"Sound General Quarters! I want all hands to battle stations yesterday!" Keith shouted. Klaxons started going off as military personnel began running from whatever they were doing to their designated stations. Keith moved over to the tactical map where it displayed his forces facing off the advancing horde of warships. He thought over how that conversation sort of played into his favor. For one, he was able to have Heather hack into their systems and download everything they had ever so discreetly. It also bought ground forces more time to prepare the inevitable landing of their troops because as much as he hated it, he knew that with all with his experience he couldn't stop them all without reinforcements.
He rubbed his eyes. The only thing that he wished would've went different was the hothead and egotistic person that was Commander Rory Jay. He should've contacted the species before firing his salvo and attempted peaceful solution rather than provoke them. Yes, combat doctrine dictated that the UNSC use fast and heavy hitting tactics but he didn't even stick around to see the effect of his weapons. Now, it was going to bite him and Keith in the ass. For the commander, he was going to get court-martialed and most likely dishonorably discharged and the only reason he was in the Navy and how he got to such a high rank was due to him having friends in high places. Keith decided to remedy that situation of insubordination and glory hunting now. "Heather, get me a line to both the CO and XO of the Zenith."
In a few seconds, two holograms showed up on the holotable, one of a middle aged man that looked to be in his twenties and the other of Commander Jay. "Commander, as head of Battle Group 21. I hereby relinquish you of your command of the Heavy Frigate UNSC Zenith. You are also under arrest for insubordination and for the starting of a war that could've been avoided. "
"Wha-"He was cut off as the two bridge security put their hands on his shoulders and dragged him out of the bridge. His hologram fizzled out.
"Lieutenant Spencer Ward, under UNSC Article 754-1H you are hereby in promoted to the rank of Commander and are now in command of the UNSC Zenith. That is all."
"Sir." He saluted before his hologram blinked out.
"Now then to the more pressing matters now." He cracked his knuckles.
"MACs are at full charge."
"All forces engage." He ordered suddenly the space between the opposing forces lit up as massive tungsten rounds impacted all the turian fleet, completely destroying twenty in the first volley. Some of the smaller corvette weight ships were able to maneuver out of the way of the large rounds. Only three frigate weight ships were destroyed and the rest being corvette sized.
c('-'c)
Achamus knew right away that this battle was not going to go the way he had planned as he watched the superstructure of another cruiser collapse on itself. He had to think of something quick or this would be Shanxi all over again but without the Turians ever getting control of the planet.
"Sir, the Hierarchy is sending the fourth patrol fleet as reinforcements. That is all we are getting."
He nodded. He sent a report that they would need another fleet to provide reinforcement and logistical support to take the planet. He didn't mention that they were humans or that would be one hell of a political shitstorm that would not only get Council involved but also tarnish his reputation so far that he would be grounded on his homeworld for the rest of his life. He would get the revenge he so desired.
He decided that if he ever wanted a chance of winning this he would have to get boots on the ground. So he opened up a comm channel to half his ships. "Perform a small FTL jump past their defenses and land forces on the on the planet. The rest of us will perform another and take this fight to knife-fighting range and distract them." He ordered a trio of missiles impacted against the dreadnought. So far they had only shown the use of missiles and a definitely perfected mass accelerator cannon.
"Get all fighters and interceptors ready! We need to distract them and be ready to deploy boarding parties onto the space station. We may be able to ferry our own equipment down if we take control of it."
"Yes, sir." The bridge officer relayed all the orders to all the pilots and troops stationed on the dreadnought.
c('-'c)
Bright flashing alarms entered the marine's vision as his HUD beeped on. Will, and the rest of his battalion were in charge of the defense of The Cloud, the space station connected to the space elevator. They were put at Alert Two which was in put on if enemy forces were present and second to Alert Three and was only used if the station was being boarded.
He had just popped a power cell into his MAPRS48, or Main Assault Plasma Repeater Series 48, when the dumb AI in control of The Cloud known as Angel, announced, "Alert 3 is now in effect. All combat personnel report to your designated checkpoints and non-essential personnel please exit to the emergency bunker."
