The Foreign Office, Arcturus Station, March 21, 2193
"Preventative Talks"
"Ambassador Nyx, Captain Quentius, pleasure to meet you as always." Goyle said as the three of them sat down in the meeting room.
"Indeed, Mrs. Goyle." The Ambassador politely replied. "I have just received the approval from the High Primarch to proceed with the establishment of a permanent diplomatic mission. I would like you to go over these documents to see if they are to your liking."
Goyle took the tablet and looked over the details. One thing she liked about dealing with the Turians is that they rarely left anything out of their reports. Unless it was intentional, then you'd almost always be dealing with known quantities and certainties. She skimmed through the first few pages and as expected, found little to no vague languages or any other hints of deception. The Turians knew what they wanted, and were very upfront about it, a nice change of pace from the politicians she usually dealt with.
The Turians wanted their own building, custom built with Dextro hydroponic facilities, redundant life support systems, a small landing pad, and an unsurprisingly rigid and defensive structure typical of Turian structures. Mr. Goyle, her husband, was an architect who generally dealt with defense contractors. She knew a fortress when she saw one and no doubt the Turians would want a garrison stationed there as well.
"These are quite extensive requests, Ambassador. I have the authority to approve for the hydroponics facilities and the redundant life support systems, but when it comes to the landing pads and the security garrison that you'll undoubtedly want I'd have to consult with Colonel Ryder." She answered.
"A fair response." The Turian Ambassador responded.
Goyle went through the whole of the document and noticed the personnel dossiers attached to the documents. Suggestions for high ranking staff that will be posted in their embassy-to-be. She found the Captain's dossier and opened it. Goyle found them to be just as, if not more detailed, than the rest of the document. Personal and professional history, psychological evaluations, work performance records, personality quirks, and even disturbingly detailed accounts of their day to day routine. She wasn't certain how normal this is for these Turians, but this would be consideres a massive breach of personal space by the vast majority of Humans.
"I can fast track this through the Speakers and the Senate if need be, but even without that I'm certain we can get this ratified in under a month, with minor revisions." Goyle reassured the Turian ambassador. "We have reservations about the garrison you'll want stationed."
"That's certainly quick." Quentius commented. "Not as quick as we'd have done, but surprisingly quick for a democracy."
"Everybody hates bureaucracy, Captain." Goyle said. "But even bureaucracy has it's uses."
"Such as?" Quentius asked. "Most of our decisions are done by Primarchs, who may or may not choose to listen to his advisors."
"Checks and balances, Captain. The faster a bill passes through, the less time there is to scrutinize it." Goyle answered the captain's question.
Quentius nodded and leaned back into his seat. Ambassador Nyx had taken him under his wing and started training the naval officer in diplomatic etiquette. Granted, Quentius found it a waste of time to engage in such niceties, but he was willing to give it a shot. The ambassador had served with distinction during the first two decades with distinction in the Special Naval Landing Force, the Turian counterpart to the Alliance Navy Marines. If a ground pounding boot like Nyx was willing to learn how to be a proper diplomat, then Quentius was willing to follow suit.
"This brings me to another proposal the High Primarch sent." Nyx said as he slid another tablet.
Goyle read the title of the proposal and realized exactly what this was all about.
"This proposal is for a mutual defense pact." She stated, more than asked.
"Yes." Nyx bluntly answered. "We understand that relations between the Council and the Alliance didn't start out so well. The Turian people can empathize with your situation."
"The Council was -and seems to remain- extremely arrogant and detested playing by rules that weren't theirs." Quentius continued, just as the two have practiced. "They didn't like the fact that there was another state out in the galaxy that could potentially rival them, at least on an individual basis."
"I'm guessing they gave you the same treatment we got?" Goyle now asked.
"They did, but they certainly weren't as forceful with it." Nyx explained. "They made similar arguments with the tariffs and taxation, but the outright threats that Councilor Yorgal made to you was something new. The previous Councilor, Urdnot Monggul was far more diplomatic than her successor."
"Hmm, their growing belligerence is certainly concerning." Goyle commented. "The President isn't going to like hearing his fears being confirmed."
