A week after the verdict was dropped, the Explorer ship Galugad made its way to the Sianse System to begin preparations for opening the Mass Relay, accompanied by a flotilla of thirty ships, led by the Cruiser USV Kalasag, the Explorer began inputting the codes necessary to open the relay while all the ships accompanying goes on full alert while the garrison on Sianse is advised to do the same.
Five minutes later, the Relay has been successfully activated. The Galugad enters the relay and comes out of the other side without any major incidents, until the Captain of the ships detects unknown contacts in the system.
At the same time, the Turian patrol fleet led by Captain Solirus Vakarian was refueling on the system when the report of a previously dormant relay, Relay 314 was activating, suspecting of pirates trying to activate the relay, they immediately headed towards the location.
Upon arriving, the flotilla discovered a ship that recently entered the system, searching their databases for the identity of the interlopers. When the VI reported that there were no matches, he quickly realized that this was first contact situation and ordered the other fleets to power down their weapons, despite regulations stating that in the event of a violation, the offending ship is to be destroyed.
The fleet obeyed, with the exception of one Captain Joram Tallid of the Frigate Impera's Dagger, described as a hotheaded glory seeker who sought the quickest way to promotion, he disobeyed Vakarian and opened fire, narrowly missing the thinly armored ship. The Galugad quickly retreated to the Relay while Tallid followed it, ignoring the orders of his superiors.
Upon arriving on the Sianse System, the Galugad warned the escorts of the situation, that another alien race had made contact through violence and had followed them, the escorts powered their weapons up and waited for the enemy responsible. Three seconds later, the Impera's Dagger exited the relay, and was greeted with ten cruisers and twenty frigates.
Realizing the threat infront of him, Captain Tallid attempted to retreat but his frigate was hit by cruiser fire that disabled the thrusters. As the Unggoy ships readied the final blow, the Patrol Fleet crossed the relay and began trading shots with each other, although the Turians had better ships and scored more hits, a fleet of seven stood no chance against thirty and they were forced to withdraw with the loss of two frigates, one Cruiser destroyed and one heavily damaged against eight Unggoy ships, with three heavily damaged and five destroyed.
In the aftermath, Captain Vakarian ordered Tallid to be detained to the brig and contacted the Hierarchy about the situation. The Hierarchy Command ordered the fleet to standby while the situation is being discussed.
In Palaven, there were discussions on the next course of action, many Primarchs were outraged that some upstart race not only disobeyed a major Citadel law but nearly destroyed a patrol fleet for simply reinforcing it, while cooler heads argued that not only the engagement was the result of a hot-headed maverick as Captain Vakarian was on his way to making peaceful contact, but also said species had no knowledge of said law.
To quell the argument, a vote was ordered on whether or not the Hierarchy would send a pacification fleet against this alien species or contact them to explain the situation.
Of the sixty Primarchs, fifty-two voted for subjugation, six voted for contact and two abstained. With this, the 32nd Assault Fleet was prepared, led by Admiral Septimus Oraka while the Ground Assault Units will be led by General Desolas Arterius, a scion of the Arterius Family, known for producing legendary strategists and generals and their extremely high cachet in the meritocratical Turian Society.
(It is later theorized by many military and political analysts that the true reason for this action is to gain a new client race to replace the dissatisfied Volus to prevent the Turian economic collapse should this inevitable separation happened, with a new Client Race with primitive Technology and a desire to buy more advanced Turian Goods, a major boost in Turian Economy and a short victorious war would stabilize the Hierarchy)
On the Unggoy side, the attack on the Galugad brought panic to the Unggoy High Command and the Parliament. Due to the youth of the Colony and the lack of infrastructure to support a fleet, the one meant to guard Sianse, the Eighth Fleet was not yet in full combat ready. Therefore, the responsibility to liberate Sianse lies in the Fifth Fleet should it be invaded, although it would take a week for them to arrive to the System.
To slow down the invasion, additional patrol flotillas were removed from least important worlds and added to the provisional defense fleet. The majority of them were Cruisers and Frigates, with a few Cruiser Carriers and FTL Tugs. Bolstering the defense fleet to eighty ships in addition to defense stations all over the planet and GTS Cannons from the planet, the Unggoy also began recruiting militia from the population and arming them with older weapons, despite the reproduction ban in the colony, it was still one with a massive population due to its nature as a methane based world. Nearly thirty million of the 968 million have joined while the rest hid in the underground cave system stretching throughout the planet.