"Alright you lousy troopers! Head to Hanger Bay 2 and reinforce 6th Platoon!" His sergeant barked before cocking his APR and leading the charge of several Army Troopers including himself down to the hanger.
Will could hear the distinct sound of a M250H being discharged and explosions. He looked out the a nearby long window that he was jogging by to get to his destination and could see the defense fleet doing their best to stem the tide of enemy warships bypassing the defense and deploying their own shuttles to the surface. He saw an energy projector being shot at one of the two light destroyers before the window ended and arrived to a group of marines who had the elevator in lockdown. They looked like they had just been in a firefight as some had scratches and light burns. There were only four of them.
"Troopers! Where's your CO?" His sergeant quickly asked.
"Hanger 2, dead." One responded.
"You're the rest 6th Platoon?" Will asked.
"That I know of. Our CO had us reinforcing 7th as well in the hanger over when they were being overrun. For all I know they could be dead."
"And you're securing this elevator?" The sergeant asked.
"Natural chokepoint. If this point falls they have access to the rest of the critical hubs as well as the main elevator."
"Son, I like you're thinking. You men are now under my command. You, troopers get a rest in the rear. Will get your machine gun squad up here. Techy, get your ass on those elevator controls. See if you can delay them a little longer."
"Aye, sir." Will said. "You heard the sergeant, secure this elevator!" Will shouted. He received a chorus of yessirs and they all proceeded to entrench themselves in the corridor. As second in command, will had the privilege of relaying the orders. The sergeant went to talk to the survivors of the 6th and Will joined him.
"So what happened?" The sergeant asked.
"We were posted in the hanger, as you know when the first shuttle came in." He started and took a swig of a bottle of water. "One of our guys had a Hades on him. I feel bad for the first three shuttles coming in." He allowed a small smile. "Then we ran out of those rockets and some knucklehead decided to shoot a shuttle and give away his guys position. The shuttle swiveled around to reveal a mounted side gun. You can guess what happened next.
Their bay doors opened and we all jumped out and unloaded on them. They have some sort of shield when we used frags. Although it did kill some of them; some of the shrapnel was sort of negated by them."
"I'm pretty sure they are kinetic barriers and not energy shields." Another survivor interjected.
"Anyways it wasn't until after we reinforced the 7th when we were overrun."
"And are sure that they are going to come on this level and not the upper levels?"
"Angel may not be that smart but he is making sure that they all come on this level only." The apparent leader answered.
"The level where all critical systems are located?" The sergeant asked.
"And where the most armed personnel are." Will answered in realization.
"Yeah. If they want this station they are going to have to go against two hundred other guys who are armed to the teeth and have orders to fight tooth and nail for every inch of this place." The trooper said with a grin. "Something I also plan to do." He readied his weapon.
"2nd Platoon, first wave is incoming!" Techy announced and backed away from the doors.
"Prep grenades!"
c('o'c)
Turian shuttles descended on Panora's surface, landing in many sectors of the only major city on the planet and deploying their squads of turian soldiers and equipment. The defenders though were also spread out all across the city and as soon as the first transports landed all hell broke loose. Hidden anti-aircraft emplacements were unveiled and unleashed torrents of flak bringing down tens of dropships as they attempted to swerve out of the way.
Ambushes of UNSC marines and army units against the turians made them think twice before going down a street. Key buildings were transformed into massive bunkers when marines used them as their ambush points, quickly unleashing a rocket into the middle of their ranks before opening up with energy bolts all around the advancing turians making any and every intersection a kill zone. A Dominion Main Battle Tank would release its armament before switching to its heavy mounted machine gun to run down any retreating turians before they could regroup. Even as the anti-air emplacements were taken over it was not without heavy fighting. With the UNSC Army and Marine Corps fighting for every block and street, every successful assault the turians made also came with a price. Dozens of both turian and human bodies lay strewn about the entire cityscape.
