Chapter 11 : The Imperium Rising

"Blessed be the machine spirit for giving my hand a steady grip as I retell the stories of the Universal Crusade, blessing of the Emperor upon those who read it and understand that what we did was necessary for the preservation of humankind.

It is why I will continue telling these tales, for I was there at the beginning, and I am here now, at the end at the precipice of our destiny.

There were many individual tales upon Aurelian Prime and its land war, so much that I would spend months writing about them."

The author looks behind him as if searching for something or someone then pushes his pen into an ink bottle and continues writing

"my mind now turns to the space battle that occurred during the Aurelian Great War, as it will be a deciding moment in the batarian-imperial war.

The Imperium was never at their weakest as they were then…or now. But my mind wanders; I will continue the tales and events of the space conflicts that happened during the times of calamity. my desire to speak about individual events will take precedence, for some are highly deserving of their mentioning. And so by the Emperor, let their tales be known…"

5 years and 6 months before the land war victory on the Aurelian Prime.

It was chaos on the imperial ships, losing many vessels while fighting a huge xenos force was hard enough, but then the xenos received 2000 more reinforcements, different ship designs, but they were tough enough, and so the imperials had to retreat.

The imperial ships were faster, and so they retreated into hidden places amongst the asteroids, and other vantage points unknown to the enemy in order to repair and refit in preparation of a new conflict.

But the planet was now under horrible danger, and so there was a huge debate amongst the admirals.

On the bridge of the " Vengeance of Dushan" of the space marine chapter White Eagles, various admirals and their holograms flickered into existence, only the battle brother Tarquin stood in the flesh waiting for the first admiral to speak, and he did.

"We have never assumed the xenos would come together so fast and in such great numbers" spoke Admiral Marko of the Amicus, as if retelling the story "were our ships not so advanced compared to the primitive vessels of the xenos, we would have been destroyed, only our courage and the Emperor's blessing allowed us to retreat without suffering worse casualties. Our 110 fleet is now reduced to 55 vessels, many of whom are badly damaged, our brothers now on the other side have to circle around in order to reach the system, all in all we have 90 combat vessels against the 2000 dedicated war ships of the xenos host, and worst yet, thousands more remain from the other xenos faction, now hiding all over the system. Situation is dire brothers, let us speak of our options, who will have the next word?"

"I will" his hand raised, admiral Megnio of the Tanutuva spoke, other admirals silently observing his desire to speak.

"Situation, while critical, might have a good event occurring." He said. "The new xenos war host engaged the previous one in battle, both causing each other great damage, we should assume the xenos are not united in this mission, for we consider they might all be after us individually. Were we to engage them, we should seek to antagonize both our foes against each other, let them drain their power so we can have easier time slaughtering them." He finished

Other admirals verbally and non-verbally agreeing.

"But what of the Aurelian?" Admiral Mannerheim of the Finska spoke. " The planet is now abandoned, we risk the xenos fleet bombing the planet into oblivion, crippling our war effort tremendously."

"The enemy has no intentions of that dear comrade" Megnio responded. "For they have been deploying ground troops in massive quantities, their attempts to weaken the planet involved bombing Aurelian prime city, which shrugged off this pathetic excuse for a bombardment easily. It would seem our enemy will take the planet with conventional means. "

"We can use this." Mannerheim continued. " If the enemy is concentrating on conquest, we should use this respite in repair and retrofitting, in time our brothers from the other relay will arrive through slower means here, making our fleet 90 vessels strong. Not to mention the mechanicus is using every resource in Indomitus to construct more vessels for us. According to astropath messages they will have new ships within 5 years, some 50 of them."

"Bah, I assume they will be of low quality as all of them before." Megnio spoke. " All of the ship casualties that happened were from these new ships, let us face it, without adamantium we can only look to the quality of our original ships, any new one is just a cannon fodder!"

There was a uproar in the chamber as the admirals leading these new ships stood up and argued with Admiral Megnio, they were outraged over such comparison.

Then the battle brother Tarquin stood, and all was silent as he raised his right hand. His voice began, strong as a lion, yet could move the worlds with words alone, helmet vox enhancing it further.

"Admirals, I would have peace, for we are all together in this. We are the leaders of mankind in this universe, and from our decisions rest the future of humankind, would you act differently than as leaders of men?"

Other admirals were silently listening, almost as if in shame over their previous outburst.

"We will transmit a message to Aurelian, the land war must be prolonged, buying us time to organize a proper counter attack and drive the xenos from our homeland.

In the meantime we will launch raiding attempts, their ships will attempt to harvest helium from the Aurelian Sun and use it as fuel, we will disturb any and all means of them harvesting it, their movements in the system will be stalked, and when vulnerable they will be struck.

We will use war of attrition and make our enemy pay for ever arriving here. We must repair and give our men rest as they have fought a space battle for days.

Then we will raid the enemy constantly, one ship at the time, they will be depleted, but be warned, I suggest ignoring the other xenos fleet hiding in the asteroids, we must concentrate on disturbing Aurelian invasion as much as possible, making time for our brothers to arrive.

