete and redundant in any fleet battle."
"Or maybe they never had eezo at all," Sensors added.
"Nonesense, eezo's the only way to build any proper space-worthy vessel, only stone-age primintives build their ships without them. Even the quarians had the sense to use eezo to get them off of their homeworld."
It was completely and utterly impossible to construct a space-worthy ship in any possible way without the use of element zero, and even if they somehow miraculously managed to create an engine and reactor design that didn't rely on mass effect fields for containment, the stresses imparted onto the spaceframe without eezo to negate it from relay transits alone would leave it completely incapable of FTL travel in any meaningful manner. The asari had tried and failed, the salarians had tried and failed, the turians themselves had tried and failed, and even the Protheans, the race that had dominated the galaxy fifty thousand years ago with technology advanced well beyond their understanding, had tried to build such a ship. The less said about that the better.
"Well, these people clearly managed to do so, and did so effectively, I don't think anyone ever attempted such a feat in all of galactic history, so that should tell you something about how good their ship-building industry is," Arterius countered, trying to sound diplomatic. "They have eight vessels bigger than the Destiny Ascension, after all."
"True..."
"And they are definitely not getting into a ship-to-ship engagement."
"Agreed."
It was no ordinary first contact that the Third Patrol Fleet found themselves in Arterius realized to himself, it was one with a specis that not only outclassed them by a sizeable margin but also one that completely defied all known rules of the universe, often by more or less operating outside them entirely. If the lack of eezo and the fact that almost every ship in their fleet was a step above them at the very least wasn't tipping the can of beans already, then the prescence of eight dreadnoughts rivalling the Destiny Ascension in raw size most certainly did. Hammer that point home, in fact.
"Enact first contact protocol," Arterius ordered, taking the most logical option one would take as the weight of being the one whose actions would define history weighed down onto his shoulders. "Telemetry, order all ships to execute Order 110 and hold position, Comms, send over the standard first contact package; Tactical, keep an eye on the fleet, if they move, let me know. We may be in a first contact, and it might not be under circumstances that we'd like, but we are still turian; stand tall and do your duty."
Turian naval doctrine, especially in regards to first contact with new species, was clear: hold position, maintain a safe distance, and prepare for anything that might come their way. They were in the middle of unclaimed space, far, far away from any colony or Citadel world, and they had literally stumbled into a situation that could've been avoided had they gone around the relay instead of through it. First contact protocols, however, dictated that, regardless of circumstance, all ships must remain in formation and hold position while making every effort to communicate with the alien fleet and establish relations with them. Only when the aliens showed hostile intent would the turian navy respond appropriately.
Watching the crew acknowledging the orders and springing into action, Arterius silently prayed to the spirits of his ancestors that this encounter would go well and peacefully. For everyone's sake. At least he didn't let his concerns show, as of yet, and managed to quell the concerns of his fellow crewmembers...
"And somebody shut those alarms off!"
Well, at least he did quell some of their concerns.
"Fleet has acknowledged orders and are standing by," Comms reported as a fresh wave of audio transmissions began to filter through. First contact package is sent. Unknown fleet is holding position. Awaiting reply."
"Unknown fleet is broadcasting a message, Admiral, relaying to main holoscreen..."
Interplanetary space, Theta Lyrae system, July 26th 2257 0515HRS Coordinated Universal Time
Kongō-class battleship SSV Kirishima
"Relay's active!" the sensor director exclaimed as his and his subordinates' consoles all exploded with alerts and contacts. "Multiple frigate and corvette class contacts transiting the relay, estimated fleet count 1-8-0 Admiral! Designating unknown fleet as Contact One!"
"Any identification on those vessels?" Rear Admiral Katraine Drescher questioned even as Kirishima's own scanners locked onto the incoming contacts and began to identify them. "Are they slaver reinforcements or what!? A lead on what they are or who do they belong to?"
"Negative Admiral! Warbooks can't find any matches whatsoever for their profiles!"