"Incoming!" A marine yelled as he and several others dove or ducked into cover. A round from a Mako tank left its barrel and impacted against the debris of both cars and cement that they were using for cover. A few marines popped out of cover and sprayed their rifles before having to duck down again due to weathering thermal rounds impacting all around them. Some of their shields flared as they were hit, something that would've usually been potentially fatal hits without shields. "Where's our support?!" He shouted to the other marine crouching next to him.
"How the hell-" He was cut off as a sniper round entered his helmet and exited through the visor leaving brain matter all over the asphalt. The echo of the bullet carrying.
"SNIPER!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. Every grunt's worst enemy. Immediately, another marine hit the pavement as a sniper round entered his heart, quickly breaking his energy shields and killing him.
A Dominion tank the zoomed into the fray, smashing through and crushing several destroyed vehicles in the process, and located the flash that emanated from every sniper rifle that wasn't modified. The twin barrels let out canister round that quickly destroyed that section of the building and anything within fifteen meters. The turret swiveled to a hostile Mako and unloaded a duo of high explosive anti-tank rounds into the lines of the turians, exploding the tank. Any turian that was close enough to the explosion was engulfed by the expanding flames and killed.
The turians began retreating with the main battle tank firing on them as they left. With a sigh of relief, the marine slowly got out of cover. He went on his platoon comm. The fighting had scattered all the men and women under his command, after the lieutenant was killed in a firefight.
"Sound off."
"Deck here."
"Pamela is wounded and Luis is down. Jake is all good."
"Jaime is good, though low on ammo."
"Barry and Garret are up."
"Oliver good."
There was a pause. That's it? Forty one men and women reduced to eight and a tank. Either that or they were so spread out that the comms didn't reach that far. "Alright Deck go to Jake and help with Pamela, bring her to the tank. The rest of you come to my position."
After a few minutes, they all arrived. The turians had yet to do another push into the residential district and he got word that they were still regrouping. "UNSC forces in the residential district fall back to 51st avenue. We are going to hold there until reinforcements arrive." His comm said aloud. "Looks like we're going to 51st Ave." Jake stated.
"Yo, tank driver." The marine asked over his comm.
"Yes, Sergeant?"
"We're falling back to 51st Ave. Mind if we hitch a ride?" The sergeant asked rhetorically. The marines we're already climbing on.
"I don't see why not. But try not to scratch the paint." he responded sarcastically, earning a few chuckles from the marines.
The ride back was uneventful, despite the roaring of fighters engaged in a fierce dogfight in the skies sending debris and wreckages of destroyed air vehicles into both lines of troops. "Mavor, what's up with the civilians?" Garret suddenly asked. "The emergency bunkers are behind raptor lines."
Mavor, the Sergeant answered, not missing a beat. "We evacuated them as soon as their forces started landing in force over there. An armored column took them to HQ, they'll be safe there."
The grunt nodded. The squad knew he had family here and he was only looking out for them.
After another few moments they started seeing UNSC activity. Dozens of soldiers and a few tanks formed a crescent shaped defensive line with the two points facing towards the turian lines. They rolled in seeing a hastily erected field hospital. If Mavor had to guess he would assume that there were a little over two hundred combat ready soldiers and about sixteen tanks with three being repaired and many warthogs of both variants. He wondered where all the marines were as there were almost all Army troopers. The rest of the personnel were either too wounded to be of any use or were resting up before their next orders. The tank started to move to get rearmed. As soon as it stopped, Mavor began issuing orders.
"Dent and Jake take Pamela to get check out."
"Aye sir."
"The rest of you see if you can scrounge up some ammo."
"Sir." They nodded and went off to various places. Mavor had to find the CO. He approached a rifleman that was sitting down with his helmet between his feet and his head against his arms that were propped up against his knees.
"Trooper." He said and the man looked up groggily. "Where's the CO of this camp."
