Chapter 21: A Giant leap for Mankind
As the fleet traveled relay to relay moving ever south, the companions along with Commander Shepard were on the bridge, discussing more about their situation.
"Commander, tell us more about yourself, I like to know the men I am working with, if you will indulge me" Tiberius told the commander, there was still time until they reached the Emperor's planet and the project on it, and Tiberius wanted to know more about this man whom even the Emperor himself placed great trust.
"I was a part of the defunct alliance programme called N7, a military unit, we were the best of the best.
Afterwards I was a part of the Spectre unit before…I was killed. "
"Killed? You seem very much alive to me." Tiberius smiled at him
"It is all thanks to the Princeps that I live once more.
My ship was destroyed during the expedition in the dark corners of the galaxy. It is there that I have died. Most of the team I served with moved on, but some tried to save me. Cerberus used the finest technologies to bring me back…but it was not enough, there was no salvation for the trauma my body has suffered.
Cerberus, seeing that the project was bound to failure relegated to have my body kept alive, but there was no brain activity, perhaps they hoped the advancements in technology could help, but that day never came.
What happened was that the Princeps made an inquiry to the illusive man in order to secure my body, long before his rise to power. what was the agreement, I do not know.
But after I was under Princep's care, he repaired my damaged body, grafted me with significant cybernetics, and you all know his power and genius; his skills have brought me back. His only request for me was to serve humanity and to be ready for the day reapers arrived, and I was eager to oblige.
He was the only one in the galaxy that truthfully believed we are all threatened outside of my former companions.
And he…showed me what would happen to the galaxy should we fail, much akin to the Prothean beacon did on Eden Prime. "
"How long have you served the Emperor? " Agrippa was curious. He like Shepard understood the threat of the Protheans given to him by his friend Kalmador.
"More than 30 years, coincidently, ever since you first arrived to this galaxy from wherever you all came from. I may not look like my age, but thanks to Genome work of the princeps, I age slower. "
"You are not the only one, most of us here are centenarians, over a hundred years old. " Tiberius pointed to his companions.
"How could that be, you are all humans? " Shepard was confused.
"Well…Most of us anyway. "Tiberius glanced at the Chaplain next to him. "In our lands there were ways to live longer; I see that this place still hasn't caught up technologically to us."
The irony was indeed lost to Tiberius, but he was correct in a way, for all the blessings the Citadel Tech had, it lacked in many other aspects, they have left a void that only centuries of war and millennia of struggle could provide. For the Imperium, the sole advancement required in order for it to survive was bigger guns, and stronger soldiers, which the imperium did not lack in both number and quality.
"This galaxy has much to learn, about the Reapers, and other things which it has no clue about. And time is running short for learning. " Shepard spoke and was lost in thought for a moment. And the Companions decided that time for pleasantries was over, there was a task at hand and they were about to arrive into the system they were going to.
"Commander, this world we are going to, do you know information about it? " Agrippa was curious, the prospect of new technologies was intoxicating, best yet, they were human technologies, made by none other but the Leader of man, this was a once in lifetime opportunity.
"Indeed I do. The planet is tectonically unstable, highly volcanic, but still livable, the research base has humongous thermal generators powering various experiments under greatest secrecy from the rest of the galaxy.
This base has been built the moment you have arrived here. The Princeps felt the need to have an edge over the unknown threat. Your arrival did change things, it caused a stir in the galaxy, it is my assumption that you have bought this galaxy at least 3 decades of respite from the Reapers. For they were ready to invade when I was alive.
The installation also has strong anti-space cannons, many soldiers guarding it, and various armaments to hold against any enemy that mankind might engage. Also the research base itself has a strong shield generator, akin to the incredible technology your ships use, which is powered by energy of the world itself to prevent any attempt at orbital bombardment.
Our mission is to take any and all research done by now, and evacuate all scientist and other personnel. The Princeps has need of them on Earth. "
The conversation was interrupted by the Navigator screaming from the top of his lungs.
"Alert, system arrival inbound! Enemy signatures detected, all crew to stations! "
They jumped into the system and to their dismay; hundreds of reaper capital ships were concentrating their bombardment on the facility whose shield flickered viciously under the merciless attack. Some hunted the hidden orbital stations around the systems which launched terrifying megaton nuclear weapons against the reaper ships.
Sporadic fleet battles were had around the planet, as the systems fleet sought to deny the reapers any ground of clean opportunity to destroy the facility. It was a delaying action at best, and suicidal attempt at stalling at worst.
Others bombarded the planet itself ,if the shield won't give in, then the planet will crack eventually.
Reaper destroyers were landing onto the planet outside the shield and releasing dozens of thousands of reaper land units, geth reaper auxilia and other nightmares in the attempt to storm the shield via land.
"We are late…" Shepard said as he saw the carnage occur all around him.
"Not if I say so myself. Fleet, formation, we are relieving the planet. Land units prepare for disembarking, I want the scientists and the research safely evacuated. "
"Lord Admiral, we have a call from the planet itself" communication officer spoke and played the audio
"Unknown fleet identify yourself, we are engaged with the reaper enemies, it is not safe to be here."
"This is commander Shepard of the SPQT, transmitting my command codes now, we are here for the research and to save you." He tapped quickly on his omni tool, transmitting the codes.
" Commander, we are glad to see you here, our situation is most dire."
