Chapter 9: The Terran Blitz

SSV Atlantia, QEC room

Second Fleet, Eridani System

Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett was going over reports regarding the counterattack at Shanxi aboard the battleship Atlantia who was mobilizing along with the Second Fleet in the Eridani System. He made his away to Reach as soon as possible to assume command of the second largest fleet in service with the Alliance.

The Reach-Class carrier SSV Eridani was already away with her battlegroup and a few more hundred ships at the colony world of Aurora from where they'd be deployed into battle zones, either to reinforce the Third Fleet or go on independent missions. Elements of the Fourth Fleet had taken part of the Third Fleet's duties in guarding the outer colonies while ships of the Second were relieving vessels of the Third in the inner colonies. The Fifth Fleet was being reactivated as well.

Hackett was done with reading the reports. He had devised a plan along with Fleet Admiral Ines Lindholm, the CO of the First Fleet, Fleet Admiral Tadius Ahern, the CO of the Third, Rear Admiral Mikhailovich, and Admiral Han'Gerrel, a plan to strike back at the Council.

The closest Council planet to the Alliance border is the Turian colony world of Magna. That would be an obvious target due to its strategic value. That's where the Council forces hailed from. It's the most important resupply and repair location for this sector of the galaxy for the Citadel. It can be used as a staging point for another attack on Shanxi, and from Shanxi to Arcturus, Earth, New Rannoch and every other colony with a Mass Relay. And God knows how long until they reverse engineer the hyperspace FTL drive. Not to mention that it would give the Alliance an extra card at the negotiations table.

Magna needed to be taken out of the equation. One important issue raised by the Quarian Admiral was the small shipyard in orbit of Magna, a shipyard mostly used for repairs and maintenance of the Hierarchy's vessels who operated in that sector. While its dimensions wasn't much and restricted what tasks it can fulfill, Gerrel considered it a treasure waiting to be taken. And Hackett saw where he was taking this – he wanted to steal the shipyard and bring it to New Rannoch.

And the plan to do it was rather simple. They need to clear the system first of hostiles but avoid damaging the small shipyard. Then a Prometheus packer ship would jump in system and attach towing cables to the shipyard and tow it. They'd of course need a hand from more ships to get the construct moving before the Prometheus would go into FTL and take it to New Rannoch. This would give the Quarian Republic a head start to their development and self reliability in the naval building industry. Hackett approved of it, so did Lindholm. Ahern thought it was risky but it would be well worth it if they pull it.

This would be the most important attack out of the three attack lines. This was the primary one. The other two were secondary, more like attacks of fixing the enemy on position and give the false impression of a full scale assault. Attacks just to make sure each race would stay in its own yard. When your own turf and people are threatened you tend to tend to them first and don't pay that much attention to the others asking you to help them. With the two secondary attacks, Hackett makes sure the Asari and Salarians won't send any significant help to the Turians.

As Hackett reviewed the plan on large in his mind, Fleet Admiral Tadius Ahern's image appeared in one of the QEC projectors.

"Fleet Admiral Ahern," Hackett saluted with a hand to his forehead.

"Fleet Admiral Hackett, sir!" Ahern saluted back.

"Ahern, I've gone through the reports and I want the short version of it to make sure I haven't skipped anything important."

"Sir, Shanxi's orbit was secured after the Fast Reaction Fleet and the 1st Heavy Reconnaissance Fleet engaged the Turian ships, assisted by vessels of the Third Fleet. No ship made it back through the Relay. General Williams' 5th Marine Shock Division has secured Shanxi after 12 more hours of fighting after debarkation. The battleships Thunder Child and Kirishima along with other ships suffered extensive damage, so I brought some of the Third Fleet's mobile repair and utility ships to get them back into fighting shape.

After we increased our naval presence in Shanxi's system we pushed through to Relay 314. There we encountered another fleet of proximately 500 vessels. It was a joint fleet, primarily composed of Asari and Salarian ships. There were a few Volus and Turian ships too. They hailed our vessels and we used the same tactic used by Admiral Drescher to shut down their communications. Prolonged dialogue between the two fleets allowed our cyber warfare AIs to familiarize themselves with their ships' systems architecture, thus they were able to incapacitate them, only leaving life support active. It's safe to say that if they had active systems they'd have opened fire on us. But they aren't that stupid – well, not all of them – to try to fight us with no guns working.

Of course, not all their ships fell to the cyber attacks and some refused our terms of surrender. They were quickly dispatched. Captains who refused to surrender after their ships were shut down were also on the receiving end of our MAC and ion cannons. We have effectively taken prisoner more than 400 Council ships with their crews. Admiral Atelas Razea of the Asari Republics was neutral to cooperative, if not hostile at times when we destroyed some ships. We started to move the crews to the prisons on Alcatraz and their ships to a secure location," Ahern said.

Hackett nodded. "I trust you took precautions and checked the ships for tracking devices. They could have developed a tracker who's working on QEC. After all, they have a better understanding of mass effect technology. Failure to deactivate such trackers is a huge breach of the H-A Protocol, as it compromises a location of importance to the Alliance."

"We checked, sir. We're only moving those who got through the procedures and crews shipped off to Alcatraz. Of course, crewmembers who aren't cooperating are shot on the spot. I suggest we move just a number of those ships into Alliance space and keep the rest here. But for that I'll need more ships to guard them from a possible enemy push. Or we could blow them up with nukes. We load a nuke aboard and set a timer for it."

"We're not blowing up prisoners with nuclear armament, Fleet Admiral. I'll send you reinforcements. How are preparations for the offensive going?"

"Very well. We'll be ready in less than a day. Admiral Han'Gerrel should arrive with part of the Quarian Heavy Fleet within three hours. Task Force Sirius is waiting for him. Task Force Kraken and Task Force Malice are ready to go. The stealth ships and their N7 teams are standing by. Fireteams Immortal, Savage, Hazard, Nightlight, Viper and Melody are eager for action," Ahern reported.

Hackett was pleased. "Good to hear. Thank you for your time, Fleet Admiral. Take care out there and bring us words of your victory. For Earth and Her Colonies!" Hackett said and saluted. Ahern saluted in return before his image disappeared from the QEC projector.

The three task forces were formed by the ships of the Third Fleet predominantly, with Task Force Sirius boasting a heavy Quarian presence. Task Force Sirius had the objective of taking Magna.

Task Force Kraken's objective was to hit the Asari Republics. Those hits included raids on the Parnitha System in the Athena Nebula, the solar system which contained the Asari homeworld of Thessia. Other targets included targets of opportunity such as warships at dock, Helium-3 refineries, military installations and raids on merchant ships.

Task Force Malice had a similar objective like Task Force Kraken – advance along the Turian – Salarian – Traverse border and hit military installations, STG bases if found and capture them for information gathering, hit targets of opportunity within the borders of the Salarian Union. The two secondary task forces were too short in numbers to be able to take on the Asari or Salarian fleets head-on. Their purpose was clear – scare the two and prevent them from sending help to the Turians.

The Alliance was hoping for a short lived conflict where they hit the Council and scare them enough. If they refused to come to the diplomatic table then they'd hit them harder. These early raids would weaken the Republics and the Union, plus would prevent them from presenting a united front against the Alliance. But Humanity and the Quarian people knew they'd lose in a prolonged war against these three powerhouses.

The most important advantage, as stated by Jack Harper, they had was the secrecy behind the locations of New Rannoch, Earth and the colonies. As long as the Council didn't know where to find them, the Alliance could take massive loses and, in time, replenish those losses with its industrial might. The Council couldn't say the same, with the whole galaxy knowing where their industrial and economic centers are. And without those two – or at least the former rather than latter – they would fall. A blitzkrieg would have these exact results.

As Sun Tzu said, "In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns."

But the Alliance had one more ace up its sleeve. One which wasn't of military nature, but had a major impact on the military of each nation. And they'd use that ace after Magna fell.

