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The Reaper War
Prelude
The storm had to break eventually. For 3 long years the galaxy had been living on borrowed time- a reprieve granted to it by the Commander Shepard and his gallant crew aboard the Normandy. Fleets could have been built up, armies could have been raised, defences could have been prepared. But they were not. The Galaxy had been warned, but the warning was not heeded. It was about to reap what it had sown.
The Reapers swept forward like a Tsunami: massive, irresistible and coldly impersonal. In their wake they left a silence that belied the magnitude of their crimes. Whole worlds went dark, snuffed out as if they had never existed This was the Reaper's mandate- to wipe out all Galactic Civilisation every 50,000 years and they executed it with terrible efficiency.
The Batarian Hegemony was the first to be hit. What started as whispered rumours of shadows moving through the Vular System became cries of panic as the whole Reaper host descended on Khar'Shan. The Grand Fleet was caught at bay and annihilated, along with virtually the entire government and most devastatingly the Harsa comm buoy system, leaving the rest of the Batarian forces without direction or warning. The autocracy that had held the Empire together proved to be its downfall. Whole flotillas sat waiting for orders while their comrades were massacred just light-minutes away. Ships were destroyed without firing a shot as they had not been told to open fire. An evacuation attempt made at the eleventh hour turned into a bloody rout when it ran into a Reaper ambush at the Mass Relay. What few refugees made it through told stories of hysterical panic as ships scrambled over one another to reach the relative safety of the Exodus Cluster, all common decency forgotten in the rush to escape the slaughter.
The Calm Before the Storm
Arcturus Station
"How bad is it?" asked a visibly shaken Anderson. His blue hologram was shimmering with interference from the sudden spike in radio traffic.
"Bad" Hackett replied tersely "We just lost contact with 2 of our deep space outposts. There's something massive on long range scanners"
"How long do we have"
"Not long. I've sent word, the Fleets are mobilising" It always struck Hackett how cold the air was on Arcturus Station. He belonged on a Starship, where he could feel heat generated by the crash of guns and the stress of manoeuvres. Not this floating metal coffin. "Prepare Earth as best you can. And get Shepard out of the brig. I have a feeling we're going to need him soon"
"Yes sir, I was hoping you would say that" replied Anderson, "and may God help us all"
"Send Shepard to the Council to get me some backup. We're going to need all the help we can get if we are going to hold Earth. Hackett out". Hackett longed to continue talking with his old friend. To draw some re-assurance from him that not all hope was lost. In truth, he doubted that Earth could be held with such forces as could be mustered at short notice, but an attempt had to be made- the consequences of failing were too terrible to imagine. Command truly was a lonely burden, something that David Anderson knew as well as he did, and it was a relief to talk to someone who understood that sometimes there were no right choices. Chastising himself for the moment of sentimentality, Hackett went to planning his war.
The Systems Alliance Navy was perhaps the second most powerful in the Galaxy, excepting of course the Turians. Its strength was concentrated in 8 powerful fleets stationed near Mass Relays, ready to bring overwhelming force to bear at short notice. At the core of this was Arcturus Station- strategically located at a Secondary Relay(1) in the centre of Systems Alliance Space. No invasion of the Systems Alliance was possible so long as the fleets at Arcturus threatened one's rear and no cohesive defence was possible if it fell. To boot it was the headquarters of the Alliance Navy, Seat of the Alliance Parliament and the gateway relay to Earth. All of Hackett's training told him it was paramount that it should be held. Yet something didn't feel right, judging by what it took to take down Sovereign, even the might of the Alliance would not be enough to stop the Reapers head on. As much as the Alliance could not afford to lose Arcturus, it could even less afford to lose the bulk of its navy on the first day of the war. With the Reapers only hours away, Hackett summoned his Admirals and outlined his plan.
"As you are well aware, the Reaper", he paused, emphasising the word "invasion has caught us by surprise. The deployed fleets: the 6th at Terra Nova, the 7th at Eden Prime; and the 8th at Ontarom are currently dispersed in their Patrol Flotillas and will not concentrate in time for the coming action. Nevertheless, the armada we have available is formidable: we have 7 of the Alliance's 9 Dreadnoughts, 5 of her 11 Carriers, A full 70% of her armed spacefaring ships. This is a force we cannot afford to lose."
Admirals Isamu Tanaka of the 2nd Fleet and Hannah Shepard of the 5th Fleet protested loudly.
"You mean to say" Tanaka demanded, " That we are to be prepared to abandon Earth- our home world on which are living 11billion people we are sworn to protect- haven't you heard the stories coming from Khar'Shan".
"Not to mention" Shepard continued "That by losing Arcturus we place every colonist in danger"
"That is exactly what I am saying" replied Hackett, snarling furiously "If we look like we're going to be overrun, we will do a lot more good for those people alive than dead. Don't you think I've weighed the consequences? Considered every alternative? That's on ME goddammit! All those lives are my responsibility and if you disagree, why there's still time for you to resign your commission and name your successor." In the 20 years she had served with him, Hannah Shepard had never seen Hackett burst out like this. Momentarily cowed, she apologised while beside her Tanaka sheepishly looked at the ground.
"Thank you." Hackett snapped. "Now if no-one has anything else to contribute, I will carry on. 5th Fleet will jump from its station off the Citadel and take up defensive positions alongside the 2nd and 3rd Fleets overlooking the Arcturus relay. 1st Fleet is to fall back from Arcturus and guard the Charon relay from any Reapers that leak through. Then, once the 4th Fleet assembles over Earth, it is to link up and counter attack through the Charon Relay. The Fleets at Arcturus are to refrain from being drawn into a close range fighter and frigate melee until either the 1st and 4th Fleet arrive or I give the order. My Flagship will be the SSV Benjamin Davis. I will retain the Carriers of the, 2nd, 3rd and 5th Fleets as well as the , 69th, 71st and 55th Escort Flotillas in reserve. Is that understood?"
"Yes Admiral" The 5 Admirals cried as one.
"Do your duty then, and good hunting" The die had been cast. All that was left now was to wait and see.
The Battle of Arcturus
Aboard the SSV Tai Shan
The waiting was unbearable. The normal chatter of an Alliance Warship had fallen silent as tension reached a crescendo, leaving only the hum of the mass effect drive whirring in the background. Normally reassuring, to the men and women of the SSV Tai Shan it felt like fingernails on a chalkboard.