"Very well, hold position and—"
"More ships coming through, Admiral, it appears to be the rest of their fleet!" Sensors cut her off as the CDC of Battle Group Kirishima's flagship erupted into chaos. "Estimated ship count 5-0-0 with frigate and corvette class contacts in a rough 1:1 ratio, in the center is one destroyer class contact length 8-9-2, presumed to be the flagship of the unknown fleet!"
"Designating Unknown Fleet Flagship as Contact Two!"
"Hold position and—"
"Admiral! Contact Two is transmitting a message over general frequencies, preparing to playback..."
Katrine swore internally as she watched the holographic representations of the unknown fleet appear on the holotank's display, the CDC exploding with activity as the staff inside ran back and forth to get everything in order as the screens on the wall blinked and flashed with information updates. She didn't like where this was heading, she really, really, really didn't like where this was heading. Unknown ships appearing through the relay meant slavers, slavers were bad news, bad news meant that she needed to get ready to fight a battle against them. Now, apparently.
"Reading turian IFFs on the unknown contacts!" Tactical cut her thoughts off as the CDC continued to erupt into chaos. "Reading turian IFFs on Contact One's vessels!"
"Turian IFFs confirmed, Admiral, Contact Two is transmitting a transmission burst...standard civilian grade encryption. It appears to be a first contact package of sorts, Admiral. Putting on screen now."
Katrine turned her attention to the nearest monitor and watched as the video began to play. A turian appeared onscreen, as far as she knew, presuming that the intel the Alliance had gathered over the past week hadn't been all misleading. At first glance he looked like a wierd cross between a chicken or a dinosaur or whatever evolution had cooked up for turians, almost like how someone when playing a game of Design Your Own Alien had decided to mix the features of a chicken and a T-Rex together and bolted the head to a rather...humanoid body. Well, humanoid in that humans and turians shared a bipedal posture, anyway, turians, from what she understood, had a torso structure that was more or less identical to a human's, save for having longer arms and shorter legs. The video began to speak, the universal translator doing its job as it converted the turian's speech into english.
"—turian navy patrol fleet. Our intentions are peaceful, and we intend to pursue negotiations and diplomacy as per first contact protocols. Please respond. Over."
Katrine exhaled sharply, this day couldn't have started out any worse. Really, it couldn't. Finding an alien species that could potentially rival humanity? This day couldn't have started out any worse.
"...someone compile a first contact package and send it off to them, why the fuck didn't we think of this sooner..." Katrine ordered, sighing in frustration. "Comms, open a channel to Contact Two, broadcast the Alliance's first contact package and hail them."
"Aye, Admiral..."
"Unknown fleet's flagship is sending a transmission burst, civilian grade encryption, batarian standard encoding format. Broadcast contains a first contact package of sorts, Admiral..." Comms reported as Arterius's gaze shifted back and forth between the unknown fleet and the main holodisplay. "It's a first contact package. Attached is a plain-text document, a video file, and a translation codex, presumably for their language. Should I display the text message, Admiral? It's addressed to you."
"Yes, display it..." Arterius ordered as his eyes drifted towards the holodisplay. "And put the video file and codex onscreen as well, we might as well see what they have to say."
"Aye, Admiral. Displaying document now..." Comms complied as the main holodisplay flickered, changing from the unknown fleet to a text message, presumably addressed to him.
To the commanding officer of the fleet of the Hierachy of Palaven [it ran], we hope that you came for peace, not war.
If so, then, on behalf of the human race, we present to you our first contact package, as a gesture of friendship and trust from our race to yours.
May the seeds we planted flourish and sprout, may it stand the test of time,
Sic vis pacem, hic vis pacem, sic vis bellum, hic vis bellum
May we all choose wisely and carefully the path we believe is right, for right now, every action we take will decide history, for the better or worse.
