Disclaimer: I do not own Halo, Warhammer 40k, Stellaris, Kaiserreich, HoI4, Clannad, Star Wars, or Mass Effect. This is a fanfiction, and I don't have ANY monetary reward for making it. Any political or religious beliefs mentioned in this story do not reflect my own. This is purely for fun.

WARNING: This is an M-rated fanfiction. Sexual content and graphic depictions will appear from time to time.

AN: This is my first depiction of space combat in the story. If you think the space combat could be better, let me know by dropping a review. I plan on having more complex engagements; but the Batarians are more like annoyances to the Empire, rather than a legitimate threat. So, I think the description of the Astartes (clone) warships in the story was good enough. However, I'll give a brief summary of their appearance.

Light Warship: Imagine the Donnager from The Expanse, but with smaller engine units.

Medium Warship: Imagine the Imperial Star Destroyer, but with the back elongated a little. So, it'd have more of a diamond shape; also, no exposed bridge. The top and bottom are symmetrical; in other words, the top and bottom look the same, with the exception of the large hangar on the bottom. The heavy plasma lances would be on the very top and bottom of the star destroyer.

Heavy Warship: Think something along the lines of the Resurgent Star Destroyer, but it doesn't have an exposed bridge or an odd open area at the front. Same concept as the Medium Warship, but just bigger and shaped slightly differently.

All Astartes Warships: When you google what they might look like, imagine them in all silver and with smoother lines; basically make it look more Covenant-like.

Thank you for the reviews and support.

Chapter 6

Their Betters

Raprak Dhar'fagan was a lucky Batarian. He ruled one of the major nation-states of the Batarian Hegemony, had pleasure slaves of every race and species, lived in a large luxurious compound, and had command over a large portion of the economy.

He was currently standing outside of his balcony in nothing but a robe. The liquor he drank cost more than an average family's monthly income and he just got done enjoying the company of his female slaves.

Not that his wife minded, she sometimes joined. His sons definitely weren't objecting to having a plethora of pleasure slaves.

Besides the thorn in his side that was the Alliance, he had no problems and simply enjoyed life.

Life was good for Raprak.

A noise on his omni-tool got his attention. It was marked high priority; only a few high profile individuals and agencies had access to sending such messages.

Thinking something was wrong he quickly answered the phone.

Instead of seeing a hologram of an official or colleague, he saw what looked like a two-headed bird of some kind. Along with the bird hologram, was an annoying noise and that hurt his ears.

The noise stopped and was replaced with an audio message.

"Attention: announcement from the Imperial Department of War. The Batarian Hegemony is in blatant defiance of Imperial decree two, three, and ten. The practice of slavery will be ended and all non-Batarian slaves returned to their people. The leadership of the Batarian Hegemony has twenty-four Earth hours to comply with Imperial law. Failure to do so will be seen as open defiance of Imperial law, and an insult against the United Terran Empire."

"Attention: announcement from the Imperial Department of War. The Batarian Hegemony is in blatant defian-"

Raprak angrily shut his omni-tool off. The Alliance or Human group must have hacked into their systems again.

A cruel smirk formed on Rapraks face.

Someone would be fired for their failure, but he did have a few Human girls to take his anger out on.

Raprak casually walked back in, without a care in the world.

Little did he know, every member of the Batarian Hegemony got that message; from himself, down to the poorest of Batarians. What their race rationally brushed off as a cyber attack was far more serious.

They were given a proper warning under Imperial law.

Erwin stood on a Forerunner structure overlooking the vast rolling hills and rivers of Korn der Ruhe. The section of the ring was designed to be more mountainous.

It was a beautiful sight to behold. Erwin thought it was unfortunate the only flesh and blood Forerunner the Imperium had contact with was the Didact, who was clinically insane.

"You know, they have no idea what the Empire is. In a way, it's not exactly a fair warning." Ares told him through his neural lace.

"It's not my fault the primitives don't know of our capabilities. I've followed Imperial law and given them a warning. No Imperial Court would rule against me."

"They wouldn't rule against you for obvious reasons." Ares deadpanned.

"True, but it's not like I'm going to commit Genocide." Erwin casually defended.

"I suppose, but I have a feeling this is going to be too brutal. Are you sure this is a good idea? We could potentially bring down the wrath of a species that controls thousands of Galaxies." Ares asked.

"I need to know what we're facing. Besides, this attack combined with my other plans will ensure any extragalactic threats will choose to enter from Batarian space."

