Sup guys here is number two,
Enjoy,
…
"Starting relay turn, ETA to jump five minutes."
He listed to the drum and hum of his ship below him, its ageing engines struggling to push its behemoth form forward, the Rayya was an old ship, even speaking in the terms of the liveships, build nearly a hundred and fifty years before the Geth rebellions she was about ready to be retired before the Quarrians were driven from the Homeworld, she was an old titan, her spinal mass accelerator, while old and often needing repair was still one of the most powerful in the galaxy, matching the new Turian superdreadnought Spirits Claw, and only being outclassed by the Assari's Destany accession, though bringing the Rayya into combat would be suicide for the people living on board.
"How long will it take to bring the fleet through?" he asked, "We need to hurry to lose the Turians."
The bloody birds had been chasing them for the past three months, all because a few ships had landed on a garden world to gather recourses for the fleet, something they regularly did, only this time they were spotted by a bloody fucking patrol fleet, who mistook their temporary shelters for a colony and warned the nearest strike force.
So now here they were, on damn near the other side of the galaxy, still running from a large Turian strike force in the Traverse far too close to Batarian territory for comfort.
They had no more places to hide, and the choice between fighting the Turians, who would doubtlessly destroy a massive portion of the fleet, fighting the Batarians, who would enslave as many Quarrians as they could, or the last option, one that was either far better or far worse than the other two.
They opened a dormant Relay into the far reaches of the Traverse.
"It will take about a day if we time it right…" the Ensign answered, "The journey itself we have no idea off."
He took a look at the relay, its large rings spinning softly, this was the only choice, the conclave had decided, and he would do the will of the people.
"Begin."
…..
Shawn Williams surveyed the people in front of him, the last remnants of the Aurilian rebellion, amongst them the former Governor, his son and daughter, the three generals, and the Admiral. The rebellion had been crushed nearly a year ago, but their trail was now.
It had taken nearly half a year to crush the rebel forces, and another year to stomp out resistance, but now the Aurillian sector was finally at peace, its garrison forces weakened but still alive, the war-fleet returned to its home base and its taxes flowing back to the Dominion.
He looked to the new Governess, Delarosa her name was, the former assistant of the Governor, and the one who made it possible to destroy the capital planet Meridians ground to space defenses.
"By the word of the God-emperor, you are hereby charged and found guilty for the crimes of; conspiring to commit treason, treason, killing citizens of the Dominion, killing soldiers of the Dominion, Destroying ships of the Dominion, the use of the Exterminatus on the planet Aurelia and the enslavement of citizens of the Dominion."
He spoke evenly, his voice never breaking, this was not the first time he had to voice a death sentence, and they deserved it in his opinion, Aurelia was a terrible thing, the local general refused to surrender the fortress world to the rebels, so they decided to glass it instead.
"The punishment for your crime… is death." He snapped his fingers and a chorus of whining whirls rang out around the square as the legionaries fire their Gauss rifles. The spikes of alloy flew at hyper sonic speeds and bodies dropped to the ground swiftly.
His eyes fell on the GTOL, its massive form newly rebuilt after its destruction, it was but one of eight of the things on Meridian, but it was a start, a sign that this world would be rebuilt and would rise greater than before.
The Capital city was still largely a ruin, its skyscrapers destroyed, its streets pot marked where artillery hit, houses grey and drab, built to at least give people a home, the only structure untouched by the rebellion was the Sectors command fortress, one that had had avoided an assault thanks to Delarosa's quick actions, its towering defense turrets scanned the skies, though its gate the few remaining tanks and vehicles of his armored Legion moved regularly to refuel and repair.
Its shield had been up constantly for nearly a year, a massive strain on the psionics of the fortress, but necessary in case one of the few remaining rebels tried something. Shawn moved back into his command Orion, he looked forward to going home next month, his son had gotten engaged and he wanted to celebrate it, his legion need reinforcements and more vehicles anyway, he just had to wait for the Marauder to finish its repairs.
