AN: Here we are, yet another chapter rewritten for your viewing pleasure. I'd like to thank the countless new readers, as well as my new follower minions, the legion continues to grow, soon the Imperium shall be ours.
Stratcat, has yet again worked his grammar nazi magic, as he has told me it is far superior to regular grammar magic, strange fellow… always muttering about psycopatic blonde loli mages and their tendencies to blow shit up.
I wish to thank all those who've also taken the leap off the cliff and joined my cesspit of misery and despair called discord. Thank you all for bullying me into completing and / or starting multiple stories.
I now have a for those who want to get only content such as story ideas that will or probably won't become full fledged stories or oneshots, I'm also drawing my own art and hoping to start up a merch store. (currently a Work In Progress).
Thanks again you lot I'll stop rambling and let you enjoy this chapter in peace.
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Relay 314 System.
SSV LION R-106, Main Engineering.
[+419 Days Since Departure.]
[Play: Oscillian: In the Company of Robots - In the Company of Robots]
As soon as the call to action stations was given, the Lion's klaxons blared throughout the entire compartment. The Lion's chief engineer Dave "Scotty" Carson took to managing his crew.
Said crew consisted of tens of dozens of human cybernetic augments, with varying degrees of prosthesis, most due to injury, others from choice, and six quarian engineers who were hard at work checking and triple checking their work in short order.
Two goliaths strode forward to their stations, the pair far more machine than man, their military grade augmentations provided them unparalleled strength, senses and mental capabilities, at the cost of being absolute Frankenstien's monster's in appearance.
Needless to say the duo came as one hell of a shock to the sextuple quarians on their first meeting, taking damn near a year for the lot of them to stop cowering away from the pair as they focused on their duties.
"Lass, make damn well sure tha' those eezo capacitors of yo'rs ain't gonna pop, they've been trippin' for th' last week an' a 'alf." Carson's booming voice reverberated throughout main engineering.
"It's not my fault you humans can't build eezo capacitors to specification half of the time, I swear I'll strangle the bosh'tet that fell asleep on the assembly line." Zoho'Waeman vas Lion bit back sharply.
Carson gave a booming laugh in response. "Haann, Jaann, Hora, I'm putting you on the damage response team for the time being, head to the muster point and ready up for the coming carnage." Carson bellowed towards three of the quarians.
"Aye chief." The trio bellowed back before stashing their gear in their tool kits, making a dash for several lockers which held specially designed fire retardant coveralls to don over their traditional environment suits.
The trio buddied up to attach each other's external oxygen supply onto their suits. While triple checking the seals in the process, the trio darted out of main engineering, sealing the bulkhead door behind them.
"Gods take pity on the poor bastards that piss off the cap, cos' that mad English bastard sure as shit isn't." Carson muttered to himself before moving to inspect the primary reactor.
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Relay 314 System.
SSV LION R-106, Torpedo Room.
[+419 Days Since Departure.]
[Play: Sabaton's: Bismarck (Single) - Bismarck]
The old gangers of the Lion were well and truly back in their element, all four 1200mm torpedo tubes were now being loaded with BAE's heavy disruptor torpedoes, their guidance computers already set to lock onto the enemy's signatures.
"Hey Gunther, this might seem like a daft question to ask, now of all times, but how the fuck are these torps supposed to identify just who the fuck the enemy is?"
"Simple Jones, remember that codex which had all the information about the big factions? Well, BAE compiled enough data from both that and the HNV Invictus before she was scuttled to come up with an algorithm to identify turian naval vessels with something up to eighty-five percent accuracy."
"And we're firing these things? Fuck me sideways." barked a third old ganger who was standing watching the 1200mm diameter torpedo being inserted into the tube proper.
"It's a bloody big gamble that's what it is, but as the old quote goes: Ours not to reason why…." Gunther was cut off as the rest of the torpedo bay barked out in unison.
