"Meteorfall? Fancy name for what was essentially a large-scale orbital drop. The first time that Inquisitors burned in en masse, and really one of the first times that inquisitors in general were used as shock troops in an actual large-scale engagement. We'd done training on it of course, but no matter how realistic the simulator is, it is still just a simulator. In total, we numbered something close to two-and-a-half thousand inquisitors with another five thousand turian shock troops. Turian cabals, havocs and the like. An impressive orbital drop to be sure, but the thing to remember is that an orbital drop, just like any attempt to establish a beachhead, results in casualties. I lost a bunch of friends in Meteorfall. None of my team luckily, but I know that Swordfish and Enigma got wiped out by scouts on the way down and only a single man from Avalanche made it to the ground. In total, I think about percent of the dropping troops died before getting their feet on the ground. At least it looked impressive for the politicians."
Excerpt from "Nobody expects the Inquisition"
Autobiography of Ryan "Atlas" Mitchell
Team leader of Titan, 1st Inquisitor team.
"This is General Velrian, Meteorfall is a go. Drop in thirty seconds."
Ryan Mitchell exchanged quick glances with the remainder of his team, giving them a quick and confident nod just before his seat tipped backwards into the wall, rotating until it left him suspended upside down looking down at the hatch just half an arm's length away. He hung there for a few seconds idly contemplating his return to Noveria. His last visit had resulted in the loss of Noveria to the geth, along with the infection of his entire team with a ceph bioweapon. He was fortunate that Wraith had been on planet as well as it was unlikely that they would have been saved from its effects otherwise. The nanites, adapted to combat the spore remained in his veins, prevented the spore from ravaging his body, a mere halting of progress that would last until the scientists could find a more permanent solution.
"You boys ready?" he asked his team.
"Absolutely. Ready to get a bit of payback for the last time we were here." Ares answered enthusiastically.
Atlas nodded once as the timer displayed on his hud approached zero. "Alright then. I'll see you boys and girls on the ground."
A few calls of agreement made their way over his comms just before the hatch in front of him opened revealing the distant surface of Noveria far below him. A second passed as he watched the swirling white clouds beneath him until with a loud thud he shot out of the launch tube, propelled by a powerful jet blast to the surface far below.
Atlas' shields immediately flared up as he plunged headfirst towards the planet, the thin air around him starting to glow and heat up as he tore through the atmosphere, quickly reaching terminal velocity..
Later the drop would be likened to that of a meteor shower, as thousands of identical trails of flame shot out of hundreds of dropships similar to the one Atlas had dropped out of. It would take several minutes for the dropping troops to land on noveria itself, during which the fiery trails would give way to simple vapor trails which would also evaporate and vanish as the troops would approach the ground.
However, halfway to the surface, the radio channels would erupt with panicked shouting and cries as dozens of ceph scouts erupted from the cloud layer below. The falling inquisitors and turian special forces had no defense against the ceph who began preying upon the defenseless soldiers. The once impressive formation of falling troops turned into a horror scene of chaos as the formation broke, some of the dropping troops panicking and slowing their descent in a hopeless attempt to defend themselves, only to be ripped apart as their slower fall made them easier targets for the merciless ceph. The bodies of those that were killed or badly injured by the ceph also slowed as they were no longer capable of maintaining the tension required to keep their bodies in their falling positions.
Those that were lucky enough to avoid ceph aggression and stayed collected enough, continued falling to the ground as fast as possible. The tight cluster of drop troops spreading out over a far larger area in an attempt to reduce further casualties.
"Titan! Follow me!" Atlas shouted, adjusting his fall just in time to avoid a ceph scout, its arms outstretched, grasping for the inquisitor team leader. "Don't slow down for anything! Four seconds before impact rotate out for landing. Shunt all power into your mass effect cores and muscle weave."
"Will that be enough?" Athena called out, her scottish accent more pronounced than usual.
"It won't be the softest of landings but we'll be combat ready the fastest."
"That scout is coming around for another pass!" Ares warned.
"Understood. Ten seconds to landfall. Keep your mind on the landing. We'll make it to the ground before it reaches us."
As his altimeter ticked closer and closer to zero his HUD displayed new contacts on the ground below him. Mitchell spared himself a split seconds time to grimace as he extended his arms and flipped upright just moments before hitting the ground.
"Found a terminal. Establishing a connection." I reported, hacking into the blue holographic terminal in front of me.
