Chapter 1: Plans
"No plan ever survives contact with the enemy."-Human Military Maxim.
The decontamination cycle hissed softly and an emotionless female voice spoke,
"Decontamination Cycle Complete. Welcome to the SSV Johannesburg."
Major Kyle, his staff, and his company commanders entered the cruiser where an honor guard of marines stood at attention. The officer in charge saluted Major Kyle, "Sir, if you and your staff will follow me, I'll take you to Admiral Malik's briefing."
Kyle returned the salute and spoke with a deep, gravelly voice, "Thank you Lieutenant. And what about my junior officers? I'd like to see about having the rest of my officers here for my briefing."
"Second Lieutenant Coignet will take the ones that are here down to the Officer's Mess until you are ready for them," The marine lieutenant gestured to a junior naval officer standing at attention to his left, "And I'll see about getting the rest of your officers on board—but we're a little busy at the moment."
"Very well," Kyle said, turning to his officers, he added, "Try out the chow-if it's better than what we're getting aboard the Zhukov, I want you to beg, borrow, or steal it for us. That's an order."
The junior most officer, First Lieutenant Park, an Earth-born man fresh from the academy jokingly asked, "Does that include any contraband we find?"
"Especially any contraband," Kyle said, a smile creasing his dark face,'' I'd be disappointed if none of my officers can find any navy hooch. Everyone knows how soft cruiser captains are on discipline. I'll see you shortly."
"Aye, aye Major," the junior officers replied as Kyle and his staff departed.
The senior Staff Lieutenant, Almeida turned to their new guide, "Lead the way, Squid."
"Aye ma'am, follow me," Coignet said, seemingly ignoring the barb from the dark-haired amazon until the marines heard him softly mutter, "Jarheads."
As they stood in the elevator, the Bravo Company commander noticed that their guide was staring at him, "Can I help you, Lieutenant?"
"You don't recognize me, do you sir?" The man said mischievously, "I suppose it has been quite a long time since our days at the academy, Jean."
Shepard cocked his head at the French pronunciation of his first name, but still couldn't place the stranger. The other officer apparently knew him on a first name basis and seemed to be expecting some sort of response. Taking a shot in the dark, Shepard offered, "Frenchie, is that you?"
Shepard wasn't sure that Coignet was convinced that he recognized him, but whatever the case, the navy man responded, "Yes sir. It's been a long time."
Shepard offered a hand and Coignet shook it vigorously, "It's a small galaxy, but ease up on the formality. We're all lieutenants here. Just call me John."
Almeida laughed, brushing back a few strands of black hair behind her ear, "Or just call him Shepard or Shep. That's what we all do. It's easier."
"I don't see how 'Shepard' could possibly be easier than calling me by my given name, Maria," Shepard grumbled good-naturedly.
"It just is," she replied, "Face it; you could save Earth, get humanity a seat on a council, and become the first human Spectre, but you'd still just be Shepard to us."
The elevator finally came to a stop and Coignet lead them down a long corridor to the Officer's Mess Hall. The three marines from the troop ship were surprised at the size of the Officer's Mess; it was only slightly smaller than the entire mess that both officers and enlisted shared back on their troop ship. The cruiser also appeared to be better stocked than their own ship.
Coignet began to explain the options available to them, but being combat officers, their eyes were drawn to the most important feature in this mess hall: a shiny-new coffee machine at the other end of the room. It stood next to a grill that was attended to by a slightly overweight NCO who was doing his best to take orders from a small crowd, who appeared to also be guests on this ship. The three marines from the Grigori Zhukov dashed straight to the coffee machine, leaving Coignet standing alone mid-sentence.
Shepard, Almeida, and Park found an empty table once they had each gotten a cup of coffee to each of their satisfaction: black for Almeida and Shepard, two sugars and creamer for Park; the other two marines ridiculed him a little for that, but he paid them no mind. Taste mattered more to him than being a 'tough guy' anyway. Their host was absent, so Almeida took the opportunity to press Shepard for some details.
