17SpecTRe Garrus Vakarian was prepared for a lot of things when he was sent on this mission. He was told that he was leading a mission to get help. To find a way to defeat the Reapers. The council had discovered some records from the Protheon ruins, that they made mention of something through relay 314. What he saw on the sensors was not what he was expecting. Across his screen he saw titans of a whole different size, scale, and orgin clash. And it was all because of him.
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Staff Commander Farryn Taylor was an experienced soldier, but nothing she's done could have prepared her for what she was to come. Her day started off as usual, patrolling the outer colony system of Fygeria IV as the commanding officer of the 829th Patrol Group. Clad in her navy blue duty-uniform, she was identified by the rank pips fastened to her collar, each one bearing a single silver diamond and the set of three silver stripes adorning each of her shoulders. The uniform itself was designed for utility over elegant looks, her dress uniform was reserved for that occasion.
The standard uniform for commissioned officers within the UEF Navy was a simple white t-shirt worn under a navy blue button-up jacket, adorned by the rank insignia of the officer. On both sides of the chest were high-quality pockets meant to hold a variety of items, with the officer's name resting above the right pocket and their ship's hull number above their left pocket. Subconsciously running a hand over her belt, she looked down at the rest of her uniform. A belt sat tight around her waist holding up a pair of matching blue pants, adorned with cargo pockets and tucked into her heavy-duty work boots.
Looking up, she glanced around the CIC of her starship, taking in all the crew manning the bridge. She had made a point of getting to know the people under her command, and while it was near impossible to learn the names of every officer and sailor under her command across three ships, she could learn her own immediate subordinates' names and stories. Lieutenant Jenson, sitting across from her at the communications station. He had a wife and an eight-month-old baby waiting for him on Ontio Prime. Specialist Kimberly Jackson sat attentively at her sensor station. She was fresh out of the academy and had a girlfriend waiting for her back on Mars. Most of her fleet was fresh-faced recruits learning the ropes with experienced commanders to teach them, as was standard naval practice. Most of these people hadn't fought with her in the Rebellions. Dozens of colonies in the outer reaches of UEF space had rebelled in an organized manner. It took years and hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides before the conflict ended.
Taylor, along with Lieutenant Commander Nolan, Chief Engineer Hyland, and dozens of others, commanded and ran the 1.8 kilometre patrol ship that acted as the flagship of the 829th. The UEF Once a Paragon alongside her two sister ships of the Dragoon-Class Light Frigates, Stalwart Dawn and the Midsummer Night made up the only ship-based defense for the colony of Fygeria IV and the surrounding space. In addition, a small Orbital Defence Platform network surrounded the colony alongside a couple of squadrons of out-dated Katana Fighters manufactured back in 2543 until the start of the Rebellion in 2589.
The Paragon and her group were making their way along the routine patrol route plotted by her shipboard AI, Bellona. As her name suggested, she was modeled after the Roman Goddess of War, her signature helmet on her head and a spear in her grasp. The light that made up the AI's holographic was a comforting orange as she stood on the main display table of the frigate. As the ship made her way around, roughly four million kilometres from the edge of the ODPs' range a sensor ping and energy surge caught the attention of Specialist Jackson. "Captian, I just got an unknown energy surge at the edge of the system. Putting it on the holotable now."
Taylor turned to face the holographic projection as Bellona beat her to it. "Enhancing the image and bringing it up onto the main viewscreen." As the AI verbalized what she was doing, the image appeared to show dozens of ships. All of an unknown design and looked like nothing the UEF could make.
Farryn scrunched her brow as she watched the ships reorient themselves. "All ships go for silent running. Do not initiate contact until we know more. Bellona, see if you can take a peek at their systems. Are we looking at pirates with some sort of orbital shipyards here, or did we just get thrown into another first contact?"
The AI's avatar nodded in response as she faded out of existence. "Sensors, what can you tell me?" The reply she got was unexpected and threw her for a slight loop.
