Chapter 19: Behind the Lines


March 18th 09:27, Brytus, Dragon Orphan Occupation Zone


The cold air nipped at the creature's skin, a sensation that was ignored. It sniffed the air catching the old stale scent of prey. Nothing here to catch, not even a small creature that scurried the ground. Around it and its hunting pack were the tall metal spires that formed the strange blood's nest. Once the pathways between these lifeless constructs were filled to the brim with prey giving the swarm a bountiful feast now it was empty. The strange bloods were an oddity to them, the others did have a different taste than the progenitors but were close enough that the difference mattered little to them. The strange bloods the ones that reminded the swarm of the flying creatures from the cradle, they had a different taste. It was like their blood was made of an entirely different substance than all of the others. It was a taste that the swarm had grown used to and even came to enjoy, still, when one of the others or even a progenitor presented itself they would choose them over the strange bloods.

The difference mattered little though, in the end, all would be devoured and the swarm would grow. The pathways were empty now and what remained of the prey had been gathered at the nest to be feed on later or were scattered throughout the metal nest waiting to be hunted. The creature moved forward with its brethren closes behind. It stopped.

It caught an odd scent, it was much newer than the ones in the area. A wave of excitement washed over the creature new prey had been found and they have their hunt. It opened its gaping mouth to lose a roar. A piercing pain killed the roar in its throat. Dazed the creature stumbled backward as the pain repeated itself all over its body and finally fell. The last thing it saw was its pack being torn to pieces.

Hidaki smiled to himself as the last of the Dragon Orphans fell over dead. He motioned for the young man next to him to proceed with the next stage of their attack. The young man nodded and darted out to the remains of the Dragon Orphans the rest of the squad keeping an eye on him as he began his work. Hidaki had his finger on the trigger of his weapon and his Ukaku was ready to spring to life. Next to him, Saren was just as ready to spring into action. A minute passed and the young had finished his work and ran back to cover. Just in time for several groups of Dragon Orphans to come barreling down the streets.

The weapons fire had drawn them here. The swarm of monsters, Hidaki estimated about fifty or more, a mix of standard types, spikers, prowlers, and even a brute stopped at the remains. The D-Orphans stood confused, some looking over the area for those responsible. Others were investigating the remains of their kind as though they were trying to figure out the cause behind their deaths. It was a mistake that they would never get the chance to learn from. With a press of a button, their lives had been ended in an explosion of fire and metal. Only the brute remained as a mangled mess. A sustained burst of fire from the squad ended its life.

The squad had long since left the premise when more Dragon Orphans came swarming in. More such incidents would repeat themselves throughout the day


March 18th 19:02, Brytus, Dragon Orphan Occupation Zone, abandoned building


Hidaki walked into their home base with a smile present on his face. Today's raids had gone well he estimated they had eliminated more than a hundred D-Orphans in the day. Without a doubt, the D-Orphans were franticly looking for whoever was causing them so much grief. Good, that meant he and his squad were doing their job, the more the D-Orphans had looking for his squad and the others the less they had to throw at the frontlines. Not much to stem the tide but better than nothing.

He walked through the worn-down hallways of the building, carefully stepping over any ruble that had not been cleared by his squad. From what Saren had told him this building may have been a business firm before the invasion. When his squad found it it had been abandoned and left in a state that under normal circumstances would have seen it condemned.

They had tried their best to clean the place to make it easier to get in and out. But having to remain mobile this building would only serve as a temporary home base, so they didn't fully commit to cleaning the place and Hidaki was already thinking of moving out and finding a new base to set up in, they had been here for about a week now.

He walked into a room where they had settle up their portable communication terminal. He was greeted by about a dozen civilians they had found and rescued, most unsurprisingly were Turian, though they have two Volus and strangely enough a Quarian child, more than a few had weapons on them. He walked up to the terminal and activated it. Three other figures materialized deep in conversation, two of them were the commanding officers of the other squads operating behind enemy lines and the other the Commander they reported to.

"Unforntanly I lost two of my people today." One of them said. "One died when a spiker managed to get a headshot off on him. The other had a torn limb and died from blood loss.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but like it or not causalities are a fact of life in war." The commander said. "Will your squad still be able to operate without them?"

"We can sir." The Officer reported. "Though it will make things harder for us now that everyone has to take additional responsibilities. I would like to request that my squad be assigned two new members to replace our losses, the next time we arrive at a safe-zone."
"I will take your request under advisement. Until then continue with your operations. Dismissed."

The officer saluted. "Understood sir." His image faded away.