"I see… well, the Batarians were asking for it. Just don't forget, you're a Holder of the Mantle. The Batarians don't truly know the seriousness of their actions." Ares warned.

"They will tomorrow."

"You don't want them to comply," Ares stated, it wasn't a question as both knew the answer.

"This was never about the Mantle."

A battlegroup was the basic building block of fleets. Each one consisted of forty-eight light warships, sixteen medium warships, and four heavy warships.

Light warships were only eleven hundred meters long, and designed to be maneuverable warships for individual patrols, wolf pack strike groups, picket roles, and could also engage at long range with the heavies. They were the bread and butter of the Klonarmee des Geistes Navy. The layout of the warship was a long and smooth box with four engine modules in the shape of an 'X'; making the ship look somewhat like an aggressive brick. Their main armaments were a frontal plasma lance, two heavy plasma cannons on the left and right, six plasma torpedo launchers, nine regular plasma cannons, and sixteen point-defense gamma lasers.

Medium ships were substantially larger at five point six kilometers. They were all-purpose warships capable of planetary assaults, range combat, picket roles, and leading light warship packs. The design was somewhat like a diamond-shaped flat arrow. The tallest point of the warship was located far back, so most of the firepower was facing towards. The top and bottom high points had a heavy plasma lance, allowing for three hundred and sixty-five degree coverage by the heavy plasma lances. Sixteen heavy plasma cannons in turrets on the top and bottom body; another eight were along the sides of the warship called the 'trench.' Then one hundred plasma torpedo launchers for the ability to mass volley the advanced weaponry, and forty regular plasma cannons. For point defense capabilities, two hundred and thirty-six gamma lasers.

The medium warships were the only other starships, besides the assault carriers, to have a large hangar bay. It was located on the 'bottom' of the warship, towards the bow. The medium warships either held drone swarms controlled by clones, or a massive landing force.

The heaviest and most armored of the Astartes warships were the heavies. They were ten point two kilometers long and shaped similarly to the medium warships. However, their weaponry made them the heavy hitters of the fleet. A spinally mounted super heavy plasma lance on its bow, four heavy plasma lances on the far and high points of the warship's diamond shape. Twelve heavy plasma torpedo launchers, and three hundred regular plasma torpedo tubes. Three hundred and eight gamma lasers made up the warship's point defense capabilities. The defenses of the heavies were also disproportionately hefty. Over fourteen meters of nanolaminate armor, and multiple overlapping shields.

Each Astartes warship, no matter the class, had a few things in common. They were all powered by large Solid State Matter batteries, their decks were laid out perpendicular to the engine's main thrust vectors, and each had repulsor engines.

Repulsor engines were highly sophisticated applications of gravitic manipulation. Instead of pushing the starship with trust, the starship 'fell' towards the front into an artificial gravity well, like the covenant. However, the engines were also designed to create a powerful negative gravity well near the rear. The inertia from the pull and push gravitic fields worked against each other and allowed the inertial dampeners to handle larger levels of acceleration without much energy. However, the danger of literally pulling the crew apart was present.

The clones were designed to be used in space combat. Their bodies were much more resilient to forces from starship acceleration, forms of radiation, and didn't become disoriented from a lack of 'up.' The clones' resistance to radiation allows for more powerful gravitic fields to be made without worrying about the quantum fluctuations as much.

Weaker fields could be used to pull and push the starship around for advanced maneuvering. One of the main advantages of the repulsor engines was eliminating the need for many thrusters placed along a starship.

The Astartes warships did have what looked like thrusters towards the rear. However; they were simply used as heat exhaust, a way to bleed off excess radiation, and contained large negative gravitic fields. They slowly expelled the superheated coolant used to cool the repulsor engines; it gave the 'thruster' an eerie blue exhaust. The repulsor engines were an older model, so they ran hot, and needed constant cooling.

The decks didn't have to be stacked due to the gravitic technology inside the clone starships. However, the main vector of the engines was powerful enough to overcome the inertia dampeners at extremely high thrust. It wouldn't do any good for anything not bolted down to be thrown around.

The ships were somewhat simple but looked intimidating nonetheless. Their solid geometries were offset slightly by the smooth angles and nanolaminate armor.

A crew of four hundred and ninety-two were needed for a light warship. Two thousand five hundred and sixty-eight for a medium, and five thousand fifty-eight for a heavy.

In total, a battlegroup needed a little over eighty-four thousand clones to man the warships.

