"Alpha Strike"
Turian Stealth Frigate HNS Agrippa, Somewhere in the Thargora System, September 5, 2193.
A joint team of Turian SNLF troopers and Alliance Marines prepared in the deployment bay of a currently hidden Turian Frigate. The ship had managed to sneak into the system quietly and was now preparing to initiate the first blow in the relief operation. Turian Armiger teams and Marine Powered Armor units were running final system checks on their equipment before they would jump head first into a Council early warning space station. One Turian in particular, a Corporal Gaius Vyrnnus, kept throwing glances at his Human counterparts. One of his friends noticed this, ribbed him for it.
"If that's how you treat our friends, I'd hate to see how you treat your enemies." He said.
"It's nothing like that, Actus..." Vyrnnus replied.
"Then what's up?" Actus asked.
"It's just..." The Sergeant trailed off, trying to find his words. "They're wearing whole slabs of metal, and we expect them to keep up with us jetpack operators?"
"You think they're going to hold us back?"
"How can't I?!" Vyrnnus nodded. "We're fast and nimble, light on our feet... and they're walking hunks of metal. Just look at them!"
Corporal Tonn Actus looked towards the Powered Armor wearing Humans, and he couldn't help but start to see what Vrynnus was saying. One of them was surrounded by a handful of maintenance workers, strapping on and attaching various pieces of equipment which looked a whole lot like thrusters and Zero G maneuvering gear. Compared the regular Human Marines also taking part in the operation, the PA troopers genuinely looked like they could be dead weight.
"I guess I get what you're trying to say... but surely the Humans aren't dumb enough to send useless units for our first ever major joint operation, right?"
On the other side of the deployment bay, the Alliance Marines weren't oblivious to what's going on.
"Captain Bailey... they're looking at us weird." A Powered Armor Marine said.
"It's the first time they're seeing us." Bailey said as he ran final checks on his combat hardsuit. "Don't think of it too much."
"They're talking about us." A different PA Operator said, this one had his helmet on, so voice came out filtered.
"And you can tell because...?"
"My helmet's sensors are picking it up, translator program tells me they think we're gonna be dead weight." The helmeted operator answered.
Bailey shot a quick glance that the Turians who were conversing, looked back at his men, shook his head and huffed.
"Aliens bastards are all the same." Bailey snidely remarked under his breath.
Alarms started ringing, and now a flanging Turian voice was heard through the ship's intercom system.
"Now hear this! The Agrippa is in position to begin the operation! All hands, to your posts! I repeat! All hands, to your posts!"
Sensor officers in the Agrippa's CIC initiated the warship's shorwave jamming system. All outbound comms from the immediate area are intercepted and stopped. The early warning station was isolated for the moment, but not for long. The Marines and SNLF troopers would have to act quickly.
"The 3rd Fleet is now in relay transit! ETA is 48 minutes."
Everyone entered an alert state. Engineers, maintenance workers, and other support personnel quickly vacated the deployment deck as the Marines and SNLF troopers hustled into position. Bailey himself got up from the bench he was sitting on and locked the helmet into his hardsuit.
"Remember boys, we do this by the book! I want a clean op! That means none of you are allowed to die in this mission, am I clear?!"
"Hoorah!" The other marines all replied in unison.
"That's what I like to hear!" Bailey said, pounding his chestplate twice. "Now first team, to deployment positions! Second team, get to your Kodiaks! Move it!"
The PA operators quickly marched towards the deployment bay's exit door. They braced themselves in their launch stance and got ready to begin Zero G maneuvers. The Marine regular that lined up behind the PA operator attached a cord to a latch on the PA's Zero G maneuvering suite, then clipped the cord to his belt. He passed on the rolled cord to the Marine behind him, who did the same. This continued until the end of the line. From this, a human train of heavily armed Marines had been formed.
An electrical humming noise began to fill the room, followed by mechanical whirring as the exit door opened, revealing the space station they were about to attack in full view. The Mass Effect shields kept the pressure and atmosphere intact as the door slowly folded. The door and shield operator, watching from the control room, carefully observed the troops and hovered her hands over the big button that would deactivate the atmospheric shield. Once it seemed like everyone was ready, she quickly slammed the button.
