Several fleets exited the mass relay jump and moved into an attack formation as they approached Battarian space. Garrus looked over the plans one more time before the attack began. 6 fleets from the Allied Warlords would descend on the major worlds of the New Battarain Hegemony. Most of these worlds were slave worlds, so the fleet had specialists for former slaves. But that was a minor part of the plan. Each fleet had a world that they would need to invade, this would cut the capitol world off from support allowing another fleet to take the world and prevent the Reapers getting more soldiers for their war machine.
Simple, easy and had enough room for error. Not the most perfect plan, but allowed for the different fleets to employ their own tactics to take the worlds. Garrus closed the file down and walked over to one of the windows in his cabin and looked out. This whole thing felt wrong, not the plans or the invasions but that his best friend was missing. It wasn't the first time he felt like this, but this time he felt like there were things that he could have said.
John was the best friend he had, both socially and in the field. He gave a long sigh and wondered how the commander saw this whole thing. Probably joke around and look forward to the end of it. Garrus' mandibles twitched as he remembered all the times, he and John just had a good time. Taking out a glass, he poured some pseudo human wine and raised it to the stars.
"For you, John," he said raising it before drinking it. "Time to end this war once and for all," as he said that the fleet made another relay jump.
Cracking his neck, he then walked out of his cabin and onto the CIC of his capitol ship.
"All systems check General," Kelly said as Garrus walked on deck.
"You don't have to be here," he said. "Especially in your condition,"
Kelly gave an unconscious rub of her pregnant belly. "Well someone has to watch your back," she said with a smile. "And we're staying well behind the front lines. I'm sure we'll be safe,"
"No plan survives first contact," Garrus quipped. "And your husband will kill me if anything happened to you or the baby,"
"The you better keep an eye on me," Kelly winked making Garrus smile as he walked up onto the command platform looking over his crew.
Most, if not all, Solar Empire ships had aspects of the Normandy's design around them. Advanced stealth, speed, thanix cannons, and a platform that allowed the Captain to look over their crew. This reinforced the tactics that the army and navy used. Hit hard and fast.
The ship exited the relay jump and the battle had begun. The Battarian fleet, mostly made up of Battarian raiders, moved towards the joint fleet. The Hegemony fleet numbered at around 400 ships in total with nothing bigger than a cruiser facing off against a fleet of 700 ships with three of the ships being dreadnaughts and 2 being carriers.
The Battarians were outmatched, outgunned and outclassed, but that wouldn't stop them from trying as they fired as they advanced. Mass rounds impacted the shields of the fleet, but did little other than hold some of the smaller ships and transport ships back as the bigger ones moved in. The Solar Empire ships opened up with their thanix cannons which was followed by a missile barrage.
Lights of blue energy cut though the Battarian lines causing them to disperse. Battarian ships were made to be fast so that they can move in and take what they wanted. The downside of this was that it the ships are weak and lightly armed. Something that the Solar Empire managed to counter with stealth systems and advanced weaponry. This made them hard to track and allows them to strike.
The other Warlords didn't have much of a speciality for their army or ships as they salvaged ships and other things. This didn't allow for too much in specialisation outside of dedicated military units. While the Solar Empire cruisers began to break formation and move to further break the Battarain lines, the longer ranged turian cruisers from the rest of the fleet began to take pot shots at the enemy fleet breaking them further. Due to the fragile nature of the raiders, they didn't manage to survive if they got hit.
Garrus watched from his stand on his dreadnaught. Lights lit up, and the dreadnaught shook as the main cannon fired. The cannon round hit one of the cruisers which detonated taking out several raiders with it. That caused the lines to break up and the fleet to move in further taking out the rest of the raiders. None of them surrendered.
"How many did we lose?" Garrus asked.
"Not many," Kelly replied as she checked the reports. "5 cruisers and 7 troop transports, light damage on the rest of the fleet,"
"Then let's split up, head to the planet," he ordered.
"Sir!" Kelly saluted.
OOOOO
Jane sighed as she readied herself for the battle that was about to begin. Normally she would go in as a sniper, but this time she's be going in as a commander and lead the invasion force onto the world of Yakul, a major weapons production world. She was also given another, slightly important job, to carry the Solar Empire flag into battle. This sort of thing hadn't been used in centuries, but given the current feudal mentality the galaxy now shared, it was seen as an honour and inspiration to the rest of the force.
Flags carried a meaning behind them, something to rally the troops into battle. But she never understood it. Other than being a mercenary and Cerberus lapdog, she wasn't a front-line trooper but a cold calculating sniper. But her blood changed all that. Outside of her nieces and nephews, she was the only person in the galaxy who shared Shepard's blood. That meant more than anything else.