"Over there." The trooper pointed to a large tent. Most of the Mammoths were where the heavy fighting was so where the lighter concentration of enemy forces were was where the UNSC only got tents for their command center. "You can't miss 'im." He had a Scottish accent and the sergeant nodded and thanked him before walking to the destination.
The tent was filled with various men and women. Mavor guessed they were the CO's aides as barely any had officer ranks, despite one lieutenant. So he assumed a brigadier general was in charge. Mavor found him shouting at someone via hologram. After it was finished he sighed and rubbed his neck.
"General." Mavor saluted. Since he was indoors and not outside he could salute. "Staff Sergeant Julian Haverson reporting for duty!"
He saluted back. "Marine. Where's your CO?"
"Lieutenant Berth is dead, sir. I'm next in command of 22nd Platoon."
"Damn. How many men?"
"Eight, including me, sir." Mavor responded.
The general nodded. "As you can see, most of us are Army. Not a lot of Marines in this district. They are taking the heavy fighting downtown."
"Well, sir I'm ready. Just point and give me a gun and I'm on my way." Mavor jokingly said. Though the serious face on the general showed he was not amused. "Sorry, sir."
"I can't complain. If you can fight then you are almost already better than my lieutenant." The general responded. He moved over to his tactical map. "Now I know you marines ain't Spartans or ODSTs but you can get the job done well enough." He started as he brought up the display of the residential district. "Our scouts spotted an enemy resource depot here." A red dot highlighted the targeted area. The place was the school. "I want you, your men and fifty of my troopers and two tanks to go and smoke them out of there. It's about damn time we go on the offensive."
~('o'~)
"Sir, three field outposts have fallen in the last hour and three more are under heavy attack as we speak. We are losing ground and our foothold in the city fast! Any Turian that was on the space station is either dead or captured." A bridge officer yelled.
Achamus internally grimaced. The four fleets combined could only destroy four of their cruisers and heavily damage both of their smallest dreadnoughts and that was when they concentrated all their also seemed that their ground forces were also more than a match for turian discipline as he was also getting reports of turians surrendering.
He snarled. They had to retreat and prepare for the Council to intervene. Even if they were human he could use that as leverage to get back at both the Systems Alliance and this UNSC when they joined the Citadel races.
"Retreat! All ships fall back to the other side of the relay!"
"What about the ground forces? We can't just leave them."
"We have to else we risk more losses!" He barked out. The bridge didn't utter a word as they began recalling the remnant of the fleets. They did a small FTL jump out of range of their weapons and began their weak fly back to the relay and back into friendly territory.
"As soon as we exit FTL, contact the Council and notify them of what occurred." He sighed. The Hierarchy is going to have him grounded for the rest of his life for this blunder of military prowess. Over three hundred vessels against a defense fleet of twenty two ships, what this UNSC lacked in numbers they made up for in firepower and the durability of their ships and the flexibility of their troops.
(O_O)
Captain Keith watched as the last of the alien fleet jump into FTL and the bridge erupted into cheers. The captain sighed in relief and chuckled when he was clapped on the back by his XO. The stress and adrenaline of battle leaving him and allowing him to relax.
"Attention!" He shouted while it took a few seconds longer than usual all of the bridge was in total silence awaiting orders from their captain. "Heather open a fleet wide comm."
"You're on, sir."
He composed himself before starting to speak, "You all did a good job today. I personally commend you for doing your duty to the UNSC and UEG." He paused. "But you know as well as I do that we are not out of the wake yet. As much as I hate the thought, this could end up in another Covenant War. I want round the clock patrols on the artefact. It seems that they use that as their secondary form of FTL. Tend to your wounded and coordinate search and rescue for survivors. That is all." The line was cut.
"Captain, I have General Walsh on the line."
"Patch him through."
In a few seconds the Army CO appeared as a hologram. "Sir." Keith saluted.
"Captain, nice speech." The general greeted. "Let us hope that it does not come down to a war."
"Well after a day of heavy fighting, it and getting their asses handed to them. I would hope that it doesn't come down to that. As you know we barely achieved Pre-war levels and the commander had to screw it all up. Even with the Coalition, we don't have the numbers to combat them all."