The whole operation was codenamed Operation Guderian, after the German General Heinz Guderian, the father of the blitzkrieg. This would be the first time Humanity uses the blitz against aliens. If everything went according to plan, only the first half would be required. If the Council refused peace and pursued war, then the second half of the operation would be enacted for a total blitzkrieg on the aliens.

Arcturus Station, Quarian District

Garrus Vakarian's apartment

Garrus was sitting in his apartment ever since the breakout of hostilities between the Alliance and the Council. After the little going out with Shepard's team a few days ago, he glued his eyes to the news networks of the Alliance, be those on TV or the little Internet he had access to.

The AIC kept tabs on him ever since, but they didn't receive any reason to bust in and arrest him for plotting against the Alliance or trying anything funny. He was playing nice.

He was torn between two feelings. One of duty to support his fellow Turians, and one of despair that this was actually happening – that the Hierarchy just attacked another species along with the Council. His father wouldn't have allowed this. Actually, nobody from Palaven Command with half a sense of honor, of duty and common sense would have condoned this.

The TV coming back to life from another ad break got his attention once more. There was a woman in blue armor with the word PRESS written over her chest in the middle. The caption in the footer of the screen read VICTORY AT SHANXI – ALIEN FORCE OBLITERATED BY ALLIANCE NAVY AND MARINES.

A feeling of dread forced its claws onto Garrus' heart. There was a Turian force at Shanxi according to President Montgomery's speech. And it was obliterated.

"Howdy ladies and gentlemen! I am Diana Allers and you're on Battlespace," the woman said. Behind her were hundreds of soldiers coming out of ships and the landscape looked desolate and somber. "We're live now from Shanxi, the site of Humanity's first hostile encounter with an alien species. And the site of a total massacre.

Two days ago, Admiral Kastanie Drescher commanded her fleet of 200 warships into battle in the orbit of Shanxi. Along with help from Rear Admiral Leonard Averescu's First Heavy Reconnaissance Fleet, she caught the alien forces unprepared for such a rapid and powerful response.

A swift and decisive victory ensued, followed up by the landing of the 5th Marine Shock Division under the command of Major General Joachim Williams who assisted the already fighting Shanxi garrison. In the end, the alien forces were totally decimated, with an estimated kill count of over 75,000.

As we speak, the Marines of the 5th Division and the soldiers of the 4th Reach Army are occupied with relief efforts and assisting the population. The dead are already being buried and those still under the rubble dug out. The western bunker is being excavated to get the people out.

More Alliance assets and forces are headed for Shanxi as we speak, and a counterattack mounted up. The soldiers of the 4th Reach Army may very soon hit the front lines in enemy space.

Diana Allers from Battlespace, signing out!"

He recognized the name of Averescu from that sickbay aboard a Human warship after he was rescued. It was safe to say that Garrus was shocked. That feeling of dread got an ever stronger hold of him. But he was taken out of the downwards spiral he was embarking on by his door opening. In came two bodyguards with a woman in formal clothing.

"Mister Vakarian?"

"Yes?"

"Anita Goyle. Please come with me," she said. "We need your help to talk to the Turian officials."

Reach, Intelligence Command HQ

Command & Control Center

While the Navy and the Marine Corps liberated Shanxi, the AIC didn't waste any time in doing their part. With Harper's lively leadership every asset the AIC had was already mobilized and stealth spy ships were now moving from Shanxi into Council space. They already had a vessel near Magna, keeping an eye on the Turians and evaluating defenses. There were also two stealth destroyers of the Navy in system.

"Director, the Equinox is reporting that the Turians are still easy and unaware. Our forces will have the element of surprise. They're probing enemy cyber defenses," an operator reported.

Harper just nodded as he walked between the rows of computers manned by operators, or trenches more commonly referred to. The Command & Control Center, or 3C for short, was designed in a similar manner to NASA's mission control centers. They had several huge screens in a huge room and dozens of rows of computers and other installations.

"Operation Guderian is a go, sir! The Navy's moving," somebody else said.

"Make sure we send the president's speech as soon as we cut off Magna," Harper said. "It's vital we get that data package and virus to the Citadel through that comm buoy. Have the Equinox reconfirm orders."

After a minute came the answer. "Sir, the Equinox confirms orders: send the package through, force a hard shut down of the buoy, followed up by its destruction an hour later."

It was mostly Harper's idea to record Montgomery's speech and sending it to the Citadel. Montgomery was content with a formal declaration of war before Harper's idea. The virus which was mostly a specialized dumb AI would crack through extranet and display it to the whole Citadel, with some hope that it would spread to other planets too. Its purpose was to get the population to react.

If the Asari were as peace loving as the Quarians advertised them to be, then many Asari would protest against the war and further hinder the Republics' military. The Salarians would also prefer peace in the detriment of a war that can't be won with their military doctrine. It might galvanize the Turians into taking up arms against them or it might not. It depends on every individual. But the Council war enthusiasts would be overshadowed by the many who'd call for peace, be them Asari, Salarian, Turian, Elcor, Volus, Batarian…

The Batarians… now they'd might take this opportunity to raid a few Human locations to show their 'support' to the Council. Or they might use it to send their pirates to raid along the Traverse – Council border where Task Force Malice would leave the borders open by destroying military installations (early warning systems).

The Volus are in for profit. A war means losses when you or your buddies are on the receiving end of the stick. Their economy will take a blow when it will come up to fund the repair or building of Turian warships. Or the loss and subsequent rebuilding of infrastructure.

It will also smear the Council's reputation and paint them as warmongers, backstabbers. The Citadel Council will lose authority with this. Not that Harper thought it had too much of it. He theorized that the Council was more like a political entity who projected the illusion of power instead of actually wielding it. It seemed too much like the United Nations.

Harper smiled as he thought about all of this in his head. He'd be damned if the aliens weren't in for a rude awakening from their mirage of power and serenity. The Alliance will show everyone otherwise.

Then another thought crept its way into his mind. "Check on Agent Lawson's status. I want a report as soon as she and Agent Zero finish their job. Cerberus is going live," he said.

Alcatraz, Northern Pole

Prison-X, Military prison

Alcatraz, a small colony who started as a mining outpost on a rock with an equator as cold as the Siberian heartland, now it's home to roughly 50,000 colonists who live in two cities on the equator and earn their living by mining. Mining, once a job thought of as nothing, returned as a well paid job once Humanity reached for the stars. Humanity's industrial might is consuming metals and minerals like a kid is eating chocolate – it's craving for it.

But Alcatraz isn't just home to good citizens who help support Humanity. It's also home to many prisons filled with the lawless folk. One who's sent here to do its sentence must leave all hope of escaping, for there is no such thing as escaping from Alcatraz. If you get outside of the facility you have to put up with the freezing cold. Then you must procure a ship to get off world. And in between are hundreds and hundreds of armed guards, be those from law enforcement or from the military.

At the northern pole of the planet lies Prison-X, the most secure detainment facility built. It now holds thousands of Asari, Turian and a couple hundred Salarians in its large cells. The hallways are guarded by armed Alliance Marines. Brought either as survivors from Shanxi or after Atelas' fleet was taken prisoner, the aliens are going nowhere soon from here.

It was here where Miranda Lawson found herself. She was here to get some information out of them. And the AIC's top information extortionist arrived before her. Agent Zero, not someone you want to play smart with if you're not colleagues. Why Zero? Because that's the number of people left alive after Zero receives orders to deal with them. Many troublemakers for the Alliance found that out the hard way. Miranda knew Agent Zero, and she knew it was a woman. And she was someone she wanted to have in Cerberus, with Harper already approving her request. All she needed was Zero's cooperation to get the job done.

Miranda entered the supervision room of an interrogation room. There were a few others from AIC recording everything and two Marine guards. Through the window she was able to see the people inside. A table thrown in a corner with the chairs close to it. There was a large water tank, three Marines and a woman using torturing techniques on a Turian and an Asari.