These sailors and marines viewed themselves as an elite. They were serving aboard the flagship of the 2nd Fleet- the same fleet that had liberated Shanxi and crushed the pirate scum on Torfan. Their ship, affectionately referred to as the "Titan", was the second newest dreadnought in the fleet. A Kilimanjaro class, of unparalleled power, nearing the firepower of a Turian Indomitable class and the speed and shields of a Salarian Narsurn class. Commissioned in 2185, she had a real claim to being the single most powerful ship in the navy- true the SSV Logan was newer, but the Titan had a year to iron out any technical kinks and improve crew cohesion. If any ship could pull them through it was her.
It was cold inside the dreadnought, any excess heat having been vented in preparation for combat. The A-Grav systems had been turned off and the crew were at general quarters- a clear indication that action was expected. But what action and against whom? One minute they were told to prepare for combat against the Batarians, then refugee and humanitarian operations within the Batarian Hegemony, the next they were to take up defensive positions outside Arcturus. If their homeport was being threatened then something had gone very wrong. The scuttlebutt was that they would be fighting Reapers- an ancient race of sentient killing machines that few had taken seriously until now. Allegedly, the huge ship that called itself Sovereign that had attacked the Citadel 3 years ago was not, in fact, a Geth super dreadnought but the vanguard of these "Reapers". The sailors hoped not- that thing, whatever it was, had in conjunction with a score of lesser Geth combatants, taken down 3 Alliance cruisers, not to mention the citadel fleet and the Destiny Ascension. If that was just one Reaper, god knows how they would defeat a whole fleet.
Admiral Tanaka's voice boomed over the intercom "Men and women of the 2nd Fleet, this morning at 0300 hours Alliance HQ received word of a hostile force of overwhelming power devastating the Batarian Hegemony. Reports are sketchy but it now appears that this force is headed our way. Many of you know of this force as the Reapers, whatever you call it is irrelevant. It will not get through you today. 11billion people expect you to do your duty. The consequences of failure are unbearable." They had only been on station half an hour. If already felt like a lifetime. And the waiting continued.
Aboard the SSV Benjamin Davis
In the CIC Hackett looked over the solar map one last time, reviewing the deployment. The Arcturus system was what was known as a phase gate- a nexus at which several relays converged, giving it immense strategic value. There were in fact 4 relays in the system, but at the moment he was only concerned with two- the primary relay to the Exodus Cluster from which the Reapers would be emerging and the secondary relay to Earth that he could not allow them to reach.
The three fleets under his direct command had been merged into one armada- Task Force Arcturus. All 4 dreadnoughts had been grouped into one formidable battle squadron that was to be the anchor of the fleet. They had formed a firing line behind the planet Themis, intending to use the gravitational effect of the gas giant, computed in minute detail by their sophisticated targeting computers, to fire shells from behind cover at targets identified by the 10 frigates of RADM Boris Malkovich's 1st Scouting Command. Malkovich, having distinguished himself in command of the 63rd Scouting Flotilla in the Battle of the Citadel, had used his newfound political capital to push hard for the construction Normandy Class frigates to be the eyes and ears of the fleet. Their mission was to use their stealth and passive sensors to relay firing solutions to the battle line of the main fleet without being detected. Theoretically this would allow the Alliance to bring overwhelming firepower to bear against the Reapers without them having a chance to reply. However, while the Normandy classes' stealth systems had been upgraded since the original SR-1 had been destroyed by the Collectors, nobody knew if they would actually work and projections about the survivability of these isolated ships in the main path of the Reapers varied wildly.
The Cruiser Squadrons (2nd 3rd and 5th) had formed a more traditional gun line barring the shortest route between the two relays. They would hold and attire the Reaper fleet while the big guns of the dreadnoughts pummelled them into submission. They were screened by numerous Escort Flotilla consisting mostly of light frigates of the Waterloo Class, who would keep the Reapers from simply overrunning the cruiser line. The rest of the fleet was in reserve behind Arcturus itself. These carriers and powerful frigate attack squadrons were safe from immediate attack but could use the gravitational slingshot of the K1.5III class star to enter the fight at short notice. This was the real ace up Hackett's sleeve. Unlike the Turians and Asari who concentrated on building fleets of dreadnoughts designed to dish out and receive heavy blows, the Alliance had placed emphasis on the symbiotic relationship of the fighter and the frigate and as a result had the largest, best trained and most technologically advanced carrier strike force in the Galaxy. Whether he needed to move in for the kill or hack his way out, Hackett knew it would be this force that he turned to. The plan was good, the crews were good. By all rights any force coming through the relay should be massacred. But the Reapers played by their own rules.
"DRADIS(2) contact. Multiple unidentified warships, bearing 115, closing fast. I count 6, no scratch that 12, no 15 capitol ships and 50 minor combatants"
"Roger that Lieutenant" came Admiral Hackett's curt reply "Designate contacts Reapers 1 through 65 and prepare firing solutions. This is it gentlemen" This was indeed it, Hackett was acutely aware that he had the lives of billions, perhaps even the survival of the species, riding on the outcome of the coming battle. Hackett had fought in half a hundred battles but never for stakes so high. He felt like he was on the bottom of the ocean, with billions of tons of water pressing down on him. He couldn't breathe; the pressure was a physical weight; the fear corrosive, like acid. He wasn't afraid of death but of failure, that by his own shortcomings he could doom the whole of humanity. That if he made mistakes people would pay for them in blood. And that even if he did everything right it still might not be enough. He looked around the bridge. The crew seemed eager for combat, relishing the opportunity to prove themselves in the greatest game of all. Hackett knew academically that most of them would be fighting their own private battles before the real one started, just like he was, but from his perch they seemed the best, most fearless warriors that ever lived. Even if they knew the Reapers like Hackett did they would not have lost heart- they would just trust that he would somehow pull them through, like he always did. That blind, unconditional trust was the worst part. To them, Hackett was as infallible as the pope, a benevolent paternal behemoth towering above them. But he was just a man- and all men feel fear. Hackett was just better at hiding it than most. He knew he could not afford to break the façade. He was their rock and their centre. If he ran, they would run; if he stood, they would stand. Steeling himself, he put on his battle mask and gave his orders.