"Give me a quick sitrep, we must relieve the pressure around the planet."
"Not few days ago, the reapers entered the system, our fleets commenced a delaying action stalling their advance, but their numbers were far too numerous for this to be a random occasion.
To our dismay we have discovered an indoctrinated agent as he was broadcasting galaxy wide what we were doing here, they must have got him before his arrival to this planet. We have sent a distress call to Earth, Not long after the reapers entered the system.
They have destroyed most stations and ships, they are bombarding our kinetic shields, but it still holds, though I am not sure for how longer, it is after all powered by the entire planet's worth of geothermal energy.
The reapers then resorted to another tactic, they have started to bombard the planet itself, hoping to crack it or cause enough instability to destroy our power. This seems to work, we have few days at best before the planet reaches the point of no return.
We must evacuate, the procedures were well on their way, but the sheer numbers prevent this."
"Understood, secure the data for evacuation, we will engage the reapers, both on the ground and in space." Commander Shepard told the scientist via his communication device.
"Please hurry commander, they are unleashing innumerable ground troops as well, they do not care what they lose, so long as we are destroyed, and our work lost."
"Understood, Shepard out" he ended the talks with the scientist and turned to Tiberius.
"Lord Admiral, I will have to prepare my unit for landing, battle awaits us. "
"Understood Commander, you will be joined by our guardsmen and the space marines led by our friend Chaplain Julius here, I will make sure the fleet makes an opening for you. Good luck"
"You too Lord Admiral" Shepard saluted and went towards the ship cargo bays and his unit, many guardsmen and their mechanical devices were also preparing for landing.
The Transport vessels in the fleet were taking position behind their combat brethren, waiting for an opportune moment to unleash their deadly cargo to the planet.
As the fleet made its approach in battle formation, the Reapers, seeing this new threat abandoned the bombardment of the planet, and took combat position of their own. To the dismay of the Imperial fleet, the Reaper vessels took position directly in front of the planet, so that any stray shot of the Imperial armada would be landing onto the already unstable planet.
The reapers have learnt well about the overwhelming power of the imperial ships and their weapons, they would seek to castrate that ability as much as possible.
They had over 400 capital ships, some 2km long ready for battle, Sovereign class, with immensely powerful main canon and few similar canons of weaker power in their tentacles.
The Reapers, after millions of years of harvesting civilizations which had not the time or resources, or the millennia of constant war which allowed them to perfect their war capabilities, became rather passive in their harvest operations, and did not seek to improve their warships in other ways beyond what they had.
For their main canons could obliterate dreadnoughts of many races with a single shot, and it was so for countless cycles, the machine logic did not consider a necessity to upgrade further, for it thought it was optimal configuration that they already had.
Only several cycles in hundreds of millions of years forced the reapers to adapt, and they have made tools of war that they haven't used in tens of millions of years, due to their power demand and lack of necessity.
They have brought bare to this galaxy all they had now, this cycle was to face the brunt of the One billion years of reaper dominance.
"Bastards." Tiberius angrily murmured
"Lord Admiral, firing any of our armament towards the abominable intelligence would result in catastrophic damage to the planet if it missed. What are your orders?"
"The Enemy taunts us! And they dreadfully underestimate us as well, commence broadside tactic, we will render them to pieces! "
"Affirmative Lord, commencing!" The tactician obliged.
The Imperial fleet then took a new tactical approach. Forming Testudo like formation, with ships of immense broadside capabilities in front, and weakest at the back. They formed what were essentially 5 nails that are supposed to pierce and then after piercing the enemy, open all their broadside weapons at the broken enemy.
The fleet advanced as one, the reapers raised their tentacles and prepared to unleash the first salvo.
Weapons of immense destructive capacity fired at the formation, but the void shields of the imperium were marvel in their own rights, invented during the golden age of humanity where technology was not seen as something to be afraid off. The shields were immensely strong, and only the imperium now knew how to construct them.
The void shields soaked up the damage, for the reapers were not omnipotent, and even they could miss, and what impacted was not enough to cause damage.
One of the 4 cruisers in the tip of the formation was revving its engines, the sheer exhaust was overwhelming. The formation was about to reach its crescendo. They are going to impact against the reaper formation which was getting tighter and tighter for better firing solution against the incoming imperials. The ai does not consider a ramming tactic a smart or logical course of action.
"The Enemy will learn to fear us! Learn to dread our approach, for I fucking want myself to dig deep and dig hard into their black shells, and crack them open like eggs! I want them to spill their bloody innards into the open space, so I can decorate my Cruiser with said guts so that the next son of a bitch that sees my ship will think twice before standing in front of me and blocking my path!
Helmsmen! FULL SPEED AHEAD CRACK HIM OPEN! "
To say that Admiral Konstantine was zealous in his speeches and doings was an understatement. During the quarian and Batarian wars, he himself led daring and outright suicidal charges against the enemy formations, a true expert in shock and awe tactics, his doings have brought him quite often under scrutiny, but nobody could deny the results he brought.
The formation punched its engines to the max, and the heaviest ships sped on and towards the formation of the reaper vessels.
Another volley from the reaper ships were unleashed, a bit panicked this time, the Reapers did not understood the rapid approach of the ships, their expertise was fighting against enemy dreading their superiority and keeping their distance.
