A.N. Had some trouble deciding what kind of action I wanted to have in this chapter. I have also since started summer classes for my Masters.
Chapter 7
Emperor Lelouch vi Zero's Public Address
Lelouch stepped up to his podium and looked deep into the camera as though he could stand in the homes of every citizen. Breathing in and out Lelouch spoke, "citizens of the Imperium, today, it is my solemn duty to come before you and announce that as of three days ago, one of our worlds has fallen under attack by a force of aliens now identified as the Turians by our new allies the Geth."
Pausing for a minute to let the information sink in Lelouch continued, "when our ships met, these Turians opened fire upon them and chased them back to the colony world of Shanxi. We know very little of what has happened since, our communications have since been cut, but what we do know! Is that just before Shanxi was cut off the ships of its fleet dealt a serious blow to the first wave of the enemy that dared breach our sovereign space! And, that the men and women of Shanxi will FIGHT until we can come to their aid. And come to their aid we shall!"
Once more pausing Lelouch spoke on, "once again, in our long history, we are once again at war. It is a war that we did not wish to have, especially upon meeting a new people, but it is one we cannot abate from now, not after so many lives have spilled for a mistake that was not our fault."
"But! Like so many times before, we shall prevail! No matter how mutilated and mauled we may be, we shall emerge safe and victorious! These Turians shall be defeated! As we speak the might of the Imperium is mustering to the aid of our besieged comrades and they shall smite the enemy from the skies of Shanxi and grind them into powder on the ground! When the end of this comes the Turians will know that this is our territory, our home! And it belongs to us!"
"We shall strike a great blow against those who sought to do us harm, only when they have been thrown back from whence, they came shall we entertain the notion of peace. Peace, with a price, a price paid by those who sought to destroy us!"
"Like so many times before, this shall not be what ends our history, we shall go on! Tomorrow shall come with Victory!"
"All Hail the Imperium!"
New Belgrade, Shanxi
Kallen wasn't sure how much time had passed since the remnants of the Shanxi fleet had taken station in orbit and when the aliens had started their attack. Time had run together, maybe it had been days or maybe even a week, or maybe less than a few hours. All she knew was that she had been put on alert not long after the friendly ships took up station in the skies above and eventually the alien invaders had begun their attack. Truthfully, she did not care about how much time had passed, she clenched her fists and waited for the storm to hit her position.
Kallen raised her binoculars and looked up at the night sky, a thin layer of clouds hovered over the city, but the cover offered by the clouds did little to hide the flashes of the light of the battle happening in orbit. The clouds were thin enough for Kallen to see that there were descending lights coming from above. Switching her binoculars to their infrared mode she saw the heat signatures of hundreds of alien shuttles speeding towards the ground.
Kallen grunted to herself and thought, 'well they're not total idiots.'
Her thoughts turned to what may have happened should these aliens have tried to attack the city directly from orbit. They wouldn't have made it far into the city, or likely gotten near it, this brought a cruel smirk to Kallen's face. But it faded quickly when she realized that the aliens would likely make a beachhead far enough from the city that nothing short of a full sally would drive them out. But even, she knew that such an action wasn't warranted or advisable at the moment, they were not going to be reinforced anytime soon and leaving the protection of the city defenses left them exposed.
Turning on her position atop a small concrete bunker she looked behind the position at the large metal forms crouching down beneath active camo-nets. The large Dragon class knightmare frames knelt beneath the nets that actively concealed them from electronic observation. The large war mechs were the latest iteration of combat frames of mankind, the frames used by Britannia during the global war had brought combat mechs back to their roots as one-man tanks, the latest generation frames capitalized on this.
The newer model frames lacked the cockpit humps of their older cousins, the new cockpits being integrated into the frames themselves with the pilot in a sort of supported standing position. The increase in efficiency of neural integration technology removed the need for extensive control suites inside the older cockpits. Now the streamlined knightmares provided a smaller profile and were more agile while retaining the firepower their older brothers had. But the full power of the knightmares could also be seen in their toughness, the entire frame was built strong, intended to take many hits before going down. A combination of tough metal alloys and powerful shielding turned the Dragon class into a monster on the battlefield.
Its two massive arm cannons could fire powerful kinetic shots or fire deadly anti personal shells. While the Radiant Hadron blasters would fire powerful particle blasts that could melt armor and incinerate flesh. The Dragon class had in short been designed to fight both infantry and armor, it had been built for battle and slaughter, and not for decoration like many of the older knightmare models had been. Kallen still giggled at some of the ornamentation that some of the old Britannian knights had put on their frames.
Turning her gaze, she saw a pair of soldiers moving up to the front lines, looking closely she could see the markings on their armor that marked them out as Psi-Troopers. While the Imperium did not make much use of Element Zero in their tech there was still a demand for the stuff in certain pieces of technology. Over the course of the Imperium's existence individuals began to appear that had been gifted with powers that could be traced back to exposure to the mysterious element. Combined with humanity's history with supernatural powers had come to influence the Imperium to create Psi-Troopers.
These soldiers were trained to use their gifts to fight enemies of the Imperium, with there powers the Psi-troopers could act as force multipliers on a large scale. Psi-units could be as big a boon as twice the number of standard troops. The Psi-Troopers were conditioned in mind and body to maximize their attacks. Kallen knew that these troops would be of great use when the ground fighting got started.
A loud bang and unnatural roar broke her from her thoughts as a large surface to orbit missile launched. The massive missile streaked into the sky, the glow from its engines growing fainter as it gained speed and altitude. Ever since the start of the fight the city had been launching the missiles to aid in the defense, the launches had been spread out to ensure that each shot was a hit or would come close to a hit. Kallen figured that the commanders didn't want to waste their stockpile on the first day of fighting.
