Disclaimer: I own neither Destiny nor Mass Effect
Nessus, Solar System
August 10th, 2479
0700 Hours
New Dawn, Capital of Nessus
One of the longest running sayings in Human history is there is always a calm before the storm. This saying matched perfectly with the atmosphere the city of New Dawn resided in. Cars were left running in the streets, lights remained on in houses all across the city as the people evacuated into Magellan's vault. High in the evening sky, hundreds of flashes were all that symbolized the massive air battle taking place between the alien force and Nessus' air defence battalion. Nothing moved across the city, besides the militarized frames that were defending key checkpoints around the city.
All of this information was seen by a single man, deep beneath the ground in the Nessus Militia HQ. Major David Anderson watched across hundreds of screens, each showing a different camera somewhere in the city. Security cameras, traffic cams, even computers left sitting on tables and benches were commandeered by the Jovian Moon's personal Warmind. A steady stream of civilians marched through the Warmind's core chamber. The idea to plant the entrance to the civilian bunker behind the brain of the Warmind was inspired. The thought was that it would help keep the people calm with the knowledge that the Warmind would die before it let any innocents fall.
Anderson was currently watching the cameras while observing a holographic map of the city, with pinpoints of light symbolizing the frame units that would be the first line of defence. He had realized that with the number of enemy hostiles, his two companies of militia men, and one company of marines, wouldn't be enough to hold the city against the attacking force. He ordered all non-mech soldiers, including Exos, to retreat into the vault. He was currently awaiting the arrival of the company Commanders so he could inform them of his strategy.
As if on queue, the door leading into the Operations center, which was located just off of the Warminds core, opened. Two men and a woman walked in. The woman and one of the men wore lighter armor painted with the colonial colors of Nessus, a white and light blue. The last man however, wore heavier armor, painted with the official colors of the Human Republic's military, a mostly white color with golden accents, some of which were lights coming from the body armor the man wore. On their nameplates their last names were identified as, Dennison, Fredor, and Shepard, respectively.
Each one of them gathered around the holotable, which switched from a map of the city, to a blueprint of the Vault. Once they were situated, the Major began speaking. "We all know what is going on. An alien force attacked us without reason, or explanation. They outnumber us on this world an estimated 10 to 1, not counting our frames. We don't stand a chance against them out in the open city, so we will let the frames weaken them while each one of your companies sets up defensive positions, and fortifies each of the three entrances into the Vault. Lieutenant Dennison, you will take your company to the south western entrance and defend it, fallback as you see fit, we cannot afford to lose ground, but we cannot afford to lose men either." The LT nodded her head, and at Anderson's orders, she left the room to prepare her men.
David took a breath to prepare to speak again. "Lieutenant Fredor, you will take your company to the south eastern entrance, and perform the same orders as given to Dennison. Dismissed." With a quick salute, Fredor left the room, leaving just Shepard and Anderson. "Shepard, your men have the best training, seeing as they are marines instead of the militia, you will defend the most vital entrance, the North entrance. Unfortunately I can't give you the same cushion I gave the others. You need to defend that area at all costs, only retreating if absolutely vital. Any questions?"
Shepard thought for a moment before coming up with a question. "You said down here we are outnumbered 10 to 1. What about our ships how would they be able to help us down here?"
It was a good question. But the answer was one that the Major hated. He knew that their 'fleet' was horribly outnumbered. Having only ten ships was detrimental to the military, but due to the indecisiveness of HIGHCOM, the creation of more has been on hold for a long time. Humanity had the money and resources to build plenty more, but the command structure had been split down the middle for too long. The majority of HIGHCOM officials wanted to play the long defensive game, believing that the Warsats were all the Solar System needed, and they feared that the populace would think that the Government was becoming too powerful, while he and a few others said that it was foolish to not have any offensive capabilities. Looks like he was right.
"I'll say it plainly. Our fleet is outnumbered. While the effectiveness of the Warsats has been noted, and the main arsenal of the warships are similar to the defense grid, they are simply too few to should have built more. But the damn politicians that managed to get into HIGHCOM have prevented that." Anderson explained, a sigh of disappointment finishing off the statement.
