It has been over a century since the Ethereal Invasion and the Equis First Contact War. Humanity has learned to accept their former foes, and their former victims. But the threat has always remained, "The greater foe" promised by the UberEthereal....
It has been over a century since the Ethereal Invasion and the Equis First Contact War. Humanity has learned to accept their former foes, and their former victims. But the threat has always remained, "The greater foe" promised by the UberEthereal. Now it is the year 2157, near the Shaanxi system the Relay War shall begin with a galactic order that has stood for over 2,000 years.
Conspiracy and secrets abound in the darkness of space as the Species Alliance meets the unknown with violent consequences....
Human Development Time Line. From end of Ethereal War to present date January 1st 2157.
Writer; lead chronicler Vahlen'Duyun'Shanxi “Remembrance”
2015 December 30th : The official end of Ethereal war. The destruction of the Temple ship six months prior, and then the capture of the Cydonia base on Mars was revealed to have been a success a month earlier, the remaining alien forces having capitulated to the newly revealed X-Com, with the bulk of Ethereal forces surrendering and becoming Humanities prisoners of war.
The immense technological leap humanity has taken is offset by the losses. Over 100,000,000 dead, over 90% civilian casualties, makes the war the deadliest in Human history to present date.
The treaty signed on the new year had made a new holiday, known simply by the name it had previously, “New Years”. It is noted by cultural scientists that it was fitting both metaphorically and literally, for it was truly a new year for humanity and its prisoners, one of uncertainty and promise.
2016: After Commander Bradley's historic speech and the establishment of camps on Earth for Refugees of both sides, rebuilding began, along with a new scientific revolution. While tensions between both sides remained high, both agreed rebuilding was paramount.
2020: After the final repairs are made to Earth’s industrial centers, with the help of all species, it had been decided that Humanity was ready to be one great nation. The UN was disbanded and instead The Council of Terra was erected in its place, a seat for every nation and one for every “client” species. This marked the beginning of the golden age of Man, and by extension their clients, for the next twenty years significant progress was made to colonize the solar system and learn about the basic principles of the technology now at their hands. The Terran Alliance was ready to leave home.
2032: While normally a historical oddity, it is proper to note that the cultural exchange between Ethereal forces and Humanity were one sided. Humanities massive and aggressive cultural tendencies overwhelmed Ethereal culture, which was noted to be non existent and forgotten. Only the tribal martial relations of the Mutons, and the Ethereals' previously limited, and ironically primitive, culture were what remained, and were swiftly destroyed or integrated with the Human's own. This effectively ended notions of being separate as the Aliens were no longer considered such, they were culturally assimilated, now considered as much Human as actual Humans. With the last species riot in the tragic events of January 1st 2031 in Berlin.
August 21st 2039: A major breakthrough in the learning of the principles and use of Plasma technology is made. The first economic way of producing Elerium is created, by use of Fusion technologies. It was determined that utilizing a newly found element on Mars called “Element Zero” with a lower grade energy fuel invented by the Ethereals called Zrbite, created refined Elerium as the end result. The process is currently a closely guarded secret of the TSA and SolMine industries.
2040: It is publicly announced the finding of another Alien Installation on Mars. While Human explorers were using new technology to find Element Zero they find what they think to be a cache of the material near the southern pole. With Human and Ethereal scientists, and a platoon of X-Com combat personnel, the “Prothean Database” is discovered. While the area is noted to be over 50,000 years old, it sparks a panic among the species of Earth and the last words of the “Over One” Ethereal are remembered, that another, greater, foe shall soon face them.
As per X-Com doctrine, and in still record holding speed, the base is stripped of any useful materials, the database moved physically to the planets X-Com facility in the great canyon of Mars, where it is to this day being examined and stripped of information. The basics were revealed immediately:
The builders were called Protheans, they were an insectoid mammalian hybrid like race who had developed along a different technological tree based on mass effecting fields using Element Zero, and used great gates called Mass Relays to travel almost instantly across the galaxy. Plans for building mass relays or even the history of them were nonexistent, leading to it being assumed that the relays were not created by the Protheans.
They were soon picked up by the media and entertainment industries as bogeymen. This allowed the Council to enact what it had wanted to for some time, making military service an extension of public education with the motto, “Every Human a soldier” and sparking a significant military buildup for fighting these “Protheans”.
June 25th 2045: The first Human capital ship, named after the first Human psionic, “Annette Durand” is designed and launched. Surrounded by a fleet of retrofitted battleships, the “Test Ship” was sent towards the relay said to be orbiting Pluto. The following events are well documented so shall be attached to a different [File] for convenience.
September 28th 2045: Basic Relay map is constructed. All Garden worlds are marked for immediate colonization and priority sites are indicated for X-Com Bases on each planet. This is sent with the Ethereal Battleship Redemption to be delivered through physical means as per security protocol. One further anomaly is noted. The existence of alien life in their sector of space. This is kept secret from the public when it is realized one of the planets hold many intelligent species that have equivalent technology to early Cold War era Earth, but the most developed nation is capable of advanced psionics and has a key unreplicable ingredient of MELD in their blood.
January 1st 2046: It is decided to launch a secret operation into the new race to find a way to save Humanity from its own creations of MELD enhanced soldiers. It was public knowledge at the time that MELD reserves were almost gone, and only for war veterans who had outdated Gene mods and were dependent on the substance, forcing most of them to be stuck in stasis until it could be made economically. Please view the abbreviated Codex Entry for the conflict, at the bottom of the page.
October 15th 2046: The end of the Equestrian First Contact War results in the uplifting of the Equis (Pronounced Eck-is) species. The new influx of resources, manpower, experienced scientists and engineers, and cultural exchange was even greater than before with the Ethereal races. With the documentaries of the planet’s history and other important events and persons; the most popular proves to be the Equestrian Friendship is Magic: Chronicles of the Elements. This ten season long documentary follows six young adult Equestrian females in their quest to learn about the “Magic” of friendship and protect their nation against many threats, and proved to be highly popular among Humans and the other species.
December 31st 2061: The first of the largest Human capital ships, the Unconquerable class starship named the Unconquerable is “officially” finished. The warship is made to be the Flagship of the Terran Alliance First Fleet, five kilometers in length, it is heavily armed and equipped with the best and brightest in the Alliance. The drawbacks of Elerium, Fusion, and Element Zero are negated and balanced by the combination of all three. After over 40 years of planning and construction, this monumental test of Alliance engineering is christened on New Years Day.
The ship is still currently serving to this day.
June 7th 2076: The first Alliance initiated long distance Wormhole is established. With a team of 20 Human Psionics, 10 “Unicorns”, and one Elder Ethereal, the wormhole is deemed safe and hundreds more are created without incident from thousands of individuals. This has effectively made Mass Relays inferior to current transportation methods, and all secondary relays and half a dozen major gates are slated for dismantling, study, and since their metals are more resistant than Vahlenite, to be researched for capital ship manufacture.
2115: The one hundred year memorial for the Ethereal War is observed, a memorial in honor of all those who fell is erected on every Terran Alliance World, plated in Vahlenite, and inscribed on each pillar of the building, is the name of every Alliance member who has died in the line of duty, and the civilians who died in the original conflict and Equestrian First Contact are inscribed in the interior of the building. Placed before the Alliance building of every colony it acts as both memorial and defensive hard point, in case of another hostile contact.
May 19th 2119: Dr. Shen, renowned scientist, head engineer of X-com, and beloved friend of all of Equis, dies at the age of 156. The longest lived unaugmented Human. Flags of all nations are at half mast, and leaders of all nations attend his funeral. He died peacefully in his bed, surrounded by friends and loved ones.
2120: The Terran Alliance now controls over 10,000 warships of all classes above light scout, and Earth and her allies hold over 100 garden worlds. At this point it is decided to slow expansion and allow the galactic economy to recover from the heavy militarization of the Human economy. The economic “30 year plan” is introduced by the people of Equestria, to allow for the Alliance colony worlds to fill out and grow, with further expansion suggested after the 30 year period but unconfirmed. Alliance moves to agree.
2124: The first fully sentient AI is created. After steady research and suitable defensive measures are taken, the first stable, and fully sentient Human AI is created. The AI is based off the brain of a Human, taking latent memories and sense of self and person, with designs from Cyberdisc technicians. The AI has the intelligence of a child at first and is named Hope. The internet immediately exploded saying to bow down to their new overlord, while hundreds of memes using the name as a joke were made. When informed of this years later Hope was quoted to say, “Robot invasion? You know how impractical that would be? Besides its boring without you guys.”
By the same time next year the AI is as intelligent as Dr. Vahlen who referred to him as, “My progeny.” Hope has had several hundred fail-safes integrated into his operating system, and is considered as mentally stable as any other Man. Testing began to create more for military and civic purposes.
November 2nd 2125: Dr. Vahlen dies of natural causes at 160 years old. She is given full X-Com honors, and the same service as Dr. Shen. As per her will, her brain is used to create a sister AI to Hope and to be used for scientific endeavors.
2130: As preplanned all colonies are made into individual funding nations and given a seat on the Council. Earth and Equis are reorganized to have only one representative for each species that now calls her home. This reformation was planned in case of outer colony rebellion, removing the possible chance of future dissent by having fair representation.
July 4th 2133: Retired Commander David Bradford dies of natural causes. All surviving great war veterans attend his burial, and all rogue faction elements are removed from stasis to attend as well. The day becomes one of grieving for all of X-Com, as their Flagship United and six other Unconquerable class ships fire their Fusion lances above Earth 21 times in salute of the great man. He died at the age of 168. The next Capital ship is named posthumously after him, and his name is added to the X-Com board of fallen heroes. The Princesses of Equestria personally attend his funeral as well, a sign of good will for their former enemy.
2141: Finally the basics of all Ethereal technology is uncovered. At the date of the end of the war the Ethereals spoke the names of all the scientists of the various species who partook in the discovery of a lifetime. Thousands of names were spoken and commemorated. With this done, Humanity may now finally move forward in their chosen technological path.
2145: The Sectoids and Thin Men, after tens of thousands of years of genetic manipulation, have finally made a discernible breakthrough in returning their species to their original forms. Long having relied on the other Species for basic survival by cloning, the combination of Human DNA, and DNA from worlds found in Human space, they are on the path of self reliance genetically.
This news was met with the cheer of billions of sectoids and the newly renamed Sabilians, who were once known simply as Thin Men.
2150: After the 30 year plan, exploration was slated to continue, the fleets of ships used before having renewed purpose and are sent out once more to activate relays. After further study of the Prothean data archives, the mention of a great “Citadel” is found. Efforts are planned to focus on locating this Citadel carefully, using stealth craft to follow the path of relays. Planning is made immediately and the air was called palpable, with the danger and excitement of meeting another intelligent race in the galaxy. Thousands of protests for isolation were organized.
In preparation, mandatory enlistment times were increased to ten years, and experienced reserves were requested to join back up, and specialized ship production went underway at the Sol, Mars, Arcturus, and Equi shipyards. Increased patrol and security patterns were set in, simulation battles become increasingly frequent and more realistic, and planetary defenses were enhanced and upgraded with new “Kill-sats”.
The Stasis veterans, either from the rogue faction and volunteers from the original X-Com were moved to the outer colonies and “Dreams” added to the stasis programming, to bring them up to speed on current events and equipment.
2156: Preparations finally completed, the exploration fleets are sent out to uncover the cosmos, the science committee’s flagship, Enterprise leads the endeavour.
Universal Galactic Codex Edition 50
Human Culture and Technology: Humanity, after the Ethereal war as it is now known, has been greatly affected by the war. After the rebuilding of 2020, military enlistment or similar activities almost became a rite of passage, to be able to defend yourself and one’s family in case of another incident with the latest and greatest technology was greatly desired. Of course at this time Earth's militaries could not support the number of recruits despite popular demand. Eventually the proposal in 2040 reverted to a similar early Roman style system of service, instead of it being a civic service it was made to be a mandatory arrangement to start from childhood to adulthood with no payment being given beyond necessities. This was very favorable, for it also gave practical training and experience, replacing the step of going to college like what was done in the 20th and early 21st century.
Another thing of note is that after the destruction of the temple ship the debris gave off radiation that is now known to induce psionic powers in Humans. Since the debris exploded across the entire planet, it means psionic powers are universal among Humans found to be at 100% of the population, even manifesting in some primates on Earth.
Other surprising side effects are MELD based Gene mods being dominant genes, making it so children would inherit their parent's Mods. Ethical, political, and other issues are not mentioned in this Entry. For more information click [Here].
Gene Mods also received great scrutiny, side effects include similar symptoms of heavy metal poisoning and insanity, similar to surviving reports of the Roman Emperor Caligula or Nero, and with horrifying similar stories of cruelty and sadism. Due to Humanity's primitive employment of the substance, without a small steady supply of MELD it would result in the MEC and Gene troops to suffer from this, forcing X-Com to keep a majority of combat personnel in stasis until this could be rectified. It was after the agreement with the peoples of the Planet known as Equis where they helped supply the resource and find a way to stabilize its side effects. For more information click [Here].
Technologically, the Alliance has finally mastered the principles of Plasma, Fusion, and Element Zero. And have heavily enhanced Laser capabilities.
As per standard security protocol all military grade weaponry and hardware, and some civilian gear, are to have failsafes fitted to them for complete destruction and “booby trap” modules included in case hostile alien forces attempt to make use of weaponry.
Plasma technology is a strictly military and government resource. Used in everything from power generation to advanced weaponry, it is a supremely effective infantry weapon and relatively cheap to create with current infrastructure, with the only strategic drawbacks being the balance of Element Zero to other projects. The tactical drawbacks of Plasma are its combat effectiveness in space, ranges of tens of thousands of kilometers being considered medium range, the slow movement of the weapon's projectile make it a poor long range weapon. The counterweight is that it uses heat to primarily damage targets, Prothean shields are virtually useless against it and the only way to withstand it is for thick armor plating or Vahlenite armor, making it an effective point defense and destructive short to medium range weapon combined with lasers.
Fusion technology is predominantly used for power generation and weaponry. It is a very powerful energy source, completely clean, and with several additional gene mods, safe for Humans and allied species to be around for prolonged periods of time. The tech is very powerful, and is used for the Ethereal Fusion Lance. Currently the most devastating weapon known to man, able to melt through any defense, including Vahlenite as if it were a thin metal sheet. The basic principle of the Fusion lance is to fire a plasma “warhead”. Because it is a warhead made of plasma, it has very little mass, making it extremely effective against Prothean shielding tech, going straight through shields. It is very good at “Sniping” Targets. It is in essence a scaled up Plasma sniper used for ground troops, magnetically creating and guiding the electrical energy rod, or “warhead”, to half the speed of light. This makes it good for long range engagements at the hundreds of thousands of Kilometers and even the millions of kilometers, where the near instantaneous nature, despite its long recharge times, make it vastly superior than any Element Zero tech.
Finally Element Zero technology is mainly used for the creation of Elerium, however it has a variety of excellent civic developments. Its ability to affect mass making it useful for citizen transportation, small arms, and railguns being its chief military contribution. Mass effect fields are a cheaper and cleaner solution for regular transportation, MECs, and SHIVS as well. It is predominantly a civilian field of technology, alongside lasers. Currently corporations like MarSec, and police forces like InterPol make use of the two technologies side by side. The mass accelerator cannons are small, cheap, and reliable. With the payload of up to a Nuclear warhead, down to the precision and strength convenient for orbital bombardment and artillery. Rate of Fire and damage per shot are well above acceptable for their monetary worth of ammunition. They have encountered problems with heavily armed and shielded test ships, but their added ability for exotic ammunition like incendiary, molten core, and electrical discharging shells make up for it, forming a well rounded weapon for both government and civilian use. However many people prefer older combustion based firearms due to the superior damage they cause compared to the grain sized projectile used by Element Zero weaponry, which barely move faster than a high velocity combustion weapon.
Psionics and MELD are the final major technological advance worth mentioning. Psionics, present in every Human, Ethereal, Sectoid, and Equestrian currently. It has become a whole branch of science on its own. Having a wide array of applications; from stable wormhole creation to mind control, the mind is literally the limit. Humans are born with a single type of Psionics beyond Universal. The four main groups are Communications, Indirect Manipulation, Direct Manipulation, and Portal Creation. But other secondary more rare groupings like Pyrokinesis, Hemokinesis, Enchantment, and more are known. Psi amps are required to make full use of latent talent however. Most are of comparable power to the original X-Com Psion Corp without an amp.
While in school and the military, Psions are psychologically conditioned to only use their powers in approved environments, and life or death situations, to help combat abuses of their power to other species. This is strongly supported and it is severe taboo to abuse one’s powers outside of the approved environment.
MELD has seen widespread use in the entirety of TSA space. With it Humanity has cured itself and its allies of many ailments like cancer, AIDS, feather flu, and other resistant diseases. Military grade mods have also become universal in all Humans, Mutons, Sectoids, Sabilians, and a large portion of military families of the Equis species; redundant organs, marrow mods, mimetic skin, bio-electricity, toxin creation, and more. The Sudham-Wolcott Genetic Heritage Act was emplaced to prevent genetic abominations, and to retain each species unique genetic diversity. It has also allowed for the formation of joint companies like the Sirta-Glimmer Heart Foundation creating amazing medical advancements like longer life spans, Medi-gel, and “Red Mist” healing poultices and hand held medi-kits.
MELD has also allowed the formation of the Cyborg Enhancement and Betterment League for persons who have given up their physical attachments for better combat effectiveness and unfortunate accidents. MECs are standard heavy combat troops that have been used since the Ethereal War. Sectoids, Mutons, Humans, and Equis species have all been found able to combine flesh and metal to make a better fighting force. These brave individuals are considered heroes wherever they go, having gone above and beyond the call of duty.
The Equestrian First contact war
The war was sadly waged in a similar, if less bloody way, then the Ethereal war. At first sending down probes to abduct the Equestrians carefully, with mental manipulation placed upon them to ensure they would not remember the experience. Unfortunately it was found to be impossible to replicate the plasma for MELD by Human means. It was at this point crisis was reached in X-Com as a rogue faction of mad soldiers decided to mount a more aggressive attack, systematically slaughtering thousands of the poor pony like Equestrians. In post war memoirs written by the soldiers and senior heads of X-Com, it was deemed that it would result in fewer deaths if they were able to control the rogue faction rather than letting them running wild with abducted scientists, trying to create an imperfect solution, or simply slaughter for the joy.
