Celestial Forge, The Stars Beckon Forth [Mass Effect / Celestial Forge SI]

[TrueGuardian32]

I looked over the news showing the attack on California. They had actually been stopped completely by civs on the beachhead. Pretty insane to me. What surprised me most is that these ships? They were undetectable to my scanners. I wanted them. I wanted to pull them apart and see what makes them tick. I sent a request over to the United State's president. Meanwhile. I focused on the Coalition. China was thriving at this point. All the resources from the conquered nations were flowing towards China. So, the scale tipped. Suddenly I was picking up random nations from Africa into my United Star Front. Almost half of the nations in Africa were now under the umbrella of the United Star Front. There were changes that they had to make of course. Some of these places had legalized slavery and they had to renounce that to become a member. With that my numbers were going and rules were officialized.

"Greetings, Prime Director Gard."

I was startled out of my funk as people walked into the Captain's Area. Looking at the badges on their uniforms I realized, it was the bridge crew. "Captain Larson, welcome to the ship." I replied holding my hand out, he shook it of course. Strong grip. He used to be a farmhand according to the files on him.

"It's good to meet ya sir." He said with a smile.

I grinned back. "Good to see you all as well. You've already met Armistice right?" I got nods in response. "Alright you are taking command of the Highstar for now. I do have some orders to start you off with. I need you to maintain orbit of Earth for now, you can do flight exercises around the moon and planet, but maintain orbit. We could be required to intervene in this conflict at any point. We have to be ready for it." I'm still surprised that the Coalition hadn't attacked anyone under the United Star Front. They must be terrified of the ship in orbit.

"So you are saying… we can take the ship for a joyride?" Their eyes were shining.

I sighed, "I suppose we could use a stress test for it. Yeah, but only after I'm off the ship. I got work I have to do. Yard, collect data from their joyride." I got a affirmative message in return. "Don't crash my first Frigate. Get a hold of things and learn how it works before you do any risky maneuvers."

"Yes Prime Director!"

—

Wang Long grimaced as he removed another target from the board. Another country joined up with the United Star Front. He glared at an image depicting the western ship in orbit. They couldn't take action against the USF till they had the ability to deal with that. They are half a year in this conflict and have only now started to stall. The Coalition had grown immensely due to this.

"The Emperor tried to break out of his chambers last night." One of his informants reported.

Wang Long's grimace did not go away. He hated this peace loving Emperor of his. They could have had the world in their hands long before this David Gard was born if not for past and current Emperors preferring peace. "Keep him out of the public eye. Double the patrols around his chambers." If he had taken action long ago all of Gard's advancements would have been theirs.

"The Shadowlances proved their effectiveness. Now the Americans know we can get to them!" General Li Quang spoke with pride.

Wang Long slammed his hand against the table. "Your actions revealed the Shadowlances to our enemies! Now they know we've been developing weapons to deal with their informational capabilities, and now. We have to deal with the U.S. actually sending their army to attack us directly!" Li Quang's face paled. "Not to mention it has kicked the U.S. into action. Till now they have been sluggish." Wang Long reached out and grabbed a file, sliding it to General Li Quang. On it were the United State's troop movements and military build up. They had been building up before the war even began, and now their war machine was up and running in full force. "General Li Quang, this was your mistake, so you will fix it. Take your army and prevent the U.S. from getting to Asia."

"Yes, Supreme General!" He bowed and left the room. Wang Long looked at the other Generals in the room.

"We can't afford to spread ourselves out further. Stop expanding and start setting up on our new borders. Prepare defenses."

Another General spoke, "What about Russia? Weren't we supposed to attack and take Russia a month ago."

Wang Long glared. "You want to bring that starship down on us? We cannot provoke the USF till we can get rid of their starship."

He looked at the new map. They had spread far, and the Chinese Empire will grow further still if he had anything to say about it. Except it would be under the Wang Dynasty.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Engineering Officer Jack Doesit looked in wonder as the ship sped around the moon. None of the crew felt anything at all. "Hey, A.I. how is none of us feel the movement the ship is pulling off?"

A green A.I. hologram appeared in view. Everyone was listening. "The artificial gravity field on this ship is powered by several variants of kinesis drives. This means that no matter how much movement the ship experiences, everyone on board will move with it. Just like the rotation of the Earth."