…..
"Captain we have arrived in Orbit around Meridian."
"Good, give me a complete report on the status on all orbital assets." Captain Markus Anderson said as he took stock of his new job, promoted to Captain of this ship and now in command of the small defense fleet above Meridian whist the Fortress class defense station was under repair, it would allow him to further advance his career and finally get command of a patrol fleet.
"Yes sir," His Xo responded, her brown hair tied back and her yellow eyes scanning her data-tool, "At our command are 5 Arquintens class frigates, 4 Acclimators, 8 Ironclads, 32 Neptune class Corvettes, 2 Mercury class light cruisers, and a single Victory class heavy cruiser, along with this is our own command ship the Dominion II class Nostradamus, she's an old girl and out dated, but she will do fine for this operation."
"We only have to worry about pirates and raiders anyway, honestly our fleet is too large in my opinion." He said, sitting back in his command chair, and opulently decorated thing he inherited from the previous captain, "How long till the station is repaired?"
"Estimates are around five months sir, six if there are complications."
"Well let's get comfortable then, send our probes and scout around the system, and send a report to command stating that we've arrived."
"Roger sir." His Xo said, "Oh and sir?"
"Yes." He responded, minutely annoyed at the woman, he really wanted to get some sleep.
"What about the tuning gate?" she said, "Protocol is to keep a close watch on it, but this formation doesn't allow that."
"Don't worry, just set on of the Ironclads to keep watch over it, should be fine."
…..
The Rayya moaned under the pressure of the Relay transit, the blue shroud around the great ship shook more then it should, but the massive ship would survive it, the rest of the fleet was also in transit, and they would arrive only a few minutes after the first ships of the heavy fleet did, hopefully this system would have a nice amount of materials, enough to repair the worst damaged ships in the fleet.
The best they could hope for was of course that a Dextro garden world was in one of the nearby systems, so that they could build up temporary shelter and gather food and supplies, maybe even settle a permanent colony, Koris would like the idea, the bastard had always wanted to just settle down, but this would be a decision for the Conclave, not for the board.
"We might actually need it though…", Rael thought grimly, 'The fleet is dying, our children may be the last generation.'
…..
The plasmas green glow collided solidly with the rock, cracked already from previous barrages, and shattered the massive asteroid in thousands of small pieces, chunks floating slowly through the vast emptiness of space.
"That's the last one Captain, all asteroids on collision course are destroyed."
"Excellent, prepare for Shroud jump, get us back to orbit." Anderson ordered, "We are already gone for long enough."
This mission was a boring one, once you had seen one asteroid destruction mission you had seen them all, most were simply to protect mining stations with the occasional colony mixed in, boring, yet such things couldn't be ignored, he could have sent one of the acclimators too do this, but he was bored.
"Captain! We have a problem!" his head snapped to the communications officer, "Captain Harlock is reporting activity from the Tuning gate! Its opening sir!"
'Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck shitballs.' Andersons mind couldn't come up with any better words for what he was feeling, he fucked up, simple as that, he took the biggest strongest ship in the fleet away, he had left Meridian nearly undefended, against who knows what was going to come thought the gate, 'I am so fucked!
"Get us back there on the double!" he shouted in panic, "Overload the Gallop if you have too, we need to get back ASAP!"
"Understood sir jumping in 10 seconds!"
The seconds passed far too slow for him, and he felt the panic inside him only increase as time passed, his mind imagining a million events and punishments for his failure, if this was hostile contact then he would be forever remembered as a failure.
"Jumping now!"
The voice shook him out of his thoughts, and right after the ship began to shake slightly, the great portal of red, purple, green and yellow opened in front of the Nostradamus, and grew until the ship was swiftly sucked in.
"Estimated time to arrival, 30 minutes…" the ensign mutter shocked, this was bad news, this shouldn't take more then 10 minutes to get back, they were in the same system, just on the other side of it, this could only mean one thing, "Sir we have an incoming Shroud-storm, three times the size of any seen before…"
Shocked looks were shared amongst the bridge crew, his XO looked about ready to pass out from the news.