"Ours but to do and die." Gunther watched as the tubes were sealed, flicking four switches on his weapons console a signal was sent to CIC's weapons stations declaring the four torpedo tubes hot, but they had not yet been made live, once CIC declared the tubes live by issuing the required command on their end would four covers lift up for the arming keys to be inserted into the now exposed keyholes each one arming one tube each.
The system of course had a manual override in case of battle damage or a systems failure, however to deploy such devastating weapons in such a manner would be reviewed by the courts and if found to have been in violation of standing orders or out of negligence, a dishonourable discharge was the lightest possible punishment one could receive.
Meanwhile, all around the Lion, gun crews made ready for the fight to come, gun captains conversing over their own channel which connected directly with the chief gunnery officer's personal wireless.
The captains were issuing orders to the magazines for APACHE rounds to be loaded into the 150 main guns, using a screwdriver the crews made sure each shell was properly set to utilise impact fuses rather than mechanical time delay.
This ensured any hit to the enemies' kinetic barriers would result in the 1500 kilograms of high explosive being suddenly and rather violently detonated, this had all come about from talking to several of the turian crew aboard who'd taken interest in the Lion's war-fighting capability.
Small scale simulations using APE rounds on a scale model with a spare kinetic barrier showed everyone who'd partaken, that kinetic barriers were absolutely susceptible to being breached, the armour piercing head flattened outward a millisecond before the explosive detonated forcing the kinetic barriers to massively compensate for the additional kinetic energy.
Allowing subsequent shots to breach, flatten against the hull and detonate spectacularly, shrapnel would be launched deep into the guts of the enemy vessel whilst the explosion itself ripped holes large enough to expose several decks to open vacuum.
It wasn't an outright kill, but it was devastating to such a degree that when engineers took the model to examine the damage, they had said it would take a drydock at least three to six months to repair the damage back to regulation standards, the Lion's crew of quarians said that they could put her back to active service in two.
Now it was time to prove that theory right, with the last breach sealed the fifty "three-gun" turrets remained retracted into the hull, as soon as the signal was given the turrets would extend out of the hull, to engage in a short and rather bloody knife fight range broadside barrage, hopefully gutting the poor bastards the Lion was well and truly going to out flank and out gun.
"One minute till we hit the Agamemnon relay!" The Lions' Chinese helmsman barked from his post, Liam nodded in acknowledgment before turning once more to Ka'mara.
"Let's hope our fellow navy dogs recognise a helping hand when they see one." Liam half joked to his second in command.
"They will, beside once we clear the relay, they'll pick up all of our omni-tool's transmitting the Invictus's IFF on a secure frequency, by then whichever officer happens to be in charge will offer a challenge code phrase, spirits willing they'll recognise my counter phrase as legitimate." Ka'mara replied.
Liam shot her a look which gave her all she needed to know. "You're not filling me with confidence here Commander, spirits willing and all that shit…." Rubbing his right hand down his face he continued. "Fuck it, nothing ventured nothing gained."
"Ten Seconds till relay intercept." The Lion's helmsman barked, picking up his wireless, Liam spoke aloud for the whole crew to hear. "This is the Captain…. Brace for contact!" the collision klaxon shrieked in its usual shrill tone.
It was then everyone aboard the Lion felt that sense of horizontal vertigo.
November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
HNV Black Watch, Bridge / Combat Information Centre.
[+1 Year, 1 Month and 23 days since HNV Invictus was Declared MIA.]
[Play: ozzy ozborn: blizzard of ozz - crazy train]
Commodore Sidoia Acharius was in the thick of it, thanks to the Hierarchy being prepared for the possibility of being back-doored by the Hegemony the Hierarchy had a greater amount of firepower available to defend the colony world of Agamemnon.
However, not even the Hierarchy anticipated that the Hegemony would be either desperate or stupid enough to dedicate three of their ten active dreadnoughts to a single action against the Hierarchy.
The battle, if one could call it that, had been raging for nearly 25 going onto 26 standard hours, the Hierarchy crews were utilising stimulants to fight off the fatigue they were suffering from.