John Shepard was silent for a moment. "No further questions sir. We will hold out as long as necessary."
"That is all I ask Lieutenant. Kick their asses for me."
With a final salute, Shepard left the room.
A beeping began to come from one of the many terminals in the operations center. It was the tactical map for the battle happening in the stratosphere, it seemed that a large amount of the enemy fighters were turning away from the battle. With a frown, Anderson called out. "What am I looking at here Magellan?"
The Warminds voice came through the speakers in the room, David still found it weird how Warminds weren't given avatars, you just spoke to the room and they responded. "Enemy fighter contingent is heading towards the Warsat grid. Due to the purpose of Warsats, they cannot take out enemy fighters. The integrity of the defense grid is being threatened."
"Dammit! Do what you can Magellan, we have to buy ourselves more time!" The Major said, slamming his fist into a table.
"Affirmative Major. Do you wish to activate the DESPERATE TIMES Contingency?"
Anderson frowned. The Desperate Times Contingency was a new one just installed on all colonies half a year ago. It was based off of some nanotech built by Clovis Bray, but the need to know level on it was so high Anderson didn't know what it entailed. "No. I won't trust anything I don't know about. Only activate it if this room is in the process of being breached."
"Affirmative."
Major Anderson looked once more at the map, watching the icons of the three companies speed their way towards their assigned objectives. "Good luck out there. All of you."
Nessus, Solar System
August 10th, 2479
0950 Hours
Northern Vault Entrance, New Dawn
The rain had begun to pour in droves, lightning cracked through the scan, illuminating the battle in the sky that was slowly dying down. In favor of the aliens. Balls of fire rained from space, the ruined hunks of Warsats crashing into buildings and streets. The loud crashing echoing towards the defenders of this bastion.
Shepard looked around at his men spread across the courtyard. Usually when the whole company was together there would be laughing and jokes all around. But not today, they all knew that not many of them would make it out of this battle alive. The Lieutenant looked down at his white and gold armor, and with a quick tap on his tactical pad built into the arm, a shimmer went across his suit as the colors changed from the official marine colors, to an urban camouflage design.
It had been said hundreds of times that the invention of programmable matter, as well as shaders, has been the greatest technological advancement for the common foot soldier. The ability to carry more gear than ever before, and change armor colors on a whim have proven to be priceless to the Marines.
Looking around once more towards his men, he saw a similar shimmer spread across all of them, and soon enough he could barely see them without the help of his HUD. While the company awaited the arrival of the enemy, they were checking their armor and weapons, small flashes of light broke through the night as the men pulled their weapons out of the digital realm they were stored in.
Within Shepard's hands he had the Icarus-D029. It was a pulse rifle built from the factories at the Solar Farm called Icarus on Mercury. The station was the first of its kind, though by now dozens have followed. Built from tech shown to Humanity by the Traveler, Icarus collected Solar energy and turned it into Solar Light, an energy form that burns hotter than any incendiary round that could be fired from a ballistic weapon. The factories turned the Solar Light into a liquid, which would be loaded into a magazine that would fuel the weapon.
The weapon was a sleek design, with rings around the barrel acting as magnetic accelerators that would propel the trio of solar beams out of the barrel. The solar beam was created from the liquid that Icarus created. Micro converters heating the liquid into plasma, then launching it through the accelerators, towards whatever poor target the gun was pointed at.
John had more than just the pulse rifle however. At his hip he had a sidearm, though it was a regular kinetic one rather than an energy weapon. On his back, attached to the magnetic plate, was a grenade launcher. The grenades were specialized just as the pulse rifle was. Each grenade held a strong electronic charge within it, another new energy type given by the Traveler, this arc energy, upon detonation, would fry any tech, as well as truly electrocute any nearby organics.
"SIR! Enemy dropships are approaching!" One of his soldiers yelled towards him.
Sure enough, when he looked up, dozens of dropships began to descend towards the city. The vast majority heading to their location, while a decent amount headed to the other two entrances to the facility. As they neared the city, automated AA fire controlled by the Warmind lit up the night, sending a few fireballs that were once troop transports hurtling down towards the ground. The response the enemy made in reaction to the new threat was immediate, the ships, instead of pushing straight towards the bunkers, they began to descend to the locations with the least amount of fire, just as the Warmind had planned. Once the aliens landed, they would be onset by hundreds of frames. By the time they reached the bunkers, they would already be at a lower combat readiness.