Production of battlegroups could pick up quickly with enough carriers. Especially when the Klonarmee des Geistes Navy, or KGN, took heavy casualties.

The Klonarmee des Geistes was weak compared to their parent force, the Weltraumwölfe, and were designed to effectively engage the Covenant.

Each clone army was equipped with what their Spartan designed. Erwin enjoyed the idea of crushing the Covenant with their own technology and did have a level of respect for the Sangheili.

Admiral Thrawn was a special clone.

He was taller than his brothers, at seven foot eight, and was much more intelligent. Thrawn was designed to lead a fleet whenever Ares was indisposed.

Thrawn could ruthlessly pick apart the Xenos threat whenever in command, but he was nothing compared to the Contender-class Ancilla.

Thrawn shuddered when thinking of the Ancilla's capabilities. The capabilities of a Contender-class Ancilla were terrifying. If Thrawn beat Ares in a simulation, it was only due to Ares being massively outnumbered. Even then, Thrawn would take normally unacceptable losses.

Imperial AI could have taken the role of cannon fodder from the clones, and sentinels were considered a form of droid soldiers.

However, he fully understood the need for clones; one of the major ones being the danger of networked AIs. After his creators fought the Ishtan'Kil-Terran War, the use of mass-produced AI for a warrior caste was outlawed within the Confederacy. It was one of the few laws every Empire fully supported.

The war was the outcome of an AI network rebelling against a relatively minor Human Nation. The Ishtan'Kil was a unique culture that developed in the outer colonies. They used an AI-controlled army to compete with the larger Empires based on Terra.

Long story short, the AI went rogue and killed every single Human within Ishtan'Kil space. The Anglians organized the full force of the Terran Confederacy to crush the AI. It was relatively bloodless due to Anglia and the quick response.

Clones weren't as effective as an AI-controlled machine army, but only due to the capability of the AI to outproduce clones. The main advantage of clones was loyalty and being unhackable.

Thrawn was currently sitting next to the captain of the KGS Chimaera on the bridge. His flagship still needed a captain to command the starship while he commanded the fleet.

The bridge was a large rectangular room with two chairs in the center of the room. Two large trenches at the sides of the room housed the clone ensigns controlling the warship.

Windows were useless to clones, so the bridge was buried in the interior of the warship. Thrawn could see everything and read every sensor from the direct connection to the warship.

Thrawn sat in his chair calmly and had a few holograms floating around him. However, it was the large cord coming from the back of his skull that let him understand the tactical situation.

The Klonarmee des Geistes First Fleet only consisted of two battlegroups, but it'd be enough for the retribution demanded by Supreme Commander Wolff.

Unlike many of his brothers, Thrawn cared little for the primitives. There were a lot of things his brothers and he didn't see eye-to-eye. It was to be expected, his personality was radically different from the group consciousness.

The primitives weren't part of the Empire, but they were protected by Imperial law. The only anger Thrawn felt for the Xenos was their blatant disregard of Imperial law.

His creators' laws.

The First Fleet exited slipspace a few light seconds from Khar'Shan.

The sensor readings of the fleet were directly fed into Thrawn's mind and created a virtual interpretation of the battlefield.

The main Batarian fleet was in orbit around their homeworld, but a sizable second fleet was guarding the Mass Relay.

"Rules of engagement, sir?" Thrawn asked Supreme Commander Wolff from his neural lace.

The Supreme Commander was more than half a Galaxy away, but the quantum-based com system allowed real-time communication with his superior.

"Make an example of the primitives. No survivors."

Thrawn grinned.

He was glad SC Wolff was in charge. The Ancilla was far too weak in Thrawn's opinion.

The Covenant sticky plasma weaponry was a unique invention designed by the San'Shyuum. It was a marvelous mixture of heat rays and photon accelerators. Calling it simple plasma seemed inaccurate to Thrawn.

"Unknown vessels, you are trespassing in Hegemony space. Please respond."

Thrawn got a message from the primitives once they saw the light from his fleet. He ignored the message.

The speaker was trying to sound dangerous, but his respectful attitude showed his fear. Not that Thrawn could blame the primitive.

Their so-called 'dreadnought' was a little under a kilometer. Smaller than the light warships, and not even considered a ship-of-the-line by Imperial standards.

The Batarians were an ugly race, and their starships reflected that. They were somewhat ovoid with a few symmetrical bumps.

They looked like flying pieces of shit.

Thrawn was hesitant to engage the primitives in fear of dirtying his fleet. However, he had SC Wolff's orders and he'd follow them.

