Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and EA.

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Torfan

Bray was a very lucky batarian. In fact, he had been so lucky this day that he had spent several minutes murmuring half-remembered prayers that his mother had taught him during his early youth. However, not before he had shut down all active systems on his shuttle and turned it into a piece of shape debris that would hopefully go unnoticed. After all, you couldn't rely on divine intervention alone. Divine intervention, in this particular case, had taken the form of a supply run to Torfan while their ship, the Towering Strength, discharged its drive core in the local gas giant. That job, which otherwise would have been a bore, had placed Bray in a shuttle, rather than either ground side, or on board the Towering Strength. Bray's luck had been compounded by the orbital mechanics, which had placed the shuttle on the far side of the gas giant, just as the mass relay activated and deposited the first wave of United Systems' warships in the system.

The first wave of human ships had consisted primarily of small frigates, which swarmed out of the relay. Within seconds, they had been followed by what appeared to be two dreadnoughts. Then communication arrays across the system lit up as they registered an incoming transmission.

"This is Admiral Lindholm of the United Systems Military to all vessels in Torfan space. You will stand down your ships and prepare to be boarded. Any attempt to either leave the system or resist will be met with lethal force. This is your only warning. I repeat..."

That had been enough for Bray to shut down every active system he could find. He had no intention of being boarded. This same shuttle had been used to transport human captives down to the surface and a simple DNA analysis would show that. He could readily imagine the human response to that discovery and felt no desire to experience it in reality. Fighting in a cargo shuttle was not an option either. Neither was running. The humans were between him and the mass relay. His only chance of leaving the system would be to return to the Towering Strength, but it seemed unlikely that the captain would be willing to sit still and wait for Bray to dock. So, hiding was his only reasonable course of action.

With his active sensors shut down, his ability to follow what happened was limited, but even passive sensors showed a grim picture. The human frigates quickly entered the planetary orbitals. Several cargo ships that lit of their drives never even broke orbit as precision fire took out their engines, leaving them helplessly adrift. The other shipmasters clearly learned from that and didn't even attempt to move, signalling their compliance instead. Meanwhile, the frigates continued onwards, now spreading out over the system, including the gas giant, which had become the temporary home for both the Towering Strength and Bray's little shuttle.

Three frigates, operating in a loose formation swept around the gas giant at high speed, and Bray continued praying fervently that they would overlook his little shuttle. Either his prayers were answered, or the humans were just too busy to notice him. Perhaps both. In any case, none of the frigates paid the slightest bt of attention to him. Instead, they focused on the Towering Strength, which had discharged its core a few hours previously and was still in orbit.

The Towering Strength lit up her drives and started to accelerate away, but the captain might as well have stayed in orbit and accepted his fate. The human frigates intercepted her while she was still pulling away from the gravity well, closing to point blank range as they fired into the engines. The Towering Strength, despite her name, wasn't really a warship. Designed -officially- for patrol duties and customs inspections and -unofficially- for raiding, she was fast and could carry a considerable cargo. Unfortunately, starting from an orbital motion it would take time to accelerate and neither her weapons nor her shields or armour were designed to stand up against real warships. Desperate return fire damaged one of the frigates, but half the Strength's thrusters failed, sending the ship, spinning uncontrollably, back into the gravity well.

So much for getting out of here.

The mass relay lit up again and delivered a new wave of human ships. No less than three human carriers entered the system, surrounded by their escorts. Even before they had fully cleared the relay, a third wave arrived. This one consisted of mostly cruiser-sized vessels, which immediately accelerated away from the relay on an intercept course with Torfan's only inhabited planet. Behind them, the two human warships, which had entered the system with the first wave, span around. Bray looked at his sensor data in amazement. They were big, bigger than any cruiser he had ever seen, though on closer inspection not quite the size of a dreadnought. But what was truly amazing was the speed at which they manoeuvred, which would have been quick, even for most cruisers. Manoeuvring thrusters flared again and both ships stopped, their main batteries aimed directly at the relay. Around them, a group of six smaller ships, about typical cruiser size, performed the same manoeuvre. Their intent was clear. Even if someone had managed to call for help, any attempt to reinforce Torfan would fly straight into the concentrated fire of the human warships.

