Just to note, when I mention crew pits, it's those rows of consoles on the walls of the Normandy's CIC. Alliance ships use something similar to what is seen in the war room in ME3, an elevated crew deck surrounding a command deck.

Also, anytime I mention a facial movement like a smile or rolling of the eyes, it's an analog for whatever species is doing it. That makes it simpler to write.

Xingyun Cluster, James Cook 2157-3, Outer System, PFS Swift Strike, Bridge, Commander Fursara Berasius, 0800, April 5th, 2157:

Outside, the blue lances of light surrounding the ship turn to small dots of light, each a radiant star, millions viable in every direction with infinite more invisible. I cannot see them, the bridges of Hierarchy warships lacking the vulnerable windows seen so often on civilian ships and the vessels of more romantic militaries, but I can see them in my mind's eye, fabricated from a thousand nights staring into the skies of Invictus during my childhood.

I open my eyes to see the bustling, organized chaos of the Swift Strike's bridge, each of my crew acting as part of a well oiled machine forged over the ship's years of service. While some of the parts may have been swapped out, transferred, discharged, or lost, the ship goes on, almost as old as me.

"Sensors, report!" My words echo throughout the entire bridge, my position behind the entire crew allowing me to speak to them all without movement.

A response comes from the portside crew pit. "Three planets in the system, two terrestrial and one gaseous. No artificial structures or energy sources have been detected yet, but scans have not been thorough." The officer pauses for a moment, looking at his console. "Scratch that, artificial emissions directed. Looks like a signal. Switching it to comms."

I turn my attention to the communications officer, who is frantically working at her console. After about half a minute of work, she begins to speak. "Preliminary analysis shows the signal matches the format of signals intercepted from enemy vessels during the previous battle, though lacking the encryption. The repetition leads me to believe it is an automated warning of some sort."

'Where there is a signal, there is a presence. At minimum an automated satellite or station, perhaps even a ship or base. This requires investigation.' "FTL to circa 100 thousand kilometers of signal origin. Thunderlance is to jump with us in a stalker position."

A chorus of "Yes ma'am"s are followed by an almost imperceptible feeling emanating from the ship, one only felt by those with years of experience on ships, that of an FTL jump starting.

Inside of a solar system, the Strike moves far slower in order to not pop her FTL bubble, meaning that, instead of the near instant movement that her normal speed would cross the space, it takes half a minute until another experience comes over me, that of a jump's end, and the pilot speaks up. "FTL jump complete, drift from designated position eleven hundred kilometers."

"The Thunderlance is 98,312 kilometers aft. Drift 1,368. Signal origin appears to be a space station built into an asteroid. Bringing it up on the main display now." The sensor officer's words are followed by a metallic asteroid taking over the bridge's main display in front of me, part of it covered by white and blue structures. I can see many robots scurrying around the asteroid's surface, working on the structures and even putting together new ones. Large swaths of the asteroid is covered by solar panels, with more being built. Several of the objects on the surface have been highlighted with tentative designations for what they are next to them in small boxes. Most notable of these are four mass accelerator turrets in varying stages of construction, with one appearing to be entirely operational, alongside a number of point defense lasers. 'Going to have to deal with this carefully.'

"Launch a recon probe at the station, full burn. Have it land on the station" The Swift Strike's crew obey my orders and about 15 seconds later, a probe leaves the Swift Strike's prow missile launchers.

I watch as the interception timer slowly moves to zero. It takes almost 20 minutes for the probe to make it to within a thousand kilometers of the station. At that point, a new message joined the one already being sent out. "Attention unknown vessel, you have entered the exclusion zone of James Cook 2157-3 Outpost A1. Turn back now or you will face destruction and any survivors will be charged. This is your one and final warning."

"Comms, any luck on translation?"

"No ma'am, even with what we've managed to get out of these signals and the wreckage taken from the last battle, we don't have a large enough sample size yet for any reliable translation." The communications officer's response is disappointing, but expected.

As the probe reaches 800 kilometers, it is shot out of the void by one of the mass accelerator turrets. "Comms, data?"

"I got it ma'am, probe sent it along before destruction. One recon probe in exchange for data on their secondary weapons, I'd say that was more than a fair trade."

"We don't know if this is the same type as is used by their ships. As far as we know, that gun may be a century out of date and we'll be supplying the fleet with false data." I admonish the communications officer, little heat in my words. Even if the data we collect on the station's weapons only apply to similar stations, it still supplies important knowledge on the race's weapons technology.

