AN:

Disclaimer: I own all rights and licences of Bioware and any Bioware product including Mass Effect. You are no longer allowed to write fan-fiction of Mass Effect or other Bioware products that is not approved by me. If you do I am in a good legal position to sue you off of every cent or pence or whatever your lowest form of currency might be.

Things, I think their acronyms:

OSS: Orbital Space Statios

CISS: Coalition of Independent Space Stations

MCA: Mobile Combat Armour

PCA: Personal Combat Armour

UCM: United Cities of Mars

IFV: Infantry Fighting Vehicle

UT: Universal Time

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.

Relay 314

The Turians had set up a good defensive position. The remains of 15th Fleet were to be kept in dock and their maintainance hurried, 17th Fleet had set up patrols around the relay and 20th Fleet were setting up a line of defence. The Turian crews, while going about their duty, did not honestly expect an enemy to come charging at them. However with seventy of their ships gone they did not lax and kept up their alertness. That did not mean they were surprised when a huge ship came out of the Relay though.

"Admiral! The enemy are attacking!" Captain Commander Cabalus's helmsman called.

"Tell all ships to fire!" He ordered.

"I cant sir!"

"What?" He rounded on his helmsman as he was frantically typing away, trying to get the order out to the other ships.

"Communications aren't working and weapons have been disabled!...Sir their firing!"

Lances of light streaked out from the largest ship and the other ships that were starting to arrive, when they hit the Turian Cruisers either exploded or were simply left there as floating debris with giant holes in them. Individual ships of both 17th and 20th Fleets started firing, seemingly being able to regain control of their weapons but the communications were still dark and as more enemy ships poured in more of Cabalus's ships were destroyed or disabled.

"We cant stay still, scatter and hope the Fleet follows!"

Obeying his order the pilot started to weave about, slowly but surely the other ships got the idea and started doing the same, significantly reducing the casualties caused by the potent energy weapons. However the Captain Commander still could not contact his fleet and only a few were able to fire their mass accelerators, only damaging the shields of the enemy vessels.

"Their firing missiles!"

The enemy had advanced in formation around the larger vessel and the escorts had fired a wave of missiles at the Turians. "Weapons are online but now we dont have point defence or shields!"

Eyes widening Cabalus could only order his ship to dodge the missiles and try and get a shot off at the increasingly growing mass of enemy ships. Around him Turian ships, lacking their GARDIAN laser arrays and shields, were hit and destroyed by the missiles. Cabalus let out a growl of frustration and quickly ordered his ship to withdraw, however with communications impossible it took time for the rest of the fleet to trickle back to the planet, some not lucky enough to escape.

–

–

OSS Gaul 1st Fleet Flagship Alesia

"Ha! Their running!" Benoit Cheered and waved his fist in the air, the bridge crew joining him.

"How many did we get?"

"About seventy to eighty Cruisers and a few Frigates, we have no reports of injuries , the AI done their jobs well" His XO responded.

Suddenly the holoprojection of one of the ships AI appeared. Vercingetorix was a truly life-sized Gallic chieftain. Long wavy brown hair and an impressive moustache , even wearing the green and brown clothes of the classical Gallic people he was the main dedicated attack AI.

"Hah! This enemy is barely worth my skills!" He boasted in his deep, gruff voice.

Benoit chuckled "Easy there 'Rix, this isnt over yet"

The AI raised his sword in a salute and disappeared. The Alesia advanced with more and more main battleships and light battleships pouring in from the Astral Gate, forming a crescent formation with the Alesia at the centre and the light battleships behind the wall of main battleships. Then came the two carriers of the Romans who positioned themselves at each end of the crescent.

Three carriers, eighty five main battleships and one hundred and forty light battleships advanced on the reforming Turian fleet around the medium sized planet of Boetia.

"Sir, we've detected a Dreadnought with the Turian Fleet"

"Put it on screen"

What appeared on the holoscreen did not do much to impress the carrier bridge crew. It was slightly smaller than a main battleship from the OSS Roman but what did take their notice was the huge main gun on the centre of the vessel. There would be no doubt that the gun would destroy a main battleship in one shot.

"It's a giant gun" Claudia remarked blandly.

"A really big giant gun" Benoit agreed "Tell the rest of the ships to stay out of that things way and have our Chariots disable it with their AI's and board it"

"Want a new toy do you?"

Benoit chuckled "A present to my wife actually, I think our anniversary is next week"

Claudia raised an eyebrow "You think?"

"I hope"

–

–

OSS Roman main battleship Torch

Captain Miranda was once again itching to feel the thrill of the fight. Despite being scolded by Admiral Murillo and warned if she ever did something as reckless as that again there would be consequences, Miranda was let off without as much as a slap on the hand. Mainly because thanks to her they found out how devastating the disruptor torpedoes of the enemy were and the captains were ordered to prioritise these torpedoes in their point defence systems.

