Chapter 65. Order of Battle


2156 CE, Aephus, Turian Naval Rally Point

"You won't," he simply replied while eying the TNI officer sitting across from him.

"Excuse me?" she asked in confusion.

"You asked me how to keep our casualties at a minimum. My answer is you won't. No matter how many soldiers you send, no matter what legion they're from, a lot of them will die."

"Considering he never made it past the rank of sergeant, you sure have a lot of faith in your brother's strategic abilities, General."

"He was trained to make fighting him a nightmare for anyone who tried. His forces consist of some of the deadliest things in this galaxy and he's backed by an enemy we still don't fully understand. He doesn't need to a strategic mastermind to hurt us," Desolas replied, ignoring the mildly annoying pain his ribs produced whenever he took to deep of a breath. "And for the record? He never made it past the rank of sergeant is because he became a Spectre way before he was old enough to get a commission."

When he had heard the news, every part of him had screamed at him to put his armor back on, hijack the Parnack if need be, hit the next relay and join the fleet that had been sent to attack Saren's cloning facility on Virmire. Saren was his brother. If this was to be his end, Desolas had to be there. He had promised that much. At least before Councilor T'Soni had effectively broken his honor guard into pieces. Now that Galviat and he had been hurt, Lieutenant Callius had been called upon to serve as a military adviser for the invasion force and he had ordered Veltax to help out Melion, who had stepped up to command the Blackwatch for as long as Desolas was injured, he knew that his promise had become impossible to uphold.

Which in turn made him feel like the worst brother to ever walk this world.

"So, you believe that he'll use his Blackwatch training to make fighting him costly."

"Yes. That's what I just said."

"I was merely repeating it to clarify things for my record," the TNI officer explained before pointing at the terminal recording their conversation and looking at him like he was some delusional old geezer. Maybe the concussion was still getting to him after all? "Alright," the other turian began again, "how would he go about it? What would he do to make this battle as costly as possible?"

"What makes you think I can predict his strategy?" Desolas replied.

"You're not just the commander of the unit that trained him, you're also his brother. My superiors figured that if anyone could tell us what he'd do, it'd be you."

He saw their point.

There was just one problem with it.

"I could tell you all about my brother but the Saren I knew is gone. You're fighting someone else."

"You're referring to this 'indoctrination theory' of yours, correct?"

That remark caught him off-guard for a couple of seconds. It made him realize that she had access to his final debrief with Primarch Fedorian. They really were going all-out on this attack, weren't they?

"It's not a theory," he corrected. "But yes. Since he's indoctrinated, there's no way I can tell you what he'll do to stop your attack. He's a different person now."

"But he's still Blackwatch. I was told that stays with you, no matter what happens," the interviewer pointed out before going on. "Tell me what you'd do if it was you and not Saren."

Taking a moment to think about it, Desolas answered with the first strategy that passed his mind. It was a strategy he knew very few turian officers would ever consider because of how wasteful that mindset would eventually turn out to be and how utterly ruthless you had to be to even consider it.

"Use the fact that it won't matter that my troops will die."

"Can you elaborate?"

"Unlike our forces, Saren's army is made up of geth and krogan clones. They're just as dangerous as normal soldiers but they're not real people. They're expendable weapons. Their morale won't break when the death toll starts rising and they're not going to think twice about throwing their own lives away to kill one of us. They don't care about living through the battle, they only care about doing what they were created to do."

"Which is killing us."

"Exactly," he nodded. "Expect everything from geth ramming our ships in suicidal charges to krogan carrying explosive vests that go off when you get to close to them."

"I think we'll need a little more detail than that, General?" the interviewer replied.

"Do you expect me to lay out an entire defense strategy against our own forces on a whim?" Desolas asked the TNI officer.

"The more you can give us, the better," she replied, not knowing that him doing that would mean that she'd be here for the better part of the next seven hours and turn into his longest visitor yet.


28. January 2415 AD, THS Indomitus, Hangar Bay One

After Lieutenant Kowalski cut off the engines of their Kodiak, Emily got up from her seat and waited for the doors of the shuttle to open. Although they technically could've just docked the Normandy to the dreadnought and walked over, the number of commanders who would attend the briefing and the fact that the turian navy didn't want a dozen ships stuck to one of its dreadnoughts had led to the flock of shuttles currently arriving.

"Give me a ring when you're done, Ma'am. I don't think they'll let me keep this spot," the pilot called to her before looking out of his cockpit where a turian was already waving at him to move out of the way so the next shuttle could touch down.

"Got it."

Not a moment after she hopped out of the door another turian approached her. His plates were a light brown and a series of yellow stripes ran down his face.

"I take it you're Major Kyrik?" she guessed. He was the officer supposed to be waiting for her.

"Yes. Follow me," he nodded before turning on his heel and going back the way he had just come from without saying another word.

Alright.

While he wouldn't be the first non-talkative turian she had met, something about his tone made Emily feel like there was another reason for him not being chatty besides being the stereotypical all-business, no-nonsense turian officer.

Not that it mattered much.

As she followed the major through the hangar, the N7 did take a moment to look around and see who else had been invited to this briefing. Besides the obviously high number of turians, their forces did make up the lion share of this strike force, she could see a couple of asari, a couple of salarians and several human navy and marine officers. As she glanced to the other side right before she and Kyrik were about to leave the hangar she did make out one anomaly.

There, standing next to another naval officer, was a blonde man wearing a green and brown BDU that clearly marked him as a member of the army, the branch of the HSA's armed forces that was notorious for never really leaving its territories and avoiding space travel as much as possible. While she couldn't make out his rank insignia, not from this distance, the white, triangular shape of the unit patch on his sleeve told her exactly why he was here.

In addition to sending parts of a marine expeditionary force and the N7 platoons attached to them, Arcturus had evidently decided to pick ASOC up for the ride. Outside of training, that was a very rare combination of forces. Although they had very similar names, the Naval and Army Special Operations Command rarely worked together in the field. Their tactics and the missions that came with it were simply too different to make sense on the small scale most of their deployments occurred on. Not that she minded having them here. Far from it. Having a couple of ASOC guys on their side might just make things a little easier.

