THE BATTLE CONTINUES
Phase 3: Planetstrike
The Batarian First Fleet was entirely unprepared for the counterattack that fell upon them. Against the thousand ships at the disposal of the Hegemony space forces, the Alliance would field just short of twice that number. The majority of the combat vessels were arranged in a defensive sphere just within weapons range of the primary relay jump zones, ready to handle any human counterattack. If anything, Admiral Dhark Ar'dra had hoped the Alliance would come in force, so he could score a crushing victory of his own over the hated enemy. Under normal circumstances, his plan would have worked, but as all were to learn, the circumstances were far from normal. There were also minor annoyances for the Admiral, courtesy of his overall commander. With their capability to use asteroids for bombardment destroyed, he had been forced by Haliat to break off flotillas from the defence of the primary relay to provide orbital artillery support. This action weakened the defences, the degree to which is still debated today.
The humans struck with finesse. First, a dozen Scylla-class trans-relay missiles were sent through the relay, carrying three-stage thermonuclear weapons. The exact yields remain classified, but the estimates in the aftermath of the battle by civilian experts placed them in the 25-30 megaton range. These detonated on transition to Vetus. Their purpose was twofold, first to destroy any static defences the batarians may have placed in the jumpzones themselves, and secondly to disrupt the batarian sensors for the first wave. Exactly sixty seconds after detonation, the Alliance counterattack began, with ten scout flotillas from the Fifth and Sixth fleets leading the way. The batarians were taken completely by surprise when the frigate wolfpacks arrived as a single group, weaved their way through their defensive formation under the cover of radiation, and made their way towards Elysium. Admiral Ar'dra barely had time to warn the batarian and Terminus forces on the planet, and organise pursuit of the five hundred enemy vessels, before the rest of Combined Battle Fleet Hiryu arrived and began engaging.
Those in the Elysium command bunker watched in captive fascination as the frigates fell upon the huge number of support vessels, and the cruiser groups protecting them, with a terrible vengeance. The asari matriarch in charge of the bunker assault could only watch in horror as all prospects of escape disappeared in an instant. The combat in the CIC room ended instantly as the transmissions to coordinate the ground counterattack with the Navy began pouring in. General Orzeski, ever the honourable soldier despite slowly bleeding to death on the floor, offered the matriarch a chance to surrender. Understanding that her position would be made worse by further slaughter, the asari agreed to capitulate. The commando team was restrained and moved to the cells in the Justice Building above, the first of many prisoners that would be taken. With that situation defused, Orzeski had an aide apply a tourniqet and medigel to stop the profuse haemorrhaging of his leg, before returning to command. The situation at the cathedral was now dire. There were mere minutes until the end of Haliat's deadline, and the arrival of the fleet had possibly rendered it moot in any case. The hostages needed to be saved, and quickly.
Luckily, the fleet had brought just the right people for the job. Inserting by orbital assault pod from their frigates, eighty N7 operatives landed in the church-grounds after a brief-but-intense EMP bombardment. Among them was a Lieutenant Jane Shepard, on her first combat tour. The naval special forces caught the batarian conscripts completely by surprise, and after a brief firefight in which their commanding officer was killed, they too surrendered. As soon as Orzeski was sure the hostages were safe, the order for the units defending Illyria to attack was issued. The 11th Armoured Division bore the Fifth Legion's golden aquila as it fell upon the batarians to the north, while the 3rd Orbital Assault moved to attack the Terminus mercenaries with assistance from the colonial defence forces. Both were unprepared for a counterattack, their positions arranged for what they thought was an imminent order to advance. The batarians fared better than their allies, having far more heavy armour support to call upon, but strafing by frigates flying in-atmosphere tore them to shreds. On the southern side of the city, the mercenaries lacked armoured support of any kind bar some heavy mech units. These troops now found themselves caught between the Fifth Legion's walkers and infantry advancing from the city centre, and airdropped walkers manned by Alliance N5s and N6s.
