The Belkan War

Chapter 1 - Contact

"I've got you now!"

"Never!"

The tall marine tried to jump but the shock trooper caught his legs and brought him crashing down on the cargo bay floor, two shock troopers joined arms and charged over the two fallen men, preventing the marines from recovering the ball, a third shock trooper had picked up the rugby ball and passed it to his team mate when a loud whistle echoed throughout the bay.

"Alright, times up, back to your stations people," Lieutenant Commander Andrew Jackson bellowed, smirking as the mixture of Starfleet Marines and Orbital Infantry Shock Troopers.

Starfleet had established the Orbital Infantry after the United Earth Government had declared that any Marine force founded would fall under MACO (Military Assault Command Operations) jurisdiction; the Orbital Infantry was intended to provide a seasoned back up to the regular Security Officers and were initially deployed in Starfleet orbital and planet side installations.

And it wasn't illegal if they were shuffled from post to post on the same ship, right?

The Shock Troopers were trained as a modern take on paratroopers, deploying from heavily armed and protected drop ships or Armoured Drop Pods directly to a planet's surface, they also received intensive training on ship to ship boarding actions.

Due to the Enterprise and Columbia's missions to explore beyond the relays and along the previous course on Enterprise's original mission they had more practical experience than the Macos when the Xindi war started, leading to the expedition captains to prefer the more heavily armed and armoured Shock Troopers for planet side operations.

The Heavy Pulse Rifles and vacuum sealed suits with Polarised Armour Plating had been a nasty surprise to the Xindi – reptilians.

The Macos had been absorbed in Starfleet afterward as the Starfleet Marine Corps…

And many were displeased at how the Orbital Infantry were seen as the senior of the two services.

"Good game Shepard, maybe next time you'll make that jump," Sergeant Anthony Mercer said to the marine he'd brought down.

"Next time we'll win," the Jon Shepard replied, climbing up after the shock trooper got off his legs.

Mercer chuckled and walked over to a squad mate holding several towels, "Yeah and I'll be king of England."

Shepard opened his mouth but was cut off, "let it go, Jon. You know we'd beat them with grass under our feet," his girlfriend Ashley Williams said, holding out a towel for him.

"You're probably right," Mercer agreed, he then smirked at the two, "but we don't have grass under our feet."

Ashley rolled her eyes and followed the Shock Trooper out of cargo, turning toward the marine barracks on D-deck while the Shock Troopers headed to E-deck.

Just as Shepard was towelling off after his shower, an alarm blared and General Quarters was called over the deck speakers. It was chaos as the marines rushed out of their barrack room in full kit ten minutes later; Riker's security team was bustling up and down the corridors as servicemen hurried to their stations, Shock Troopers were standing guard at the turbo-lifts or heading to their launch posts.

Shepard hurried toward the bridge as Williams went to her rally point, the turbo-lift was packed, he spotted a friend from Engineering, "Hayden, What's happening?"

"First contact out by Shanxi, we've been ordered to reinforce, along with the Des Moines, Manchester, Boyarin, Leningrad, Ohio, Seine, Paris, Bismarck, Emden, Lexington and Ark Royal," the engineer replied, ducking out of the lift as the door opened onto B-deck.

Shepard and two technicians made it onto the bridge just as Mercer and his CO Captain Brenner exited the A-deck access corridor

"What exactly is happening to warrant the formation of essentially a battle group?" Brenner asked the ship's Captain, Arthur Wilkes.

"Alien scouts came through the Bhein Morr relay four hours ago; peaceful contact was made before the defence line opened fire…"

Shepard and Mercer exchanged a glance, the Shanxi system was the most heavily defended system in Alliance space barring Arcturus and the four homeworlds. The defence line consisted of several lines of platforms bearing conventional armaments and a dozen Mass Accelerator platforms armed with a Prothean Dreadnought grade (1.4km long firing a 40 kilo ferrous slug at 1.4% light speed) Mass Effect cannon all aimed at (the then) deactivated Relay. Even the colony was fortified with heavily defended fallout shelters outside the city and extensive evacuation tunnels that led beyond the city outskirts.

It was an accepted fact that anyone who forced their way through was unlikely to land troops on the colony.

"It turns out these Quarians are an entire race of refugees, they're a Dextro species so they are limited in their ability to settle on other worlds…

That and the interstellar government won't allow them to settle."

"What!"

"They are using the Quarians as a warning?"

