Mechwarrior belongs to whomever owns that particular hot potato of a license at the time you are reading this and Mass Effect is property of Bioware.

MechEffect

16JUN2181 – "Other Clinton" – Skyllian Verge

The Marauders had spent the rest of the day looking over the Intel that had been recovered from the Batarian ship. They had security codes that would enable them to approach the enemy base without raising the alarm and they had diagrams of where the enemy defenses were located. They had all the information they needed for a fast, deadly attack to seize the enemy facility with minimum casualties. The Marauder was now descending towards the landing zone that was cleared in the forest, broadcasting the security codes that disabled the automatic defense turrets firing on them as they approached.

Before the defenders could notice that something was wrong and switch the turrets to manual control, the Sparrowhawks under Ed Greene's command swooped in low and fast, firing pulse lasers and dropping canisters of inferno gel where enemy positions were marked. Alarm klaxons sounded within the enemy compound as the remaining defenders attempted to put up a defense. The Marauder itself opened fire on areas with high heat signatures, hoping to destroy prepared positions that were not marked in the maps they had discovered.

When the Marauder reached an altitude of 100 meters, the twins were released. Two Mad Cat Mk. IIs fell towards the ground, their flight slowed by the exhaust plumes of their jump jets. The 90 ton war machines, one painted in blue spackled camouflage and labeled Him while the other was purple and named Her, landed and moved to secure the landing zone for the Marauder. The personal 'Mechs of Daniel and Aisa Schumacher were equipped to work as a team to eliminate any threat. Aisa used a standard configuration with 2 LRM 10s, 2 gauss rifles, and 4 ER medium lasers, while Dan replaced the gauss rifles with LB-20X autocannons for close in firepower. Dan fired on Infantry concentrations with his LB-20Xs, flooding the area with baseball sized sub-munitions that ripped through the lightly armored slavers. Aisa focused on the armored turrets, sending magnetically accelerated nickel-iron slugs through the weak armor on the base of the mounts.

By the time the Marauder made landfall, the Batarian defenders were in disarray. They had never fought against a BattleMech before, and now they were facing a pair of the most capable assault 'Mechs in existence, piloted by two of the most skilled mercenaries of the Inner Sphere. The bay doors of the Marauder opened and disgorged a whole star of battle armor and the medium lance that saw combat against the Batarians two days ago. 1st point's Gray Death Scout Armor and the medium lance used their active probes to search out remaining enemies. The Batarian's only escape was in the two blockade runners they had under camouflage netting near the clearing, but the twins had already blocked their approach to the vessels. As the combined forces of the Marauders pushed forward, some of the slavers attempted to surrender. They were shot on sight. If there was one thing a Marauder didn't like it was a slaver, and after learning about how Batarians 'conditioned' their slaves, they found they hated Batarian slavers. With the realization that there was no escape for them, the Batarians tried to form up for a last stand, but every time they clustered together, a blast from an LB-20X or a barrage of missiles would detonate in their midst, slaying even more of their number. The last of the Batarians charged a man in 1000kg battle armor, armed only with an overheated pistol and a knife. The armored trooper was armed with a flamer. The Batarian lost. Silence fell in the forest camp. The air reeked of inferno gel, burnt flesh, and gunpowder.

The long, bloody work of battlefield salvage and recovery began.

"This is Schumacher, get me Mr. Smith."

"Spectre, what's our situation planet side?"

"The slaver base is neutralized. We've taken possession of two eezo FTL ships and we have people among the freed slaves who say that they can pilot them. I would recommend setting up the factory here. We have no where better to go to and we have a legal claim to the planet."

"What legal claim?"

"The contract Frank signed gave the Marauders full salvage rights on all slaver property and assets. We haven't seen any record of this planet being settled by anyone else, so this planet was a wholly owned asset of the slavers we wiped out, hence I get it as salvage."

"Only you could get a whole planet through a salvage contract."

"What can I say, I'm that good. But listen, we need to talk about merger."

"Why a merger?"

"We working for Defiance Industries worked fine, but now the rest of Defiance Industries and the Lyran Alliance don't exist. We need your production to keep us in business, and you need our protection to stay in business. Best way to assure that both ways is to do a merger. Call the umbrella name Defiance Industries, with Defiance Defense being your part of the deal, and Marauder Private Military Solutions being our part."

