Chapter 9: The migration of Despair
Khar'shan the galactic slave capital, noon.
He is restless; walking up and down the palace corridors expecting and invitation to enter the Premier's cabinet, anger consumes his every thought, more so than usual.
Taking a moment to rest, he gazes from one of the many Windows's of the ruler's palace, before him lies his homeworld, on paper and galactic news Khar'shan is a mighty planet, home to superior industries and huge population of 15 billion, where unity reigns supreme, as a symbol to the galaxy how planets should be.
Reality tends to disappoint.
The planet would remind any human, should they be allowed to visit out of their own will, of ancient Rome. On its surface millions upon millions of batarians and other races slaved away in factories under the worst conditions, poverty and despair gripped the hearts of its native citizens, as their state held a tight iron grip on their every action.
Corruption was norm, and to advance further up the hierarchy one would either had to be rich, or well connected, for even the Great Leader of Batarians desired a cut for himself.
And now Rakoshi waits, it has been years since his fleet was destroyed in Elona system, and every night he dreams of it, the blood, the death, he would revel in it if he wasn't the defeated one in it.
He has spent this time wisely, using his connections to gather sizable funding and vessels to aid him in his desire to vengeance, he would find the leader of this band of bastards that destroyed his fleet and devour his heart. He promised this to himself, and renews the promise daily like a prayer.
And now he is on Khar'shan, he is doing something he swore he would never do, and ask his brother , the premier of the Batarian Hegemony to lend assistance. The mere thought of it sickens him, and he would rather gouge his eyes than ask for help. But the promise of vengeance is to much even for Rakoshi to pass.
The great doors decorated in colorful woods and gold plating opened, from which stepped a small and lavishly dressed batarian. He spoke
"Premier Korashi would see you now. "he gesticulated towards the room and the desk where another batarian sat.
"About time" Rakoshi snarled, as he almost pushed the smaller batarian aside while stepping inside the room.
The doors closed and from behind them, two batarians holding weapons dressed in red uniforms stepped forward.
Rakoshi knew any sudden move would be his last.
"Brother…" a hoarse voice came from the man sitting at the table. "it has been how long? Seven, eight years since you last saw me. To what do I owe the pleasure?" The Premier stood up, he was dressed in red grey military uniform, decorated with countless medals made of the most valuable metals.
"It has been 15 years, and I need your help." Rakoshi spoke while gazing behind his shoulder at the two soldiers who were all too eager for him to make a wrong move.
"ha ha ha, I never thought I'd live to see the day." He spoke while pouring himself Bataraos brandy and filling the other cup, grasping it and offering it to his beloved brother before continuing. "Why would I help you Rakoshi?"
"Because I have something you need brother, I don't love you, and It is quite certain that you do not love me if you offer me your trademark farewell drink." Speaking he grasped it and drank it in one go.
The premier Korashi chuckled "And pray tell Rakoshi, what would I have need of you, need I remind you that you have raided our own convoys and captured hundreds of our comrade workers for your own purposes?" he gazed upon him angrily
"Those comrades were in chains; the only difference in their life is that they have changed the master. You are not a saint either dear brother, but you are a shrewd man, and I can offer you power to cement your rule. Perhaps…" he gazed around himself before speaking in a lower tone"…becoming the new leader as well."
These words caused unease even in the premier himself, as he took a moment to collect himself. The guards moved towards rakoshi, intent on arresting him, before being stopped by the premier, who raised his hand.
"Speaking such words is sure way to get yourself into the Guh'Laga. I will have no more of your treasonous words. Guards take him away."
Soldiers grasped Rakoshi by the arms as he spoke.
"You would risk your only chance of gaining war technology unlike seen in citadel space, enough to make Batarian Hegemony the sole ruler of this galaxy!?"
"Stop!" Premier Korashi spoke, "let him go". The guards did as commanded.
"If this his one of your tricks, I swear brother, I will exact horrible things upon you" premier spoke as he went from behind his desk and up face to face with his brother. "Speak now, did you discover some prothean technology to give us an edge?"
"Not quite" Rakoshi retorted. "I will explain to you what I mean."
He spoke about everything , his slave raid gone wrong, the superiority of the enemy fleet, the weapons they used, everything ,save for a place where to locate the planet.
"That is quite a story Rakoshi, and I think its full of shit. Do you consider me for a fool? Armor clad giants firing exploding rounds, massive 7 kilometer ship firing armaments of light and mauling your ships? And best of all, a huge bipedal machine on the ground killing your men, I say, you have quite the imagination. Worse yet, you have gone utterly mad."
Turning around, the premier spoke "I want you gone, I give you life this time, from this moment you will be hunted by our fleets and not enjoying the protection you had until this point."
"Bah!" Rakoshi yelled. "Gaze upon this you bastard, I do not lie"
He approached the terminal and injected a small memory stick. "What are you doing?" Premier asked.
