Guanxi Strait, En Route to the Jian Liu Islands, July 21, 2192, 1800 Local Time.
"Hammer Company, this is X-Ray Lead, the islands are in sight, remember to take out the first SAM sites if you want reinforcements or any form of air support." The fish trawler's radio crackled.
The marine leader picked up the radio and replied.
"I hear you Moreau. We'll try to leave some of them alive if that's what you want." He said confidently.
"Hah! Try saying that when your men are knees deep in that shithole Bailey, you'll be begging for us to swoop in to save your asses." The lieutenant colonel replied.
"Cut the chatter gentlemen, remember your missions. Prisoners are top priority, but if you think that they'll be too much of a liability, bypass them and go straight for the control centers." Major Harper said, cutting them both off.
Machinegun and rifle fire streamed down towards them from the island. Just as predicted, no heavy ordinance was being fired at them. They never thought that anybody would even attempt a surface based landing.
"30 Seconds! God be with you!" The boat's driver shouted through the rising sounds of warfare, barely being heard over the thundering of the artillery guns.
The artillery barrage began splashing down around them, though none of them hit their marks. Between the explosions and water raining down on them, the boats finally ran ashore.
The marines scrambled off their boats and onto the dry land where they were now out of the machinegun's sights.
"Move it up ladies, I want a hole in that wall yesterday!" Bailey ordered as they all rushed into their positions.
A marine brought out his laser designator and pointed it to the sea wall that separated them from the inside of the fortress. Far away, beyond the range of the Batarian AA installations, a Phantom bomber patiently awaits for its signal to launch a single 850 Kg Laser Guided Missile. The missile synchronized to the marine's laser designator and rocketed straight for the sea wall. The missile broke through, detonated inside the wall, and created a large hole in it.
Using the shock of the attack, the marines stormed into the fort and attacked the Batarian defenders. As the courtyard was quite far away from most expected landing zones, security in that section was very disorganized. The Batarian defenders in the courtyard routed as the marines secured their beachhead. Those who tried to run away found themselves locked out and trapped in the courtyard as the defenders that had fled previously locked the doors behind them. Most of them, when they realized about their predicament, hastily threw their rifles away and got onto their knees.
"Base, this is Hammer 1, what's our policy regarding prisoners of war?" Bailey said as his men secured the surrendering aliens.
"Just make sure they can talk when we get to them." Harper answered over the radio.
The marines acknowledged this and unloaded their side arms before reloading it with tazer bullets.
"This ain't gonna kill you, but it ain't gonna tickle either." Bailey heard a marine say as he shot a Batarian in the face with it.
The Batarian prisoners that were shot convulsed from the electric current that now flowed through them, most of them passing out almost instantly. The rest wasn't as fortunate.
While the prisoners were being 'secured', combat engineers had planted special breaching charges designed just to punch through the kinds of doors that were blocking their way. It used a mixture of condensed thermite, starship fuel, and military grade explosives. The thermite and ship fuel would weaken the metal structures holding the door together, then the explosives blast the weakened door apart. The breaching charge began its detonation sequence with a hiss as the thermite began burning through the door. It kept burning for a few minutes until the engineer decided that the door should be weak enough.
"Detonating charges!" he shouted, pulling the trigger on his detonator.
The charge blasted the door off its hinges several meters into the hall, crushing an unlucky Batarian with an audible crunch. The marines stormed inside after throwing in a flashbang, which would serve to disorientate the aliens.
The Batarian defenders, still half blind from the flashbang, opened fire even before the smoke from the explosion had cleared and managed to hit three marines, one of which was the combat engineer.
"I need suppressing fire! God damnit, where're our SAW gunners?" Bailey shouted out from behind cover. The marine with the LMG scurried up positions so that he could have a good line of site to the enemy. Deploying his bipod, he began hammering away.