It was only a few seconds after the majority of the dropships disappeared from view behind the urban skyline that the gunfire erupted across the city. Now it is just a waiting game Shepard mused as he crouched behind cover, signaling for all his men to do the same.
1033 Hours
Northern Vault Entrance, New Dawn
It was less than an hour later when the echoes of footsteps and wheels traversed the streets and made it towards the defender's ears. A slight ripple went through the company as the shifted to get a better view on the streets leading into the courtyard. The only sounds that were present were the echoes and the pattering of rain hitting the cement. The thunderstorm had died down in the last hour, leaving only a slight rainfall that left a mist hovering above the ground.
"This is Spire-One I have eyes on a target. Permission to engage?" The comm channel crackled to life, one of the companies snipers, situated on a scaffolding balcony that had been placed to help repair the door to the vault, had seen a target through his thermal scope.
"Permission granted Spire-One. Light em up." The Lieutenant responded. Not even a second later, a high pitched ring shattered the eerie silence. The railgun that snipers are now equipped with fire a beam of Solar Energy at nearly the speed of light. The orange beam shot into the rain and mist, evaporating the falling water as it passed, leaving a trail of water vapor through the air. A loud cry rang out, and an explosion was visible just beyond the wall of mist that had seemingly built up.
Huh. Never seen what solar energy does to living targets before. Explosion seems a bit much though. Shepard thought with a shrug. Any other thoughts he might have had were interrupted by all hell breaking loose, as in response to the loss of one of their own, the alien bastards sent a wall of rounds heading towards them.
Shields began flaring all across the company as the endless stream unavoidably found targets. Out of the mist, a virtual army of aliens came sprinting, right into a courtyard of minimal cover. The company had removed anything that could be used to shield their opponents, though the small walls and stairs were still there, they didn't have time to rip up the infrastructure.
As soon as the company had visible targets, they began to fight back. Streams of energy round and kinetic rounds alike shot towards the attackers, who when hit, blue shields flared. However, those shields did next to nothing against the energy beams. When they were hit, the barriers seemed to stop the main force of the round, but the heat from solar rounds burned through the armor, weakening it, and in some cases making it to burn the flesh, the void rounds did much the same with weakening the armor, but did not burn flesh, but the arc rounds, when they hit, the plasma particles were stopped, but the electricity phased through the barrier, arced across their armors and fried circuits, weaponry, and shields.
Red mist became the new norm for the courtyard as plenty of the aliens were shredded as the ran towards the slight cover that a small wall that separated a lower section of the courtyard from the higher section gave. Suppressive fire was continued from the defenders, as the aliens who dared attack their homes were forced to keep their heads down to survive.
"Yezuka! Use your grenade launcher and flush em out!" Shepard yelled over the comms to their main heavy weapons expert, Chun Yezuka.
"With pleasure LT!" Came the response. The man stood up and lifted his launcher. He fired two grenades before everything turned to shit. Out of the fog that began to rise from all the heat mixing with the rain, a headlight shown, and a gunship flew into view.
"GET INTO COVER NOW YEZUKA!" Shepard called out. But it was too late. The gunship turned on the man and unleashed hell. A bloody rain showered across the men who were nearby as the heavy weapons man was torn to pieces. Their shields weren't meant to stand up against heavy vehicles.
"INCOMING!" Another shout came as a tank shell wiped out a section of cover. The men who were behind the cover were nowhere to be seen.
Shepard looked around frantically. A gunship that had flown below the AA and a tank had them pinned. To his left an Exo soldier stood up and fired a rocket into the gunship, the explosion disabled its shields.
"Focus fire on the gunship!" Shepard yelled out to the company. Nearly half the company began to fire their weapons on the ship, fires began to spread across it, but before it went down, two rockets were launched, colliding with sections of the company. Body parts and a bloody mist spread out from the points of impact.
Due to the vehicles distracting the company, with half distracted by the gunship and the other removing the tank from the fight, the aliens had begun advancing again, grenades and rounds tearing apart their cover.