John Shepard was a hero to many even when he died. Many still thought he was still alive and just wating to come back for the darkest hour, but she knew he wasn't coming back. Her brother was dead, and there was nothing that people could do about it. But she could keep his memory alive, and that was the main reason she volunteered for the first drop and to carry the flag. She would walk onto the field carrying the flag of the Empire and charge the enemy forcing them to surrender or die.
After locking her armour on, she turned to the flag waiting on a stand at the end of the armoury. "For you brother," she said as she walked up to it and pulled it out of it's stands.
She then walked into the main hanger where the men and women waited for her to give the order. While they wore the standard blue camo of the Empire, they had their left shoulder pad painted yellow with a white stripe down the middle and a black star with chevrons breaking it up. It was the heraldry she had chosen. Every commander, no matter the Warlord, had their own heraldry that marked their forces making it clear who their enemy was facing.
"Today," she said trying to hide her nerves. "We begin a war that was supposed to be finished. Our target is the manufacturing plants of this world," as she spoke several camera drones watched her, broadcasting her message to the rest of her fleet. "The Reapers will be back, but as soon as we land, we will show them that if they do come back, they will rue the day they decided to pick a fight with us!" a loud cheer sounded. "They killed my brother, your leader! For his memory, for his Empire let's give these bastards hell!"
That was followed by a loud cheer across the fleet while Jane turned to face the boarding ramp. "20 seconds," a voice said.
That was the longest 20 seconds of Janes life as more than just the fight raced through her mind. But she shook her head and focused on the ramp as it lowered. Once it was fully down, she cried out with a rage.
"CHARGE!" she yelled as she ran out onto a muddy landscape waving the flag.
The others in her force quickly followed her into battle taking cover as they fired on the enemy positions covering her. Solar Empire aircraft flew in and blasted several entrenched units into the ground allowing more forces to move up.
The Battarian forcers were well entrenched due to in fighting from different factions. Balak allowed for this seeing it as a good way to let off steam and see if there were any weak points in the defences. The problem was all the different factions didn't have enough leeway or troops to change their raiding tactics. So, despite being entrenched, they were woefully unprepared for a full-on assault with tanks and aircraft. But this assault was also planned out so they couldn't counter attack with ease.
Empire forces slowly moved forwards, but a problem soon emerged.
"Say again," Jane asked as she got into cover.
"We have unconfirmed reports of husks," Kelly said over the radio. "Not sure how true they are, but be alert!"
"Understood," she confirmed as she looked around from her cover.
As she looked, one of the Captains, Trilas, looked with her. "Problem?" he asked.
"Yeah, inform all troopers, possible Reaper foot soldier sighting," the Turian's expression turned to one of surprise, but he nodded and send the message to all of Jane's troopers.
She noticed an alertness within her troops. They took a few more precautions and were more careful as they exited cover to take shots at the Battarians. A few of her tanks then began to move up into the factories taking out the guards and freeing the slaves. But the slaves were so brainwashed that they didn't even know what was happening as they continued to work. That made them the perfect shields for the Battarians as they tried to take on Empire forces.
More troopers moved in, but as they did one of the factories exploded followed by another, then another.
"PULL THEM BACK!" Jane yelled to one of the commanders.
He nodded and gave the order, just in time as well as several factories detonated taking out several tanks. One of the Warlords did discuss the thought of asset denial. Destroy your own assets to deny them to the enemy. But it was dismissed as too extreme. It seemed like a childish thing to do, even for a Warlord. But it would appear that Balak didn't think that way. As she thought about that discussion, a thought emerged.
"Kelly, it's Jane, what's the situation with the slave pens?" she asked with haste.
"The force is almost there," Kelly answered quickly.
"Get them to stop now, possible asset denial. We just had several factories go up, and if I'm right, the same thing is going to happen to the slaves if we get closer," Jane quickly explained.
The line went dead for a moment before Kelly came back on. "They've stopped, but that leaves our forces out in the open. They are going to get attacked, and the Hegemony now knows our target,"
Jane cursed before a blue light shone from the factories. Her eyes widened; she knew that light all too well.
"Order a full evacuation!" Jane yelled. "We have a Reaper,"
The line fell silent as a leg taller than a building emerged from the ground and fired at the allied warlord forces. As she watched the order came and she yelled at her men to move to the rally point. This operation went to hell fast, but as they moved Jane realised something.
"How long have they been stockpiling bio-material?" she asked herself.