Thankfully the death toll did not reach into the millions as before. Fortunately, due to the combined effort of the Senior staff and extremely strained negotiations with the leaders of the planet, the quadruped pony like species, now known as Equestrians in Human languages, held the solution to the problem. Thanks to what they called “Magic” but is now known as a whole different tree of Psionic manipulation, they synthesized the plasma needed.
Humanity greatly shamed by their previous actions, offered the Equestrian Principality full status as Alliance citizens, and to be the first world fully integrated with Humanity. With new technology and the chance for great exploration and to meet new peoples, the Equestrians agreed, if very reluctantly.
Equestrians never had a war for over 700 years prior to their First contact, and had therefore been caught unprepared. But their adaptability and ingenuity, much like Humanity’s, saw them defend with admirable resistance. And while the lost lives will forever be a black mark on Human-Equestrian relations, both species have managed to retain, at worse, strained relations.
Along with the surprising Pony like Equestrians, many other intelligent life forms were found, much to the surprise and bafflement of Human scientists, creatures eerily similar to horses, dragons, cows, zebras, griffins, and many other Earth equivalents were found. With Genetic testing it was discovered that somehow they are genetic cousins of their counterparts, resulting in furious debate even to today. Ethereal or Prothean Manipulation is the top theory.
The rogue faction, upon being cured of withdrawal, were allowed to form a penal battalion, and to go into deep stasis as punishment, to only be awaken when they are needed for war. Regrettably some senior X-Com staff, and many of the personnel who were involved in the butchery of the Equestrians, committed suicide after the conflict.
Text rolled across the screen, a blurb of electrical noise marking the beginning of the audio file. Its voice was a neutral Human male voice, accented only slightly in a North American accent mixed with a melodic tune of Mandarin.
“The Unconquerable class Heavy Battleship is five kilometers long. Its armament is one spinal Ethereal Fusion Lance, ten Fusion lance turrets along structural hardpoints,”
The picture of the bulbous, massive ship materialized as if from light speed. Jan’s grandfather always said it reminded him of a Mon Calamari Cruiser from Star Wars.
Jan never cared for science fantasy.
“..... Sporting twin linked MACs along the lateral line of the ship. Included are the one hundred plus plasma cannons, per side, for point defense and broadside strafing against targets, and several hundred laser cannons and Blaster Launcher anti-ship munitions-”
Jan cut off the device, “Yeah, yeah and it has a crew of over a five thousand, three thousand Orion class combat drones, with a hundred Firestorm Mark five fighters,” Rolling his eyes he went on in a droll tone to match the VI, “Along with ten drop pods, ten boarding torpedoes, and a dozen heavy gunship/dropship Galaxies. And all crewed by one hundred X-Com operatives.”
“. . . Correct. Well done Student Jan.” The dull VI replied dryly, not even sounding as if it meant the statement. Before it could continue he lowered the Tablet to look outside his window.
From the looks of it, it was nearing 6:30. Which meant, to his eagerly grumbling stomach, breakfast. He saw his reflection in the glass, mirroring his sandy blond hair, brown eyes and white skin, giving it an opaque color. He just screamed stereotypical American farmboy.
Rising from his personal desk, knick knacks and papers scattered across its plain plastic surface, he did his morning stretches.
It was when the aroma of food could no longer be ignored that Jan darted out of his room to the kitchen. His mother was making eggs again, and his father was at the table disassembling and cleaning an old rifle. Jan’s mother always joked that his father put more love into his guns then he did in making it.
“Did you sleep well Jan?” his parents asked in almost perfect unison. Jan simply shrugged in response. It was going to be a beautiful Saturday but he would have to cram for monthly military testing.
Jan’s father only grunted at his response while his mother served a helping of eggs and toast to each of them. She was about to sit down when a knock came at the door.
Moving to answer the door, wiping her hands on her apron she smiled, “Oh Dinky! Good morning, here with the daily mail?” Jan knew who that was, Dinky Hooves was the local package delivery mare, he was friends with her son Kindred “Heart” Hooves.
“Yup! Thanks for still buying the physical stuff, keeps me with a job you know!” The higher pitched voice of an Equestrian filtered into the home as the two females discussed and gossiped like women usually do. What Jan wasn’t expecting was for Kindred to suddenly appear behind the half asleep boy.
The trap set, Kindred started, “Heya Jan!” If Jan was a ballistic missile they would have considered his launch a success.
Groaning, Jan was on his back, Kindred’s face over his own, “Oww, ow, ow, I think I hit my knee on the table.” he groaned out pitifully as he slowly got up.
“That should teach you better situational awareness son.” His father pointed out, what he probably considered sagely. Kindred put his hooves on the table, sniffing at the food and looking at the Jan’s father.
“Can I have some Mr. Bulrick?” He had that special smile that only a drill instructor could resist, and as such Jack Bulrick resisted,
“You’ll have to ask Melissa if you can. And doesn’t your mother feed you mister?” Jan resumed eating, enjoying his Chrysalid eggs.
“She does. But she says I eat like a full grown stallion!” Giving a flat, toothy grin he dashed off to ask the matriarch of the family, who was busy conversing with their neighbor.
The patriarch turned on the vid screen and flipped through the channels, “.....Memorials for the first invasion are-”
“.... Military personnel retention rates are at an all time low as-”
“.... The Equis-Human exploration fleet is almost ready to leave Shanxi to-”
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“..... In other news! Muton Stand up Comic Gorell Vee was declared Last Comic Standin-”
“..... X-com: Terror from the Deep! will return-”
“..... Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria is leading the exploration beyond relay 314. The prodigious Princess has expressed hope security measures will prove unnecessary with the eventual contact with other species, but maintains that caution is of utmost importance-”
Twilight sighed as she trotted towards the spaceport, past the mostly Chinese Humans and bespeckled Equestrians from the eastern cities. Her omnitool cycling through radio channels, finally settling on a classical music station. ‘Is that Yuri’s twenty fifth? Or Hiruma's Grand Orchestral?’ Twilight mused silently.
Human’s knew their entertainment to be sure, they had everything with dozens of genres for music and films. They made something even Twilight never thought of desiring.
Audio books.
“Princess Twilight.” The two Equestrian Royal guards, clad in ceremonial armor, bowed before her, and spoke in unison as she led her small group into the ship that would take them to orbit. Lu’an had been a pleasant enough city. Clean, busy. It reminded her of home at Canterlot. And the outer suburbs and farming communities were reminiscent of Ponyville.
The bay for their transport was a mess of equipment, luggage, and people. Everywhere technicians of every species were working on the everyday maintenance of the hundreds of ships that came through the system every month, not to mention the hundreds of transports that filled the city and served as ferries for transporting goods to and from orbit. That was going to be a fact of life until the orbital space elevator was finished.
“Good morning Princess Sparkle. How was your meeting?” Mack, the planet’s AI, popped up on the holo-pedestal before the ship, only a foot high.
Twilight quite enjoyed the AI. His avatar was dressed as a cowboy. His leather chaps, plaid shirt, dusty hair, and rawhide hat gave him a very rustic, farmy feel… and reminded her horribly of her friends, Applejack specifically.
“As well as could be expected for this media storm. I swear you’re pushing them to cause a general panic.” Glaring at the AI for a moment she soon dropped it with a light hearted chuckle.
“Please, you know Humans, jumpy little creatures who are fearful of the unknown,” he replied, sticking his tongue out childishly.
Twilight rolled her eyes.“I swear, you’re just like Luna. What’s that Human term? A Troll?” She had studied Human culture intensively for decades. And while she found just about all of them had the same feelings towards her people; apologetic, polite, and friendly. She always suspected their politicians.
While she would never share her suspicion, she felt like the Council was slipping, already their military retention rates were extremely poor. Not so much as one X-Ray spotted in over a century, and they were desperately clawing for reasons as to why they should continue funding the military so highly. It was voting season next year and the various political parties, especially the house controlling X-Com Initiative Party, were scrambling.
“Oh shucks you caught me. Playing my ol’ country tricks on you city folk.” Teasing her, Mack had done his research on Twilight. Much to Twilight’s continued embarrassment. But she enjoyed the friendly banter with the AI, who was as the situation called for, polite, attentive, kind, and reasonable. Much like the Council when she thought about it.
“Well enough fooling around Mack. Bring me up to speed. When’s the Enterprise going to be ready? Also remind me please, who are the senior staff I should know about?” Twilight requested politely as she looked into the sky to see several dozen transports lift off into space.
“In less than an hour your Highness. Your escort, two Defender class frigates, Jotun and Sefu are in orbit waiting with the stealth ship Highest Honor. Your requested support ships will meet us at our destination.” Mack said as he “walked” alongside Twilight’s party, using the holographic emitters in the bay. He was only as tall as her, to be respectful.
“Your senior crew on the Enterprise; X-Com Operative Col. Matthew Perry, Navigator and Sensors Jeremy Pressly, Pilot Aganovich Taylor, Weapons Officer Jack Siffly, and Medical chief Phrixus Cephalus. I’m sure you’re familiar with the AI Dr. Vahlen.” Mack was pantomiming taking a breath while Twilight was already matching the faces to the names. “The Captain of the Jotun is Elizabeth Kilger, and the Sefu is Kirabo Zecor. Finally the Stealth ship is commanded by Terah, a Sabillian.”
Twilight remembered his face, genetically altered to have some defining features, now looking more snake than lizard. A good choice for a stealth ship, his ancestors having been excellent infiltrators and that gene was hardcoded into his species’ brain.
Nodding Twilight boarded her ship, “Excellent Mack, thank you for your service. I’ll return my support ships in a few weeks for resupply.” Mack nodded as the door close and his voice came over her omni-tool.
“Of course Princess. I’ll begin preparations immediately.” And then the soothing melodies of a Griffin composer began on her tool, as they exited to space and neared the Enterprise. Twilight hoped to Celestia that nothing would happen to the fleet.
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Jan was outside in the mid-morning light of his little farming hamlet. His parents had said that it was okay if he didn’t study for now, as long as he returned home for dinner and didn’t get into too much trouble.
He heard Kindred trotting alongside him. Looking at his friend, a Unicorn, navy coat with a sky blue mane and amethyst eyes smiled back. His cutie mark was a trio of plush red crosses, with some kind of cannon shooting them. He was told by Kindred that he found his special talent, and that it was being a combat doctor.
He still remembered the day when he got it a few years ago. The doctor on site said it was some kind of Psionic milestone. After that happened he was pulled out of the Equestrian class and stuck into the Military academics courses. Jan was special in his own way, he was one of the few American kids in the colony.
“So whats the plan? Head to the psi gym?” Jan started.
“Come on we do that every day at school. How about we go to the Grav arena? See a game of Gravball?” the Pony suggested as they neared the transit hub.
The transit hub was adorned with the flag of Shanxi, a star in the middle of green, with olive branches framing the center star. Around the building were several cheap posters. One was advertising X-Com: Terror from the Deep! .
The next was a poster encouraging everyone to do their best. It showed three scenes: one of farmers of all species working in an apple orchard, the next engineers and scientists working at their stations, watching as they test-fired a laser into some metal, and the last a team of several species working together past a broken brick wall; a Human covering a Sectoid as what looked like incoming fire pattered off the corner. All of these scenes were depicted in the anime-esque style popular in the Asian colonies.
The last poster before the door was the ubiquitous Vigilo Confido poster, an X-Com operative in psi armor pointing to the viewer and saying, “Are you always vigilant? Are you reliable?”
The hub was a small node in an enormous network, the local station for their small farming town.
Outside the station was a Sectoid vendor, who everyone knew as Mr. 5531 Elysium. He was selling apples, and from the looks of it, Equestrian apples. Jan’s mother had given him twenty credits as allowance today, and twenty more for lunch for himself and Kindred.
Elysium, spotting the two children, waved and a psi link activated between the two. Inside of Jan’s head, he heard the other’s voice as a whisper.
“Good morning you two. Care for an apple? Straight from the Apples’ farm.” Jan smiled. His own family helped in the small hamlet’s communal crops. They mostly grew potatoes, but they also took care of the animals when needed.
Kindred looked at Jan with a pleading look that made Jan roll his eyes in amusement. Like a cute anime cat, sparkling effect included. “Sure, two to go please.” Jan replied, as his friend pumped his foreleg in success.
Elysium nodded and psi pulsed his satisfaction as he pulled two of the pearly red orbs the size of coconuts ponies underwhelmingly called “apples” out of the stand and put them in a plastic bag. Jan handed over two credits and picked up the bag.
Entering the station, it was empty except for one other occupant, “Hello Ms. Vahlen!” Kindred greeted as he waved one foreleg in the air at the Ethereal.
The creature turned its silver-masked face towards the two children and gave a psi pulse for a smile, “Hello young ones, are you going into the city as well?”
The two just nodded as the Ethereal lowered something on to the ground from behind its robes. Scurrying up to the two was a Chryssalid. Jan bent down and put his hands on his knees, “Come on Aviyah!” the four legged chibi jumped up in front of the two and rolled around on its back, clicking in joy and excitement.
Kindred just laughed as he gave the stunted ‘lid a belly rub, while the two showered the pet in praise. “Yes I was just going to take Aviyah to the veterinarian. He’s been unable to eat anything. I fear his venom glands have enlarged, a common problem among Chrysalids I’m afraid.” floating over to the two she bent down and scooped up her pet in her frail arms, hiding them within her all encompassing crimson robe.
“So why are you two going to Lu’an?” she asked as she looked at them from behind the stylized mask of the Ethereal writer. She was tall, almost three times as tall as Kindred who was just barely a bit shorter than Jan.
“Well we don’t know. We have the day off of chores and we wanted to have some fun. You’re only a kid once, right?” Jan rubbed the back of his head, smiling as Kindred checked the tram schedule.
“If only I could remember my childhood. But alas, it is lost to the aether of time. So how is school? Keeping your scores up?" The conversation lasted for a minute until Kindred called out that the tram was coming.
After a quarter hour high speed tram ride, they glided into Zakuza station in the southwest portion of the city, which was located in the academic district where the Colony’s primary schools and universities were located.
“If you two run into any trouble, then find me at this address. But please stay safe young ones, I know how rambunctious you can be.” giving a psi pulse for a smile, Vahlen’Duyun’Shanxi floated off to her destination.
“So I think we should go to the Little Tokyo Arcade. We can get food and play the arcade for awhile.” Kindred Heart suggested, walking out into the busy street. All around it was bustling with people of all species. On a terrace for an apartment building, a pair of Mutons were talking, basking in the sun. Above the street traffic, air cars and trucks flew past. In bulky orange robes, leading a group of assorted monks was Father Grigori, the well known Ethereal war hero-turned priest, his MEC implants giving him an extended life.
“Come on Jan, lets go find Lenibus and the others.” Jan replied, “If we’re going to the Arcade then we may as well go with a few more friends and a lot more credits.” both of them chuckling, they went for a few blocks and into an apartment block to recover as many classmates as possible.
When they emerged an hour later they had their entire gang with them. Lenibus First Clutch, the sabilian’s thin human form shadowing the group, Lunchou Pailaing, the young Muton, who already dwarfed his friends. And Eliza Vu, the brains of the group and childhood friend of Jan, black hair and slender Vietnamese frame included.
Together they had wheedled, snuck, or saved over a hundred credits. That was twenty for each person, and if the arcade had favorable rates it could mean a lot of games played!
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Father Yuri Grigori prided himself on patience. Since his days as the first X-Com MEC Trooper, he had learned a great deal of practice. Before making the decision to enter seminary he had made great use of it in helping to excavate underground tunnels on several early colonies.
Russian by birth, he led his friends and acolytes through the city, saying late morning prayers and greeting their many counterparts across the streets. It was his tenth day of fasting in remembrance of his fallen friends and comrades in the Ethereal war.
Finally after an hour of walking they returned to the religious sector shared by most religions. Reaching their beloved chapel his acolytes finished the verse they were on and went inside to prepare for the day’s early afternoon mass, and to have lunch.
‘Ah how I envy them.’ Grigori thought as his stomach gave a grumble. Ignoring such weakness he began to organize his sermon for today. ‘Today is to be a good day.’ He thought to himself, repeating the chant as he smiled at the first of his flock to enter.
“Ah! Welcome Private Krios, are you here for confession today?” He grinned at the Asian man, who waved in reply. He was in his newly-acquired off-duty uniform, the navy blue of the Alliance Marines.
“Not today, Father. This young man has done nothing but sit, eat, work out, and be bored out of his mind for all of his patrol and sentry duty,” the 20 year-old replied as he settled into the front-row pew.
“I hear that from many newly-conscripted men and woman in the military. Always either wanting some action, or begging to be released. Doing good in your lectures I hope?”
The young man nodded, “Of course, its the only da- ahem, sorry, its the only thing worth doing in garrison duty. Father told me that service gets better after the first year when they put you on a ship and have you do combat maneuvers and such. But I have nine months to go and already I’m bored to death!”
Grigori smiled, “So you come to Father Grigori on your religious leave to hear some old war stories yes?” The much younger man sat up at that and nodded happily, “Well I’m sure I have one or two for a boy like you…….”
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Captain Serius Octanis was not having a good day. It wasn’t his assignment, his flotilla subordinates, or even that this was the largest “patrol” he has ever led at 50 vessels. No, it was the intel.
Mind flashing to the briefing he remembered how there had been numerous anomalous readings in this sector of space, so anomalous that it had been deemed necessary to activate a relay to investigate.
Hyperwave signals, considered science fiction and theoretical at best. Able to communicate instantly by supra-dimensional waves which travels almost instantly. Thought impossible by Asari and Salarian scientists as feats only the Protheans had been capable of, hyperwaves were now being detected by stations across the galaxy as little more than annoying static.
If whatever was making that noise was advanced enough to do that, it was possibly the return of the Protheans, or the emergence of a galactic threat. As a loyal captain of the Turian Hierarchy, and as a citizen of Citadel space, it was his duty to see who it was that was making all the static. That, and hopefully ensure that they won’t be a threat.
