AN: It took a bit longer than anticipated but it's here, only after copious amounts of alcohol had found itself safe in my belly. And the fact I finished this only slightly drunk is a marked improvement.
I have to thank my usual suspects on my server for the glory that this chapter received in the new edits, I think this story can only keep getting better at this point.
Not surprising considering my mental faculties are constantly set to zero.
Anyways, enough about me, let's talk about me shilling the shit out of my official merch store 75thrbsg dot com, I have multiple designs ready to go and any money made will be placed into an account which will go towards paying for office improvements.
Any extra will go towards my bills, room, board, food and electricity.
I'll also be posting chapters on first from now on at one pound plus. These will be posted a week in advance, hopefully if I can get a revenue stream in place I'll be able to leave my weekend job and dedicate more time to writing.
With a bit of luck I'll get to a point these chapters will be coming out monthly and eventually bi-weekly.
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
Agamemnon Capital City, En-Route Central Park, Designated Landing Zone Aurus.
[Play: MANOWAR: Hail To England - Army of the Immortals.]
Squad Sergeant Horatia Nememius had been given the task to establish a suitable landing zone for friendly reinforcements to utilise, however she had been given a hasty force of militia, police and volunteer citizens with whatever personal firearms they had brought with them.
By no means did she like her situation, she had been given her orders and she would complete them to the best of her abilities, luckily not all was lost seeing as a pair of vacationing Asari maidens were providing her hodge podge group with at least some capable biotics support.
"Alright people, we've been given the job of trying to secure a landing zone for friendly reinforcements, our best bet is the city's central park; hopefully the sixth fleet can actually send us some armour and finally push these spirits damned animals from our homes." Nemesius relayed with the typical turian flange in her voice.
"Maybe that new species will help as well, if they're mad enough to drop a dreadnought through the atmosphere to launch fighters of all things, just what are their ground forces capable of?" one of the Turian police officers chipped in.
Nememius placed a finger to her visor's earpiece, listening in to the Turian battle network, her mandibles twitching as she listened in.
"Seems we'll be finding out sooner rather than later, the dreadnought's commander is committing everything they have to securing Agamemnon proper, they're sending reinforcements and strategic resources." Nememius reported, before looking back at her group. "Lets secure that landing zone quickly."
A chorus of yes ma'am was given by the group as they pushed through the city streets.
It took the group nearly an hour with intermittent contact with slaver patrols to reach their objective, luckily for them a small militia group had already secured the nearby highrises from batarian occupation.
Which left their own group the tedious job of securing the streets to and from the park. "V'laris, Shiva, use your biotics to build blockades with any abandoned vehicles and wreckage nearby, we're going to make this as hard as possible to take from us." Both Asari nodded before taking off towards the closest street to block it from being easily accessed.
"-Specialist Ignalinus, take three of the group and set up a command post with our radio and communicate with headquarters that we have a viable landing zone and further security forces would be appreciated."
"I'll get it done, Sergeant." The specialist replied.
"The rest of us will separate and secure the barricades as best we can. I need at least one rifleman to a barricade, the rest of you try to balance firepower between them, we don't need to be overrun because one barricade was short handed."
Everyone else nodded, glancing around. Nememius found the command post being established in a nearby store overlooking the park one of the three men was busy building a sniper perch on the balcony above using overturned tables as impromptu cover.
"Ma'am high command is on the line." Specialist Ignalinus barked out, Nememius quickly pathed her visor's radio frequency to match the long range radios. "Highcom this is Castra 1-1, objective Aurus has been secured. Over."
"Castra 1-1 this is Highcom copy your last transmission, be advised we're patching you through to Sixth fleet actual and Lion actual. Over."
"Copy highcom line is secure. Over." Nememius replied once her specialist nodded in the affirmative.
"Castra 1-1 this is Sixth fleet Actual, I'm giving you an order that is going to break every regulation in military network security. Break. We need you to broadcast on an open frequency a repeating non verbal message, our allies need to receive a direct telemetry to better their chances of deploying most of their special forces to reinforce your position. How copy? Over." Galavan stated rather matter of factly, both she and her specialist gave each other a look.
