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.
New Delhi – Earth
2112.10.20
Rajendra Tharoor, Prime Minister of the Republic of India, enjoyed the cream and royal blue colours of the Dum Pukht restaurant as his security checked the area before leading him to his dinner guest.
"Indira." Prime Minister Tharoor greeted the matriarch of the Khatri family neutrally. As much as he was willing to trade favours for political advantage, he was no one's puppet. Being effectively summoned on such short notice was sounding a lot of warning bells about how Indira viewed him, a view he intended to dissuade her from. "Your family called in a lot of favours with a lot of people to get me here on such short notice."
"Don't let's focus on the unpleasantness of the situation Rajendra." Indira Khatri replied coldly. She'd never thought much of politicians, which was why she had been so supportive of her daughter going into the army.
"Well, if we're being blunt, what do you want?" Rajendra Tharoor asked, waiting for the waiter to finish filling his water glass before turning his calculating gaze on the woman opposite.
"This nonsense with China. It has to stop." Indira decreed, as if international diplomacy would bend to her will as easily as her family did.
"I don't see what it has to do with you." Rajendra replied shortly, his worst fears confirmed. Insulted that a family, however rich and powerful, was daring to view him as a puppet and try to dictate foreign policy to him, he rose to leave.
"My daughter disagrees. She's not nearly as convinced as the Americans that letting these aliens occupy Shanxi won't be a fatal blow to the Alliance's defences."
Now Rajendra paid close attention, slowly sitting back down. Being dictated to by a woman whose riches had gone to her head was one thing; being unofficially contacted by the head of the Systems Alliance Army was quite another.
"I understand that China's plan to make her forces completely redundant is humiliating for Field Marshal Khatri," Prime Minister Tharoor equivocated, "but again I don't see what this has to do with me."
"I'm sure that's what the commanders of the various Maharaja armies said as their Princes side-lined their own forces, relying more and more on British redcoats to do their fighting for them. We all know how that ended."
Rajendra didn't hide his disgust at the insinuation. "That's completely different. For starters, the Alliance Army isn't ours."
"It's humanities army." Indira interrupted levelly, her disgust at his attitude matching that of Rajendra's at hers. "And it's sitting in Arcturus orbit while aliens conquer the outer human colonies like the Europeans did port cities. Tell me, do you think we'll be one of the nations able to prove themselves troublesome enough to the aliens be made into the new Maharajas? Or will we be one of the many nations just absorbed outright into the aliens new Raj."
Prime Minister Tharoor simply stared at her. The seed of doubt growing despite the assurances of his own military command. "We can beat them."
"The Maharajas could've beaten the British if they worked together. They didn't. Do you really think people will fight when the Alliance Army asks them to if it's proven to be nothing more than a puppet of China? And what happens if they don't? If the nations of Earth send their armies to their own colonies, and refuse to help anyone else out of fear of losing them to an alien surprise attack? Can we still beat them then? If they face our forces piecemeal?"
Indira Khatri, having poked at his fears, now turned her argument to the Indian Prime Minister's pride. The man was cunning, ambitious, ruthlessly effective, and tired of seeing India treated as a 2nd tier power. He undoubtedly already had detailed plans to see India advance at the expense of the Chinese and American power blocks, all Indira need to do was get him to start the ball rolling on those plans far in advance of the original schedule. If she could do that, Rajendra Tharoor would be a political juggernaut targeted against the forces holding the Alliance military back. Something her daughter desperately needed as she and Thomas Carmichael were completely outclassed by the political forces arrayed against them, despite what they thought about their little plan's chance of succeeding.
The old matriarch turned the screws on her argument still further. "Divide and rule can allow the defeat of even the strongest opponent Rajendra, it took us 174 years to crawl back to independence after the last time we fell for that old trick. Are you so eager to repeat the experience you'll make the same mistake as the Maharajas did?"
The seed of doubt she'd planted in Prime Minister Tharoor grew into a full sapling, along with his feelings of indignation and hardening resolve at the reminder of the nearly two centuries India spent under British rule, and the fear of going through that again at the hands of people that weren't even human.
It was a potent combination.
"Assuming that I put any credence in such an attitude," Rajendra spoke very carefully, committing to nothing for practical reasons, but also because he didn't want to give this dam woman the satisfaction, "I don't see what India can do. We're not strong enough to confront China directly yet, and covert actions take weeks to plan."
"What makes you think a plan isn't already in motion?" Indira Khatri replied, her face as cold as the mountaintops of the Himalayas.
Hackenburg Sector – Shanxi
2112.10.20
Commander Atticus held on tightly to his support strap as he was rocked violently along with most of his troops. He listened in on the comms to check the progress of the third turian attack on the engineers battered wall of death as he approached his own units target.
"Those guns are ripping through our tanks Sub General!"
"Of course they are! They're fixed positions, their cooling systems are massive! Stop stating the obvious and keep up the pressure! We must draw their reinforcements here."
"We're getting slaughtered by machine gun fire, armoured support required in section 12."
"Armour is fighting for its life and is in no position to give support, artillery can you assist?"
"Section 12 friendlies. Hunker! Hunker! Command has called down friendly artillery fire on your position."
"Their fire is getting more ragged, we're pushing them hard in sector 4 Commander."
