Sorry that this took so long but I have been kind of lost on where I wanted this story to go so I have been mostly going over ideas on how I wanted this to turn out. I still not entirely sure where I want it to end up but I mostly got that sorted now. The codex has been updated so if you want more information you can go and take a look. This story also will be more AU than Before with the Galaxy been different with more factions and another galactic government. So enjoy and I will try to maintain regular updates. Also, there are not too many changes to some chapters.

''Speaking''

''Thoughts''

HSF Dreadnought Talon, Bridge

In the system of relay 314

Admiral Orinia stood on the command bridge of the Dreadnought Talon as she stood tall and proud like all Turians should and radiated an aura of authority. She had her talons behind her back, watching her crew work, looking to her data-screen and seen her flotilla in perfect order the 67th patrol fleet. Her fleet. At her command was 81 of the Hierarchy's finest warships patrolling the Asari terminus border, she had 30 cruisers and 50 frigates to support her

Alarm systems suddenly blared. Orinia blinked and looked to her sensor officer Castis'' Report''

Castis looks from his data screen, a look of terror in his eyes remaining composed'' Sensors indicate a large flotilla of pirate vessels, Admiral.''

''I see, and how many and what class of vessels are we looking at''

''We are detecting close to 2000 vessels that just came out the relay, most of them appear to be of Batarian design with other council warships mostly outdated '' Orinia was forced to compose herself at those numbers, she looked towards the system map.'' Take us through the inactive relay designated 314, we can't face that many so we can only hope to lose this armada on the other side. I will take full responsibility but we need to warn High command of this armada.'' She states in a firm voice not giving away how she feels

The crew on the bridge looked at her shocked for a moment before doing as ordered, she looked down ''It will cost me my chance in the military but my men will live''. ''Prepare codes for activation.'' She orders her voice firm hiding her anxiety over breaking the law.

HSV Dreadnought Domination, Bridge

The system of relay 314

The hegemony funded pirate fleet had just jumped into the system under the command of Porvan Gepnohan. He was deep in thought of the future slaves he would bring to the Hegemony with his great armada that he had gathered and was supported by a few of his government assets, He was suddenly aware of his sensor officer looking at him with fear in his eyes, he smiled at that ''What is it''

He broke eye contact ''We have contacts... sir, there hierarchy only 81 ships on sensors one reads as a dreadnought.'' he says a slight whimper in his voice

Porvan growled. ''Send word to the fleet we must crush them before they warn the Hierarchy!'' anger clear in his voice

The sensor officer nodded, he looked at his station and read something. ''Admiral they are running from us shall we pursue?"

Porvan nodded then he said. ''There heading for that relay we will follow them and we will deal with them and then once they are gone we will launch our raid, But first send word to the rest of the fleet to get me more ships to cover this side of the relay if an issue develops we need to ensure they will not escape take and hold us near that relay we advance once we receive word from the Hegemony.'' He grinned it was a good day to kill Turian scum, they were all meant to serve his kind he would do this for the Hegemony and himself of course.

Time skip three days

Shanxi Defense station, the orbit of Shanxi

Captain Alex Montgomery

Date: September 09 2257 15:37

The colonization of Shanxi was well under-way with all defensive forces and stations in place and bunkers and the capital city finally built and people moving in for the last month with the materials arriving weekly. He had a good feeling of his current situation confident that they were safe as he was at the head of a standard defense fleet and that no pirate actions had been occurring in the area at the moment. He looked over the control room and smiled. His new command he hoped that he would not disappoint his old man.

Alex Montgomery was the eldest sibling of his family he had two other siblings both sisters. He had joined the Navy fresh out of high school right at the end of the insurrection. He had been selected to be in charge of the Shanxi defense fleet because of how his skills had impressed the higher ups now with what was standard defense fleet with 35 corvettes for policing actions. His last posting had been on the escort carrier Einstein been an XO four months ago.

At the moment he was enjoying a lovely steak and chips after he had completed all of the reports that were due for the day and was looking forward to the date he had lined up for that evening. He was in his formal navy dress uniform showing his rank clearly, it's clear silver and gold trim mixing well with the overall blue. he had a clean shaving face with his black hair neat in a buzz cut.

''Captain, we have a situation you are needed in the CIC'' Came to the announcement over the station's audio systems.

He got up and signaled his waiter to save it for later. He got up and did a light jog up to the CIC which took him a good nine minutes to get to, He enters when the door slid open to see all the personal there he looked towards the stations AI, She was on a holo-table at the moment and had the appearance of a mid-twenties female wearing WW2 American uniform paratrooper gear holding onto an M1 Ga-rand.

