Chapter 7

= place: Shanxi, the fourth day of the siege =

"Support to the northern barricade." - screamed the SDF soldier. He and 20 other people didn't manage to withdraw and now have to withstand their own mini-siege in the building. The energy in the rifles of the two Marines is running out until the pre-MassEffect weapons used by the six volunteers had no ammunition and had to switch to SDF sidearm or use Molotov cocktails made quickly.

"There are too many of them, we can't keep them." - the marine said.

"It will stop them." - the volunteer said, preparing a Molotov cocktail to be thrown. After a while, the entire foreground of the barricade was on fire, and the turians had to retreat or get burned.
After making sure it was clean and putting someone on guard, the rest of them retreated a little deeper into the building, all the soldiers finally had a moment to rest.

"Finally a moment of rest." - said the SDF soldier. Then he added, pointing to the girl - "Well done with that Molotov. The poor birds didn't even know what hit them. What's your name anyway?"

"Ania." - the volunteer replied quickly.

"I am Richard." - the SDF soldier replied.

"Once everyone introduces themselves, it's my turn now." - said the marine - "I'm Neo"

"How long will we last?" - Ania asked with lowered head.

"I don't know." - Richard replied. - "Maybe a day, maybe two, and maybe-"

"What are you talking about?" - Neo interrupted him. - "Admiral Kastana Drescher will come to our aid and sweep their fleet out before dinner. After that, reinforcements headed by marines will come here in a big way. I wouldn't be surprised if they fired up some music on the input."

"And on the way, they'll jump out of orbit straight into hot zones in superpower armor." - Richard said.

"HALO?" - Ania asked.

"Yes." - Richard replied.

"Only a 30 km longship and a huge space station are missing for all the allied races of the galaxy." Neo said.

"And they will say something like, 'You are an insult to our faith, so you have to be removed!'" - Said Ania in a thick voice.

"Hahaha!" - Everyone laughed at the bad joke.

"*Sigh* We are in the middle of an invasion and you are laughing?" - the weary voice behind them said.

"C-Commander!" - they said surprised. They quickly stood to attention and saluted.

"Rest." - said the commander - "A little slack is needed, but no exaggeration."

(Richard Wagner - Ride Of The Valkyries)

"Is it just me or has someone turned on 'Ride Of The Valkyries'?" - Richard asked.

"If 'Ride Of The Valkyries' is that music, then yes." - Ania said.

"Reinforcements have come! Cosmo Falcons are dominating the air and the Kodiak is coming down!" - the soldier at the barricade shout.

"Fire a flare or anything but get their attention!" - the commander screamed.

"Sir, can we celebrate now?" - Neo asked.

"I allow." - said the commander.

Neo jumped hitting the air, Ania breathed a sigh of relief, and Jonathan hugged and kissed Ania with happiness. For which he was hit with a leaf so hard that he fell to the ground.

"I'm married." - Ania said, then snorted and turned away.

"You can celebrate it, but without overdoing. After all, we have several thousand armed birds in the colony up for grabs." - said the commander.

"YES, SIR!" - The happy soldiers replied. After all, they could win, not just prolong the inevitable.

"One more commander." - Neo said - "Where did these Cosmo Falcons come from? All ours are destroyed and the Alliance Fleet is not equipped to carry them."

"Ask the guys from Terra Nova." - said the commander.

= place: Shanxi orbit, one hour earlier =

"Miss Admiral, all ships are counted and ready." - Rear Admiral Steven Hackett said. One of the youngest in this position and creator of this battle plan.

"Okay, Hackett." - Drescher said. - "We'll see if your plan works out. To all ships, commence the operation."

The total fleet of human forces was 180 ships. From the other fleet, one Everest-class dreadnought, 20 Berlin-class cruisers, 85 Alamo-class frigates. From the first fleet, one Einstein-class carrier, 8 Leonidas-class destroyers. From SDF fleets, 46 Isokaze-class destroyers, 13 Murasame-class cruisers, 5 Congo-class line cruisers, and an Enterprise-class aircraft carrier. The first ship of this class. The front end had the appearance of most of the alliance fleet warships, but instead of the main gun, it had two 3 triple-barreled 48 cm positron shock canons at the front and a hangar entrance below. Fighter planes, which could carry 240, were launched through special vents on the sides. It is 400 meters long, but its internal structure is the most interesting. As almost the entire lower surface is a huge hangar. All headquarters, core, engines, and so on are located at the top of the ship.