"Which just one more reason it should be ratified as soon as possible" Quentius told her.
"This won't look good from the Council's point of view. They already accused us of conspiring with you to take down the Batarians. Despite being somewhat true, accepting the mutual defense pact will only confirm their own fears, creating more tension between us and leading to further distrust. An endless cycle that will only lead to war." Goyle argued, playing the devil's advocate.
"Perhaps, but we don't have to go public with this." Nyx suggested. "We just want President Harper's consent on this matter. If he doesn't want us intervening on the event of Council aggression, then it is his prerogative to deny us so."
"Oh no, don't get me wrong. I'm sure the President and Parliament would sign this as soon as they possibly could. I'm just telling you how this might look like to the, uh... third party"
Nyx and Quentius nodded at her.
"With that said, the threat of war is indeed something we will take very seriously." Goyle told them. "The people aren't keen on jumping into another war, but we are willing to do so if need be. Our military is on high alert, and siege preparations in on our border colonies continue as we speak. Tell Primarch Fedorian that the Alliance is thankful for his gesture of friendship, and will gladly accept it."
"We are glad to hear that, Ambassador Goyle." The two Turians answered in unison.
-000-
Above Thargora Thoraga, March 26, 2193.
"Too Late"
"Leaving relay transit in three... two... one!" Mihaia announced.
The Asari Advanced Vanguard Fighters dropped out of FTL to be greeted by absolutely no one.
"Where in the abyss are they?" one of her pilots asked out loud.
"No clue, but keep your eyes open. We don't know what tricks the Turians are playing right now." Mihaia ordered her crew.
Exactly on time, the remote missiles and drones under Soul Squadron's command dropped out of relay transit after the fighters did. With each pilot assuming control of their designated drones and missiles, the group moved on ahead to find the Turian fleet in the system and annihilate it. As the squadron flew closer and closer to the colony, they finally noticed the Turian fleet in orbit. Exactly what they were doing above the planet made cause for concern. There were transport ships and a whole load of them to boot. What it took Mihaia a good few seconds to notice was the direction the transports were going: away from the planet.
"Aigaion, be advised: Turians seem to be pulling out troops from the planet." She informed them through the relay comms. "It looks like an evacuation."
It took Dilinaga a couple dozen seconds to reply due to lag, but eventually Soul Squadron was told what to do.
"Aigaion copies." The Matriarch responded. "Soul Squadron, proceed with the operation to destroy the enemy fleet. Do not allow them to escape!"
Mihaia and her squadron nodded to themselves, and proceeded with the attack. They each activated their targeting systems and picked out targets for the missiles they controlled. With the targeting data locked in, they watched as the missiles surged forward and raced towards their targets. It would seem to her that the Turians had learned from their previous engagement with the Aigaion. Their ships were grouped together in a tight formation, presumably so that their PROXY laser cannons could shoot in overlapping cones of fire. A clever tactic, she wondered if it would make a difference.
The sixty missiles that Soul Squadron sicced on the Turian fleet was one by one being shot down by the PROXY cannons. While the point defense network didn't catch all the missiles, it did blunt the blow significantly. Mihaia watched as one of the ships on the second line receive a direct hit from a Warp missile. The following purple flash and explosion caused her to wince slightly at the sudden change in brightness. This scene repeated itself several more times as more missiles hit their mark.
"Twenty three hits, the rest either missed or were shot down." A pilot reported.
"Affirmative. Looks like we'll have to do it ourselves." The Squadron leader said coldly.
The Asari fighters spread themselves out and placed their drones in the tip of the spears, hoping to bait the PROXY cannons to take out the remote controlled fighters as opposed to the actual fighters. This tactic seemed to have worked, as the Turian point defense weapons began firing away as soon as the drones were in range.
"They took the bait!"
"Which means we're in the clear. Prepare anti-ship munitions, we're going straight for their dreadnought!" Mihaia ordered.
The Asari fighter squadron pushed through the laser fire with the drones tanking the hits. Without the need for a life support system, the AVF drones was fitted with stronger shields, allowing it to potentially protect their pilot overlords. Soul Squadron used this to great effect as the drones, which were double in number compared to the manned fighters, allowing them cut a path right towards the Turian fleet's dreadnought.
