Hierarchy Heavy Cruiser: HNS Defiant in orbit above Shanxi 0510

An explosion of gunfire rang in Hospius' aural nodes. He was talking to the control room of the anti-orbital base to make sure everything was fine over there. The resistance has begun another attack and it was prudent to let the base know.

Franticly he yelled back. "Outpost victory what's your status?!... Outpost victory respond!" The only thing he heard was a solid thump that sounded suspiciously like a body crashing to the floor before the channel was cut off. He tried calling another part of the base, but it was of no use. That far underground normal radios didn't work and whoever was in the control center had blocked off all other possible methods of contact.

Immediately jumping to his feet, he marched towards the captain. Whatever was going on it was probably the reason the resistance attacks began. "Captain! Outpost victory just went silent. I heard gunfire on the comms right before hand."

Captain Vopivus thought about it for a second then spoke. "If the base starts powering up, we open fire on it. No point in destroying a valuable asset unless forced. Our forces at the base should be enough to retake control. Until then we support our ground troops with orbital strikes."

Hospius responded "Understood sir." He turned to leave but stopped for a second fidgeting slightly unsure of whether he should say what he wanted to.

The captain picked up on that and asked, "What is it?"

Now that backing down was pointless Hospius decided to barge on ahead. He turned around and said "Sir that shuttle we destroyed all those hours ago. What if it was carrying whoever attacked the base? What if these attacks are also a diversion for the attack on the base? I fear we may soon be under attack by enemy orbital forces. Why stage such a risky operation if it wasn't part of a grander scheme? Even if they manage to destroy a few ships, they have done nothing to recapture the planet unless they plan on attacking in force."

Vopivus, to his credit, took a moment to consider these words before dismissing them. "Those are ifs we have no proof for Hospius. They are also pointless considerations. If the aliens attack, we defeat them just like we did when the counterattacked after what happened on the relay. All the analysts say the aliens are done and have no more fleets. You are giving these hairy asari to much credit."

Hospius wanted to mention that the mere fact that these aliens seem to think they can win might be worth consideration but, he left without a word as was expected of a turian. However, he could not shake the feeling that the captain was making a serious mistake. That was the problem with some fleet officers, to him the fight had been easy. Press a button in orbit and watch the alien forces melt away. To the men on the ground it was a different story. They fought a hard fight for every scrap of territory.

The only reason they won so fast was because of total orbital supremacy. Without the constant orbital strikes they would still be fighting down there. These hairy asari were not amateurs at war. He was expected to say nothing however like a good turian, and that's what he would do. He had to admit he had no proof for his assertions, but the fact it was dismissed out of hand irked him.

Hierarchy Dreadnought HNS Valiant in Orbit of New Nepolita 0530

Admiral Paltis was having a bad day. News from the front (if you could call that little fight a front) was not good. Apparently, the idiots there had let these hairy asari recapture an anti-orbital battery and lost several ships before it was shut down. It was a shameful display for the hierarchy. The whole point of this fight was to show these aliens the error of their ways by overwhelming force.

This fiasco might prolong a useless fight, give those aliens a false hope of victory. He hoped the hierarchy would not have to advance further into these alien's space before they wised up and surrendered, but it was up in the air at this point. Perhaps they should just appear in system with his force. A dreadnought in orbit might make the aliens make up their minds.

He was heading to the officer's mess to get some food when the alarm began. "All hands to battles stations, all hands to battle stations this is not a drill!" Springing into action the admiral ran to the CIC on the way his radio crackled to life.

"Admiral an enemy force has dropped out of FTL. Cruisers, frigates and a dreadnought."

"Has the dreadnought opened fire?" If the dreadnought opened fire and missed, it could hit the planet. If these aliens were insane enough to use a dreadnoughts main gun on a habitable world then no one would walk out of this fight looking good. Attempting to opening a relay earned these aliens a bad reputation right away. Using the equivalent of nuclear weapons on a habitable world would not help it.

"No sir" came the reply "So far all it has done is stay much further out then the other ships and release fighters. It is currently out of effective range of even our dreadnought. Any shots we take they will have enough time to dodge. Also, the enemy fleet is approaching at an angle that will allow missed shots to pass clear of the planet."

That was good it meant the aliens did not want to violate another citadel convention. "Get our combat patrol fighters out and open fire as soon as an opportunity presents itself. Try to maneuver us between the planet and the enemy fleet. I am almost to the CIC" Just after he said this he burst into the bustling CIC, stepping onto the commanders podium he surveyed the enemy's order of battle on his screen.