"Sixth fleet actual Castra 1-1 copies your last transmission. Break. I feel obligated to tell you that our position and our purpose for securing our area is going to become blatantly obvious when we transmit on an open channel sir. Over." Nememius replied, a little off put by the order.
"Castra 1-1, we understand however the Lion can only maintain its current position for a limited duration, if we had time to spare we would do this securely. Break. You have your orders and a duty to fulfil them, reinforcements will be with you in less than seven minutes the moment you transmit. Break. Spirits guide you sergeant, see to it. Out." Galavan finished.
That was when another voice addressed Nememius. "Castra 1-1 this is Lion actual, we're providing the data necessary to secure telemetry. Break. Your long range radio should be receiving it now, we need it broadcast on repeat to better my men's chances of not digging their own graves. Break." The voice paused for a brief moment
He continued. "Once my men are groundside Major Fenix will be coordinating with the groundside defence. Break. Expect our guys and gals to arrive as soon as possible, sorry we aren't able to lock this down but we're suspecting Batarian reinforcements are coming in. Out."
Nememius appreciated the honesty at least, and the fact that her unit would only have to hold the barricades for seven minutes lessened the blow somewhat. "Specialist. Do it." Nememius ordered.
Said specialist quickly inputted the necessary commands to begin openly broadcasting the signal. "It's done ma'am."
"Castra 1-1 to all Castra callsigns, prepare to repel hostile forces reinforcements are inbound estimated time of arrival. Seven minutes. Castra 1-1 out." Nememius transmitted. "Specialist, defend that equipment at all costs."
"I'll see it done ma'am." He replied.
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
Geosynchronous Orbit Above The Capital city of Agamemnon.
SSV Lion, Hell's Hallway.
[Play: Age of Empires IV: Age of Empires IV Soundtrack - Main Theme.]
Hell's hallway was a direct rip off from the fiction that had inspired the designers to include it, better known as hell's waiting room, where rows upon rows of single occupant drop pods waited for their occupants.
SOIS, also known as Special Orbital Infantry Service was a direct descendant and or bastard child of all of earth's special forces, the elite of the elite just passing through basic training had a little under ten percent pass rate, surviving your six month probation cut that rate to a third.
The men and women of SOIS were tough sons of bitches, most of the veterans who'd served multiple tours of service were lifer's, military grade cybernetically enhanced humans, either done by choice or necessity due to wounds received in the line of duty.
These men and women were in the service until the day they were Killed In Action.
"Alright we're dropping in fast and hard. Our objective is to help secure LZ Aurus for the ground pounders to deploy, then we're going to push to a bunch of high value targets we need to secure, namely the hospital, police station, the PDF barracks and headquarters and any other targets of opportunity." Major Fenix addressed the entirety of the assembled troopers before him, using a holotable to mark out the buildings in question.
"Sir what's our Rules of Engagement?" One of the captains asked aloud for the benefit of everyone there.
"If they have four eyes and look like they have a ballsack for a face, drop them. Once we link up with local forces on site we're going to take them along for the ride so they can positively identify (PID) who's who. I'm not going to lie, we're going to take some losses because of the fog of war here, if a panicked civvy shoots you take one for the god damned team." Fenix ordered.
Some had rather uncomfortable looks on their faces to that specific order but a few joked how the big bastard lifer's should stay upfront to soak up the shots.
"Alright muppets you know the song. It's time to dance people, get your arses in the pods we're dropping as soon as we get the signal."
Everyone nodded and like a colony of ants everyone made their separate ways to their assigned drop pods.
As soon as the last man, Fenix himself boarded the pod and sealed the hatch, a signal was given to one of the Lion's supercomputers to initiate the pre launch sequence, the pods were lowered into launch tubes via a crane system.
And there they waited for the final confirmation.
Which came minutes later.
"We're on express elevators to hell. Going down!" One of the privates quoted the famous private Hudson from the age old classic movie franchise of Alien. As was the tradition of SOIS.