Wilkes nodded grimly, "It seems the Quarians tried to skirt this government's laws on AI but it backfired and their creations, the Geth, not only became self-aware but successfully rebelled, they were forced to flee with nearly twenty million survivors on a fleet of ships ranging from FTL capable shuttles to their remaining warships. The government denied them aid in any form, revoked their status as a member species and effectively evicted them from their space.

They're highly self-sufficient and remarkable resourceful, their ability to jury rig a fix for almost any shipboard problem that will last for several months is frankly incredible.

However, this means that most of their ships are second or third hand and are pretty much held together by duct tape and prayers, pirates and slavers see them as ripe targets and regularly attack, they gambled running through the Bhein Morr relay to escape a powerful slaver fleet shadowing them…"

Wilkes looked worriedly between his senior Officers and NCO, "They think there are warships from the Batarian Hegemony supporting them, a slaver society that is a part of the government that exiled the Quarians, despite the fact Slavery is illegal under this Citadel Council."

"Bastards!"

Most of the bridge crew shared Mercer's opinion, "How have they not been forced to abandon it?" Jackson asked.

"Apparently the Council doesn't want to risk uniting the warlords of nearby lawless space by attacking their best customer," that answer did not go down well.

"Sir! We're approaching Shanxi," the helmsman called out.

"Drop to impulse," Wiles ordered, "and set course for the Anchorage."

A flash was visible briefly as the UES St Lo dropped out of warp and back into real space, I million kilometres from the outer defence line, and began its trip through the cleared lanes to the Naval Anchorage over the colony.

As the small ship closed, several vessels suddenly became distinct against the inky blackness of space, followed by several more, then a dozen and another three dozen, then a hundred, a thousand… then over ten thousand, until the colony was almost blocked from view by the mass of vessels formed up into a protective sphere.

"Captain… there's over fifty thousand ships in that formation!"

"Bloody Hell!" echoed throughout the bridge as the UES Des Moines, Lexington and Boyarin joined the St Lo on its approach.

"I cannot thank you enough for granting my people safe harbour, Captain,"

Captain Erika Hernandez smiled at the vacuum suited figure of the Quarian Admiral, "Your people aren't the first species who have been reduced to refugees that we have encountered, Admiral, but you are the first that was abandoned by their own government," she replied evenly.

"It was because we created the Geth, we broke the law and I think they wanted to make an example of us," Admiral Rael'Zorah said sadly.

Captain Hernandez nodded in understanding but shared a glance with the Admiral that said she knew there was more to the story.

"Earth, if not the Alliance as a whole, will do everything possible to help your people Admiral," she began.

'Captain Hernandez to the Bridge, repeat, Captain Hernandez to the Bridge,'

"Excuse me Admiral, I'll have someone escort you to the conference room for the meeting later," Hernandez says, slightly apologetically.

"Of course, your duties take priority, I understand Captain, I'm meeting my daughter and colleague in the mess soon anyway,"

With that the Captain left the Admiral at the doors to the Mess Hall and headed for the bridge. Rael'Zorah pressed the button to open the door and stepped into the mess; he glanced around and sighed before heading to an empty table by the windows.

The Alliance, primarily human but with some scattered Vulcan and Andorian, crew members were sitting separately from the handful of quarians present, except at three specific tables where two or three of each group sat conversing.

He had to admit, despite the unpleasant familiarity of the situation it was also a little refreshing, the atmosphere was fairly light with only a little tension born of uncertainty and unfamiliarity rather than prejudiced hostility.

He looked out the window onto the large space station with two massive ribbed dry docks currently holding four of the Heavy Fleet's cruisers and several of the frigate sized civilian ships in smaller berths, berths that Starfleet and Andorian ships had vacated for them.

'Perhaps our trials are finally over,' he thought as he watched a formation of newly arrived Alliance ships pass, 'perhaps we can finally settle down and rebuild.'

"Father!"

He turned away from the window to see his daughter hurry to him across the Mess Hall, "Tali," he stood up and embraced his excited daughter, he couldn't help but smile under his visor it was so rare to see his daughter truly happy or excited, but ever since she'd seen her first Earth ship out the porthole she had this irrepressible energy about her, "I trust your tour of the Challenger went well?"

"Oh father, it was amazing, not even an Asari ship could compare to it," Tali said excitedly.

"She was upset when they wouldn't allow us in the Engine room but she cheered up immediately after we reached the bridge," the woman behind the excited teenager, Shala'Raan vas Tonbay said, And she couldn't stop bouncing around when we were offered a ride in one of their shuttlepods."