Meanwhile, the human carriers launched wave after wave of fighters. The mass relay spun up once more and within moments about a hundred of them disappeared from local space. For long seconds the relay was quiet, then the process repeated itself.

Where do they think they're going? Bray quickly decided that it didn't matter. There were still plenty of human ships in Torfan. Enough to destroy his little shuttle a million times over the moment it got spotted. Fortunately, none of them seemed to be aware of his existence and Bray very much intended to keep it that way.

-o-o-o-

It took some work, but eventually, Bray managed to obtain a feed from the local satellite network, part of which was still operational. That gave him a better of view of what happened around the planet. It wasn't looking good. All resistance in space had ceased. The satellites were tracking several wrecks and the surviving ships had clearly decided to surrender and were being boarded. Meanwhile, over twenty human warships, each the size of a cruiser, were approaching the planet, their speed too high to put them into orbit. For Bray, it was a fascinating sight. He'd been part of several raids, though never an operation on this scale. Still, he could be considered to be a veteran of planetary assaults.

Conventional wisdom held that holding the orbitals gave you the upper hand over anyone on the ground. After all, 'holding the high ground' was generally considered a good thing and it didn't get any higher than a ship in orbit, which had a perfect view of its target. On top of that, everything you fired downward toward the planet would have gravity on its side, whereas anything the planet fired back at you had to climb out of the gravity well. Conventional wisdom was, as usual, wrong, or to put it more correctly, it was incomplete. First of all, unless you wanted whatever you fired toward the planet to slowly spiral inward, you needed to stop the orbital motion first and make it go straight down. That required a lot of energy, negating the advantage of shooting into a gravity well. For mass accelerators with their extremely high projectile velocity that was no problem, but mass accelerators had no problem shooting out of a gravity well either. Even the advantage of the higher vantage point was dubious. Sure, from orbit, you could easily see and hit targets planetside, but first, you needed to find them. After all, anyone on the ground had a whole planet to hide on. Meanwhile, a ship in orbit was visible to anyone who bothered to look up. What was worse, it was locked in a trajectory that could be predicted in advance by anyone with a basic calculator and the science of a pre-space civilisation.
So, holding the orbitals only worked if you were A) shooting at fixed targets that had been identified in advance, or, B) you had someone ground side to mark the targets for you, or, C) if you didn't care if you turned large areas to rubble.

Torfan had active defences. They weren't all that good and they were all in fixed locations but still enough to cause any invader a serious headache. Of course, if the humans were willing to simply exterminate the colony that wouldn't matter, but there were a lot of human slaves down there who would be killed as well. Turians might accept that sort of collateral damage as the price of victory, but humans were reported to be a bit more cautious and had already shown their dislike of orbital bombardments during their brief war with the Hierarchy. But if they didn't want to crack the colony open from orbit, they'd have to land and Torfan's defences were good enough to turn any landing attempt into a slaughter. The question was: did the humans know.