Signed,
Rear Admiral Katraine Drescher, Systems Alliance Battle Group Kirishima, Commanding Officer
"...translation codex says that the phrase Sic vis pacem, hic vis pacem, sic vis bellum, hic vis bellum is Latin, Admiral, translating it to English reads as You wish for peace, we wish for peace, you wish for war, we wish for war. The entire package is written in another language, however, as aforementioned, it is labled 'English'. Attached is the name of their species, Admiral."
Arterius mulled over the words in his head, wondering what to make of them. They seemed...friendly enough, and whoever wrote it seemed to understand the importance of first contacts. Turians liked to pride themselves on their military prowess, yes, but it was always their dedication to honour and tradition that defined them. Any race that understood that concept and could write something like that could hardly be considered hostile. Still, though, the fact that their warbooks couldn't ID anything at all about them was troubling.
"Play the video file..." Arterius ordered as Comms nodded and set to work.
"Roger. Putting feed on screen...it's up. Forward window."
A few seconds elapsed as the forward bridge window polarized from letting everyone inside see through to the metal plating directly outside from the bridge getting lowered into the armored confines of the vessel to a black shade of opaque to allow the projectors to do their job and project onto the bridge-window-turned-viewscreen, displaying a video file that came along with the first contact package. It started with a still picture, showing the flag of the unknown fleet, a simple design with three stripes laid out horizontally alternating between red, yellow, and red. And then, it faded away quickly afterwards, to reveal the images of the so-called 'humans'. Or at least, it was what they called themselves.
Apart from the lack of facial tattoos or crests, as well as skin color, they might as well be asari, but the crests were replaced with a set of fine hairs that, in the case of one of them, ran all the way down to waist level, and in the case of the other, it was trimmed neatly at around jaw level, coupled with a significantly more robust build that lacked the, well, 'bumps' found on asari as well as the other person that was displayed on screen (blame the galactic extranet) who appeared to be male, judging from the flat, featureless chest. Also, their skin color varied wildly between each individual, ranging from the pale white to dark brown, a stark contrast to the asari's uniform purple skin tone.
The rest of the video file was just as he expected; a picture slideshow containing a basic, rough introduction of their species, the basics indicating that they were rather pacifist culturally wise and had a soft side for elegant, ancient architecture and wide open natrual expanses, large skyscrapers in large, bustling cities making way for smaller, rural towns looking almost like they came smack clean from a historic frontier movie about early space, or even planet-bound, colonization. Quite a few of them, however, had a pair of obviously artificial modules sticking out of the sides of their heads, looking massively out of place and yet so natrually present at the same time, almost like they werenn't implants, but rather...they were born with them? And they were everywhere, in fact.
A rather unpleasant hypothesis formed in his mind, but he logged it in the back of his mind for further refrence. He had more important matters to attend to right at this moment.
"Comms, order one of our ships to come back through the relay as a courier and relay all data that we collected as of currently along with the following message: First contact, peaceful, request envoy, end message." he beganm following almost religiously the script for first contacts that was given to Admirals of the Hierachy. "Tell the first contact fleet that we have called for an envoy and would like a meeting once the envoy arrives at any location of their choosing...we'll prepare in the meantime a quick first contact party to establish relations and greetings in preparation for the formal talks once the envoy arrives. Timekeeper, log this moment, first contact, Relay 313, 04.14.5717 at 0740 Galactic Standard Time."
And thus the course of galactic history changed forever.
The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 04.14.5717 0900HRS Galactic Standard Time
The massive space station, commonly referred to simply as 'the Citadel', lay floating in the void of space as proudly as if it was the center of all galactic civilization, largely because it really is the center of all galactic civilization, after all, and it had been so for millenia. Five, to be more exact.
