Chapter 6
Classified Military Base – Shanxi
The brightly lit corridors of the base were alive with activity. People bustled along narrow pathways, and through hastily set up defensive positions to get to their destination. The feeling inside the building was one of nervous dread, in a short while an unknown alien force would barrel down upon them testing the ill-equipped defences of Shanxi.
Although the largest and most densely populated of the new colonies, most of its advanced defence systems were still not operational. The UNSC had opted not to rush the construction of defences on these planets, instead focussing on industrial and economic production. They had relied on their vast fleet to act as a deterrent against any potential raiders. There was one flaw to this plan however, a deterrent only works when others know it exists. The possibility of another hostile alien race being discovered was considered low and the chances of making contact with a new alien race in the outer colonies while most of the main fleet was occupied was considered downright miniscule.
At the bottom of one of the corridors buried deep in the base was a door flanked by two guards. A man strode towards the door, four stars emblazed across his chest. As he reached the end of the corridor, the two guards saluted him, before opening the door and allowing him straight in.
Inside was a large room full of people, everyone's head turned towards him as he entered the room. They straightened to attention as he stopped in front of them.
The man had slicked-jet black hair and was wearing Army Dress Uniform. He began talking without a moment's notice.
"At 1100 hours today, UNSC forces outside the relay were engaged by a new, hostile alien species of around 40 ships. Despite being outnumbered, they managed to hold the enemy fleet back long enough for the UNSC Calculus and Vigil to escape."
Bowing his head sombrely Williams continued, "No word has been heard from them since, and we must assume that they have been completely destroyed".
Looking back up at the officers surrounding him, a fire seemed to blaze in the General's eyes. "But their sacrifice was not in vain. Vigil managed to collect a great deal of information from them before being ordered back to Shanxi. Thanks to their sacrifice we now have accurate information about the size and armament of the enemy fleet. Vigil, if you would."
As he finished his sentence Vigil appeared beside him and the lights in the room dimmed. An overhead protection displayed a brief video of the battle as Vigil provided a voice over.
"For twenty four hours we had been experiencing many anomalies that were slowly being activated at first but gradually increasing over time. I failed to recognise the difference from one of the anomalies and the enemy ships allowing us to be caught off-guard," he said sadly, hanging his head in shame.
"However, Captain Matthew Lindsay soon realised the threat and we managed to hold a reasonable defence for a short period of time."
"The main weapons of the enemy ships were low powered, high rate of fire, cannons. More impressive was that the enemy vessels were able to mount a shield capable of withstanding a MAC round, despite their small size. Captain Lindsay managed to destroy four of their largest ships that started the barrage against us. Their ships ranged from 1km all the way to around 200m. Just as I was leaving the system I detected numerous ships behind the fighting vessels. They were not involved in the conflict, merely releasing the fighters that provided the finishing blow to our vessels. But these vessels were around 1km long, easily capable of housing thousands of troops.
Vigil carried on as the video changed to the battle between the fighters. "Our fighters are technologically superior to theirs, however they managed to win due to the sheer number of fighters they had on the field of play. The pilots seem to be well trained and armed, sacrificing themselves if it becomes necessary. I imagine the balance of power will quickly swing into our favour when reinforcements arrive."
The video ended and the lights lit up. It was William's turn to take the stage once more.
"I wish I had better news to give you all. I'm afraid although we have information on their fleet and the type of weapons they use, we have no idea what their ground capabilities are like, or what type of weapons or vehicles they can deploy onto the battle field. At the moment we are holding many forces in reserve as we don't know the true intention of our assailant. Once they arrive we can send these units where they are needed most.
"We have begun evacuating the major cities, moving the civilians to farmland areas where they are less likely to be harmed from any attacks the aliens may do. However now that word has gotten out about the impending invasion, large portions of the civilian population have panicked and despite our best efforts have gridlocked roads leading out of the cities. We are facing the problem of there being simply too many people, and not enough time to move them all, so civilian casualties are likely."
"Already, we have been beefing up our defences around our bases and the major civilian areas, but the lack of naval presence means we will be unable to defend the base if they attack us from orbit. Our defences are simply not dug deep enough into the ground, so in the event of an orbital bombardment we may have to abandon our base, conducting our operations from a mobile base where we can coordinate the defence force. Our main goal is to protect civilian lives at all costs and await the arrival of UNSC reinforcements," he said solemnly, "Stephen do you have anything to add?" he said, directing the question at his subordinate.
"Thank you General. Cole protocol has been initialised. Data banks containing all confidential information are being deleted as we speak. The enemy will find no information about any other colonies or any of our technology. We have a Spartan IV team stationed at Shanxi, they have been training colonial forces here as well as on some of the nearby colonies. Some have been deployed into the city to set up FOB's in order to protect the civilians and ambush any hostile aliens if they do land in the city. The others have been deployed to key areas, such as all our bases and important industrial areas around the planet."
