Well, so if you can't tell this is actually the part where the story begins and isn't just well y'know, a timeline (with maybe interesting information.)
But in any case let's just jump into this and again as usual, leave your feedback in the review thing and i probably will get around to reading it at some point.
—
System: CES 008.
Time: 15:30 PM Earth Standard Time, in system time, approximately five minutes after the activation of the CES 008 — Shanxi Mass Relay.
Ship Name/Class: SSV Somme, Trafalgar Class Frigate.
Acting Captain: Samuel Cole.
Captain's Log:
Samuel would be taken by surprise as his console would crackle before finally shutting.
Grumbling to himself Samuel would look up to see the culprit of the usual misfortunes that often befell him and his poor computer console when he tried to write up documents and other important reports.
"You know I can have you written up if you keep sabotaging Alliance military property you know?" Samuel would say to his XO, who, as usual, would look towards the Captain with a shit eating before saying.
"Well, it ain't technically sabotaging, it's just forcing the OS to update at the most inconvenient of times." Hadley Homes would say as the Somme's API, Loki, would interject from one of his holographic projectors scattered about the Somme saying.
"Technically what XO Homes says is true, updating the ships OS isn't sabotage." Loki would say as Hadley would celebrate his small victory, that is until Loki would continue saying. "However, considering that the updates made to the operating system of the Somme were localised to only the Captain's computer console, and the fact that much of the code is largely junk code, as well as the fact that XO Homes wrote most of the code for the new update himself, this could, in fact, me described as minor level sabotage of Alliance property and equipment, and, if the captain chose, could be met with an appropriate level punishment.". The API would finish as Homes smirk would disappear from his face as Samuel would laugh before saying.
"Nice try Homes, i guess I'll just have to think of something for you to do once we get back to Shanxi, for now, can you see how long it'll take for the lab rats to pack their stuff up so we can leave." Samuel would say as Homes would nod his head before grumbling and opening up a comm bead with the lead civilian ship.
While Homes communicated with the lead civilian vessel, Samuel turned his head around to observe the command deck as well as the wider CIC.
The Somme's command deck was comparatively, a lot smaller in size to other ships he had served on, though this wasn't entirely all that surprising to Samuel, as obviously the Somme, due to being a frigate, and a comparatively old one at that, wasn't going to have much in the way of room available in comparison to more modern ships.
As he saw the crew work on their consoles either around the galaxy map or to the sides of the walkways, Samuel wondered if API's could ever replace organic crews.
Of course the answer, for the moment, and probably for the foreseeable future, was a resounding no, while API's had been proven to be more than capable of piloting ships independently, that didn't mean they were effective or efficient at it, at least in comparison to organic crews.
Samuel didn't exactly know the reason why for this, Ironically enough his XO Homes probably knew more about this stuff than he did, but if he remembered from what he had been told at Arcturus, it was largely due to the fact that, since warships where highly complex pieces of machinery, that more often than not a API, regardless of if they were Gamma, Alpha, Delta, Zeta, Or even Epsilon class, would more often than not run a ship less efficiently on there own then with a crew complement due to the sheer strain that commanding an entire ship placed on an API's processing capabilities.
"Captain." Homes would say, drawing Samuel out of his thoughts as he turned to face his XO.
"Yes Homes?" Samuel would ask as Homes would nod before saying.
"They're nearly done finishing up, just got to retrieve a few Element zero Injectors and we should be ready to…" Homes would be interrupted as Alisha Bin Salny, the Somme's sensor officer would shout out saying.
"Sir, we've got several heat signatures closing in on us fast, wait, belay that, make that 15." Alisha would say as Samuel, along with the rest of the bridge crew, would stare in shocked silence at each other.
"Shit." Samuel would say, thinking fast as his brain faced to figure out what was approaching them.
'Can't be Pirates, we only activated the Shanxi Relay a few hours ago and there's no way they could have gotten this far out, and in any case there haven't been many pirates around Shanxi for years, can't be anything natural due to the sheer heat there putting off, its go to be'.
"Aliens." Samuel would murmur to himself before realising that he had to do something.
"Prepare Battle stations and send a warning to Shanxi now!" Samuel would bark out as the bridge would suddenly be bathed in a deep dark red.
"Sir." The sensor officer would say before continuing, "Heat Signatures are building up on the more advanced 'Vessels, Fuck, i think there preparing to fire…" Before the comms officer could finish Samuel would interject before saying.
"EVASIVE MANOEUVRES NOW!" Samuel would scream out as several mass accelerator slugs would rush towards the small squadron of ships the Somme had been assigned to protect.