"The dreadnought is dead ahead!" A pilot called out.
"Wait... I'm detecting energy signatures... six, eight... there's so many of them!" Another one called.
"Turian interceptors!" Mihaia exclaimed, realizing just exactly what she and her squadron had flown right into."They must have been using the ships to hide their emissions and waiting for the right time to ambush us!"
True to her observation, the Turian interceptors began swarming them in large numbers. The interceptors used their magnetic landing gears to mount themselves on the Turian frigates and Cruisers, allowing them to blend their energy signatures with the larger capital ships. The Turian officers observed and assumed correctly that Soul Squadron would use it's large drone fleet to shield their controllers in their front. By intentionally creating a corridor for Soul Squadron to fly through and sending in interceptors from behind, it wasn't entirely impossible for the Asari AVF to be picked apart one by one. Mihaia should have known better, and flew her squadron right into the trap.
"We need to break off!"
"Another frigate's blocking our other escape vectors... we're trapped!"
The Turian interceptors finally reached the rear of the Asari formation, and using their superior numbers, began picking at them one by one. With four Turian interceptors for every one Asari fighter, it was reasonably assumed that the Asari's technological advantage could be diminished.
"Soul Squadron, form up on me! We're punching through that frigate at all costs!" Mihaia ordered.
A single Turian frigate, likely to be of the newer Velitex class, stood in their only potential escape corridor. Intelligence suggests that the Velitex class hosted strong point defense systems, and an upgraded spinal cannon... but had no such upgrades for their shields or armor. If Soul Squadron can get close enough, their anti-ship munitions can cripple the ship and take it out of the fight. At least, Mihaia hoped they could. This was a big gamble after all, and she wasn't certain just how much better the Velitex Class' point defense cannons are.
"Follow in formation behind me and let the drones take the brunt of their attack." She ordered as calmly as she could.
"I've got three... no four on my tail!" One of the Asari pilots called out.
"I can't back you up, there's... Soul 13 look out to your left!" A scream of terror filled the frequency before being cut short by an explosion and the following static. Immediately following that Soul 13's IFF marker went blank, indicating a total system failure on her end.
"Kaira is dead? How?! Our fighters are supposed to be beyond the Turian's capabilities." Another squadron member called out.
"Cut the chatter and stay on target!"
Soul Squadron and its drone escorts charged head long towards the frigate. They closed in quickly and armed their anti-ship missiles.
"We're loosing drones too quickly, we won't make it at this rate!" Soul 9 said.
Just as she said that, a PROXY laser blast cleaved through an Asari fighter.
"Stay on target!" Mihaia ordered.
It wasn't that the ship was out of weapons range. Quite the opposite. The frigate was well within targeting distance, but at that length the missiles are likely to be shot out of the void before it could do anything useful. The only option they had, given the current situation, is to try to overwhelm the point defense system at close range. A high risk move, with far too little benefits to speak for it, but what else can they really do?
"What... why are those bastards tailing... agh, I'm hit! I'm not gonna-"
An explosion cut off Soul 4's transmission. There was no doubt as to what her fate was. Only a few dozen more meters, they were so close! Another laser barrage cut down another two fighters, leaving only 10 to fight.
"We're in range! Launch your missiles now!" Mihaia ordered, with stress heard audibly straining her voice.
The remaining fighters dumped their whole missile payload on the frigate. Zooming at ludicrous speeds, the anti-ship missiles were specifically designed with the shortcomings and capabilities of Turian ships in mind. The Hierarchy's navy tended to prefer formation fighting and coordinated efforts in the battlefield. Their shields are not exactly as powerful as the ones on their Asari counterparts, but they recharge significantly faster, allowing the Turians to cycle ships in and out of combat quickly. The best way to truly knock out a Turian ship out of the fight is to drain it's shield and punch through their armor before they can cycle it out with a different vessel. That is what the AVF's anti-ship munitions are made to do. After bypassing the ship's shields with a small electromagnetic generator inside the missile, it uses it's superheated tip to carve a molten path through the hull and armor. Only after it had cleared through did the missile detonate.