Apparently, they did. Infrared contacts flared up on his viewscreen around each of the ships as they sped toward the planet, within seconds, the ships changed course, veering away sharply in a manoeuvre clearly designed to evade incoming fire from the planet, if there had been any. Behind them, the new infrared sources started to move, streaking downward toward the planet below at a speed that no shuttle pilot would attempt. Missiles. The United Systems Military was known for favouring archaic technology, and give credit where it was due, they seemed to be able to make it work.
Like now!
As the missiles approached the planet, the defences opened fire, lasers from a dozen GARDIAN batteries crisscrossed through Torfan's thin atmosphere in an attempt to stop them. They were doing quite well, and Bray could see the individual missiles disappearing from the sensors. Unfortunately, quite well just wasn't good enough. There were too many missiles and not enough laser platforms. Meanwhile, the surviving missiles changed course and accelerated sharply. Clearly, they had found whatever target they were searching for. More were wiped out by the lasers, but then the explosions started and Bray looked on in disbelieve as the first GARDIAN battery disappeared in fire and rubble, then the second, then the third. Either the United Systems Military had incredible intelligence on Torfan's defences, or they had...
The sensors! If Bray had been human he would have face-palmed. The GARDIAN lasers used active sensors to track their targets. If the humans had a general knowledge of the frequencies at which they operated, which they could well have obtained through observation, or even bribery, the missiles could home in on those targeting beams. That was why they had changed course the moment the GARDIAN system opened fire. It was not a new concept and explained why fixed defensive positions were of limited value and why they typically held their fire until the last possible moment. That was why Torfan's heavy mass accelerator batteries had not even attempted to engage the human ships before they entered orbit. Of course, the humans would still need to deal with them, but with the GARDIAN system knocked out, that would be a lot easier.

New sensor contacts appeared. A wave of fighter craft that clearly intended to go down to the planetary surface. Larger and slower than the missiles, they still moved quickly and had spread out over a wide area to avoid presenting a convenient target. Normally, for a fighter or shuttle to enter a planet's atmosphere was a complicated manoeuvre to avoid losing control of the craft, but Torfan's atmosphere was so thin that it hardly mattered. There was no defensive fire this time. The mass accelerators were too large and clumsy and would have been of limited use against fighters and if any GARDIAN battery was still functional, its operators were sensible enough not te reveal it. Instead, a wave of fighter craft rose from the surface on an intercept course. Bray shook his head as he saw them. He had been on Torfan and he knew the status of its small fighter force. It was a mix of turian and batarian craft with a few asari and salarian designs thrown in for good measure. All together there was a decent number of them, but most of them were nearly obsolete, or just plain worn out. The pilots lacked discipline and there was little unit cohesion. A battle such as this could only end one way.

Now that they were at low altitude and the threat of heavy surface batteries was behind them, the human fighters reformed their formation, splitting into small, tight groups, a far cry from the mob-like swarm of their opponents, and opened fire at maximum range. The defenders tried to reply, but the lower quality of their equipment was clear from the start and their initial salvos were ineffective. The human squadrons threw themselves at their opponents, tearing through the formation while firing continuously, then braking sharply and turning back as soon as they broke through. In that first pass, the formation of the defenders, such as it was, was cut to pieces. Of course, the humans had lost a few fighters themselves, but their formations were still intact and the balance of losses was hopelessly lobsided. A second pas and the few surviving defenders broke, scattering in all directions with human fighters in hot pursuit. The battle had only lasted a few minutes, then the last defender was shot down and the human fighters, having lost less than ten percent of their strength reformed and continued toward the colony

They clearly knew what they were looking for and their intelligence must have been spot-on because it didn't take them long to find it. The infrared signature of missile drives appeared as they opened fire and again the planetary surface around the colony was dotted with explosions. Bray didn't even have to check what they had been aiming at. There was only one target on Torfan that warranted this kind of attack. A simple comparison to a map confirmed it. Torfan's heavy mass accelerators were now out of action as well, leaving the colony completely defenceless.

Much further away, the ships that had started the assault had turned back and were approaching the planet once more. This time they decelerated for a rendezvous in high orbit. This was something Bray recognized all too well. The invasion was about to begin.

-o-o-o-

As Bray watched a stream of shuttles started to break away from the human warships, all headed toward the planet. It didn't take a tactical genius to understand what was going to happen. There were a lot of pirates and mercenaries on Torfan and they would put up a good fight, but with the enemy in full control of the system and clearly prepared for a ground battle, there was only one way this could end.