As soon as the boosters ignited above the occupants of the 116 drop pods a chorus of woo hoo was bellowed out, as a sense of vertigo lifted them into their harnesses.
This is what they lived for.
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
Agamemnon Capital City, Central Park, Landing Zone Aurus.
[Play: Basil Poledouris: Starship Troopers - Klendathu Drop.]
Sergeant Horatia Nememius knew a seemingly hopeless situation, when she saw one and just as she had predicted, every local slaver unit had rushed to LZ Aurus to prevent Agamemnon's capital city from receiving a reliable stream of reinforcements.
Nememius' ragtag group of militia had held the hastily built barricades for the first couple of minutes until two squadrons of Blood Pack krogan mercenaries breached the northern checkpoint causing the defenders to pull back into the store.
Here they were low on supplies and ideas all they had to do was make sure their beacon survived another minute.
That's when hundreds of thunderclaps were heard as the sound barrier broke, projectiles, hundreds of them screaming towards the landing zone, drag chutes, air brakes, retrogrades firing all the way down.
"By the spirits, the insanity of this species knows no bounds, the dreadnought was bad enough but a functioning orbital insertion system!" one of Nememius' subordinates bellowed.
The pods struck the ground but not before releasing an enormous amount of material from the heat shield, a last second shock absorption method of some description. The shock and awe of the spectacle froze many of the slavers in place.
That's when all hell broke loose.
The canopies exploded from the body of the pods, several slaver's were struck by titanium plate travelling at the speed of sound, killing or wounding them terribly.
What Nememius could only assume to be humans bolted the second the canopies released them, firearms barking loudly some were obvious others less so, assault rifles, shotguns as well as a standard side arm of some description.
As the Blood Pack adjusted to meet the new threat within their backlines a stream of tracer slammed into the Krogan, their kinetic barriers and their body armour both worn and natural stood little to no chance as a behemoth of a human easily standing seven feet tall.
Wielding a monstrous double barrelled weapon system of some kind, a huge backpack attached to its back with two flexible link systems connecting to what could be two individual but identical guns in some kind of cradle.
It had to have been some kind of static weapon system, customised for a single person to carry.
One of the human soldiers quickly approached the bewildered defenders, more specifically Nememius herself. "Castra 1-1 I presume?" the visored being before her asked.
"Yes, major Fenix I also presume?" Mememius responded, the being nodded.
"We'll be securing the site for our ground pounders to follow behind, I need you, your radio operator and two others here to act as our forward operating base until we can establish our own properly." He paused, taking a breath. "I need volunteers as many willing to split between my subordinates, we need them as both a means to identify as a friendly force but to also positively ID friends from foes, we would like to keep civilian casualties to a minimum."
Nememius nodded. "I'll see what I can do; I have some wounded here, I need to get them back to our closest medical post." She replied.
"Don't worry, corpsman!" Fenix bellowed, a soldier with white pauldron's with red markings upon them ran over swiftly. "Get these lads and lasses some aid, patch them up, we're bringing them with Alpha Squadron as they move to secure the hospital."
"Gotcha boss. I'll administer some medi-gel I'll get them walking in a quarter of an hour." the corpsman replied.
"Medi-gel?" Nememius asked.
"It's an all-purpose medicinal salve combining an anaesthetic and clotting agent used by paramedics, EMTs, and military personnel, it's good enough to get wounded walking under their own power, and keeps the good stuff inside where it belongs, it's also cross species safe, its been tested by the CMO's on the Lion." Fenix stated matter of factly.
"Side effects?" one of the two Asari asked.
"You feel like you're wired on ten shots of pure caffeine from the small dose of adrenaline administered which means we can't use it on the wounded again for another half an hour." The corpsman interrupted on behalf of Major Fenix, before addressing his superior. "Boss, give them fifteen minutes and they'll be right as rain."
"Good man." Fenix dismissed him.
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
The Capital city of Agamemnon, Pelican Echo-419.
[Play: Dropkick Murphys: Signed and Sealed in Blood - Rose Tattoo.]