As her turian guide reached the end of the hangar, Emily followed him up the stairs and into the long hallway of the dreadnought, losing sight of the soldier. But instead of him, she now got to see what the interior of a turian dreadnought looked like when the ship was preparing to go to war. Thanks to the glass walls of the tube they were walking through she could see hundreds of turians going about their business in the hangars below. Whether it was crewmembers arming squadrons of fighters, bombers and gunships or soldiers carrying supplies and heavy weapons into the tightly packed rows of shuttles and larger assault crafts, there wasn't a soul below them that wasn't busy with preparing the attack.

She just hoped it'd be enough.


Meanwhile, 28. January 2415 AD, Cronos Station

"They're just a jump away from Virmire by now, aren't they? the Cerberus operative observed as he entered the room, causing his boss to look up from the hologram depicting the fleet's movement through the Attican Traverse for a moment.

"Commander Holderman," Director Harper greeted from his chair, sitting in the dark as usual. Why the man never bothered to turn on the lights? Holderman didn't have a clue and frankly, he also didn't care about it either. Given that he spent nearly all of his waking hours in this room, that weird habit had probably saved the HSA a lot of energy over the years.

"Sir."

"I take it you received your briefing?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Good," Harper said before sliding his hand into the air and activating one of the holographic displays around him. As the director of Cerberus got up, the large footlocker that was sitting next to his chair came to life. It opened with a hydraulic hiss and painted the room in a warm orange glow, revealing the heavy set of armor stored inside. "Then I also take it that you're now familiar with the T5-V?" he asked as Holderman looked at the white pieces of armor and the weapons stored beside it.

So.

This was it.

On the risk of sounding underwhelmed, he had figured it'd be a bit bigger. After reading about it in the urgent briefing Harper had sent him a couple of hours ago, he had expected something a bit closer to Paladin-size.

"I get that it's supposed to be a mini Paladin suit," he stated with a shrug. That was the general concept of this 'T5-V Destroyer Suit'. Or at least that was the concept as he'd describe it to someone who hadn't read the classified briefing. Between the heavy armor plating, enhanced shields and the built-in grenade and missile launchers, the only thing that was really missing to make it a full Paladin suit was its size, a combat VI and a trained pilot.

"A very accurate description of the direction Arcturus gave to the R and D department back in 2383," Harper nodded. "Or at least it was before I dusted off the blue prints and gave it to our R and D department."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that it has all the fire power you'd think a mini-Paladin would have without having requiring any sort of neural interface or other invasive procedures to be used," Harper explained.

"So it's just a fancy piece of armor then?" Holderman replied as he lifted the helmet up. The fact that it was a lot heavier than the one of his hardsuit explained why he had read something about the countless servos and dozens of eezo nodes built into the suit. They were meant to reduce its weight and make operating it comfortably possible to begin with.

"Not entirely," Harper said before wiping his hand through the air again, an action that immediately prompted the helmet as well as the armor to power up. As the faceplate lit up in a pale blue light and began projecting scanner threads at his face, Holderman grew the slightest bit suspicious.

"Authorized user recognized," a baritone voice announced as the light faded out as quickly as it had appeared. "Holderman, Thomas, Commander, service ID 07072364-TH-88351," while listening to what the helmet was saying, the strike team leader looked up to Harper for a second. But before he could say what was on his mind, his attention was drawn back to the speaking helmet by a very sudden, very sentient statement. "Hello Commander. My name is Tas. While we already completed five hundred and two cycles of simulated combat scenarios based on your field experiences, I looked forward to meeting you in person and having a chance to introduce myself." What the hell? "I am sure our combat effectiveness will only continue to improve from here on out."

"Speak your mind, Commander," Harper instructed him when he realized that Holderman had been silent for more than just a couple of seconds.

"Is that an AI?" he asked cautiously. If it was, the director had definitely gone off the deep end this time.

"No. AIs are outlawed in Citadel space," Harper pointed out before revealing the small chip in his hand. "What you're talking to is the first generation of human-made, armor-bound tactical assistance system."

"An armor VI?"

It was a mini-Paladin after all, wasn't it?

"I am an enhanced virtual intelligence," the helmet declared. Or was it the chip? How the hell should he know?

"Tas is our way around a neural interface," Harper added. "His independence means that he doesn't require a human component to effectively help with controlling the T5-V systems."

"I see," Holderman replied before carefully putting down the helmet. Maybe it was his lack of technical knowledge but to him an enhanced VI sounded a lot like a fancy way to describe the cover story a fully functional AI living outside of a high-security lab would use. "But wasn't the whole point of introducing a human component to keep Paladin VI's from getting hijacked and going on a friendly fire streak?"

"It will still be you who controls the suit and pulls the trigger," 'Tas' spoke instead of Harper. "My purpose is simply to render assistance as you do it. Also, I neither want to nor do I have the ability to kill my allies. There is no need to be worried," he wasn't sure if 'Tas' got how unnerving that had just sounded or if he knew that saying 'there's no need to be worried' usually meant that there was definitely a need to worry.

"No offense, robo-guy," Holderman began, unsure of whether or not that spontaneous nickname would sign his death warrant if or when this 'enhanced VI' made its attempt at galactic conquest, "but I'd rather hear it from the director."

"Tas is based on the navy's Cyber Defense Intelligence Project. We just made him a little more proactive so to speak." And that sounded like a fancy way of saying 'we made him a killing machine'. "You won't have to worry about him going rogue. Just like the CDI prototype, he can't take the steering wheel. It's beyond his design and his learning abilities to do so."

"Learning abilities?" That wasn't what he pictured when someone talked about a VI with a restrictive design.

"Since he is a tactical assistance system, Tas has the ability to adapt to and learn from any combat scenario you might encounter. In that regard he could nearly be considered an AI."

"Nearly?"

"I can improve my ability to render combat assistance as it becomes necessary," 'Tas' injected. "I can't learn to alter my core programming."