"All, sir?" The general asked perplexed.
"Heather managed to hack into their systems during the battle and downloaded everything she could. It would seem that the Turians are part of a collective group of aliens and this force that arrived was only a fraction of their entire army."
"Hmm." The general said. "And they may call upon their allies to assist them. By the way, they left a lot of their ground forces here. When their ride home left I started receiving reports of entire bases surrendering, I'm keeping them at the outskirts of the city."
"I'll send teams down to assist."
The general nodded. "Any help is appreciated."
"Officers, if you'll excuse me." Heather interjected. "I didn't want to bother you but this calls for your ears." Both of the officers turned towards her. "It would seem that we are not the only Humans in the universe."
There was a pause before the general asked, "Can you please clarify?"
"The Humans or Systems Alliance, in their galaxy, has almost a near identical history and solar system up to ours up until 2148 where an expedition to Mars discovered the ruins of an ancient race known as the Protheans. After that Humanity basically came together in an "us vs. them" ultimatum to form the Systems Alliance, the military, exploration and economic spearhead of their Humanity."
"What happened to them?"
"2148 marked a huge turning point, technologically speaking, for them. The ruins revealed a new element known as Element Zero and they accomplished feats overnight where it would've taken the centuries. They then opened up the Charon Relay that allowed them to expand into other regions of space. Their first contact was also with the Turians but was relatively light in our terms with only three hundred casualties and slightly more turian and it being known as the First Contact War."
"Three hundred? We lost at least a thousand on the ground with even more wounded. They seemed a lot more aggressive here than then."
"Agreed. It was the same up here as well but I lost four of my frigates and both of the Preston-Classes are heavily damaged." Keith remarked. "That seemed more like a skirmish rather than a war."
"Anyways, getting off topic here." She waved her holographic hands in front of the military men to get their attention. "This Council, which was then comprised of three races, quickly defused the intergalactic war that both sides were prepping for. The Asari, who are a mono-gendered race and the diplomats. The Salarians, an amphibian like race who are extremely intelligent and serve as the brains of the whole operation. And the Turians, who we encountered today and provide the majority of the military and peacekeeping forces." She brought up pictures of all the races. "The rest only have embassies on the Citadel."
"So eight hundred years later, where does this 'Systems Alliance' stand at today?" The general asked.
"Actually they are behind us by quite a margin." She chuckled. "Their calendar reads at the beginning of 2185." The eyes of the both the captain and general almost bulged out of their sockets.
"It took the UNSC to get interstellar travel a hundred years after that."
"They currently have a seat on the Council that is occupied by one Donnel Udina, the Councilor plays the political game."
The captain looked thoughtful before saying, "So they are part of this collective of aliens?"
"Yes, they are more trusting of other species unlike us where our first contact ignited a three decade war with another collective of aliens hell-bent on our destruction and ended up with everyone giving each other the cold shoulder for nearly two hundred years before the tensions even began to slowly diffuse. Even now, there is still animosity between us two even though we are allies." She paused before continuing. "I have to say, these humans are more docile than we are. While not overly submissive, they seem to not want to upset their standing in the Council."
"More diplomatic than we are? Well we would've tried that if a certain commander didn't pull the trigger." The captain grumbled. "What about this Council?"
"Comprised of four species, they are located on a space station known as the Citadel. Fifty kilometers in diameter with five arms believed to have been made by an ancient imperialistic space-faring race known as the Protheans who suddenly vanished fifty thousand years ago. They are the central government of Citadel space and, while they can't control their own governments, the Council's decision apparently carries great weight and usually any race they encounter has joined the Citadel races."
The officers looked thoughtful for few moments before the captain spoke up, "I can see where this might be going. They are going to assume that we are going to join the Citadel, which involves surrendering a whole lot of tech that they are not even close to having."
