EA and Bioware own pretty much everything here, I do not.

Reviews

ithros falasson: I imagined that the MA rounds would be fast enough to just turn to liquid and repulse in a more chaotic fashion, making blocking with a light saber ineffective. It is my understanding that lightsabers melt metal and push it out of the way like in the movies. Unlike a blaster bolt, which is forced to be coherent and will not splash once it impacts the saber. I would still be worried about blocking it, but that is just me.

hellion117: WAR! What is it good for?

Nexus Gundam: the rebel fleet wasn't able to automatically detect the shield over the second Death Star the moment they emerged from hyperspace, so I imagined that it was something you'd have to scan for specifically and considering the differences in technology, the turians would have no idea what to look for.

Asharzal: The turians will learn pretty quick. They think the Sith are primitive based upon their own bias towards their technology. Turians are the mightiest military in the galaxy(or so they think), turians use mass effect, therefore, mass effect is the mightiest technology and those who don't use it are primitives. As for ship numbers, the only races we have numbers for (that I'm aware of) is the quarians and the humans in the original first contact war. Quarians are the biggest at 50,000 ships, though not all of them military, we only know that the majority are civilian. I'm assuming here that they have a bare majority, so about 26,000-ish, therefore 24,000 are combat capable. The turians, at least from how I understand their attitudes in games, believe that even if a fight broke out, they'd win but it would not be easy. Since they have the superior ships, I'm assuming that they have fewer of them to throw at the quarians, but not too fewer. So, for the sake of this fic, I figured they'd have somewhere between 18,000-20,000 in total across their 32 fleets, putting each fleet at around 600 ships. I've also set it up to where the asari and salarians together equal the turians so in this universe they each have about 10,000. This is all speculation on my part and for the purpose of serving this narrative so please don't consider me a lore expert.

rollynolly: me too man, me too.

Guest who knows much more about the lore than me: I apologize that I am not fluent with the technical end of Star Wars lore. For the sake of the fic, the two sides will be a bit more even than their canon counterparts. If playing fast and loose with the lore turns you off from this fic, I completely understand. As a side, I am really glad I have no plans of doing any Mass Effect and Warhammer 40K crossovers(looks nervously at fanfic scrap folder) nope definitely don't have any ideas for that.

Sura: In time.

Jctherebel: Thank you.

atengawchok: I'll try to keep it flowing.

Azai Jin: Next chapter is now, and many turian errors will be brought to light, and they'll make a few more along the way.

Mandalore the Survivor: So these Mandalorian are a separate branch of the military and act as auxiliaries within the army and navy. They are mostly independent and get paid by the job though they are expected to answer the call to arms from the Minister of Warfare, who distributes their funding. When they created Project Mando, they did so with the specific intent to crate a fighting force to put a stop to the Order of Sith Lords if needed that is loyal to the Ministry, so they adhered to everything they found in the ancient vaults like it was doctrine, though I did have plans to have them branch out more later on in the series. Funnily enough, I never thought to make Wrex a Mandalorian, or at least a follower of the creeds, but that makes so much sense, I may have to incorporate some elements of that. Turians on the other hand... There's going to be a lot of bad blood between all turians and all Sith so, it is unlikely in this universe, for now. As for how the elements of the Sith Empire will affect the Alliance, the leaders were given a heavily biased version of events, therefore they do not know the fullest extent of the Empire's depravity, though they have a good idea. The populous has an even more embellished version that almost makes the Imperials out to be heroes without equal. The main thing keeping them from going off the deep end is that they have just had this history placed upon them and are still figuring out their place in the galaxy, they have not been festering in hate like the Empire did for so long. Lastly, besides the Sith Purebloods, I have only intended to bring the Mass Effect races into the story, sorry.

kagega: Well, here's the next piece for ya.

Now on with the show!

The turian dropships descend on the city like locusts, moving to specified areas of likely strategic importance. As the turians descend in coordinated formations, several impact the shield at once. The first wave falls almost in its entirety, as does most of the second. While the majority of the third pulls up before they can impact it. Some of the group slow down enough to pass through without it ripping them apart, only to become easy prey for the AA guns beneath. By the fourth wave, all dropships receive word that their direct descent into the city is foiled and to regroup at a secondary landing point to the city's east.

