A/N: Here it is, the first side story for The Human War. I've been thinking and planning this one out for nearly a year now, but never quite got to actually write it.

This story takes place during the end of the Battle of Shanxi, in Chapter 4 of the main storyline, and will focus primarily on the boarding and capture of the Shield of Palaven. Some of the events here will take place roughly around the same time, so I apologize for any confusion caused by temporal point of view shifts.

Now, without further ado...

Stolen Shield

"Enemy fighter craft are making another pass! GARDIAN laser grid has taken severe damage and cannot intercept!" The Shield of Palaven shuddered a moment later as alien munitions hit home.

"They're tearing our fleet apart! We're losing ships left and right!" Captain Palivea Caldius didn't need her XO's frantic report to know that, as she had watched those ships disappear one by one on the holographic system map before her.

"Main cannon, prepare for extreme-range engagement. Prioritize larger enemy vessels." She ordered, knowing that it wouldn't do much good. The larger enemy ships were so far away that they would easily be able to avoid the main cannon of the Turian dreadnought, and the only ships within range were agile frigates that were moving too erratically to hit. At least, not with the main gun.

"Missile control, lock all torpedoes onto nearby enemy frigates. Fire when ready." She ordered, and barely ten seconds later, hundreds of disruptor torpedoes streamed from their tubes in the dreadnought's wings.

"GARDIAN laser grid is completely destroyed. Our anti-fighter weaponry is nonexistent!" Another gunner reported.

"What about secondaries? Can they track the enemy?" Palivea asked.

"Negative, we cannot-" The gunner's report was cut off as the sensors officer spoke up.

"Vanguard line is destroyed! Enemy cruisers moving into... Torpedoes! Enemy torpedoes locking onto us!"

"Those look like heavy hitters. Send word to our escorts, do not let a single..." Palivea trailed off as the alien cruisers opened fire, their first volley tearing through the Shield of Palaven's escorts. However, not a single shot struck the dreadnought itself, and Palivea quickly realized what was about to happen.

"Those aren't torpedoes, those are boarding ships! Alert our marine compliment! Tell them to make ready to repel boarders!" She shouted, and her XO relayed the order.

"Secondaries, target those boarding craft!" That order was unnecessary, as the gunners in charge had already opened fire on the incoming alien vessels.

However, once again the aliens proved too agile to hit at range with mass drivers. One was taken out by a lucky hit, but the rest...

The ship shuddered as the boarding pods hit home.

"Where are they entering?" Palivea demanded.

"Minor breaches indicate impact points on decks thirty-two, sixty and two. It looks like they coordinated their approaches to concentrate their forces."

"Order all marines to affected areas! I want those boarders contained and repelled! Contact the Persarius, inform them of the situation!" She ordered as the ship shook once more.

"Enemy frigates have taken up positions around us! They're targeting secondary turrets!"

"Main gun barrel just took a hit! Our spinal gun is offline!"

The two reports came in almost simultaneously.

"All ships, jump to the relay! As soon as we cross, be prepared to dock with the Shield of Palaven and assist with counter-boarding actions!" The orders from the Persarius came in a moment later.

"Helm, jump us to the relay and take us through!" Palivea ordered.

"Portside engine has taken a hit! Reaction chamber is breached, antimatter flow shut down successfully!"

"Understood... Negative, we cannot jump! There's an enemy frigate holding position directly in front of us, and it's causing our FTL safety to activate! I repeat, we cannot jump!"

"Report from Deck Two! Our marines have engaged the enemy!"

"Contact the Persarius, tell them we cannot jump!" Palivea shouted.

"Understood..." The comms officer replied, and Palivea waited for the reply from the flagship.

It came in the form of a shuddering ship, blaring alarms, and the lights on the bridge flashing out.

"Did... No, our fleet just opened fire on us! One of our cruisers just put a round right into our primary reactor! Multiple hull breaches on decks fourteen, twenty one, thirty-five..." The damage control officer rattled off a long list of breached decks, and Palivea gripped the railing tightly in response.

It appeared as though her fate was to be sacrificed in order to deny her ship to the enemy.

"What's going on? All our ships are firing on each other! It's absolute chaos!" The sensors officer reported a moment later as the dim, emergency lighting came online.