"This is sector 7! We have cleared three enemy bunkers and made it to fort Alpha's sortie doors. Breaching charges were insufficient, all armour with firing solutions lock on to infantry beacon 1-0-0-2-4-7-A-T-Z and fire!"
"All forces, this is General Sparatus. Armour, that infantry beacon has maximum priority, infantry be ready to exploit the opening. FIRE!"
"Breach! Breach! Penetration confirmed, we're entering enemy fort Alpha."
"All forces hunker! Incoming friendly air power."
"Respectfully, is that wise? The enemy anti-air net is…"
"Spirits! That's every fighter in the system!"
"This is missile artillery, we're ripple firing all tubes. Fighters, begin your attack runs."
"Have you ever seen so many missiles? Look! The fighters are launching as well! There's no way the engineers can get them all!"
"Why aren't the fighters breaking off? Their heading straight in!"
"Target saturation! The General is trying to overwhelm the enemy AA defence through sheer numbers!"
"Spirits that's cold! It's working though, the missiles are getting through! But, the cost…."
Commander Atticus was brought back from the comms system by a huge bang and a wave of heat blasting through the open side door of the gunship. Outside, one of the other gunships in his force had exploded after being caught out by a sudden change in ground level and smashing into a tree. He quickly whispered a prayer for the spirits of its crew and passengers as the burning wreckage fell swiftly behind them.
He nearly lost his lunch as his own gunship suddenly lurched violently to the left to avoid a similar fate. The sudden sour smell of vomit let him know that not all of the troops in his gunship had been able to do the same. His gunships had been skimming the grass at head height for their entire approach and now, thanks to the sacrifice of the fighters and the launching of every missile the legion had, the enemy AA was fully engaged as they rapidly closed in on the engineer's wall of death.
"Spirits protect us." Atticus muttered under his breath as his gunship squadron flew right at the small hills ahead. His hands tightened in fear on the straps helping him stand upright as they approached, but thankfully none of his troops noticed. As General Sparatus had gambled, the engineer's AA systems were overwhelmed with incoming missiles and missile bearing fighters, which their fire control systems had prioritised over his gunships. Holding his breath Atticus refused to close his eyes as his gunships flew unmolested over the fortified hills that made up the wall of death, blowing passed unmolested and approached the massive fortified doors in the rear of the hills that led into the engineer's forts and tunnel complex.
"Breaching charges!" Atticus yelled, jumping onto the ropes and sliding to the ground with the rest of the cabal forces. He almost sighed with relief despite the ground fire from the gun emplacements guarding the entrance chewing up the earth all around them. At least he could defend himself on the ground.
His biotics threw up barriers giving him and the rest of the turian troops the cover that they needed to make it to the fort entrance as the gunships spun around and began blasting any hostile gun emplacement they could see with their rockets and chin mounted guns.
The engineers gun emplacements fell silent one by one, engulphed in explosions that lit up the hillside and sent shards of armour flying in all directions. The craters burned fiercely, filling the air with smoke and the scent of burning electronics and charred flesh as the demolition experts attached breaching charges to every square centimetre one of the smaller doors.
They ignored the main vehicle doors on his order, he was taking no chances with the engineer fortifications strength. He hadn't come all this way and scarified so many troops in a frontal diversionary attack to be left standing in front of a mauled, but still intact, door, out of breaching charges.
On Atticus's command, the charges detonated, blasting the armoured door to pieces, and allowing the gunships to quickly fire their rockets into the room beyond and sweep it with their guns to destroy any resistance. Atticus motioned his troops through the door as soon as the shockwave had passed, they ran into the engineer complex putting out the worst of the fires caused by their forced entrance as they ran passed.
Racing through the shattered entrance himself he passed through what seemed to be the charred remains of a guard post, then dived into the large marshalling yard that was where the engineer armour obviously assembled before charging out the main doors to give the turian forces hell. He took cover as his forces exchanged fire with the few surviving engineer guards.
"Quickly! We have to get this done before they swarm us. Orbital scans and intelligence predict four tunnels, one in each direction along the wall and two heading to the city, one rail and one large road tunnel. Don't waste explosives on the other two marshalling yards, go for the tunnels!" His cabal units nodded, remembering the briefing. Behind them regular troops hauled the large strategic demolition charges into the marshalling yard on grav sledges, as the last of the engineer guards were eliminated with a cry and a spray of red blood.
Atticus's troops split into 5 groups. One set up tripod mounted heavy weapons to guard their hard-won entrance, while the other three disappeared down the smaller tunnels with two grav sledges of explosives each. Atticus motioned the last three mass effect grav sledges to follow him and ran deeper into the engineer's fortress with his unit. He followed the largest tunnels away from the marshalling yard and deeper into the fort, trying not to jump at shadows.
It was difficult, this dam place had cost the lives of so many of his fellow turians, and it had loomed larger than life in front of them ever since that first attack. It seemed invulnerable, unbreakable, but now he was here, inside the nightmare of his brothers and sisters outside, and he was going to bring it crashing down. Well, he was actually going to collapse the road tunnel while his fellow demolition teams collapsed the smaller railway tunnels. But that would have the same effect as then there would be no way for the engineers to get reinforcements to the wall to defeat the General's attack.
Finally, they would be able to punch through and rip out the throat of these damn primitives.
