Chapter 3: The Unexpected guests.
Star system Elona, few years later…
The ship Rakaman, roughly translated as the Blood Jewel from the tongue of the Batarians, is not new to the tortured souls who travel its darkened corridors, for years it has served as a slave gatherer, the screams of captured, beaten or tortured slaves are a common sound to it as the hum of its own engines. This ship now stands at the very outskirts of the Elona star system, if the intel of this ships commander is correct, there is a whole planet of slaves waiting for him to collect.
In his personal quarters, its ship captain was busy with his new toy, a human slave captured a month ago from one of the more isolated human colonies was now causing much amusement to the lord of this horrid vessel. Mutilated beyond common reason, the human was lacking his reproductive organ, tongue, his eyes opened permanently with few steel hooks holding them up, red from pain, his chest cavity open with his beating heart visible, and yet kept alive by some xeno technique, only sounds coming from the human were gurgling noises, as it lacked tongue or strength to scream.
Batarian war lord sat on his chair, and gazed into the open chest of the human like some depraved art, imbedded deep into his own thoughts, with beating of the human heart as the only noise echoing his cabin, he was shaken from his stupor by the com system coming to life.
"Lord Rakoshi, we have arrived at the system. We await your orders on the bridge", a rasp voice common to the batarian echoed through the com.
He lingered a few seconds before pressing the button and responding. "I will arrive shortly", only response from the other side was, "yes my lord."
Silently standing up from the chair, he approached the tied human, raised its head, and gazed into its raw red eyes from crying and suffering, before speaking.
"I release you."
At that moment, his other hand grasped the beating heart of the human, before crashing it in his hand, causing instant death, human gargled for the last time before sweet release of death claimed him.
Rakoshi left the room and headed towards the bridge, he will have plenty of new toys on the planet before him.
Few days have passed as the slaver fleet drifted ever closer to the planet, according to their info, it was a small colony of asari who hid there from some mythical threat, how foolish from them. There were much realer dangers in the vast emptiness of space.
Their approach was uncontested, as expected from a group of refugees. Rakoshi gazed at the description of the planet on his omni computer, arid terran like planet, nothing special about it, they located the refugee settlement, rather large, but the detailed scanning was obstructed, his officer spoke that it might be magnetism of the planet blocking detailed scans. Rakoshi was silent, as he planned his next move, this was not the first time he invaded a world, his 40 ship fleet have seen dozen or so worlds fall to them, this one would be no different.
He decided that a landing force 15000 strong would land not far from the colony and proceed on foot with light vehicle support, he would not use transport ships on top of the colony for fear of anti air batteries taking a huge toll on his men.
After all, his men needed a bit of fun after 3 months in space, this combat exercise will do them good.
As the preparations were ready and transport ships started their descent, dawn was on the horizon, the last one colonists would see. Rakoshi led from the front, this brought him much respect from his men, and fear as well, for those who retreated suffered worse fates than death.
The ship descent was not harassed by anti air, seems like Rakoshi's fear was unfounded, troop transports were quickly emptied, and this huge force of 15 000 batarian slavers advanced upon the colony. When the colony appeared on the horizon, it was unlike anything they have ever seen, buildings were built from stone, marble, in shapes unlike anything that races in the galaxy built. They were large, and decorated with the shapes of dual headed version of human eagle. Confused, but undeterred they advanced onward, upon the plain in front of the city, a single laser beam punched against the soldier of the batarian army, breaking its shield, and frying his chest organs as it carved into the armor. This caused a momentary stop in the army, before all hell broke lose.
Upon the army, hundreds of laser beams flashed, and began killing the advancing batarians, who upon the ensuing hell began running faster, some for cover, other to cover the distance to kill, firing all sorts of armaments they carried, against what they expected to be a bunch of no good colonists who dare defy them.
Rakoshi slammed himself upon the nearby rock, covering from the laser carnage that was brighter than the rising sun. His confusion soon turned to anger, and his anger escalated as the laser barrage was accompanied by mass driver weapons that upon impact with his men caused an explosion, resulting in gore and organs flying everywhere.
He was losing men, and fast. The colonists were much more equipped than expected, he imagined chocking the life out of the salarian who sold him the information, if only he could escape from here.
Fire was coming from all places now, bolter shells, lasgun volleys, and soon auto turrets turned on and unleashed their deadly ammunition upon the batarian army, who was beginning to buckle and crack even as it fired back at its foe.
Then, something happened, the ground quaked, and the slowly advancing batarians gazed upon the sight of their worst nightmares. from the city marched, stomping out, something batarians, or yet any of this galaxy's species have seen. The God Machine.
Warlord Titan, Julianus Victrix, was now clear to engage. His massive canon charging as it pointed at dumbstruck batarians.
It was the glow of a thousand suns, and sound of a thousand artillery shells exploding, as the colossal armament fired. And where it struck, nothing lived at that point.
There was a rout, this was too much even for slavers who have seen many of the galaxy's horrors, Rakoshi began falling back with his men, cursing in all 16 dialects of the batarians against the enemy that pushed him back.
They were running towards their transport ships, in order to flee into orbit, from there, he will exact vengeance and bomb this planet into dust.
But it was at this moment that his com system flared to life, it was a cacophony of voices and screams and hails for help, for the fleet in orbit was unexpectedly attacked from both space and ground, hidden anti space batteries came to life and began firing onto the ships in orbit, doing catastrophic damage. To make matters worse, they were attacked by the unknown vessels that hid in the solar shade of the sun, hidden from their sensors. Even now, boarding torpedoes impacted upon the biggest vessels and marines invaded the ships, causing havoc and killing its unprepared crew.