In an instant, the Marines and SNLF troopers felt themselves becoming light as artificial gravity in the deployment deck was first to shut off. After a few seconds, the shields quickly shuttered off, venting the atmosphere inside and launching both Turian and Humans out of the ship in high speeds. The Turian Armigers, equipped with their jetpacks, quickly sped towards the space station, leaving behind the slower procession of Alliance Marines behind. Amongst this all, Bailey could only hear his heavy breathing, as his life was now entirely in the hands of the Powered Armor operator he was attached to. Being second in the train, he had a mostly unobstructed view of the Turian Armigers who quickly breached the station's hangar bay. The captain then glanced at the PA operator he was hooked to, and saw that he was making micro adjustments every few seconds to maintain their heading. As the train of Alliance Marines drew closer and closer to the station hangar, Bailey could see that the Turians had quickly established a cordon around hangar exit. They were advancing against the lightly armed security in the hangar, but no doubt that the actual garrison troops would show up quickly.
Suddenly, flashing lights appeared around the exterior of the hangar entrance. Metal doors began sliding from under and below as the garrison forces would no doubt want to stop further reinforcements from arriving to back up the Turians. Bailey cursed under his breath then activated his helmet's communicator.
"Full burn! We're not gonna make it otherwise!"
The PA operator in front of the captain nodded, then proceeded to gun the Zero G maneuvering kit's thrusters. The other operators also followed suit, and very quickly the Alliance Marines punched through the atmospheric shields. Bailey felt the station's artificial gravity kick in within an instant, and then pulled the pin from the cord on his belt. He was immediately detached from the train, folded his arms across his chest, then braced his feet for landing. When he felt his feet touch the hangar's floor, he quickly tucked them in, diving into a forward roll and dissipating the worst of the momentum. The last second speedup had caused the marines to enter at a higher velocity than they trained for, and Bailey was disoriented for an uncomfortable amount of time. His back and shoulders also hurt like hell, but he was sure they weren't broken. The armor was designed to absorb most of the kinetic impact after all. The captain quickly got up and equipped his rifle, though he did stumble a bit as he tried to run for cover. A quick look around and he saw that the entire first team managed to make it into the hangar. Turning his head forwards he saw that the PA operators -no doubt having a much more pleasant landing- had already taken up positions along with the Turian SNLF.
"Alright Marines! Form up and push them out! We need a bridgehead established here yesterday!"
They scrambled to get up and quickly rallied around the Turians. Once they were ready, Bailey ordered the big push. Marines rose from cover and began advancing. One would run forward while another laid down suppressing fire. The Marines would leap frog like this as they drove out the hangar defenders out.
"Appo, get those hangar doors open!" Vrynnus yelled out, his voice just barely audible over the raging firefight.
The Turian in question nodded and quickly jetted away towards the hangar door controls. Vrynnus and a handful of other SNLF troopers gave their comrade covering fire, ensuring that none of the hostiles could stop Appo as he reopened the hangar and let in the rest of the Human marines.
With a mechanical whir the hangar doors began unsealing, revealing 4 Alliance Kodiaks already inbound towards the station. As the Human transports landed, the last of the Council forces retreated out of the hangar bay and into the halls further inside. As a precaution, they sealed the door leading inwards, but this was an easy problem to fix.
"Sanchez, Grosskreutz, get some breaching charges on those doors!" Bailey barked into the radio.
The Marines took their positions and got ready. When the breaching charges ripped the doors apart, the PA operators lead the charge, their armored suit too tough to be penetrated by mere small arms. As the Humans pushed on forwards, the Turian Armigers rushed ahead, jetting into side halls and passages, wreaking havoc among the defender's lines.
The Marines rolled right through, and were barreling straight towards the station's command center. The station garrison was now in a fighting retreat. They weren't expecting to fight something like a tank in the middle of a cramped space station... and they sure as hell weren't expecting it to be running right at them in the halls.
The firefight continued as the Marines steadily pushed the defenders into the station's control room. The Krogan and Asari defenders held their ground admirably, but they were outgunned and out matched. Even with a few veteran and skilled fighters among them, they were eventually taken down by the joint Marine and SNLF force.
Once the fighting had cleared up, the Marines quickly reactivated the station's all clear signal, then signaled to the Agrippa to cease comms jamming. It wasn't long after that the station received a message from the main fleet currently blockading Thargora Thoraga.
"Forward Station Ahura, this is the Aigaion. "Your all clear signal is late by 7 minutes... report in." The Asari voice in the transmission said.
"Uh shit... Cap, what do we do?" One of the Marines asked.
Bailey nearly panicked internally, but he quickly calmed himself and focused on finding a solution. A eureka moment struck the officer and he swung into action. The fleet was still at least a handful of minutes away from arrival. All he needed to was keep the enemy occupied until then. Bailey quickly slid into the comm officer's seat, deepened his voice, and then hit the transmit button.
"This is.. Forward Station Ahura... We uh... had problems with our... transmitter and couldn't report in. We only brought it back online recently. Everything is clear." The Captain said onto the mic, trying as best he can to mimic a Krogan's voice.