Hackenburg Sector – Shanxi
2112.10.20
General Williams listened with mounting anger to the comms as he led his battered armoured brigade through the road tunnel to Overage Hackenburg to counter the third dinobird attack.
"Redoubt St Claire is gone! Repeat: Redoubt St Claire is gone! She's been captured by enemy forces and is in flames. There's a breach in the Line, enemy armour is through! Repeat: enemy armour is through the Line and onto the city plains." The nightmare of every Alliance garrison commander had finally happened, and General Williams tried not to let the despair in the voice of the soldier broadcasting infect him.
"Redoubt Colmar calling for assistance, the dinobirds are in! We're trying to push them out, but they keep breaching new sally ports, reinforcements urgently requested." The bitter tones of someone determined to fight to the last stiffened the spines of everyone listening, despite the terrible news they brought.
"Casemate 14, their all over us. Wha… OH GOD IT'S A GRENADE! HELP US! HEL…" The transmission cut out. Jack tried not to think about the carnage that must have engulphed the people of Casemate 14, hopefully they'd died quickly, and it hadn't been an incendiary grenade.
"This is Major Petrovsky. General order: All units fall back to Overage Hackenburg, Redoubt Colmar is lost. Any of the garrison that can fight their way clear are to fall back, surviving guns are to focus on enemy motorised and armoured forces. Try and stop as many as you can from getting through the breaches and onto the city plains."
This time General Williams grunted in approval. Oleg Petrovsky had been showing great tactical ability and strategic awareness throughout the entire attack. He was already recommended for promotion in the after-action reports Jack had filed.
"The dinobirds are stopping us from retaking the fort entrance, they're flooding the marshalling yards with some kind of Jedi dinobird!"
Jack Williams activated his comms forgetting discipline due to the sheer ridiculousness of the claim. "What the fuck are you on about soldier? Jedi?"
"One of them glowed and threw a squad into the air General!" The garbled and hurried reply came back, the sound of intense gunfire as its backdrop. "They're telekinetic, we've lost over a hundred people trying to retake the primary marshalling yard. They keep throwing our own grenades back at us and then they've some form of magic blast that just rips you to pieces as well!"
General Williams's blood ran cold. If the dinobirds had large numbers of these 'jedi' troops then close quarters combat with them would be horrific. He checked the distance to Overage Hackenburg and signalled to his own comms officer to order a speed increase. It was well beyond what was safe for the tunnels, but that wouldn't matter if there was no line to save. "Just keep up the pressure solider, we're on our way to you. But if we don't take back the primary marshalling yard they'll have access to all of the tunnels, and god only knows what…"
"EXPLOSIVES! EXPLOSIVES IN THE WESTERN RAIL TUN…"
The ground shook three times in succession before a fourth, massive, blast rocked the tunnel his tanks were racing down, shaking several large bits of infrastructure loose from the roof to rain down on the charging tanks, crushing several outright and forcing the rest to perform emergency stops, sliding and crashing into each other along the entire length of their column.
General Williams closed his eyes, ignoring the clangs of falling masonry and light fittings raining down on his tanks before calling up his display, knowing what the monitoring systems would report. "The tunnel is sealed. Major Petrovsky; we cannot reinforce you. The Line is lost. Repeat: The line is lost."
He swallowed having to brace himself to be able to get the words out before giving the order that marked the beginning of the end. "General order: Abandon the maginot line, retreat to Qinghai. Hackenburg Sector forces: Disengage as best you can and retreat over land. Lt. Colonel Kemal: Reverse your train and head back to the anti-air forts. Armoured brigade: Enter reverse gear nice and slowly, we're going to.."
The tunnel rocked again from a, thankfully, slightly more distant explosion. This time General Williams barely noticed the clangs of falling masonry on armour or the sudden smell of dust that filled his command APC. He was too busy desperately trying to deny what his ears had told him about that blast, that it came from behind him.
"General! This is Spotter 3, one of the dinobird tanks that made it through the line sped right over the road tunnel and stopped about 500m behind your final unit. They blew themselves sky high and collapsed the tunnel. Repeat: The tunnel is collapsed."
In the privacy of his command APC General Williams let his hands fall into his head. There were emergency exits from the tunnel, but they were only wide enough for one tank at a time. Attempting a breakout through them against any form of opposition was suicidal. A second, smaller, explosion no doubt signalled the demise of the rail tunnel, preventing the marines retreat as well. Pulling himself together General Williams began issuing orders to salvage what he could.
"Lt. Colonel Kemal: Lead your marines out of the rail tunnel emergency exits and retreat to Qinghai overland. Armoured brigade soldiers: Abandon your vehicles and do the same. Make for the nearest exit, if you encounter resistance, set up a perimeter to prevent the dinobirds from running down any forces retreating behind you." General Williams watched his displays as the marines quickly vanished from the rail tunnel and scattered towards Qinghai. His own soldiers were attempting to do the same, but they were encountering more resistance by the minute as dinobird forces finally achieved what they'd been trying to do since that first attack and poured through the breaches in the maginot line.
The last emergency exit between his brigade and the collapse reported resistance barely 15 minutes after he gave the order to evacuate. The marines were long gone, but only a third of his armoured brigade's personnel had escaped. There rest were trapped down here with him, and hundreds of suddenly useless tanks.
