A human voice reverberates through the entirety of the Batarian cruiser the B.H.V. Vana as the ships rag-tag crew prep their ship for the battle to come.
"Never Before have so many come together from all quarters of the galaxy. But never before have we faced an enemy such as this. The Reapers will show us no mercy, we must give them no quarter. They terrorize our populations. We must stand fast in the face of that terror. They will advance until our last city falls, but we will not fall."
A Batarian laughs dryly "Too late for that human."
The Human not aware of the remark continues. "We will prevail. Each of us will be defined by our actions in the coming battle. Stand fast, stand strong. Stand together. Hackett out."
The captain of the ship, one Captain Kharag, opened up his own intercom. "You heard the Human men, Get ready for some revenge." A battle cry reverberates through the ship.
Kharag steps up to his galaxy map and sets the last destination he thought he would ever put in, Earth. And to save it at that. He sneers at the idea but hits the button anyway. He may hate the Humans but he is a soldier like any other and thus will follow his orders.
The ships mass effect drive roars to life as The Vana and the countless other ships the Humans have gathered under their banner take off towards the nearest mass relays to their positions.
The Vana arrives at the tail end of the muster, even behind the Quarian and Geth Fleets, still don't know how they got those two to work together.
Kharag scowls. "How are we supposed to get revenge from back here! Speed to the Front men!"
The ships engine strains to catch up to the Humans and Turians at the front of the line but just as the line forms up the Vana makes it.
A different Human voice comes in over the comms. "Hold fire until my signal." Kharag laughs, recognizing the voice, the Human that destroyed the entire colony of Aratoht was leading the charge against the Reapers he claimed to be warding against, guess he was right after all.
Kharag ignores this and focus's his attention on the enemy ahead. The Reapers destroyers and Capital ships line up a fair distance away by space battle standards. Both fleets just inside firing distance. But the Reapers do nothing, as if they are surprised by the show of force or uncertain of what to make of the fleet. He hopes it to be a costly mistake on their part.
"Fire." Commander Shepard commands and Kharag echos the human and the ship's longer range cannon opens fire with a slightly muffled thud that shakes the vessel. The volley of rounds from the ships makes almost a solid wall of light on the front window of the cruisers bridge.
Kharag eyes recover from the flash to see that several reapers are Damaged but only one or two are destroyed by barrage.
The next order comes through. "Engage them." Kharag almost follows through but it seems that the orders were meant for the Fighter squadrons because they jet past the Vana.
The fighters continue onward towards Reapers and large round spheres called Oculi, the reaper equivalent to fighters, fly to meet them like a swarm of angry bees. The miniature fleets meet and tangle up into each other and leaves even the most advanced targeting systems unable to help either side.
The next order brings a smile to every Batarian on the ship. "Charge!" The ships engine roars to life as the battle begins in earnest and the fleet moves forward while firing simultaneously. The Vana joins this charge to see a Frigate sized ship bearing the name Normandy on its flank.
Kharag realizes its Commander Shepards ship and orders accordingly. "Well if the Humans hero will lead the charge we don't want to be left behind do we? Keep up with that ship!" The Vana puts everything it has into matching the Normandy's speed but the cruiser just cant keep up and rapidly looses it in the chaos of battle. Kharag does however find a fight with a two kilometer long space squid.
"Turn to port!" The ship barely avoids the reapers Thanix main gun, but its shields still feel the passing shot and flicker and die by the grazing shot. Kharag starts bellowing orders to his crew to make adjustments for the ship on the fly.
"Don't even bother trying to recharge those shields, transfer all extra power we can to the emergency weapons! We are going to kill this thing even if we are left without a fucking power cell to work our atmosphere with!" After a few moments the lights dim and he continues with his orders.
"Fire the Thanix cannons and the Javelins!"
The three main guns of the Vana roars to life as it prepares to fire its last ditch effort shot. When Kharag had the Vana retro-fitted using supplies recovered from the planet the ships named after the engineers that did it told him that if he did fire the cannon it would have a good chance of frying the ships systems. The crew of the Vana was given regardless of caste, rank and any other obstacle in Batarian culture a vote. They all agreed to the gun.
Back to the battle however the Javelins launch in a well timed volley so they all try to hit the Reaper at once. The Reapers own GARDIN laser systems activate to deal with the threat however and start shooting the torpedoes to shreds. However the heat created by the explosions interfere with the Reapers scanners, like a giant flash bang, and it misses its chance to counter. The Vanas three Thanix cannons fire in rapid series at the Reaper. Just as the few remaining Javelins hit the reapers shields and detonate the three streams of molten metal impact. They easily tear through the Reapers shields and impact the hull. The first stream cuts two tentacles off, the second leaves a molten gash across its forward full and the third penetrates the weakened hull and tears all the way through into the drive core of the massive construct.
The crew of the Vana let out a victorious cheer at the sight of the Reaper going dark. Suddenly however everything goes haywire, multiple systems overload and causes fluctuations all over the ship, Gravity turns off sending men floating from their stations, atmosphere dies causing men to "swim" for their combat suits and hard sealing helmets and every light on the ship short circuit and die.
Kharag curses. "Damage report!"
"We lost gravity on several decks sir, all atmospheric systems burned out, Javlin launchers broke down, our GARDIN systems are fried and shields cant come back as anything more powerful then whats on our own suits."
"What about the Thanix Cannons?"
"They and engines are still operational but firing again would leave our ship dead in the water."
Kharag starts thinking furiously on what to do. No protection and fighting would kill them out right. Its either flee or die.
Suddenly the communication officer calls to him. "Captain Kharag sir we have an incoming message from the Humans Admiral Hackett."
"Well put him on!"
Hackett appears on the main screens. "Captain I can see on my screens that your in a tough bind but your in a unique position that could help in the battle."
"What kind of position Admiral?"
"You are on the far side of the battle from the citadel but according to our sensors three destroyers have broken off from the main battle to get revenge for that stunt you pulled killing that Reaper capitol ship. I need you to keep them distracted so they can't re-join the battle, can you do that Captain?"
"Throwing us to the varren human? Very well we will try but we are out of shields, any support you can offer so we don't die in three seconds flat would be appreciated."
"I will see what I can do. Hackett out."
Kharag scowls, this wont end nicely.
And end part one, this is going to be a bit longer then I originally planned. Oh well.