It was where the founding documents of the Citadel Council were signed, it was where the asari made their historic first contact with the salarians, where the turians, quarians, krogans, and batarians all made their respective first ventures into the galactic community. In a sense, the station itself bore witness to so many historical events that it might as well be history. And it was. Built by the protheans five millenia ago, the Citadel served as a nexus of interstellar trade and culture, serving as the literal epicenter of the galactic community. Here, representatives from every race met to discuss and settle galactic policy, here, ambassadors from every race conducted their business, here, criminals from every race plotted to strike against the Council and the law (without actually carrying them out, really), here, merchants and traders from every race traded goods and services.
It was the jewel of galactic society, a shining bastion of culture, prosperity, and peace, symbolizing the hopes and dreams of a united galaxy. All races came here to conduct galactic business, whether it be political, economic, or otherwise, there was absolutely nowhere else in the entire galaxy that held such a symbolic significance. Well, apart from the Presidium, anyways.
None of it mattered, as far as she was concerned, for Matriarch Tevos Callis, Councillor to the Citadel Council and acting representative of the Asari Republics. She was trying to not let it show, projecting an aura of calmness as she casually sipped down the ungoddessly expensive Thessian tea that only a select few members of her race could afford to have, but inside and mentally, she was anything but. Her hands were shaking, her heart was racing, her thoughts were running rampant, and her nerves were shot. It had been only twenty minutes since she received word of turian patrol fleet stumbling across a new species and establishing first contact with them, and she wasn't sure if she should be worried or happy. On one hand, it was a new species, a brand new species that had emerged in the galaxy in a manner that no other race had ever done so before, and it was a significant event that would change history as they knew it. On the other hand, they were a species that, if the reports were telling the truth, completely defied all rules of the known universe. They even managed to construct ships without eezo? How?! And the turians were reporting eight vessels larger than the Destiny Ascension? What?
She had seen the pictures and videos that the turians had sent back, and she had a hard time believing them. Their ships were ugly, hideous, jagged monstrosities, bearing absolutely no resemblance to any other civilizations in terms of aesthetics or hull lines, they looked like a giant block of armor and weapons with engines attached to either side of the hull with little thought to aesthetics. Their personnel, on the other hand, were...quite pleasing to look at, their facial structures were quite similar to that of asari, and they came in a wide variety of colors, although, she did note, none of them bore the same shade of purple that asari wore.
But the true kicker was the fact that they constructed ships without eezo. Element zero was the single most essential ingredient for constructing any space-worthy vessel, the stress imparted upon the spaceframe during relay transits and FTL travels without the use of eezero to negate it would result in nothing short of complete structural failure, leaving nothing left of the vessel and possibly everyone onboard. Eezo was required for constructing any space-worthy vessel, period, there was absolutely no other way to negate the stress imparted upon the spaceframe during relay transits and FTL travels without the use of eezero. Period. The idea that anyone had managed to circumvent eezo in the construction process was mindboggling to her.
Her musings were interrupted by the arrival of Councillor Valern Seren, representative of the Salarian Union and Councillor Urdnot Oraka, representing the Turian Hierarchy. Both of whom carried the same looks that she herself probably had right now.
"So..." Urdnot began as he settled into his chair. "What are we going to do about this...new species?"
"We're supposed to convene a council meeting regarding this matter soon," Tevos replied. "Until then, we can only wait and see."
"I've already got STG agents investigating the new species," Valern chimed in as he took his seat. "As of now, we have already begun analyzing the intelligence gathered by the turian patrol fleet, initial results indicate that they are technologically superior to us by several factors, they are capable of building ships without element zero, which is impossible, and their technology, if the warbooks are correct, puts them several decades ahead of the current state of galactic tech."
"That doesn't necessarily mean anything," Urdnot retorted. "We can only analyze their tech based on visuals and scans, we don't know anything about their capabilities nor what they are fully capable of."
"Which is why I've got STG agents investigating them, Councillor, we need to know exactly what they are capable of," Valern countered. "Because if they are indeed capable of building ships without element zero, then I suspect that they are capable of much, much more."
Tevos sighed as she sipped down another mouthful of Thessian tea. This was shaping up to be a long day...