I smile viciously. "We'll, since we have such a wonderful helping sitting here, why don't we run a few tests. Launch ten probes. Have them arrive in three groups, first a group of two, then another of two, then one of six. Have the first move like the last probe, while the second group should do some maneuvers. The final group shouldn't bother with deceleration, have them act like missiles. After they are launched, close to 1200 kilometers and cold launch a probe before decelerating, let's see if it catches it."

Before my orders are obeyed, the sensor officer shouts out. "Launch detected from the station."

"Report!" I bark out sharply.

The sensor officer doesn't move their eyes from the display. "Looks like a courier drone. Vector points to a system 4 light years away."

I smile. 'Seems like this is a gift that keeps on giving.' "Continue with the tests, but mark that system as our next stop."

The tests lasted about half an hour, gaining us some interesting data on the alien weapon. Unfortunately, it caught the last probe and blew it up. "Let's see how it takes some counterfire. Weapons, orient the ship and warm up the mass accelerator. Fire at the turret upon my command."

After a few moments, I am given confirmation that the target is locked in. "Fire." A pair of bright lances are shown on the display, moving through the distance between the frigate and the station at a swift but comprehensible speed. When they strike, a brilliant blue barrier stops them, protecting the turret from destruction.

"Fire." Another two rounds leave the Swift Strike, again crossing the distance and again being halted by the barrier.

"Fire." The barrier reaches its limit as the third salvo hits, letting both through, if diminished in power, wrecking the turret with their combined kinetic power.

'Weaker than I expected, seems like barriers aren't their strong suit.' "Launch probes. Once they land safely, send out a shuttle with marines and engineers. Let's see how this thing ticks."

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Right before the probes reached the station, it went up in a magnificent explosion, likely from its reactor overloading. 'Well, you can't have everything going your way.' "Send a courier back to the Relay system and set course for the end system of that alien courier."

Xingyun Cluster, Ibn Battuta 2157-4 System, Inner System, SSV Ibn Battuta, Wardroom, Captain Joseph Garibaldi, 0150, April 5th, 2157:

"So." I survey the officers in the room. "Are we sure this is real?" I say while pointing at the 3D image of the unknown, no one was hopeful enough to say alien, ship seen in the Ibn Battuta 2157-3 System.

The communications officer is the one to speak up. "Yes sir, unless our guard over the Charon Relay is far less effective than we think or some pirates managed to bootstrap a full scale shipyard in a few years without a supply chain big enough to alert half of Alliance Space. The first contact package seems to be the real deal too."

"Even if this is fack, that ship is unregistered, has no IFF, and is larger than anything built outside of Sol by humanity, it needs to be checked out."

My XO's words ring true, just like the comm officer's. "In that case protocol is clear: the Ibn Battuta must go to the system and greet our new hopefully friends. Send the next shipment of materials to the Outpost, that should tide it over until it can find some of the rarer materials on its own or someone can drop some off, but even if construction is delayed, that isn't exactly our current priority. Send two couriers off, one to Shanxi and one to Task Force Sagittarius, we could use the backup if things go wrong. We should be able to leave by 0205, any questions?"

"What do they have? The Outpost should have given out a first contact package not long after the probe left, is Sol at risk?"

The operations officer's remark put the entire room on edge, while humanity has been expanding for half a decade now, the majority of the population, and the majority of Alliance families, still remain in Sol. "Luckily, Sol's location was removed from the package in 2152, alongside most of the potentially dangerous data. The package doesn't even have a proper language in it, just an artificial one designed for simplicity, which will make our jobs easier, while also ensuring communication security for the time being. Any other questions?"

There were none, so we all leave to our positions, some off duty, some on the clock. Detaching from the Outpost asteroid was rather quick, and we managed to be off on schedule, ready to make first contact.