Not someone blindly charging into what would be described as melee.
The Fleet kept speeding on, and the huddled reaper masses had no time or space to disengage before the battleship Solar Macharius and Cruiser Golgotha were the first to ram the nearest reaper ships.
Their shells cracked like Konstantine said, they were not made for this, they were made for modern era of war, for modern types of conflicts, the kinetic shielding were made for energy weapons, not for billion tons of steel charging at you with unbelievable speed.
Breaking the enemy formation the fleet could not truly start fighting, what was a fight, turned into a brawl, with the reapers on the losing end, still seeking to adapt to this unusual tactic.
"Now! Broadside weapons! Fire at will! Burry them!" Tiberius shouted as more and more Imperial ships broke through the cracks of the reaper formation which allowed them to have their broadsides pointing at them
All imperial ships which pierced through were now opening fire from their broadside, huge canons lobbing shells in thousands of tons and immense caliber were now flying towards the enemy which sought to evade and reengage.
Reapers were losing ships, and losing badly, they could not anticipate this course of action, and the only semblance of formation for the reapers were to engage the smallest of enemy ships whom were equipped better than dreadnoughts of this galaxy.
Frigate Prostagma was now beset by all sides by the 5 reaper capitals, the frigate itself was the size of a reaper, but bearing more weapons than several of them, the Imperium was more versed to war than the reapers, for to survive against nightmares of the original universe, one would have to have guns, a lot of guns.
Frigate opened its broadsides of immense caliber, obliterating a reaper that came to close, two reapers were not attempting to catch a frigate in their tentacles and to unleash a constant stream of energy to overwhelm the shielding.
But the "Prostagma" kept holding tightly, void shields were beyond anything this universe can throw at them, but even they felt strained after such overwhelming pressure.
It kept fighting and killing another one whom was idiotic enough to stand in front of it, a single plasma salvo in such close proximity crushed the reapers shields, and ate through the hull like nothing, but the two reapers now on top of it were causing the shields to reach critical mass before failing, the void generator needed to vent excess heat and energy.
The Reaper beams were now punching at the hull directly, to the reapers dismay, what was one shot, one kill tactic they employed did not work here, the imperial hull was not built in a way most of the races did, it was a different sort of alloy, and that allowed it to soak damaged like a sponge. True, they were causing damage, but this was not enough, not nearly enough. They were unlucky to engage one of the original frigates of the universe where it came from, where energy was measured in high megatons, and not weakling kilotons.
Another beam of the reaper ship only managed to pierce barely deep enough to kill a meager of several hundred servitors and gun crewmen of just one of the many canons it had. But now another reapers, sensing blood in the water congregated towards "Prostagma" and it would seem that the ship was in serious danger to be overwhelmed.
But the reapers did not understood the imperial tech, and they most certainly did not knew that the void shields can reengage even during the combat. Using this time the "prostagma" vented its excess energy, and the void shields flared back to life just as several more reapers joined the combat. "Prostagma" fired all it had towards them, killing two more of their numbers.
But the reapers were endless, their numbers beyond calculation and strength overwhelming. But at this moment, their calculations were…questioned. They have lost more ships in this engagement with the imperium, then they have done in countless various cycles as a whole. This is a cycle that they would not destroy as easy as they have done before.
"Prostagma" kept fighting like a true heroic ship, before its shields could be again threatened, it was reinforced by destroyers of this universe whom fired countless salvos against the reapers, killing and wounding at random.
The battle was in full swing, and other reapers in the systems disengaged the battle against stations and minor fleets, and all surged towards the massive engagement in the orbit.
Battleship "Solar Macharius" was a slayer in this engagement, its 7kilometer frame was unstoppable, it was the finest weapon of war the imperium had, and it showed, the caliber of its guns obliterated shielding and destroyed reapers with impunity, only the close proximity of the planet prevented the gargantuan vessel from utilizing all of its weaponry, it had to fire slow and highly precise shots against the reapers swarming all over the place. For any stray shot from this battleship would obliterate anything it hit, and if it impacted the ground, there was no doubt its impact would maul the already dying world.
The imperial ships were limited in their opportunity for firing, Reapers deliberately tried to position themselves so that the imperial ships had to face the world before firing.
But the sheer power of the imperial vessels allowed them to ram the reapers, or endure their fire until they positioned themselves so that they can shoot and not hit the planet bellow them.
It was a tactical nightmare for any Void commander, and the Imperials lost ships, some unwilling to disappoint their superiors, or go against the Emperors will, allowed their ships to be swarmed rather than risk a sure shot against the world and destroy all that they have come here to do.
It was a battle of honour, duty and obligation to the things greater than themselves, they have come so far to fail now, death was a temporary obstacle on the way to serving the Emperor, and they knew that their lives, being his currency would now go to him upon their deaths, so they accepted their fates stoically and with joy, killing and being killed, in the name of the Emperor.
The battle now relocated to the ground, where the true mission of the expedition was located.
The Facility itself was centered around the shield, the shields reach was 20 square kilometers, a vast area was protected. it was an immense project, requiring many generators near the core of the world fueling it with thermal energy, near the research center itself, there were several anti-space batteries, and not much else, besides the habitats where scientists lived, the facility itself was built more underground than above it, housing hundreds of scientists.