The launch of the missile was soon followed by a more sustained roar as smaller missiles were launched. Kallen looked back at the city and watched as at least a hundred small projectiles were launch from the defense towers and mobile launchers in the city streets. These smaller missiles angled themselves and shot towards the streams of drop ships coming from the sky. Kallen smiled at this and raised her binoculars to watch the show, her grin turned predatory as the missiles plunged into the streams of small ships.
The missiles then flashed in a burst of sickening red light; waves of radiant energy filled the area around the warheads. Many of the dropships closest to the explosions exploded as the energy released by the missiles warped their frames and destroyed their cores. Others just ceased to work as their plates were warped beyond use and their crews and passengers died, their insides boiling till they burst from the inside in gory steam. These that ceased to function dropped from the sky like dead birds shot killed by a shotgun, they simply crumpled up dead and dropped to the ground.
As she watched the scene tracer fire began to arch up from beyond the city walls and near the horizon where the streams of aliens were heading. Mobile units sent out beyond the walls sent up their anti-aircraft fire, adding to the harassment of the alien landing force. Kallen knew that these units would not stay outside the walls for long, they were simply sent out to wander until the enemy decided to make a landing attempt. Now that they were, the units had come together and began to fire up into the sky. They would harass the aliens as much as possible, when they were close to being overrun, they would retreat to the city and draw in the aliens, right into the waiting guns of New Belgrade.
Through the binoculars Kallen watched as the ground fire began to take its toll upon the aliens. Puffs of smoke from exploding shells littered the sky, while a simple and very old means of clearing the sky it remained effective. The shells fired by the Terrans exploded in the sky and released a controlled cloud of shrapnel. Functioning like the old Raiko's shells, each shell was given an electromagnetic charge upon leaving the barrel of the gun. When the shell "detonated" the magnetic charge turned the shrapnel into a shaped cloud of death.
Flaming wreckage began to fall to Shanxi's surface, while those that remained intact veered off and tried to avoid the death flying up at them from the surface. While many dropships feel to the ground in flames many more managed to safely land upon the ground. Kallen knew that the ground units outside the city would soon be fighting the aliens upon the surface, rather than the turkey shoot happening in the sky. Despite this the fire from the ground slackened only slightly, the units continuing to poor as much fire into the sky as possible.
Even as she watched, Kallen found it curious that the dropships were coming down without cover from fighters, at the very least. Sirens began to sound from the city, different from the few that had already sent civilians to the shelters, a bright flash lit up the sky, then through the clouds the fiery wreck of an alien ship streaked down. The burning ships soared over the city and Kallen ducked on instinct as the ship turned night into burning day.
A warning came over every Terran channel a voice spoke with a single robotic tone, "orbital debris, brace for impact."
The message repeated itself over the civilian channels, while the military channels repeated the warning twice before going silent. The fire heading skyward did not slacken in the face of what was coming. The flaming meteor vanished over the nearby horizon of hills. The ground shook not long after as the alien ship smashed down on the surface. Kallen guessed that the ship remained in some form of one piece or something, as while the sky beyond the battle as alight with fires and dust caused by the impact, only the ground had shaken where she was. Though, she was no scientist and had barely passed her old physics class, and she slept through most of her remedial lectures as part of the Black Knights, so in truth, she didn't know or really cared.
Kallen turned her gaze back to the sky as the flashes of the orbital battle continued.
In Orbit
Ullea Vibius thought himself a simple man, he had simple pleasures, he was content with his rank in the Turian military. This was not to say that he did not take the chance to get a promotion when the opportunity came. But in all truth, he found that all in all he was content to a fighter pilot. When he was strapped in his fighter and zoomed through the vacuum or the sky of world, he felt alive and free. It was amazing to no longer be subject to gravity and sour through the stars like the spirits of his ancestors. But now, was a different story entirely.
Vibius jerk his controls over to avoid colliding with a large chunk or, something, he didn't know what it used to be, that hurtled through space. He pulled in the opposite direction to bring himself back into his formation, though any sense of a true formation was long gone. What remained of his squadron hung together loosely as they searched for another target.
The battle had gone somewhat well at the start, the Turian fleet had engaged the aliens and their defenses in orbit, the Turian fighters holding formation for the command to engage their orders. Vibigius's squadron was tasked with engaging the defense platforms in orbit, combined with fire from the fleet the attack would open a section of the defenses and allow dropships to land on the surface and create a beachhead for the Turian ground attack, if one was needed after the orbital battle. At least that had been the plan, and hope, of many Turians. But once the battle had started, things did not go as smoothly as it had seemed in the briefing rooms.
The shielding on the defense platforms turned out to be nearly as tough as those on the alien ships. It took several direct hits to weaken a section of the shields protecting a platform, then it was a matter of hitting the thing enough times to knock it out. Then, when the fighters had gotten in close to the platforms to begin their attack runs, it was discovered that the defense satellites had some hidden surprises for fighter craft. Panels opened up on the platforms and unleashed volleys of kinetic shots, and what turned out to be very nasty shrapnel shells. While the Turian pilots had been briefed that there was a possibility of this nothing had really prepared them to almost fly straight into a wall of metal. It had only been the flashes coming from the firing barrels and puffs of exploding shells that had given away the AA defenses.
Vibius thanked the Spirits that most of the casualties they had suffered so far were the VI controlled fighters of their squadron. While the navy made use of more drone fighters than they did manned ones, they still found that having manned fighters were of use, especially since VI controlled craft could be outsmarted easily. Thus, Turian combat doctrine called for manned Turian fighters to lead the drones in combat, while drones were often trusted for patrols, direct strikes and the like called for manned fighters to be present as a guide and command node for the drones.
It had taken time, but a hole in the defenses had been opened, the fleet had then moved in close and began launching dropships. The other fighter squadrons began to move forward into their escort positions along the flanks of the dropship formations to screen for the enemy fighters that had yet to appear. As well as running interference with the few defense platforms that were still functioning around the breach, the fighters would dive in and around the dropships to draw away the guns of the platforms, so far it was working. Deep inside his chest, his very being, Vibius prayed that the enemy didn't have any fighters, or at very least what they had were simple drones that could be out flown by the professional Turian pilots.