The woman interrogating was one of maybe 30 years old, maybe younger. She was wearing a different than usual body armor beneath the black material which covered most of it. A belt with pockets for magazines and grenades ran across her waist, a second belt ran diagonal across her chest with shotgun casings. A white skull was painted on her left chest side. Her hair was unusual too – shaven on the sides and the rest grown normally and held in a ponytail. Tattoos adorned her scalp.

"Your time is running out, babe," she warned the Asari. She was held by her legs and her head was sunk in a large bucket to give her the continuous sensation of drowning. They brought her head out and let her take a breath after coughing out the water.

"I already told you everything I know! Please, let me be…" she begged.

"You mercenary finger banger, do you honestly think you will fool anybody with your bullshit? What the fuck's this Eclipse crap anyway? The Blue Bitches Brigade or what?" her interrogator retorted. "Start talking, tentacle head! Talk or I'll shit down your neck!"

"You primitive scum! You're going to pay for this when the Hierarchy and the Council find out!" the Turian retorted.

Miranda recognized the Turian. The AIC got a list of prisoners from the Marine Corps and Army. This one was General Desolas Arterius. The one responsible for the whole mess and the one who ordered the orbital strike on a civilian bunker. There still were people trapped inside the bunker after sections came crashing down. To be fair, Shanxi's bunkers weren't built deep enough to resist prolonged bombardment. The soldiers who arrived at Shanxi were working around the clock to get everybody out of that bunker. It wasn't as much a matter of them running out of water and food.

Jack stood centimeters away from the Turian and gazed into his crystal blue eyes. "You stupid or what? Of course you're stupid, you're just a stupid bird. I bet you came out of the most spoiled egg your stupid mother laid," she told him. Desolas was fuming by now.

"We don't lay eggs, primitive! Our young are born, they don't hatch. Shows how educated you are about the galaxy and the Hierarchy. You're associating with suit rats, big surprise…" Desolas said.

"Hierarchy…" Jack mocked him. "Do you know what your Hierarchy's worth right now, shit face? Right now, the Hierarchy's like the pubes on a dick. I guess the one that grows the highest on the shaft is your damn Primarch, isn't it? So, which low life dick hair are you? You on the balls? Or you on the ass? You ass kisser, I bet that's how you got your shit ass rank of a General."

Miranda knew what she was doing. After trying to get info out of them by force, threatening and different forms of torture that aren't supposed to leave marks on them, she was trying to make him lose all his temper and start spilling out intel regarding military strength. Desolas was dancing to the tune Jack was singing, albeit trying to hold on to some discipline. More than a few Turians were broken when the Alliance interrogators found out that they despise water and used water tricks to extort the intel out of them. Hold them with their legs up and head down in a large bucket of water to give them that constant and terrible sensation of drowning.

There were other methods used by the Alliance to confuse the aliens. As it was noticed, some were trying to keep track of the days by various methods, most commonly leaving marks on a surface. They counted by the number of times they slept, trusting their biologic clock.

Harper had a way to deal with this and throw them off. He knew how important it was to make a prisoner think time passed differently than in reality. By changing the guards more regularly, putting sleeping pills into their food and laxatives, Harper made sure to split a day of 24 hours into 4 'days' of 6 hours. They'd take a shit every 6 hours, sleep one hour at every 6 hours and get two meals a day. And the food was well thought of – it wasn't normal food, but food who'd give you the illusion of fullness without actually saturating your hunger. The guards were spreading wild rumors about battles in Council space by chatting between them in hearing range of the prisoners. For all they knew, the Turian and Asari prisoners were here for maybe two weeks, while in reality for just 4 days and counting.

The Eclipse mercenary was taken away to her cell, leaving Jack with Desolas and a few pairs of eyes and ears in the observation room. Jack's idea was paying off and Desolas unwillingly gave the Alliance more insight on the Hierarchy's relative strength and inner workings. Officers were fed false claims such as the Alliance destroying numerous fleets caught unaware and that the Hierarchy was fighting a losing war, the Volus banks and institutions destroyed, Thessia being pressured and Sur'Kesh bombed from orbit in the first days.

This paved the way to obtaining further information on how diplomacy works for the Hierarchy, as some soldiers were trying to persuade the Alliance to begin peace talks. They were indeed young and naïve, to some degree, soldiers. Desolas' command had a sizeable number of soldiers fresh out of training who wanted to pursue a career in the military. And then there were those who definitely opposed the Alliance and thought that the Hierarchy was tearing its way to them.

"That's enough, Jack," Miranda said as she entered the room. Jack was scratching one of Desolas' face plates with her knife.

Jack turned her attention to Miranda. "Cheerleader! The fuck you doing here?"

"Here to have a talk with General Arterius, Jack. Go have a talk with TIM in the meantime, then come look me," Miranda told her with the translator deactivated.

Jack spared Desolas a long look, a look that could kill. She growled like a wolf at him before doing a fancy stunt and hand dance with her knife and turning away from him. She high-fived Miranda as she left. "He's yours, cheerleader," Jack told her.

Miranda sighed. Ever since she met Jack in the AIC it was her nickname. She used her biotics to put the table and chairs back in the middle of the room. She hand gestured to Desolas while turning her translator on.

"Have a seat, General," she invited him.

Desolas eyed her with gall. These primitives had biotics. He stood his ground.

"You're not going to sit down?" Miranda asked him from her seat.

"You're not commanding me, Human!" Desolas growled.

Miranda gave an almost absent nod to one of the guards. The man pushed Desolas to the chair's left side and forced him down. Desolas reluctantly complied.

"You're not in charge here, General," Miranda said with a pause. "I am."

"Huh… question for question, Human?"

"Ladies go first. How are you doing, General Arterius?" Miranda asked nonchalantly.

"Not as good as you. But it won't be for long. How do you have biotics?" Desolas asked in return.

Miranda smiled faintly. "Took my vitamins when I was a very, very young kid. Guess what? They worked!" she answered. "You sitting comfortable?"

"No! These chairs aren't fit at all for Turian physiology. Why you asking?"

"Well, it just so happens I might have to tell you something. And it would be better for you to sit down. You listening?"

"Do I look like I'm not?"

"I don't know. I had a dog when I was young, not a parrot. So?"

Desolas was again starting to grind his teeth against each other. Another one of this upstart race was comparing him to some animals only known to them.

"Just tell me already!" he shouted.

Miranda dropped her smug face and adopted the stoic mask, the one she put when things were really serious.

"General Desolas Arterius, how much do you trust the Citadel Council?" Miranda asked.

Desolas hesitated for a moment. "What is it to you?"

"Do you know what the Council said? What they did to save themselves from annihilation? And to save face with the people?" Miranda asked. She needed to play her cards right. It was vital for her future plans with the Turian General. Desolas was silent again, a sign for Miranda to continue talking.

"You don't. To try to appease Humanity after their cowardly and miserable attack on Shanxi, attack which you presided over and ended in a miserable failure for you, and to stop the Alliance from wrecking every warship they have and capture their planets… the Citadel Council denounced you as a rogue General, said that you acted on your own, that you invoked the Council's name without their blessing."

Desolas' mouth was open in shock. A part of his mind screamed to him 'betrayal!' while the other part told him that the Council wouldn't do that. Of course the Council didn't do it. At least not yet. Desolas' shock and continuous silence told Miranda she succeeded in her goal.

"I'll leave you to reflect on what it means, General Desolas," she told him before leaving. Miranda placed an order to get Desolas and a few other Turians moved to an AIC base in the Hades System, on a rocky barren planet hidden with its star in a big nebula, on what was renamed Tartarus Installation and soon to become one of Cerberus' main bases. Miranda would have liked to get her hands on Kaevus Eudorian and Atelas Razea as well, but they were off limits with the Government all over them.

