Hi guys, hope you had a good Christmas (or whatever you celebrate). The first chapter of Nation of Dogs redux is up, and I hope you all enjoy it and enjoy my content for a new year!
The desert world of Orriculus was home to the Kairis Republic, led by Lord Kairis. He was once a high ranked member of the Turian military but after the Reapers were destroyed, he saw a chance to make his own little empire. He saw himself as a lord and saviour for the galaxy and a religion, unsurprisingly, sprang up from that. He was also able to enjoy a harem of several difference races, mostly human and Asari with only two Qurrians and one captured and brainwashed Xia.
His ego knew no bounds, but he knew not to do everything himself. So, his parliament did the rest for him while he did the odd speech and law writing. General Leena, sat sipping her coffee as she looked out into the vast emptiness of space. Nothing ever happened on this assignment and she enjoyed that little fact. While it wasn't boring, it was better than other factions as they had to fight each day.
She was lazy, yes, but the pay was better. Taking another sip, she sighed with a smile but then an explosion shook the ship.
"What was that?" she asked looking around.
"The Raggar, it just blew up and we are detecting incoming projectiles!" her radar operator yelled. "But I'm not picking up any ships,"
"Ho…" she began before she looked out into space. "The Normandy…" she muttered. "Shepard, all ships fire in all directions. The Solar Empire is attacking!"
In the distance a fleet of new cruiser-class ships approached. These ships were equipped with stealth systems similar to the Normandy allowing them to move in with ease. Fast, quiet and undetected they could move anywhere without being seen. At least on radar, if someone looked out of the window then they could be spotted with ease due to their blue and black ship colours. Around 75 of these new ships moved in slowly keeping aware of incoming fire from the enemy fleet.
While they could not be seen, they could still be hit. Something they wished to avoid.
"Target, 75k ahead," one of the fire control officers said. "Standby for FFE,"
"FFE, aye," another one confirmed.
"Fire," a mass driver round shot though the void and into one of the Kairis ships.
Its shields buckled, but still remined. The Kairis fleet had 180 ships, a combination of Turian and Salarian but the Solar Empire had 310 ships in play. The 75 stealth ships kept their weapons on the enemy fleet while the rest of the fleet were moving in for a pincer manoeuvre to take the enemy fleet one.
"Pick your targets, but make them keep guessing where we are," Ashley ordered as she looked outside the window.
This was a very tricky plan. The idea is to use the stealth fleet to keep the main force occupied while the rest would attack from the sides. While they could be detected on the LADAR, the shots coming at them from seemingly nowhere would cause confusion within the fleet. This would allow the invasion fleet to get close with ease.
The stealth ships fired keeping the Kairis ships occupied as the rest of the fleet moved in front the sides. Leena grunted as the new ships came on the LADAR fast. She didn't know what to do, she chose this position because there was little to do. She had no experience with space combat, no clue as to what to do. But there was one thing which made her sigh.
"Open a channel," she said to her comms officer who nodded and open one up. "This is Leena Ulaka, we surrender," she announced making all eyes look to her.
Soon the firing stopped and Ashley came over the comms. "This is Ashley Shepard, deactivate your shields and weapons. You will be boarded," she said in a tone that spoke she wasn't interested in playing around.
OOOOO
Kolyat landed his ship in a small forest beyond the range of the New Alliance cities LADAR. While he had one of the new Raven dropships, he didn't want to push his luck. His mission was simple, find out what Project Ghost is. With the little intelligence he had he needed to be careful with this. His skills lay with assassination but she could get intelligence with ease.
Kasumi was also with him for the same mission. Ever since the formation of Imperial Intel or II she was a trainer for all the new operatives for the branch. Due to his own skills, Kolyat joined simply because it was the best choice for him. Military and fleet didn't have need of his skills but Intel did and that's was what he was assigned to. The best use of his skills.
"Ok, according to this the facility is 40 clicks south-west," Kasumi said as she looked at the map.
Kolyat came up and looked over her shoulder. "Not that far away," he muttered as he eyed the terrain. "But looks a little too open for my liking," he said noticing the clearing around the facility.
"True," Kasumi muttered. "But if we move in from here," she pointed to a set of hills near a wooded area. "We can sneak in with ease,"
"Good plan," he muttered. "The hills will give us cover and we can move in via the tanks,"
Kasumi looked at that area grimly. "Distilling people to eat them…" she muttered. "Just makes you sick,"
"Indeed," the Drell agreed.
Closing the map, the two left and made their way to the facility.
OOOOO
After the surrender the Kairis soldiers were led into the hanger bays by the Solar soldiers so that they could chose who to fight for or just become POW's. Jal'Wamma vas Ropan a Qurrian engineer just sat along with his fellow captives while the Solar Empire as each one made a decision about what to do next. Jal sighed as he looked to the floor listening to the soldiers talking. Just then a voice echoed in his ears and he looked up, what he saw made his eye wide and blood boil.