The mercenaries retreated in complete disarray, as their commander looked on from the luxurious yacht in the sparkling waters to the west. Only those parts commanded by the asari veterans held together, and covered the rout of their panicking counterparts admirably. All over the planet, Alliance forces began attacking batarian formations that outnumbered them by degrees of magnitude in some cases, safe in the knowledge that they now commanded the skies. Haliat's reaction to these developments was one of complete disbelief. All his grand dreams of a Terminus Empire with him at the head, allied with a strong Batarian Hegemony, fell to pieces in the space of an hour. He snapped out of his depression quickly. The Overlord of Altakiril was a survivor by nature, and he had every intention of surviving the calamity. He was not the only one. General Gadnalak, finding his suspicions confirmed, did not suffer the indignity of being counterattacked and found himself still very much in the game. So too did Admiral Ar'dra, the Arch-Hegemon's cousin not being one to fall to pieces under pressure.
Gadnalak and Haliat had similar ideas about how to achieve the feat of escaping. Both the External Forces and the remaining cohesive units of the Terminus mercenary forces made their way to the civilian spaceports. Haliat had already captured Illyria's southern spaceport, and was using it as an airbase for his gunships. His mercenaries rallied there, forming a defensive line in the industrial sectors between it and the city proper. The Alliance, unable to surround him as their reinforcements had not yet landed, contented themselves with picking at the wound, killing as many of the mercenaries as they could. The External Forces under Gadnalak were less fortunate, and had to fight their way through to Los Bancos' military aerodrome, through the first layer of the Alliance defences of that city. The batarian general succeeded, concentrating his forces and smashing his way through before the Alliance realised what he was doing. He too set up a formidable defensive position. However, both knew that if they were going to escape the battle, there was nothing they themselves could do but wait. Their fate was entirely in the hands of Admiral Ar'dra, who found himself hard pressed.
The battle at the relay zone defied the expectations of both sides. The Alliance forces tore through the initial batarian defence, courtesy of their confusion over the first wave and the superiority of the human naval forces generally. However, contrary to the predictions of some human naval planners, the batarians did not attempt to flee the system for others in the cluster, nor did they try to force their way through the relay to friendly space. Ar'dra carefully rallied his ships, using his two dreadnoughts to fend off the Alliance cruiser assaults, before withdrawing to Elysium itself behind a fighter screen. This was and is standard practice in many species' navies; both common sense and Citadel law forbid the bombardment of garden worlds with entire fleets' worth of accelerators. Admiral Ar'dra believed he would buy time with the action. He was mistaken. The Combined Battle Fleet was unperturbed, and followed hot on the heels of their enemy. The torpedo-armed frigates and fighters were no danger to the planet below, and they ranged at will, grinding the batarian line down ship by ship. Meanwhile, the duel of the capital ships began. The Alliance were surprised to find that it had numerical superiority in dreadnoughts as well as carriers. Kill squadrons waited for the chance to strike, as the dreadnoughts fought each other at distance.
With the space battle raging above, the situation on the ground changed in drastic fashion. Alliance reinforcements began arriving via landing ships or assault titans from the planetary assault cruisers in orbit, bringing the rest of the Fifth Legion into play. Combat elements from the Task Forces Gironde, Brandenburg, Leinster, Wessex, Lazio and Wallachia landed in Alliance-controlled spaceports, and in the countryside near the batarian staging grounds. Another hundred thousand troops, outfitted for both armoured and urban warfare, went on the attack against the batarian and mercenary positions. More would arrive every hour. For Haliat in Illyria and Gadnalak near Los Bancos, the clock began to tick faster, as their troops were finally under threat of being surrounded. However, with the arrival of the batarian navy in orbit once again, the opportunity to escape in the chaos also presented itself.
Haliat took the chance. Ever the cunning operator, he ordered the units he couldn't save forward, away from the landing strips, under the pretence of a counterattack with the protection of the batarian navy. Once this was complete and the Alliance forces engaged heavily, he gathered his best troops on board the civilian transports still parked in the spaceport. He abandoned the battle and escaped with his asari through the relay, spoofing old Alliance medical emergency codes to do so. Given the huge traffic to and from the relay by Alliance assault cruisers, the con worked. The Overlord of Altakiril escaped to fight another day. General Gadnalak also began evacuations of his External Forces troops as soon as the batarian fleet arrived. Despite lacking shuttles and ships for his whole force, he chose to evacuate the wounded first, followed by those who had been on the perimeter the longest. When he realised there would not be enough, he determined to die fighting. It was not to be. As the Alliance began an orbital bombardment, he was dragged onto the last shuttle by Major Balak, a man who would later become infamous for the Terra Nova Incident. Similar scenes played out all over the planet. Desperate batarian troops commandeered any and all spaceworthy vessels they could get their hands on, overloaded them with as many as they could carry, and attempted to rejoin the First Fleet. Most made it, while the unlucky few drew the wrath of roving squadrons of interceptors.