"Keep fighting!" Shepard order, with most of the cover gone in the courtyard, it was a massacre. Both sides had dozens of men firing at each other while standing in the open. A beam of light from Spire-One tore apart an alien that was different from the rest. It was a lot larger.
Shepard fired his weapon at any alien that seemed to be getting too close. His solar rounds not even letting the aliens bleed. As his bursts broke through their barriers and tore through their bodies, they simply burst into flames and dissolved into ash. His men were barely better. While they had better armor and shields, the sheer number of opponents were tearing them apart.
"Anderson!" Shepard yelled over the gunfire into his comms. "We have more than one species here!" He informed the Major. No response came, though he didn't expect one.
John's eyes widened as he saw a rocket flying towards him. He quickly dodged out of the way, and the rocket collided with the bottom of Spire-One's scaffolding, which quickly collapsed.
"Spire-One!?" Shepard attempted to raise the man. "Spire-One do you read!?". No response came. Only static.
Turning back around, he let out a startled yell as one of the aliens was right in front of him, raising its gun to smash him with it. Shepard struck at the same time the zeno did. Their guns colliding and flying away from them. With a yell of anger Shepard charged the bastard in front of him, tackling him to the ground before activating the energy dagger at his wrist. He attempted to slam the glowing blade into the creature beneath him's faceplate, but the pinned combatant deflected the blade to the side, sinking it into the concrete. Before Shepard could respond, his opponent flipped him over so he was stuck on the bottom, and pulled out a wicked looking combat knife, it seemed to be made to inflict maximum pain to those stabbed with it. Serrated edges and small bumps built throughout the flat section of the blade meant to stimulate pain nerves as much as possible.
Before the alien could ram it into his neck, a gunshot went off, while its' barriers saved it, it still flinched enough to miss its' target. Shepard spared a glance over to the man who saved his life, and tried to yell a warning but it was too late. One of the large aliens hit his savior with a hammer-like weapon, the snapping of the man's bones couldn't be heard over the fighting, but the next hit, which caved in his skull, resounded through the battlefield, though nobody noticed but Shepard.
Rage flowed through the Lieutenant as he watched his men die all around him. With is scream of rage and pain, he threw off the alien on top of him, pulled his sidearm, and fired half a magazine into the beast's chest before ripping off its helmet to fire the other half. What he saw was a ridged forehead and four eyes. An image that Humanity would learn to hate.
Once the creature's head was only a pulpy mess, Shepard stood up once more and shouted into his comms. "All units! Fall back into the Bunker!"
Nobody asked a question, but nobody from the company ran either, everybody walked backwards firing into the enemy lines to hold them back as the Vault's doors began to close as the final survivors made their way into the Vault.
1100 Hours
Chamber 3: Frame Factory Ops Center
Company Strength: 55%
After the Vault was closed, Shepard ordered his men to fall back a few chamber blocks, give them some room to breathe. Currently the monitors that were in this room which just earlier this day showed the operational status of the factory below, now showed camera angles of the courtyard outside. One white and grey concrete and marble, the courtyard was soaked with red and orange blood. The attackers had pushed back the other companies as well, though the militiamen had taken less casualties than the marines, they had retreated sooner and had less opponents to fight.
He looked at his weakened company, all of them sitting and relaxing, either drinking water or eating was few protein bars they had while they waited for the enemy to break through. Just ten minutes ago the Warmind informed them that twenty more hostile ships had came through the alien artifact. I guess the fifty ships jumped the gun Shepard thought to himself as he started through the cameras. The enemy fighters had punched a large enough hole in the defense grid for the larger dropships to come in. Rather than shuttles or gunships, whole freighters landed planetside, how they would get off again, Shepard didn't know.
"Attention men!" Shepard called out.
Without hesitation, man, woman, machine, it didn't matter which, all turned towards him. Waiting to see was would say.