Three days after the original engagement, the 32nd Assault Fleet arrived at Relay 314 and ordered the patrol fleet to retreat. Afterwards, the Fleet entered the Relay into Unggoy space and was greeted by the guarding fleet. The Turians outnumbered the Unggoy Fleet three to one in all kinds of ships, with a large margin in Cruisers.
The Turians unleashed the first salvo, which destroyed thirteen Frigates and eight Cruisers. The defending fleet fired back while strikecraft from the Tugs and Carriers flew into the unprepared Turian Fleet. With only minimal fighter support and average GARDIAN PD's. The 800 deployed strikecraft (600 Tiktiks, 150 Wakwaks, 50 Manananggals ) wreaked havoc upon the Turian Fleet, with dozens upon dozens disabled or outright destroyed by swarms while they hopelessly swatted the offending fighters.
However, all was not lost, the Turians still had much better ships and larger numbers, despite taking nearly 55 disabled and 35 completely destroyed. They were successful in routing the Unggoy fleet, with the Carriers and FTL tugs exiting the system while the Cruisers, battleriders and frigates fought to the last.
Overall, the Unggoy fleet lost sixty nine ships at the Sianse System, with only eight Cruiser Carriers and Three FTL Tugs escaped the battlefield, forcing them to leave their fighters behind. Meanwhile, the total loss of the 32nd assault fleet is around 90 ships, combined disabled and destroyed.
Nonetheless, the Turian's path to Sianse is now bared open, the only things that stand in their way are the planetary cannons and the six defense stations. As they neared the range, the stations opened fire and managed to cripple two Cruisers before the Dreadnought Gloriana destroyed the station. This pattern repeated until the only ones that was left were the Planetary Cannons which amazingly held fire.
However, the invasion was garnering more problems than imagined, the atmosphere of Sianse is predominantly Methane, requiring fully sealed environmental armor for all infantry when fighting, a bad combination as a single puncture, no matter how light would bring death to the Turians if not treated right away.
After securing the orbit of Sianse, the Turians began landing their forces outside the city, immediately they were greeted by hundreds of fighters, with their strikecraft depleted due to the previous battle against the fleet. Landings were bereft of air cover with the exception of Gunships and landing zones heavily protected by Anti-Air Cannons were the only place to deploy troops from.
On the ground, the fighting was intense, the Turians were outnumbered three to one by the Unggoy Militia, while orbital strikes were called oftenly, the low visibility from orbit made most fire inaccurate and forcing them to rely on local support such as artillery and air support.
Arriving on the ground to coordinate his Forces, General Arterius ordered the capture of the planet's Spaceport to ensure the flow of reinforcements. Utilizing the famous 'Havocs' of the 26th Legion, he ordered an assault to the spaceport using a mix of infantry and heavy vehicles as a cover. While distracted from the assault outside, the Havoc's used their jumpjets to enter from behind the main Unggoy defense line and proceeded to fire upon the surprised defenders who died realizing they were surrounded.
Although a few fought to the last, the majority panicked as they were simply militia who volunteered and were now completely outnumbered, a few raised their arms and started running from all directions and were shot down. Some however, instead armed their grenades and ran to the enemy, withstanding fire long enough to take a few Turians with them. The Havocs in particular took heavy casualties from these attacks, nearly half of the force that were sent is now dead.
Nonetheless, the spaceport was taken with only light casualties and reinforcements now poured into the planet at a rapid pace, it became the new command center with dozens of dropships unloading every hour. The building was heavily fortified, with anti-aircraft missile launchers and guns to fend of air attacks.
With a much larger force on the ground, the Turians began gaining ground despite the intense opposition. Although the Hierarchy currently has more soldiers on the ground and numerous armored vehicles, the Unggoy had aerial supremacy, bombing and strafing on armored columns, platoons and supply depots. Rather than risk their gunships or call upon inaccurate bombardment. Two Frigates descended onto the planet to provide support, using missile saturation upon enemy positions and giving protection to advancing Turian forces from aerial harassment.
A day after the beginning of the invasion, the Turians had finally reached Baqap City, Sianse's capital. However, it was devoid of resistance, with only a few stragglers and occasional sniper fire. The City was left largely intact, with most of the infrastructure undamaged although many were sabotaged to prevent use.
In the aftermath of this 'victory', General Arterius ordered that the flag of the Hierarchy and all the units that are fighting be put above the City Hall as commendation of their victory and sacrifice. He ordered the demands of surrender to the Unggoy be broadcasted all over the planet with promises of good treatment.
It is unknown what the Unggoy thought of this demands, though from the following events, this was ignored.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait, my connection was down and it took time to get fixed but to make it up to you, I posted two chapters today. Hope you did not lose interest to Balaho Effect