"Proving my words aren't shit as you consider them to be." He responded simply as he played the video.
On it, there was a recording his personal helmet cam took of their land invasion. The premier couldn't hide his surprise as he saw red, blue and white giants killing the batarian slavers as if they were flies, the carnage surprised him, no citadel race was so proficient in killing, and such brutality isn't even seen with Krogan.
In utter silence they have watched the video recording of what was the first encounter of Batarians and this unknown and powerful enemy. Even the two guards couldn't help but watch in amazement at the sights that happened in the video.
The video ended, and the premier spoke first
"That was incredible, such potential for firearms development, the possibilities….they are endless."
"Yeah…you can have all those, all I want is revenge. Is this convincing enough to help me?" Rakoshi responded
"It might be. Where is the system location?"
"That will remain a secret until you agree to help me. I am not that stupid Korashi. What I need from you is all the spare ships you can get me, and a good trustworthy informant to send a message to the Quarian fleet."
The premier took a pause before speaking. "The quarians? I don't understand…"
"They are searching for a new home world, supposedly the new faction within the fleet won in their elections, one that decided they have roamed the galaxy for long enough, and are now actively searching for a planet to settle and begin anew. So say the quarians on pilgrimage.
The Council isn't making it easy for them, denying them any planet within their sphere of influence; they are getting quite desperate…and just in time.
That is where I need your help, besides the ships. I need an informant to notify them of the supposed habitable planet, someone they can trust, with guarantees that it is not a lie which will cause their entire fleet to be on the move towards the enemy.
They destroy the enemy, or the enemy destroys them, I will swoop in with my fleet and destroy any remnant, then the vengeance will be mine, and you can take any technology you want.
Does this sound like a good deal to you….brother?"
The premier walked up to his chair and sat down, gazing at the still image of an astartes grasping the dead corpse of the batarian while gazing directly at the camera. The thought for a moment, before looking at Rakoshi.
"You will get what you need, leave me while I make preparations, we will keep in touch."
Rakoshi did a small bow motion towards his brother, smiling, before moving towards the door that started opening.
"And Rakoshi…." The premier spoke, causing his brother to turn towards him.
"Double cross me. And you will know the meaning of the word pain. I swear this to you." His eyes were cold, colder than usual, colder than even his brother known them to be, even Rakoshi felt shivers on his back from those words and that gaze.
He intended to say something in response, but was unable to do so, he just nodded slightly with his head and began his walk away from the premiers office.
Rakoshi was committed now, he will have his vengeance, one way or another.
The Die was cast.
Quarian fleet, Citadel Space
The fleet of the Quarians, their home and their livelihood, here, thousands of quarians are born and live, their homeworld forever gone to their own abominable children, the Geth. They are race of machines given sentience by the hubris of the then young Quarians, ignoring the warnings of the Council and the common sense, they invented a thinking machine, the devil in the circuit, and the devil claimed their souls, those who escaped now live in flotilla, ever migrating, cursed to wonder the stars without their home…or so it was, until a new Admiral decided to spite the webs of fate, and find a home for his people.
Inside the admiral's ship, there is a commotion, countless quarians running about, the newly arrived message stirring the hornet's nest.
Two quarians walked side by side as they sped towards the main bridge.
"Are you sure this is valid Mon'sha? We cant afford a misstep now."
"Quite certain Supreme Admiral, this information comes from the shadow broker himself, the information is concrete and valid. We have found our world, but we must make haste, according to the broker, there will be other claimants. "
"Why would the broker help us, is there more to this message?"
"Nothing save that we will be in his debt when the time for collecting comes, he will know if we accept the condition after our fleet moves towards the star system."
"We have nothing to lose, except gain a home for our people, collect as much fuel as possible, gather the supplies, we will move in two waves, to ensure the safety, our military vessels will go through the relays first, and second wave would be our civilian ships with their escorts. Make sure we have ammo and necessary weapons, in case there is a contesting claim on the system."
"You would engage in hostilities?" the second quarian stopped and said to the admiral
"Mon'sha, we might have something big at our hands, our people have suffered enough, we must have a planet to adapt to, where we will see our children grow." He spoke as he placed his hand on his shoulder
"I would love nothing else Admiral, but to fight…"
"…Is to survive Mon'sha, if not for ourselves, than for future generations. Then again, we have over 50 000 vessels in our fleet, nobody is that insane to engage us in battle. Come now, we must make preparations."
The second quarian hesitated for a second, then followed his admiral to the bridge.
Bridge was filled with quarians doing various tasks, the preparations for the journey is well under way, most took this information with incredible joy, they had high hopes the new admiral will find them a planet to settle and call home.