The Commander turned his attention to the other officer, though not before taking notice of Hidaki. "Lieutenant Kenaki it is good to see you." He said saluting the younger man.

Hidaki returned the Salute. "Lieutenant First Class Kaneki Hidaki of the 312th Mobile Assault Force reporting in, sir."

"At easy Lieutenant You will make your report after Lieutenant Fields has made her report."

"Understood sir." Hidaki said relaxing his posture. A few minutes later only the Commander's image remained and Hidaki made his report. "As per our orders, we have been scouting out the area marking targets of opportunity and determining enemy strength for any future counteroffensive. Likewise, we have been conducting hit and run tactics on the Dragon Orphan forces occupying the city, destroying any hatchery we find, ambushing hunting groups, and in general, being a nuisance. As of this week, we have destroyed more than a dozen smaller hatcheries and severely damaged a larger one, by my estimate my squad has eliminated around eight hundred Dragon Orphans. Lastly, we have rescued about a dozen civilians that were trapped in the city. Thus far we have suffered no causalities but we are running low on supplies. I request supplies be sent to one of the safe zones so we may retrieve them and drop off the rescued civilians." Several safe zones had been established to act as supply points for the teams operating behind enemy lines and to severe as refugee points for any rescued civilians. They were well hidden and protected by a squad of soldiers aided by any volunteers from the rescued civilians. Given that Brytus is a Turian world they had plenty of them.

The Commander gave an approving nod. "A good hunt, well-done Lieutenant Kaneki. As for your supply request, make a list of what you need and I will see to it. Just get those civilians there safely. Understood?"

"Understood sir." Hidaki replied. "We will arrive at Safe Zone Gamma at the earliest possible time."

"Once you get your supplies use the Safe Zone Gamma's comm relay to contact me. We may have a special assignment for you."
"Special assignment sir?" Hidaki quarried, had something come up?

"I'll explain more once you have arrived at Safe Zone Gamma. For now, you are dismissed." The commander saluted and Hidaki returns the gesture.

The commander's image faded and the Half-Ghoul turned the terminal off. He turned to see that the civilians were looking at him expectantly. Hidaki began to speak. "Alright, people tomorrow morning we'll be leaving this place and heading for a safe-zone, you will be safe there. Grab whatever belongs to you and be ready to move." He got several nodes from the civilians and a couple of snickers about not having much to carry.

He walked up to an older-looking Turian woman who was looking after the Quarian child. "Can she make the trip?" He asked the woman.

The old woman gave him a caring look. "That would depend on how far the place is. But I believe she can, children are hardier than most give them credit for." She placed a gentle hand on the child. "And this little one had been through a lot."

Hidaki could imagine he still had yet to ask how a Quarian child came to be on this planet. "Good to hear, It may take us a day or two to get there. I just wanted to make sure the little one could make it." He would have to ask about it later.

The child looks at him, and even though the mask he could see the fear in her eyes. "Are you going to keep us safe?" She asked the tremble in her voice unmistakable and for a moment Hidaki's parental instincts kick in and he was tempted to embrace the child. He restrained himself and settled for padding the child on the head.

"Of course I will little one. I'm a marine in the Terran Federation no Dragon Orphan scares me. If they come near us, I'll send them screaming." He said putting on his best smile for the child. That seemed to relax her a bit. "Besides the old bird here would probably beat my ass if I failed." He said pointing to the older Turian woman.

"Your damn right I will." She said giving a shake of her hand, a cybernetic replacement. "Now come along Seno, we have to get ready." She took the child's hand and the two walked off.

"Try not to make promises we may not be able to keep." He heard Saren say walking up behind him. "Getting to the safe zone will be tough enough as it is. Having to protect civilians on the way will make it more difficult."
Hidaki faces the younger Turian male. "We've done it before." He replied. "We can do it again. Civilian or not your people know how to put a fight so that makes things easier."

"Yes, but at those times we had two or three people to protect, this is a much bigger group to protect, though I suppose you have a point. My people are known for their martial prowess" Saren said with a little pride slipping into his voice. "I'll get Kelson to pack up our equipment."

"While you're at it get the rest of the squad together. That way we can get a plan together for how we will get to the Safe Zone." Saren nodded before heading off.

A few minutes later the squad had been assembled around the terminal. Including Hidaki and Saren there were ten of them together. Going from his left was a young man with red hair and green eyes, Private Jaden Kelson their explosive expert and technician, he was of a shy demeanor unusual for a marine but the kid did have spirit and could go a long way in the military if he chose to. Next to him was a woman that towered over him with short brown hair and similarly green eyes, Corporal Ellen Cartmen, hotheaded and reckless but never in the habit of endangering her squadmates. Did have a few accounts of insubordination though nothing that ever got her kicked out of the military.

