DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hyperdimension Neptunia, Mass Effect, or any ideas that come from/are based off of Raiden312's Hypermass Dimeffect Rebith Among the Stars. I also do not own anything that is referenced, used, or based off of existing franchises (such as Halo).

Enjoy!

Flagship of the 62nd Patrol
TSF Condor-Class Cruiser Fides

Kapius Aetrinus was the captain of the TSF Condor-class cruiser Fides, and his ship and her crew were stuck on their regular patrol route rather than participating in the war games that were being conducted between the Turian Hierarchy and the Batarian Hegemony. Apparently, the Batarians were trying to pursue better relations with the Hierarchy and had proposed that they conduct naval exercises with each other. In reality, Kapius figured that the Batarians were just trying to get a grip on the newer ships and military technologies that the Hierarchy had been designing and developing over the last decade; that said, the Hierarchy wasn't one to turn down a challenge and had accepted the Hegemony's offer.

It was a big event, with around a hundred ships on each side being gathered to face off with each other along with planetary exercises. It had been a long time since the Hierarchy had gotten any real action aside from pirate raids, so this gave them the opportunity to go all out. Many Turians had been given the chance to join in on the exercise, but Kapius and his patrol were sadly not one of them despite the close proximity of the war games. The event was taking place so close to his patrol route that they even had to skip over a sector because of it, which meant they would be arriving at their next location much earlier than expected.

"Exiting FTL in one minute." The helmsman reported.

"Understood." Kapius replied, not giving any specific orders to his bridge officers. This was a standard patrol, and every one of them knew what to do when exiting FTL, so all he had to do was sit back and enjoy the ride. It was really rather boring, but boring meant peaceful. He was a 38-year-old Turian with a wife and a 14-year-old daughter who would be starting boot camp next month, and as soon as this patrol was finished with he would be on leave to spend some time with his family, so peaceful was good.

"Exiting FTL in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." The Fides and her accompanying 6 frigates exited FTL, and the sensors officer worked at his station to get readings on the area at once. "Captain, Relay 314 is active!" The officer called out. "Unknown dreadnought, 1,000 meters in length, and an unknown frigate, 182 meters in length, is a hundred kilometers off our bow! I'm reading no element zero on the ships, sir!"

Well, there went the peace.

Just as Shepard was about to bid her final farewell to Legion (who had been finally pried away from Eve's game of 100 questions), the intercom came on in the hanger. "Captain Shepard, your presence is required on the bridge immediately. Seven unidentified contacts just entered the system-," there was a short pause, "EDI just identified them as a 'Tourin' cruiser and six 'Tourian' frigates, one frigate and six corvettes by our standards." Pressly, the navigations officer and also her second-in-command, reported. "Also, the Geth corvette disappeared off of our sensors the moment they showed up."

"Bring the ship to full combat alert; I want all hands battle ready!" Shepard called out, turning to Legion. "It seems your calculations were a bit off." The part about the Geth ship disappearing didn't surprise Shepard; it was a stealth ship, and its presence would only make things more complicated given the Geth's history.

"We apologize, Shepard-captain. There must have been an unforese-" Legion paused as they realized something, "the war games being conducted in Citadel Space must have interfered with the standard patrol route. We did not include that within our calculations; logging the error for future reference."

Shepard frowned. "War games? How close are the games to here?"
"Approximately an hour by standard FTL drives." Legion answered.

An hour to get to the Tuning Fork, and a few minutes to get to Harvest. If contact with the Touris- (Pressly!) -Turians turns hostile, then they could have reinforcements show up in one hour! It would take the nearest allied fleet two weeks to get to Harvest! Steady, Mayuri. Shepard told herself, taking a deep breath. Lady Purple Heart will arrive at Harvest within hours, and her Super Destroyer will take care of anything that stands before it. "Right." She simply said before moving on. "Legion, is your shuttle stealth capable as well?"

"Yes. We will not be detected during our departure." Legion told her.
"Then, until we meet again." Shepard told them, starting to head for the bridge.
"Indeed." The Geth said before entering the shuttle.

As Shepard walked away, she glanced over at Eve. "Miss Nasodani, you'll be staying aboard the Tenryuu for security reasons and also if peaceful contact is made, though I'd prefer to have you back on the Ask for Directions given the circumstances."

"Yes, I understand." Eve said, watching as the Geth shuttle departed and the blast doors closed.

This day had gotten... very interesting.

"It seems we've stumbled across an alien race that just discovered the Mass Relays." Kapius said as an image of the dreadnought appeared in front of him, and his first thought upon seeing it was 'purple', and his second was 'deadly'. Now, while some might say that a ship couldn't possibly be deadly if it didn't utilize element zero based technology, he knew that a bullet would still kill, and this ship's main cannons looked like they shot very big bullets. That said, despite how deadly it looked with its large secondary cannons and multiple missile silos (GARDIAN lasers will take care of that, he reminded himself), it had to be slower than a slug without its mass being manipulated. The ship would also have no kinetic barrier, so it wouldn't be much of a threat if it turned hostile as long as they used their superior speed and maneuverability against it. As he thought that, his mind flashed back to the Krogan Rebellions and how the Hierarchy had dealt with the Krogan's dreadnoughts.

Fast, swift, and hard hitting attack runs.

"Captain, the unknown frigate just went through the Relay, but the dreadnought is holding position." His sensors officer told him.

"Understood," Kapius responded, not concerned, "send the first contact package." He then ordered, surprising his second-in-command.
"Captain, it is against Council Law to activate a Mass Relay." His XO told him.
"Yes, it is; however, it is a matter to take up with this race's government after they come to the citadel." He reasoned.
"Understood, sir." The woman said, backing off.