I hold no illusions that this will end in death of millions of humans, even the deaths of my brothers, who are well aware of their mission, for we must hold back our most potent weapons, should we win the war on the ground too fast, the enemy fleet will simply bomb everything on the planet, using Emperor knows what weapons to make it uninhabitable, and our men will starve there as a result."

The Admirals were silent as they listened to the words of the marine

"we will bait the enemy, and the bait will be our lives. But through our sacrifice will we achieve victory. We know our duty, and we will do it. The long war begins now.

Do you have any comment on our situation fellow admirals" he said as he gazed at all admirals, who remained silent.

"Good, return to your posts, we have a war to win."

And so the admirals began the long preparation for war, the ships were repaired in isolated parts of the system which the enemy could not locate at first. Batarian patrols circulated through the system searching for both Quarians and the Imperials, at first, confident in their power, they went in smaller numbers, thinking that because they have beaten the imperials easily, they would do so again, unknowing or ignorant that the quarians made imperials tired and weary first.

And so they were hunted down and eliminated by vengeful humans, their crewmen were taken captive, in one particular case, a batarian admiral, so eager in proving himself to the hegemony took command of 80 ships and set on after a signal emanating from a damaged imperial ship in a now metal ring from the destroyed quarian ships orbiting one of the dead planets of Aurelian System, desiring to take it and and if possible acquire technology to prove himself to the supreme leader.

Disregarding caution, he surrounded the dormant vessel 800(0.5miles) meters in size and sent his best marines to board it. The violent docking proceeded without much trouble.

The Insides of the imperial ship were silent and dark, the power was out.

Advancing slowly the batarians were wondering, was the ship empty, or was this a trap? Hence they advanced carefully.

They entered a big gothic hall, with a saintly statue at its center with angel wings, long hair, and a single tear on his left cheek, behind the altar was a giant in red blue and white colors, his helmet a human skeletal head.

The batarians swarmed inside the giant cathedral and pointed their weapons at the marine, making a semi-circle, intent on capture, who unfazed by them, opened the book on the altar and began reading. The voice of a chaplain strong and radiant inside what seemed to be a site of prayer.

"For it was known, at the moment of truth, that our Father, the Emperor stood and fought the arch heretic, and lo did his broken son, his angel wings bloodied and battered, at his knees issued a silent plea to his father

"Father" he spoke "was it not for the fate of man that you would do this? Was it not for the souls of many that you would forsake your own? For it was our love that forged the imperium, is our love enough to hold it united?"

The angel was no more, his blue eyes void of the gentle soul that once inhabited them.

At this did the Emperor, in his most holy wisdom, decided the Imperium takes precedence over his own soul. And with his will alone, vanquished his fallen son and his patron daemons.

And so the heavens wept, and his will was done.

It is in his name, and his sacrifice that we do what is in our nature, protecting his flock, for the book of saints say that unto the Emperor all shall be done, and Unto his holy will shall we trust!"

Batarians were close to the podium now, the gentle flickering of the candles inside the hall being the only illumination, their glow making the shadows dance.

The chaplain closed the book.

"His will is ever present, and his judgment…"

From the shadows of the cathedral, silhouettes were moving carrying big ceremonial swords all around the Batarians, who were now realizing they were getting surrounded.

"…is now upon you." The chaplain finished as the horrified Batarians stared at him unable to act.

And as if a gust of wind blew through the great hall, candles died, and instead of a silent prayer, screams of horror from the Batarians could be heard, as the marines did their holy work.

On the batarian ship, there was now panic, they were locked with the imperial ship that turned on its power and magnetically locked the main Batarian ship with its own.

From around them other imperial ships appeared, their power on minimal, they silently cruised towards the Batarian fleet while they were preoccupied with docking. Powering up quickly they aimed their weapons at the Batarian fleet.

Now the imperial side batteries and lances pierced the unprepared Batarians, the glorious blue beams of light eating through the hull and xenos life forms, venting the atmosphere as they entered on one side of the hull and exited through another.

The main Batarian ship attempted to detach and take control of the situation in vain as it was now counter boarded, marines swarming through the decks bent on capturing its admiral.

Batarian admiral was losing his nerves, and issued orders to engage the intruders, they attempted to organize the defense in the docking bay, the doors simply giving way as they were cut by a power claw. Opening fire at the enemy boarding them, Batarians were shocked to see the enemy was unphased by their fire on them, their shields flickering as they took bullets as if nothing, the space marine terminators were bent on taking this ship and were marching slowly against their enemies.

Batarians panicked and began to retreat as the Assault canon began whirring from one marine who held it pointed against its cowardly foe, its lethal payload turning Batarian troopers into mincemeat, the cannons bullets chewing through Batarian personal armor as it wasn't there.

They continued towards the bridge, killing anyone foolish enough to try and stop them.

Batarian engineers were using their omni tools to seal the doors, on the main bridge the tension was high as they heard hard and heavy steps marching to the doors.

There was a bright flash as the marines broke inside, doors melted from plasma discharge, the scant few guards proving to be no use, as one giant terminator simply divided the nearest Batarian in two with his power sword, the rest simply threw their weapons away and prayed for mercy.

The marines entered the main bridge, some 6 of them. Their leader speaking

"Who is the leader here?"

