Chapter 3

= place: Shanxi system, three days later =

The 27th fleet arrived in Shanxi 3 days after the skirmish at relay 314. They went through the first system without any problems. There they found only an abandoned colony. Behind the fleet were 100 ships carrying 50,000 soldiers and their equipment. After passing the relay to Shanxi, they encountered 31 ships, 4 defensive platforms waiting in line behind the relay.

General Desolas Arterius watched from his dreadnought as these primitives prepared themselves for defense.

"To all ships, concentrate your fire on the defense platforms" - said the General, confident in a quick and easy victory. As soon as the fleet opened fire, numerous mines set up by the human fleet immediately exploded. The explosions destroyed 4 frigates and damaged 6 more and 2 cruisers. Platforms concentrate their firepower on the cruisers, destroyed 2, and damaged 3 before they were destroyed.

"Wall-formation and shoot without orders, all power to the guns, their weapons ignore shields, so don't waste your energy on them." - Desolas said.

The fleet did it as quickly and efficiently as always in training, and all operational ships were in a formation that inflicted heavy losses on human fleet. Their weapons, though ignoring shields, fired much slower than turian ships and lacked armor strong enough to stop the mass effect projectiles. From what was recovered from human corvette data it was written that the energy weapons themselves required enormous amounts of energy.

"General, enemy fighters are coming from the right flank. Their number is 84." - the radar operator said.

"Send all our fighters. Let them take care of them." - Desolas said.

"Not too many, brother." - Saren said.

"I want to get rid of them as soon as possible and start the siege of the planet. Then we go straight to their 'Earth'." - Desolas said. - "As soon as we have the navigational data, we are going straight to their homeworld and we will force their government to submit to the Hierarchy. That is if they don't give up after losing their fleet on Shanxi."

"The fighters have left the bay." - the officer said.

Although there were place for 24 fighters on each cruiser, there were not so many on Macedyna alone. Therefore, there were 12 fighters on each cruiser, and zero on the dreadnought. Despite the loss of fighters before takeoff, they were still able to field 240 Armax Tusk Fighters.
Before the fighter skirmish on the right flank began, the Cosmo Falcons launched their missiles. This time the turian fighters tried to shoot them down by flying straight. After all, after the first salvo, 35 turian fighters were fit for scrap. But by that time they had gotten close enough to fire at Cosmo Falcons with their own rifles.

And so began a deadly dogfight in which faster and more maneuvering turian fighters faced better equipped and have more firepower human fighters.

Meanwhile, the battle between the Turian fleet and the human fleet was in full swing. The rate of fire and 3 times higher turian numbers made humans situation worse and worse. Over half of humans ships where destroyed.

"Now, charge. Don't give them an option to go back. We'll sort it out right here and now! For the Hierarchy!" - Desolas shouted.

"For the Hierarchy!" - the rest of the turians replied.

The charge of the Hierarchy ships met with torpedoes and missiles from the human fleet. The lack of shields now took a heavy toll. 8 frigates and 2 cruisers were destroyed, but the Hierarchy fleet continued its advance.

In the last desperate act, 7 human ships set off against more than 70 ships of the Hierarchy. Before arriving, the ships fired blue rays that destroyed another 4 frigates and damaged 2, losing 2 of their frigates to .

Humans lost another 2 frigates when approaching Hierarchy fleet. As the ships approached a distance of 20 kilometers, the surviving human ships concentrated their fire on the dreadnought. Unfortunately for humans, they were also within range of the GARDIAN lasers.

"GARDIAN lasers are order to shoot at human ships." - Desolas ordered.

Human ships have already fired a volley towards the battleship, severely damaging it. They did not manage to fire another volley when GARDIAN lasers pierced it like a sieve. All the ships exploded. The battle in space ended with a victory for the turians.

A minute later, the transporters came out of the relay.

"I will join the ground forces." - Saren said.

"Agreed. How are our fighters?" - Desolas asked.

"They destroyed over 75% of human fighters. The rest withdrew to the surface of the planet. Our losses are over 50%" - said the officer.

"Fleet status?" - Desolas asked.

"We lost 19 frigates and 5 cruisers. 10 frigates, 7 cruisers and the dreadnought are damaged. Wait a second, fighter status update. The exact losses are 115 destroyed and 20 damaged. " - the officer said.

"And what are the exact losses of human forces?" - Desolas asked.

"64 fighters, 4 defense platforms, 2 larger frigates, 9 smaller frigates, and 13 corvettes. 8 corvettes have escaped outside the system and 20 fighters to the planet surfice." - the officer said.

"We'll catch them later. Now all ships are about to siege the planet. Begin landing transport ships outside the cities." - Desolas said.

