Disclaimer: I do not own either BSG or ME franchise, because if I did, you'd get something better!
This is for Just a Crazy Man. Sorry it took about nine months to complete, give or take a couple of months, but here it is! Hope you all enjoy! Especially you Just a Crazy Man!
The Galactica Effect
Shanxi...
A colony on the fringes of human controlled space.
Though administered by the Human Systems Alliance, the colony technically belonged to Chinese People's Federation. The colony was largely a jumping off point for local interstellar travel and didn't have much else to its name. There were some farms and even mines, but it was the spaceports that brought the real commerce.
It was a world that most thought to be a nice slice of paradise out near the Shanxi-Theta Mass Relay.
The local economy was booming, though a series of crackdowns on illegal traffic had been instituted by the garrison commanders. Despite that, the trade was actually improving and Shanxi had one of the safest records when it came crime and safety at the spaceports. The local businesses sent back to the CPF considerable taxes since the colony was proving very wealthy.
The commanders of the two garrisons, the Chinese People's Federation Liberation Army Colonial Frontier Forces and the Human System Alliance detachment were Major General Rong Xu Xian and Major General Marcus Williams.
Now that was what some considered a distant memory.
Shanxi was now a world under siege.
A world in danger of falling...
Several weeks earlier, during a routine opening and exploration of the dormant nearby Mass Relay, the expedition ships were suddenly and violently attacked by unknown alien forces. Despite an overwhelming attack by a patrol force of Frigate and Cruiser tonnage ships, one badly damaged vessel succeeded in retreating safely back to Shanxi. After the report was made, the local naval squadron was dispatched to mount a retaliatory attack. The attack was successful, destroying the enemy alien force, but at the same time it brought with it a massive reply in the form of an invasion.
General Xian was killed early on, an orbital attack dropped a piece of space rock right on top of his command headquarters that also killed the local CPF governor and much of his staff as well. What was left fled to General Williams' more secure and safer command headquarters built into a mountain. There General Williams took overall command of the colony and began to mount a desperate defense, fearing that reinforcements would never come in time.
His fears were justified as a bickering argument broke out back on Earth. The CPF lacked the ships and lift capacity to send aid to its colony, but stubbornly refused any aid to do so. The resulting arguments even threaten to nose dive directly into war between the nation states on Earth.
Of course there was one group that felt that it could send aid without consequences.
Bursts of lights followed by an impossible sight of ships seemingly stretching into existence occurred in the embattled space around Shanxi. Six massive and mighty looking beasts of war, bristling with guns and tubes had just appeared. They looked so different from the rest of the human ships as to make one believe that they weren't human in origin. Their broad backs flowing into massive, hexagonally arranged primary engine thrusters from the alligator like bows were far different from the more graceful delta shapes currently favored. Twin pods also jutted out from the sides with three looking like smooth decks, one carried more like monster cannons, and two looking like a combination of the two types. Together, these ships moved into a formation and then headed out to battle.
"Dreadnoughts sir, six of them," the sensor station reported and the invasion commander did an equivalent of raising a human eyebrow.
"How many escorts?" the invasion commander drummed his talons waiting for the reply.
"None sir, they also appeared via a strange FTL I've never seen no Blue Shifting whatsoever," that caused the Turian to narrow his eyes.
"That isn't possible..." he thought unless there was a trap in there.
"Sir, we've picked up Blue Shifts, a convoy with escorts from the looks of it."
"A resupply attempt and yet they feed us their Dreadnoughts so carelessly?" he didn't like it.
"Dreadnoughts have vanis-NO! They're in front of us, less than 5k distance!"
"WHAT?!"
Outside the massive ships had made a pinpoint jump to position themselves under 5,000 kilometers distance from the Turian flagship. The massive dreadnought was caught flat footed as thousands of tons of metal began slamming into its Kinetic Barriers. The surrounding escorts caught in the way between the six attacking ship and the lone flagship were simply batted aside in the case of the cruisers or simply reduced to shredded confetti in the case of the frigates.
The Turian fleet quickly responded in a desperate attempt to save their lone dreadnought. Already it's Kinetic Barriers were failing as explosions tore across the hull and sections were opened into space. The large Turian warship began to take on a pronounced list to starboard, in the direction of Shanxi's gravity well as it was continuously hit by heavier ordnance than its designers and builders ever thought possible. Then it was free as the Turian ships it commanded counterattacked.
"Launch all fighters,"the order came from the CIC deep in the bowels of the ship.
Sitting in his fighter, Flight Lieutenant Liam 'Busker' Adams nervously fidgeted as he prepared his fighter for launch. His personal emblem was an early type of string instrument that went hand in hand with his callsign. The young, inexperienced Busker just loved old classical stringed music and it was how he got his callsign.