The entire body of the Somme would seem to shake as mass accelerator rounds peppered the ship, with Samuel being knocked off his command pedestal before standing up and barking out.
"DAMAGE REPORT!" Samuel would bark out as Homes would respond quickly.
"Minimal damage sir, our shields took the main brunt of it but I doubt we can take another barrage like that again, the rest of the squadron isn't as lucky as us though." Homes would say as Samuel would respond curtly.
"What do you mean?" Samuel would ask as Alisha would respond quickly saying.
"The Gallipoli, World Wonder, And Explorer are destroyed, sir, only us and the Gernsback remain." Alisha would say as Samuel would rapidly think through his options.
He knew that retreat was not an option, the Somme was simply too far away from the Mass Relay to be able to reach it in time before the aliens' MAC guns re-charged and they fired another volley.
Trying to Jump out using Vortex Drive was similarly not going to work, not only because of the fact that it would take to long for the Somme's Vortex drive to charge up, but also simply because of the fact that they were practically in unmapped space, which made such jumps highly dangerous.
Samuels expression would turn sombre as he realised that he was almost certainly going to die, however, that didn't mean that he couldn't make his, and those of his crews, well at least those who chose to stay on the Somme, ends memorable.
Moving his hands across the holographic interface of his console Samuel would quickly access the ships comms network before saying.
"Comrades." Samuel would test the words in his mouth, it wasn't like he had not heard of them before, hell he had heard of them a lot during his high school and college days, though he himself never really used them all to much, not necessarily because he didn't believe in the works of Marx, Lenin, or many other greater men than him, but more so because he never really believed he deserved to call others comrade.
"What i am about to do is practically suicide, so, those who wish to run to the escape pods and try there luck with the Aliens are more than allowed to do so." Samuel would say as he observed the bridge, no one moving from their posts, soon afterwards Samuel would close the open Comms channel before barking out.
"Divert all power to engines and weapon systems, and make direct course towards the alien flotilla!" Samuel would bark out as the Pilot of the Somme would nod silently to himself as the ship would begin to race rapidly towards the Alien fleet.
"Gunnery officer, prepare three fusion missiles and fire them towards where their Gallipoli's wreck is, we need to provide the Gernsback with as much time as possible to escape." Samuel would bark out as the Gunnery Officer would reply "On it, I take it you also want me to establish target locks on their ships as well?" The officer would ask as Samuel would nod his head before saying.
"Yes, however wait until we are within 15 clicks of their ships before firing, we need to ensure we do as much damage as possible." Samuel would say as another wave of MAC rounds raced past, and in some cases hit, the Somme.
Samuel would be thrown off his pedestal again as sparks would flare across the CIC as loose electrical tubing sprayed sparks across much of the front of the CIC.
"Shit, shields are down sir, Hull integrity down to 80%, breached in deck three and four sir." Homes would say as Samuel would nod in acknowledgement before saying.
"We all knew this was a one way trip, Gunnery officer, how long till we are in target range?" Samuel would ask as the Gunnery officer would respond saying.
"15 Secs sir!" The Gunnery officer would respond as Samuel would smile, knowing that was more than enough time to accomplish what they needed to do.
"Sir." the Sensor officer would report "enemy vessels deploying missiles." Alisha would say as Samuel would quickly bark out.
"Deploy Countermeasures immediately." Samuel would order out with the Somme quickly deploying a set of heat sinks designed to emulate the heat signature of the Somme itself, while more so designed for Strike Craft, it would still prove to be more than enough to counter the slow moving missiles of the Alien fleet.
"Launch all missiles now!" Samuel would order out as the Somme's entire missile bank would be launched all at once.
Samuel would only have a brief amount of time to enjoy the devastating barrage released by the Somme however, as several MAC rounds would punch through the hull of the Somme only several seconds after the last of the Somme's missiles had been released, killing him, and the remaining 15 crew abroad the Somme.
—
System: X-15 MRL.
Time: 1900 Standard Galactic Hours.
Ship Class/Name: Vekeran Rex/ Obsidian Class Cruiser.
Commodore Varkan would shake his head as he observed the damage report written up by his subordinates, it was far too much for what was supposed to be a relatively simple mission.
'Three Frigates, and a Cruiser, by the spirits, how i am going to explain this to Orvaka' Varkan thought to himself as said Admiral barged through the doors of the bridge of his ship, the Spirit of Manae, before shouting out.