The suppression from the LMGs gave Bailey and his men excellent cover to advance and engage the Batarians in close quarters fighting. Low ranking Batarian soldiers aren't experienced in such close quarters fighting. Those who do have the experience still aren't as adept at it as the alliance marines they are facing. While the defending aliens enjoyed superiority in numbers at first, the marines slowly whittled down their numbers until their numbers didn't matter anymore.
The Batarians pulled out to the section of the compound that the first batch Batarian SAMs were located. The marines pushed out of the hallways and into the first SAM sites and hammered down on the Batarian defenders once more. The less professional soldiers of the Hegemony had begun to crack in the face of a more adept foe, and here the seams of the Batarian status quo can be seen falling apart.
-000-
"Alert! Alert! We are under attack" The fortress's PA announced as the emergency sirens blared off.
Dov'tok and his squad moved towards the prison command center where the cell controls were. He moved past the guards in the hallway, nodding to each one. With each guard's confirmation, they joined his ranks and marched towards the prison control. When he reached the control center's door, his squad now numbered a little over two dozen. The Batarians who were guarding the control entrance themselves looked at Dov'tok and his posse, then decided to excuse themselves from guard duty.
The Batarian Yellowcoats, entered the control center, though their presence wasn't immediately acknowledged.
Dov'tok motioned to his Yellowcoats to secure the room, which they did quickly. He then approached the officer in charge of the operation and spoke up.
"Captain Zardak?" Dov'tok asked, making a confirmation of his target.
"What is it?" The Batarian Captain said, turning around to face Dov'tok.
"I'm assuming control of this operation effective immediately, under General Dragat's orders. He wants you back at the HQ." Dov'tok said. "You are too leave at once."
"Why wasn't I informed of this sooner?" Zardak questioned once again, turning away from Dov'tok and back to the monitors. The captain inspected his omni-tool for any messages and found none. "There are no messages here from the General! What tricks are you playing?"
"I was afraid that it would come to this…" Dov'tok said. He quickly took his pistol and shot the captain directly in the face. His pistol was loaded with the shield piercing mods, which bypassed the captain's shields and punch clean through his head, leaving a large gaping hole in the back of his skull. The captain fell down and his head hit the ground with a splat. The Yellowcoat soldiers followed their commander and opened fire on all other armed Batarians. The ones working on the computers quickly gave up without a fight.
"You two, guard the entrance. The rest of you, get to work." Dov'tok ordered.
The Yellowcoats went and did as they were told. They held the surviving technicians and ordered them to disable all security systems at gunpoint. The camera monitors mounted in the room showed that the prison cells had begun opening one by one, and the security blast doors had unsealed themselves. The prisoners came out slowly, one by one at first. They were cautious, and nobody could really blame them for it. However, after the first few prisoners left their cells unimpeded, the rest followed suit. Chaos broke out as soon as the prisoners realized what had happened. Dov'tok took a few more seconds observing the camera feeds before accosting his squad and technicians.
"Has worm program been installed yet?"
"In a little bit more... And it look's like we're done." one of the Yellowcoats said.
"Good, time to make our exit." Dov'tok said.
The Yellowcoats rounded up the technicians and herded them down the hall and towards the central landing pad. The guards watching their shuttle were all his men, more Yellowcoats, and they all boarded their own shuttles and took off from the island.
As the old and sturdy shuttle that Dov'tok boarded took off, several large explosions rocked the island as more of the Human's guided missiles struck the fortress. More Human surface boats landed on the island shore and stormed in as they offloaded. The Batarian could only look away as the shuttle's hatch closed.
This was going to be a long war.
-000-
A/N
Sooo sorry that this came out so late! I practically got drafted into a play and had to put off a bunch of stuff I really wanted to do.
But I did manage to finish this earlier, though I did keep pushing back updating this like the lazy ass I am.
So sorry once again guys, I hope you guys enjoyed this one. Write down what you think in a review (or not, it's a free internet after all) and hopefully I can upload a new chapter soon.