"So you know this squid, Shep?" She asked, "He's not too bad looking...for a navy boy. I like those grey eyes. Looks mysterious."
"Cradle robbing again, Maria?" Shepard teased.
"Someone's gotta make men out of these boys and since he's out of our CoC, it's not fraternization," Almeida turned to Park and added menacingly, "Jung, if Shepard cracks another insubordinate remark like that, I want you to get one of the techies in the support platoon to hack his omni-tool to broadcast those awful Korean soaps you watch."
Shepard raised his hands in mock surrender, "That's got to be a violation of the Citadel Conventions Maria...consider my lips sealed shut. I've got to find someone who can teach me some omni-tool security...At any rate, I think he's only a year or two behind me; he's probably about Jung's age. I vaguely remember seeing him when I was honor company commander during my senior year...but I'm drawing a blank on a name."
"Better keep quiet about that; here he comes," Park added, "And he brought some snacks. I don't care if he is a squid, he knows how to play host."
Coignet arrived at the table with a small platter of various finger-foods and the marines greedily dug in, quickly reducing the plate to crumbs. Park remained unsatisfied, so Coignet directed him over to the grill where a small line of marines were patiently waiting for their various dishes. While they were chatting, Almeida covertly caught Shepard's attention and tapped on her ring finger, frowning disappointedly. Shepard carefully looked at Coignet's left hand and noticed a golden wedding-band on his finger. Seeing the wedding ring vaguely brought back a memory of Coignet holding hands with another underclassman back at the academy, so Shepard decided to risk a guess.
"So you finally got hitched. Was it with that girl back at the academy? What was her name again?"
Quickly, the smile disappeared from Coignet's face, quickly replaced by a shadow. Shepard held his breath as he waited for the other man to explain his grief.
Momentarily, Coignet composed himself and began to speak, "Alma. Her name was Alma," he took a drink from his tea cup and continued, "We were married last year, but the honeymoon was cut short because her company had to investigate a science team that went missing on Akuze."
At the mention of Akuze, both Almeida and Shepard shifted uneasily in their seats. They had both heard of the disaster; a company of marines had touched down on the colony and landed right in the middle of a thresher-maw nest. They shuddered as they imagined the fate of those marines; the galaxy held some nasty creatures: krogan, vorcha, or batarian. Even a turian could be quite ugly on a bad day, but thresher-maws were among the worst horrors that lurked among the stars-subterranean monstrosities of tentacles and teeth that were rumored to spit acid. Few who ran into them survived to confirm the rumors. None of the marines on Akuze had.
Almeida gently put a hand on Coignet's shoulder, but he didn't seem to notice. He stared intently into his cup of tea for a few moments while Shepard tried to think of something he could say. Desperate to break the silence, he blurted out the first words that came to mind:
"I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine how hard this must be for you," As soon as the words crossed his lips Shepard realized how hollow and hackneyed they sounded. He wracked his brain for some way to make things right. Finally, something clicked and he reached across the table and grabbed Coignet's wrist, "Alma was a wonderful girl, Augusté. The galaxy's a far poorer place without her."
Hearing his own name, Coignet finally looked up, surprised that Shepard had indeed remembered him. A sad smiled formed on his face, but Coignet began to speak, "Yes, she was lovely. I miss her terribly."
"Am I interrupting something?" Park said, approaching from behind Coignet with a small mountain of food. He seemed about ready to make some sort of comment about the strange sight of the two marines with their hands on the naval officer, but a stern look from Shepard warned him off that approach.
Instead, Shepard decided to change topics, as he sat back. Almeida likewise pulled away from Coignet, but her hand traced its way down his arm; however her gestured received no response from Coignet, to her disappointment.
"Do you know what's going on?" Shepard asked, "They've been pretty good on OPSEC since we joined the flotilla. Have we arrived at our destination? Where are we?"
Coignet thought for a moment as he reached into a pocket and produced a small briar pipe and put it to his mouth. Shepard and the other marines were taken aback at this, but none of the other officers of the cruiser said anything.