Vienna, Austria, Earth, July 26th 2257 0700HRS Coordinated Universal Time
The skyscrapers of the capital city of Austria as well as the Systems Alliance stood tall and imposing in the sunlight filtering though Earth's atmosphere as the red-gold-red flag of the Systems Alliance and the red-white-red flag of the Republic of Austria both fluttered together side by side over the ancient Parliament building that dated back to the days of the Habsburg monarchy and subsequently Austria-Hungary, lasting cleanly through both world wars, the Abyssal conflict of 1983, both the First and the Second Inner Planets War(s), as well as the Second Abyssal War, standing from the days of historical imperialism to modern federal democracy as well as from the age of horseback and sails to the days of antimatter and nuclear.
And, as far as he was concerned, Chancellor Andrew Blackwood ended up finding himself the man handed the 'short stick', in a literal sense, to stand in front of the centuries-old seat of human government and deliver the biggest mea culpa in human history, ever. And needless to say, it wasn't the easiest thing to do, either. This moment would be remembered forever in the echelons of history. Not in the immediate press cycle, but for millenia. This event had so much historical significance for humanity that it just might as well be history.
He inhaled sharply, breathing in the cool morning air as he stepped up to the podium, clearing his throat as he prepared to give the biggest speech in human history, ever. If he were to screw up, the fallout would be enormous, and he knew that this day would be remembered for generations to come. Millenia, even. His predecessors had delivered speeches that would go down in history, Franklin Roosevelt's speech at the beginning of World War II, Nagumo's declaration of victory in the Second Abyssal War, and others, speeches that went down in history, and now, he would join the ranks of such great men and women.
"Thank you for assembling here on such short notice, reporters and my fellow countrymen," he began, any stress from being the unfortunate politican to deliver this message well-hidden beneath his grizzled hair and mustache. "As you all probably already know, I have an urgent matter to announce. Take your seats, reporters."
His eyes swept over the press gallery as the assembled journalists shuffled around and took their seats, the camera drones hovering above the crowd of journalists whirring quietly as they floated in the air.
"A minor disclaimer, this is merely an announcement, I won't be taking nor answering any questions; that'll have to wait for when the media team holds a full press conference. I'll be blunt here, straight to the point: Battle Group Kirishima has succeeded in liberating Shanxi, and in the process of doing so, has made first contact with a multispecies alliance calling themselves the Citadel Council; negotiations are currently underway as I speak."
After one full second of complete and utter silence, the square right outside Vienna's Parliament building exploded into noise.
Codex entry — Humans — Human terraforming technology and equipment
Human terraforming equipment and processes are among the most advanced in the galaxy. The ability to reshape entire planets, moons, asteroids, and even stars into habitable environments has become a hallmark of human colonization.
Despite that, however, they operate of remarkably simple and straightforward concepts and equally simple methods, which are mostly separated into threeprimary phases: magnetosphere, atmosphere, and flora/fauna. While these steps do not always occur in that order—in some extreme cases only three or two of them were required before a planet was deemed habitable by human standards—it is usually considered important for them to be completed in full before it's safe to move people onto the surface of the new colony world without risking their health.
Phase one is magnetosphere restoration. Most terraformed colonies begin with restoring the planet's original magnetic field, if possible, using magnetospheres generated from magnetar arrays towed into orbit around the system in Larange orbits to allow the planet to have magnetic shielding against harsh stellar radiation. It should be noted, however, that this is not always the case—some planets already have magnetospheres that provide sufficient defense against the aforementioned radiation, and others, in the case of Venus, the second planet in the Sol system, or Shanxi, the only colony world in the Theta Lyrae system, are greenhouse planets with a molten core that can support such a magnetosphere, but lack one due to an extremely slow rotational period. In the case of the latter, the planets can be knocked into a suitable rotational period and orbital path via the usage of strategically deorbited asteroids to impart a significant amount of torque onto the surface of a planet in the direction one needs it to rotate, as well as triggering significant volcanic activity to spew ammonia into the atmosphere for the creation of the atmosphere.
