The combat in orbit was taking on a desperate air as the numbers of SS fleet pressed down on the support fleet. The Aurora and the Enterprise remained in close formation to support one another while Koenig continued its difficult struggle to thwart destroyer attacks on the two ships.
The Enterprise was currently busy fighting off an enemy battlecruiser while the Aurora exchanged fire with another. The Lützow-class ship was an equal adversary even under the best conditions, and the damage to both maintained that equality. Disruptor beams and plasma beams lashed back and forth, degrading shields, while missiles and torpedoes strove to batter through weakened shields to damage hull.
After another of the exchanges with the enemy battlecruiser Jarod read off the shield status. "Fifteen percent."
"All available generators are engaged," Mallory added "That's all we can give."
Julia nodded in understanding. Given the current situation there wasn't much in the way of maneuvering they could do, not without exposing their weak starboard side. Although soon that wouldn't matter, as below ten percent the shields would start losing cohesion completely. She kept an eye on the tactical display beside her and Locarno. After considering it she said, "Helm, change heading, zero nine one mark zero zero six. Relay that change to the Enterprise and ask them to follow. Tactical, all weapons on the Enterprise's target."
"Locking on," Angel confirmed.
"The Enterprise is acknowledging and joining us," Locarno added.
The maneuver turned the Aurora to present her port side to her foe. It also cleared the way for her powerful bow armaments to unleash their full power on the Enterprise's foe. Said enemy recognized the change and attempted to maneuver as well, but the realization came too late to prevent both ships from unloading a full torpedo and energy weapon barrage. Amber and sapphire beams carved into the SS battlecruiser, joined by the sapphire pulses of the Aurora's pulse plasma cannons. Quantum and solar torpedoes followed up to exploit the increased strain on the enemy battlecruiser's shields. Some made it through, striking hull and inflicting significant damage.
As another exchange of fire occurred, Jarod's attention was drawn to a system alert. "I'm detecting a power loss."
"Where?" Julia asked.
"It's the naqia reactors, Captain," Mallory remarked. "Commander Scott has to take them offline due to the damage to the coolant system."
Julia didn't like the sound of that. While the ship's fusion reactors could power most of the basic systems - lighting, life support, gravity - the more power intensive systems like the shields and weapons required the energy provided by the naqia reactors. She pressed the intercom key on her chair and said, "Bridge to Engineering. Mister Scott, I need those reactors."
"I've got a couple online for ye, Captain, an' th' rest shud be back on soon. But we cannae run th' reactors on full with th' coolant system leak. They'll melt themselves down an' wreck th' ship."
Julia bit back a remark about Nazi weapons doing the same to the Aurora. "Understood. We'll do what we can. Bridge out." As she spoke the ship shook from a super-disruptor hit, a violent shaking that made Julia sure their hull had taken it. "Status?"
"Shields are at five percent, cohesion is failing," Jarod said. "Damage on Decks 18 and 19, Section J."
"Auto-repair systems are fully engaged," added Mallory.
Julia checked the tactical display again. She'd maneuvered away from their initial opponent to help the Enterprise face theirs with a certain expectation. Had she been wrong…?
No, she hadn't been.
The battlecruiser now to their port almost fired again when two powerful graviton bursts smashed against the ship. The nature of the weapon rendered the shields helpless to stop their effect, a violent shaking that caused the SS crew no shortage of problems. Further weapons fire struck at the shields, missiles and energy fire. From "above", the Aururian battlecruiser Maya-Mayi seemed to dive into the fray, her massed batteries of plasma cannon firing as the turrets stayed fixed through her manoeuvre, taking advantage of the disorder induced by the graviton cannon to bracket the Nazi with plasma fire.
Aururian destroyers positioned on her port flank broke for the opposite side of the Battlecruiser and dashed in on attack runs, their own smaller graviton weapons adding to the debilitation of the enemy battlecruiser, 'ringing her bell' from stem to stern as they prepared their torpedo attacks. The characteristic orange glow of the gas-pumped shields obscured both ship and the battlefield beyond.
The distraction allowed the Aurora to focus on her other foe. With the Enterprise contributing repeated phaser fire, the enemy battlecruiser was unable to resist the incoming salvo. It returned fire with desperation as it was carved up by the two ships.
