Halo: Paradigm Shifts
Chapter Two: The Siege of Taetrus
I'm so sorry this chapter came out months after the first one. I was being lazy and honestly, I had some personal issues myself to work out before I started this again. But now, I'm back in action! That being said though, do note that this story is not a priority, but my other story, Eternal Legends, takes precedence over this one, by far.
I got a lot of questions wondering how the Citadel races were gonna hold out enough to survive without getting completely and totally stomped before they're civilization is annihilated. Oh, don't worry, I've found the perfect reason/excuse for it.
Full Summary: In a twist of fate, a slipspace malfunction on the Covenant vessel Minor Transgression goes haywire and lead the Jiralhanae led vessel into Citadel space to an outer rim turian colony. As a result, the Covenant never encounters the UNSC and subsequently, declares the Citadel races as Heretics. The Citadel races now face a foe that far surpasses the threat of the Rachni and Krogan combined, as they fight for one thing all of their species have in common: survival.
(-x.0.0.x-)
(Turian Space, three million klicks outside of the Mactare System)
Tartarus' eyelids slowly parted, wincing as his irises adjusted to the faint light of the bridge. He was alive. By the Forerunners grace, he was fucking alive! Ignoring his discomfort, he forced himself up from the metal floor of the bridge of the Minor Transgression. Almost as if every bridge officer was joined, they all started to awake in synchronous harmony. Had the situation not been so grave, the young Jiralhanae might have found the sight a bit amusing.
"Status report!" he heard a familiar voice growl out. Turning to his right, he saw his uncle had picked himself back up and was doing everything in his power to not kill everything in sight from sheer rage. He really couldn't blame him. They had, literally, just started their journey and already had it ended in complete disaster.
"On it...Chieftain," a Brute Major, who also served as one of the triad of Weapon Systems Officers, groaned out as he picked himself up from the floor and sat in his chair. The slightly injured ape-alien winced as he typed on his consoles, receiving various reports from every deck of the Minor Transgression. Maccabaeus tapped his console himself, trying his best to be patient. After a solid two minutes of receiving report after report, the WSO perked up in surprise.
"What is it?" the Brute Chieftain asked, both in curiosity at his officer's behavior as well as finally getting a damage assessment.
"Casualties are minimal, ten Kig-yar, thirty Unggoy, and zero for us," he reported. Now Maccabaeus understood the young officer's shock. That wasn't even a tenth of a percent of the ten-thousand strong force, they had crammed into this ship. "All vehicles are out of their restraints, but otherwise fine. A single banshee is damaged beyond repair...which accounts for half of the Unggoy casualties," he continued grimly. The Chieftain grimaced, a bit uncomfortably. What a waste of a way to go.
"Shields are holding at ninety-five percent, surprisingly. The drive itself has gone back to completely normal. It's almost as if it never acted up in the first place. It's responding to all commands with pinpoint accuracy. All in all..."
"We got lucky," Maccabeus finished. Scratching his chin in wonder, "Do you have any idea where we are?"
"Yes...we're about three-thousand light-years from the veil..." another officer answered looking at the star charts. "Meaning, any backup should we need it won't come for another four days give or take. That's assuming we stay in this spot."
"I see...young one...what do you propose we do...?"
"But, Chieftain, I'm just a—"
"I'm well aware of that. I do, however, like to take into consideration my own subordinates opinions as much as I can." The young Jiralhanae was a bit flummoxed, as well as the rest of the crew on the bridge. Truly, the Chieftain took "leading by example" very seriously.
"I...well...sir...I don't want to go back to the Empire empty handed..."
He got a feral grin in response. "So you wish to press forward? Are there any objections?" He was met with silence. "Very well, then. We have enough supplies to last a good year, more if we ration. This is only a minor setback. Now, let us press forward on to glorious salvation!" There were multiple roars of approval from the bridge, the slipspace incident, almost forgotten and replaced with determination.
