Concordiat Ascendant: A Bolo/Mass Effect Crossover Ch. 3 up!

[fusion]

So far I like this story, but like Mass Effect I don't like how it is heavily reliant on the codex for back story. It would definitely be interesting to see mass Mass Effect ground forces attacking a bolo (Yes, I did that on purpose)

[Sithking Zero]

So far I like this story, but like Mass Effect I don't like how it is heavily reliant on the codex for back story. It would definitely be interesting to see mass Mass Effect ground forces attacking a bolo (Yes, I did that on purpose)

Yay, two pages!

But I sort of disagree. The codexes imply that there is a much wider world than what we are allowed to see, and that we're only scratching the surface of it. In increases the wonder we have, IMHO.

[Hawkwings]

I believe this is the "show, don't tell" argument. It's fine here though, since this is a lot of history you're covering in a short amount of words, and I don't want to slog through 3 pages of ME alt-history to get the the hot Bolo-vs-puny insignificant ants action.

[Sithking Zero]

Here's Chapter Three. Oh, and Mr. Doom? Remember when I said that A Bolo wasn't the one who said "Battle Reflex Mode Activated?"

This was technically true. More accurately, it was three Mk. XXVI Bolos and a military AI mounted on the Centerpoint Station.

Chapter 3:

The Battle of the Centerpoint

Or

Ten Percent Luck

Or

Being Shot at By Crazy People

Shangxi was humanity's first colony forged on the other side of a gravity catapult. If this was Shangxi's only claim to fame, then the colony would have been pretty boring. However, discovery of Builder ruins, proximity to two catapults, and the fact that the planet was part of a binary planet system (both of which capable of sustaining human life) brought in people from all walks of life. Miners, politicians, researchers, and soldiers migrated in great numbers to the twin colonies. Since it had only been about ten years since the discovery of the worlds, though, the planet wasn't built up to a great degree. In fact, the largest settlements were based around orbital elevators leading up to the spacedocks, both of which were used primarily to accept shuttles and supplies from Centerpoint Station, located at the very center of the binary system. The planets literally rotated around that one point, meaning that every day, a planetrise and set would be nothing short of spectacular from the station.

There had been a small military garrison on each of the twin worlds, outfitted with a few tanks, SPA-T (Self Propelled Artillery-Tracked), one Golem each (a Mk. XXV without the sophisticated psychotronics or AI), a large amount of APC's and troop transports, twelve hovercars each, and a few skimmers for reconnaissance. The Navy had a separate garrison, which included twenty fighters each, ten bombers, and fifteen gunships, as well as two Rhino-class pocket frigates landed on the surface. Between the two planets, there were only six thousand infantry total.

The recent threats from the unknown power, though, had doubled the strength of the naval land-based fighter groups, added a third Rhino to both garrisons, and an extra Golem to Talus' army. The most significant addition, though, was from the infamous Dinochrome Brigade.

Delivered straight to Shangxi and Talus were no less than four Mk. XXVI Bolos, armed with the latest hyperheruistic software and full VLS missile tubes. Escorting all of these were an additional ten frigates, supplementing the ten already available in the defense fleet. These were a mix of Shardona-class and their slower, better-armed cousins, the Oculus-class frigates. Along with these frigates came an extra two thousand soldiers, leaving a total of four thousand per world. In addition to this, over one hundred satellites had been set up around the worlds, armed with miniaturized mass drivers and laser beams, with a few carrying nuclear missiles. Better still, the main force of the fleet was only two weeks away, and would include support from dreadnought-class vessels, fresh resupply ships, and a full brigade of Bolos.

Unfortunately for the twin worlds, the scout reports from two catapults out had detected at least two hundred and fifty vessels in the unknown fleet, with around one hundred and fifty being frigates. The rest was much, much bigger, being at least destroyer sized or larger, including one absolutely titanic vessel easily the size of a fleet hub. Four kilometers long and ten tall, it was shaped like some bizarre, organic cross with an immense cannon in the center. Unfortunately, further details weren't coming, because the massive warfleet had spotted the scouts. All probes had thus far been destroyed, but to the best of their knowledge, the attack would begin very shortly.

Thus it was, that on May 12, 3163 AD, that the first breeze of the coming storm became a gale-force wind.

"Commodore!" a technician ran up to his superior officer, snapped off a salute.

"Yes, Ensign?" replied Commodore Bugler, "What is it?"

"The Outsystem Catapult is acting up. We have indications that there are multiple jumps occurring."

Bugler's blood turned to ice, and his face gained a ghostly pallor. Around him, the rest of the command center of Centerpoint Station grew deathly silent.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

The ensign nodded and added, "The Outsystem Catapult is operational, and it looks like things are coming through."

