A/N
After rereading some of the previous chapters, i feel like the scale of the fight is a bit too small. So i've taken the liberty to go back and increase the ship numbers. Alliance ships are increased from 19 to 29, Hierarchy ships from 29 to 47, and Hegemony ships from 57 ships to 117
HSC Pillar's Glory, Eden Prime, 2412 CC
Commander Dorik Har'varash wasn't sure if the admiral was a risk taking intellect, or an outright retard. Sending in a dozen ships on FTL to land a force immediately wasn't just splitting their effective strength, but also cuts off potential paths of retreat for the ground troops that are to be deployed if either one of the groups get destroyed. Having his ship sent as one of them doesn't give any points to favor the admiral either.
"First wave of ground forces deployed, sir. Turian frigate pack will reach their effective weapons range in twelve minutes" the sensory officer said
Dorik smirked at that. Turians we're nothing if not overly cautious. While him and his small group of ships had jumped as close as they dared to the planet, the Turians did not take the same risk, and jumped a couple hundred or so kilometers away from his group, giving them time to deploy their forces.
"Excellent, there is ample time to prepare our defenses. Have Harsa's Vengeance and Righteous Conquest set up defense positions and deploy their fighter screen. We must make sure our ground forces can do their work" Dorik ordered
The original plan of subjugating the colony had gone out the window the moment the Turians were detected in system. Instead, they would do a smash-and-grab. Hit the colony as hard as they could, take whatever they could, and burn what they couldn't.
'The cursed Turians will pay for intervening here'
As the Turian frigate pack entered weapons range, the Pillar's Glory and its sister ships began firing away, several shots hitting their targets, but none of them broke through the enemy shields. The ships fired again, once again landing shots on the Turian frigates. One of the enemy frigates had its shields dangerously low, noticing this, Dorik ordered the ships to focus on the weak frigate. The frigate was managed to evade a few shots, but ultimately was hit in its 'wing' and engine. Dorik ordered another volley, and the Pillar's Glory shook again as it fired its main gun, dealing the killing blow to the helpless frigate.
Despite killing one of their frigates, the Turian frigate pack had heavily damaged a cruiser and disabled two frigates. Dorik smirked as the frigates pulled back, probably to avoid further casualties.
"Damage report!" Dorik demanded
"Harsa's Vengeance has taken heavy damage, Righteous Conquest has lost its main engines and the FTL drive core is damaged. Frigates Jagged Dagger and Hawk Boar is disabled. Other frigates are reporting downed shields or other superficial damages"
The Turians had done some considerable damage, but the landing procedures of the first wave was so far unchallenged, the Turians couldn't get close enough to hit any of the landing crafts.
'It looks like Dov'tok's crazy plan is paying off' Dorik thought. Over the few operations that he'd been put under Dov'tok, Dorik would notice that he would take some incredible risks, sometimes they would pay off, more often than not they failed miserably however. The slimy bastard probably was an Admiral because someone higher ranking than him owed him something. This was not the time for him to think of such things however, he had ground operations to oversee.
"Launch second wave as soon as possible, the first wave should be touching down by now. Prepare third wave to launch as soon as I give the order" Dorik said. He had an opening to launch more troops while the Turians licked their wounds. He didn't doubt that Dov'tok could deal a serious blow to the Humans and the Turians, but he could see that there was an even chance that the battle could go both ways. As a precaution, he will take control of the raid operation himself, and as soon as they have taken as many things to be profitable, they will leave the system. With, or without Dov'tok.
-000-
Valhalla Airbase, Eden Prime, 2192 AD
As soon as the Batarian landing crafts were detected coming in atmosphere, Ilya Sokolov, Zoya Flight, and the rest of Crusader Wing was being launched to intercept as many of them as possible. Taxiing on the runway, he readied himself and his plane for the coming battle. Unlike the new Mi-199 Gunships, the fighters were still not equipped with Mass Effect cores, meaning to say that VTOL capabilities were still limited and that they still had to take off on a regular runway. The plane he was using, the F-82 Python, was a top of the line aircraft and performed well both in atmosphere and in space. It had been serving the Alliance faithfully for the past 19 years, but the arrival of the Batarians meant that it was high time for them to upgrade. Sokolov had heard that a Mass Effect driven fighter craft was in the works, but until then, they had to make do with the Arcade.