Like Phoenix Contingency, it was one of the most secret places ever, far away from every center of interest and outside of the Relay network, in a mostly empty sector of the galactic arm. At best, Phoenix is a rumor at the highest levels of the Alliance brass. Only a select few knew about it. A select few who are alive. The others who know about it are officially dead. Unofficially, they've become part of Phoenix.

Magna, Alliance-Quarian Offensive

Meanwhile, the Turian colony of Magna was caught unaware by the arrival of Human and Quarian ships from hyperspace. The comm buoy was taken down after the AIC ship did its job. Communication protocols were cracked in advance by cyber warfare specialized AIs and the comms were shot down in a similar manner to Eudorian's fleet at Shanxi and Atelas' ships at Relay 314.

Planet-wide silence reigned. Extranet, omnitools, military and civilian lines – all down. The military was mobilizing on a micro level, it was more like local military units going into alert. In space, traffic was paralyzed, with multiple merchant and civilian craft unable to approach or depart without any way to communicate. Traffic control centers were trying to restart their systems, but they were finding out that their systems didn't recognize the communications devices.

An armada of Alliance and Republic vessels advanced through the system and engaged without as much of a warning the Turian warships. There was no call to surrender, no declaration, nothing. Go in, guns blazing. A few surgical attacks with Chimera missiles were conducted by the stealth ships present against targets of strategic interest. Magna's defense was paralyzed.

The Turian naval forces were swept aside like ants by a tidal wave, the lack of comms proving once more the bane of the Turians. Task Force Sirius suffered minor damage. The bombers of the fleet carrier SSV Sirius struck first in advance of the others. Several warships were destroyed while docked with the shipyard. Merchant vessels were disabled in order to have their cargo captured.

An assault fleet stormed the small shipyard in orbit of Magna and was able to capture it successfully. Isolated Turian forces were still putting up a fight inside, but Marine platoons supported by Paladins annihilated them. Multiple merchant vessels were captured at port with the shipyard. A part of the Quarian fleet took defensive positions around the shipyard, Han'Gerrel leading the rest in destroying orbital defenses and then blockading the Mass Relay. Any ship that came through or tried to get out must pass through a kill box, dead in the sights of a few hundred Quarian frigates, cruisers and dreadnoughts.

Fleet Admiral Tadius Ahern, once achieving total orbital supremacy, ordered Task Force Sirius to take up positions around the planet to scan for military bases and bomb them from orbit. Being a colony close to the border with the unstable and volatile Attican Traverse, the Hierarchy maintained several military bases on Magna. These bases were close to the largest cities or in strategic locations on the surface.

The largest military installation which looked like the solar system's HQ was already under sustained bombardment from low caliber MAC shells and Thunderbolt bombers to soften up the defenses in preparation for a ground attack. If successful, the captured base would offer valuable military data. It was a big 'IF' because any sane soldier would destroy the data rather than have it fall in enemy hands.

The people in cities were in a state of shock when they felt the ground tremble. Those who've seen enough military engagements recognized that the source of the tremors wasn't natural, especially when considering the fall of communication lines. This was orbital bombardment. For the first time in centuries, Turian soil was subjected to orbital bombardment.

The population of predominantly Turians with a small minority of Asari and Volus was able to see from the capital city's streets how two rays of light quickly descended from the sky and fell somewhere outside the city's boundaries. They were directed against the capital's garrison.

The light literally boiled the soil and rock, melting it and creating superheated lava. The buildings and bunkers were compromised, alloys used in construction being melted down and even boiled when hit by the ray or near it. After multiple ray strikes, the large base which once served as the garrison of Magna's capital city was reduced to a big lake of rapidly cooling molten rock and metals. Thunderstorms from the ionized atmosphere started to manifest. This was the handiwork of the spinal ion cannons of the battleships SSV Frunze and SSV Astral Spirit.

Thunderbolt bombers were sent to hit industrial complexes after the military targets were either taken out or captured. This would further hinder Turian military operations in the sector, with no local infrastructure to support them it would only lead to extended supply lines and logistics.

The Primarch of Magna was left with his mouth open in disbelief at how quickly the colony fell. He didn't realize they were under attack only until after the bombardments started. Soon he received a transmission from whoever was attacking them. He heard a few things since Desolas, Eudorian and Razea were here and headed for Relay 314. Now all this Council adventure came to bite them in the ass.

The message forwarded directly to the Primarch of Magna read: "This planet has come under a blockade by naval forces of the Human Systems Alliance and the Quarian Republic in retaliation for the Council attack on the Human colony of Shanxi. Formal declarations of war have been forwarded to the Citadel Council. Resistance is futile and will be dealt with accordingly to render it useless if encountered. – Fleet Admiral Tadius Ahern to the highest Turian official on Magna"

Unable to raise Palaven Command or even local military forces, that if they were even alive and haven't been annihilated already, the Primarch of Magna realized how futile the situation is and ordered an immediate evacuation of the civilian population to shelters. The few trained soldiers he had were preparing to defend the city against the alien invaders, should they ever touch down. But no Alliance ship landed to unload troops. No, urban battles wasn't something the Alliance leaders were interested in. They were content with eliminating the threats from orbit.

Shell after shell, be it a MAC or mass accelerator shell, destroyed anything that could be used in military operations, now or later on should the war drag out.

One base, the primary one, was attacked by Alliance Marines and Paladin mechs controlled by Smart AIs who are serving in the Armed Forces. The defending forces put up a very good defense. The goal of the Alliance forces was to capture Turian computers for data mining. But the defending forces weren't stupid, for they started a sequential purge of the systems as soon as it became clear that they were engaging aliens in battle. They couldn't allow any data be captured. And they were mostly successful, with the Alliance recovering computers and storage devices mostly filled with junk or corrupted data. Nevertheless, two AIs got started to see if anything was salvageable.

SSV Normandy, Turian outpost

Attican Traverse border

The Normandy was assigned to Task Force Malice for the first part of the offensive. The Alliance forces were successful in locating several Turian and Salarian military outposts along the Traverse border. As Task Force Malice advanced towards the Salarian Union's territory, these bases were destroyed or captured.

And taking one of these small bases would be Fireteam Immortal's job. The newest stealth frigate of the newest class was in orbit of the facility. There weren't many stealth ships in service with the Alliance Navy, the costs of producing and maintaining the innovative technologies they incorporate being rather high. There were just the Nightingale and Nocturnal classes in service, with the Normandy-Class being the newest. The ships of the AIC were a separate matter.

As the Normandy descended into a lower orbit of the rocky planetoid on which the facility was built, the N7 members were gearing up.

"Double check your armor and guns, everything," Alex advised as she put her chest armor over her undersuit.

"Yes Mom!" all five teammates replied with an eye roll and an amused tone to their voice.

"Anyone else hyped for this?" Ashley asked.

"Hell yeah! Make those bastards pay for Shanxi!" James said with glee.

Kaidan shook his head disapprovingly. "You know, we're going to kill Garrus' people. The man seems a good person, even if he's an alien. I don't like it," he stated.

"We don't have to like it, Kaidan. We have to do it," Shepard clarified.

"War doesn't ask us what we want and like… it just comes and takes people away. But it's not like we wanted this from the beginning…" Alex said.

"This is a matter of philosophical nature," Edi added. "As Alliance Marines we're bound by oath and law to take part in hostilities to secure the future of Humanity."

They were now geared up in their N7 T-Kev armor, fixating their helmets on their heads.

"Take the complementary weapons load, folks. We're going to need to rely on each other's best," Shepard instructed his team.

"Copy that. Not like I ever let go of the Mini-Me," Alex stated with a grin and picked the Minimi Mk II LMG with a 200 rounds box magazine and another mag for spare with her.

"'Mini-Me'?" asked an amused Ashley as she took her modular DMR and changed it to better suit closer encounters such as the hallways of a facility. She switched the inside components and chambered the rifle for the 7.62 bullets, semiautomatic, 20 rounds magazine. She added a holographic dot to her scope and adjusted it so it won't zoom in.