"Thank you, ensign, that's what I thought you said," Bugler murmured, before barking out orders, "All right, I want us to set at DEFCON-1, right now. All leaves are cancelled, all ships and fighters are to be- wait," he paused, then turned to a lieutenant, "Do we have any ships scheduled to come in from Outsystem?"

"No, sir, we do not," Lieutenant Alenko responded crisply.

"Thank you. All ships and fighters are to be scrambled immediately. Wake up the Bolos, get the soldiers awake and ready, and finish up whatever the elevators are doing. Prepare to scrub the navigation computers, too. We don't want them finding the Concordiat at large," he growled. Even as he finished speaking, a titanic round from the enemy fleet slammed into the station's armored outer hull, knocking him off of his feet.

"Two things," groaned Bugler as he picked himself up from the deck, "First thing is to raise the Battlescreen. The second is what the hell was that?"

"They just opened fire upon us, sir!"

"But… but they just came out of the Catapult! How could they already be within firing range!"

There was a loud humming that quickly silenced itself as the battlescreens came online.

"Sir, the sensors that detected the fleet are subject to lightspeed delay, and they fired relativistic rounds at us."

"Are you telling me…" Bugler asked the lieutenant in a very slow and deliberate voice, "That these…" he struggled for an appropriate word for the creatures that had attacked his station and failed, "things… just came out of the Catapult and immediately opened fire on us, without even a hint of attempting to communicate?"

"Ah… yes, sir."

"So to sum up our situation…" he started, as the screens began detecting smaller impacts against the hull, launched several light-hours before, "We're under attack by an unknown power who hates us for an unknown reason. They apparently use the catapult network, and have systemically wiped out every documented attempt to communicate with us. They have, just now, launched relativistic weapons against us the instant they arrived in-system."

"Err… yes, sir…?"

"Oh, good. I thought this would be boring. Charge the Hellbores and the lasers, gentlemen, regroup the fleet around the dark side of Talus. Men," he announced, "I firmly plan to kill every one of these bastards, and I would like your assistance in making this plan a reality."

0 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 0

CITADEL FLEET

ABOARD THE FLAGSHIP TRIUMPHANT ASCENCION

ASARI ASCENSION-CLASS DREADNOUGHT

Matriarch Lidanya, former Councilor of the Asari and current commanding officer in charge of the fleet responsible for bringing this new species under the Council's control, was seething.

She had lost her sister nearly three hundred years ago to artificial intelligences, designed by the Quarians. In the aftermath, she was consumed by hatred, and lost a lot of her objectivity. This resulted in her being replaced by Matriarch Tevos as the Councilor of the Asari Republics, allowing her to join the Citadel Fleet. From there, she worked her way up, using the famous long life that her race was known for, until she was once again in charge of incredible amounts of power.

It's worth it, she growled mentally, staring at the display screen in front of her. The roughly disc-shaped station floated between the two planets, and a cluster of smaller vessels floated around it.

"Are we at the coordinates?" she snarled, and the maiden in front of her, who flinched before responding in a semi-cool voice.

"Yes, these are the coordinates we received from that probe. The larger of the twin worlds is 'Shangxi,'" she informed her superior, her mouth having a little difficulty with the strange, alien word.

"Terrible name for a planet," Lidanya commented offhand, "Perhaps we should rename it."

"I… think that that would be a decision best left up to the Council, Fleet Admiral," replied Ensign second grade Liara T'soni. Lidanya scoffed, her crimson tattoos making her scowl all the more pronounced.

"You're far too meek, ensign… you'll never get any further if you keep hiding that backbone of yours."

"Yes, Fleet Admiral."

Lidanya turned away from Ensign T'soni, asking, "What's the status of the fleet?"

"Transition through the relay is successful, Fleet Admiral. We're ready to jump to Shangxi now."

"Excellent, Captain," she said primly, before turning to face the screen. "Order all ships to make the jump to FTL. We arrive at the human homeworld in one hour!"

The combined Asari-Turian fleet moved insystem as soon as the armada had cleared the relay. They were the finest, bravest, and best of their species. They were ready for anything that these little humans could pour out against them. Or so they thought.

0 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 0

One Hour Earlier…

I am brought online by the sudden wailing of the alarm when a system alert flashes itself across my sensors. It says that unknown vessels have infiltrated the system, and have fired upon the Centerpoint. Why was I not informed of this earlier?

A simple .0053 second inquiry from the local defense network answers my question: I had been taken to my lowest alert levels so that my tracks could be replaced, and when the call went out to put everyone on a higher readiness alert, the technicians decided that with all the other measures in system, they should be able to get the work done and get me back to the field as soon as possible.

This does appear to be the case. My new bogies and tracks are in optimal condition, and are ready to accelerate me to my sprint speed of 150 KPH. I decide to examine the rest of myself.