The missiles, at the numbers they were being launched at, should have been enough to knock out a dreadnought. For a frigate, this was overkill. The frigate in question buckled and warped from the explosions tearing apart its insides. A critical hit to the ship's Mass Effect core detonates it and causes the ship to explode into two.
"Look out for the debris!" One of the Asari pilots warned.
The ship's scattered remains drifted about haphazardly, without care as to who it would run into. A sizable chunk ran itself into it's formerly allied ship, running through the shield and hitting the armor hard. The smaller and faster debris were a bigger threat to the fighters however, as they were forced to fly through the still exploding wreckage to escape the crossfire zone of the Turian point defense cannons. One unlucky pilot ran her craft right into the molten hulk of a frigate.
"We practically used up all our heavy munitions on that frigate, we don't have enough left to take out the dreadnought!" Soul 3 said.
Mihaia was well aware of that fact. Without the anti-ship missiles, they Soul Squadron themselves don't stand a chance against the dreadnought, let alone the rest of the fleet. The only ones they can possibly fight back against are the interceptors... and the lightly armed transport vessels.
"Soul Squadron, change of plans!" She called out. "We're going after their transports. If we can hold up their evacuation long enough until the rest of the fleet arrives, we can trap their army on the planet!"
"Affirmative."
"Good copy."
"Heh... let's show these Turians a good time."
Soul Squadron and their remaining drones made a sharp turn and started rocketing towards the transports in a course to intercept. The Turians must have realized this as two frigates, one of the aforementioned Velitex and one of the older Luciex class, turned around and made chase. The Turian transports flew in a column, with interceptor escorts on their flanks. The nimble interceptors peeled off the column and went on to target the Asari fighters. Soul Squadron responded by sending in their drones to screen them once more. They were just machines, after all, and machines are made to be expendable.
"They're taking the bait!" A pilot exclaimed.
Indeed, as the Turian interceptors busied themselves with the drones, Soul Squadron was left with little resistance as they began picking off the transports.
"Form into groups of three and spread out... we're strafing these bastards into the abyss!" Mihaia ordered.
The Asari fighters attacked with a savagery and viciousness not commonly seen among their kind. The pilots pushed their crafts to the absolute limit, gunning down craft after craft ahead of them. The Asari pilots kept pressing their attack, moving closer to the planet with each strafing run they made. Whoever was in charge of the transports must have realized the predicament they were in and the danger they faced as they began turning around and headed back to the surface.
"Hah, they're running away... those cowards!"
Taking apart the enemy transports was exponentially easier than trying to bomb a frigate. The small guns mounted on the transports would only see it's projectiles bounce off the fighter's shields, barely draining it. Mihaia and her formation shredded through another group of transports, possibly killing hundreds of Turian soldiers as they did before the two frigates chasing them finally caught up and had Soul Squadron in firing range of their point defense and AA cannons.
"Break off and group up at Rally Point Sifo, we'll wait for the rest of the fleet before we do anything else." Mihaia said through the comms.
Soul Squadron broke off their pursuit. They peeled off from the battle and made an FTL jump to the edge of the system.
Mihaia and her pilots have done quite enough to delay the Turian evacuation...
It's just a shame that they had to pay such a high price for it.
-000-
"Those spirit's damned space whores did what?" Oraka all but yelled into the communicator.
"They overwhelmed our defenses and cut us up into pieces... General Kallo's transport was one of the first to get hit. They were gunning for the medical ships next!" The pilot answered. "I'm sorry sir, I had to turn us around."
Oraka audibly sighed.
"That's fine, get our boots back here as quickly as you can. We'll get you back up there once the fleet clears out the fighters." The General replied.