Desolas lands in the midst of the panic at the secondary landing point as other landing craft are in various stages of disembarking troops. He activates his shuttle's communication panel and calls the command cruiser.

"Captain, we've secured a landing sight beyond the city's barrier, I'm ordering an orbital bombardment to break it. Focus shots on the locations where the AA guns are, should you break through then civilian casualties will be minimal."

"Acknowledged, General, beginning bombardment," the captain responds.

A few seconds pass before the first shell comes screeching through the atmosphere. The shot impacts the barrier with a crash audible from the turain base camp as the air quakes from the force of impact. The shield ripples as it did when the dropships slammed against it, but they endure. The next shot does much the same, and the next, and the next, and the next.

Frustrated, Desolas contacts another two captains and relays the same bombardment orders. The impacts come in sets of three, shaking the air and parting all the clouds above the city, yet the shield remains. Desolas up the ante to five cruisers firing and then even ten. However, even as the earth shakes, the wildlife flees, and the skies themselves part in the wake of turian guns, the result refuses to change, that shield is not going anywhere. He growls in resignation as he orders the captains to cease firing.

"Perhaps we could get one of the dreadnaughts to shell it for us, sir." One of his officers suggests.

"Except that bombardment of that scale on a garden world is a war crime," Desolas replies, "We'd need the express permission of the Council to take that shot and I have a sinking feeling that this barrier is strong enough to take it. We were firing from ten cruisers simultaneously, and we achieved nothing, we try any more, we risk disrupting the planet's ecosystem. These sith have obviously thought well ahead and made certain their planet would break before their defenses do."

"What should we do then, sir?"

Desolas looks towards the city, "Regroup here and we'll configure our forces for a direct assault from the east. Get this information back to Septemus, he won't like it but he needs to know that we've hit a major setback."

"Yes sir."

As Desolas predicts, Septemus is not happy with the news, "Damned primitives, the one thing they have over us and it has to be their shields. No matter, tell Arterius he's free to engage as he sees fit. I can trust him to do that much at least."

"At once, sir," Victus responds as he sends the message.

Septemus nods and turns walks to the officer scanning Shanxi, "Ensign report. How are the scans coming along?"

"Sir, scans have provided… unexpected results," the officer replies.

"Unexpected how?" Septemus inquires, the edge rising in his voice.

"Sir, it seems that the capitol city is the only site of civilization on the entire planet."

"What?!" Septemus interjects, "Let me see that."

He shoves his way to the data console as the officer continues, "I've collaborated all the data from multiple scans from multiple vessels in the fleet, they're all saying the same thing: this is the only inhabited area of the sith home world. It is, frankly, baffling."

"Is their environment unstable?"

"No sir, atmosphere is well within standard oxygen and nitrogen ratios for sentient life, temperature is optimally distributed with only the pole baring an uninhabitable biome, and the vegetation is spread out in a very optimal pattern across the world. By all accounts, this world should be teeming with civilization. Unless there is something our scans cannot pick up, I'm afraid I can't say why this is."

Septemus grasps his chin, "Perhaps some sort of megafauna that has hunted them down to this last city on their world, it might explain their shield technology. We'd be able to pick up toxicity or nuclear fallout if they nearly wiped themselves out in a war. Maybe disease has left them in such a state that there are only enough of them to inhabit in one functioning city, but why would they stay on world at all at that point if they could travel to space."

"Admiral," Commodore Victus intercedes, "I believe that perhaps a simpler answer is at play, though one that is ultimately more frightening. This may in fact be only a colony world."

That hits Septemus like a ton of titanium as the ensign at the terminal ponders aloud, "That would explain why there is only a single city of civilization, albeit a very large one. But that would mean…"

"We're dealing with their planetary defense forces, not their full military," Septemus hisses as he turns a glare to his XO, "You knew?"

"I suspected it was a possibility, sir," Victus explains, "However, given what we knew at the time and how sith lacked any amount of Element Zero, I dismissed it as only that, a slim possibility. However, seeing the state of their world, it has now become the most likely scenario, however unlikely it seemed before."