My 90 centimeter hellbore cannon, capable of dealing two megatons per second of destructive energy, is polished and ready, as are my honors and medals welded to the turret. A quick flex of my servomotors is enough to snap my 18 infinite repeater cannons up, and they move as smooth as silk. Probing my VLS tubes reveal I am fully armed and stocked to the brim, ready for action as soon as I am lowered back down to the floor.

The Enemy appears to have a fleet roughly twelve point five times larger than the local defense fleet, even when bolstered by frontline combat units. This is not even bringing into account the sheer mass disparity between the two fleets. While ours is composed of fighters and frigates, theirs has more frigates than we have of both types of craft, as well as what could be destroyer analogues and dreadnaughts. Fortunately, for the moment, they are all in the outside area of the star system, near the catapult. At least there is still some time to finish the repairs to my frame.

I am a Mk. XXVI Bolo, 24691-BTL. My friends call me Batel. The fact that this sounds a little like "Battle," is not lost on me.

0 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 0

Present time…

It was with a controlled voice that Fleet Admiral Lidanya ordered the fleet dropped from FTL. Aboard the Triumphant, there was really no other way to act. Perfect response. Perfect control. Perfect action.

Perfectly loud shrieks of warning sirens.

Ensign T'Soni immediately put the fleet tactical displays up on the main monitor, allowing Lidanya and her 2IC, Captain Aleskia, to gape in horror at what the replays were now showing. There was now a destroyer and a frigate missing from the tactical situation, and chatter begging to know what had happened filled the coms. A quick look at the recordings showed what happened.

As soon as they dropped out of FTL, three lances of pure fire had rocketed up from the surface of Shangxi to impact against the invasion fleet. These blasts ignored the kinetic barriers of the Council ships, and holed them utterly.

"Ma'am, we've lost the Argus and the-" Aleskia began to say, when three more ships- all frigates, this time- vanished in large explosions.

"Return fire! I want those guns taken out!" Lidanya called, as three further frigates vanished from the tactical display.

The gunnery officer, a very young maiden by the name of Raquel, tried to protest, "But it's a garden world, and if we fire upon it, the council-"

"I used to be a Councilor, for the goddess' sake," snarled Lidanya, "now open fire before we're all killed! And maneuver us to the far side of the planet. We'll get wiped out if we stay here!"

This was underscored by a colossal explosion that rocked the ship as one of the beams hit the dreadnought. It was notable that no one questioned her decisions after that. As a group of destroyers fired massive cannons down towards the surface, the remainder of the fleet advanced around the planet the long way.

Aleskia shuddered as one after another, the five destroyers were whittled down to nothing, but left the rest of the fleet safe. It hadn't even been ten minutes into the battle, and already they had lost thirteen ships. She was still thinking on this when a communication pinged on her omnitool. She answered. "Captain Aleskia."

"Greetings, Captain," came the flanging tones of Spectre Solonius, with his red markings freshly reapplied. "My trainee and I have analyzed the weapons used against us by the Humans. They're quite interesting, if I do say so myself."

"What have you found?" she asked, suspicious and a little worried. She had known Solonius for a long time, and his natural curiosity made him a bit of an odd duck amongst the Spectres, but he knew when it was time to get serious and when not to pursue intellectual matters. She knew, though, that if it was vital information, he would have no problem with explaining exactly how he found something interesting.

"Apparently, those were not mass accelerators that were used against us," he explained, slightly anxious, but also slightly excited. "They appeared to be a two-part weapon- the first part is a massively overpowered, extremely accurate laser. But that's not the real weapon."

"I figured you wouldn't find a laser interesting- what else did you find?"

"The second part of the weapon is a magnetic bottle that focuses a beam of plasma generated by nuclear fusion, similar to the sort of energies released in an- Captain? Are you all right?"

Aleskia was now pale. Her voice began to croak as she asked, "Are you telling me that whoever was shooting at us was firing a gun that shot controlled nuclear explosions?"

"I had not thought of it that way, but yes."

She was quiet for a long moment. When she spoke, she spoke with terror and incredulity.

"Dear GODDESS, we're being shot at by crazy people!"

Solonius was quiet for a long moment. Then, Kira's voice piped in, "I think we might have made a small mistake in coming here."

Solonius sighed. "At least one thing I don't have to teach you, my pupil: understatement."

0 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 0

Human history taught many lessons in the field of active warfare. For example, control over the skies is a huge tactical advantage. Cutting off supply lines causes an enemy to wither on the vine. Morale is just as important a tactical detail as terrain. One thing that was the most important, and was heavily considered when interplanetary warfare became common, was an idea that the Nazis had had drilled into them in 1944, when they failed to apply enough of it: if an enemy cannot make it to your land, they have a very hard time attacking you. Though the shores of Normandy took a heavy toll on the Allies, it was not enough to stop them from gaining a foothold in Europe.