"Captain, we're receiving a first contact package, language pack included. The VI will have it translated in 30 minutes." The communications officer told him.
"Understood." Kapius said before standing up, placing his hands behind him. "Hail the dreadnought."
"Yes sir." The officer obeyed without question. "Sending hail on all frequencies. If their technology is compa- there! They should be receiving us now, sir."

Kapius gave the smallest of nods and straightened up, speaking in his most professional voice. "Attention, unknown vessel, this is Captain Kapius Aetrinus of the TSF Fides speaking. We are currently translating your language, and the translation will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Until then, please hold your position." He knew that they would have no idea what he just said, but he felt it was necessary to hail them regardless.

A response came in the form of... "私はシェパード、天龍の大佐です、 プラネテューヌ宇宙パトロール。人類のために、私たちの2つの種の間の平和。しかし、あなたが私たちを攻撃するなら、私たちは自分自身を守る能力以上のものです。"

It had been a feminine voice, similar to an Asari's voice, yet somehow it had sounded cuter and less alluring. By that alone it intrigued Kapius to see what their race looks like, and he had a feeling that most of his crew thought the same. Instead of just waiting around to find out, however, he had more important matters to attend to. "Comms, contact General Arterius, priority channel." If things turned hostile, he wouldn't mind some reinforcements just in case; if things went peacefully, a general would be much better at negotiating than the leading captain of a patrol flotilla.

"Yes sir!" The officer said, doing his work as quickly as possible. "Comm channel open!"

"Identify yourself." Came a voice over the comms.
"Captain Kapius Aetrinus of the TSF Fides, flagship of the 62nd Patrol Flotilla, sir." Kapius answered.
"General Desolas Arterius of the TSF Victoria, flagship of the 33rd fleet. Report the situation."

"Relay 314 has been activated by a dreadnought that belongs to an unknown alien race. The dreadnought has no element zero signatures, so they must have just discovered the Mass Relays. We have exchanged first contact packages and are currently translating their language. Given your close proximity, I believed it was necessary to alert you to the situation should you wish to open negotiations with this race yourself, general. If they turn out to be hostile, however, reinforcements would be appreciated." Kapius reported.

Kapius was not an ambitious Turian; being the captain of a cruiser patrolling on the edge of known space was good enough for him. It was a rather comfortable position, and he had a family to think about, as did much of his crew. So, he wasn't one to take matters into his own hands unless it was necessary.

"It is against Council Law to activate a dormant Mass Relay." Came the general's reply. "Once the translation is complete, send a copy of the translation and the first contact package to the Victoria. After that is done, demand their surrender; if they refuse, destroy their ship. The 33rd fleet will arrive to secure whatever is on the other side of the relay within 90 minutes. We will teach this race the consequences of their actions. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir, I understand." Kapius answered, obeying without question despite the distaste he had for the orders he had received. It wasn't a subordinate's place to question his superior, no matter his opinions. Every Turian knew this, and they knew to follow it. He was no exception. He didn't even bring up the fact that the 33rd fleet was the fleet conducting the war games, as he knew that this took precedence over some simple exercises.

"Good hunting, Fides. Victoria, over and out." With that, the line was dropped.
"Now, we wait." Kapius said with a resigned sigh.

We're still waiting.

Shepard thought as she played a game of chess with EDI. Before Shepard had reached the bridge, the Turians had already sent a first contact package and Pressly had responded in kind, and she had made it just in time to hear a Turian hail their ship, so she then had to respond to it. After that, thanks to the information the Geth had left her, it only took EDI a few minutes to translate the Turian's language. They had then spent the next fifteen minutes looking over the Turian's first contact package, and if Shepard had to summarize it in one sentence...

Imagine a rock concert, a Turian, wearing a military dress uniform, on center stage holding his hands up in a classic rock gesture as he shouted "Turian! Turian! Turian!", and then an explosion behind him for good measure. That was basically the jest of it, just not as exciting.

In other words, they were full of themselves.

"Checkmate." EDI said, smiling. Instead of her schoolgirl avatar, she was using a slightly different one. She was wearing a black school uniform with a black tie, her hair had taken on a violet hue, her eyes had turned amber, and she had on a pair of black-framed glasses.

An AI changing avatars was not common, unless the AI was still young and trying to figure out how he or she wanted to appear. EDI was only two months old, and she's been having an avatar crisis for the last week, and today it was especially bad.

"How long did that last?" Shepard asked, examining EDI's moves. After they had finished looking over the Turian's first contact package, EDI had translated the Turian's hail, and then Shepard had decided they'd wait for the Turians to finish translating on their end. If Shepard revealed that they had translated the Turian's language first, then it might make them suspicious or even nervous. That wouldn't be good for negotiations, so she had decided to play it safe.

"That game lasted 3 minutes and 2 seconds, a full 37 seconds longer than the previous game." EDI told her, adjusting her glasses.
"Any sign that the Turians have finished translating yet?"

As if waiting for her to ask, Izumi, the communications officer, whipped her head around. "Captain, incoming hail from the Turian frigate!"
"Put them on." Shepard told her, facing forward. They only had audio available, since their technologies were so different. The only reason she had been able to see Legion on the screen was because EDI and the Geth had worked together to make the video systems compatible.

"Attention, unknown vessel, this is Captain Kapius Aetrinus of the TSF Fides speaking. You have broken Council Law by activating a dormant Mass Relay, and I must demand that you surrender your ship at once. Failure to comply will be met with force." The Turian captain's voice was strong and true, and showed no sign of compromise.

Shepard had the urge to face-palm, but withheld and only sighed instead. They didn't even look at our first contact package, did they? She thought, frowning. As she strapped in and gave a nod for EDI to sound the combat alarm, she gave her response. "Captain Kapius Aetrinus of the TSF Fides, this is Captain Mayuri Shepard of the PSP Tenryuu speaking. We will not surrender our ship."
"...Very well." Was Kapius' reply, right before the line disconnected.