'' Irene what's the situation'' his voice clean and crisp.

''The ODP's guarding the inactive relay are reporting that it has begun to show activity'' she states a little confused.

''Get me a connection to command so that we can report this we may have hostiles inbound, spin up the MAC guns and have our people land on the planet if they're not needed here send word to the fleet to go to combat status two'' HE orders his voice carrying a slight amount of worry

''Aye captain'' Irene answers giving off a salute.

HSF Dreadnought Talon, Bridge

Shanxi System

Orinia stood deep in thought of what was about to happen she knew her chance for survival was low at best. ''Exiting relay in one minute'' The VI said emotionlessly

''Prepare to get us underway for FTL Travel, ''she orders while she looks towards her data screen hoping that her plan of action would work because it was the only chance that her troops had.

''Admiral we have ships and orbital constructs in the system...they do not match any known designs, and some of their larger ships are registering only a small amount of eezo'' She looks sharply to her data-screen and her eyes dilating a little.

''Power to barriers and drop the power from the weapon systems. We don't need to appear hostile and send the first contact bundle!'' She orders her voice calm but strained. She looks down trying to remain composed with the current situation, "I just started a Spirits damn first contact scenario and have a Pirate fleet following us, I will be lucky if I end up with a firing squad because of this assuming this new race doesn't just tear into us before those pirates."

she looked up towards her view screen showing strange constructs and a fleet near the planet all looking both sleek and utilitarian. ''Also prioritize the translation of their language so that we can warn them that we have a pirate armada coming in behind us. ''Castis, what are their ship sizes and numbers it must be a defense fleet?.'' she asks a small amount of nervousness is easily heard in her voice.

''Ma'am the sensors are saying that they have a dreadnought and five medium weight cruisers and eight light cruisers and sixteen frigates with 35 patrol craft Ma'am'' Answers Castis in a jarring voice.

''The orbital constructs 25 000 kilometers out are looking on to us they have weapons systems ma'am,'' shouts Castis his voice going Frantic

''Spirits just keep the weapon systems cold we won't survive this without taking a risk and will need everything we have to fight that Armada.'' She all but shouts in small voice realizing her position.

The entire bridge is silent and tense "Who puts weapons on space constructs these people must be insane, I mean it was deemed too bloody expensive to build" Exclaims one of the bridge crew.

''Ma'am we are receiving a transmission it seems to be a message and first contact package.'' said the communications officer his sub-harmonics showing relief.

''This is Captain Alex Montgomery, Senior officer of Shanxi defense fleet, of the Systems Alliance, state your intentions while we hope you are peaceful, we will defend ourselves should you force us, we are no strangers to conflict''

''It would seem by the tone they were using they are likely warning us.'' Says Castis relieved

''ensure it's safe and let's hope we can make at least a partial understanding so that we can warn them'' she states in a calm voice trying to get a grip with the situation.

''It's safe Ma'am'' says Aultis after running a quick scan over the information.

'' let's see it then and see what these people are like we are most likely going to be meeting them in person soon.''

The images that were brought up showed pictures of male and female humans then showing there a form of a greeting which then changed to different pictures of Earth ancient armies up to the modern forces and cities with their flag at the end

Orinia was a little shocked at their appearance of the aliens which called themselves human they looked like Asari with only small differences." why do they look like Asari and it at least it seems they have a strong military culture if those images were anything to go by, I just hope they don't take as long to make decisions I might be here all year then." comments the admiral

''Ma'am we have an incoming hail'' Calls Castis

''Put it through,'' she orders sternly he posture becoming more rigid. "They could not have figured out our language so fast, could they."

Shanxi Defense station, the orbit of Shanxi

Captain Alex Montgomery POV

''Captain the sensors are reporting that 81 vessels of unknown design it would appear we have a first contact situation'' Irene says sounding extremely eager bouncing around in the holo-emitter

''Good send all information that is gathered to high command and what is the status on our reinforcements'' he orders his voice and face giving away no emotion.

''Captain the nearest ships to the system is a single patrol fleet attached to the fifth fleet they are three hours out, and command says that the expedition fleet was scheduled to head through relay 19 they are being diverted to us they will be here in about five days sir.'' Says Stephan his voice strictly professional as he was new and fresh out of Boot-camp.

''Good send word to general Williams to get the civilians into the bunkers and get ready for a possible invasion.'' Orders Alex His voice only giving the slightest hint of worry.

an elderly communications officer says'' Sir we have an incoming information bundle'' his voice calm and reassuring.