"Alright," Holderman said after looking at Harper, who only nodded in response. Fine. If the director said it wasn't dangerous, he'd take his word for it. After all, he had put his life in this man's hand a hundred times before. "If you don't mind me asking, how long have we been working on this? If it's as good as you say, we could've used this stuff years ago." Having every strike team member wear one of these certainly would've made their run ins with the SIU a lot more pleasant.

"The navy's been working on the CDI for a couple of years now. I guess they got tired of having to run a hundred different security VIs just to have their ships keep up with the galactic average."

"And the suit?""

"The T5s go back all the way to the time we started working on the SR-8s and the hybrid barriers. They're the brainchild of the same people who thought a mere quarantine of Parnack wasn't going to be enough to keep the yahg in check. They wanted the T5 to become standard issue when we finally got around to putting the boot down on them for good," Harper explained. "They made a couple of prototypes, drew up battles plans, but stopped when it became clear that joining the Council meant that we'd never set foot on that planet again."

"Luckily," Holderman replied. He had been to Parnack and that one time had been more than enough for his liking. Even with as big of a technology gap as they had had against the yahg back then, it had been bloody. Sure, they were primitives, but some of those bastards could take an entire SR-7 magazine to their face at point blank range and still tear the marine who fired it to pieces with their bare hands. If it hadn't been for the massive fire support the HSA and the turians had provided to them, he and the lucky rest of his unit never would've made it out of that hell in mostly one piece.

"They probably wouldn't consider it luck, but yes. Luckily it never got to that point," Harper nodded. "Yet."

"Yet?"

"The reason we never came back is that the yahg never had the ability to break through our quarantine. It made fighting them on their own turf an unnecessary risk." As the director waved his hand again, the image of a familiar planet appeared between him and Holderman. So this was where he'd be going. "At least up to now," Harper finished, confirming his suspicion.

"What changed?"

"They're about to figure out mass effect engines."

"What?"

"A routine scan of the surface managed to discover traces of Element Zero leaking from an underground facility. We believe they managed to recover parts of the last ship that crashed. While we don't know how, they got to it before we could destroy the crash site."

Although it was general knowledge that Parnack was off-limits for anyone that wasn't flying under the specific permission of the Council, some people still decided to try the HSA forces in the system every now and again. While most ships backed down when a cruiser confronted them and offered no resistance when marines boarded them and detained their crews, some decided to run. Those that did, got shot at. And out of the small number of ships that got shot at, an even smaller fraction crashed on Parnack.

And that small fraction was the biggest problem of the quarantine.

"They already started to reverse engineer it?"

"Yes. And if the steadily increasing spikes are anything to go by, they're making fast progress. By our estimates, they'll have the first stable mass effect field by the end of next month."

"Didn't that ship only crash last month?"

"Yes."

"How are they already that close? It took us a year to even figure out how the prothean ships back on Mars turned on and they're doing all of this with nothing but a couple of pieces of scrap?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"My guess? Someone provoked the crash and left instructions in the wreckage."

"So they got a benefactor?"

"It's the assumption we're working with."

"Alright," he mumbled. "Why not glass the facilities like we glass the crash sites? Stop this before it gets any further," he suggested, if only to get to hear why that wouldn't work. If it was an option, he wouldn't be standing here.

"The yahg brought the wreckage to a base located underneath one of their biggest cities," so the eezo was leaking into their population now? Great. Yahg biotics. As if those bastards weren't nasty enough already. "My guess is that they figured we won't attack them there since we didn't attack those during our first invasion either."

"What about a precision strike? We got those KBS satellites for a reason, right?"

"Even a kinetic bombardment strike powerful enough to hit the site would kill thousands on the surface."

After hearing that an ironic realization crossed his mind. The same HSA that had bombed Horizon, their own colony, to soften it up for the invasion wasn't going to sign off on an attack that'd maybe kill a couple thousand aliens.

"So instead of a tungsten round, you'll drop me and my new synthetic buddy over here," Holderman said before picking up the helmet again.

"Exactly."

Despite the irony of it all and his hatred for Parnack, a smirk crossed Holderman's face. He still had a couple of scores to settle with the yahg. Fifty-six to be precise.

"When do I leave?"


Five Minutes Later, 28. January 2415 AD, THS Indomitus, Conference Room Six

After he saw the last officer, a salarian guy, walk through the door from where he was leaning against the wall, Haugen turned his attention to General Quanos, who looked like she was about to start talking.

"The presentation of the ground assault will begin now," she said as the room of officers fell silent at once. With a press of a button on her end of the holo-table the lights dimmed and a slice of Virmire's surface was constructed in the center of the room. It appeared to be a peninsula somewhere in the southern reaches of the planet. When the scenery was set, a series of oversized buildings assembled themselves, some extending high into the sky, others reaching far underground. While they were spread out unevenly across the peninsula, a good number of them were clustered at the coast line of the peninsula.

"Thanks to STG, we know that this is what Arterius' main base looks like. From what they can tell, it's been built deep into the cliffside and may even extend below the sea level. It serves as his command center, is defended by an army of clones and geth and heavily shielded."

As she pressed another button, the base was moved to the side and the center of the table was given to what looked like a small industrial zone. It consisted of flat halls and large spires. The first thing Haugen noticed about them was that the roofs of the flat-top buildings and sides of the towers were dotted with gun emplacements. Furthermore the area was surrounded by a wall lined with what looked like kinetic barrier generators. Not only would they have trouble getting over it, they also couldn't shoot whatever was standing on it until the barriers gave in.

"This is the main cloning facility," the general said. "It's located in the valley that connects the peninsula to the rest of the continent. We expect it to have the highest concentration of enemy forces in the area. Prepare for heavy resistance once you begin the climb to the hills around it." At least they'd have some cover coming from the jungle they way they'd do. Of course they'd also have a lot of booby traps waiting for them. At least that's what he'd do if he had to defend an area like this. Mines, automated guns, hell, maybe even some geth lurking in the mud and jumping up when you passed them. There were a lot of deadly things one could hide in a jungle.