"Relax Busker," his friend Flying Officer Paul 'Grizzly' Leigh joked from his woodland themed fighter, the Canadian seeing his American friend's nervousness, "You got three of us following you, so don't show it!"
"I won't Grizzly," Adams didn't sound convincing.
"Maybe a dirty joke then?"
"I swear sir, please not that!" Flying Officer Daniel 'Honor' Sheppard complained, the paragon of the element, he had a sweetheart named Hana something or other off somewhere else.
"But this one is a true one and involves one of the means by which our fearful leader got his callsign!"
"Don't you even dare! You hear me Grizzly!" Busker's face was so alight, the shooter could see it clearly.
"Red Flight 5 Launch!"
"Crap!" Flying Officer Sara 'Starbuck' Millhouse said as she wanted to hear the joke.
The fighters spilled out into the heat of battle, their fighters promptly engaged by the Turian fighters.
The Turian fleet had reassembled and surrounded the badly outnumbered dreadnoughts and began to pour counterfire into them. It was a vain effort really. The six ships had armor meters thick for passive defense as well Kinetic Barriers for active defense coupled with jammers, decoys, and flares. Then came the massive artillery they carried. It was simply bigger than anything the Asari mounted on Ascension-class Dreadnoughts. Furthermore, there was plenty of firepower for all round combat rather than head on exchanges.
Leading the pack was the BSV Galactica, freshly launched, she had been declared the flagship of the small group. She was somewhat smaller than the BSV Enterprise and her sister, BSV Intrepid, but made up for it with superior armor and firepower. Together they were designated as Battlestars and were the centerpiece to Battlestar Group 1. They also carried between themselves some several hundred fighters alone, with Galactica carrying 80 fighters alone and the two Enterprise-class Battlestars each carrying 160 fighters. Though they weren't just carriers as their heavy 'battleship' armament went to work simply blasting opposing ships into space dust with shot and missile.
Hanging back and pounding away from the rest was the Warstar named WSV Royal Sovereign. The mighty Warstar was a battleship pure and simple. Unlike her cousins of the Battlestars and the two Strikestars, she carried no air group. Instead she was purely armed for raw cannon exchanges with two pods containing limited traversing heavy caliber guns able to dish out a 200 ton shell every 90 seconds that could reach 15 percent the speed of light and an ultra heavy layered amount of air defense as Turian fighters found out as they were literally swept away from their attack runs. Even torpedos failed to get in close...
The same with the other five ships.
Bringing up the rear were the faster, less heavily armored and armed Strikestars of the Repulse-class. SSV Repulse and SSV Renown were a mix of Warstar and Battlestar in their design as Strikestars. They were meant to follow the maxim, "Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit Often," which was exactly what they were doing. They carried between them only 120 fighters together, but they mounted smaller caliber heavy guns like the Warstar Royal Sovereign. Nevertheless, despite being a 'lighter' combatant compared to the Battlestars and Warstar, the Strikestars might as well have been a Super Dreadnought to the Turians.
The heavy hitting force was causing such a mess that the Turians completely forgot about the convoy of ships burning hard for Shanxi. An Alliance convoy of merchantmen making best speed to get valuable troops and supplies to Shanxi as Battlestar Group 1 fought like hellhounds in the heart of Turian invasion fleet. The merchantmen were protected by a thin screen of only two light cruisers, a three destroyers, and a smattering of Frigates, Corvettes, and Sloops.
Collectively someone decided to call the supply convoy the Gambier Force. The reference was not lost on anyone with a hint of history. USS Gambier Bay had the distinction as the only US Carrier to be sunk by Japanese surface ships during the Battle off Samar Strait when Task Force 3 (Support) also known as Taffy 3, was besieged during a frantic surface battle between the 13 ships of Taffy 3 against the numerical might of the Japanese Center Force including Battleships, Cruisers, and Destroyers. It is still considered the one most one sided battle that the US Navy ever won despite the loss four ships, three of the escorts and Gambier Bay, against three cruisers sunk and four more ships badly damaged.
No one wanted to tempt fate on this run.
Back in the furball around the six fighting ships, Busker locked up and flamed another Turian fighter. He felt that the Viper was the best fighter currently available. It was very agile, maneuverable, and quick, plus the 180 degree turning radius was a shocker for the ill-prepared Turians. This coupled with a good load of missiles and heavy hitting, rapid firing machine cannon and pulse lasers made it a deadly enemy to fight. He also felt at home thanks to the armor plating and defenses that would do the old Skunk Works proud.
"I feel like I'm flying a Hellcat against Zeroes!" Grizzly laughed happily as he zapped -literally!- another Turian fighter from existence.
True their opponents had speed and maneuverability going for them, but their weapons and armor left much to be desired against the Viper. At that moment though Honor would trade weapons for speed!