Xingyun Cluster, Ibn Battuta 2157-4 System, Inner System, Courier Drone Hamburg-03, 0210, April 5th, 2157:

[2157.04.05.02.10.25.413]

-Exit FTL-

-Send Message: This is Courier Drone Hamburg-03 to SSV Ibn Battuta. This unit has a secure communication from Rear Admiral Julia Hawking to Captain Joseph Garibaldi. Please retrieve this unit and the communication. Repeat:This is Courier Drone Hamburg-03 to SSV Ibn Battuta. This unit has a secure communication from Rear Admiral Julia Hawking to Captain Joseph Garibaldi. Please retrieve this unit and the communication. Repeat-

-Continue message and wait for response-

Xingyun, Da Ling Liu System, Mir Orbit, SSV John Cabot, Bridge, Crew Deck, Serviceman Second Class Simons, 1300, April 5th, 2157:

I strain my eyes staring at my console's display, reading the information given in the latest report from one of my probes on the surface scan of another of Mir's moons. 'Not even close to the end of my shifts and I'm tired. Why did I join the Alliance?' My mind immediately supplies me with how I embarrassingly fumbled my chances of joining the UNSA Armed Forces, and I quickly try and turn my mind from it and back to my work, overseeing probes as the Cabot scours the planet's orbit for everything and anything artificial.

I momentarily turn from my work to the station of another serviceman by the name of Grif. I hesitate for a moment before speaking. 'Well, at least it may alleviate my boredom.' "Do you ever wondered why we're here?"

Grif moves his head around until fighting out it is me speaking to him. "One of life's great mysteries isn't it? Why are we here? I mean, are we the product of some cosmic coincidence? Or is there really a God, watching everything. You know, with a plan for us and stuff. I don't know man, but it keeps me up at night."

…"What? I mean why are we scanning dozens of moons in orbit of a meaningless planet so far deep in the middle of nowhere there isn't another system with a proper name within half a dozen light years."

Grif looks sheepish. "Uh…Oh….Yeah."

"What's all this stuff about god?"

"Nothing!" He says hastily. "I think the bosses want to find any infrastructure or ships that the aliens left behind. Don't think we found enough ships to carry the amount of stuff on the planet, so they believe some may be out here. Not that we've made much progress on that."

His attempt to change the topic is obvious, but I follow along. "We did find that atmospheric harvester on Soyuz, that's something."

He scoffs. "Yea, a small collection of broken scrap and buried buildings, well worth over a day of poking every rock, ice ball, and cloud of gas within a million kilometers."

At the edge of my vision I see an alert pop up on my display. I turn to look at it, and raise my eyebrows in surprise. "Looks like you've spoken too soon. New artificial contact on one of the smaller moons, more asteroid really, not much bigger than the Cabot. Wonder what they built there, don't see any reason besides maybe a waystation."

"Or it's a dumping ground, take all their useless crap in the middle of nowhere to ignore."

Grif's words grate on me. "Shut up Grif." I say without turning my head. Seems to be pretty big, the probe keeps finding more and more artificial material. Then my eyebrows jump to the bridge's roof when the probe finds engines, big engines. "Hay Grif, I don't think this is a station. I think it is a ship." I stare as more and more material is discovered, at this point over half the moon has been unveiled as artificial. "And it's not a small one."

Xingyun, John Cabot 2156-9 System, John Cabot 2156-9c, Prothean Mining Colony, Richard O'Connell, 2000, April 5th, 2157:

I plaster a warm, welcoming smile onto my face as the airlock finishes cycling, the mixture of salvaged prothean equipment and human equipment working slowly, but still working. Soon it finishes its work and opens to reveal the spotless uniforms of three Alliance officers and a pair of hardsuit wearing marines.

"Mister O'Connel." The central Alliance officer says, her rank insignia, if I remember correctly, reveals her to be a Lieutenant Commander, or does that one mean full Comander? I can't figure out her ancient. 'European? Maybe Venusian? These days it's hard to tell things like that, though considering I'm part of the limited population who still remember when colonizing Mars was the new space race, most others probably never could, or just don't care enough to try.'

Her hand moves outstretched towards me, which I reciprocate. "Commander-" I let the word hang.

"Morrigan, Lieutenant Commander Francine Morigane. I believe you called us saying you found something big?"

I turn and make a movement with my hand. "Yes, yes, follow me."

I walk through the corridors, hearing the feet of the 5 Alliance personnel alongside one of my crewmen beating against the hard floor, a constant 'tap tap tap' echoing throughout the facility. The walls are a mess, some areas cut open, revealing human and prothean technology within them, the latter repaired as best we could, the former taking the place of the former when they are too far gone. Human tech has to fill in for a lot of broken prothean stuff, but less than anyone could expect. The protheans build to last, while a lot of their more complex equipment like barriers, weapons, and engines have broken down since their downfall 50 thousand years ago, other equipment like life support and secondary systems only need moderate repairs to come back into operations. 'Saves a lot of time and money.'