"Pretty much. Though I highly doubt we or the Coalition will join. For us due to us rather being left alone and not being dragged into other people's conflicts. We've had too much war in our history that we've nearly turned it into an art." The general remarked.
"Yes, we'd sooner join the Coalition than the Citadel, as there are several treaties and conventions we would have to follow in order for us to even be granted an embassy."
"And would you mind telling us what those are?"
"Well for one, AIs are highly illegal and even researching. Another is the Treaty of Farixen that stipulates the amount of dreadnought ships to each race. Also WMDs are restricted."
"What's considered a dreadnought?" Keith asked. He remembered that the Forerunner's had multiple classes of dreadnoughts. The smallest being seven hundred meters and the largest being a hundred kilometers long. The only dreadnought classes the UNSC has is five. The smallest being seven kilometers long and the mainstream light carrier class known as the Dormant-Class. The next, being the Titan-Class at ten kilometers and after them are the Infinity-Class at sixteen kilometers. The next two being based off of the Fortress-Class the Forerunners deployed. The fifty kilometer Bastion-Class supercarriers with five ever produced due to personnel constraints and three Oblivion-Class hundred kilometer dreadnoughts.
"A dreadnought is an eight hundred meter ship to a kilometer that has a ship length mass accelerator cannon that can produce thirty eight kilotons of kinetic energy."
While the general didn't bother himself with knowing how much kilotons of kinetic energy his guns could produce, the captain had to learn what his weapons were capable of as he had to know the destructive force of using such a weapon on astronomical bodies. "That's barely anything." He commented. "The Series-10 can produce 17.18 gigatons of force alone." He looked towards the general who was obviously confused. "To put into layman's terms, if shot correctly and at the right fault line, I could potentially destroy an entire world with a single shot." He explained. "Although, swarms of the other ships were capable of breaching my frigates shields and destroying them and heavily damaging the heavy destroyers."
The general nodded. "That's why I joined the Army and not the Navy. Too much numbers." The general said with mirth. "Sir." He saluted indicating that he was leaving. The captain saluted back and his hologram blinked out.
"Heather forward all that information to HIGHCOM and ONI on a Gamma-1 transmission. They are going to need all the information they can get."
"Right."
"I'm going get some rest. Alert me if anything of importance happens." He said to the AI and then shouted. "XO has the bridge!" before he turned and exited the bridge.
('-')
At that exact moment, a certain human councilor, upon getting word of another Human race that disgraced the might of the turian fleets, was getting an earful from three other councilors. While the information he and the other councilors received put the turians in an even worse a light than that of the Systems Alliance, it still made things, for all intent and purposes, a political shitstorm for everyone. Word had spread faster than wildfire that another human race put four fleets of turians to shame.
The exact details the public had gotten their hands on were sketchy, for lack of a better term. Many turians and other species, that weren't all that keen on having Humanity get a councilor before they did, believed that the Systems Alliance had been developing a stronger military behind everyone's backs. This theory was standing on sandpit already. If the Systems Alliance had discovered means of traveling to a different galaxy, Udina would've thanked whatever deity that existed that it was kept under wraps for so long, not that he was a religious man.
Another theory and even more likely one was that it was a long, lost colony ship but this was discredited due to cryogenics not being all that great forty years ago and them, with the discovery of the Mass Relay System, being not useful anymore.
Udina, via the ambassador, had already received many messages regarding humanity's stance on what to do next. Most wanted for the Systems Alliance to proclaim them as an envoy and gain all their tech. Some pro-human groups, that were more docile than Cerberus, agreed with this but rather not share it with the other species and use it as a means to escape the clutches of the Citadel. Others, though while the vast minority, wished for them to be left alone rather than to provoke them.
Udina was without a doubt conflicted with the issue. On one hand he could ask the Council to open negotiations with them and eventually lead them to join the Citadel. And on the other he could ask them to wage war against them and eventually induct them into the Citadel.