Thus, when Bolo armaments began to increase into the megaton range, and naval-scale hellbore cannons began to be mounted on them, someone had had the brilliant idea of outfitting Bolos with sophisticated sensors, and the ability to depress their guns enough to target spaceships. It was an idea that revolutionized planetary defense, because now, there were cannons with firepower in the megaton range capable of utterly annihilating anything that reached planetary orbit.

So when the Citadel fleet appeared from around the far side of Shangxi, moving close enough to the planet to slip underneath the defensive satellites (destroying them as they went,) it was considered nearly a dream come true for the various AI's of the Dinochrome Brigade. Linking various aspects of targeting data, they coordinated every single weapon capable of striking orbit on the oncoming fleet. And then they opened fire.

At first it seemed to go so well. Nine ships were destroyed in as many seconds. But then the largest ships in the fleet, the cross-shaped one and two that looked like feathered boats with wings, began to point their bows down to the ground. By this point, a total of twenty-four ships had been lost from the conquest fleet, and it looked like even more would be eradicated by the pinpoint hellbore and laser fire from the station.

It was at this point that the fleet began to split up into three wings. One stayed with the dreadnaughts. Another went after Talus. The third went straight for the Centerpoint.

No human on the planet had much time to comprehend this, as the dreadnaughts began to fire their main guns. Relativistic rounds the size of candlepins exploded through the atmosphere, slamming into what they thought were planetary defense cannons. Each one hit with a force equivalent to a city-busting nuclear bomb.

Bolos are designed to shrug off nuclear bombs.

Though one of the hellbores went silent, it was due to it being one of the SPATs, and thus less capable of handling the return fire. It was much, much more vulnerable to kinetic impacts of the sort that the ships were firing, and was thus eradicated, as well as a tank and nearly twenty soldiers unprepared for the fiery holocaust. The Bolo the Golem resumed fire at a furious pace, but even battlescreens and the finest durachrome alloy can only take so much punishment. An instant after their last payload was released, they were holed through utterly.

They were holed so thoroughly they didn't even explode. In total, five hundred humans had been killed in the bombardment, nearly one twelfth of all combat-capable soldiers on Shangxi. Though even as they watched the titanic hulks burn, soldiers watching smiled to one another. It was not a pleasant smile. It was a smile that had been exchanged across a thousand battlefields, across a thousand lifetimes. Israelites had exchanged that smile as they watched their brethren whipped by the pharaoh's workers. Barbarians in the island later called England had shared it when they had seen those of their number killed in battles with the Romans. Native Americans had exchanged it before General Custer made his last stand. Humans had exchanged it upon seeing their homes burning in the wake of the Deng Incursions.

That smile was full of hate, and a smug knowledge that someone, somewhere, was about to have an unbelievably bad day. One that was virtually assured by the twenty-five nuclear-tipped missiles that the Bolo and Golem had launched.

Galactic Codex

Ascension-class Dreadnaught

The Ascension-class dreadnaught was first constructed by the Asari in the closing years of the Geth Wars. The first member of the line, the Victorious Ascension, was at the time the most powerful and advanced starship ever constructed by the Citadel Races, or even to any race who knew of the Citadel. Nearly bankrupting the Asari Repulbics in its construction, the ship quickly proved its weight, single-handedly wiping out Geth incursions all along the front lines. Some have said that the Ascension-class brought about the end of the war, but the truth of the matter was that the Geth were already in decline by the time the ship was produced. The Asari went on to build three more of the ships following the war, but due to their unbelievable cost and the titanic amount of time and resources needed to build one, no more were produced. Thus, there were only four members of the Ascension-class: the Victorious Ascension, the Triumphant Ascension, the Destiny Ascension, and the Glorious Ascension. That number is now down to only three, as the Glorious Ascension was destroyed when its mass effect core was sabotaged by the Elcor terrorist group "Defiant: Freedom for All Elcor Peoples," a group dedicated to making the Elcor a galactic superpower independent of the Asari.

These ships represent a colossal investment in terms of weapons and fighting ability, as their kinetic barriers are stronger than almost any ship known, except for a few examples of Prothean technology. The armor of the ship is nearly twenty meters thick, and has the equivalent firepower of a full destroyer group (ten destroyers, twenty frigates, assorted supply ships). Thusly, they are usually posted at sensitive spots, or spots that show off their power. The Victorious Ascension has a permanent posting at the Asari homeworld of Thesia, while the Destiny Ascension is assigned to protect the Council as a member of the Citadel Fleet. The Triumphant Ascension was posted at Illium, to protect the world from Terminus raiders, but was reassigned to the fleet to take out the Concordiat world of Shangxi.

At the end of the Concordiat-Citadel war, the Asari began to lay down the keel for a new, much more powerful ship, known as the Ascension-II-class. It is scheduled to be unveiled in 2183 CE.