"What?"

"Boarders engaged on Deck Thirty-two!"

"Our ships are retreating! They're leaving us!"

"This can't be happening..." Palivea murmured as she watched Turian ships tear into each other on the system map, while others attempted to run for the relay. With no small amount of dismay, she watched the Persarius jump away, her General following his tattered fleet to the relay.

Then, she took a deep breath and composed herself. Walking over to the vessel's intercom, she addressed what remained of her crew.

"All hands, this is your captain speaking. We will not allow this ship to fall to the enemy. You are to inflict maximum damage to enemy boarding efforts and stall them for as long as possible while I prepare to scuttle the ship. Captain Caldius, out." With that, she ended the transmission and drew her service pistol.

"Do we have any operational secondary guns overlooking our wings?" She asked.

"Negative, all secondary turrets have been destroyed." She cursed at that, before turning to the marines that manned the bridge.

"All marines, follow me. Everyone else, secure the bridge. Do not let the enemy take it, no matter the cost." She ordered, before striding out of the bridge, twelve marines following right behind her. Without looking back, she explained their mission.

"This ship is scuttled by a five-megaton theronuclear warhead located in a back room within the ship's data vault. The room may only be opened with my omni-tool, meaning that if I die, you are to take it off me and continue with the mission. Inside, there is a single console. In the event that I do not make it, you are to enter the code 'Five-Five-Two-Four, enter, Saw-Terminal-Cast-Ice, enter, Two-Three-Nine-Seven-One-Six-Six, enter.' This will arm the warhead, understood?"

"Understood." The marines chorused.

"Good." At that, she reached into her uniform pocket and withdrew a key.

"Once the warhead is armed, this key is to be inserted into the corresponding slot on the console and turned to the left. Then, without turning it back, you are to withdraw the key. This will start the warhead initiation countdown. Once that is done, eat the key. Under no circumstances is it to fall into enemy hands, or else they could potentially use it to abort the scuttling. Understood?"

"Understood."

"Good. Now, the data vault is on deck forty-eight. Let's not waste any time." With those words, Palivea Caldius pocketed the key and raised her pistol, steeling herself for the long walk ahead of her.

"Breaching in three... Two... One... NOW! SPARK first, cover us!" Marine Sergeant Pierre Gascon's countdown was perfectly timed. The alien hull plating blocking the boarding shuttle's exit sizzled as the ship's fusion cutters went to work. Then, it fell to the right, and the aliens on the other side opened fire.

His squad's SPARK unit rushed in first, absorbing the enemy weapons fire with its immense power shield, the shielded alloy slab glittering as it was struck.

"Gravity is oriented leftward." The SPARK reported as it entered the dimly-lit alien ship, contorting itself to remain standing through the gravity shift.

"Move, move!" Pierre shouted as he rushed in right behind his robotic squadmate, performing the necessary acrobatics required and landing fairly steadily on his feet. The man behind him wasn't so lucky, and he fell hard on his side.

"Flamethrower." The SPARK reported as the dim compartment suddenly glowed with a bright orange light. The SPARK blocked the stream of incendiary compound quite well, although it also blocked Pierre from taking any return fire.

"Kei, fuse, now!" He ordered, and a moment later the flamethrower exploded, spraying burning fuel everywhere as its ammunition supply suddenly underwent psionically-induced spontaneous combustion.

"Forward, now!" He shouted, following his own orders as he rushed past the SPARK. His plasma shotgun began to fire, downing two of the burning aliens before they could recover from their shock. The SPARK's shield slammed into another, crushing it against the ship's wall, while the robot's free arm brought up its own cannon, which spun up and sprayed the compartment with blue-green light.

"Clear." It reported a moment later.

"Any live ones?" He asked.

"Negative." Amatsuki Kei, his squad's psion, reported a moment later.

"They have sealed the door." The SPARK reported.

"Can you hack it?" Pierre asked.

"Negative. However, I can break through." The robot replied, stowing its cannon on its back before raising its fist.

"Johann, any of our fellow teams having trouble?" He asked, turning to the private behind him, who had managed to regain his footing.

"Negative, all breaches successful." The private replied. Behind him, the rest of the squad had disembarked successfully, and ten fully-armed Human marines now filled the compartment.