To him, all roads led to them joining the Citadel, as no one could refuse an offer like that. If this Humanity was anything like the Systems Alliance, then they would be more than willing to join the Citadel. If they wanted to be a separate state then Udina would let them but he would subtly begin to integrate them into the Systems Alliance, eventually making it so they have no other choice but to join them. Thus, gaining exponential assets for the Systems Alliance.
Then again their military was not one to mess with. A super-dreadnought measuring at ten kilometers that looked absolutely menacing. From the images he had received, the smallest ship they had was cruiser-weight. The twenty two ships were able to fend off a turian assault of over three hundred and, according to intelligence, the planet they were attacking was their homeworld and they had only just discovered the mass relays that led them to their only thing that concerned Udina was their shielding and armor of their warships. Shielding that was not kinetic and had a blue hexagonal hue to where a round would impact, absorbing it. Once they got through the shielding, however, the armor was incredibly thick and durable.
To sum up, they would be stupid not to join the Citadel at their level of space-faring. The Citadel had means for their expansion as they didn't even have conventional FTL, not that it would be possible without eezo. Udina thought long and hard as he ignored the lecture he was getting from the other Councilors. He would say his part when they stopped.
"Are you done?" He politely asked. "It isn't my fault that the turians engaged the other humans. I suggest that we proceed with negotiations with them."
"Two human races on the Citadel? That would be confusing, to say the least." Tevos, the Asari councilor said.
"They are not even off of their homeworld. The Systems Alliance could negotiate for them to be merged into us. We would share their tech and with only one world and a handful of ships that are not even FTL capable what could they possibly do against us?"
The councilors thought and discussed for a moment something that Udina hated. They would exclude him out of very important decision making and even if he voted against what they wanted he would be outvoted. "Yes, we would think that you plan is the wisest course of action. After we gain access to their galaxy we will begin colonization efforts on that side." Tevos stated.
"However, we will be bringing in a combined four fleets just in case our plan does, as you humans say, go south." Sparatus, the Turian Councilor, added in.
"Should go ourselves and apologize in person for whatever happened." Valern, the Salarian Councilor, also said quickly.
"What if they turn out to be hostile?" Udina asked.
"Then we will leave while the four fleets engage. After losing four of their ships and two ships also being heavily damaged they cannot possible have recuperated their losses in a day. Our numbers would overwhelm them." Sparatus quickly responded. "Although it will take us a few to organize our fleets and get our schedules in order."
"Then it is decided." Tevos concluded. "Udina will lead the negotiations with us there as well."
(T_T)
"And what of the Council races?" Keith questioned the two holographic leaders that were displayed. One being an Ngalekgolo clad in white armor that was edged with a golden colored material. The entirety of the colony that would usually form "bond-brothers" formed a single hulking mass. Being stronger, both neurologically and physically, the Ngalekgolo was at least twice the size of a normal Mgalekgolo. While one arm retained a massive shield that has been tested to withstand at least one Redapo missile, not surprising since it did use Titanium-F Battle Plate, or as the Coalition called it Promethean Battle Plate.
The other was a UNSC Captain named Jennifer Adams. A middle aged looking woman in the BDUs that flag officers wore on duty. While it wasn't ceremonial dress it still held a number of ribbons but no medals. She had blue eyes and short cut brown hair that went to just above her shoulders with strong facial features. She gave command to Keith upon entering the system with her fleet that consisted of a Megalodon-Class Heavy Battlecruiser, four of Calamity-Class Heavy Destroyers escorted the flagship and accompanying them were seventeen Zenith-Class Heavy Frigates. The majority of the 21st Fleet being in orbit of Panora while the rest taking its populace away from the fighting and the city being heavily fortified. There had been problems at first regarding the alien prisoners and their food as they only ate dextro-amino and while the UNSC and Coalition didn't have it on hand, they quickly began producing it from a nearby food plant.