"Could use a hand like NOW!" he shouted into the TACNET as Starbuck dropped in behind the Turians and flamed two of five with one bugging out to get an angle on her only for the pilot to get too far out and get zapped by Honor instead.
"Time for a squeeze play Honor."
"You read my mind Starbuck!" and Honor practically hit the metaphorical brakes, swung a 180 and blasted one Turian from existence with a point blank burst of cannon fire as Starbuck got the leader who overshot with a missile, "Thanks Starbuck."
"I'll put it on the tab," the woman replied as they went searching for more enemies and didn't travel very far before fighters from Green Squadron shot by with a whole enemy squadron on their tales, "That takes talent, Joker?"
"Gotta be Missy Monreau," Honor shook his head as he and Starbuck started pursuing, stabbing out with their pulse lasers that burned a couple of enemies from existence as Busker and Grizzly joined with a missile volley that got five even though they launched only four missiles.
"Geez Busker! A two for one sale!"
"Takes talent alright, check six."
"Crap."
"Aw man!"
"Busker, Honor, how did we end up with a whole two enemy squadrons on our tails?!"
"Talent," Busker replied.
At that moment the space around the the mass of fighters turned into an exploding alley. The Flak guns of the Galactica had spotted the trouble, zeroed in, and promptly made Turian life both miserable and short. The remaining Turians couldn't bug out fast enough as bursts continued to chase after them as they fled for their lives. It wouldn't be long before they regrouped though and came back for seconds.
Say what you will, they were bound and determine to win this battle.
A Turian heavy cruiser, The Sword of the Father, maneuvered into a position to engage the Renown from a blind corner. Joining it were a dozen other cruisers of varying tonnage. Soon they all unleashed their combined fire at the Renown. They watched as their heavy shot smashed into the Kinetic Barrier repeatedly and didn't let up.
A failed fighter attack earlier had managed to weaken the Barriers in one spot. It had been a shock to the Turians that only by pressing forward with more conventional 'bombs,' did they stand a chance of damaging the massive opponent. Their Disruptor Torpedos were simply swatted away or couldn't be brought to bear easily as the massive ships were surprisingly agile, all six of them.
The heavy volley of shot hit the Renown, her Barrier blinked and then a Disruptor Torpedo managed to get in close, though the frigate that delivered it was a mess of high speed debris. The torpedo was barely intercepted by a lone fighter flying through the ship's defensive fire to intercept it. Nevertheless, it was close enough and a surge occurred and the Renown lost all of her Kinetic Barrier defenses.
The volleys impacted with enough force combined energy to actually shove the Renown's stern up and forcing her nose down and slightly off course, putting her broad back against the remains of the destroyed Turian frigate that crashed into the Renown.
The Turians cheered, believing they just sank the Renown, but then out of the fireball of the destroyed frigate, the Renown emerged smoked and blackened, but otherwise operation if at reduced capacity.
Then the Intrepid came about and fired her heavy guns in response to the Renown's tormentors.
Three frigates made a run on the Galactica, guns blazing. The massive turrets on the Galactica's broad back rotated as local Barriers finally failed under the onslaught of Turian shot. The Turian ships were fast and were taking out emplacements as the turrets fired and one Turian frigate simply turned into a reversed direction cloud as the other two pressed their attacks. The turrets fired again and one Frigate exploded violently to port as the starboard side vanished in flame, debris, and escaping air. The third frigate hit one of the big turrets, killing its crew and knocking it out, but it overflew a VLS emplacement and was split into two by a launching missile volley, the stern promptly exploded while the bow bounced off the thick armor of the Galactica's broad back.
Over with the Enterprise, a Turian cruiser got in close, too close in fact. The ship's commander managed to force a hard seal dock with the larger Enterprise. In response, the crew of the Enterprise took one of their ship's missiles and launched it right into the boarding forces and through the Turian ship. The missile burst right through the Turian ship, forcing it off the Enterprise, and detonating right in front of another cruiser attempting to force a boarding elsewhere on the battlestar.
SSV Repulse found herself at the center of an all out fighter attack backed by frigates. The massive strikestar desperately found herself trying to fend off an overwhelming air attack. Her own fighters had been scattered, leaving her open as the frigates slashed away at the massive ship. She kept taking repeated blows, including Disruptor Torpedos that tore holes in armor and hull. Her primary heavy guns were knocked off line or destroyed, she was aflame from nose to stern. She kept fighting back despite this, taking whole squadrons apart, and then the escort force arrived.
SSV Kyoto and SSV Quebec arrived with their destroyer escort. While the Turian frigates could get away from the cruisers, the destroyers were frigate killers as much as frigates were fighter killers. When no less than four Turian frigates ganged up on the destroyer USS Arleigh Burke, was this fact hammered into a solid fact. The lone American ship was soon joined by CNS Wu Shengli of the PLAS and then both ships plowed into the enemy frigate ranks with a charge that left the startled Turians reeling as they failed to absorb the blow.