"Good. Eight-ball, prepare to breach the door." He ordered, and the SPARK complied, slamming its fist hard into the armored door and leaving a sizable dent. It repeated the motion a moment later, deepening the dent.

Five strikes later, and alien weapons fire began to stream through a newly-opened hole in the door, thankfully doing little other than causing the SPARK's shield to spark.

"Stand clear, I'm throwing a grenade in there!" Pierre ordered, and the SPARK stood aside, allowing him to make his way to the hole along the edge of the compartment. Then, he pulled a grenade from its armor hardpoint, flipped off its timer guard, pressed its timer down and threw it inside. The explosion sounded out a few seconds later, and no more fire came from the hole.

"Breach, now." Pierre ordered, and the SPARK began to widen the hole.

"There's a live one in there." Kei reported.

"Good. Kei, see what you can learn from him. No intrusiveness restrictions."

"Roger." A moment later, she glowed a familiar violet, and a gurgling scream sounded out from the neighboring compartment. The sound continued for nearly a minute, before finally fading into silence.

"What did you learn?" Pierre asked.

"A fair bit. These aliens have really easy minds. Looks like we got lucky with our breach location. The ship has a reactor located on the deck above us, and we're two compartments away from an emergency access tunnel." She replied, her smile almost audible.

"Good work. Eight-ball, contact command and relay the info to them." Pierre ordered, before climbing through the hole into the next compartment. A wet, rasping breathing was just barely audible inside, and he turned to see a wounded alien lying in its own blood. That must have been the one Kei had worked her magic on. He put it out of its misery with a shotgun blast.

"Two doors here. Which one do we go through?" He asked as Kei crawled in behind him.

"Left one. The right one leads to waste processing." She replied as the rest of the squad followed behind her.

"Any enemies in that one?" He asked. She glowed for a moment, before shaking her head.

"Not in that one, but there are five waiting at the other end of the maintenance tunnel."

"Good. Eight-ball, breach."

Once again, the SPARK pounded a hole into the door, and this time there was no gunfire coming in from the other side. The entrance to the maintenance tunnel was plainly visible.

"Eight-ball, open her up, but be careful." He ordered, and the SPARK complied by ripping the door off its hinges. A moment later, there was a shout and a rain of small, round objects fell from the deck above.

"Grenades!" Even before he had shouted, the SPARK had already slammed its shield over the door. A few seconds later, a string of muffled explosions rang out on the other side.

"Shield's energy defense has been disabled. Shield has sustained superficial shrapnel damage." The SPARK reported one the noise had stopped.

"Can you fit inside the maintenance shaft?" Pierre asked.

"Affirmative."

"Good. Get up there and cause some chaos while the rest of us climb up."

The SPARK didn't need to be told twice, and it quickly stepped into the shaft. A moment later it was gone, leaving behind a smoky trail of rocket exhaust as it shot up the shaft.

"After him! Move, move!" Pierre was the first into the shaft, and he practically sprinted up the ladder towards where the aliens had already engaged his comrade.

A flying alien nearly knocked him back down the ladder, and he peeked back up just in time to see the alien slam into the wall, its chest caved in. His shields sparked as he leaped into action, setting his shotgun to fire on full auto as he sprinted towards the nearest piece of cover. An alien already occupied it, and his shields flickered as it opened fire with its pistol, but one shotgun blast later and he was safe.

Only Kei and Johann made it up the ladder before the last alien fell, and they quickly began to help the people behind them.

"Kei, which way to the reactor?" He asked once the last of them clambered up into the hallway. She pointed to a side passage in response.

"That reactor takes up pretty much the whole deck. It should be just through that door, although..." She glowed purple again.

"Twelve enemy contacts inside. This should be fun." She said a moment later.

"Good. Eight-ball, you know what to do." Once again, the SPARK began to hammer at the door. After a few hits, it stepped back.

"Door is more reinforced than others. Stand back." With those words, it opened fire with its gun, firing for a solid thirty seconds until the door glowed a bright white. Then, it once again slammed its fist into the door.

"Better."

A few strikes later, a hole was opened, and the aliens inside once again opened fire. Eight-ball was unperturbed by this, and simply planted its shield down in front of the hole, before starting to strike at the edges to widen it into a passage. Soon enough, the door was stuck open, and the squad went to work.