Ever since the elections 9 years ago, where Admiral Rael'Zorah lost his position of power to the new Admiral Arahi'ler vas Heimat, people had high hopes for a new planet, the prospect of Rael taking the quarians on a total war against the Geth didn't sit well with the fleet and they voted him out. Ashamed, he abandoned the fleet and resumed his pilgrimage, much to the dismay of his loyal friends.
Other admirals took note of this and followed the leadership of the new Admiral, the subsequent reformations in the fleet and its behavior increased the popularity of the new leader of the quarians, the fleet began mining many asteroids and refining them on several planetary outposts they have established under the orders of Arahi'Ler, this increased the fleet's wealth, and increased the trading between the fleet and other planets they happened to come across with, so much so that many underdeveloped planets prospered and were glad to see the massive quarian fleet passing by with whom they could trade food and other supplies for refined metals used in construction.
Admiral Arahi'Ler established a small construction effort, utilizing skilled quarian engineers to construct ships for their fleet, instead of just buying scrap models from other races, without a planet and dedicated shipyards, this was done on a minimal scale, still it proved successful and provided new insights and desires of the Quarian people to become sedentary once more.
Such was the new admirals popularity, that he issued reformation in the leadership, no longer was fleet led by four admirals who were equal, now after the "Migratory and Domestic prospect act", a series of leadership reformations and Law acts, Admiral Arahi'Ler held more power then ever before, this implied the new admiral could issue any act without the necessity for other admiral approval when it comes to domestic affairs and the future of the fleet, and as such, other admirals could issue new laws, with availability of the new admiral to issue Veto on any of them, should he deem it necessary for the survival of the fleet. Other admirals could potentially overturn any acts of the Supreme Admiral, thanks to the loophole that what he deems necessary for the fleet passes or not, they were quite impotent in anything that might damage his power.
This made the Quarian fleet into a little more than a dictatorship, after all it was justified…when questioned the new admiral said. "Anything must be done for the Quarian people. Bureaucracy would hold back our prospects for the future. When we find a new home, we will revert back to the ways of our ancestors, but for now, we must act, not talk."
This made it possible for Quarian leadership to find a way into Eugenics research, funding for developing a vaccine for curing their weak imuno system, from outright attempting at genetic manipulation to make Quarians possible to colonize new worlds. Many were researches made by the quarians in the field of genetics under the rulership of Arahi'Ler, and some inventions made it possible to colonize certain planets with bio domes and other technologies, so they pleaded to the council for a potential planet, with no success.
The image of the Quarians as thieves and no good nomads began to wane in the following years, and they were a bit more welcome sight in the citadel space. But the Stigma of creating a true thinking Artificial Intelligence and accidently unleashing it to endanger any and all life in the cosmos, never abandoned them, and as such, the Council or any other race denied all requests for a planet to settle within their territories.
This naturally caused much resentment from the quarians who now viewed the citadel races as tyrants and increased their isolationism further. They would find the planet on their own. And so they searched for one, finding a couple, but with crushing gravities and hostile bio organisms that were lethal to the Quarian biology.
It would seem their quest is a failure, until they received a message with the galactic coordinates of a potential home. Once again, the fleet is on the move.
The bridge was a cacophony of voices, and Admiral Arahi was with his admirals, planning for an expedition, his new flagship, the Pride of Rannoch was a kilometer long vessel armed with custom weapons made by the quarians themselves, it was their pride, and potentially one of many ships made by them.
He was interrupted in his planning by a crew member.
"Supreme Admiral, Tali Zorah requests to speak with you, what should I tell her?"
The supreme admiral grasped his helmet, almost as if his head was hurting.
"'Sigh', tell her I will meet her in my office within a hour."
"Yes supreme admiral" crew member said and bowed slightly.
The inside of the the admirals office was simple, it lacked decoration, and was quite Spartan in style, it was fitting of an officer like Arahi'Ler, his skirmishes with the Geth and Batarian pirates brought him much fame amongst his people, three medals decorated the wall of his office, earned through grueling war.
He gazed upon them, touching gently his left shoulder, remembering the wound of the geth bullet, the medics were amazed he lived through it, his suit was compromised, and he was exposed to various biological contaminants for an hour more after the point of no return. He was found semi unconscious surrounded by Geth corpses, and was rescued.
After a month he requested to join the combat yet again, only to realize the admiralty board decided to retreat and leave the planet onto the Geth.
He was broken, as he thought the war was winnable, have the Admiralty didn't lost their courage and surrendered. Many years have passed since then, and the scars of that war were still fresh with him.
And yet he lived, time and time again, he refused to die until he could do justice to his people.
He was shaken out of his thoughts by the entrance of young Tali'Zorah
"Admiral, thank you for receiving me" Tali spoke as she entered, her clothes were unlike her pilgrimage ones, she was dressed in officer clothes of the vice admiral of the civilian fleet, her blue head garment reflecting this, she didn't wore her usual mask, as the new technology integrated in the fleet allowed the quarian people to walk around with minimal protection, at least on their own fleet.
