The systems star was bright in the background as her ship drifted towards the planet. Its green flats dotted with the small lights of towns and cities in the dark, Lothian the Humans called it, a dextro farming colony far removed from anything important in human space, a smart move Xaro'Den thought. It would provide food and shelter to the Quarrians and give the humans time to think on what to do with them.
Not that she minded, they had generously supplied a codex of their history which she was still nowhere near to finishing.
She thought on some of the peculiarities of the Terran Dominion, an Imperial federation of some sort, their esoteric technology based on plasma and the strange Elyrium crystals that powered near everything in their space.
One thing that had caused near mass panic was their use of AI, she didn't find it strange of course, AI was a logical step in technological advancement one that every civilization came to at some point, even if the council races wouldn't admit it.
The Geth were a mistake, improperly handled by her incompetent ancestors. AI was not the great evil force that the galaxy at large thought it was, but just another tool to be used. The Terrans saw that, yet they also saw that mistreating a semi-sentient race would cause rebellion and they acted to prevent such by giving them rights.
Such a strange idea, giving rights to AI, a smart move, the illusion of brotherhood and unity given by a piece of legislation.
She turned her eyes back to the planet they were approaching; she could make out the small station set up for the Quarrian ships to dock to. A secure place for them to receive food shipments without having to ferry it up themselves.
The food was something she was looking forward too, something other than tubes of nutrient paste to eat and the Humans would prepare it for them too! Another interesting quirk about the humans was their tendency to alter their genetic makeup, using nanomachines of some kind they managed to change their bodies to the point that they could not only eat but digest both Dextro and Amino acid dishes.
Of course, this was only the tip of the iceberg of what the humans could chance about themselves, and she once again wondered what they could do with the Quarrians.
They could likely modify the Quarrian race to increase their immune system, probably even improve upon them further. She held no illusions about the power the humans held over her race but knew that no matter what anything done to them would at least make the Quarrians stronger than they were now.
…..
"What is the status on the Quarrian migration?" Delarosa was once again seated with the other important people on the planet.
"About 70% complete Governess." Alexander answered her, the man's mood had been more upbeat since the Quarrians began to move, an operation mostly overseen by Harlock who had been given command of the reinforcements from Fenris.
The Arcadia led them, the Fenris defense fleets Victory class Damnation had been added to support, along with 5 acclimators, 6 ironclads and 9 smaller ships of various classes. This was a speck of dust compared to the size of the Quarrian fleet, but this 'Escort' was more like a tour guide job for the ships, making sure that the Quarrian ships didn't stray too far from the others and that all arrived without incident.
Anderson smiled, Harlock had been most displeased with his orders, something that he had not so secretly enjoyed. The man was a stain on the honor of the Dominion fleet, a former Pirate given pardon and a ship to command.
"Then it's all to schedule?" Williams voice interrupted his thoughts, "I would still appreciate some reinforcements however, just to be prepared."
"Then I have both good and bad news Williams, Good news is your getting reinforcements." Anderson spoke.
"That's good to hear, now what's the bad news?" the man asked, a small frown decorated his face.
"Your getting a Legion of Luuiji Infantry…"
The generals face twisted, an expression somewhere between horror and anger, not without good reason. The Luuiji Infantry legions were both renown and reviled by commanders of the Dominion, on one hand they were some of the most disciplined infantry men in the Dominion, always fighting till the last man, no matter the situation, the downside to one of these Legions was the never ending 'Emperor bothering' as most commanders put it.
The Luuiji were fervent worshipers of the Emperor, and near every conversation would either begin or end with giving some kind of praise to the Emperor. And if a commander forgot to do so, well they didn't see any point in following any orders from him or her. This made commanding them an extreme hassle, but they were effective.
"Which idiot decided that?!" the General growled, face red and eyes alight with anger. "I'll tear his asshole out through his mouth!"
"They were sent on the orders of Grand Marshal Tarkin, they were meant to be sent to typhon for jungle training but the Grand Marshal decided that we had priority."
The mere utterance of the name made the General go stone faced, Tarkin was somewhat of a living legend among the Legionary commanders. Harsh, uncompromising and completely uncaring of the lives of men under his command, he was also the man that had thrown a general who didn't obey his order to attack a fortified mountain off of his own troopship.