General Williams braced himself before giving the second most difficult order of his life, passing a job he had failed complete to one of his subordinates. "General order: let the record show that command of all forces in the Theta system has passed to Brigadier General Maria Soberon. She is now Officer Commanding: Theta as well as Officer Commanding: Zapala. Tactical command of all forces on Shanxi passes to Brigadier General Kai Jodl due to the deaths of generals Albricci and Xiao. Let the record state that he is now Officer Commanding: Shanxi and that I, Lieutenant General Williams, now command only the 53rd armoured brigade."
The acknowledgement of the two generals was simple and to the point. There was nothing left for them to say that wouldn't rub salt into the wounds of a man they deeply respected.
General Williams left the big picture to them and focused on the soldiers remaining under his command, setting up barricades with the tanks and APCs closest to the emergency exits for his soldiers to use as cover incase the dinobirds were foolish enough to try and fight their way in. There was nothing that he could do to stop them collapsing the whole tunnel on them so after that he simply waited with his soldiers to see what the dinobirds had planned. They must have loaded those two tanks with their biggest explosives to collapse the tunnels from the surface and trap the armoured brigade. If they didn't have enough explosives them left to bring it all down would they just starve them out? Let his soldiers die of thirst? Whatever happened the General doubted they would helpfully march into his barricades to be mown down.
It was a relief when a comm signal came in in the clear from Redoubt Colmar, stopping his imagination from coming up with ever more outlandish fates for his brigade. Evidently the dinobirds had managed to capture the command centre intact, or at least the communications equipment there.
"Wish I to speak with leader of enemy forces." The voice was slow, halting and mechanical.
General Williams reached for his comms and was just about to activate it, when he stopped and sat back in his chair. That wasn't him, not anymore. He waited for Maria to answer the dinobirds message.
"This is Brigadier General Maria Soberon of the Systems Alliance. I'm listening."
"Do you give up?"
"No, we will not surrender. Neither here, nor on Zapala. We will defend our worlds from your unprovoked attacks till our last breaths."
General Williams wondered how much of Maria's response the dinobirds understood.
"Give up or buried troops die."
Evidently they understood enough.
"I will not surrender. Every life is precious to us, but I will not deliver two entire worlds to you to save a single brigade. But Killing those soldiers will be a grave mistake on your part, we consider the killing of soldiers who have surrendered as murder and we will hunt you down to the ends of the galaxy for it. No matter what happens here, there will be nowhere you can hide from us."
There was silence for several minutes, as if the dinobirds were surprised by this answer. Not an acceptance of their demands, nor a rejection of their demands and acceptance of his soldier's deaths. But rather, a rejection of their demands and a threat of retribution for the death of his soldiers.
"Wish I to speak with leader of buried troops."
"I'm listening." General Williams responded, he was still the commanding officer of this brigade. No matter how little of it was left.
"Give up or you die. Pretend to give up, hurt us later and you die. Give up, later try to leave and you die. Give up and do not do as told and you die. Do you give up?"
General Williams stood up and straightened his uniform, before uttering the words that he knew would see him remembered and dammed for all of human history. "This is Lieutenant General Jack Williams of the Systems Alliance, Officer Commanding: 53rd Armoured Brigade. On behalf of all of the soldiers under my command, I surrender.
Aralakh System – Aralakh Cluster
2112.10.21
Captain Shiala T'Rana of the asari frigate ARH Eyes of the Goddess stared at the terminal in her private quarters as if it had personally offended her. In actual fact it was Matriarch Lidanya, commanding matriarch of the asari contingent of the Citadel Council DMZ Enforcement Fleet, that had personally offended her. She had received a call a few minutes ago from the Matriarch and had known that something was wrong before she even answered. Why would the Matriarch of the fleet call a frigate captain directly?
It turned out that the Matriarch of the fleet did that when the STG had something on her, and the STG were also interested in what one of the turian fleets was doing. Specifically, the Third Patrol Fleet, the one her bondmate just happened to serve in as a captain. Commanding both his own cruiser and the attached frigate varrenpacks for outer patrols, he was more likely than most to have the information that the STG wanted.
The STG obviously knew this and thought that she could wheedle what was going on out of her bondmate using their personal connection, but as she had led a boring life, they had nothing on her. So, they had called in a favour from Matriarch Lidanya who had evidently not lead a boring life. The Matriarch had granted them their favour and had promptly lent heavily on her, leaving her in no doubt of her career prospects in the asari fleet if she didn't comply with STG's 'request'.
Shiala commed her bondmate, finally deciding to tell him that she was resigning her commission and would need to find another career, it was preferable to her to betraying the man she loved to the Matriarch and STG.
That was before Captain Palin Sidonis answered her call.
"Palin, what's wrong?" Shilala gasped at the sight of her bondmate. He looked totally haggard, his plates dull, fringe drooping. Even his eyes had a haunted and cloudy look to them.
"Absolutely nothing, everything is normal." Palin Sidonis replied robotically.
"Palin."
"EVERYTHING IS NORMAL!" Palin screamed at her making Shiala jump. "A good turian follows orders, and my orders are no one can find out, even though it's all my fault."
He seemed to be muttering to himself more than speaking to her, so Shiala tried to comfort her bondmate. "Palin, what's happened? What's all your fault?"