Tali stood talking to one of the commanders. Rumour of her not needing her suit was true as she wore a military officer uniform decorated with her scarfs. No sign of her suit was in site but the sight of her made him angry, but that wasn't why he was angry. Jal jumped to his feet and charged at Tali. But he didn't get far as one of the combat drones grabbed him and threw him to the floor pointing it's gun at him.
"ANSESTORS DAMN YOU BOSH'TET!" he yelled making Tali look to him with a bit of surprise.
"I'm surprised that someone like you is here," she said walking up to him. "Close minded bigot,"
"At least I'm no traitor to the fleet!" he countered.
"Traitor?" she scoffed. "Is it treason to try and save our species? Is it treason trying to use our enemy against them? Is it treason to not allow our species fall into extinction?" but Jal didn't respond. "Take him away," she ordered and the drone dragged him to a side room and threw him inside a small room before locking it.
Tali sighed and walked off. Ashley, who was nearby, followed her into the mess hall. She walked up next to the Qurrain engineer.
"You ok?" she asked with a sisterly tone.
"I'm fine," Tali said not looking at Ashley. "That just brought back some memories,"
"Tali, I know how you feel but you need to talk to someone about this," the marine said. "The fleet kicked you out because of something your father did, and you have only been trying to justify that reasoning. It's time to let go of the past,"
"It's not that simple," Tali admitted. "I'm being blamed for something my father did because the damned admiralty needs a scapegoat. He's dead I'm not, and that's enough for them in order to blade me for his mistakes. Exile, deemed as a traitor. Not that I don't care about going back, I just wish that they'll let me explain why all of this happened,"
Ash then embraced the engineer who in turn embraced the marine. "I know Tali, but for the time being let's focus on the mission at hand ok?"
They broke the embrace. "Ok big sis," she said with a smile feeling better.
"Ashley, Tali," John then said over the radio. "How are the ships doing?"
"Most of the ships we damaged are ok," Tali said. "We can use them as Trojan horses,"
"Understood, Ash you are you ok coordinating the rest of the invasion?" he asked.
"Easy," Ashley said with a cocky smile.
"Good, we move in 6 hours," John said before cutting the comm.
OOOOO
Several ships came in landing at the spaceport. Warden Halux sighed, apparently an asteroid storm hit them when their shields were down. They got hit with light damage to moderate damage allowing them to get back to Orriculus for repairs. The other engineers moved up to the ships as the ramps lowered. They expected to see the Kairis soldiers but instead soldiers in blue uniforms emerged with weapons up. Halux just fell to the floor in response not wanting to die as the soldiers moved up and bind them. They were then dragged to a room and locked inside to keep them safe.
John looked around at the city. It could have been in better condition, but this was a small empire with no intention of expanding so it was to be expected.
"Ash, we're in," he said over the radio. "Begin the invasion," he ordered.
"Understood," she replied. "All units, commence attack,"
The new stealth ships doubled as troop carriers. They flew in out of range of the city's guns dropping off troops, tanks and drones. They prepared to attack the city, but gunships came in fast. They got close but the troops were ready for this. Most of them took cover while the bulky anti-air drones took point and began to track and fire at the gunships. They fired their rockets at the gunships taking a lot of them down.
Several soldiers then got into tanks and used their machine guns to take more of the gunships out. That caused them to fall back, and despite being out of range they fired. Mostly as a discouragement measure. But this wasn't going to do much as the team inside would deal with that. After a good 10 min of firing the guns fell silent, after a good few moments the soldiers climbed into the tanks and headed to the walls of the city.
They fired at part of a wall making it collapse allowing the tanks to roll into the city with ease. Once inside they began to spread out fast securing districts of the city with ease. The Kairis military didn't have enough time to respond to counter the Solar Empire. It prevented them from establishing a good defence. But it did little as the soldiers they faced were well trained, equipped and battle hardened.
As the news reached Kairis he immediately began to move his possessions into his personal ship. His money, trophies, harem and several Turian relics. He needed to get out, he wasn't sure how he would be treated as an enemy Warlord. 2 died, and 1 was enslaved, so he would disappear. At least he would have his prizes.
As the last of his belongings was loaded onto the ship the door to the main palace burst open and several troopers walked out. Each one was armed with a heavy weapon of some kind. Each one was also clad head to toe in an armour that made them look something akin to human knights. They aimed their weapons at him and began to fire. He ducked, but the amount of fire that was coming at him he couldn't avoid or resist.
He fell down dead full of holes making his crew surrender.
One of them then hit their radio. "Storm squad one to Shepard," he said. "Target taken down,"
"Understood," John replied. "Sure, the ship, don't kill anyone unless you have too,"
"Understood," the solider replied.
One obstacle down, one more to go.