"Pleasure, please, take a seat young Zorah, you wanted to speak?"
"yes, I have to relegate my worries about our current expedition"
"What worries you?"
"The message from the Shadow broker is weird at best, but to do us service and find us a planet? That is suspicious, the broker doesn't deal in charity"
" Ah, that troubles you. It isn't charity miss Zorah, upon our success and settlement we would be obliged to help the broker by providing a safe haven for his operations and agents if he requires so, as well as some monetary support as well."
"And that isn't weird? Broker asking for something he no doubt has in abundance?"
"Perhaps, but the coordinates he provided do indeed show that the region we go towards is unexplored, should his information prove correct, we will return the favour, should it be false… Then we keep searching, and remember his lies for the future."
"Admiral, please, we must not do this, our resources are already strained to the breaking point, we must bide our time and…"
"And what miss Zorah? Bade time until our extinction? Until the Council decides we are worthy enough for a small barren rock in the middle of the galactic nowhere where they could control us? No, we will not wait, time we do not have, tomorrow we begin the first jump, and within several days we will enter the unexplored region, traveling through Zama relay."
"Zama relay, but that system is forbidden, many ships were lost there, you will endanger the fleet!"
"We have over fifty thousand ships, we are armed and ready for anything, and I will not be questioned by you young lady, your pilgrimage may have been cut short by the request of your father, but that does not give you the right to question my orders even if you are the vice admiral of the civilian fleet!" he spoke as he pointed towards her.
"I will do anything for the fleet!" She said standing up
"Then do as you are told Zorah, we need unity more than anything else! If you want to do something useful for your people, return to your post and obey my orders! We are done with this conversation, you are dismissed."
"Admiral i…"
"I said dismissed vice admiral, return to your post." He spoke looking at her sternly, his strong gaze piercing her.
"Yes…Sir." She spoke, saluting with a semi raised hand, reminiscent of the Roman salute from Terra, and then exited through the doors.
The Admiral sighed, and stood up, looking through his void window at the assembled ships outside. The first ships were passing through the relay already, if they are lucky, he thought, any hardship they endured so far would be rewarded in kind. He moved away from the window and towards the door returning to the main bridge.
Tali returned to her ship and resumed her post, but was not content with sitting idly by while so many doubts gripped her mind. She began coding, determined to find out where the message came from, if at all possible. Consumed by her work even as the fleet kept jumping through the relay, giving a quick glance at the mass of ships moving towards the relay, time was of the essence, and she was running out of time.
As the ships warped away, they were kept under the vigilant eyes of their unseen plotters. They have taken the bait.
On the other side of the galaxy, the Indomitus system was on full alert.
The imperial nation became aware of the movement the migration was doing, but not the reason as to why.
Inside the observatorium at the edge of the imperial territory, the astropaths cried in pain as they relegated the messages to the headquarters. It was a simple message made of one word at first.
Invasion.
There was a huge fleet of xenos on the move, and by their current course they will be arriving in their territory soon. This was unexpected, such retaliation was unexpected, worst yet, the imperium wasn't aware of the scope and the size of war fleet the xenos could assemble. They were in danger of extermination now.
The best void commanders of the imperium assembled, with their mechanicus and priesthood allies, accompanied by the leadership of white eagles.
The command room was filled with shouts and yells, this was no laughing matter a large fleet of tens of thousands of ships was moving against them, they needed to act.
"This is outright madness! The xenos are marching on us and you advise we dug in? we should strike preemptively, they would not except that!" one of the void commanders spoke
"And what then, our fleet numbers 140 ships now, with some 30 in construction, sure our vessels are far superior to the enemy, but not even the lion can withstand thousands of ants swarming him! we must wage war of attrition, place mines everywhere, from relay to relay, let the enemy burn itself out!" Another commander responded
"And then they will switch course, through the relays we guard even lighter! They will hit us from the sides, at this rate they are marching through the relays most fortified, we must fight them entire way to the indomitus, Emperor forgive me, we might have to sacrifice Aurelian System to stall them until we can properly regroup…"
At these words the hall erupted into a mess of shouts and yells.
"Preposterous! We will not give a solar centimeter of our land to the xenos! "
"Let us destroy the relays leading to Aurelian, we know it can be done, the tech priests have proven it possible! Isolation is preferable to extinction."
"You would assume humanity cowardly enough to do that! Heretic!"
"And what would you do Krassus! How will you stop them! We must fall back!"
Many were voices shouted by the admirals as the Lord Commanders and Space Marine void leaders sat silently and watched. For the first time since their arrival, a true danger was moving at them, everything they worked for until this point will be put to the test.
Lord Commander Tiberius stood up from the podium and raised his hands, one by one the commanders calmed down.
"Panic will not help us brothers
Are we not the Emperors finest, our ships and weapons are second to none. We must exploit their lack of knowledge about our weapons and tactics to its fullest.