It wouldn't be for another day at least, for the Sixth Fleet and the 113th Battlegroup to divert and provide assistance and a day after for the ninth fleet to further reinforce the sector, at best they would be reinforcing a graveyard by the time they arrived.
She suspected the Hegemony had additional reinforcements ready and waiting to come through the Alpha relay, to overrun the stalwart defence forces, no doubt ready and willing to commit heinous acts against the citizenry of the Turian Hierarchy.
"Ma'am, I'm receiving telemetry from the nav beacon from the relay. It's re-connecting to the relay 314 system." shouted one of the junior officers operating the HNV Black Watch's sensor suites.
"Ma'am the relay…. it's being reset! Someone in the relay 314 system must have activated the pair from that side, the Alpha relay's override has been purged, I can confirm I'm receiving telemetry once more!" The Black Watch's navigations officer announced, the female commodore's features were one of shock.
"Have civilian's or a Hierarchy patrol group activated the relay ensign?" Sidoia asked.
"No ma'am, the reading's I'm receiving don't make any sense, the connection is stable but whatever vessel is using it is disrupting the connection in transit, I'm getting mixed information, wait, that can't be right?" The ensign paused his report. "Ma'am unknown vessel incoming, easily forty-one million tonnes in mass, unknown vessel is classified as a heavy-dreadnought!"
"What?" Sidoia balked.
It was at that very moment the unknown vessel made its appearance, its bow easily four-hundred metres in beam, its gun metal grey battleplate covering the vessel fully, unknown lettering was illuminated on both the port and starboard sides of the bow.
"Ma'am, I'm having trouble believing that the unknown dreadnought has no active kinetic barriers; however, the entirety of the superstructure and hull plating is made of the purest titanium ever recorded." Barked the Ensign operating the sensor suite before continuing.
"The battleplate alone is three metres thick, I'm not seeing any spinal mass accelerator but the vessel is covered in hardpoints for batteries!" That was when something disturbingly obvious made itself known according to the read-outs of the sensor console's.
The Black Watch's navigations officer was the first to realise. "Ma'am, the unknown is not slowing down properly, at the rate of deceleration it's drift will be well and truly over eight thousand metres, correction, make that ten thousand metres!"
"The Hegemony dreadnought Pride of Khar'shan is directly in front of it's flight path!" Barked out the Flight Lieutenant from his position at the very front of the bridge. "By the Spirits, it's going for the ram!"
In one action the unknown dreadnought ploughed into the Hegemony's rear-guard command ship, the dreadnought unable to make any attempt to manoeuvre simply waited for the inevitable; its kinetic barrier flared for a single second in a brilliant silver before collapsing.
It was like slow motion for all those to witness, the Pride of Khar'shan's bird of prey hull which was designed to mimic the successes of the Hierarchy's own dreadnoughts warped and distorted violently resulting in the on board power plants violently detonating in a brilliant green ball of fire as its fuel and magazine ignited.
"Ma'am, the unknown has destroyed the Pride of Khar'shan! What the, by the Spirits?" before the command staff a full 3d holo-render of the unknown dreadnought fifty twenty inch, three gun batteries deployed on the dorsal, ventral sides whilst several deployed from the overhang on the bow, four massive torpedo tubes opened on the lower half of the bow, whilst 20 ventral missile pods deployed.
What had been the initial shock was only compounded by the display of sheer firepower of the unknown dreadnought's opening salvo.
Four cruisers and sixteen frigates simply ceased to exist after multiple mass salvos, the batarians were completely caught off guard, several of the frigates and one of the cruisers not even having their kinetic barriers activated during the engagement.
Broken from her stupor by her Executive officer speaking up. "Ma'am, the unknown dreadnought is transmitting hundreds of individual IFF markers, all of them are transmitting the same IFF on the NAVCOM secure channel, secondary and tertiary codes confirm…. It's the crew of the HNV Invictus, ma'am!"