Shepard sighed and removed his helmet before beginning to speak. "I am going to give it to you plainly. We got clobbered out there, but we hit them just as hard. We all lost friends, people who we considered brothers, and sisters, died out there in the rain. But we can't forget what we are fighting for. We are fighting for those people, hundreds of meters below us. Who are terrified of what might happen. We are fighting for our families back home wherever they might live. If we fail here, they won't stop at Nessus, they will continue past the Jovian moons, towards Mars! Earth! Venus! Mercury! You name a world or moon and they will go there to stomp us out! We CANNOT let that happen! We WILL not let it happen! Now! When they come through those doors, when they march through those halls on their way to us, we, will, not, FALTER." Shepard spoke, giving his first ever combat speech.
His company burst into cheers and stood up, brandishing their weapons into the air. Their morale had taken a serious toll from the first battle.
"While we defend this bunker, we won't stay put like we did last time. These factories can be rebuilt, their data has already been wiped by Magellan. We will fight, lay traps, and retreat to the next location before they get into the brawl we barely got out of last time. Are we clear?" Shepard told and asked his men,
"Sir YES SIR!" They all saluted.
"Enemy Forces have breached the Vault. Activating SIEGE PROTOCOL." Magellan's voice rang through the room. The cameras on the screens stopped showing the door, which was now a smoking wreck due to explosives, and showed the entry hallway, which was now a battleground between frames, turrets, and the attacking aliens. Though everyone could see which side was winning the fight as the turrets were blown apart, and frames shut down.
The once blue hued halls turned red as alert lights went off and klaxons sounded. Without speaking, the company once more got into position. Though this time only one door entered this room, and once exited behind them. The screens went black as power diverted from this room to avoid excessive power waste from destroyed terminals.
A string of pops echoed through the room as a man cracked his neck and knuckles. After the sound faded everything was silent once more. The soldiers were looking at each other as they waited, Shepard's nerves grew with every minute as the gunfire got louder. "Magellan, what do we have coming our way?" He asked the Warmind over the company channel.
"Alien forces are letting a group of mechanized infantry lead the assault. Their frames have more durable armor than ours, but are less intelligent or mobile. Largest detected threat is the larger mech. Rocket launcher and machine gun armaments. Weak points detected under the arms and legs, taking out the optical sensor is also recommended." The AI answered him.
Not responding to the Warmind, Shepard walked out of the cover he had and pulled out his grenade launcher. He pointed it towards the door and awaited the arrival of the mech. The gunfire outside of the room stopped, a loud metallic sound made its way closer to the door. A nervous shiver went through his men as the footsteps stopped right outside the door.
A loud crash rang out and the door buckled inwards. A few seconds later another crash reverberated around the room and the door flew backwards, shattering the glass and falling into the factory below.
THWUMP
Shepard's grenade launcher sent an arc bomb downrange targeting the massive machine that ducked through the massive hole it had punched into the wall. Upon collision with the mech the grenade detonated, leaving a massive electric discharge floating in the air like a net around the hunk of metal. Arc energy traversed the surface of the frame has its' shields were fried and circuits overloaded. Eventually the massive influx of energy was too much for the machine to bear, and it overloaded, collapsing to the ground fried.
Hopping back into cover, Shepard signalled for his men to open fire on the door right as the aliens started charging in. Blood and ashes began to mix as the aliens were cut down as they entered the room, a pile of bodies had built up before they stopped charging in. The gunfire stopped as they awaited their opponent's next move.
They didn't have to wait long as an arm reached into the room and picked up one of the bodies. One of the big aliens then charged into the room, firing a machine gun from one hand as it used the other to hold the body as a shield. Three more of the big guys followed suit, the same strategy helping them survive the door as well before all four of them found cover, behind which they started firing all sorts of heavy weapons towards the Marines. With a distraction made, reinforcements followed through the door, all discharging their weapons towards Shepard's company. Blood splattered over his visor as the man next to him's shields overloaded and a headshot blew off his head.
Dammit! Shepard raged as he wiped the blood off. In retaliation for the loss of his fellow soldier Shepard launched another three grenades from over his cover. Screams sounded as the aliens were fried by the electric grenades.
The communication channel for his company was lighting up as the defenders helped support one another as slowly but surely the aliens started making progress. The more advanced technology that Shepard's men were using were inflicting heavy casualties, but the numbers were too much, and the counterfire made sure that the outnumbered Marines were losing more and more of their numbers.
