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)
A/N: for those who asked, the Nightmare Constructs are an original concept, not taken from any other source.
Rupert Giles forced himself not to fidget in the Section 31 issue Environment Suit as he sat in an auxiliary station on the Quarian Flagship. Part of it was the confinement of the suit and part was the fact they were about to face a Nightmare Construct and its attendant Demonic Horde. His station was tracking the small fleet of shuttles carrying Miss Chase's MACO troops and Quarian Marines on their descent to the independent Asari planet below. They would be the last line of defence should the Quarian Fleet be destroyed, and to intercept any incursion that got past the fleet, but realistically there was little the ground troops could do to stop the invasion if the Fleet was destroyed.
Technically Giles was not in the Chain of Command for the Quarian Fleet, instead he was there as an expert advisor on Demons. Not that Giles had ever faced a Nightmare Construct. Sure, the ancient books did mention them, but only as rumours and legends even thousands of years ago. Legend said that Mars had once had an extremely advanced civilisation living on it, until a Nightmare Construct had come. Xander disputed that one. Not enough damage to the Red Planet apparently.
Xander would know, as Commodore Harris was the only person in the Universe who had ever stood toe to toe, so to speak, with a Nightmare Construct. According to the Section 31 records, three planets, nineteen ships destroyed and forty disabled before Subsection Delta had gotten involved. One Planet besieged, and subsequently abandoned, and five ships, two of them Section 31, destroy and five times that number disabled after Section 31 involvement.
Even without the civilian portions of the Quarian Fleet, which mostly rested in orbit around New Rannoch, this was still the largest fleet in the Galaxy, and it was a stopgap measure until The Ares, The Athena and the Artemis arrived. Properly used, those three ships had more destructive power than the entire Quarian Fleet.
The Quarian Heavy Fleet was set up in the middle of the Quarian formation protecting the planet, with the Patrol Fleet around the perimeter and had been in position for over a day.
A scream that was not heard through the ears ripped through the minds over every sentient in the entire System as the Nightmare Construct entered the system. The communications channels were suddenly filled with fearful remarks in Keelish and Giles hears a number of Quarians vomiting behind their visors.
"This is Giles." He announced with the fleetwide override his console had, using all the techniques he knew to prevent himself from vomiting himself. "Turn off all viewscreens and use sensor data only. No visual representations."
As all the screens and consoles went from cameras and visual representations to more abstract sensor data, most of the crew around Giles settled down, but there was still a clawing at the mind that came from close proximity to a Nightmare Construct.
Steeling his nerves, Giles studied the sensor data, which gave a general idea of the shape of the objects and their composition, such as mineral or biological exteriors. It was difficult making exact identifications from the sensor data, as he did not understand all of the terminology, he was used to going on some vague and almost nonsensical descriptions from Buffy after a patrol to base his research on. Well before Halloween he had been.
"Admiral, from what I can tell, we have fifteen smaller Demonic Vessels, still the size of a Cruiser though, and nine Celestial Draconis Demons accompanying the Construct." Giles reported. "Priority should be given to the Draconis Demons. They are more mobile and can rip a ship apart with their claws"
"Understood." The Heavy Fleet Admiral acknowledged. "Patrol Fleet, prioritise the organic targets. Heavy Fleet, concentrate fire on the Construct. Everyone keep an eye on those Cruisers."
Giles could feel the slight shuddering of the ship caused by the firing of its weapons, which when combined with the rest of the Fleet was an almost unbelievable amount of firepower, but it still would not be enough. He just hoped his children would arrive soon. Even after everything, Giles still thought of Buffy, Willow and Xander has his children. The deck shuddered slightly again as the weapons continued to fire.
Faith and her group were standing in a line in a cavernous hanger took up the entire top floor of Highrise that housed the outreach centre. Located in front of the group were two Section 31 personnel in their black uniforms, one trimmed a man in yellow and the other a woman trimmed in red, who were at the base of a ramp for a small and blocky shuttle space craft.
"Ok, which ones are Kate Smith, Nikki Dennis and Bobby Jones?" the man with the yellow trim asked.
The teen, housewife and the former army private raised their hands.
"Ok." The man continued. "You three have all elected for the manual labour path. You will be our first stop to drop you off on Haven, where you will all be allocated to a single accommodation and will be assigned work details."
"Bobby, you going civ?" T-Dog asked.
"I have had enough of war." Bobby said wearily.
"Quiet." The woman with the red trim snapped. "The rest of you will be on the Combat Skill Path. Helen Shepard, you are already slated for MACO training. Word is the Commandant saw your test scores and scheduled you for Sniper and Recon Training. The others will have more testing when we reach Tycho Base to see if you are to go into MACO or Section 31 Fleet, and what branch if you go Fleet. Load onto the Runnabout, Smith; Dennis and Jones by the rear hatch."
Everyone entered the Shuttlecraft and took their seats and strapped in as the crew closed the hatch.
"Retracting roof." The man, who was now in the co-pilot's seat, announced.
"Confirmed." The woman, in the pilot's seat, replied. "Commencing take off and engaging Cloak."
The passengers felt the craft lift vertically for a few meters and then begin forward acceleration. Most of the new recruits would never return to Earth.
Cordelia Chase, now promoted to Colonel due to the expansion of the MACO forces, hung onto the bar embedded in the back of the small cabin of the ground truck, watching where they were going over the cabin. There were a mix of MACO, Quarian Marines and local Asari Militia in the open back of the truck, twenty strong including the driver, which was the lead truck in a convoy of ten.
"We got tracking?" Cordy asked.
"Three klicks, dead ahead. Impact in ten seconds." Captain Harmony Kendall replied.
Cordy nodded, noting the fireball in the sky and visually confirming the tracking. The trucks were speeding towards the impact site, spreading out slightly as the landscape was slightly rolling hill and solid for the wheeled vehicles.
"This is Colonel Chase, we are going in hot." Cordy said over the radio. "Most of the enemy will not have ranged weapons but will rip you to shreds in hand to hand. They will be unlike anything most of you have seen before. Don't panic. Keep discipline and cover each other."
On the upslope, just short of the valley where the impact occurred, the trucks stopped and all of the troopers disembarked, forming up into a long line across the length of the slope and moved up together. At the top of the slope the line of troopers finally saw the enemy.
Still milling around the 'landing' site, were around thirty demons of differing species, milling around without any real direction, surrounding the semi-destroyed landing pod that barely seemed suitable for its purpose given there were another ten demons dead in the wreckage. Upon spotting the defending troopers, one of the demons roared and the group began to charge up the slope.
"Open fire." Cordy ordered.
The phaser fire from the MACO troopers, and a few select Quarian Marine sharpshooters, joined the mass accretion rounds from the Asari Militia and the remaining Quarian Marines. The concentrated fire from the two hundred rifles managed to kill three quarters of the demons before they were half way up the slope, and all but two were dead before they made it three quarters of the way up. Unfortunately, the last two demons were much tougher than the others, and managed to get within three feet of the middle of the line, where Cordy and Harmony were located, before they fell.
"Colonel Chase to ground command." Cordy said once she was sure the demons were dead. "First impact site secured."
"Confirmed Colonel." The controller at ground command, a female that Cordy could tell from the timber of her voice was Quarian, replied. "Secondary team has already been deployed to a second impact site. Relaying coordinates for your next impact site."
"Confirmed ground command." Cordy said before cutting off the radio. "Everyone back to the trucks, we got our next site."
TBC…