Rael laughed as Tali looked at the deck embarrassedly.

"Well, this was unexpected,"

"Indeed, native species obviously expecting alien incursion through Relay, prepared accordingly, indication of aggression or territorial instinct… although, may just be paranoia."

Captain Veltran looked to his colleague, Specialist Mordin Solus of the Salarian Special Tasks Group, who stood very still and watched the scene before them very carefully, but everyone knew his mind was racing.

"I was actually referring to First Contact immediately after passing through the Relay," he said, but you are correct, the scale of these defences is worrying.

"Again, unexpected but not altogether unlikely."

"Sir! We've performed all the scans we can without giving ourselves away," the navigation officer said, "None of the native craft possess Element Zero signatures."

"None? Very interesting," Veltran said at the Nav officer's nod.

"Very Interesting, vessels have no Element Zero but capable of Faster Than Light travel, planet obviously colony, substantial colony, but colony none the less."

"And their ships have a very high energy reading, in the dreadnought range for the cruiser sized ships," the captain mused.

"Indeed, very unusual, none of the ships possessing discernible armament, possibly not armed at all, but vessels not built using Mass Effect technology so no reason to believe same principles apply. Presence of Dreadnought calibre defence platforms puzzling, scans indicate conventional Mass Accelerator Cannons installed yet ships do not possess Eezo signature," Mordin continued.

"Why build Mass Accelerators and not build ships with the same technology?" Mordin's apprentice, Maelon, asked.

"Possible they found Mass Effect technology either inferior or possessed too many drawbacks compared to other avenues of research, or perhaps there is a shortage of Element Zero that made the technology uneconomical. Could be indication of lack of Prothean or other Elder species ruins and technology in home system, or perhaps discovered such ruins after achieving space flight and/or FTL capability.

Impossible to be certain, need more data."

"Do you think they are a threat?"

"Uncertain, need more data," Mordin replied.

"I wonder how relations will go," Veltran wondered, "The Quarians have been held under foot for centuries, on the other hand, considering how well Contact has turned out for them so far they may well have no reason to doctor the data to paint us in a worse light."

"Worse light, Captain?"

Veltran turned to his learned colleague, "the Council's treatment of the Quarians after the Morning War is frankly disgraceful, if not criminal from an objective perspective."

Mordin took a deep breath and sighed, "Unfortunate but accurate."

"Sir, a native ship just dropped out of FTL, we caught it on sensors."

"Put it up."

The main vid-screen on the aft wall of the CIC switched from a display of the system and the ships, stations and defences to a picture of the stars angled away from the planet, there was a large diamond shaped flash and the ship, (the main hull was a half saucer with a short stubby section protruding from the rear of the centre of the saucer to which was attached to wings at a 60 degree angle from each other with cylindrical nacelles on the wings. On the saucer section were the black markings: NI-55 UES St LO), came from the centre of the flash, its image distorted like it was stretched to its point of origin and an energy distortion along the leading edge as if it was riding a wave. The image returned to normal and after three seconds the ship changed course and headed toward the station.

"Incredible."

"No Blue Shift or other signs of conventional FTL detected, Sir!"

"This could be the greatest discovery in modern history!"

"Possibly…"

"It presents new possibilities but also presents dangers," Veltran agreed, "We have no idea how this alternate technology works, whether it's superior or inferior. If it's superior, it will present new possibilities for exploration but render thousands of years of naval doctrine obsolete."

"…You're absolutely certain, Colonel?"

"There's no doubt, it came through with the last Quarian ships, it cut its main engines and appears to be sending its heat emissions into heat sinks in the hull, it's obviously a stealth craft," Colonel Stuart Adams of the Shanxi Garrison replied over the comm. As he paced the CIC of the gun platform he was stationed on, he glanced at the holo-map in the centre displaying the system, the Alliance and Quarian ships, the defence lines, the mysterious contact and the fifteen platforms that made up his command, "I have not ordered 'weapons locked' but I have ordered all platforms to 'Ready Stations' and have my three Dreadnought platforms preparing Firing Solutions. Give me the order…"

"That will not be necessary, Colonel," Captain Hernandez gently rebuked, "However, The Admiral and my fellow Captains agree that caution is prudent, keep an eye on it and the other on the Relay, at least one of the Citadel powers knows the Quarians came through."

"You don't need to tell me," Adams replied, "our sensor buoys are picking up an increase in traffic, some Turian and Batarian built ships, we'll have company soon enough."