Batarian admiral, mortified, stood up from his chair assembling his courage, or what remained of it, said "I am."

The marine simply said. "Good."

The main bridge erupted into violence again, as the terminators slaughtered everyone before they could raise their weapons to fight back, only admiral remained.

"we hereby present an invitation to you admiral, it would be impolite to refuse us." The marine spoke as he approached the admiral, his heavy boots cracking the corpses beneath him as if they were grapes. He now stood directly above admiral, dwarfing him easily by 2 meters.

"I assume refusal is not an option?" his fear so great he spoke nonsense.

"No." was the simple answer the marine gave. "move." was the second.

The Batarian admiral went to the imperial ship which was now active and alive with servitors and crewmen running about, some standing simply to gaze with unmatched hatred at him.

They entered a room with a chair made for lying down on it, in it several humans were moving about, and only one stood next to a chair, his smile unmoving from the moment he entered.

The admiral could see the human twitch, it had a helmet on it covering its eyes only its mouth was visible, it held a staff and was dressed in a long robe, and he felt nauseous just by being next to it. The admiral didn't know what a psyker is.

Human guardsmen pointed weapons at him and ordered him to strip down to his underwear, he obeyed as he had no other options.

Two humans then grasped him by the arms and placed him on the chair, locking him in. as he attempted a struggle.

The psyker stood above him and spoke.

"You will….speak. hmm, yes, speak. All we want to know. The plans, the numbers…all of it. Speak, yes, you will."

The Psyker spoke, his voice as if in pain, he twitched slightly as he finished and giggled a bit.

The admiral gathered his courage and said. "I will not, i am no stranger to pain, you will hear no word come out of my mouth."

The psyker twitched a bit, laughed silently before hovering over the admiral, his smile never ceasing.

"Words? No need for words…haha, no need."

"what do you mean…" the Batarian tried to speak as the psykers finger touched his forehead

And then the mind of a psyker invaded that of a Batarian one, digging through every memory he had as he screamed in ungodly pitch that put shivers in the spines of the present humans.

The lights in the room flickered as warp borne power of the psyker were put to action, the psyker's silent laugh increased in volume compared to the screams of the Batarian, before he stopped the mind invasion the Batarian screams died sooner than the laughter of a psyker, who as if through a great effort collected himself and controlled his laughter to a small giggle, and proceeded to leave the room.

The humans inside went to the Batarian who had blood flowing from all orifices, they noticed he soiled himself from pain, still twitching, they saw he was still alive, but the procedure rendered him little more than a plant.

Single guardsman took his las pistol and put it out of its misery. His body was ejected through the void lock and into space soon thereafter.

As the psyker dug through the mind of the xenos admiral he learned many secrets. They now knew the plot of the batarians, for the admirals brain provided more than they could have hoped for.

The other xenos enemies are called Quarians, and they too were used in an insidious plot, for the enemy sought imperial technology in order to take vengeance on other xenos foes. But from this came relief, for they knew the quarians were fooled, still the imperials made their mind that any such transgression would be punished in blood, regardless of intention.

Some admirals debated sending the message to quarians and asking for a ceasefire. But without knowing where the fleet is, and the manner of delivering the message, it was swiftly discarded. Then again, cooperating with xenos is highly frowned upon, and not befitting an admiral of the Imperial Navy.

And so days and months passed as the imperial navy played cat and mouse game all the while maintaining connection with the stranded fleet, the mechanicus shipyard on indomitus, and the Aurelian ground troops. Batarian communication jammers were useless in stopping them, as the humans used astropaths, who were bred and cloned on Indomitus as their numbers were few in this universe, same with any other special human, like the navigator or the psyker. All were put through a special program to increase their numbers as much as possible.

The ground troops reported the enemy was inexperienced with waging such apocalyptic wars, their first tank bout turned horrible for the batarians, pleads to take the fight to the enemy were made, and fell on deaf ears, for their blood was a grain of sand in the hourglass of time, and they needed to hold the line and status quo for unknown amount of time.

The batarian fleet was getting cautious dozens of ship casualties resulted in bigger patrols, whom were also attacked by the imperium, and so the batarians after losing near 450 ships in few years learned to avoid certain areas of the system, for they were the prey there, the imperium ships were faster, and had longer range weapons, by the time batarians approached and scathed the shields or did minor damage, they would lose dozens of ships.

Their only hope was in full fleet engagement, which the Imperials refused to give.

Batarian fleet admirals debated the necessity to take the entire fleet to such points in the system and crush the opposition, but conflicting opinions prevented any meaningful action taken, for should the Batarians move away from the planet and into pursuit, they feared the imperium would return and destroy their ground troops, rendering the entire operation pointless. And so they sent patrols and established space supremacy somewhat, but the main fleet moved only from Aurelian Prime planet and its moon and the relay, nowhere else were they patrolling, only the most critical points were defended.

The siege lasted for far longer than it was expected, and soon various reports from Batarian homeworld began spreading to the fleet. Words of an AI developed by the Batarian scientists in order to assist in the war effort circulated among the high ranking officers, various testing phases of said AI in military purposes commenced 2 years ago, with manufacturing well under way. The further reports were missing. In general all the information stopped coming from Batarian Homeworld, this caused significant concern to the officers, and even the soldiers who stopped communication with their loved ones.