"Yeah. That's what I call my light machinegun," Alex replied.

"Sergeant Wyatt keeps surprising me every now and then," Edi said as she put on an extra layer of Titanium plates on her body, her UP being able to be converted into a heavy armor trooper, thus making the cyber specialist of the team the most suited to take heavy fire and still live. The engineer sent her a wink in answer to the remark, both remembering a certain 'incident' from the first days aboard the new frigate.

"Those guys won't even know what hit 'em," James said as he packed two demolition charges. These were small in size, but their antimatter payload was very potent.

"So, no prisoners?" Ashley asks with her DMR in hand.

"None," Shepard replied as he checked his M7H Lancer. "We take the outpost occupants out. Primary objective is to secure the facility for intelligence before we blow it up. Orders all the way up from Fleet Admiral Hackett. Captain Anderson doesn't like it either…"

"Major," they all hear a voice from behind. They turn around to see Anderson standing in the armory's doorway. "You ready? Lieutenant Cortez has the stealth Kodiak ready. I've also assembled a second team of Marines to support you, should your team need the help."

Shepard straightened himself when being formal with the man he respects and looks up to. "Sir, Fireteam Immortal is ready. Who's in the second team?"

"Corporal Jenkins, Privates First Class Fredricks, Westmoreland, and Campbell."

"Jenkins the CO of the unit?"

"Yes. Boy's got spirit. He's a greenhorn too, from the colony of Vestige. Give him some time and action and he'll grow to be a good Marine. Same spirit I've seen in you, Major," Anderson said.

"Sorry, sir. Didn't want it to sound like I'm doubting your decision for putting him in charge of team two. Or his capabilities," Shepard said.

"Dammit Shepard, stop being so jumpy and all that," Anderson said. "We're there in 10 minutes, report to the cargo bay by then. Good luck out there, Immortals!"

"HOORAH!" they all roared in unison, giving Anderson a smile as he remembered his days in the N7. As he left, he heard James say "I don't need luck, I've got bullets."

The elevator opened its doors on the hangar deck. The six members of the N7 Special Forces waltzed in, armed to the teeth and graceful as a Pegasus. On the right side was Cortez in his EVA suit, checking his M11 sidearm and putting it in its holster with two spare ammo clips. He then noticed Shepard's team approaching.

"Major Shepard, Lieutenant Alenko, Warrant Officer Vega, Chief Williams, Sergeants Edi and Wyatt, the shuttle and the pilot are good to go!" he reported.

On the other side of the bay was the second team, running with gear in their hands to the second Kodiak. They wore the blue and gray standard T-Kev Mod S of the Marines. There were the two males, Jenkins and Fredricks, and the females, Campbell and Westmoreland.

They all had M7H Lancers and grenades with them, packed too light in Shepard's opinion. But it's not like the Normandy was thought out to be a front line, ship of the line combatant. Stealth was her forte and she'd use it. The frigate could at any time take a load of heavily equipped soldiers and drop them off in theaters of war undetected.

"Good luck out there, Major!" Jenkins shouted to which Shepard gave him a thumbs up. Then they embarked onto the shuttle. Steve steered it through the atmosphere and heat containment field and out they went towards the outpost. The local star was shining bright, its blue hue casting a beautiful light on the cosmic landscape.

Inside the shuttle the team made last checkups to make sure they had everything they needed. They were sitting down in the seats, with the mid clear. The Kodiaks were able to ferry a significant amount of troops – up to 20 more exactly if they packed well, though it was very uncomfortable and it was standard to carry maximum 15 people at any time.

"We're descending right over the base, Major," Cortez reported.

"Alright Immortal, quick recap. Steve will drop us on what we think is the main body of the facility. Just before we start breaching operations, the Normandy and Edi will run some interference and jamming of their comms. Steve will use the Kodiak's missile launcher to put a hole for us to go through. We move quickly and directly for the command center. We take it and we hold it until Edi gets what we need. Everything clear?" Shepard said, to which everybody nodded.

"Switch to the mission code names while addressing each other," Kaidan ordered.

"Man, the Old Man must envy us. He was an N7 back in the day," Ashley said.

"Still is. Once an N7, always an N7. That's what they told us, isn't it?" Alex asked.

"Yep."

"Stand by for dropping, Immortals. I'm breaching the facility's hull," said Steve. A short lived hissing sound heard from the belly of the shuttle while the missile left the tube was all the Marines needed. The rocket hit the dome-like hull and cracked it. A second missile was needed, this one fully exposing the interior to the cold void. "Alright, opening the doors. Good luck out there! I'll be waiting for you nearby."

"Copy that. Let's go, team!" Shepard said.

"Right behind you, One!"

They jumped from the Kodiak and touched down on the dome. They went inside and formed up in a chevron-like formation to check their surroundings.

"Five, anything that looks like a computer here?" Shepard asked

"Negative. More like a supplies holding room," Edi replied.

"Alright then. Five, take the point. Four, watch our rear. The rest form up on Five."

They walked through the room and to the door. It was sealed tight. That much Edi noticed.

"Door sealed tight," she reported.

"That means some automatic safeties kicked in and sealed the breached sector off. We have hostiles inbound to investigate," Alex said.

"Six, get that door open."

Alex complied with the order and moved ahead to get the door open. She brought out a small cutting tool that she packed as part of her engineer gear. She turned it on and started to cut with an incandescent flame the locks of the door in a minute. Unfortunately, it consumed the compressed gas reserve the tool had, thus discarded it.

The six of them got into the hallway and the atmosphere was again vented into the storage room, and, from there, into space since the planetoid on which the outpost was built lacked an atmosphere of its own.

"Normandy actual here. Immortals, be advised, you have hostiles inbound. Intercepted internal communications suggests there's a unit of 5 Turians headed your way," Anderson said on their channel.

"Immortal One here, we acknowledge. Thanks for the heads up, Normandy actual" Shepard said. Anderson was personally overseeing the mission from the CIC of the frigate.

The team advanced until they came to a large bulkhead. It connected to the deeper level of the facility.

"Four, watch our rear for any possible threats. Six, use that LMG to watch over that door. Five, stand by to charge with me. Three and four, rush the following chambers. I have a feeling that's from where the Turian squad will come. They must be in alert by now," Shepard ordered and the team did as told.

In less than a minute the doors opened to reveal a squad of 5 Turians in armor and ready for EVA ops. Their eyes widened at the sight before them. What looked like two Asari and three Batarians were pointing guns at them. What they thought would be a quick repair duty due to some stray small asteroid was actually an attack.

Alex opened fire with her Minimi LMG, the gun spewing bullets at a very fast rate killed the five aliens on the spot. The 7.62mm bullets pierced their armor and reached the flesh, inside they contorted and expanded. The injuries were deadly – organs were torn apart and arteries cut open, the five died.

The team rushed through to catch the others unaware before they sealed any other door up ahead. They got through the second bulkhead and now advanced on the command center. There were a few unlucky Turians in their way who got mowed down by the six, with Ashley covering the rear and shooting any Turian soldier who came out on their rear and tried to shoot them in the back. She wasn't the marksman for naught, she could hit a target in the head while jogging as if it was all so normal for her.

"Intercepted comms indicate that this is the command center. That's where we should find their best," Edi said.

"If they haven't already deleted everything they have," Kaidan remarked.

"Anything we could get out – any intel of significance military importance is a win," Shepard said. "James, breach this baby!"

James moved in and put the breaching charges. The reinforced alloy doors were blown by the directed energy created by the antimatter payload.

"Flashbang!" Kaidan shouted as he and Shepard threw four flashbangs inside. Those without a helmet and polarized visor were temporarily struck deaf and blind by the flashbangs. Then the Immortals poured inside. They exchanged fire with the few Turians who were fully geared up in combat armor.