"That means it will cut off all of the northern Sectors…" He muttered softly, "For weeks all travel northward trough the shroud will stop and travel north of the storm will slow significantly."
'I am so fucked.' Anderson thought.
…..
The ships of the defense fleet swiftly moved into formation on the orders of Captain Harlock, the Captain of the Victory class cruiser Arcadia, the force he had on hand was weak, fine for fighting off pirates and raiders, but far too small to deal with any meaningful threat, he put his heavier ships in the front, the Mercuries right next to his Arcadia, the Acclimators behind them, their Ion cannons charged and ready, his corvettes were separated into 2 wolf packs ready above and below the fleet, his Ironclads and Arquintens were on the left and right flanks of his fleet, ready to dash into any enemy formation and wreak havoc.
Fighters zoomed around the fleet ready to jump on any enemies of the same size, and the bombers were loaded for anti-ship combat and waiting for orders, ETA put Captain Andersons Nostradamus out 3 minutes, he just hoped the man arrived in time, the Dominion II was still a powerful ship despite its age.
He turned his eyes back to the tuning gate its massive wheels were beginning to spin faster and faster, a ping from his Multi-tool, the Nostradamus was 30 seconds out.
Not long after a portal opened up, from it emerged the behemoth form of the Star-destroyer, its weapons charged and ready, he opened a com link and began to explain the situation.
"Sir, the gate has been spinning up for the past 35 minutes, at first we tough an asteroid had hit it, but energy readings are through the roof on it, most of its is Element Zero based radiation, nothing lethal but still strange, the eggheads down below think its activating sir."
"That's not good news, have you sent the information to Williams?"
"Of course, sir, the General has already begun equipping as many militiamen as he can, and defensive positions are being taken as we speak."
"Good, now we will have to wait, I will send a message to high command, but with the Shroud-storm I don't expect many reinforcements, we could maybe get a few more ships from the Fenrir and Veridian sectors, but it won't be much. Our best hope will be the Sectoria Patrol fleet, but they will be weeks away at best."
…..
Williams looked around the room, here were the most important people on the planet, the Governess Delarosa, the commander of the Defense Legion, Alexander, himself and the Xcom squad leader 'Pious'.
"Where are we on a status report?" he asked the room, all faces looked grimly back at him.
"We have a Gauss rifle in the hands of all our fittest civilians, that's maybe 100.000 militia, they aren't much use in a fight, but they'll still be guns aimed at the enemy."
"We have three legions planet-side, all are largely depleted of both manpower and equipment, there is the 1st Meridian defense legion currently 35.000 strong, mostly mountain fighters, they have taken position in the mountains to the north, nothings going to be coming thought there, that only leaves one real entrance to the city, the East."
"There we have deployed the infantry legion the 31st Candia, 41.000 strong, mostly used too city and forest combat, last is your legion general, the 398th Mars armored legion 8.000 strong, about 750 SHIS suited Legionaries along with 31 Orion MBT's, 103 Raptors SBT, 321 Halftracks, 112 with flamers the rest with AA las cannons, 12 Wraith SHIV's, 3 Hellhound SHIV's, and the damaged Marauder."
"That might seem like a substantial force but from previous experience, attacking a planet with anything less then 2 million men is suicide, so we can expect at least that number, likely more than that in enemies."
Pious spoke up next, his voice coming through his mask filter rasping.
"Don't forget about our Xcom elements planet-side, 8 of the best fighters in the galaxy, including a MEC unit and a P-10 Psion. We are ready for deployment into the toughest fighting, 3 squads of 2 and Montaigne our MEC, he preferers to work solo."
"What about you Pious?" he asked, the man was a renowned sniper and one of the best infiltrators in the Galaxy, renown for his single handed taking of one of the largest forts on Healgard during the Lios rebellion.