"Comms, secure the secondary station, triple check the firewalls and then triple check those triple checks!" Commodore Sidoia Acharius ordered.
"Aye ma'am, securing station now." It took a couple of minutes for the task to be completed.
"As our standing orders state, give the challenge phrase last issued to the crew of the Invictus, even if they give the correct response, double check which panic phrase is used. Take no chances. I'm not one to kiss the gift spirit in the mouth."
Doing as ordered, the Lieutenant who operated the communication's station issued the challenge.
Minutes later the reply was checked, double checked and then checked by the XO. "Ma'am, codes are confirmed as is the panic phrase, The unknown dreadnought is friendly, ma'am."
"Get me a direct line with that dreadnought! We need to coordinate the defence of Agamemnon."
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Relay 314 System.
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre.
[Zero Hour.]
[Play: Dropkick Murphys: Signed and Sealed in Blood - Rose Tattoo]
"Sir, I'm getting a handshake from the Turian Navy Command Vessel. Orders, sir?" Lieutenant Smollet asked.
"Accept the handshake, Smollet, send the translation software, I need to know what our allies need to better contribute to the fight." Liam replied.
A few seconds later Smollet spoke up. "Verbal and written translation software sent sir." Liam nodded looking up from the war table to Ka'mara.
Liam smirked. "All we can do for the meantime is kick these bastards' balls. Let's hope they install the translation software."
"They will, I personally saw to it that our technicians' omni-tools were used in writing the programme, using turian operating systems code, they'll recognise it and check for viruses before installing it." Ka'mara reassured Liam.
"Sir, we are approaching the bulk of the enemy fleet." Spoke up the Ensign in charge of sensors.
"The order is yours to give Ka'mara." Liam offered, Ka'mara looked down at the console built into her side of the war table, a small key marked TRP-FR-EXE, twisting the key clockwise ninety degrees, sent a small electronic signal through hundreds of metres of fibre optic cable.
In the Lion's torpedo room, a siren was sounded, three sharp blasts alerting the crew manning the consoles an order to fire was given, Gunther, alongside four other officers, inserted their keys into the keyholes which now had their safety covers removed.
"On my mark lads. Mark!" all four men twisting their keys simultaneously launched one of humanity's most devastating weapon systems ever built. "Torpedo's free and clear, seal the outer bulkhead doors. Ready another volley, lets' get on with it men!" Gunther ordered.
"Aye, sir!" the Old Gangers barked.
With the Lion making its way to Agamemnon proper, following the swift and rather brutal demise of the rear guard, Admiral Trentch was caught with his pants down, but it had yet to fully set in just what had happened.
The Agamemnon relay leading to the relay 314 system had been reset, it would take 24 hours for the Alpha relay to 'cool down' and then re-establish the keyhole and backdoor, a full twenty four hours before any possible chance to be reinforced.
Within those 24 hours the Hierarchy will have pushed through their own reinforcements, possibly a dreadnought lead fleet, possibly two, alongside any neighbouring battlegroups, half of his fleet had been decimated, too damaged to continue the fight.
It was only at the last second did his mind register the fact that four monstrously large torpedo's were making the way to the rear of the bulk of his fleet, he was quick to order four cruisers to turn to present a broadside anti-missile screen for all the good that did, for the sheer size of the damn things their manoeuvrability was on par with most frigate grade disruptor torpedoes.
That was when sheer absurdity happened, the monstrous torpedo's panelling blew off, revealing each torpedo to be carrying 12 more inside them, the swarm of 52 torpedo's began to dissipate to attack multiple independent targets, instead of swarming any one singular vessel.
This would prove to be a decisive action; it wouldn't be apparent yet but this one decision swung the balance of the conflict into the turian's favour.
Ordering a quarter of his combined forces to about face to engage the enemy, Trentch watched the behemoth of a dreadnought shrug off the combined firepower of the attacking force with nothing but its armour.