James had switched to his shotgun while breaching and had dumped a massive slug into the chest of a Turian soldier. Ashley fired her DMR at two technicians who were stunned. Edi immediately ran for the nearest console she could spot while Kaidan and Shepard covered her. Alex was unloading her Minimi LMG like a woman possessed, spraying more than 100 bullets into the room. Multiple display were literally torn apart by the 7.62mm magnetically accelerated bullets, the bodies of the Turian faring no better.

"CLEAR!"

"All clear!"

"Accessing the computer systems!" Edi said. "Can't access the systems! The hardware was damaged by gunfire."

"Six, assist Five in extracting the data. Get anything that looks like a hard disk or memory chit out," Shepard ordered.

"Copy!" Alex conformed and ran for what she guessed was the central computer. She traced the wiring and the little wireless communication that was going on in the room with Edi's help. Shepard, James, Kaidan and Ashley had taken overwatch positions. The air had already been sucked out from the command room through the breach.

Alex and Edi were working hard to extract the memory banks of the base and they eventually pulled it off. But they were unable to notice the two Turians that were crawling their way through a venting shaft just over their heads, probably the last two survivors of the base. They realized it would be totally pointless to take on one of the direct routes through hallways and went for the cheeky way through the vents.

Alex first had a gut instinct that something was about to go wrong. And then she felt something bounce off her back armor. She turned around and saw two thick and cylindrical objects. Realization dawned on her in less than a heartbeat. Just a meter away from her and Edi were two grenades. Alex immediately jumped to shield Edi when the grenades went off, depleting her shields in the blink of an eye.

Not a second later after they exploded, the two turians jumped from the shaft. The two noticed that the data banks were being pulled out and went to destroy them. They didn't care they'd die as long as their mission was a success – stop the enemy from gaining any sort of intel on the Hierarchy.

Alex was again the first one to react. She didn't bother to reach for her Minimi. She jumped straight at the leading Turian who was recovering from the three meter jump and tightening its grip on his Phaeston assault rifle. Alex brought her right leg about in a circular way and delivered a powerful blow in the Turian's left side, her augmented strength leaving a dent in his armor and a very small on her foot's plating. Then she spun around to gather more kinetic energy for the fist which hit the Turian in the face and threw him flat on his back. The second one had already aimed at Edi and the memory banks, the rest of the team already training their weapons on him but holding fire due to Alex already beating him.

Alex literally jumped and delivered a knee to the second Turian's head. For the untrained eye it looked like she flew through the air. She used her momentum to put her left leg around his neck and force it to snap with her free hands. 'Heh, so they do snap like Human necks,' she thought to herself. Just for good measure, she took her knife out and stabbed the Turian in the neck through the armor's joints.

"Well, they didn't live long enough," commented James.

"Nobody does when they get too close to me. Unless I allow them to," Alex boasted. "You alright, Edi?"

"Yes. Thank you for your help, Alex. It certainly saved the memory banks."

Alex nodded and walked to grab the still living Turian by his armor. She brought him up to eye level. "Prisoner? What'ya think? I know the Old Man said none, but we could use one for interrogation."

Shepard seemed to think. But he wouldn't have to think for long. For he noticed the Turian hold a grenade in its hand.

"ALEX! WATCH OUT!" he shouted as he aimed at the Turian's head and fired two shots. But it was too late. The grenade had already been armed by the soldier who played dead up until the two bullets splattered his brains. His hand jerked and the grenade detonated inches from Alex's face. The Turian's hand and chest were a blue stain on the command center while Alex was thrown a meter backwards, smoke and air coming out of her helmet. Shepard notice on his tactical HUD that Alex was still alive. That took tons of weight off his soul.

"FUCK! Normandy, this is Immortal One! We need emergency MEDEVAC! Six has been injured!"

Citadel, Elcor Embassy

Ambassador Talin

In the Elcor Embassy, in the ambassador's office, was Ambassador Talin – the new Elcor representative on the mighty Citadel. Talin was a middle aged man in his species' terms. Usually, the Elcor are slow and take their sweet time with changing and doing new things, but Talin is not one of those Elcor. That's exactly why he was appointed to the office and replaced his predecessor after the Eezo deposit incident and scandal that involved the Migrant Fleet and the Courts of Dekuuna.

The Elcor people recognized the fact that times are changing. And they're changing rather quickly for their comfort. And the changes they herald aren't in their best interests. The Council has grown arrogant through the years, with nobody to challenge them and stand up to them. The Elcor recognized somebody standing up to another one more imposing than itself as necessary for said person's wellbeing and more than honorable. That's what the Elcor did when it came to the Eezo deposit they found and shared with the nomads of the galaxy, and the previous ambassador went toe-to-toe with the Council after the sanctions were announced.

Talin was way more energetic and faster than many of his kind. With his people's most important economic sector, the mining and metallurgic industry, being effectively shut down, he was working on getting the other races to sign some trade agreements that will lessen the impact this sanction will have on the Elcor economy.

He couldn't get the Volus to buy anything that was under embargo since they were the Turians' bankers. The Volus handled the Hierarchy's finances in exchange for protection from the Turians. The Batarians wouldn't even think of buying only to spite them and get more favors with the Council. The Illuminated Primacy was considering the idea of going against the embargo to stock on metals while the Elcor were willing to sell them very cheap.

But with what he was seeing on the large holographic projector in the main hall of the embassy normally used for advertising or announcements, he was sure the Council would come to him, asking the Elcor to start selling again their oh so precious metals. That if they actually got over their ego and if the war really dragged enough or was violent enough to force them to buy. If they'd lift the embargo barely months after it came into effect they would lose of their public authority.

Authority. A real joke if Talin thought better. The Council could enforce its will on the client races through economic sanctions or through the might of the Turian fleets. If they even got the Hierarchy to do their bidding. The three Council species couldn't actually do jack shit if one of their governments didn't want to partake in something.

During the Geth Rebellion it became as clear as daylight to any person with half a brain paying attention to the political landscape. The Asari Republics and the Salarian Union wanted to support the Quarians fight off the Geth and secure Rannoch and their few colonies from the synthetics. But the two's military paled when compared to the Turian military.

The Primarch and the Council of Primarchs at the time decided not to help the Quarians. They were the only ones who could really make a difference. They thought that it would be better to get rid of the other dextro based species and have no contender to planets who are better suited for Turians. Thus the Council was forced to condemn the Quarians, evict them off the Citadel and ban them from colonizing any planets better suited for Council races. They did all this because the Hierarchy at the time refused to send its soldiers to die on foreign shores, they were selfish and didn't uphold their title of protectors. This way, with the Council condemning the Quarians instead of the Turians – for who would be stupid to condemn the mightiest military in the galaxy, and looked like they were decided altogether on this. In truth, the Council was deeply divided at the time. And Talin knew it. They always projected the image of power and authority to the masses.

'Power over the masses resides where the fools believe it is,' Talin thought to himself. This was the great advantage of the triumvirate he began to deeply dislike. He felt backstabbed. And then there was Sparatus too. That accursed idiot who sent his wife in charge of a Turian cruiser and a small fleet to die in an attempt to scare the Quarians and Elcor into submission. Talin had a very bad feeling about him. Then he sent part of the Citadel fleets to put Dekuuna under a temporary lockdown on the pretext that the Elcor might be plotting with the Migrant Fleet. Absolutely ridiculous his reasoning if one asked Talin.

And Talin watched this alien, this Human as they called themselves, publicly declare war on the Council. His speech sent a chill on his spine. Fear and joy, sadness and hope – feelings that transcend species. Talin felt some fear and intimidated by the closing words: "Pray to whatever deity you believe in for mercy. For we will have none!"

The fact that they resembled the Asari was very much disconcerting. Talin felt as if he was watching some Asari with the physical composition of a male Drell. And this weird mix was just publicly giving the might of the galaxy the metaphoric middle finger. But how many resources did they have at their disposition? How many ships and soldiers? They certainly didn't lack the spirit to fight.