The ships were divided into three groups according to a predetermined plan. The first group consisted of the 8 destroyers from the 1st fleet and nearly the entire 2nd fleet, except 10 frigates. Its task was to make a direct attack from the front on the still unformed turian forces. The second group consisted of all SDF ships except the Enterprise. This group was tasked with using her greater speed and mobility to cut off the fleet's ability to retreat to the relay and attack from the flank. The third group, including the Enterprise, Einstein, and 10 frigates, stayed behind to support.

In the first phase, all Trident Mk3 Fighter from cruisers and 120 Trishul Interceptors from Einstein were released. A total of 360 fighters. They were designed to remove enemy fighters so that the 2nd wave could unhindered bombing enemy capital ships. To stop the first wave, the turians sent 3 times fewer handful of Hierarchy fighters were massacred by Alliance anti-fighter missiles. Those that managed to avoid the first wave of missiles found themselves in combat against several times more numerous human fighters. All turian fighters were eliminated in 2 minutes. Seeing the success of the first wave, the second wave, consisting of 240 Bumblebee Bombers, immediately took off and joined the first.

The combined fighter attack massacred the turian forces, destroying or damaging half, and severely straining the shields of the others, despite the extremely effective anti-fighter system.

"Ma'am, we are within effective range of the cruisers." - the officer said.

"Open fire!" - Drescher said, and the main guns of all the cruisers and battleship opened fire. The weakened shields of the Turian ships were quickly neutralized.

Remnants of still operational ships which were still able to move tried to escape to the relay, but their path was blocked by the 2nd group. Seeing no other option, the turian ships shut down all systems and surrendered. The operation was a great success in space. The casualties were only 35 destroyed fighters and 47 damaged.

"We're starting ground operations!" - Admiral Dresher said. - "Send all Kodiak UT-47s with Cosmo Falcons escort. Give a message to the transportation fleet to leave. Hackett, take a cruiser, two destroyers, and four frigates. You have to check the other side of the relay for me."

"Yes ma'am!" - Hackett replied and quickly headed towards the entrance, simultaneously starting to give orders.

= place: the sky above the capital of Shanxi, present time =

"Captain, I still don't understand why we have to turn on the 'Ride Of The Valkyries' on loudspeakers." - said the marine.

"For two reasons. Firstly, it will confuse the turian troops, and secondly, every human has heard this music at least once. So they will know immediately that the support has arrived." - said the captain.

"OK." - the marine replied.

Then the pilot spoke up. - "When you have finished chatting, I advise you to prepare. ETA to target 30 seconds."

"You heard gentlemen. Attention!" - said the captain and everyone stood to attention. - "Get your weapons ready!"

"ETA 10 seconds." - said the pilot.

"Ready to jump!" - said the captain.
"ETA 5 .. 4 .. 3 .. 2 .. 1 .. The door is open!" - said the pilot.

"Move, move, move." - the captain said and the marines started jumping from the Kodiak. For normal people, it's suicide. For former paratroopers, a huge risk. For marines trained and equipped with special armor, this is commonplace. After jumping out, ailerons extended and allowed the soldiers to land straight on one of the besieged buildings that were currently under fire. They quickly opened fire on the turians, forcing them to retreat. But before they could enter the building and help the defenders, they heard the roar of engines.

"This is the commander of the 107 landing squad. The enemy has armored vehicles. We need air support to my position." - the commander said to the radio in the helmet.

After a moment of silence, he got the answer. - "This is flight control Enterprise. We send 3 fighters to your position. ETA 1 minute."

While waiting for the arrival, the turians approached the barricade itself, but when the fighters arrived, there was nothing to collect from the armored vehicles, and the soldiers themselves began to withdraw quickly. A team of marines found the stairs and quickly joined the besieged.

"I am Lorenzo Russo. Captain of this team." - said the captain of the marines, pointing to his squad. - "Who's in charge?"

"Me." - the woman said - "Ibolya Varga of SDF Shanxi. It's good that you came. Half an hour later and we would be overwhelmed."

"I'm glad we made it. Please tell me how many people you have and how are you holding up."

"When they surrounded us, there were 40 of us. 10 were killed and 15 were injured, of which 6 were serious. We are a mix of SDF, volunteers, and several Marines. Good thing our weapons are mainly on MassEffect, otherwise we wouldn't have any more ammo. We also don't have any medical resources."