Hackett's voice was calm, almost laconic as it rang out across the fleet "Dreadnoughts concentrate fire on their capitol ships, cruisers focus on the destroyers, don't let any through. Our enemy is tough but he is not invincible. Rely on yourself, your crewmates and your ship and we will be victorious. Fire when ready. Hackett out."
He was far from confident, that this was true. The Reaper forces bearing down on the cruisers were formidable but, if the Batarian Reports were to be believed, they were just a fraction of what the Reapers had available. Either the Reapers were stupid or they were up to something and Hackett didn't believe for a second the Reapers were stupid.
As if in response the Reapers boomed out a great noise over audible channels. Each capitol ship had chosen a name, a word designed to inspire terror in its foes: Monarch, Deity, Supreme, Dictator, Emperor, Imperator. Like Sovereign before them, they had come for one purpose- the extinction of all spacefaring life in the Galaxy. They were about to face their first major resistance.
Aboard the SSV Tai Shan
As the next most senior officer to Hackett, Nitesh Singh had been placed in charge of the dreadnoughts of the 1st Battle Squadron. All 4 ships under his command were of the Kilimanjaro Class (Logan, Orizaba, Aconcagua and Tai Shan) and their combined weight of shot would be the heaviest ever fired by the Alliance in anger. Ordinarily the Tai Shan and the Orizaba would house the flags of the 2nd and 5th fleets respectively, but with the fleets operating together it was too risky to have 3 Admirals grouped into one squadron- Hannah Shepard had moved her flag to the SSV New Orleans and was in command of the cruiser line, while Isamu Tanaka moved aboard the light cruiser SSV Scott and led the attack flotilla group. Singh had been serving aboard dreadnoughts for nearly his whole career, starting as an ensign in the original Everest. He had expertly placed is ships in high altitude orbit above Themis, just below the horizon. It was a gunnery officer's dream- the chance to fire on the targets of a lifetime with near total impunity.
"Firing solution achieved. Volley fire on my mark. MARK. All guns repeat and fire for effect." The Titan shuddered with recoil on the second mark. Each of the 4 Kilimanjaro Class Dreadnoughts was equipped with a 902 meter long MAC III MkVI mass accelerator cannon, capable of accelerating a 21kg ferrous slug to 1.5% the speed of light every 5 seconds. At that velocity it impacted with the force of a 45 kiloton atomic bomb- more than triple that of the city buster dropped on Hiroshima. Their firing computers had been synced to achieve time on target- the shots of each ship impacting at the same time, overwhelming the enemy's kinetic barriers and causing catastrophic damage. Flight time was 12 seconds
Even a Reaper could not last long in the face of such firepower. The first salvo slammed the Reaper calling itself Monarch. Aboard the titan Captain Morsley resolved to buy Malkovich and his scouts a drink, if any of them lived long enough to see another bar. By the third volley the Reaper was showing visible signs of damage and by the eighth it had disintegrated, to the raucous delight of the entire bridge. "Scratch one cockroach" crowed Commander Laura Westerfield, the ship's XO, giving Morsley a thumbs up. 52 seconds into the shooting war and it was first blood to the Alliance.
Aboard the SSV Benjamin Davis
The Reapers seemed unfazed by the loss and continued to close with the cruiser line at subluminal speeds almost twice that which an Alliance ship of comparable size could achieve.
Hannah Shepard had placed her cruisers, frigates and destroyers just within effective mass accelerator range of the relay. In doing so she had effectively tied the Reapers to a short range knife fight far away from the Charon relay and Arcturus station. While theoretically the Reapers could have engaged their FTL drives and flown right past the Alliance ships, no combat being possible at super-luminal speeds, this would have required them to significantly lower their mass and correspondingly their kinetic barriers- a brief moment of weakness that the Alliance could exploit and use to cause havoc. While enterprising commanders had previously made successful use of "tactical FTL", this was a high risk option best suited for fighters and frigates and certainly unsuitable for hulking behemoths such as the Sovereign class dreadnoughts. Therefore, so long as the Alliance was in gun range of the mass relay, the rest of the system was safe. However it also meant that the cruiser line was almost immediately in hot action and was soon fighting for its life.
From the Reaper fleet emanated thousands Oculus drones, swarming in great clouds towards the fleet, malevolence emanating from their glowing red eyes. The Combat Air Patrol of F-61Trident Fighters put up by the cruisers gave a good account of itself, downing 2 or 3 Oculi for every plane they lost, but would nonetheless be soon overwhelmed. Suddenly, a flight of 4 Oculi broke through the fighter and GARDIAN screen and embedded themselves in the hull of the battlecruiser SSV New York- flagship of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron's 4th Division. In sequence they detonated, tearing great gashes out of the starboard beam. The stricken cruiser turned aft and began to fall back while the rest of its division closed in to cover its retreat, but now the Oculi smelled blood and began to converge on the damaged vessel. In a moment the New York became the focal point of the battle as both sides shoved forces together to either save or destroy it. At first it seemed like the alliance had the upper hand, the fighters and frigates Hannah Shepard vectored in catching a large cloud of Oculi in flank and devastating them, but there were too many drones and not enough ships. An Oculus crashed into the bridge of the New York, wiping out the command staff. Another impacted on the portside wing, knocking out thrusters 4 and 5. Still the cruiser limped on. The escort destroyer SSV Argonaut, whose commander had over committed on her attack run, was swarmed and destroyed, exploding in a flash before any of the crew could reach the escape pods. While tragic, her sacrifice diverted attention from the New York just long enough for her to activate her FTL drives and jump away.
From his detached position aboard the Benjamin Davis, Hackett's analytical mind quickly took stock of the brief engagement. He was not impressed. While a fine admiral, Hannah Shepard was still not thinking in terms of total war. The strenuous and ultimately successful rescue effort had succeeded in saving the New York, but at the cost of breaking up the cohesion of the battle line- something the Reaper destroyers moving into contact would surely punish. It would have been better to accept the loss of one cruiser in the skirmish phase in the hopes of saving several in the main fight. Hackett did not blame Shepard for her mistake- in an ordinary war it would have been the right decision- cruisers are valuable and difficult to replace. Instead he blamed himself for not adequately driving home the severity of the Reaper threat. "My God" he thought, "the price is already being paid".