Phase 4: Retreat and Disaster
With the departure of Haliat, Admiral Ar'dra on board the Fang of Khar'shan took command of all batarian forces, and the remaining mercenary forces surrendered. Orzeski, somehow still conscious despite his wounds, could claim success. However, the fighting was not yet over. On Elysium itself, there were still millions of batarian soldiers, most having not yet seen action and whom would not surrender without some sort of fight. In space, the situation was more tenuous for both sides. The Alliance held the relay and had absolute superiority in numbers, but the batarians could flee to neighbouring systems to draw the fight out despite their horrendous losses. However, Ar'dra knew that relief wasn't coming. The Second Fleet, having departed hours previously, could not abandon the defensive lines protecting batarian space to save him. Without relief, scattering to other systems to fight a guerrilla campaign would simply be a slow death. Robbed of any other real option, Ar'dra determined to escape with his fleet.
His opposite number, Admiral Ches Giap, was waiting for him. The Alliance Navy's position still wasn't as strong as it should have been. The Eighth Fleet, which had been sent around the Verge to attack, had still not arrived. The batarians' two dreadnoughts were still very much a threat, Ar'dra's flagship in particular causing concern. Giap was not confident of his ability to stop the batarians from escaping, and reported this to the Alliance High Command. Consul Taro overruled his concerns. Having trapped the batarians, she had little patience for what she saw as defeatism on the cusp of a great victory. Orzeski was in full agreement with his leader and ordered Giap to destroy the enemy fleet. The longer the batarian fleet was above Elysium, the longer it would take to rout or destroy the ground forces still ravaging the planet. Giap conceded, and pulled back the frigate wolfpacks for a great strike on the batarian orbital positions in conjunction with the rest of the fleet.
Ar'dra had other plans, however. He ordered the troops on Elysium to fight to the death, and then pre-empted the Alliance attack on his fleet with an attack of his own. The powerful Hensa-class cruiser groups began to maul their way through to the relays, with one group launching an attack on Alliance flotillas to let another pass, then repeating the trick. Giap reacted, ordering the frigate wolfpacks back into the fight. With their fleet caught between the jaws of the Alliance cruisers and the frigates, the batarians lost ships very quickly. The older batarian dreadnought Son of Jal'ruun was destroyed when it was set upon by nearly forty Alliance frigates, their torpedoes tearing the ship apart. Yet, despite this damage to both their numbers and morale, the batarians succeeded. The greater part of their fleet, now reduced to some six hundred functional ships, escaped through the relay. Giap asked for permission from Orzeski to pursue with the Seventh Fleet, which was promptly given. He mustered the fleet, had it recover its fighters for another attack and ordered it through the relay.
What Giap found on the other side was carnage. The Batarian First Fleet had run headlong into the Alliance Eighth Fleet, which had arrived mere minutes before. Battered, their barriers depleted, their weapons hot and their drives nearly in need of discharge, Ar'dra's ships were no match for the fresh Alliance reinforcements. Frigates and fighters launched from escort carriers targeted the largest ships first. The batarians' two fleet carriers, the only examples then in existence, were the first to be hit. They were crippled by successive torpedo hits, and broke apart as their crews abandoned ship. The Fang of Khar'shan itself was next, albeit in more spectacular fashion. It took two cruisers with it, before exploding violently as the fusion reactors detonated. This was possibly deliberate, as Admiral Ar'dra escaped the destruction of his ship, managing to dock with a batarian frigate as the battle continued.
The Seventh Fleet joined the havoc, taking the batarian formation from the rear. With the rate of losses staggering them, and no sign of mercy, the rest of the batarians retreated again, running their drives hot all the way to the next relay. Out of the thousand ships they had arrived with, barely three hundred had escaped. Giap, satisfied with the result as well as the good luck, reported the news back to Orzeski and the High Command. The former finally allowed himself to be taken to the infirmary after hearing the news, leaving the command of the ground war to his direct subordinates and command of the fleets to Giap. The hard fighting was over, and humanity had triumphed.