"Ok, I like the idea. Let me check with my staff but I think we have a deal. We're going to patent everything we brought along with us, from myomer to a KF Drive. If we have it, if we can make it, or if we've heard of it we're making a patent application for it. I don't care if other companies make IS tech gear, but they will have to pay us for that right."

"That sounds good, but keep particle weapons off the table. I'll send you the video of what happens when we hit one of their FTL drives with a PPC, but I don't want to be handing out how to make those weapons to anyone else. That's our trump card if things go south."

"Ok. I already have my lawyers working on the merger and patent paperwork. We'll start our trip to the planet within the day once preparations are complete. Did we ever figure out what we're going to call this planet?"

"Contract I signed with your bosses says I'd get you to Aristotle, never said which one. That's this system's new name."

"Fine by me. Better than a name coming from someone who thought Spectre was a good idea."

That night, an abnormally large data packet left the comm.-buoy network in the newly christened Aristotle System headed for the Citadel. The entire packet was shunted to the Volus' business services hub on the station. First to arrive were articles of incorporation for Defiance Industries, Defiance Defense, and Marauder Private Military Solutions. All three were automatically approved by the VI assigned to sort through applications from throughout the Galaxy with the minimum of sentient interference necessary. Next came the bulk of the packet, patent applications for products and processes running the gamut from military, to agricultural, to medical, to manufacturing. Every product was found to be unique and granted a 100 year patent (patent legislation was written with the Asari in mind early in the Citadel's history). After the paperwork was sorted, the entire packet was sent back to the Aristotle system confirming its receipt and approval. Defiance Industries had changed the Galaxy as it was known, and no one who breathed knew.

The large data transmissions however, did not go unnoticed. The SSV St. Lo, a Human Systems Alliance frigate patrolling the Skyllian Verge for pirate activity noted the data burst entering a system that was not known to be inhabited. The captain changed course to investigate the relay, and informed the leader of the small marine contingent on board that they may be entering hostile space soon. SLT John Shepard went to prepare his men.

17JUN2181 – Aristotle – Skyllian Verge

The Ibn Battuta waited at the zenith jump point, watching the mass relay with its powerful observation telescopes. With the Mule and Hector moving toward the planet, the Battuta was the closest ship to the relay, and thus would be the first to see an approaching ship enter the system. The rings of the relay started to spin.

"Battuta to all Defiance units. Relay activity spotted, with distance estimate activity 30 minutes ago."

"Roger that Battuta we'll keep our eyes peeled."

The Mule and Hector had left with the Corsair fighters of Blue lance 6 hours ago. Moving with less acceleration than the Marauder had, it would take them about 3 days to reach Aristotle. They would still be far from the planet when any possible ships from the relay entered orbit.

"Battuta to all Defiance units. Relay activity confirmed. One vessel, aerodyne, 100-200 meters long."

"Confirmed Battuta, we see them in orbit. Thanks for the advance warning."

Staff Lieutenant Shepard was in the port observation bay of the St. Lo looking on the surface of the planet. The sensor techs said there was a 100 meter wide crater on one of the continents, with trace amounts of element zero in the atmosphere there. That meant it was recent. What he was looking at, however, didn't need a sensor tech to spot. There was a large cloud of smoke rising from a clearing in the forest, and in the middle of that clearing was a large egg shaped structure.

"What do you think it is?" asked 1st Lieutenant Collier, his XO.

"No idea, that's why they're sending us in to find out."

"Don't think it's a good idea to send us in there this way. No easy exfil if things go south. Only decent LZ for 50 kilometers is that clearing with the egg in it."

"It's just a look see. If anything goes bad we have the St. Lo for fire support."

"Right, guess I'm just being paranoid."

2km aft of the St. Lo, the Sparrowhawks of Green Lance waited in the frigate's baffles undetected, ready to make a repeat performance of its action against the slave vessel if necessary.

On the ground the Marauder was ready to open fire with its defensive weapons suite, while every mech with an active probe and the members of 1st and 5th point with their Gray Death Scout armor patrolled the forest surrounding their ship and the slaver encampment.

In the outer system, the Mule carrying the Defiance factory equipment ceased its acceleration while the Hector and Blue Lance increased their own. Moving to intercept the unknown ship should it try to attack the civilian vessel.

The scene was set for first contact between Humans from two very different worlds.