THE OPPOSING FORCES
THE SYSTEMS ALLIANCE
Torfan Expeditionary Forces – Platoon A, Army Biotic Assault Corps
The Army Biotic Assault Corps was made up of the most powerful biotics of those freshly recruited into the Alliance Army at the start of the Second Verge War. Recruits were put through the usual rigours of the special forces programme for biotic soldiers, selected for the level of their powers, and received additional training for all-biotic units based on intelligence gathered about asari commandos. They were issued with new and experimental equipment, including L4 amplifiers and incendiary ammunition modifications, much of which remained unavailable to other units. Authorisations for spending on the unit were highly political in nature, token measures designed to show the Alliance Parliament's good faith towards biotics in the military and society more generally. There was significant support among politicians for the unit. There was far less so among the military leadership.
The concept was a potentially very effective one. Asari commandos, salarian operatives, turian cabals, and krogan battlemasters, all had fearsome reputations. All were utterly lethal in numbers to any force not possessing heavy armour or precision anti-materiel small arms. Aspects of the combat doctrines of all of these groups were adopted. While this granted a large amount of tactical flexibility to the corps, it also reflected humanity's newcomer status in biotic techniques. It was unrealistic to expect human biotics to combine the sheer power of asari, the front assault capability of krogan, the complete discipline of turians, AND the cunning of salarians. This would be the downfall of many a good soldier on Torfan. Exacerbating this problem was the overall commander, Major Kyle. While an avowed enthusiast for the use of biotics in combat, he was not himself a biotic. This has led some to declare his orders on Torfan to be utterly naïve, borne of a romantic or patriotic ideal about the capabilities of his subordinates without any knowledge of the reality behind the unit.
There was one more factor that led to events on the moon. Platoon A would be the part of the corps deployed to Torfan. Its membership was chosen for their biotic strength, rather than being chosen by experience and 'reinforced' with new recruits. This resulted in a very low age profile and almost no combat veterans being included, as younger biotics were often more powerful thanks to a better understanding of their biology than their predecessors had had to deal with. This inexperience, coupled with the absolute confidence in their commanding officer and the weight of the task in front of them, almost certainly contributed to the impetuousness and disregard for life with which they would fight.
Torfan Expeditionary Forces – Verdun Squad, N7 Naval Ordnance Coordination
As the Army Biotic Assault Corps did not possess orbital and suborbital artillery coordination capabilities at the time of Torfan, as well as the political reasons already explained, an N7 team was assigned to join them for the attack. Such teams were commonplace, as naval artillery support was often crucial for army operations. They were also regarded as the elite of the elite of N7 units, operating in 'danger-close' settings and ranging behind enemy lines for extended periods of time. Only frigate N7 teams had a reputation to match them.
Verdun was the codename issued to Shepard upon her promotion to Lieutenant-Commander and leadership of a Navy special forces unit. Aside from Shepard herself, there were two N5s assigned to the fireteam to provide protection or eyes-on reconnaissance. These were Lieutenant Daniel Lutevenko and Corporal Sebastian Farragat. Torfan was to be their first assignment with Shepard, and they only met her on the voyage to its cluster. This was unusual, but her usual team had been put in for elevation to N6 and were in the midst of intense training at the time of the assault. Historians have debated whether or not this unfamiliarity allowed the Lieutenant-Commander to disregard the loss of their lives to continue fighting, against all odds. Certainly, Shepard is not known to have mentioned them publicly in the years following. Others have speculated that the nature of their deaths precludes any such notion, that their deaths created the mindset that won her the battle.
Torfan Expeditionary Forces – No. 617 Bomber Squadron, Legio II Britannia
For the insertion of the Army and Navy ground elements, as well as for immediate orbital support for the initial phase of the attack, Kyle had the disposal of the nineteen bombers of the specialist 617 Squadron, Second Legion. Three of these would carry the fifty-five personnel to be dropped by assault pod, while the rest would carry guided bombs for use against GARDIAN batteries and unexpected enemy resistance. As Torfan had no orbital anti-orbital weapons or monitor ships, they could expect to range freely.
Torfan Expeditionary Forces – Task Forces Ulster and Småland, Legio XIII Borealis
Once the initial phase of operations had concluded, and the defences preventing a serious landing were defeated, General Petrovsky would land 200,000 troops over the course of a week to seize and pacify the colony in its entirety. Two task forces from Ireland and Sweden were selected, largely for their previous experience clearing out cities on Anhur, named Ulster and Småland respectively. Their orbital assault divisions would land by titan, delivered by the Alliance First Fleet, followed up by the rest of the divisions once landing zones and spaceports were secure from attack.