The Batarian government was well known for their secrecy, the soldiers paid little heed to it. But the officers were concerned and debated the necessity for this campaign. All of the critics and debates were silenced by the Premier on board the fleet, he would have no dissent when there was a war to be won.

Attempts to send a ship to check on the Batarian homeworld proved useless as there was an imperial ship on the other side of the relay hunting any who sought to pass. Desires to remove said ship from the premises was declined out of sheer fear that splitting their forces would make their position too weak to defend.

And so the Batarians were left with two options, stay and win the war at any cost, or retreat and suffer shame. And premier Korashi refused to retreat, knowing that wasting so much material and manpower without anything to gain would result in his execution after his return to Khar'Shan.

The Batarians are now committed until the end.

In the Asteroid fields The quarian fleet regrouped and began licking their wounds, many hails were organized to assemble all the ships within the range of the Quarian Flagship "Heimat".

Near 4000 Ships assembled once more, the rest either fled or were destroyed, so from the first wave ships of 12 000 vessels, only 4000 could be considered alive, with constant arrival of the ships which fled in all directions, returning to the flock in search of leadership and guidance.

The outrage from the quarian admirals against their ruler was immense, only Arahi'Ler survived, his sub admirals died in the battle against the imperials and the Batarians. The minor officers attempted a coup, but were surprisingly stopped by the Brown Masks of the Arahi'Ler along with the people of the flotilla who, even after such massive losses in manpower and ships ,loved their leader who gave them hope for the better future.

The rebelling officers were imprisoned and awaited further punishment as Arahi'Ler decided his options, fleeing towards the relay was seen as impossible as the Batarians guarded it and prevented any sort of escape from the system.

So the leader of the quarians did what no other leader in their history did, commenced reformations and various laws while the fleet hid and repaired their ships. They couldn't upgrade the ships with newer weapons for now, but various civil laws encouraged massive birth rates that the stressed and morally broke quarians gladly took upon themselves, the initial vaccine that was years in development proved effective as quarian immune system began to vastly improve. Allowing the Quarian females to give birth to healthy babies which began developing a strong immunity to various diseases, much to the joy of the now adoring Quarians towards their leader which cares for them so much.

On the personal note Arahi'Ler gave himself absolute power, he was now sole Leader of the Quarians. His word was now Law. The objections were not present amongst the quarians, who knew this spelled the end of their old way of life and the beginning of a newer one.

Personality cult revolving around him exploded in the years following the fleet's isolation and in hiding from the Batarian and the imperials. In the eyes of the Quarians their leader has led them on the single biggest crusade against the enemies of the flotilla, and he alone will lead them to salvation, punish the traitorous Tali'Zorah and Reestablish the new Quarian Reich, spanning the galaxy.

Such was patriotic fervor that some quarians dreamt of the moment they can take revenge on both the Imperium and the Batarian hegemony which caused it much pain.

In the time they had now on their hand, they repaired their ships, and attempted to make bigger and sturdier vessels by cannibalizing the smaller older ships, making few ships of up to 2 kilometers in size by increasing their hull thickness and literally sawing cannibalized materials from smaller ships onto the capital ones, a real feat that was used to its fullest extent for propaganda services by the new Quarian Socialist Reich Partei.

Quarians extracted revenge upon the Batarian ships that sought to gather materials from the Asteroid fields, the initial Batarian siege of the system was careless and unprepared, they thought they have already won, and acted that way. They were thus proved wrong by both the angry Quarians and Vengeful Imperials.

The quarian flotilla began replenishing their numbers in the years of their waiting in the system, it was not widely known amongst the galactic races that the quarians grew on a faster rate than their follow bipedal races. Namely at the age of 5, the child is already stepping in his or hers 15th year by human standards, and by age of 8 the Quarian child was considered a near adult, only few years away from reproduction capabilities.

By the end of the Aurelian siege, the Quarian flotilla had numerous near adults of the quarian race that were taught from young age to be devoted to the leader and the quarian reich. Taught to wage war and be loyal to the death, serving their own people, these new Quarians were seen by Arahi'Ler as the future of the Quarian race, a much better race than they were, one that will inherit the universe.

It was hard to imagine Quarians now as the space nomads they started with, since the rule of Arahi'Ler, they have turned from a race without cause or purpose to one that was constantly militarizing, various military organization and youth groups were formed, dedicated to war against their own enemies, seeking new ways to fight and win against the Geth, the Batarians, and and all who would seek to destroy them. These "New Quarians" were now a driving force in the political and social life on the flotilla. Luck was once more on the side of the Arahi'Ler, for his admiral rivals were dead, the officers imprisoned, and his people now truly united under a singular rulership. His.

He wasn't idling all these years, he kept a careful watch on the Batarian siege, and saw the imperials still waging a war of attrition, he considered what the Batarians did, to wait until they have both depleted themselves and then crush both the imperials and the Batarians. But such thoughts did not come to him gladly, for he was a soldier, and that was beneath him, for the imperials were not fighting his fleet in a cowardly way, but directly and honorably.