"Spirits," Septemus curses, "They could have who knows how many forces mustering elsewhere as we lay siege to their world. We need to accelerate our occupation. Come what may, we need to be ready for their reinforcements and if we can hold their world hostage to gain the advantage, we shall. Accelerate the takeover of their space station and the occupation of their settlement on the ground. Make certain Arterius understands how urgent this is."

"Yes sir." Victus replies.

"We need to send word back to the Hierarchy, we may need reinforcements," Septemus adds.

"We would have to send a ship back through the relay to the next active comm buoy as none are currently linked through Relay 314," Victus replies.

"Then compile all the necessary data and send a frigate back the moment you do, better yet, send Circerus, that should keep the coward away from any glory," Spetemus almost smirks.

"At once, sir," the officer at the terminal replies.

"We need to accelerate the takeover of that station; it likely holds important information we can use to fend off whatever forces they may send to push us out of the system. Advance into short range combat and surround them."

Victus furrows his expression, "Sir that would take way our advantage of attacking at range, our forces would be more vulnerable the closer we get."

"But we can also separate them and prevent them from falling behind one another to prolong their ships' combat effectiveness. We would take them out of commission faster than we are now, which would likely save us casualties in the long run if the retaliation force arrives sooner rather than later."

Victus nods, "I see. Very well, Admiral."

The turian ships charge forward in tight formation as orders circulate through the fleet. Packs of frigates spearhead the charge as cruisers fall behind the smaller ships, continuing to fire upon the Sith vessels. Captain Irons observes the change in battle tactics sweats.

"I thought they'd stay back and focus on eliminating us from range before anything else," he ponders aloud, "They must have gotten impatient, but why? Are they that dedicated to making it to the station? This is bad, we'll be overwhelmed just sitting here."

"Captain," the comms officer shouts, "The transport is near finished collecting civilians. Just a little more time."

"What's taking them so long?!"

"They're filled well beyond capacity, there are a few thousand passengers over what the ship was meant to carry. It's taking more time to find space for everyone that goes aboard."

"Kalig damn it! The turians will be within range of the station before they can escape," Irons paces back and forth on the bridge for a few seconds, "Open a channel to all Sith warships, I have a plan."

"Channel opened."

"This is Captain Irons, all defense flotilla ships, countercharge on the turian fleet. If we can make ourselves a big enough nuisance on their formations, they'll have to stall to focus on us. Target their big ships in the back, they have the longest range, and the others will likely flock to defend them should we threaten them. Once the transport is away, every ship is free to disengage and jump to the rendezvous point."

The small fleet of destroyers obey and charge into knife fighting range. Irons' ship leads the charge as it passes through the first wave of frigates while it open fires on the smaller ships. They launch their disruptor torpedoes and wreak havoc upon the Sith ships. Many shields drop and hulls shred under the continued fire of the turians' mass accelerator guns. However, the further the ships fly into the turian swarm, the less shots taken.

It becomes harder for the cruisers and dreadnaughts to find a firing solution within the acceptable tolerance for friendly fire. The turians' momentum stalls just as the station and transport touch the edge of the cruisers' effective range. The turian ships reorient themselves to take shots at the Sith ships that are firing at their broadsides. Dozens of Terminus destroyers fall to mass accelerator fire, but some of the ships last long enough to make it through the turian formations. Irons even makes it to the rear of the swarm.

As the Sith draw closer to the rear dreadnaughts, the final shuttle lands within the Gage transport's hangar. With the last of the civilians aboard, the transport's engines spring to life and it flies away from the station towards inner Sith Space. This, however, does not go unnoticed by the turians as an alert reaches Septemus' command bridge.

"Sir, there appears to be another enemy cruiser on the other side of the station attempting to escape the battle. It's already moving well out of our cruisers' effective range," Victus reports.

"Why?

"Unknown sir."

Septemus ponders for a bit, "Whatever it is that they are trying to accomplish, it can't be good for us. Order the Guided Might to take it out immediately, we cannot risk letting them escape."

"It will be done, sir," Victus responds.

Orders are relayed and the Guided Might maneuvers forward and takes aim across the battlefield. The dreadnaught fires off a shell at the transport, it impacts mere seconds later biting into its weaker shields. Captain Irons sees what's happening from below the dreadnaught and rushes to the communications terminal himself and bellows out orders from the emergency channel.