"General Craig anticipated this situation and ordered additional supplies and Medi-gel."

"Craig. Craig the Red. This general." - the surprised SDF soldier said.
"Yes." - Lorenzo replied - "He is the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces in the Shanxi Recovery Operation. He will come with the main armed forces. Before tomorrow's sunset, 2 armored divisions, 3 infantry, and 5,000 marines will be deployed to retake the planet. We are part of the first wave to provide immediate support. The general argued a bit about this with Mrs. Admiral Drescher, because it required leaving 120 fighters at the base, instead of helping in the battle over the planet."

"Well, we have to wait a little longer." - the annoyed volunteer said.

"But now we'll wait with our ships overhead, not the turian ones." - Ibolya said.

= place: Fujian system =

"Sir, all ships have entered the system." - said Executive Officer Daniel Pressly aboard the Berlin-class cruiser Tallinn. The flagship of the Hackett Task Force.

"Okay, order Napoleon to send his fighter squadron out for reconnaissance. The rest have to be ready for any surprises." - Hackett replied.

And as ordered, 8 Mk3 fighters flew from the destroyer, immediately split into pairs, and flew in different directions. After a short time, one of the pairs sent a message to the Task Force.

"Rear-Admiral, we found an SDF patrol. They say they are from a secret base in this system." - the pilot said over the communicator.

"This is in line with the information from Lieutenant Commander Jin Guo." - Daniel said. - "They say they have intercepted a large number of prisoners, several ships, and very important information." - said the pilot.

"Let me know that you want to meet him in person." - Hackett said.

A few minutes later Captain Jonathan stood on board with two of them. One was a turian and the other was a great unknown.

"Who is this?" - Hackett asked pointing to the unknown stranger.

"This is Captain Kirrahe of the Salarian Union. His ship entered the war zone and was taken over by us. There were no casualties on either side." - Jonathan said.

"You were also talking about intercepted ships and information. Explain."

"During our stay at base camp, we intercepted 6 turian transport ships and a salarian frigate. We also monitored communication between their base in the Macedyn,colony and the fleet. We learned that the attack was arbitrary to the base commander, and their government was not informed of it until later, but at least part of it is in line with the invasion plan. Additionally, they hide this attack from other races of the so-called 'Citadel'. Additionally, their base is now almost defenseless. We bet defense on a maximum of 30 ships. The predicted number is 20, mostly corvettes and frigates of the second category."

"Job well done Captain Jonathan. Pressly, get a message to all ships, we're retreating to Shanxi to bring information to Admiral Dresher."

"Aya, aya, Rear-Admiral." - Pressly replied, and the task force has already begun its return to Shanxi.

= place: dreadnought Everest =

"Are you sure?" - Drescher asked.

"Yes, ma'am!" - Jonathan replied.

Drescher thought for a moment. If the attack by the fleet was unauthorized by the government, the seizure of the colonies could escalate the conflict. However, if they don't take it, they'll show a weakness. Additionally, there are a few other times that the turians are allies to and can side with them. But to get a message to the rest of the galaxy about their prospect, they must have had this colony. Such an offensive was beyond its mandate, and if unsuccessful, it would face a military court and, worse, convince the rest of the galaxy's races that humanity was an aggressive species. Eventually, she made a decision. - "Rear-Admiral Hackett. You will take your task force and SDF to scout the hostile territory. If the defense is as weak as they say, you can launch the attack, but no bombing against civilian targets."

"Yes, ma'am." - Hackett said.

"You are ordered to leave tomorrow at 10:00 local time. General Craig should start reclaiming the city by this time. Good luck." - said the Miss Admiral.

Efective Range - The effective range of ships using mass effect weapons is considered to be the distance the projectile will travel in 15 seconds. For the Einstein-class dreadnought, the distance is around 60.000 kilometers. For comparison, this is 6 times the distance from Russia's two outermost points, or a distance 1.5 times bigger than the circumference of the Earth.

euderion/art/Alliance-First-Contact-Era-Starships-592657749 – Berlin class crusier

euderion/art/Alliance-Fighter-types-661707241 – alliance fighters

euderion/art/Einstein-Carrier-597239272 – Einstain class carrier

euderion/art/SSV-Leonidas-Alliance-Destroyer-872397252 – Leonidas class destroyer