"In addition to these two primary facilities, STG managed to locate several more isolated points of interest spread around the peninsula. These include orbital and air defense batteries, sensor arrays, logistical sites and smaller outposts. As far as we know, these positions are exclusively occupied by smaller geth forces. Still, you should expect them to field everything from basic platforms to walkers and gunships," with a swoop of her hand a new hologram appeared. This one depicted drop pods with turian markings on their sides landing in the vicinity of the gun positions. While he had heard about this strategy, he was pretty sure no one had considered one of these maneuvers in years. With frigate-based drops turning into their main doctrine, low-orbit insertions during combat had become a thing of the past for the turian military. At least outside of the occasional wargame.

"Before we begin with the main assault on the planet, we will drop Armiger shock troops on their guns. They'll take out the defenders, blow the positions and clear the path for the rest of the invasion," as she spoke, the holographic gun emplacements vanished off the map. "Then they'll wait for our light infantry to arrive," with that a mixture of human and Council ships appeared far over the map, unloading several smaller, representative shuttles over the battlefield. After they had spread themselves rather evenly on the outskirts of the two main sites, the general continued. "They'll then secure a landing zone for the Sixth Oma Ker. From there on out, the main assault will commence," as she said that, squares with either human, turian, salarian or asari signs began to close in on the cloning facility. "Your individual mission briefings will be forwarded to you now," and just like that Haugen's omni-tool buzzed. "Questions?" she asked while Haugen opened his personal briefing and started reading.

He and Phantom were supposed to infiltrate the main base alongside two squads of asari huntresses and help shut down its defenses before the main assault started. If there ever was a chance for him to get payback for Eden Prime, this was it. If he got lucky, he might just get a chance to put a bullet in between Arterius' eyes while he was there. If not, he'd still have the benefit of working alongside huntresses for the first time. Like every other soldier in the galaxy, he had heard the story of the invincible asari commandos a dozen times. He was looking forward to seeing them in action.

"How far apart are the two sites?" an asari asked, probably wanting to know how long it'd take for one location to reinforce the other in case one of the attacks failed.

"Twenty-six kilometers," his translator calculated from whatever number Quanos had given to the asari. "And before you ask, we have yet to figure out why Arterius chose to put this much distance between himself and the cloning facility."

"Estimation on enemy numbers?" a salarian officer asked. Judging by his armor he was one of the few Union naval infantry guys that'd join them for the assault on the ground.

"Impossible to tell with all the geth still stored inside their ships."

"Rough estimation?"

"At least two thousand krogan clones and presumably over ten thousand geth." Unless he had read something wrong, that meant that the first wave would be seriously outnumbered. Not exactly the start you want to have when invading a planet. The batarians had been outnumbered in some places during the Blitz. It had broken the backs of their attack on Mindoir and Elysium.

"And you really think a couple hundred of your guys can handle them until their reinforcements arrive?" a navy officer asked in return.

"Do you want to answer that question, Major Janos?" the general replied.

"You won't have to worry about us," a turian officer standing in another corner replied. "Being outnumbered, outgunned and deep inside hostile territory is our natural habitat. We'll get the job done the same way we always do. Doesn't matter it its ten of them for every one of us."

Alright. This guy was either very cocky or very confident in his troops.

Then again, he did have the moment of surprise on his side and could make the reasonable assumption that Arterius wasn't going to commit his forces against a tactic he might even recognize.

"I got another question," a female voice called, prompting him to search for it in the room. When he located its source, he also recognized the person it belonged to, Commander Shepard. Otherwise known as the Hero of Elysium or, as of recently, the second human Spectre.

"Go ahead."

"What if the assault doesn't work the way you planned it to? We can hardly let Arterius or any of his troops get away from this one. Otherwise they'll scatter and rebuilt."

"Why wouldn't our plan of attack work?" the general replied in return.

"Because every time I fought Arterius, it seemed like he was one step ahead of us. Sure, we were chasing him, but whenever we got there, he had already accomplished what he had set out to do and readied a way to kill us."

"Rest assured that this time will be different, Spectre," the general replied.

"How so?"

"Instead of an independent strike team operating form a single frigate with little to no support, we're bringing an invasion force that'll have orbital and aerial support from hundreds of ships and fighter craft within hours of initial contact. And since Arterius doesn't know that we're coming, he won't have any time to run. He'll be stuck on Virmire from the moment our ships make it through the relay and from the moment we have forces on the ground, it'll be as easy as crushing a planetary defense force."

"Just because we're fighting on our terms and not his doesn't mean that we can't lose. We need a contingency," it was a sound point.

"We have a contingency."

"Meaning?"

"In the unlikely case that we encounter overwhelming enemy ground forces, our troops will retreat to a safe distance. Then a select number of turian ships will break off from the fleet and enter low orbit. From there, they'll incinerate the entire peninsula," that statement caused a tense silence to settle in the room. And for good reason. That kind of orbital bombardment was outlawed by the Citadel Conventions.

"As much as I like the prospect of blowing those sons of bitches to kingdom come," another marine officer spoke up. As a quick glance at him confirmed, he was the colonel in charge of the expeditionary force the HSA had committed to this invasion. "Isn't doing that a war crime?"

"Due to the galactic-level threat presented by a joint krogan-geth army led by a rogue Spectre and former member of Blackwatch, the Hierarchy has decided that we may use any means necessary to stop Arterius. We will end it here on Virmire."

"Doesn't make bombing a garden world less of a war crime," the man offered.

"Which is why only turian ships will take part in the bombardment and only their commanders will be held accountable for the legal repercussions. We do not intend to have others stand trial for our own actions," Quanos said before turning her head back to Shepard. "Does that answer your question, Spectre?"

"It does," the commander said. "But there's something else."

"Yes?"

"What about his flagship? It decimated our troops on Eden Prime. It could do the same thing on Virmire."

"This is the discussion of the ground engagement, Spectre," the general offered. "The navy will take care of Arterius' flagship. If you have any questions, direct them to them."