The enemy must pass through the three final relays before they reach Aurelian system, beyond the fourth lies indomitus, and our fate.
We know they pass through the relay in waves, military vessels go first, and the rest of the heavy looking ships go last, so our scouts say. We harass their advance, but we do not attack outright, lest we put them on defensive. Between the second relay that leads to Aurelian, we will strike, the military vessels will pass into the Aurelian system and will be engaged by 80% of our fleet, as well as using the "Atlas" installation.
At that point our second portion of the fleet will attack their supply convoys and the second wave that will be isolated on the other side, struck between anvil and the hammer they will be unable to coordinate properly.
It is the only way to do this without engaging their entire fleet on one spot. We will have support from Aurelian and various defensive systems, and as always, with the Emperors blessing, we will prevail, as we have always done!"
Lord Commander Tiberius sat down, the hall was silent, after a minute of silence that seemed like the eternity, the admirals and lord commanders agreed, this was the way it must be done.
The planning began; they had mere days until Quarian arrival. And had to use them to their fullest.
The Quarian fleet entered the imperial territory, and since entering, they were under attack by smaller and very quick imperial ships that made their way to the massive fleet,they damaged or destroyed a ship and fell back before a response could be made.
The quarian leadership assumed this for a sporadic pirate attack, thinking the next system led to their lair, they would crush it and punish them for this impudence. Or so they thought.
The imperial vessels hauled asteroids and comets at the fleet, dragging them behind their ships, these were mostly destroyed by the migrant fleet, but some passed through and damaged ships, stalling the fleet. For the Imperium, every second mattered.
Various smaller craft from the imperial side, loaded with explosives charged against the fleet, ramming the much larger vessels, and critically damaging them in their kamikaze charges. Even the most cold blooded of the Admiralty didn't expect such madness from their Query.
Supreme Admiral Arahi'ler gazed as the enemy tried to stop their fleet, thinking their military force was far too small to engage them directly, he moved forward, knowing the enemy base is near them. He had a big desire to punish them for such cowardly tactics.
Tali worked feverishly, the constant attacks against the migrant fleet disturbed her, this became dangerous and fast.
She then had a breakthrough, the message itself had a specific type of encoding, to the untrained eye it would seem normal, but the specific code, deep down, was batarian military encryption, for such a secret race, they had the best encryptions in the galaxy,but she broke through it.
She downloaded quickly what she discovered to her omni tool and sped to the bridge of her ship, she had to warn the supreme admiral.
Her lungs were burning as she ran, but she reached the bridge and began hailing the Pride of Rannoch, ignoring the worried questions of the crew.
Supreme admiral saw the hails, and as much as he would love to ignore them, he decided to listen.
"Yes ms Zorah, I am busy now, we can have this discussion later." He tried to disconnect but her shouts stopped him.
"Disconnect me and see our entire race gone!"
"What the Geth damnation are you speaking about?!" he stood from his chair and yelled at his omni tool.
"The message we got, it did not come from shadow broker, it had the batarian military encryption on it! Admiral, this is a trap!"
"Are you sure about this Tali? If this a joke of your, I swear I will ensure you get a disciplinary punishment!"
"take my rank if you will, just listen! Whoever sent this message probably lied to us! There might not be a planet for us to colonize, we are here on foreign agenda!"
"that may be so...this could be a lie, but we are far too deep to pull back now, we are committed Tali, even if the message was false, the enemy ships attacking us are making fools of us, if we retreat now, we show the galaxy that we are push overs and that everyone can make fools of us. We will see this through, punish the enemy ,and if its true what you say, fall back and search for a new home."
"To hell with your pride admiral, who knows what we face here, we could be heading into damnation! "
"Watch your tone zorah! I am not some lowly officer you can shout at! Return to your post or I will have more than your rank! "
"To hell with this all, I am saving my people! "She shut down her omni tool, cutting the communication
"Zorah! "Zorah respond! Damnit!"The admiral shouted in vain.
"Get a security detachment, take her in, I will question this disobedience. "Admiral spoke as the four quarian guard saluted and went on their way. He continued to monitor the situation as the constant attack of the enemy vessels continued, the soldier in him took over and he desired to punish these bastards more than anything.
Meanwhile Tali broadcasted a speech to the civilian fleet, urging them to fall back and not venture further as they all could be going to a massive slaughter. Her reputation and love of certain quarians for her father caused some 3 to 4 thousand ships from the civilian fleet to detach from the main group, along with escorts and begin retreating towards the relay and citadel controlled space. Some 2 million out of 14 million quarians were in the ships now under direct command from Tali, the most populous ships were now abandoning the main fleet, for the first time in 300 years.
The Supreme Admiral was out of himself when he saw part of his fleet going away, he contemplated going after them and arresting Tali, but to do that would compromise the integrity of his fleet further. So he let them go, after their success he would come back and inflict serious punishment on them, for this was treason of the highest order.