Shiala could see the moment the guilt over his actions and desire to unburden himself to his bondmate broke the last shreds of his turian commitment to orders. "Death Shiala, so much death. Thousands killed or worse – burned alive – and it's all my fault."
Shiala's hands were shaking so she grabbed her desk to try and steady herself. "Palin, tell me everything."
Theta System – Centauri Veil
2112.10.22
Superior Captain Solona Kandros was commanding a battle group of 22 cruisers and 8 frigates. Unfortunately for her pride, the frigates were the only ones that were undamaged. The cruisers had all suffered engine damage during their entry to this system, and rather than send them back to Lryae Asteria for repairs, where they could be seen, Admiral Arterius had instead assigned them as the guard force for the mass relay.
Here their varying degrees of difficulty moving would not be a major hinderance, and they could be repaired whilst out of sight and still performing a necessary duty. Captain Kandros was reading the repair reports from her battle group when she was jerked out of her musings by an urgent report from her comms officer.
"Alert! Enemy FTL event detected: 28 cruisers and 2 dreadnoughts. It's the entire surviving enemy fleet Captain."
"Commodore Lalla Hansa" Superior Captain Kandros muttered to herself. With the translation programme finally at least partially working, she'd searched the databanks of the destroyed enemy ships for information. Sadly, the anti-capture measures of the engineers – or humans as they called themselves – were exceptionally good, almost as good as salarian anti capture methods, they'd reduced their computers to molten slag. The defeated crew, rescued from the destroyed ships, had been willing to tell her the name of her enemy. However, they usually did so while telling her in graphic detail about how the woman from a place called Morocco was going to turn her into a giant 'kentucky fried chicken', whatever that was.
In short, she'd gotten very little tactical information on her opponent, except that she had the trust and love of her sailors. Which was a statement in and of itself, the woman was competent. Unfortunately, she had already known that, the damaged state of her own ships and the shattered wrecks surrounding them were proof enough.
"Sensors: Where are they? Comms: What are the Admirals orders? Helm: Prepare for in system FTL jump." Her XO rattled off orders as Captain Kandros looked at the information flooding onto her display.
"Enemy forces have exited FTL at the split point for our supply convoys. They're hitting todays convoy before it splits to deliver supplies to both ground forces."
"Admiral Arterius is ordering all ships to FTL to the convoy and engage the enemy."
"Inform Admiral Arterius that I am using the discretionary authority granted to me as a Superior Captain to maintain my position. Signal the battlegroup: Hold position." The bridge fell dead silent as her orders registered. Turian naval doctrine did allow her to do what she had just done, unless she had been given a direct order from the Admiral for her battlegroup specifically, but it still came dangerously close to disobeying orders.
The Admiral commed her personally as soon as her reply reached him. "Solona, what are you doing?"
"You've read the reports of our technicians. These human ships aren't like the asari, they don't have two drive cores. That means that they can't hit and run like the asari, using one drive core to jump in – hit the target – and then immediately jump out gain using the second core while the first is still in cooldown. That means that just like us, they're restricted by the cooldown before they can go to FTL again, possibly with a core discharge stop as well if they've gone between systems though we can't be certain of that last part as we don't know the efficiency of their drive cores yet, but we can be certain that that human fleet is not leaving via FTL any time soon."
"So why has such a competent naval commander jumped into the middle of an overwhelming hostile force, knowing she won't be able to escape?" Macen completed her question for her, quickly grasping his subordinates' line of thinking.
"She wants us out of position. We're guarding something she desperately wants, and she's willing to sacrifice her entire fleet to get us to go to FTL to engage her and leave it unprotected. She's gambling that we'll be restricted by the same cooldown she is and will never make it back to her target in time to stop whatever plan she has put into effect." Superior Captain Kandros told the Admiral her theory.
"Comms: New orders! All ships are to maintain position except for HWS Enforcer, our escorts, and squadrons four through eight. These forces are to perform an in system jump to engage the enemy." Admiral Arterius issued the new orders quickly, nodding to his subordinate in respect before shutting down the comm.
Solona scoured the sensors looking for information. Those small scout boats had been jumping in and out of the system, watching them for weeks, but she was sure that there were other ships among them. You couldn't hide your thermal emissions, but you could minimise them to make you look like a smaller ship, deliberately sit in a radiation cloud to mask them amongst the other emissions, put an asteroid or other body between you and the enemy sensors, the list was nearly endless. There were many different ways to hide and as this was the human home territory, she had little doubt they knew all of them.
Her eyes were drawn to the human colony on the surface of the moon the relay was tidally locked to, and the dozen other moons that orbited the second ice giant here on the outer reaches of the system. "Sensors: Conduct an intense scan of the ice giant, focus specifically on the high radiation emission areas, priority to areas not covered recently by our patrols."
Solona winced as her display showed the last supply ship being destroyed just before HWS Enforcer and her battle group dropped out of FTL and engaged Commodore Hansa's fleet. General Sparatus was going to scream bloody murder about the delay to her final attack that the loss of that convoy would cause.
"Scanning Captain." Sensors spoke up dubiously. "But I don't see how they could have gotten any ships so close, their FTL exit would have been a system wide flare."