"Understood," for some reason she didn't exactly sound convinced. He got it. Half of the reason he wanted to put a bullet between Arterius' eyes was because of what he had done with that ship on Eden Prime.

"Good," Quanos said before looking into the room. When it became apparent that there wouldn't be any more questions, she shut off the holo-table. "Return to your ships and prepare your soldiers. We'll begin transit shortly. If we're lucky, we'll already have spilled blood and honored our lineages by the day's end." Alright. That last part came out of nowhere. "For the Hierarchy!" the general declared, somehow making it sound more like a chore she had to check off than the usual sign of devotion.

"For the Hierarchy!" the turians in the room replied, some louder, some more quietly, but still in perfect unison. He figured it was as good of a battle cry as any. It reminded them of their duty, their nation, the people they were fighting for and the reasons they were putting their lives on the line. Noble goals that didn't even slightly apply to Haugen right now.

For him this was about something a lot simpler.

Just plain, old-fashioned payback.


Forty Minutes Later, HSASV Normandy, Conference Room

"Is it just me or does this general sound a bit too eager to throw down with Arterius?" Williams wondered out loud as the recording of the meeting finished. In addition to telling them about their own mission, Emily figured it wouldn't harm anyone if they got to see the briefing she had received. As the NCO turned to Garrus for an answer, Emily also looked at the turian.

"She's tame for someone from Oma Ker," he explained, probably not considering that being from Oma Ker didn't mean anything to the non-turians he was talking to. When he realized that, he went on with some more details. Details Emily could've gone without knowing. "Let me put it like this. They're obsessed with everything related to soldiering and honor. They consider your first live-fire combat the event that makes you a respected member of their society. They still practice blood oaths and they put skeletons and armor and what killed the turians they belonged to on public displays in their mausoleums. They're weird. Even for my people."

"Call them what you you want, Blue," Wrex smirked. "I think they'd make decent krogan. Give them some dextro food and they'd fit right in on Tuchanka with the rest of us."

"They hate krogan."

"Heh. Like I said. They'd fit right in."

"Anyways," Emily said, drawing the word out beyond its natural duration. "As soon as the guns are down, we'll meet up with an STG unit and head straight for the facility. If their intel is solid, we should find Saren there and finally get the chance to stop him. If we don't, we'll go ahead and help with the destruction of the command center."

"Alright," the lieutenant nodded. "And what if we do find him?" he asked. While she had already said what they were going to do, she got what the question implied. It was the same thing she had been worrying about herself. "I mean he's a Spectre. It'll be a tough fight. Maybe even worse than against the Councilor," Alenko figured, giving voice to her concerns with near perfect accuracy.

"If we find him, we'll kill him just like we killed her," Wrex offered with a growl before joining the rest of the team in the uneasy silence that had settled in the room now that everyone was starting to actually think about Alenko's words and what they meant.

They might be fighting Arterius in a couple of hours. She had been pushing that thought to the back of her up to now so she could focus on the mission. But with no other distractions to keep her occupied, the thought started to surface back up. Her team against Saren Arterius. A marine NCO, a biotic lieutenant, a turian sniper turned C-SEC detective, a krogan bounty hunter and her, one N7, going up against the one turian just about everyone seemed to consider the best Spectre since the Geth War.

Sure, you could argue that he was just one guy but considering the reputation he had earned, she wasn't so sure if that mattered in this match up. Not only had she read the reports and heard the stories about him, she had also seen what he had done to the Blackwatch team on Eden Prime. Four soldiers trained to work in perfect unison, all more experienced than her and everyone on her team but Wrex. And he had killed all of them in less than a minute. With his skills he could be all alone, which he wasn't going to be considering how many geth he had rallied behind him, and still have a decent chance at killing all of them without them ever standing a chance to stop it.

It was a scary thought.

Which was exactly why she had pushed it in the back of her mind.

She wasn't going to let that very justified fear stop her from doing what had to be done.

The stakes were overwhelmingly clear. Thanks to Liara she had seen what would happen if he succeeded in bringing back the reapers. She remembered the destruction they brought to the protheans as vividly as if it was one of her own memories. Even if there was a good chance that she'd die trying to do it, Saren had to be stopped. Otherwise they were all dead.

Judging by their expressions, the team was thinking the same thing as her.

She knew that she had to say something, snap them out of the place their mind was currently going to for the good of the mission. But honestly? She was at a loss of words. All of them had been in some tight spots, whether it was in the last month or in their earlier lives, it came with their jobs. But none of them had seemed as bad as this one could turn out to be. At least not to her.

"Well, at least we can look on the bright side," Garrus muttered, his dry, flanging voice delivering her from her own duty. "There won't be any volcanos, murderous plants or rachni in our way this time. It'll just be us, Arterius and the couple hundred geth he'll throw at us in the vain hope that it'll change what's coming for him."

"Agreed," Wrex nodded with a grunt before getting up from the chair that had barely been able to hold his weight. "No running away this time. He'll pay for what he did to my people."

"And for Eden Prime," Williams added.

"And for everyone else who got caught in the crossfire," Alenko finished before looking at Emily and basically passing her the ball to close off this topic.

"You're right. Spectre or not, today we'll finish this. Prep your gear and get some rest."


Six Hours Later, 28. January 2415 AD, HSASV Ain Jalut, Armory

"You really need to get your priorities straight, man," Mav muttered while checking over his optical camo generator.

"Don't say you didn't think about it," Miller replied while pointing the knife he had been cleaning at the other soldier, a smirk on his face. "I mean they're asari," he went on while polishing its steel blade, "they spent all their time together anyways and it's a good way to relief stress. It's bound to get a bit steamy between them every now and then, ain't it?"

"Miller?" Haugen called through the armory while checking the sights of his SR-8 and adjusting its brightness to the level fighting in a jungle required. Squinting through the device to check and shaking his head in disapproval, he kept turning on the small wheel to get it perfectly right.

"Yes, Sir?" the ASOC operative replied.

"Zip it," Haugen ordered just as he was satisfied with the result and turned the device off to conserve its battery.

"Roger that. Zipping it now, Sir."