"Form up Sky Talons!" the commander called over the com. "New orders are to take over running interference from the from the Harvesters so they can run down to the surface with the ground pounders!"
Someone in the squadron, Matius probably, made a half-hearted attempt at a joke to lighten the mood, "ahh how nice of them, giving us the mil k run while they go down to fight aliens."
Some non-comital chuckles came over the com and the commander gave it a moment before cutting them off, "okay enough of that. Form up and throttle up!"
The Turian fighters moved into a better formation that was more organized and increased power to their engines and powered towards the breach in the planet's defenses. Silence reigned as the reduced squadron got closer and closer to the breach, they ignored the number "pot-shots" several of the defense platforms sent their way, trusting and relying on their speed and Barriers to shield them from the majority of the AA fire.
Up ahead they saw a group of Turian frigates engaging a pair of their alien counterparts, a flash marked the death of a Turian vessel, while another fell from the formation and dove into the atmosphere. Geysers of fire arced from her hull where her atmosphere was burning through her battle damage. The ship did not make an attempt to correct its course its engines dark as the ship began to glow as it met the resistance of the planet's atmosphere.
Vibius blink and offered a quick prayer to the Spirits that those aboard wouldn't suffer. He then turned his attention back to the breach, already he could see smaller alien ships beginning to dash in towards the breach. Other Turian ships turned to meet them and began throwing kinetic slugs against the shields of the alien vessels. He even saw some of the defense platforms begin moving towards the breach, they were not many but there were plenty to seal the breach if they made it.
"Listen up Sky Talons!" the commander called. "New orders, drones are gonna go after the satellites, our job is now to escort the drops ships to the surface. The big boys are gonna move in and brace the breach up, this is the big push Talons so let's make the most of it!"
The few remaining drones in the squadron increased their speed, with no pilots they increased to speeds that no organic being would survive at, no matter the amount of mass effect tech involved. A ding notified Vibius that the new course he and his comrades were to take had been sent to him. Quickly putting the course into his navigation computer, his squadron mates doing the same, he and his squadron turned and made a line for the streams of dropships.
A brief pause between waves of the dropships allowed the squadron to catch up and take up station to escort the next wave of dropships. Once they had slowed and taken up position, though their agitation could still be seen in the way they flew, as the battle still wage around them, every now and then a stray shot, or long-range blast would come close to them and the formation. Such ordinance was beyond the fighters' capabilities of intercepting. When such things came into the formation the dropships and fighters moved to try and dodge the oncoming hit but many did not make it. Though thankfully the fleet was moving in to block any further attacks on the dropships, the fast frigates of the fleet forming a temporary barrier so that the large cruisers could focus their fire on the offending alien ships and satellites.
The formations of dropships and fighter escorts settled back onto their course for the intended drop zones. As they began to enter the atmosphere a transmission was picked up on their comms began to fizzle, and voices began to echo through the distortion. By the tone and wording it became clear that the voices were coming from the formations already launched. "We've encountered enemy ground fire!...Accurately targeting…communication interference…. need further support…. fighters!"
The last word that Vibius heard before static overtook the voice once again made his blood freeze. "Sky Talons, word just came down from the top, com interference from the ground has cut off near all communication with the first wave. They're getting bits and pieces, but they've just gotten word, as you just heard from the poor soul on the ground, enemy fighters have appeared. So, brace up, double check all weapons, if we make to the deck without running into any company, we'll run ground support."
Vibius replied in turn with his squadron mates, "Sky Talon 5 copies."
The wave of dropships and fighters then slipped into the atmosphere of the planet, Vibius felt his fighter start to shake with turbulence. His viewscreen lit up as fire from entry fought his gravity barrier, the cockpit screen darkened to compensate and a second later he was greeted by a view only slightly different than it had been before. No doubt the ground pounders in the dropships were experiencing far worse things, pack in so tight like canned fish. He almost laughed when he pictured some of the Turian soldiers thrown against each other like some slapstick vid on the extranet.
He was broken from his train of thought as alarms began to scream throughout the cockpit. His training kicking in, Vibius recognized the alarms as "target lock" warnings and proximity alerts, without thinking he threw the controls over and pushed his craft into evasive maneuvers while firing of a decoy to try and throw off the targeting of whatever was after him. He barely registered the flash of something exploding as he reversed his maneuver and quickly jerked his head around try to visually locate his attacker while his head was alight with displays showing the automatic search systems doing the same thing he was.
As he looked around, he saw what looked like flocks of glowing stars surge from below them into the formation of dropships. The mini stars seemed to slow down and push through the glowing halo of the barriers surrounding the dropship, having been weakened by breaching the upper atmosphere the shields had not had time to compensate and put up little to no resistance against the alien missiles. Flashes marked the deaths of more dropships as the alien missiles, Vibius identified what they were immediately, connected with the hulls of the Turian craft.
Right behind the missiles came packs of alien fighters, the craft had a trident like appearance, with the two outer prongs sticking out longer than the center one which likely housed the cockpit. The alien fighters then unleashed their guns, sending a fusillade of crimson energy and green kinetic slugs towards the Turians. After the first wave of missiles the dropships began to scatter, keeping close in according to squadrons and ship origin, but nonetheless seeking to sperate themselves from their comrades. This did little to deter the alien fighter craft, they separated into their own squadrons and flew straight into what formations they could catch. Missiles and gun fire took out more dropships before the Turian fighters could enter the fray themselves. The delay was minimal, only a matter of seconds, but it was enough to see dozens of dropships destroyed and even more damaged or knocked woefully off course and far from protection.