Rakoshi's chances of survival grew dim with each second, he has to escape, he wont die on some rock in the middle of nowhere, he will escape, gather a bigger army and come back for vengeance.
The escaping batarians were attacked from all sides, marines joined the fray on their jump packs, and land speeders, some transports didn't even wait for the troops to reach them as they broke for orbit in their attempts to escape, cut short by the anti air batteries who began cutting them down, scant few escaped into orbit where even worse sight awaited them.
The batarian army tried to resist this overwhelming foe, but as they fired, the marines approached, their chainswords roaring with anger, cutting viciously into the flesh, plasma and melta weapons melting the frightened xenos in their armor much to the horror of their comrades.
Rare few, foolish, crazy, or brave, or all combined, of the batarians charged with their melee weapons against the marines, slave whips whistling in their hands as they tried fighting the unstoppable tide of death. Who were just too fast for the batarians, it was a gruesome show, marines ripped their enemies apart, limb for limb, spines were pulled out of the screaming four eyed humanoids, some even decided that they would use their hands to slaughter the enemies of Man, gruesomely rip and tearing their enemy. The horror of that melee would scar the galaxy, if any batarian could have survived it.
Reaching his ship Rakoshi could only observe as it rose to the skies, and on the ground fleeing, dead and dying slavers could be seen, killed by armored giants, and masses of soldiers coming out of the city to join in the purge, as the rain of lasfire ever persisted, massacring those few who sought to resist the oncoming imperial guard.
Countless transport ships flew to the sky, but so much were destroyed before they reach the orbit, he was not out of the danger yet, as his fleet was not faring much better, more than half of the ships in orbit were destroyed, both by the marines and ground based defenses. Faced with unwinnable odds, Rakoshi's orders were simple, Run. What remained of the fleet started backing from the planetary orbit and into space.
Just as he reached the nearest ship, his personal ship being too far to reach, he ordered it to speed towards the mass relay, his gaze shifting through the termo glass, he could see on the portside, that his flagship Rakaman had reached critical mass, and the engines caused an explosion. His ship will never fly again, death glow of the 500 meter long ship illuminated Indomitus for the last time, before the mass effect drive explosion collapsed the ship inwards in an explosion unlike any other.
He cursed in all the languages he knew, before uncontrollably yelling and impacting the termo glass of the ship with his fists, he could not lament though, as the fleet of the imperium turned their sights on those few ships who still remained, sprinting to the bridge, all the while ships around him were torn asunder by the persistent imperial volleys of energy and steel. he took personal control of the small ship, yelling to switch all power to the engines. his crew obeyed, and they were speeding towards the ancient gateway, barely dodging imperial vessels. he could see through the window as Krio'ta was split in half by the charging ship bearing the sign of aquila ramming it at full speed, this was utter madness he thought, he was even more determined to escape, sweating as everything around him died.
Hunted all the way to the relay, only 3 ships ,including the one he was in remained, and not 2 hours ago he approached the planet confident in his victory, and all he got was a crushing defeat.
As he started his mass effect engines, he could only swear upon revenge on his unknown enemies. But he was a pirate, assembling a new force would be hard, but not impossible. He would return, he promised, and win. Moments later, his ship was flying out of the system, as the third batarian frigate fell to the lance batteries of the Imperium's ships. Only 2 ships out of 40 escaped this battle. The imperium suffered no ship casualties and bare few of soldier deaths on the ground, without any marines being killed.
And on the bridge of the flagship of the Imperium, Vengeance of Dushan, Tesla, Admiral Tiberius and Magos observed the closing moments of this battle. Magos spoke first.
"Was it truly necessary, brother captain, making such a risk, just to test the combat capabilities of our enemies?"
"We are in an unknown galaxy, Magos, who knows what terrors we will face, we had to see the space and ground capabilities of our enemies." Responded Tesla, his eyes watching as the burning carcasses of the ship flew through the void.
"But letting them get this close to our base of operations was needlessly risky." Magos retorted. "They could have caused damage to our installations."
"They could have", he responded, "but were utterly incapable, as we have determined. Our enemies could not put a proper fight, xeno inferiority is once again shown."
"Time for hiding is over", Tesla added, "we have gathered our forces. Have your priests made alternations to our engines in order to use this xenos tech?"
"As much as it pained me to do so", magos said, his voice carrying a dose of worry, "and as heretical as it is. We have. Our ships can now use the relays of this galaxy to travel."
"Very Good", said tesla, his mouth smiling softly. "Admiral are we ready?"
Tiberius was a veteran of void warfare, walking onto his 3th century of life, having minimal amount of bionics, he was reputed for his cold demeanor and expertise in space warfare. His answer was short, yet carried the weight of a man who have seen thousands of battles.
"Yes my lord, we are ready."
Tesla stepped forwards, spreading his arms apart and speaking, his voice strong and carrying determination of his Gene father and that of the God emperor. His vox speech was carried to the planet's surface and on all ships in the fleet.
"Enemies of the Imperium, hear me! we are coming. You have dwelt too long in the darkness, we come to bring you light, and fire."
"Our faith, is our shield, our will is an ocean, and we will wash away all filth that dares stand against the soldiers of the Emperor!"
"We have judged you! And we have found you wanting. Expect our arrival."
"The Emperor protects."
From hundreds of thousands of throats in the fleet and in the planet, the response was heard. "The Emperor protects!"
Soon, the galaxy will know the war chant of the humanities finest.
The Crusade, has begun.