"I'm in. Excellent work Mr. Duncan. I suggest you prepare yourself, the ceph are responding to your presence. I suggest you begin heading back to the surface."
"You're already done?" I asked surprised.
"No. But so long as you remain within the vicinity of the hive I will be able to maintain the connection. I will continue to gather as much data from the terminal as I can in the meantime."
"Sounds good to me." I said twisting around and using my hydro thrusters to propel me along within the hive tunnels."
I twitched to the side, avoiding the ceph that burst out of a hatch next to me. With a sharp twist I brought my shotgun up and shredding the unarmored ceph with a single blast. I put on a burst of speed, as I followed the glowing orange power lines until I spotted what appeared to be a pair of tunnel mouths. One of which had beads of energy pouring out of it, that slowly dissipated as they left the tunnel, while the other had the same energy beads being generated within the tunnel to streak down the tunnel.
"Hold on, these are the same kind of tunnels that I found in the main litho ship in Peak 15. I think the ceph use them as a method of quick transportation. At least that's what I used them for. These may lead directly to the ceph lithoship."
"An excellent point. However, if the ceph shut them down while you are either inside the lithoship or within the tunnels themselves then you would be trapped with possibly no way out. As it is we have no way of controlling them or knowing where they go. But that gives me an idea. If we can gain control of their systems, we may be able to use the tunnels for our own purposes."
I nodded slowly "It would make logistics much easier."
"Among other things. I suggest that you get back to the surface. The invasion will be starting shortly."
"On my way. How are the other teams doing?"
"Only a few injuries so far, none serious."
"I told you the upgrades were worth it."
"I never said that they wouldn't be."
"I'm coming up to the surface and I can't help but notice that I've not encountered that many ceph since the hack begun."
"I've noticed that too and it troubles me."
"Check the data you're receiving, make sure it's not junk or a virus."
"Already done. It's neither, or at least it's not junk to us."
I slowed as I came to a window overlooking what appeared to be a large bay of some kind and as I approached I quickly spotted where all the ceph were. "Hargreave, they're all getting into scouts. But then they're just just standing there, almost like they're waiting for something." I trailed off, my eyes widening as I realized just what the ceph were waiting for. I cursed softly backing up and bringing my zeus up to bear, aiming it at one of the scouts on the other side of the window. "Let's hope this works," I muttered and pulled the trigger.
My rifle bucked as the heavy round punched through the transparent material the ceph used for their windows and hit the scout I had been aiming at which jerked once and went still. I swiveled my aim towards another scout, quickly pulling out the overheated thermal clip, stowing it, and slotting a fresh one into the rifle and fired as the remainder of the ceph in the bay unloaded upon me with a hail of ice shards, or they tried as instead all of their shots merely impacted with the window in front of me, ripples of bluish energy billowing out from each impact, revealing that the window appeared to be shielded in some way. Their weaker weapons were unable to penetrate while my high powered rounds pierced through with little difficulty. It didn't take the ceph long to realize the advantage I held as after I killed the third scout a group of eight scouts swarmed the window I was standing behind, their powerful mechanical arms smashing repeatedly into the window as I killed a fourth with another shot.
As my rifle beeped overheated and empty I took in the long cracks that were forming in the window between me and the ceph with some concern. Quickly replacing the thermal clip with a fresh one I turned and ran, placing the hot clip into my harness to cool as I put as much distance between me and the ceph as possible.
"The drop has already commenced, estimated four minutes until the first troops make landfall."
"And the ceph know," I stated as the sound of the window shattering could be heard behind me. "How?"
"Not important right now. You need to get out of there, and the drop troops need to be able to secure the LZ's so the grunts can land."
"Get me an objective. The vanguard will need all the help they can get."
"Get to the surface. You're on the outskirts of the drop zone. However, if the ceph engage them, then there will be many that will miss their intended landing sites. Once on the ground, the ceph will swarm them; they may need assistance with the rendezvous."
A series of dull impacts on my back forced me to quickly duck around a corner and armor up. "Get to the surface, assist drop troops," I repeated giving a short nod as I stepped out and fired my zeus killing the scout I had aimed at and forcing the one behind it have to push it's way past the wreckage, allowing me time to continue moving down the hallway allowing the rifle's thermal clip to cool down.
"First landing in about three minutes, sensors have already detected ceph scouts moving to intercept."