Around him, Bailey could see some of the Marines had winced or shook their heads. He also noticed one of the Turians had buried his face in his hands after listening to the Human's attempt at deception.
"Ahura, the support corps already ran their routine maintenance on your station yesterday." The comm officer on the Aigaion replied. "If your equipment is failing already, we'll have to send a repair barge to run more thorough repairs."
"Uh... negative, Aigaion, repairs are already completed, all systems nominal, situation normal." Bailey quickly said. "No need to send repair ships here, we can handle it ourselves."
"That's a deviation from operational protocol." The Asari sternly replied. "Who is this? What is your name and operational number?"
Bailey quietly swallowed as he tried to think of a way to keep the situation under control. Just as he was running out of ideas, a bright flash followed by a warship exiting relay transit became visible from the command center's windows. Bailey quickly turned to the Turians there with him and signaled them to begin jamming again. One of the SNLF troopers figured out what Bailey was trying to say and radioed back to the Agrippa.
"Uh... I'm sorry ma'am... it looks like we're losing your signal... could you repeat?" He said.
"I sai... what is you... ame an... perati... nu..." The Asari officer spoke before her transmission was cut off by the Agrippa.
Bailey leaned back into his seat, finally relieved.
"That could have gone better." He said.
Meanwhile on the Aigaion, the comm officer was left somewhat confused at the whole exchange. She rubbed her temples for a bit before tuning in to a different signal.
"Forward Station Ahura is suffering from transmitter malfunctions again." She reported. "Deploy a repair barge, and assign a warship squadron for escort ASAP."
-000-
"Aigaion, this is Soul 10, I'm assuming command of Whirlwind flight... we're launching!"
Three Asari Vanguard Fighters launched from the Dreadnought's flight deck. They were followed by a swarm of Vanguard Drones, essentially the same craft but instead of a cockpit, it instead had an advanced VI Module installed. Soul 6 had taken the time to study and look into the code behind the Vanguard Drone's VI, and it was dizzyingly complex. In a way, it was impressive. While it certainly wouldn't be as impressive as a real pilot, it was programmed with a variety of maneuvers, tricks, and and tactics from which it can draw from... most of which was recorded from Soul Squadron's lead herself.
"Another escort run? Are these the best assignments the Matriarch can give us?" Soul 11 complained.
"Hey, what can you do about it? We have voidspace superiority and the Turian planetary airforce rarely ever sorties anyways." Soul 12 now replied.
"I'm just saying, escort runs like these are a waste of our skills." 11 shot back. "Even strafing runs or high altitude air strikes would be a better use of our time."
"Cut the chatter, ladies." 10 disciplined the pilots under her command. "The repair barge and her frigate escorts are right ahead."
Whirlwind flight and its complement of drones flashed its IFF codes once they were in range, and then received a transmission from the leading frigate.
"This is Shipmaster Irrakech Morg, of the Krogan Frigate Yarog's Dagger." Soul 10 heard over the radio. "Whirlwind flight, you are now under our control. Confirm?"
"Confirmed, Yarog's Dagger, you are in control."
"Excellent." The Krogan shipmaster said. "We are transmitting flight plans to you now. Fall into formation and let's get this over with."
The flight towards the forward station was quite uneventful, Soul 11's occasional whining aside. The flight lead had told the whining pilot to keep quiet, but inwardly 10 had to admit that her brash underling was right. Escort runs like these were a severe waste of their talent... and of the Aigaion. The Dreadnought could be punching holes in enemy lines and bringing the hurt to the Turians. Instead it was just hanging out in orbit... doing nothing.
A ping from 10's instrument panel ripped her ought of her thoughts. She saw that the forward station had entered mid-range sensors... but there were still no transmissions going on. Something odd was going on. Shipmaster Morg must've felt the same way, because soon enough his voice was heard on the radio.
"Whirlwind Flight, move ahead and investigate the station." He said. "Stay on alert... something's off about this whole situation."
"Affirmative, Whirlwind Flight will investigate."
The Vanguard fighters and the drones under their control surged ahead. As the fighters travelled the distance of several dozens of kilometers within a couple of minutes, 10 noticed something. Silhouettes of ships were slowly coming into form to the naked eye, but they weren't showing up on sensors.
"Possible contacts." 10 said to her squadmates. "Can anyone confirm ident?"
"Negative, no squawks." 12 answered.
"Are they Turians?" 11 asked.
"No, silhouettes don't match anything in record."
10 thought hard in her head. The gears in her head churned, trying to consider all available possibilities... and she eventually came to a conclusion.
"They're Human warships!"