"Shepard!" Major Anderson's voice came into a private channel.
"What is it Major? I am in the middle of something!"
"Retreat to the bridge! The militiamen have taken too many casualties and are being forced back here! If you don't retreat soon you will be cut off!" The Major's voice sounded desperate.
"Roger that Sir!" Shepard responded before going back into his company channel. "Everyone retreat towards the bridge! The outer chambers have been overrun!" Acknowledgements rang out as the soldiers fell back in such a way as to cover each other as they ran towards the exit, the door opening to reveal a corridor filled with frames that would cover their retreat.
Once they exited the factory control center, they turned around and ran full sprint to get to their destination. Though there were three entrances to the Vault, those halls and chambers all eventually combined into one hallway which led into the core. The 'Bridge' was the only one leading from the entrances to the core, spanning the open expanse between the tunnels that the first segment was made of and the pyramidal structure that housed the core. On the other side of the pyramid was another bridge that led into the Civilian bunker.
It took 5 minutes for the company to make their way towards the elevators that would take them to the Core Access corridor. Once the remaining men had gotten onto the lifts, they took them down, a thirty second ride lowering them over a hundred meters into the rocks. Upon arrival, they exited the lifts to find what remained of the militia companies walking to the bridge.
Shepard ran up to one of the men. "Where are Lieutenants Dennison and Fredor?"
The man looked at John with a haunted look. "They are gone sir. Dennison died at the door, and Fredor fell during our retreat back here. Most of our officers are gone. You are the last ranking official we've got besides the Major."
"Dammit!" Shepard cursed. "Alright.". Shepard didn't speak again until all the men were on the bridge.
"Alright. This is the last stand here men. We will hold out here until the last man falls. Fight with everything you have. If you die, get over it and keep fighting. Nobody dies here without my permission do you all understand that!?"
"SIR YES SIR!" Came the response from all remaining soldiers. As they went to kneel behind cover and await their opponents.
Only time would tell how many would survive. If any.
Sub-light Travel, Solar System
August 10th, 2479
1110 Hours
Ironclad Resolve, Flagship of the 1st Fleet.
Admiral Steven Hackett had just received permission to take the fleet of ten ships to Nessus. Even though now there were seventy ships instead of fifty, they still had a duty to defend the Solar System. The only chance they had was the hope that their more advanced weaponry would be able to clear the sixty ship difference in the two fleets.
"Admiral! Eta is one minute until arrival." An ensign called over to him.
"Alright show time people! Heat up the antimatter particle beams as well as load missile bays A through D. Get the point defense systems operational, and tell the fighters squadrons to prepare for launch." Hackett ordered. A tactical screen showing the locations of the enemy vessels.
A series of acknowledgements followed his order, and the clamor of men running around the bridge found its' way to his ears. The next seconds passed too quickly in his opinion as the Sub-light stream they were travelling in faded away to show the enemy fleet directly ahead.
"All fighters launcher! Launch missile pods A1 through A10 and fire the particle beam at the closest threat!" The Admiral ordered to those on the bridge. Seconds later, missiles and fighters streamed ahead of the ship charging towards their targets as a red hue began to build at nose of the vessel. The sight was repeated across the other 9 Human vessels.
Hostile fighters began to stream out of their ships and patrols rushing at the oncoming assault. A few seconds passed until the red hue reached a critical mass, and a pure red beam tore across the void faster than the eye could see. The beam tore through the frigate analogue vessel as if it was tissue paper, the beam continuing to travel tearing apart another two ships that were stuck in the formation line behind the frigate. As the antimatter beams were propelled out of the rest of the fleet, a total of 15 ships were destroyed or disabled. Explosions began to ripple between the fleets as the fighter battle started in earnest.
The invader's formation began to shift from facing the planet to face towards the reinforcements sent to save the moon. Mass Accelerator rounds flew towards the fleet, many colliding and being repelled by the flagship's shields.
"Shields at 85% Admiral!"
"Mass accelerators are ready to fire!"
The calls rang in the Admiral's ears. "Good! Fire the accelerators towards their dreadnought! Charge the solar cannons and arc streams. Launch the void torpedos towards the nearest enemy frigates!"