"Well, that escalated quickly." Joker muttered.

"Prepare to engage the enemy." Shepard told her crew, a fierce look on her face. "Ready firing solutions on the frigate, but only fire after they do. We will not be the ones to shoot first here today."

"Yes ma'am!"

The communications officer disconnected the line as they strapped themselves in, Kapius contacting the helmsman to give her a jump order. They'd make a short FTL jump off close to the dreadnought's portside and lunge in for the kill with their disruptor torpedoes. The dreadnought wouldn't be able to turn in time to bring its main cannons to bear, thus the danger to his ships would be minimal. If the enemy ship survived the first volley, they'd swing around and use their superior speed and agility to finish it off without taking return fire.

"Jumping!" The helmsman cried out as the entire formation jumped to 5 kilometers off of the dreadnought's flank. "Jump was a success!"
"All ships begin attack run, fire at will!" Kapius cried out.

The Fides and her six frigates turned in towards the dreadnought, opening fire with their main cannons as they accelerated. Every single round bounced off of a purple glow that sprang to existence when the rounds were about to hit the enemy ship. "Sir! The dreadnought has kinetic barriers!" The weapons officer cried out, shocking the crew. It only lasted for a moment, though, as they were in the heat of combat.

"Keep firing!" Kapius ordered, face set.

The Turian ships descended upon the dreadnought, keeping their ships facing its broadside as it tried to bring its main cannons to bear. The Turian ships were too fast and maneuverable, however, and the dreadnought could only continue to fire its secondaries as the Turians unleashed their disruptor torpedoes less than 1 kilometer away, the ships immediately pulling away to avoid crashing into the much larger ship as they flew over, below, or around it. Sixteen torpedoes sped for the dreadnought whose secondaries instantly switched targets, taking down six torpedoes before the rest... slammed against their barrier.

"Ten torpedoes hit the dreadnought's barrier! No confirmed hull damage!" The weapons officer reported, surprising Kapius. Kinetic barriers shouldn't be able to stop disruptor torpedoes, and yet this ship, this race...!
"Bring us about for another attack run!" He ordered, teeth gritted.
"Massive energy readings coming from the dread- Sir! They're turning to intercept!" The sensors officer cried out.

Looking at the screen, Kapius saw that the dreadnought was rapidly turning around to pursue them, thrusters on its starboard side flaring with bright life. They must have rerouted power to their thrusters; but, even then, how is it turning around so quickly!? By the time he thought, the enemy vessel was already bringing its main cannons to bear on his fleet... No, on his ship! "Evasive maneuv-" He tried to cry out, but it was far too late.

In a flash of light, the TSF Fides ceased to exist.

"Shields down to 47%!" Alenko cried out after the torpedoes slammed against their shields, which had dealt far more damage than the pitiful guns on the enemy ships.

"They're fast!" Joker muttered loudly, his eyes narrowing. "Initiating Overdrive Maneuvers! Get ready to blast 'em!" He called out, routing excess power to the starboard thrusters to swing the ship around as quickly as possible. Light cruisers, such as the Tenryuu, were meant to act in tandem with smaller ships such as frigates and destroyers, so they were already pretty quick for their size; however, these Turian ships' maneuverability and speed was impressive. Unfortunately, the inertia dampeners couldn't keep up with the movement and the crew found themselves being pushed hard to the right as the ship swung around, but the sensation was soon over as the bow of the ship now pointed at its target.

"Firing." EDI stated right before the ship shook as both MACs fired at once, the rounds overtaking the frigate in an instant at such short range, and said frigate exploded in a flash of light.
"Enemy frigate down!" Williams cried out in delight.

"That might have been overkill!" Joker commented, a grin on his face.
"I had no intel on their shield strength, so I believed it to be prudent to use both MACs." EDI defended herself.
"Enemy corvettes have split up into two flights of three each! They're coming at us from both sides!" Alenko reported.
"Well then, let's see how they like this!" The helmsman said, turning the ship straight down as the frigates came at them, forcing them to give chase.

"Did you just make us a bigger target!?" Alenko cried, looking at the man.
"No, this is good." Shepard said, realizing that Joker was opening up a window to effectively use their missiles. Looking to Williams, she gave the order. "Five missile pods to each corvette."
"Yes ma'am! Targets assigned... firing missiles!" The woman said, happily.

From out of the light cruiser shot forth hundreds upon hundreds of missiles, the enemy corvettes tightening their formation to maximize their anti-missile fire. More than half of the missiles were shot down, but there were plenty more left to slam against their shields. The missiles impacted the corvettes' shields, but an interesting thing happened. While the enemy's shields stopped the missiles, the plasma contained within the warheads exploded out against the hulls of the ships, burning through armor plating and the hull of the ship, leaving large, charred holes. Three corvettes had their shields collapse altogether and were engulfed by the multitude of missiles, one became a drifting husk, and another just outright exploded (critical hit, Shepard figured). The last corvette, which had been in the rear of the formation, remained operational.

"Four corvettes destroyed, one crippled, and one operational." Alenko reported. "The operational corvette is slowing down, however."

Shepard eyed the display, pondering on what to do. They could easily destroy the corvette with a MAC round, but this gave her a good opportunity to test the corvette's AA fire, which could prove to be valuable intel in future engagements.

"Sortie Chuunibyou Squadron."

Onboard the TSF Turbidus, alarms blared as sweat rolled down Captain Auguus Laevicus' forehead. In a last ditch effort to deal with the missile salvo the dreadnought had unleashed, they nearly overheated the ship by powering the GARDIAN lasers way past the safety threshold. Every single array was inoperable, and the effort had nearly caused the ship to implode... but it had worked, in great part to his ship having been in the rear of the formation during the battle.

Battle...

