Standard disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, nor any other content that you recognise. Some characters and systems are original creations. I am receiving no money for my work.
Overage Hackenburg – Shanxi
2112.10.04
2nd Lieutenant Marcel Styles kept his eyes on the targeting system for the anti-tank gun he was manning, silently thanking the universe for the Prothean's last warning. Without the knowledge that their extinction had likely come at a hostile force's hands fuelling the public's paranoia, they would never have coughed up the enormous amount of cash needed to construct the massive defences on the new colonies.
Overage Hackenburg was one of the large forts on Qinghai's maginot line, under the command of Major Oleg Petrovsky. Various emplacements held artillery guns for plunging fire on advancing enemy troops and vehicles as well as counter battery artillery fire, while direct fire anti-tank guns and machine guns protected the fort from a direct attack by any vehicles and troops that made it through the artillery barrages.
Along with the two smaller forts to either side, Redoubt St Claire and Redoubt Colmar, they formed a withering field of fire for an enemy to have to break through to breach this section of the line.
Marcel focused on his targeting display. Troops were not his concern, he was responsible for making sure that no enemy tanks punched through, and, if possible, to hit enemy APCs before they could unload their troops. Soldiers were the responsibility of the Overage's and Redoubts' machine guns, and the men and machine guns in the small Casemate bunkers scattered between the three forts.
Marcel lifted his glasses and tried to rub the sleep from his eyes. The garrison had been pulling 12 hr shifts rather than the 8 hrs that they were supposed to, and it had been taking its toll. Now the alert had sounded and brought his entire unit to their guns far earlier than they'd expected.
As if they had read his mind the voice of one of his comrades came over the internal comm system. "I thought they weren't supposed to be here yet? Didn't it take a week for us to set up a FOB in training?"
"I guess these guys really love speed." Marcel answered, hoping that speed equalled mistakes and poor contingency planning. Nervous, shy, and clumsy, they certainly did for him when he tried to do things quickly, he had nearly flunked out of the academy because of it.
"Let's hope their slower off the mark in their attacks, otherwise we'll need a miracle to hold them." Marcel frowned at the pessimistic comment but decided not to call up the offending private on it. It was true that the Overage still had its full firepower, but with half the guns unmanned and slaved to the manned ones, it could only engage half the targets it was designed to. Which would be a problem if they rushed the defences as the private had rightly pointed out. The unmanned guns could engage under computer control rather than being slaved to human gunners if command ordered it, but they'd decided to err on the side of caution given the alien's unknown electronic warfare abilities.
"If we need a miracle then it's a good job the Generals a member of the God Squad, maybe that'll get us one."
"Or he'll get us all killed 'cause he's praying for one instead of planning."
"Your just sore because their aint no atheists in foxholes!"
Marcel groaned and dreaded Major Petrovsky exploding at the openly expressed doubt in General Williams, shutting down any pre-battle conversation and making the soldiers resent their officers for a few minutes. Which wouldn't be a problem if they weren't going to be in battle in a few minutes, but they were, and leaving them with nothing to do until then but nurse resentment at the officers who's orders they were going to be following was not Marcel's idea of good pre-battle planning. Not when the other option was simply to think about the forces heading towards them with unknown capabilities and firepower. He quickly hit his com unit hoping to beat the Major. "Except for me."
"And me."
"And me!"
"Another one over here."
"And here."
"Count me in."
"Technically we're in a fort, not foxholes."
"SHUT UP FERRETTI!"
Marcel grinned as the garrison yelled in unison at its most pedantic member, just as he had planned. He knew Ferretti wouldn't be able to resist and the rest of the unit would pick him up on the pedantic comment. Crisis averted, though he might face more trouble disciplining the more fervent religious types now. One problem solved, another created, but at least the new one could wait until after the battle.
Marcel ran his fingers through his brown hair and reverted to his usual state, worrying. He had a half a dozen religions in his unit and ten nationalities without a problem, but there were a handful who weren't just religious, they were god squad types. It was a fault line that could break his authority and divide the unit if he handled it wrong, so he resolved to consult with Master Sergeant Adams about it after the battle, the sergeant always knew what to do.
Marcel shivered as an awful prediction flittered across his mind. Humanity could fracture along religious as well as political fault lines if the enemy knew what they were doing with their propaganda and psychological warfare. Especially if the religious and political fault lines reinforced each other. It had happened so many times throughout human history during wartime, and the new Systems Alliance was too young to demand loyalty on its own. Barely 26 years old, it didn't yet command the loyalty of a nation state, and if the aliens found out about the fault lines running through it the results could be apocalyptic. Even if they didn't maybe they just had to apply enough pressure and the differing aims of the nation states would tear the Alliance apart anyway as they all fought for their own advantage rather than supporting the Alliance and its military.