Talin also entertained the idea of actually siding with this new species in the future. At least on an economic basis. But before he could dismiss that thought out of his mind he heard another loud voice echo through the whole of the Citadel, through every speaker, the holo projector just switched to show something else. The voice came speaking in Turian, but it was alien in nature. An instrument accompanied it as it proclaimed its goal for the war: "GLORY!"

Citadel, Presidium

Council Private Chambers

"…Pray to whatever deity you believe in for mercy. For we will have none!"

"Goddess…" muttered Tevos as Montgomery's speech was over.

A short silence reigned over the room. They all digested the information. It had major implications on the galactic scene. Tevos was scared, with all her years of experience she was scared. The fact that these Humans were able to cut off and probably capture Magna was a feat not to be laughed at. And they were pushing along the Traverse border, taking out multiple outposts and making their way towards the Salarian border. Tevos breathed easy, confident that the Republics were far away from the front lines and won't be harmed. Or at least not for the time being. She didn't know that Task Force Kraken would soon hit the Parnitha System.

"Concerning. Trail of silent outposts suggests that they are advancing on the Salarian Union's borders," Valern stated. He was confident that the STG had already picked up on that one and had alerted the Salarian military.

"You should have listened to me. We wouldn't have been in this mess if you did," Sparatus growled.

Tevos changed her mood into a very angry one out of a sudden. "You, Councilor Sparatus, are-"

"GLORY!"

A voice echoed through the Council chambers. On the whole Citadel, actually.

"What was that?" asked Sparatus. The three of them jumped at the sudden loud, booming voice. They turned toward the Salarian who came to deliver the news of the president's speech being public.

"We're still trying to fix this," he said as he typed on his omnitool. "This issue is station-wide. Our extranet and other systems have been breached by a virus. We believe that the Humans' cybernetic capabilities are surpassing our own by quite a margin to be able to breach our firewalls and security protocols like this."

Then it began again, a choir of males if those present in the Council chambers guessed correctly. Singing in an almost tribal manner. Nightclubs had been hijacked as well, now broadcasting the alien music instead of the normal dance music.

One indomitable heart, brothers all,

We are Terra's ruthless sons!

Our wrath fiery like a thousand Suns!

And the glory! Eternal glory!

We shall bear its weight together!

'Are they actually this serious about revenge and ruthlessness? Maybe they're just trying to scare us,' Tevos thought as she listened to the song. She was having a firsthand experience of Humanity's warlike nature in songs. The Turians prided themselves with their rich military culture, but in her many years she never heard a Turian military march or battle cry like this one.

Forged like the saber in the fires of death, we brothers all!

'What kind of psychotic species did Desolas instigate!?' she asked herself. Their attention turned to the Asari aide who gestured them to follow her. And they did so. They left the room they were in to walk into the public hearing room. The holographic projector normally used in meetings materialized the image of Humans in armor marching down the streets of a desolate city.

One indomitable heart, brothers all,

We are Terra's ruthless sons!

Our wrath fiery like a thousand Suns!

Those who stand before us light the night sky in flames

Our vengeance burning brighter still

Every last traitorous soul shall kneel!

'NO! The Quarians! They unleashed this! That's like the Krogan Rebellions all over again!' she wanted to lie to herself, if only to ease some of the guilt she was feeling. The holo image showed a Marine of the 501st unload bullets into a Turian soldier at Shanxi. The poor Turian's body was torn apart, big bloody holes allowing blue blood to spur out.

Forged like the saber in the fires of death, we brothers all!

The next thing they saw was a big vehicle with a cannon roll over an entrenched Asari group of mercenaries and literally do doughnuts over their trench, literally burying them rubble and earth. The poor mercenaries would suffocate to death under a meter of rubble and dirt. This was an image from Williams' liberation of Shanxi.

Humanity's legendary warriors' rage,

Death dealers in thunder and blade,

We are Terra's ruthless sons!

Our wrath fiery like a thousand Suns!

Then aircraft flew over what they presumed to be the Turian FOB on the Humans' colony, if the prefabricated shacks and Turian symbols were anything to go by. These aircraft dropped bombs that burned like the fires of hell on a wide surface once detonated. They were watching a modern variant of incendiary bombs burn the FOB to the ground.

Then the image showed the wrecks of Turian warships in orbit of the colony. A sizeable amount of modern warships, simply floating as debris fields filled with the corpses of countless Turian military men and women who served aboard them.

Glory! Eternal glory!

The stars pale,

Beside our might!

It ended showing a pocket dreadnought hit by a missile which detonated in a big blinding flash of light before it faded away and gave a full view of the gaping hole in the ship's hull. It was captured from Averescu's flagship, the SSV Spirit of Fire.

They recognized the nuclear explosion. They didn't know how many warships the Alliance actually had that were capable of tearing a Council dreadnought a new one. They thought that the Humans used nukes on a very large scale and that was what won them the battle over Shanxi. The implications were more than worrisome.

"Goddess…" was all that Tevos could say again. The people on the Citadel were taken aback by the public declaration of war. And they were slowly starting to question the Council's actions. Exactly as Harper hoped. Tevos prayed and Valern hoped, they prayed and hoped that Ambassador Irissa was on her merry way to Relay 314 already. But Ambassador Quentius had already been sent by Fedorian and Vakarian to Magna. He'd arrive first.

Parnitha System, Orbit of Thessia

Armali's Shield Station

Seedraa was in her maiden to matron transition years when she joined the Asari military and was posted on the most important space station in the Athena Nebula, Armali's Shield. The station was in geosynchronous orbit over Thessia's capital city – Armali. Its duties were to serve as the HQ of the space defense of the Athena Nebula, dockyard for the Republics' warships, and coordinate merchant ships. The station began as a small and token achievement of the Asari in their early space age. It grew in size and importance to what is today, catalyzed by the Rachni Wars and Krogan Rebellions to become the military important construct it is today.

Seedraa thought this would be a day like any other – with nothing actually happening. She was a LADAR operator. Seedraa joined with the military to get a stable job with good money if nothing else.

She was leaning back in her chair and daydreaming when one of her colleagues called her.

"Hey Seedraa," the one to her left said.

Seedraa lazily opened her eyes to see that both of them had a warning on their large LADAR displays. They had five unknown contacts.

"What is that?" her colleague asked.

Seedraa straightened herself as a start. Then she typed a few keys. "Don't know. I'm running the standard recognition instructions."

"Isn't that the VI's job?"

"It is, but it returned a negative match. Maybe it's glitched or something…" Seedraa answered. An alert popped up that got her attention to the LADAR display. "They're moving… on n intercept course with the fuel depot…" she muttered under her breath. She then remembered the protocol and immediately hailed them.

"Unknown ships, this is Armali's Shield. Identify yourselves immediately and hold position. Your IFF is not recognized by our systems. Please respond," she stated. Worry slowly grew in her and in her colleague's chest. They couldn't be hostiles, could they? Nobody attacked Thessia in its history. But Seedraa noticed something extremely out of place as she kept her eyes on the display.

"Wait, how did they sneak all the way near to Piares? That's midway in the system!" she exclaimed. "I repeat, unknown ships, this is Armali's Shield. Hold position and identify yourselves immediately! Otherwise your actions will be considered hostile and you will be fired upon! Please respond!" Seedraa tried again.

"Cruisers Sylvanna and Iumia are close to the unknowns and on an intercept course," her colleague reported.

"What's with the commotion here?" a commanding voice asked from behind. They turned to see the CO of the station, a matriarch.

"Matriarch, we have five unknown ships in system. They appeared near Piares out of nowhere and are rapidly advancing on the fuel depot. Two cruisers are going to intercept."

"What do we know about them?" the matriarch asked. Seedraa and her colleague paused. They didn't even check the readings on the five ships since they appeared. How could they have forgotten that?

"Ehm, a moment, Matriarch," Seedraa's colleague said as she brought up the readings on them. "We have three of them at just over 400 meters long, one at 800 and one… is one and a half kilometer long… ma'am."

