A regal figure with a stern but not unattractive face looked at the central screen of the bridge. His movements were those of a professional and experienced warrior and his expression showed that he was a man confident in his abilities. At the moment he contemplated on the task that lay before him.
This was it, the final battle of this war. The alien homeworld was finally in sight. Before his forces, what remained of the xenos fleet had prepared for their last stand. A battered handful of their ugly ships, that would soon be history.
Kinetic long distance strikes from several AU away had eliminated their defensive satellite network hours ago. Stationary guns with predictable orbits, had those aliens never heard of basic physics?
He scoffed.
„And they deemed themselves superior to us, believing they had the better tech as well as the morale high ground and all. So they attacked us, unprovoked, because they thought us to be inferior to them. Well, time to teach these xenos their final lesson"
At the beginning of the war, the aliens had taken them by surprise with their unprovoked invasion and unknown technologies. But soon they learned they had messed with the wrong people.
His civilisation had just survived, at great cost, a war against a relentless foe, technologically superior and committed to their extermination. But through creativity, some brutal decisions and sheer tenacity they had prevailed against all odds. They would not bow to some uppity alien government that believed themselves the judges of the galaxy. And so they had pushed the invaders back, battle after battle. They learned how their technology worked and recognized its flaws, learned their tactics and how to exploit them. The atrocities these callous xenos committed no longer fazed them in the slightest, for they had seen much worse. Hardened by a war of extermination, they followed them into their own space and repaid the xenos tenfold. With the approval of the people, the government had decreed that no xeno species should ever get a chance to threaten them again, and that all neccessary measures were to be taken. All but their most valuable worlds were bombed from orbit, the population of the others swiftly executed. This particular alien menace would never rise again.
Some called it genocide, others needlessly brutal, but those were a minority. The others, just like himself, knew it was simply neccessary. If his people should fulfill their destiny, they had to rid the galaxy of hostile aliens. To merely defeat their fleets would just see them attack again in the future, and he would not allow that. Too many of his loved ones had perished in the great war, he would do what had to be done to keep future generations safe from harm. Time to finish this, so his boys could go home.
„Frigate flottillas one to five, flank the enemy. Cruisers, push for the center. Heavy fleet, provide distance fire. Target these heavy cruisers at their front first. Frigate flotillas six to nine, hold position to jump behind the enemy formation at my mark and engage their rear."
„The fleet is ready to execute your orders, admiral."
„Good. Execute."
The fleet elements carried out his orders and battle was joined. His ships outnumbered the enemy decisively. Soon, the first of the enemy cruiser analogues succumbed to their strikes, while the return fire of the aliens was largely ineffectual, hitting only the shielding of his ships. As all the alien ships were engaged with his own, he deemed that it was time for phase two of his plan.
„Frigates, mark."
The frigates that had until now been waiting in reserve suddenly jumped behind the alien fleet, quickly turned about and started to attack them from behind. Alien ships exploded by their dozens and soon the enemy formation was thrown into disarray. The cruisers and the flanking frigates pressed the advantage. The xenos were now boxed in and could do nothing against the overwhelming firepower brought to bear by his fleet. Soon, the last of their ships was turned into an expanding fireball as a shot from his flagship pierced the reactor core.
„Move into orbit, target major military installations and population centers, but spare their seat of government for now. Contact the troop transports, they can jump in and begin landing operations after ground based anti-orbitals have been taken care of. Fighters and bombers: Stand by to escort the troop transport to the surface and provide air support for our ground forces."
„Aye, Sir."
The fleet moved into orbit of the xeno homeworld, oriented their main guns „downwards" and opened fire. Mushroom clouds bloomed on the surface as cities were obliterated and huge fires became visible on the night side of the planet as alien scum died by the millions. Ground based guns struck some ships, but by giving away their positions they also sealed their own fate. Then the troop transports jumped in, disgorging a seemingly endless stream of shuttle sized landing craft that entered the athmosphere. Fighters and bombers escorted them, while down below the last of the xeno army knew that retribution for their hybris was coming.
„Ready my personal shuttle and organise an escort flight. I wish to confront the leaders of these xenos myself. Justice is best delivered face to face. Commander, you have the bridge in my absence."
„That might be dangerous, admiral".
„I know that. But I believe in leading by example, and right now, we have soldiers bleeding on the surface, so I will not sit back in my chair and let them do all the dirty work."
„Yes, Sir. As you wish."
The ride down to the surface was uneventful. What airforce the aliens had possessed had not stood a chance against their fighters. When his shuttle touched down, the admiral was the first to exit, followed by elite shock troopers in heavy armor and the best weapons his people had to offer.
Here, in the center of the alien capital, resistance was still fierce. Not for strategic, but equally important symbolic reasons, the alien seat of government was spared an orbital strike. Weapons fire crisscrossed over the plaza in front of a huge, but in his opinion vain and gaudy looking building, the seat of some parlament-like institution he was told. The last of the xenos had dug in there, their ugly faces thankfully hidden by helmets. An alien tank with a track already blown off was pinning down his infantry forces at the moment and so they could not storm the plaza without risking enormous casualties. But thankfully this situation was not to last. As it was, one of the adjacent houses had just been cleared of enemies.
„Rocket launchers, get into the house on the left! Blast that tank!"
„Yes Sir!"
„Men, prepare to charge! Let's show these alien bastards what real warriors are made of!"
„Hooray!"
Two missiles screamed out of a window in the second storey of the building to his left. Both struck the turret of the tank, and with a deafening boom the ammunition storage inside the vehicle exploded, ripping apart the tank and sending the turret flying. Aliens screamed as they were hit by shrapnel or set aflame.