Using the distraction provided by the Oculus drones the Reapers divided their fleet to take on the Alliance. The bulk, consisting of 6 capitol ships and 25 destroyers, bore down on the cruiser line. Their volleys of fire did not benefit from target relay ships but still claimed 2 cruisers, with the SSV Mexico City narrowly avoiding the same fate when the Reaper's blast of superheated ions was deflected at the last moment by a fortuitous asteroid. A second group composed of 4 capitol ships and 12 destroyers engaged the orbital defence platforms(ODPs) around the exodus relay. Each of these 4 space stations was equipped with a dreadnought class gun and numerous smaller armaments. However, they were virtually immobile and even their formidable shields could not last long in the face of Reaper firepower. They were made short work of. The final group of Reapers closed on the dreadnoughts with all possible speed, hoping to draw fire away from the cruiser action that was emerging.
The disordering of the Alliance line was sorely felt as the first group of Reapers descended with overwhelming force on the extreme left flank of Shepard's command- the 5th Cruiser Squadron's 11th Division. In rapid succession 3 cruisers and 2 frigates were destroyed, without inflicting loss on the Reapers. Quickly re-organising, Shepard swung back hard and concentrated cannon fire downed a pair of destroyers, causing the rest to break off.
Sensing an opportunity, the 22nd Escort squadron(3) committed to a counter attack, hoping to close to torpedo range and bring down the Reaper's kinetic barriers so the rest of the fleet could tear them apart. Aggressive tactics like these had handed the Alliance victory against the Turians in First Contact and were the scourge of pirates across the galaxy. However, there were simply not enough ships to break through the veritable wall of fire the Reapers put up. Ride of the Valkyries it was not; Götterdämmerung it was. By the time the flotilla had limped back to Alliance lines it had lost 2 destroyers and 5 frigates. The abortive counter attack over, the Reapers resumed the offensive.
By now Shepard had re-ordered her forces and losses were much more even. The Alliance, supported by fire from the dreadnoughts, traded another 2 cruisers and a frigate for 3 destroyers and a capitol ship-the Tormentor. Briefly checked, the Reapers pulled back again and prepared for another attack, linking up with the second group who had by now dealt with the ODPs.
So far so good, thought Hackett, the Reapers had been prevented from carving out a beachhead from which they could engage their FTL drives and were taking significant casualties. But Shepard's force had already lost almost a third of its ships and could not keep this up for much longer. It would still be almost an hour before the 4th Fleet was assembled and ready to link of with the 1st and launch the counter attack- there was no way the cruisers could hold that long. If he wanted to hold the Relay, and with it the system, he had to launch the carrier strike now, a long way off the concerted combined arms strike he had envisaged in his plan. Moreover, he smelled a trap- if the Reapers had significant forces waiting in reserve they could jump in and hit the Alliance while they were overextended and at their most vulnerable. Nevertheless, he felt he had little choice, failing to do so would be tantamount to conceding defeat. Grudgingly, Hackett admired the Reaper's ability to put him on the horns of a dilemma, where there were only least bad options. He turned to the CIC, aflurry with activity as status reports, casualty tallies and intelligence analysis poured in.
"Commander Adama, launch all alert fighters. Specialist Wilson, radio Tanaka and tell him to make his frigates ready for action. We're going in".
Meanwhile aboard the SSV Tai Shan
Despite the general elation and back patting at the destruction of the Dictator, Morsley knew that the Battle Squadron was in grave danger. Their early success had relied upon luck as much as anything. Gunnery in space was like trying to hit a bullet with another bullet, from thousands of miles away while that bullet was preforming evasive manoeuvres, - not a feat that could be repeated regularly. Only once a hit had been scored did long range fire become reliably accurate, the exact targeting data that led to the initial success being adjusted to take into account the target's manoeuvres, allowing repeat bombardments. That the Dictator had been hit on the first salvo was in itself something of a minor miracle, supplemented by the superb data they had been receiving from Malkovich. Morsley doubted they would be so lucky again- one did not, after all, win the lottery twice in one day.
This left the 4 dreadnoughts in the path of a powerful Reaper squadron, consisting of 5 Capitol ships and 13 destroyers, with little chance of stopping them before they closed to firing range. Even worse, while the Reapers apparently could not see Malkovich's Normandy class frigates, they could track the signals they were emitting and receiving and use these to triangulate a general area in which a frigate was hiding. A screen of destroyers swept through these positions to localise the frigates who, seeing the game was up, jumped away- all except the unfortunate SSV Nile whose Captain was too slow to recognise the sudden danger he was in and was caught by a pair of destroyers just before his jump, while his shields were at their weakest, and destroyed. Being too valuable to risk in frontline combat, the Normandys would play little further part in the battle. A sensible strategic decision Morsely thought, but one that left his ship without close up targeting solutions.
Recognising the limitations of long range gunnery, Admiral Singh assigned each of the dreadnoughts a capitol ship to employ "searching fire" against. Once one ship had scored a hit the rest would switch fire to that target and blast it to pieces. To Morsley's immense pride it was the Titan that scored first, slamming into the capital ship Overseer with a hypersonic 21kg round that staggered the Reaper but did little damage. Unlike the Dictator , the Overseer slowed to a virtual halt, taking only local evasive manoeuvres, and ran a large positive charge through its drive core to increase its relative mass, substantially boosting its kinetic barriers. In doing this it hoped that the rest of the Reapers could close with the Alliance before it was overwhelmed by the torrent of shells raining down on it. The Overseer emerged from the battle missing two claws and with burning craters all along its super-structure but very much alive.
It was already getting hot aboard the Tai Shan. With the massive bow gun in constant operation and the engines working at full capacity to prevent the ship's artificially high mass falling into Themis's gravity well, the dreadnought was producing far more heat than it could successfully radiate. The problem of heat endurance was never one that spacefaring navies had solved and it carried with it very real combat limitations, such as the need to keep the dreadnought's port and starboard guns, which could have profitably been employed against the Reaper's destroyer escorts, silent to conserve heat. Somehow Morsely doubted the synthetic bastards on the other side of the hill were having the same issues. While the trick of hiding behind the planet was neat, fighting this close to a celestial body only made the problem more acute, so much so that the Titan had already reached 20% of its maximum tolerable heat capacity.