Could it even be called a battle!? One minute in, they lost the Fides; two minutes in, the entire flotilla had been taken out of commission by an insane amount of missiles! It was a massacre, plain and simple. His ship's weapon systems were all completely inoperable and they could barely operate the engines in fear of overheating the ship. Communications were offline, but the sensors were barely functioning, which was surprising.

"S-sir!" The sensors officer cried out. "E-eight objects just launched from the dreadnought! I-I think they're fighters!"

Auguus' hand slammed down on whatever was in front of him. They couldn't fight back, they couldn't run, and they couldn't even surrender (not that they would even if they could). "Angle the ship to face them. If we die, we die face-to-face!" He ordered, breathing hard as he faced forward. It's so hot...

The fighters soon came into visual range, flying through the debris field with little effort. They were painted black, with sharp purple edges, and they were fast. This is it... Auguus took a deep breath, reminiscing about his choices in life and regretting that he never told his childhood crush how he felt about her. He had been planning on it after this patrol was over, but it seemed like this patrol... would last forever.

The fighters drew closer, and Auguus wondered if he should say some final words to his crew, if the intercom was still working that is. He couldn't think of anything specific, though, so he simply just looked around at his crew, into their eyes. They were ready for this, to die for the Hierarchy. He was proud of them.

With that last thought, he faced forward and waited for the inevitable.

The fighters were nearly on top of them, and it almost seemed like they were going to ram his ship before they suddenly broke away, four fighters going off to either side of the Turbidus as they turned around. "E-enemy fighter squadron is... r-returning to the dreadnought, c-captain! The dreadnought is turning back towards the relay, as well!" The sensors officer told him, shocked.

They... spared us? Auguus thought in disbelief. Why? Could it be... because we couldn't fight back? That was the only logical conclusion he could think of. Just what... have we gotten ourselves into...?

This race had the power to obliterate an entire patrol flotilla with a dreadnought that had no trace of element zero on it, and they also had the heart to show mercy to their enemy.

This was the kind of opponent the Hierarchy was going to go to war against?

Chuunibyou Squadron had been ordered to fire only if fired upon.

They had not been fired upon.

So, they returned to their home, saving their missiles for another fight.

Chuunibyou Leader decided that was good enough for his report as he and his squadron docked their fighters.

On the bridge of the Tenryuu, Shepard was assessing the damage the ship took; rather, the damage the shields took. The Overdrive Maneuver Joker had performed had drained another 4% of the shields, which was the bad side to performing such maneuvers, but now that they weren't being fired at, the shields were starting to regenerate.

Shield strength was now at 43%, but it would only take about another 19 minutes before they returned to full strength. Other than the damage, she was also assessing the ammunition the ship had expended, which was nearly half of their missile complement. MAC rounds and 50mm ammunition they had plenty of, but they had used up 810 missiles out of their total of 1,728, leaving only 918 should the Turians counterattack, which she was sure they would.

"Chuunibyou Squadron has returned, captain." Lieutenant Kawasaki, the Tenryuu's tacticians officer, reported.
"Understood." Shepard said before looking towards the helm. "Joker, take us back through the relay. We're going home."
"Yes ma'am!" Joker said, approaching the relay as EDI interfaced with it.

Shepard took a deep breath before she turned to face Izumi, a grim expression on her face. It was finally time. "Lieutenant Izumi, activate the FNC Initiative, 1st Article, and establish a line with Harvest's governor."
Izumi solemnly nodded. "Yes ma'am, activating FNC Initiative, 1st Article."

The FNC Initiative, or Four Nations Coalition Initiative, dealt with the possibility that one day Humanity would make contact with an alien race. If such contact was made, the four nations would join together into an alliance whether the contact was peaceful or hostile. The reason that Shepard had not enacted the Initiative earlier is because she had to first confirm the Geths' intentions, and then the Turians'. The 2nd article of the initiative dealt with peaceful contact, while the 1st... did not.

"One more thing..." Shepard began, "request reinforcements."

Harvest
City of Utgard, Capital City of Harvest

Compa and IF had finished their picnic and so IF was helping her clean up. "So, what are you going to do now, Ai-chan?" Compa asked IF as she placed the picnic cloth back into her basket.
"I'll go turn this quest in and then head back to my apartment." IF said, walking with Compa as they headed out of the park. "Nep's going to be here in awhile, so I guess I'll go 'ask' her to help me take care of that Galakryzer."
"Ah, please let me help too!" The peach haired girl said, leaning forward, a determined look in her eyes.
The brunette smiled. "It's been awhile since we last fought together, hasn't it? You know... my offer still stands."

Compa leant back, her hands going behind her back. "I've been thinking about it, but I'm still not sure..."
"Take as long as you need." IF told her, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You're doing your best at the hospital, right? You've really changed since back then, so I'm sure you'll do just fine no matter what you decide."

After their adventures with Neptune over a year ago and the girls went their own way, IF and Compa had traveled together to Harvest from Gamindustri to help out the growing colony world. IF as a guild agent, and Compa as a nurse at a local hospital. A couple of months ago, IF had asked Compa if she would be interested in becoming her partner and helping out people as a full-time guild agent, and the girl was still trying to decide.

"Thank you." Compa said, softly smiling. IF smiled back, but the sweet moment was interrupted by Compa's and every single of one IF's eight phones going off with the sound of an emergency alert. Usually, such alerts were due to impending Raids (events where monsters laid siege to the city), but there had been no prior information of a Raid occurring so IF was taken aback by what the alert said.

EMERGENCY ALERT
ISSUED BY JOHN WILLIAMS, GOVERNOR OF HARVEST

ALL CITIZENS REQUIRED TO TAKE SHELTER IN THE UNDERGROUND BOMB SHELTERS AT ONCE
BRING FOOD AND WATER IF POSSIBLE
DRIVERS, COOPERATE WITH AUTHORITIES IN CREATING CLEAR STREETS FOR EMERGENCY VEHICLES
ALL OFF-DUTY MILITARY PERSONNEL AND MILITIA FORCES, REPORT TO YOUR POSTS AT ONCE
ALL GUILD AGENTS, ASSIST AUTHORITIES
THIS IS NOT A DRILL

IF and Compa shared a wide-eyed look.

