Chapter 1
"Fuck me, you told me this shit was boring but I didn't think it was anywhere near this bad." a Marine Corps private named Jenkins complained.
"Watch your language around the civilians, Private. You want to spend another week cleaning Latrines?" his statuesque redheaded commanding officer Lieutenant Jane Shepard responded.
"Sorry, LT, I'll behave." He replied, rolling his eyes. She sometimes wondered why he even enlisted, he'd managed to make it up to sergeant but his ineptitude and piss poor attitude resulted in him being demoted twice, now it seems like he doesn't care any more.
"Back to your station, Jenkins." She grumped. Today was not going well. Jenkins wasn't wrong, this was a very boring assignment, but Shepard didn't make Lieutenant at the tender age of 23 by being skittish about performing her duties to the best. Boring or no, her squad was going to move like greased clockwork or she'd be collecting heads by day's end. She walked past, nodding and occasionally returning the salutes of her subordinates.
Her crew, Jenkins obviously being the exception, were a group of young, bright-eyed and capable soldiers. She'd had to disabuse some of them of their preconceived notions about the glorious exciting military life they thought they'd signed up for, but to their credit none had complained, especially after watching Shepard viciously dress Jenkins down and confine him to the brig for a week for sexually harassing a teacher in front of her grade-school class as they toured their section on a field trip. Everyone in the squad, herself included, had submitted official complaints about Jenkins behavior, but beyond the demotion they were unwilling to punish him over it. It was later determined that the Colonel involved in staffing on that particular station was one Hiram Jenkins, the obnoxious soldier's uncle. No matter the advances of the 21st century it looks like nepotism was alive and well.
Shepard's musings were interrupted by the harsh wail of a klaxon on a nearby alcove followed by an announcement ordering all soldiers to their stations and all civilians to their shelters. While it could have been a drill, they'd just had a joint military and civilian drill a month ago and they weren't that common. She rushed to her station with the calm determination for which she was known and leapt into action.
"Status report." She demanded. Chief Ashley Williams, her second in the squad responded immediately
"Unexpected activity from the relay Ma'am. They're not sure but it looks like an outside activation based on our data from the Prothean archives.
"Listen up shitheads, this isn't a drill." A hologram of Rothschild's preferred avatar, a cartoon leprechaun with a bad fake Irish accent. Announced. Rothschild had been asked by a committee somewhere down the line to choose an anthropomorphic form to make interfacing with people more intuitive, and he'd taken offense of course but not one to leave a perfectly good excuse to screw with people alone, he took it as a challenge to find the most ridiculous form he could.
"Sensors picked up a big fuckin' spike on the ass end of this here relay and all indications are that it's a huge contact. Multiple very large ships, no way to know how many for sure. You, Mulligan, go home and ask to see if your wife will let you borrow your balls back." he said pointing to Private James Mulligan, recently married to an engineering technician, he laughed and flipped off the hologram.
"Go be someone else's problem, Rothschild, we have real work to do here." She said, having learned a long time ago that the troublesome AI was not likely to go away unless you played along.
"Oh no they found my pot o' gold!" he shrieked and disappeared. Annoying little bastard but damn was he useful.
"Ok, people we trained for this. Remember protocol, weapons cold and pointed down until the order comes down, you got it? We can't assume hostility!" she barked.
Everyone nodded, with the exception for Jenkins who rolled his eyes. They went to go secure their gear. The plan was to have an announcement played on the eventuality of possible first contact to all civilian domiciles on the station 10 minutes after informing the military personnel that way they were ready to fight if needed but were present at their stations to answer questions if the civilians were concerned or didn't know what to do. Most would be sent home to shelter in place but those with mission critical qualifications like medics, engineers etc would be asked to stand by.
At minute 9 of their head's up, the Rothschild AI appeared, still looking and sounding like a Leprechaun but with a subdued attitude and no humor in its voice. "Lieutenant Shepard, are there any civilians nearby?" it asked
"Negative, Rothschild. What's up?" She asked.