Right now, however, Morsely had more immediate concerns. The Reapers had reached Themis and were being engaged by the 35th and 44th patrol flotillas, who were hoping to screen the dreadnoughts for long enough that their big guns could help break up the 2nd Reaper attack on the cruiser line. This was achieved with the destruction of the Tormentor but came at a high price- the cruiser SSV Vienna and the frigates SSV Philippine Sea and SSV Lepanto were blotted from the sky. The frigate screen scattered and prepared to jump away.
A Reaper capital ship came over the horizon, the Herald of Darkness, it readied its magnetohydrodynamic cannon.
"Full port rudder. Flank Speed. All hands brace for impact". In CIC and across the ship the crew leapt to Morsley's instructions with an alacrity borne of desperation, the sudden reversal in their fortunes serving only to make the danger seem more immanent.
They were fast enough, but only just, the shot searing a gash in the starboard bulkhead as it sailed wide. As the Reaper prepared to fire again Admiral Singh's voice sounded over the intercom.
"Everybody bug out and RV at the cruiser line. Let's leave this knife fight shit to the frigate jocks"
"You heard the Admiral Sir. Let's get the bloody hell out of here" implored Commander Westerfield, her voice tremoring, but only slightly "We're not going to survive a direct hit from that thing". Morsely nodded and the helmsman, Pilot Ewan McMaster, plotted jump co-ordinates. The crew collectively stiffened for the sudden acceleration and… nothing happened.
"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. SHIT." McMaster screamed "the drive core is operative but FTL is not engaging. We are fucked. We are so-"he paused, gritting his teeth as he lurched the Titan through a 90º corkscrew turn to starboard. A second Reaper shot sailed harmlessly by. "-fucked. I can't keep this up forever sir."
"Find me the problem and fix it" Morsley bellowed. The crew were already double and triple checking systems it record time, looking for the malfunction that was keeping them in the hornets' nest.
"I have it" a breathless ensign from across CIC yelled "the Reapers are through our firewalls- they've been hacking us since they first signalled us their names. The jump computer thinks we have built up a far greater static charge than we have and is refusing to enter FTL so that we don't Cherenkov irradiate ourselves. Manual overrides have been deactivated."
Electronically disabled, Morsley thought, what an embarrassing way to lose a ship- not if he could help it.
"Westerfield, get down to the engine room and figure something out. I don't care what it takes but get that drive working."
"Aye, Aye Sir" the XO sprinted down the hallway.
"In the meantime we have a Reaper to kill. McMaster- all ahead flank. Port and Starboard batteries engage". By closing the range Morsley could use his ship's smaller mass to its advantage, making tighter turns than the hulking Reaper. Hopefully this would allow the dreadnought to avoid the Reaper's main gun and whittle it down with its numerous smaller armaments. But first the Titan had to make it into close range in one piece. Morsley quickly said a silent Hail Mary and gripped his chair ever tighter.
The Reaper fired once, twice, three times, but McMaster was on fire. Only the second shot connected and the impact was glancing- while the portside hangar bay suffered significant damage, immediate impact on combat operations was minimal. Within a minute the Tai Shan had the Reaper in visual range, the two ships circling 20 kilometres apart, in high altitude orbit in the upper atmosphere of Themis' northern hemisphere.
Mounted in double and quad turrets along the sides of the Kilimanjaro class dreadnought were numerous MAC II Cannons, 156 in all, each with the firepower of a pre-thanix frigate's main armament. Individually they were of little consequence to the Reaper, but collectively, firing once every two seconds, they were dealing a death by a million cuts. Morsely had rolled the Tai Shan 45º to port to allow as many turrets as possible to engage the Reaper; his plan was to bring the titan close enough that he could launch the disruptor torpedoes slung in Javelin mounts on the ships undercarriage to bring down the Reaper's kinetic barriers and then deal the death blow with the cannons. Targeting was thus focused as much as possible on the Reaper's known and suspected GARDIAN installations to ensure the torpedoes a clear run to the target, although this was made difficult by the novel design of Reaper warships. Flashes of light twinkled over the Herald of Darkness, each signifying the impact of a 2kg ferrous slug accelerated to relativistic speeds. To the crew lucky enough to have access to a viewing port the Reaper seemed wreathed in flame, aglow from the constant barrage. Despite everything, most acknowledged this as a rare and beautiful sight, space combat almost never taking place within visual range and even veterans never having actually seen the results of their handiwork.
Despite having difficulty employing its main gun, the Herald was by no means defenceless. Each of its 6 tentacles housed a smaller magnetohydrodynamic weapon which it had little difficulty bringing to bear on the Tai Shan, these were less powerful but still capable of enormous destruction. Worse still, to achieve speeds high enough to avoid the Reaper's main gun, McMaster had to lower the Titan's mass and accordingly its kinetic barriers, leaving little to stop the Reaper's attacks.
The two ships orbited in an ever tighter circle, tearing great chunks out of each other as they closed the distance. While both were suffering damage, it was clear that the Herald was winning, its secondary armaments quickly burning through the Tai Shan's ablative plating to impact on the hull beneath. Already damage control parties were stretched to breaking, barely capable of containing the major fires that had broken out, let alone reversing them.
At close range the invisible infrared rays of each ship's GARDIAN batteries could be added to the carnage. Deadly accurate and moving at the speed of light, both sides employed them in precision strikes on valuable targets- for the Alliance the highest priority being to knock out the Reaper's own GARDIANs with counterbattery fire. At 5km out Morsley ordered the torpedoes launched. The ship rolled sharply to starboard to bring the as yet undamaged undercarriage to bear and fired a volley from each of the Javelin launches, before completing the rotation and re-engaging with the gun turrets. Of the 16 torpedoes only 2 reached their targets- insufficient to bring down the Herald's barriers but enough to disrupt them long enough that the Tai Shan could knock out the main gun and destroy two of the Reaper's tentacles.
This was not enough. The disruptor torpedoes represented Morsley's last, best hope at destroying the Herald. With them launched all he could hope fore was that Westerfield could get the drive core back online before the Tai Shan was inevitably overwhelmed. The rest of the squadron having successfully jumped away, the Tai Shan was now the target of over a dozen Reaper's, including 3 capitol ships. While her proximity to the Herald of Darkness precluded these from just standing off and blowing her away, they were closing fast and the Tai Shan's fate would be sealed once they arrived.