Going to the next member of the squad was a Turian woman that appeared to be her species equivalent of Terran forties. Vellea Macmius the squad's second technician. She was a friendly lady almost coming off as motherly a notion reinforced by the fact she had two children living back on Palavan. Next to her was an older-looking man with greying hair, Sargant Jospheth Walkins, he was a Veteran of the Third Dragon War who always was in the mood for a joke but grew serious in a pinch. Next to him was a Turian male of similarly advanced age, Tuleus Asalin, an irritable individual when he was in a good mood and had plenty of scars to prove his long service in the Hierarchy Military. Oddly enough he got along well enough with Walkins, the two acted like they were old war buddies.

Next was Private Kevin Johnson a man a bit younger than Hidaki with short-cropped black hair and hazel eyes and of stocky build. A generally friendly person and had a desire to make a career in the military. A bit farther away was Tibena Altus a turian whole who constantly had a scowl on his face and kept his distance from Terrans, particularly ghouls. He was willing to work with them when he had to but Hidaki suspected he would rather be as far away from as possible. The last member of their squad was the better half of Altus and sniper of the team Canus Altus, a quit Turian who mostly kept to himself or around Tibena, it seemed that the Turians were more relaxed about interpersonal relations in the military than the Federation was.

The squad could be described as being an odd group, however, they worked well together, and had accomplished much. "We'll be moving out tomorrow," Hidaki said. "our destination will be Safe Zone Gamma where we'll be resupplying and drop off the civilians we rescued. Further, we'll be receiving a special assignment, so be on standby for orders."

"Special assignment, sir?" Kelson asked. "Do we have any details on what it might be?"

Hidaki shook his head. "Negative Private Kelson. All I was told by the commander was that we will be receiving a special assignment when we get to Safe Zone Gamma."

"Who knows maybe they'll send us after the Dragon General." Cartmen commented with a broad smile. "Certainly would be a change in pace from the boring routine we have now."
"I find that doubtful," Macmius said. "From what I read on those things, it takes a specially designed team of some of our people's best personal to kill one and even then it borders on being a suicide mission. "

"You doubting our ability?" Cartmen asked in a steally voice.
"No, I'm not, I'm just pointing out the unlikelihood of it happening." The Turian woman placated.

"She's right I've had the distinct displeasure of seeing one of those things in action." Walkins piped in. "Son of bitch tore through my unit like they were paper mache, almost took my life to boot as well." The older man visibly shivered. Hidaki could understand, he had seen records of Dragon Generals in battles, seeing them tear through whole Battalions and elite squads of soldiers was a disheartening sight, he could only imagine what it was like to see it first hand.

"Sargent Walkins, if you don't mind me asking?" Kelson spoke. "How did you survive that encounter?"

"Lucky for me that particular Dragon General was a brush one and seemed to be the type to leap before looking. We had a whole line of tanks not far from us. By the time they were done with it, there were only scraps left. After the fighting was over I pissed on its remains." He looked around seeing that the rest of the squad was giving him deadpan expressions. "What? That was a bad day for me, I needed to vent." He said sheepishly.

Hidaki shook his head fighting back a grin. "Getting back on topic, we'll need to get to Safe Zone Gamma to find out if or if not we will be fighting the Dragon General. Normally we would be able to get there quickly likely under a day."
"But since we will be escorting a group of civilians on the way we'll be slowed down." Saren began to explain. "While we have escorted rescued civilians before this group larger than the rest and it will take us longer than a day to get there, possibly two. Not to mention the larger group of people will likely attract more attention from the Dragon Orphans."

"Correct me if I'm wrong but don't most of your people have military training and are armed? That should make things easier, right?" Cartmen asked.

Asalin answered her. "Yes, but they are still civilians most of whom until recently haven't been in a real fight or fired a weapon. If we get attack by the D-Orphans while protecting a group this big, things could get ugly fast, don't expect too much help from them."

"Which is why we need a plan." Hidaki said getting the squad's attention back on him.

"Perhaps we can try a path through the buildings?" Johnson suggested. "Certainly would slow us down but we would have the benefit of having plenty of cover and places for the civies to hide and rest."
"I'm not sure if I like that," Walkins said. "If there are any Dragon Orphans in those buildings we'll have close-quarters combat on our hands with little room to maneuver. Not to mention some of those buildings look ready to collapse we could easily be trapped."

Walkins made a good point but the idea of using the building for cover did appeal to Hidaki. "Perhaps we can have two of our squadmates scout ahead to find safe buildings to go through." Hidaki said. "When they find one we'll go through it and when they don't we'll move through the streets."