"Uncle...you might want to take a look at this..." Tartarus said seriously looking at the holotable.
"What is it?" He asked turning around. His nephew didn't need to answer him as he already had his answer. Six ships were headed toward the Minor Transgression...
First Contact
(In orbit above Taetrus, onboard Turian Carrier "Undaunted", moments before)
Captain Asoka Vega strolled aimlessly down the hallways of the Undaunted, the newest ship in a new breed of starships: carriers. The concept was simple: its sole purpose was to carry fighter craft, drop ships, and massive amounts of ground troops into battle wherever the Hierarchy needed them. They stayed away from the fight at a distance to not be engaged, but close enough where pilots could reach their destinations with relative quickness. The Undaunted was the size of biggest Turian dreadnoughts that defended Palaven a good fifteen thousand light years away and compactly stowed a hundred fighters. Seeing as how carriers barely had any weaponry besides GARDIAN point-defense systems and kinetic-barriers, the Treaty of Farixen didn't apply to it at all, meaning any race, assuming they had the resources and capability, could build as many carriers as they wanted, since the treaty only indicated ships of dreadnought-class specifically. Which is exactly what the Turians were doing. It was a nice little loophole. In ten years time, the Hierarchy wanted three carriers for every Turian dreadnought in existence.
Vega had also heard rumors of the Hierarchy trying to create a carrier/dreadnought hybrid even larger than the Destiny Ascension, the largest ship in the known galaxy, further taking advantage of the loophole in, arguably, the biggest law in Citadel space. He scoffed mentally. Mass Effect technology clearly had its limits, the Destiny Ascension was proof of that, but if the Primarchs needed concrete proof that their new pet project would be futile and most likely end in failure, then so be it. So long as he got paid at the end of the day, what the meritocracy prioritized wasn't any of his business. He had mouths to feed and a wife to take care of. His work schedule consisted of half a month in orbit and a half a month on the surface. It was tough, but he dealt with it, begrudgingly.
"Captain on deck!" A Turian ensign shouted, snapping the bridge to attention as he saluted. Vega saluted back, a bit unenthusiastically. This week was weary on him, and in twelve hours time, he'd see his wife and kids again. 'Screw Turian discipline...I'm ready to go home!'
"As you were," he ordered and everyone quickly returned to his or her duties. "Lieutenant Vakarian, what's our status?" he asked, though he obviously knew the answer. Alas, protocol was protocol, the question had to be asked, anyhow.
Darius Vakarian chuckled a bit, sensing the anxiety and anxiousness in his captain's voice. "Green, as always, sir," he replied smoothly. Vega nodded with a slight sigh. He'd be lying if some part of him didn't want something minor to be 'wrong', so that way he'd have something to keep him occupied till he got back to the surface. "Don't worry, Captain. I feel your pain too. I want to spend some time with my son as soon as I get shore leave back on the surface."
Now, that amused the Turian Captain. "Heh. Lucky you. I love my girls, but I'd be mendacious if I said they provided half of the entertainment your son and Saren provides. Makes life a bit more bearable, considering how mundane things can get out here."
"I know what you mean, sir. Wouldn't trade Garrus for the world. He's a good kid. I know he and Saren will be excellent soldiers someday. Who knows, you might be saluting them some day," Darius joked, earning playful snickers from the rest of the bridge.
"HA! As if! I'll be in a retirement home in the Citadel sipping on some nice bottles of Cana by that time!"
"Cana, sir?" another Turian officer spoke up, joining in, "That stuff's pretty expensive. Sure you can afford that?"
"Not sure if it'd worth it though," Darius added. "Spirits knows he'll feel that hangover for weeks."
"Blah! I'd handle it," Vega insisted, while Darius shook his head amused. The Captain had to smile a bit. He wasn't like most Turian officers. He took the time to get to know his subordinates and as such, they went out of their way for him, as a Turian, not just because they were obligated to because he was their superior. The atmosphere was light-hearted, yet still professional. All of them likely would've gone insane with boredom were Vega a stereotypical no-nonsense officer. When you were hundreds of light-years from the closest system, you could afford to relax some rules.