= place: capital of Shanxi =

People on Shanxi knew about a possible attack for 3 days and prepared for a possible siege of the colony. The factories were demolished, the 3 unfinished Isokaze-class destroyers were hurriedly finished, enough for the underwater function to work - they were to be an ace up the sleeve. 5 planned were discontinued and parts of them were used to strengthen the headquarters. Missile systems were put on alert, airfields were hidden, and people were set in case of a prolonged siege. There were 10,000 Shanxi Self-Defense Forces on-site armed with weapons based on MassEffect and another 5,000 volunteers.

But the main force was a thousand Marines under the direct command of General Williams - Commander in Chief of the Shanxi Defense Forces. They were armed with the latest energy rifles, power armor, and the best shields. They also had 60 M35 Mako vehicles and 300 combat drones.
Their greatest strength, however, was not any of these things, but the conditions for victory. They only had to hold out 4 days for reinforcements of the 2nd fleet and the nearby Self-Defense Forces to arrive.

When the first shuttles began attempting to land in the city, they were met with heavy fire from air defense. After losing some of them, turian forces retreated out of range. Then there was an orbital bombardment.

It hit the air defense positions, don't go all the way. Then reports began to come in about the landing of enemy forces a few kilometers outside the city. First, they moved to several smaller towns around the capital. They were defended only by drones and turrets, which were to slow down the enemy. Smaller towns and villages had been cleared of them by 2:00 PM. Around 3:00 PM, enemy forces tried to advance through the main towns along the roads, crashing into numerous minefields, which took them the rest of the day to disarm under fire from our snipers.

Day one of the Battle of Shanxi ended with the retreat of the survivors of the defense fleet, skirmishes between ground forces, and orbital fire. The following days were to be hell for invaders and defenders.

= place Fujian system - former pirate base =

Leaving the former pirate base in one piece was one of Bao's best vice-commander decisions in his entire military career. Quickly inserting scanners, listening stations, a base for Turian prisoners of war and space for 12 fighters, and an Isokaze-class ship, made an excellent listening post and guerrilla base, led by the newly promoted Captain Jonathan. Although it was rushed through, and it still took some time to fully convert it to a full-fledged base, it was sufficient.

There were a total of 140 people on the base. 80 men and 60 turian prisoners. She also had supplies for 2 weeks, mostly from an unfinished colony. Although it was difficult to stockpile this amount food for turians due to their unique physiology.

"Sir, we have wiretapping on turian channels." - the officer said.

"So let's hear them." - Jonathan replied. After a while listening to turian channels began. Thanks to luck or fate, it was possible to recover the Turian cipher from one of the ships and translate it into human languages.

"The orbit is ours. The human fleet has been completely defeated. " - said an unknown voice - "The ground forces have seized all the cities except the capital, but it will take up to 2 days. Then we go straight to Earth."

"Are you sure you destroyed the entire human fleet?" - another voice asked.

"Yes, but there was another problem. Our forces need to be sourced. People have nothing virulent for us."

"I would send several shipments, but I have no escorts for them. You have to send back a few ships or they will be completely open to pirate attack."

"There are no pirates between us and the human world of Shanxi. They can do it. And how is the situation with the Councilor Spartacus and the Primarch Fedorian?"

"The councilor will keep it secret from the Citadel Council, but you know the STG. You have a month or less before they will know. If you fail and one of the races finds out about this invasion, not only you but the entire Hierarchy will suffer greatly. As for the Primarch, he shouldn't get the message until tomorrow. The ship carrying prisoners is damaged and its FTL drive is not working as well as before."

"The spirits will give us victory. We will celebrate them in a week."

Then the signal stopped.

"They broke through the Shanxi defenses and began a siege on the planet, but our earlier preparations are taking their toll. But why do they think they have destroyed all our ships? " - Jonathan thought aloud.

"The prisoners where mentioned, they must have captured them with our data disk as well. Maybe it was only partially wiped, which led to disinformation." - the newly arrived soldier suggested.

"Thinking well, Anderson." - Jonathan said, looking at the marine. He was one of the 20 Marines personally selected by General Williams, and their commander.

"Will you tell us what else you learned from this broadcast?" - Jonathan asked.

"First: The invasion was not approved by the government. Second: Not all of their leaders know this, but they have the backing of at least one of them. Third: There are other forces in the galaxy and if they find out about the invasion, this whole 'Hierarchy' will get hit pretty well." - Anderson said.

"You missed one point." - Jonathan said.

"Which?" - Anderson asked.

"The fleet they sent to Shanxi is their total force at the moment. Add to that the loss in the battle. If the 2nd fleet hits with the support of other Self-Defense forces, they will most likely be outnumbered, maybe even 2:1. A quick enough attack would have reached their base and seized it without too much trouble." - Jonathan said.

"Blitzkrieg?" - the officer asked.