"Not, bad," Saren said. "Who should we have as our scouts?"

Hidaki thought it over, mentally checking through what he knew of his squadmates specialties. "Canus and Sargent Walkins should be good choices." He said getting nods from the two.

"Alright then," Asalin said. "Now that we have some idea on how we'll reach the safe-zone, how are we going to protect the civilians? With the number of people, we have it is going be hard moving around the city unnoticed."

Before Hidaki could respond, Kelson spoke up. "Sir, if I may be allowed to make a suggestion?"

Intrigued Hidaki nodded. "Permission granted Private."

"What if we split up into two groups?" Kelson said.

"Explain."
"Excluding those chosen for the scouting party, we have eight soldiers, and we have around dozen people to protect. Correct?" Everyone nodded. "Then why not split the squad into two teams of four. One team would take half of the civilians while the second would take the other half."

Hidaki was quick to catch onto what the private was thinking. "That way we'll have two smaller groups instead of one large group. The groups would remain at a distance from each other. Say about a block or two, so that way if anything happens to one the other can get away." Kelson nodded.

"Or provide back up if they're able to. Not bad, Private," Walkins said with a grin. "I guess miss Cartmen here likes you more than just for a screwtoy." He chuckles seeing the private duck his head to hide the red that was creeping upon his face.

Cartmen scowled and walked up behind the old man and slapped the back of his head. "I'll have you know me and Priave Kelson here haven't done that for the duration of the mission. Unlike you, we can keep our relationship professional and our minds aren't in the gutter."

The older man rubbed the back of his head. "Alright, sorry. Can't blame a guy for wanting to make a joke." A glare shut him up.

Hidaki rolled his eyes. "If we can get on topic, I like what Private Kelson suggested. We'll split up into two groups that each will escort half of the civilians. Now then who should to what group?"


Marth 19th 12:00, TFS. Anteiku:


"Admiral, we will arrive at our destination in five minutes."

"Good." Grayson responded. He looks at a tactical display showing his fleet heading for its destination. It was a minor system in citadel space that had a single colony world with less than seven million inhabitants. He hadn't bothered to learn its name and under normal circumstances, he might have never known it existed.

In war, normal circumstances were a rarity. The system was being attacked by a small Dragon Swarm, and since his fleet was in range they had responded. His fleet was one of the many rapid response fleets created for the war. As the name would suggest they were smaller fleets usually topping out at around a hundred ships meant to respond quickly to developing situations that larger fleets would be too slow for. They would either be able to handle situations if they were small enough or keep a large force distracted long enough for a larger response to happen. His was the 11th Heavy Reaction Fleet, twice the size of a normal rapid response fleet, and meant for heavier combat.

"Are all stations ready for combat?" He asked having the display zoom in on the system's colony and the focus of the Dragon Swarm's attack. The system while a minor one was close to several important systems and was allocated a larger defense than it would normally have. Those defenses were holding off well from what Grayson gathered. He had to hand it to them the Turians knew how to put up a fight.

"Affirmative, sir," Helen said. "All ships report ready for combat. Strike craft and fighter drones are on standby to be deployed the moment we drop out of FTL."
Grayson hmm'd his satisfaction his fleet was running like a well-oiled machine. The 11th HRF was quickly gaining notice as its victories against the Dragon-Orphans, big and small, mounted. In the lulls between patrolling and fighting the D-Orphans, his fleet would often intercept transmissions from the local news networks detailing their heroics alongside other notable fleets. He even received a message from the Turian Hierarchy about if they could use images of him and his fleet to boost the morale of the Citadel people and recruitment in the local area. He hadn't responded to them, wanting to talk it over with his superiors, though he suspected they would encourage him to take the offer.

"Statues of the 7th and 12th RRFs." He asked.

"The 7th and 12th Rapid Response Fleets have arrived in the system and are presently engaged with the Dragon Orphans alongside the colony's defense fleet." Helen said showing representations of the three fleets fighting the Dragon swarm on the tactical display. "Three minutes until we reach our destination."

"Statues on the colony's defense fleet and what is the enemy's strength at present?"

"The defense fleet has put up an admirable defense but has suffered heavy losses for it. The Dragon Orphans currently have around three thousand ships attacking the planet and have mange land forces on the surface. The local garrison has been able to hold them off but will likely need help to defeat them."

"Than have our Marine complement be ready to make planetfall." Grayson ordered.

"Already done sir." Helen responded. "One minute."

Grayson straightens up his posture." Helen patch me through the fleet."

"Done sir."