On the outskirts, but still inside the shielding, there were numerous military emplacements. Bunkers, gun nests, Anti-Tank cannons, various armaments required to hold it against an army that would come.
The Area itself was shielded by nature, on all but 2 sides, huge mountain prevented any attack and provided a natural barrier and protection.
That would leave only 2 areas filled with trenches and military positions. One leading to a vast, unstable plain which was lightly defended, as it had numerous lava pools all over the place, it was deemed suicidal that any army would attack there ,as it lacked any sort of landing places where the army can disembark from that position.
That left only one place where the enemy could invade, the Southern Sigama area, it was likewise a vast open plain, but the land was stable, it was also used as a land route to various outposts around the continent, these outposts have went silent in the early phase of the invasion, reapers did not waste any time and they have bombarded them into oblivion, luckily the crew retreated to the main shielding area before the bombardment began.
The SPQT troopers were now hard pressed on the sole entry point to the complex, their guns were red hot from constant firing, anti-tank shells blasted apart Brutes and Gorilla Reapers. While the gun emplacements made mincemeat out of brain-dead husks. Only the Geth Reaper Auxilia has proven to be a true challenge, using intelligent tactics, artillery and other weapons.
"This Is admiral Tiberius, deploy our ground troops, complete the mission, we will hold the skies while you do so. The Emperor protects"
The transport ships were moving into position in the orbit and preparing to deploy the troops, the situation on the ground was precarious and needed reinforcing.
The SPQT units on the ground were constantly fighting and their anti space canons were now punching against the reaper forces whom were damaged by the Imperial navy, no longer could the reapers do a switch tactic until they could regenerate before reengaging. They were now stuck in a combat, a true opportunity for canons to hunt the weakened units.
Several of the anti-space canons were now pointing against the incoming land units of the reapers, several destroyers were moving towards the compound followed by dozens of thousands of various reapers units whom engaged the entrenched defenders.
"More ammo! I need more ammo! "
"They keep coming, we can't take down the big ones, where are our tanks!"
"The giant reaper destroyed bunker X17, no survivors!"
The various com chatter of the soldiers on the ground have shown a desperate situation, the reapers could not land into the 20 kilometer wide bubble protected by the shield, and so they deployed immense armies outside of it, near a dozen destroyers were now marching and crushing all opposition.
And in the trenches, biotic soldiers were fighting in hand to hand combat with the husk units from converted human citizens, the geth units, enhanced with reaper tech were engaging in long range, the worst were the gorilla like aliens from a conquered alien planet in the turian space, they made the brunt of the heavy units, they were melee experts due to sheer size.
Auto canons of the SPQT design guided by the VI were firing on the rapidly approaching enemy.
The planet now started to turn grey; various mountains were erupting and spewing ash into the atmosphere, ground cracked and split open, eating both the reapers and the humans unlucky enough to be engaged there.
This made the firing solutions difficult, as the ash chocked the very air and made ranged fire inefficient. Only the sophisticated VI programs allowed the soldiers to track their enemies in the dense ash nightmare.
The planet was dying. And this could be felt as earthquakes became so vicious one of the reaper destroyer fell as he was near the epicenter of this occurrence.
Another reaper destroyer managed to approach the installation from another side, and was making an approach to the facility from the lava plains; with his current tempo he would enter the shield in less than a minute.
One gunner from the Imperial fleet, monitoring the ground situation noticed this. Wiping off the sweat from his brow he called to his gunner and ordered him to shoot at the reaper, to stall him, they had to risk it, for if the reaper got too close or entered the shield, they could no longer do anything.
Commodus grasps the head of Kilikus and says "Look at me" "You fuck this up, the next one following the orbital shell will be both of us, and i will make sure you fly down there before me. Do not miss that damn machine!" Commodus was wild eyed, to his bad luck, he was the only one to notice the reaper approaching, and his ship was the only close enough to fire a shell.
"One Chance Kilikus, we have only one chance! Now fire!"
His cheeks pressed tightly by the hands of Commodus he could only respond with unintelligible murmurs.
"Shur ting komdus, ash yu cmmnd"
To his credit, Kilikus had seconds to calculate the targeting solution, so he took one shell made for orbital bombardment and launched it at the moving target.
The bomb was made for bunker bombing and fell fast towards the ground, the target was drawing nearer and nearer, and the bomb. Missed.
It did not hit the reaper, but managed to impact the ground in front of it, the planet, already unstable could not take such impact, and the ground cracked and massive sinkhole leading into underground lava rivers opened, the reaper, being heavy and unmanuverable could only make a few steps back before falling into the vast hole, breaking its heavy body on the rocks before plunging deep into the lava lake, various rocks fell on top of it, preventing any escape as the lava levels rose and began to fuse with his metallic shell.
The Entire section was now safe from invasion by the vast hole full of lava, the bombardment was a success.
"I can't believe my eyes, you actually made the shot…" Commodus was wild eyed as he saw the result of his bombardment. " I guess even the Emperor had to take pity sometimes on your shitty aim. "
"Thank you Commodus" he said coldly.
"Damnit kilikus, show some emotion you daft bastard. But you are right, we haven't the time for celebration, there is a war to be done. Load another one, we are hunting reapers." Commodus continued to track targets via his optics. And not seeing Kilikus, who smiled slightly before responding.
"Sure thing Commodus, as you wish."