When the rest of his flight set themselves up in position, they reported their status. After all of Zoya flight reported in, wing leader Cunningham began a rundown of their mission
"Crusader wing, we are assigned to Hamilton Hill" A holographic display opened on his HUD, showing a large open area. A perfect place for a sizeable force to land. "The 87th Armor division is fortifying the area with SAMs and AA cannons. Until they are fully operational we are to hold off the enemy force as long as possible. Estimated enemy strength is at 300 small crafts and rising." Red markers began to appear on the display, red squares indicating transports, and red triangles indicating fighters. The red markers kept appearing with no signs of stopping. "Drone squadrons are being deployed as we speak, and will be assisting us and other fighter wings." Green markers appeared on his display now, indicating the drone support. "I won't lie people, a lot of us aren't touching the ground again alive. But if we are going down, we sure as hell are taking the four eyed fuckers with us!"
Sounds of approval and a few cheers could be heard over the communications channel
"Well then people, let's get this show on the road"
-000-
Over Hamilton Field, Eden Prime, Half an hour later
Sokolov was at awe at the sheer amount of landing craft and fighters that the Batarians were sending. He had fought the Batarians before, but never at this scale.
'This is it' he thought to himself
The wing leader Cunningham gave the order to attack, and each flight group broke away from formation and engaged in close quarters combat.
Zoya flight targeted whichever transport they could, weaving in and out of the danger as if they were a single mind.
"Eyes on, three heavy transports, two escorts. Easy pickings boss." One of the pilots said. A ping sounded off on his headset and the transports became highlighted on Sokolov's HUD
The flight leader agreed. "Good eye Zoya 4. All Zoya flight elements group up form up on my right, we're blowing them out of the sky"
As they formed up on Zoya leader, the flight began stalking the transports. Sokolov targeted the Batarian crafts with his missiles. His HUD had notified that he and the other planes in Zoya flight had locked on, and as it did, they fired together. The volley decimated the enemy formation.
"Yeah! At this rate we'd wipe these four eyed fuckers out of the sky in not time"
Sokolov smirked, the Batarians may have had the edge in ship-to-ship combat, but they sorely lacked in firepower when it came to small crafts like fighters or gunships.
"Can it Rodney, save the whooping for later." The flight leader said
Looking around, Sokolov saw a larger group of transports being escorted.
"How about that, six transports, five escorts. Bigger fish to eat" Sokolov said as he highlighted them on his HUD
"Taking out the big fish will help the ground forces further" Zoya lead said "We're hitting them. Zoya 5 and 2, engage their fighters while the rest of us slam their transports out of the sky"
Acknowledging, Sokolov and Zoya 5, Rodney, broke formation and engaged in combat against the Batarian fighters.
Zooming close towards the fighters, Sokolov and Rodney began firing at them. As expected, the Batarian fighters turned to engage the two human fighters. One of the fighters stayed to escort the transports, but one fighter was not a problem. As Sokolov and Rodney drew away the Batarian fighters, the rest of Zoya flight launched their missiles at the rest of the craft on the formations. The Batarian fighters realized their mistake and tried to come back around to attack the rest of Zoya flight, but are too late to stop the transports being shot down. With the fighters in disarray, Sokolov and Rodney locked on with their missiles and destroyed them, wiping out yet another transport group
This went on for the next half an hour, the Batarians suffered major casualties, only a few dozen transports managed to make a proper landing.
Wing leader Cunningham's voice then buzzed over the radio
"All elements of Crusader wing, this is Cunningham. The 87th Armor division has fully deployed in the area, and all anti-air weapons are successfully set up. We are to pull out of the area and return to Valhalla to restock and refuel. Beyond that, Crusader wing will be deployed as close air support in the defenses of other regions."
Sokolov knew that it had been a job well done. Batarian presence in Hamilton hill is estimated to be less than 500. Easy enough for the 87th division to clean up. With that, he turned his plane around back to Valhalla. This battle may have been won, but the invasion wasn't over yet
-000-
A/N again
And that wraps it up for chapter 4, it took me a while to write this one down, as once again, i am not the best at action scenes.
Also, a few quick questions. Should i include months in addition to the years? Should i skip out from using the different date systems and stick to the basic AD calendar? And what do you guys honestly think of my action-writing skills. Is it bad, good, neither? Also how do you think i could improve writing-wise. English isn't exactly my first language so i might not be able to write certain things, like emotions, properly.
Tell me what you guys think, 'cause it's kinda killing me that i don't know if my grammar is acceptable.
As always, thanks for reading, review the chapter if you have the time or feel like it, and have a good weekend