A few Titans solve many issues, including the Reapers.

Chapter 2: First contact

Several hours later (and a cup of coffee later)

"Admiral, the science ships found something," Sharma reported.

"What is it?" Vorpona asked.

"The science ship Einstein found an unknown material. Somewhat volatile and radioactive but it is giving off extremely odd readings. They have the equipment and are requesting permission to extract it." Sharma reported.

"Granted. Make sure they follow standard procedures when handling these kinds of materials." Vorpona ordered. "Send me and the senior Crusaders the readings of this material while you're at it. I'll take a look at it during my break."

"Yes sir. Sending you the reports now."

"Anything else of note?" Vorpona asked.

"No sir. All ships have reported anything out of the ordinary, bearing this new resource. Science ships have part way into surveying this system." Sharma reported.

"Once the survey is complete, order the construction ships to begin building a wormhole gateway and a starbase. We'll setup a base here and prep to receive colonists." Vorpona ordered.

Sharma nodded and disappeared. This left Admiral Vorpona wondering about the new material they found.

2 weeks later

After a large amount of work, the starbase was completed. 2 shipyards and two missile attachments allowed the starbase to defend itself. Meanwhile, a few additional science ships arrived to analyze this new material. A meeting was held at the station to discuss what was happening.

"So, what have we discovered?" Field Marshal Ross asked.

"Well, should we talk about this new Material or our recon reports?" Doctor Vortunz asked.

"Start with this new material." Admiral Limburn ordered.

"This element, well it's amazing. It appears to be a by-product of either supernova or neutron stars. When we apply an electrical current, it releases a bit of dark matter which AIs believe emits a sort of field. Within that field, we can use it to raise or lower an object's mass by using positive or negative electric currents. Our teams have already dubbed this material Element Zero, or eezo for short, as it literally weighs nothing on an atomic level." Vortunz said excitedly.

"Interesting. How can this benefit us in any way?" Vorpona questioned.

"Well, not much at the moment. This material is surprisingly rare and can only be found near neutron stars. Compared to our dark matter and antimatter technology, we've already got what we need. However, if we can incorporate this into our kinetic weapons, we could theoretically fire a 400-ton metal slug at 70% the speed of light as if it were a 40 KG slug. Not only would this save on energy, but it would also allow for our weapons to cool down faster. This also goes to fighters and corvettes, we could improve their maneuverability by a factor of 8. However, our scientists believes that we could duplicate the results by using dark matter, thus eliminating the need for this material. Still, this element Zero has opened up dozens of new scientific opportunities. I request additional personnel to see what we can do with this." Vortunz explained.

"I'll assign two more science vessels to your project. See what else you can experiment with this element zero, and try to look for non-eezo alternatives as well. Call it a challenge. Now what's with the survey ships?" Vorpona asked.

"Our ships have finished surveying the dozen nearby systems. They've found something." Limburn said.

That was when a hologram of a large artificially structure with a debris field orbiting it.