Eight-ball entered the reactor room first, laying down suppressing fire that reduced consoles to smoking ruins and caught more than a few aliens out in the open. By the time Pierre and Kei entered, five of the twelve aliens lay dead. That number was reduced to four a few seconds later, as Kei released a wave of telekinetic force that crushed three aliens inside their armor.

The reactor was clear before the squad could even finish breaching.

"I swear, half of us aren't even necessary in here!" Johann complained.

"It's an easy job, don't jinx it." Kei replied.

"Eight-ball, can you figure out a fast way to take this thing out without cooking us all in the process?" Pierre asked.

"Scanning..." The SPARK reported, its head slowly rotating in a full circle as it examined its surroundings. Finally, it spoke.

"Reactor control rods are held up by electromagnets, which keep spring-based rod release mechanism compressed. I have identified the cables leading to the electromagnets. Requesting permission to destroy them." The robot reported.

"Granted." As soon as the word was spoken, the SPARK aimed upwards and opened fire, sending three short bursts of plasma fire into certain points within the ceiling. As soon as the last one was destroyed, Pierre heard a muffled 'thunk!' as the control rods dropped into the reactor proper.

Then, the already dim lights flickered and went out, leaving the room illuminated only by faint, red luminescent strips.

"Good work." Pierre replied, his helmet automatically switching to night vision. Then, he turned to Kei.

"What is our next objective?" He asked.

"The ship's main data storage center is eleven decks up. Command would want us to capture it before the aliens try to destroy it." She replied.

"Sounds like a plan. Let's move." With those words, he turned and left the reactor room, his squad following behind him.

"Shit!" Palivea cursed as the lights went out. A moment later, she opened a channel to the bridge.

"Damage control, what the hell just happened?" She demanded.

"The secondary reactor just suffered a power failure and shut itself down. The ship is running on batteries now." The damage control officer replied, his voice tense.

"What happened to the tertiary reactor?" Palivea demanded.

"I'm checking that now... Hmm..." The damage control officer was silent for a few moments, before sighing in defeat.

"Looks like an unlucky shot from one of our frigates penetrated and cut through the power conduits. Everything below deck thirty-three is dark." He reported.

"Are the doors working, at least?" She asked.

"Negative, the VI's locked them down in an attempt to contain the boarders." The officer reported.

"Then tell it to unlock the damn things! Authorization Caldius-Three-Knife!" Palivea replied.

"It's not responding. The power to its computer systems must have been cut!"

"How the hell is that possible? It's got two days' worth of batteries connected directly to it!"

"I don't know. We can send a team down to investigate-"

"Negative, we'll use the emergency crawlspaces. You'll have to guide us through them." She replied, before activating her omni-tool's flashlight function and illuminating a nearby maintenance hatch.

"Understood. What is your current location?" The officer asked.

"Next to tunnel entrance... 39-02." She replied, reading off the numbers on the hatch.

"Alright, one second... Good. That one should take you down to deck forty-one. Ignore the side entrance and just head straight down. It should exit into hydroponics center three. The next tunnel should be near the upper edge of the deck." The officer instructed.

"Thank you." Palivea replied, before opening the hatch.

"I'll go first." One of the marines volunteered.

"Proceed." She replied, and the marine entered the tunnel. When no alien gunfire erupted, Palivea followed after him. One by one, they made their way down into the hydroponics deck.

"Which door do we take?" The marine asked. Palivea relayed the question to the bridge.

"Number three... No, wait, number two! Door number two! Damn numbers all look the same in this damn darkness..."

"Door number two." Palivea relayed as she dropped down into the hydroponics center. She ignored the admittedly nice smell of the plants, instead running over to the door. She breathed a sigh of relief when the door gave no sign of being powered, likely as a result of battle damage. Depending on when it had lost power, it could have avoided the VI's order to seal all doors.

"The door is locked, but not powered. There should be a manual release for these sorts of situations around here somewhere..." She searched around the door until finally locating the panel in question. Popping it open, she began to crank the door open. Two marines came over to assist, and soon enough the door had slid open enough for them to pass through.