As the two now separate quarian fleets drifted their different paths, the imperial onslaught continued on the biggest portion of the fleet led by Admiral Arahi.
The imperial command thought portion of the enemy has lost heart and was now retreating, but still had few ships stalking their movement in fears they were flanking.
As the casualties mount, 5 of the imperial ships built in this universe were destroyed in hit and run tactics, as they simply weren't built from the same materials as their original counterparts, namely the techpriests had to use a special alloy similar to steel that was known to them, but far stronger than steel, and likewise far weaker than adamantium, concentrated fire from the quarian ships would cause these ships to overload their void shields and be open to thanix canons that had a hard time piercing the hulls as its heat absorption of this alloy was exceptional, but uncountable thanix canons firing in repetition could cause critical damage and destroy the imperial novum vessels if they could keep the pressure strong enough.
Still the Imperial vessels were lost, but not before causing immense damage and destruction on the enemy side, for the quarian vessels could not respond adequately on imperial armaments and tactics.
And so the first portion of the Quarian fleet began its transfer to the Aurelian System, armed and ready.
The transit was fast and the strongest ships of the Quarian Armada passed through, the fleet was now separated. As the tali's vessels escaped back into the system they came from.
Supreme admiral wasted no time in acquiring his target, the planet Aurelian Prime, was in his sights, and the preliminary scans show it as a hub of huge activity, noticing scant Asari architecture from long lenses telescope he wondered if they were his enemies, but also saw constructions not made by the gentle Asari.
His scopes showed habitable planet, but already inhabited by unknown quary. He stopped to think about what to do, the message was semi truth, the planet was there, but was already inhabited.
As he was thinking there was an incident, his left flank reported a massive asteroid approaching at the fleet. He responded carelessly to just destroy it before it approached the fleet.
They wouldn't have the chance to do that, as the main imperial fleet sprang and attacked, hiding in the nearby Relay asteroid field, and engaged the Quarian main fleet, at the same time on the other side of the relay the smaller imperial armada attacked the less protected civilian fleet remnants, and caused horrible destruction as Quarian escorts sought to combat this new turn of events.
Admiral Arahi took personal charge of the Pride of Rannoch and engaged one of the imperial ships, custom made dark energy lances sang across the void shields of the human vessels, as the sanctified port side batteries fired their lethal bullets against the foul xenos swarm and impacted on their titanium hulls.
Far outnumbered, the imperial vessels could only expose themselves so much before their void shields reached critical mass, using long range lance batteries to pierce against the weak shields of the quarian fleet.
But the numerical superiority of the migrant conquerers began to slowly expend from the relay as near 15 000 ships began to push forward, the imperials slowly retreating towards the orbit of Aurelian Prime, and its land based anti-space canons.
It would seem the quarians would win, as one by one, the imperial ships lost their void shields and were damaged by the various weaponry of the migrant fleet, only their tough adamantium hulls holding them together along with their zealous crew chanting many litanies of fury as they fought and died inside their burning compartments, firing just one more round at the enemy before burning alive.
Techpriests worked overtime in worst exposures to space and its radiation to patch their ships just a bit more so they could continue on fighting. The space marines launched sporadic boarding actions onto biggest enemy ships in order to destroy them from within, the clustered nature of the fleet meant that some bold and quite foolish marines could jump with their packs from one ship to another and breach inside, while successful it took a toll on the marine numbers as anti-rocket gun placements on frigates and destroyes of the migrant fleet shot at them, killing some of them before they could reach them.
They attempted to board "Pride of Rannoch"but were prevented by its design and sheer cluster of smaller vessels around it protecting their flagship. So the marines concentrated on other bigger vessels around it.
But boarding actions proved successful as they rigged some of the quarian ships to explode and destroy smaller vessels around them, Quarians putting weak resistance as their biology just couldn't keep with the transhuman adeptus astartes.
Casulties on both sides mounted, as the flagship of the white eagles "Vengance of Dushan" mauled smaller and medium ships alike with its huge canons and lance batteries accompanied by the only two other battleships in the imperial fleet.
But still, the quarians pushed forwards and destroyed vessels of imperium, through sheer overwhelming nonstop firepower pounding at them.
And just in that time, the Asteroid came close to the unwary Quarian fleet, its orbit turning and showing anti-ship installations, missile pods, and deep hangars filled with imperial pilots that swarmed into the left flank of the Quarian fleet before the xenos could even know what happened.
Missiles fired and blasted upon the quarians destroying them with megatons of nuclear firepower. As the bombers dropped thousands of bombs onto them.
Quarian casualties numbered in hundreds of thousands at this point, while the imperial ones went into dozens of thousands. Both sides were becoming exhausted from fighting, but neither willing to relent, many hundreds of ships were lost on the Quarian side, irreversibly damaging their firepower ability.