All was quiet on the bridge after a little banter to get everyone relaxed, as Captain Vega scrolled through some diagnostics on his tablet...until...
Alarms started ringing throughout the bridge as officers scrambled. "What the hell is going on?!"
"Sir! We're detecting an anomaly about three million kilometers outside of the system!" Darius reported, typing on his console, his mind racing.
Vega immediately got serious. "Slavers? Pirates?" he asked.
"No, not possible, these energy readings couldn't possibly be them, they—" Darius paused as his eyes widened in shock as he read the reading twice to be sure he wasn't seeing things. "That...that's impossible!"
Every single Turian turned to the XO. A slight chill went up Vega's spine, Darius, was as levelheaded as they came and for him to just outright say something wasn't possible...he dreaded what the Turian had just read. "What is it, Lieutenant?"
"Ca-Captain...that anomaly...is giving off radiation energy in excess of over fifty exajoules...in other words...in the single minute we detected it, the anomaly gave off more power than the entire Citadel defense fleet...combined."
There was silence. Not a single Turian in the bridge said a word after that revelation. Something outside the system just gave off more power than an entire fleet!? If this was a first contact scenario...the implications were practically unthinkable.
Captain Vega immediately sprung into action with the most logical and rational decisions he could make. "I want all of our fighters on standby. NOW! Deploy two cruisers and four frigates, tell them they are to be on guard for anything, but don't go looking for a fight if it is what I think it is."
"Aye, sir," Darius replied, relaying his orders to the bays. The entire ship went on lockdown as hundreds of personnel went to their battle stations. "Captain...I'd suggest we send some fighters to escort the flotilla. Just in case."
Vega pondered it for a moment before nodding. "Very well, deploy squadrons one through five and keep the rest here."
"Shall I alert the colony, sir?"
"No," Vega rebuked firmly. "Not until I get complete and total confirmation on what the hell it is. There are far too many unknowns at the moment. No need to send potential false alarms when even we ourselves don't know what we're dealing with. Wouldn't be much of an 'alert' if the only thing we told them was that we detected an anomaly and gave no more intel than that. Groundside Security Forces need information, for good reason, to prepare a proper defense," Vega argued his point. "Now, that being said, Ensign, the moment we confirm that the colony is in potential danger, relay it to Captain Arterius on the ground, you do not need my order."
"Understood, sir."
"Fighters away, Cruisers and frigates are on route to intercept," Darius reported as he could see the six ships head at sub light speeds straight for the source of the anomaly.
Captain Vega watched with apprehension. His gut feeling told him that this was going to get ugly...really ugly. He may have just sent those ships to their deaths for all he knew. If this was a First Contact scenario and they did destroy those ships, he already had a plan. The rest of the cruisers would stay and hold them off as long as they could and he'd order the other carrier, the Impervious, to go to the far side of the planet and along with the rest of the Frigates, attempt to rescue as many civilians as they could and get them the hell out of here to warn the Council that they were at war. In Vega's eyes, if the two cruisers and four frigates went down, then without a dreadnought, they had no chance in hell at beating them in space.
He sighed again...and waited.
(-x.0.0.x-)
There were six ships headed toward the Minor Transgression at intercept speeds, along with dozens of smaller craft that Maccabeus and Tartarus could only assume were fighter ships. They'd be within visual range within the next ninety seconds.
"What do you think, Uncle? Those ship designs are unlike anything I've ever seen before," Tartarus commented, looking at the holographic representation of the system.
The Brute Chieftain scoffed, derisively. "Such puny ships. They wish to intercept us with warships barely half the size of a missionary vessel? How utterly insulting! We are on a mission for the gods!"
Tartarus gave a feral psychotic grin. "Shall we subjugate them, for their insult, uncle?"