First thing first, nothing was going to leave the system.

"CC-01-01-02, take a detachment to the Mass Relay. Eradicate the Batarian warships, and make sure nothing gets through the Relay and lives."

"Yes, sir."

Thrawn communicated with the Commodore of the second battlegroup through the KG battle net. Their thoughts connected with a series of advanced communication systems and neural laces.

He directed a group of warships consisting of two heavies and sixteen light warships to secure the Mass Relay.

The sub-group elegantly drilled holes into slipspace before lumbering through. The warships almost instantly appeared next to the Mass Relay and Second Batarian Fleet.

"They're not going to be sending any transmissions about the fleet. The operation is yours, Admiral." Ares informed him.

"They outnumber you ten to one, Thrawn. What will you do?" Ares asked him.

The Ancilla's hologram was standing beside him and seemed to be almost judging Thrawn's actions.

Another thing Thrawn disagreed with his brothers about was their rivalry with the Ancilla. The Ancilla technically led the clones, but the clones only saw the AI as an extension of their maker's will.

Thrawn couldn't help but respect the AI. Ares might have his quarks, but they only hid the beast underneath a veil of playfulness.

"Burn them." Thrawn curtly answered.

"Not very imaginative of you." Ares playfully jabbed.

"They're primitives. It'd almost be insulting to use any complex strategies."

"So, you're just going to rush them?"

"No, they'll rush me. Then, they'll run like cowards." Thrawn answered with a cocky grin.

"You know their kinetics are capable of damaging your starships, right?" Ares asked.

"They won't get close enough."

"We'll see, Thrawn."

Ares seems to be letting Thrawn take the lead. He only did that when Ares was either busy with something or didn't care about playing with primitives.

More fun for Thrawn.

The primitives were forming in front of Thrawn's main fleet. They probably felt confident due to their numerical superiority. The Batarians had almost a hundred warships for every one of Thrawn's.

"Open transmission with the primitives," Thrawn ordered the communications officer.

"This is Dran Broprahan, we don't wish for-"

Dran's eyes widened and stopped mid-sentence when he saw Admiral Thrawn.

Thrawn vaguely resembles Supreme Commander Wolff due to him being birthed from a gene-seed formed from his maker. However, he mainly looked like a mixed-race Human.

'Human,' was the keyword. Thrawn might not technically be Human, but he was part of Humanity and looked like a Human.

"H-Human!" The gobsmacked Batarians exclaimed.

"Close enough, Xenos," Thrawn spoke with little emotion.

"How did the Alliance make such vessels without the Council knowing!? There will be hell to pay when they find out about your primitive vessels." The angry Batarian sneered.

That comment did aggravate Thrawn.

"Primitive?" The Admiral didn't believe such a young species called his fleet primitive.

"There's no way those vessels are using Ezo; they'll be torn apart!" The Batarian seemed to be trying to convince himself more than Thrawn.

"You're correct, Xenos."

"I knew it! Those slow primitive vess-"

"That doesn't mean we're the primitives. You'll know soon, how wrong you are. The purpose of this call was to simply inform you why the Imperium is attacking your simple people."

"Imperium, you're the ones responsible for the cyber attack!?"

"Yes, and your people chose to make an enemy of the Empire. Now, I'll be the ambassador for my maker's righteous anger; your people will burn, savage." Thrawn lectured the thing in a calm but aggravated tone.

Thrawn then slammed his hand on his command chair's controls, ending the conversation.

"All warships, open fire." He ordered every warship within the First Fleet.

The Xenos fleet was twenty-five light seconds away from the First Fleet and closing fast.

The primitive dreadnoughts only fired small kinetics at sixty c. Unfortunately, that was just their dreadnoughts. They only had a few hundred of the dreadnoughts, and they'd all be targeted first.

The Astartes fleet opened fire with plasma lances and plasma torpedoes. The lances traveled at almost light speed and burned at temperature even the hottest stars couldn't compete with.

Within twenty seconds of firing, multiple plasma lances priced the Batarian starships. The primitive kinetic barriers of the Batarians couldn't hold up to the kinetic force of the plasma and did nothing to stop the indescribable heat.

The Batarian warships hit were either bisected or violently exploded.

One of the Batarian dreadnoughts was targeted by a heavy warship's super heavy plasma lance. Its armor melted like butter, and its shields stripped away as if it was air. The result was what looked like a dreadnought cut down the center by a hot knife. A clean-cut; showcasing the plasma lance's surgical destructiveness.