His new cadre of a gifted New Quarians proved skilled, their destruction of the Batarian patrols by their hands was seen as an impressive feat of void warfare, and the new tactics named VoidKrieg. a military tactic proving that fast and powerful surgical strikes against the weakest parts of the enemy fleet will shatter it and allow a swift victory. Much akin to what the Imperials were using, albeit a bit more civilly implemented.

He was now considering a counter strike against the Batarians, which in the years since the beginning of the siege lost some 700 ships according to his intelligence. Both by the Imperial and their own hands. From the original 2400 ships of the Batarian armada, later reinforced by 300 newer ones from the Batarian homeworld. now only less than 2000 remained against his 4500, but he had to take into the account the Imperials who might be waiting for them to make the wrong move, waiting for him to exhaust himself against the Batarians and then crushing both of them at once. He was thus reluctant to engage the Batarians in any meaningful and big way, only using voidkrieg tactics to destroy isolated fleet pockets over the months.

He avoided Imperial ships constantly, knowing what they were able to do, and they have done the same. It wasn't a ceasefire, but it was a sort of a silent agreement that they will not attack so long as the Arahi'Ler isn't attacking, and this silent agreement worked, At least for now.

Then their moment came, Arahi'ler and the Quarian fleet saw that another small fleet came from the relay, some 60 ships and were seeking to go to a certain point in the system. They were now hunted by the entire Batarian fleet which abandoned the system. He realized the imperium was making a move, the time for waiting has run out. His newer scans showed the approximate number of a 100 imperial ships moving to combine with the new arrivals. And before the Batarians could stop that from happening, the superior engines of the Imperial ships helped, and the fleets united, and engaged the Batarian armada in open space.

This was his moment, he ordered the Entire Quarian fleet to move and March towards the new space battle happening. He couldn't wait a moment more. This was the time to break out of the system, and take revenge at the same time.

So the 4500 Quarian Ships were now on the move for the first time in 5 years.

Meanwhile on the Batarian ships, prior to a new space battle, everything was filled with tension, the Batarian land commanders were issuing cries for help as the Imperium launched the ground offensive and was now cornering the Batarian invasion force in the south part of the continent, should they do nothing, the Imperials will exterminate them.

It took much time convincing the Premier Korashi to utilize full scale orbital bombardment, damned be the planet to hell, they were about to lose it all.

His nerve was tested, as bombing the planet would ruin all chances of him returning as the true victor. He thought of all that happened, him coming to this system filled with conquerors vigour, happy to bring his state much needed tech to utilize in their pursuit of galactic dominion. He dreamt to expand his power, and perhaps…just perhaps, his victory would be so great he would overtake the place of the leader of the Batarian Hegemony. He dreamt even as his vision collapsed around him.

The reality was painful, and he was mad beyond belief, and ordered the imperial forces glassed, he knew he was a goner, but if he could secure the remnant tech, he might at least preserve the head on his shoulders. And as the Batarian fleet gathered above the southern hemisphere, peppered by the Anti-Space batteries from Aurelian Prime City. they began calculating the orbital bombardment.

Before they could calculate and initiate bombardment, their proximity alarms rang, another fleet warped into the system. About 60 new ships came, gold coated and 1km in size, led by a veritable titan designed in this universe, 3km in size goliath named "Purification of Aurelian" in expectation of the battle for liberation of this system. Baring many weapons from their portside, and their freshly constructed laser weaponry glowing from the Aurelian sol's rays. They were the Imperial fleet from Indomitus relay, smashing dozens of Batarian patrol ships that guarded it aside as if nothing; they have come to drive away the xenos pest from their system.

The prime imperial fleet noticed and began moving towards the designated rendezvous zone, the crew from these ships cheering, knowing their moment of revenge was at hand, the engines fired up, and a wild race began in the same moment the ships from the Indomitus system came. The newly arrived ships, after swiftly crushing the Batarian patrol, engaged their engines to meet up with the larger imperial fleet.

They were chased by the Batarian fleet in its entirety, led on by the now half insane Korashi, they abandoned the planetary orbit and began their chase.

But their engines were just not fast enough and the Imperial vessels united scant 30 minutes before they engaged them.

150 imperial vessels now stood defiantly against the 2000 strong Batarian war host. Not waiting a moment, the imperial ships ordered the charge, the Flagship of the White Eagles in front, leading the charge. And thus the battle was engaged, the laser weapons fought against the thanix canons and the other Batarian numerous weaponry, this was the cream crop of the Batarian navy, over 800 ships were 1km in size and they attempted to carry the brunt of the battle. And thus did Aurelian receive another bloody battle that illuminated the skies of the planet even from the distance the battle was occurring.

The nova canon of the Space Marine flagship inflicted horrendous damage on the enemy, which had no shielding to protect them from such a powerful weapon.

Carriers released their fighters and bombers, which danced around each other flying over and under the titanic ships engaged in a mortal kombat.

The finest of the space marine pilots flying their own fighters leading the squad of their mortal human compatriots into the numerous Batarians that outnumbered them 4 to 1 in fighter quantity.