"I'll be out of here in two minutes maximum," I said cloaking and diving towards the wall of the tunnel turning and pulling myself back the way I came, using the uneven walls of the ceph architecture as my means of propulsion. It was far slower than my hydrothrusters, especially since I was being extremely careful, however, it made me virtually undetectable, allowing me to crawl past the group of scouts that were hot on my heels, chasing me down a corridor that I was no longer travelling down.
As the last scout passed me I increased my speed, starting to leap off the walls and began making my way back the way I'd come periodically hiding myself to uncloak and recharge my energy reserves. Soon enough I found the now broken window that I'd been shooting through, giving me access to the now empty and open to the exterior of Noveria bay. As I began climbing my way up towards the exterior I felt gravity slowly begin to reassert itself, pulling me down towards what had previously been my ceiling. Releasing my grasp on the wall I allowed myself to fall gracefully down to the floor and started taking long leaps through the ever-increasing gravity until it was strong enough for me to run out into the blizzard.
Looking up I mentally flicked a filter on my HUD allowing me to see hundreds of green icons above me. My suit was already extrapolating current and ever-changing landing site estimates for many of the drop troopers above me, displaying all that information on my HUD.
"Threat Detected."
I fell into a crouch, turning around to face a ceph trooper that had just burst out of the snow to my right. A single shot from my Zeus tore a gaping hole directly in the center of its body sending it sparking to the ground where it self-destructed a few seconds later.
Yet as more troopers started unburrowing from the ground, I hastily switched the heavy rifle for my SCAR and started unloading on the nearest one as I slowly started walking backwards keeping a good distance between myself and the troopers. I managed to fell three troopers before I was forced behind cover as my energy reserves reached critical. As my energy levels recharged I placed my SCAR on my back, pulled out my Zeus again and aimed up at the red icon displayed on my HUD. I waited for a few seconds as the target got closer until finally It was deemed close enough. My finger gently pulled the trigger sending a hypervelocity round screaming upwards, the vapor trail almost invisible in the swirling white of the blizzard. I grinned as the red icon turned grey as I pulled out my SCAR once more and with one final glance upwards I stepped out from around the rock.
"Maximum Armor."
I felt the muted thuds, like someone had thrown a ball at me, as my suit absorbed the impacts of the few shots that the troopers managed to get off on me before they were crushed as five one-ton GHOST powered assault armors smashed down on top of them with the force of small cannons. I smoothly traversed my aim over and with two sustained bursts I brought down the two Troopers that hadn't been struck by the meteors from space.
I stepped out towards the five Inquisitors who had already risen to their full height and had their weapons at the ready. "Nice of you to drop by Titan," I said with a smirk, switching to their radio frequency.
"Thanks for the assist up there." Atlas responded "That was a whole clusterfuck. I think we missed the LZ."
I glanced at the map displayed on my HUD. "You're not the only ones. The ceph knew the drop was incoming. They were waiting. Come on, we need to regroup with the other units. There's a Havoc squad under attack not far from here."
"Sounds good. Let's show these ceph that Titan isn't to be messed with!"
"Firehawk this is Wraith. We're in position to assault the objective from the southwest. I've got three inquisitor teams, six havoc squads and a team of Cabal's with me. Also, have about four half strength inquisitors and havocs."
After learning that the ceph may have cracked our long-range communications, it had been decided that the only communication that as much communication as possible would be done by the phantoms. Our QEC's meant that we could communicate freely without fear of interception or jamming. The QEC from each phantom team lead connected directly to the prism, from which the transmission could be rerouted either to another Phantom via their QEC, or it could be transmitted to the fleet in orbit via standard communications protocols.
"Firehawk copies. We've only got two half-strength inquisitor teams and four havoc squads at varying strengths. We're in position to the east and ready for the assault." Predator, Firehawk's team lead reported.
"Raptor is enroute from the north with another six inquisitor teams and twelve havoc squads. All of varying strengths. ETA about five minutes."
"Copy that Raptor. Firehawk and I will initiate the assault now, get the ceph face us, that will let you smash in and strike them where they are unprepared."
"Understood. Firehawk is ready."
"Karnak this is Wraith requesting fire mission."
"Karnak receives you, operative. Send coordinates."
A mental command sent a data packet to the turian cruiser in orbit. "Targeting data sent. Requesting four rounds, fire for effect."
