The fleet arrived a few days later. By then the nebula had encircled the planet, encompassing both the world and its relay. Jacob, Nihlus, and Saren stood over the holographic display near the rear of the bridge. The fleet was shown, along with the planet and the cloud. Nihlus pointed the fleet out as a small cluster of green shapes, moving towards the Sun's location.

"This is our fleet. Luckily, the nebula didn't cut them off from the planet and the mass relay. Who knows what could be hiding in there?"

Jacob motioned for one of the holotable's operators to change the view. The green clusters were highlighted and then split into categories. Jacob quickly counted ships and was surprised. "There's only twelve!"

"With a dreadnought, Lieutenant," Saren said, the word still said with a mocking tone, "you do not need many ships."

Jacob bit his lip as he looked at the fleet again. The fleet seemed prepared for anything. There was the Pride of the Hierarchy, along with seven cruisers and four frigates. Firepower aplenty.

But would it be enough?

The intercom squawked. "Sirs, I have the Executor of the Pride for you."

"Patch him through," Saren said.

A calm, deep voice crackled through the Sun's speakers. "Attican Sun, this is Pride of the Hierarchy. We are detecting that you are the only ship in orbit at this time besides us, but that's not saying much. Most of our sensors are being blocked by that cloud."

"What do you propose we do then, Executor?" asked Nihlus.

"You, Spectre Arterius, and the human soldier will come aboard our ship where we will formulate a plan. Bring your ship in to dock. I will have a group of guards waiting."

The link closed. Nihlus called to the pilot. "Bring us in to dock with the Pride."

"Yes, sir."

The Sun's engines fired and the ship flew over to the dreadnought. Trios of turian fighters, long and slim, oriented vertically, with perpendicular wings, patrolled the outer borders of the fleet as it moved ever closer to the planet.

As Nihlus, Jacob, and Saren went through the airlock and were subjected to the decontamination procedure of the room beyond, Jacob bit his lip. The Citadel troops on the Sun didn't hate him, but they didn't speak to him much, either. Arkan, Menal, and Garrus were the only ones that talked to him regularly. Nihlus and Saren were normally too busy with other matters. How would these react?

The doors opened and the three came face-to-face with a number of turian guards. One of them held out his hand. "Identification."

The three presented their IDs and were cleared. The guards then formed up around them and escorted them through the dreadnought's hallways to a sliding door. The door opened and another turian, who Jacob suspected was the ship's commander, looked up at the sound. He nodded and beckoned the three in.

Jacob looked around as Nihlus and Saren preceded him on entering the room. The situation room on the Pride was dark and large. The rectangular holographic table cast an eerie green light on the meeting. In addition to the ship's commander there were also a number of other turian officers, most likely the commanders of the other ships in the fleet, in addition to the leaders of each ship's air wings and marine detachments.

The Executor pointed at a highlighted area of the space around the planet. "We'll make our stand here. We can fight with our backs to the wall, so they can't circle around us. But we also need to know what we're up against."

"The Sun could make a scouting run," Jacob suggested as Saren shot him a nasty glare.

The Executor looked at him, surprised. "Would the crew be willing?"

"More than so. We might also be able to lure out whatever is hiding in that cloud. It'll be simple. We go inside the cloud and look around until we find it. You keep your attention focused on that cloud and keep your weapons primed, and we'll find a way to get them to you so that you don't have anything but a turkey shoot to look forward to."

The Executor, along with the other turians, looked confused. "'Turkey shoot'?"

"It'll be like a shooting gallery."

There was a collective "Oh."

The Executor looked at Nihlus and Saren. "Do you two agree with this plan?"

Nihlus nodded. "It's well conceived. But there are two ways it could go wrong. We may come out on the wrong side and force you to shift your position, allowing the ones that don't chase us to come out and hit you from the side. Then there's also the possibility that the ship will be destroyed."

"We have the GARDIAN systems for that," Jacob said. "We don't have to worry about missiles or fighters. If we divert power from everything except kinetic barriers and life support, we should be able to make ourselves slow enough to chase, but fast enough to stay ahead of them."

Saren snorted. "The geth are smart, Lieutenant. They learn as they go. How do you know that the quarians never tried this trick on them?"

"Because we're not quarians."

Saren started to growl but Nihlus talked over him. "It's settled then. We'll go as soon as the fleet is in position."

The other turians agreed, and the meeting broke up. As Jacob, Nihlus, and Saren walked back to the Sun's airlock, Jacob really hoped the plan worked. If it didn't, millions would die. And those millions might only be the beginning.

I don't really know if an Executor is the commanding officer of a turian ship, because I'm just going by the Mass Effect subtitles. Anyway, the big battle's coming up in the next chapter, so I'll post it soon. R and R!