Some admirals suggested retreating through the relay and regrouping with the endangered part of the fleet that is also suffering casualties.
The imperial captains and commanders saw that many of the xenos ship were ill equipped for fighting, more of less they looked like living ships, designed to house people.
They considered the xenos desperate and stupid to wage war like this, but even their numbers depleted as they lost nearly 40% of their ships, mostly newer smaller ones built in this universe, as they had steel mixture and other alloy chassis that could be destroyed by the enemy, the sturdy and strong adamantium ships from the original universe held firm as the three battleships caused genocidal damage on the quarian vessels, their void shields holding strong even as they were hit by thousands upon thousands of various armaments of the Quarians, the sheer scale of these prides of humanity could not be overcome by the bite of a flea. Portside batteries and its crew chewed the smaller quarian vessels as if they were nothing, only problem was they were running out of ammunition, as the scope of the enemy was to much. still the crew fought, the barrels of the battleships were glowing blue from energy overuse, and had to cool down from time to time, lest they risk permanent damage, allowing quarians to take the initiative.
Only one cruiser from the original universe was lost to critical engine overload, namely "Apparatus of Glory", built during the great crusade, this 2.5km long vessel saw many a battle in its time, its weapon batteries were reaching the melting point as it struggled to prevent hundreds of quarian vessels from overwhelming the right flank, his compatriots destroyed one by one as their older brother from original universe still held the flank. It was at this point that admiral Zaal'Koris vas Tutatis, formerly Vas Qwib-Qwib, took his detachment of vessels, some 1300 of of them and overcharging the weapons concentrated fire on the sole defender of the right flank, even as thousands of thanix canons and various quarian custom weapons slammed against the adamantium hull, the Apparatus of Glory charged, its void shields collapsed from the sheer firepower, but its adamantium hull , blessed thrice in the name of Omnissiah and the Emperor held firm and defiantly refused to give in, even as it stuffered catastrophical damage, it fired everything at the enemy closing the distance, its engines reached critical point, but it still sped on.
On the bridge, there was fire, as the systems collapsed one by one, as its crew attempted to hold everything together only the Admiral himself was calm, Pontius Pilates gazed through the glow of fire and thanix batteries at the enemy, still calm, he reflected on his career, from collegia to this day, and he stood up, walked towards the command console even as the bridge was collapsing around him, and decided that to die in the Emperors' name is to die happy, and with that, he knew he lived his life as he should, dedicated to the mankinds glory.
He engaged the vox coms to the semi dead ship, and spoke to its crew. "I have led you through centuries of war, and now our duty is coming to a close, but i would ask one more thing from you, for i know you are all good men" gun servitors and other crew members listened to his words even as they snuffed out fires in the deck compartments and loaded the gun batteries, the techpriests cooling the main engine which was shaking from near critical overload, praying and chanting the litanies of Omnnisiah to calm the engine and soothe the hurt machine spirit of the vessel.
" we are standing as the final messengers of humanity in this damned universe, and it is our duty to defend this flank, should we fail, we have failed not only The Emperor, but our entire species, and damned them to servitude under the xenos." There was an explosion inside the hold and one of the batteries went up in flames, the two crew members held each other, were they lovers, it would never be known, the girl wept tears as she was held by a man, who engaged the burning canon one more time and fired at the enemy, before another barrage of thanix canons vaporized them, they have died smiling together.
"It was my honor fighting with you, and i would never have asked it any other way than to stand with the finest humanity has to offer in defense of our God and our People. Now, let us show that even the dying lion can bite one more time and rip the throat out of the enemy." Saying this he engaged the engines and their dying power. "Ramming speed!" he yelled, as the ship engines increased their power and sped against the enemy, they have caught on fire, the ship was doomed.
He slowly returned to his seat, half of the bridge dead, he sat and gazed as the ship reached the swarm of quarians, and impacted the main vessel smashing it aside, Zaal'Koris could only helplessly watch as the burning ship impacted his own, crushing it under its might and ripping open his command center, the vacum dragged him out, his suit broken and open he died from suffocation.
Entering the swarm, Pontius Pilates closed his eyes, and realized, it was all good. he was at peace for the first time in centuries.
The ship Exploded, and the explosion engulfed many a ships in the swarm, for how can a man die better, than facing fearful odds,for the ashes of his fathers,and the temples of his God.
Then the good news came, the second wave of the quarian ships began retreating towards the relay, following the civilian fleet led by Tali, hunted all the way by the imperial ships . some 18000 ships were escaping, the civilian ships in the second wave lost over 10000 vessels as they were ill prepared and far outgunned by the imperial vessels that launched everything at them
The first wave ships were stuck with over 12000 ships, while losing some 5000 from that number. Still they had the advantage and Admiral Arahi'ler of the Heimat decided to win at all costs, even if it costs him everything.