Grayson cleared his throat before he spoke. "Attention all units we are less than a minute away from our destination. The moment we drop out of FTL we will be entering an active combat zone. The 7th and 12th RRF are already on scene and engaged with the enemy. If we can we will attempt an Alpha strick against the Dragon Orphans. If not we will move in to engage the enemy. Let's give these bastards hell."


Space


The two hundred ships of the 11th HRF entered normal space several thousands of Kilometers away from the battling fleets. As the admiral had said both 7th and 12th RRFs were engaged with the Dragon Orphan fleet close to a planet. Together they number around three hundred fifty warships. Add in the colony's defense fleet and the 11th the Dragon Orphans were now facing more than four hundred warships. While they still outnumbered the allied fleet almost eight to one, a situation that no one ever wanted to find themselves under normal circumstances, they were still at a disadvantage. In some ways, the Dragon Orphans reliance on their swarm tactics while their greatest strength, it was also their greatest weakness. Individually the ships; they could even be called that, of the Dragon Orphans were subpar compared to ships of even the weakest Citadel race. The Citadel races had learned quickly that they could destroy several D-Orphan ships before losing one of theirs.

It wasn't a matter of firepower, they had plenty of that. What was important is if they could kill their enemy quick enough and in enough numbers to make a difference. Just before the Terran Federation had entered the war they had started to do that. In two years the Citadel had significantly improved the accuracy and fire rate of their weapons and had learned how to vent their heatsinks quicker. The Terrans had brought with them a treasure trove of information on the Dragon Orphans in addition to their numbers. The Turians, Asari, and Salarians all had comb through the information with a fine brush, and with the insights proved from Terran advisors they had applied what they learned to their combat doctrines. Terran ships still had the highest kill ratio against the purely organic foe, but the difference between the Citadel ships before the Terrans arrived and the Citadel ships after the Terrans arrived was noticeable. Attacks had been repelled, systems were being retaken or contested. What had once looked like a hopeless fight now looked like a very real chance at victory for the galaxy. Much the same could be applied to their ground forces as well

The Dragon Orphans did have a few powerful units both in space and on the ground that could pose a serious threat, Wyverns, brutes, and the Dragon Generals were the first things to come to mind. But they are few and far in between and often marked as priority targets.

This Dragon Swarm had no such powerful units in its ranks, the largest ships they did have were a about hundred Drakes, cruiser-sized ships. They would not be enough to give them an edge in the battle. Seconds, after the 11th HRF had entered normal space swarms of strike craft, flew from their hangers and fighter drones deployed from their launch bays. They would be the first to engage the Dragon Orphans adding their numbers to the drones and fighters of the 7th and 12th, quickly swarming and overwhelming singular targets.

Meanwhile, the ships of the 11th HRF flew in, to join the battle, as they closed the distance they fired their weapons. Missiles would be given a target and their onboard computers would guide them to their targets. Kinetic rounds would be fired after solutions would be calculated so as to best avoid hitting any friendlies. By the time they had closed into knife fighting range almost a thousand Dragon ships had been consigned to death.

Now at this range, the larger ships of the fleet cut their engines and focused on keeping their barriers up and destroying the enemy with the larger drakes being given focused attention. The small ships like the Corvettes, frigates, and destroyers grouped into wolf packs and do what they could to defend their larger and slower counterparts, by going after the smaller Wyrms and occasionally going after a Drake if the opportunity presented itself. At the center of the 11th's main battle group was the TFV. Anteiku one of the Federation's newest Kaneki class dreadnoughts, unlike the old Grissoms this ship featured two spinal cannons. Both could be fire every two seconds either at the same time or alternating every second allowing for a twenty-kilogram slug to be fired at one and a half percent of the speed of light every second. Most commanders of these ships chose the latter as the rapid fire of the powerful slugs gave their enemies less time to react. Admiral Grayson had been no different each shot from one of its main cannons saw the death of a drake and the other weapons of the imposing dreadnought focused on the smaller Wyrms if they got too close.

Losses on the allied fleet were minimum mostly with corvettes being destroyed or left drifting, with some frigates and destroyers getting knocked out of the fighting. Most of them would be salvageable only needing a few hours for repairs or dragged to the nearest shipyard for a day or two. Two unlucky cruisers were lost and a Battle Cruiser was left adrift when it took a nasty hit to its engines. The Dragon Orphans in comparison were quickly taking heavy losses, in just a few short minutes less than a thousand of them remained and almost all of them showed battle scars that would take them days or weeks to regenerate from. They would not have that chance as they stubbornly refused to withdraw from what was obviously a lost battle. Caught between the three small terran fleets and remains of the colony's defenses the last of the Dragon ships were quickly eliminated.