The USS Puller stood watch over the battered Repulse as her crew righted the strikestar and corrected a developing list towards Shanxi.
As the battle continued the Turians felt another sting in the battle... the Raptor gunship.
No less than 70 Raptors made an atmospheric re-entry plunge, plunging from orbit altitude to less than 1,000 feet above Shanxi before performing an atmospheric FTL Jump that put them behind the Turian ships barring passage to Shanxi.
That wasn't all they did. During their plunge they released air to ground missiles and a bunch of insanely brave HSA commandos of No. 1 Commando Combat Brigade. Untried, untested, it was a miracle it worked at all.
At least the door to Shanxi was firmly open and the commandos were already eagerly awaiting night.
Though, the battle was beginning to wind down. With heavy losses, the Turian invasion fleet was finally getting back into order. Soon the fleet would bring its full might to bear on the scrappy ships putting up a stiff resistance. The one thing slowing down the reformation of the ranks was the lone warstar.
The mighty and alone Royal Sovereign began to approach the Turian flagship again. The Intrepid was on its flank, keeping the enemy fighters and frigates there at bay and occasionally claiming a cruiser kill. That left the warstar to go it alone against the might of the enemy fleet.
Like some ancient warrior facing off against a seemingly unbeatable army all alone, the Royal Sovereign advanced.
Shot and torpedos rang out to meet the massive ship. Her forward Barriers collapsed, her armored hide taking the blows almost at once. She advanced through the terrifying volume of fire brought against her. Her nose pitted and scarred, the mighty warstar continued her advance, she returned the fire, ships exploding wherever she fired to. Slowly, but surely she began to break through, the center of an exploding mass of ships all around her until she reached right where she was heading.
Deep in the Royal Sovereign's bowels, inside her CIC, her master grinned despite the blood on her face as she gave her command over exploding consoles, screaming wounded, roaring fires, and deafening combat.
"FIRE!"
Then gun crews didn't need to be told twice.
The Royal Sovereign opened up with a full Alpha Strike when it spotted the enemy flagship and a gathering of would be protectors. The Alpha Strike literally blasted away the entire gathering of enemy ships. It's weapons designed to tackle an entirely different and larger threat, against the Turians, it was simply overkill.
The Turian flagship drifted closer to Shanxi, then she capsized and exploded.
The Turians saw that and began to panic, but then a clear broadcast sounded:
"Oly Oly Oxen Free!"
With those four words the Vipers turned around and made combat landings on their ships, even if it wasn't their home ship to begin with. Then once the pods of the six ships were secured, they began their run up to speed and then they seemed to stretch into space...
And they were gone.
Shortly thereafter, the escort ships made the shift to Blue Light and FTL'ed out themselves.
The mission was accomplished and despite the dishing out the six 'Stars had done, the Turian fleet was still there, still in command, and only reduced by some 24 percent of strength...
The Turian acting invasion commander was requesting permission to pull out or for more ships, especially Dreadnoughts and fighters, to come and reinforce their position. He would never get them, but he did get a new general, new ships, and even larger ground force. That was what he got.
Two weeks later, the HSA Second Fleet arrived and the Turians were evicted from Shanxi and Lieutenant General Marcus Williams was hailed as a hero.
Before that, the mighty Battlestar Group 1 limped home. Battered, but whole. Mauled, but alive. They took heavy losses, but the convoy got through and that was what counted.
As for Flight Lieutenant Liam 'Busker' Adams, his victory was seeing the injured Flying Officers Daniel 'Honor' Shepard and Sara 'Starbuck' Millhouse step off the medical Raptor from the Intrepid back aboard the Galactica.
Feeling Flying Officer Paul 'Grizzly' Leigh slap him heartily on the back, it meant that his element of the Galactica's Red Squadron was still whole.
It was not quite the beginning of the Second Millennium for Humanity on Earth. Yet, after tens of thousands of years since they lost their place in the star ocean, humanity has returned just as strongly as before. The discovery of the last of the Battlestars, Battlestar Galactica, that has allowed humanity a glimpse into its very distant past.
With this new found strength and a new generation of heroes born and yet to be born, Humanity enters the galactic stage by storm.
Twenty years have past since Galactica was found and in those twnety years humanity has advanced beyond the dominating control of the Mass Relay.
Beyond the control of the Citadel Council.
The very fate of the galaxy will now be written in the hot steel of Battlestar Plate and Gun.
A/N:
This is dedicated to Just a Crazy Guy who asked me to do a BSG/Halo crossover earlier in the year. Due to H4 coming out that idea sank for the moment. Now we have this here.
I do hope you all enjoy. A pain to get written up under the wire of the New Year. Looks like I beat Congress at least!
Well, have a Happy New Year to you all out there!
This has also been a one shot.
But a full story could be in the works!