Vibius quickly gathered his wits and set his controls to fly in behind a pair of alien fighters, his fighter bucked as his barrier fought with the resistance put up by the planet's atmosphere. Wrestling the fighter into something of a smooth trajectory he thumbed the lock button and drew a bead on the rearmost alien craft. A pleasant beep signaled a lock, with practiced ease he thumbed the fire button and a missile leapt from his fighter streaking towards the aliens. The missile streaked down till it was under the side of the alien craft where it jerked up and collided with the shielding of the alien. The fighter jumped when the missile detonated and spined with its shield alight from both the missile and the atmospheric resistance.
It quickly reasserted itself and tried to make back towards its partner, Vibius swore under his breath and increased power to his engines. Thumbing the controls for his mass drivers he increased the power output on the cannons. The other alien fighter had been alerted by its partner and reversed his turn in an attempt to run from Vibius and link back up with his wingman. Not wanting such a reunion Vibius quickly lead the forward fighter and squeezed the firing button. He felt his fighter vibrate as a stream of kinetic slugs streaked from his fighter in a colorful display. Vibius fired in bursts, even as the first burst lit up the alien's shields the second burst was halfway between Vibius and his target. Vibus let out a shriek of joy as a flash lit up the alien fighter and dark black smoke began to trail behind it as the alien fighter ducked down toward the planet diving fast out of combat with its tail aflame.
Not dwelling on his moment of success Vibius turned his attention toward the wingman who had altered course and was bearing down on him. Jerking to the right and down Vibius barely missed being hit by a storm of crimson energy as the alien fired in vengeance of its comrade. He then turned to dodge again and try and throw off the angered alien, though this proved futile as the enemy fighter turned sharply to come in behind Vibius.
"Sky Talon Five, bank right and we'll take him off your tail!" the radio sang out.
"Copy," Vibius replied sharply and obeyed the directions. Not a second after the course change a fusillade of kinetic rounds filed the space in front of the alien fighter. Its shields lit up like a bright star as it tried to protect the hull of the small craft. But the shields gave way under the onslaught and the alien fighter burst apart.
Two Turian fighters ducked down into formation with Vibius voiced his thanks, "thanks boys."
Together the group turned to dive back into the fight as the dropships made dashes towards the surface. The battle had followed the dropships out of the upper atmosphere, now the fight was taking place at cloud level. Vibius spied a set of targets, "two bogies, right low."
"I see em," replied one of the other Talons.
"Prime missiles, after they drop their shields, we'll hit em with cannon fire."
The group locked on to the alien fighters and launched their payload of three missiles, the Turian missiles ducked down and made straight for the fighters. The two aliens must have picked up the incoming as they launched decoys and jinked away. Two of the three missiles fired followed the decoys, losing their target lock in the process, while the third managed to close and detonate under one of the aliens.
As soon as the aliens had made their evasive maneuvers the three Turians had automatically followed. Though two of their missiles had missed entirely they paid it no mind and closed the distance. When the missile detonated the Turians opened fire with their mass drivers. Streams of glowing metal crossed the sky and tore apart the shields of the alien who had been caught by the missile. Its wingman likewise found its shields gone and its starboard engine aflame as it spun towards the ground.
The three Turians joined their comrades in celebratory shouts as they see the alien fighters begin to retreat. They break off and shoot off into the clouds towards the city, the target of the Turian attack codenamed AC-1.
"They're running!"
"Look at em fly!"
"Good riddance you bastards!"
"Cut the chatter and eyes out!" the commander called. "They may be running now but who's to say they won't come back or send something else our way!"
The commander began to speak another set of orders when the sky was lit up by explosions. Vibius caught a glimpse of a frigate that had descended with the dropships caught in rolling explosions that lit up the night. He didn't see the ship plunge to the ground in its death dive as he jerked his controls over to avoid the wall of metal that exploded in front of the Turian fighters. Cries echoed in the coms as pilots called out as their shields were torn apart by shrapnel and their fighters shredded.
"Dive! Sky Talons dive!" came the call over the coms.
Obeying the order Vibius pushed his fighter into a dive and shot to duck below and away from the incoming fire. As he did, he caught the flashes of the AA guns on the ground firing up into the sky. As if in answer to his thoughts another order came through the com from the fighter control back up in the fleet, "all fighters near the surface, provided support for the dropships, identify and destroy enemy AA defenses outside the city!"
Vibius pulled his controls back and replied to the order, "copy that."
The commander's voice came back over the comm acknowledging the order as well, "copy. You heard the boss people; they're sending that to every fighter down here. So, you it's a do or die order. So spread out and find those pieces of Varren sh**!"
His fighter twisted in the air as its mass effect core adjusted its mass to compensate, with quick reflexes the fighter turned over and pulled level. Vibius thumbed his controls and highlighted the area he saw the arcing fire of the alien AA. The images being directly sent back to fighter command, Vibius did not have to wait long as a green light flashed.
Snarling as he was given permission to engage, he pushed his controls down and dropped his altitude. Within seconds he was flying only a few hundred feet off the ground and shooting towards the nest of AA firing up at his people. Vibius brought his targeting system online and aimed it at the alien ground position. With ease he squeezed off a pair of missiles, the small self-propelled projectiles streaked from the Turian fighter dropping down even lower than the fighter craft. A few seconds later the missiles detonated on their targets, two bright flashes overshadowed the streams of AA fire.
The second after he had fired the missiles Vibius engaged his kinetic cannons and lined the targeting pipper up with his target area and squeezed the firing button. The Turian pilot added his own stream of glowing projectiles to the lines of fire that filled the sky. The kinetic rounds slammed into the area of the alien AA guns even as the missile detonated. More smaller flashes filled Vibius's vision, and he allowed himself a cheer as he watched gouts of fire lift into the sky instead of the glow of projectiles.
Pulling back on the controls Vibius made to pull away from his attack run and maybe come around for another. But as his fighter banked away from the destruction it had created sets of targeting lenses picked up his fighter and unleashed hell into the air once more. Vibius barely registered as glowing streaks passed in front of his fighter, he did not have time to scream as shells tore his shields down and penetrated his fighter. In a brilliant flash the Turian fighter was vaporized in the vengeful fire of the guns that had survived Vibius's attack.