Back in CIC, Liam ordered the Chief Gunnery Officer to focus everything available to the fore sector of the ship, the Lion's supercomputers were utilising their combined computing power to concentrate every possible AM-AF battery to intercept the high hundreds if not low thousands of missiles and torpedoes headed directly for the old girl.
The dull vibrations Liam felt in my feet was my only indicator that a full salvo had been fired. "Communications from the turian Officer In Command [OIC] Sir, shall I patch it through?"
Turning to look up to Smollet, Liam shook his head. "Patch it through to Commander Ka'mara, she is officially acting as the senior official for the Turian Hierarchy at this time."
Nodding in thanks, Ka'mara picked up her wireless. "This is Commander Ka'mara Nyx, acting commander for the crew of the HNV Invictus, acting Executive Officer of the SSV Lion."
"Commander Nyx, I'll skip the pleasantries and cut into the heart of the matter, you're caught behind enemy lines and whilst you are dividing the attention of the Hegemony combined fleets we need the SSV Lion within our lines, we need to form a defensive line one that we can hold until reinforcements arrive." An effeminate flanged voice spoke over the CIC PA.
Picking up his own wireless Liam spoke up. "This is Lion actual, Officer In Command of the SSV Lion, I need two bits of information, the first, coordinates of where you want us to be on station, the second, does this Hegemony utilise fighter or strike craft of any number."
"Commander Nyx should be receiving coordinates through her omni-tool right now, the answer to your second question, yes they do, but they charged through Agamemnon's defence with a huge amount of troop transports that have touched down around Agamemnon's capital city." The female Turian OIC answered.
"Understood, I recommend you pull any friendly suborbital support at least three kilometres back from the city, tell your garrison forces they are about to receive close air support. Lion actual out." Liam placed my wireless back onto the base.
Ka'mara was quick to place her hand over her wireless's receiver, not very well mind you. "Air support, Liam, I know the Lion has one hundred and sixty fighters but to get them on station would take at least an hour from the co-ordinates I received!"
"Ka'mara, those coordinates are our destination, Agamemnon's high orbit is our target. Navigation, plot an FTL jump 90,000 kilometres above the largest population centre, the capital city of Agamemnon." Pausing Liam picked up his wireless, nodding to Smollet she connected me throughout the ship.
"All hands, this is the Captain…. Prepare for major turbulence, the Lion is executing the Adama manoeuvre, all Viper wings are to deploy, I say again, prepare for major turbulence, the Lion is executing the Adama manoeuvre, all vipers, be ready to deploy." Ka'mara visibly blanched at the order.
Ka'mara removing her hand spoke into the receiver. "Ma'am expect us to arrive within minutes, we're performing two in system FTL jumps."
"Understood…." The Female OIC responded unsure.
November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
HNV Black Watch, Bridge / Combat Information Centre.
[+1 Year, 1 Month and 23 days since HNV Invictus was Declared MIA.]
[Play: The Heavy: The House That Dirt Built - Short Change Hero]
Commodore Sidoia Acharius, was confused, she could understand performing one in system FTL jump to join up with the re-organising turian defence line, but she had managed alongside most of the Black Watch crew to overhear something about an Adama manoeuvre.
It was then that the now named SSV Lion disappeared from all sensors altogether. "Ma'am, sub-orbital support pulled back by three kilometres as requested, General Katus Sulmius is asking why the navy pulled back their sub-orbital support."
"Ma'am, the SSV Lion just appeared on sensors and Visual, you are not going to believe this!"
Meanwhile on the surface of Agamemnon General Katus Sulmius heard a crack like thunder, before multiple sonic booms hit his ears, looking upwards to the sky a most unbelievable sight, an unknown dreadnought on a ballistic trajectory with the city, the sheer amount of friction from the air impacting against the hull set it ablaze.
"By the Spirits!" The OIC of Agamemnon's garrison bellowed as the ship grew larger and larger with every passing second.