The Ground was a massacre, with lava pools and ground collapsing, it was suicidal to launch the space marine drop pods, so they had to use Thunderhawks and deliver some 200 marines to the ground directly along with their Chaplain.
The Geth Reaper Auxilia noticed the incoming reinforcements and used their new anti air walkers whom took little time to aim before opening endless mass driver shells towards the incoming ships.
These anti air walkers had 2 main guns, alike to Geth Armature, but made for shooting shuttles, they were efficient, but hard to deploy due to their size.
Regardless, the thunderhawks and other transport vessels had a rocky arrival to the planet, some vessels carrying imperial guard were shot, leaving no survivors as vessels fell towards the enemy lines, and some into the vast open lava plains.
Inside the shuttle which was unlike those of the imperium , Commander shepard was donning his black uniform of the ancient N7 Design, accompanied by 1000 of his Black Legionnaires.
"Listen up, we are going in hot, upon touch down I want you all reinforcing the lines along with the imperials. The First Black Cohort , the finest 100 will accompany me and several high officials of the imperium towards the facility itself, we must secure that data. The success of this mission depends holding the line. Let's get to it. "
The vessel approached the ground and opened its doors, Shepard could see the carnage occurring as he did a low flyby of the lines. The research security personnel had no chance against the sheer overwhelming numbers of the Reaper force. They were numerous in both number and design, seeing Brutes, Turian Husk forms, Human husks, the Gorilla creatures and various geth units fast on approach crushing through the line.
"Hold on! The reinforcements are here, hold on! "The commander of the ground troops fired his predator pistol at the enemy swarming his trenches, and ripping apart his men with their bare arms.
"Do not relent! Give them everything we got! "He kept firing even as the huge 3 meter tall gorilla monstrosity with metallic arms kept its charge at him, he didn't get a chance to say anything as the gorilla swung its arm wildly and sent his broken body flying into the broken turret in the trench. He could only gurgle as life left his broken body, it would seem it was a full rout.
The Geth entered the trench and began to shoot the disorganized soldiers, they were inside the shields now, and if the trenches fell, it would be near impossible to protect the facility.
But the Trenches would hold.
For the countercharge of the humans came soon. A full blown bayonette charge was happening, coming from the clearing nearer the Research Center, and rushing towards the trenches away from it.
The Death Korps of Krieg were the first to land, their officers led with their power swords, and most eerily of all, they were silent. Except for one shout before beginning their assault.
"FUR EMPEROR UND KRIEG, FUR INDOMITUS UND TERRA! VORWARTS!"
The officer said nothing afterwards, and his men only shouted "FUR THE EMPEROR! "
The Charge was in full swing, and those Geth which took over parts of the trench had neither the time or weapons to halt the advance, opening fire on the running humans didn't do anything but inspire them to charge faster with more rage towards their inhuman forms.
The Combat turned into a real melee now, the bayonets of the Kriegers found their ways into the machine chests, and Lasguns melted their innards like butter, The Trenches were now being filled with those born to wage war.
Concentrated fire occurred whenever the kriegers had numbers, for even the strongest of reaper ground forces buckled and died under such onslaught.
Teams of 5 soon started methodically clearing out the dugouts of the Geth units, cleaning and killing anything they could found, while the reconquered trench portions soon began to be reinforced further, various gun emplacement were established by the Kriegers, and just in time for the Reapers sent another wave, far larger this time.
The Kriegers opened fire when the enemy entered their range, thousands of husks kept blindly charging and being cut by the concentrated fire of the well trained soldiers. The human husks were soon being caught up by the Gorilla Reapers and Geth melee units. These new geth units were some 2 meter tall and lighter than the common geth. They were a product of reaper alternation and experimentation, for they had billion years of practice to shape any form into their desirable product.
The Runner Geth were light, but fast, very fast, they had a real steel blade on their right hand and a small caliber gun attached to their left which connected with their bodies somehow, this allowed it to be fired without the thermal clips.
But the Kriegers cared not what came at them, and kept firing ,slaughtering the incoming enemies, mortar crews diligently and silently kept firing and refueling, machine guns barked and their lethal salvos crushed the servos of the metallic enemies. But still few found a way to enter the trenches, one Gorilla Xeno pummeled the Krieger to the ground, crushing his form, while swinging its arm wildly broke the ribs of another which charged it with his bayonet.
But it didn't see the last Krieger whom took a melta charge, and jumping onto its back swung his arm towards its head, impacting the melta on top of the thrashing xenos skull, exploding both himself and it in the fire.
The Trench was in danger again, but the Emperors finest, the Astartes landed after being stalled by the Anti Air geth units, 200 battle brothers filled the trenches with their human compatriots, taking various kill zone positions, Fostered by their Chaplain ,they opened such viscous and concentrated fire that it broke the backs of the reaper attackers totally.
Reapers forces did not understand the term of surrender or falling back, so they kept charging until they were dead.
The Trench was secure. For now. But time was still running out, and the planet is dying, if they stay here for long, their death is all but assured.
Shepards Black Legionnaires soon joined the trenches ,while his finest Cohort of 100 men joined the Companions, Agrippa was accompanied by 50 of his finest Skitarii, as the Imperial's tech expert, he was needed for research extracting. With them was Passios, the Psyker whom was touched by the Emperor.