"Colonel! We've got movement on the other side of the Relay!" shouted one of the sensor operators.

"Captain, you hear that?"

"I did Colonel, I'm alerting the other ships and the station, I have to cut this short, good luck Stuart."

"The Relay's activating!"

"Weapon's hot, prepare to fire!" Adams strode up to the holo-map and inspected the images of the incoming vessels.

"Turian and Batarian silhouettes,forty ships, twenty eight ships have a shared Primary IFF, twelve have a different Primary IFF but broadcast the same signal as the others as their Secondary IFF."

"Sir, we were just signalled by the Quarian Admiral Han'Gerrel; those are slaver ships and Batarian warships."

"Lock targets and have the computer predict FTL vectors in case they decide to rush the gun line; I want the Armour Plating online NOW!" Adams ordered.

"Sir! You need to hear this," the comm lieutenant said.

"Power down your weapons and surrender your ships, your ships and lives are now the property of the Batarian Hegemony. Prepare yourselves for your new lives."

"Sir, what do we do?" a young ensign asked, scared.

Adams looked at the young man in annoyance, "we do our goddamn jobs, all stations lock targets, take out that Ruddy Dreadnought first, FIRE!"

As one the three Dreadnought platforms fired, 40 kilo slugs shot towards the largest warship, a Batarian Subjugator-class Dreadnought, the first two struck the Ship's kinetic barriers ten seconds after the Batarian Dreadnought fired on the UES Challenger, the third, though slowed, penetrated and slammed into the dorsal superstructure, decompressing the command deck and killing the Hegemony Commander unknowingly throwing the fleet into disarray. The Dreadnought lost power and was left drifting in space, intact apart from the Command Decks.

The remaining platforms launched torpedoes in mass waves, the Second defence line under Broga and the Third defence line under Roth added their own fire, the Mass Accelerator fire gutting four cruisers with the other two rounds clipping several frigates and a fifth cruiser.

The torpedo waves were met by massed laser CIWS fire, but only half were shot down as the short range weapons had trouble boring into the duranium casings. The weapons were devastating to the first line of frigates but most were expended uselessly as they impacted the debris from the destroyed vessels.

At that moment the battle entered its critical phase, the slaver fleet split up. A cruiser and three frigates, one of which bore a Hegemony IFF, fled towards the Bhein Morr Relay, the remaining three cruisers and eleven frigates performed an FTL Jump into the colony's orbit, miraculously avoiding colliding with Broga's platforms.

"Sir, enemy vessels are dropping into the colony's atmosphere and launching shuttle craft, they're heading for the city!"

"Warn Williams he's going to have company, we've done our bit, it's up to Broga and the fleet now," Adams replied.

"This is a disturbing turn of events," Veltran muttered.

"Indeed, slaver forces decimated including one Hegemony Dreadnought, Hegemony will not ignore ship's destruction are likely to attack in force."

"The Council won't ignore a Batarian invasion," Maelon said firmly.

"No, but Council will be slow to react, only ones who know complete truth on this side of Relay, Batarians likely inform Turians that natives or Quarians opened Relay 314 and were fired upon while attempting to uphold Citadel law," Mordin said.

"And the Turians aren't likely to check all the facts before rushing through to 'uphold the law,' if they don't they'll just let the Batarian fleet through," Veltran replied he then turned to Mordin, "We have to inform High Command and the Councillor."

"Indeed, recommend leaving covert observation team behind," Mordin replied.

"Alright, we can spare one shuttle, get your team together and get into the bay in ten minutes, after that we're leaving," Veltran agreed, he then stepped over to the helmsman, "Once we're on the other side get us a safe distance from the Relay and signal the nearest Stealth cruiser".

"Sir, the stealth ship just launched a shuttle and is heading back to the Relay."

Adams stepped up to the holo-map and observed the two projections parting, "What are you up too?" he wondered.

"Sir, should I give the order to fire?"

Adams thought it over for a moment, "No, inform the other platforms to let them pass. They're obviously an observation group and I think it unwise at this point to apprise them of our ability to see through their stealth systems."

"It may be a waste of time, the Admirals ordered all Marines and Orbital Infantry deployed to the surface, they'll be hard pressed to get down there undetected."

"If they're from a Citadel Power, it may not be necessary for us to be uninformed… as long as these Batarians are unaware," Adams stated as the stealth ship went through the Relay, and carefully watching the small shuttle's progress as it weaved its way through the defence lines and between the craft fighting over the city to begin its descent.