Title: Ship of The Line – Effect 31

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Star Trek or Mass Effect... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Bored with how things are going to play out, Janus interferes more directly in Halloween, making things more interesting and changing the course of the entire Galaxy. (Buffy/Star Trek/Mass Effect)

Janus was bored. Not just bored with how things were, bored with how things were going to be for the next few centuries. After that some interesting things would happen but for the mean time… bored. If he weren't so bored, Janus would never have taken notice of a small-time magic user who was invoking his name, and thinking he was a Chaos God. Janus was the God of Beginnings, Endings, Crossroads and a few other things, but many thought him a Chaos God as endings or beginnings were often times of turbulence and chaos.

At first, when examining the spell, Janus was disappointed. Sure, it was a creative idea, turning your victims into their costumes for Halloween, but looking forward it would change nothing. Then he noticed the potential of three of the costumes that were not selected. Between one heartbeat and the next of the magic user, Janus ran through over a billion possible combinations of how to use the costumes to create change. Finally finding the most interesting change, Janus rolled back time and made a few subtle, and a few not so subtle, changes. The subtle ones were as minor as simply moving a costume to the left by two feet, but the less subtle changes were not relating to the three key costumes, but instead related to other costumes. Changing the allegiance of costumes from something generic to a specific organisation; altering a costume enough to change it from historical to something with a specific skill set; or simply removing whole genres of costumes via 'delivery interruptions'.

Usually manipulation of the past was frowned upon, particularly when it would change 'The Plan', but as these changes did not change anything that had already happened to a living biological entity, no one would even notice. Particularly not those incompetent and boring 'Powers that Be'.

No one, not even the Mage who was casting the spell, ever realised that a change had been made, but the results of the small alterations would echo thought the Galaxy. Janus simply smiled. This would be interesting.

A beeping on his wristcomp needlessly altered him, as he had already identified the targets. A tap deployed the emergency nanite armour over his uniform and he drew the weapon on his back. His uniform was a black, military style outfit with a yellow trim. The outer jacket, which showed an undershirt beneath through the small gap in the zipper at the top, had a number of pouches for small items and the pants had large pockets down the thighs. His boots were almost knee high and were laced tight and he had a belt with more pouches. On the left breast of the jacket was a black, vaguely arrow shaped icon, with a double row of formal medal markers below in various shapes. Knelling on one knee, he aimed at the centre mass of one of the targets.

"Take cover." He ordered to the others around him as he fired.

They were children, but they still acted like soldiers, taking cover and aiming the wide variety of weapons at the targets instead of cowering. His plasma rifle's fire hit the target and it burst into flames, crumbling into dust. The fire from the others was nowhere near as effective, some being solid projectiles and others being coherent energy weapons. The solid projectiles largely useless unless they happened to shatter the spinal column or the knees to slow them down slightly; while the energy weapons requiring precise shots to the heart or eye socket to cause any significant damage.

A different beeping alerted him to an incoming transmission, which he activated with a jaw switch.

"Harris." He acknowledged, as he fired again.

"Commodore, this is The Ares. The Athena is currently docked and networked, and I am in contact with The Artemis. We are all in Geosynchronous Orbit above your location. Sigma Protocol is in effect." The strong male voice said over the radio.

"No shit, I got vampires and at least one Polgaran here." Commodore Alexander Harris replied to his Ship's AI, shifting his aim to the Polgaran and firing again. "Task Force Personnel status?"

"Sub-dermal Locators only for yourself, Captain Summers of The Athena and Captain Rosenberg of The Artemis. No sign of any other Task Force Personnel. I am picking up multiple other military signals, including standard Starfleet signatures and a number of organisations I don't have in my database. One group is using MACO Protocols." Ares replied.

"Initiate Cleansweep, forty minute countdown, and connect me with all of units within the city limits." The Commodore ordered, and waited for the click to indicate the various parties. "This is Commodore Harris of The Ares; I am taking operational command of all ground forces. A tactical device is inbound. I am setting up an extraction point at the corner of Rodello Drive and Marigold Avenue. Deadline is thirty minutes."

A tap on his wristcomp disconnected him from the wide frequency transmission and a few more taps of co-ordinates, a trio of Photon Turrets beamed in, set to only fire on movement with zero body heat, unless he specifically targeted an enemy.

A few groups quickly began to converge on the intersection, about a third of the groups were one or two older soldiers accompanied by child soldiers, and a few of the other groups of soldiers were escorting civilians, though usually scientist or diplomats. As they came in, the soldiers were allocated to the defence perimeter while the civilians were secured in the centre of the extraction zone. Not every group that came in were alone, some were followed by civilians and some by hostiles. The soldiers quickly became proficient with spotting the difference between Civilians and Hostiles. The biggest clue was if the Phaser Turrets opened fire or not.