Battle came to a crawl, and were moved close to the Aurelian Prime, far from the relay as the conflict lasted for few days now
Both fleets were now damaged, running out of ammo, or were simply destroyed. And thus the trap was sprung
The second imperial fleet chasing the other half of the Quarians came under attack, they send messages of a new fleet entering the system, numbering some 400 dedicated warship.
Astropaths exchanged messages, and requested to know if the quarians had reinforcements on the other side.
The answer was negative.
The new enemy engaged both the imperials and the quarians, and the fleet is forced to retreat and circle around, jumping to closest system and using the impulse drives to arrive at Aurelian System, which will take days at best.
And from the Aurelian Relay came 400 new ships, namely Batarian ones, led by Rakoshi, who waited in the nearby system for the right moment to engage both the imperials and the quarians that happened to be in the same system.
The "Atlas"Asteroid was first in their way, it fired its remnant weaponry on the newly arrived enemy, destroying several ships, as its bombers damaged batarian battleships, who were 1km in scale due to the citadel laws preventing the building of bigger ships. Swarms of batarian fighters came from the ship carriers and engaged the imperial pilots, the battle fought around the asteroid that used everything it had before being torn asunder by the Batarian vessels.
Now the Batarians approached the damaged fleets of Quarians and Imperials
The confusion in the leadership of Humans and Quarians was obvious, as some ships ceased to fight amongst each other and turn to meet the new foe.
Batarian fleet, rested and well-armed cut through the quarians like knife through butter, as imperials were forced to flee in the orbit of Aurelian in between the planet and its moon, where they would put their last stand, they slowly retreated all the while attempting to hold of the batarians as much as possible, their ship casualties reached 60% now.
The Quarian fleet broke, much to the dismay and shouting by its Admiral, some attempted to flee towards the relay but were destroyed by the batarians, the rest who were under the direct command of the Supreme Admiral of the Quarians, retreated at the edges of the system, some 5000 of them, as the rest were scattered or destroyed, to regroup and plan their escape.
Now the Batarians could concentrate on the Imperials, they hounded them near Aurelian system, but at that moment, the Relay flared to life yet again.
From it, over 2000 ships appeared.
Batarian war vessels, coated in government colors. Rakoshi was confused and before he could hail them, he received a hail from the newly arrived fleet.
"Hello brother" the main screen in the batarian battleship came to life, it was the Premier Korashi himself.
"Korashi? What the hell are you doing here, what is this?!"Rakoshi screamed
"oh come now, did you seriously thought I was going to trust a lowely pirate such as yourself? I have come personally to take this system and its technology, with it, the Batarian hegemony would rain supreme over the galaxy, your sacrifice is a small price to pay for that. "
"You mean you betrayed me? You filthy dog, I will see you dead for this, you will have to pass my men to get me, and I will rip out your heart and eat it" Rakoshi was mad with rage
"Temper younger brother, did you seriously thought you were ever in control? "
For a moment Rakoshi was dumbstruck , he could only ask "What do you mean? I am in charge! "
"Do you feel in charge? "he simply said and the guards came and grab hold of Rakoshi. "Your men…so easy to buy. Take him away and put him in lockup, I will deal with him later. "
Rakoshi was trashing around while being dragged by 4 batarian guards. "You dog, I will kill you, I will kill you! I will gouge your eyes, I will.." a single hit to the head knocked him unconscious
"Thank you."Korashi said. "Now regroup at the rally point. "
The first batarian fleet stopped pursuing the imperial one and began falling back to the relay, regrouping with the main batarian force of military vessels and troop transports.
The imperial fleet around Aurelian Prime had to fall back and abandon the planet, after much talk among the commanders, they decided to leave the planet and move in the secret hiding spot in the solar system, they needed to repair and restock ammo, and hidden caches around the system will serve just for that. They didn't have to worry, as batarian impulse drives were slower then theirs, now its up to the planetary defenders to last long enough in order to be relieved.
The Astartes deployed over half of the space marines on their flagship onto the planet; they would prove invaluable in the upcoming invasion.
The Planet is left on its own, with its few defensive satellites and installations it was now open.
Over 2000 batarian ships were now moving towards the planet, it satellites and defensive installations have shown resistance, but were swept away by the overwhelming batarian firepower.
Planetary anti-space canons came to life and opened fire, at the same time from the moon of Aurelian prime, rocket barrages scared its surface as the nuclear and other warheads sped towards the batarian fleets destroying some ships but without causing significant damage, this was no migrant fleet with its civilian ships, this was a war host of the batarians, and they have come to win.
As the batarian bombardment occurred and began destroying the installation of both the moon and Aurelian prime, they deployed thousands upon thousands of troop transports and other carriers, their numbers darkened the skies of this Fortress world, the space battle for Aurelian System ended inconclusively.
The Ground war for Aurelian Prime has just begun.