“All section reports are green across the board, sir. Estimated time to arrival at relay 314…. 6 hours,” reported one of the bridge crew.
“Good, good. I’ll be in my quarters, let me know of anything new that comes up.” His taskforce consisted of 50 ships of various classes: his flagship dreadnought Spear of Romultion, 26 cruisers, and 25 more frigates. This was a patrol fleet fit for active combat and subjugating a cluster of stars, one that Serius hoped would be enough to confront this new force.
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Twilight was happy, in orbit at the edge of Shanxi’s system everything was ready, ahead of schedule! Looking at her Human “Bodyguard” Colonel Matthew Perry, representing Human interests in this expedition. He was more here for tradition and incase they encountered any hostile forces than anything else.
‘At least he follows me without question’ Twilight thought pleasantly remembering some less than savoury X-Com operatives. “Navigator Pressly ETA to destination?”
Jeremy Pressly was a mid sized, mid aged human, white fair skin with already graying hair, and a calm demeanor, “Three hours Princess, about 1:30 pm Lu’an standard. Stellar drift may have pushed the relay off by a few dozen light years so it will take a bit longer to find than normal.”
Nodding, Twilight was looking at the galactic map on the screen of the ship, seeing a small circle in their cluster of space representing the area the relay should be. Once they warp close they should be able to catch on to the Element Zero signature of the relay.
“Pilot Taylor, you are clear for jump.” The navigator spoke after a few more minutes of preparation. Dr. Vahlen, the ship’s AI flashed on the holographic pedestal holding her data chip.
“Princess, your room is to your specifications.” Looking around the mostly quiet bridge, music started to flutter in from a long dead artist. The soft classical beats were soon replaced by hard electronic techno.
Twilight looked at Vahlen and shook her head, “Really? Scooter? I would have thought you would have chosen something more momentous? For the history books.”
The AI’s avatar rolled its eyes at the immortal princess earning an extra hard glare. “Well your highness you have the power to choose any song known to man and equine kind alike.” She said in a snarky tone, quite unlike her progenitor.
Twilight, used to dealing with people like her, raised her own muzzle and using her omnitool chose something Rarity would most certainly approve of. Something by Mozart, his Moonlight Sonata, its haunting, beautiful melody appropriate for the seriousness of the situation.
Colonel Perry to his credit just kept overwatch on everyone’s duty stations, treading over to each of the bridge crew and observing them for a moment before moving on. These jobs often times got extremely boring, and it was not uncommon for unwatched officers and crewmen alike to revert to distracting activities, or games like Doom. It was in fact so common that most bridge electronics came preinstalled with the game.
Truth be told most were just doing made up busy work or listening to podcasts as they watched their respective stations for fluctuations.
“I’ll be in my quarters, Colonel Perry you have the bridge.” Twilight stated after a few moments of reviewing her crew.
“Aye ma’am, she’s in safe hands.” Perry replied, his british accent rolling into her ears like oddly sweet music.
The matrices of the translation spell that was on many Equestrians often times contorted the accents of the Humans into melodic tunes. While she could perfectly understand many of Humanities dialects and languages it was simply faster to employ her magic to do the leg work.
Walking off the deck she felt it was time to check in on spike and report to Princess Celestia.
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The Arcade was reasonably full. Both an old school Arcade and a restaurant, the place obviously pulled in a tidy profit, being near the academic sectors of the colony. Bringing in children, teens, and hipsters alike it catered to the wide variety of species who called Lu’an, and by extension Shanxi, home.
The gang got four tokens a credit and many of the games were two tokens to play. It being noon now that left plenty of time to play and have a good time.
Jan and Kindred wasted no time in splitting off from the group and bee-lining it straight for the Dance Dance Revolution machine, which already had garnered a large crowd of various peoples. Playing on the two pads was a young Sabilian on the left pad, and a late teens Human female in sports shorts and tanktop with sports bra combo on the right.
The song playing was old, from the early 21st century,
They were both pretty good, the Sabilian using his natural agility to his fullest while the Human female, jack of all, master of none, kept up good pace and put up a fight.
“Come on Jan, lets try that one!” Kindred called pointing to the empty wing of games. Jan being eager to use some of his tokens followed his friend.
They were going to have fun today!
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Codex Entries
Defender class Frigate The Defender Class frigate is a multipurpose combat patrol ship and escort, equipped to counter any threat at any time. Over 350 meters in length (25 meters high and 50 meters wide,) it is served by a crew of 60 naval personnel and with a platoon of marines, coming out at 110 serving members. The ship's main role, as its name suggests, is to be a defense craft.
The ship is equipped with four Star-Ranger class dropships and a single boarding torpedo. For armament the ship is relatively well equipped to protect against the myriad of possible extraterrestrial, and more mundane threats.
It is armed with:
1 center fixated Fusion Lance
1 Underslung mass accelerator cannon
6 Broadside plasma cannons on each flank
Point defence lasers and Blaster Launcher defenses.
The ship is protected by the cheap but reliable Mass effect shield to protect the hull from micrometeorites and mass cannons, with combination point defense lasers and Blaster Launchers to counter enemy missiles, rockets, fighters, or boarding parties. And finally it is armored by nearly a meter of Vahlenite alien alloy in most places.
Enterprise class Cruiser The Species Alliance’s premier space exploration and science vessel, the Enterprise embodies the Alliances desire to have the best of all worlds for its science ships. Balancing the need for science, protection, and offensive capabilities, the 800 meter cruiser is made in limited quantities.
Planning for any conceivable issues that may be presented to the ship, from peaceful first contact, to attack from hostile alien microbes, it was carefully tailored by the best shipwrights and designers in the Terran and Equis Alliances.
With room for over a thousand, it is most optimally staffed by 500 naval and science crew, while protected by a platoon of marines and a squad of X-Com operatives with 6 SpaceRangers for transportation and ferrying crew to the surface of a planet.
Armaments include:
1 center fixated Fusion Lance
1 Underslung mass accelerator cannon
15 Broadside plasma cannons on each flank
Point defence lasers and Blaster Launcher defenses.
An advanced AI manned cyber warfare suite.
And a wing of ten VoidStorm space superiority fighters.
The ship is protected by a strong and expensive mass effect shield, as well as Psi Operators who are employed to plague opposing ships and project a “Shield”. The vessel is further protected by over 2 meters of Vahlenite plating, and extensive point defense for missiles, rockets, fighters, or boarding parties.
Sectoid Hierarchy Sectoids, also called the slang names Reticulans and Greys, are a psionically active but physically weak race.
First encountered in various abduction missions throughout Human history, the first concrete contact was January 1st, 2015 in the Berlin raid, where they abducted dozens of humans, killed almost an entire X-Com fire team of 5 men, and mauled military and police forces in the city.
Their homeworld is known to be in the Skyllian Verge in the Reticula system. This is unfortunately too far away to be reached and developed economically anytime soon. It is unknown the state of the planet, if any of the species still exists, or if it’s under Ethereal control still.
Sectoid culture is indistinguishable from Human culture, having lost their own over the thousands and thousands of years under the UberEthereal. They were very quickly culturally assimilated.
Sectoid biology is not unlike that of a Human’s, and is growing increasingly similar each time a new treatment is made for repairing them. Ethereal records state they had been much stronger, bigger, and better proportioned, but less psionically active. Computer models state they would have been an upright amphibious creature about the height of a human, in the mid 20th century with a nonverbal form of communications using a hivemind.
Their large eyes give them excellent sight and also allows them to see at night perfectly. They have vestigial webbed hands and feet, have gill slits, and in their head are pheromone emitters and detectors long since been made useless by genetic manipulation. Already however, steps are being made for allowing Sectoids to live in aquatic homes and make use of oceans more effectively than any other Species.
Sectoids are still asexual, and breed by releasing a clutch of eggs. Currently this method is very painful and can be permanently damaging to the Sectoid. They still breed relatively quickly, and since water is so common on Garden worlds and they produce minimal waste, they have plenty of living space.
They have found gainful employ as construction and maintenance workers, miners, low level psi occupations, and war and espionage.
Their role in warfare is much the same as what it was previously, light scouts and recon. Their currently weak frames make them unfit for front line combat, but their silent telepathy and their ability to operate in a variety of conditions make them prime for scouts and recon.
Their government is a form of Hierarchy, with elected officials being unconditional leaders of their hive minds. This allows for goals, ideas, and emotions to be transmitted between fellow Sectoids seamlessly from leader to underlings.
Twilight was in her quarters with Spike, her “little” brother dragon. He was not little anymore, he was big now, larger than a Muton, and he was just growing into his early teens. Looking over at his gently sleeping form she smiled as memories of the old days came, when she was not a Princess and just a student.
She remembered when she first hatched him, earning her cutie mark and being taken on as Celestia’s personal student.
Then she reminisced that fateful Summer Sun celebration where she met her friends for the first time and redeemed Luna.
Then when Spike ate so much ice cream he got a horrible stomach ache. When he became an indentured servant to AppleJack. And when they went to the Crystal Empire for the first time.
Smiling to herself she realized she was getting lost in her memories once more.
Spike was occasionally billowing some smoke as he was receiving some well earned rest after being up all of last night making sure no pesky reporters snuck into her room to give her a, “Surprise interview”.
After that interruption from composing her report to Princess Celestia, she sent it via an encrypted channel to Earth, where she was currently participating in talks about future colonization, and to hopefully convince the Humans to ease up on Military requirements and participation. They had enough ships to comfortably patrol an area of space twice their size after all, and have a full five Divisions of marines in each colony 24/7.
By the time she sent it, she noticed it was 2:07 PM Lu’an standard. A chirp came from her com-link, Colonel Perry’s voice rolled out. “Princess Twilight. We have arrived at the relay, our support Vessels are already getting to work activating it. We should have it activated in a few hours.”
“Thank you Colonel. I’m coming to the bridge to oversee the process.” Standing up, Twilight stretched her sore limbs not unlike how a cat would, and giving one last look towards Spike she shut the lights off in her room.
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Arriving in the bridge an upbeat tune was playing. One Twilight was unfamiliar with. Raising a questioning eyebrow at Colonel Perry he shrugged, “What? Never heard Colonel Bogey’s March?” Twilight took note of the Human whistling in the background along with the rhythmic sound of marching feet and a full orchestra playing.
‘Hey, better than techno……’ The thought came unbidden as she went to her seat.
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Serius Octanis was on the bridge of his dreadnought Spear of Romultion, having been alerted that they were nearing the inactive relay. In preparation the Hierarchy had sent a scout through the relay to scan. Finding the immediate space outside uninhabited they prepared the fleet and deactivated the relay.
Now reactivating it, the feeling left a bad taste in his mouth. Breaking Citadel law was something he did not want to be made a habit of at all, and he hoped his superiors knew what they were doing.
Instantly his patrol was zapped to the other side of the relay. Gripping the railing tight as his ship was accelerated many times faster than light he closed his eyes.
“All clear sir. No contacts. And the static has gotten noticeably thicker.” His navigation's officer reported like any Turian worth his blood. Letting out his breath naturally he nodded.
“Excellent, send the frigates forward. Flotilla pattern, sensors on max. Time to Relay 314?” Moving his arms behind him, his claws grabbing one another to stop their fidgeting. This was unknown territory. The final frontier.
“Estimated time is three hours in standard patrol drill.” His 2IC reported below. Nodding that was good. His men and woman were tight, no cracks and no signs of nervousness. Good, these were the best of the best of the Turian fleet.
“Then lets begin. All ships, move out to scanning point Alpha…….”
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Twilight Sparkle had found the whole activation process fascinating. The necessity to exit the support ships and move to the relay manually made the process difficult, but it was eased by the use of Cyberdisc technicians interfacing with the relay themselves.
Of course the crew got rapidly bored of the amazing spectacle and nothing was needed to be done other than standard course corrections and keeping an eye on the sensors. So the main viewing screen was instead replaced by some Human comedy called “Freeman’s Mind 2.” All Twilight heard was some annoying hypocrite, who cared only for himself and complained profusely over architecture and spouted some interesting scientific phrases which made her ears twitch.
After several hours the view screen was taken up by one of her captains, a large Dragon named Stuphieus. “Princess Twilight, Cyberdisc teams are almost finished. In a minute the relay should be activated.” Twilight nodded in great satisfaction.
Unbeknownst to her, she had a large excited grin on her face, “Excellent Stuphieus.” The Dragon nodded and cancelled the link. “Call up the Highest Honors and tell them to get ready to go through.”
The communications officer began transmitting via hyper wave. The Manta Ray like stealth ship, painted purple black like night, began to move towards the relay one kilometer in front of the Enterprise.
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“Sir! Static spike from that cruiser! It looks like they’ve activated the relay!” The comms officer shouted. He was a new recruit, fresh from training and it showed.
Captain Ultoria Vitadas was no fresh faced recruit, so his response was more controlled. “Fire a warning shot one kilometer in front of that large cruiser. Let’s get their attention.”
His cruiser shuddered slightly under the strain of firing a 15 kilo shell into the empty space, the gun shaped cruiser leading a wolf pack of frigates who formed a vee behind it.
What happened next was unexpected as his weapons officer’s mandibles twitched in confusion, “Shot has impacted sir….. Expanding debris field one kilometer in front of the unknown cruiser- Sir their frigates are returning fi-”
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The Sefu’s experienced and prepared crew acted fast at the destruction of Highest Honor. Firing with its Fusion lance as soon as it could after the unknown contact fired. The mass effect barriers of the leading cruiser did nothing to stop the light speed beam from gutting the cruiser, its mass effect core imploding spectacularly, sending debris into its wingmates who were stunned at the display of such powerful technology.
“Princess Twilight! Seven contacts have appeared from FTL and fired upon the Highest Honors!” Twilight could see that as the expanding debris field from the once Sabillian controlled ship, as the ship's momentum meant it was still drifting towards the relay as nothing but a dead hulk now. From the magnified camera view she saw a neat hole piercing its center mass, with impossible accuracy it seemed, the ship's fusion cores had been destroyed perfectly, incinerating the ship from inside out, immolating the crew and making it an empty hulk.
‘How could they have known?’ Twilight was left to ponder as her escorts began to return fire immediately. Looking to the X-Com operative for guidance he nodded and stepped forward.
“Princess Twilight Sparkle, I am assuming control of this mission until the threat passes. Do you have any objections?” Twilight shook her head numbly. She felt like she was kicked in the gut, one of her ships gone in an instant.
‘I should have been more prepared! This is all my fault! We should have been prepared for this!’ She thought in a panic as she stepped down from the commander’s pulpit and Colonel Perry began his work. Then she kicked herself, ‘No! I was prepared, we all were. This was just an unfortunate coincidence.’
“All support ships, retrieve any crew outside your vessels and retreat! Jotun, Sefu, keep up that fire, I think they are wondering what happened to their wing lead. Comms, send out a distress, Code X-Ray.” Moving his hand to the intercom button he talked to the entire ship.
“Attention crew of the Enterprise. We are under attack by unknown craft. Chance of X-Rays one hundred percent! All combat teams assemble to your designated marks, PSI offense teams, report to your amps immediately. All civilian crew move to your quarters and wait for the emergency to end. That is all.”
Ending his prepared speech he looked to the weapons officer, “Fire the mass cannon at the farthest ship on the right, and target the ship next to it with our Fusion lance. Gut the fucker you hear me?”
Turning towards the AI pedestal Dr. Vahlen flickered on. “You know what to do ma’am. Scramble their comms and get what you can.” Vahlen smiled her trademark sadistic smile, and disappeared.
Finally it was Twilights turn to be asked something, “Princess Twilight. You are currently the most powerful Psionic here. I know you have been trained creating shields. Can you protect our ships?”
Twilight swallowed. She had been in fights before. On ground, in an atmosphere, and with her friends. But she had been in fights before. Nodding she went to a view screen, with timers and numbers, distances and lines. She already knew what she needed to do, not even noticing the suddenly aggressive noise in the background, made by the ship’s speakers.
Summoning her power, horn lighting up with purple energy, she closed her eyes, then opened them to reveal brilliant white light. Suddenly secondary shield generators activated on all the ships, projecting the psi energy being fed into them by Twilight.
Normally such a feat is accomplished by dozens of psi users, but Twilight was no ordinary psionic, crowned the Princess of Friendship, and before that the Princess of Magic. She was a living near immortal deity. And she would help avenge the Highest Honor, and ensure no more lives were lost on their side in this unprovoked attack.
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Commander Vibiana Orinia was a lifelong soldier, fighting pirates of all species, even participating in mock battles with every citadel species. And she was in a panic. A calm, suppressed panic, but panic all the same as she saw two more of her wing get annihilated by those green beams.
The whole operation seemed to go sour as soon as they dropped out into space and Vitadas fired a warning shot. They must have accidently hit something, but she couldn’t confirm her suspicions as everything on her ship seemed to be failing at once.
Her sensor officer said he was seeing nothing but white static on his screen. Her weapons officer was complaining to the sensors officer about not being able to target the enemy ships. Navigation was currently trying to combat the enemy’s cyber warfare VI with their own ships VI. And her Engineering officer was trying to yell something at her. Her comm officer was saying something about not being able to communicate with the rest of the patrol and all the radio channels were being filled with the SAME SPIRITS DAMNED SONG!
Over the ship’s intercom some song was being played loud enough to make her bridge count as a nightclub, by some unknown band, and somehow in perfect Turian, “Born to raise hell! Born to raise hell! We know how to do it and we do it real well…….” It was almost enough for her to shoot someone to stop the panicking.
Looking out the viewport, ignoring the electrical static from holo screens she saw another one of the wing get destroyed, only because the green beam of death went up like a flare.
“Warning, warning!” It came out with the song, as it was entering some kind of instrumental part, “Ma- ma mass effect core dis- dis- discharge imminent-nent-nent-nent! Enemy C- ceeeee-CWS has accessed all in-internal files.” The VI was now starting to panic and glitch, as the alien’s VI started to corrupt her own irreparably.