What was happening?

Their shock lasted only for a moment before they got down to business. "I'll go help move the patients at the hospital!" Compa said, dropping the picnic basket as the two girls hurriedly made for their destinations.
"I'll help the police!" IF said as a small convoy of army trucks passed by them on the road, headed for the outer edge of the city. "Be careful, Compa!"
"You too, Ai-chan!" With that, they headed off on their own.

Flagship of the 33rd Fleet
TSF Griffon-Cass Dreadnought Victoria

"We've received a package from the Fides, general." One of Desolas Arterius' staff officers told him within the Fleet Command Facility of the TSF Victoria, which was used to coordinate the fleet and issue orders from. Also down there was the Victoria's captain, Seitia Varion; Council Spectre Saren Arterius; and the commanding admiral of the 33rd fleet, Saren's brother, General Desolas Arterius.

It had been half an hour since the last contact with the Fides, and in that half hour the 33rd fleet had regrouped and prepared themselves for an FTL jump to Relay 314. The 33rd fleet composed of seventy-six frigates, twenty-four cruisers, and one Griffon-class dreadnought for a total of 101 ships. Of those 101 ships, thirty-eight frigates and twelve cruisers were newly designed ships, boasting increased performance and vastly improved heat sinks and cooling systems, allowing them to endure combat for much longer than previous designs.

"Package contains a copy of the unknown's first contact package and a translation of their language." The officer continued.
"Good," Desolas began, "add the translation into the ships' computers and spread it amongst the fleet. I also want it downloaded within all personnel's Omni-Tools, understood?"
"Yes sir. Shall I forward a copy to the Zheleznyy Kulak?"

"Yes," Desolas simply said before asking a question of his own, "is there any word from the Fides?" Desolas asked.
"No sir." The officer answered.

If the dreadnought didn't accept surrender, the Fides and her flotilla must be engaged in combat by now. Desolas thought. "Inform Admiral Balak that we will be jumping to FTL in three minutes."
"Is it wise to work together with the Batarians, brother?" Saren asked, frowning. "The Hierarchy can easily put this race in its place on our own."

Earlier, when Desolas had contacted the admiral of the Batarian's fleet, a newly promoted Admiral Ka'hairal Balak, and informed him of the situation, Balak had adamantly requested for his fleet to assist the Turian Hierarchy in quelling this upstart race.

The Batarian fleet numbered at a 120 Yu'Garr-Class Frigates and 20 Kes'heel-Class Cruisers (one of which, the Zheleznyy Kulak, was Balak's flagship). If Desolas remembered correctly, this Batarian fleet was actually a combined fleet of two main fleets (totaling sixty frigates and ten cruisers each). The reason the Batarians had so many more ships than the Turians' 101 was because the Batarian frigates were half the size of the Turian frigates, and the Turians also had a dreadnought. That, and the Turians loved a good challenge. Despite the Batarians outnumbering them, the Turian fleet had been coming out on top during the exercises.

At first, Desolas had rejected the admiral's offer; but, upon Balak's fervent insistence, had finally relented to allow a small task force of Batarian ships to accompany them. Since the war games had been immediately cancelled upon this discovery, it would be a bad move to totally neglect the Batarian fleet and act on their own, as that would only further to sour the relations between the Hierarchy and the Hegemony.

As for the task force Balak had assembled, the force numbered at thirty frigates and five cruisers, half of one of their fleets, and he had then ordered the rest of his 105 ships to return to Batarian space.

"You are right, brother; but, regardless of either side's intentions, these war games, which were interrupted by this unforeseen incident, was to help improve the relations between not only the Batarian Hegemony and the Turian Hierarchy, but between the Hegemony and the Council as well." Desolas told his brother, before he smiled. "Besides, they'll make useful cannon fodder."

At that, his fellow Turians around him grinned, and even Saren accepted his answer with a satisfied look.

"Jumping in 10... 9... 8..." one of the officers reported, counting down, "3... 2... 1... Jumping! ETA to Relay 314, one hour!" With the report finished, Desolas nodded at the officer and then looked around at his fellows.

"Shall we begin?" He asked; and, at their nods, Desolas gave the order for the race's first contact package to be displayed. What appeared on the screen surprised the Turians, as it was an image of two pale-skinned Asari-like beings with hair, like a Quarian, on top of their heads. The shock quickly subsided, though, and they got down to business. "Humanity, it says." Desolas observed, still a little surprised by the close resemblance between this race and the Asari.

"Intriguing." Saren muttered, hand on his chin as they moved on to the next slide, this time it was of the most beautiful planet that any of them had ever seen. Four large continents spread out over the world which was covered in large oceans, and those continents were filled with lush greenery and, in the case of one, the serene white of snow and ice.

Gamindustri was its name, and it was the homeworld of all of Humanity.

The slide after that spoke of how Gamindustri and Humanity's colonies were spread out amongst four nations, with each nation being ruled by a CPU, that nation's... goddess? "Preposterous." Captain Seitia commented. "It must be a mistranslation."

"More likely propaganda that they feed their populace to keep them subdued." Saren countered, frowning.
"It could be part of their religion; but, really, there could be any number of reasons." Desolas added in his own opinion before giving a nod to continue with the slideshow.

It began with showing the first continent, one that was bountiful with beautiful high-tech cities, but there was no sight of any sky cars. Along with the continent, it showed the flag, and then the next slide showed the goddess of that nation...

"Whoa..." Someone muttered.