The ship shuddered as 6 tungsten rounds shot from the vessel heading towards the enemy flagship. An abyssal cry echoed as torpedo tubes launched four balls of void energy that began to track their targets.
The enemy fleet just minutes into the battle was visibly in fear. The technology wasn't the only advantage the Human ships had. They were also all much larger than the enemies. The largest alien vessel clocked in at one kilometer, the smallest human ship was 2.5 kilometers, with the Ironclad Resolve sitting at an impressive 4 kilometers.
Though fearing for their lives, the enemy wasn't done fighting yet. Dozens of torpedos and mass accelerator rounds began flying towards the smaller fleet. They seemed to be focus firing, as all the missiles and half the rounds were heading on a collision course with the Solar Fury. The point defense weapons went off all across the ship shooting down the missiles as they neared, but inevitably some made it through, their detonations creating graviton fluctuations not unlike void energy.
"Shields on the Solar Fury are down to 25%! Those missiles pack a punch Admiral!"
"Tell the Fury to pull back a bit a let their shields recharge!" Hackett ordered, but it was too late. Another volley of rounds took down the vessel's shields and tore through its' body. The sheer amount of rounds overloaded the fusion reactor, which detonated the ship into a massive fireball.
The bridge was silent as they saw the explosion. Without the element of surprise that they had with the first volley, the outnumbered fleet would be hard pressed to take out the enemy fleet before they lost the remaining nine ships.
"Solar and Arc cannons are charged sit." An Ensign said breaking the silence.
"Target the nearest enemy vessels." Hackett said, turning away from the fading ball of fire.
With a nod, the Ensign put in the targeting parameters, two orange beams fired, disintegrating the vessels they hit. After the solar cannons discharged, four lightning bolts rocketed forwards, each targeting a ship on a different side of the enemy's formation. Upon contact, the bolts arced towards other ships in the fleet, a net of electricity spread across the enemy formation as shields were overloaded.
"Hit em with everything we got!" Hackett yelled.
Hundreds of missiles, pulse beams, and cannon shots began to advance on the enemy, the point defense cannons on their vessels were too spread thin to stop all of the fire heading their way, though they did get close. Nearly 24 enemy vessels were put out of action with that assault, but Hackett had hoped for more.
The retaliation was intense, the shields of the Human vessels were already low from constant fire, but now they were disabled on four of the remaining nine ships, fires spread across them, and with a klaxon going off, the Ironclad Resolve's shields went down.
"We just lost the Strength and Conquest as well as the Heartfelt Pride!"
"Hull Integrity is at 70%!"
"Earth's Glory has started abandoning ship!"
Everything went to shit after that one successful attack. The numbers of the enemy were too much, and Hackett played all his cards. The Antimatter beam has been doing heavy damage, but it couldn't be fired often, and it didn't help when the ships had managed to dodge the kinetic fire the Humans launched at them.
"Um sir? We have a large signal heading our way!" An officer yelled over from the sensors.
"What is it?" Hackett asked, but before the officer could respond, a huge flash went off and resting in between the two fleets was the Traveler.
"Holy shit!" Steven exclaimed. Everything was silent as the Traveler began to move.
Unnamed System
August 10th, 2479
1150 Hours
Batarian Dreadnought Pillar's Strength
The battle was a disaster for both sides, the advanced tech from those monstrous ships had taken a huge toll on the Batarian fleet, but at the loss of nearly half of their own ships. But now a huge object, larger than the Citadel, floated between the two sides. All fire from either side had stopped as it sat there.
"Uh sir? What is that?" An officer asked Gocpetor.
"I have no idea." Came the reply.
It was a massive white sphere, with disks seemingly carved into the sides, their purpose was anyones guess, but the Admiral thought they would soon find out.
The white disks began to move, extending out from the sphere, showing a metallic inside. Energy began to build up around the disks, and a few moments later, the disks slammed back into the object, a huge wave of energy hurling towards their fleet.
"EVASIVE MANEUVERS NOW!" Devethk yelled, but it would be useless. The wave hit the first line of the slaver's formation, disintegrating every vessel it touched. The Batarian Admiral closed his eyes as the wave neared his ship. And felt nothing when the darkness overcame him.