"Commodore Varkan." Orvaka would shout out before continuing "I was told by my subordinates that you are hmm lets see 'A competent and effective leader' and yet so far all i have seen is incompetency that would make an Asari whore look like a stunningly intelligent military commander in comparison." Orvaka would shout out as Varkan would raise his hands to calm down the enraged admiral before saying.
"I am aware that my recent assignments have not ended well, but I can tell you that…" Before Varkan could continue, Orvaka would interrupt him, saying.
"Spare me the speech, Varkan." Orvaka would say before moving closer to the Turian before saying. "You have ONE more chance to prove to me that you are not some incompetent worm who has only gotten this far into the ranks through your daddy's support" Orvaka would bark out, his words stinging Varkan's pride more than any other said before.
Orvaka would calm down slightly before saying "At least tell me you got something useful off these 'pirates'?" Orvaka would say as Varkan would nod his head before replying.
"To a limited extent, yes." Varkan would say before continuing "We know that they call themselves 'Humans'," Varkan would say, before letting Orvaka stew in the fact that he had basically just committed career suicide before continuing. "Though that is about as much as we know, the prisoners we recovered have been, less than co-operative, and considering that the number of prisoners is around eight, I have been, let's just say, reluctant to use more enhanced methods of interrogation." Varkan would finish as Orvaka would grumble underneath his breath before responding.
"And how much have you been able to recover from their ship's wrecks?" the Turian Admiral would say as Varkan would respond.
"Largely destroyed by their last frigate, the same one that inflicted a considerable amount of damage upon my squadron." Varkan would say as Orvaka would respond.
"Only because you crammed your ships so close together they were practically touching each other." Orvaka would respond as Varkan would quip back saying.
"That is one way of looking at it." Varkan would say before continuing "Another is that a commodore was, unprepared, to fight an enemy that clearly doesn't play by the same book as the rest of us." Varkan would finish as Orvaka would growl slightly before responding.
"What are you insinuating, officer?" Orvaka would say as Varkan would respond.
"I am insinuating nothing admiral, only stating facts, however, it would be a shame if it was leaked to the press that you had prior knowledge that the ships trying to activate the 314 Mass Relay were of unknown origin." Varkan would think for a moment before smiling and continuing "That would be truly unfortunate for you, Admiral, don't you agree?" Varkan would finish as Orvaka would look at the young Commodore, hate beaming down from his eyes, before responding.
"Are you threatening me, Commodore?" The Admiral would ask, barely contained hate behind every word.
Varkan would smile warmly at the old admiral before responding "No, merely illustrating the facts of the situation you find yourself in, Admiral." Varkan would say before continuing "Though, I doubt you'll ever find yourself in such a dire position, so long as you don't threaten the commander of the 16th flotilla, that is." Varkan would finish as Orvaka would growl before saying.
"Hmmpf, in eight hours my fleet will head through the 314 Mass Relay in order to chase down these rule breakers and pirates, you, and your precious 16th flotilla, however, will head back to Caesto, where it will be repaired and re-armed, before rejoining my fleet." Orvaka would say as Varkan would smile back before saying.
"Yes, Admiral." Varkan would shout out, almost mockingly, before Orvaka would give a curt and forced nod, before storming out of the bridge.
Varkan would smile to himself, gloating at his ability to outmanoeuvre the old Admiral.
It wasn't exactly a secret among the higher ranking members of the 15th Border Security Fleet that Orvaka's appearance as the Fleet's Admiral was more of a punishment than anything.
The 15th had barely seen any action for decades aside from the occasional scuffle with Pirates and Batarian raiders thinking that the Councils southern border was unguarded due to a lack of significant Mass relays.
Of course it wasn't exactly unknown why Orvaka had been punished in the first place by Hierarchy command, and that event was (for the most part, as Orvaka had made other fumbles during his military career.) was the Garsion Asteroid field ambush, where a significant chunk of Orvaka's previous fleet command had been lost by an admittedly stunning attack launched by the primarily Quarian pirate band named the Silver Heart, with Orvaka himself even being captured along with several Turian vessels and there crews.
While eventually Hierarchy command would manage to negotiate for the release of Orvaka and the crews of the captured vessels, this was a fairly severe embarrassment for the Hierarchy at the time, and while Orvaka couldn't necessarily be demoted or even discharged from the military (as too many high ranking members of Hierarchy command had endorsed his promotion to acting admiral for it to be politically viable.) However, that didn't necessarily mean they couldn't do anything, hence explaining Orvaka's "Reassignment" to this rather unfavourable position.