Despite touting themselves as the oldest civilization in the Galaxy, the Asari certainly had no qualms targeting the sick and injured. Oraka was as much disgusted at their hypocrisy as he was impressed by the lengths they seemingly were willing to go through to ensure victory. At least, he was impressed with these Asari. Oraka looked up and saw the tiny silhouettes of the transports he sent up a mere fifteen minutes ago descend back to the surface. He cursed at himself more than he did at the Asari for the mess that he and his troops are now in. He had no doubt whatsoever that this delay would be disastrous for the 8th Army, but what can he do now? Admiral Arterius and his fleet was doing everything they could to extract the 8th Army in such a short notice, and they were doing an otherwise excellent job given the circumstances. Despite all of that, the general simply couldn't suppress that feeling of dread that steadily grew inside him. He needed to get the evacuation back on the way as soon as possible. With every passing moment, their projected escape window grows smaller and smaller. It would only be a matter of time until...
"Spirits... General, the Council fleet has arrived!" His communications officer warned him.
"Impossible!" Oraka replied.
He took out his monocular and looked straight to the sky. The evacuation fleet had stationed itself particularly close to the planet's atmosphere in order to expedite troop transfer. With a reasonably powered scope, anybody could watch what was going on in near orbit. He saw that the Council fleet had jumped in dangerously close to the evacuation fleet. At that range, all the transports were at grave danger.
"Oh those fucking Council-loving pyjaks!" Oraka cursed again. Things were just not going his way. "Sulla, send a network-wide broadcast to abort all evacuation proceedings!"
"What? But sir, if we stop now..."
"We'll be trapped planetside, I know." Oraka cut him off. "I know our naval support well enough to see what's going to happen. Admiral Arterius is under strict orders to withdraw the moment he believes a situation is untenable. Admiral Arterius is a cautious officer... sometimes too cautious for his own good."
"Sir, you mean to say that the Admiral may withdraw without us?" Sulla asked.
"He wouldn't do it willingly, trust me on that. Our admirals are first and foremost strategic players, and their playing field can be as large as entire regions. If the situation in a star system becomes untenable, they'll be the first to suggest withdrawal."
"But what about us?" Sulla asked again worriedly. "They can't just leave us to die!"
"Which is why I need you to send the halt orders immediately. The sooner we can dig in and prepare our defenses for what's to come, the better."
Sulla, still wide eyed and shocked at what the General told him, activated his communicator and transmitted the orders. When queries and confused questions started flooding the network, Oraka took the communicator and spoke to the Eighth army himself.
"Attention to the soldiers of the Eight Army and all other Hierarchy forces still on the planet, this is General Oraka speaking." He spoke.
The network became dead silent as he did, the soldiers wanting to figure out why evacuations have stopped.
"I dread the day might come that I must inform you that we are a stone's throw away from utter defeat and annihilation. I dread that the time when I must inform you all that we are trapped, with no real way to escape this issue. I dread to say, that today is that day."
All around the Turian controlled sectors, soldiers and back-line workers felt a weight drop in their gut. Many have heard of the enemy fleet's arrival, but few realized the true horrors that really waited for them.
"Above us right now, our fighting brothers and sisters in the navy are hopelessly outmatched and outgunned by the enemy. General Kallo, may his spirit find peace, was witness to this first hand." Oraka continued "I have received word from Admiral Arterius that he will have to retreat and return when they have the strength to defeat the enemy."
Shock, anger, frustration, disbelief. These were the emotions that coursed through every Turian, Drell, and other Hierarchy soldier on planet.
"Until that time which they return, we must remain vigilant. With General Kallo dead, and General Vellanus already off world, it falls to me to make sure we all make it back home."
Oraka looked to Sulla, who simply nodded and gave a look of encouragement to his superior officer.
"As of effective immediately, I am assuming command of the 184th Legio Rakhana and the 92nd Auxilarius Corps. All forces still planetside are to fall back to the Tykis and Sona sectors. We will be extending the Glatisant line all the way around and fortifying the area as if it was our own world. Stay strong, soldiers... We will survive."
Ending the broadcast, Oraka immediately received a direct transmission from the fleet. Answering it, he was greeted by none other than Admiral Arterius himself.
"Oraka, you've called off the evacuation. Why?" Desolas asked.
"You know full well that loosing a fleet to save an army isn't a worthwhile trade, Arterius." Oraka told the Admiral flatly.
"Damn it Septimus, you're gambling with millions of lives here. We could have held held out with the fleet and evacuated more of you." Desolas replied, his usually calm voice almost growling.