Back on the bridge of the Black Watch the entire bridge crew bore witness to the ridiculousness of what was happening on the world below, turian news crews reporting on the war fighting on the colony were recording and reporting live to everyone within turian space.
Suddenly as the turian camera man zoomed in eighty projectiles were launched from the port and starboard sides of the vessel, followed shortly thereafter by another eighty projectiles it was only when the camera actually managed to focus on the 'projectiles' when it became obvious to all that the 'projectiles' weren't projectiles at all.
"Ma'am, I count eighty, no correction one hundred and sixty strike craft that have just been launched by the SSV Lion simultaneously!" exclaimed the Ensign once more from his post operating the sensors of the HNV Black Watch.
"By the Spirits, just what kind of a species have the crew of the Invictus brought with them?" the Black Watch's XO muttered to himself, Commodore Sidoia had to silently agree with her executive officer, for a race to even conceive such a ridiculous manoeuvre spoke volumes of their character.
That's when the helmsman piped up from his post. "Ma'am, the SSV Lion is still on a ballistic course for the city, ma'am!"
Back on the colony surface proper, turian's watched as the dreadnought careened towards the city, that was when a message in turian was broadcast on the emergency military and civilian channels. "This is the SSV Lion to all Hierarchy planetary and civilian defence forces, brace for a high-pressure shockwave!"
At that very moment the currently ballistic dreadnought was consumed in a flash of blinding white light, the fireball that had formed from the sheer friction of the vessel falling through the planet's atmosphere was consumed by the negative pressure from the vessel simply disappearing from the space it once occupied.
The one hundred and sixty fighters, following their standing orders, began missile striking every transport following shortly thereafter by gun running the slavers' front lines as they flew between buildings at what the turian air forces would later deem absolutely insane.
Back in the planet's orbit just behind the forming last ditch defensive line the once ballistic dreadnought made its appearance one hundred kilometres on the Black Watch's stern, the SSV Lion's underbelly still glowing red hot from her rather abrupt entry into Agamemnon's atmosphere.
"Ma'am, I've reacquired the SSV Lion. Ma'am, please tell me I'm not seeing things…." Commodore Sidoia, was too struggling to comprehend what was being shown on the CIC's primary holo emitter, as were many of the CIC proper, the SSV Lion's port and starboard sides were extending outwards by some fifty metres each, showing to all of the surviving turian vessels just why the Lion had deployed such a monstrous amount of strike craft, two massive some six hundred metre long hangar bays were visible for all to see suspended outwards by two massive arms.
"Ma'am, I'm getting a communications handshake from the SSV Lion ma'am."
"Patch them through CIC's PA."
"Aye, Ma'am."
"This is Lion actual; I've been asked by the senior most turian officer aboard my vessel to offer my vessels full arsenal up to and including her full suite of multi kiloton and multi megaton nuclear ordinance, I need the senior most officer to authorise their deployment seeing as this is turian space." A masculine voice spoke, obviously the commanding officer of the SSV Lion if the callsign was anything to go by
"Lion actual, this is Commodore Sidoia Acharius, whilst I may be the senior most naval officer, I unfortunately am unable to authorise the use of nuclear ordinance, that authorisation belongs solely to the admiral who is currently en-route with the Sixth Fleet as we speak." Sidoia responded.
"Understood… Though do be aware if the situation is in such a dire position, I will authorise the use of nuclear ordinance on my own authority to defend this vessel and her crew."
"Truthfully I hope it doesn't come to that, I had one of our rear guard units send an update through the relay comm buoy hopefully the Sixth will have gotten the message that the crew of the HNV Invictus has made it home and will be pushing their damn FTL drives to the limit to get here." Sidoia responded.
"Copy that, Commodore, in the meantime we'll have to deal with these sons of bitches ourselves, I have 150 main battery guns and four torpedo tubes ready to kick some teeth in, so while we take some of the pressure off of you and yours, get to cycling your fight worthy vessels and discharge their heat sinks in atmosphere we'll hold the line while they do so."