The first image of the two Humans, one male and one female, had been nothing special. While the female hadn't looked bad in any way, Desolas had still equated her attractiveness to that of an Asari's. The woman in this image, Purple Heart as it said, however, was more beautiful than any Asari he had ever seen. Long purple hair that was placed into two braids, blue eyes that shone with vigor, and an outfit that showed off a lovely figure and enticed his senses with the bare skin of her thighs and a portion of her upper chest where two beautiful, perfectly-sized orbs were placed.

Desolas tugged at the collar of his suit. This woman was gorgeous, even he had to admit that. He had always preferred a Turian woman over an Asari, but he was almost willing to make an exception for this... goddess? Well, she certainly looked the part, but there was one thing that he found odd...

The white symbols in her eyes; no, those were actually her... pupils? The first Human woman hadn't had that in her eyes, and neither did the male. Just what did it mean?

After the next continent and its flag, an image of the 2nd 'goddess', Black Heart, or CPU as the Humans called them, appeared onscreen. While this woman wasn't quite as visually appealing as the first woman had been, the look in her eyes shone with pride and determination, something that resonated within the militaristic and prideful Turians. She had long white hair, aqua-colored eyes, and a chest a size smaller than Purple Heart. While her outfit wasn't as impressive as Purple Heart's, it still revealed plenty of her thighs and even left her shoulders bare, and Desolas oddly found the shape of her shoulders attractive.

Briefly wondering if he was turning into some kind of pervert, Desolas quickly dismissed the thought and motioned for the slideshow to continue.

When the 3rd CPU, Green Heart, appeared onscreen, someone whistled. Normally, such conduct wouldn't be accepted, but Desolas was too busy saving the image on his Omni-Tool to care. As he did so, he noticed that Saren didn't seem to be particularly interested.

This CPU had green hair that was pulled up into a long ponytail, fierce purple eyes that seemed to be trying to seduce them, and her chest... it had to be two sizes larger than Purple Heart's, and the shape of it was... attractive, to say the least. Furthermore, her outfit... revealed way too much skin. Her stomach was left bare, and he could even see the bottom of her chest. It was almost like looking at something inappropriate at work, so he had the officer move on with the slideshow... after having to wave his hand in front of that officer's face to get his attention.

Finally, the 4th and last CPU, White Heart... was the smallest of all four of them in all sense of the word. Short and flat, she didn't even look old enough to be an adult. She had short blue hair with long side-bangs and one piece of hair just defied gravity and stuck up over her head. Her eyes were red, and they were filled with confidence, despite her severely-lacking chest. Her outfit didn't even show off part of her chest like the other 3, since there wasn't anything there to show off in the first place.

Just as Desolas was about to dismiss the image and have the officer move on with the slideshow, he saw Saren fiddling with his Omni-Tool out of the corner of his eye. Don't tell me... His brother hadn't looked that interested in any of the past three CPUs, but he certainly looked interested now, although it seemed he was trying his best to hide it.

Saren caught him looking and quickly shook his head and waved his arms as if to say 'it's not like that! Seriously, it's not!'.

Desolas slowly nodded his head, not at all convinced.

After that short episode, the slideshow continued, and it told of how the nations had prospered in a time of peace for over a century, as well as extending peace and friendship to those that would accept it. Sadly, Desolas had a law to uphold, but he was sure that this race would continue to prosper... as a client race of the Turian Hierarchy.

As for the part where it explained that the goddesses received a power called share energy from the faith of those that put their trust in them... the Turians had completely dismissed it as utter nonsense.

That... had been a mistake.

Harvest
City of Gladsheim

18-year-old Viola stepped out of the shower, a towel wrapped around her body as she dried her shoulder-length yellow hair off with another. She'd just gotten home from a guild quest that had left her all sweaty and dirty, so it felt really nice to be clean again "Aaah~" She sighed in relief, basking in the sensation of being fresh from the shower. Now that her daily quest was complete, she planned on just plopping down on the floor in front of her TV and playing a new video game she'd gotten last night.

She was just going to take it easy for the rest of the day~

As if mocking her, Viola's phone chose that exact moment to go off with the unmistakable sound of an emergency alert. Alarmed, she quickly grabbed it, looking at the words on the screen with wide, green eyes. "This is bad..." She muttered, quickly throwing the towels off of her and pulling on a fresh pair of underwear. As she heard the warning sirens go off, she got in such a hurry to put on her white thighhigh socks she ended up tripping and falling down on the floor. With a soft groan, she finished getting dressed and rushed out of her apartment.

On the way to report to an authority, she got a call from her parents asking her what was going on and if she was alright. She said something along the lines of "I don't know" and "I'll be alright" before hanging up. After finding a police chief, she gave him her level, 45, and Guild Agent Rank, Naïve (5). [1] Satisfied with the answer, the chief instructed her to report to an army officer at the city walls where the army were setting up defensive positions. Fortunately, she didn't have to jog all the way there, as she managed to hitch a ride on the back of a tank, despite it not slowing down for her.

Viola awkwardly waved at the tank commander when he poked his head out of the hatch at her.

Thankfully, the armed forces and the guild had a good relationship, so she wasn't kicked off.

"3... 2... 1... Exiting FTL!" The navigations officer called out as the Victoria and the 33rd fleet, along with the Batarian task force, arrived at Relay 314. Desolas stood on the bridge of the Victoria, observing the situation as Seitia gave her orders and the crew performed their duties. The first task was to contact the Fides and get a situation report, but it soon became apparent that the communications officer was unable to contact the patrol cruiser. At the same time, the sensors officer reported that there was a debris field closer towards the relay.

Desolas briefly hoped it matched the size of a dreadnought, but as more information spread across the screen, the officer reported that amongst the debris field were the remains of 3-to-4 frigates, one severely damaged frigate that showed no signs of life, and one frigate that appeared lightly damaged, but was still somewhat operational. There was no sign of the Fides.