"I will begin infiltration operations as soon as the enemy lands troops, picking off commanders, enemy snipers and sabotaging artillery and vehicles." The masked man responded, the rasp in his voice was tinged with eagerness, Shawn had known the man long enough to sense it. "I will once more praise the name of the Emperor with the blood of his enemies."
"What are our chances of reinforcements?" The governess asked her voice tinged with worry, "We don't have enough men to hold the city for ever with most of the Militia guarding towns and fortifying hills."
"We wont be able to draw more forces from on world, the Militia will need to hold the rest of the planet, however previous experience have shown that when invading worlds the largest population center will need to be taken first, and there is no other place with the infrastructure to support an occupation on this world." Alexander responded to the distraught woman, his voice calm and confident,
"For reinforcements, we might be able to get the 3rd Calderis, and the 2nd Thyphon, that would be another 56.000 legionaries, but they aren't used to fighting in the mountains or in the city, still I would take a legionary over a Militiaman any day." Shawn spoke up.
"That's assuming we can get them here before our fleet is destroyed…" Pious said, "We might need to just dig in and hope for reinforcements when the Storm passes."
"So, we are in deep shit then?" Delarosa's remark got a smile from the others despite the situation, it was true however, they didn't have the artillery or the vehicles to mount an effective defense. All they could do is hope for the best and prepare for the best.
…..
Rael was wringing his hands, he had been for hours, it was a thing he did when he was nervous. Though he wasn't the only one who was showing signs of fear, Koris looked about ready to faint, Shala was beside him, toying with her omni-tool, and Gerrel was bouncing on his feet excitedly Daro was a different story, the strange woman had been in constant contact with her ship for their entire time on the Rayya, and didn't look nervous at all.
"Admirals, we are starting to decelerate, ETA 5 minutes." The young ensign had been keeping them updated for the past hours, the Rayya would be one of the first ships to arrive, the old girl had been mixed in with the heavy fleet for security.
"Soon we will all have a home, or we will all be dead…" Daro's voice was eerily calm.
"I still think we should have just fought the Turians off." Gerrel spoke up, and Rael sighed, they had had this fight about 50 times the past few weeks, and he was getting very tired of it.
"And we have told you that we would have lost to much!"
"We could have won! We could have captured those ships and beat the Geth around the Homeworld!"
"How many times to we have to tell you that it wouldn't be enough Gerrel!"
"How many times do I have to say that I don't care about your opinion Koris!"
"Shut up you Boshtet!"
"How dare you!"
"Admirals! ETA 30 seconds!"
Thank the Ancestors, Re'al would have had to step in if it wasn't for that Ensign, getting between Koris and Gerrel was always an annoyance, nothing would ever get through to those two thick headed morons, they would forever treat each other as the enemy.
He turned his eyes back to the view port I front of him, the blue was beginning to fail, as the bubble of Ezoo radiation was slowing them down at incredible speeds, he just hoped that what resources they found would get the fleet in shape for another transit, they would need to make at least another three jumps to get safe from the Turians, that task force was nearly 2500 ships strong, enough to destroy a massive part of the fleet, and not something they could fight back against.
The Rayya shuddered violently as the deceleration put them at a standstill, before them laid a sight they had not expected, a bright blue and green ball was below them, this was not what surprised them however, no that was the fact that ships were waiting for them.
The large vessels were each bristling with gun turrets, and he saw several spinal mount weapons as well, their armor looked thick and the sunken in command bridges were barely visible, Rael's mind quickly analyzed their design, a complete unknown to him, so not pirates, they pyramid like design allowed for massive forward and sideward fire power, this would be a weakness on their behind though, though he could see a few ships with turrets aimed in that direction.
"Kheela…" the Ensign muttered, "Admirals energy outputs for that Super-Dreadnought are double that of the Destiny Ascension, one shot from its spinal accelerator would wipe a frigate instantly…"
That was bad news, they only had the heavy fleet here for now, but the cost of attacking that fleet with the heavy fleet would be large, even if the Quarrians outnumbered them nearly 50 to 1.