''Isolate a station and make sure it's safe and not harmful Irene'' says Alex. "please don't be hostile at least it seems their weapons are cold now."

''Sir it appears to be a first contact package'' Irene says relief flooding her voice.

''Good I think it best we return the favor,'' Alex says confidently

''This is Captain Alex Montgomery, Senior officer of Shanxi defense fleet, Of the Systems Alliance State your intentions while we hope you are peaceful, we will defend ourselves should you force us, we are no strangers to conflict'' he says in both a hopeful and slight threatening tone.

''Send that with our first contact bundle and Irene get working on a translation matrix immediately we need to talk to these people'' Alex looks to the projector show us the information they sent us'' he says firm guise of a commander in place.

The Turian first contact package started by showing off the citadel and then all the races that had been discovered and what they were called showing peace and prosperity followed by pictures of the Turian Fleets guarding both planets and the citadel, then came the various Citadel races which ended up garnering a few comments and a bit of shock when the Asari came up.

''It would seem that they are peaceful the question I want to know is why they came through that relay with Their weapons hot, Irene how is the translation going.'' He asks in a questioning tone.

''I have it at 80% completion the information sent had the Prothean language, Captain there may be slight variations but I am confident that you can hold a small conversation with them, Orders?.'' she asks in an eager voice.

''Hail them and see why they ended up on our doorstep'' Alex orders

an image of an alien standing with her bridge crew dressed in their armor, Alex looks to who he assumes is the commander of this fleet with a neutral expression on his face.

''Welcome to Shanxi, why are you here!'' he demands.

''I am Admiral Orinia of the ninety seventh patrol fleet, we were running from... Slavers who had a larger fleet it was not known that you were here, we were going to attempt to lose them I wish to offer my apologies for causing this incident'' states the admiral sounding only a bit conflicted.

He glares at the Alien. ''I see. Irene send an alert to high command, we have hostiles inbound I want our forces ready yesterday!"

He looks back to the alien, He has a scowl on his face'' Irene allow them through our defense perimeter at the relay we need more people if we have to fight off these damned slavers and alert General Williams to get all the civilians in the bunkers ASAP and those that are not in it are to have weapons Turtle protocol is now in effect as of this moment. Admiral, I want all you have on these slavers weapons systems speed and how long do I have before they get here and most importantly how many of them are there.'' He demands in a tone that ensures no argument and is easy to see that he is enraged.

Orinia stands still and rigid at the way of things just turned out "How did they figure out our language, At least they are getting ready I just hope they have more ships nearby or they will lose this planet." I will send over the information to you.'' she says slightly confused and taken back by the attitude of the commander and how quickly he had acted.

''Good also send whatever ground forces you have to the planet we may need them also I want you here so that we can make a plan to deal with this threat.'' The transmission cut out after his demand.

''just fucking great there are aliens and they still make use of slaves at least it seems the rest of the galaxy is civilized. How the hell did they let slavers build an armada?'' He says exasperated and then looks at Irene. ''Irene have you managed to enter their systems undetected, also keep our weapons focused on them for now.'' He asks as his voice is cold and dead.

''Yes captain I have full access to some of their information network and am sending it to high command as we speak, They are genuine about the coming attack there logs indicate a near full strength fleet on it's way, guess we are going to have to show the rest of the galaxy what were made of I hope we stack up.'' She says with a feral grin on her face with a slight wink at the end.

''That is good prepare an honor guard to meet me at the hanger we will great them in the good old fashion way.'' He orders at first which slowly turns to exasperation.

Shuttle on route to Shanxi defense station

16:47

The shuttle was dim lit and spacious with so few aboard with only the pilots and guards beside both generals the view of the alien dreadnought growing in size.

''This is a terrible idea Admiral we don't know if we can even trust this species, we just ran into them they are been for too trusting for my liking.'' Says Desolas Arterius his mandibles in a deep frown. ''We just don't know them; I don't like that you are putting us right into their sights why are you being so trusting.'' he grouches. His Armour highly decorated giving away his status as a general.

She looks at him with a critical eye ''We don't have a choice in the matter we either trust them or we end up losing more of our forces trying to hold them off...we need them to help us with this Pirate Armada, also I brought this on them they are clearly angry with us for bringing this conflict to their doorstep and are likely trying to avoid needless conflict.'' she says in a dejectedly while her head drops.

''I still think they won't be much help they must have only just reached interstellar travel since we have yet to run into them and their ships barely contain any Eezo I doubt they're going to be much help.'' He says confidently.