This was a disaster. From what she could see, only her ship was left. As she had counted 6 beams of light now. Leaving her ship alone floating dead in space, slowly tearing itself apart without the enemy having to do anything beyond applying more pressure with their accursed VI. Suddenly the music stopped, the VI crashed, and the entire crew went silent as the lights went out.
“This is Princess Twilight Sparkle, representing the Terran Species Alliance. Your people have engaged in an act of war. Surrender now and prepare to be boarded.” The voice came through the speakers in perfect accented Turian, “Refusal to comply will result in death. You have 30 seconds to comply.”
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Twilight was psionically translating the message, using a standard translation matrix while the AI was appending their translation software with all the new languages acquired from the gold mine that was this frigate’s internal data banks.
Waiting for a reply she had convinced Perry to allow her to try and convince the last ship to surrender. It wouldn’t hurt since it was over 50,000 kilometers out and dead in space, its mass effect core prepared to vent all its built up magnetic energy into the ship and fry the Aliens.
The surprise attack had turned to a slaughter for the attackers. Despite the advantage of the element of surprise, the Sefu’s crew had been prepared. It typically took the unaugmented mind of a sentient creature 30 seconds to 3 minutes to regain their wits in a tactical surprise attack. The Zebrican crew had done it in half the minimum time.
As the aliens sent their reply the sensors officer sputtered, “Captain! Over 40 more ships have entered space at least 100,000 kilometers out! One of them is over a kilometer long and leading the fleet with approximately 25 Cruiser equivalents, and 19 frigate equivs’.”
Perry stepped up once more. “Dr Vahlen target ECM against that big bastard! Code named Battle-Cruiser-1! Comms tell those scientists to move their asses and leave as soon as possible, and tell Shanxi that we got a fleet here. Weapons, hit that large one and have the escorts destroy their cruiser Equivs’.”
“Psi teams target enemy leadership. Ship plans are coming on screen now courtesy of Dr. V. Get those captains to either fire on their allies or send them to hell! Incite panic in their comms net. Buy us as much time as you can.”
Twilight could see that most of the support ships had left, only a handful were still gathering up their teams. She redoubled her shields but was worried at her ability to hold against the one kilometer battlecruiser.
“Captain, enemy battlecruiser has launched fighters along with cruisers. I count over 150 targets. Shall we launch fighters as well?” Dr. Vahlen reported, a stray strand of hair over her features representing the AI was under stress, trying to fight off over 25 ships CWS, while trying to disrupt communications and do all the other necessary things an AI must do. Even she was having difficulties.
The Human ships opened up, their Fusion Lances cycled. The Enterprise fired its own at the enemy battlecruiser. This produced a visible disruption in the foes rank, as the ship over 100,000 kilometers away was damaged by the Fusion Lance almost instantly.
Twilight saw Dr. Vahlen automatically note that the ship was suffering loss of atmosphere, structural damage, and several flight hangars were compromised completely and the ship was trying to get farther away.
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Captain Serius Octanis was visibly shocked. Before him lay one of his ships dead in space, and an expanding debris field of what used to be six proud Turian spacecraft. He was about to open a channel to the surviving ship and had ordered fighter launch as soon as possible. That was when he received a barrage of reports from his various officers and the VI, reporting minor system malfunctions.
Activating counter CWS and ordering the same from all his ships made things better, but they were still having trouble.
At this aggressive action and the loss of his forward scouts he assumed the Aliens were hostile and gave the order to attack. As the Turian ships began to do just that, a sickly green beam shot out as fast as light, and speared his own ship, which was a hundred of thousands of kilometers away.
No one had seen such a weapon in action, and as the reports came in of moderate damage being done so suddenly and at the loss of two cruisers, things had went oddly chaotic as a dozen of his own ships just drifted in space doing nothing and the comms net was filled with unsettling screaming and screeching.
Then somehow his worst fears came true.
He was on the bridge, looking out the viewscreen as he saw Palavan burn, thousands of alien ships hung in orbit, bombarding its cities with the sickly green beams.
Turning around to order the attack he saw his crew dead, in various states of dismemberment and others burned black. And their killers were of various alien species, all gleaming with awesome armor, with green glowing weapons.
He blacked out, and upon waking he was on the Iron plateau overlooking Palavan’s capital, Cipritine. Looking down a desperate street battle was being fought, the aliens scything down the Turians like grain, running in pure panic ignoring their training of setting ambushes, traps and-
‘No! Thats not right! Turians, under no circumstances have failed such a basic thing as falling back orderly, even engaged in hand to hand against Krogan!’ He snapped out of it.
He was restrained by two of his officers and one of the MPs. He let go of what was in his hands and saw the blood on the weapons officer’s bulkhead.
He could hear the reports coming from the intra-net, the captains of those dozen ships had all gone berserk, ordering their ships to fire on allies, shooting their bridge crew when they refused, and some of them falling to the ground gibbering wrecks crying like newborns.
“Wha- what happened?” He stuttered, tears falling from his irritated eyes eyes, mandibles twitching in confusion and despair.
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What had happened was chaos. The Terran Alliance ships bought themselves a minute of confusion, allowing the Enterprise to hurt the Dreadnought further, damaging its secondary cannons, and melting its forward prow so it looked like a mutilated bird of prey.
In those 60 seconds a vicious dog fight played out between the opposing fighters. The vastly superior Human ships broke off and pulled the Turians into high stakes maneuvers and devastating engagements near their own frigates and cruisers, using the enemy’s own allies as a shield.
But only being ten ships against over 15 times their number they were vastly outgunned, but they still inflicted horrific damage against the enemy fighters, destroying one frigate and inflicting wounding shots against half a dozen more ships. But even they were unable to dodge the dozens of simultaneous attacks from the hundred plus fighters and the few GARDIAN shots that received a lock.
For the Sefu and Jotun, they dodged dozens of shots at them, and took a fair share as well, their mass effect barriers and psi shields taking the brunt of the damage from the enemy force. They returned the shots toe to toe, each Fusion lance beam crippling a cruiser or outright destroying a frigate. But being only two ships, fired a grand total of four shots, crippling the Turian cruisers Sword in the Sky, Hierarchy's Finest, and Lucky Metal, while also destroying the Frigate Belltus.
The Enterprise’s mass accelerator cannons did their best to keep the frigates back and physically shielded the few vulnerable support ships left, taking over twenty impacts from the Turian fleet with Psi shields barely able to hold under the deluge. Twilight Sparkle, the venerable Princess given multiple awards from Human and Equis scholars, powerful psionic, leader of the Shanxi expedition, was nearly unconscious with the strain of trying to hold back so many shots.
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Orinia looked on with undisguised relief. Reinforcements had come just in time to save them. But even she was surprised by what her view screen was reporting. Her VI was broken, destroyed by an aggressive computer virus, and her Engineering officer told her that it would take a full overhaul just to fix the ship’s mass effect core. But comms had returned and so had sensors.
Her ship may be dead in space but they held valuable intelligence, although admittedly limited, about enemy leadership and capabilities. And on what happened.
Unfortunately the reports from the fleet were disturbing. Half the channels were jammed the other half flooded with alien songs about hell raising and destruction, and while the Turian inter-ship comms network was holding, she could not contact the flagship.
“Captain, it looks like their freighter ships have all left by some form of portal.” Her sensors officer reported.
What he said was true, the cruiser had been shielding them with its own bulk, its secondary shields having proven remarkably resilient to bombardment from over twenty ships. It was the dreadnought shots that actually pierced it, sending the purple haze surrounding the craft to dissipate like interrupted static from a Van Der Graaf machine, as the 38 kiloton explosion resounded off. It was strange it took the Spear of Romultion so long to fire.
What ever the aliens made their ships in mind for was scary indeed, as the armor underneath the ship began to chip and pock mark under the barrage of cannons, and it seemed only the Dreadnought did any damage, renting and piercing the armor where it hit every two seconds. It was moments later that the entire ship was engulfed by a portal and its two supporting frigates joined it after firing parting shots at their pursuers, impacting the flagship and forming two red hot streaks on its side like bloody tears in flesh, deliberately targeting the hangers and causing resounding secondary explosions from fuel and ammunition going off.
The once proud flagship of the Turian hierarchy was laid low in two shots, bypassing its mass effect fields with no discernable effect and destroying its hangers and damaging large portions of the ship.
Orinia could only shudder as she finally got a link with Serius.
The Voidstorm is the premier counterpart to the Firestorm fighter interceptor. While its atmospheric cousin is the king of the skies, the Voidstorm is the most highly advanced fighter craft made by the Terran Alliance. Its maneuverability increased ten fold by its creative use of mass effect fields, and the inclusion of full pilot integration with the craft, the ship literally becoming an extension of the pilot’s body. It can also be used by remote, by its pilot, an AI, or commonly by Cyberdisc entities.
It is armed with a variety of modules to increase its combat effectiveness. It can scan enemy weapons systems and judges with a near 100% accuracy when and where they will fire, informing the pilot and giving them optimal routes. Advanced weapons targeting systems also scans enemy craft detecting weak points and directing plasma fire and blaster launchers to max effectiveness.
The ship is equipped with a light armament despite this. 1 Plasma cannon. 2 laser cannons. Optional EMP cannon for disabling craft. And an optional rack of blaster launcher torpedoes.
Relying on friendly warships to disable enemy shields with mass accelerator cannons, when down they can deliver devastating torpedo volleys, made to destroy outer compartments and target weapon systems, effectively making the ship’s dead in space and allowing X-Com and Marine teams to board and capture such vessels. Blaster Launchers are extremely difficult for defense systems like lasers to intercept, the warhead’s integrated evasion systems able to detect when the shot will be fired with a 99% chance, and specially armored with a casing of Vahlenite. However it is still possible for GARDIANs and other point defense weapons to counter it, especially if they are operated manually and have no charge times to detect.
Equestrians The Equestrians were the most advanced race on the planet of Equis when they were discovered in 2045.
Their country is about the size of france, the continent it lays on the size of North America. It is made up of great mountain ranges, beautiful beach fronts, rolling hills, and thick European style forests.
Having known peace for hundreds of years at a time and allowing their society to grow at an easy pace, the nation is unscarred by war and pollution.
While many species call Equestria home, its native inhabitants are the three Equestrian tribes. All Equestrians with few exceptions are small, pony like creatures. Short, 4 feet tall at the head, with large eyes giving them excellent vision unaugmented. They are all stronger and faster than the average augmented Human and come in a wide variety of colors and patterns and all but the foals have marks on their flanks called “cutie marks”, representing their special talent and occupation. They have enlarged empathy glands, in nature this makes the herd animal much more able to connect with their peers, understand pain, work together, and combined with their enlarged eyes makes them even more endearing to other species.
The first of the three tribes are the flying [Pegasi], who can control the weather and are the nation's soldiers in times of need. Next are the [Earth] ponies who are the nation's premier farmers and engineers. And finally the [Unicorns] who embody the species’ psionic capabilities and form most of the gentry.
Pegasi have traditionally formed the bulk of the military, their wing feathers opposable enough to make use of primitive tools and weapons and their wings themselves able to mount blades to attack foes while flying. Their history and cultural traditions support this and encourage a strong sense of duty and loyalty. The tribe is proud to be the host of the elements of Loyalty and Kindness. Their major cities are Cloudsdale, Las pegasus, and Upper Manehatten.
Earth Ponies actual name are untranslatable, and the closest approximation in English is earth, ground, or dirt. Earth ponies historically were the serf class, poor peasant farmers. They are renowned for their astounding ability for growing things, able to directly link with the latent psionic energy in plants and influence them to grow stronger. This ability is passive as just being around a plant will make it grow stronger. They are also larger than their Pegasi and Unicorn cousins, naturally being farmers nature has granted them more robust frames and higher muscle mass. The tribe is glad to have the Elements of Honesty and Laughter. Their major towns and cities in Equestria are Ponyville, Lower Manhatten, Appleloosa, Dodge Junction, and West Fillydelphia.
The Unicorns currently form the bulk of the nobility and fulfilled the role of knight errants in the turbulent times before the emergence of the Celestial Diarchy. Unicorns are divided into ancestral houses, the largest being Heart, Crystal, and the Shield houses. They fulfill a variety of roles like the other two tribes in modern days. Their chief ability is fine manipulation with their magic making them excellent scholars, scientists, and crewponies for both terrestrial and planetary shipping. Able to perform telekinesis, teleportation, shields, enchantments, and more. They are happy to have the elements of Generosity and Magic as their flag bearers. Their major cities are Canterlot, Baltimare, East Fillydelphia, the Crystal Empire capital, and Yanhoofver.
NOTE: It should be cited that the species is frighteningly similar, almost to the T of the popular show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. As it turns out Lauren Faust was found to have been extremely active Communications psion, estimated to have been unknowingly active long before the invasion.
The battle had been sudden, surprising, and devastating. In only one minute and 34 seconds of combat, his patrol fleet had lost around 50% effectiveness. To make things worse nearly a dozen captains and ship commanders were being detained following their sudden homicidal behaviour, including himself.
He was waiting in the brigg reviewing the vid file of his head suddenly being covered in a purple glow and his eyes glowing purple as well, ordering his ship to fire upon one of his cruisers. When his- …. When his weapons officer replied confused at why and refusing, he was shot for “Insubordination, and failure to protect the homeworld.”
He had just nearly killed one of his own crew when under the power of… something. He was still alive thank the spirits, and his bridge marines had just restrained him. Others were not so lucky, having either taken their own lives or forcing their own bridge crew to kill them.
He had sent a flotilla of frigates to report back to Palaven with this information and to request reinforcements. Whoever they were, they seemed to like a few strong ships, and his fleet had been very close at destroying the cruiser and its escorts when they seemed to teleport out of the area after having destroyed or crippled a good portion of his fleet, four cruisers and a frigate would have to be abandoned, all of them hit by those green beams. His own ship needed serious repairs as well; the once-proud ship had its main cannon damaged, no open fighter bays or lander ports, and a loss of a fourth of its crew to injuries or death.
Of those fighters sent, over a hundred had been destroyed or damaged in the fight with the enemies ten. To make things even worse, all of his ships had suffered electrical damage from the enemies CWS and ECM, and crew sabotage had been pandemic, with several trying to overload the drive cores. None succeeded thankfully.
The most terrible blow to morale had been the impunity those ships had with their weapons, going through the barriers as if they didn’t exist, melting through a ship's thin armor and destroying it. His ship only survived because of how big it was, and the last two shots it received had been fired to target its fighter bays, which caused more damage than if they shot anywhere else, cooking off ammunition and fuel. At least it seemed that their mass cannons lacked the same punch, with none of them piercing the shields of his ships. But then again it had only been two frigates and a large cruiser.
On the bright side he had also gotten a wealth of information from the Havincaw’s captain. Vibiana Orinia’s report of enemy ECM and CWS capabilities were enlightening and he had already forwarded the information to the acting captain of his ship with his recommendation and was being sent back with the frigates as well.
They had been caught wholly unprepared for the ferocity of this fight, and they suffered for it. From Malraka’s report it had all started when Captain Vitadas had fired a warning shot to stop them from using the relay. Instead of flying through empty space, it had hit some kind of stealth ship by accident; completely destroying it and its crew. The small thing was barely corvette sized, at 150 meters. It had no shields and no drive core, and the only thing left of what his engineers assumed to be its powerplant was a lot of shielding and a hole down the center where its reactor had been.
No wonder they returned fire, the “big scary aliens” had just killed one of their ships, had a fleet of seven warships, and somehow targeted one of their stealth corvettes.
What made this a royally political nightmare as well was the fact the cruiser had been carrying royalty. So not only had they accidently destroyed one of their ships, they had also attacked one of the royal family and attempted to assassinate one of its leaders.
“It just gets worse and worse doesn’t it?” He asked himself, mandibles twitching in indecision.
“Captain, your brain scan is complete, we can find no traces of whatever happened to you.” Looking up it was one of the medical crew reporting.
Shaking his head he grasped his fringes and let out a breath, “And what of Tarkus? Is- is he?-”
“He’s alive sir. Although he has lost a significant amount of blood. You nicked his aorta and it took the doctors an hour to try and stop the bleeding. Sir, I suggest another brainscan, what ever happened to you must have left-”
“Do it again, deeper this time….. I can still see the vision doctor.”
“The ones of Palaven burning?”
“Yes. What ever they did to me, I don’t want it happening again. To anyone….”
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Twilight was unconscious, the strain and violent trauma of orchestrating the barrier over the Enterprise had taken a significant toll on her mind, and she was suffering from magical burnout. Spike was worried horribly and keeping watch over her sleeping form in her chambers. He had written a letter to Princess Celestia, personally reporting her condition and the situation. He still hadn’t heard back.
Judging from the last time Twilight had gotten seriously hurt she was probably quietly seething, too angry to write back. That or Discord had intercepted the message and when he read it, and decided to protect her by keeping it from her for now.
Colonel Perry had asked Spike if Twilight needed anything and he worked diligently to see every need met. He wasn’t sure if it was loyalty to his mission, or the danger Spike posed to his well being if he decided things weren’t adequate for Twilight. He had grown quite large and intimidating over the decades as he amassed his wealth and status.
Laying in his treasure trove, breathing black brooding smoke, it got into the ventilation system and produced a suitable dark atmosphere in the entire ship as the shock of what happened came to everyone.
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It would be half an hour until they reached Shanxi. Dr. Vahlen had assured everyone they were much faster than the Alien Turians, and was already busy translating, organizing, and prioritizing the flood of data. It needed to be compressed again after bypassing the security systems by accessing it on as many personal electronics as possible in the ship. Then it needed to be sorted in categories.
So much needed to be done and she was wishing Hope or Twilight or some other AI had been there to help. Whenever called by the crew she had allowed her subroutines to show her harried state by disheveled clothing and ruined hair.
X-Com operative Perry had told her that collating the data and separating the wheat from the chaff was top priority, and to place a copy of whatever she had finished on his desk and that of Twilights when they reached Shanxi. He also told her to route information to the scientists on board to the correct department. Even as she saw a report of ancient autopsies performed by doctors on their species she sent it to the xenostudies group, already having their hands full with the culture, life cycle, religion, and variety of species now known to the Terran Alliance.
When they dropped out of their artificial wormhole, battered and bloody she immediately received a handshake protocol from Mack. Accepting his invitation she invited him to her “Home” and started a private chat.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mack, AI SID 23349582874 has joined your channel.