Flight Lieutenant Carol 'Foe-Hammer' Rawley expertly flew between the capital city's multitude of skyscrapers, leading a flight of three Pelicans en-route to deliver six sections of some of the Systems Alliance's finest ground-pounders intermixed with sections from Steel Raptor Troop, alongside their Three Jackal IFVs which were underslung from the aft overhang acting as their armour support.
Meanwhile two large speakers mounted either side of the blood tray blasted Dropkick Murphys: Rose Tattoo, as the flight of three Pelicans made a beeline for their designated Landing Zone to secure several High Value Individuals, whose bunker was under siege by a particularly vicious group of Pirates and Slavers.
The SOIS troopers who'd made landfall ten minutes ago to secure both the bunker and the local landing zone reported that the enemy were doing their damn best to prevent any birds from dropping any reinforcements so the good Captain saw it fit to send his three best pilots into the jaws of hell.
"Thirty seconds out. ground pounders, lock and load and ready up for a hot drop, the LZ is still contested." Foe-Hammer barked into the local troop net. "You heard the lady, Section Gunners out first lay waste to any sonofabitch stupid enough to be sticking their noses where they're not wanted, rest of you provide three sixty security." Barked the grizzled African-American Sergeant Major, donning his soft cap instead of his issued helmet.
"Let's tag us some bad guys, lads!" echoed a corporal, the rest of the troop barking out an oohrah in response. "Touch down in ten seconds!" The pelican dropship pitched slightly nose up as it made a rapid descent into a local park, tracers pinging off of the laminate armour as the enemy tried to bring the transports crashing to the earth, an RPG vapour trail whiffed past the three black transports as the operator was shot dead by a SOIS sniper.
"Touchdown, hit it Marines!" Foe-Hammer barked as the pelican hovered a scant foot above the earth of the Turian colony world of Agamemnon.
The two gunners operating the devastating and highly controversial M57-D were the first to jump out of the blood tray.
Their auto-targeting heads up displays highlighting hostiles with a thin red outline relaxing their upper bodies the combined six gunners let the servo-motors take over letting their belt fed weapon systems do the aiming for them with their targeting reticle centred on the enemy all six depressed their triggers.
Anticipating that their Kinetic-Barriers would provide a level of protection against the less well armed and armoured opponents, they never got a chance to move to cover as high velocity APE-D rounds ripped through their ineffective armour systems before detonating inside their bodies killing them through sheer shock and trauma.
"Marines focus on the big bastards first, they look like they'll be the most trouble!" The Sergeant Major barked, with the perimeter in the process of being secured by both the existing SOIS troopers on the deck and the support from marines pushing to their positions.
The three pelicans deposited their extra cargo, a trio of underslung Jackal IFVs two armed with the vaunted and some would say antiquated M2 mark.10 Browning machine guns, whilst the last was armed with a 40mm Grenade Machine Gun.
"Alright marines I want this park locked down tighter than a nuns asshole!" Bellowed the Sergeant Major as he dropped two batarians with his rifle.
"yes sir!'' The Marines barked out as they pushed through cover to cover killing pirates and slaver's as they advanced beyond the park's perimeter. "Echo flight you're clear for take-off we'll call for a priority pick up once we have the HVI's secure and en-route."
"Copy last, good luck out there Sargent. Out."
The flight of three pelicans gradually built up some momentum as they built up some altitude to clear the local rooftops where several sticks of SOIS took residence. "First, Third and Fifth sections keep my fucking LZ secure, Second Forth and Sixth Sections we're headed for that bunker, Jackal 1-1 and 1-3 stay put, Jackal 1-2 with us you're our HVI's exfil."
"Copy." The assembled marines barked out, as they made their preparations before moving out to complete their objectives.
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
SSV Lion R-106, Combat Information Centre.
[Play: Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms (Remastered) - Money For Nothing.]
Liam watched the tactical display on the Lion's war table, casualties had been light, so far, twelve SOIS were Dead On Arrival, four through digging their own graves, as their Single Occupant Exo-Atmospheric Insertion Vehicles [SOEIV] failed to deploy their drag-chutes or alternatively failed to fire their retro's in time if at all.
