Erusea, Unknown Location, Military Field Hospital
Castis was very dimly aware of a light fading into view. His neck feeling like it was made of tissue paper, and his head aching with every movement. The faint sound of speaking jostled him from falling back asleep and as he opened his eyes wider he could see a brown-colored fabric flapping about. Several machines arrayed around him beeped, and he noticed vaguely that his arms and legs were restrained by steel cuffs fastened to the bed. He was suddenly alerted to a noise at the entrance.
Fear dawned on him as a pair of soldiers with guns flanking a human in white approached. Oh spirits, please make it quick. They approached, and he panicked, tugging on the restraints, before anticipating the blow. But it never came, and instead, the white-coated one placed some sort of device on their ear and mouth. "Can you understand me?", her voice was quite feminine, and reminiscent of an asari, as was her whole biology, and he had a hard time believing these weren't just some other group of asari with head fur and a more muted tone.
He opened his eyes, before nodding. The human pressed a button on the device, and her voice reverted back, Castis unable to understand him before the human pressed the button again. "Name, Rank, Serial Number?".
He gulped, thankful he wasn't under immediate threat of death. "Castis Vakarian, Lance Corporal, BTG-9383672-R". The motion of talking made him cough, and what had meant to be a proud statement was a measly croak.
The human picked up a tablet, marking the details before turning and pulling up a chair of some sort. "I'm Doctor Nimitz. The closest damn thing we have to an expert on Turian physiology. You're Dextro-DNA Aligned right?".
He nodded again, she pursed her lips. "We don't have much in the way of dextro rations. Human physiology uses levo-proteins and dextro-sugars, but our DNA itself is levo. Which does your kind consume". Now that made him raise an eyebrow. It was practically unheard of for a species to consume a form of glucose sugar opposite to their DNA arrangement. But he managed to barely croak out. "Dextro both".
He nodded, before reaching for a transparent bottle of clear liquid, passing it over. "Take it easy when drinking. Your throat was quite severely burnt, and we had to apply a fair few salves. Fingers crossed human medicine doesn't cause any negative effects. Better than having you shot". He took the water, sniffing it to make sure it didn't have anything in, before mercifully swallowing some, unaware of just how thirsty he was. "Now. You're a prisoner of war under the Kingdom of Erusea and by extension the Systems Alliance. As a result, we will treat you in accordance with the Geneva Convention and Laws on the treatment of captured military and civilian personnel. That means we will not, under any circumstance torture, execute, or otherwise treat you badly in any other way. The same goes for your friend. Niy- Nih".
"Nihlus survived?".
"He did, slight blunt force trauma to the head and left arm, but he is under custody as well as yourself. Though somewhat frustratingly he refused to answer any other questions until he knew that all captured men were safe. So with that in mind-". Another pair of soldiers entered, Nihlus in tow, with 2 more soldiers behind. Clearly, they were very aware of the possibility of escape.
"Castis!".
"Nihlus. What's. What's happening?".
"We're being mildly interrogated and then transferred to a holding facility. It seems like these humans are at least a damn side more civilized than the Krogan". He nodded, a great amount of relief filling him as Nihlus was lead to a seat. "Now Nihlus, you agreed to answer some basic questions, I'm not obliged to ask them, so I'll leave that to General Williams here".
The individual who entered was a lot older (he assumed) than the doctor. With black and grey hair a grizzled look. Judging by his eyes, he looked like a warrior who had been through a lot, and he gruffly nodded at both. "Just a few questions. Firstly... Why are you attacking us? We haven't provoked you in any way".
Nihlus sighed. "You were deliberately harboring fugitives of our own government, and the admiral saw fit to engage".
"If you are referring to our cruiser, the Donnager, they reported they had carried out first contact protocol and that you moved into an attack formation".
"Yes, but only because we tracked a very dangerous group of individuals to your ship, I'm just a soldier though, so I am unaware of any specific actions undertaken by the leading officer, General Arterius". He swore inwardly at the slip, he hadn't meant to reveal the man in charge. The general raised an eyebrow, "You let a General lead a space operation? Nevermind. You were saying fugitives? What were they responsible for?".