Mackie Roonie = “Whoo-whee! Y’all sure have been busy haven’t you.”
Dr. Vahlen- “No time for chatter Mack. System defense? How much do we got?”
User “Dr. Vahlen” is sharing data [combat data and damage reports.TXT]
Mackie Roonie=“Damn. We’ve got your three ships, about 100 Firestorm Mk. IXs, 10 more frigate class Ethereal Battleships armed only with outdated atmospheric fusion lances, and three cruiser class System Monitor ships crewed by students. Planetary defenses include three standard Fusion Lance silos and two dozen BL anti dropship silos.”
Mackie Roonie=“When I got your distress signal I immediately called for reinforcements from the Unconquerable and they say they can be here in less than an hour if they aren’t delayed. I’m also prepared to start civilian evacuation and call up citizen reserves.”
Dr. Vahlen-“Which is all of them. The Turians’ only way of winning I predict will be a ground war to capture the planet and use it as a shield, forcing us to land ground forces to dislodge them while more of their reinforcements come. They won’t be able to do their standard tactic of orbital bombardment with our Kinetic barriers up and with our fusion lances destroying any who try it.”
Mackie Roonie=“But they don’t know X-Com. It’s bound to be a slaughter as they drop down. We wait for the first wave to drop, then activate BL silos to take out enemy reinforcements. We keep them in the game, bleeding them of resources, stopping them from bombing the planet by keeping their own troops here as a further shield. We do it just enough so they follow our path, stay here until our fleet shows up to annihilate their own.”
Dr. Vahlen-“And the best part? They won’t even know they’ve been played since the beginning.”
User “Mackie Roonie” has changed his name to “Military Intelligence AI Loki”
Military Intelligence AI Loki=”Vigilo Confido.”
Dr. Vahlen-”Vigilo Confido.”
Military Intelligence AI Loki has left your channel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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To say the good Princess Celestia was upset was an understatement of the entire Council session. She dominated the large room that seated thousands of people and over two-hundred Alliance Councillors.
Made impressive by the fire ball that was her mane and tail she stood in the center of the room, speaking first. She was not known for her violent, bloodthirsty nature. But after hearing about what happened to Twilight and how she and many of her people and top scientists were almost killed in an unprovoked attack, she was angry.
Brushing off the ash that fell on his suit, Councilor Zero, as was his honorary title, took control of the situation. While all the other Councilors and many thousands audience members were visibly scared or taking cover behind something, he had not even flinched. She had not been this angry since X-Com attacked.
“Princess Celestia. You will calm down, or I will have Commander Good Wind, and Operative Bay Watch escort you out. After putting out your mane.”
She looked right at him, eyes aflame, her attention solely upon him. ‘Good,’ he thought as he leaned forward to meet her gaze.
“You are disrupting this session and if you want me to seriously consider your proposal you will calm down. I understand that your are,” visibly searching for a suitable word he finished, “infuriated. But you must understand one thing. It is a Terran Alliance planet at threat here, not just your ponies or the people of Equis.”
“So I can assure you; me, and the entire Alliance are deeply troubled by this unprovoked action. So X-Com, and the the Human Coalition, will be sending all they can to this problem.”
Talking Celestia down she hid her embarrassment at her monumental outburst in the middle of her speech asking for immediate action. While she did not like some of the Human councillors, Councilor Zero especially, with him always sitting in his darkened booth, the gloom effect made unnaturally so no one could see his face, he had a point.
“The people of Equestria shall henceforth send all its ships to help repel the Alien invasion, and protect the people of Shanxi. I can also assure the Confederation of Equis States will send in many of their ships in support as well.” Celestia claimed this as fact, and all of the Equis planetary representatives nodded their heads in agreement.
Councilor Zero nodded. Hitting a button he brought up the voting system for all the councilors, “As is stated in ratified Council Constitution, article 1, lines 1-5, we shall now have a vote for declaration of war.”
A few seconds went by and all the votes were made, a light coming on above the voter to represent how they voted. 17 abstained, 249 for.
“Motion passes, let it be noted that at 2000 hours Geneva time the Council has voted to go to war with the Turian Hierarchy and by extension all of these ‘Citadel races’ who decide to involve themselves in this matter, and will fulfil its war goals for the survival of all Alliance member species by any means necessary. May the Gods show mercy upon the enemies of the Terran Alliance. Vigilo Confido.”
The last sentiment was echoed by everyone in the room. Afterwards it was deathly quiet as the occasion set in. The AI hovering above the room, acting as the archivist for this session, turned its light on Councilor Zero once more as he called for attention.
“As in following articles detailing the declaration of war, emergency powers will be given to Shanxi’s planetary AI, calling up all reserves, and authorizing the activation of X-Com Stasis Operatives and the use of tier 10 weapons of war. Any who oppose?”
The room was silent. Looking to Celestia he added, “To lead the Reinforcement fleets, I nominate Princess Celestia, of the Equestrian Principality, and Major leader of Equis. May you lead us to victory.”
Those who opposed the Princess politically didn’t object, knowing that no one had more fury now then the Princess of the Sun, who could incinerate them with but a glance if she so wanted. Her hundreds of years of experience in war, and interest in the cosmos made her a perfect choice anyways to support Grand Admiral Kastanie Drescher.
“You shall lead the First and Second fleets, and the ships of Equis you are authorized by the Confederation to use. You will be given the temporary rank and title, X-Com Fleet Commander.”
Suddenly the Muton delegate rose and let out a blood cry, pounding his chest, “The Muton Tribes, will also pledge its resources for the People! We do not wish our allies to have all the fun!” He bellowed in a deep baritone, the chest pounding being echoed by all the Muton audience and council members.
The Sectoid Hierarchy lead counselor, not wanting to lose face with his people at not giving in the time of need also rose, not very tall, he was on top of his desk. Linking with his speaker he shouted, “The Sectoid Hierarchy also will contribute its fleet to this cause.” This was met by the Psi cheers of the Sectoids in the room, adding to the rising cacophony.
Next, the largest member of all the species of the Terran Alliance rumbled. Moving to his full height, nearly hitting the roof of the Council chambers, the great dragon Sota Ratkaisija spoke in his deceptively soft voice, “The Ponies of Equestria have helped my kind in the past, and this debt will not go unpaid. I will support the movement for the Dragon Holds to contribute their armies to your use. our young ones will crush the enemy beneath their claws.”
It was almost a show now, as the dragons in the crowd, few they were, scraped their seats, the metal making a shriek as Dragon claws swiped over it rhythmically, to show support.
Councilor Zero smiled, the feature hidden behind the gloom as then the Sabilians, Ethereals, Griffons, Zebra, Changeling, Minotaur, Saddle Arabian and Donkey Conglomerate, and Cyberdisc blocs added in their own forces.
By the time Cyberdisc 1 changed over to his vaguely humanoid form promising the use of the Drop Carrier Eternal Light, every race was making some kind of noise vying for war, except the Humans.
Councilor Zero frowned, that would have to change. ‘Can’t be outdone by the Ethereals now.’ the mentioned Ethereals were adding to the Psi cheering sounding like distant whoops.
He did something that was never done until a Councilor Zero’s retirement. He rose from his seat, so that all could see his face. Pointing his hand to the Princess, palm up he sang out X-Com’s unofficial anthem,
“War for War, Into the shot and the shell, Into battle we go once more, The standard-bearers of Hell, War for War, The best and last of the free, Sworn unto Armageddon, Honour the Cavalry.”
This was soon echoed by the majority Humans in the room and then taken up by the other races as the full cadence came out. Sitting back down after riling the entire room to a frenzy Councilor Zero smiled behind the gloom.
‘Just as planned’
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This meeting was recorded, and sent by Hyperwave Relay, shown in real time to every colony, base, station, and ship, no matter how small. Even transmitted to the Stasis pods as the Ethereal War veterans were being awakened. The cadence at the end was shouted by billions of all worlds, with the final cry being two words. “Vigilo confido.”
The Terran Alliance was ready for war, they had been training for it, preparing for it, and now that it was at their doorstep, no one would step down from this honor, from this chance to show what they were made of.
The inhabitants of the Shanxi system were confident, prepared, and for many, happy. They would be on the frontlines, over 100 years since the last war, and as a taunt to the Turians they sent it out on all radio frequencies and tight beam messages, the Omni-translated recording with some alterations to prevent the enemy gaining undue intelligence.
Decades later it was noted to still be ringing across the galaxy, and even cause several scares with planet born species with access to radio.
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Codex Entries
Communications: Terran Alliance While all citadel races use comm buoys, transmitting data through a relay of tight beam lasers, the Alliance uses Hyperwave Relays.
Hyperwave Relays use a supra-dimensional wave which travels almost instantaneously. The principles of this work by capitalizing on a parallel universe called Hyperspace. Forcing a microscopic opening, the device transmits its message by radio.
The radio message is then sent through Hyperspace which is compressed into a smaller space than “Real space” allowing for faster than light communications. It is approximately 1000 times faster than light.
The message is then caught by a receiver, which translates the static noise made by the radio signals in Hyperspace.
The entire device is smaller than a stasis pod and is relatively cheap to produce in bulk.
With more research into Hyperwave Relays, it was found how to further encrypt the transmission by using regular encryption methods and software.
Species Alliance Government The Council of Terra The Species Alliance Council is a body of representatives from all the Terran Alliance species. The way of choosing a representative is not universal, many are democratically elected, others are assigned the job by the species government.
Planets are allowed one representative per species, and a planet qualifies to have another representative if it has more than one million of another species. Ethereals are the exception, with extremely low birth rates their representative population cap is 10,000.
Planets are allowed to govern themselves independently after they have been established by a patron species. They each build an Alliance building and populations democratically elect their leaders every year to decide on policy, planetary and solar construction, as well as chose their Council member.
Sabilian Sabilians were first encountered months before the first shots were fired in Berlin. Reports go that they had been attacking infrastructure and probing defenses months before.
Their homeworld was told to have been destroyed beyond recovery in their pacification and assimilation. It was reported as being located to the galactic “North”.
Sabilian culture is close to Human’s, major differences being their natural enigmatic nature and naming conventions to be aloof, distant, and bland. It is possible to meet a dozen John and Jane Does in a single city sector.
Their greatest cultural phenomena is their Grand Masquerade. Each Sabilian has a cabal they work within to keep secrets that are meaningless to the regular citizen, but to Sabilians are a matter of pride to keep it safe and will fight fanatically to do so. They sharpen their skills on each other, fighting, scheming, and tricking each other.
Sabilian biology is, while aesthetically Human, actually closer to a snake, often resulting in people referring to them as such. Their limbs are like that of a snake’s body, able to curl and flex, making it extremely difficult to break their limbs, and excessively strong, able to jump atop three story buildings. They have redundant internal organs which can inflate and deflate to allow them to form different body types, and attached to their DNA sequences are easy to access junk data that affect their appearance. Combined with Meld, it's possible to change the outward appearance seamlessly and much more efficiently than previous Ethereal efforts.
Sabilians breed like reptiles, releasing a clutch of eggs. When the gene for unlocking the second sex were released it allowed Sabilian’s to resume on their natural genetic course and hopefully with gene therapy they will return to their more natural form.
Sabilian’s find their natural abilities in high demand as technicians, general workers, espionage and counter espionage, corporate work, and as light infantry and law enforcement.
In matters of war they enjoy a comfortable relationship with the Sectoid Hierarchy as partners. Sabilian’s fast movement with Mectoid and Sectoid hunter killer teams allow for rapid reaction, target acquisition, and destruction of soft targets.
Their government is very secretive, forming an intricate weave of contacts, representatives, and false leads. It is accepted by the general public that while they do have a leader, he or she is likely the secretary of Espionage and interior and exterior defense, the most classified known position in the entire Alliance.
Currently the Sabilians have an award-winning spy show, Apocalypse set in the current day Terran Alliance on Mars, holding back another alien species of micro-bacteria from another dimension, who wish to infiltrate and destroy the Alliance.
Rich crimson blood splashed onto his face, he was covered in it, watching helplessly as an entire platoon of soldiers was ripped apart by a screeching horde of insectoid monsters. Somehow, the faces of the dying soldiers were as clear as if he was standing right in front of them. The dead did not rest easily however; their bodies standing back up as something unholy happened within them.
The bodies of the walking dead began to shred apart from within, revealing more of the purple insect-demons. After eating the strips of flesh and skin left from their birth they scattered, seeking out more victims.
Thinking it was over he let out the breath he had been holding in fear that they would hear him.
He was wrong.
One of the demons turned towards him. Screeching, it leapt towards him at an impossible distance, launching at him like a rocket. Mandibles spread wide, the flesh of the creature it had infected was still stretched over its face. Before he knew it he had been bowled over, and the monstrosity loomed over him. It leaned in, mandibles twitching as it sought to inject him too-
“AAAHHHHH!” Pulling against the restraints that bound his body, Serius Octanis screamed and flailed as he tried to escape. His struggles woke the few other patients in the room and shocked the guards who were trying to hold him down.
Looking at each of their faces he saw genuine fear in them. It snapped him back to reality. He stopped struggling, sagging back into the medical bed, and shuddered as he felt a chill beyond any he had ever experienced before.
“Is everything alright? I heard screaming!” A full squad lead by the doctor on duty burst into the room finding the sight of terrified patients, an exhausted captain, and the guards looking down at him with a mixture of concern and fear.
Serius just looked up to the ceiling. He had been asleep for a few hours but he still felt tired, more so than before. Thinking back he remembered that the ship’s doctor wanted to monitor him for the night. He hoped he got something out of that, it felt like just before, when he was under the control of that alien mind.
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Combat training VR room, X-Com Primary Facility Lu’an
Maria grinned as she felt that familiar rush of adrenaline. It was strong like that time in Hong Kong, on her tenth mission when she had been pinned down by a pair of Thin Men and a Cyberdisc.
This time, however, she wasn’t under fire. Her stealth systems were engaged, making her look like a ghostly flicker in the unlit room.She slowly and soundlessly crouched at the window sill, taking aim at the enemy with a plasma sniper rifle.
Looking through her weapon’s holoscope she sighted ten Turkeys”, as she was now calling the Turians. Electronically marked them she noticed her squad in the minimap, advancing in expert formation.
This exercise was for both the stasis vets’ benefit and that of the new blood who were also participating in the war game. ‘Watch and learn kiddies,’ she thought to herself. “Fire team in position.” Hearing Callahan report in she winked a green light.
With a deep CRACK the first plasma bolt shot from her weapon. In the blink of an eye it had hit the leftern most sentry in the face. As the dead Turian fell she flicked to the next target; Turians had quicker reaction times than the enemies she had been used to fighting. She couldn’t afford to be slow enough that they would have the chance to return fire.
Thankfully Maria hadn’t survived as long as she had in XCOM by being slow. She turned the next face in her sights into a smoldering hole before ducking down and using her jets to slide to the other side of the room and through the door she had left open, just in time to avoid a messy death as a Turian tank destroyed the room she had been in with a round from its main gun.
Standing and brushing herself off she heard the sound of the tank being reduced to melting scrap as MEC Col. “Duff” Duffy fired his gatling plasma cannon at it. She heard squawks and screams as the rest of the squad surrounded the unprepared enemy on three sides seconds after she had fired on them, which had distracted them from the main advance.
Less than ten seconds later she grappled to the next building and leapt over the specially designed cover, built into most buildings now-a-days. She thought it great that she finally had some decent protection on the tops of buildings, whereas before she had to deal with 5-10 centimeter thick brick walls that could barely stop a 5.56 let alone a hypervelocity slug, laser, or plasma round.
Thinking about that, she was also happy that just about every building she saw was built like a bunker; meter thick reinforced concrete walls, squat structures, windows with shutters turning into fire ports. The world she had awakened to was a much more militarized one than the one she had left behind.
Taking position, the birdbrained commander AI had called for reinforcements. Since she was not needed for breaching the UFO - ‘No, no! Dropship, it’s a dropship, and completely identified now!’ she thought to herself - she joined her camper counterpart Samantha “Scissor Sister” Kia-Soon.
All that was visible in the loop hole for her rifle was the very tip of the barrel. So taking aim she saw the wide boulevard with cars on the sides of the streets, and closed up shops on either side of the road. With the only cover down the center the occasional stop light and vehicle.
The AI knew that the chance for ambush was high here, but it was the only way to get to the dropship in time to save its assets. The Turian platoon advanced cautiously, with the infantry on the flanks using the abandoned cars as cover as their armored support steadily advanced alongside them.
“Three. Two. One…… OPEN FIRE!” Assault Col. Conan “The Celtiberian” Killager yelled, launching himself out of a three story building to land on a Turian IFV while it was still moving. Being buttoned up did nothing for the IFV as he simply fired down with his favorite Alloy Cannon, shredding everyone inside the crew compartment.
It picked up speed, Killager laughing daemonically as he straddled the turret, firing into the Turians on either side as his IFV rammed into the rear of the next vehicle. Jumping off, he cackled as he charged after the closest group of Turkeys.
Looking at the carnage, the analytical part of Maria’s mind estimated that the enemy unit had been a tank company with supporting infantry… or had been at least, up until Killager’s Killers showed up and ruined its day.
In the building behind the column, at the end of the boulevard, the fire team’s heavy opened up with an emplaced railgun, firing slugs the size of Maria’s middle finger. She didn’t care how good your kinetic barriers were, that bullet hose fired faster than any of their guns, and had such a large kick that the first time Jenny “Gun Gun” Potters fired the thing it dislocated her shoulder.
But emplaced on a stable platform, with a cybernetic shoulder this time, it was turned into an artful weapon. Each explosion of violet blood was a masterpiece to Maria’s sick mind.
From between two buildings, she smiled a blood curdling grin as a flurry of anti-personnel rockets raced out and impacted against the kinetic barriers of a hover tank, coming from Aimo “Dok” Jarvi. While it failed to hurt the tank it did kill the infantry hiding near it. It also drew the attention of the vehicle.
Opening it for Fedosia “Mean” Mateev to charge forward. In her massive hand she held a car, absorbing the small arms fire, allowing her to charge forward and smash a massive hole in the tank where the driver and gunner would be. Pulling her pneumatically empowered fist free, it was coated in gore.