The sensor officer was just confused, so Captain Kandros decided to treat her questioning as a learning exercise rather than insubordination. "They could have been here from the very beginning – hiding – waiting for their chance. Just because it's unlikely doesn't mean that the enemy hasn't done it. Remember; when you don't know what their goals are something that seems insane to you could seem perfectly reasonable to them. This has been the…"
"I'm getting something Captain!" the entire bridge went dead silent again and looked at the sensor officer. Captain Kandros was sure that some of her junior officers had suffered whiplash from how quickly they'd turned their heads.
"It's very difficult to see, but I think something is emerging from the ice giant's radiation belt. It looks like ships, clarification: It's definitely ships, they've just gone to full sublight thrust, they must have suspected that we'd spotted them. I'm trying to clear it up and get class and number….triangulating with the rest of the battle group…Captain! 16 enemy cruisers incoming!"
Superior Captain Kandros grinned at the knowledge she was about to make Commodore Hansa's sacrifice worthless. 16 inferior human cruisers against 22 turian cruisers and 8 frigates wasn't even a contest.
"Battle stations!"
Theta System – Centauri Veil
2112.10.22
Stephen Hackett franticly applied the emergency sealing foam from its fire extinguisher like container to the 30 cm crack in the CIC bulkhead of the SSV Cardiff. As the howling rush of air from the CIC finally stopped, he took a moment to thank all the gods that his life wasn't going to end before he turned 19.
It took an amazing amount of energy to push through the relief and desire to rest and get himself back in the fight, but he managed it. Pushing himself off the bulkhead and trying to ignore the smoke that filled the CIC along with the metallic scent of human blood, he floated towards the plot table and surveyed the remains of the CIC.
The emergency lighting and lack of gravity showed an almost total power loss. To be quite frank he wasn't even sure that they had reactors any more as one of the last things he remembered seeing was the emergency ejection system for fusion 1 engaging. It didn't seem that the rest of the Cardiff was going to be in any better condition if all of the compartments between the CIC and the hull were open to space.
As no one was saying anything, Hackett took the initiative as 1st Lieutenant. "Sound off, who's alive?" He spoke into the gloom, the red emergency lights turning into halos as the smoke in the CIC got thicker, evidently the atmospheric filters were down as well.
"Comms: I'm here." The first answer came as a groan from the back of the room, but Stephen was grateful for it. At least he wasn't the only one left.
"Weapons: I'm alive, not that there's much for me to do."
"Sensors: I've taken a lot of shrapnel down my left side, but I can function." Judging by the ribbons of blood floating in the zero gravity by the sensor station that was a small miracle. Lieutenant Hackett made a mental note to go straight to the sensor station as soon as he found where one of the medkits had ended up in this mess.
"Bridge: Nav is dead, I'm pinned by debris, but I can still reach the controls." Stephen closed his eyes to try and get rid of the image of Nav's laughing face from dinner in the mess yesterday. Her death would hit him hard later, but right now he needed to focus. Especially as the Captain hadn't responded to his call.
"Captain?" Lieutenant Hackett called out, floating over to her.
"Fuck!" He jerked back quickly as he saw the mess that razor-sharp bits of flying metal from the damaged bulkhead had made of Commander Sophia Thomas's throat. There was no need to check for a pulse, released from behind the Captain's body, large globes of blood began to float deeper into the CIC, mixing with the smoke and low red emergency lights to make what was supposed to be a clean and professional command centre look like something out of a cheap horror movie.
"The XO's dead too." Weapons called out from across the CIC, checking the dead Lt. Commander and the other unmoving CIC staff. "What are your orders Sir?"
The question hit Stephen Hackett like a freight train. With Commander Thomas and the XO dead, he was the officer of the deck until Lt. Commander Brooks made it to the CIC. Something he didn't think the chief engineer would be doing anytime soon with the Cardiff in this state, if she was even alive.
"Weapons: Go free Helm from the debris and take Nav's place. Sensors: take your time but I need to know what the status of the squadron is. Comms: connect me to engineering, the personal comms are down." The officers hurried to obey his orders, which did nothing to alleviate the growing panic Hackett felt in his chest, but at least it proved he wasn't letting it show. He distracted himself by floating over to one of the first aid stations and began searching for its missing medkit.
"FUCK OFF SOPHIA!" At least the chief engineer was alive, and unharmed if the volume of her dulcet tones booming off the walls of the CIC was any indication.
"Commander Brooks: This is 1st Lieutenant Hackett, the Captain's dead." The silence on the other end of the line was total as Lt. Commander Brooks composed herself, she had served with Captain Thomas for a long time.
Eventually her response came. "The XO as well?"
"Yes Sir, I am now in command unless you can make it to the CIC or wish to transfer command to engineering." Lieutenant Hackett replied, fervently hoping that the chief engineer would do just that. He had always wanted his own command of course, but not so soon, and not like this.
"Ki…Sir, Cardiff has taken major damage. We've ejected fusion 1, and fusion 2 has gone into emergency shutdown so we're on auxiliary power only. Main engines are destroyed, auxiliary engines are down, the drive core is twitchy, and we have hull breaches on all decks. Structural integrity is minimal, I'm afraid I have my hands full."