"Their lives aren't the only ones I'm gambling with, Desolas." Oraka defended himself. "Even if we evacuated more of our soldiers, how many would we still have left? Tell me, will we be counting in five or six digits? Because those numbers will never be enough to last as long as will be needed."
"Holding the evacuation will only cause more to die!"
"And leaving the few here will only ensure their annihilation." Oraka shot back. "I'm making the choice to stand here with my troops and fight. With our numbers, we'll hold out for at least a year, maybe more if we really conserved our supplies. I'm trying to save lives here, Desolas. We'd be leaving them to surely die if we went on with the current plan. If Fedorian and Marshall Kandros want to behead me for this then by all means, they can do it after we've been relieved. Until then, I'm holding here with the boots."
"Rrrh... Alright, the 3rd Fleet will leave the system within the next two hours. If you want to change your mind, you have at least thirty minutes to do so."
"We both know that I won't, Desolas."
"I know Septimus... I know." Arterius said, dejected. "I will return."
"I'm counting on it." Oraka simply replied.
The call was ended and Oraka returned the communicator's headset back to Sulla.
"We're really in for it now, aren't we General?" He sarcastically asked.
"No doubt about it." The General curtly answered. "Sulla, I'm going to be in the command room until I can come up with a definitive new plan to survive the new wave of Council troops. Please put all non-essential calls on hold, or redirect them to one of the Colonels. I'm sure Victus wouldn't mind handling it."
"Heh, I'm sure he won't." Sulla answered, knowing full well that Victus hated dealing with bureaucracy.
With that General Septimus Oraka, now commander of all forces in Thargora Thoraga, found himself waiting for a miracle. Until that miracle came, they'd have to bleed the Council forces for every single inch they took. No mercy, no quarter would be spared. It was do or die now.
-000-
"We've got the bastards now!" Jarrod exclaimed loudly to his friend.
"Hehe, you're damn right." Okeer said with a sneer on his face. "It's about time we got some back up from off-world."
Okeer watched with masked glee at the holodesk as the JCF drove out the Turian navy from the system. At first, just like everyone else, the two believed that the Turian fleet had arrived to deter Council reinforcements and was worried that the JCF would be too weak willed to take heavy losses to their fleet. To every Allied Race member's surprise, the Turian fleet was given quite the bloody nose by a few mere fighters and fled off system shortly afterwards. Apparently, the Turians were here to evacuate their forces, not to deter the enemy. This meant that whatever Turian force still planetside was under-powered, and stranded without help.
These leftovers would be easy pickings.
With orbital supremacy reinstated, all Council forces on planet now could access live feeds of wherever the fleet's frigates could see. They had a bird's eye view of everything from the horizon and beyond, and Okeer could not be happier about it. Now the Turians would be stuck with aerial reconnaissance, now the Turians would be the ones at the disadvantage. Even without the additional troops being deployed from the fleet, the two Krogan leaders were confident they could snuff out what little resistance the remaining Turians could muster up.
"They're retreating." Jarrod said as he observed what Turian movements he could see.
"Where to?" Okeer asked.
"If the VI's calculations are correct, they're all headed to the Tykis sector... They're headed here." Jarrod answered him.
The Urdnot Battlemaster zoomed out on the map to get a continental view, and allowed the VI to continue it's calculations. The results remained the same: the Turians were consolidating all their forces in Tykis.
"They're bunkering down behind their new line." Okeer concluded. "They must think that they can somehow use it to save themselves."
"It's entirely possible, but they'd need to extend their lines far beyond what they have right now." Jarrod then said. He drew a line from where the new Turian defense lines were and made a circuit all the way back to it's other end. The new lines was long, and had to accommodate for the terrain. In fact, if the calculations were correct, they'd have to stretch all the way towards the Sona Frontline sector.
"If they manage to extend their lines like that, they'll have a nigh impregnable fortress." Okeer speculated. "I reckon they'll have enough troops to cycle around the lines to keep their troops perpetually rested."
"That certainly is concerning." Jarrod said as he shifted the map's view to a separate sector. "But this is even more worrisome."