"Captain, identifying the operational frigate as the Turbidus." The officer continued. "Readings indicate multiple black burns and portions of melted armor across her hull."
"The Turbidus is not responding to any of our hails. Their communication systems may be offline." The communications officer reported.

Saren stood next to Desolas, an unpleasant look on his face. "The 62nd Patrol Flotilla's six frigates are accounted for, but what of the Fides?"
Desolas looked at the display of the Turbidus that appeared onscreen. "It appears we are in need of some answers."

A short time later, the survivors of the Turbidus were brought onboard the Victoria. Teams were dispatched to the other, mostly, intact frigate, but they discovered that all of the atmosphere had been vented out of the ship, along with all of its occupants. Not a single escape pod had been reached in time.

There were no other survivors.

In the briefing room of the Victoria, Desolas had questioned the captain of the Turbidus, one Auguus Laevicus, about what had happened. The Turian was still a bit shaken up by what he had went through, but with cool air blowing against his skin he managed to compose himself and provide a detailed explanation about how the flotilla had engaged the dreadnought... and just what had happened to the Fides, which had been so thoroughly annihilated that it had been turned into nothing but stardust.

After the debriefing, Desolas ordered the crew of the Turbidus to take a much-needed rest before he headed back to the FCF. Saren was already there, pouring over the information Desolas had just obtained. He nodded at Desolas as his brother entered and took his place at the head of the room, giving the signal for one of his staff officers to open a communications line with the entire fleet.

They would make this race pay for what they did.

Turian casualties already numbered around 700.

Nepedia
Username: Gamerforlife
Password: Aichanislove1337

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MAC (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon): Essentially large coilguns, these weapon systems serve as the primary armaments of Planeptune, Lastation, and Leanbox warships and weapon platforms. Extremely powerful, even frigate-based MACs can do extensive damage to the armor or hull of one of the CPUs flagships. The base design of the MAC launches a 600 ton slug at 30 km/s every minute; however, since its introduction during the first years of space exploration, many new models and types have been designed. The most notable of these designs are the Neptune Breaker Super MACs mounted onboard Planeptune Orbital Defense Platforms, able to launch a 3,000 ton slug at 12,000 km/s every ten seconds.

Missiles: Missiles are the secondary armament of all four nation's warships, meant to complement the main weapon systems. Warships carry large numbers of missiles in a number of missile pods to overwhelm their target's anti-missile defense, and each nation has their own type of missiles. Leanbox's is noted to be the most advanced and destructive, but have the smallest pod sizes while Lastation has the largest pod sizes, but has the least powerful missiles.

AI (Artificial Intelligence): Developed over twenty years ago, AIs see much use across the military and business sectors. AIs are the primary Cyber Warfare Specialists onboard warships and also handle properly aiming the main weapon system as well as providing highly accurate AA targeting, amongst other things.

The Guild Agent Ranking System: A system to rank the 2 million+ listed guild agents based on battle results (number and strength of monsters defeated) and guild mission efficiency. Ranking levels are split amongst 15 ranks starting at 2 million+ and under. The 15 ranks are split up into 3 regions: Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

Bronze ranks, from least to greatest, include: Fledgling, Novice, Amateur, Green, and Naïve.
Silver ranks, from least to greatest, include: Apprentice, Senior, Advanced, Seasoned, and Skilled.
Gold ranks, from least to greatest, include: Expert, Great, Champion, Elite, and Legendary.

A Guild Agent's level usually coordinates with rank because of their battle results and the experience they gain from those battles; however, due to mission efficiency, there are a few exceptions.

[Following information available due to Level 5 Access or above] The most notable exception is Guild Agent IF, Level 186, with a Great (12) Rank of 18,500 while similarly ranked agents hold levels between 230 and 240. The cause of IF's high rank is due to her involvement in personally assisting the CPUs of the four nations in taking down the villain Arfoire, who plotted to bring Celestia down from the skies, which would have resulted in the destruction of Gamindustri which would have caused unprecedented chaos. Other Guild Agents who also assisted in this matter, and have similar positions, include Broccoli, Falcom, MAGES., Tekken, CyberConnect2, MarvelousAQL, and Compa. [End of classified information]

For more information related to the guild, click here: The Guild, and the Guild Agents

Logging out...

A/N: Thanks for everyone's feedback! It really helped to encourage me and now I'm a bit more confident with my writing (I really should have been more confident about myself last chapter, haha).

Captain Kapius was pretty right about why the Batarians pressed to compete in war games with the Turians. The Turians have been making quite a bit of progress in Research and Development, so the Batarians wanted to get a grip on the new technology by seeing it in action; and, of course, the Turians just couldn't deny the chance to show off their military might. That said, neither of their new dreadnoughts participated.

Anyways, I will likely become quite busy during the Thanksgiving-Christmas time, so it may take me awhile to get the next chapter out. That said, I'm also thinking about adding on an additional part to the prologue to give some backstory on Gamindustri and what has happened in this dimension (like an actual prologue!).

I also want to apologize for how... short this battle scene was. The next one ought to be much better~

Feel free to review, read on, or go find a better story or write your own!

Thanks for reading!

Artyom-Dreizehn: There's several (or, at least a few) peaceful contacts out in the HaloxMass Effect crossover category, though hostile contact is probably far more often because everyone wants to blow up stuff. Haha...

cybresamurai: Once you've become friends with Neptune, there's no going back...

Nyamu: My bad, I said something misleading. I was really just joking about that little bit; or, at the least, it was in regards to video games, because its a lot of fun fighting tough aliens and big gigantic monsters (Lost Planet right there). That said, there will be conflict, but it won't all be like that.

Anyways, the timeline for this story happening is probably late 2170s by the Citadel's Calendar. I'm not set on the timeline, so I haven't included it anywhere, but that's also why Saren is a Spectre at this point in time... Well, mostly because I'm not sure how he'd get in league with a certain Squid-monster before he became a Spectre.

