General Pallonis and his command staff stepped out of his dropship.
They'd set down inside the large complex that the Humans were using as their command and control post. It A large compound with thick walls, towers, and built in such a way each building could function as an individual fortress. He could see what he assumed to be the Barracks, mess hall, supply dumps, vehicle pool, vtol-pad, and a massive fortified building that he assumed to be their base.
As he and his command staff walked through the compound, the Human soldiers eyed him somewhat warily, but quickly returned back to their preparations. They were preparing sandbags, loading ammunition, patching both wounds and armor, and telling stories.
He didn't blame them for their xenophobia after what had happened, but it couldn't get in the way of what had to be done. This was the first "official" engagement between the Citadel and the Covenant, and it would reflect badly on the Hierarchy if they failed. He hoped his translation software wouldnt mess things up.
He'd read everything the STG had been able to gather. Family structures, a sense of authority in the military, and a high focus on attempted evacuations of civilians. The Humans struck him as an empathic species with how worlds had been found glassed, with its last defenders found defending what looked to be evacuation sites. A good way to die, he thought to himself.
He could see that the Turian Engineering corps was already hard at work fortifying the base; they were installing barrier generators, installing defensive emplacements, setting up Turian prefabs, and repairing the human ones. He smiled as he saw a Human holding a metal plate in place while the Turian welded it with his omni-tools. He took note of the ones at work and marked the better workers out for promotion.
All around him the Turian soldiers were in a flurry of movement. Dropships were not just landing here, but across the planet, from isolated communities to smaller cities not yet attacked by the Covenant. His soldiers were reporting across the battlenet of the slaughters they'd witnessed. The first evacuation ships were already underway.
The soldiers seemed eager for this fight. They had seen the briefings, the STG footage of the horrors of the Covenant. This would be a righteous war, one that would define a new generation of Turian heroes, and the soldiers here knew it.
There was some grumbling and the occasional posturing between these Humans and the Turians, mostly the humans not wanting to eat the Levo-Amino nutrient paste the Asari had provided for this expedition. Some of the more experiment humans were trying it though, with their comrades egging them on.
He passed by a freshly assembled hospital prefab where doctors were cutting Turians out of molten armor, and preparing to ship the wounded back out. Some were lucky, and merely treatments against the heat, before they were given new armor.
He was impressed by how stoic the Human Marines were. Their command structure had almost completely been dismantled, they were low on vehicles, running out of ammunition, and looked starving, but still they stood ready to fight. It reminded him of documentaries of the Krogan Rebellions, of Turian soldiers fighting on worlds that had been the victims of Asteroid strikes.
He put those thoughts aside and headed into the large building he'd been informed was the headquarters of the human resistance. He turned to his general staff. "Begin setting up my personal command post in the prefab, I will meet with the Human leaders and prepare our next course of action. They're scared, so I don't want to bring two dozen Turians into their headquarters."
A pair of humans in black suits let him in at the doorway, their faces what he assumed to be grim, but jovial. They let him and his guards inside.
The first thing Pallonis noticed were all the refugees, most of them children and the elderly. He passed through a door that opened before him, and entered a large dimly lit chamber with a massive holographic table at the center of it. There were signs of jury-rigged computers and equipment around the room, and there were humans sitting at portable computer stations that looked like they were transported as suitcase. At the table he could see two humans waiting for him. The first was what had to be a UNSC Marine Corps Major according to the STG briefing. It was an older middle-aged human with dark hair, grizzled features, and eyes that seemed to stare off into the distance. Next to him was what at first he'd thought was a Civilian, until he saw the badge on his tunic. If he'd read the STG briefings correctly, this had to be an ONI "spook". It was an unremarkable man with brown hair and beady eyes, but a strong jawline. He looked scrutinously at everyone and everything in the room.
The Major stood up and gave Pallonis a quick curt salute, which Pallonis returned.
"My name is General Adric Pallonis of the Turian Hierarchy. I am here to initiate contact with the United Earth Government by command of the Primarch, and assist you against the Covenant by whatever means possible."
The Major spoke up. "UNSC Marine Corps Major Leonard Ross, New Ghent Garrison. And this is Lieutenant Commander Rickard of the Office of Naval Intelligence. We wish we'd made contact with your species under better circumstances, but thank you in the name of the United Earth Government."
"Duly noted." Adric nodded, as the STG report had informed him was the correct response in this situation. "I shall be brief with you, formal introductions can come after we've gotten you off this world, or the Covenant invasion has been defeated." Pallonis took his omni-tool and uploaded an image onto the holographic projector, showing an overhead view of the battlefront.
"We are landing forces across your planet to prepare to evacuate your into Citadel Space. I will be stationing my Engineering corps and a small garrison here to aid you in the evacuation of the civilians, while we engage the Covenant give you time to withdraw. Do you still have transport ships, or will we need to provide them?"