"He'll never change, will he?" Hofmann offered while setting down his combat rig and making sure that it was exactly the way he needed it to be.

"No," Haugen replied briskly while considering whether he'd need the smoke grenade he was about to stuff in a pouch on his own combat rig. Could geth see through smoke? If they couldn't, could they just predict where he'd be going with some weird tracking software installed in their heads? He knew their optical camo worked. The comrades he had lost on Eden Prime hadn't died because they had been compromised. They, alongside roughly a square kilometer worth of forest, had been incinerated by Arterius' giant geth dreadnought. Not even a body left to burry. Zan and Ghost-Squad were some of the best soldiers he knew, real warriors. They had deserved a far better end than that. If he didn't have enough reasons, he'd make sure the turian would go out painfully just for that offense but as things were, Ghost-Squad was just one of the reasons why he hoped to get that bastard in his now perfectly adjusted sights.

"You good?" the senior NCO asked after he had gotten Haugen's attention by bumping his fist against his shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah. All good." he said after a quick recovery. "Just thinking about whether or not I'll need these."

"Worried about it not doing anything against geth?"

"Pretty much. Never fought robots before. God knows what they can do," he said with a shrug.

"Well neither did I, but krogan can't see through thermal smoke. Neither can turians. Bring it."

"Good point," he said before pushing the grenade into the pouch and closing the velcro. Moving on to his own knife, he only briefly pulled it from its sheath to check if it was still as flawless as the last time he had cleaned it.

"Hey, you sure everything's alright?" Hofmann asked again, this time after the ASOC officer had shoved the blade back into its holster with a little more force than necessary. "You seem a bit off." He got where his concern was coming from. As Phantom's second in command, Haugen would probably be worried too if he saw his CO practically boil with anger before a mission. Someone less controlled than him might let that affect their judgement.

"Just ready to get in the fight," he replied before picking up his chest rig and moving it to the footlocker holding his hardsuit. "Don't worry about it. I won't get you killed."

"I know you won't get us killed," Hofmann muttered. "It's you I'm worried about, to be honest. Vengeance's a dangerous motivation."

"It got us through Torfan in one piece, didn't it?"

"This isn't Torfan," Hofmann replied, "and you didn't get through Torfan in one piece either. As I recall, you took a bullet for me," as if commanded by the statement, Haugen touched the side where he still had the scar from his machine gun encounter.

"You still feeling sorry for that little scratch?" he asked when he realized what he was doing and withdrew his hand from the side.

"Couple centimeters to the right, you'd be dead and we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"And a couple centimeters to the left and we wouldn't have a reason to be having this conversation. Let it go already."

That caused the sergeant to sigh.

"Whatever score it is that you want to settle with Arterius-" Hofmann began.

"You know damn well what score it is," he injected.

"-just remember that you've still got someone waiting for you to come back to Terra Nova."

Ouch.

He hadn't seen that low blow coming.

It was justified though.

"Is Sam paying you to be my baby sitter or something like that?"

"I just don't want to attend another funeral, Tore. Especially not yours."

"Well, unless you plan on visiting Arterius', I can promise you taht you won't have to," he said with a shrug. "Come on. Time to get our gear on."

"Copy that," he nodded before finishing his preparations and holding up his fist at Haugen in a familiar gesture. "We still good, right?"

"Since you're just doing your job," Haugen replied before bumping his own fist against it, "we're golden."

After he nodded his understanding, Haugen turned away from Hofmann and looked at Mav and Miller. They were done as well. Good. "Alright, Phantom. You ready to take some names?"

"Yes, Sir!" the three soldiers replied.

"That's what I like to hear."


One Hour Later, 28. January 2415 AD, HSASV Normandy, Bridge

"Our fleet's reporting hard contact with hostile ships. Looks like they got the geth all tangled up now. Transport elements just got the all clear from naval command so all I need is your word, Commander."

"Take us through, Lieutenant."

"Aye, Ma'am," Joker said with a little salute. "Hitting the relay in three, two," as he began to count down, Emily braced herself against the top of the pilot's chair. "One."

Then the Normandy was flung through the relay and as usual, the N7 ignored the slightly nauseating feeling she got whenever they made a jump. Instead she waited for her pilot to speak the words that'd put her at ease and give her the unspoken permission to leave the bridge in good conscience.

"Stealth drive engaged, no hostile signatures detected anywhere near the relay. All systems green, other transports are reporting successful transit," he listed before looking up at her from his chair. "Looks like we're in the clear, Commander."

Alright.

Here goes nothing.

"Good. Get ready to get us to planet-side. The vanguard should be starting their attack any time now."

"Aye, aye."


Meanwhile, 2156 CE, THS Occumbo

Whenever the primarchs needed someone to take a planet for them, the armigerian shock troops were the first ones they called upon. They had earned their reputation in the fires of the Krogan Rebellions and had proven it a thousand times over since then. No other part of the Hierarchy's conventional military had as rich and as honorable of a history as them and no frigate-based assault strategy was ever going to change that either.

"Three minutes!" it echoed down the corridor of the assault craft, kicking off the familiar adrenaline surge in the soldier's body. After he pushed his Phaeston into the weapon compartment, he glanced at the palavanian writing engraved on its hull and stepped inside, allowing his armor to interface with the drop pod. While it wasn't his native tongue, he didn't need a translator to read it. Every turian that couldn't already speak it learned palavani in basic training.

'First into battle.'

That was the mission of Armiger's shock troops ever since the liberation of their home world at the hands of the Hierarchy's forces during the Unification Wars. To achieve that mission, they had perfected an otherwise suicidal way of entering the battle field. As their staggering losses during the opening year of their war with the krogan had shown, shuttles were not a reliable way to get the first wave onto the ground with acceptable casualties. They were big, easy to hit even for an untrained gunner and when they went up in flames, entire squads were killed. Hence, a new method had been developed.