They secured the facility, and proceeded inside where hundreds of scientists ran top side and boarded the evacuation shuttles. But not the head researcher.
"Commander! "
Shepards comms flared to life.
"Commander respond!"
"This is Shepard, what is going on? "
"Commander, our facility is more compromised than we originally thought, The agent uploaded something to our mainframe, it is a virus of sorts, it is trying to break through our firewalls. "
"can you stop him! "
"I am stalling him from my position, he cant enter the data banks yet, I suggest you hurry commander."
"You heard the man, double time everyone!" Shepard and his Cohort rushed towards the center of the facility.
Agrippa just watched around him, and found a terminal next to him.
"This will do"
His metallic finger opened and he connects to the terminal. He was traveling through the data stream attempting to search for the intruder. He was stopped by a VI reaper program which the intruder used to hack the data.
"Foolish human, you play with things you do not understand, with the power you cannot comprehend. You will go no further"
Agrippa cared little for a VI and its monologue.
"Burn Abomination!" his Form screamed in the virtual world at the reaper Vi, whom did not comprehend how Agrippa could engage him. But the code of the Omnissiah began to overrun its own, and soon enough screaming with metallic voice, the VI was deleted, But not before transmitting into the orbit.
One of the large reaper vessels received that information, their attempts have failed. And it quickly opened its cargo bay and dropped something towards the planet. One last attempt at accomplishing their mission was now falling to the planet.
The SPQT soldiers on the ground noticed something falling like a meteor to the ground and tried to open fire on it with their canons. They failed to hit it and it landed not far away from the shield.
It soon got up to its feet, it was a walker of unknown design, some 15 meters tall when it stood up. It was huge, and it had 6 legs, it looked like a spider with its frontal part having a head filled with eyes and 4 little arms for grasping. . Reapers brought their unknown designs from forgotten cycles to wage war.
It screeched and began to charge the imperials from the undefended angle of the Trench, behind it were even more reaper land forces, this was the final wave, for the enemies numbers knew no limits.
The Space marines and the Kriegers in the trenches, along with what remained of the security detail and Shepards Black Legionaries could do nothing but shoot at the innumerable force coming at them.
Space marine experience blasted apart the innumerable foe, but even still they kept coming, relentlessly and zealously in their desire to kill.
Kriegers took the worst casualties, their heroism held the ground even as the melee units filled the trenches, sacrificing themselves to buy more time for the companions to accomplish their mission.
Space marines swung their melee weapons with zeal and rage, cutting down various reaper melee units, geth shot at the Shepards Black legionaries, whom responded in kind, some of shepards legion engaged with unrivaled biotics, blasting apart any creature mad enough to come near them.
The united soldiers of mankind did their best to win against this soulless foe.
But the 15meter tall reaper codenamed "Bug" by the Imperial force cared not, its thick armor shrugged off lasgun fire. The bolter shells being a bit more efficient, but not concentrated and not enough of them to stop it, so it stormed past the trench lines and made a direct rush towards the research facility.
"Shit! Alert the forces, we have enemy inbound!" one of the SPQT soldier shouted as he saw the "Bug" running towards the research station
Agrippa heard as the panicked cries echoed on the vox channels of these SPQT soldiers, and he saw the bug approaching, got his plasma pistol and prepared to go out and face it.
But between the door and the enemy stood one familiar man, Passios the Psyker.
He calmly approached Agrippa and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"This is not your battle brother, this is my fate, yours lies somewhere else. Go to the core and extract the information as the Emperor wishes us, I will do my duty to Him as is just and proper for giving me back my soul."
Passios was calm, his face was smiling, the man who was insane most of his life, seemed like the most rational of them all, but only for a scant moment, for soon his eyes began to glow yellow, and he began to levitate slightly off the ground. Imbued by the Emperor's very energies his form ventured out and into the great yard, across the yard some kilometer away was The Bug reaper, charging at him.
The Psyker screamed with such rage and energy he caused explosion of the ground around him, shaking the very soil, he still stood there his arms spread out, before like a fury he landed on the ground, and glowing yellow in unreal energies, faster than eye could see stormed towards the reaper machine. Man versus Machine. Flesh versus Metal. Passios would engage the creature head on, and win or die trying.
The impact itself was horrendous; Passios was imbued with unreal energies and impact tipped over the heavy and large machine, it roared in anger and stood up, firing red beam at Passios, whom stood his ground like a mad man wishing to die, before his hand unleashed a torrent of yellow warp energies against it, deflecting the blow, sending the creature reeling.
Passios jumped and his fist soon came crashing down onto the reaper form,the impact shattered steel, and one of its legs gave and lost its function, he then energized a warp ball of pure energy and threw it at the construct, blasting away portions of its metallic flesh.
The Reaper was still strong, it kept firing and Passios kept dodging. But one lucky swing of the arm of the reaper sent passios flying into a nearby tree. The machine did not waste time and charged towards him, its metallic arms extending to inflict a killing blow, but Passios ,with his last energies landed onto his feet and faster than the eye could see charged and latched himself to the reapers face.
The Creature stumbled backwards, and its mechanical insect eyes concentrated to the form standing and grasping its face. Passios's eyes were glowing yellow, and he gave himself a moment to laugh.
Then he shouted, his voice carried to the very frontlines and shook to the core men around him.
"WITNESS YOUR DOOM!"
and through his shout he unleashed everything he had, every energy accumulated into his body.