"Stop worrying lieutenant." Marcel spoke the words to himself, but he heard Sergeant Adams saying them in his head. He focused instead on his targeting display, busying himself making sure it was perfectly calibrated and ready to fire with maximum accuracy and effectiveness on a moment's notice.
"Pay attention soldiers! Enemy forces sighted, time to artillery range is 17 mins." Major Petrovsky's calm professional tones caused silence to fall over the forts comm system as they watched their sensors and targeting instructions from fire control.
"What the fuck?!" Marcel exclaimed in horror as his targeting display went crazy, judging from similar exclamations from over the comm system his wasn't the only one.
"Command this is Hackenburg Actual confirming total failure of the laser rangefinders and targeting systems." Major Petrovsky's voice was calm and collected and Marcel felt a little of the panic subside. "Hackenburg sector, switch to the mechanical targeting system and await further instructions from fire control."
There was silence as the Overage, the Redoubts and the Casemates all switched over to the older targeting methods, with fire control feeding them data from their backup mechanical rangefinders and observation posts.
"All soldiers be aware, orbiting ships are conducting bombing runs with their guardian laser point defence arrays. The atmospheric scattering is preventing them from even giving you a sunburn, but the remaining power is more than enough to overwhelm the receivers of our laser-based systems given their sensitivity. All laser guided missiles are ineffective, missile batteries are to launch heat seekers and radar homing only. Do not waste ammunition. Attacks confirmed at the 12, 4, and 8 o'clock positions on the line, reserves will be deployed when it's confirmed whether this is truly a three-pronged assault or if two of the attacks are merely feints. Command out." General Williams's voice was confident.
Marcel defiantly wasn't confident as he gripped the controls of his gun tighter. The enemy General was proving disturbingly competent, they'd already jammed their opponents most efficient targeting and range finding systems, and reduced their targeting ability by half as the unmanned weapons had to be slaved to human operators, given that the targeting systems were so fucked by the enemy's electronic warfare Marcel and the other gunners were having to target visually.
As if that wasn't enough the targeting sensor jamming had also turned two thirds of the missiles they'd have had to face into paperweights. All without firing a shot from their own ground forces yet, and just to give the defenders more nightmares, they were attacking in three locations, splitting the already limited reserve forces and preventing the undermanned garrison from concentrating in one location. These were not the incompetent aliens of games or movies.
A grating sound echoed throughout the fort as the semi-circular, retractable, dual artillery turrets raised themselves out of the ground and turned to face the enemy. Then, after a moment of quiet, Hackenburg sector rang with the sound of its Overage's and Redoubt's artillery firing in unison. The battle had begun.
Qinghai Outskirts – Shanxi
2112.10.04
Lt. Colonel Mustafa Kamal hurtled along the underground rail and road network that linked the armoured brigade barracks and the flak towers to the maginot line. He glanced back at the train, and the 2,000 grim faced marines riding it before hitting the private marine commanders comm channel.
"How's that lovely Buddhist sense of order dealing with this cluster fuck Sanders?" he growled into the comm.
Lt. Colonel Katherine Sanders sounded serene as she responded. "Everything is under control, we're all marines and this is no different to the planetary invasions we conducted in advanced training."
"Except we are on the defence, we're a ramshackle collection of ships marine compliments rather than a dedicated marine assault force, we only have 6,000 marines rather than the 10,000-assault force we trained for and, oh yes! Instead of being led into battle by four colonels and a brigadier, we're being led by three Lt. Colonels, one of which is a field promoted major. Allah have mercy on us." Lt. Colonel Kemal kept his voice low, but the undertone of tension and worry was easily heard by his friend and colleague.
Katherine responded quietly. "Act as if thou have faith, and faith shall be given to you, it's what I'm doing."
"Fake it till you make it? Why Katherine, I never expected that from you." Mustafa grinned, despite everything.
"That's why you keep losing to me whenever the squadrons meet up and we get to play poker. I should thank you, I got another lovely jade buddha with my winnings last month." Katherine was speaking at normal volume again, letting the friendly ribbing be heard by her marines.
"Women buy jewellery, marines buy alcohol, but Katherine Sanders buys jade buddhas. Some things never change." Mustafa Kamal smiled for the first time as the pulled into the station for Hackenburg sector. He signalled his marines to get off the train and to head to their pre-assigned sally ports.
"Take care in your sector, alright Katherine?"
"I'm a marine, no promises. But try and come back alive yourself Mustafa, alright?"