A destroyer came in hard and fast on the Tai Shan's stern, firing at her engines. A concerted volley tore it apart before it could do any major damage, scattering debris over almost 10 kilometres of sky. Despite the Titan's grim situation it was not going down without a fight and still had more than enough firepower to ward of all but the strongest ships. Following this setback the rest of the destroyers stayed clear- this was to be a fight between heavyweights, with weaker vessels relegated to mere onlookers.
Morsely felt his ship shudder around him as yet another shot impacted. The hull creaked and groaned but held together-for now. "We can't take much more of this" he whispered as damage reports, each worse than the last, rolled in.
"Barriers are down. We have multiple hull breaches. Fire aboard the ship."
"We've lost engines 3 and 4. Losing electrical power- switching to backup generators."
"Life support is down on deck 3. No survivors, I repeat no survivors."
The Reaper had manoeuvred to gain altitude relative to the Tai Shan, forcing her down into the 400 mile per hour winds of Themis' upper atmosphere. The air rushing through the gaps in the hull and the stresses of atmospheric re-entry, for which dreadnoughts were not designed, threated to tear the Tai Shan apart even if the Reaper's guns didn't do it first. At the current rate of descent the Titan could not last longer than another 30 seconds.
"Laura now would be a heckuava time for some good news" Morsley could barely get the words out. As the Tai Shan fell into the atmosphere G forces approaching double digits bore down on the crew, already causing several to fall unconscious. It was all McMaster could do to prevent the ship from entering into an uncontrolled spin from which there could be no recovery.
"Overrides are still down but the core itself is operative. If we can run a negative current through it by hand we still stand a chance of lowering our mass enough to enter FTL" What Westerfield suggested was almost unprecedented in the history of faster than light travel. The minute calculations of the exact ampage and voltage to run through the eezo core were ordinarily only possible with the strongest super computer. To be sure all alliance navy engineers, as well as the engineers of the other council races navy's, were mathematicians and physicists of the first order, but what they were attempting would be like solving pi in a notebook. In the most recent test series 3 out of 5 drones were destroyed and their theoretical crews killed by Cherenkov radiation, before all efforts were called off and the practice banned, and in those cases the scientists had hours to work out the calculations, while now the engineers had only minutes. But the Tai Shan was so desperate that Morsely agreed without a moment's thought.
"One more thing sir" Westerfield's voice trembled in earnest "the flux capacitors have been disabled, the engineering crew and I will… not survive the plasma vent. I- It's been an honour sir." Before Morsely could respond she turned the jump key. 1.21 gigawatts of negative charge surged through the drive core, propelling the ship to faster than light speeds- the engineers had done the impossible and had given their lives doing it.
In CIC Morsley knew that there would be plenty of time to reflect on their sacrifices, but not now. The crippled Tai Shan had no place in the battle line, it would make for the citadel in accordance with Hackett's orders. Burning and broken, the final relay jump proved too much for the devastated dreadnought and it broke up in the Serpent Nebula, but slowly and gracefully, giving the patrolling Turians plenty of time to evacuate the surviving crew. In the escape pod Morsley looked at the ship one last time. The battered hulk bore little resemblance to the proud warship he had commanded. He knew he had done all he could to save her- he wondered if that made it better, or worse, or if it even mattered at all. Then he turned away.
SSV Benjamin Davis
"… We're going in". Alpha strike. The order had remained unchanged since the Second World War. It consisted of launching every available interceptor, fighter and torpedo bomber at the enemy with all the subtlety of a charging Krogan Battlemaster.
Right behind them were the Fleets' Attack Flotillas- each consisting of a cruiser and 4-6 frigates. In peacetime they were the beating heart of the Navy, conducting show the flag and anti-piracy operations across the galaxy, in wartime they operated as wolfpacks, hounding even the largest warships to death in close range knife fights where they could use their superior manoeuvrability to their advantage. Their relationship with the fighters was symbiotic. The disruptor torpedoes of the fighters brought down the kinetic barriers of the enemy ships, leaving them totally exposed to the frigates' thanix cannons; in return, the Flotillas gave cover for the fighters before and after they made their bomb runs.
The CAG(4) for the Alpha Strike was RADM Bill Adama- callsign Husker, an exceptionally experienced and gifted pilot who had flown in the First Contact War. He would have given anything to be out there flying with his pilots, but was cooped up in CIC aboard the Benjamin Davis, the Navy having judged the demands of co-ordinating several hundred spacecraft and the demands of desperately trying to avoid being shot down to be incompatible. Fighter combat in space had taken an ugly turn with the advent of GARDIAN class lasers, although short ranged, the GARDIAN moved at the speed of light and was almost 100% accurate, meaning that the first fighters would get hit, no matter the skill of the pilot. It was only later in the battle when the lasers overheated or battle damage shut them down, that the fighters could get through. To him then fell burden of ordering his men to their likely deaths, his own relative safety making the burden all the more unbearable.
The strike group used the gravitational slingshot of the star Arcturus to hurl themselves into the fray, closing rapidly with the Reapers at the exceptionally high FTL speeds only smaller ships could achieve. Whether the Reapers were surprised or not Hackett couldn't tell, but they responded to the threat with their customary efficiency and quickly re-organised their force, the destroyers forming a picket line to guard the more valuable capitol ships and mutually support each other by fire. The strike force entered combat range and disengaged FTL.
Centuries ago a prescient general, Maurice De Saxe Adama thought, quipped that battles are won and lost in a single minute. How apt! Though combatants and weapons changed, war itself remained constant, subject to its own immutable laws such that an axiom coined for warfare with pike and musket could apply in space. Adama knew that this was that unforgiving minute- his unforgiving minute. If the strike group could break the Reaper picket line and the rest of the fleet could follow through, surely their momentum would carry them all the way to the relay. However if the strike group broke upon the Reaper line like a wave on the rocks, the fleet would be left devastated, scattered and demoralised and the system would be lost. There was no further time for thought- this was the time for deed. The various elements of the strike group began to break off and zero in on their particular targets, Adama directing their manoeuvres like a conductor directing an orchestra.