Rickard leant forward, pressing a button on the holographic display. "The colonial administration hid a few freighters in the mountains to the south of the colony for this exact purpose. I don't know if we can trust you, I hope we can, but we're dead anyways unless you're trustworthy."
The Major sighed, and explained for the ONI agent. "The roads have been mined by the covenant, and our refugee convoys get hunted down by covenant airpower. My forces are spread too thin, I cant hold off the Covenant, and evacuate the civilians at the same time."
Pallonis nodded. This could make things difficult. "I'll deploy interdiction air-patrols and have shuttles put at your disposal for the evacuation." He activated his omni-tool and sent out the commands. "We'll be bringing in a shipment of Levo-Amino nutrient paste on the first available transport ship."
This seemed to put the two humans at unease, but the spook raised a wary eyebrow. "Why are you so eager to help us, or put yourself in harm's way for us?"
Pallonis didn't know what to say at first, to a Turian, his current actions were only natural. He tried to put it the best way he could. "We have known of your species for several months now, when our scouts began discovering the remnants of your worlds."
"Eventually we managed to piece together information from drifting freighters, partially wiped computers, and ruins on partially destroyed worlds. We have been trying to contact the UNSC for some time now. When I saw the Covenant invade this world, I immediately ordered an intervention to save both your people, attack the Covenant for their crimes, and to initiate contact with your species."
The ONI agent seemed unnerved at the mention of how the STG had put together information on the UNSC. "So this is a matter of religion? Or of Ethics? Don't take this the wrong way, I couldn't be more grateful, but I am confused by your eagerness to help a species not your own." It saddened Pallonis inside to see this kind of distrust upon good deeds. It felt wrong in light of his upbringing.
Pallonis went silent as he thought of the right words. "The Covenant go against everything the Turians stand for. Law. Order. Peace. They are a threat to all civilized races in the galaxy." He slammed his claw into his open palm. "Total war is the only acceptable response to their actions. It is our duty to our family, our state, and our galaxy to destroy their threat, now and forever. Does that satisfy your question?"
There were sympathetic nods, and even a few smiles around the room. The Major pressed some buttons on the Holographic table, turning it off. "I will put my more broken and disorganized forces to work, guarding the evacuation of the capital, and put my But that won't matter if the Covenant fleet returns to the planet."
Pallonis nodded. "As I speak, Admiral Karandis is leading our fleet in drawing off the Covenant in orbit, He has drawn most ships away from this planet, except for the flagship, which remains stationary above the surface." He used his omni-tool to reactivate the table, and changed the hologram to show an overview of the solar system.
"We have so far identified, A single super-dreadnought sized ship, two dreadnought-sized ships, and two packs of frigate-sized ships." He pointed at the designated markers. He could see that one of the Covenant Dreadnoughts had been taken down, although his fleet had started to take losses.
The Major observed the space battle in silence, while Rickard nodded. "Yes. A CCS-Class Battlecruiser, two SDC-class Corvettes, and eight DAS-class Stormcutters. They jumped directly into near-orbit but didn't immediately open fire. I believe its a safe guess they didn't know we were here, and instead arrived for something else."
Major Ross muttered. "Must be some fucking ruins again. Pardon my french." but shut up when Rickard gave him a look that immediately shut him up.
Interesting, their military fears this "Office of Naval Intelligence" A secret police perhaps? He made a note to include this in the formal report to the STG. He took his omni-tool and uploaded the new designations to the Turian battlenet. He put his concerns over these being "corvettes" out of his mind for now. He didn't know what a Corvette meant to humans, for all he knew, to them, it meant a dreadnought-sized ship.
He hoped so, at least.
The ONI agent spoke up again. "The Covenant has been known to wage ground wars when they've won the orbitals, but only if they want something on the surface."
The Major spoke up again, pointing at the hologram of the CCS-class Battlecruiser, and pointing at a torn part of the hull. "The Battlecruiser took damage during the initial assault, that purple beam is its gravity lift, its ferrying troops and supplies to the surface. Rickard, show him the Surveillance drone footage." The spook complied and changed the image to a camera view of the Battlecruiser hovering ominously, far outside the city limits, a bright blue beam connecting to the surface.
Pallonis saw several large large gashes on its hull, the surface seemed molten in places, and there were large craters in the hull. "Your work, I take it?"
The Major nodded. "We've been hiding nuclear missiles around the planet for when this day came. We launched them at close range and managed to drop the bastard's shields, then hit it with the mass-drivers we normally use to transport cargo into space. We didn't take it down, but its not bombarded us yet, which I hope means we disabled its glassing beam. We've also seens it shields behave erratically. Which makes us think we clipped its wings."