"Alright."
The sound of gunfire echoed through the complex as the marines ran to the small, well secured, sally ports leading to the surface. Artillery, anti-tank and heavy machine guns fired constantly, which meant that there was no shortage of targets for them to aim at. Some marines looked worried and gripped their weapons tightly, others stood tall and confident, seeing the constant firing only as a sign of a target rich environment. Still more grinned, relishing the challenge of saving the army from being overrun.
Lt. Colonel Kamal took a moment to kiss his crescent moon and star necklace and ask Allah for protection for his marines, then he switched his comm to general broadcast. "Go go go!"
At Mustafa's order sally ports opened all over Hackenburg sector, and two thousand Alliance marines charged straight into hell.
Overage Hackenburg – Shanxi
2112.10.04
2nd Lieutenant Styles gave a grunt of satisfaction as another spikey hovertank went up in flames after he hit it for the second time.
It seemed that these alien's vehicle's kinetic barriers were much stronger than expected – just like the ones on their ships – it was taking 2 hits each from his gun and its slaved counterpart to batter them down. Thankfully, the enemy hadn't had it all their own way. They'd launched wave after wave of bunker buster missiles from vehicles, supplemented by ones from their fighters that were staying just outside of the anti-air nets range, but both sets of missiles had run into a wall of chaff, flares, CIWS radar aimed point defence guns, and the anti-missile missile batteries, preventing most from impacting.
Another enemy missile wave came in only to be diverted or knocked out of the sky by small friendly missiles and streams of tracer fire from the point defence guns. Only 6 made it through, and the comms briefly broadcast the screams of the soldiers in the gun emplacements that had been hit before they dropped off the net. Their heavy armour was no match for missiles specifically designed to breach it.
Marcel yelled in surprise, anger, and fear as his gun emplacement rang from a direct hit. The noise was unbelievable and left his ears ringing as dust fell from the ceiling. He growled as he grabbed his gun controls and checked his targeting display for the hovertank that had managed to get a shot off at him.
Thankfully the enemy hovertanks guns weren't powerful enough to penetrate the forts defences in one hit, but if they were hit over and over again by the spiky tanks guns. Well, the silence from several firing bells was evidence that even the best armour couldn't hold out indefinitely.
He found the tank and cursed at the flickering range and speed readouts, hating being forced to rely solely on his eyes and instincts. Unable to penetrate the armour without multiple direct hits in succession – which left them very vulnerable to counter battery fire – the enemy artillery had switched to focusing its fire directly in front of all the large installations they could find, hoping to include the observation posts and rangefinder stations in their barrage through sheer numbers.
It had worked.
The constant explosions, shockwaves, smoke and fountains of earth from the impacts were disrupting the views of all the targeted installations, including the observation and rangefinder posts which made the targeting information pouring back to the fort's guns intermittent at best. Marcel eyeballed the tank as best he could and fired, the rounds from his own and his slaved gun clipped the enemies rear quarter making its barriers flare.
"Casemate 27, you have enemy troops sneaking up on your right side." Marcel tried to warn his comrades of the group of dinobirds he had clocked as he fired again at the spikey hovertank that had finally stopped targeting him and taken evasive action instead.
"We know Lieutenant, but its only Charles and me left here now. We can't cover all approaches." The fear in the Private's tone was audible, even though he maintained professionalism and a steady stream of fire at the troops approaching from the front. Marcel shut down the comms, cursing, but there was nothing that he could do either. His weapons were useless against troops and there was far too much enemy armour out there for him to even think of using his guns to try and flyswatt them.
"Any machine guns that can help Casemate 27, do so if it does not compromise your own positions." Marcel ordered hoping that there was an emplacement under his command that could hit those dinobirds before they threw a grenade into the casemate and turned the two surviving privates into bloody chunks of meat.
He finally managed to blast the hovertank that had gotten the drop on him into flaming wreckage before claiming an APC that – unfortunately – seemed to have been able to unload its troops already. The success left a bitter taste in his mouth as none of the machine guns under his command had responded to his order, all of them were being overwhelmed themselves and changing targets to help Casemate 27 would see them receive grenades through their own firing slits instead.
Lieutenant Styles watched helplessly as the enemy forces crept up on Casemate 27. They were almost close enough to successfully throw a grenade through one of the small firing ports now, it wouldn't be much longer but the stream of machine gun fire from the Casemate never let up. Not even for a moment.
The clanging of metal on rock distracted both him and the enemy troops. They froze as they looked to the source of the strange, unexpected noise.