Marth 19th 12:23, Minor Citadel System TFS. Anteiku:


"All Dragon Orphans ships have been destroyed, Admiral." Helen reported.

Grayson nodded. "Good, have all ships stand down from battle stations but keep on alert status. More enemy ships could show up and I don't want them catching us with our pants down." He eyed the tactical projection carefully, looking over the representations of the fleets and wreckage from the battle. "Have us take up position over the planet and deploy our Marine forces. The fleet will provide orbital support where it can."

"Relaying your orders now." Helen responded. "Anything else?"

"I want a quick status report on the combined fleet." He said.

"Affirmative, give me a few seconds to correlate with the Synths." Grayson nodded his approval and waited. "Report complete. The 11th Heavy Reaction Fleet and the 7th and 12th Rapid Response Fleets have suffered minimum losses, mostly smaller warships, preliminary scans indicated that most of them can be salvaged with a day or two of repairs. Two cruisers the Cairo and the Melaka have been split in half, but their onboard Synths report that most of their crew are still alive and awaiting rescue. The battlecruiser Ganymede took a blow to one of its main engines but remains operable, drydock repairs will be needed to restore the engine. The defending fleet over the colony in comparison has suffered heavy losses with less than a third of it remaining in a functional state, all other ships have been destroyed, crippled, or left adrift. All remaining ships report moderate to minimum battle damage."

So overall about what Grayson had expected from a battle. "Very good." He said seeing that the fleets had taken orbit above the colony. "I want rescued teams out there to search for survivors, and I want a detailed report on the battle on my desk in twelve hours. Understood?"

"Understood, sir."

"Now let us see about helping our friends planetside."


March 19th 14:35, Brytus, Dragon Orphan Occupation Zone


"This is Walkins here. The block is clear. I repeat this block is clear."
"Copy that Walkins, we are on our way." Hidaki said. "Maintain an open comm-link and report any developments."

"Yes, sir."

Hidaki looks to his group. They had taken the refugees into an abandoned building on their way to the safe zone. A building that the scouting team had deemed safe enough to hid out in while they went ahead scouting out the block of building ahead. Hidaki was pressed up to the side of a doorframe leading outside. On the other side was private Johnson tightly holding his rifle and occasionally peeking his head out to scan the area outside. Behind them was a group of six civilians huddled closely together, two of them had what was likely a Turain version of a civilian rifle. Behind them, Cartmen and Macmius were guarding their rear.

They had made some good progress through the city, faster than he thought they would. They had left their former homebase about seven hours ago and had little contact with the enemy. Though there had been a few close calls where they were almost forced to engaged small groups of Dragon Orphans. If they manage to keep this kind of pace up then they could reach the safe zone by early morning of tomorrow.

"Let's move." He said to the group. "Saren have your group be ready to move out as well." They had their comms opened to maintain constant communication. Since the Dragon Orphans didn't have any conventional form of technology they didn't have to worry about them intercepting comms. A nice little advantage that the Federation and the Citadel races were more than happy to exploit.

"Already on it Kenaki." Saren's voice replied.

Hidaki and Johnson darted out from the building and sprinted towards the next building. Taking up defensive positions just outside the door they signaled for the civilians to make their way across the street. A few minutes later all the civilians had crossed and entered the building and moved through another in the block. They repeated the process with the second set of buildings.

"Saren have you reached your destination?" Hidaki said looking out the street, seeing the scouting group signal back to him.

"Affirmative," Saren replied. "We're in the last build you were last in. So far we've encountered no trouble."
"Same over here," Hidaki said then he caught sight of a group of Dragon Orphans moving down the street. "Hold on. Dragon Orphans coming down the street." He signaled for the civilians to hide. He and Johnson press up to the sides of the exit while Cartmen and Macmius hid below the windows. Hidaki looked out getting a better look at the group of monsters. "I see about twenty of them, all standard types." Across the street, he saw that Canus and Walkins at taken positions.

"What do we do Lt.?" Walins asked over the comms. "Do we put these bastards down, or do we let them pass?"

Hidaki thought about it, his group plus their scouts would be able to handle them easily enough. But he was worried that the fighting would attract more attention than they were ready to deal with. "I think we should let…" Hidaki stopped when one of the Dragon Orphans stood still.

It sniffed the air. Hidaki felt his eyes narrow, it couldn't have caught onto their scent, right? They had not been enough that long. The creature looked in his direction. It did. The Half-Ghoul man aimed his rifle at the Dragon Orphans. "Engage." He shouted firing a burst from his rifle.