If anything Varkan was somewhat thankful that he would be as far away as possible from Orvaka's "Retaliatory" campaign, sure he wouldn't get any of the glory if it succeeded, but that was the thing, if it succeeded, of course he was under no delusions that the Hierarchies navy wasn't powerful, even one as depleted and old as the 15th, but he was also more than aware that they didn't have much in the way to go off on these "Humans" capabilities, and that was something that he was highly cautious off.
Obviously enough he had been able to glean some information of their capabilities from his engagement with them over the 314 relay, and what he saw didn't exactly dissuade his fears, if anything they only made them worse.
But that's besides the point, and in any case it wasn't exactly like it was any skin of his hide, considering that it'll be Orvaka taking the fall if his expedition across the other side of the 314 relay returned in failure.
For now all he really had to do was look forward to some unexpected leave time, and wait for either Orvaka to return in triumph, or shame, either way Varkan was fine with both.
—
System: X-15 MRL.
Time: 2000 Galactic Standard Hours.
Ship Class/Name: Spear of Caxron, Carrion Class Dreadnought.
Orvaka would grumble to himself as he read through the numerous reports that had been collated upon these "Human" primitives by one of his more incompetent commodore's that seemed to have so much trouble dealing with.
'Ha, why in the name of the spirits would they have their ships operate missiles as their main offensive armament of all things' Orvaka thought to himself as he read through the report that had been written up by some godforsaken clerk in this so-called "Fleet".
Of course there were certain advantages that Missiles had over Mass Accelerators for sure, for one missiles could pack much more of a punch over standard Mass Accelerators, which made them useful as Auxiliary weapons (something that most modern day militaries did) however, unlike Mass Accelerators they were considerably slower (albeit the ones used by these "Humans" were notably much more faster than missiles used by most other races, capable of achieving speeds around that of most standard MAC weapons.) as well as being much less storage efficient in comparison to ammunition consumed by MAC weaponry (plus you couldn't just manufacture new ammunition for Missile pods aboard ship like you could for MAC weaponry, as most Missiles tended to be far too complex to simply manufacture onboard a ship.
Orvaka thought to himself as he closed down his console and moved to grab a bottle of Turian brandy from a nearby counter situated in the corner of his quarters.
Opening the bottle, Orvaka would enjoy the fumes produced by the near, centuries old alcoholic beverage, before bringing over a finely crafted Thessian wine cup, and pouring a small portion of the brandy into said cup before swallowing the brandy in one smooth motion.
Orvaka's memories would be drawn back to the military tribunal that had ultimately doomed him to this demeaning post, of course he was more than aware that the punishment for his failure could of been far FAR worse than it was, but that didn't mean he couldn't complain internally to himself, after all, was it his fault that those below him failed him at the worst time possible.
'Varkan' Orvaka would grumble to himself, he had many self entitled underlings during his long career as an officer of the Hierarchies Navy, and Varkan was probably one of the worst he had ever encountered.
Of course, if he was slightly more better than what he actually was Orvaka would of just stripped him of his rank or even Discharged him from service, however unfortunately for him, the little shit was as slippery as he was selfish, having, more or less, succeeded in blackmailing him in order to keep his silence about Varkan's combat performance.
'For now i will just have to be patient' Orvaka thought to himself as he chugged down another shot of Turian brandy, Orvaka knew though that time was on his side, once he had subjugated the Human Primitives, he could use the political clout gained from his victory to not only remove Varkan from his post, but also secure his appointment to a more, respectable, position.
Orvaka thought to himself for a moment before being dragged out of his thoughts as the intercom came to life.
"Admiral, the fleet is ready to depart through the 314 Mass Relay at your orders." the young ensign would say out over the Spear of Tirox old intercom system.
Smiling to himself, Orvaka would reply. "Good, have the fleet transit through the mass relay, and have the 12th and 14th Legions prepare for planet fall, I want them ready to deploy as soon as possible." Orvaka would say as the young Ensign would reply back saying.
"Yes Admiral." the Ensign would say curtly before the comms systems would close again leaving Orvaka's quarters in silence.
Meanwhile in the space surrounding the 314 Mass Relay, the 350 ships of the Turian 15th Border Security Fleet would begin to jump through the Mass Relay.
—
Alright well that was much shorter in comparison to the previous chapter i know, but i hope it serves well to set up the events that will occur within the next dozen or so chapters.
Again constructive criticism is certainly welcomed and again, as stated in the previous chapter, i will almost certainly miss certain grammatical mistakes while proofreading this so please keep that in mind, in any case i hoped you enjoyed this and will read the next chapter, which will be considerably longer in comparison to this one.