Disciplined fire quickly put the latter ones out of their misery.
„Charge!"
Screaming the order, the admiral was the first onto the plaza, running towards the now burning xeno barricades, shotgun in hand. His men followed, as well as hundreds of regular soldiers, inspired by their leader. Some shots struck his shields, but failed to bring them down, while precise sniper fire made any xeno that stuck its head out regret that decision.
Then he was at the barricade and it all became a blur of ducking, weaving and shooting. He shoved his shotgun into an alien face, pressed the trigger and saw it come apart in a shower of blood, bone splinters and brain matter. He ducked the swing of a bayonet, then shot his attacker point blank in the chest. The xeno was blown back several feet, its armor doing nothing to stop the hyper accelerated rounds of his heavy shotgun. One more dead alien, one ugly scumbag less.
Around him, his elite soldiers made short work of the enemy with superior training and skill.
The distinct sound of a flamethrower and the high pitched screams of burning xenos to his right signaled the arrival of more allied troops.
Suddenly, two of his soldiers were gunned down by accurate and disciplined fire from the left. Turning he spotted one of the big aliens they had occasionally encountered during the war. They were rare, because they were mostly infertile as far as he knew, but they were very dangerous and hard to kill. With a speed belying its bulk the alien charged at him, throwing away its empty gun and brandishing a knife.
The admiral knew that he was in real danger now, he stood little chance against one of the big ones in hand to hand combat.
However, a red fountain erupting out of his attackers helmet and the boom of a heavy sniper rifle showed once again how a versatile and adaptable army had learned to deal with this particular threat.
With the death of the huge armored xeno creature the barricades were theirs. Dead aliens, and sadly a few of his own soldiers lay on the ground and on the stairs leading to the entrance to the government building.
„I want breaching charges on those doors asap! Get moving men, this war has lasted long enough!"
While two of his shock troopers placed the charges, the others took formation besides the large double doors, while tanks arrived on the plaza, aiming their guns and waiting.
He heard the sound of shuttles and gunships over the building, raking the facade with machine gun fire and deploying strike teams onto the roof.
„Blow it open!"
Two sharp cracks and the doors came apart in an inward moving shower of splinters, shredding any unlucky xeno standing behind them. Then the tanks fired. Fragmentation shells flew into the entrance hall and detonated mid-air. Thousands of small metal balls filled the hall, bounced off walls and pillars and turned the parlament into a charnel house. Hiding xeno soldiers were shredded to ribbons and alien body parts were flung around.
Over the screaming of the wounded and the dying the admiral ordered once again to charge. He was the first through the door, sprinting for the cover of a nearby pillar that was pockmarked with impacts. Something moved to his left, a xeno with one leg trying to crawl into the shadow of a corner. While still running, the admiral shot it in the torso. It stopped moving after that.
His men fanned out into the hall, gunshots heralding the demise of any wounded xeno they encountered. Flashes from a balcony in front him made him duck back into cover. Not a moment to soon, one of the primitive alien machine guns the aliens loved so much started raking the pillar.
The return fire came from more than a dozen pillars other soldiers had chosen as cover. The machine gun fell silent. One of his shock troopers threw a grenade on the balcony to make sure no more surprises would come from there. Seconds later, two alien bodies and an arm flew down into the hall.
By now, gunfire, flamethrowers and the death screams of xenos could be heard from other parts of the building as strike teams had breached other entrances or had simply made new ones.
However, the door to the central chamber was right under the balcony. Breaching charges were deployed again, and the metal door was blown inwards with a bang.
A third and final time the admiral ordered his men to charge, again going through the door first.
Only six alien soldiers were in there and some unarmed xenos in strange suits. Four of the soldiers fired on him, his shields absorbing the primitive projectiles. By the time he had shot one, the other three were gunned down by his shock troopers. The other two xeno warriors dropped their weapons and lifted their hands. Those were gunned down as well.
A frail and old looking alien, their leader, his intelligence officers had informed him how it looked, moved a step towards him. His soldiers rounded up the others and forced them to their knees.
„I...I am not-t afraid to d-die" it said, its trembling voice betraying the lie.
„Oh, do not worry. You will not die today. You will stand trial for the crimes of your foul species so that our citzenry can see you brought to justice. Only after that you will be executed, so I do not have the pleasure of blowing your ugly head off myself. But I will enjoy THIS."
Turning his shotgun around he smashed the stock of the weapon into the face of the flabbergasted xeno leader, breaking its nose and sending it sprawling to the ground.
He turned around.
„Are the camera drones ready?"
„Yes, admiral, you can begin."
He stood next to the bleeding and unconscious leader, his men holding their shotguns to the necks of the kneeling alien scum.
„Dear citizens! Today, you can sleep in peace again. You see before you the members of the xeno government. Like them, their armies and fleets have been brought to their knees by our courageous soldiers. Let this be a message to all our enemies, to any alien scum that threatens us. To them, we have only one thing to say: Death to the xeno!"
In a deafening roar the soldiers around him echoed:
„DEATH TO THE XENO!"
The admiral gestured with his hand, and in perfect synchrony so that their shots sounded as one, his soldiers executed the xenos kneeling in front of them. Their headless corpses fell to the groud with a thud.
„And so the war with the UNSC ends! We have beaten these „humans" like we have beaten the Reapers and like we will beat any xeno scum that dares to threaten us! Once again the Batarian Hegemony stands victorious!"
Author's note: Exploring a xenophobic viewpoint, with a twist.