The first D-Orphan went down followed by a second. The rest of the creatures were momentarily stunned by the sudden attack. Hideki's squadmates followed with their own bursts of fire, several of the monsters going down. The survivors, about ten in number roared and charged at their position. That was when Canus and Johnson add their firepower, caught between two sides the Dragon Orphans were reduced to bloody chunks.

"Standby," Hidaki said. "If another group comes by we'll retreat to the previous building and find another route."

"Lieutenant Kenaki," Saren said. "What should my group do? Hold position or go-ahead for the next block?"

Hidaki thought it over, right now Saren's group was in less danger than they were right now. Even if they did move to the next building they would still be far enough to avoid detection, if his group was found. "Go ahead and move to the next block, but maintain position there until I give the signal. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." Saren said. "Everyone move out."

"Scouting party," Hidaki said looking at where the two were. "Continue to scout out the buildings ahead. I want constant reports."

"Aye, sir." Walkins said.

"Understood, sir." Canus said.

Hidaki eyed the pile of corpses half afraid that one of them would spring back to life and the half hoping that there weren't any other groups close enough to hear the fighting. He sighed to himself he had expected this possibility and had discussed with his squad what they would do if and when it did happen. Ideally, they should have never encountered that group and still be on their merry way to the safe-zone. In the eight years, he had served in the armed forces: going on nine now, he had learned that no plan ever survived contact with the enemy and rarely went smoothly. In his experience, it meant one of two things, either they had gotten very lucky or everyone was going to get a reminder that murphy's law was a very real thing.

In some ways, he was relieved that it happened. A reminder for him and his squad to stay alert and be ready for anything. He did not know how long they waited when he felt a presence behind him. He turned his head expecting to see Cartmen or Macmius making a report to him, instead, he saw the Quarian child looking up at him. "What are you doing here little one?" Hidaki said with a raised eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be with miss Vania?"

"She was worried about you." He looked up to see the after-mentioned turian female walking up to him. "She wanted to see how you were doing."

Hidaki nodded, his son frequently did the same with him back on Earth. Children liked to do that, it provided them with a sense of security. It was a feeling that transcended species and in this case worlds. He removed his helmet, placing it to the side he looks down at the child giving her a warm smile, the same he gave his boy. "I'm alright, you don't have to worry about me."

He saw the girl nod slowly. "Are we going to move again?" She asked, a small trace of fear seeping into her voice.

Again Hidaki had to fight back his parental instincts. This child was scared no matter how much she tried to hide it, and she was scared for a good reason. She was in a situation that no one, let alone a child as young as she was, should be in. This girl should be with her parents or whatever the Quarian equivalent was, playing games with her friends, and exploring the world around her looking at everything with wonder. Not having to fend for her life and wondering if the next moment will be her last. "We'll be moving out soon enough." He said looking back over the remains of the Dragon Orphans they kill earlier. He looked over at the timer he had and conclude that around twenty minutes had passed. If no other D-Orphan swarm had shown up by now then none would be appearing anytime soon. He would still give it another few minutes just to be safe.

Looking at the girl seeing that she was clinging to the Turian woman's leg. "Don't worry you'll be safe with us." He said giving her another reassuring smile. A thought occurred to him, it was a question that had been ringing around in the back of his mind, ever since his squad rescued the girl and the woman. "Miss Vania, there's a question I've been meaning to ask ever since we rescued you and the girl."

"Yes?" The woman asked, sounding like she knew what he was going to ask.

"How did this girl come to be on this world?" Hidaki asked. "It's my understanding that the Quarians rarely if at all allow Quarinas younger than sixteen to leave the migrant fleet."

"I can understand your confusion," Vania said looking down at the child. "I had similar questions when I first met the girl. She was born outside of the fleet."
"Born outside the fleet?" Hidaki questioned. Thinking about it, he should have figured that not all Quarians would be born in the Migrant Fleet.

Vania nodded. "Yes, she was born outside of the fleet. From what I gather her parents were captured by Batarian slavers and well you guess the rest." Her mandibles twitched in a way that suggested her discomfort with the implication.

"Born into slavery. Not the ideal situation." Hidaki thought to himself bitterly. Slavery was a sore topic for the Terran people. Every species had their own history with the barbaric practice, a bit of history they would rather forget ever happened. But Earth had the worst history when it came to slavery. Only the Batarians were worse and unlike the people of Earth, they continued to practice it. To the terran people, an empire built by and around slavery was one that did not deserve to exist. Now Hidaki would be the first to admit that his people were not perfect they still had practices that came close to being slavery, though tend to be more frequent on the fringes of Federation space where their influence was not as powerful. But when they did crop up the Federation came down hard on them.