Orinia looks to Desolas and shakes her head. ''If you think like that then we are dead and you can pray to the spirits that we make it out of this because if you did not notice that station has a massive weapon attached to it and it looks as if it can do some real harm to the fleet and we have been mostly stagnant on our weapons development for how long, the phaseton has only gone through nine redesigns in the last 300 years and they were all small improvements we have barely advanced since we met the council it's not hard to catch up to our technology if they're based off the Protheans, all our advancement has been in refinement and improvements to armor lately.'' Orinia states in a firm voice

Desolas was about to reply when the pilot says they are entering their hanger bay ''Admiral you best get ready were landing now.''

Eight guards stand and form a protective perimeter around both the admiral and general as they turn to the shuttle's door as it opens. They begin to walk out they see a long row of soldiers lined up on each side of the ramp with their commanding officer at the end in dress uniform.

Both sides walk to one another upon reaching each other Alex Montgomery salutes followed by a loud sound of boots slamming together and the honor guards' rifles pointing directly up in perfect order. Startling the Turians, though it brings grins to their faces whilst they return their own Turian salute.

''Welcome to the Systems Alliance while it is a pleasure to meet you and that you are peaceful I wish it could have been under better circumstances we will have to make do please follow me, '' he says his Omni tool translating what he says not portraying his grave tone.

Orinia nods and follows the delegation. ''Of course, captain, I must say Captain I am impressed at how easily your people managed to figure out our language, also I am glad your people make use of dreadnoughts to protect your colonies, it may be the difference between our success and defeat,'' Orinia states confidently.

The Humans around her look confused for a moment '' I don't know if that was a translator mistake or you use different types of ship classes but we don't have a dreadnought we only have a heavy cruiser Admiral.'' states the captain only slightly confused.

The Turian delegation stop's and sharply looks to the captain ''What do you mean by it being a Cruiser!" Says one of the Turians sounding horrified.

"That is not good if they consider that ship a cruiser that means they have a lot of them, If that is the case that means that they have more large ships nearby that can help, That also means that their mainstay Heavy ships are most likely over the number of vessels allowed in that weight, I guess the politicians are going to be very busy soon.'' Desolas thinks while he looks over the Humans questionably.

Orinia attempts to make an effort to not show that it affected by the news and says ''well in our terms anything above 800 meters would classify as a dreadnought while your ships are just over that limit by a bit..., I have to ask what would you consider a... my flagship by your standards.'' sounding flustered

"Please don't say that it would be considered a light dreadnought by your standards I don't want to see more destiny ascension class dreadnought's one of them is enough as it is, the galaxy all ready has enough problems." Orinia shudders at the thought.

"I get the distinct feeling that this will cause issues in the future if that is how they reacted to our cruisers been that size at least I now know that our heavy cruisers are close to what they would consider their heavy hitters then how would they react to one of our flagships" He looks towards them and gives a friendly grin'' I would say that based on its size we would call it a battle cruiser in regards to our ship classifications wonderful ships but nothing quite like a battleship those are a sight to see,'' he says in both a confident and wistful smile on his face.

A sliding door opens into the stations CIC with multiple guards in the room their eyes firmly on their visitors. ''well enough with the pleasantries we can leave the talking to the diplomats right now we need a plan of action''

gives a sharp look to the Turians once he reaches the hole-table he begins to address everyone in the room. ''We currently have a single patrol fleet en route that is 3 hours out we can expect them to arrive before the pirates, the expedition fleet which was the nearest main fleet is five days out while the 5th fleet is a week out from gathering enough of it task forces and arriving here which means that we have to provide support or stop this pirate fleet.''

The captain looks to the admiral "what number of ships are we looking at and what types I have yet to go through the data and do not know their capabilities completely except that they are out of date and of poor quality, so brief us on what we are up against.'' he asks in a firm tone.

Orinia nods and moves to stand where the captain is and tries to maintain her nerves at having to brief all those present after the information she had just received and how they would react. ''from the scans that my ships managed to get before we went through the relay we discovered that there fleet has a single dreadnought class vessel and only six hundred cruiser weight vessels with the remainder been frigate weight from our sensors whilst we were in transit. We detected that they started their own transit two days after us with roughly a thousand transports but considering that they wanted to catch us they will ignore the safety restrictions we believe that they will arrive in system at least 18 hours from now she steps back and nods to the captain.

''That's good we have time then; Irene please bring up a system map'' Alex orders.

''Yes captain''. her voice carrying great enthusiasm.