The Chieftain grinned back, his inner bloodlust started to slip through even his rational mind. "Of course...First Contact scenario orders from the Hierarchs are abundantly clear. Any new race the Empire discovers must either submit and assimilate or be destroyed."
"I propose we do both, Chieftain," another Jiralhanae officer joined in. "We're killing multiple beasts with one hammer! A new species to add to our mighty Covenant, who may hold more relics for us to find in any colonies they might have, as well as new planets for the Empire to use for resources."
"Which will put us on equal standing with those Sangheili...by the gods..." Tartarus breathed out, practically salivating at the opportunity that was practically handed to them. Their so-called accident may have been his species' biggest gain! "They have a planet here..." Tartarus noted as he pointed to Taetrus' holographic representation. Scans showed that it had intelligent life, and it was concentrated on a single geographical area and the topography suggested that it was heavily urbanized outside of a few sectors...which could mean only one thing...
"This is a colony...not their homeworld..."
The Chieftain's eyes grew predatory as the implications of what his subordinate and nephew just said just sunk in. "Very well, nephew I see your point. Helmsman! Ignore any and all hails and prepare a broadcast. Today, we bring honor to our Covenant and save another species on the path to the Great Journey. They shall know salvation through their destruction!"
"Salvation through their destruction!" the crew chanted in religious fever mixed with the natural bloodlust of the ape aliens. Even Maccabeus couldn't wait to get his hands dirty once they invaded the surface of the planet. Alas...they had to deal with their pitiful Navy first.
(-x.0.0.x-)
Commander Tharen Vitellus sat tranquilly in his command chair. The veteran officer wouldn't lie to himself: he was nervous. This anomaly was unlike anything the Hierarchy had ever detected and honestly, something told him he wouldn't be home for a good long while, regardless of what it ended up being.
"Are all weapons ready and loaded?" Tharen inquired, double-checking. He wanted to be prepared for absolutely anything.
"Aye, sir. Everything is locked and ready to fire at your order. All fighters are on guard as well, weapons hot."
Tharen nodded and in seconds the Covenant ship, Minor Transgression, came into view. The commander's eyes slightly widened in shock, as well as the rest of the crew. The ship was easily the size of the Undaunted, if not a bit bigger. Its design was completely alien, not anything at all like the ships from the Salarians, Asari, or any Citadel race.
'Spirits...this is First Contact...'
"Sir! I'm detecting absolutely no element zero from that ship!"
"What!?" Tharen actually stood up in surprise. "Every ship in the known galaxy runs off eezo! And you're telling me a ship of that size doesn't have a single ounce?" To the Commander the concept was laughable at best and downright ludicrous at worst. Element Zero was the foundation of galactic society! Practically anything of value depended on eezo to function. They were almost to the peak of the substances' potential, but one Salarian, Mordin Solus, vehemently disagreed. The galaxy needed a rude awakening, in his eyes. According to several reports he had read, the Salarian scientist was having difficulty receiving funding for his more bold "thinking outside the box" projects.
"Sir, I've checked the readings dozens of times. That ship's emitting radiation and energy that dwarf every single ship in this system...it's not even close."
"Spirits..." Tharen thought in disbelief. The ship certainly didn't look like it was made for war, that's for sure. It had no outward cannons or a main gun like a dreadnought or cruiser. 'But that's a foolhardily assumption...if this ship doesn't run on eezo...it likely has technology we haven't even dreamed of...'
"Commander...should I hail them?" an ensign questioned, hopeful that he'd walk out of this alive.
"Yes. Do so, standard First Contact procedures, you know the drill. Lieutenant, get me Captain Vega on the line immediately!" he ordered his XO.
"Aye, sir," his XO responded, bringing the Captain's holographic form online.
"Commander...what do you have to report?" Vega inquired, griping the edges of his chair in nervousness.
"Sir...this is a first contact scenario. This ship is as large as any dreadnought in Citadel space! Put the colony on alert! Full Scale!" Tharen all but shouted. Too his immense surprise, the Captain looked at him as if he had grown a second head.