That gave them pause. "That's a Goddess damned warship squadron! There's no civilian ship that large. Sound the alarm! And you, hail them once more!" the matriarch ordered.

"Unidentified vessels, state your allegiance and business immediately or be fired upon!"

A few seconds went by silently, the ships kept their advance on the fuel depot. They didn't respond. They are to be treated as hostile.

"The dreadnought is maintaining present course. The other ships are turning about to face the Sylvanna and Iumia. Multiple warships are converging on the enemy. We have a visual from the Sylvanna," Seedraa added.

The CIC of the station was now focused on the image from the Sylvanna. It showed the unknown ships. They were bulky with sleek and beautiful curves here and there. They were definitely warships if the turrets and what looked like spinal cannons were anything to base your judgment on. There was also the easily to observe bulky hull, clear sign of a thick hull plating, armor.

"Energy buildup detected in both the 800 meter and the dreadnought!"

The dreadnought had some alien writing on its sides. There was written SSV KOROLEV in capital letters on the side. The ship's bow started to emit a faint glow before a beam of light raced outwards from the spinal ion cannon. The ion beam struck the fuel depot which in turn detonated in a huge blue explosion, taking with it every ship that was too close to it. The Eezo had an unfortunate reaction to an ion beam of death.

The CIC watched mouth agape as these unknowns just used what they guess to be an energy based weapon to destroy the major fuel depot of the Athena Nebula. Never before were the Asari hit in their own backyard. Then the 800 meter analogue presented the same faint light in its bow before the ion beam lanced towards the ARS Iumia. The cruiser's frontal kinetic barriers flared on for three seconds before they gave up and allowed the ion beam through. The Ares-Class could sustain an ion beam for 4-5 seconds before recharging. And that extra second was enough to boil armor and expose the ship to the void.

Then it was the turn of the 400 meter long vessels to open fire. They launched projectiles at the Iumia. The Sylvanna steered away in a dodging pattern while spooling up their mass accelerators and fired a few shots. The MAC shells impacted the hull of the Iumia and tore her a new one. Chunks of armor plating were torn off the Asari warship. The shells penetrated into the lower decks and caused mayhem. The starboard wing of the cruiser was nearly sheared off by multiple MAC hits. The Iumia was severely damaged but still combat capable.

The Asari scored some hits but their targeting wasn't perfect due to constant maneuvering which didn't give them a lot of time to aim carefully. But each shot was more and more promising, with the targeting VI fine tuning itself for better performance.

The Alliance destroyer SSV Ariane was hit multiple times due to focused fire and had its shields down. The hull armor proved itself and saved the ship. There were a few penetrations, but those weren't endangering the whole ship. The Ares cruiser, the SSV Death Quartet, fired again on the Iumia, this time almost insignificantly rotating on her axis to destroy a wider surface. The beam hit the side of the cruiser and scorched and boiled its way through into the engine compartments where it delivered the fatal blow. The Asari Republics Ship Iumia was lost with all hands.

This kicked the defenses into an overdrive, with multiple ships converging on the hostiles and civilian vessels being redirected somewhere clear of the engagement.

And the Asari officers fell into the trap laid out by the Human commanders. They left other positions undefended. And then more ships appeared out of hyperspace FTL in other locations of the system. The stealth ship which had arrived some time in advance had taken its time in laying out FTL buoys which worked as precise exit points for the Alliance warships.

The largest shipyard in orbit of Thessia was hit by a cruiser pack and had multiple sections severely damaged. Several frigates and one cruiser were destroyed at port, while docked. Comm buoys were hit as well, effectively shutting down a fair percentage of civilian communications in-system and outbound.

Another extremely unpleasant surprise was the appearance of the Olympus-Class carrier SSV Kuznetsov and her battlegroup. The carrier launched its Typhoon fighter and Thunderbolt bombers. The fighters engaged the few Asari fighter craft who were on CAP, thus clearing a path for the Thunderbolts to hit two Asari dreadnoughts and their escorting ships. The two dreadnoughts were taken by surprise by the sudden appearance of the enemy so close to them, they had barely left dock. The bombers zeroed in and launched their potent missiles. One dreadnought was completely overwhelmed and destroyed, while the other one was rendered unfit for combat.

And, as soon as they came and struck, they were gone. The Alliance Blitz left behind the Asari home system in chaos, in flames, and in shock. They would soon hit other targets in Asari space and keep harassing the defenses of Thessia itself. For all their technological and intellectual superiority, the Asari military was caught with its pants down on that day – and shamed.

Salarian Union space, Task Force Malice

In comparison to the Asari Republics, the Salarian Union had a small window of opportunity to prepare for the inevitable attack that was coming their way. Unlike the Asari Military Intelligence, the STG had already taken into account the possibility of the Union coming under attack due to its proximity to Relay 314. The fact that Turian and STG bases and listening outposts were going dark along the Traverse border had played a major role in it.

The mainstay military of the Union was mobilizing. But they too were caught by surprise when Alliance warships came out of hyperspace right on the doorstep of Sur'Kesh in the Pranas System. The Salarian naval forces were quick to react, but they were caught off position. The Alliance warships lead by the battleship SSV Graceful Spirit opened fire with their main armaments on the defending Salarian fleet. They inflicted significant damage before bugging out once the Salarians were pressuring them.

One Nocturnal-Class stealth frigate, the Blackreach, descended into the atmosphere of Sur'Kesh and conducted a quick bombing run on what was identified as a military base in the tropical forests, far from cities. The frigate had only one MAC turret as offensive armament, not like the newer Normandy-Class which boasted heavy weaponry for a stealth vessel, and thus it flew at an angle which allowed it to fire the turret. Naval small caliber MAC shells pounded the military base into dust and a sorry memory, after which the frigate pulled out not to get intercepted by enemy ships which must be scouring the skies for it by now.

Frigate packs attacked merchant ships to disrupt commerce between Sur'Kesh and the other planets, the frigate Trafalgar scoring dozens of merchant kills and one cruiser kill by the help of a Shiva nuclear warhead which tore the Salarian warship apart when it penetrated several meters inside the hull before detonating in a miniature short-lived star.

The attack on the Pranas System was much shorter than the one on Parnitha and Thessia. But other Salarian colonies were being harassed by the Alliance warships. Shipping lanes were under a constant threat of Human frigates jumping in and sweeping them clean. Major metal and Helium-3 operations were obstructed and shut down by the attacks. The Alliance never held a position. Their job was done. Just like Task Force Kraken, they had tied down the Salarians, while Kraken had made sure the Asari wouldn't leave their territory to help the Turians in case the war wouldn't be over soon.

En-route to Magna, Turian diplomatic ship

Ambassador Quentius

Ambassador Quentius, the Turian ambassador on the Citadel, was on the bridge of the diplomatic ship, mere minutes away from the Mass Relay which lead to Magna. He had been sent there under emergency orders from the Primarch and his advisor Flavian Vakarian. His job was clear - try to reason with the aliens and the Quarians and agree on a ceasefire. From there he'd try to get official diplomatic negotiations underway. If the aliens didn't listen, they'd feel the wrath of the Turian Hierarchy's military might. Fedorian was assembling a large force of ships and ground troops to retake the colony and bring the fight to the enemy.

As they neared the Relay, Quentius muttered a prayer to the Spirits for guidance and good luck. Unlike Sparatus, Quentius wasn't one to look for conflict if it could be solved peacefully. He also reconsidered Sparatus' evolution to his current warmongering state. Then he remembered Vakarian's words: "A Turian started this madness, let it be a Turian who ends it."

AN: Well, I finally got this one out. Please leave me your feedback :D it's much appreciated. And you can always track the status of the next chapter on my profile. Not many notes on this chapter, I'll be sure to add them in the next one before the chapter start. I really wanted to finish this chapter and bring it out for you.

A STORY BROUGHT TO YOU BY Apollonir

BETA FEEDBACK & OCs CONSULTANT: VRGL1337