"Data received, standby for fire mission."
I turned back and over the new radio net that I was using to communicate with the various leaders of the various units we had managed to rescue. The plan had been done in person, without radios to minimize chances of interception, all that it required was a single command to begin the assault. Once the assault was given, communication could be carried out over our radios again, as the dangers that the ceph might be listening were outweighed by the need for solid communication between the units. "Firehawk is in position. Prepare for assault."
"Operative Wraith, this is the Karnak, fire mission is set and ready to deliver."
"You may fire when ready Karnak."
"Splash."
Hardly had the words sounded over the radio then, with a thunderous roar, the ground shuddered beneath my feet as over the span of eight seconds four cruiser rounds slammed into the earth just a few hundred meters away.
"Fire mission complete."
With the bombardment confirmed complete I gave the greenlight and quickly fell in behind the 42nd Havoc squad who were already rushing forward into the blizzard. I'd known that the Armiger Legion's Havoc squads were good, their reputation had preceded them. But seeing them in action had truly hammered home that they weren't just good, they were excellent. I probably would rate them somewhere around the equivalent of an N4 if I were to compare them to Alliance troops, which made them better than the majority of CryNet Inquisitors. The 128th Havoc Squad under the command of Sergeant Linmus had managed to reach the ground with only a single casualty and had been immediately swarmed by the ceph. By the time Titan and I had reached them, they had almost managed to punch a hole through the ceph offensive and retreat only slowed by two injuries that they had suffered along the way. With the combined might of Titan, the 128th and myself we'd managed to force the ceph back, long enough for us to slip away into the blizzard.
They'd then proven crucial in the rescuing of other inquisitor and Havoc teams and when we'd linked up with other Havoc squads I'd quickly realized that Linmus' squad was just a run of the mill havoc squad, and that the rest of them were just as capable. Their jump jet boosted mobility was key, able to traverse short distances and elevation at a speed that rivaled that of the nanosuit. While the inquisitor's armor and shields were stronger than that of the Havoc's armor, their mobility allowed them to constantly flank enemies and find new cover and firing positions.
Against a conventional opponent, they would have had no trouble coming out on top. The ceph on the other hand, were far from conventional, their mobility almost on par with that of the Havocs, with comparable armor and superior weaponry and numbers. The only thing that we really had going for us was that the Ceph air support had been nullified as our own interceptors had come down from space to engage any ceph scouts in the air. That meant that we had orbital supremacy against the ceph and could call in orbital bombardments to soften up ceph fortifications before our assaults.
However, the ceph didn't make it easy for us to capture the landing zones, even after the bombardment, as reports started coming in from the various units participating in the assaults. Already I could begin to hear the desperation setting in on some of the less experienced inquisitor teams as they fell under attack. In contrast, the more experienced inquisitors and the Turians remained calm and cool. A testament to the incredible discipline and likely experience of the latter and experience of the former.
The saying the only time you will see a turian's back is if he's dead rung extremely true, as even when a group of ceph troopers burst forth from the snow in the midst of the 128th, the havoc troopers didn't even begin to panic, instead jetting off to the side, avoiding the strong arms of the ceph and catching the robotic troopers in a deadly crossfire while they swiftly maneuvered themselves into cover behind various rocks and boulders. My own rifle joined those of the turians as within a few seconds, we had taken down all of the ceph. Yet we didn't have any time to relax as more ceph began appearing out of the blizzard.
I started jogging forward as shards of ice began pinging off of the nanoscale layer that had formed protectively on the surface of my suit. "Armoring up!" I called out, taking down the trooper I was shooting at with a hail of armor piercing rounds before being forced into cover before my energy reserves reached critical.
"Guardians east flank! Brace yourselves, hard push incoming!" Duviscus, one of the havocs, called out.
"I'm on it! Be ready." I responded vanishing from view and began picking my way through the battlefield towards the east, sprinting from cover to cover cloaked, concealing myself behind boulders or in deep snow drifts to recharge my energy reserves. By the time I reached our easternmost flank, the ceph assault had begun in earnest, with what looked to be fifteen troopers, covered in the glowing turquoise energy shield being projected by five ceph guardians hiding behind the ceph they were shielding. I knew from experience that those shields were nearly impenetrable to anything that we currently had with us, short of an orbital bombardment. However we were far too close to the ceph for that, as they crossed the distance between us and them far too quickly. Already Linmus was being forced out of the way of the ceph push. Throwing myself to the ground I remained as still as possible and waited as the ceph approached. With how fast the ceph were moving it didn't take long for the shielded line of troopers to pass me, one of them passing half a meter to my right. Waiting for just a few seconds more I rose back up, made my way over to the southernmost guardian and pulled out my shotgun. Sending a quick warning to the havoc's, letting them know which of the troopers were about to lose their shields I took quick aim and fired.