Maria smiled as she saw her throw the car onto a hapless Turkey and taking her now freed flamethrower fist she stuffed it into the opening and turned it into a crematorium. “BURN YOU BASTARDS!” The mechanical voice boomed out in translated Turian, the MEC then loped away from the burning tank, before its fuel and ammo exploded. No one knew what kind of payload it had so it was for the better.
It was then that Maria and “Scissor Sister” Kia Soon opened fire onto the Turian heavies, covering Mateev as she exposed her back.
Scoring a hit she missed her Laser Sniper. It was currently resting in her quarters, horribly outdated and useless. Even as she thought longingly for its red beam she killed another Turkey, cutting it in half at its midsection. Kia Soon fired and shot at a Turian rocketeer aiming for Killager, aiming for his ammunition pack, creating a small crater where his body was.
The AI, who was fairly miffed at this, was trying his best, but the ambush had been set and he cut his losses, with a simple move he called in his airborne assets. ‘Priority target, Elite Squad, tonnage full. Destroy the block.’ It ordered as the commander.
Maria grew bored even as the lead tank’s ammunition cooked off and destroyed the last armored vehicle, sending lethal shrapnel zigging everywhere. She began to support Killager who had been thrown flat by the explosion.
Jumping up like a martial artist he started to sprint to the nearest building. For the poor Turkey in his way he just ran him over, holding him up like, well to Maria at least, a charger from Left for Dead.
By now Maria knew that the enemy would call in artillery or reinforcements and even her group had to conserve its strength. Already Mateev needed resupply for her flamethrower and Gun Gun had fired off almost her entire supply for her weapon.
“Dropship cleared, charge set.” Maria heard on the squad comm. Nodding she pulled her weapon out of its loophole and keeping her head low moved to the rally point at the ammo dump.
The rest of the squad she knew would do the same in an orderly manner. Even as she thought that, Killager was laying the groundwork and calling for an orderly pull back when their air support identified an enemy gunship squadron coming to blow them apart.
‘Nothing I can do, just keep moving.’ she thought as she used her jump jets to make the next building. Knowing that she wouldn’t get away in time on foot she looked down and saw a sewer access lid. “Get to the sewers squad!” she declared for all to hear, firing at the lid, melting it enough for her half ton mass to snap it apart and have her land in the knee high muck…….
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Lu’an Academic district, Chéngjiù zhī zhù High School 7:00 Am
“Name.”
“Student Jan Philip Bulrich. Identification number 203029. Training infantry.”
The administrator nodded and finding his name on the checklist she checked his name and pulled the newly fabricated dog tags out of their slots and threaded them with their tin beads.
Grabbing them Jan sighed as he saw them, ‘Of course they would be in chinese.’ he thought sadly as he looked to the other side to see it written in english. Well at least in case he dies his parents could still identify him.
‘No bad Jan! Don’t be so damn morbid.’ stepping to the side he placed the cool metal necklace around his neck. Fitting it some place it would not chafe he joined his squad.
Lenibus had been redirected to the light infantry/security over at Lu’an Police headquarters.
Lunchou’s duty lead the young muton to join his tribe as shock troops, to be given heavy Titan armor, a plasma cannon, and to lead the charges.
Only Kindred was present in his squad. With Eliza’s tank crew nearby performing maintenance on their short barreled armored vehicle.
“Jan!” Kindred waved and trotted up. The look of concern clear on his face.
“Hey Kindred. So what does your mother think of you getting conscripted?” Jan replied half jokingly as he waited in the mustering fields of his school. It was overcast today, with a small chance of rain. Perfect for the mood most of the students were feeling.
“Hopping mad with a hint of balefire. Almost burned down the house. But someone has to keep you and the guys alive. I wouldn’t want anyone else taking my spot.” Kindred smiled wide, putting Jan at ease as they started to chuckle.
Joining the group the communal Minecraft server was activated. Pulling out his own datapad he joined the others in the ongoing construction of their magnificent fortress of cobblestone.
He didn’t realize he and the many other teens on the field were being watched by their teachers.
“This isn't right. They are still children. Some of them just turned 15.” Principle Nie Howin protested to Loki.
“It is their time I fear. X-com requires it. The academic sector lacks a proper amount of defenders. The school and the surrounding area needs boots on the ground to deny the enemy a foothold.” the AI replied cooly, hands clasped behind his back and looking up to the greying matron.
Scowling at him the AI sighed, “You won’t be unsupported, it would be devastating for morale if all those fighting for the city lose what is closest to them. I’m prepared to call in heavy armor support from the 5th People’s Armored Militia and the 72nd Light Peoples Foot and have them stationed at the Shanghai war memorial complex. I just need you to hold this area and contain the enemy forces who land here until command can redirect troops here.”
The principle held her scowl but when she was pulled away by her drill Sergeants her features lightened, “All students accounted for ma’am. Shall we call them to order?” her XO, Drill Instructor General Williams reported politely, standing at attention smartly.
Looking over the laughing children, playing or sparring or joking. She sighed, “Give them five more minutes. They deserve it…..”
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Gollop Chamber Control Room, X-Com Primary facility Lu’an
“She is one of the most powerful Human magicians I’ve ever seen in my life.” Twilight commented on her findings as she flipped through the readings with interest.
“She is so saturated with Ethereal Radiation that she should rightly be filled to the eyeballs with cancer cells!” Spike commented, wearing a comically big labcoat as he shifted to the set of screens on the wall.
“Her neurons are firing off like autocannons. Synapses are as active as a Human child’s, not closed off like a normal Human adult should. Same with the other X-Com Stasis volunteers. It looks like X-Com did some unauthorized augmentations.” Spike continued on concerned. It was stated in the Sudham-Wolcott Genetic Heritage Act that affecting the brain of any Species with MELD was strictly forbidden due to unfortunate side effects that could occur.
“Leave it to X-Com to break all the rules.” Twilight muttered irritatedly under her breath. ‘What’s the point of binding treaties and laws if X-Com will just ignore it?!’ Twilight fumed silently as Maria came in from the Gollop chamber.
“So Princess Sparkle. How’d I rate?” She asked stately, standing at idle attention.
“Off the charts. Not surprising since you are the longest lived X-Com operative ever, being subjected to all that lethal radiation. And all those gene mods they put in your brain.” Twilight looked angry, not at Maria, but at how X-Com would so carelessly shorten the lifespan of their best soldiers.
“Something troubling you Princess?” Maria asked worriedly, “Is there an issue with the gene mods?” She rubbed her shaved scalp, feeling the hair growing in already.
“Something wrong?! Yes there is! Do you know how dangerous it is to directly modify the brain?! Your lucky to still be speaking! To even be breathing subconsciously! I know X-Com can be reckless but I never thought they would go so far as to shorten the span of their soldiers lives by-” Twilight was obviously just starting her rant, Spike just sat in the far corner of the room, observing the operative warily.
“So what? It works fine right now right?” Maria replied, bored.
“So what? So WHAT?! you probably won’t live another twenty years like this before you brain fries itself from the strain!-” Twilight was shocked at the look on Maria’s face. Utterly uncaring, and a bit surprised that Twilight cared so much.
“So what? Everything and everyone I knew is dead. The only thing not dead are my squadmates. You’ve read our files, the history of X-Com. Before MELD we pumped ourselves full of drug cocktails to give us any advantage we could get. Steroids, nootropics, highly dangerous and illegal narcotics. That alone killed some guys before the war ended.”
“We trained, and trained, and trained. Fought hard to protect our families, loved ones, neighbors, countrymen, and fellow Human beings. Taking any advantage we could get. When we first fought EXALT, my mind wasn’t on how unethical their mods were, my mind was wondering where I could get them. So my team and myself could be stronger. Where I could become stronger so I could kill more and more Aliens. My life means nothing on its own. Every time I close my eyes I see those I failed to save.” Maria shut her eyes and with a faint shudder and deep sigh continued.
“...... I want to die. And when I do, I WILL take down as many enemies as I can in those last moments.”
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Psi Gym, X-Com primary facility, Lu’an
“..... So what was it like?”
Maria asked the question to break the steadily thicker ice forming around both Twilight and herself.
“What was what like?” Twilight asked, taking readings of Maria’s brain and Psi waves.
“Meeting Humans? Not X-Com Humans, I mean the people behind the military? The civilians, average joe worker, you know? When I was iced, that show, My Little Pony, was still playing strong.” Maria chuckled at how Spike shifted uncomfortably at the mention of MLP.
“Oh Celestia! Please do not remind me of that show. It still gives me the creeps! Knowing someone was in my mind and created a show about me and my friends.” Seeing the mischievous gleam in Maria’s eyes she recoiled back to her instrument panel, “And do NOT mention any clop!”
“Please don’t. The last time someone did, she blasted them into a building. Then hid in her room for a week.” Spike added in, pouring more water to the barrel that Maria was test lifting with her telekinesis.
Maria just chuckled, testing the new purple glow she had around her fist. “Wouldn’t dream of it Twily. Ready?”
Maria began again.
Like she was told she thought about the object. Closing her eyes she visualized it in her minds eye, she wanted it to move, to hover in the air one meter, and to move back towards the wall by three meters.
Opening her eyes, they glowed a violet hue as she made a lifting motion with her hand, her fingers closed around as if they were holding the base of a cup, glowing the same color as her eyes.
The tendrils of energy reached out and grabbed hold of the object, lifting it in the air slowly.
Maria marveled at her own dextrous control, in each of her fingers she felt a weight, like she was holding half a kilo on each fingertip.
Experimenting she began to roll her hand, watching with fascination as the sensation on each finger changed, with the weight shifting with the barrel.
“So why is my magic violet instead of deep purple like the psionics during the war?” Maria asked curiously, pushing the barrel back and gently placing it down on the ground.
“Well its mostly the fact that you didn’t have your magic aura activated then. If it was active you would have seen that magic energies came in all colors.” Twilight noted down Maria’s dextrous control, making a note for further training and teaching.
“You see my magical aura is lavender, like my coat. I ‘chose’ that color because it’s what I always saw as a filly learning magic. Its difficult to explain.” Twilight thought for a moment about how to compare it, “Its like trying to explain color to a creature with no eyesight.”
Smiling Twilight did her best, “Think back to your earliest memories, you’ll notice that your vision is tinted a certain color. For example, when I think back to my entrance exam, Celestia knows how many years ago, I remember an inexplicable lavender tint to everything.”
To the X-Com Colonel’s credit she began to understand, “I see, so only me and other psionics will see it as that color?”
Twilight shook her head in an affirmative.
Awkward silence reigned as Maria munched on a ration bar while Twilight attached more electrodes to her skull.
“Hey, so back to my question; what was it like meeting Humans? Pretty freaky considering we also had the other species with us.” Maria returned to her previous question.
Twilight stopped taking notes and thought for a moment, recollecting like Princess Celestia had explained how, “It was. . . Strange. For most of my life I always had the feeling I was being watched, not the spooky way like a predator to its prey, but more like a curious explorer, young as I. Old as I. I paid it no heed, since it only came in moments of clarity or when I was alone and unfocused.”
When I became an Alicorn it felt even stronger, but despite my power I could never pin it down, this Alien presence. It wasn’t until I met a Human mare named Lauren Faust that I realized who it was who spied on me. It was also there at Galacon that I truly met Humanity.”
“Not the picture I was painted by the ambassadors. I saw joy, happiness. Friendship. Friendship in a group of species I was not sure had any at all. All brought together, thousands of them, of all nationalities, species, and ideologies, by, well, me.”
“It was cool at first then it got creepy with which what shall not be named. Although I think Rainbow Dash found it more favorable than I. She was always into…. eeeugh, shipping. And all those nasty things.” Twilight shuddered at the thought of Vore ‘Celestia who would find that arousing?’
Maria nodded and chuckled darkly, “Humanity is a species of opposites. Randomness made manifest.” Twilight paused at that little line of wisdom.
‘Of course I should expect it from her, she fought alongside just about every group of Humans on Earth.’
“So Twilight, why will I die in twenty years?” The question was sudden, but not completely unexpected by Twilight. Since their conversation earlier in the Gollop control room.
“Its a condition AI’s suffer from at times; Urgrain syndrome. Its where someone literally thinks themself to death. Your brain is not made to be constantly active. your neurons and synapses are always active, even in your sleep. Symptoms are, you will feel more mentally drained more often, sleep will not be remotely as refreshing, nosebleeds, migraines, ghost pains, magical energy reduction, and death.”
Maria thought about that for a moment. “So every moment awake is another moment my brain cells over work themselves?”
“Yes. You’ll also note that stimulants like caffeine or SMOKE won’t be as effective, since your brain is already overclocked. They may even be damaging for you. I’m sure however X-Com intends to put you back to sleep once the conflict ends. And if you go back into stasis your brain cells would recover.”
Maria sighed and whispered to herself, preparing for the next test, “I hope I won’t have to go back into stasis…….”
“Are we sure he’s even stable?” the Gunnery officer whispered to the Navigational officer.
“Personally? I think he’s lost his nerve. What ever happened to him and those officers under his command can’t be good for one’s mental health.” the Navigational officer replied back through a text message on the other’s omni tool.
“I heard he scared the entire medical ward. He was screaming like a damned soul before he woke up. And it required all the guards to hold him down.” the Pilot chipped in with a whisper.
“Shut up. All of you, I won’t tolerate gossip on my bridge! Its borderline insubordination.” Admiral Saberian reprimanded his crew. Morale among the force was already low with the prospect of facing a new species with access to directed energy weapons.
It was fortunate he quashed their insubordination in time before Captain Serius came to the bridge. The Turian looked like hell, his eyes were irritated and yellow, his face had the pallor of a soldier who had seen too much, and it was obvious that sleep had provided the Turian no comfort.
“Admiral Saberian, sir! Reporting as ordered sir!” he pulled a tight salute, showing no signs of the fatigue or distress that were in him.
Returning the salute Saberian spoke gruffly, “At ease.”
Serius took this moment to examine his superior. He was average height at two meters, with his mandibles slightly bigger than most Turians. He wore a green and gold uniform, his chest was filled with assorted merits like the Nova cluster, and the Citadel Star. His white and black face paint marked his ancestry from Tridend.
“Are you okay Captain?” Saberian asked almost conversationally but Serius noticed the tone in the room, and how his answer would affect it.
“Yes sir, just a bit of sickness. Nothing too serious.”
“Good because I need you in top shape. Now about your advised plans. You really believe the enemy will be powerful enough to force us using hit and run tactics? That we won’t be able to overwhelm them with our fleet?”
“Sir with respect, I believe if they are even a fifth of our size they will annihilate this fleet in less than two minutes. Their primary energy armament seems to be a spinal fixated cannon similar to our own mass accelerators. They also have cannons of their own but they are just flecks of sand compared to their… lances.”
To reinforce his point he brought up his own ship’s recordings of the events. “Their lances take a while to recharge it seems, firing only every 30 seconds. We have ruled out heat dissipation problems due to the enemy ships not showing any signs of overheating.”
Saberian nodded, already knowing this but letting the captain explain his point. “What other armaments besides mass cannons and these lances?”
“We don’t know sir. For all we know they could have lasers fit for longer ranges than GARDIANS, plasma torpedoes, hell, even antimatter fusion bombs. All we faced here is two frigates and a cruiser, that for all we know could have been anything from a lightly armed scientific vessel, or the flagship of their fleets.”
“Spirits damn it where’s an STG team when you need one? If we could just get more information from their extranet equivalent maybe we won’t be going in so blind.” Serius gripped, more to his own shortcomings than that of Saberian.
Saberian had honestly expected more. Serius was a well decorated captain, and he was one of the few captains who lead a dreadnought. But from what happened to his patrol fleet, his assessment was not wrong.
“The most troubling thing however is their cyber warfare capabilities. They either have some freaky quick operators or highly advanced VI. Maybe even true AI.”
“If that’s true then it’s just another law they have violated.” Saberian commented. “These aliens are a threat to galactic security and it’s up to us to contain them quickly.”
Serius hoped, with a discreet shudder, that it was through peace, and not from a tidal wave of hell spiders….
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Rich crimson blood splashed onto her face, she was covered in it, watching helplessly as an entire platoon of soldiers was ripped apart by a screeching horde of insectoid monsters. Somehow, the faces of the dying soldiers were as clear as if she was standing right in front of them. The dead did not rest easily however; their bodies standing back up as something unholy happened within them.
The bodies of the walking dead began to shred apart from within, revealing more of the purple insect-demons. After eating the strips of flesh and skin left from their birth they scattered, seeking out more victims.
Thinking it was over she let out the breath she had been holding in fear that they would hear her.
She was wrong.
Impossibly, one of them spotted her. Very few would realize however that its insectoid face was covered with the stretched, tormented, features of a man.
Raising her arms she grappled its spindly appendages, her legs pushing against the monster’s torso. Screaming.
“AAAAAAAIIII-IIIIIIHHHHHHHHH!” Jumping off the bed she was standing on her footlocker, body drenched in sweat, arms out threateningly, prepared to wrench a neck from its spine.
Panting she realized she had awaken, and promptly, Maria fell to the ground crying, and holding herself close in a ball.
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X-Com Organization
X-Com is the largest paramilitary force ever assembled in known history. Billions of retired members, hundreds of thousands of active combat personnel, and tens of millions more employees. It has become necessary for the Terran Alliance to take a more active control of the government funded organization for accountability.
X-Com Officer Corp (X-COP):X-Com Officer Corp is the leadership element of X-Com, producing the finest military officers across Alliance space. Many illustrious academies like the Grisson Sciences College, West Point, Royal Canterlot Officer’s Stable, Khan Cyrus Training Mt., and the Royal Officers Naval and Space Academy have programs for the hundreds of thousands of officers that go through the Organization’s ranks. Here the brightest military minds of the Alliance, Human and otherwise, train for the highly valued X-Com officership. X-COP personnel train to become field commanders, advisors, tactical and strategic officers. To be an X-COP is to be one of the best commanders in Alliance space.