The Major continued. "We have plenty of nukes left, we used to export fissionable materials to the UNSC after all, but we don't have anything to deliver our payloads."
"Nuclear weapons are effective against these ships?" Pallonis asked, eager to know if they'd found a weakness. Pallonis would include that in his report, recommend that all Citadel ships begin carrying nuclear ordinance.
"Very." Rickard said. "They've been one of our most effective weapons since this war began. Covenant shields are susceptible to extreme heat, and hitting it in multiple places at the same time. It seems to drain them faster."
Pallonis slowly nodded, an idea forming in his mind. "I was hoping to evacuate as many people as I could, but I'm starting to think we might have an opportunity to try to capture that ship. I can send shuttles to board it."
"You want to attack a CCS-Battlecruiser -by ground-." The Major asked plainly, like he didn't believe him, which he probably did. "We've never boarded a Covenant ship successfully… as far as I know." He said, eyeing the ONI agent who did not respond to the provocation.
"Perhaps my engineers can create a delivery mechanism for your nuclear weapons? Perhaps placing them in empty shuttles and ramming the ship could work."
Rickard held up a hand. "I believe I have something better." He said, straightening up and putting his hands behind his back to improve his posture. "The Office of Naval intelligence has a Prowler in this system. They can deploy Shivas on the battlecruiser and drop its shields. We can then provide your forces with the locations of its shield emitters. Take those out, and we can board it.."
Pallonis nodded at him.
The Major looked at him lividly. "A Prowler! Since when has that thing been in his system!?"
"Major. The prospect of capturing a Covenant ship is worth losing one of the few Prowlers left this far into the outer colonies. Without that, it would have reported our destruction to the UNSC, and the loss of our supplies of Fissionable materials, and Titanium deposits."
Pallonis nodded at the logic. He'd heard of the Turian Hierarchy experimenting with their own cloaked ships. It seems the Humans had them already. Perhaps they could be convinced to share this technology?
Pallonis spoke up before the conversation between the two humans escalated. Tensions were running high, but they seemed fueled by hunger, dehydration, and stress. "The armor of my men is rated for brief deployment in radiological environments. We can wait outside the blast radius and attack the moment the heat wave has died down. Then I will order an aerial assault on the vessel, while my forces and what remains of the UNSC armored forces can attack the main Covenant army on the ground and push on to the Gravity Lift. Possibly even use it to supplement our boarding action."
"But first we must take care of the Covenan Army in the city. Do you have any recommendations? You faced them before."
The Major looked at the holographic map. "I've got a few armored formations left, and enough artillery to count for something. The Covenant army is currently marching into this city to meet you, driven by heir fanatical faith in their gods, and their rabid desire to kill our civilians. We can use this against them."
Pallonis nodded satisfactorily. He liked these humans. Resourceful, tenacious, and an undercurrent of vicious cunning. "Go on."
The Major began drawing on the holographic map. "It's a simple maneuver, but effective. Your forces engage the Covenant inside the city and engage them to prevent them from pulling out. Meanwhile my armored forces will move around the city from the east, while your armored forces move around the right. Then we meet up and encircle the city."
"Their forces from the Battlecruiser will attempt to break the encirclement, while the forces inside the city not engaged with the Turians will try to break out. Our armor will be attacked on both sides. We'd still need to clear the city block by block."
"We'll just nuke the heaviest centers of resistance. I can have some of my troops deploy tactical nuclear warheads in the sewers, and set them off beneath their forces."
Pallonis couldn't hide his surprise at how casually the Human talked about deploying weapons of mass destruction on his own homes. "You'd deploy nuclear ordinance upon your own homes?"
"Won't be the first time we've had to do that." The Major said somberly.
Pallonis didnt know what to say, and put that aside for now. "I see... Well, that makes it easier for us as well, we dont need to worry about destroying your homes. We'll keep the nuclear deployment a secret until the last possible moment. I assume they are at least somewhat "clean" nuclear weapons?" The humans werent a part of Citadel Space. The Turians would -technically- not be breaking the Citadel Conventions if they werent the ones setting nukes off.
The major nodded. "Clean enough, especially when deployed underground."
Rickard spoke up. "I'll have the Prowler move in to strike for when the opportunity presents itself. Give the signal, and we'll do douse the Cruiser in Oppenheimer's light."
Pallonis nodded. "I'll have one of my men provide you with Omni-Tools. Hand them out to your commanders. We can use them to remain in contact and coordinate the armored offensive. Our communication codes are in it." He sent a command over his omni-tool to the Commander of the Turian Engineering Corps. "I'll have my engineers give your officers a crash course in using them."
The Major nodded. "Good. God help us, we might actually win a battle for once."