The Torch was positioned at the centre of the crescent, nearer the front along with most of the Roman main battleships, mainly because their guns outranged those of the Gallic navy. As the invasion force drew closer and closer they were warned to stay out of the firing zone of the now visible dreadnought. When they were in range, the Roman ships opened fire.

Lances of light once again ravaged the Turian fleet but they were smarter now, the enemy ships used their smaller size to great effect and dodged and weaved between shots. A shot from the Torch clipped one Cruiser by the tail end but another shot from the ship next to the Torch destroyed it completely. Miranda was miffed that her kill was stolen and sent a laser shot from her point defence to the other ship. The ship captains reply was sent to her headset.

"Aim better next time then"

Return fire was now getting more intense from the enemy and as the two sides drew closer the first torpedoes were fired, however these were shot down by the laser point defences. The main battleships' shields were being whittled down, then just after the order was given to part a shot from the dreadnought destroyed a main battleship and carried on to shatter the shields and damage the hull of a light battleship behind it.

"Use your AI's! Disable the enemy communications and weapons!" The order rang out from the Alesia.

Another shot was fired from the dreadnought and another battleship went down before fire from the enemy fleet drastically died down. The AI's were doing their jobs. By now the crescent parted to allow the light battleships, who were not going to be part of the planetary invasion, through and the main battleships formed a battle line, firing their ion canons into the enemy.

The light battleships were already engaged with an enemy that was severely weakened. The dreadnought was having a hard time of it, being swarmed by numerous Gallic chariots who were were firing their boarding pods.

"Enemy reinforcements coming from the planet!" Miranda's XO yelled. Sure enough there were more ships and what looked like fighters coming from the planet.

"All invasion forces, make your way planet side and take the city!"

The two Roman carriers, Warlord and Titania, along with twenty light battleships and five main battleships, including the Torch, split off from the space battle and down towards the planet. Ion canons fired on the enemy reinforcements and a few ships were destroyed, the enemy ships returned fire with torpedoes and their main guns, covering their fighters.

The hangar bays of both the Warlord and Titania opened up and out came their load of spacefighting MCA's. The war machines came out in their squads of ten like waves and headed straight for the enemy. Compared to planetary MCA's used by the army naval MCA's were lighter and not bulky like most ground MCA's. They were slim in design, armed with one shoulder mounted energy canon and one shoulder mounted pulse gun for ranged fighting and for close quarters and anti-ship combat they had energy shields and flash blades. They were protected by Aegis shielding systems and armour that made them hard to track and lock on to.

"Captain Miranda, take the invasion force and land, we'll deal with the reinforcements" Admiral Marsha ordered the captain.

The rest of the ships, now without the carriers, carried on towards the planet. Before the light battleships carrying the ground troops could go on and land Miranda first ordered two EMP missiles to be fired. The Torch and another main battleship, the Speartip, fired their EMP and watched as the projectiles hit the city, shutting down all power and hopefully all defensive systems.

The light battleships now made their way to the planet to land and deposit their forces, the main battleships stood guard for any surprises the enemy made.

–

–

MCA Artemis, 20th squad, Olympians

MCA Artemis, piloted by Allie Flannigan, was a part of the Olympians, the 20th ranked MCA squad in the carrier Warlord. Considering there were one hundred and thirty other squads the Olympians were pretty good. Currently Artemis was pursuing an enemy fighter who was trying to shake her off it's tail.

"Come on, stay still you bitch!" Allie growled in frustration as the fighter was moving too fast for the early fourth generation targeting system to lock on. It dived down and activated a boost to gain some distance between it and the Hunter, when the fighter expertly manoeuvred a tight turn and swang back up the Turian pilot expected to find the enemy it it's line of fire and completely surprised. What he did not expect was a beam of electricity heading strait for him to slam into and destroy his fighter.

Allie was already on the move, going above another fighter who was on the tail of one of her squad mates and destroying that with a burst from her pulse gun. Another squad mate came in from below her and destroyed a fighter that was making a dive for her.

Using squad comm she said a quick "thanks" and partnered up with another squad mate to attack more fighters.

The MCA's had a lot of advantages over the Turian fighters. First of all was the Interface and Integration System or IIS, which connected the pilot to the machine. Essentially this meant that the pilot was the machine, every movement the pilot made would be a movement the MCA copied. For example if a pilot moved their arms the MCA would do so in exactly the same manner. This was because the pilot was 'suspended' in a sort of free floating space within the cockpit by numerous wires that connected to their Integration suit.