The Turians took a moment before they realized what had said that and General Desolas immediately looked to the holo-table ''YOU USE AI'S ARE YOU ALL INSANE YOU WILL GET US ALL KILLED DISABLE THAT THING NOW!...'' his voice strained and panicked as He starts to reach for his pistol and all of a sudden, all the guards in the room have weapons aimed at the Turians who keep their weapons lowered while Orinia orders her guards to maintain their positions.

He gives a cold Glare at the Turian General.'' We have used AI for over a hundred years and have had no issues with them they are citizens of the Systems Alliance though assuming some of your reactions I am going to go out on a limb and say that you have bad experiences with AI'' he gestures to the guards to stand down

"you may see this as an issue we do not... so deal with it. We have a bigger problem mainly the Huge slaver Armada that is heading this way at this moment I am having our craft deploy nuclear mines to inflict damage on them. ''At least they did not know about the mines that were already at the relay. We cannot let them learn all of our secrets and it's best to not let them know of how far we have advanced our stealth vessels are, must be better than there's though.''

''Also you gave us the numbers of their fleet, I want to know how many strike-craft that they have I assume that they will have large amounts of them with a fleet of that size.''

Desolas was enraged and before he could go on another rant Orinia silences him with a glare and looks to the Captain her features schooled and neutral ''Yes we can let the Politicians discuss that issue''

Receiving glares from the humans ''We still have to deal with the approaching fleet but they will not have any strike craft except for from the single dreadnought they are ineffective against main ships we don't field that many we only use them for planetary support, at the moment we only have about a hundred and fifty within our fleet'' She says confused by the question.

She receives a raised eyebrow from the captain '' Are you saying that you do not know the danger of strike-craft if that is the case, we will have to educate you people and the pirates in how truly dangerous they are.'' He says with a bloodthirsty grin appearing ''This battle just got a whole lot easier.''

He looks to General Desolas giving him a hard look. "General have your men deployed to the ground we will be deploying our forces to the ground as well you will coordinate with general Williams on the ground to deal with those that are landing. We will not defend the planet we will be doing something a little more unorthodox. They have us outnumbered so we will lose if we try to defend we are going to have to support the ground and we cannot do that if we are dead.'' he brings up a System map and highlights five locations in the system.

The first location highlighted is a gas giant in system 215 million kilometers from the relay. ''We will have our heavy Cruisers positioned here to hit any ships that come through the relay. With twenty of your frigates and two of ours as an escort.'' He pans the map to the second location Highlighted was Shanxi.

''We will have our carriers along with our destroyers for escort stationed near the station with orders to withdraw from combat should things go south, the corvettes will remain to defend the ODP's.'' The Third location marked is behind the relay.

''We will have our stealth Destroyers and Frigates here to launch an attack on their dreadnought and some of their cruisers. They will pull out after they start to move to intercept them and harass them over the battle.''

The fourth and fifth Locations were both Hundred and eighty million Kilometers from the relay in opposite directions and two hundred kilometers from the Gas Giant. The Gas Giant was between Shanxi and the relay but still enough room to fire the ODP's.'' These two locations we will position twenty-three of our light cruisers and thirty of our frigates here, these task-forces will be made a mix up of half of one another frigates and cruisers to provide a bit of diversity, Questions?'' He looks around the room mostly focusing on the Turians.

Oriana looks at the plan trying to Calculating their chances. '' What is the purpose of splitting so many of our forces around the system, would it not be better to position them for hit and run attacks or a fighting withdrawal?'' She asks not sounding all too confident about the plan.

He looks at her and gives a small nod. '' The reason is simple we need our Strike-craft to have time to do the most damage to this Fleet also our mines should scramble there sensors for a bit, while this happens we will target their battlecruiser as well as their cruisers the more we wipe out the better chances we have of picking off their leadership, this will, in turn, disorganize them I hope for this to give us more time before they organize. Then once they get a move on whichever group they pursue will FTL jump away to a new location and continue to harass them. The best possible outcome of this is that they fragment and hunt our groups at the same time bringing down their numbers, From what I could read up on in the information you sent that their ships were sub-par at best requiring roughly two to one odds to win an engagement.'' He says confidently ending off looking at expecting an answer.

Desolas nods at the not at all happy about the Al's a light scowl shown adorning his face. ''That is correct and the Batarians are not the best tacticians when it comes to a fight, we may just win this but it will be a long shot.'' He says before letting out a sigh.

Alex looks around then nods. ''Good, we will do our best but for now, we will prepare good luck, everyone, He dismissed the Turians and left to a viewing panel and looked towards the relay a grim distant look in his eyes. ''A lot of us won't make it out of this but I guess it is time to see how well we stack up against some alien pirates, I hope we hold the line well if not there may not be an Alliance for our people.''