Paltis spread his mandibles in a turian grin. The aliens order of battle was ludicrous. They had a line of cruisers. This in itself was not ridiculous except they were far apart giving plenty of space to maneuver but at the cost of mutual support. Each cruiser has a group of frigates and fighters protecting it. The dreadnought as mentioned was far away continuing to vomit out fighters. With the dreadnought out of the way it seemed clear that the best course of action was to concentrate all efforts on the cruisers. The other odd part of the alien formation was a large swarm of frigates and fighters off to one side of the line of cruisers.

"Concentrate fire on the cruisers. Have the frigates and fighters close in. When we take them out, we can focus on the dreadnought" His ships moved in to attack the cruisers which were already firing. However, the swarm of fighter and frigates grew rapidly into a worrying amount, and it showed no sign of stopping as the bulbous enemy dreadnought kept vomiting more fighters out. Then the swarm moved. Not to intercept the frigates and fighters advancing on the cruisers, but straight at the main body of his fleet.

Another message came in. "Admiral the patrol fleet at the alien colony is under heavy attack and are suffering losses. They are requesting reinforcements."

Paltus scowled. These aliens were bold he had to give them that. "Tell them that we are also under heavy attack and can't spare anything, we have to stay and protect the colony. Tell them to retreat if necessary and come hit the enemy forces here in the back."

A minute before the battle was joined a thought occurred to Paltus. The dreadnought was too bulbous, as if it was made to maximize volume. No serious designer would consider that a good idea. Dreadnoughts were lean, a fat body just meant a larger target and more mass to move. The enemy dreadnought wasn't participating in the battle with its main gun which was ridiculous. All it was doing was launching more and more fighters.

It was then that realization struck. The 'dreadnought' wasn't a dreadnought! It was some form of mobile fighter platform. The plan of these aliens wasn't to pound away with big guns but to swarm them with fighters. If the fighters could use their disruptor torpedoes to bring down the shield arrays, even the dreadnought would be helpless. Easy pickings for a line of cruisers, just like the one the aliens had.

His earlier confidence was lost. The majority of his fighters and frigates had just entered combat with the screens on the enemy cruisers. They could not be called back to defend against the oncoming swarm. The main guns of the capital ships were useless against it because the fighters and frigates were too nimble. His would have to trust his screen of fighters, frigates and GAURDIAN lasers. He had the sickening feeling that it could be possible for the hierarchy to lose this battle.

What was worse was that the enemy had counteracted his movements, they could still fire with impunity without risking hitting the planet. Another issue was that his forces had to stay and fight until the fight was lost, guaranteeing high casualties if they did lose. Retreating before that would mean surrendering the colony to these aliens. He decided that the best option was to consolidate his forces. Get the fleet at the alien colony to retreat and offer support. Win this battle with numerical superiority and then go on to defeat the aliens at their system.

Opening a radio channel to the bridge he said "Send message to the fleet at the alien colony. They are ordered to retreat and give us support. The cruisers will attack the enemy line from the side while all available frigates and fighters are to mass to the defense of the main body."

"Message away" came the reply. Spirits preserve us, thought Paltus as the first wave of enemy fighters swarmed a cruiser on the far end of his line. This was going to be a grueling fight.

Alliance cruiser SSV Tokyo, Shanxi System 0530

Admiral Mikhailovich surveyed the data that was presented to him as the fleet dropped out of FTL. Several things were noticed and catalogued. First, scans had revealed that the anti-orbital base on Shanxi was defunct and that several wreckages were present in orbit. Clearly the infiltration team had done good work. Scans also indicated that one enemy cruiser was damaged.

"Concentrate fire on the damaged cruiser, the sooner we take it out the sooner we have one less gun pointing at us."

The initial attack went spectacularly. The aliens were caught completely by surprise and this allowed the alliance to take several ships out of action before the aliens formed a coordinated reply. Nevertheless, the alliance was winning and winning decisively. Every alien ship downed allowed the alliance to focus more fire on the remaining ones. Soon it became clear that a runaway chain reaction was beginning. However, before this process truly began the alien ships turned and jumped to FTL. Mikhailovich compared his losses and the enemies and smiled. It could have been better true, but it certainly could have been a lot worse. They managed to destroy a significant part of the enemy force before they retreated.

He knew where the aliens were headed. His analysts took the direction the enemy ships were pointing in before they jumped to FTL and projected their likely entry point in the alien colony system just 2.5 light years away. It was very close to where the battle plan expected them to go. It would take roughly a four-hour flight to cross that distance at FTL, but the alliance had a reserve force in between the systems. They could get there first and set up an ambush. Sending his data to the reserves he opened a comm channel.