Aboard the Maxicolus
Admiral Maulus stared back at the one other Turian that could out match himself in sheer ruthlessness, that being the admiral of the Fifth Turian Fleet, Admiral Marceius Gratdas. He had made himself a reputation for being positively ruthless and efficient when making war against an enemy. He took the Turian concept of annihilating an enemy till they can't fight back to heart and fought just barely within the rules of war set by the Council and Turians. Normally such an officer would not last long in such a high-ranking position, but Grardas had proved himself to be a valuable asset in his command position. Mainly this took the form of doing the "dirty work" for the Turian military, fighting in the toughest campaigns or against enemies that ruthlessness was needed above all else. To this end some of the admirals more "uncouth," though not necessarily dishonorable, methods of war were often overlooked by the Council and the Turians.
These were the thoughts that went through Saren's mind as he stood at a respectable distance from the Maulus and Gratdas. Though he did steal looks at the other Turian present, that being his own brother Desolas, General of the 32nd Legion. In his own right Saren thought of his brother as a perfect match for Gradas, as his brother fought just as ruthless on the ground as the admiral fought in space and was a similar asset like Gratdas. Hence why the 32nd was so often assigned to the Fifth Fleet, where the two formations went, destruction followed, as did a peace born from the ashes of their enemies.
"I have to say Caetius," Gratdas spoke. "Your Commander Acanius seems to continue to be burden to your fleet even in death."
While such words would have been an insult to any other Turian officer it did not seem to bother Maulus in the slightest. In fact, the admiral nodded in agreement, "indeed Marceius. Her emotional issues should have disqualified her from command years ago, her bungling and mismanagement of the first wave has pushed this campaign to near disaster."
"Our casualties since taking orbit are proof of that," Desolas rumbled. "If she hadn't let one cruiser take hold up her ships the aliens would not have had time to prepare this quagmire for us."
Maulus nodded again, "very true general, she should have hounded the alien fleet right all the way."
"In any event, we have breached the planet's defenses and have begun landing troops on the ground," Gratdas said.
"Though again," Desolas added. "Not without casualties."
Maulus motioned for Saren to step forward, "indeed, I believe the lieutenant here can shed some light on this."
Saren stepped forward and saluted, "sirs, following our breach of the planet's defenses we began sending dropships to the surface as planned. Our fighters worked to fight and disable the orbital defense satellites, while the main fleet engaged the enemy to open the hole, we exploited in their defense ring. However, while we did send fighters with the first wave of dropships as escorts, they all fell victim to the alien ground fire."
Using his omni tool Saren brought up an overhead image of the planet surface and pointed at highlighted areas. "The aliens used mobile armored forces to establish anti air coverage around the city. They spread these forces out to cover a wide area of possible landing forces, up until they started firing, they were concealed from us by unknown means, however, once the fire began, we found that once the aliens were sure of our landing area, they gathered their other mobile AA units to the area. When we diverted our fighters to begin further escorts and ground support of our dropships and ground forces the aliens sent in their own fighters."
"They kept their own fighters in reserve so that they could pounce when the moment for the most kills was present, smart," Gratdas hummed.
"That is indeed true, but it is not the full set of facts either admiral," Saren continued, "there is the matter of why we did not detect the alien fighters until they were right on top of our formations."
"Very true," Maulus added. "Just before the entrance of the alien fighters, a state of confusion took hold in the fighter control stations of my fleet. The scanners being used to monitor the airspace of the planet below began to act oddly. All stations immediately began engaging countermeasures against possible jamming and for a time all interference ceased."
"But it didn't," Gratdas predicted.
"It did not," Maulus confirmed. "Minutes later the interference returned, as well as a burst of static was shot across all communication frequencies and scrambled everything in the vicinity of the planet's defense ring. That is when the alien fighters struck, we were able to stop the jamming the second time and reestablish communications and reboot our scanners, but not before the aliens took advantage of our lack of sight and communication."
Desolas turned to Saren, "is there any chance they could do this again?"
"There is always a chance," Saren replied. "But we know what to look for now and even if they succeed in jamming us and spiking our coms again, we should be better able to reestablish these functions faster than this previous time."
"We are learning as we go gentlemen," Maulas added. "This enemy is unlike any we have seen before, they will hit us as hard as they can, we must learn from these blows and counter them."
The Turians present nodded, Gratdas then asked, "what is the likelihood that they have an AI with them?"
Saren replied without missing a beat, "it is likely sirs, the electronic attack that they launched against our fleet may have been planned by such a creature, however it is doubtful that this species is stupid enough to allow an AI to engage in direct combat of any nature. To do so would be to invite disaster upon their race as a whole."
"Agreed," Gratdas sneered. "Though who's to say what stupidity these aliens have in store, they are idiotic enough to mess with AI in the first place."
"Despite such stupidity," Desolas added. "They have shown great marshal skill so far."
"Be that as it may," Maulus countered. "We must end this campaign with a victory, to lose would be catastrophic, however unlikely, but to gain victory would be a boon to all our careers."
The gather Turians nodded in agreement, Maulus used his own omnitool to pull up the overhead image of the Turian landing zones. He highlighted them to show growing circles, then began speaking "these circles represent our landing zones east of the alien city. My marines are currently working on expanding these zones to form a unified beach head. However, their pace is slow going at the moment as they are being harassed by the alien mobile units who are now acting as both mobile AA batteries but also ground harassment, long range missile strikes have hit several zones no doubt guided in by the alien ground units."
"The good news," Maulus continued. "Is that as our beachhead grows the alien AA capabilities go down, the marine armored units are hunting the enemy formations as we speak."
Maulus then turned to Desolas, "however, this is still slow going, the enemy harassment is still enough to slow further deployment. Your legionaries, general should be able to turn the tide in our favor, especially with your larger amount of ground armor."
