AN: Well I'm back to it… "Spartan 626," glad to see you have your own profile now. "CapitalClassShip," if I did add Destiny into the mix, it would be one chapter, and one chapter only. "Guest," well your review brought up something that made me break my tradition of ignoring unlabeled reviews (as in the name attached to the review is just Guest, not for example WOLF, The Joining, or any other variant)…In response I am adding a poll to the bottom, because while I could easily work that in, I'm a little leery of going in that direction at the moment. Also, I had a thought for an alternate route for the ending of this fic…SO I am adding another poll to see if you guys want the original ending I had in mind, or the alt I came up with a little while ago. Well that's that, so let's see what kind of entertainment I have for you now.
Normal Speech
Thought/Radio
Psyker/Deity thought/psychic communication
War Comes Home: Part IV: The downfall of Solomon
In the space around Space Fortress Solomon: The Shrike: Two days after the last Chapter
Captain Alexius Borodin, a grim dower man who looked like he was in his early forties when in reality he was over one hundred years old, stood on the bridge of his Komerant Class Fast Battleship (the equivalent of an UNSC Ohio Class Battleship), The Shrike, staring impassively at his country's greatest symbol of military power. Solomon had originally been built in 1970, as a defense against the threat of pursuing ESA forces, however as the years went by the stronghold was expanded and upgraded as technology advanced. The latest construction effort had been in 2530, and had ended in 2532, and that was the one to give the massive fortress its new gun.
He snorted as he thought of that monstrous gun: "It's a waste of time and resources to have a gun like that in a stationary location. The motherland would be better served by a new flotilla of Komerants than by that gun, which has never even been fired!"
Yes, Alexius did not like the gun contained within Solomon…As did many other career Naval Officers, but none dared to speak their minds about it…Not after the last man, Rear Admiral Anton Kupichenko, did during its construction. His death was still wrapped in mystery, at least to the general public, but those in the military knew that the Black Guard, Gihren Zabi's elite guard, had paid Kupichenko a visit all those years ago, and the next day he was found dead.
It was a clear message from the Supreme Commander of all Zeon forces, keep your mouth shut and your heads down when it came to his pet projects and you'll do just fine…Draw attention to yourself by opposing Gihren's projects, and you would end up like Kupichenko, "mysteriously" dead and with his family barred from any high positions within Zeon's society.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he turned to his sensor officer: "Any contacts on the long range radar, Mr. Zaitzev?"
In a minute the young man in charge of monitoring the detection suites on the Shrike reported: "None captain, the scope's clear…Permission to speak freely Comrade?"
Borodin nodded his head in assent and to prompt the young man to speak: "With all due respect to the ship sir, our stealth detection suites are long overdue for replacement…As they are now; the capitalist's Corvettes could slip in among us, lay their mines and leave before we had the slightest clue of their presence."
The captain frowned thoughtfully at the mid-shipman's point, and as he was about to respond his world turned blindingly white, and he knew no more.
At the edge of Zeon sensor range: UNSC Carrion Bird
Cheers rose around the deck of the Raven Class Corvette as their sensors picked up the detonation of the nuclear mines the Carrion Bird and her pack had laid among the Zeek fleets.
Captain Josiah Butler, a young man fresh out of Annapolis Naval Academy, allowed himself a slight grin as his sensor officer confirmed the complete annihilation of one Battle Fleet and the crippling of the two others out in space…The next report a minute later also confirmed that the EMP effect of the Nuke detonations had temporarily disabled the remaining ships, as well as the fortress itself.
With that confirmation, the captain sent the confirmation order for the operation back to the staging point just out of range of the monstrous gun of Solomon: "The lights have gone out, I repeat, the lights have gone out!"
At staging point Victory, in orbit around the world Muscovy: The Akula
Admiral Paton grinned as the order came through to launch the final operation of the war against the Zeon remnants. As he gave the order to begin the attack, he thought briefly on the strikeforce he had at his disposal.