"This is Captain Irons. Enemy dreadnaught is targeting our last transport. Any vessel, intercept, I repeat, Intercept! Give it time to escape! There are thousands of lives aboard that ship!"

The next shell launches and takes out the shields as several ships between the two move to intercept. The third shell plows right into the unarmored engines as the nearest destroyer is intercepted itself by a pack of turian frigates. Unable to jump to hyperspace and unable to evade oncoming fire, the transport floats through space; undefended, incapacitated, and vulnerable. Captain Irons has a front row seat beneath the dreadnaught to see its fourth shell fire, missing all the destroyers attempting to intercept, and drill once again into the engines of the crippled transport.

The shell breaches the reactor and sets of a chain reaction that detonates the power source. The ship and the thousands of civilians aboard are erased in a blaze of fire. Irons and his crew are stunned into silence. Everything they and the other Sith forces have done in space, every life that has been sacrificed, is now meaningless. Their people, over sixteen thousand people, are obliterated by the invading force and there was nothing Iron's could do to save them.

Only avenge them.

"Give me ramming speed," Captain Irons says.

"Sir?"

"I said, give me Ramming Speed!" Irons echoes as he points to the offending dreadnaught, "If we die, we're taking those scum with us. For every civilian they've murdered this day, Destroy that ship!"

"Yes Sir!" the bridge officers reply.

Alarms sound to abandon ship across the vessel as the engines boost to maximum thrust. The shields at last fall to mass accelerator fire and the durasteel armor takes the full brunt of the slugs. Irons remains steeled in the face of his certain death.

"Sir, the self destruct sequence is primed and ready," his first officer reports.

He nods and addresses the deck as the ship rocks from sustained fire, "Ladies and Gentlemen, though our time together has been brief, I thank you for your service and advise you to escape. Divert all power to the thrusters, cut off communications, life support, everything that won't get us there faster. The self destruct only needs one person to stay and activate it, and as Captain, it is my solemn duty. Fight on, for Earth and Korriban!"

The bridge salutes him as the ship is rocked by another slug, "For Earth and Korriban!"

The spirits of the Guided Might's bridge crew continue to rise. They'd taken out a retreating vessel fleeing from behind the station and acquired a new target. Another round fires off and blows off a chunk of a Sith destroyer's armored hull. Just a few more shots and they'd scoop up the remains. Everything progresses as planned, until…

"Sir, escape pods have been launched from a damaged vessel below us," an ensign reports.

"Good, we'll be sure to collect the primitives once their vessel destroyed, keep firing on our current target," the captain replies.

"There is one thing though, the ship they jettisoned from is accelerating towards us," the same ensign says.

"What? Why?" the captain asks.

The lower officer analyzed the data on his console, "Oh Spirits, it's on an intercept course. They're ramming us."

"Barbarians! Shoot them down before they get closer!"

The large vessel repositions itself to take aim at the charging ship. Other ships realize what's happening and intensify their fire upon it. A frigate slug slams against the destroyer's bridge as Irons holds fast to the command console, keeping an astromech droid anchored to the terminal, "How much longer until intercept?!"

The droid beeps out a reply, Irons growls. The dreadnaught fast approaches through the transparesteel of the bridge as it fires a shot at the destroyer. The turians panic as the ship's armor redirects the oncoming shot across its wedge shape, tearing off more metal and venting more atmosphere from the destroyer but not stopping it.

"Evasive maneuvers!" the captain shouts.

The dreadnaught lumbers backwards as its core strains to move the massive ship against its own inertia. Such movement comes too late as the destroyer impacts the main battery, durasteel meeting titanium with the full force of the destroyer's engine output, as several decks on both ships vent atmosphere. The impact throws Irons from his post as the droid at his side flies off and crashes onto the wall. He picks himself up and crawls to the console quick enough to activate the self destruct of his flying scrap heap of a ship.

"For the glory of the Sith, you damn spikeheads!" he says as the ship detonates.

As the primary reactors blow, the explosion rips far enough into the turian's mass effect core to destabilize it. With no time to escape, Captain Irons and his destroyer take the Guided Might and all her crew with them. The Sith destroyers in the thick of fighting and on the brink of destruction, copy their leader's maneuver and take as many turian ships as they can with them. The few on the outskirts of the battle retreat beyond the space station and jump to hyperspace, having done all they could and to bide their time for the counterattack.