We reach a large industrial elevator, big enough you could probably haul one of those corvettes the Alliance seems to like into the depths. It takes us deep into the eezo mine, almost a kilometer under the surface.

Soon, we're standing in a massive cylindrical mineshaft about half a kilometer long and over 50 meters wide. The walls are covered in supports, each of prothean design and looking brand new. However, as we go deeper, even the prothean supports fade away, replaced by more complex and artificial walls, differing in design to those seen across the rest of the base.

Gone is the mineshaft, replaced by a facility of some kind, and at the deepest point within it, we reach… something.

It doesn't fit with everything around it, in fact, the prothean equipment in the room almost seemed set up to study it. A black obelisk of unnerving design, discovered by my team a few days ago.

"What is this?" The Commander asks, her eyes unmoving from the object.

"We're unsure." I tell her. "But it isn't of prothean origin. It is partially embedded into the rock in a way one of my crew says only happens naturally, after a long, long time." A small smile crosses my face. 'Just gotta make it a bit juicer, Alliance types like a good mystery.' "And we haven't been able to figure out what it's made of."

The Commander's gaze turns from the object, almost reluctantly to my eyes. "And why are you showing me this?"

My smile widens 'I've got her, all I have to do is make the pitch.' "Even without the object, this find is big, more intact prothean tech than you'd find in half a dozen mines like this back in Seraph, scientific stuff too. I don't have the lift to take it all with me on my ship, and I'm loath to leave anything behind." 'Anything big with prospectors leaks like a sieve, and if anyone caught me hiring on some extra ships or heading back repeatedly to the same spot to haul all this out, I'd quickly get some unfriendly company.' "So when I saw your ship get in system, I saw an opportunity. You have the capacity to take everything in one go, so I thought I could make a deal: your ship helps me bring everything back, and the Alliance gets first rights to taking this beauty off my hands, for a price, of course."

I hold my breath, hoping my pitch convinced her, or at least that it didn't come off as too desperate. I slowly see a small smile come to her lips as she finishes several seconds of deep thought, causing my fears to wash away. "This will of course have to be approved by Alliance Command, or at least the Captain and Governor-General Williams, but considering the generous offer." She pauses for a moment.

"Name your price."

Xingyun Cluster, Ibn Battuta 2157-3 System, Outer System, MSV Long Haul, Captain Tracatra Varis, 1530, April 5th, 2157:

"Captain to the bridge! Captain to the bridge!"

My head is pounding as the ship's intercom wakes me from my sleep. I slowly get out of my bed and move towards the door of my ready room. Due to the first contact, I'd decided to forgo my normal sleeping arrangements, instead using the cot in my ready room right off the bridge. I pass through the room's door as it slides open, my hardsuit having not left my body since first contact.

I gaze out onto the bridge, feeling the mix of tension and joy that consume my crew. I turn my gaze to the main display, and understand their feelings.

Taking up the entirety of the main display is a ship I'd never seen before. It almost looked like a krogan cruiser mashed together with a quarian one. Its prow is bulky compared to the rest of the ship, seemingly covered with innumerable sensors and a pair of hangers, one on either side of the prow. Behind the prow the ship seems to slim down, its almost skeletal midsection hosting a large hanger on the dorsal surface and a collection of about half a dozen cubes on the ventral surface. The rear of the ship bulks up again, containing a trio of large engines and seemingly little else, though the reactor may be there.

The ship's surface is covered by words, or at least I think they're words, forming an unknown language. I notice something placed prominently on the frontal section of the ship, both sides of it I realize as it rotates in the holographic display. A following chevron of silver with the gap filled by a sphere, details on it suggesting that it is a planet's surface.

A colossal smile comes to my face as I reach my chair, the ship's second officer rapidly vacating it. Once I have taken my seat, I give the command I have been waiting for since the courier left all those hours ago, which each felt like days. "Hail them, lets greet the new neighbors"

Hope y'all enjoy this chapter. Think the SSV Ibn Battuta scene is a bit too short, but it is what it is. In relation to that scene, if going to note that, with an active Outpost, if the target ship left the system, it would respond to the drone and send it the location of the new system. However, the Ibn Battuta 2157-4 Outpost is not fully active, and one of the systems that is incomplete is the communications systems.