For this decisive operation the UNSC had allocated: four Akula Super Carriers; eight Conqueror Super Battleships; eight Nimitz Carriers; sixteen Ohio Battleships; sixty-four cruisers of the new Invictus Class, which mixed all the earlier roles together quite effectively as part of Project Union; two hundred ninety four destroyers of various classes, including ninety brand new Reliant Class; six hundred frigates, the vast majority of which were the new Reaver Class; and lastly over one thousand Raven Corvettes, including two hundred stealth variants (nicknamed Crows). Along with those warships came a vast armada of Geara Zulus (as the Zakus, unless customized to the point of madness, were easy prey for the GM III) and fighters; as well as a massive force of Marines, including the First Marine Division and the "Iron" Eighth Heavy Armored Division (a unit that rose to fame during stalemate as an unbreakable defense and an exceptionally effective spearhead to any assault), to storm the station if practical, but mostly for use against Axis itself.
As the strikeforce emerged out of Slipspace by the fortress, the true scope of the nuclear strike became apparent. While the initial damage of the strike was as reported, the EMP effect had hit the Zeon forces (who hadn't really focused on hardening their ships against EMP attacks, and thus were very vulnerable to weapons that caused that effect) much harder than anticipated. The majority of ships that survived the initial blast had been hurled by the force of the blast INTO Solomon; destroying every ship that collided with the massive space fortress.
The remaining Zeon ships were swiftly boarded, and overrun by the elite ODSTs deployed to seize the ships. All that was left was to seize or destroy Solomon…Patton decided to try and seize the massive station first, and sent the tenth Marine division in to secure a landing zone…
However, as the dropships closed on the station, the effects of the EMP wore off...The defenses on Solomon opened up in a murderous barrage that annihilated the tenth before they could even react…When Patton asked for a casualty report on the tenth, he was informed that out of the seventy thousand marines sent in, none survived.
Enraged by the massacre he had inadvertently caused, he ordered Solomon to be reduced to nothing. The Third Fleet, driven by vengeance, opened fire with every weapon at their disposal.
Five minutes after the bombardment began, most of Solomon's defenses were annihilated…Ten minutes later the Zeon non-black guard garrison forces issued their unconditional surrender, and offered to open the fortress up for invasion… Ten more after that Solomon no longer existed…
Years later liberals would question if the massacre of Solomon was necessary, however they were coldly reminded by vets of that conflict that the "massacre" of Solomon was nowhere near the level of severity as the war crimes of the Black Guard or the forces of Chaos…Both groups had waged campaigns of terror against the civilian populace of numerous worlds...And Solomon itself was manned mostly by Black Guard forces…
But that would be years down the line, when the new generation that did not live through the war reached adulthood.
In the immediate aftermath of the fall of Solomon a transmission was sent from Earth to every single military asset in the universe: "Earth is under assault…Code Red, send immediate reinforcements."
The final chapter of the UNSC Zeon war was about to begin.
Next Chapter, The Battle for Earth I: The first hour
Data File: Black Guard
The elite forces under the personal command of Gihren Zabi are all known as Black Guard units. They are trained to brutal extremes, almost to the point that they can match UNSC ODST in their new armor, and given the best equipment the Zeon military can provide. On top of their brutal training, they are indoctrinated into the Zeon Supremacist movement, a group that believes only those of Zeon blood have any worth and everyone else is little more than slightly more intelligent monkeys…As such the Black Guard are known to commit atrocities and war crimes without a single care or twinge of regret. Despite, or maybe because of, their ruthlessness the Black Guard is the most effective military force that Zeon can send out, if almost completely uncontrollable (as they only truly answer to Gihren Zabi).
Addendum: Because of all the crimes that Black Guard forces have committed UNSC Highcom has issued an extermination order against all Black Guard units encountered, no quarter is to be given to these bastards (the last extermination order resulted in the extinction of half of the covenant).
Poll: What Series (to clarify I mean in the sequel) should the UNSC and their 40k Allies deal with next:
Star Wars:
Old Republic, as in the time period of the MMO: 4
Prequels, starting around the same time as episode I: 4
The Original Trilogy, before the destruction of the Deathstar: 0
After the destruction of the Deathstar (someone asked for it.): 1
Mass Effect:
Pre First Contact War against the Turians: 21
Start of ME 1: 3
Start of ME 2: 2
Start of ME 3: 2
The most voted option in the runner up category will be the final story of the Trilogy, so vote for your favorites.
Poll: Should Noble Six enslave Slaneesh?
Yes: 1
No: 0
Poll: Ending for this Story
Original:
Alternate:
Poll will end during the final arc of this particular fic: Operation Crusader III (title not fixed, also that three is not the chpt number)
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