"Yes, with a bit of luck, we'll also destroy a few shipments just before the attack. Time for the old proven guerrilla war." - Jonathan said. - "Monitor their signals regularly. I want to know if some lonely transport shows up. And this radar is expected to work in an hour, with no fuss."

"Yes, sir!" The crew replied saluting.

= Alliance 2 fleet Base location =

Admiral Kastanie Drescher stood in her cabin aboard the flagship of the 2nd Fleet, the dreadnought of the first Everest-class battleship, SSV Everest. Through the window, she watched 106 ships of the 2nd Fleet, her fleet, preparing to repel a possible alien invasion. According to their records, the order to attack was issued by the patrol commander. Quite big, but still a patrol. There was a chance it was just an incident, but as they say, 'Better safe than sorry', so a partial mobilization was announced just in case. Already 40 ships of self-defense forces from 4 different systems gathered next to the fleet, still waiting for the arrival of the next 2 groups. Apparently, Terra Nova made a new model of the first category ship and they want to test it in battle.

"Lady Admiral, you are needed on the bridge, now." - the officer said over the communicator.

Mrs. Drescher pressed a button on the pad and said - "I'll be there in five minutes."

As he said, she did. The journey from the admiral's cabin to the bridge was relatively

short. When she reached the bridge, she saw a man standing out there. Instead of the standard Alliance uniform, he wore the uniform of the Self-Defense Forces. The uniform had Shanxi written on it, so she assumed it was one of the self-defense forces.

"Admiral."- he said saluting. Then came the first warning. He was injured recently.

"Hold, soldier." - said Kastanie . - "Enter the rank, name and purpose of the visit."

"Lieutenant Commander Jin Guo, commander of the 2nd battle group of the Shanxi Self-Defense Forces. I report that at 9:34 AM more than 101 turian ships of Category 2 attacked and overwhelmed the Shanxi Self-Defense Forces. Of the entire fleet, only 8 ships have survived, of which 4 are damaged. Commander Bao has fallen in battle, and the planet itself is under siege. General Williams will last a maximum of 5 days." - Jin said.

After Jin's statement, time seemed to stop. Everyone was silent until Mrs. Admiral Drescher spoke.
"How many of these ships will you repair within 3 days?" - The Lady Admiral asked looking at Jin.
"Only one, the rest takes at least a week." - Jin said.

"They joined temporarily to the second fleet." - said Kastana. Then she added - "Concat me to the entire fleet and all ground forces."

The communications officer went to work and after a while said – "Done."

"To all, this is Admiral Kastanie Drescher. I am forced to report that the Shanxi colony was attacked by armed forces identifiable as the Turian Hierarchy. Shanxi's Self-Defense Forces have been defeated and the planet itself is under siege. Our comrades, friends, and families are fighting for their freedom. That is why I have to ask you this question today. Will we leave them?"

"No" said the voices in the room.

"I asked if we would leave them!?" - Drescher repeated.

"No!" more people said this time.

"ASKING, WILL WE LEAVE THEM!?" - Drescher repeated once more.

"NO!" - they all exclaimed as one.

"Exact! We don't leave ours! Therefore, in 3 days, the 2nd Systems Alliance Fleet will RECOVER the Shanxi and CHASE those turians from where they came and beyond! We will show the entire galaxy that we DO NOT LEAVE OUR PEOPLE!"

"YES, SIR!"

The sound of support echoed through the entire fleet. Shanxi will take back soon, and there was no question of failure. The turians have beaten the Systems Alliance and will pay dearly for it.


Shanxi - Colony that was founded in 2168. The current population is 1.1 million. The Self-Defense Forces consist of 2 Congo-class line cruisers, 10 Murasame-class cruisers, 23 Isokaze-class destroyers, and 96 Type-99 Space Assault Combat Fighter (Cosmo Falcon). The ground forces are 10,000 soldiers, 1,000 marines, 60 M35 Mako, 300 drones.

Self-Defense Forces - The Self-Defense Forces are weaker than the Alliance's actual forces but have another important function. They are the colony's first line of defense, with enough force to defeat pirates and small assaults. They also serve as careers before the military. Many commanders had served in such before. The commander-in-chief is always sent by the government with a small garrison, and the vice-commander is chosen by the colony. The problem of an unclear command system is solved by an act according to which the vice-commander can command at will, as long as there is no martial law or the security of the colony is at risk.

Wall-formation - Formation of the Turanian fleet. It consists of creating the title wall around the command ship with the lightest ships at the ends. This formation allows you to maximize your firepower at the expense of mobility.


euderion/art/Mass-Effect-Medium-Size-Starship-Chart-439904064 – turian dreadnought

euderion/art/Systems-Alliance-Everest-class-Dreadnoughts-861380548 – Everest class dreadnought