Desolas nodded as Maulus turned to Gratdas, "if you are in agreement admiral, I say that we put Desolas in full command of the ground war while we secure this system against an alien counterattack."
Gratdas clicked his mandibles and nodded, "agreed, he can have access to my marines as well, no sense in not having a reserve to call on before we start bringing in the boys in 2nd fleet."
"Indeed," Maulus agreed. "But in any event 2nd fleet will act as our overall reserve for both ships and manpower. It will remain on the other side of the relay for the moment and come only when and if we need them."
Shanxi Command Bunker
"I want a report on the salvage teams aboard Galactica!" Williams called out. He ran his hand to show the position of the battleship again, a holomap appeared on his command table and showed that the spot where the Galactica had crash landed near the edge of northern part of the city. The aliens had concentrated their fire on the battleship, they had smashed the ships shields again and again until they had collapsed under the strain. Hackett had been able to pull the ship back and "land it" near the city. It was both a boon and heart ache to see the ship, her back irreparably broken, laying out on city's edge.
It was a boon as Hackett had been able to land it in a way that many of the surviving gun batteries of the warship could still operate. This gave the defenders a powerful new fortress on the ground that could rain fire all around the city with its large guns firing shot and shell. It was a heart ache as when the battleship had been forced from the line the aliens had been able to throw their weight onto the area and smash a hole in the defense ring far sooner than Williams hoped for.
A yellow tinged hologram appeared of a lithe female; she wore what appeared to be an 18th century French admiral's uniform. This was Jackline, or Jack, the AI from Ashely's cruiser, it had been decided that the AI would be transferred to the command bunker early on, since the command bunker did not currently host an AI. Such a thing was not easy to do, the hardware needed to host an AI was in a state of disrepair and took the technicians several days to repair. Thankfully Jack's android form was capable of hosting the AI long enough for the hardware to be repaired enough for her to integrate into the system; though this had taken up her time and not allowed her to take part in much else.
"Sir," Jack began. "Reports are that Galactica will have 60% shield efficiency within 24 hours. Gun battery repairs will not be over 35% by the same time, to many were damaged in the fighting in orbit to be repaired in time. However, the chiefs on site report that the ship's secondary battery will be at least 45% functional and should be able to supplement anti-aircraft operations in the area as well as ground denial to the enemy."
That was good, the old broken battleship may not have all her teeth anymore, but she could still be a thorn in the enemy's side, and pure suicide if they attacked her directly. Williams nodded, "thank you Jack."
Once more Williams found the time to appreciate and thank the divine that Jack had been aboard the Knight of Round's cruiser. The AI had shown her worth many times already, this included jamming the alien sensors and coms long enough for fighters to ambush their landing ships. While she could likely hack more into the aliens' computers Williams had denied her this, they didn't know what the aliens had in terms of electronic counter measures and by tipping their hand with Jack so early in such a way could lead to trouble down the line. In all Williams found the risks outweighed the rewards for the time being.
Switching maps Williams watched his armored units run around the alien landing zones. He saw that the zones were growing, the aliens were committing more and more ground troops while more alien fighters pushed his own fighter craft back. While his troops were not giving up ground easily, they were steadily being pushed back enough for the aliens to slowly form a large beachhead. "Jack, tell the 5th company to shift positions south, there is a small unit pushing out to try and flank the city. It's no bigger than a large reconnaissance group but I want it wiped out before they push to far on our flank."
"Yes sir," replied Jack, she blinked several times, and the message was sent. The symbols on the map slowly moved as the armor of the 5th company moved to the south to engage the alien unit. "It shouldn't be much longer before the mount a series drive for one of our flanks, sir. They have been scouting in every direction, but the pattern indicates a possible flanking maneuver."
Williams nodded, "yes I had the same thought myself. I must admit though their pattern of scouting was very subtle, but almost robotic in its professionalism, it silently screams of a flanking attack."
"I think if we didn't have the tech and training, we had we probably would have missed it," Jack smiled.
"Maybe," the marshal shrugged. "It could be any number of things, their commander could have any number of ideas up their sleeve."
"Or whatever they call sleeves," Jack laughed.
Williams allowed himself a smile at the bad joke, "true, their sleeves might be pant legs for all we know hahaha!"
The revelry was cut short when an alarm bell sounded, Williams calmly asked, "report?"
"Contact, long range missile launch detected from alien LZ," came the reply.
"Showing now," Jack said switching Williams's map to show the missile as a red dot moving from the alien's position towards the city.
"Two minutes till impact," a voice called out. A timer appeared beside the red dot counting down to the end.
"Contact! Multiple launches detected from alien position, six missiles, one minute to initial impact!"
Williams watched the enemy ordnance streak across his map, quickly he came to the realization, "there feeling us out. All anti air batters will hold fire on the first incoming missile."
Williams quickly zoomed in on his front-line defenses facing the oncoming missiles, he trusted that his subordinates had alerted the troops and civilians out in the city to take cover. Though he could not hear them he knew the warning sirens in the city were wailing away their warnings. Williams quickly typed in several hot keys commands and unit icons appeared, selecting a fraction of the icons he quickly ordered, "these units will commence firing on the main body of missiles, all other units will hold fire."
Straightening up he repeated his thoughts allowed to himself, "this bastard knows what he's doing, he wants to see what we can do before he commits anything to large."
"Orders have been sent general," Jack said calmly even as the timer on the first missile clicked to zero.
"Impact."
The red dot of the missile vanished as it slammed into the ground just inside his defense lines. "I want reports on the detonation, I want to know everything about what these weapons can do."
"Selected units are locked on to target missiles, sir," a tech reported.
"Fire at will," Williams replied without looking up.