"Those Spirits Damned Savages!" Septemus roars, "What kind of uncivilized barbarians would use their own ships as battering rams?!"

"That ship must have been important," Victus comments as he grinds his mandibles together, "Several of their cruisers were putting themselves in the line of fire to protect it. They may have been furious enough to do something drastic. While I will criticize the crude tactics and I am more than angry that we've lost a dreadnaught, I cannot say that it wasn't a logical sacrifice. The loss of a standard cruiser isn't much compared to a dreadnaught."

"This station had better be worth it," Septemus growls, "The Primarch will have my head for losing a dreadnaught and returning empty handed. Begin moving in and boarding. And pick up any escape pods while you're at it, I need something to interrogate."

Free to move on the orbital station, the turian fleet moves in for boarding, launching many shuttles of marines to take the station. The hangars are sealed shut but the turians go for the airlocks. The station's meager force of security droids stand ready at their masters' command to ambush the invaders. As the turians break through across the station, the droids fire upon the aliens. The turians return fire, taking down a few of the infantry class machines, but the few assault class battle droids take many more shots and dish out much more damage. After a long slough, the turians break through and infiltrate the station. Blast doors shut and power shuts off across the station as the turians make their way through the station. Even the shadows themselves seem to prowl around them, always watching, for now.

Desolas groans over his holographic table as he surveys the battle and takes in the news from the fleet. His whole assault has become ten times more troublesome with all that's piling onto him, "This shield is proving to be a Spirit's damned pain in the ass. The fleet can't bring it down without wrecking half a continent, if we go in too fast, we crash against it, and if we descend slow enough to pass through, their guns tear us apart. Even if we overwhelm them with numbers, the casualties would be unacceptable and insufficient to hold the city, let alone assault their holdouts."

He groans as he clicks his mandibles together in frustration until his tent opens up. He straightens himself up as Saren enters with a salute, "Sir."

"Saren, good. I have a special mission I want you to be a part of."

Saren's mandible twitches, "Brother I-"

"It's not because you're my brother," Desolas interrupts him with steel in his voice, "I may pull political strings to open up doorways, but I will never stoop so low as to show favoritism on the battlefield. I'm choosing you because you're one of the best soldiers I have at my disposal."

Saren shuts his mouth and inclines his head, "I'm sorry, Desolas, it was wrong of me to assume such. You're a good turian, I know that."

Desolas sighs, "I'll forgive your outburst. As I was saying, we've yet to locate the location of their shield projector or power source, however, we know where their AA guns are located, and I believe that hitting them would be the next best thing. My plan involves moving almost half of the main force from our location directly into their city while you and several other squads infiltrate and take out those guns. When that's complete, we can fly more of our troops into various points in the city and close in on their central force from all sides."

"But Desolas, would it not be prudent to simply march over them and route them slowly while we advance?"

"It would be, but things are continuing to go wrong for us here. I've been informed that this is not in fact the sith home world, but a colony. If we cannot seize the city fast enough and compel a surrender, we may find ourselves trapped in a difficult position."

"Spirits," Saren swears, "The Admiral really was a fool to launch such a hasty invasion."

"Like I said, there are too many factors at play for this to be a clean victory," Desolas responds, "At any rate, orders are orders. Assemble your squad, we move out in an hour."

"Yes Sir!" Saren salutes.

The hour passes and the turian assault is underway. While the main force concentrates on the center of the city, the flanks spread out ahead to keep the north and south secured for encirclement. A cabal of biotics marches ahead of the north flank, scouting ahead. They scan every intersection, side street, and building for ambushers. They pass several parked skycars and one of the turians takes a brief look at them.

"How do these people have flying personal vehicles?"

"Every race has personal flying vehicles," his leader hisses, "Focus!"

He shakes his head, "No, I mean, how do they have them without element zero. How are they able to fly. These obviously don't have wheels, so they must at least hover."

"Does it matter? We can figure that out once we subdue them until then do you job!"

In that moment of distraction, a rocket screeches from the rooftops and detonates on top of the turian leader, reducing him to smithereens. The others take cover and gaze skyward to see something else flying right at them.

"More rockets, take cover!" the XO orders.