"Deliberate destruction of military assets, murder, theft, assassination".
"Sounds serious. Any idea where these fugitives are now?".
"They escaped your ship, we didn't know where they went, stumbled across this colony by chance after finding a space station trail". He didn't feel like this was enough information, had this been a turian interrogation the threats would have started by now. But when Nihlus refused to give up any more information, the Human nodded. "Very well. I'm transferring you POWs to Captain Lettow-Lowbeck here, he'll take care of you from now on. Please remember we are not legally allowed to execute or allow you to die, but should you attempt an escape, we will open fire if necessary. Should you be caught in civilian clothing, or attempting to emulate a civilian life, you will be treated as a spy, and... may be executed on-site". Okay, so that was more brutal, but still he guessed it made sense, and with his neck jarring in pain with every movement, he doubted he would be moving for a while. The general took the device from his ear, throwing it to a new arrival, a darker-skinned human with short fuzzy black hair, and a pair of more ornately dressed escorts.
THS Spirit of Fire, Captain Adrien Nyx, Erusea
Every team has its disgruntled members. No matter if the team in question is an alliance of interests, squad of mercs, nation of nations, or squadron of fighters, there's always the rebellious one that makes every step forward a drag. In the question of the Turian fleet, that link was the Spirit of Fire. Captained by Adrien Nyx, he was perhaps a terrible Turian in hindsight. He rarely listened to orders completely, operated quite independently, and constantly questioned the orders of his superiors. Thank the spirits he had been stationed under a General who thought in a similar way because he felt like either Arterius or Mutilius were two snarky statements from a court marshal. Still, it certainly shocked him when he received a communication from the Spirits Revenge, Admiral Mutilius' new flagship.
"Onscreen".
The flickering and somewhat unstable image of the Admiral appeared, clan tattoos and all. "Captain Nyx!".
He saluted to attention, awaiting his orders, "Admiral Mutilius. You have orders?".
She nodded, sending through some information. "Ground assault has stalled for the time period because the General can't seem to deal with some upstarts with rockets".
Well, that was unexpected. While he knew for a fact the Admiral held no love for the xenophobic and controversial admiral, clearly, she was in a very bad mood with the General if she was openly criticizing his methodology. "In the meantime, your orders are to take a squadron back the way we came and rendezvous with the 3rd Fleet. Reinforcements are here and half of them are joining us directly. You'll be taking temporary control as the Admiral of the Third fleet is currently off-network".
"Yes, Admiral. I'll arrange for some frigate escorts. What's the ETA on the arrivals?".
"1 day out and closing fast. Just to be clear, this is not a permanent assignment, you are not being field-promoted to Admiral, this is simply a temporary change to meet personnel standards, and...".
She seemed to struggle with the words initially, "You're unorthodox tactics may be much more effective in combatting the fact our supply convoys keep getting intercepted by what's left of their fleet".
This was certainly unexpected! He was actually getting a chance to use his theories on naval escorts and convoy tactics. "Yes Sir. I'll begin immediately".
"Dismissed".
Alien Cruiser, Zaeed Massini
It seemed like the Quarians were at least somewhat aware of their surroundings as they left the brig. Engineering wasn't too far away. He didn't know what idiot designed their ship this way, but apparently, the main engineering deck was just an elevator (or lift) and a minute's walk from the brig. "Right let's head in quietly and then disable the core before anyone gets suspicious". One of the Quarians with a turian rifle spoke up, "How do you intend to do that, if we just shut it down they can reignite it".
"I have a plan for that, just get in the lift and shut up". They all squeezed into the cargo lift, he did a quick headcount. Besides the three human soldiers, 7 quarians in total had been freed, and most were armed with just Zaeeds sidearms. They only had 5 turian rifles between them, as well as the three sidearms of Zaeeds squad. The elevator came to a creaking halt at the bottom of the well, and he stepped out. Right, nice and simple.
He had a feeling it wouldn't be simple though, and his suspicions were proved right when they left the elevator to be greeted by a heavy amount of gunfire from down the hallway. Morgan sounded almost excited, "So much for going in quiet!".
"Will you shut your bloody mouth Morgan, still got a grenade?".