Just as she said that, multiple pings showed up on sensor. 10 looked to her 4 o'clock high, and saw a dozen fighters moving in a course to intercept Whirlwind Flight.
The Vanguard Fighters and its Drones quickly broke off from each other, evading missiles that very nearly would have destroyed their formation. 10 cursed under her breath... they survived the initial volley, but now they were scattered while the Humans were still in formation.
"We have to regro..."
"More sensor contacts from the asteroid belt!" 11 cut her off.
A dozen more Human fighters entered the fray.
"I've got positive contacts on even more fighters... Oh Goddess," 12 reported. "they have us outnumbered 3-to-1!"
"Stay calm!" 10 asserted. "Get back into formation! We have a better chance punching through back to the Yarog's Dagger that way!"
10 moved her fighter and tried to maneuver herself to cover 12's flank, but a quartet of Human fighters quickly blocked that route. She doubled back to try and shake them off her tail, but as she did she noticed one of the warships had moved away from the station. This one was different from the others. Instead of the blocky silver and blue of the Human ships, it was angular, white, and orange... a Turian stealth frigate. Worse still, on its flanks were not just two Human cruisers, but squadrons of fighters and strike craft as well.
"There's a strike force moving towards the escort squadron! They must be using the Stealth Frigate's jamming to get in close!"
"A dozen frigates aren't going to last long against them!" 11 said. "I'm going to try and engage the bombers!"
"12, cover her! I'll try and hold them off!"
-000-
Back at the Yarog's Dagger, Shipmaster Morg was starting to grow somewhat anxious. Whirlwind Flight was supposed to check in almost half an hour ago. He ordered his frigate pack to be on combat alert, but this only served to intensify his worries.
"Anything yet?" He asked one of the sensors officers on the bridge.
"No change."
"Rrrrh... what is going on over there?" Morg rumbled to himself.
The shipmaster feet tapping increased in tempo as his own impatience started eating him from the inside. The Krogan officer had his arms crossed as he stared daggers into the viewport in front of him.
As time crawled by, Morg had began to pace around his command throne, a sneer on his face growing with each passing minute.
He knew something must have went wrong with Whrilwind Flight... but he didn't know what. He was all but certain the enemy had somehow snuck into the system, and yet even that left much room for speculation.
Was it a small incursion? Was it an invasion? Should the squadron move forward and reinforce the fighters? Should they stay put? Should they withdraw back to the fleet?
These were the questions swirling in his mind.
"Shipmaster, multiple ship silhouettes spotted, 19 degrees to our right, relative to the bow! It's moving towards our general direction!" The ship's optical sensors officer suddenly reported.
"What?!" Was all that the Shipmaster could exclaim.
If the silhouettes could be seen on regular optical sensors... then they should be well within detection range of thermal and electronic sensors. There must be significant amounts of interference if multiple ships were somehow able to enter detection range unnoticed.
"Can you confirm their identities?" Morg asked as he quickly sat down on his command throne.
Once down, he activated his holographic display and brought up the feed from the optical sensor.
"VI is unable to confirm ship identity, they're still too far off to be fully recognized!"
Morg gritted his teeth. This was it. It was the time to make his decision. After carefully considering all the variables and all his options, he finally chose a course of action.
"Comms officer! Order the repair barge to return to the fleet. All other warships are to follow us in full combat speed!"
As the orders were relayed, the frigate pack quickly surged forward, leaving the repair barge behind. The twelve ships entered into a tight diamond formation with the Yarog's Dagger at the head of the pack.
Morg himself kept an eye on the optical sensor feed as the three warships headed towards his position slowly gained more detail. Eventually he could see enough of it to confirm his thoughts, even if the VI haven't been able to.
"Relay to the other ships: we're dealing with one Turian frigate, and what looks like two Human cruisers!"
"Shipmaster, we've reestablished contact with Whirlwind flight!" The comm officer reported in.
"Patch them through!"
"Shipma... urn ba... ot a mino... inc... ion, I re... it's no... inor... rsion!"
"What is she trying to say? Clear up the interference!"
After a moment of static, the pilot's transmission returned with noticeably better clarity.
"Shipmaste... turn back no... this isn't... inor incursio... it's... invasion!"
Just as Morg realized the full extent of the situation, the transmission from the pilots ceased. Bright flashes were seen from way in the distance. Whirlwind Flight was confirmed to have been shot down. If this truly was a full blown invasion of the system, then the frigate pack he commanded is nowhere near enough to slow them down.
"Dammit! Helmsman, bring us about! Comms officer, relay to the other ships to withdraw from this engagement! We have to escape the jamming and warn the fleet!" He quickly ordered.