The dinobird troops swarming their emplacements were cut down as Alliance marines poured out of the line's sally ports and caught hundreds of them in the open. The dinobirds had been trying to close in on the Casemates and the gun ports of the forts to use explosives and grenades and had had to leave themselves completely exposed to any forces entering the battle from the sally ports to do so, just as the designers had intended. The marines didn't stop for a moment and the surprised enemy infantry was left reeling, being pushed back further and further down the hill and away from the Casemates and the forts firing bells, who all took the opportunity the reprieve offered to retarget in a way to best help the advancing marines before resuming firing.
The spikey enemy hovertanks raced forward, trying to protect their infantry which continued to stagger back down the hill under the enormous and entirely unexpected pressure from the newly arrived marines, and the relieved machine gun nests. They began to gather around their APCs, trying to rally as the hovertanks ignored the Casemates, Redoubts and the Overage and instead fired anti-personnel grapeshot rounds directly into the partially exposed marines who were exacting such a bloody toll on their infantry.
That was when Alliance armour came over the brow of the hill, having travelled through the underground road network linking the Overage's to their barracks and exited through the vehicle doors at the Overage entrance. Friendly tanks came charging down the hill, guns firing, and were even more of a surprise to the dinobirds than the marines had been.
The spiky hovertanks froze for a moment in total surprise and the charging Alliance tanks claimed dozens of casualties. Even as the enemy hovertanks began to recover and fight back, the Alliance tanks had succeeded in their primary objective, preventing the enemy hovertanks from ripping through the partially exposed marines who had just pushed back their infantry, allowing them to keep up the pressure.
"Whoop Whoop!" Marcels cry of delight wasn't the only one over the comm as he shook dust out his face and refocused his gun on the enemy APCs, trying to maximise the damage per shot he was doing to the enemy army and stop their infantry from being able to regroup and regain cohesion.
The enemy armour advance slowed, then stopped, as Alliance armour slammed into their right and left flanks in a classic pincer, if the dinobird hovertanks continued to charge they would have to charge right at Overage Hackenburg, right into the kill zone of the guns from her and her two supporting Redoubts and the RPGs from the casemates and the marines. All while their flanks were mauled by inferior – but numerous and effective – Alliance tanks.
Slowly, the spikey hovertanks of the enemy forces began to reverse at walking pace, their centre was still firing at the marines, trying to make them keep their heads down and provide cover to the infantry that was running passed them to the waiting APCs. Marcel was taking great delight at picking the APCs off as soon as they stopped to pick up troops, while all the time the Alliance tanks continued to pour fire into the enemy armours flanks, leaving them fighting for their lives and unable to spare any fire to support their centre.
"Maintain counter battery fire on enemy artillery!" Major Petrovsky's command puzzled Marcel, but he wasn't manning an artillery piece, so he ignored it. Whatever reason the Major had for stopping the artillery from firing on the enemy armour and infantry that continued to mass in a single location as they tried to regroup for another assault must be a good one, or else he would be court martialled for it.
Marcel noticed movement among the vehicles at the rear of the enemy formation and hit the comm to report what he had seen as quickly and calmly as he could. "Major, activity from enemy reserve armour! Unknown purpose, vehicle type has not engaged yet."
"Acknowledged. Maintain fire on current targets."
Marcel was worried, but he trusted Major Petrovsky. He kept firing until he heard the unmistakable scream of Alliance gunships. In horror he realised that those unknown vehicles must be the enemy AA defence, and the Major had ordered them ignored. Before he could reach for the comm, the distinctive sound of missile launches from the Overage's main missile banks reverberated through the tunnels.
Just as tracer fire began to stream from the spikey anti-air vehicles towards the incoming Alliance gunships, sensor homing missiles launched from all three forts and sped straight towards their powerful sensor emissions. The enemy vehicles were like lighthouse beacons in the electronic world, lighting up the Alliance gunships for their targeting computers, but screaming their presence to any form of sensor homing warhead as they did so.
Explosions blossomed along the rear of the enemy battle formation as many of the missiles slammed home, following the sensor emissions to their source at high speed before the enemy AA could switch targets or recognise the threat and shut down their targeting computers. The dinobirds would be expecting them next time, but for now they had taken out so many AA vehicles the Alliance forces didn't need a second salvo.
"Aren't they the most beautiful angels you ever saw Lieutenant?"
"Fuck yes Ferretti!" Marcel screamed in jubilation, bouncing in his seat and punching the air as the gunships flew practically unmolested over the line before releasing their payload. The battlefield lit up in roaring orange flames as napalm engulfed the dinobirds forces while they were trying to regroup for another assault.