The wires also connected to the brain so, with a thought, the pilot could activate their shield or doge left etc. The MCA's sensors fed the pilot information about what was going on around them and the companion AI acted as a secondary pilot, for example if a pilot was engaged and focused on one target and did not notice another one behind it the AI would dodge enemy fire while the pilot kept on focusing on their target. If it was able to the AI would also help destroy targets. If the pilot was incapacitated or unable to fight the AI would take over and carry on the fight for them or fall back into safety. Many awards were given to AI's because of their great help in and out of combat.

The MCA's could also use side, front, back and main boosters to perform manoeuvres and get out of tight spots and also speed up to close into an enemy or fall back from an enemy. All of this meant that the MCA out performed and out gunned the fighters.

Allie landed the Artemis on an enemy ship which had it's point defence system disabled and used her flash blade to cut into the hull. The flash blade was an intense energy sword, used in short swipes the energy blade would form and then deform when the swipe was over. It was made powerful enough to cut into heavy ship armour and it made short work of the Turian frigate's hull, leaving a gaping hole where the pilot would be.

Making some more holes in the ships hull Allie never noticed the pair of enemy fighters going straight for her, however Artemis did. It fired both shoulder mounted weapons and shot the fighters down.

"You really should pay more attention" The regal voice of Allie's AI told her.

"Sorry mom" The pilot replied. When she was finished turning the once proud vessel into scrap Allie rejoined her forming squadron. They were going after a Cruiser.

Around her the MCA's were taking casualties , with some squads drifting too far from the main groups and swamped by enemy fighters. Some pilots were also too slow to get away from the point defence systems which burned away their shields and then armour. It was an intense fight, both sides giving it their all.

–

36th Squad

Squad captain Terrance Hall and the rest of his men had made planet fall two hours ago and now 36th squad of 4th brigade along with other units were pushing through the city and towards their target, the Military HQ. When they landed on the planet it did not occur to them they were the first Humans to set foot on a world inhabited by sentient aliens. What mattered was that they move quickly and capture their objectives within 12 hours.

They had landed outside the city and took the IFV's in, at first encountering resistance from the regular soldiers who, thanks to the EMP's, did not have air support or heavy vehicles and even some of their weapons weren't working, as found when some soldiers took a rocket launcher like thing left behind and tried to use it, it seemed that the firing system was fried and the weapon was rendered useless.

Most of the Roman soldiers were encased in fourth generation type three Global Armaments medium PCA, the sniper and spotter usually choosing the light version and the heavy troops the heavy version. It protected them from all angles and had no weak points that an enemy could drive a dagger into, the multivision helmet was visor less because the armours sensors connected to the brain, letting the soldier see, hear and smell what was around him without the need of a visor. It also had a HUD showing the shield strength, armour strength, ammo count, minimap and position of marked enemies. It's multivison allowed the wearer to see in heat, heartbeat, x-ray, infrared and night vision, making spotting ambushes and snipers easier.

The armour also had a 'blend with the background' ability that meant it could change colour to match that of the environment it was in. For further camouflage the soldier could chose to wrap a mesh netting around it so he could stick on shrubbery. The armour was heavy though, almost one hundred and twenty when fully loaded. Normal soldiers could only use it thanks to the enhancing effects of their ARS or Augmentive Reaction Suites which increased strength, reaction times and speed. The armour connected to the ARS, fully encasing the wearer.

The PCA also had low-range communications and numerous stimulants and disinfectant injectors to keep the soldier fighting when injured. Any other injury though was treated by the medics. Aegis shielding gave the soldier extra longevity in the field.

Currently Terrance was leading his squad through the city streets, which were strewn with vehicles both military and civilian, some looked like they fell out of the sky. Ahead of them were the sniper and spotter team who were watching for ambushes and traps. Terrance was armed with a Omar Armouries third generation type four automatic shotgun, it had a thirty round cartridge magazine and the ability to fire three hundred and fifty round per minute. The ammunition was either electric, which would impact and give a lethal shock to soldiers and take down shields quickly, or explosive which would blow away limbs and huge chunks of the body.

The medics and ordinary soldiers had chosen Omar's fourth generation type two pulse rifles. It could fire single shot or three shot bursts and would make short work of armour and flesh. One heaver trooper was anti-infantry so he had a pulse repeater, it able to give out twenty rounds a second and could burn away cover quickly, making it lethal for enemy infantry. However it could only work with the cooling pack which was strapped on to the soldiers back and wrapped around the gun. The other heavy trooper, designated as anti armour, was armed with a Omar fourth generation type three plasma charged missile launcher capable of taking out MCA's both in the ground and air. It had manual or target lock on and the plasma charged missile would either penetrate then explode or explode on impact and in both situations cover the target with lethal plasma.