Phase two is atmosphere restoration. Planets lacking sufficient atmosphere will often need it supplemented or entirely replaced; on occasion, atmospheres may need to be thinned out slightly as well. There are often three major cases when terraforming a planet's atmosphere: one, it is too thin, as in the case of Mars, the fourth planet in the Sol system, too thick, in Shanxi's or Venus's case, or roughly right, but the composition is unsuitable for life. In the case of the first and the second, atmosphere can be either vented or poured in through specially-designed 'phasegates', large frame-like structures that house a large slipstream portal linking two ends of a 'tunnel' together to each other, allowing for atmosphere to flow freely from one end of a tunnel to the other. Sometimes, the excess atmosphere is vented off into space, or on other cases, such as the terraforming of Mars and Venus, which are both done simutaneously, atmosphere from Venus was vented directly onto Mars, where it acted as a greenhouse gas to heat up the red planet enough for its lithosphere to start venting its own carbon dioxide and water vapor into the upper atmosphere, while also venting the atmosphere Venus to the point where it could sustain liquid water on the surface. In the third case, atmospheres are generally scrubbed of unwanted elements—specifically, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, fluorides, chloride compounds, and heavy metal oxides—and replaced with mixtures of pure oxygen and hydrogen (the latter two of which are burned as large jets of flame to turn into water vapor) either taken from hydrogen-rich gas giants using the same method as is used to vent/inpour a planet's atmosphere, as well as nitrogen from the ammonia expelled from volcanic activity and/or pulled from ice giant planets with significant deposits of nitrogen in their atmosphere. The introduction of bacteria to convert plechorates, excess carbon dioxide, and other similar gasses that are not suitable for life is a final step for this phase, at the end of which should, usually, result in a roughly earth-like atmosphere around a planet with oceans of liquid water covering much of its surface.
Phase three is the introduction of species of plants and animals to the planet to allow it to become habitable. This phase usually begins after phase two is completed, as introducing plant and animal life to a planet before it has an atmosphere capable of supporting life would result in the death of all life introduced via asphyxiation and subsequent freezing. Once phase two is complete, organisms are introduced to the surface—plants are usually introduced first, followed by animals, as plants help animals survive by providing food sources for them—in droves, typically delivered to the planet's surface by shuttles, where the lifeforms will adapt (rather quickly) to the new enviroment and reproduce until they cover the planet's surface in abundance. Phase three does not end until said organisms reach critical levels of population, which vary depending on the planet being terraformed; once that happens, phase three is declared to be complete.
Once phase three is complete, a terraformed colony world is officially deemed to be ready for colonization, at which point humans can safely walk on the ground of the planet without fear of dying.
*Due to the limitations on maintaining a phasegate running for extended periods of time, as well as the risks in transporting even non-solid objects without them simply disappearing into interdimensional slipstream space without a specialized carrying vessel, let alone humans, it is impractical to transport humans or cargo through the use of phasegates without specialized carriers designed to travel through them; this means that phasegates are used primarily for atmospheric terraforming, but not flora/fauna terraforming.
*It should be noted that the process of terraformation takes years, sometimes even decades, to fully complete, depending on the severity of the planet needing to be terraformed, and is typically done in stages over a long period of time. As such, terraformation projects are typically handled by automated robotic construction platforms overseen by a skeleton crew of engineers to monitor progress, make changes to the process as needed, and occasionally repair damage or replace destroyed parts of the terraforming platform if something goes wrong, which is quite commonplace; luckily, phasegates are self-repairing, and do not require maintenance outside of cleaning up debris from the gate itself, though it is still recommended to do so anyway to prevent accidents from happening.
A/N:
(sorry for short chapter length, this was largely filler and had a headache to contend with, as well as the fact that I whipped this out on literally a single day lol)