While it was a kilometer above the ground.
"Fuck me…"
"Yeah I am not touching that one, you're on your own Williams." Alexander smiled grimly.
…..
Harlock growled as he sat in his command chair, softly petting the feathers of too sooth his anger, the creature was content with this as it sat comfortably on his chair's armrest, its head twisting to look around the bridge.
This was not what he wanted, escorting aliens to a random planet, this was not what the Arcadia was best suited doing, it left the fleet around Meridian with only one capital ship, instead of the three it could have, but Captain Anderson would not hear his concerns.
That man was as spiteful as they came.
He calmed himself looking around the bridge once more, Logan was coordinating the pilots and navigators making sure the ships in the convoy kept in formation. His eyes turned the Mamay's avatar as she paced trough the bridge something he knew she did when bored. The Quarrians refused to allow her to coordinate the convoy, or to let her look through their systems, he could understand the later but not the former.
It also resulted in the AI being incredibly bored, when they were in orbit of a planet she could brows the net and pick up on information from around the Dominion, something she wasn't able to do in deep space waiting for the Quarrians drives to cool down.
He left the AI to her pacing and returned to petting .
…..
"How long till we can get through it?" Anderson asked as he walked onto the bridge of the Nostradamus, "I want to know if anything's going to come at us."
"We had to request some parts from the Quarrians to put together something called an IFF-RTB, a so called Identify Friend or Foe Relay Transmitter Beacon, from what we gather it's something build into all starships that use the tuning gates to travel, our ships would need a small retrofit to install something like that."
Nostra answered him, she had been working with the planeside scientists and the group of Quarrians that stayed behind on Meridian, in an attempt to learn from each other's technology.
"How quick could we put together a probe fit for Gate travel?" he asked, Harlock was a cunt but he did have a point in saying that the Quarrians wouldn't be the only thing that could come through the Gate.
The aliens were being chased by something for sure. He had also heard that some politician had been pressuring Highcom and the Diplomatic service to bring the 'abused and disenfranchised Quarrian race' under the complete protection of the Dominion.
That would undoubtably mean a campaign to remove the threat to them beyond the Gate. A bit of a bold powerplay for a glorified paper pusher in his opinion, yet the Littlefinger had both the cash and influence to make it happen.
"We could finish a working probe in a week."
"Good, get started. How long until the Luuiji Legion arrives?"
"Another two days, they are coming from the Nestor sector, its stuck behind the storm same as us so travels going at a reasonable speed. The legion from Fenris has already set up their headquarter in the northern mountains, but it seems Veridian has declined to send one of theirs to aid us."
That was understandable at least, Veridian had suffered a lot during Meridians brief rebellion, understandable that they would not willingly send ground forces to aid it.
He knew that the Veridian fleet was another day and a half away, luckily the defense and patrol fleets would never have commanders assigned to their own home sectors. It limited losses in foolish last stands and made it less likely for a fleet to join a rebellion.
He sighed, the stress was getting to him his paranoia was playing up again, this constant feeling of being watched and waiting to be attacked. He got up, signing to his XO and leaving her in command as he went to get something to eat, it was meat night today, something that all the crew celebrated every week.
…...
2 days passed quickly, too quickly for Pious, a day was but the blink of an eye in the life of an Xcom trooper, one of the immortals few that spent their eternity fighting for the Dominion and the Emperor.
The Luuiji had landed some hours ago. They had begun to dig in around the north of the city near to the mountains, citing that the industrial ground was best suited to their defenses.
Thus they began, fifty thousand strong setting up las-cannon nest, trenches, sniper posts, artillery dugouts and literal thousands of tons of barbed wire, another twenty thousand noncombat personal setting up medical bunkers and dug in armories.
He had to say he admired the Luuiji, they worshiped the Emperor with fervor, and had a good mind for defensive planning, as the five separate lines of defense proved, defense in depth at its finest, take one trench or ruined building, get shot at from another three.
His mind reached out, and he felt them, his squad.
'Rex how is it going with your position?' his thoughts were easily picked up by the P10 psionic, even at the other side of the city nearly 100 kilometers away.
'Fairly good Pious, the militia isn't worth much but they know the streets and buildings better than the legionaries, Vigil and me just got done setting up another dozen or so las-cannon nests, give us another few days and we'll have this sector locked down.' the other operative broadcasted this straight into his head.