Concordiat Relay Classifications

The Concordiat, in the decade or so that they have been studying the Mass Relays, have developed several terms for these gravetic catapults.

A local catapult is one that is capable of sending one to multiple different relays, but the range is limited.

A direct catapult only connects to one other relay, but the range is much greater, possibly cross-galactic.

An insystem catapult is a relay that leads back into Concordiat space, towards the central worlds.

An outsystem catapult does precisely the opposite- a catapult that leads away from Concordiat space.

A locked catapult is one that hasn't been activated yet.

An open or unlocked catapult has been activated.

For example, a relay might be considered a direct outsystem catapult that was unlocked two years ago, meaning that it only connects to one other relay, the relay is not sending you closer to Concordiat Space, and that it was activated two years ago.

The Dinochrome Brigade

The Dinochrome Brigade is not, as the name would suggest, a brigade in the strictest sense of the word. The Dinochrome Brigade stemmed from the 45th Armored Company in the 2130's, where Bolos were deployed in groups for the first time. Upon seeing the type of firepower that a company of these primitive machines could put out, one observer stated that the amount of fire the Bolos put out was equivalent to a brigade of standard flesh-and-blood soldiers. Reportedly, someone responded, "Yes, that's what they are. A brigade. A Dinochrome Brigade (Terrible Metal Brigade)." The name stuck, and since the year 2178, the Dinochrome Brigade has been the sole installation in the Concordiat responsible for the care and operation of Bolos.

Hellbores and Hellrails

Hell-type weapons are terrifying weapons of unbelievable destructive power, as is befitting their name. A ten-centimeter hellbore can have the same destructive force as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and most hellbore-equipped machines tend to mount them in sizes and numbers many times that. The Mark XXVI, the most advanced Bolo produced at the time of the Concordiat-Council War, mounted a single 90 centimeter hellbore cannon, capable of putting out two to two-and-a-half megatons worth of firepower every second, with a recharge time of four seconds.

Hellbores and their larger cousins, the hellrails, use slivers of highly-pressurized frozen deuterium which, when fired, are ignited (by a laser) in a fusion reaction. The resulting bolt is contained and directed using strong magnetic fields in the breech and barrel. The resulting plasma travels at a considerable fraction of light speed and is not affected by planetary gravity. However, since the hellbore was designed as naval armament for Concordiat warships, modifications had to be made to avoid losing a significant portion of the shot's energy to atmospheric attenuation. To this end, a fraction of a second prior to deuterium detonation, a laser is fired along the path of the bolt to create a momentary vacuum. Later Bolo marks are capable of internally manufacturing hellbore rounds, using water as a raw material, whereby the deuterium isotope of hydrogen is separated and cooled cryogenically into splinters of frozen hydrogen.

Mk. XXVI Bolo

The Mk. XXVI Bolo was the most recently released model of Bolo at the time of the war. The Mark XXVI was the first Bolo to incorporate improved "hyper-heuristic" features based on the work of Major Marina Stavrakas. Armament, size, weight, and speed remained largely unchanged from the Mark XXV, but the Mark XXVI was capable of constructing a "learning model" in accelerated time. In some ways, this almost equated to precognition, in that the Mark XXVI could project changes in an enemy's tactical or strategic actions before even the enemy realized he intended to change them. The new systems also meant that, accompanied by a much improved ability to break hostile communications security, a Mark XXVI could actually invade an opponent's data net, access his computers, scan them for useful data, and (in some cases) even implant its own directions in those computers.

Armaments:

1 90 cm Hellbore (Primary Weapon, firepower of 2-2.5 megatons/second)

18 Ion Bolt Infinite Repeater Cannons

VLS Missile Launch System

6 30 cm morters

Speed: 95 KPH road speed, 150 KPH sprint speed

Weight: 13,000 tons

Golem V Manned Heavy Weapons Platform

Virtually a clone of the Mk. XXV Bolo, which is itself virtually identical to the Mk. XXVI Bolo (weapons wise,) the Golem is non-sentient, and has much of the advanced psychotronics software and hardware removed. It's piloted almost entirely by human beings, with complex computer programs to help work the guns and steer it. They were first produced in the mid 2900's, and were sold in limited numbers to allies of the Concordiat. Some, however, fell into criminal hands, or were purchased by PDF forces who wanted the firepower of a Bolo without requiring an AI. The Dinochrome Brigade, seeing a possible market, began to sell Golems to the military in order to help the already stretched organization. Later models of Golems, once the war ended, were advanced even further, using 'VI's' (virtual intelligences) to increase efficiency without granting them self-awareness. At least one group of these advanced-model Golems were modified and deployed to the colony of Midnoir, where they served as troops under the command of Bolo XXVI-1302-87-STV in 3174.

Self-Propelled Artillery-Tracked (SPAT)

A mobile, ten-centimeter hellbore on tank treads. Larger and faster than the M1 Abrams tank of the years before WWIII, the SPAT is capable of fording rivers, crossing rough territory and comes with built-in anti-personal lasers.