They had encountered the enemy twice already, their mass accelerator assault weapons doing a good job of reducing shields but it had yet to hit armour. The enemy were also vulnerable to energy weapons, with their shields only being able to stop projectiles. It did not mean the Turians were being lax though, there were reports from other units about numerous ambushes being spotted and there were even snipers present in the city. An enemy sniper had managed to get a headshot on a trooper, the soldiers' shields drained to ten percent and the trooper was knocked down and received a good concussion, thankfully the PCA had played it's part and stopped the round. So far there were no reported deaths and only injuries.

The soldiers of 36th squad and other units were advancing street by street, supported by IFV's who were setting up medical and supply bases as well as Hawk gunships flying overhead.

Terrance heard a beep which indicated he was being contacted "Alpha thee-six, this is forward alpha-three six, do you read?"

It was the sniper/spotter team ahead of them "I read you forward alpha three-six"

"Tango's have set up machine gun nests all around objective, marking with drone now" His minimap took over his HUD and he could see their objective. It was a large, square building surrounded by a thick hexagonal wall. There was even a large space around the building with no possible cover for advancing infantry, on top of the building and on the walls were enemy soldiers and what looked like machine guns. The enemy were marked with red triangles for infantry and red squares for machine guns. The Turians had set up well, covering all spots.

"Permission for artillery or air strike?" The spotter asked.

"Negative, there could be civilians in the building"

The spotter cut the channel and it was back to silently advancing.

"Would be a nice day if it weren't for the situation" Heavy trooper Marcus Black remarked to his fellow Heavy trooper. It was true, the planet was in it's day cycle and the sun was up and bright in the sky, making it seem like summer.

"Hmm" Sabrina Warden agreed.

Without encountering enemy resistance 36th squad along with it's battle group made it to the buildings that surrounded the enemy HQ. These buildings were smaller than the HQ, only two stories, most likely by design. The battle group commander addressed his soldiers "Here's the plan, the enemy is in a heavily entrenched position and it would be suicide for us to advance right now. We're going to wait a few minutes for IFV support to crack those walls. Meanwhile the snipers will take out the machine guns and the Hawks will be supporting us"

The gathered soldiers formed in three attack groups and waited for their IFV's.

–

–

36th Squad sniper team

"Two centimetres above"

She adjusted her sight, it was slightly above the target's head.

"Fire"

She squeezed the trigger and the enemy was knocked back along with a spray of blue blood. The spotter checked the drone and confirmed the kill, then found another target, a machine gunner trying to keep his head down.

"Left" Sebastian whispered.

Victoria gently mover her weapon left until Sebastian told her to stop, she identified the target immediately. An enemy who's forehead was just above the barrier he had erected around the machine gun. With instructions from Sebastian she fired another shot, another spray of blue and another confirmed kill. The enemy were constantly keeping their head down and this was the third kill since the two got here, other teams were just as unlucky, having taken out the same number as they or even less, rarely more.

"Hawks are swooping down" Sebastian informed her.

The gunships had free reign of the skies, the enemy would have to expose themselves to sniper fire to use their machine guns on the gunships. The guns of the Hawks pounded the enemy ruthlessly, those without overhead cover thick enough were literary cut down as limbs and pieces of their bodies flew in sprays of blue blood. The enemy were not completely defenceless however, from the windows of the building heavy fire spewed out and peppered the shields of the Hawks. However the Hawks moved just above the building, out of the way of the windows.

–

–

36th Squad, 1st attack group.

The attack had begun and Sabrina, one of the squads medics, ran behind the IFV that was providing them cover and pounding the walls of the HQ. On the ground lay a soldier who was gripping their head, she moved the hand away and interfaced herself with the soldiers PCA, there were no major injuries, just a concussion and a bad headache. She dragged the moaning man into the IFV so he could rest.

Outside blue pulse fire and plasma fire rained on the enemy and the walls were being brought down by the guns on the new Helios IFV's. Enemy return fire was coming in, forcing soldiers to take cover and ask for sniper support to silence the guns. The shields of the IFV's constantly shimmered due to the amount of fire being brought on them, however they held.

There was a loud boom as one of the IFV's punched a hole in the wall with it's fourth shot and advanced into it, the attack group closely following behind. With one more shot another breach was made and 1st attack group followed their speeding IFV into the breach. Sabrina stayed in the safety of the vehicle, coming out when it stopped inside the HQ courtyards.

The fight for the HQ had begun and the Turians were losing ground quickly. It was only a matter of time before a victor came out.

AN: Woo, done!

That was the first large scale battle in sci-fi I have ever written, please review to tell me if I could improve or if you have an issue.

Nestor: Yes the speech was taken from numerous sources, one of them from Scholar Visari. I just thought he was a cool orator and copied him :P

Thanks to all those who have reviewed, faved and added this story to their alert! Have a good day!