They bunker down as they hear the burning of jets draw nearer. Then, one by one, the rockets cease, replaced by boots hitting the ground and translated turian.

"Well, well, what do we have here, Jessie?"

"Looks like a bunch of spikey di'kuts to me, Zaeed," a cocky voice mocks.

The turians peek over their cover to see seven Sith people in elaborate armored suits lined up in front of them with weapons at the ready, led by one in yellow and white armor brandishing a blaster carbine. Each armor is different, but they all share one commonality, each bore the mark of a tusked beast skull on their armor, the mark of the Mandalorian Mythosaur.

One of the turians peeks just a little too far out of cover and is suppressed by down by a burst of fire from the leader, "Spirits!"

"Surrender, then get the hell of our planet," the leader shouts.

"Turians never surrender," the now commander says as indigo light builds up in his talons, "The only time you'll see a turian's back is when he's dead."

"Good, that just might make you lot fun."

The turian throws a shockwave at the group. Most evade but some get caught in the blast. However, once in the air, they correct themselves with their jetpacks and rush the invaders. The Mandalorians circumvent the turians' cover with their air superiority but the turians create singularities to trap them midair. Jessie gets snagged and shot at. The shots ping off his armor plates and he pushes his jetpack to maximum output to free himself from the gravity ball.

Closer to the ground, Zaeed fires upon the leader, who put up a biotic barrier to cover himself. Not backing down, Zaeed launches a rocket that blasts the shield apart before rocket tackling him. He then puts down another turian with a body shot but comes under fire as well. He ascends to the sky once again as another commando tags him with an explosive dart and kicks him towards his comrades. The dart explodes, killing the first turian and incapacitating the rest.

The rest of the biotics attempt to use their abilities to regain control of the skirmish, but the Mandalorians seem to anticipate every move and their mobility and armor make them difficult to land hits on. It doesn't take long for the remaining turians to get surrounded and held at blasterpoint. One turian tries to take his soul captor out with a biotic charge but an electrodart ends that attempt in and instant.

The commando sneers as he kicks the convulsing body away, "Mandalore's Balls, these things are even uglier in person, Zaeed."

Another reaches for his sidearm, but a shot from Zaeed's rifle ends him before he can draw, "Unless anyone else feels like getting put down today, throw down your weapons then put your hands behind your heads."

Most comply after a moment but one solder at the edge of the group makes a run for it. However, Jessie launches a harpoon into his leg and drags him back kicking and screaming.

"Oh, we got a runner here," Zaeed says, "Get him on his feet."

The Jessie retracts the harpoon and another pulls the alien to his feet. Zaeed strides up to the runaway and bashes him across the face with his armored fist. The alien drops but Zaeed just stomps on his instead. After the few more hard kicks with his bootheel, the turain stops moving, knocked out and bleeding blue all over the street.

"Don't retreat my arse," Zaedd growls.

The turian attempts to scout the orbital station net dismal results at best. Whatever Sith elements are left aboard are not making it easy for the turians, what with the power outages, blast doors, and automated turrets keeping the aliens at bay. Unable to open the doors wirelessly with their omnitools and unable to use the integrated terminals, the turians are left prod around the electrical wiring in their attempts to break in. As is the case of one six man squad.

"I think I got it," the technician says as he tinkers with the door.

"You said that ten minutes ago," another replies.

"Just be grateful I can even get these things to budge at all," he shoots back, "Primitive technological engineering isn't exactly covered in basic," a spark of electricity from his omnitool and the metal shifts, "I got it."

The door slides open but before anyone can celebrate, the technician is pulled into the darkness beyond with a scream, "Calem!"

The only female of the group readies her weapon, but their leader stops her, "Hold, this is obviously a trap. We go in together, slowly. Cover each other."

They all nod as he leads the squad into the room, suit mounted lights illuminating what they can and finds their comrade dead on the floor, "I sense your fear," a voice echoes around them in translated turian.

The turains nearly jump as they scan the area, "Stay calm. Enemy is using psychological warfare, remember you training."

"You think you're training will save you?" the voice continues, "Oh no, there's nothing that can save you now, especially you, Private Perus."

One of the turians clenches his mandibles together, "How do you…"

"Where shadows and darkness meet, there you shall find the Pyramid of Assassins," the voice whispers into his ear, making him jump again.