While the remaining eight went out in a 'blaze of glory' also known as hot-boxing their drop pod hatches failing to seal properly resulting in the occupants being cooked while in the process of entering the world's atmosphere, it was a truly nasty way to go out but the men and women who signed up for SOIS knew the risks and were paid liberal amounts of hazard pay in the event that their pod failed.
Their names and pictures were already being added to the memorial wall alongside those of the crew who'd fallen before them.
"Lest we forget." Liam muttered to himself as he manipulated the display bringing up the system wide tactical display.
He watched as Turian naval elements cycled between each other to discharge their saturated heat sinks into the atmosphere of Agamemnon, a frowned upon practice unless in times of extreme crisis or war.
"Ka'mara when are the additional reinforcements due to arrive?" Ka'mara took a quick glance up towards the wall mounted analogue clock.
"Not for another six hours at least." she replied.
Liam nodded. "Alright stand down half of the crew, they've got an hour to get some scran down their necks, then have them rotate I've got a feeling we've not quite broken these slaver bastards just yet." he stated bitterly.
"Aye sir." Ka'mara acknowledged.
Liam rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Oh, tell the head chef to send up take-out for CIC, unfortunately there won't be any rest for the wicked." And true to his words only a scant couple of hours later Admiral Nyx contacted the Lion through the newly established secure network.
"Captain, we've lost all telemetry from the Relay leading back to the Three-One-Four System. The Hegemony is back dooring our system once more, I hope you and yours are more than ready for a second bout." Admiral Nyx reported.
Liam nodded with determination. "We're more than ready Admiral, I just hope to god the hasty patch ups on the local defence fleet and our own hold out until your reinforcements arrive, otherwise this'll turn into a real slog."
"They'll get here Captain. Admiral Nyx out."
November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
Turian Sixth Fleet, HNV Spirit of Palaven.
Command and Control Centre.
[Play: Lions Law: A Day Will Come - For My Clan.]
Gavilan stood proudly at his command position towards the rear of the bridge, the primary holographic display no longer showing the status of the Spirit of Palaven, but a 3D representation of Agamemnon's capital city.
It seemed all the more obvious that Humanity was all the more capable on the ground than in space, the Garrison reports were nothing if not glowing with praise, small troop formations capable of laying waste to numerically superior forces, through a sheer weight of firepower or through superior manoeuvrability.
Innovative flanking's, superior fire and manoeuvre, heavy armour support intermixed with the marines providing both a form of mobile cover or hard point or as the humans put it bunker busting capabilities.
But what came as a shock was the level of interoperability between the whole detachment, entire sections or troops with differing orders providing wordless support to one another, Non Commissioned Officers with far more operational authority to make battlefield decisions, Human officers at the Garrison Headquarters called it Strike Operations.
"We give them an objective their one order is to win, we don't care how they do it, so long as they get it done, everyone from the most senior officer to the greenest of privates has the capability to come up with a strategy to defeat the enemy, we just provide the tools and the management to coordinate the whole. Innovation, adaptability and strike capability are what have won some of humanity's fiercest wars, we just embraced the idea and ran with it."
The results spoke for themselves, in less than an hour from when the first SOIS troopers were dropped via drop-pods from low orbit to the marines capitalising on the beach heads provided, several Forward Operating Bases were already in the process of being built.
Gavilan's thoughts were interrupted when one of his junior officers spoke up from his post in one of the CIC's many alcoves. "Sir, I've just lost Telemetry from the Three-One-Four system Relay, we've been locked out sir." The female Ensign reported.
"Looks like the Batarian's are making their move; alert the fleet to tighten up formation, the ships still in the process of discharging their heat sinks are to finish doing so before re-joining the defensive line." Adrianus ordered while Gavilan busied himself trying to coordinate with the SSV Lion.
"Lion Actual here." Captain Spruce's voice broke through intermixed with a light static.