"There were a lot more contacts than expected. First count shows more than fifty thousand, some with extremely large weaponry. None have powered weapons up, but we're detecting active engines and shields all over the place. They haven't made any hostile moves, but this looks a lot like an invasion force. Keep the civilians out of the loop for now, but prep for evacuation." he whispered, and then blinked out of existence, leaving a stunned, even more pale Lieutenant shepard to ponder her next move.
"Guys change of plans, Plead ignorance if the civvies ask anything, but there's more than fifty thousand alien ships there, start prepping escape pods and make sure the routes to those pods are clear. Baxter, you keep an eye on Jenkins, we can't afford a fuckup here." She continued.
Baxter nodded and went to go find the pain in the ass himself. The remainder went around checking to see if the pods all were equipped locked and had green status. Shepard began punching notes into her PDA when a call came up from one of her contemporaries, Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko from down near the drive section.
"Shepard you hearing this shit?" He asked, his nerves betraying him,
"Relax Kaidan, they haven't shot us yet and you know the schematics here better than I do, we're a tough nut to crack." She reassured him
"I know I know and I was hoping to see first contact one day but this is a lot bigger than I was expecting." He said
"It's going to be ok, remember your training, they prepped us for this shit. We got this." She said, and was pleased to see a bit of the confidence she was currently desperately lacking for herself slide back onto his face.
"You're right, Shep. Thanks." he replied
"No sweat now go get the drive section secured, we'll get the rest." She said.
Up on the bridge, the command staff were sitting in their seats trying their best to remain calm. It was drilled into them when evidence of living Aliens outside the array was discovered that their job was to remain calm and present a calm, rational front to any outsiders in an effort to promote peace while betraying no weakness. Thankfully that training stuck and they were all breathing slowly and calmly.
"Report!" the station's captain, Captain David Anderson ordered.
"Sir, none of their weapons are powered, and deep scans show their ships are in rough shape, like they just ran away from a fight." a science officer replied. Just then the ship vibrated softly and a muffled boom was heard, as outside the shields lit up upon contact with a nearby explosion.
"What was that are we under attack?" Captain Anderson demanded.
"Negative sir, one of the Alien ships just exploded, we just caught the shock wave." He responded. "Passing the report on to command staff now." He continued. Normally he'd wait for an order but he believed, correctly in this case, that preventing panic amongst the officers was more important than following protocol.
"Good call, son. Keep us updated." Captain Anderson commented.
"Sir!" the same officer interrupted. "We're picking up a signal between us and the wreckage. There's a small ship headed our way. It's tiny, barely big enough to hold one of us, I think it's a lifeboat!" He reported
"Grab it and bring it aboard!" David responded, then went to convene with his colleagues including his direct superior, Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett. After a brief discussion, command of the bridge was passed to Admiral Hackett and Captain Anderson rushed to the assigned cargo bay.
Upon arrival he discovered five marines carefully hauling the "lifeboat" toward the center of the cargo bay which was equipped with a quarantine field as well as a fully stocked medical kiosk. Right as the quarantine field established, the life boat opened and a humanoid being emerged. It was dressed head to neck in a form-fitting bodysuit, its head adorned with a hermetically sealed hemlet covered in an ornate cloth hood. As the alien stood, it appeared seemingly female at least compared to Humans, with its narrow waist, wide hips and small but apparent breasts.
"Rothschild, to the cargo bay please." Anderson spoke in a moderate but even tone, careful not to startle their visitor. Just as he materialized beside Anderson, the alien jumped and started speaking an incomprehensible language in a rushed and panicked manner. Anderson looked on in confusion, especially once he heard Rothschild say something similarly. This startled the alien, who looked at him and said something else. This continued back and forth until they seemed to be conversing with ease. A technician entered the room with an earpiece for the Captain. When he wore it he was able to understand them both immediately. Rothschild had managed to learn and translate the alien language in the space of a 10 minute conversation!