Halliat! The name was like a curse. This is what we get for listening to that bastard!
The turian pirate had approached several senior batarian officers nearly a year ago with what seemed like the perfect plan. He wanted to attack the human colonies in the SKyllian Verge, but even after collecting a large number of independent pirates, he lacked the strength to pull it off. The Hegemony, or rather its fleet, could provide the extra firepower.
The Hegemony's top military officials had jumped on his proposal. They too had been eyeing the human settlements, but while they had the strength to attack them, they needed a way to cover up their involvement. The presence of so many Terminus pirates provided them with the plausible deniability they needed. On top of that, he claimed he had contacts within the Hierarchy that would inform him of the movements of the turian fleet.

Fools! What did they think was going to happen. Bray shook his head, trying to suppress his anger Be honest. You were just as enthusiastic. A chance to show those arrogant newcomers who was boss. Besides, you didn't mind the extra money. And that was the heart of the matter. Serving in the Hegemony military wasn't much fun, but it had these nice little perks. Even for a low-ranking member like Bray, the extra income from one successful raid was enough for several weeks worth of entertainment in the bars and brothels of any spaceport. A big raid like the SKyllian Blitz? Even before the captives had been sold, the loot had been enough to pay even the lowest ranking participant a year's income. Selling the slaves would have doubled that.
Looks like that's not going to happen. Damnation, why didn't we think this through? So we got a bunch of human slaves. So what? For all the effort we spent, we could have raided any number of independent colonies. No protecting fleet, no big government behind them. Just go in, take the loot, and get out. Don't even bother with taking people. Sure, slaves bring in big money, but it pisses everybody off. That's probably why the humans think they can get away with this. If they manage to liberate even a handful of slaves, they'll be heroes. Treaties be damned. No other government is going to go to war over this, no matter how many batarians they kill.

And that brought Bray to his own dilemma. A lot of batarians were going to die and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. The best he could hope for was to sit still, pretend very hard that he was a dead rock in space and wait for the humans to finish their business and depart. Then he could use the Mass Relay and get as far away from Torfan as he could.
But go where? Back to the Hegemony would be the logical destination, but right now Bray didn't relish that thought very much. Not only were a lot of batarians going to die, but quite a few of those batarians had friends and relations in important places. And Bray would be the one to tell those friends and relations of their deaths. That was not an appealing thought. Bringers of bad news had a way of becoming part of the bad news.

No, nonono. No way. I didn't survive this just to get my head blown off by some angry upper caste moron who lost his darling little son in the attack. Let someone else bring them he bad news. Mommy's little boy Bray is going to keep a very low profile for a very long time.

But that left the question of what to do next. If he couldn't return to the Hegemony officially, he couldn't contact his family either. Once news of the attack reached the Hegemony his family would assume he's been either killed or captured. That was acceptable. If they thought he was dead, he'd be considered a hero and there would be no retaliation against his relatives. That was the safest course of action for everyone. So, where else could he go?

Bray laughed mirthlessly. The Terminus was only one relay jump away. It was big, there was no central government and most people learned not to ask questions. One batarian in a shuttle would attract little attention. he could sell the shuttle for some easy money and then plan his next move. He was a soldier. He had training, skills. There were always jobs for people like him.

His decision taken, Bray leant back into his seat and watched as the assault unfolded. He might as well use the opportunity to learn something.

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AN:

Sorry it took so long, but I was busy in real life and this chapter required several rewrites. I don't normally like kerb stomp battles and find it hard to write them in an interesting way, but in this case, it was necessary. It's a full-sized naval attack against a pirate stronghold and there is absolutely no need for the humans to pull any punches. Overwhelming force may be a bit of a cliche, but here it certainly applies. Of course, the tough part of the battle will take place mostly inside the colony and that will be a different story.

Thanks to Chris Bunch. The first SciFI author I read who saw the problems with the "whoever holds the orbit has a huge advantage" concept.

Bray would, of course, go on to become one of Aria's bodyguards. I guess he made the best of the situation.

In the game, Halliat was human, but according to the background info, he was supposed to have been a turian. (Him being human doesn't make much sense anyway. He could have been batarian, but human?)

Lindholm is a human admiral in ME3, she sacrificed 10 percent of her fleet to let the rest escape from the Reapers, so I chose her for a mission that is very much 'do what needs to be done'.