The squad of soldiers hold their weapons at the ready, their mounted lights poking through the blackness. The door closes and the Perus unloads his weapon at it until it overheats and leaves him a heavy breathing mess. The commanding officer hisses at him.

"Private Perus, control yourself! Morulalian, back up this trigger-happy excuse for a soldier," no one replies, "Private Morulalian!"

He turns to where she was in formation but sees nothing. He shines his light towards her last known position and finds no body, no weapon, and no trace of her. Fear creeps in but doesn't have time to settle as a bright red light ignites and impales another turian behind him. The turians take shots at the Sith but he's gone before they can hit him.

"Everyone, open guard formation and fall back to the door," the leader orders.

Each soldier directs their weapon towards the center between the group and holds watch over the others as they make their way toward the exit. Step by step they watch one another as they move until the point man flies back and meets a crimson light that slices though his middle before disappearing. The squad concentrates fire on his location but hit nothing.

"You cannot protect yourselves from me," the voice echoes around them.

Each point their weapons in a different direction as the leader curses, "Damn it, it's some kind of biotic."

"Sir, I didn't see any indigo light," one of the last two privates says.

"Perhaps they've found a way to hide it or-"

Spirits! I can't take this anymore!" Private Perus exclaims as he open fires on his comrade.

His squad mate's barriers fail and he is cut down under the continuous fire as the squad leader charges his subordinate and tackles him to the ground.

"What the hell are you doing!"

Perus babbles and rave for a moment but before he can form a coherent thought, his head twists, and with a hardy crunch, his neck snaps as he's held down by his commanding officer. The last turian leaps up from the ground weapon at the ready as his gazes in disbelief at the body of his deranged soldier. Alone, last turian points his weapon towards any sound, any flicker, and every imagined disturbance around him with frantic anticipation.

"You aliens truly are a detestable race," the Sith's voice echoes in both the corridor and the turians mind, "Your kind has snuffed out countless Sith lives in less than one day, and for what?"

The turian spins around and fires his rifle at nothing, "Where are you?! Come out and fight you coward!"

"Is it ego?" the Sith ignores him, "Arrogance of falsely believing in some misbegotten superiority? Or perhaps something a bit more basic, fear? No, too disciplined for either of those. Something else…"

Reaching into the alien's mind, the Lord pulls at the thoughts of the soldier, who clutches his head in pain.

"What is this-"

"Ah, here we are, vainglory. The lost deadly sin. You pride yourself on the statutes of your race, you want so desperately to prove it and revel your people in that recognition. It would be admirable were it for yourself, but such hindrance in ambition, no desire to rise above your station and a dedication to keep the status quo. How sickening."

"Raaahhh!" the soldier fires at random in all directions.

His rage is halted as he's pulled into the metal floor and his weapon wretched from his grasp. As the soldier is held down, a black robe emerges out of the shadows and Lord Harper steps in front of his last enemy, "Tell me, alien, does this feel like glory to you?"

"Damned biotics!" the turian snarls.

That causes the Harper to flare his nostrils as he lifts the turian up to eye level, "The more I am forced to interact with you, the more your race disappoints me. You claim to be the protectors of the galaxy, yet you are ignorant to the things that truly move the universe. I will never see the Sith ruled over by such an ignorant race."

Darkness swirls around them as the turian screams and his life essence is ripped from his body.

Saren moves ahead of his ten-man squad through the alleyway and into an the empty street of the city, diving right into cover and scouting out the immediate area. He gives the signal for his squad to move and the catch up to him. They all find cover not too close to one another and settle in behind cars or other wide enough civil emplacements.

"Praecrus, scope out ahead of us," Saren orders.

One of Blackwatch turians behind a skycar nods and unfolds his sniper rife. He looks down the scope at the almost open area beyond the street, "Nothing ahead, just looks like some kind of transportation station."

"We're still pretty far out from our target. I'm surprised we haven't seen a single civilian," another Turian adds.

"Perhaps they've bunkered down somewhere in the middle of the city or evacuated the planet."

"It's not as if that matters," Saren growls, "They will be under our thumb all the same once-"

"Hold," Praecrus interrupts, "I see five contacts. Black armor, carrying weapons, and searching around the place. Looks like a small patrol."

