Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)
Xander Harris, Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Rupert Giles, Cordelia Chase, Joyce Summers and Jenny Calendar sat around the table of the main briefing room aboard the Ares, with the Holographic Avatars of The Ares, The Athena and The Artemis standing at one end of the table.
"Sunnydale has been destroyed, in a way known to seal Hellmouths." Xander announced. "We evacuated all the uncorrupted civilians, but to the rest of the world Sunnydale and its entire population are gone. We can't go back."
"This is no standard Starfleet Vessel, is it?" Jenny Calendar asked. "You were Section 31."
Jenny had been dressed as a Starfleet Ambassador. Cordy had been the commander of the MACO Team. Joyce's costume had been a planetary governor, but not one associated with the United Federation of Planets or anything Star Trek related. Giles had not been dressed up for Halloween, but he was included in the meeting because Xander, Buffy and Willow trusted him.
"We were Subsection Delta." Buffy replied. "A dedicated Demon hunting group. Subsection Delta was to the rest of Section 31 what 31 was to normal Starfleet."
"Tell us about these vessels." Giles said.
"You are currently on The Ares, the Task Force Flag Ship. An advanced design based on the Post Dominion War Dreadnaught, which itself was designed around the Galaxy Class Cruiser. A heavy combat vessel, with a Phaser Spinal Lance and carries two squadrons of Perrigin class Fighters. The Ares also is the mothership for The Athena, an upgraded Defiant Class Escort, fast, hard hitting and manoeuvrable. The other ship is The Artemis, a Jupiter Class Carrier, which contains five flights of Callisto Light Escorts. They have almost as much firepower as The Athena, but are much smaller, more vulnerable and lacking Warp Capabilities." Willow explained. "However, where most Starfleet Vessels are designed to be exploration and scientific platforms, Section 31 Vessels were specifically designed for stealth and combat. Unlike standard Starfleet ships, which are prohibited from using them, all three Vessels are equipped with Cloaking Devices."
There was silence for a few minutes as everyone processed the information.
"What's the plan?" Joyce asked.
"First order of business is to check the location of Vulcan and Andor, to see if any of the other Founding Races are around. We will evaluate from there." Xander said. "We will also look for a suitable colonisation location. We have over thirty-thousand people aboard the two ships, which will severely tax the life support systems."
"We are going to need soldiers, for Colony Security if nothing else. The Ares usually contains a significant Section 31 Marine contingent. As task force Executive Officer, I was also in overall command of the Marine element." Buffy said. "With Lieutenant Chase's assistance, the training will be a mix of Section 31 Marine and MACO tactics."
This got a nod from Cordy.
"For now, let's start with checking out these planets, Vulcan and Andor." Joyce concluded, getting nods from everyone, including the three AI.
The two Starships dropped out of warp and began scanning the system. The co-ordinates for the Vulcan System had provided nothing but an almost barren star system with a massive asteroid belt and a single Gas Giant in the outer system, so they had moved on to the co-ordinates for the Andor system. The Homeworld of the Andorians was a moon around a Gas Giant.
"Scans complete." Athena announced. "Andor not found. There is a single Gas Giant in this system, but it is much too small and has no satellites. There is, however, an M Class Planet in the prime Habitable zone. Preliminary scans indicate that it has an earth norm atmosphere; rich mineral deposits, including Dilithium; and large bodies of free water. We will have to approach closer to get more details, including the presence or absence of native sentients."
Continuous scans were made as the two spaceships approached the M Class Planet, almost all of them extremely favourable. Saltwater Oceans and freshwater rivers. Lush open plains and forested mountain areas. Axial tilt enough to provide seasons but not so extreme that it would be parched in summer and under fifteen feet of snow in winter. In orbit a prime location was identified with the only thing left for an away team to actually go down and scout the area.
"Rosenberg, gather an away team from the Starfleet Officers, science and engineering only. Lieutenant Chase and her MACO team will beam down with you for protection and tactical assessment." Xander ordered.
"Understood, Commodore." Willow responded.