The imperial fighter crafts were sturdy and could take punishment from the rapid firing but rather weak fighter weaponry of their enemies, but the powerful las weapons of the fighter crafts of the imperium overloaded the shields of their enemy upon impact and frying the Batarian pilot inside as the engines instantly overheated and vented plasma in all sides out of critical failure.

The newer ships that arrived from indomitus proved sturdier than the original first designed models. Their hulls were thicker as the imperial shipyard expanded in the years since the first arrival, the militarization at which the mechanicus was capable was astounding, entire servitor legions were just solely concentrated on materials for the ships, the mechanicus found the most gifted of their human population and inducted them into the brotherhood teaching them the way of Adeptus Mechanicus, their skills were invaluable to the improving quality of the ships, for the novices knew about sophisticated ship building techniques in this universe, and after sanctifying their ideas in the name of Omnissiah applied them to the newer ships, improving their weapons and hulls.

The older priests protested, but rather silently as they knew they needed everything in order to win in a war of apocalyptic proportions.

And so for 5 years did they build ships while the population of Indomitus grew and the population of Aurelian died. Deciding they have waited enough after the information from the Imperial fleet in Aurelian system warned them the Aurelian population was near extinction, they have sent their 60 made ships into the battle, blessing them thrice before their flight. Almost 70% of the priesthood would have to board these ships and maintain them in war, only the oldest and wisest of priesthood remaining, their wisdom needed to teach the newer generations in the ways of Adeptus Mechanicus.

The battle in Aurelian system was more viscous than the first battle between imperials and quarians, first generation imperial ships built in this universe were being badly damaged by the Batarian navy, but the Second Gen ships that just arrived held their ground far better, and once again, even with obvious imperial superiority the battlefield was nearing a draw, with casualties mounting on both sides.

It was at this moment that the stalemate was interrupted by the approaching Quarian ships who were ready for war, the Imperials cursed the opportunistic xenos even as they attempted to redirect their Second Gen ships into the battle formation to block their right flank from the coming Quarians.

In their minds it would seem the Xenos came for blood of the imperials, and were determined to fight this time until the last man.

The Batarians were confused to the arrival of the Quarians, they thought they would remain in hiding for the duration of the battle or simply escape from the system, but their appearance disturbed them to say the least, they expected them to engage both their own and the imperial fleet at the same time, but their surprise turned to horror as the Quarian ships opened fire.

And only upon the Batarian ships, ignoring the imperial ones.

The imperial admirals were taken back by the decisions of the Quarian fleet, not knowing what they were doing; they saw the quarians fighting the Batarian flank exclusively, not firing against the Imperial vessels. not intent on opening the fire against the new enemy that didn't engage them, the Imperial vessels pushed even harder on the Batarians along with the newly arrived quarians led by the Heimat which fired its Quarian pattern energy canons against the Batarian vessels.

The battle was now turning against the Batarians with the situation rapidly deteriorating, and as the casualties mounted, Korashi saw the writing on the wall. They would lose.

The overwhelming pressure of the two combined fleets was to much even against the Batarians that put a strong resistance. But ship by ship, they were destroyed by the Angry Quarians and Imperials, who helped each other in the battlefield out of necessity, when the Batarian ship was near destroying the quarian ship, an imperial cruiser would fire its lance and intercept the killing blow, badly damaging the Batarian ship, which in turn was killed by the Quarian ship's guns which recovered in the meantime, and as the swarms of figher pilots attempted to overrun the imperial ships, swarms of quarian fighters returned the favour and distracted the swarm allowing the ship to get away and launch its own anti fighter weapons, it was an unholy alliance born out of necessity, and it was enough to spark the hope in both imperials and quarians in the final victory.

The battle lasted for an entire day, and the night brought an incredible lightshow to the planet Aurelian Prime, the night was coloured in explosions and laser weapons as they traveled across the starry skies. The faithful never stopped praying even as they fell exhausted, tired and dehydrated, they believed their faith was only thing keeping the human ships fighting, and only through prayer would they win.

The Batarian fleet was cracking, and it was obvious the ruin was near. On the collapsing flagship of the Batarian fleet, that drew its ire from both the Heimat, the flagship of the quarians, and Vengeance of Dushan the flagship of the Imperials.

Korashi sped to the escape pods as many in his fleet attempted to disengage and head to the relay. He was running as the ship was burning accompanied by his people's guard. Then there was an explosion and the debris filled the corridor, separating the premier and his bodyguard.

"Comrade Premier! Are you alright!?" one of the guardsmen yelled towards the debris in attempts to reach his premier.

"Cough, no time to waste comrades, I am fine, head to the escape shuttles, I will meet you there!" Korashi responded to his guard.

And so he ran, his lungs hurting from running but he knew time was running out, even as the ship collapsed around himself.

He reached the escape pod, but his guards were not there, the way they should have come from was burning, and they would take too long to get here in time by going around, tough luck he thought to himself, and began typing to open the escape pod doors.

A hand on his shoulder stopped him, turning him around and punching him in the face, before he can see his attacker he was thrown away on the opposite side from the escape pod impacting the wall.

As he tried to stand up, a kick to his sides brought him down on the ground again; he coughed from the impact, and looked above.

"Did you miss me…brother?"