Seeing their confusion he offered, "It helps me think."
He took another faux pull of his pipe before he continued, "Smoking isn't encouraged, but since Sirta's effectively cured cancer and tobacco happens to be one of the only exports Earth still has, the Alliance doesn't want to stifle it. I'm a walking advertisement."
"So you smoke real tobacco off ship?" Pushing a little further Almeida added, "It gives you awful breath."
"I'm not kissing anyone at the moment," Coignet took another drag from his pipe, nothing but clean air came out. Finally, he turned to answer Shepard.
"We're in the shadow of a planet, hiding our presence from its moon. That's our target. It's an awful little rock called Torfan."
A few hours later, Major Kyle's executive officer called them and told them to meet in one of the Johannesburg's briefing rooms. Coignet guided them to where Kyle and the other officers were waiting. To Shepard's surprise, the platoon leaders had been brought over from the Zhukov. He prepared to thank Coignet for being their host before he left, but Coignet took a seat next to Park.
Before Shepard could ask what Coignet's role was, Major Kyle began to speak, "As you're probably well aware, our journey is almost over and we'll soon be arriving at our destination. You all know why the navy's brought along so many ground pounders-we're here for a fight.
"What you may not know, is that if we're successful here, we'll finish the campaign we started after the Skyllian Blitz," At this, Major Kyle brought up a holographic display of the Skyllian Verge, with small red lights marking engagements between Alliance ships and pirate vessels.
"We've been pushing the pirates and slavers back, but every time we think we've caught a major force, they scatter and force us to chase them across the system. We've been unable to locate a staging point or their logistics hub."
Kyle pressed his omni-tool and brought up a rocky looking moon, "However, with help from the Salarian Union, we've found it. This ugly looking rock is Torfan and this is where the slavers and pirates organized their attack on Elysium."
The officers began to mumble amongst themselves, but Kyle held up a hand, "Please hold your questions to the end."
Now that he had their attention again, he continued, "Here is the situation: Salarian Special Forces report an enemy refueling base with a security detail and ground crew of about 2,000 strong. Our higher unit mission is to secure and destroy this base."
The hologram zoomed into an unimpressive looking compound on the northern hemisphere, a few anti-aircraft turrets and some small buildings scattered throughout, "Our mission is to establish a beach-head and secure entrances to the compound. Once we've done that, we're to hold until second and third battalions make ground fall. Then they will take over and begin to clear the tunnels."
He paused for a moment, "The plan is to hit Torfan hard, hit it fast, and salt the earth, as it were. When, not if, the batarians send forces to assist these scum, the Alliance wants them to find nothing but ashes. Torfan is a message-we didn't just get lucky and surprise the Turians at Shanxi. We're a powerful military force and if we want a place gone, nothing will stop us. We want to cooperate with the Citadel Community, but mess with Humanity and you will burn.
"Questions about the overall concept of the operation?"
Shepard raised his hand and Kyle gestured at him with a flat hand, fingers extended, "Go ahead, John."
"Sir, it sounds like we're being dropped right on top of the base for our assault, is that correct?"
"It is," Kyle replied, "I will go over the specifics in a moment, unless there are further questions?"
Shepard continued, "Forgive me sir, but why? I thought standard doctrine was to land at a staging point and assault overland with armored support. Wasn't the whole point that a direct assault from orbit on a fixed defensive position invited disaster?"
Kyle shifted uncomfortably, but finally spoke, "That is correct. However, Admiral Malik feels that due to political concerns speed is of the essence. We should have the element of surprise and before our battalion touches down, the Johannesburg and the Chengdu will bombard the site from orbit.
"The salarian Special Tactics Group also reports that the location should not have much in the way of anti-air capabilities. The turian peace-keeping forces have been effective in limiting the arms that the Batarian Hegemony has been able to smuggle to their privateers."
"Political concerns?" Almeida spoke up, a dubious expression on her face.
The major sighed, "Command is worried that once we kill the pirates' comms, batarian warships could be sent to investigate-we know they've been supplying material and training aid; it isn't much of a stretch to think the batarian military might get involved."