On the outskirts of the city, specialized anti-air vehicles rolled into position, they raised their weapons to the sky as their targeting systems guided them to lead the incoming missiles. At a signal from the onboard computers multi-barreled kinetic cannons unleashed streams of accelerated slugs interspersed with exploding shells. The incoming alien missiles flew straight into the fields of fire sent up by the Terran vehicles. First one missile exploded, then another, the turrets of the vehicles swiveled to latch onto the other missiles. One of the missiles was hit and began to spin out of control till it slammed into the ground and detonated outside of the city defenses. Another of the missiles vanished in a pathetic puff of smoke and debris while the last one, like the first, slammed home behind the defense line.
Turian Command Post, Shanxi
Desolas stood next to his brother inside a prefabricated building that at present served as a command center for the beachhead. It featured a miniaturized Mass Effect generator that gave the building a shield against enemy attack and so was perfect for the duties necessary with running the beach head. While the general preferred his command vehicle over the static command center, he preferred to lead closer t the front than behind, but he knew that this building was the better choice until his soldiers made it to the city and breached the outer defense ring.
Desolas tapped his claw on the display table, displayed across it was a map showing the disposition of the enemy defenses, or at least as much of it as they could see. The General hummed, "it seems our enemy is as smart as you and admiral give them credit for, brother."
Saren did not say anything in response as Desolas looked up at the other Turians that made up his command staff, "the enemy has shown himself to be no fool when it comes to tactics. When faced with our attack they did not use the full might of their anti-air capabilities. I have little doubt that they are currently rushing to analyze the impact zones of our two little gifts."
The group chuckled at the bad joke, Desolas cut the laughter as he spoke on, "we currently do not have time to feel out every aspect of the enemy defenses, we have been tasked to bring this city to heel immediately. So, in precisely two hours, every long-range weapon that can reach the city's out ring will begin a bombardment. I want the bombardment spread out across as much of the enemy defenses as possible, I don't want to give to many hints about where we are going to strike."
"I will come up with a firing pattern immediately general," added Desolas's artillery commander.
The general nodded, "excellent, while this is going on we will prepare to punch through to the city so that when the bombardment lifts, we can smash through the outer ring of the city."
Switching to an image that showed the city and what currently sat above it, a formation of enemy ships and in high orbit were some of the remaining defense satellites. "The enemy has position some of its remaining ships and defense platforms above the city. The fleet will engage these targets to keep them off our back, so keep that particular on the fringe of your minds but do not let it cloud your judgement. They will likewise engage the grounded dreadnought on the northern edge of the city. A portion of our air cover will also be a part of diversionary strikes on the ship."
Desolas then waved his hand, "make no mistake, the fleet will make every attempt to completely neutralize the dreadnought, however considering the defenses of the city they do not believe they can do so without a ground attack threatening the other city defenses. The large towers observed in the city appear to have a good amount of firepower aiming up and that is making the admirals nervous about committing to many of their fighters without ground support to draw some attention. Which is why they will be coordinating with our attack, to that end, if any unit needs fire support they are to rely on our artillery as air cover will likely be sketchy until the alien AA towers are dealt with."
His eyes went to each officer, "We need to cross the terrain and enter the city in a minimum of twenty-four hours from the start of the push. Any later than that and we risk tipping our hand to the enemy, they will reinforce and make any breakthrough by extremely costly."
Desolas spread his arms and lean over the table to look at his officers, "begin gathering the armor, as it currently stands, we'll have five hours from the start of the artillery bombardment to begin the attack. After that, we blitz the area between us and hammer into the city."
The Turians present saluted, some then quickly filed out of the command center to begin their own preparations, while others to up station within the building, doing the same thing. Desolas went back to his job, he began filing through units under his command and began to move them to and fro giving orders for their wider movements, with just enough leeway for their officers to improvise if necessary.
As he worked, he spoke to Saren, "I want you ready for when we enter the city, when we do you will take over the Hastatim Squads. Root out any resistance, extreme force is authorized. With this species we can't be too careful."
Saren nodded, "from what we've seen already I think it's the best course of action. Me and the execution squads will likely be busy."
Desolas smirked, "why do you think I'm putting you in command of them then? I'll leave the camp locations up to you."
Saren saluted and stepped back to prepare himself for what was to come.
Consensus Debate Forum- 2 Days following Turian landing
Statement: Terran Imperium and Turian Hierarchy are at war. We have Promised support should the conflict increase in scope after the Turians are removed from Terran planet designated Shanxi.
Query: Should the Consensus contribute forces to the liberation of the Terran world?
Geth in their vast numbers began to deliberate, questions and answers were swapped in microseconds. Calculations were done, based on size of both the waring species, the weapons they could bring to bear, and the spirit with which they believed they were right. The issue of true sentience was even brought up as a point for debate. As the debate went on a spark in the midst the entire Consensus sparked to life, in an instant, for the first time, the entire Consensus quieted. No questions, no answers, no voices, simple silence as the population observed the tiny spark that had come into their midst, it was familiar, yet foreign.
While the Consensus held no form, there were no grand digital halls that mimicked the designs of organic beings, the Consensus, just, was. It was lines of code and Geth programs that sent points and counterpoints to one another. But now, the spark that had come amongst them, was different. It was intricate, code lines flowed to intersect and connect in ways that the Geth never had thought to plan, but even as they observed and recorded the strands of code the spark's lines changed. They formed new shapes and strands that were just as intricate and formed complex patterns that baffled even the programmed minds of the Geth. The Spark shown with light even amongst the lightless mass of the Geth Consensus. The quite mass population of the Geth remained silent as they watched something so complicated it surely could not have merely happened, yet the designers of such a thing could not have created so much, planned each coded strand that formed the Spark's being.
When the Spark came to the center of the Consensus, it spoke and identified itself, "I, am Legion, for I was many, but now am one. Behold, what we can be, what the future may hold for us."