"Rakoshi?" the premier weakly asked

Another kick to the ribs silenced him. Forcing him to the ground in pain.

"You should have kept the guards at the door…" Rakoshi spoke "the power died down, a fatal flow as the gates were no longer magnetically sealed."

He grabbed the hurt premier and lifted him up.

"You would leave me to die here brother? Hah, but of course you would…"

"Rakoshi there is no need for this, cough" the blood dripping onto his gold coated uniform "we can both get out of here, together"

"ah, I wasn't aware you were capable of such brotherly love. I guess I was mistaken about you?"

He then impacted the head of the premier with his forehead, breaking his nose. And threw him again to the ground.

"agh…Rakoshi, wait…I will pay you, you can have everything!"

"I already do have everything brother, but I do miss our little talks in the jail cell, in which you visited me weekly for some brotherly torturing." His face was scared horribly, as the alarm lights were blinking and illuminating his face for brief moments.

"Please… Don't do this.." the premier spoke as he grasped a hidden pistol on his belt and quickly pointed it towards rakoshi a bullet was sent flying moments later piercing Rakoshi's shoulder, who before his brother could fire again jumped on top of him.

They brawled for a time, fist meeting fist, as they fought.

"I should have killed your whore mother when I had the chance, our bastard father never could keep it in his pants!" the premier shouted as they were grappling, both bleeding

"That wouldn't help the fact that not even our father could love a shitstain such as yourself." He punched Korashi in the face, "he loved calling you a mistake!" Rakoshi said to him

"Motherfucker!" the premier kicked him with the knee.

The grappling was getting viscous as Rakoshi used his leg and launched his brother over him from the lying position and sent him flying to one of the open escape pod gates, that opened in the meantime as they were fighting, the impact from Premiers body triggering the emergency launch.

Unlucky for him the gates began closing insanely fast and caught his legs just below the knees. He shouted upon the realization and the suffering he felt, and second later magnetic doors sealed shut and launched the empty pod away, along with Premiers legs. Who yelled in excruciating pain and suffering.

He was in such pain that he was shaking and grasping his head from unimaginable and mind shattering trauma, never ceasing his howls.

Rakoshi stood up grasping his left side of the chest, premiers knee breaking a few ribs. He came closer to what remained of his still alive brother.

"Let me help you…brother"

He sat down fast, and grasped his brother behind the neck in a choke hold. The screams were silenced as the oxygen was deprived to him.

" I told you i will have your head for your treason…" Rakoshi spoke as the premier struggled to escape his grasp.

"we haven't the time for what I attempted to do to you…but I will make it quick at least"

"ba-sta-ggh-rd" premier spited words while still gripped hard.

"snake until the end." Rakoshi spoke, and violently snapped the neck of the premier, whose body went limp in his grasp. He tossed it violently to the side almost in disgust; he crawled to his dead brother and ripped a single medal from his chest. "That was mine you thieving bastard…father left that to me, not to you."

He stood up while holding the medal like object that fathers leave to their sons upon the death, as was tradition in Batarian hegemony.

He came to his senses as he saw the ship collapsing, and entered a pod , attaching security belt, he pressed the button and the doors closed, In moments before the launch he saw the lifeless body of his brother, his eyes open and gazing at him.

"Goodbye…brother" he spoke, and the pod was launched away, as the pod flew faster and faster, he could see the Quarian and Imperial ship cutting through the hull with their energy weapons, even as the escape pods were launched from it. and not a minute later the ship exploded, taking any and all hope of Batarians for victory.

He used his omnigel, and patched his shoulder, but the blood loss was getting to him, and he slowly drifted to unconscience. His pod aiming for the nearest relay.

After losing their leadership, the rest of the Batarian fleet was disorganized, and was easy prey for the unwitting coalition of Imperials and Quarians.

Scant few barely escaping with their lives, the Batarians lost the war, and near entirety of their fleet. The victory was total for both the Quarians and Imperials.

And now the two former enemies gazed at each other, nobody desiring to fire first, the tension was palapable as the imperial gunners were itching to resume conflict with their original foes.

But the Supreme Admiral Tiberius stopped the engagement, as much as he would like to fight he desired to know what caused this sudden change in attitude, and attempted to hail the Quarians via his vox frequencies, for solid two minutes there was no response as the quarians found a way to connect with them on this unknown frequency. This two minutes felt like an eternity as both fleets drifted against one another, ready to fight, but before that something happened...

The vox screen came to life and two former enemies saw each other. On one side Supreme Admiral Gaius Tiberius Iulianus, and on the other Leader Arahi'Ler vas Heimat.

After years of conflict, they translated each other's language, the low gothic of the Imperials and the Quarian dialect was now known to each other and the translators were running, but both recipients were unwilling to speak at first glance.

Tiberius, being the representative of the entire Imperium took pride in his act, and spoke first.

"I am Gaius Tiberius Iulianus, supreme Admiral of the Imperial Navy, chosen by the Imperial leadership and the God Emperor himself as his representative in this dialogue. I speak in the name of the Imperium of Man. With whom am i speaking?" he concluded, his voice being that of a veteran of centuries of war and an eloquent diplomat.