Hackett was supremely grateful that the chief engineer hadn't completed her first word, if he was now in command the last thing he needed was for the surviving CIC crew to be reminded that he was younger than all of them. "Prioritise repairs as you see fit Commander, I will contact you with new orders as soon as I know our situation." He shut off the comms and looked at the pale but determined sensor officer as he floated over to her, finally having located the missing medkit.
"How are you doing Valerie?" He asked kindly, setting to work putting medigel on the worst of her wounds. They'd heal around the shrapnel and a surgeon would have to dig them out later, but at least she wouldn't bleed out in the next few minutes.
"I'm ok sir." Ensign Valerie Clairemont hissed through gritted teeth, continuing to work her console as a distraction while the new CO worked on her wounds.
"Status of the squadron?"
"They're gone sir."
He paused for a moment as the dread settled in his stomach. "Did any make it through the relay?"
"Negative, I'm detecting 15 wrecks or debris fields. They got us all sir." Valerie replied, broken heartedly, as Lieutenant Hackett restarted his treatment of her shrapnel wounds.
The hatred and despair in her voice was clear. The death of Commodore Hansa and her entire squadron had been in vain, they'd charged headlong into a suicidal battle to give their cruiser force a chance to escape and inform the Admiralty of the desperate deterioration of the situation on Shanxi, and deliver their analysis of the dinobirds and their ships, fleet strength, and tactics.
Cardiff and the other ships of her squadron had failed. They'd waisted the chance that Commodore Hansa had bought for them with the lives of her entire squadron. "Why haven't they destroyed us sir?"
Stephen finished dealing with the worst of Ensign Clairemont's wounds and floated away from her, back towards the remains of the central plot table as he answered. "We're a cooling wreck, just like the others. Maybe their survivors are having the same discussions in their CIC's. I imagine they'll blast us to pieces or board us in a few hours when they see that the minimal thermal emissions from life support and auxiliary power aren't dissipating."
1st Lieutenant Stephen Hackett, Captain of the SSV Cardiff, was ready to give up when he suddenly saw a data pad floating steadily across the CIC, and he was hit with a sudden – insane – idea. "Sensors: What's our position? How close to the relay has our inertia taken us since the dinobirds decided they'd taken us out?"
Valerie sat up straighter at the question, losing some of her despair now that she could see her Captain had a plan. "Close sir, we've drifted passed the dinobird fleet. They'll have to turn to engage us, which given that we destroyed their frigates and the rest of them have engine damage from the first battle will probably take some time."
"A lot more time, they're at a dead stop. For them to turn to face us with their damaged engines would take a full minute at best guess sir." Helm piped up from the bridge.
"Well I might not be familiar with this dam panel, but I can tell you that they will have to be bloody lucky to hit us with their secondary guns from a constantly manoeuvring ship inside a single minute, especially when we're out of their firing arcs for over half of that time. As for the relay, if I can get this bloody thing to display right – thanks Helm – we can make it on auxiliary engines, but only if we go in the next five minutes. After that we'll pass the relay and we'll have to turn or reverse to make it, the extra time that'll take means they'll destroy us for sure." Weapons was rambling, but everyone's spirits lifted despite the blood and bodies of their dead colleagues floating around them as the smoke became thicker and the air became staler.
Comms connected Stephen to engineering without even being asked. "Commander Brooks: Can we activate the auxiliary engines on auxiliary power?"
"Not a chance sir, it barely provides enough power to run life support and keep the drive core stable."
"Then I need you to perform a crash restart of fusion 2. We're making a run for the relay."
There was silence for a moment before Lt. Commander Brooks broke military protocol. "Are you fucking insane?! You want me to crash start a fusion reactor that went into emergency shutdown, fire up the engines on a ship that's got more compartments open to space than it has with atmo, and then, just to top it off, take a ship that doesn't even have gravity through a mass relay, and pray that what's left of the inertial dampeners don't give out?!."
1st Lieutenant Hackett took a deep breath and laid out his position. "Commander, the fleet is gone. The Commodore is dead. They sacrificed everything to give us the chance to get the tactical data and the plea for help to the Admiralty, and we failed. The squadron has been destroyed. Either we do this and maybe, just maybe, we survive and make their sacrifice worthwhile, if, as you say, the reactor doesn't explode. And if the hull doesn't break apart, and if we aren't all turned to a thin layer of jam on the bulkhead. But the alternative is surrender to the dinobirds, surrender when we still have the possibility of completing our mission and I will not stand for that. I am the Captain of the SSV Cardiff and I am giving you a direct order. Can we do it?"
There was a moment when he seriously wondered if the chief engineer would mutiny, someone who had to openly state that they were in command was – at best – in a very precarious position. At worst they were screaming into the wind while everyone looked after themselves.
"Technically yes sir, but I cannot recommend it."
Commander Brooks finally responded, the reluctance to take either option clear in her voice. Fortunately for her, it was not her decision. She hadn't mutinied, Stephen Hackett was still Captain of the Cardiff, meaning the decision, and responsibility, was his. "You have your orders Commander, commence a crash restart of fusion 2 and activate the auxiliary engines immediately. Do what you can to keep us together."
"Aye aye sir."
The comm line went dead as Hackett took the position of the dead damage control officer. "Weapons: have Helm help you lay in the fastest course that doesn't put undue strain on the hull. Helm: be ready to go."