In the few moments where Xander, Willow and Buffy were alone, they were once again friends, joking and calling each other by their first names, but in public they were the highest-ranking officers and thus used Rank and Surnames. Much like how Ares reported that in public Cordy and her team were professional soldiers, as one would expect from MACO, but in private they went some way back to the clique of Highschool cheerleaders that they had been before Halloween.
The away mission went without a hitch. A good area for building, with solid foundation stone close under the surface, with prime farming land nearby, in close proximity to both a freshwater river and a forest. There were some indications of animals living in the forest and the river was well stocked with a fish like aquatic lifeform that scans indicated was both non-sentient and nutritionally compatible to humans. Once deemed a good settlement site, the first batch of the refugees were beamed down, alongside some replicator equipment from the Artemis. The replicators were industrial and large enough to replicate an entire Castillo Light Escort in a single go, so would be useful in getting the colony started. The first batch of refugees were, apart from a few soldiers for security, the tradesmen and foremen of the two major construction companies that had been operating in Sunnydale at the time of the evacuation, along with Colony Governor Joyce Summers.
After discussions between Joyce and the foremen, with liberal use of the replicators, within thirty-six hours there were enough basic buildings for the majority thirty-two thousand plus refugees to have a bunk in temporary barracks. They were not comfortable but it was necessary to take the strain off the ships life support systems. The temporary barracks were off to the side of where the prime settlement site would be set up, with the engineers from the Construction Companies walking the site and laying down a plan of the new settlement in rope on the ground even as the last refugees were being transported down to the surface.
Buffy sat on the bridge of The Athena as it dropped out of Warp into another star system.
"Engage cloak." Buffy ordered. "Passive scans only."
"Aye, Aye, Captain." Came a response from the engineering station. "Cloak engaged and active scanners secured."
After two months, the settlement was up and running and everyone was starting to come to terms with what had happened. It had kind of helped that no one had disappeared or suffered from a 'spontaneous barbeque fork accident', but some people had not really coped. There had been one small riot, started by the former Sunnydale Elite who could not believe they were no longer in charge. Two men, one of them Cordy's father, were still in the brig on the Ares. It had been a pleasure for anyone who had ever met the man to see Cordy quickly and painfully disable her own father and arrest him. There had also been nine attempted suicides, one of them successful. Construction on the settlement was still ongoing but an ever-growing portion of the population were moving out of the temporary barracks and into more permanent accommodations.
Part of the issue was the isolation the former Sunnydale residents felt, so Commodore Harris, Ambassador Calendar and Governor Summers had agreed to send out The Athena to search the nearby systems for other civilisations.
Most of those who had gone to Halloween as Starfleet Officers were assigned to The Athena for the recon mission. Back on 'Haven', as the colony had been dubbed, many of those who had gone as costumes from different space faring civilisations were being trained in Starfleet/Section 31 procedures, though any areas where the other civilisations had better tactics, technology or procedures were being cherrypicked. There was even a fair number who had dressed as pilots, either space based or atmospheric, who were being trained up on the Perrigins or the Callistos.
"Picking up something unusual on sensors." The Science Officer reported.
"Report." Buffy ordered.
"Looks like two ships, one actively pursuing the other. The one trying to get away seems to be headed for some strange construct." The Science Officer said.
"Take us in, and keep listening for any transmissions. I want to know who the bad guys are before we make our presence known." Buffy ordered.
Kemi'Zorah nar Kellos swore as she tried to keep the small ship ahead of the Batarian Pirates who were chasing them. Kemi was not a pilot, but luckily it seemed whoever was at the helm of Pirate Ship was not much of one either.
"Saris, you really need to get the rear Kinetic Barriers up." Kemi yelled back. "Even as bad shots as these Bosh'tets are, they'll still get use before we reach the Relay."
"Keep your suit on." Saris'Gerral nar Kellos replied from the engine room.