I had modified my marshall to fire armor-piercing shards, capable of shredding through the armor found on ceph troopers at point blank range. As ceph guardians were pretty much regular troopers only with their weaponry replaced by a shield generator their armor remained more or less the same as their offensive brethren. Additionally, the thickest armor was found as with most things on the front of the guardian with the back being protected only by a minimal amount of plating.
So when I fired my shotgun, the armor-piercing shards of tungsten ripped directly through the weakened armor of the guardian, taking it down in a single blast. Sprinting over to the next guardian I jammed the muzzle of my shotgun into it's back and fired again, the point-blank shot tearing a gaping hole and blasting the ceph forward half a meter before it ploughed into the snow. By now the ceph were reacting to my presence, as the remaining guardians and some of the troopers turned towards me. My third shotgun blast struck the front armor of the next guardian catching it off guard while I sprinted towards it and drove my fist down into it, making a considerable dent in the metal. While the guardian reeled from the impact I grabbed it and spun it around so that I could fire my shotgun into it's weakened rear armor.
"Energy regeneration exceeding baseline parameters."
I glanced at my energy reserves to note with satisfaction that even though I was maintaining my suits armor, the energy gain was larger than the drain that was being used to deflect the occasional shot from the ceph. Over half of the previously shielded troopers were now undefended and easy prey for the havoc's who tore into the ceph leaving them no chance to fire at me. I had two more shots from my shotgun which I used to bring down the next guardian and when my hud flashed an overheat warning I let go of the marshall with my right hand and pulled out my Majestic pistol and aimed and fired it thrice at the last guardian, which sputtered and fell to the ground, it's shield had dissipated by the time it hit the snow. I fired the remaining three shots at one of the surviving ceph troopers, taking one of its arms off at the base. I holstered the pistol and brought my shotgun back up as I watched the remaining ceph fall to the combined fire of ten turian Havoc troopers.
"Thanks for the assist Wraith," Linmus called out.
"Was it just me or did it seem like the ceph seemed to be a bit slow in that engagement? I was fully expecting all those troopers to turn around and tear you to pieces." Duviscus asked.
"A little upgrade courtesy of Hargreave." I answered with a grin. "I managed to tap into the ceph's energy field, drain some of that. Gave me more energy and made them a bit slower apparently."
Any response to my words was stopped as Prophet's voice called out over the comms. "Cavalry's arrived. Raptor let's show those ceph who's boss."
"Thanks for the assist Raptor. We've encountered heavy resistance to the north."
"Understood Titan, Just hold tight."
It would take another few hours of grueling fighting before the Landing Zones would be deemed clear enough of Ceph to provide the all clear for the main invasion force to land. Five hours after Meteorfall had been given the green light the first transports touched down on the surface of noveria. By then the blizzard had lifted, revealing countless fallen bodies, staining the snow blue, green and red. Total losses during Meteorfall would not be known for some time, but initial estimates indicated that just over half of the vanguard survived with roughly half of those having been injured. The rest had been killed either during the drop, or during the heavy fighting to secure a landing zone for the rest of the invasion force. Their sacrifice would however secure a beachhead, without which the invasion could not have proceeded as well as it did.
A/N: Huge thanks as always to Shadowangel32 for betaing this chapter.
The next couple of chapters will be detailing the retaking of Noveria from a few different PoV's. It's currently shaping up to be around chapter 6 or 7 that Noveria will be finished, at which point there will probably be one more chapter before Shepard wakes. As it is, we will be diverting from canon in a relatively major way over the course of NE:TCC instead of merely rehashing the same events from the game, merely with a couple minor modifications. It should end up being alot more interesting and I can't wait to begin to post some of the stuff I already have done.
As always please don't hesitate to leave feedback, it's the best way for me to improve my writing. Additionally I'm going to try and keep to a biweekly update schedule, the consistency should help me in my writing process.