"Rattlesnake 1 this is Husker, be advised I have a flight of Oculus drones on your port side closing fast over"
"Roger that Husker, I have them in visual. Engaging. Out" On the screen in front of him the red dots and blue dots came together, both disappearing alarmingly fast.
"Pelican 3 reporting in, we're having trouble penetrating their destroyer screen. Have taken 50% casualties. Breaking off and coming in for another attack run"
"Copy that Pelican. Am detailing the 25th, 35th and 44th wolf packs to soften them up for you" replied Adama, sending orders to the three frigate flotillas. He hadn't recognised the voice on the radio. George Morgan was supposed to be leading Pelican 3, he had been one of the top students when Adama was an instructor at flight school and had been at his son's wedding. Now he was gone, along with half the pilots in his squadron.
"Samurai 6 acknowledging last" Admiral Tanaka's voice crackled over the radio. Always an Admiral to lead from the front, Tanaka was aboard the light cruiser SSV Scott, flagship of the 22nd Attack Squadron. Known as Banzai squadron, the 22nd had inherited Tanaka's ethos of "death before dishonour" and were charging hell for leather at the Reaper line, taking heavy casualties. At point blank range they opened fire with their GARDIAN systems, blinding the Reapers own point defences against the fighters, although at the cost of the Scott and a pair of frigates, with Tanaka himself killed or presumed dead. Adama vectored additional planes towards the weakened enemy.
"Husker, this is Sparrow 2-4. We've lost Bryce, Chase and Kagali but we are through. Locked on a destroyer. Torpedoes away. Torpedoes away. I- argh" the transmission ended in a burst of static as the young pilot's life was extinguished in a burst of light. But his sacrifice was not in vain. Seconds later 3 Frigates- the SSV Fallujah, the SSV El Aleman and the SSV Bunker Hill pounced on the now defenceless destroyer and in a volley of blasts from their thanix cannons, blew it apart, narrowly avoiding the return fire from a second destroyer than had moved in to fill the gap. F-61 Trident Fighters poured through the hole in the Reaper destroyer screen, loosing torpedoes by the hundred and causing mass havoc. In their wake came the frigates, thanix cannons blasting. In seconds the Reapers lost 2 capitol ships and 9 destroyers. Grudgingly they began to fall back, all the while inflicting appalling, heart-breaking casualties on the valiant Alliance pilots and sailors who had broken their lines.
For a brief, beautiful moment it appeared that the Alliance had won. As the Reaper took casualties gaps were opening up in their defences, allowing individual ships to be swarmed and overwhelmed, leading to further gaps. The fleet smelled blood and moved in for the kill. Despite all losses there was no joy like chasing a beaten enemy, even Hackett having difficulty restraining the attack. Ship after ship committed to the hunt. Another half dozen destroyers went up, followed by a capitol ship. With the Reapers clearly in some disorder even the carriers moved up, hoping to recover and re-arm the planes they had sent out in time to launch a second strike. A single destroyer fell back through the mass relay. 10 seconds later it return, bringing with it the rest of the Reaper Armada
Reality hit like an atomic bomb.
"DRADIS contact, more Reapers and there's a shitton of them" exclaimed an excitable Systems Officer "I have 80 capitol ships and hundreds of destroyers emerging from the relay. They're heading straight for the us Sir"
A Sovereign Class capitol ship, this one calling itself Forerunner, fired its' cannon, hitting the flight deck of the carrier SSV Einstein. For a moment it appeared the little damage had been done. Then the Einstein exploded with such force that it took out the cruiser SSV Lisbon escorting it nearby.
Hackett's spirits sank as he watched the ships appear. The Reapers played us for a fool and we fell for it he thought. They sent a portion of their fleet to drawn us in for the rest to ambush. There was no question anymore of holding the relay- the Reaper fleet that had just arrived was almost 5 times the size of the initial Reaper fleet and they had difficulty enough as it was defeating that. To be honest there was never a chance of holding the relay in the face of such a force and the Reapers, recognising that a clever Admiral would not through his forces away in a battle against a superior force, had deliberately made themselves seem weaker than they were to induce the Alliance to fight. Not for the first time in the battle Hackett found himself admiring his opponent's patient cunning and resolve.
Sometimes it takes as much courage to retreat as it does to attack. When asked later Hackett, a man no stranger to bravery, said that the decision to retreat from the battle was the bravest he ever took. It was taken in the full knowledge that the fall of Earth would be the direct result and that perhaps he would be blamed for it but was also unquestionably the right move. To stand and fight, however tempting, would be to throw away the fleet for no gain, leaving the rest of the Systems Alliance defenceless and the Reaper's job that much easier. There was a time and a place for heroic, forlorn last stands but this was not that time.
However, retreat was easier said than done. With the Reapers well within range simply turning around and engaging FTL was. A sacrifice had to be made to buy time for the rest to get to a safe distance. It was to be a suicide mission. With Tanaka dead and the Tai Shan in the process of breaking apart , the 2nd fleet found itself the least valuable to the allied war effort. In the brutal calculus of military logic this meant that, through no fault of their own, their lives were worth less than their comrades in the 3rd and the 5th .
"This is the Admiral speaking. All 3rd Fleet and 5th Fleet elements disengage. Head for the Nebula Relay. All 2nd Fleet elements commence rear-guard screening and fall back once the rest of the fleet gets away. This is not over- we will return but now we need to live to fight another day. Hackett out." The men and women of the 2nd Fleet took the news of their impending deaths with good grace, happy to give their lives so that their brothers and sisters might live. The order was considerably less well received in the 3rd and 5th Fleets. Not only were they to be expected to abandon Earth, but also their comrades in arms. For some this was too much and they ignored the command, preferring certain death to the shame of leaving their friends behind. Nevertheless for most their good discipline and respect for Hackett prevailed and they beat a reluctant retreat.
The remaining ships of the 2nd Fleet- some 8 cruisers and 14 Frigates- formed a hasty line of battle. Towards them swept the Reaper hoard, as merciless in victory as they had been vengeful in defeat. There was no fight, just slaughter as ship after Alliance ship was blown apart, the few crew who made it to the escape pods only delaying their demise a few hours, until their oxygen ran out or they were harvested by patrolling destroyers. Not every ship was destroyed, after the 3rd and 5th jumped away the remaining survivors engaged tactical FTL, consequences be dammed, and made for the relay. Nevertheless it was clear that as a fighting force the 2nd Fleet was finished. But it had accomplished its final mission, allowing the rest of the fleet to get away safely, first to the Horsehead Nebula and then to the rally point at the Citadel. The Alliance had suffered a crippling defeat, but the war was not over.