The Coalition, as always, came along. Honoring their word, they sent a small fleet to assist. A Supercarrier, known as the Unseen Fire, measuring to fifty kilometers and served as flagship of the fleet. Fifteen CCS, or Coalition Capital Ship,Battlecruisers, each at four kilometers long with an extra energy projector and several more plasma turrets, provided the bulk of the fleet. Two fifteen kilometer long Assault Carriers accompanied it as well. Several of their Heavy Destroyers along with about twenty frigates made the perimeter of the fleet.
The Ngalekgolo, known as Akita by the UNSC Captains, began with Omega, the small reinforcing taskforce's AI, translating. "If we go to war, none of their militaries will be spared. As far as diplomacy goes we will wait until to see if they send another force. If they do not, then we will send an expedition to their seat of power."
"And if they come to us offering a truce?" Adams asked. She would assume that they would come to them as they didn't know the UNSC and Coalition had access to every single one of their worlds given if the 'Codex' was anything to go by and the authenticity of it.
"We will let them come to us. When they do we will assume that they concede defeat but until than however we will continue to hold position. They don't know that we have the locations of their worlds and I intend to keep it that way. We hold the advantage here. Let's not waste it." Keith ordered.
"Sir! Hostile warships are emerging from the artefact. Hoplite, Sacramento and Salt Lake are retreating to our lines." A bridge officer shouted out.
"Looks like we dont have to wait all that long. Keith out." He said before the holograms fizzled out. "Maintain positions and deploy all fighters. How many are we looking at?" He asked. They were already at General Quarters so he didn't need to order for that.
"A little over three hundred and fifty but they are out of weapons analogue is that of a heavy destroyer or light battlecruiser, most likely flagship."
Three hundred and fifty ships against ninety. We were able to destroy half of that with my initial taskforce. Keith thought to himself. But now game changers were now in play in favor for the initial defense. For one, they had reinforcements. With the Coalition deploying a supercarrier, Keith had no doubt that if this resulted into a battle then they would win.
"Get me a line to their flagship." Keith barked out.
OOOH! ending that just sent chills down my spine. I started this as soon as I could and been writing whenever I had free time so it was a bit on and off-about one to two hundred words per write. Also fixed the perspective changes...hope you like the faces...c(T_Tc)
Anyways! Love the feedback, I'm going to do reveiw responses whenever there needs to be reveiw responses an this one gets some since I felt like it.
To those of you that want bigger and badder UNSC ships, this chapter has the first mention of please also read the chapter all the way through before reviewing. I'm talking to you Infinity gripers...
Sightbent and The Digger92- Both of you thanks for the support! I also personally think that this version is way I dont want to overpower the UNSC and Coalition too much, I think that this chapter basically said that the UNSC and Coalition aren't gods but could still kick your ass in thousands of different ways.
1.5k lifespan was due to me thinking logically. While some stories portray UNSC and the ex-Covenant species as having indefinite lifespans, some that I have read were not good at all but there were those that were very interesting (Lost Legacy by Andrithir is a very good write I highly recommend it).1.5K was me thinking and coming up with "If we could live forever what would the point be in living?" and so 1.5k was born.
Politics...*bangs head against the wall* I kinda wrote that wrong in my AN of the first chapter. I was meaning to say that the negotiations would go into very fine detail and would very much be an information dump on the history that occurred over the four hundred years prior to meeting the Mass Effect Universe.
abraxas01- When I read your review...I actually liked it. For starters, I went back and did a whole load of math trying to figure out the amount of force it produced and how much kinetic tnt it would take to literally destroy a planet. Technically speaking, if the 1k-ton round hit a normal ciy and wasnt anywhere close to a major fault line than the city would be leveled followed by a, fifteen kilometers in diameter, crater and some serious seismic activity.
I meant for it to 2952 actually and the Pelican of this era is a slightly larger, more versatile gunship/transport air vehicle. Basically speaking, imagine the pelican of a slightly larger make.
Telron and Tmx08- Hmm...never played Total Domination before but searched it after I read your review and I couldnt see any similarities. Codex chapter will be next one but mainly militaristic in nature as I'm saving the history for the negotiations.
Thats about all I have so Review! Review! Review!
Until Next Time!