THE BATARIAN HEGEMONY
The Firstborn – Batarian External Forces, Torfan Garrison
When the path to war had been decided upon, the Batarian Hegemony's top three leaders; Ar'dra, Gadnalak and Elanos Haliat, were in agreement that a specialised unit had to be created for the task of disrupting enemy operations and terrorising their population. This was not viewed as merely a preference, but an absolute necessity; a vanguard of the mighty invasions to come, a reminder that the Hegemony could touch any colony even before the bulk of its forces arrived. This was an idea ripped straight from the successes of Mindoir and before, when batarian raids ranged at will through Alliance space when required.
Nothing but the very best would do. Gadnalak insisted upon the most modern equipment, ranging from Carnifex pistols, through Avenger rifles and Kishock Harpoon Guns, all the way to the most modern missile-armed version of the Verush Heavy Tank. This meant that the Firstborn were more than able to compete with the most well-equipped Alliance force in equal numbers, as well as overcome any planetary defence forces even in greater numbers. Haliat's contribution was the supply of several dozen turian-registered freighter ships to allow the force free movement throughout Citadel and human space. The full roster of these secret transports would not be discovered until during the battle itself.
Most fateful however was the decision of the Arch-Hegemon about where the manpower for the unit should be sourced. In order to slake the nobility's thirst for glory, as well as to keep them invested in the campaign to come, Ar'dra ordered that the entire force should be made up of the newly come-of-age firstborn sons of the noble castes, and not just those of the warrior caste. This limited the size of the force to that of a company, but would also give the unit an élan and self-confidence that even other parts of the External Forces would lack by 2178.
At the outbreak of the Second Verge War, the Firstborn were in their staging positions, ready to take the fight to a weakened enemy. Elysium changed everything. Without the naval superiority gained by holding Elysium, the batarians were unable to challenge the Alliance Navy. This left any open attack against Alliance colonies a suicidal prospect. Humiliatingly, the Firstborn were reduced to the role of glorified delivery boys during the first few months of the war, bringing the slavers on Anhur the heavy weapons and volunteers promised by the Hegemony, using the transports that they had originally intended to ride to glory. Once the invasion of that world by the Alliance commenced, they were relegated again to an intelligence gathering role, which they carried out successfully until the destruction of the last FTL comm buoy links to Hegemony space in the Yuki Cluster. They aided in the training of Terminus forces to resist Alliance occupations, but largely failed in this, their contribution too small to overcome the sheer weight of force brought to bear by Field Marshal DeRuyter and Admiral Hunt.
When the secret orders to commence kidnappings arrived, the Firstborn organised and carried out the raids themselves, having large amounts of information about where and how to hit the most promising targets courtesy of their time spent collecting intelligence. It is unlikely that any other batarian force could have successfully mounted the raids with the complete lack of casualties, save perhaps for the SIU, which was too heavily tied up in the Terminus to be of any use regardless. However, with the Theshaca Raids, the noose began to tighten and the Firstborn knew it. They retreated to Torfan and its command bunker complex, scattering the remaining transports in spaceports throughout Citadel space. With little other options, they prepared their next gambit; suicide bombings, using the fanatics and desperate souls deposited on Torfan by the Alliance itself. They would not get the chance.
Torfan Hegemonic Militia
Governor Sak'devran was forced to arm the population of Torfan by a mixture of threats from the Firstborn and public pressure to do something about the horrendous losses suffered by the Hegemony. In truth, even if he could have successfully avoided assassination after rejecting such calls, it would not have made a difference. Arms smugglers, with an eye on the profits, had long spotted the demand for weapons from the batarians there. Aided by local criminal elements, these unscrupulous entrepreneurs quickly exploited the niche, and soon the marketplaces were filled with cheap weapons. By the time of the Alliance attack, almost every adult male batarian had a small collection of mass-accelerators of varying quality and capability, and a great number of adult females did too. Along with the discoveries made by Shepard, this is perhaps the greatest reason for the utter brutality that would be witnessed during the fighting.
The result of this phenomenon was that the Alliance taskforces moving to take Torfan would actually be outnumbered, the first time such an eventuality had come to pass during the war since Elysium. However, the militia lacked kinetic barriers, heavy armour, and most importantly, coordination.
The Governor was determined to keep control of the situation, both generally and from the grasp of the External Forces, who would use the citizenry as cannon fodder if they could. He decreed that all those in possession of armaments were conscripted under his command, and set about laying down orders for a highly defensive posture. The militia were to defend their neighbourhoods, no more and no less. This suited the citizens themselves just fine, at least for the moment, and it had the convenient benefit of not provoking the Alliance openly. Of course, when the fighting did start, the opposite effect would occur.