"Command must have listened about their barriers being better, they might have survived cluster and shrapnel bombs, maybe even high explosives. But their infantry won't survive that." Major Petrovsky mused calmly over the comm channel.
Marcel wondered if it was wrong that he felt no sympathy for the thousands of aliens being burned alive right in front of him. Later he would probably feel terrible and puke his guts up at the thought of how painful their deaths were and how much pleasure he was taking in it, but right now….
"The dinobirds are retreating! Fire on anything with spikes, anyone we kill now is someone we don't have to kill tomorrow." Marcel knew the voice giving that order was his own, but it seemed as if he was a thousand miles away from it. It didn't impact his performance on the gun while the enemy was in range, but as soon as they left, and the targeting system faded to black….
2nd Lieutenant Marcel Styles gripped the controls of his gun till his knuckles turned white to stop his hands from shaking. The black screen reflected an image of his face that was almost as clear as the mirrors in the barracks. But all he could remember was the orange napalm fire, and the screams, and his own joy.
He couldn't look his reflection in the eyes.
Codex Entry: Humans – The Pre-First Contact War Systems Alliance Army (Post-FCW Colonial Guard)
(Citadel Codex, First Human SPECTRE Collector's Edition, 2183)
Due to recruitment problems caused by the derision and contempt with which their defensive strategies were viewed, the pre-First Contact War Alliance Army had a crippling shortage of officers as most of the candidates chose to join Earth's nation states armies instead.
The structure that the Systems Alliance developed to deal with this issue flipped the problem and made the pre FCW army, referred to hereafter as its post FCW designation of colonial guard, bottom heavy instead. Colonial guard officers still hold the distinction of being responsible for the greatest number of people for their rank of any branch of the Alliance military.
While a navy ensign will command a couple of dozen crewmen at most, a flying officer will be responsible only for himself, the marine corps doesn't use the OF0 rank at all, and a post FCW army 2nd lieutenant commands 24 soldiers including themselves. A colonial guard 2nd lieutenant commands 64 combat soldiers with the help of their master sergeant.
The colonial guard order of battle uses the massive communications infrastructure and hard links, provided by the fixed defences, to successfully bypass the rule that the lowest officer rank should not command a unit of more than approximately 30 soldiers, allowing combat effectiveness to be maintained while successfully neutering the problem of their crippling officer shortage.
The changes in unit sizes and roles assigned to the existing unit names caused even more derision, contempt and abuse to flow from the nation states armies, and traditionalists within the Alliance who were unable to let go of the past. All of them looking down on the colonial guard officers, seeing them as more personnel manager than solider.
The First Contact War burned away those attitudes and that additional responsibility is now seen for the burden that it is. However, the dramatic failure of the army when removed from its communications support and forced to go on the offensive made the structure untenable, despite how well it had performed defending Shanxi and Zapala from the turian attacks.
It was for this reason that after the First Contact War (Relay 314 Incident) the army was transformed into the purely defensive colonial guard, and a new army was designed incorporating the lessons of the war.
While the navy is still the Alliance senior service, today the unique challenges faced by colonial guard officers are known of, and respected by, the personnel of the other branches.
With peacetime deployment levels the Alliance is 3rd in terms of total ground troops under formal command structures in the Citadel races. The asari should place 2nd but their informal unit battle doctrine causes them to place 4th as, despite the actual total number of troops they can call on being higher than the humans and the salarians, many of their troops are private citizens who are simply affiliated with a local militia.
With wartime deployment levels the Alliance places 2nd, overtaking the Salarian Union's army in terms of pure numbers despite their higher population. Most Alliance generals are cautious about this estimate. As well as the cutting-edge tech issued to all salarian troops – boosting their effectiveness far beyond their numbers – the Alliance believes that, unlike their own and the turians, the salarians publicly available troop numbers and order of battle are not to be trusted.
Author's Note
While its effects are my own, the idea for the orbiting ships to use their guardian arrays for a bombing run came from one of my readers and reviewers: Justaregularguy01
Mustafa Kamal Ataturk is someone who I highly recommend reading up on. His generalship in 1915 caused the failure of the allied Gallipoli campaign and he is the founder of modern, secular Turkey. It is his reforms and checks and balances that the current Turkish government are in the process of dismantling.
His Gallipoli delay, halt, exhaust campaign was of great interest as I was researching how to successfully stop an amphibious invasion for realism in the invasion of Shanxi chapters.
Timeline Changes So Far
First colony on mars: 27 years earlier than canon
Discovery of Prothean ruins: 64 years earlier than canon
Founding of the Systems Alliance (council of nations version): 63 years earlier than canon
The First Contact War: 45 years earlier than canon