"I see a hatch, number 41-01." She reported upon looking around the next room.

"Good. That's the right one." As soon as she heard that, she grabbed at the hatch, but it stubbornly refused to open.

"It's not opening." She grunted into her omni-tool.

"Hmm... Look for a red lever nearby. If it is pulled down, then the door is locked."

She quickly found the lever in question, pulled it up, and one of the marines began to heave away at the hatch again. He managed to crack it open, and the sound of escaping air almost drowned out his scream a moment later. One of his comrades grabbed for him as he fell, but missed. Then, another marine slammed the hatch shut.

"What just happened?" Palivea demanded, her lungs struggling to breathe the significantly thinner air.

"There... There was a hull breach..." The marine who closed the hatch muttered.

"Damn. Is your armor vacuum sealed?" She asked.

"Yes." The marine replied. She nodded, before once again opening a channel to the bridge.

"Damage control, we managed to get the passage open, but it looks like some gunfire breached it and it's got no air. Are there any vac-suits nearby that I could use?" She asked.

"Yes, there are, but they're up on deck forty. Go back up the passageway you used and take the fork on the left, there should be a closet full of them there."

Fortunately, the closet wasn't too hard to find, and there was still a pair of unclaimed vacuum suits left over inside. She quickly put one on and returned to where the marines were waiting.

"Ready. Let's go."

Once again, they heaved open the hatch, this time ready for the inevitable exodus of air.

What they were not ready for, however, was the alien gunfire that greeted them.

"Contacts! Four of them, out on the hull!" One of the marines shouted, before returning fire.

"Captain, get back!" One of the marines shoved her out of the way, taking her position and opening fire. His helmet was illuminated by a blue-white gunshot a moment later and he staggered back.

"Shit, shit, shit! I'm blind! My visor's burnt out!" He shouted out. Indeed, a closer look revealed a black scorch mark all over the helmet's faceplate, the transparent visor blackened by extreme heat.

"Got one!" A marine reported a moment later. A burst of alien gunfire slammed home a moment later and he fell back, missing his head.

"Tarkus is down!" Another marine reported as he took his dead comrade's place.

"Cover me, I'm going in!" He shouted a moment later.

"Understood." A moment later, the marine leaped into the maintenance tunnel.

"Got o-!" His voice cut out mid-sentence.

The last two aliens were eventually killed, but three more marines died in the process. Palivea for her tinted visor then, as it hid her shaken expression from her remaining escorts. Four aliens had taken out half of her guards, and there were still seven more decks to go.

"There has to be an easier way of doing this." Kei commented as Eight-ball demolished yet another sealed door.

"It has gotten rather quiet, hasn't it?" Pierre replied from where he leaned against a bulkhead.

"Only a few crewmen here and there with holdout pistols and no shields or armor. Eight-ball can clear an entire room of them before we're even though the door." Johann muttered.

"Yeah, looks like we've finished mopping up any of the troops in this area. Just crewmen left." Pierre replied as Eight-ball finished widening the hole. Kei was the first to pass through, and her shield sparked as an alien opened fire. The nearly black room promptly flashed a bright blue-green, and the gunfire stopped.

"Clear." She reported as Eight-ball stepped inside.

"Crawlspace hatch spotted." The SPARK reported as the rest of the squad followed behind it.

"Open it up." The robot did just that, tearing the hatch off its hinges and looking inside.

"This one goes up. Shall I go first?" It asked.

"Go ahead, we'll be right behind you." Pierre replied, and the SPARK stuffed itself inside the cramped shaft before rocketing up. Once again, there was a quick exchange of gunfire, which was over by the time the rest of the squad climbed up the ladder.

"It appears we went up by two decks, not one." Eight-ball reported.

"That's a relief. Six to go. We're getting close." That certainly was true. Barring a truly disastrous turn of events, nothing the aliens had left would stop the squad from moving inexorably towards their goal.

"Damage control, we are on deck forty-seven. Our path is blocked by a sealed door and we cannot continue." Palivea reported, hoping that there was indeed a solution to the problem in front of her. On the other side of that door was a passage straight down to deck forty-eight, and to be halted when they were so close to their goal... It was maddening.

"Is the manual release not working?"

"Negative, it was the first thing we tried."