"Say again, Commander! Repeat last transmission. I—" the feed then cut out to audio only, mostly gibberish with barely audible words. That couldn't be right. Taetrus' defense fleet had, arguably, the most advanced communications systems throughout Council space, let alone for the Turian Hierarchy! They weren't even a light-year out of the Mactare system, so their COM lines should've been buttery smooth with zero lag...unless...
Tharen's eyes widened as realization dawned on him. "Oh, Spirits! Helmsman get me firing—" his order was cut off as a transmission came through on their speakers.
Your annihilation is the will of the gods and we shall guide you and any like you into our Covenant. Through your destruction we will be your salvation
"Sir! I'm reading massive energy build up from the bow of that ship!"
"All ships! Evasive maneuvers! I want firing solutions right—"
Tharen didn't get a chance too finish that as the Frigate next to his cruiser exploded into thousands of molten plasma. The frigate's kinetic barriers were practically melted off in nanoseconds giving the illusion that it passed right through, before the the superheated plasma torpedo scorched the entire crew at temperatures over three-thousand degrees Celsius, effectively atomizing them. There wasn't a single trace of their presence left, down to the molecular level.
The small flotilla didn't even need Tharen's order as a volley of mass accelerator slugs from the five remaining ships fired from their bows. Every single round bounced off harmlessly as the Minor Transgression's shields flared to life. Even with their fast recharge time and firing in sequence, none of their weapons had managed to even somewhat dent the shielding of the missionary vessel.
(Onboard the Minor Transgression)
"Shields holding at 80%, Chieftain!"
Maccabaeus started to chortle with laughter, highly amused. "Only eighty? After all of that effort? These insects will be conquered in no-time!" Of course it was unlikely they could conquer their entire species by themselves, but once the Hierarchs gave backup and sent in Battle cruisers, Assault Carriers, and possibly even a Super carrier, this race would be conquered in less time than even the Unggoy! "Deploy all Seraphs and Banshees and tell them to destroy all enemy fighters on sight. No one leaves alive."
"What will the rest of the crew do, in the meantime, uncle?"
"Prep all vehicles and tell everyone to get ready. We're launching a planetary invasion."
Tartarus grinned, maniacally. If these aliens were as pathetic as their ship, then he'd enjoy asserting the dominance of the Covenant over these weaklings. Seraphs and Banshees flew out of their hangars at intercept speeds' firing multiple plasma bolts at the Turian fighters. Just as the kinietic barriers of the frigate did absolutely nothing to stop the oncoming slaughter, the fighters met the same fate. Multiple plasma rounds burned the fighter pilots to a crisp. Due to the tactics the Jiralhanae pilots used, which were completely alien to the Citadel doctrine, it was a complete and total one-sided slaughter fest. All five squadrons deployed as escorts were now simply dust in the vacuum of space with only five banshees and two seraphs destroyed. Even then, for one seraph to go down, it took five Turian fighters working together. The same case was with the banshees except the ratio was two-to-one.
One final plasma torpedo later Commander Tharen and his crew, although they fought valiantly to the bitter end, too succumbed to the overwhelmingly technologically superior foe, whose weaponry was light-years ahead of them. They only regretted they couldn't warn the colony ahead of time.
With six ships and five squadrons of fighters slaughtered to the last Turian, the Minor Transgression finally moved in-system, escorted by eighteen seraphs and over forty-eight banshees. Maccabeus was now sort of glad that the ship's original size was doubled over what they were originally going to get, to fit all of this equipment. Otherwise taking the planet would've been much more difficult.
That was irrelevant now as he kept his eyes on the prize: Taetrus itself.
(o.x.x.o)
Onboard the Undaunted there was semi-pandemonium as officers were working around the clock to figure out what had happened. An ensign had already alerted Captain Arterius on the ground and they were prepping for invasion.
