HNS Heart of Courage Utopia System, 2945 PSC
"Doesn't it concern you that the positions they gave us is between them and the Batarians?" the helmsman asked "They could easily just realign their guns and blast us instead of them"
"The price for their trust, flight lieutenant. If we show them that we trust them enough that we let them point their guns in our general direction, it should show them that we're reasonable people" Quentius answered
True, when the Batarians exit relay transit, the first thing they'll detect are the Turian ships, he's putting his men at risk. But if this pays off, he could seal the deal for the future alliance.
And then, as if the galaxy itself was listening in on the conversation, an energy spike was detected from the Relay
"Several ships dropping out of Relay transit sir" the sensory officer said "117 ships detected. IFF signals confirm that they're Batarian"
"This is it men" Quentius made a gesture to the communications officer to open a line to the rest of the flotilla. The officer then nodded to him, signaling the line was open. Quentius began giving orders "Frigates packs 4 and 2, commence strafing run on enemy ships. Cruisers Spirit's Wrath and Halo of Trebia, coordinate with the attacking frigate packs and start battering their shields. The rest of you, stay in defensive positions. Pick your targets carefully and fire when ready. Spirits guide you"
As both sides began trading fire, their respective bridges began being flooded by reports from their respective allies
"Shields are holding at 37 percent!" an officer said "Proxy Lasers are cooling down"
hearing this, Quentius ordered for his ship to pull back while the Proxy Lasers recharge. The Proxy Laser is the Hierarchy's attempt at evening the playing field when it comes to point defense systems. While the Council GARDIAN Laser recharged faster and used less power, it didn't block as many missiles and torpedoes as the Proxy. The Proxy used a a quite a bit more power than the GARDIAN, but what it lacks in speed, it makes up with stronger lasers, better accuracy, and range. Ever since the Proxy Laser was first introduced to the Hierarchy Navy, less and less ships were lost to Salarian torpedoes. In some cases, it even took out shots from a Krogan ship, which was impressive even to the Council.
The enemy missiles and torpedoes didn't even get close. The Hegemony didn't invest as much to its long range weapons as they did to their melee-range cannons. One thing that almost all Turian officers were thought in naval academy, aside from "Don't attack a Krogan ship head on" and "Asari ships have multiple shield generators" is "Don't get too close to a Batarian Cruiser" as their broadside turrets could shred a Frigate in a matter of minutes.
Which is why Quentius opted for hit-and-run tactics at the moment. Hierarchy frigates can out run most other ships, which played well into their current strategy
"Proxy Lasers are cooled, Shields refreshed to 92 percent" the officer said
"Take us back into the fight" Quentius said
Looking over at the holographic display in front of him, he observed that the Batarians we're pushing slowly towards the planet, Eden Prime, the Humans called it. While their strafing runs were certainly dealing some damage, they weren't doing enough to really deter the enemy fleet. He saw that the Batarian frigates at the front of the enemy group were nearing the effective range of the Human ships. He put in an order for some of the cruisers to focus their fire on those ships. He hoped that by the time the Batarian ships at the fore front reached the Human's effective range, their shields would be depleted.
He looked out the window just in time to see one of the Batarian frigates enter the Human ship's effective range. Just as he had hoped, the enemy ships had their shields depleted and fell victim to the Human ship's cannons. A shot from a Human ship, cruiser tonnage by Hierarchy standards, hit a Batarian frigate and disabled it. Another shot from the Human cruiser destroyed it outright.
Quentius was impressed with the cannons that the Humans were using. They hit a lot harder than theirs, and was making short work of unshielded ships.
"Sir, Several Batarian ships are going through a power surge. They're charging their FTL drives!" The sensory officer said
"Get out of their movement lanes!" Quentius ordered. An FTL crash would obliterate both his ship, and potentially everything close enough.
'Risky move Batarians. You've breached our defensive perimeter, but you leave your flanks unguarded'
A group of Batarian ships began glowing, and in a blink of an eye disappeared, reapearing far behind the defensive line and close to the planet.
Growling, Quentius began giving new orders
"I want frigate pack 2 and 6 to pursue those ships. Prepare the Blackwatch soldiers on the Trinitus for planetary operations. Get me a line with the Human command ship while you're at it"
After a few seconds, the communications officer had opened a line to the Human ship.
"What is needed Lieutenant Commander Quentius?" Hackett said as soon as his face appeared on the display
"I'll get to the point, Captain. I want to send a group of soldiers to reinforce your ground forces" Quentius said
Hackett did a motion with his had, similar to the Asari motion of telling someone to wait
While it was true that he wanted to help the Humans however way he could, the Blackwatch squad was also going to observe and assess the Human's combat capabilities.
After a few moments, Hackett replied
"We will provide coordinates for soldiers" Hackett said "Do not deviate, or will be shot"
After that, Hackett closed the line
-000-
New Singapore, Eden Prime, 2192 AD
While a lot of the civilians had been evacuated to bunkers around the city, a large number of them are still unsecured. The Eden Prime garrison is doing everything they can to speed up, but after the news that several ships had FTL jumped past the defensive perimeter. The Batarian's arrival had moved up from one and a half hour, to fifteen minutes.
Staff Sergeant Zaeed Massani and the men under his command was ordered to help evacuations in the southern residential areas
"Move your asses! Slavers won't give you a rat's ass about fair chance!" he shouted
He was currently backed up by several heavy armored vehicles. But when the evacuation transports leave, the armored vehicles would leave too.
Just as he was helping stuff a family into another transport, his radio buzzed
"Sergeant Massani, status report" the officer on the other side said
"We're just loading up the last of the people, sir. Pretty sure we missed a few dozen, but the helos and trucks are already stuffed. they'll have to either get out on their own, or wait out the fight"
"I don't like leaving people behind, sergeant" the officer said
"I know sir, but we don't have much choice as it is" Zaeed said, he knew the Major hated leaving innocents to die. The Major saw his family die during the first Batarian attack during first contact six years ago
"If you find any civilians that are still stranded, it's your DUTY to protect them. If i find out that you left any of them to die, you can say goodbye to that promotion you've been looking forward to" the Major stopped for a while to let the statement sink in for a bit. "I trust that you won't disappoint me, Sergeant"
"No sir" Zaeed simply answered
"Good. Get back to work, Major Harper, out"
-000-
A/N
That's pretty much it for chapter 3. I suck at naval/space battles, or any action scene in general. Sorry if the fighting kinda sucked. Apart from that this chapter is mostly to set up the different tactics and abilities each race will be using. This chapter also features the introduction of Zaeed and Harper, who will play several roles in future chapters. Harper himself will be important in future arcs.
In response to several suggestions about the supposed 'edge' the Turians and the Humans will have, I thank you for taking the time to write. User An Sionnach Rua gave an intersting suggestion about the Thannix weapons, but they're not gonna be coming out any time soon. What really caught my attention is user Gyre's suggestion about the static discharge inside the Mass Effect drive cores. After some research, i've come up with a way on how it may be implemented, but whether it will come up any time soon depends on how soon i can go through this story arc.
I also urge you to report any and all gramatical errors that I made
Anyways, thanks for reading as always. Put your thoughts and suggestions into a review if you feel like it, and have a good day as i wrestle with school and writers block at the same time.