M-22 Sharpnose

Starting a proud tradition of APC's being named after sharks, the Sharpnose is similar in many ways to its later descendant, the Mako. Six wheels and heavy armor protect a squad of up to twenty people comfortably, thirty with difficulty. An ion bolt repeater is the secondary weapon, while a single heavy laser cannon is the primary one. Capable of moving at speeds of 130 KPH, they are invaluable for transporting troops over even the roughest terrain.

Skimmer

A one-to-three man ship capable of flight at close to 500 KPH. Armed with a rapid-fire needler, but not meant for combat, as it was designed for manned reconnaissance.

Needler:

Originally a slang term for the X-13 Hypersonic Gauss pistol. Fires shards of metal at extremely high velocity. The term "Needler," can encompass a wide variety of weapons, including needle cannons, needle rifles, and pistols, but they all refer to weapons that utilize Gauss technology to accelerate shards of metal to hypersonic velocities.

Sithking Zero: Portions of the text, primarily that on Hellbores and Bolos, come from other sources and are not my words. The text on Hellbores comes from the Wikipedia article on Bolos, while the article on the Mark XXVI Bolo is taken from the book "BOLO!" by David Weber and other authors.

Some people have suggested that the Citadel has been acting arrogant, that it expects people to obey its laws. I can't really judge that in the standard ME universe, because as a human, you're part of the Citadel. Heck, you're basically a member of the special-forces, SWAT-commando Jack-Bauer-esque cops. You know? It's kind hard to judge. The one instance that I can say definitively that is a little arrogant is the First Contact war, where they went to war with humanity over a law the humans didn't know existed. If it was a simple case of mistaken identity, and they thought the humans were a pirate gang, that might be okay, but that would have been easily solved by calling them and asking, "Who are you?" if they respond and they're not a species you've ever seen before, I'd say take them aside and talk it out. They were arrogant there. Oh, and the Quarian thing? That wasn't really "arrogant," so much as "being jerks." Not to say that the two are mutually exclusive, but...

In the Ascendant-verse, the Council did talk to the crew of the Apogee first, and, rather sensibly, let them off the hook for a crime they didn't know existed. The reason why they reacted so strongly about AI's is not- I repeat, NOT arrogance. That was honest fear and hatred. Arrogance is, to quote the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions." Now, it would have been arrogant if the council simply stated to the Concordiat, "We are the Council. We rule the galaxy, we're so much better than you because we fought off the Krogans and the Rachni, get rid of your AI's or else." That would be if Canon!Council met the Concordiat. Now, Ascendant!Council has fought two incredibly destructive wars against rogue AI forces, the Destrons and the Geth, both of whom admitted that they viewed organic life forms as their enemies after following "Logical Patterns." That's not to mention the Krogan Rebellion, which started at the beginning because the Destrons released the Salarian-made Genophage. This is a Council that has seen what psychotic AI's can do at their worst, and knows exactly how dangerous they can be. One analogy I offered to a reviewer is that, well, if your neighbor built a grill of a certain design, and it caught fire and burned your lawn, you'd be ticked, right? And then, the neighbor on your other side built the same model of grill, and it broke and burned down your yard again. Now, you get a new neighbor (behind your house, not on the sides.) This one starts building a third grill in his yard. Is it arrogant to walk up to him and try to get him to stop? You've seen what happens what that grill is completed, and it involves buying new grass and patio furniture. Except replace "Grill," with "AI," "Buying new grass," with "Decades of war against a hostile power that has us outclassed in terms of raw production capability," and "Patio Furnature," with "Xenocide and possible extinction of all organic life."

Now, members of the conquest fleet- THEY have been written to be arrogant. Why wouldn't they? They have one of the most powerful ships in the galaxy- an Ascension-class dreadnaught- and about two hundred and fifty other ships against one species, whose ships have proven to be flimsy and fragile (despite the fact that the only ships they've encountered have been scouts caught with their pants down, and unable to resist). Besides, they're the big, bad Citadel! Their forces drove off all the bad guys the Citadel has faced in the past. They hold the line against the forces of evil. The fleet is made up entirely of Asari and Turians- two of the most powerful races in the galaxy, followed only by the Salarians.

This chapter was pretty hard for me, as the Hellbore weapons provide an unexpected difficulty. They're just so effective against Citadel ships, and they fire so rapidly! How the hell am I gonna make this even?

If only the war happened after Soverign was defeated. I do plan to have the Thanix cannon be roughly on par with Hellbores in terms of destructive power, simply because of what it is and because of the need for an equalizer. Seriously, people, I need some advice on how the Citadel, with an Ascension-class dreadnaught, can make this at least sorta not-one-sided.