He nodded, grabbing the stick-shaped device, with a brown metal cap and pulling the pin, before tossing it down the hallway, an explosion followed by some screaming, and the gunfire ceased for a moment, Zaeed took the opportunity to leap out, rifle up and gunned down a Turian left over before they continued forward. Eyes peeled.
As they approached a fork in the path, a shot narrowly missed Zaeed, cracking the helmet of one of the quarians and splattering the walls with his bloody. "Shit!". They all took cover, and Zaeed checked down the hallway, the massively wide bulkhead had to be the main core. But he couldn't get a clear shot at the aliens. He looked up to another quarian. "What's yer name son?".
"J... Jesse'Vael nar Ulnay".
He pulled out his only flashbang grenade, tossing it over gently. "Pull the pin when I say, then throw the damned thing down the hallway". He himself readied an ordinary grenade, throwing it and then signaling Jesse, while the others laid down torrents of covering fire. The ordinary grenade went off, followed quickly by the flashbang, and Zaeed charged forward, feeling several shots pierce his body armour, before slamming the butt of his rifle over the head of an engineer with a shotgun. He repeatedly brought the rifle down until the head of the Turian resembled someone who'd been exposed to a nuclear reactor core.
The fire continued up, and he raised a middle finger. "Fucking pricks! Couldn't wait half a fuckin minute!". He fired repeatedly, before the rifle overheated, beeping loudly with visible steam coming from its barrel, and he tossed it down the hall. "Anyone got a plan B? All out of grenades".
Morgan and Derek both synonymously shouted "Same here", as they moved up slightly, one covering the quarians, who were at the back of the formation.
Jesse tapped him on the shoulder, "I might", grabbing something off of the dead engineer. "Looks like, ahh excellent!". He pressed several buttons, before ripping off a small round disc of some sort. He pressed a few more patches, before smashing the thing against a wall with a knock, and the device began rapidly beeping. "Hah! Turian grenade. They're built with biometric identifiers, easy enough to disable and trick though". He then suddenly abruptly noticed the thing and tossed it out like it was burning him. The grenade exploded, and they used the lapse to move down, but it didn't matter, as the grenade had stuck itself to one of the turian soldiers and it promptly turned him into a blue cloud of vapor that didn't look particularly nice to walk through.
"Jesse you absolute legend! I could kiss your mask you bastard. Right anyone got any ideas about the core?".
Morgan shrugged, "I don't think we can shoot it".
Codex Entry: Unrestricted U-Boat Warfare
The concept of obliterating your opponent's will to fight via intercepting their trade is not a new one. Throughout medieval and contemporary history blockades remained an effective means of forcing your will upon another nation without directly confronting what might be a more powerful army, an example of this being the isles blockade of France during the Napoleonic Wars even as their Dutch overlord and Portuguese allies fell to the man.
The concept was that every single merchant ship headed to a belligerent power, no matter its individual alignment, would sink regardless of its status. This would particularly be controversial, especially for the Entente as it saw the Americans join the First World War on the side of the Central Powers, and the strategies generally involved wolfpacks of submarines herding enemy convoys and striking indiscriminately. As well as sneaking past harbors to torpedo capital ships still in dock.
Since the advent of space warfare, the notable change to this was the African Union championing new and innovative tactics. Due to their lack of natural uranium sources. The African Union possessed a minuscule navy at the outbreak Second Interstellar war, as both sides put pressure on them to pick a side, with such strategic titanium mines. They had refused to begin a buildup beforehand, and once they joined on the side of the Atlanteans needed a strategy quickly.
They championed a new type of ship, A stealth destroyer powerful enough to take on capital ships and win if used correctly, and the result was the first generation of stealth warships. This was notably effective in the Terra Nova Campaign, as the faster and more robust torpedo boats were able to inflict notable casualties on the unprepared New Terrans, and they soon sued for peace as their worlds began to fall under attack.
To this day the Africans are still the pioneers of modern naval combat and they were perhaps most responsible for the development of the Whisper class Missile Schooner. The primary attack boat of the Alliance. Though of course, no nation gives up all its secrets. And it is entirely possible that even more powerful and stealthy boats are under the arm of the African National Naval Armed Forces.