"Element Zero appears to be only a minor component of their constructions, I detect no Ezoo reactors…"
"So they are Primitives?" Daro asked,
"Admiral… I detect large quantities of a dark matter analog…"
"That's impossible!" Rael almost shouted, "Dark matter power production is completely energy inefficient, it cost far more to make dark matter then it ever gives when used in a reactor!"
"Intriguing…" Daro interrupted his tirade, "What other toys do they have?"
"We have signs of plasmatic radiation from their turrets…"
…..
"Status report Nostra! Now!"
"Yes sir! Contacts appear to rely on Element Zero based technology, large amounts of mass accelerators, spinal mounts too, I am also detecting minor concentrations of Ultra-violet laser defense systems, no carriers detected, their command ships appear to also be carrying a massively inflated crew, most likely survivors from previous battles, their damaged status would seem to indicate this as well."
"Are their weapons taking aim?"
"No sir they don't have Shields either, however they do have a kinetic barrier."
"Follow standard protocol, send the first contact package, keep weapons at 50 percent charge and shields up to max."
"Understood."
…..
Codexapedia entries;
The Legionary armament;
All legions, despite their differing tactics and deployments, use the Standard, Mk XXIII Chaos hand cannons, these 360 rounds per minute weapons fire five-centimeter-long spikes using electrically charged magnets, it has a standard shot capacity of 60 rounds per magazine, and takes roughly 2-3 seconds to reload.
Of course, some legions use different variants of these weapons, such as the famous Hieldian Stormtroopers, who use a 120 shot LMG variant of the Chaos hand cannon, and the Kerberos Skirmishers who use a single shot adaptation for maximum accuracy at longer ranges.
Other the standard Chaos hand cannons, legions use several hundred different specialty weapons, the most common of these are the remaining laser weapons in the legion, such as the Precision Laser Caster, a powerful laser sniper rifle with pinpoint accuracy, no recoil, and no bullet drop.
And of course, the Cerberus Tri-barrel laser cannon, a weapon usually set up by engineers as a modern sort of machine gun nest, of course with the recent research into handheld particle cannons experts say that laser weapons will be cycled out of Legionary use within the next 20 years.
Fusion lances and their uses;
Fusion lances saw their first introduction during the Ethereal war, then they were mostly used on fighters, with the exception of a few lances fitted to an old Russian battleship by Xcom for experimentation.
Fusion lances function by smashing two particles, usually Elyrium particles, together at incredible speeds, then sending the energy forward in a massive shot, these blasts of energy have very little in the way of kinetic energy, most of their power is in heat and electric energy.
This does not mean that a lance blast doesn't have kinetic energy, quite the opposite, as a large enough volley can crack the crust of a planet.
Artillery;
The dominion uses many varieties of Artillery in its legions, most legions use one or two kinds, however some legion specializing in artillery use many more, some of the most commonly used ones are:
The Artemis Long-range plasma cannon; the Artemis is one of those guns that a defense simply can't go without, it is the dominions primary counter battery and highly accurate and simply ridicules ranges, up to 50 kilometers at maximum, they are usually transported on halftracks, though some are mounted instead on Raptor SBT's.
The Goliath Heavy guns; the goliaths are the closest analog the dominion has to true siege artillery, with a range of only 15 kilometers, but enough force to destroy even a fully shielded knight with just one or two shots.
The Yoius self-propelled rotary mortar (The Thunker); the thunker as its lovingly referred to by the legion is a very common weapon, carried by engineers this weapon has a range of 2 kilometers, but can fire a barrage of 40 shots over the course of a minute, though largely ineffective against heavily armored tanks, this gun is an infantryman's nightmare, as the barrage of plasma is usually followed by a legionary charge.
…..
Hope you guys enjoyed, and how is the grimdark feeling, does it need more dark or more grim,
As always reviews are appreciated.
Later guys,
Tombstone signing off.