[HMS Sophia]

That was very cool. Only one small comment:

The Bolo the Golem resumed fire at a furious pace, but even battlescreens and the finest durachrome alloy can only take so much punishment. An instant after their last payload was released, they were holed through utterly.

This is a bit vague. Are you saying the Bolo's and Golem's were destroyed? I think its this bit:

they were holed through utterly

That just sounds strange as a piece of language. I think the problem is that when someone talks about something being holed, it applies to one shot on one target. Or did you mean hulled, as in destroyed from the inside? or hulked even...
I'm not sure. But even so, I am really enjoying this

[Hawkwings]

"Holed" as in "a relativistic projectile put a big hole straight through it". That's what I got from reading it.

[doom3607]

Damnit, I just never got around to suggesting it might be more than one Bolo.

Also, yayz, more fire and death!

EDIT: I would laugh at the Citadel reaction to a Mark XXXIII. The thing would probably go counter-grav, fly to space, and dogfight them. With three 200-cm main guns and I think 14 70-cm secondary Hellbores as InfReps.

[Sithking Zero]

That was very cool. Only one small comment:

The Bolo the Golem resumed fire at a furious pace, but even battlescreens and the finest durachrome alloy can only take so much punishment. An instant after their last payload was released, they were holed through utterly.

This is a bit vague. Are you saying the Bolo's and Golem's were destroyed? I think its this bit:

they were holed through utterly

That just sounds strange as a piece of language. I think the problem is that when someone talks about something being holed, it applies to one shot on one target. Or did you mean hulled, as in destroyed from the inside? or hulked even...
I'm not sure. But even so, I am really enjoying this

This video at around fifty seconds is roughly what I mean by "Holed." It means that the guns blasted a gigantic hole straight through the Bolos, leaving a hollowed-out hulk.

Damnit, I just never got around to suggesting it might be more than one Bolo.

Also, yayz, more fire and death!

EDIT: I would laugh at the Citadel reaction to a Mark XXXIII. The thing would probably go counter-grav, fly to space, and dogfight them. With three 200-cm main guns and I think 14 70-cm secondary Hellbores as InfReps.

I'm quite fond of the old "exact words," thing. XD

A Mk. XXXIII would probably be able to deal with the entire Shangxi attack on its own. Although, remember that in order to use the counter-grav, the Mk. XXXIII had to shut down the battlescreens and was much more vulnerable.

Ooh, minor correction- the XXXIII had 14 twenty centimeter hellbores as infReps, not 70. http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/bolo/bolotech.html

This is what I use for almost all my Bolo info. That and the books "BOLO!" by David Weber, "Bolos book six: Cold Steel," "Road to Damascus," and "Old Soldiers."

Glad you guys liked it!

[HMS Sophia]

"Holed" as in "a relativistic projectile put a big hole straight through it". That's what I got from reading it.

I understand the meaning. It just sounds... strange, it doesn't read right to me. And it felt a bit vague... I dunno, maybe it's just me...

[doom3607]

I was using BOLO! too- I'm just forgetful. And it's not all Mark XXXIII's that have to shut down their sheilds to use counter-grav, it's just that that one had no reaction mass at all. It was running on solar and batteries, not the usual fusion.

[Sithking Zero]

I was using BOLO! too- I'm just forgetful. And it's not all Mark XXXIII's that have to shut down their sheilds to use counter-grav, it's just that that one had no reaction mass at all. It was running on solar and batteries, not the usual fusion.

Really? Wait, i have a story in "The Best of the Bolos: Their Finest Hour," a collection of Bolo stories. It's called "A time to kill" and is by David Weber. It's the last story in "BOLO!" Before Team Shiva is blasted to holy hell by Melconian forces, and thusly without a depleted reaction mass, Shiva notes that activating the counter-grav deactivates the battle screens.

[fusion]

So far I like this story, but like Mass Effect I don't like how it is heavily reliant on the codex for back story. It would definitely be interesting to see mass Mass Effect ground forces attacking a bolo (Yes, I did that on purpose)

Yay, two pages!

But I sort of disagree. The codexes imply that there is a much wider world than what we are allowed to see, and that we're only scratching the surface of it. In increases the wonder we have, IMHO.

Hmm... I guess. It's just that the codex of the first ME wasn't that engaging and did not seem to give me the back story when I needed/wanted it.

But anyways I like the new chapter!

P.S. Even Sovereign, the largest ship in ME, was only 2 klicks long according the the game codex supplied in the first ME.

[keen320]

Can't the citadel bombard them from extended range? I was under the impression the range of Bolo Hellbores was limited when firing on targets in space. I thought they couldn't fire at objects beyond medium or high orbit. Can't the council fleet pull back beyond their range and just bombard? Or is it just that the railguns on council ships have a practical range similar to Bolo Hellbores? Or am I just totally wrong?