"Do you honestly believe your ship can withstand that amount of firepower bearing down on you?" Sidoia asked genuinely worried about the sanity of whoever happened to be in charge of such a unique and ridiculously overpowered warship.
"Don't worry, she was built from sterner stuff, eighty years of continuous service and two hundred plus kills under her belt, bigger and better warships have tried and failed to kill her. Instead she killed them." Sidoia's and most of the CIC crews eyes actually widened at the claim.
Very few vessels could claim such feats in the Turian Navy proper, maybe some of the older reserved capital ships could, but none of the active ones came close.
November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Turian Frontier Space, Valkyr System.
Turian Sixth Fleet, Command and Control Centre.
[+1 Year, 1 Month and 23 days since HNV Invictus was Declared MIA.]
[+12 Hours since First Contact with the SSV Lion]
[Play: Europe: The Final Countdown - The Final Countdown]
It had been 12 hours since the message had come through the appropriate channels, confirmed by both the OIC and 2IC of the Agamemnon defence fleets.
To: Fleet Admiral Nyx.
Subject: SITREP.
As of the time this report has been written, I would like to report that the Agamemnon / relay 314 system relay has been reset from 314's side, the keyhole has been switched and the backdoor back to the Alpha relay has been closed.
I would also like to report we have confirmed contact with the crew of the HNV Invictus, whilst simultaneously making first contact with an unidentified species, one unknown class of dreadnought is present in the Agamemnon System SSV Lion.
SSV Lion has successfully destroyed one Hegemony dreadnought, several Hegemony cruisers of various tonnage and nearly two dozen other vessels since its arrival.
We have successfully stalled the enemy at the third and final defensive line, multiple troop ships broke through and have since engaged in ground warfare with the Agamemnon colonial defence force and the Hierarchy garrison.
We will fight to the last.
Signed: Commodore Sidoia Acharius.
After reading the message all those hours ago Admiral Gavilan Nyx once more in command of the Sixth Fleet after a two-month rotation in the Seventeenth Fleet due to the admiral in charge being medically unfit to command at the time, had ordered his Fleet to push their improved FTL drives to near breaking point.
The result being that the Sixth Fleet was now a single relay jump from Agamemnon, stationed above Valkyr's single gas giant discharging their heat sinks to better prepare the vessels ready for what they all knew would be an absolute shit show.
"Chief Engineer, how are our new heat sinks holding up?" Gavilan asked one of his oldest friends.
"If we'd had the old ones installed, I wouldn't be talking to you for at least a month. The quarian contractors have done amazing work however, so we've stressed them something fierce for sure but they're well within working standards." The grizzled old turian engineer stated rather pointedly.
"Excellent, Tactical, how long until we've discharged enough to get our collective hides in the fight?" A Senior Lieutenant turned to look up from his alcove where her station sat. "Fifteen Minutes Sir, one of the cruisers ended up with a misaligned heat sink after our last transit, DRT's have been correcting the issue since."
"Understood, I want all captains to send me an update at that time." Gavilan ordered.
"Sir, I'll pass the message on." The female Tactical Officer replied.
This was it, the quiet before the storm, the fight before them was going to be brutal even with the addition of a friendly unknown class of dreadnought to provide heavy artillery support, alongside his own vessel, the HNV Spirit of Palaven.
For what felt like eternity, fifteen minutes slowly counted downwards, even reading the reports issued by his subordinate officers provided nothing in terms of 'speeding up' time. "Sir, all vessel's report, combat ready Sir."
"Patch me through fleetwide." Waiting a scant few seconds he received confirmation he was transmitting. "This is Admiral Gavilan Nyx, for too long have the Hegemony been a thorn inside of the galaxy at large, it's time we break the backbone of the Hegemony. Battle Stations!"
A short micro FTL jump later the Fleet arrived at the Valkyr System relay, the Navigations Officers aboard all of the assembled vessels transmitting their required information to jump safely into the Agamemnon System.
