2242 January 11th, Citadel, Council Private meeting chamber
The 3 councillors and their aids watched the footage that the STG managed to scrape together from the Trebia system.
A recording of the single largest battle that the galaxy has ever experienced was unfolding Infront of their very eyes. And the situation on the ground wasn't any better as the recording switched to that. What was once a City of silver abundance, Cipritine. Was now only fit to be called hell. Buildings were crumbling right onto of the fighting forces, yet none stopped to take cover, why and more importantly where would they hide? The very rubble that was once great buildings of silver were now their cover and each side fought for every single rock.
The Turians in the room watched with solemn looks on their faces that almost never showed emotions.
The Asari watched with Horror, after all it was hopped that such brutal fighting, and wars in general, would stay in the past after the Krogan Rebelion.
The Salarian watched with a mix of horror and amazement, the years of the war have shown that both sides could be brutal. But after 6 years of fighting nonstop they could still assemble such forces on either side.
Then the recording came to an end at a modest 12 minutes. The first to speak was Tevos "This is all that the STG was able to gather?" she asked in disbelief.
"Councillor, the whole of Trebia system is a warzone for a week now. You have seen the scale of the naval engagement and that is only around Palaven itself, the entire system is a battleground. Getting assets groundside has proven a very costly endeavour, 3 teams were lost just getting the recording off from the planet"
"How-, How is the situation on Palaven looking?" asked the Turian Councillor
"From what we are able to intercept of Turian communication and decipher of Human communication. The Situation around Cipritine is even worse now than when the recording was made. Entire Legions Are fighting for the city on the human side. We estimate around 1 Million soldiers are involved in the fighting and around 2 Million of their Battledroids of various designes are assisting them in the fight for the Capital. It is clear they want to capture Primarch Fedorian alive since they so far refused to bombard the city from orbit" replied the STG agent. "In the opening hours of the assault we intercepted this message from Admiral Kandros to Primarch Fedorian
"Our Entire Navy is here to fight but even then its an uphill battle, we can say with certainty that either most of the Human Fleet is also here or its entirety is here for this battle. They opened a corridor that they use to send down supplies to the surface and land troops, we tried to breach it but to no avail, they know the importance of keeping it open and they will throw anything at us to keep it that way. The Fighting above Menea is fierce as they are attempting to knock out the Ground-Space cannons out of commission just like they did on Palaven. Admiral Victus and Admiral Lanius are engaging the Human carrier force above Zika as we speak"
"The situation as a whole is looking dire with every hour making it even worse. They refuse to bombard the capital but don't show such reservation with the other major cities, if the fighting proves too fierce they bomb the area of resistance from orbit if they can"
The Turian councilor turned to Tevos "Tevos, I beg you, convince the Matriarchs to help us, if we are left on our own the Humans will win, its no longer a matter of if, but of when. I beg you Tevos and you Valern"
Tevos wanted to help, certainly, she wanted the war to end and spare everyone the suffering, she has been doing that since the war began, trying to end it without further bloodshed but reality just wasn't the way we wanted it to be. As she was about to answer the Turian plea, Valern beat her to it.
"Assuming we do help the turians with out militaries we are left at an impass. If we destroy all Human ships in the Trebia system we are still looking at decades of war. The Turian forces engaged in the Campaign for human Colonies have uncovered intelligence that suggest Humans have colonized 200 worlds in their part of the Galaxy, their FTL capibilities would certainly allow that.
Meanwhile their Military production output supports that theory. Whatever losses they sustain in Trebia they will be able to replace and if our projections are correct it will only leave us a 1 year window to capitulate them before a sizable enough fleet is rebuild and we are back at the original issue. How do we find and more importantly capture their fabled Earth?"
"While it is a hard thing to say, it is the unfortunate fact. The Turian commanders overzealousness has brought the conflict upon the Turian people, alongside Diplomatic failures in the opening stages of the war. While the Asari republics cant, and won't provide military support. We are more than ready to accommodate whatever Turian people flee from the inevitable defeat. That is the most the Matriarchs are willing to offer, I am sorry" said Tevos as she watched the Turian side be consumed by despair.
"Supressing!" yelled the DLT-19 operator as he opened fire at the store where a Turian firing position was located.
"Move! Move!" ordered Shepard as he stood up and ran towards their next cover. The burning wreckage of an LAAT gunship.
While he ran as fast as he could, their AT-TE exploded "Tank! Take cover!" yelled out someone and Shepard dropped to the ground to make himself as small as possible. The Turian tank in question fired again and killed part of the 2nd squad that was assisting Shepards squad.
"This is Beta Squad, we have a Turian tank between us and the intersection! We need close air support!" yelled shepard as he crawled to some rubble.
Just in time as a Y-Wing flew overhead and dropped its payload on the tank, as it was pulling up a Turian fighter shot it down. Looking at the situation he and his men were currently in he made the only sound decision he could "Fall back!" he ordered as he threw a smoke grenade and ran back.
Back at their Line he allowed himself to take his helmet off and sit down. Only to be approached by another Sergeant who sat down next to him "How many this time James?" he asked with exhaustion.
Shepard answered "Patkowski and his entire team got taken down first alongside 1 of our AT-TEs. Miller and his team got taken out as we retreated our 2nd AT-TE got destroyed by an demolition charge the birds buried under the rubble." Taking his canteen he drank until nothing remained. "What about you"
"My squad was the only one that got out. The rest of our prong was buried under the Skyscraper in sector 12." Replied the man
Yet another failed push then. 2 days they have been trying to break this line, 2 days they have failed to do that. The question is how many losses did they take.
The Answer?
2 Thousand troopers 13 AT-TEs 8 Saber Tanks 2 X-Wings and 5 Y-Wings.
All too many, especially considering the news that a private came running in with.
"Everyone! Intelligence forces just captured Fedorian! I heard he is going to surrender all forces!"
What up, long time no see huh? You have heard excuses over and over again in this story and many others so I wont bother you with them.
Just 1, maybe 2 chapters remaining until it is done. Originally this was supposed to be only about the war so I didn't plan anything post war, we'll see how you will like the last chapter before I make any decision to continue or not. Well then, see you again in half a year