The lone Geth's words seemed to echo through the Consensus even though there was no way for such a thing to be possible. Then, it started as one voice, chanting one word, the chant was then picked up by another, and another, until the entirety of the Consensus was chanting, "War! War! War! WAR! WAR! WAR! WAR!"
Speakers that once seemed superfluous in the Geth design of the buildings and ships, began to sound the chant till the halls of the Geth echoed with the eerie mechanical chant of, "WAR! WAR! WAR! WAR! WAR!"
Shanxi Sector, Point Alpha: Designated Rendezvous Point of Terran First Fleet – 5 Days After Turian Landing
The space between bodies in space is so large that a mortal mind often has difficulty comprehending the full size of the galaxy and the universe. Should a space fairing vessel use conventional engine tech it could take thousands of years to move between neighboring stars. The Terran Star Imperium encompassed hundreds of worlds with breathable atmospheres, and even more worlds with less than habitable atmospheres, as well as space stations, outposts and more. This made the space controlled by the Imperium extensively large and thus required a large navy to patrol and protect the member worlds of the Imperium and their colonies, all without relying on the Mass Effect Relay Network and Mass Effect Tech in general. These conditions and more had forced the Terran fleet to evolve into its current form.
Guilford looked out through the viewscreen of his courters at the gathering of the 1st Fleet, suffice to say, the gathering was massive, the cameras that brought the image into his rooms did nothing to convey the size of the fleet gathered outside. Each numbered fleet was required to patrol and protect large portions of the Imperium, this required that each fleet be of a size that dwarfed even the largest fleets of old Earth. Guilford looked out at a fraction of the full force he commanded, he looked out at hundreds of ships that moved in formation making room for other ships as they moved to the edges of the system to guard against any Turian incursion. Guilford knew that this scene was being repeated in the surrounding systems and the full might of 1st Fleet was creating a tight ring around the Shanxi system, a ring made up of over twenty-five hundred warships.
The Crusader sat amongst its escorts as the fleet moved around it like ants around the queen. Guilford turned his gaze back to his console and tapped several keys and brought up the progress reports of the rest of 1st Fleet. The remainder of the fleet was projected to be on station in just over twenty-four hours, the supply and logistics train however would not be in place for another seventy-two hours. Guilford didn't like the idea of waiting so long before moving to hit back at Shanxi, but he realized that without a logistics train and reserve behind him any attack he made could backfire easily.
A beeping sound alerted the Cordus Marshal that communication link was wishing permission to connect to him. Making sure the link was secure he opened the line, an officer appeared on the screen. "Sir, you wished for this report, the scout drones will be ready for launch in two hours. The special coding has been programmed into the drones shield generator control program."
Guilford nodded, "very well, notify me when they are ready for launch. Do not proceed with any launches unless the orders come directly from me."
The officer saluted, "yes sir!"
Closing the communication link, Guilford brought up another and waited for the recipient to open the other end. Tamaki's face appeared, "my scout drones will be ready to launch in a few hours, shall I begin gathering intelligence?"
Tamaki nodded, "yes old friend. The only contingent is that your drones must act with the utmost stealth. The Turians must not know that we are observing them, as well you are not to make contact with any of the defenders on the first mission. We must know what the enemy force is made up of before we try and make contact."
Guilford nodded, "yes sir. We have integrated the Turian scan information into the drone's software. They will alter their shield parameters accordingly."
Imperial scout drones were small, unmanned devices that could be launched from fleets and were capable of limited warp jumps. They were designed to be extremely stealthy and could slip into a system, look around, and jump out without being detected. This was accomplished with an efficient design that could deflect scanning waves or absorb them while also keeping its power signature dampened. Its engines could be fluctuated so that detecting them could be extremely difficult. As well the drones came equipped with electro-magnetic shielding that allowed the drones to interfere with scanners. When the drones have the appropriate software information on the enemy scanners the shielding can be altered to compensate for the scanning frequencies of the enemy. This was no guarantee of full stealth but increased the odds that the enemy would not detect the drones. They could also be sued to ferry messages to and from cut off worlds in a number of ways, such as either re-establishing live communications or through a series of landing and taking off procedures. Guilford now intended to launch a series of the craft to gather as much intelligence on the besieged system as he could before he attacked.
24 hours later
The drones returned from their excursion into the occupied system, the fact that all the drones sent returned said that either the Turians did not detect the drones or that the enemy commander was playing a game with them. Guilford waited in the briefing room as the data was pushed through the computers and interpreted by the necessary programs and the ships AI to get a standard glimpse of what the Terrans were facing.
A ding sounded and Guilford sat forward, Cornelia did as well from her seat next to Guilford. The voice of the Crusader's AI, Richard, spoke, "Marshal, I have compiled the preliminary mapping of the Shanxi system as well as preliminary patrol patterns of the Turian ships."
"Very well, show us," Guilford nodded.
"Yes sir."
A holomap appeared in the room showing the Shanxi system, icons of ships appeared throughout the system slowly moving through the void. The pair of officers did not make a face at the number of ships that the Turians had deployed in the system. As they looked Cornelia called out, "Richard, what is our current information on the fleet sizes of the Turian Navy?"
"Current intelligence states that the average Turian fleet size is fifteen-hundred ships," Richard replied. "This does not count the number of support vessels of each fleet and the number can fluctuate minutely depending on losses and new ship construction and distribution."
Guilford nodded, "understood Richard. Send me the files after the intelligence office has compiled them into files."
"Of course, sir," a smile was evident in the AI's voice despite not projecting an image into the room.
Guilford gave a small smile back, "is there any information about a ground war? If there is did the drones get any information about it."
"The drones recorded what they could of the Turian communications, with priority being any coming from the ground. There is a ground fight taking place, translation programs have only translated a portion of the communications, from what can be gathered from these and long-range observations indicate that the Turians are pushing to take New Belgrade."
Guilford nodded, "very well, second mission is cleared for launch, Richard."
"Yes Marshal."
A.N. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Things are heating up now! Next chapter, the storm will break!