Multiple streaks of dark-matter 'lightning' struck each ship before they were propelled near instantaneously to the receiving relay in the Agamemnon System, as soon as all of the vessels cleared the EM Interference from dropping out of FTL all were in shock to see a single dreadnought sized vessel in the thick of the Hegemony fleet.
Streaks of white light erupted from multiple gun batteries adorning the dorsal and ventral surfaces, it had taken the VI aboard the Sixth Fleet several seconds to be updated by the local battle network [BATNET] but the information that was being given was outlandish at best and sheer insanity at worst.
The local heavy cruiser defence fleets and orbital defence grid had been bloodied but the tides had since turned from a clear stalemate to being clearly in the Hierarchy's favour. "Admiral, if I'm reading these readings right, that unknown class of dreadnought's batteries are launching two-thousand kilogramme rounds at near nought point four percent the speed of light!"
"I'm not detecting any kinetic barrier impacts, not that she needs them in the first place she's got three spirits damned metres of the purest titanium I've ever seen on galactic record, she's taken multiple direct hits from capital grade mass accelerators, they've scarred the armour, they've even breached areas were the armour is next to none existent but I'm not seeing any critical damage!"
Gavilan's eyes widened as the reports kept flooding in, just what kind of a species required the capability where a single dreadnought could in effect decimate an entire battlegroup if not a small fleet damn near on its own.
"Sir we're receiving a communication from the HNV Black Watch." Stated the Spirit of Palaven's Communication Officer.
"Patch them through. Commodore Acharius, report."
"Sir, we've taken massive casualties since we last managed to send a report, these animals have taken to directly bombarding civilian population centres, so the SSV Lion made itself the most immediate threat jumping into knife-fight range and began a full gun barrage on any and all targets surrounding her."
Galavan could clearly see from the sight of the SSV Lion laying into the batarian fleet, it had been built to endure firepower equivalent or greater than its own.
"We have established a secure line with her Commanding Officer going by the callsign of Lion actual. I'm having my communications officer transmit both the frequency and the audio and visual translation software to you now." Commodore Acharius reported.
Looking towards his own communications officer they made a clenched fist gesture confirming they had indeed received the frequency. "Confirmed Commodore, seeing as you have tactical awareness in the system, I defer my fleet's positioning to your command, make the best use of the Sixth Fleet Commodore." Gavilan ordered as he programmed in the updated software the Fleet had just received.
"Aye, Sir. One more thing, Commander Ka'mara is acting as the SSV Lion's executive and is the senior most turian authority aboard her." Sidoia reported to Gavilan.
"Understood, do you have anything else to report?" Gavilan asked.
"The Captain in charge has a... unique means of waging psychological warfare; sir it's constantly being transmitted on a separate frequency, the crews aboard have taken a liking to it, and it has improved our morale somewhat." Looking towards his communications officer they made the same gesture as before.
"Confirmed, carry on Commodore." Gavilan finished.
"Communications patch in that second frequency." Nodding the communications officer opened a ship wide PA before patching in the frequency. [Play Kasabian: Underdog.]
"I like this species already; I haven't even talked to them but I can tell that this race has confidence in their skills in spades."
To Be Continued…
AN: Chapter 10 is in the works to get the same treatment all of the previous chapters received, I'm getting closer to the point I feel comfortable in continuing the story with new chapters.
Uploading new chapters will be slow going until all of the old chapters get a full treatment, I know a lot of my older followers will be chomping at the bit to get some fresh content added.
As do I, so I'll aim to please and get on to spit balling ASAP, see you lot on the bounce.
Signed: The God Emperor of Mankind His Divine Holiness the Manperor of Mankind, by grace of himself of the United Imperium of Man, and of all Sectors and Sub-Sectors therein, God Emperor, Head of the Ecclesiarchy, Defender of the One True Faith and Avatar of the Machine God and the one true God of the Warp.
#Fuck you Tzeentch you're a nerd!