Nessus, Solar System
August 10th, 2479
2000 Hours
Magellan's Core, New Dawn
Defender Strength: 10%
Shepard crouched behind cover once again. He had long since rang out of grenade launcher and sidearm ammo, and he was running low with his pulse rifle. The vast majority of the defenders have long since died on this bridge. Anderson had told him that reinforcements arrived, but they still had to fight their way down to this bridge, and they might not make it in time.
Peaking up, the Marine scoped in on an advancing alien, the burst turned the thing into ashes. Blood was pooled on the bridge, hundreds of bodies were littered around, with the attackers actually having to march over their dead to continue to push forward.
"Shepard just hold on out there! The Desperate Times contingency has been activated! You should have help soon!" Anderson yelled over the comms.
What the hell is Desperate Times? Mused the Lieutenant as he continued to fire on the enemy. He didn't have to wait long to figure it out however, as soon after the Major informed him of it, every intact, and destroyed frame on the bridge began to shake, and a chamber within the chest opened up, revealing a black pyramid with red accents. With a red flash, the pyramid released red tendrils that wrapped around the mechs. The blue optics turned red as and all the destroyed frames repaired themselves.
"What the hell!" Was yelled by one of the remaining militiamen. The sentiment was shared by John. Red streams of nanobots began to overtake the mechs used by the enemies as well, which promptly turned on their creators. Any damage taken by the machines was simply repaired, arms torn off by bullets rebuilt.
"PUSH FORWARD!" John yelled, leaping over his cover and firing upon the enemy. He was quickly followed by the few remaining men he had with him. The enemy began to get pushed back, slowly but surely. With the nano-enhanced mechs and the defenders charging forward, the battle soon became a firefight at point blank range as the enemy's commanders refused to let them retreat.
Crack!
John saw a flash and stumbled backwards. Looking down at his armor, he saw a hole punched straight through his chest. Looking around, he saw the sniper responsible get destroyed by a frame wielding a shotgun. Giving a slight chuckle at watching the alien die, John collapsed, to weak to move as the gunfire slowly faded away.
A sound of stomping feet sounded, and soon a medic was leaning over him. "You are going to be okay! Don't fall asleep on me soldier!" She said frantically as she tried to halt the bleeding.
"It's…" Shepard coughed up blood as she removed his helmet. "It's alright. What… what is your name?" He asked, struggling to keep his sentences flowing.
The woman grabbed his hand as she answered. "Ikora… Ikora Rey."
John gasped for breath, he was running out of time. "Can you do something for me Ikora?'
"Of course, anything." She said, squeezing his hand tightly to keep him focused.
"Find my sister and mom, they live on Earth. My mom's name is…" He spat blood again, he had to finish this sentence. "Hannah! Her name is Hannah! My sister is Maria! Can you tell them I love them. Please!" Shepard struggled out.
"Of course!" Ikora had responded, tears beginning to go down her face.
"Thank… you" John tried to say, he wasn't sure if he succeeded as he faded into darkness, feeling at peace for the first time all day.
Author's Note:
Thank you all for the support from last chapter, and I hope you guys like this chapter, it was already mostly done by the time I posted the first one, I just had some finishing touches. To respond to some of your comments, I am not sure if the Collapse will happen in the sense that it did during the game, but Guardians will show up eventually. And I won't speak much on the subject, but I do have a plan for the Destiny aliens.
There was one comment that for some reason I can't find on my CPU I'm not sure if it was deleted or not, but it spoke about how I miscalculated the number of ships Humanity would have and I understand why you would think that. But when I was making the chapter, I thought of how Humanity should have more warships, but chose to give them few to keep in line with what we know about Destiny lore. Throughout the game and grimoire cards, there is only references to the Warsats, nowhere was I able to find anything about the Golden Age having full on warships and I understand why. The Golden Age didn't have FTL, so they were stuck in the Solar System, there was no real reason for them to have fleets, when the Warsats would do. But to make the Golden Age fit with the ME races, I had to give them a few ships.
Anyone, thank you all for reading, and let me know what you think with a comment, I really do appreciate whatever criticism, or compliments you might give.
-BlindedSentry