'Good make sure to map any damaged structures in case we need to create a chokepoint.'
'Roger, Rex out.'
A few hours later he was still patrolling the roof tops of the city about to call it a night and get some sleep, when he received a message.
Pious get to HQ now. Emergency code GT34J8L.
He jumped off the roof and rushed as quick as he could.
…..
Captain Kanus Jarus smiled as the fleet moved in formation towards the relay, he was to command a cruiser squadron, numbering some 30 cruisers, largely cruiser escorts but a sure sign of favor from the Admiral. In just a few minutes they would enter transit, with his squadron and three frigate wolfpacks as the tip of the vanguard.
He rested his hands on the rail in front of him looking through the bridge viewports at the approaching Relay. His ship, the Trigon, was a state of the art Hiolest class heavy cruiser, 70.000 units long, a large spinal mounted mass accelerator as its primary weapon, it also had many smaller mass accelerator batteries, torpedo tubes and point defense batteries.
She wasn't a pocket dreadnought, not even close, but she was perfect for the vanguard role, her armor was heavier than any dreadnought currently in operation, her barriers were nearly twice as strong as any other cruiser in the fleet and her setup limited the need for crew to just over five hundred Turrians.
The Trigon was the third Hiolest built, and the first one to see active action, she would be the base for the next generation of heavy cruisers, a testbed for the next Turian Dreadnoughts.
He was proud of this ship, proud of his position and proud of this campaign.
The Trigon entered the Relay with a flash of blue.
…..
Codexapedia:
Elyrium, the miracle crystal;
This unnaturally crystal is the driving power in the Terran dominion, everything functions off of it, from weapons to coffee machines. Its origins are a mystery, it was originally discovered during the Ethereal war several centuries ago and was found manly on destroyed ships.
Since that time the Dominion has begun to synthesize the crystal, using Lithium and Sodium mixed with the energies of a Galop chamber creates small quantities of Elyrium, recent improvements in production and synthetization have improved the exchange rate significantly, to the point that a single chamber could produce enough Elyrium per day to power a cruiser if given adequate supplies of Lithium and Sodium.
This process produces small amounts of waste in to form of radioactive sludge and element zero, which is disposed of and or sold respectively.
Terran analysis of the treaty of Farixen;
Terms of the treaty;
The Turian Hierarchy, the Asari Republics and the Salarian Union hereby agree too, in interest of galactic peace, limit the size, power and quantity of the ship class known as the Dreadnought.
Signatories agree that; For every three Dreadnoughts maintained by the Salarian Union and Asari Republics combined, the Turian Hierarchy may maintain five.
Signatories agree that; For each five Dreadnoughts maintained by the Turian Hierarchy, council Associates may maintain one.
Signatories agree to accept that;
A Dreadnought is a ship of no less the 100.000 galactic standard units (1000 meters) in length,
A Dreadnought shall have a central Spinal mass accelerator,
A Dreadnought shall have no more than 150 weapons batteries, excluding point defense,
No Dreadnought may exceed the length of 300.000 standard galactic units (3000 meters),
Signatories;
The council races (Turian, Asari, Salarian) and associates (Elcor, Hanar(including Drell), QuariansX, Volus. Batarians)
Terran analysis:
As an idea the treaty is idealist, and specifically tuned to control the power of the Turian navy and with it the other Council Associates. A smart move in this investigators opinion, of course the limitations put on the size, firepower and the need for a spinal gun make these ships expensive but powerful.
The inclusion of the maximum size is a smart move, as it allows cargo ships to exceed the size of a Dreadnought and any warship larger would be too unwieldy in combat anyway, though the needed spinal mount might leave loophole for carriers, these appear to be a concept unknown to the council races, we only have records of one carrier in all the council races, the Noras, an old drone battleship of the Quarrians, repurposed as one of the liveships.
It is clear to us that the Hierarchy is evading the treaty via the construction of pocket Dreadnoughts, a concept similar to the pocket battleships, made after the naval treaties post WWI, these ships are 990 meters long and have armaments sometimes exceeding an actual Turian Dreadnought.
In contrast to the other council races, who use their Dreadnoughts as true Battleships, the Hierarchy uses their Dreadnoughts as Command and control flagships, similar to our own Star-Dreadnoughts, only far smaller and with significantly less firepower.