Hidaki had no doubt if they were still around relations with the Batarian Hegemony would be somewhere between bad and terrible. Odds were that war would have broken out in a few short years, a war that the Hegemony would be hard-pressed to win.

Walkins summed up everyone's thoughts on the matter. "Good riddance to that Hegemony, one less problem to deal with in the future. Fucking slavers got what they deserved."

"Language Sargent Walkins," Hidaki gave the older man a half-hearted chiding. "We do have a child here. But I do agree with the sentiment."

"Oh, relax Lt. I'm certain that the kid has heard worse from Batarian slavers," Walkins said.

"Mister Canus if you would." Vania asked.

"On it." Canus said followed by a thumping sound.

"What was that for?"

Hidaki rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the Turian woman. "You were saying?"
"A few months after the war started a Turian patrol was able to save a refugee fleet from a small Dragon Orphan fleet, lost most of their ships in the process. The remaining Turian fleet was able to escort the refugees to this world. Little Seno here was the only Quarian among the refugees."
"I see," Hidaki said wondering what happened to her parents. "Did your people try to contact the migrant fleet to see if she could be could be transported, and what of her parents?"

Vania shook her head. "At the time no one knew where the migrant fleet was and how to contact them. Nor could we spare the resources to find them. So she was placed in what your people would consider an orphanage with other refugee children who were in a similar situation. As for the fate of her parents, all Seno told me was that she was separated from them about a year before this whole mess started." Vania stopped for a moment as she considered her next words. "I was one of the caretakers at the orphanage. When the Dragon Orphans landed in this city hardly an hour had passed before they were swarming the orphanage. I was with her when they came. I don't remember much of that day, what I do remember was grabbing the girl's hand, then everything else becomes a blur of images. People screaming, running, and dying, with us in the middle."

"It was scary." The Quarian girl said in a tone that was too monotone for Hidaki's liking.

Vinia finished her story. "I woke up the following night huddled up in some long-abandoned parking lot, and Seno was behind me curled in a corner. Since then it was just a struggle to survive. Until you rescued us."

Hidaki nodded it sounded like quite the story. He had to wonder how many others like it were popping up around the galaxy. Too many he decided. "I'm sorry you had to go through all of that." He looked at his timer seeing that five minutes had passed. "Cartmen let the civilians know we'll be moving any second."

"Sir."

"We can finish this later if you like." Hidaki said nodding to the woman.

"I understand." Vania said picking up the Quarian girl. "We'll be ready to move out when you are." She began to walk away.

Hidaki sighed to himself that had been an interesting conversation. In a way it was enlightening, this war was more just about defeating the Dragon Orphans. It was too easy to forget that soldiers weren't the only ones affected by war. Homes were destroyed and livelihoods lost at the drop of a hat, and the survivors; if there were any, left to pick up the pieces. This war was going to leave its scars on the galaxy. "Scouting party report in."

"We're three blocks away, sir. All clear." Walkins said.

"Good stay where you are and keep vigil."

"Understood, sir."
"Saren."

"Already on it." Saren interrupted. "We'll be ready to move on your command."

"Good." Hidaki picked up his helmet and turned to see that the civilians were looking at him. Cartmen and Macmius were at their sides. He put his helmet back on and grabbed his rifle. "Let's move."


Close by


The creature watched the small group of prey leave. To them, he would be known as a Dragon General, the one that commanded the swarm attacking this world. He smiled to himself licking his lips, it would easy to kill them here and now, they had few warriors among them and they would fall quickly. The rest he would take great pleasure toying with as he hunted them down one by one.

But no, he decided to let them live. As fun as it would be to kill them all, it would be a short live pleasure for him. Instinct told him if he let them go now he would have all the fun he wanted later. His smile grew, he would listen to that instinct. It did not matter if they died today or later, he would still have his fun with them.


Aandd we're back. I hope you don't mind this one is a little bit shorter than the others. So yea it is been a bit since I updated this one, but it was time will spent I got an idea on how take it to its end and even got an outline for the next few chapters, hopefully they'll turn out as planned.

I know everyone should know this by now, but the Mass Effect Trilogy is getting a remaster, and its coming out this may. Anyone else excited by that? I don't know about you all, but that is definitely going on my wishlist. I've seen some clips of the updated graphics particularly for the first game and damn does it look good. Than of course there was the announcement for a new game, one that seems to pick up were the the third one left off. Here's praying that they don't screw the pouch on this one like they did with Andromeda.

Anyways I think I wasted enough of your time. So being seeing you next time.