"I am Captain David Anderson of the Systems Alliance. Do you understand me?" He asked the alien
"Yes! You can hear me? The AI told me it was working on a translator. I didn't think it meant this quickly!"
"Our Rothschild works very quickly." Anderson grinned while explaining
"Sorry, I forget my manners. I am Shala'Raan Vas Tonbay..." She introduced herself, getting choked up towards the end of her name.
"I'm sorry but I must know, were there any other life pods? From the Tonbay? My ship just exploded!" She said
"Captain Anderson to Bridge. Are there any other life boats on sensors?" He asked
"Affirmative, three more within range and it looks like their ships grabbed eight more." a bridge officer named York responded.
"York, send out shuttles to retrieve the others in our range and bring them here quick they might need medical attention." Anderson responded. Having heard the exchange the alien, once again forgetting her manners it seems, leapt into Anderson's arms and began thanking him profusely. He casually waved the other soldiers off, causing them to lower the weapons she never knew were pointed at her.
"Thank the ancestors, all twelve pods made it." she said, sobbing.
"Are you injured?" he asked.
"No, nothing major and no suit ruptures." She said as though it were obvious to him.
"Ok, let's get you back to your people." He said, and walked over to a console on the wall and punched in some commands. She followed him tentatively and tried to look over his shoulder, which was not fruitful as she was barely five feet tall and David stood six foot two. He noticed the issue and stood aside so she could see his screen, on it was Lieutenant Shepard who was in the middle of an explanation to the Captain
"...got all 3 but one of them is badly damaged and not even the Aliens can get them open, and they are combative if we try to help.
"We'll be right down, Rothschild has a translation matrix and I am with their captain as we speak.
"OK hurry Captain, I don't know how long the poor guy has in there." She said. Shala'Raan was immediately panicked at the thought of losing one of her own but was also touched, the other being on the screen seemed genuinely distressed at not being able to help.
"Captain Raan, if I give you a copy of our translation matrix, would you be able to adapt it to your communications?" David asked as they briskly made their way to the aft cargo hold.
"Yes, I believe we could, especially if one of our engineers is aboard." She responded.
Rothschild helpfully had been listening in and had already requested a link with Shala'Raan's suit computer. As she was completely at their mercy anyway she complied and Rothschild installed the entirety of their translation matrix along with a package to help disseminate it to the rest of her people.
As they endured the curiously long elevator ride, David looked over at the helmeted Captain who was shifting nervously and wringing her three-fingered hands, obviously in distress. It was curious to him that these aliens were so different yet he could read their body language easily. "It's going to be okay, Captain Raan. We're almost there." He reassured her.
She realized she must have been telegraphing her mood and dropped her hands back to her sides. She nodded in response but otherwise remained silent, not trusting her voice. The doors opened, and they rushed out into the cargo bay to be met with two frantic aliens trying desperately to pry the third life pod open.
"Captain Raan, thank the ancestors! These aliens keep trying to break into our life pod, we can't get it open we don't know who is inside!" the larger alien told her.
"Stand aside Keev, these aliens are trying to help." She said, resting a hand on the concerned alien's shoulder." She then waved her hand over the other alien's head and then the next one, and an orange light erupted from her wrist forming a series of geometric shapes that made no sense to Captain Anderson
"You should be able to understand them now, they gave us a translation matrix, I've already passed it along to the fleet now please let them help!" She begged. They nodded and without a second to spare, Shepard and half of her squad attacked the pod with plasma cutters, quickly opening it and releasing its contents. The alien inside sat up immediately and gasped loudly, able to breathe after nearly passing out from oxygen deprivation.
She was immediately confronted with a sight she didn't expect. Surrounding her were what looked like hairy, multicolored Asari with no crests and surprised, but happy expressions. As she scanned around she barely had time to get to her feet before nearly being knocked over them by Shala'Raan, who now was alternating between sobbing and quietly saying "Keelah, thank the ancestors."