"Damn, I will see what I can..." The officer trailed off, and Palivea heard another voice in the background.

"No... The aliens have reached the bridge! They're right outside!" There officer was panicking now. Something heavy was pounding against metal in the background now, probably some sort of breaching tool.

"Focus! Is there a way to get that door open?" Palivea demanded.

"I... No, no! I don't know, I..." She growled and cut the channel.

"I think I might know a way." One of the marines spoke up.

"What is it?" Palivea asked, rounding on him.

"Our guns should have enough power to punch through that door at point-blank range. If we use them, we might be able to blast out the locking mechanism and be able to open the door using manual release." He said.

"Do it." She replied, and the marine stepped up to the door, illuminating it with his helmet's flashlight. He then placed his gun until the barrel was all but touching the metal door at one of its seams and opened fire. Slowly he began to work his way up the door, checking occasionally by lowering his gun and peering into the glowing holes left by the weapon.

Minutes ticked by as he continued the slow work, and Palivea tapped her foot impatiently as images of alien soldiers entering the data vault flashed through her mind. If that happened, the ship was as good as theirs.

After what seemed like an eternity, the marine finally stepped back.

"I think that should do it. Try the manual release now." Palivea did exactly that, grabbing hold of the crank and starting to turn it. She breathed an audible sigh of relief when the door began to slide open.

"Whew, I thought we were finished then." The marine muttered as they finally passed through the door. As promised, the hatch to their target deck was in plain sight.

"Damage control, we have broken through and are now heading down to the data vault." Palivea reported as she opened the hatch, breathing a sigh of relief when it was not opened on the other side.

There was no response from the bridge.

"Captain to bridge control, report!" She tried again. Once again, nothing.

"Damn, we need to hurry." She muttered, and leaped down the hatch, coming out right in front of the data vault door. Fortunately, the data vault door still had power, and more importantly, was still connected to the ship's main VI.

"Kesis, this is Captain Caldius. Open the door." She spoke, and the VI complied. The door slid open, and she ran inside. The marines followed suit, but before all of them could make it through, an emergency access hatch on the other wall exploded outward, and an immense combat mech with a large, glowing rectangular shield on one arm and what was clearly a cannon on its other. Without hesitation, it opened fire, killing two of her marines outright as it sprinted forward.

"SEAL THE DOOR!" She screamed, and the VI complied. The door slid shut, but the mech was faster, and just before the doors closed completely, it thrust its shield forward. The slab of metal caught the doors and forced them to stay open. A moment later, the robot's fists were on the doors, and slowly it began to force them back open. For a few moments the robot wrestled with the doors, then something in their mechanism broke and they sprang open. Behind it, Palivea could see a squad of aliens exiting the maintenance tunnel, weapons at the ready.

"Stall them! I'll scuttle the ship!" She shouted, turning and starting to sprint towards the door on the other side of the room.

"No! Don't-" Before the marine could finish, there was a flash of light, and Palivea fell forward, a spike of pain lancing through her legs. She tried to struggle to her feet, but something was wrong, and as she looked back, she saw that one of her legs was gone, while the vac-suit fabric on the other had been burned clean through.

Gritting her teeth against the pain, she began to drag herself towards the door, even as the sound of mass effect rifle fire faded away. She was almost at the door when she heard footsteps behind her. She twisted around, reaching for her pistol, but an armored boot slammed down on her wrist before she could grab it. She hissed in agony, hearing the bones break. For a few seconds she stared into the blank faceplate of an alien helmet as its owner held a gun to her chest.

Then, the gun was lowered as another alien walked up. It regarded her for a few moments, before pointing a finger at her. That finger was the last thing Palivea saw before she lost consciousness.

With her gone, the Shield of Palaven's capture was complete.

Admiral Drescher frowned as she watched the doctor enter her ship's bridge. The white-uniformed man, a Doctor Stephan Castille, saluted her and she returned the gesture. The man had spent hours onboard the captured alien battleship, hours that kept her ships on the Shanxi side of Relay 314.

"Good morning, Admiral. My preliminary analysis of the alien vessel is complete and has been forwarded to you for your perusal. I am here to give my summary, as well as my opinion on the future regarding this new alien race." The man reported.