"Sir, the Undaunted is on the far side of the planet and dropping as many of their dropships as they can. Captain Arterius and other groundside officers are prepping to get the entire civilian population off of the planet..."
"Are they wiping databases clean?" Captain Vega asked. Although many didn't know it, Taetrus had a lot invaluable data and it falling into enemy hands would be even more catastrophic. He prayed they didn't find location of the relay, because it would lead them right back to the citadel depending on how intelligent their commanding officers were.
"Aye, sir. Their wiping them and storing them on the STG's heavily encrypted servers on the extranet," he reported. Vega nodded approvingly. Although many had thought that the extranet was free to any and all races that could find a signal...that really wasn't the case in reality. The public at large was led to believe that everything was open, but the STG had encrypted comm buoys scattered all across Citadel space that allowed them to send sensitive information, quite literally, under everyone's collective noses. The only reason the crew out here knew about it, because of how ridiculously far away they were from anything resembling galactic civilization. The crew was sworn to secrecy under penalty of death. Vega prayed to the spirits that this new enemy would never find those buoys.
Meanwhile, on board the Impervious, dropship after dropship was launched and headed towards the planet like bats out of hell to evacuate as many civilians as they could. Fifty dropships had already landed or were on their way. The Captain of the Impervious was trying his best to maintain his composure even as the weight of what just happened moments ago sunk in. They were at war, that much he was assured of, and by the laws of the Council, the entire Citadel would have to take up arms against this new foe. No matter, even if he died today he'd know that this enemy had made a grave mistake as the entire combined might of the Citadel races would rain down their wrath for this act of belligerence!
"Captain! We've got an incoming volley of projectiles!" a weapons officer shouted, everyone turning their attention to him. The Turian officer looked ahead out of the view port to see seven Plasma torpedoes, although smaller than the ones used in the initial assault, but they were traveling at much greater speeds.
"Activate all GARDIAN lasers!" he shouted, but the order came far too late. The first plasma torpedo slammed directly into the port side of the Imperious. Due to the projectiles' smaller size it didn't burn the crew on impact, but it shattered the kinetic barriers, burned through the hull, and exposed hundreds of crewman to the vacuum of space. Then second torpedo hit and effectively, it snapped the kilometer long carrier in half, the hangar bay breaking in twain.
Several dropships already in the process of heading towards the planet tried to escape, but they were incinerated when they couldn't build up enough speed to escape the fourth and fifth plasma torpedos that further damaged the carrier in a scenario that was only described complete and total overkill. The last thing Turian captain of the Impervious saw was the flash of light from the seventh plasma bolt directly hitting the bridge. He and the rest of Turian officers were atomized without a single trace. Whatever remnants of the carrier that somehow managed to survive plunged their way toward Taetrus' surface.
Satisfied that they had effective control of space, dozens of drop pods and Phantoms with Wraiths, Ghosts, Revenants, Banshees and a squadron of several Seraphs headed to the capital city of Vallum. Maccabeus had one simple order: Slaughter anyone and everyone.
It was now official: The Covenant Empire was at war with the Turian Hierarchy and all of its allies. The gods demanded blood and they would have it...tenfold.
(END)
And that's a wrap. I'm sooo sorry that I didn't update for god knows how long, but I was being fucking lazy as hell. Hope this somewhat satisfies your craving.
Also, again, I urge you, if you haven't read my other stories, check them out also.
For those of you worried about this becoming a curbstomp and therefore boring, oh don't you worry. I've found ways to help the Citadel at least competently fight back, but they're going to take a beating before that happens just like the UNSC did. So, just be patient and wait and see what happens, because ultimately you don't know how it's going to end, and quite honestly, neither do I, at least fully.
BTW, that was my first space battle and I was really nervous writing it, so if they're is anything wrong, please let me know! As long as you have a respectful tone any critique to help me improve upon them is appreciated.
Next time on Halo: Paradigm Shifts: The Fall of Taetrus.