"So what?" Almeida said dismissively, "Bring the four eyed bastards on. What are we pussy-footing around for?"
This time Shepard turned to his compatriot, "Because Maria, right now we're fighting pirates and slavers. We engage a Hegemony Fleet, we start open war."
"And the Council wouldn't want humanity to actually protect their colonies from the source of their danger, would they?" Coignet muttered bitterly.
"Shepard is correct," Kyle said nodding, "We've been chasing these guys for two years; the brass wants to end this conflict, not start a new one."
He waited a moment for further questions, but when none came, he continued to the meat of his operations order, "Almeida, Shepard, you're companies will lead the assault. Our whole battalion will be dropping in the first wave, but you two are our spear head."
Turning to Almeida, Kyle said seriously, "I want your company to focus on silencing any anti-air the enemy might have left-the salarians say it'll be clear and Malik believes the bombardment will allow us to land unopposed, but I don't trust those pencil necks.
"I want Bravo Company," Kyle said, knifehanding at Shepard as several points were outlined on the hologram, "To secure these known entrances and make sure that nothing comes up without the proper greeting."
Kyle turned to Park, "You and Charlie will be our reserve. I want you to establish and defend a CP and make sure that Lieutenant Coignet and his shore party," Kyle gestured to Coignet, "can focus on establishing and organizing ECMs and VI attacks."
"Pardon sir," Coignet said a little hesitantly, "But I was told my main purpose was to act as traffic controller and organize the landings of the other battalions?"
"That is also correct," Kyle said, looking extremely uncomfortable, "But Admiral Malik has denied my request for an additional naval attaché for ECM warfare and so that responsibility has fallen on you and your team."
Coignet sat open mouthed for a moment, "Sir, do you have any idea how difficult it is to act as drop master? And for battalion level drops? I can't be responsible for both ECM and ensuring that the ships land the right people in the right place at the right time. C'est impossible."
Kyle nodded sympathetically, "I know it'll be difficult, Lieutenant, and if I could change this plan I would. But your captain says you're one of their best tech specialists and you had already volunteered to act as our drop master, so Malik believes you are up to the task."
Shepard turned to look at Coignet who sat there stoically as Kyle outlined more of the mission plan. Shepard understood now why Coignet had been the one to guide them onboard the Johannesburg-combat drops were tough, but they were tougher when you didn't know who was going along with you. Shepard snapped back to the focus as Kyle began to wrap up.
"Ladies and gentlemen," He said and Shepard could see a hand trembling. Major Kyle had always been a fatherly figure to his battalion, but Shepard could tell that the stress of this mission was getting to him, "Command thinks that this'll be a cake walk-the batarians thought this base was secure in secrecy and so have only limited defenses established.
"I think it is a mistake to underestimate your enemy, but that doesn't change our mission. We're marines; we're paid to fight and win. And that's what we'll do," Kyle paused from his speech for a moment, and then added sadly, "But I don't want you taking any unnecessary chances. No heroics-do the job and take care of your men. We're a light assault force-let the heavy battalions come in and clear out the tunnels.
"We're heading back to the Zhukov in two hours," Kyle said, "Jung, I want you to help Lieutenant Coignet get his shore party and any equipment they need over to us. We make ground fall in fifteen hours."
OPSEC: Operation Security
ECM: Electronic Counter-Measures
This is my take on Torfan, so please excuse me if it doesn't quite match what you expect-the Codex is infuriatingly vague about the actual battle. If anyone is interested, this is related to the characters of Donnybrook Fair, so you can consider it part of my Mass Effect Universe.
Many thanks to SneakyFox who helped proofread this chapter and has generally been a great source of encouragement throughout the whole process.
I recently re-uploaded this because I just realized (years later) that I misspelled a key character's name rather consistency. How embarrassing. It's supposed to be Coignet. Anyway, I've corrected that and am working on part three, if anyone is still paying attention to mass effect, all these years later.