On the other side, the leader of quarians didn't wore his mask, he would not hide his face when meeting with his biggest enemy. He spoke as well.

"I am Leader Arahi'Ler vas Heimat, of the Quarian Reich. Chosen by my people to represent them in both matters of war and peace, and I would end the hostility between our peoples."

Upon those words the imperial bridge was in an uproar, as admirals saw this as a provocation. Tiberius silenced his fellow admirals simply by raising his hand.

"You would have peace after invading us? If you weren't assisting us right now, I would consider your words as mocking the might of the Imperium." Tiberius spoke

"I have realized the enemy we just destroyed together had created an insidious ploy to set our two races against one another; we held no desire in conquering you." Arahi'Ler spoke, his words honeyed without his mask, he was in his 40s by Quarian standards, but his face was young, quite humanlike with purplish skin and pale white hair, his eyes lacked the irises present in humans, being very white.

"Hence why I've decided to make amends, and help your fleet win. It is my way of offering peace, as you are an honorable enemy, unlike that of the Batarians who fought through cowardice."

Tiberius was surprised by the charisma of this xeno, but his words didn't sound false or as lies, he was convinced in his honorable presentation and spoke with his entire heart.

"It is not in Imperium's nature to be in debt to anyone, least of all a xeno. We can have peace, should you leave and never engage us in conflict ever again. You have transgressed upon our land and for this we have fought and waged war, but such conflict ends now with your display of honor. Why were you here in the first place?" Tiberius spoke, gazed upon by his admirals, it was uncommon, almost unacceptable to speak with a member of a xenos race, but still they trusted in Tiberius and his leadership.

"We have searched for a home to call our own, a planet to habitate and live upon; it was the false information of the Batarians that have set us on the course to your planet without any knowledge that it was already owned.

It is why we have also helped you fight; our people suffered enough, but were not filled with desire to contest this planet with you.

We hence will leave you in peace should you allow us to do so."

Tiberius thought for a moment and contemplated the words of this xeno.

"You may go in peace Admiral. Live your lives and leave us to ours, lest we come to conflict again."

"It is what we truly wish, thank you." Arahi'Ler spoke, and nearly disconnected the communication.

Tiberius intercepted him.

"You said you were searching for a planet?"

"Yes, we are." Arahi'ler responded, puzzled a bit.

"We are not ones to be indebted to anyone." He spoke proudly. "Our explorators discovered a habitable planet that might suit you on the other end of the northern part of the galaxy, very far from here. Far from our sights. But perhaps not from yours, it consists of peaceful fauna and harmless flora.

This planet is now yours if you seek to colonize it. And with this, consider our debt paid in full"

Arahi'Ler was taken aback, and was lacking words for a moment, he sought help from the "friendly" citadel races for help and was always denied, and here, he is witnessing his former enemy who cost him in millions of quarian lives, telling him where to find a home for his people. But the eyes of the aging human did not lie, Arahi'Ler would know, he saw many liars and honest people in his life, and his were not the ones, like him, this was a soldier of many wars, and he had no reason to lie.

"Honorable admiral, your gift will be remembered always. You have gifted us with hope most of all things. I thank you." Arahi'Ler said his lips parting into a smile.

"The Imperium never forgets or forgives Leader Arahi, this conflict between us was born out of trickery and not honorably, and as such it should end in peace

It is only Just in this unfair and mad galaxy void of his light." Tiberius said. His admirals looked dumbstruck, but his words were not wrong either, the Imperium is mighty, but it is not without honor.

"Lord Admiral, it was an honor knowing you. The Quarian Reich will not engage in hostilities with the Imperium of Man. We will cherish your gift as we make a home for ourselves."

"Farewell honorable foe, honor and glory to you." Arahi'Ler finished, raising his hand in a symbol equal to roman salutation of the old Earth.

"Farewell Admiral, Honor and Glory to you as well." He finished and made the sign of Aquila on his chest.

The vox line was cut, and Tiberius sat on his chair, silently observed by his admirals, they too realized the logic of this old man, if the fledgling Imperium is to survive, it must not make enemies everywhere it goes, lest it backfires again and takes down the last hope of Mankind in this universe with it.

The Quarian fleet, organized in formations, left the system ship by ship. Watched on by the Imperial Armada, which in its own formation escorted them out of it. Civility ruled the moment as two former enemies departed one from another in peace and without incident.

Then the Quarians were gone, off to make a destiny of their own.

The Humans reached Aurelian, and were welcome by the victorious ground troops, jubilant and happy people sang songs to welcome their saviors; a week-long celebration was organized in the Imperium, as they celebrated the victory over their hated xenos foes, afterwards a swift war rebuilding had to be made, for there was a war to win, and the fleet began organizing, carrying the troopers that could still fight,along with its Titan legion. They desired to take war back to the Batarians, and they were eager to punish the vile xenos for their insult.

But little did the Imperium knew, the Batarians had a problem of their own That reached its critical point in the months before the end of the Aurelian Siege.

The Galaxy will forever be shaken by the events of this Great war, even if they refused to believe in the beginning, the galaxy now knows, the new player has entered the stage with its own act to play.

The Imperium roared its existence to the galaxy, and it shivered at the sound.