"I'll get on the top turret. Herris, you get on the bottom turret." Zerra'Zona nar Kellos said, emerging from her room and strapping down the final fastenings on her environmental suit, before heading up a ladder. Herris emerged from his own room and slid down the ladder to the lower turret station
In the little over a century since the Quarians had been run off their Homeworld of Rannoch, their immune systems had begun to weaken and out of their own quarters it had become culturally expected that they wear environmental suits. During their evolution on Rannoch, the Quarians had lived in a semi-symbiotic relationship with most of the bacteria and fungi of their world, so their immune systems were more geared to adapting to infections than fighting them.
The four Quarians on the small ship were all youths on their Pilgrimage, the Quarian rite of passage into adulthood, and all childhood friends who grew up on the same ship, the Kellos. Kemi felt the slight tremor of the turrets firing through the chair as her hands played over holographic interface of the helm.
"Give up, you Suit Rats." Came a Batarian transmission over the radio. "You and your ship will be experiencing the fine hospitality of the Batarian Hegemony."
"Yeah, control chips in our brains and shock collars." Kemi transmitted back. "Thanks, but we have another appointment."
The Batarians laughed over the radio until another voice interrupted them.
"Aggressor Vessel, this is Captain Summers of The Athena. Stand down and prepare to be boarded, or be destroyed." The new, female voice said.
"Nice one. Your shuttle must be so small we can't detect it, so how would you board us." The Batarian replied. "Once we deal with the Suit Rats, we'll take our time with you."
"So be it." Summers said.
Kemi was so shocked at what happened next that she could not move before it was all over. A ship that look like nothing she had ever seen before literally appeared out of nowhere in front the Quarian's Ship, but slightly above them so they were not in the way. There was no rapid deceleration event from emerging from a Mass Relay or even the effect of dropping from the much slower FTL used to go between stars in clusters, it simply appeared out of empty space.
The ship looked like someone had attached short 'wings' to a circular middle section, then added a small protrusion at the front. Though it was much smaller than the Batarian Slave Ship, the new ship had a look of deadly grace the Batarian ship lacked. A few seconds after the ship appeared, it opened fire. As far as Kami knew, which was pretty far due to the extensive technical knowledge of the Quarians, every military used mass effect accelerated projectile weapons for their ship based offensive weapons. Energy weapons were only used for short range point defence lasers, while missiles and torpedos were rare. This ship blew that truism away, by opening fire with both rapid firing bolts of energy and continuous lasers. Added into this was the occasional torpedo, that moved faster than any torpedo developed in or out of Council Space. Needless to say, the Batarian Slave Ship was caught completely off guard and was ripped to shreds, it's kinetic barriers basically useless against the onslaught.
"Athena to shuttle, can we render assistance?" Summers asked.
"Affirmative, Athena. We are having some technical issues." Kemi replied.
"Do you need a beam out or can you dock?" Summers inquired.
"We can dock." Kemi replied, wondering what on Rannoch 'beam out' meant.
Another voice, this one male, came on and talked them into the tiny shuttle bay. When the four Quarians emerged, they were met by an alien species they had never met before. Similar to the Asari, but they were not blue but seemed to be either a pale pink or light brown colour. They also had hair. Kemi had never heard of another species besides Quarians who had hair. One, a pale skinned female with golden hair walked forwards.
"I'm Captain Summers. Welcome aboard The Athena." The greeted, holding out her hand.
Kemi mimicked the action and almost jumped when Summers grabbed her hand and put it into the Captain's own and pumped it up and down once.
"I'm Kemi'Zorah nar Kellos, my friends are Zerra'Zona nar Kellos; Saris'Gerral nar Kellos and Herris'Reegar nar Kellos." Kemi replied.
"nar Kellos. Family or place?" Summers asked.
"The ship we were born on." Zerra replied.
"Well, we will show you to some temporary quarters." Summers said. "Hope you don't mind some company, as we rescued some others."
"You rescued those four-eyed bastards?" Saris almost growled.
"We rescued some sexy blue space babes, but they only have two eyes." Summers replied. "There were three on the ship, distinct in their life signs from the crew, so we beamed them over before we destroyed it."
"Asari." Zerra said.
"That's what they called? One tried to hit on me already." Summers said with a shrug.
TBC…