X-Com Merchant Marines (X-CoMMers): X-Com Merchant Marines, also known as X-CoMMers, are the mining, shipping, and industrial arm of X-Com. Providing all the necessities for the vast organization. They make up the bulk of employees for the official X-Com organization, employing tens of millions of miners, office workers, logisticians, and workers. Alongside the workers is the massive fleet of 50,000 transport ships and barges that make sure every base is supplied and every colony has access to basic necessities for survival and economic independence.
MarSec: The R&D, and main financer of X-Com. Martian Security, or MarSec, was appropriated in 2056, a time when big business was the big issue. When Several whistleblowers revealed the corruption and crimes of the company, which ranged from tax evasion to major labor rights violations, so problematic that if they were allowed to continue they would cause the currently booming Terran economy to tank worse than the great depression. When these allegations were confirmed, nearly all executive staff were stripped of their economic resources and found guilty for treason and received the death penalty and to be made as an example for other companies. With this tough action, most other companies cleaned up their act on their own, or under a similar “clean up” program.
Despite this dark history, MarSec has been lauded in the 22nd century as the leader of advanced technologies and the production of the finest and most reliable military equipment and consumer products, spawning the slogan, “Ain’t no security like Martian Security”.
Often times, they are used as an unofficial form of market regulation, breaking monopolies and trusts, stabilizing running prices, and installing and updating infrastructure. This can be seen most clearly with the [Hyperwave Communications Provider wars] market failure in the 2110’s, where the few companies involved were refusing to upgrade infrastructure, and were charging absurd amounts of money for what had become a basic utility.
X-Com Emergency Response Corp (Peace Corp): The Peace Corp, is the natural disaster and emergency response branch for X-Com, among its more contemporary vision of being a neutral, nonprofit organization for helping those in need. X-Com’s greatest priority is for the people, the state, and the survival of the Alliance species. During the Ethereal war the Peace Corp was formed spontaneously out of no where by millions of people who wanted to assist those who were attacked by the Aliens. People of all creeds and backgrounds donated and volunteered throughout the year long war, putting life and limb at risk and even fighting for the survival of their fellow Humans in militias around the globe. After the War, they had folded into the International Committee for the Red Cross, to form the Peace Corp, and helped assist the displaced millions and police the Alien holding camps.
When X-Com was made public, the Peace Corp was invited to form their own branch of service, widely respected by X-Com base personnel, who had restricted contact with the outside world for security, had heard of the exploits of millions through after mission channels.
Throughout the years their ranks of volunteers and full time members have grown to numbers rivalling political parties. No matter the disaster or problem, the local Peace Corp garrison is one of the first on the scene of the incident. They also own, maintain, staff, and protect most hospitals. They have formed their own front company called the Sirta-Glimmer Heart Foundation. Currently the Peace Corp has thirteen council members, including among its ranks; the Equestrian Pegasus Fluttershy, the element of Kindness. Yusef Muhammed Ad-Hafar, Allama. And Ethereal Abra’Fawz’Earth, leader of the now defunct Ethereal Rights Party.
X-Com Combat Engineer Battalion (The Bratishki): X-Com’s Combat engineer Battalion was originally a joke group formed during the Ethereal War by the engineering department. Often times during an active combat area, Dr. Shen would comment when the ground forces inevitably encounterednew technology, or a problem requiring the touch of a combat engineer.
Many of X-Com’s combat engineers at the time came from Eastern Bloc nations, so jokingly the much younger soldiers called the much older Dr. Shen, Bratishka, or little brother in Russian dialects.
After the war, when after action observations where made of combat footage, it was determined X-Com needed a dedicated detachment of Combat Engineers fit for heavy combat. Many of the Russian Combat Engineers had become MECs over the war’s course one way or another. As MECs, they could carry all the required gear for a combat engineer, and be protected enough to reach the objective no matter the opposition.
So it was, The Bratishki were formed. Building bridges, laying mines, and digging tunnels across Alliance space.
Betas, especially Count-Lurkula who has been an amazing Beta and has when he had the time, improved my writing substantially.
I know this chapter was late this week, sorry but my beta asked for a bit more time and i had to attend a wedding at the time when I would be posting this.
Anyways my beta suggest I trim down my chapters of its unnecessary stuff. I had a few things here lined up like what Shen’s descendent was doing, Grigori, giving an arms lesson (Admittedly unnecessary), and a Battlespace reference.
I kept the VR session because i know you guys will want some action. Its just a taste of whats to come.
Blood Raven
Heres a question to you guys, what do you want to see for side stories? I’ve been lining up a few things and I would appreciate suggestions.
“Move it Student Bulrick! Your Allies are counting on you!” The radio blared, ordering Jan to move faster.
He was short of breath, running for what felt like his life, harder than he ever had before. His TacMap system on his hud reported his position on his helmet’s visor.
Behind him, he saw the several red blinking lights of the enemy, electronically painted to show up on the map.
“Shit! Shit!! SHIT! SHIIIIT!” He yelled as he dived into a blown out building, thudding on the ground and rolling into a dark corner. His armor’s Chameleon Psi projectors turning his armor and weapons black so he would blend in better.
Starting to control his breathing, but scrunched up in a ball, Jan saw the trio of red dots come up to the turn. Two kept going while one stopped and briefly flashed a light inside the darkened room.
……
A shuffle of feet.
A quiet curse.
The sounds of war.
Then the light flashed away, moving on down the destroyed street.
Releasing a breath Jan didn’t know he held, he picked himself up. What had felt like eternity was really only a few seconds.
When the dots turned another corner he got up and moved, stretching his sore muscles. Moving to the door at the end of the room he cut through the building to the alleyway.
Bringing up the full screen map he saw that he was simply two streets away from his overlook position at Strategic Position Alpha-15, (or better known as SPA 15). Checking his laser rifle carefully, he cleaned off the exterior plating then checked the mechanism.
Satisfied it was in perfect working condition, Jan began to move again. Following back alleys and checking his minimap and corners often, Jan quickly traversed the maze to his destination.
Meeting the end of the alleyway, he pulled open the reinforced steel door to the prefabricated made home. Pushing it open one handed he held his rifle in the hip fire position to cover himself for any waiting opponents.
Finding none he walked in and closed the door behind him, with as little trouble as he did opening it. As soon as it closed he took a moment to breath. The air contained the muted roar of a platoon support railgun, with the sound of yells and shouts underlying it every time it started to reload.
His squad was still trying to move up on the strategic point.
Moving as quickly as he could through the abandoned building, he took the stairs three steps a time. Reaching the top floor, he was not even out of breath as he moved to the window on the far side of the reinforced fabricated home.
Peeking out, his squad had made it about halfway down the ruined street, a wide boulevard with sparse cover, and identical homes on either side of the road. They had been supporting a tank, callsign White Panther.
The Armored Civil Defence Vehicle (Pulse Laser)MKX, had been disabled with an emplaced anti-tank fusion launcher. Which had suffered retaliatory fire and its circuitry had been disabled. If that had been a real fusion launcher, there would be nothing of the Panther and its young crew, and if they were using real guns, then the cannon would have a hundred perforating holes in its protective casing and likely gone nuclear.
Thankfully, none of his squad had gotten hit, and he was undetected due to the suppressive fire going both ways.
Taking careful aim as he stood on the fourth floor, he acquired his first target.
‘Squeeze like dad said….’
Beeedooow!
His hud flashed, “+100! Enemy Eliminated!” Going back into the shadows of the building he scrambled to another window,
Wait, aim, breath out, squeeze……
Bedooow!
“+100! Enemy eliminated!”
“SNIPER! STAY DOWN!” Even 50 meters away Jan could hear the warning, as he began to move to a different room, just in time for the room he was in and the entire facade of the building to be lit up. ‘Well, it was good while it lasted.’
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Shanxi Orbit
Bridge of the Enterprise
Twilight Sparkle had regained her strength, if only marginally. Magical burnout was a serious problem with any species. The danger of doing so resulted in serious repercussions. While most would have folded long before with a shield that size especially on their own, Twilight, the Princess of Friendship, had been protecting her friends, so she had used everything in her reserves.
It had cost her, but not so much as the loss of her crew or one of the crews at the relay would have been…….
Highest Honor…..
While she hadn’t known the crew or the captain very well, or at all for that matter, it was still a barb in her heart. No matter how much Perry comforted her.
Looking into the void of space, the danger that it possessed was unimaginable, the mind was not the limit to what could come from its inky depths. They were fortuitous, only a very similar enemy had appeared.
Cradling in one hoof, holding it against the added arm by its edge, Twilight held a datapad.
Within held a collection of stories from science fiction authors, of all species. From their pages came alive stories of mind breaking scope, to heart warming similarity.
That was their greatest advantage. They understood that in space, nothing is sure, nothing concrete. For all they knew, they were but a tiny peck among many larger universes. So they treated space with respect, they knew the dangers held. And the breath taking wonders.
“Ma’am, we’re detecting an incoming hyperspace wormhole, from the galactic south east.” Her thoughts were interrupted by Pressly, “Its the Peace Corp fleet ma’am. They report that they are carrying medical volunteers, and Militia guardian teams.”
Looking at her own viewscreen Twilight saw the 50 ships moving towards Shanxi. Only a tenth of them were combat craft, all of them frigates to protect their transports.
“Incoming message from the Red Cross.”
On screen came a familiar butter colored pegasi.
“Fluttershy!” Twilight called out joyously, smiling wide as she saw her close friend.
“Twilight, it’s a been a while. Permission to land and come aboard?” The pegasi asked shyly. While Fluttershy had overcome her weakness mostly, she still suffered from her lifelong ingrained nature of speaking shyly in public.
“Of course right away. You have docking and landing priorities now!” Twilight’s hooves played out across an adjacent keyboard and gave the necessary clearance.
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Twilight waited anxiously for Fluttershy’s shuttle to board the Enterprise’s hanger bay. After losing all ten of their fighters in their fight with the Turians, the bay had become extremely roomy. Normally the place would be swarming with engineers, pilots, and Cyberdiscs providing maintenance, or preparing for the next fighter launch.
Now it was a mini media circus. Lu’an Public News, Alliance News Network’s Battlespace crew, and Shanxi System Net were all present, trying to confirm what exactly the Peace Corp planned to do.
Twilight just wanted to talk with her friend, but she knew from her nearly 160 years as a Princess that such a thing was necessary for the common people. And she was sure that this was Fluttershy’s intent all along.
Regally, the butter color Pegasi stepped off her shuttle, flanked by an aide and the liaison the Peace Corp ws providing for X-Com and Shanxi Defense Command.
While technically a different branch of X-Com, the Peace Corp had enough autonomy to be considered a separate entity from the Paramilitary force. Much like how the navies and armies of old would have to exchange personnel for smooth communications.
Colonel Perry Stepped forward, a polite smile on his face. The first one Twilight had ever seen on the man, “Welcome to the TSAS Enterprise Chairpony Fluttershy. I’m Colonel Perry, leading X-Com officer”
At that moment Twilight stepped forward, a happy smile glowing on her face. “Fluttershy, its good to see you.”
Looking past the lithe pegasi Twilight added, “Will you introduce your companions?”
The Human on Fluttershy’s left was her aide, a plain looking Swiss administrator by the name of Casterella. 5’8 tall, and dressed in a plain suit and tie, the man was very formal.
On the Pegasi’s right was Peace Corp Militia liaison Lieutenant Keller. Dressed smartly in Militia Khaki fatigues and cap. If he were a pony he would look just like Twilight’s brother.
After a few minutes of diplomatic niceties Fluttershy leaned in and whispered, “I hear the plan is to take a lot of prisoners.”
Twilight nodded with a faux smile, “Yeah, we’ll talk about that privately.”
Perry gave another smile and nodded at the two other Humans. And then the welcome party started to escort their guests to the meeting room to discuss business.
On the way, Fluttershy answered many of the reporters questions politely, offering reassuring words and kind rhetoric, urging that a peaceful solution be found quickly.
Fluttershy’s words would pay off in the long run she knew. Wars were ended on amicable agreements if one respected the rules of war, and kindness was exchanged. Using her ethotical position, she hoped to temper the fear and uncertainty of the people.
Serius dried his face. Looking up to the mirror he still looked gaunt, and his neck was still engorged with blood, the Turian equivalent of his face being pale, but he had cleared off the sweat and vomit that had resulted from his dream.
It was just as bad as the last one a few hours ago, but for some reason he had vomited when he awoke, doing the same thing in the dream before he awakened.
This time the dream was centered on some island, with a city taking up its entirety. Humans were dead everywhere, many wearing yellow and what looked like a makeshift camp and triage center. Ones he knew were police forces for some reason were dressed in black scattered around, as they were defending the ones in yellow, killed like the many others around. When he had entered a tent marked with a red plus sign he saw something that he knew would haunt his dreams forever.
Giant monsters, like krogan, but with breath masks on, much more bulky armor, and no hump. Inside the tent it was marked immediately as a medical center. But no help from medicine was happening now.
He stared at the nearest gurney and had seen mutilated and eviscerated corpse, once Human, the Asari like features made even more apparent of the face. Eyes glazed, staring accusingly, lips moving, “Why did you delay?”
Then he could see what the monsters were doing to the Human on the gurney.
Masks around their necks they tore great gobbets of flesh from bones, and tore organs out from the rib cage. And all the while those dead glazed eyes stared.
“Why did you delay?”
“Why did you delay?”
“Why?......”
He was having a resurgence of dry heaves, leaned over the sink his body desperately tried to pump his stomach for all it had.
Having nothing he collapsed, wailing quietly, one of the Turian equivalents of crying.
He had become certain these were memories or altered visions. His analytical side saw no benefit aside from demoralization of the enemy. But he knew that was not their purpose, they were too personal, emotions flowed that he had never felt. He felt pain, loss, pure blind rage…… Sickness, shame, sadness, fear.
He stood and looked in the mirror, His talons dug into the metal sink, scraping the metal with a ear wrenching screech. He didn’t hear it. To busy revealing the emotional boost. It was like the spirits themselves were girding him, showing him the light.
A silly notion truly but one he felt nonetheless. He looked in the mirror, “Hope, happiness, satisfaction, joy, pride, certainty. They feel so alien, but…..” His father had fought in a separatist war, as a hastatim. He still remembered the screams of anguish he would hear, late at night. Duty didn’t diminish guilt.
Guilt
That was the meaning of the dream. Whoever had it was not fast enough, had delayed. Or at least felt that they were delayed. A fresh internal wail came, his beady avian eyes watering.
‘And there is the crash.’ Guilt was the meaning of the dream. Whoever it was who had these dreams, these night terrors, were strong indeed, and he both pitied and admired the person who was having them. They weren’t insane, gruesome and graphic yes, but not insane. They had maintained their mind, their very will, for a long time against such a mind breaking onslaught.
Wiping his eyes clear, and straightening his various accolades on his BDU armor, he left his quarters.
Guilt….. And Hope
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Serius knew he looked like shit, but he pulled the best salute he could, standing rimrod straight. It was like he had a new spring in his step aside from how he appeared.
Admiral Saberian was mildly surprised by this. The Captain’s health and resolve had been steadily dissolving as he had more and more of those dreams.
He would have to have him monitored now. This was a very quick change.
“Glad you could join us Captain Serius. May I ask what delayed you?” Saberian had asked conversationally.
The reaction he received worried him. The Turian looked down to the tactical table, eyes glazed over almost unnaturally after a few seconds unblinking. And he saw him mouth something he hardly caught.
Closing his eyes and bowing his head Serius breathed out, “I am still slightly sick, I- well, I‘m going to need to eat again. I am truly sorry to have-.... Postponed the meeting unduly. Please accept my apologies.” Everyone was a bit perturbed but they had been expecting the Captain to have been in worse condition so they let it slide.
“Captain Serius I’d like to introduce you to the various commanders. General Desolas Arterius here will be responsible for the taking of the Human Spaceport and capital. General Septimus Oraka will be in charge of policing the rural areas around the capital and the other cities. Colonel’s Ulphas, Ya, and Julii will be incharge of claiming the other major cities. Remember all of you, we want the planet’s infrastructure intact and for the spirits sake don’t make it a blood bath. The last thing we need is utter fanaticism from an enemy we just met, we don’t want our hastatim to be considered moot if we are forced to just murder the entire population.”
To suppress citizen militias in Hierarchy space, and insurgents in other areas, the Turian Hierarchy made use of "execution squads". The hastatim. First, "safe camps" were established in cities to incentivize surrender. Next, hastatim soldiers are deployed door-to-door; anyone who refuses to be transported to a safe camp or demonstrates hostile intent will be shot. Hastatim burial units then retrieve and cremate the bodies. Many other species balked at the brutality of it but it was basically the only way to win an insurgent war in any realistic timeframe.
But Hastatim became pointless if everyone displayed hostile intent, safe camps would be filled with the too elderly to fight or flee and the too young to understand, Gorsham was a textbook example of that with indiscriminate slaughter. If they wanted to use the world as a bargaining chip the people had to still be living. If they were all dead…..
Serius suppressed his shudder and dry heaving. He knew those monsters were now at least allies with the Humans. They wouldn’t hesitate, he knew, to retaliate when they inevitably counter attacked.
“Also I’m sure you are familiar with Captains Victus, Ilisk, and Polus.” Serius nodded at each of the officers as they saluted, returning it with military perfection. “Victus will be leading the frigate flotillas, while Ilisk and Polus will handle our flanks in this fight.
“Its a pleasure to see you again Victus. Ilisk, Polus, you as well.” Serius greeted each as he locked arms with his fellow Naval commanders.
Familiarity and a personal touch was allowed between officers in the same service, knowing who would support your fleet more intimately allowed for better coordination. Nothing against regulations of course, but it never hurt to share stories and drinks on the Citadel.
“Forward scouting yesterday has revealed the enemy has a patrol fleet in orbit with around thirty combat craft of varying classes.” Bringing up the holoprojector, everyone bar the Admiral gasped.
“By the spirits! Five kilometers… That’s impossible!” Desolas exclaimed.
“I knew they built big but how can they afford a drive core that large?” Serius gaped, hands tightening on the guard rail.