Jack Doesit looked out the viewport to the skies. "I have a question. How much of the ship is held by kinesis drives?"

"Only the gravity field and weapons are held by kinesis drives. However the armor of the ship can be enhanced by activating the kinesis drives underneath. Keeping them in place no matter how much damage they take."

"Good to know. But that isn't what I wanted to know. According to repeated resting things held by kinesis fields display no mass to anything except the kinesis drive. What would happen if all parts of the ship were held by kinesis drives as the thrusters were on. Could we go faster than light." Everyone went silent at the question.

A hologram popped up. This time of David Gard. "Who came up with this idea?"

Armistice pointed at Jack Doesit.

He looked over. "Good job. I am getting testing for the idea up and running. I will let you know if it succeeds."

Jack Doesit spoke. "Do you think it's possible?"

David shook his head. "No. We would need negative mass to do that. At most we could move near light speed faster. It would reduce the cost of acceleration immensely though."

He frowned, saddened. Then David continued. "However when combined with a certain element I know it might be possible to get negative mass. Which would allow for faster than light travel." That got everyone's attention. "Still need to test though cause it's only a guess at this point. But I'll get something going soon."

The hologram disappeared.

The bridge started cheering for Jack Doesit.

—[A/N: I'm switching to narrative POV for this, I can't write this in first person it keeps causing me to stall.]

While the Highstar flew around in orbit the United Star Front nations enjoyed a period of extended peace as the Coalition didn't drag them into the war. But a few days after the first attack on United States soil. The United States finally retaliated.

The United States Navy arrived on the shores of Asia, clearing a way for the army to land. Going straight for China. Blitzing their way forward they set up supply lines and claimed territory as the cut through towards China. The Chinese Navy resisted fiercely, but new kinesis drive weaponry allowed for weapons like railguns to be fielded with minimal issues.

Thousands were dying on both sides. But something was obvious after the first couple of fights. The United States was winning. They had free reign to attack the Coalition, but the Coalition couldn't get at the United States homeland anymore. They didn't have enough stealth boats to get past the U.S. Navy. It turned into a meat grinder as lines started to form reminiscent of World War 2. The Chinese used Coalition forces as walls to protect their own people. Causing Distrust to form with the Nations that had joined the Coalition. It took 4 months before the Coalition members started to have rebellions occur. A good portion of the member nations believed they were being used by the Chinese.

No members of the United Star Front were attacked in the entirety of these actions, despite the fact that Russia had started to build up its army further. The Chinese started to field their own soldiers, revealing their own arms race to the public. They were using a never before scene technology called Accelerant Drives. They were used to make mechs, tanks, and other high tech weapons. They were able to match the Kinesis Drive tech used by the United States in a different way. Instead of allowing the user to pick up things in a sort of stasis, the Accelerant Drives caused everything that passed through the fields they produced to speed up. They used these to make slow moving mechs move incredibly quickly as well as make power armor for their soldiers that doubled their speed. Even their common guns were practically railguns as long as an Accelerant Drive was strapped on.

On the United States side their soldiers fielded Kinesis Suits. Massively increasing their durability and strength. Despite the large backpack on their backs required to power the suits, it was judged as worth it as a single soldier could pick up a Chinese tank and slam it into the ground. Both sides started to see the downside of this war immediately. The cost. Everything costs energy. Powerpacks were required for both Accelerant Drives and Kinesis Drives. The cost of that energy was enormous. Both sides were losing millions in this conflict. The Coalition by this point had taken a backseat as they were too battered and broken to continue this war. It was China vs the U.S. The U.S. didn't actually win against the entirety of the Coalition.

What had happened was that the Coalition's wanton expansion and resource plundering hadn't exactly earned favors with the areas they conquered. Militias and rebels popped up. Causing the Coalition forces to split as they had to go and defend their conquered areas. Meanwhile they were dealing with protests from their own citizens. Meaning the Coalition's only fighter left was China. The World War was basically over by this point, it was now just a regular war with two super powers going head to head. There were still nukes ready to use. But neither had chosen to use them yet. The war was now a contest of resources. Who had the energy to fund their war.