Three minutes after the mass transmission went out, Captain Summers of The Athena, dressed in the same black uniform but with a red trim and a pair of pistols in her hands, with the corresponding holsters at her waist instead of a rifle holster on her back, arrived with another group of children. Another two minutes the MACO Team arrived, surprisingly made up solely of female Operatives, led by a tall, confident brunette.

It was six minutes before the deadline that Captain Rosenberg of The Artemis, again in the black uniform but with a blue trim, with a single pistol in a holster at her right hip and a large pouch, extending down her thigh, on her left hip containing scientific equipment, arrived with six other older soldiers, twenty children solders and six civilians.

"Ninety seconds to extraction." Ares said over the coms.

"Artemis, you ready to receive?" Harris asked.

"Confirmed, Commodore." A slightly husky female voice replied.

Not husky in a sexual way, instead a more 'outdoors' husky, if that was not a total contradiction for a shipboard AI.

"Alright everyone, group around myself or Captain Rosenberg." Harris ordered.

The two groups gathered with a ten-foot gap between them.

"Ares, Artemis. Energise." Harris ordered.

In a flash of light, the two groups disappeared from the street of Sunnydale.

Harris and Summers' group materialised in a large recreation room aboard The Ares. Many of the others, except the Starfleet personnel, were looking around in wonder.

"Ares, Athena. Security Holograms." The Commodore ordered. "You all need to stay here. Summers, with me."

Two figures appeared standing by the door. One was a tall man with short hair and a close-cropped beard, while the other was a lean woman with dark hair in a braid down her back. Both of the new arrivals were dressed in black uniforms, but over the uniforms they both wore vests, bracers and shin guards that resembled old school metallic plate armour. Both also had a rifle in their hands and a sword at their waists.

Harris and Summers were the only ones who were allowed to exit the room, one soldier who tried to follow was stopped by Athena's hand on his shoulder that he was unable to push aside.

Harris and Summers made their way to the Bridge, where another holographic version of Area and Athena were waiting. Ares was at the weapons console while Athena was at the science station.

"Report." Xander ordered.

"Hellmouth energies confirmed." Athena reported. "I have managed to compensate for the energy signal and a secondary interference signal. Artemis and I have solid transport locks achieved on every uncorrupted life sign within the influence zone. Uncorrupted population is thirty-two thousand, four hundred and sixteen, excluding already evacuated personnel."

"Cleansweep ready. Six-minutes fifty-three seconds to deadline. The weapon is loaded and ready to fire, at your command Commodore." Ares added.

"Summers, take a team of Security Holograms down to the flight deck for crowd control duties. Athena, begin beaming up in co-ordination with Artemis to the flight decks." Harris ordered.

Buffy nodded to her orders and left the bridge. Athena began rapidly entering commands into her station. Xander sat down in the command chair in the centre of the bridge and began to monitor the progress.

"Thirty seconds to deadline." Ares reported. "Delivery time fifteen seconds."

"Twenty-eight seconds to finalise transport." Athena added.

"6. 5. 4. 3. 2…" Ares counted down.

"Fire." Commodore Harris ordered.

The Weapon that was fired was not something usually used by Starfleet, even the secretive 'Black Badges' of Section 31. In fact, even in Section 31, only one of the three Commodores who lead the task forces for 'Subsection Delta' had access to them and they could only be used when Sigma Protocol was in effect as part of a Cleensweep. Harris watched as the special torpedo arced down to the town below.

People often use the term 'Annihilation' for a range of destructive events, but what happened in the town of Sunnydale, when the torpedo detonated, was the correct and scientific definition of the word. When the antimatter of the weapon came into contact with the matter of the town, the two reacted and annihilated each other, along with approximately six thousand humans who were deemed to be 'corrupted', eighteen thousand Vampires and nine thousand, six hundred Demons of various breeds. One of those 'Corrupted' Humans happened to be a Chaos Mage who had opened a costume shop.

With the destruction of the Chaos Mage and the focus item, the spell ended. Aboard the United Federation of Planets, Section 31 Advanced Dreadnaught Class Starship Ares, the personality of Commodore Alexander Harris, Task Force Commander of Section 31 Subsection Delta, Demon Hunter Task Force 'Gods of War', receded into the background and was replaced by Xander Harris, teenage Highschool Student and Demon Hunter.

"Ares, take us to Mars orbit. Warp 2." Xander ordered, rubbing his head as he rose. "I'll be in my quarters."

Xander's feet automatically took him to the Commodore's Quarters, subtly demonstrating that he still retained the memories of the Commodore.

TBC…