"Thank you Stephen," replied Williams. "The size of the fleet could be for anything, it could house an occupation force or this may even be a Covenant style glassing fleet."
The mention of glassing sent a ripple of unease throughout the room. Thirteen years had passed since the Human-Covenant war had ended, but the atrocities the Covenant wreaked upon Humanity were still fresh in everybody's mind. An uneasy alliance had since been established between humanity and several of the ex-Covenant races, but an undercurrent of hatred for each other had kept relations from progressing any further than that.
It takes time to heal the scars of war, especially those as evident as the scars adorning nearly every UNSC planet from Harvest all the way to Earth. It would take even more time for the horrific events of the war to become a distant memory and a new, more forgiving generation to take control. One willing to look beyond past difficulties to ensure cooperation and peace. The older generation would always remember the loved ones they have lost. They may forgive, but they sure as hell would never forget.
"You all have the latest reports in-front of you, detailing our defences and strategies for this up-coming conflict. All of which must be destroyed before you leave the room. Ah Julie, do you have a question?" he said, pointing to the blonde women with her hand raised.
"Yes, thank you General. Surely splitting up the few Spartan IV's we have around the planet will reduce their effectiveness?"
"That's a good point, but you need to remember that Spartans are more than just our best soldiers. They're one of our most powerful morale boosters. It has been said that a single Spartan is enough to turn the tide of battle. Often forgotten is why. It has been observed time and again that soldiers fighting alongside Spartans fight harder, are more ferocious, and have far greater effectiveness than those fighting alone. In situations like we are facing now, where we must wait for the enemy to come to us, that broad effect is far more valuable than any boost to individual combat effectiveness.
"Thank you General," replied Julie, as another person raised their hand.
"General. Can't we get support from the other outer colonies, rather than wait for word from the Inner colonies and the fleet to arrive after their fight against the Covenant Loyalists?"
"Well Max that was our first thought. Unfortunately the nearby colonies are in the same boat as we are in terms of defence. They would need to send virtually everything they have our way if they wanted to have a chance of success. That would leave their own colonies wide open against threats. And I for one am not willing to bet the lives of everyone on those colonies on the assumption that Shanxi is the only colony being targeted by these aliens. Another point is, this incoming fleet may not seem to be that large but we have no idea what's happening beyond the relay. This fleet of forty or so ships may be a ploy, tempting us to show our hand and attack early. When in reality they have a massive fleet just seconds away."
The door of the room suddenly opened and a red-faced aide rushed into the room.
"General! You've got an urgent message coming from the RSO," he said breathlessly.
"Give it here then" he snapped, annoyed at being interrupted. He pressed a button on the data pad and a holographic image of Ollie appeared on it.
"Sir, thirty six ships have just come out of the relay. They're heading straight for us."
"Dammit, I thought we had more time," murmured Williams, before something occurred to him. "Ollie what are you doing there? I thought everyone had evacuated from the RSO?"
"Yes sir, luckily changes to the old Cole Protocol means we no longer have to blow our baby up, but we had some problems scrubbing the data banks so Ben and—"
"Hey!" shouted Ben, his head suddenly appearing on the hologram only to be shoved away by Ollie. Continuing his sentence as though the incident had never occurred.
"—I volunteered to stay behind to make sure everything was properly deleted."
"We'll send over a pelican to evacuate you straight away," said Williams.
"No can do," replied Ollie, "It's too risky and you're going to need as many people as you can muster, don't worry we'll be fine they'll probably ignore us and head straight for you."
"Er, Ollie," Ben called out, "one of the ships has broken formation and is heading straight for us."
"Oh..." said Ollie awkwardly. "Do we have any guns?"
"Give me a second," replied Ben. The sound of shuffling could be heard off screen. "Oh awesome we've got two M6 pistols!"
"Sweet, how many bullets?"
"36."
"Oh nice! One for each ship," exclaimed Ollie, happy despite the fact a horde of enemies was about to barrel down upon his small station. "Yeah we've got this," he said turning back to Williams.
Williams paused to stare at the young man in front of him. So full of energy and enthusiasm, about to be cut down in his prime. Thousands of people like him would die in this conflict and if it didn't stop here, the numbers would run into the millions. But how significant does that number feel? One million, two million, three million. The terrible thing is that somehow when the numbers get to figures like that, you stop thinking about them as human beings. Add enough zeros to the end and they just become ants.
"Good luck to you both," said Williams snapping off a smart salute.
"Aye aye sir," replied Ollie, returning the gesture.
Williams disconnected the feed, turning back to the group of men and women in-front of him.
"Once again we find ourselves engaged by a hostile alien species. Unprepared and undefended, we have to stand strong against the enemy. We have faced our fair share of war, even before we reached out to the stars. But we have to give everything, even if it means our lives. We will stop at nothing. We will fight for the lost. We are the defenders of the UNSC! And we will not tolerate their actions! Return to your men, let's make these bastards wish they never found us.