"Third and fourth squadrons you know your orders. Land troops on the ground and support the recapture of Shanxi. The rest with me. We will follow these aliens to their own system and smash them to bits. These bastards will remember this day for all time. The day that humanity kicked their teach in."

With that the rest of the fleet jumped into FTL to follow these aliens. They would provide the hammer that would smash the aliens against the reserve fleet's anvil.

Hierarchy Dreadnought HNS Valiant in Orbit of New Nepolita 0900

The last several hours have been exhausting. The hairy asari were relentless in trying to push their way towards the dreadnought with their fighters and frigates. Their cruisers spent time at long range keeping them much safer than they would be otherwise. Paltus wanted to advance and chase them down but decided against that course of action. His dreadnought was not fast enough to advance faster than the enemy could retreat and if he ordered his cruisers to go on ahead, they would be spread out, losing the overlapping defenses of GAURDIAN lasers and fighters. Making it easier for the frighteningly effective alien fighter swarms to drop their shields. It would also obstruct the dreadnought's lines of sight.

So far, the humans kept up a long-range barrage while their fighters fought their way towards the dreadnought from the flank. They have proven to be very effective and several ships were lost after the fighter launched disruptor torpedoes destroyed the shield arrays. After shields are downed, ships were destroyed fast as all the enemy's firepower was directed at the singular ship. These alien fighters proved very effective on defense as well keeping Paltus' fighter away from their cruisers.

Paltus's dreadnought has managed to score a few hits and down some enemy ships. However, for the most part he was waiting for the reinforcements from Shanxi. When those arrive the aliens retreat would be cut off. He could advance with the dreadnought and pound these aliens to dust.

"Admiral ships are jumping out of FTL." Paltus was confused it was too soon for the ships from Shanxi to get here. "They are flag as enemy ships sir." That was even more confusing. If the enemy had more ships why not send them in right away? Why split the fleet and send it in piecemeal? He continued to watch the enemy ships' deployments and realized that they were not coming for him. They were spreading out right in front of the projected entry point for his reinforcements.

In a moment of clarity Paltus realized what was happening. These aliens knew they could not win this fight before reinforcements arrived, so they kept a reserve to deal with them. The ships coming from Shanxi were already battered and the fresh alien ships will destroy them. Worst still there was nothing he could do. The ships in FTL could not be communicated with. He also could not risk the attempt to attack the aliens reserve force. This would again string out his ships leave them vulnerable. Spirits. this was looking more and more like this battle would turn out badly.

Soon his reinforcements arrived, if you could call them that anymore. They left a few ships facing rearward as a defense against possible alien ships following. This however meant that in addition to having the surprise advantage the alien's ships had even less guns aimed at them. Thus, a slaughter began. Swarms of fighters attacked the battered ships, and cruisers rained fire upon any unlucky enough to have a drop in shield coverage. Not long after he heard another announcement. "More ships dropping out of FTL. Our IFF flags them as hostile, and they look like they've been in heavy fighting." Apparently, the aliens had in fact sent a pursuit force.

While this was all happening a large group of enemy fighters broke through his flank and attacked the dreadnought. The dreadnoughts defenses took a toll on them, but they managed to destroy a few shield arrays, and before the others could compensate and restore shields on that part of the hull a shot from one of the cruisers slipped through. The ship rocked from the impact of the shot. Soon a report came from engineering.

"Sir that blast has damaged the drive core. We managed to stop it from going supercritical, but we won't be able to jump into FTL. We could repair it given time, but it would take the better part of a day."

Paltus knew very well that the ship didn't have that time and now retreat was off the table, at least for the dreadnought. He continued to watch the carnage that was being performed on what was to be his reinforcements. It didn't take long for the work to be completed and soon the enemy ships regrouped and maneuvered themselves to attack his flank that had been weakened by the enemy fighter swarm.

Paltus could see he was decisively outnumbered now, and his options were limited. He could probably retreat part of his force but that would still lose the dreadnought. Even if he did order a retreat a majority of his fleet would be destroyed before they could successfully jump to safety. The hierarchy would not smile on them for the defeat and leaving a colony world to the aliens. Nevertheless, saving a part of his forces was the correct thing to do. He opened a comm channel to all ships and said. "All ships are ordered to retreat. If you cannot do so disable all the safeties on your weapons. Fire as fast as physically possible. This battle is lost we may as well take as many of them down as possible."