Passios unleashed such vicious amounts of energy, all the gift given to him by the Emperor, and his natural born energies, and in an explosion of warp energies, blasted both him and the face of the reaper.
the shattered form of passios flew in the opposite direction, he impacted the ground viciously, and tumbled for a while before stopping, still, and unmoving.
The Reaper construct shambled a bit, almost as if unsure to its own death, lacking face, the legs of the creature gave in, and it fell impotently onto the ground.
The machine was dead, and its death throes were broadcasted to the entire Reaper fleet.
Soon Enough the Reapers punched through the imperial formations in space and went fleeing towards the relay, more than half of their number dead, burning and falling towards the planet.
Destroyers which were planet bound and unleashing torrents of land units also ascended to the skies, they, like their bigger brethren sought to fly away, but several were shot down by the Anti-Space batteries on the ground and the Victorious fleet in orbit.
With space secure ,the imperials were free to send many shuttles to collect survivors. And the Reaper land units, lacking true coordination of their masters, were soon slaughtered by the Imperial ground troops.
In space, the imperium lost 11 vessels, with 8 damaged for the cost of 238 reaper capital sovereign class ships. The tactic was successful, albeit costly, they could not engage in the long range like they wished to do, the reapers forced them to sacrifice range in order to preserve the planet.
But they have won, and learned more about their enemies, they were strong, resilient, and numerous. The Reapers brought more ships to this combat than in any cycle in history, thousands upon thousands of reaper capital ships kept coming to wage war of total annihilation against the life in the galaxy.
The ground forces were seeking to finish their quest as soon as possible, for the planet was in its last death throws, the impacts of the reaper carcasses falling to the planet were like 2km asteroids puncturing the very fabric which held the planet, it was too much.
Land units suffered various casualties with krieg solders loosing 47% of their forces, Space marines losing 32 brothers, and SPQT security detail lost 90% of all they had, thousands of humans died, for the price of tens of thousands of reaper land units.
The evacuating soldiers came upon the broken form of the Psyker Passios.
"Is he alive? "one SPQT soldier said to the medic whom tapped on his omni tool.
"I cant…"
"You cant what, is he alive or not? "
"The Trauma, he is alive, but…I don't understand how, I am applying medigel to his wounds, but his body is broken, he is wounded beyond belief, how is he alive I do not understand. He shouldn't be…"
"We have no time to argue, apply all the gel you have and tell the facility medics to evacuate with him, this man saved our lives, and we are going to save his."
The medics soon gave it their all to save Passios, but his form was truly broken beyond belief, they took great care not to wound him as they saved and carried him to one of the rising shuttles. The evacuation was now in full effect.
Agrippa ran to the server and saw shepard and his team extracting the information, the quantity of it was immense. And it was taking time.
"Commander, I will handle the data."
"How? "
"Observe." Agrippa said and connected to the terminal.
He swam through the data mines and saw what the Emperor had in store, various worlds filled with resources, shield technologies, weapon designs, various experiments which could only be conducted safely here. Ways of designing better ships and making them faster. It was information which would let any empire owning to increase its armies fast and better than their enemies. The Emperor must have been directly involved in this research until he had to take direct command of Terra.
There was so much here, so much, it caused his brain to strain and his virtual persona to scream, but he endured, for he knew that by using the normal means they would never make it in time, the data would be incomplete, so his form screamed and screamed as he gathered all he could, and finally he extracted it all.
In reality Agrippa screamed as well, the pain was unimaginable. And he quickly detached and fell to his knees, vomiting. He raised his head towards the commander, his nose bleeding profusely.
"I have…the information…commander"
His form fell to the ground with a loud thud.
"Agrippa!" Shepard shouted and came to his aid, he was unconscious. And Shepard applied medigel to him, this stopped the bleeding. And it was just in time, the facility was collapsing around them, the power began to flicker as the generators built near the core of the planet were overwhelmed with heat, and the robots maintaining them began to finally melt due to rising temperatures.
Shepard grasped Agrippa and with the help of his fellow black legionnaire, he got him to his feet and began to drag him out as the facility collapsed around them. Not seconds later the room housing the main server shuddered and the supports collapsed, the volcano nearby erupted throwing smoke and ash and causing earthquakes which destroyed walls, and the server was damaged. Piles or concrete was now sealing the room permanently.
"Run! This whole place is falling apart!"
The Commander and every other remaining survivor rushed to the shuttles taking to the skies, the artificial biome of greenery and forests was now shattered, its soil sinking deeper and deeper ,lava flows ate the soil, and within minutes, the biome itself, albeit reinforced sunk several meters into the ground.
20 square kilometers now began its decline into the soil of the dying world.
They have quickly entered the shuttles, thunderhawks and other transport vessels and were soon flying upwards and away form this world, as Shepard watch the ground, he could see the shield flicker and die, the facility itself collapsed onto itself, and the ground fell under it. The mountain protecting the facility from one side erupted spitting rocks and lava all over the place.
Everybody from orbit could only impotently watch as the planet simply exploded. Chunks of rocks flying everywhere. The Generators in the planets core reached critical mass, exploding and in turn destroying the planet with them. If the enemy came in search for anything, they would find only dust and chunks of debris.