Also, your story is great so far. I've been daydreaming about this ever since I read about Bolos (fairly recently, after playing ME).

[doom3607]

My guess is that much farther than that out, ME ships start missing at an unacceptable rate. And that's sad.

Also, I stand corrected- Sithking Zero wins. Mark XXXIII counter-grav deactivates the battle screens. Not that that monster really needs battle screen to protect it from puny ME ships. What's a dready main gun do, a few dozen kilotons? Mark XXXIII Bolos have multiple solid meters of duralloy that can take repeated megaton-range hits (I.E. main battery shots from a Bolo of its own class) in the same location before it breaking through. And then the internal screens and bulkheads could probably block one or two more. No wonder the Melconians hated the things.

[Sithking Zero]

Don't be too sure- ME ships are stated as not using laser weapons at close ranges because it's hard to aim them. Close range, in this case, is about fifty kilometers, which they refer to as "Knife-fighting range." Considering that now, on our world, in the year 2011, we can reflect a laser off of a mirror we placed on the moon, which is two light seconds away (for those who were unaware, that is slightly more than fifty kilometers), I would say that they're doing it wrong. But this does bring up a good point. ME ships usually have much greater engagement range than is shown in Star Wars, or other sci-fi shows. This isn't shown much, but it's more realistic. Look up, "Mass Effect Sir Isaac Newton" on Youtube to get an idea of how this more realistic style of fighting is sort of played out.

Where was I? oh, yes.

ME ships do have an advantage in range compared to planetary Bolos, and in fact, some types of Concordiat frigates. This is one way that I'm making it more even and that I planned all along* and totally did not think of right now**.



*lies
**bullshit

[Simon_Jester]

Er, hard to aim as in "hard to hit a target 50 km away precisely enough?" or hard to aim as in "hard to draw a bead?"

It is "hard to aim" battleship-caliber artillery at an attacking fighter-bomber; this does not mean that the fighter-bomber is too far away to be hit by the guns. If the weapons Mass Effect thinks of as lasers are heavy, long-barreled weapons with massive optics that must be extensively cooled, it's only natural that while you can aim them at nearby targets, you can't deal with fast-moving, agile ones that have a high transverse velocity relative to your ship.

[Sithking Zero]

Er, hard to aim as in "hard to hit a target 50 km away precisely enough?" or hard to aim as in "hard to draw a bead?"

It is "hard to aim" battleship-caliber artillery at an attacking fighter-bomber; this does not mean that the fighter-bomber is too far away to be hit by the guns. If the weapons Mass Effect thinks of as lasers are heavy, long-barreled weapons with massive optics that must be extensively cooled, it's only natural that while you can aim them at nearby targets, you can't deal with fast-moving, agile ones that have a high transverse velocity relative to your ship.

Look, I didn't come up with that rule at all. That's canon for the ME universe.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/GARDIAN

[Lerryn]

Actually, according to the ME wiki's copy of the codex entry, lasers are limited to within 'knife-fighting' range due to dispersion effects - apparently their focusing/collimation is quite poor. Granted, that means the range they will be effective as a weapon, rather than the range they can put some light on a target.

I will say, a lot of this chapter did not work for me, regarding the Concordiat. Their military competence was drastically below what I would expect. Example: a military AI such as the one on Centerpoint Station would automatically bring up battle screen and point defense on seeing the Enemy enter the system. And since the Concordiat has FTL sensors and communications, the surprise attack really shouldn't work. (Even if they didn't, at a range of light-hours, they would have a couple minutes to see that the Enemy ships have fired, and react (given the stated projectile speed of about .013c). So it could not work, even without FTL sensors.)

Also, Mark XXVI Bolos have most to all of their "peacetime" AI restrictions released, so shutting down for a simple track replacement is ridiculous.

Aside from the tech problems, the big problem with this chapter was the unforgivable lack of preparation the Concordiat displayed. They do have problems, but military incompetence is almost never among them. Also, you pretty much completely skipped over the Bolos actually fighting!

[doom3607]

I thought Concordiat FTL sensors only picked up FTL ships. The Citadel fleet wasn't FTL, they used the catapult. I'll go for the rest, but incompetent they weren't- a large fleet was on the way, it's just they hadn't thought they'd need one before so they didn't have one standing by earlier on. I think they were doing as well as they could given what they knew ahead of time.

[Lerryn]

That may or may not be the case, not sure. But with their FTL communications, they would have set up sensor drones/spysats by the catapult, especially since they know an invasion is coming.
And them not having a large military force present is odd for the Concordiat, but not what I was referring to about incompetence. What I meant was I don't see how they wouldn't be on an 'invasion imminent' footing, which would mean just about all the things the Centerpoint station commander ordered should have already been taken care of.

[Sithking Zero]

Your concerns are noted. I am redoing chapter three. Wasn't very happy with it anyway.