"Captain, I'm sensing large amounts of Element Zero in their vessels. It's consistent with historical attempts to build ships using Ezeo drive cores before we scrapped them." That answer confused Taylor. The UEF had found several alien ruins from an alien race known as the "Protheans" and had found large amounts of "Element Zero" at these sights as well as in natural deposits. Scientists had experimented on it for years, and eventually, it was used simply to lighten the load of ammunition until within a hundredth of a second of being fired. As soon as the tungsten shell left the main Mass Accelerators on ships the weight of the projectile was increased drastically, overall increasing the damage per shot of shells. It was a great innovation that made regular mounted deck guns viable in the new modern age of space warfare instead of those laser cannons everyone in R&D had a hard-on for. Not to say they weren't used. Most ships had four main types of weapons. The Mas Accelerator Gun, or MAG, mounted on the front of the ship was essentially a really long and powerful railgun that utilized tungsten shells affected by Element Zero. They are the most powerful weapon on any UEF ship short of nuclear weapons. Next comes the regular deck guns. These are used primarily for medium and close ranged combat, designed to lay a blanket of fire down on anything that they can see and hopefully hit something important or make enough dents in the armor to get through. Next, were the missiles mounted on almost every combat ship. For the lighter-vessels like frigates and destroyers, misles were utilized more as the traditional torpedo was, with ships warp-jumping close to a hostile, engaging with deck guns and launching missiles, then warping back to friendly lines to reload and repair if necessary. Finally, were the laser defense systems across the ship. These were the point defense of the UEF Navy, controlled by several "dumb AI" and directly by the main ship AI if needed, these guns were used to target enemy craft such as fighters or transports, or to engage incoming missiles.
After several minutes of waiting, Bellona appeared back on the main holotable. "Captain Taylor, it seems like we have stumbled upon a group of races that call themselves the 'Council.' I am still working on developing translators, but I have some basic history decoded and it appears they are currently in some sort of war for survival. A threat, called "the Reapers" is attacking these people. I could not find details of their mission, but if I had to wager a guess, I'd say they are running from something Captain. Their enemies are technologically advanced compared to them, and we could kick them to the curb, Captain. They don't even have energy shielding, just some weird "kinetic barriers" they called them.
Farryn opened her mouth to make a comment on that when another energy surge was detected, right on top of the previous one. Out of this, several large ships appeared. With four hostiles measuring in at two kilometres and seven hostiles coming in at one-hundred and sixty metres, right on top of the "council" ships. Farryn just stared in wide-eyed shock as she heard Jackson call out, "Captain, I am detecting an energy build-up consistent with that of energy weapons!"
It didn't take a genius to realize what that meant. Kinetic barriers against energy weapons. That was nothing short of wholesale slaughter. Making up her mind, she gave the over. "Bellona, signal general quarters, condition 1, throughout the fleet. Put out a priority one distress call over the black line. Get me on the horn with the 514th as soon as they exit warp space. Combat jump, fifty thousand kilometres off that lead squid's bow, Designate first unknowns as Alpha, second as Bravo one through eleven. When we exit warp, shove a MAG round right down Bravo one's gullet. Designate targets for the Dawn and Midsummer Night. And Bellona, plugin nav cords into this "Council's" nav computers. Get them anywhere but here."
Bellona didn't blink an eye, "Aye, Captain. Targets designated and coordinates have been forcibly inputted. Entering warp in eight. MAG Gun is primed. 514th is four mikes out. Distress call sent, the crew are at battle-stations. Warp in two. Warping." The ship rocked slightly as a tear in space was opened in front of the frigate before it's engines propelled it forward into the breach. Exactly fourteen seconds later, three ships emerged from warp, and once again, the UEF was at war.
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A/N: Hello there people of the fanfiction world! This is my first post on this site. I've had this idea noodling around in my brain for a while now and I just finally got it down onto paper. Apologies for any grammar or spelling errors, I'm still new to this, and I welcome all constructive criticism. I hope that I find the energy to finish this story, even if it takes me years. After playing all three Mass Effect games and being obsessed with Mass Effect for a while, I figured I'd dabble in it. As you can most likely tell already, this is a HUGE AU from the regular ME storyline, with a generally overpowered humanity that can turn the tide of the Reaper War. I will fully admit I'm not the best at battle scenes, I mostly do sappy romances and politics, so we'll see how this adventure goes. This story will have quite a few OCs mixed in, but you can expect to see most of the ME cast in some role or another. Thanks for choosing to read my story.
~Kumquat