"Go ahead." Drescher replied. The ship and its many escorts had been easily torn apart by her own warships, and she was confident in her future chances against these aliens, be they Ethereal or some other new entity.

"Very well. The ship is somewhat strange in that, while some aspects of its technology are on par with our own, others lag woefully behind." The doctor began.

"I can read the specifics later. For now, I want to know how that ship compares with mine, and if it will be any threat in the future." Drescher replied. The doctor sighed theatrically, before continuing.

"Very well... In a fight, we would win, hands-down. The only anomaly in the ship's design is the abnormally large amount of element zero used in its design, where it seems to be used in some of the roles that elerium fills in our ships. In terms of armament, only their main cannon poses a credible threat to any of our capital ships, and even then it is not particularly powerful, with a yield of around nineteen kilotons. Our fusion lances out-range it by a comfortable margin. Secondary weapons were unfortunately demolished by your frigates so I could not get an accurate analysis of them, but from what your men have told me, they weren't much of a threat. The same goes for their point defense laser systems. There were a large amount of torpedo tubes in the wings of the ship, but unfortunately they were empty and thus I could not analyze them. Suffice to say that in terms of armament, this ship is not a credible threat so long as we keep our shields up." The doctor reported.

"What about their FTL drives? They were able to escape our interdictor fields without issue." Drescher asked.

"Their FTL drives are slow and inefficient, but operate on completely different principles than ours. Suffice to say, interdictor fields are worthless against them. A more detailed technical analysis is available in the report I've forwarded to you."

"I see. Any way to adapt our fields to work?" She asked.

"No. None that I can see in the near future. You will just have to deal with them jumping out of engagement range."

"Very well. What about their ships' shielding?" Drescher asked.

"Those were... Very intriguing to analyze. The hull samples I took were lackluster, to say the least. Inferior to our Lilium alloys in almost every aspect. Our plasma guns shouldn't have much trouble penetrating, and our fusion lances... Well, you saw that for yourself. It was the shielding system that intrigued me, Admiral. It is almost exclusively oriented towards deflecting projectiles, and while it is able to adequately deal with our plasma weaponry, reports from your fighter pilots showed that it was completely ineffective against our disruptor cannons. Unfortunately, your ships' point defense guns aren't exactly programmed for ship to ship combat, but that can easily be fixed." The doctor replied.

"Interesting. Is there anything else to report?" Drescher asked.

"Yes, there was one other thing." The doctor replied.

"Go ahead."

"These aliens do not utilize our reactionless drives, and instead use a form of matter-antimatter reaction in their engines. The antimatter fuel is stored in a large array of tanks within the trailing edges of the wings, and the systems they use for containment are very effective. Moreover, their use of antimatter in this manner implies that they are capable of mass producing and manipulating it, much like we are. It seems to me that, much like ourselves, they refrain from using antimatter in their weapons for reasons of safety. We prefer our ships to be able to take hits and not explode, after all!" The man chuckled, before continuing.

"However, these aliens have the capability to weaponize antimatter very easily. I predict that we will start seeing such weapons deployed in a matter of months, once they realize just how big their firepower disadvantage currently is. Their lackluster gun range can be mitigated by pinpoint FTL jumps, especially since we cannot interdict them. I am no strategist, but if I were you, I would keep this possibility in mind. That is all for now. The rest is in my report." The doctor replied.

"Thank you, Doctor Castille. If there is nothing else, you are dismissed." The doctor nodded in reply.

"Very well, I will not take up any more of your time. I have prisoners on the surface to interrogate, after all! Good luck, Admiral." With those words, the doctor strode from the bridge.

Drescher was silent for a few moments, before turning to her XO.

"This changes nothing. Signal the fleet and tell them we're heading through the relay in six hours." She ordered.

"Yes ma'am." The man replied, and relayed her order.

A/N: Here it is. A little late for a New Years' gift, but nonetheless it is done. The next chapter of THW proper is about half done right now, and provided nothing goes wrong it should be out soon.

This fic in general will be a place where I put any side stories for The Human War, be they made by me or by other authors should they be so inclined. I hope you all enjoy this, as well as any other future pieces I may put out that don't quite fit in with the main story but would be nice to read nonetheless.