He knew that disabling the safeties would eventually lead to the crews being cooked alive in the ships. The heat built up would not be able to dissipate fast enough. However, the aliens would make certain that that problem would not be faced by his crews. He used his authority to play the turian imperial anthem on all the speakers on the dreadnought. He felt that "Die for the Cause" was an appropriate thing to listen to at a time like this, after all it was their last stand.

Arcturus Station: Hackett's office.

Admiral Hackett sat at his mahogany desk and awaited news of the battle. He spent the day like he normally would, not letting the real concern he was feeling show. He had to put of a confident face as the leader of the alliance military. So, he had his meetings, his lunch and everything else as normal. Currently he was reading proposals for contingency plans. He had regular updates throughout the day on the status of the battles raging far out in space.

He had done everything he could to ensure success. Still he was worried about the outcome. The plan was a risky one he knew. He acknowledged the risk and still took it because it offered the best hope of a decisive win. A decisive win would hopefully allow the alliance to sue for peace on the best terms possible. However, it could go all wrong. The fleets could be destroyed, and the alliance would lose any chance of ending the war on decent terms.

What always concerned Hackett at times like these was the fact that there was little he could do. The plans were set, preparations made. However, Hackett himself sat far from the action. He had to trust the admirals in the field to make the best decisions possible. Mikhailovich and Tanaka were competent admirals, and Hackett did trust them. Still, the fact that he had very little control over how the battles play out past the planning stage rankled him. As the day went on the reports Hackett received were largely positive. However, Hackett reserved judgment until after he had the final report.

A door opened to his office and his aid Hernandez walked in. Hackett noticed that the young man wore a massive smile, which helped ease the Admirals concerns.

"Good news?" he asked as the aide saluted.

"Very" came the curt reply. The young aide deposited a data pad on the Admirals desk and left.

Hackett began to read, and it didn't take long for his aides smile to be transplanted on his own usually grim face. The battles were spectacular successes. The alien fleet at Shanxi was destroyed in its entirety. While the majority of the fleet at the alien colony was destroyed as well. This included the dreadnought, and best of all alliance losses had been minimal. These results were much better than expected.

The recapture of Shanxi was well underway. It seemed that the suicide mission was a success and the operatives lived to tell the tale. That was good as the alliance would undoubtedly find more uses for such skilled operatives. The conquest of the alien colony was going slower as the alliance was extremely concerned with civilian casualties. The last thing they wanted was for the aliens to get angry over mistreatment of their civilians.

Hackett remained cognizant of the fact that the alliance wasn't out of the woods yet. The available intel showed the aliens still had a vast armada that the alliance could not hope to beat. An attritional war was unwinnable as the aliens could replace their losses much faster as well. Hopefully with this defeat the aliens will view humanity as more trouble than they're worth. A workable peace might be established, or maybe the aliens decide that the alliance must die for daring to fight and win.

Uncertain times were ahead, and Hackett was determined that the alliance would do its utmost to defend earth and the colonies. Resistance may end up being futile, but every effort will be made. In the end no matter how this war ends, Hackett had to admit that today had been a great day.

Author's Notes:

1:

So, I made the first contact war bigger than in the games because I thought it gave the turians an actual motive to have beef with humanity. In the first game in heavily implied that turian generally don't like humans. Nihlus straight up has to point out that he's not one of the turians that resent humanity like it's an oddity. The turian councilor just doesn't like humans. He finds fault with literally anything you do. Save the rachni: your idiocy's gonna kill us all. Kill the rachni: humans are genocidal maniacs.

I think the first contact war was not big enough to warrant such an effect. Hell, the turians don't even call it a war. Sure, people like Seren who lost family to the war might be annoyed but most turians probably would see humans making such a big deal about it as an oddity. The victory humans won at the end was relatively small stuff.

However, if the fighting was more expansive. If a turian colony got hit. If a dreadnought was destroyed. If the humans won a large battle one-sidedly, and the council stopped the turians from getting even, then the turians might have an actual reason to be somewhat resentful of humanity.

2:

Some might wonder as to why I made the humans fighters more effective than the turian's. It says in the games that the fighter carrier was a human innovation. That none of the council race (or any other) had thought of a ship whose firepower is the fighters it launches. I see this as an indication that humans put more emphasis on fighters in general. They value them higher as a resource. I think this fact means humans would put more effort into building high quality fighters and training their pilots better. After all, if you have a ship whose strength is fighter you want them to be as best as possible. Humans invested in their fighters and pilots more than the other races and it has results.