The Imperial fleet fired multiple volleys of plasma lances, and almost every single one hit a Batarian warship. Thrawn had to admit he was impressed with the primitive's manuverbility. They were clearly more maneuverable than his Covenant-based warships, but the plasma lances were too fast for the primitives to react to. By the time the light of the Astartes warships firing reached the Batarians, the plasma lance would be practically on them.

The Batarians returned fire, but most of their dreadnoughts were destroyed within a few seconds. The small Mass Effect kinetics that hit were shrugged off by the Astartes warship's energy shields.

Though most of the Xenos kinetics didn't even hit the shields. The repulsor engines were capable of moving the large warships in almost impossible ways.

Thrawn seemed to be proven right when the Batarians were being cut apart with the plasma lances. However, it was when the plasma torpedoes reached the Batarians, that all doubt was removed.

The plasma torpedos traveled at under a quarter of the speed of light and were formed from pure plasma, but could maneuver due to their nature.

Plasma torpedoes weren't guided to their target by any form of magnetism, like their earlier counterparts; at least not at such long ranges. Rather they were literally alive. Each torpedo launcher had a capsule of exotic cells. Once the capsule mixed with the hot plasma in the firing chambers, the cells exploded to life.

The cells were used for maneuvering, communication, or computing; all living in a plasma soup at temperatures that could melt Tungsten like ice. Some of the cells were kept within the torpedo tube for superluminal communication with the plasma torpedo.

By the time the lances tore apart the Xenos fleet with a few volleys, the plasma torpedoes destroyed the rest.

Unlike the surgical precision of the plasma lances, the torpedoes were far more brutal. The torpedoes traveled much slower and were less 'sticky' than the lances, but that only means the unfortunate Xenos warships had more time exposed to the searing plasma.

When a particular heavy plasma torpedo hit a Batarian cruiser, the heat caused the kinetic shields to immediately short out. The plasma then continued to make contact with the hull and armor. The hot plasma seemed to wrap around the Batarian starship and quickly turned it into slag. It didn't take much longer for the Batarian cruiser to be transformed into a small nebula of hot gasses.

The few remaining Xenos warships entered FTL and made a mad dash for the Mass Relay. The civilian vessels who just saw their fleet tore apart also ran towards the Mass Relay.

Unfortunately for them, the engagement at the Relay between the sub-group and second primitive fleet went similarly. Except there were no survivors for the second primitive fleet.

Ares was inside the systems of every primitive warship. All Thrawn had to do was ask the Ancilla to power down the retreating primitive starships. Then it was a simple task of target practice.

Thrawn broke off a hunter group of twelve light warships to hunt down the retreating primitives.

He then sent most of the fleet to high orbit above Khar'Shan and prepared for initial orbital bombardment.

"Ares, could you power down the retreating primitive starships?" Thrawn asked.

Ares was technically a superior but was also in a different chain of command. Slightly, the Ancilla could still order the clones; it was an odd in-between.

"No prob." Ares then shut down the retreating Batarian military starships.

Thrawn groaned, the Ancilla was being soft again.

"Ares, all of them," Thrawn added, slightly annoyed.

"They're just civilians, and I wiped their data banks of any video of our warships." Ares defended.

Instead of arguing; Thrawn opened a com channel with Supreme Commander Wolff, Ares, and himself.

"Sir, Ares wants to spare the civilian starships," Thrawn said.

"They're just civilians, and I wiped all data on our forces. They don't have to die, Erwin." Ares argued.

"No survivors." Supreme Commander Wolff commanded.

"What did the civilians do wrong?" Ares asked.

"No survivors, Ares." SC Wolff spoke in a voice that implied there was no room for discussion.

"So be it." Ares coldly obeyed.

Ares pulled the civilian ships out of warp travel, then powered their systems down.

The hunter group of light warships spit up and started jumping to various locations. It'll only take a few minutes for them to eliminate the line of drifting starships between Khar'Shan and the Mass Relay.

The group of warships assigned to secure the Mass Relay would destroy any starship exiting the Relay.

Space superiority was now achieved in the Harsa System.

All thirty-two medium warships of the First Fleet dove down into low orbit and bombarded Batarian orbital defenses. The slaves were still on Khar'Shan, so only gamma lasers and low-powered shots from the plasma cannons were allowed.

Inside each medium warship were twelve thousand Clones Troopers, along with all their support equipment and vehicles.

It was time for the clones to be released on Khar'Shan.