Troops entered their respective ships and started tending to their wounded, Agrippa came to himself, albeit confused and with immense headache, the toll of his works could have killed him had it lasted moments more.
He felt like he could pass out soon, so he attached his finger to the mainframe of the battleships's computers, transmitting all data to its hard drive, he done it slowly this time and in minutes the data was safely on board of the Battleship "Solar Machirius" 's computers. Shepard got his copy as well on his omni tool, and finally Agrippa could give himself privilege to pass out and rest. He was taken to the infirmary for some rest.
Passios was already there, tech priests injecting him with various fluids, one of the servitors was stuck in a loop repeating "Impossible, impossible, impossible" as he tried to determine the health situation of the Psyker.
He was slammed in the head by another techpriest whom was annoyed by his endless repetitions and sent away outside, still repeating the same mantra.
Doing all in their power, the techpriests and medicus left Passios under surveillance, not knowing what to expect from a man who should be dead.
Companions assembled once more onto the bridged of the battleship, discussing the events, the reaper enemy and the data they acquired.
"This battle took a toll on our vessels. Although we have learnt much about our enemy. They are viscious, intelligent, and quite adaptable, forcing us to engage them in the quarters unsuitable for our vessels.
But I have to say, Konstantinus was the glorious one this day, he took 23 vessels alone, cant deny that his skills saved many lives today. The reapers will know well to fear his vessel whenever they see it again!" Lord Tiberius cheered the name of Konstantinus
"Thank you Lord, I live to serve the Imperium" Konstantinus bowed via holovid.
"I congratulate all of you, let us make necessary repairs on our wounded vessels, then we are traveling to Terra, the Emperor would no doubt wish to hear of our efforts this day. Dismissed." Tiberius said to the admirals via holovid.
One by one the holovids shut down, and Tiberius was left only with his companions.
"Commander Shepard, I have seen your men fight on the field, their deeds are inspiring to us all" Chaplain Julius said to Shepard
"Thank you Chaplain, they were hand picked by the Princeps himself from his finest legions on Earth. We will lament the passing of the 17 dead legionaires whom gave their lives in service to humanity today." Shepard responded to Chaplain while saluting him, then his look drifted mournfully, as he knew all of them on personal basis.
"Know that their sacrifice has brought them eternal glory. "
Julius was unlike other Chaplains, he was the caretaker of souls of his Company, he was strict, dutiful, and quite eager to reinstate discipline among the men, but he understood the plight of a common man, and what they have faced. A man truly who valued honesty and duty above all, he despised cowardice and ill behavior.
"I have to tend to the fallen now, their souls need guidance to the Embrace of the Emperor." He said to Shepard and the companions and proceeded his way to the elevator
Tiberius was likewise tired, the space battle lasted for hours, so did the ground one.
"Commander, you should rest, you and your men have fought honorably, as did everyone else, the repairs will take a day at least before the wounded ships are space worthy. "
"What of the priest? Agrippa? " Shepard asked him
"He is resting, his brother priests are helping him, I do not doubt knowing his resilience that he will be with us before the fleet departs.
His involvement was crucial with the information extraction. And the data here will help Emperor and our race build more weapons of war, we will yet see this galaxy free from our enemies."
"Indeed, no enemy is like the Reapers, their determination to see us dead is second to none, I am afraid we will need the united force of the whole galaxy in order to see this through."
"I hope my dear Commander, it never comes to that. I've yet to meet a xeno whom I could trust here that is not that Quarian Arahi, and that's because he has a sense of honour that I could respect. We have enough enemies as it is, I do not want my back exposed to the Citadelians whom ejected every human from their region of space."
"Not all aliens are our enemies, Lord Admiral."
"But all our enemies, ARE aliens ,Commander.
Now I apologize, I have much work to do, we suffered thousands of casualties as in space so on the ground, I must see to this unpleasant work. We will continue this talk another time."
Shepard just saluted without words and left.
Tiberius silently gazed through the bridge, he watched as dead reapers drifted in space, and other vessels collecting survivors from their rescue pods, he considered the words of the commander. A whole galaxy united for this enemy. He already fought with Arahi, is it that farfetched to fight with others?
But he knew Arahi, their respect came from mutual sacrifice, from millions of dead. They had no such connection with the Citadel Federation Empire, no mutual respect, nothing to bind them together in the forge of war, except the Reapers, and reapers are careful not to unite others against them.
He sat on his bridge chair, relinquished command to his XO Aurelian Solarian, so he can tend to the numbers.
There were many dead, he saw the numbers time and time again during his long years, but he never could get used to them, all those souls, all those humans dead, he felt a small condolence knowing that they have died serving the Emperor ,but it did not fill him with joy, there were only so many of his brothers from the original universe, and that number was wearing thin with each combat.
He thought of Indomitus, where the majority of them lived, with children, loved ones; building a new future for themselves. His grievance of the dead turned into steely determination. He will never let Indomitus and its inhabitants suffer the same fate.
Humanity must prevail, he thought, and he will fight for the continued existence of humanity so long as he draws breath.
He turned to his Astropath and told him to relay a message.
"Send word to the Emperor, we are coming back, and we are brining his data."
"yes my lord" the Astropath responded and his mind drifted, seeking the recipient all the way towards Earth.
Tiberius turned once more to the number of dead and wounded. He could only utter few words before being lost in the haze of work.
"Damn war…"