"Aye aye sir." Silence reined throughout the CIC as the surviving crew of the SSV Cardiff waited and hoped. Suddenly the lights blasted back to full power, almost blinding them after being in the dark for so long.
"Fusion 2 is online!"
"Auxiliary engines are firing up!"
"Go Helm!" Lieutenant Hackett called out as soon as the auxiliary engines came online. Cardiff screamed and groaned as she leaped forward, her hull put under forces that no sane Captain would have subjected it to in its current state. But it held together, and despite the feeling of an elephant sitting on his chest letting him know that the inertial dampeners were far from 100%, they were holding together too.
"The dinobirds have noticed, they're getting underway and beginning to turn." Valarie called out, her voice raw with excitement. Confident that this mad plan was actually going to work. Stephen wished he shared her certainty.
"Auxiliary engines at max, 40 seconds to relay." Helm reported, sounding amazed that the auxiliary engines, the hull the… well everything really… was still holding together.
"Enemy secondary guns have firing solutions." Weapons called out nervously from Nav's position.
"Relay has excepted destination request and is activating." Comms screamed out in joy.
"20 seconds to relay." Weapons gave a nav update, sounding more confident by the moment.
SSV Cardiff suddenly lurched sideways without warning, causing several of her surviving crew to black out from the unexpected Gforce as the sound of a massive explosion reverberated though the hull.
"HIT! Catastrophic damage to rear sections! Fusion 2 has ejected, engine shutdown confirmed, we're drifting." Lieutenant Hackett called out to the Captain, before remembering Sophia Thomas was gone and this was all on him.
"To late, we're close enough! The relay has hold of us." Valerie was hanging on to her console for dear life.
Lieutenant Hackett couldn't see any external sensor display, but he trusted his sensor officer. "Engineering: Dump the drive core and divert all power including life support to the inertial dampeners!"
"Hitting the relay in 8, 7, 6, 5"
"The drive core's gone!"
"2, 1,"
The shattered, mutilated, wreck that was once the Systems Alliance cruiser SSV Cardiff was flung across the galaxy before the helpless eyes of Solona Kandros's battle group. As they fired their main and secondary guns at the other wrecked human ships to vent their anger and to be sure that they were no longer a threat, no matter their appearance, a new proverb was created by the battlegroup's gunners. 'A humans not dead till you put a bullet in their head.'
Codex Entry: Human Technological Inferiority in the Relay 314 Incident (First Contact War)
(Citadel Codex, First Human SPECTRE Collector's Edition, 2183)
When the Relay 314 Incident (First Contact War) began in 2112, humans had only known about the mass effect for 28 years. That they were able to produce warships capable of standing up to Citadel designs at all is a testament to the human mastery of engineering, but even that skill couldn't hide the fact that a race that had known of the mass effect for less than three decades was battling a race that had known about it for over a thousand years.
Though the human mass effect guns had the same length to firepower ratio as all other Citadel races guns, human ships were smaller than their turian equivalents. This size discrepancy resulted in the human ships being outgunned when going up against turian formations unless they had superior numbers.
The sole exception to this was the human dreadnoughts, which were the equivalent of a turian 2nd line dreadnought. (A human Everest class dreadnought was 888m long with an 850m long main gun, the same length as that of a turian 2nd line dreadnought, despite the latter being 892m long.)
Human ships were also held back by weaker and thinner armour, weaker kinetic barriers, and larger and more inefficient engines, meaning more of their volume had to be dedicated to propulsion to achieve the same speeds as turian ships.
All of this resulted in a navy that was made up of ships that could have been produced at any civilian shipyard in Citadel Space, and were no match for any Council or Associate race's warships one on one. Indeed, of the approximately 3,000 Systems Alliance warships in commission in 2112 barely 300 – the heavy cruisers and the three dreadnoughts – could even BE classified as warships by Citadel standards. The 1,900 cruisers would only be classified as orbital guard cutters by a generous inspector, and the 800 frigates would be classified as police or modified civilian ships. Little more than target practice in a fleet battle.
It was the human's tactical ability, home ground advantage, and the ability to bring almost the entirety of their fleet to bear on only small sections of the Citadel Fleet that enabled the humans to end the Relay 314 Incident (First Contact War) in a position of strength. Had the humans faced an opposing fleet of equal size in battle, the outcome would have been far less favourable for them, a lesson that the humans would not forget over the coming decades.
On the ground the inability to manufacture kinetic barrier generators small enough to be fitted to tanks and other vehicles, let alone infantry armour, cost the Alliance army dearly. Academic analysis of the ground battles of Shanxi and Zapala predict that anything from 40% - 60% of Alliance casualties in those battles could have been avoided if their infantry and armoured units had had kinetic barrier generators installed in their armour.
This is a figure of great concern to the Turian Hierarchy, given the damage that the Alliance managed to inflict on General Sparatus' legion despite these disadvantages.
Author's Note
If you're confused about where those 16 human cruisers came from, re read chapter 4. Specifically, Commodore Hansa's preparations on 2112.09.28. I always try to let you guys know what's coming!
To those readers who feel I am taking to long on Shanxi, I'm sorry but there is just so much that has to happen. Those few paragraphs in the mass effect codex cover so many developments its unreal. The Alliance goes from being a UN like agreement among independent members to its own democratic nation state FFS! And that event is only described with a single line in the codex!
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