Aboard the Turian Dreadnought Indomitable
"Sir, we've got no enemy presence in the area," announced Vallokius as they arrived on the other side of the relay. "Scanning... We're picking up readings from the fifth planet, that's our boy."
"Enhance the scans, find the most densely populated areas and see if you can pick up any readings from ground forces." Simierus replied.
"Sir," Vallokius responded, typing in the new search parameters. "The planet doesn't seem to be widely populated. There are a few densely populated areas around the equator, but nothing on the rest of the planet. We've got numerous artificial satellites orbiting the planet, however most look dead, and in the air, we're getting absolutely no readings from them, the largest working one being around 100m in length."
"This can't be their homeworld. But it doesn't make sense, how have they managed to settle multiple worlds without working knowledge of element zero? Every known species has developed FTL travel from prothean artefacts. We're going to have to invade the world and try to gather information on this species, send one of the frigates to investigate the large working satellite, there may be valuable information aboard. Destroy the rest they may house communication systems or defence systems and it would be wise to prevent them from reaching out to other colonies before we establish a foot hold on this planet," said Simierus.
The fleet moved closer to the planet, positioning itself four hundred miles above it, out of orbit of any of the satellites. After no attack came from the planet a single frigate was dispatched to the satellite on the other side of the planet. The bay doors on the bottom of the ship opened up and a single shuttle flew from it heading straight towards the station.
Classified Military Base – Shanxi
"There's 36 ships in orbit around our planet now, what the hell are they waiting for?" questioned Williams, staring intensely at the screen in-front of him.
"No idea sir, but a ship has broken off from the pack and is heading straight towards the RSO," replied Stephen.
"Dammit," he murmured to himself, "you relax on the basics and it comes back to bite you in the keister.
"General?" asked Stephen.
"We're simply not prepared for an attack on this scale," complained Williams, "The colony has only been up and running for a few years now and focus has naturally been on development and establishing population zones. We thought we had no equal, no one to challenge our might. A new aggressive space-faring race wasn't on our list of potential challenges. We have incomplete weapon emplacements dotted around the planet and in space. Half of the troops we have on the ground are greenhorns, we only have a few specialized units who are capable of fighting this kind of warfare. We should've built sufficient defences first before we allowed millions to settle here."
"And?" prompted Stephen, sensing there was more on the General's mind.
"And now those two young men up there are potentially the first of thousands of innocents to die," he said motioning to the hologram of the RSO with the shuttle now docked alongside it. "But we're not going to lie down easily. Those bastards are going to have to fight for every inch of land."
Aboard the Turian Dreadnought Indomitable
Simerius gazed down at the planet below him, a fire burning within him. Four ships lost, only recently re-commissioned. Thousands dead and all because of him. This was meant to be a simple clean up job. Move in and subdue the primitives with overwhelming force and bring them under citadel rule.
But they had acted too hastily, with their rigid desire to uphold the law. They had performed an operation without gathering information about this new species. Who were they? What did they even look like? All intelligence officers had to offer them were the sizes of the ships outside of the relay and the theorised size of the weapons they had.
But he would not falter, he would uphold the law. This species may be stronger than first thought, but look at this planet. Undefended with nothing to protect it, the occupations helpless to his fleet. They may be strong, but the Turian Empire was stronger.
"Admiral," a voice broke him out of his slumber.
"What is it Vallokius?" Simerius snapped, annoyed at losing his focus.
"There's lots of movement and chatter around this area, I think this is their base of operations."
"Destroy it," replied Simerius.
"What? Sir?" stuttered Vallokius "Planetary bombardment has been outlawed we can't do this."
"Four thousand men are dead. Because of them," Simerius responded, shaking with rage.
"Sir, you can't do this, the Hierarchy won't allow this," Vallokius said, squaring up with Simerius now. The whole crew was now watching them, the tension in the CIC was high.
"Vallokius. You are a turian! Do you have any honour? Get back to work or get out," Simerius shouted.
In that split second Vallokius seemed to age a hundred years, "Sir," he replied emotionlessly, sitting back down at his console.
Turning away, Simerius gave the order to begin bombardment, his mind already focused on the target base. Dismissing the crew from his mind.
As the Dreadnoughts moved into position Simerius nearly trembled in anticipation, nearly euphoric at the thought of these aliens burning and screaming in terror. He'd burn them all! No one would stand against the might of the Hierarchy!
Out of the corner of his eye he caught the flash of the first dreadnought firing, soon followed by the rumble of Indomitable lashing out at these vermin. As the rounds impact the surface of the planet, he couldn't help but marvel at their beauty as they purged the ugly filth on the planet. A look of euphoria clear across his face.
"Send the troops in to secure the planet. I want to know everything. I want their knowledge, I want their colonies and I want their homeworld. I want them on their knees begging for forgiveness. And they shall have it. But not yet. This planet is mine."