"All Havoc callsigns be advised. The Occumbo's taking heavy enemy fire. We're going into accelerated deployment," Major Janos' voice declared through the radio of his helmet, causing him to brace himself. So much for their three minute preparation phase. They'd start drop any second now. Just as he bit down to keep his teeth from shaking during the launch, his suspicion was confirmed by the sight of the grey interior of the assault ship vanishing in favor of Virmire's atmosphere and the hundreds of orange streaks now falling through it.

'First into battle,' he repeated in his head over and over again right until his visor darkened to near full black as a response to the red explosion that had just rocked the Occumbo's. While he knew that the navy had just lost a lot of good people, he held onto the hope that most of his fellow shock troops had gotten out prior to the hit right until the blaring siren of his pod demanded his focus. As he clutched his harness in response to the imminent shockwave heading for him, his visor reacted to another bright, red explosion. Spirits, were their weapons just bypassing their kinetic ba-

Before he could finish the thought, his pod got hit by the shockwave, broke through the jungle canopy, fired of a mere third of the mass effect fields meant to create a soft landing and crashed into the side of a small hill hard enough to dig a hole five times its size. If not for the additional impact dampeners of his armor, he probably would've died then and there.

"All Havoc platoons, casualty reports," Janos demanded, having miraculously survived yet another combat drop. No matter what others said about it, his stubborn insistence to occupy the first pod that was launched, which stood a good chance of being the first pod to be shot down, had just saved his life. Glancing at his HUD and seeing a majority of his platoon's life signs still intact, he quickly transmitted the data and pulled on the leaver that would open his pod door.

Of course that kind of impact would've broken the release. He could've figured that much on his own.

Well then, he'd do it the hard way.

He smashed his fist against the emergency release and set off the explosives that lined his door just for this case, causing the heavy piece of ship-graded armor to fly forward with enough force to kill anything smaller than an adult elcor. When that was done, he grabbed his Phaeston, jumped out of the pod and looked at his HUD again.

Crap.

The shockwave had scattered his platoon all over their drop zone. They couldn't take out the enemy guns until he managed to get them back in one place.

"Sergeant Braxus," he spoke into his radio.

"Yes, Lieutenant Xatanus?"

"Start collecting stragglers, we've got a missile silo to take."

"Yes, Sir."

Time to get to work.


2156 CE, Virmire

"Battlemaster!" one of the oldest of his krogan clone soldiers shouted while rushing into his chambers and past the large geth platforms that had already enjoyed their own form of ascension and now served as his personal honor guard. "The enemy's vanguard has already taken out a third of our orbital defenses. It won't be long before they can land their main force."

"I see," he muttered while putting on another piece of the new armor Sovereign had provided to him to protect him from those who would see his purpose undone. "Has the enemy fleet already been drawn away from the relay?"

"Yes, Battlemaster," the krogan nodded." They've taken the bait of the sacrificial fleet. Only a token force is left to guard the relay now. You'll be able to make your escape anytime now."

Departure.

Not escape.

He wasn't running, he was moving on. Or at least he would be soon enough. Neither he nor Sovereign were ready to leave Virmire just yet, despite Ilos and the Conduit calling out to them. Before they could leave this wretched planet and the krogan on it to serve their purpose, they had to make sure the human that would likely be leading this attack was here. Only then could they figure out how she had managed to pursue them all this time, who was helping her do it and who else knew what she knew and may yet try and stop the ascension of all worthy life. While she was just a human, despite all odds she and her servants had managed to kill Benezia. That tragic loss had proven the danger they posed.

They simply couldn't be allowed another chance to interfere.

"Continue the loading procedure and get aboard Sovereign when all is done," he ordered as he put the purple helmet on and felt his connection to Sovereign grow even stronger than before, bathing in his greatness.

"Get aboard? But what of my brothers? I promised to fight with them, Battlemaster. To kill your enemies with them," the krogan said with some uncertainty. Prior to his ascension, Saren might've lashed out in face of such disobedience, killed him for it or told him that his 'brothers' were little more than glorified bait meant to wipe out those most dangerous to his purpose. But the anger that had driven him before had been washed away alongside all his other flaws.

Now he felt nothing but purpose and perfection.

"You can't stay on this world," he said while stepping past the krogan alongside his ascended geth. Then he placed a hand on the clone's barely fuzed headplates. "You will serve me on Ilos and you will serve me when the cycle begins. Only when your purpose is fulfilled can you take your place at the side of your brothers."

"And what may that purpose be, Battlemaster?"

"Serve as the avatar of krogan ascension."

"Ascension? But I'm not worthy, I'm just a-"

"You are the chosen, the pure-blooded, a perfect specimen. Sovereign sees you as worthy and so do I. Now continue the loading procedure," he ordered again before walking out of the room and having the rest of the geth honor guard fall in line behind him. She'd come for him, he knew she would.

And when she did, she'd tell him what she knew about Sovereign.

And then she'd die.


Forty Minutes Later, 28. January 2415 AD, Virmire

"Christ, that's one of their assault ships, isn't it?" Williams said as they left the landing zone and saw the smoking remains of a roughly frigate-sized turian ship that had crashed in between two distant islands. Although usually preferable to a hard landing somewhere in the jungle, Williams then came to the same realization Emily had just had. "Wait. Turians can't swim, can they?"

"I'm sure they've got some counter measures for that," Alenko muttered before looking at the next squad of shock troops that passed them on their way to the landing zone. Judging by the dead bodies they were carrying and the injured soldiers limping in front of the few healthy ones, this fight was already over this squad.

"Your people really took a beating, didn't they?" Wrex figured once the soldiers were out of earshot.

"Of course they did. They were the vanguard," Garrus frowned.

"I'm sorry about your people," Emily tried to offer. This was probably a lot harder for him than any of them.

"Don't be. We turians know how to take casualties," the C-SEC detective replied quickly and somewhat dismissive. She couldn't blame him. If this was one of the rallying points for the marines who were helping take the cloning facility and it would be human casualties they were passing, she'd probably feel the same way he did right now.

After they had continued down the track in as much silence as the ongoing battle allowed for a couple more minutes and reached the point they were supposed to wait at until the attack signal was sounded, Emily heard someone rush at them from somewhere in the jungle. As her team leveled their guns at the sound, she got ready to shoot.