“Basic readings show the ‘super dreadnought’,” Admiral Saberian used air quotes to emphasize his own disbelief, “Has enough element zero for a standard dreadnought drive core. Not nearly large enough to be the only source of inertial dampeners obviously. It is also speculated that the ship only uses it to move faster on a tactical field, and that it makes use of the same portal device that the Terran scouting party used for FTL travel. Thankfully there is only the one.”
“Next down we have several classes of cruisers. We have dubbed the three classes as such.” Bringing up a lightly armed and armoured cruiser sized ship he continued, “Intelligence has classified this ship a light cruiser. We have no indication to what it’s armed with, or what its max speed is, although we are assuming that it was made for leading wolf pack flotillas. We have found that there are only around 5 of the ships, possibly leading the around 15 frigates.” That brought rumbles of discontent.
Turian doctrine favored overwhelming firepower, and safe secure plans. The lack of intel was a major beating on their moral.
“A bit further up we have an obviously heavily armored cruiser.” Bringing up the squat shaped behemoth, all the Army commanders immediately thought it looked like a tank. “It has a very large cruiser class core, and a variety of maneuvering engines. yes you heard right, not thrusters, but engines. Its postulated that this is either a ship of the line or artillery cruiser meant to get in the thick of it. Once again only five of these ‘destroyers’ are present.”
That brought a few sighs of relief from the Naval commanders, for the Terrans it wasn’t size that mattered, it was the lances, and it appeared that it had several of the weapons. They were happy there wasn’t more of them.
“Finally we have a more standard cruiser. Whoever designed the ship seemed to want to balance the holy trinity; guns, armor, and practicality. Small drive core, moderately armed from what can be told, and well armored. We have seen them escorting the destroyers. Its speculated by intelligence that they are either escort ships, or represent a standard class of ship. Once again only 5 of them make an appearance.”
“Finally the last cruiser is a familiar one. Its the same one that Captain Serius here encountered. It is still supported by its two frigates, the class that has been assumed to be an escort vessel. We assume it to be a more specialized combat or science vessel. We are assuming its in limited production, but we have still decided to call it a heavy cruiser.”
“Now finally we have two classes of frigates, we have the two escorting the heavy cruiser, heavy set build, powerful, but maneuverable. Be careful of these two, they can punch way above their weight. The other type seems to be lightly armored, but they have very high energy levels. So beware of them.”
Serius digested this information. It was strange that they would have such even numbers of ships. In typical doctrine, you had specialist ships of course but you also had a larger majority of general combat vessels. Unless…..
“Sir. I don’t think these ships have seen much if any combat.” Serius commented.
“What makes you think that Serius?” Victus asked with a raised hand, the Turian sign for him to continue.
“Well, the equal numbers, they have 15 frigates, 3 for each light cruiser, of which they have 5. They also have 5 destroyers and cruisers. It’s like they are subdivided into all purpose battles groups for patrols, which is just as easily handled by a frigate pack, well that or they are the system defense ships. It doesn’t seem right. Normally our patrol fleets are much more heavily biased on what they hold. I think that they are testing their designs in this fight.” Serius explained reasonably, having divided the ships into combat groups.
“It is an interesting notion, however we cannot act on this information beyond speculation. As we all know, underestimation WILL result in deaths.” The Admiral pointed out with nods from everyone else.
“Now lets go over the plan.” Bringing up a holographic map of the system, he began the briefing. “We will come into the system via FTL, after getting a standard sensor reading from the scout flotilla,”
As he said this, the mentioned ships zoomed into system, “Once they signal that the entry is still a go, we will move in by the books. Illisk, I want you on our far left with your ships. Polus the far right. Victus, direct the frigates in the center, keep them moving, and I know this will be hard on your personnel, but keep the enemies focused on your ships. I’d rather lose a few dozen, than a few hundred sailors.”
Everyone knew what that meant, “Your frigates are worth less than the rest”. Like a good Turian however Ilisk nodded, saluting, “As you order sir.”
“Once we are in position we will advance aggressively, shell formation. Dreadnoughts behind a cruiser and frigate screen. We will then enter FTL as soon as possible again to close the range gap.” Outlining the next phase the ships moved forward, warping to within 50,000 kilometers.
“That will be hard on our drive cores sir. So soon after exiting FTL, it could damage the cores. Not to mention the navigation hazard we are presented with. There will be collisions if we aren’t allowed enough time to sync up our navigation data.” Polus pointed out this time.
“I’d rather have a few engine overhauls than risk the casualties with those lances. Hopefully that is their main armament, and they will contain more mundane weaponry at a closer range.” Saberian countered as he prepared the holograms next stage.
“Once we form encirclement we will fire everything we got. Dreadnoughts are to focus fire on the enemy super dreadnought. Cruisers aim for the enemy frigates, we have to destroy our way up their ships. Since their Frigates are capable of critically damaging our cruisers in one shot.” Saberian showed the enemy fleet slowly getting destroyed.
“R&D has come up with a partial solution thankfully.” With that he introduced another Turian in the armor shell of a scientist.
“Good day Commanders. I’m Dr. Vaga. Let’s get straight to business. Now, we all know why our Kinetic Barriers exist; to stop incoming accelerated projectiles from damaging the protected object. We also know that they have a minimum size discrepancy, and speed as well. After all, it would be impractical for a shield to destroy its battery by constantly repelling all the gas from the object, or all the radiation that we get bombarded with over time.”
Everyone present nodded, with Desolas looking a bit more irritated, “Yes so what?” He demanded, wanting to get this over with.
“Well for ships, we have to make sure that gases, radiation, and tiny matter can pass through, since we have to move through so much dark matter, gases, and liquids in space, especially during FTL. Dark Matter being the primary substance in space, which as we all know is-”
Rudely interrupted Desolas growled, “We all know what Dark Matter is doctor. Please move onto the solution.”
Vaga, looking suitably annoyed growled in reply, “Alright; I suggest after leaving FTL we override our Kinetic Barriers safeties and repel all matter. We can’t be sure how taxing this will be to power systems, and how damaging it can be for the ship’s internal equipment, especially if we enter FTL with it activated as such, but my team hypothesizes that each ship’s KBs, could potentially take one, maybe if they are lucky two hits before their internal circuitry is destroyed and they have no KBs permanently. We will also have to end the battle quickly, because this close to a sun we will build up heat incredibly faster than normally fighting this close to a star.”
“Ship losses are going to be high Admiral. No getting around that. This is a major system it appears, they are going to have orbital and planetary defenses.” Victus pointed out, highlighting the planet.
“The capital city, that we’ve identified is called Lou’agn or something of that. As you can see here, we have detected some faint heat signatures leading to the mountain range to its East, these are large granite mountains, we need boots on the ground to scan the place by hand, but if they have a 5 kilometer Dreadnought, then I wouldn’t be surprised if they have some sort of super gun that can shoot into atmosphere built into the mountains.” Desolas highlighted the mountain range, making the peaks glow bright fuchsia, an irritating color similar to Humans with the color Red.
Saberian contemplated this, already having been informed by his intelligence staff.
Serius leaned forward, looking over the tactical map of the solar system, “No cover; this system lacks a suitably dense oort cloud which we can exploit to lure in any of their forces. Forget Kinetic Barriers we need some solid matter to take the brunt of their lance’s damage.”
“But what if the beam justs burns straight through the matter?” Oraka asked looking curious at this.
“My Dreadnought managed to take a hit nose on, burned through over 250 meters of reinforced bulkhead and equipment rated to stop the Destiny Ascension’s main gun. I believe a few hundred meters of solid rock will act great as a shield. Especially since it takes a long time for their guns to recharge.” Serius countered confidently.
Saberian, done contemplating the suggestion and Victus’ earlier comment regained everyone’s attention. “Anyways, once we remove their space fleet, supply convoys will begin moving in to salvage their tech, Salarian’s are going to want their hands on it, and we can always trade it back for anything we might require. Rather get something out of it instead of having a few research base's ‘self destructing’.”
It was a public secret that STG would destroy opposing research facilities that get their hands on dangerous things that can't be bargained for. A hundred years previous, the Batarians tried to build four dreadnoughts in secret, thinking they were so clever buying off the Shadow Broker and keeping it in dark space.
But the STG being STG already knew of their existence as soon as the idea was blurted out by an ambitious admiral. Long story short, as soon as the crew got on the ships they had a sudden and very catastrophic drive core overload, destroying all four dreadnoughts in a massive singularity, along with the deep space drydocks. Resulting in hundreds of billions of credits worth of material and personnel lost.
To add insult to injury, the Salarians then released all their information on the Batarian’s secret attempt to break the Treaty of Farixen, and had to pay Legal damages on top of the dreadnoughts costs. It was said the Batarian’s were so embarrassed, and their people so angry, they never even blustered once the entire session.
It is why the Turians have the saying, ‘The sweetest victory is not on the battlefield.’
So it was far better from a diplomatic standpoint to just hand back most of the tech and play dumb on the rest. Don’t want to risk their top scientists being killed over some tech that they could probably trade for after all. And who knew how far these new species would go to protect their secrets?
Saberian nodded to the ground commanders, “We’re on the clock, we have no idea how long it will take for enemy to gather their forces, but if their tech level is any indication they easily have the power to overwhelm the Hierarchy in numbers and industry. So if we are to get a decent peace deal we MUST capture that colony as fast as possible.”
The ground commanders nodded in affirmative.
“If that is all then you're all dismissed get to your assigned positions we’re moving immediately.”
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Aboard Turian Hierarchy Troop Transport
B-197
“Brother I thought you were in charge of finding that missing research vessel.” Saren said as he sat down in his small private quarters.
Thanks to being on Blackwatch, Saren and his team members got their own small private quarters. Barely a 3 by 3 meter box, but their own private box none the less.
Saren invited Desolas to sit on his only chair while Saren sat upon his bed.
“Indeed I was, but this matter is too important. Besides we have no leads to go off of the Research vessel, it’s like someone just disappeared with it.” Desolas replied conversationally as he got comfortable as much as he could on a cheaply made metal chair.
“Sorry I have nothing to drink but Blackwatch keeps us on a tight leash….. I have a feeling you came for more than a little catch up.”
Desolas nodded and activating his omni-tool he sent over an encoded data packet. “My force is hitting the largest city, but the nearby mountains have heat readings coming from them. We know they have been on the planet for a while at least, so its best to assume that they have some form of planetary defence set up.”
“I’m going to have your squad reconnoiter the area. You’ll be dropping in by atmospheric entry pods, so you’ll only have the equipment inside. Hopefully you're just going to find some mining camps. But should you find any major military installations, mark them and call in orbital strike. You should be getting a full briefing by Oraka in an hour.”
Saren nodded, and his mandibles formed a tight V, the equivalent for a smile. “I won’t let you down brother.”
“I never doubted you.” Desolas got a ping on his omni-tool. Bringing it up he sighed heavily, “Our scouts should be entering the system now.”
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Outer orbit of China 23 (Shaanxi province) solar system
“Exiting FTL in 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Now!” Commander Orinia sighed as she felt the slight force of FTL release her frame. While many didn’t feel the acceleration, for a lifer like her it was easy to detect.
“Ma’am we are detecting 50 plus more craft in system than before. Scanning now.”
Bringing up the tactical map on the upraised dias on her frigate’s bridge she frowned. “Enhance image. Don’t bother scanning they’ll just rebuff it.”
As she said that she immediately spotted the purpose of most of the new enemy craft, “Looks like 5 escort craft protecting 45 bulk freighters. Damn large ones too.” Her XO, Lieutenant Abrudas, remarked.
“Yeah. Look how they are moving away from the main battle group, they’re protecting their charges. Sensors, get any abnormal energy readings?”
“Ma’am, with all due respect, it’s all weird. All of them have abnormal radiation readings, and have massive energy spikes, but those 5 in the back are not targeting us actively if that’s what you’re asking.” Her sensors officer reported as he rapidly sifted through all the data.
“Well lets hope we surprised them enough, Comms, report to fleet, we aren’t dead yet.”
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Terran Alliance Fleet Ship designs
The Terran Species Alliance has used a variety of ship designs for both civilian and military use. Currently the Species Alliance uses several classes of each ship.
Corvettes
Ethereal Battleship MKXI
The eleventh version of the vaunted Ethereal Battleship, this vessel is used as both a dropship and light combat vessel. While unable to put up a fight against anything larger than itself, it works marvelously as a screening ship against enemy fighters and projectiles, and can take on
larger ships in sufficient numbers.
Dimensions:
Length: 100 Meters
Height: 50 Meters
Width: 50 Meters
Weaponry:
One center mounted Fusion Lance
20 Point defence lasers and autocannons
6 Broadside Plasma Cannons
Crew: Typically outfitted with a crew of 20 soldiers for Boarding actions and 15 crewmen for running the ship.
Armored in nearly a meter of Vahlenite armor plating, with a robust mass repelling field, the ship is more reliant on speed and stealth then armor
Vespid Infiltration Corvette
Frigates
Defender class Frigate The Defender Class frigate is a multipurpose combat patrol ship and escort, equipped to counter any threat at any time. The ship’s main role, as its name suggests, is to be defense craft, both for convoys and planetary systems.
Often called Cutters, the ship is mostly used for system defense, boarding ships that need assistance or elimination. The ship is highly modifiable to be used for an assortment of tasks.
The ship is equipped with four StarRanger class dropships and a single boarding torpedo. For armament the ship is relatively well equipped to protect against the myriad of possible extraterrestrial, and more mundane threats.
Dimensions: Length 350 Meters Height 25 Meters Width 50 Meters Weaponry: 1 center fixated Fusion Lance 1 Underslung mass acceleration cannon 6 Broadside plasma cannons on each flank Point defence lasers and Blaster Launcher defenses.
Crew: Served by a crew of 60 naval personnel and with a platoon of marines, coming out at 110 serving members.
The ship is protected by the cheap but reliable Mass effect shield to protect the hull from micrometeorites and mass cannons, with combination point defense lasers and BLs to counter enemy missiles, rockets, or boarding parties. And finally it is armored by nearly a meter of Vahlenite alien alloy in most places.
Peacekeeper class Frigate
The Peacekeeper class frigate is a well rounded combat vessel primarily used by Human and Ethereal crews. Typical tactics and missions are ground side fire support, reconnaissance, hit and run, and wolf pack flotilla engagements.
It has been given the nickname, “Spearpoint” due to its tendency to be the first craft on a scene, and its spear like look, with its pointed tip on its bow.
Dimensions: Length 300 Meters Height 25 Meters Width 61 Meters Weaponry: 1 center fixated Fusion Lance 1 Underslung mass acceleration cannon 8 Broadside plasma cannons on each flank Point defence lasers and Blaster Launcher defenses.
Crew: Served by a crew of 40 naval personnel with two ten man teams of marines, maxing out at 60 serving members.
The ship is protected by a reliable kinetic shield to protect the hull from micrometeorites and mass cannons, with combination point defense lasers and BLs to counter enemy missiles, rockets, or boarding parties. And finally it is armored by a meter of Vahlenite alien alloy in most places.
Thunderer class Frigate
The premier Equestrian designed craft, the Thunderer class is made to be the fastest ship in the Alliance’s arsenal, capable of outrunning any other craft barring hyperspace and FTL. But it suffers in armament.
Often called the thunderbolt, it is characterized by its smooth appearance with a battering ram at the front and cylindrical hull design. This is because it is used to ram and either breach or destroy larger craft.
Made in oceans and worlds with a great amount of water like Earth and Equestria, it is often times crewed by Sectoids as well.
Dimensions: Length 400 Meters Height 30 Meters Width 30 Meters Weaponry: 1 center fixated Fusion Lance 2 Broadside plasma cannons on 90 degree intervals along it’s hull (Total of 8 cannons) Point defence lasers and Blaster Launcher defenses.
Crew: 40 sailors with 30 Marines or combat trained personnel for boarding and landing.
The ship is protected by a rudimentary Mass effect shield to protect the hull from micrometeorites and mass cannons, but relies more on its agility to avoid enemy fire. A combination point defense lasers and BLs to counter enemy missiles, rockets, or boarding parties. And finally it is armored by a meter of Vahlenite alien alloy in most places with reinforced hull and internal structure. .
X-Com Simo Hayha class support artillery Destroyer
Thanks to the success of various wet navy military ideas, things like beyond line of sight support ships, and missile frigates. Along with new advanced fusion weaponry and target locking, the support artillery destroyer was designed.
Made to destroy kilometer plus sized craft in a single devastating hit, the ships are often lauded as “Great Killers” in reference to the fact Great Enemy capital vessels are a kilometer or two long.
Named the Simo Hayha for its “sniping” doctrine, it’s one and only goal is to kill opposing flagships. The ship has awe inspiring firepower, but that is unfortunately made up for the fact that it needs it own towing vessel for any meaningful movement, and has to dedicate all processing power and energy to firing its main cannon.
Dimensions: Length 400 Meters Height 30 Meters Width 50 Meters Weaponry: 1 center fixated super Fusion Lance
Crew: 60 Naval personnel with a 10 person squad of GUMI black ops.
The ship is entirely reliant on escort vessels to act as a screen and defence for the frigate, like any other form of artillery.
Enterprise class Cruiser The Species Alliance’s premier space exploration and science vessel, the Enterprise embodies the Alliances desire to have the best of all worlds for its science ships. Balancing the need for science, protection, and offensive capabilities, the 800 meter cruiser is made in limited quantities.
Planning for any conceivable issues that may be presented to the ship, from peaceful first contact, to attack from hostile alien microbes, it was carefully tailored by the best shipwrights and designers in the Terran and Equis Alliances.
With room for over a thousand, it is most optimally staffed by 500 naval and science crew, while protected by a platoon of marines and a squad of X-Com operatives with 6 SpaceRangers for transportation and ferrying crew to the surface of a planet.
1 center fixated Fusion Lance 1 Underslung mass accelerator cannon 15 Broadside plasma cannons on each flank Point defence lasers and Blaster Launcher defenses. An advanced AI manned cyber warfare suite. And a wing of ten VoidStorm space superiority fighters.
Crew:
The ship is protected by a strong and expensive mass effect shield, as well as Psi Operators who are employed to plague opposing ships and project a “Shield”. The vessel is further protected by over 2 meters of Vahlenite plating, and extensive point defense for missiles, rockets, or boarding parties.