"Captain, we've lost all telemetry from the Relay leading back to the Three-One-Four System. The Hegemony is back dooring our system once more, I hope you and yours are more than ready for a second bout." Gavilan spoke into his omni-tools microphone.
"We're more than ready Admiral, I just hope to god the patch ups on the local defence fleet hold out until your reinforcements arrive, otherwise this'll turn into a real slog." Captain Spruce replied.
"They'll get here Captain. Admiral Nyx out." Gavilan cut the communication off, watching as his crew scrambled into combat stations.
That's when it happened, the secondary channel began playing music once more. [Manowar: Sword of the Highlands.] Gavilan was about to order the to turn the song up, but the communications officer beat him to it by increasing the volume by at least twenty percent, it was a slow melody to begin with, but when the first lyrics hit their ears entire Turian crews perked up.
A song of both tragedy and triumph, a song with a cultural significance behind it.
It took a lot of them a good minute to understand the meaning of the song, but it was in essence one massive insult to the Batarian culture, how Humanity would fight and die to the last to remain a free people, it was a truly glorious feeling, inspiring one could say, Gavilan could hardly believe the fortune for the crew of the Invictus to have found such a people, a people the hierarchy could truly count upon in these trying times where it seemed the Council were as much with the Hierarchy as they were against them.
Maybe just maybe, Humanity's defiance and unpredictability was the collective kick up the ass the Galaxy needed; that was neither here nor there, for now the surviving Hierarchy forces alongside the SSV Lion had to hold the line until the two reserve fleets could bolster their forces in a scant few hours' time.
That's when the first of the Batarian Hegemonies second wave appeared in a flash of blue, frigates appearing in the dozens intermixed with cruisers followed by two dreadnoughts and hundreds of converted civilian transports, loaded with thousands if not tens of thousands of slave soldiers alongside their slaver masters.
Gavilan opened a fleet wide comm link via his omni tool, taking a breath Gavilan gave a short speech. "Hold steadfast sons and daughters of Palaven, for our duty is not yet done, for the pride of the Spirits we fight to the last."
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
SSV Lion R-106, Combat Information Centre.
[Play: Hoosiers: The News From Nowhere - To The Lions.]
"…. we fight to the last." Gavilan's speech finished broadcasting throughout the CIC of the Lion, Liam held a small smirk on his face. "CGO, what's our ammunition situation?"
running through his personal PADD in hand he read through and mentally calculated how dire our situation was. "Main Batteries have used up thirty percent of their entire stockpile of APAC and APACHE and fifteen percent of the KATIES in storage, our torpedo situation isn't much better, out of our original stockpile of forty super-heavy disruptor torpedoes twenty four remain and out of our sixteen Type 45 nuclear torpedoes twelve remain." He paused.
Doing another quick scroll through is PADD the officer finished his report. "seventy percent of our RAPIER salvo was used up, Lion's supercomputers must've calculated that not all of them were necessary to finish off the first wave, while our AM/AF batteries magazines are down to sixty percent."
Nodding at the report Liam looked towards the CAG. "CAG, how many of our birds are in their roosts?" CAG hadn't even turned to address the captain before speaking up from their post. "Red and Blue squadrons are half way through 'R and R' sir, Black and Gold Squadrons are planet side, with white and silver squadrons still in reserve." Liam nodded as the report was given to him. "Order Durandal and Roland to get those birds in reserve active, pull the reserve fighter pilots from their duties, they're fighter jocks until this fight is over!"
"Aye sir!"
[Play: Requiem, K. 626 Lacrimosa Dies Illa. By Wolfgang Mozart. Followed by: Messa Da Requiem: Dies Irae – Tuba Mirum. By Giuseppe Verdi.]
To Be Continued….
AN: Thank you all once again for reading my fan fiction, eventually I plan to write a full original Fiction of my own, and have it published on the great web for all to see and mock the shit out of it.
Hopefully with it being online I'll be able to snipe some minor edits in.
Other than that, thanks for being such loyal followers of BDD and myself and feel free to get involved on Discord.
All the best.
GLRS.