Also, the Turians have been a bit more proactive in research and development. I'm just going to warn you now; but, don't worry, they don't have anything super OP aside from two dreadnoughts that could one-on-one the Destiny Ascension (not necessarily win, though).

IF's father was still in his twenties during that bedtime story! Anyways, I do understand that that prologue isn't much, but it was about the best I could do at the time without feeling like I was copying Raiden's.

That said, I may add an additional part onto the prologue in the future to give history on Gamindustri and what kind of events have taken place in this dimension. Not additional bedtime story; actual prologue.

As for EDI, I forgot to add in a description of AIs in the last chapter's Nepedia. My bad. EDI is just the Tenryuu's AI, nothing special as all military ships have AIs for the more complicated processes of running a ship.

3697014: Mostly giant, overpowered-cannons and tons of missiles, but there's still some anti-ship weaponry that the council will have a lot of fun with... Then, there's the guild agents, which will be a whole lot of fun for the Turians to deal with.

Raiden312: Honestly, I, myself, don't think much of the Asari, so that will probably be reflected in Joker. "A blue-skinned mono-gendered female species? Where's the pointed ears and the long blonde hair!? Meh." Something like that might be his reaction.

Also, you're right, that patrol had no chance at all. The best chance they would have had would be to feign opening up negotiations and then storming the Tenryuu in full force. That said, that patrol really... got obliterated. At the very least, the tactics they employed was better than sitting in front of the Tenryuu and exchanging main cannon fire. The frigates could possibly dodge at that range of 100km, but the Fides would get obliterated, Shepard would then follow up with a missile strike, and they'd be dead without even doing 3% of damage to the shields.

Disruptor Torpedoes are the most effective weapon against Neptunia ships that frigates and cruisers will have, but ME dreadnoughts will still be effective, as long as they don't get within range of a MAC... or a MAC gets in the range of them.

Lord-Sylph: Haha, I'm glad.

Nightwanderer21: Thank you.

condeale: I'm glad it's interesting.

RizomataNyan: Wait no longer~

eye of sparta: I'm not really sure on the exact number of how many lightyears a day the Hyper Drives travel; however, there are many inconsistencies in Hyper Dimension (story-convenient inconsistencies as Neptune calls them) that distort the actual travel time, making some paths quicker or longer. Harvest is one such example, as it takes about two weeks from the nearest Planeptune system to travel there.

Hyper Dimension is based off of Slipspace from Halo, and such inconsistencies are actually present and not something I just made up to make things easier for me~

As for the Charon/Sol Relay... it may or may not have parked itself right next to a black hole.

Eiskralle1: I'm glad you had fun reading it! I ought to do a Legion POV when they meet with Neptune~

AntagonistChan: Whew, long review, thank you for taking such interest. I'm glad I was able to brighten up your day a little bit with Noi- W-wait! Why would you think that's Noire's log-in info!? Maybe it's... or... Fine, Noire's the only one who has no friends-

Noire: *death glare*

-aside from all of her friends.

Moving on, two relays in the Sol System? The Charon Relay is the one that they sent into Hyper Dimension. Did I write something misleading? In answer to those last three questions in that paragraph: Plenty of stuff, no (I wing all stories, so errors come regardless of that), and definitely not.

Just to clarify, Humanity has only come across two relays. The Charon Relay which is no longer present, and the Epsilon Indi Relay, which was just discovered.

As for me never finishing HDN, I did finish Re;Birth 1 and the anime... I've also been getting some practice with all of the oneshots (especially that short story) I've been writing of it, so I have a little experience writing some of the characters. As for ME... I've read lots of Mass Effect crossovers, so I've managed to gain somewhat of an idea of parts and portions of it.

As for the name of 'Eve', this Eve is based off of the Eve from Elsword (Code Empress to be exact), so that's why the name. Other than that, the name 'Eve' comes from the first woman created by God on Earth in the Garden of Eden, hence why Bakara was probably codenamed Eve since she was the one woman who carried the hope of all Krogan.

"So much of the Tenryuu crew refer to the CPUs by name"? I believe Joker was the only one who thought 'Neptune', but he does have a yet-revealed reason to why and how he knows Purple Heart's name. Also, Neptune's name might be the most well-known out of the four, considering Planeptune, her signature nepu nepu song, and her carefree, informal personality. However... that's balanced out by the fact that so few people can actually pronounce her name.

Neptune: Nepu!? You're going to continue that old meme!?
Saber: Of course not, Neputu... Neptuu... Neptuna!
Neptune: I know you can pronounce it!
Saber: No I can't... Just take a look at your name.
Neptuna: Oh, no, you didn't...
Saber: I did.
Neptunia: Nep Break! Nep Slash! Ultra Nep Slash!
Saber: You don't have an Ultra Nep Slash!
Neptuni: I do now!

To be honest, I don't like breast envy all that much either. Flat is justice, after all, yet anime/manga keeps portraying small-chested girls as always envious of bigger chests. Think of it as IF just getting annoyed by the Ferret's attitude change when he went from Point A to Point E.

I might just have to make that omake and place it in between this chapter and the next one, or add it on to the end of the next chapter.

[1]: Viola's exact rank is 1,126,019 of 2 million+ guild agents; also, the Guild Agent Ranking System was inspired off of Black Bullet's IP (Initiator-Promotor) ranking and Mabinogi's talent levels.

Credits to Euderion of DeviantArt for the following ships (class name, length, and crew number)
Gannet-Class frigate, 317m, with a crew of 80.
Conder-Class cruiser, 500m, with a crew of 300.
To be Added
Yu'Garr Class frigate, 145m, with a crew of 50.
Kes'heel-Class cruiser, 661m, with a crew of 400.
To be Added