Then she saw a salarian sprint towards them, waving his arms at her in a gesture clearly meant to show that he was friendly. Convinced, she lowered her weapon.

"You're Commander Shepard, right?" he asked between ragged breaths as soon as he had reached them.

"Yes," she replied, wondering where the hell he had left his rifle and how far he had run.

"Thanks for not shooting. Lieutenant Imnes, STG," he quickly introduced himself. "Captain Kirrahe sent me. Needs to talk to you. Urgent."

Captain Kirrahe.

She had read that name in her briefing.

"Kirrahe? I'm supposed to take part in his assault on the command center any time now," she pointed out. "What does he want."

"New development. Entire assault force could be in danger. Don't have much time," Imnes explained as he caught his breath. "Will explain on the way," he insisted before starting to run again.

"Commander?" Alenko asked.

"Tell the other teams that we're following one of Kirrahe's men," she ordered before jogging after him and barely catching him head for the trail again. He was a lot faster than most salarians. Luckily for them though, Kirrahe didn't seem to be that far away. After only a couple of minutes of first chasing and then trying to keep up with the STG lieutenant they reached a make-shift hideout and spotted the green-skinned captain standing underneath what looked like camo webbing capable of active camoflague.

"Commander," he greeted as he stared at something on his omni-tool. "Sorry to have someone fetch you, couldn't risk broadcasting to you. Situation far too sensitive."

This already sounded really bad.

"What's going on?"

"Familiar with antimatter warheads?" Kirrahe said as he shut off his omni-tool, put on his helmet and picked up an assault rifle leaning against the wall of his makeshift hideout.

"I can't say I am."

"Luckily for us, I am," he said. "Never used in warfare before. Carry enough firepower to wipe out this island forty times over. So destructive that even Hegemony outlawed them," he explained before looking at her. "Have to ask. You are familiar with Saren Arterius?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'm not. Consider this shared learning experience then," he said before waving for her to follow him.

"Can you tell me what's going on?" she inquired again.

"Sensor equipment just detected an antimatter surge coming from the command center. Could be power source, could be weapon, could be something else entierly," he listed. "However have to assume that Arterius lured us into a trap until proven otherwise. Hence, very time sensitive mission."

"Wait. You think he wants to detonate an antimatter war heads?" she asked right as she passed her now shocked team. While she was just as overwhelmed as them, she knew she couldn't let that get to her right now.

"I said we have to assume," Kirrahe corrected before looking back at her. "Don't intend on taking any chances. Already alerted General Quanos. Reinforcements have been halted for now. Will initiate mass evacuation as soon as we have confirmed presence of antimatter weapon. Could provoke premature detonation, after all, can't be certain Saren's not ready to take us with him. Figured your expertise in dealing with him will improve chances of success."

"How so?"

"Also have to assume that Arterius might guard the bomb personally."

So first he assumed that Arterius wasn't ready to go out with them and now he thought he was?

What the hell kind of logic was that?


Codex: Oma Ker

The Oma Ker, roughly translated to 'Survivor', are a group of turians originally native to Sarlik, a world that was rendered uninhabitable during the Unification Wars. Now calling a colony the Hierarchy bought of the volus their home, the Oma Ker and their home planet of the same name are considered a 'troublesome divergent' within turian society. This designation is owned to the fact that despite the destruction of their home and subsequent submission to the Turian Hierarchy and its law, the Oma Ker still hold onto most of the traditions they adapted prior to being ruled from Palaven and refuse to submit to the same cultural standards the majority of the Hierarchy has adapted.

These customs don't have a clearly defined origin and have undergone multiple changes since the destruction of Sarlik. Instead they range from ancient elapri blood oaths long considered 'babaric' by most other turians to the same cipritinian lineage keeping practiced by nearly all turian ethnicities and colonies.

However the major influences of the Oma Ker's culture can be traced back to the region of Palaven where the original settlers of Sarlik hailed from prior to their conscription by the Hierarchy as colonists. Located on an island chain within Palaven's biggest ocean, palavani natives referred to the region as Demar Jaxar Tari, the 'Islands of Blood and Steel', a name originally given to the region after three subsequent failed attempts of colonization at the hands of elapri forces in 1694 BCE.

Despite their status as a troublesome divergent, it has to be noted that Oma Ker is among the Hierarchy's biggest sources of combat troops. Shaped by centuries of experience, life on the frontier of turian space and their primarchs' tendency to vote in favour of armed conflict resolution whenever possible, Oma Ker's legions are considered hardened soldiers that despite their 'independent' traditions are willing to answer the Hierarchy's call to arms at every occasion.


A/N: I'm alive!

But before you get your hopes up, this prolonged absense of mine will probably be continued until late june. The real busy part of the next two months is only starting now.

So yeah. Expect there to be no real updates until then.

To be entirely honest, it feels cheap to give you yet another chapter of setup after you had to wait nearly two months for me to get off my ass and write this. (As awlays, I basically dicked around for seven weeks and wrote this in the span of a couple of days. yes. my productivity works in weird ways.) But I just had to. I felt like it wouldn't make sense to talk about Virmire being different without actually explaining why it'll be different, besides the (I think) obvious facts that we'll also see a good chunk of it from Saren's POV and that I pretty much decided to throw a lot of the canon out of the window (which I frankly should've done a bit earlier. Ever since I stopped considering ME 1 a blue print, which was after Eden Prime, I've enjoyed writing this even more. (Spoilers, I didn't enjoy writing Eden Prime. It was way too restrictive.)

So yeah.

Sorry, setup is all you'll get for now.

Don't have much else to say.

One more thing. Yes I made turian ODSTs, no I don't feel guilty about it. While I originally set out with the idea "there won't be anything Halo in this story", I now decided to limit that on the humans not having anything ripped from Halo ... like basically every other HFY fiction ont his story.

Alright. Done rambling now.

For the record we're at 586 reviews, 873 favorites and 965 follows.

See you around next time.