In a confrontation we would have the clear advantage in ships larger than 1000 meters, but we would be largely outnumbered in smaller capital ships, to the point that such a war would need to be ended before the full force of the council could be brought to bear on us.
Fortress class defense stations;
These massive space installations are the mainstay of any orbital planetary defense, larger than two-star destroyers and with twice the firepower these stations are immobile death dealers that can lock down a planet.
They come in many sizes and varieties, but all have a single defining feature, an incredibly strong shield, eclipsing all but the Star-Dreadnoughts, as such they can take a pounding and still keep firing back.
Luuiji, the last shield;
War is Luuiji, Luuiji is war, a saying that was become the motto for all Luuiji Legions. Luuiji is a fortress world in the form of a habitable moon orbiting the Gas giant of Krosis. Though calling Luuiji habitable is debatable, it is a world made of red dirt with an incredibly dense atmosphere of Oxygen and methane, its gravity three times higher than Terra.
As one can understand such a world is not ideal for human habitation, yet the rich Lithium mines made Luuiji a priced colony in the early days of Terran expansion. When the mines dried up at the start of the Calperty invasion many though it would be abandoned before the tide of insects claimed all upon it.
Yet when the Calperty landed to claim the world they were found a world fortified. They landed and where repelled, again and again and again. For a period of nearly twenty years the inhabitants of Luuiji fought against the Calperty, and they held. Where all other worlds in the way of the Hive-mind where destroyed, Luuiji held.
Since then it has become a recruiting center for Legions oriented for defense, Luuiji Legions hold till the last man and are masters of improvised fortifications. Prized for their loyalty and determination and despised for their highly religious demeanor.
Luuiji itself is covered in defenses completely, AAA-towers spire up in its shapeless red deserts and stony planes, bunkers and trenches carved into the stone stand eternally vigil in endless lines and backup lines, the planet has a total of 45 planetary fortresses, and it is said that a ground to orbit weapon is on every mountain top.
While the surface of the planet is completely dedicated to defense, so much so that Luuiji has become the template for all fortress worlds in the Dominion, under the ground are countless cities and factories.
Mars, the Forge of Spearheads,
Mars is the Dominions first real colony, at least the first colony that is not airtight and dependent on extraplanetary support. It was colonized very early on in its terraforming process, and it's the reason why the Dominion now waits until terraforming is complete before colonizing. The hardships of the early colonists where many and terrible, but now Mars stands as the largest forge world in the Dominion.
Its great cities are dedicated to the production of all military equipment in the Sol sector, tanks roll of the production line every minute, weapons are built in batches of thousands and ships are constructed at an incredible rate. But despite being a world dedicated to war, Mars itself has incredible living conditions. People live on comfortable wages and in safety not seen on many worlds.
Mars is most famous for its armored Legions, armored spearhead Legions and Knight units, its armor is prized among commanders for their tactical knowledge and determent fighting.
Dominion small ship tactics;
While the Dominion prefers heavy ships made to slug it out with each other, they do not neglect their escorts. Corvettes are only really used as frigate hunters or anti-fighter ships, a necessary and important role in combat, but frigates are where tactics become interesting.
While thousands of different operational tactics exist, I will discuss instead the general tactics thought to all commanding officers to be used for frigates.
Escorts, escort duty for frigates generally mean guarding against fighters, Corvettes or other Frigates whilst taking potshots at enemy capital ships from long range. This is generally used when few frigates are around, such as in patrol formations or convoy escort formations.
Wolfpack, wolfpacks are generally formed when large amounts of frigates are available, they are meant to perform hit and run attacks on isolated enemy ships and small groups of cruisers.
Flank-formation; in this formation frigates take up the flanks and rear of a larger formation, this allows them to stop any flanking maneuver, or fold it in on itself to counterattack against its opponent. Though risking not having Woldpacks is considered a great weakness.
…..
Greatings and salutations, I HAVE RETURNED!
But really, life has been really hard these past few months, going through a bout of depression was hard, but I managed to drag myself out of the pit. I hope to bring out more chapters soon, I finally have some inspiration again, and there is a big project in the works *cough*Game of Scrolls*cough*
Later Dudes and dudettes.