"Intense heat sources detected coming from the hostile warships!" One of the sensors officer yelled out. "It's moving fast!"
As the Allied Races frigates turned in formation, a hail of missiles rained upon them. These missiles split open, launching dozens upon dozens more smaller ones. While most of them were intercepted by the combined firepower of multiple GARDIAN Lasers and its overlapping field of fire, a sizeable amount made it through and hit the ships. Thankfully, these missiles were small and didn't do anything that can't be shrugged off for now.
"Damage report!"
"Leftside broadside guns 3 and 4 are non-operational! Minor fires caused on sections 3, 4 and 6! Minor hull breach on section 5!" An officer in the bridge answered.
"Deploy our Damage Control team!"
"Another missile barrage detected... and it looks like strike craft are following close behind!" Another officer reported.
"Tighten our formation! Keep all ships within range of each other's GARDIAN coverage!"
"Second barrage incoming!"
Another hail of missiles washed on the frigate pack like a firestorm. The GARDIAN batteries, still not fully cooled down from the first barrage, eventually overheated as it fired away at even more missiles than the first wave had. Gaps in the point defense network opened up, leaving the warships vulnerable to more strikes by the following strike craft. Bigger, more powerful missiles were launched by the Human strike crafts which slipped through the GARDIAN Laser grid, heavily damaging a handful of ships, and outright crippling a couple.
"The Ananke and the Haggod's Watcher are foundered!"
"Can we make the jump to light speed?" Morg barked out.
"The windup time will take too long! They'll hit us while the engines are charging! Without our shields they'll tear us apart in an instant!"
No way to escape, and no way to fight back. Things were looking grim for Morg and his frigate pack. The Shipmaster gripped the armrest of his command throne and gritted his teeth... they weren't going to make it out of this one alive, but he could get a warning out, the main force could rally and fight back, especially with the Aigaion leading the charge.
"Can we break through their interference Can we contact the fleet?"
"No... the jamming is still too thick for that... but the repair barge might be able to receive our messages!" The comm officer reported. "Connection might still be patchy, so best keep it short."
Morg sneered.
This being the case, then there was only one thing left that he could do.
-000-
"And this is all they sent?"
"Yes, Matriarch... we lost contact with the Shipmaster shortly after." The repair barge's captain explained in her report.
"I see, you are dismissed."
Matriarch Dillinaga placed down the datapad and rubbed her temples after dismissing the captain. The aging Asari commander quickly recomposed herself though. A lot of good sailors just died to bring them this warning. As she began organizing Battlefleet Unity into defensive positions, the screen on her datapad slowly timed out. Right before it went into sleep mode, the single word relayed in Shipmaster Morg's transmission was seen...
"Invasion".
The screen flickered off. The message was short, but its intent was clear. The only thing left to do now, is to honor their sacrifice.
-000-
Archive Update:
Operation Britannia: During the tail end of the Brother's War, Commonwealth forces managed to breach the Arcturus Defense Line and invaded the Sol System with a major force. However, the homeworld's relatively self-sufficient nature meant that a blockade could potentially last many years. Add to this the fact that many Union colonies have not yet been pacified, the risk of an attack from behind was deemed to great and the Commonwealth's military high command sought quick solutions to the problem of forcing the Union to surrender. Operation Britannia was the result of these discussions. The operation started with the deployment of tactical nuclear weaponry on Earth and Mars, followed by the rapid deployment of landing forces to destroy the Union's industrial warfighting capabilities within the Sol System. However, after the initial strikes against New York City and the Martian Shipyards, the Union Parliament sued for peace, causing the second phase of the operation redundant.
Operation Meteor: Before the liberation of Shanxi and first contact with the Turian Hierarchy, Alliance strategists believed that the only way to end the war is for them to go on the offensive. To these ends, Operation Meteor was drafted as a punitive expedition to try and force the Batarians into peace talks by whatever means necessary. Even during its planning stages, the operation was shrouded in the highest level of secrecy, and anyone attempting to leak details about the operation were caught and persecuted as traitors to not just the Alliance, but to all mankind. These plans were indefinitely shelved after first contact with the Turians happened, and most of the records were purged after the Batarian Civil War broke out. Long after the end of the Great Galactic War, scarcely anything about the cancelled operation has been revealed to the public. Despite this, two crucial details have since come to light:
One: Internal correspondence messages discovered decades after the end of the war suggests that boots on the ground were deemed "totally unnecessary for the operation's success".
Two: A formal complaint was filed by researchers from the Martian Nuclear Institute, asking Admiral REDACTED to stop his repeated daily inquiries about the progress of the Alliance's then in-development Gamma Nuclear Weapons, and when they would be available for mass deployment.