Okeer looked at the holodesk and found out what Jarrod meant. Falaena, a city that was a perpetual war zone since the beginning of the Turian invasion, would be trapped inside of the Turian's defense ring.
"If we can't get there fast enough, we'll be counting their bodies along with the Turians." Jarrod bluntly told his friend.
"How soon can we get to them?" Okeer now asked.
"Not soon enough. Falaena was deep inside enemy territory even while the Turians still held the orbit." Jarrod told him as he zoomed in on the broken city. "The closest Allied force would still need to fight their way through determined Turian resistance. If the city falls into Turian hands, the factories in there could potentially be repurposed to produce war material for our enemy. We know for a fact that friendly forces in the city uses what factories still remain to produce weapons and munitions. It would be a boon for the Turians if they managed to add it to their manufacturing capabilities.
"Can't the navy land a force near the city?" Okeer now suggested.
"The Turian air defense network would make short work of whatever ship would get close enough to their lines. We can't risk it." Okeer countered. "We'll have to punch through the old fashioned way."
"For once, I'd rather not do things the old fashioned way." Okeer sighed. "I assume you've already prepared a report for whoever is in charge of the reinforcements?"
"Already sent." Jarrod said. "It's just a matter of making sure we don't waste this opportunity now."
"With us leading their enemies, the Turians aren't making out of this one in one piece ." Okeer said.
-000-
Galactic News Update:
Citadel Broadcasting Center: News has just come in that the combined might of the Joint Council Fleet has driven the Turian Navy from above Thargora Thoraga. Catching the enemy by surprise, our forces have dislodged the Turian force from the system and forcing them to abandon their troops on the planet. Losses on both sides seem to be rather high, and we have heard rumors that several of the latest Asari fighter craft have in fact been destroyed by the Turians in their retreat. The Asari piloting these crafts are some of the most experienced pilots in the service flying the most capable fighters available to the JCF. This has lead to questions on whether or not the first victory Soul Squadron scored was a fluke, or whether it is in fact this battle that is an outlier.
Colonial News Center: As more and more of our fighting force finds themselves preparing to fight yet another alien threat, many have speculated on the Alliance's best course of action in the coming times. With the road to war seemingly unavoidable, many ideas have been passed around as of late. Some of these ideas are as radical as a preemptive strike against the Citadel Aliens, whereas another suggestions brought up the possibility of an alliance with the Turian Aliens to deter potential Citadel aggression. The latter seems to be the most likely of the two options as a proposal for a Turian Embassy in Arcturus Station has been submitted to the Chamber of Speakers for evaluation and voting, with it very likely to be passed in the next few days. Details on the Embassy proposal has not been made public yet, but is expected to be before the final vote is cast. In closely related news...
-000-
A/N:
Hey guys, quick update here. I've gotten a clearer picture on how this fic is going to move forward, and I'm ready to really get the ball rolling hard. Within the next five or so chapters, we should start to see shit really hitting the fan and find the galaxy radically changing from Humans being Humans.
Oraka's move is an extremely risky one even after a lot of thought. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to write this part without making it sound way dumber/riskier/stupider than it seemed when I originally got the idea and hopefully the explanations helped you guys see why he would decide on such a seemingly self destructive course of action. Whether Oraka is going to end up deified or vilified for this... well, we'll just have to see this arc through to find out.
I actually had to cut out some parts which I would have liked to have added, but decided to remove due to time constraints. I blew past my once a month update schedule by a couple of days and if I waited any longer I'd get cucked by my midterms. Better get this part now and throw the cut content on another chapter rather than have it chew me up on the inside for the next week.
Looking back, I've noticed that I've actually been rather lackluster on explaining some of the more complicated parts of the fic. I'll probably be going back to it and fixing it in the near future. I really want you guys to get a better picture that makes some modicum of sense, and to do that I really need to make things really clear.
Anyways, write your thoughts down in a review or PM them to me. Feedback is always nice and it helps me avoid pitfalls in the future. Even if I don't reply to you directly, know that I always read them and put them to thought.
Thanks for reading, enjoy the rest of your day, and Godspeed to you.