Task Force Arcturus had lost a dreadnoughts, a carrier, 19 cruisers and 45 frigates-about 10,000 Sailors and Marines. From the first shot fired to the last ship away, the battle had lasted 20minutes.
Some hours following the battle, almost as an afterthought, a capitol ship pulled up alongside Arcturus station and systematically tore it apart, killing some 45,000 people, including Prime Minister Amul Shatsi and destroying the headquarters and communication centre of the Alliance Navy.
The Battle of Earth
If the Battle of Arcturus was a rout, the Battle of Earth was a massacre. The 1st Fleet was the largest and the best equipped in the Alliance Navy, yet it simply didn't have the weight of shot to put up any meaningful resistance against the hundreds of Reapers pouring through the Charon Relay. The rough numerical parity between TF Arcturus and the Reapers they faced allowed them to give as good as they got. There was no such luck for the 1st fleet. They were simply overwhelmed. By the time Admiral Ines Lindholm realised resistance was futile she had lost 50% of her command, including the dreadnought SSV Fuji. She was to lose another 10% in the retreat before she could link up with Admiral Hackett at the citadel.
Despite having a few minutes of advance warning, the 4th Fleet put up even less of a fight. Comprised mostly of obsolete and reserve vessels, it only had 2/3rds of its ships outside of Earth's atmosphere when the Reapers struck. The dreadnought SSV Everest was destroyed without firing a shot, while the carrier SSV Peter Higgs went down in a brave but pointless defence of Luna Base Armstrong. The Reapers first targeted communication relays and command centres, leaving the resistance on Earth disorganised and relying on ancient radio towers for communication. Soon whole continents were out of communication with each other, what resistance there was reduced to relying on personal and local initiative without central direction.
In focusing on communications the Reapers left themselves momentarily exposed to the powerful orbital defence platforms guarding Earth and took correspondingly heavy casualties, the International Space Station doing particularly well, downing 2 destroyers and a score of troop transports, at least until it in turn was destroyed by a squadron of capitol ships. Even while the space battle raged overhead, the Reapers were descending, annihilating entire cities with populations in the low millions, including Adelaide, Hamburg, Al Jubail, and Fort Worth. The Alliance headquarters in Vancouver was another priority target, with the defence council being killed in the opening strikes, 9 minutes after the Reapers had come through the Charon Relay.
Author's Notes:
I have tried to stay as close as possible to cannon when writing but bioware did not make it easy for me. For example the amount that a Reaper outclasses council ships is horribly inconsistent in the codex, with the cruiser in Vancouver harbour taking several direct hits before blowing up but other entries saying even dreadnoughts never survive even a single hit. Fortunately this inconsistency gives me a good degree of leeway. I have tried to give the Reapers significant and noticeable advantages but not make it so one sided that there is no point writing about space battles. After all it is no fun to write or read about one ship after another being blown up without being able to do any damage in return.
As to the sciency bits, I am no scientist but made considerable effort to make it appear at least plausible within the rules that bioware set out for me. In particular the relationship between a ship's drive core manipulation and its shield strength was hinted at but never concretely established so I have had to infer a relationship that I think seems reasonable. If anybody thinks I'm getting it wrong, I'll be happy to debate it with them.
I am more confident about the strategic level stuff that I am writing. In research for this project I looked a fair bit at naval warfare on Earth, to which space combat shown obvious and striking parallels. Moreover as a student of military history I have done a lot of reading about how wars are won and lost. Nevertheless, I relish the chance to debate anybody who thinks I have misjudged it.
Ship numbers were worked out by working backwards from the given numbers of dreadnoughts for each council species. My best guess for the Reaper gave them 300-400 capitol ships and 1400 destroyers. To beat them conventionally the council would have to have been about 4 times more prepared.
I apologise for any formatting errors as this is my first story. Reviews are welcome and encouragement is essential- this took a lot out of me to write and it would be nice to hear it was worth the effort. As to technique, I was a bit concerned that I had gone too much in the direction of Tom Clancy and violated the dictum "write about men not machines" let me know if this is something that needs fixing.
Author's note #2
Sorry about the month long delay. I have been doing a lot of writing but was jumping about to whichever bits of the war took my fancy, not concentrating on the pieces for the next chapter. On the bright side that means that I have done most of the work for chapters 3-the citadel (and 6th Fleet at Eden Prime) and 4- the Battle of Palaven. I should be able to get them up fairly quickly.
I moved the Anderson/Shepard bit to the next chapter to break them more thematically and to make them comparable in size. Sorry about making you read it again.
The only changes to this chapter were to raise the total number of carriers belonging to the Alliance from 6 to 11. I felt this was more in accordance with their doctrine (more carriers than dreadnoughts) and implied status as a great power- it is suggested more so than the Asari or Salarians. For comparison I have the Turians with 5 (but a ton of dreadnoughts.), the Salarians with 8 (it might have been a human innovation but it fits well with the Salarian way of war and they bought in heavily) and the Asari with none (although as their dreadnoughts are undergunned they can carry an unusually high number of planes.
If you are interested I can add an appendix of ship numbers and classes for each nation, with an added bit on doctrine and history for use in your own stories. I have most of it written down somewhere and it would be quite easy to piece it together and spruce it up a bit. Actually that sounds quite fun so I am going to do it anyway.
That's it for now. Keep reading and reviewing.
1 There are two kinds of mass relay, primary and secondary. Primary relays can propel a ship thousands of light years but only link to one other relay, its "partner". Secondary relays can link to any other relay over shorter distances, only a few hundred light years.
2 DRADIS (Direction, RAnge, and DIStance) is a series of highly sensitive detection, identification, navigation and tracking systems used to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, spacecraft, weapons ordinance, celestial bodies, and terrain
3 Consisting of 3 destroyers and 8 frigates, all drawn from the 2nd Fleet
4 Commander Air Group- the officer who co-ordinates the aircraft from the CIC (Combat Information Centre) of the lead carrier