Saren chances a look around his cover and sees the black specs in the distance, "Have they spotted us?"

"Negative they're just sweeping the area, hold on, sixth contact emerged he's… he's looking right at me."

"Can he see you?" another squad mate asks.

"Unknown, he doesn't seem to have any kind of helmet on, and I don't see him carrying a weapon like the others do. Maybe he has ocular implants of some kind, his eyes are glowing a…"

Praecrus grabs his head, "What's wrong?"

"Head's just started aching," the sniper replies.

"Get over it," Saren orders, "What's the enemy status?"

Praecrus looks back down the scope, "Spirits, they're moving towards us."

"They haven't started firing," another turian says while unfolding her rifle, "Any chance they're just patrolling this way and we can sneak passed them?"

"Negative, they're moving faster and hopping from cover to cover, save the helmetless one."

"Orders sir?"

Saren peeks over his cover, "Take out the one without a helmet on my signal, then myself and the rest of the squad shall engage. I'll take out the closest with a biotic charge and take point, everyone else cover me."

The other turians nod in agreement as the troopers move closer. Saren watches as one enters his biotic charge range and gives the signal. Praecrus scopes out the dark-skinned man, lines up the shot, holds his breath, and fires. The Sith, however moves his head the moment Praecrus pulls the trigger, and the round flies passed him. The sniper curses as blaster bolts start flying at him.

With an angry groan, Saren charges the nearest man just before he makes it to cover and throws two more off balance with the impact. Saren then takes cover and throws a singularity at both of them, as his squad mates take free shots at the suspended troopers. Two of his men however are taken out by shots from the opposing Sith, the blaster bolts bypassing their barriers. Saren shoots another in the neck with his rifle as the fifth gets sniped by Praecrus.

(cue SWTOR OST: Deception: Sith Warrior)

With one more Sith to go, Saren catches a glimpse of him running towards his squad, however, this dark-skinned man smiles as he makes his charge. Saren takes aim but the man jumps before he's lined up a shot. Not just that, he flat out defies gravity and soars above Saren's position, spinning mid air in a way that no being should be able to in order to dodge the oncoming rifle shots from Saren's comrades. As he flies, the two decorated cylinders fly into the man's hands and Praecrus is pulled from his spot into the air. When the two are about to collide, the cylinders ignite with a hiss as blood red blades of plasma slice through the Turian sniper's body.

As his body flies off in two pieces, David lands behind the car he was using for cover and pushes his arm towards it. The vehicle flies away in response, crushing three more Blackwatch soldiers against another skycar. The remaining soldiers open fire on Davod but he moves too soon and too fast for them to get a proper shot lined up. David rushes behind one soldier before he can move from his position.

The Blackwatch soldier turns and swings his rifle at David, but the Sith Apprentice cuts the gun apart and slices off the turian's arms. The soldier opens his mouth to scream as his head flies off his neck from David's follow up attack. David points his eyes at the next soldier and throws one of his sabers as he leaps at one farther off. The first turian is cut in half and the other is slammed into the round and impaled. David recalls his saber and settles his gaze at Serren.

"What the hell are you," Saren levels is rifle at David.

He fires off a few burst shots as the Sith dodges and closes the distance between them. Saren uses his biotic abilities to leap away as David brings down his twin lightsabers where he stood. David retakes his battle stance and brandishes his weapons.

"I am a Sith Apprentice, but for you and your misbegotten kind, alien, I am death itself."

The battles begin! I'm having Saren and David's hatred for one another begin earlier in this version. Their fight is like a microcosm of their civilizations, one is a military culture, the other is a warrior culture. I know Zaeed wasn't a part of this battle in canon, but I'd rather use an established character to show off the Mandalorians than make one up that no one would really care for, I have enough OCs as is in this fic as is. Plus I love the character and have plans for the Blue Suns. Also, the turians blew up a transport full of civilians, I'm sure the Sith will totally understand after having it explained to them that it was a simple mistake, I can't imagine that they'd try to get revenge in the most destructive way possible. Sorry if this chapter feels all over the place, needed to do a lot of set up for things to come, hopefully the pay off is worth it for y'all.

Anyway, if you liked this chapter, leave a review, it always helps refine the story. See y'all next tiem!