The foe to port wasn't quite done, however. Being battered by the Aururians as she was, the SS battlecruiser kept some of her firepower on the Aurora, including her spinal-mount disruptor cannon. This again flashed to life, forming an emerald spear that pierced the Aurora's non-existent shields and slashed into her hull. The beam was powerful enough that the armor failed at the point of impact, allowing the beam to carve a wound deep into the Aurora's stern sections.
Including Section O.
The stern sections of the ship were mostly machinery spaces. Instead of the smooth corridor walls and ceilings of the rest of the ship, it more closely resembled submarines with the confined spaces and the tubing and other machinery parts that the engineers were tasked with directly accessing. Surfaces were more gray than blue and warning markings were on several surfaces, especially those that channeled the hyperconductive plasma used to draw heat from the naqia reactors and fusion reactors. They were more prevalent in this area of the ship, the guts of the vessel's primary heat exchanger.
The shunt that would re-direct plasma coolant around the break was nearly in place when everything went to hell. Barnes felt the ship shudder beneath his feet in the second before everything went sideways. The damage wrecked a portion of the plasma line, creating another breach through which super-hot plasma seeped through, filling the machinery space with a green mist that could virtually vaporize even bone with its sheer heat. The only reason Barnes and the others survived the following seconds was that their suits were designed to survive prolonged periods in these kinds of environments.
The problem was that the rupture was an explosive one. The heat and force of the plasma sheared through the structural bulkhead above their heads. Recognizing that the section was no longer safe, Barnes yelled, "Move on! I've got this!" to the rest of his team. They acknowledged and went to work on the rest of the shunt, leaving him to deal with the damaged section. He reached into the pack the team brought with them and drew out a sheet of specialized alloy material, made to resist the heat of the conductive plasma and a vital component in the plasma system. Using both hands he carefully set it over the breach in the shunt line, stopping the plasma from flowing out. He pulled a plasma welder from the suit tool belt and, with one hand on the sheet, welded the sheet into place.
The entire job took maybe a minute. Barnes was confident it would hold. Spying another break from the damage, he picked up another sheet and went over to fix the breach.
"Scott tae Barnes. What's th' status of th' coolant system?"
"I'm repairing the shunt now," Barnes replied. "This section's full of plasma too. The others may have gotten out, but I'm sure I'm sealed in."
"Do what ye can. Th' secondary heat exchangers took a direct hit an' we've lost them. Th' reactors are…"
Barnes didn't hear Scotty complete that line. Another thunderous roar filled the ship, likely from a torpedo or missile impact, with an explosion that sent a tremor through the hull.
Under ordinary circumstances this would not have been a problem. But with the prior damage from both the weapon impacts and the plasma leak, the entire section wasn't up to taking more of a pounding. The hits were the final straw, wrecking the decks above, breaking them up…
...and bringing them down on Barnes' head.
The Aururians finished off the enemy battlecruiser with a rippling destroyer salvo of close-range heavy torpedoes. The ship erupted across her beam, huge sections of plate blowing out cross the hull, the warp nacelle to port erupting in an explosion. The battlecruiser tumbled away, electric arcs from severed mains rippling across a ruined hull venting air and power. It had not been fast enough to stop her from loosing one last volley of missiles that now flew out from the stricken battlecruiser toward the Aurora.
Given their situation Violeta did what she could to evade them, but with a kilometer long vessel it wasn't possible to do so, not without a warp jump that was itself suicide in the great mass of ships, and bluntly, against orders. They had to stay and fight, for the sake of their friends on the surface. So she did her best, and hung on like hell. The particle interceptors did their work in attritioning the strike, but in the end three missiles still struck home. One slammed into the lower port warp nacelle and caused an explosion that tore the rear quarter off. The second and third both hit near the stern, exacerbating the prior damage.
On the bridge Jarod quickly confirmed the damage. "We've lost a warp nacelle, warp drive is offline. Major damage to Decks 23 through 27, Sections M through Q. The secondary heat exchanger's been destroyed."
Julia immediately realized how bad the situation was for them. "What about the primary?"
"The main coolant lines into the primary exchanger are still down," Jarod said. "The tertiary exchanger is running, but it's not designed to handle the amount of heat our reactors produce at full combat power."
"Head buildup has already begun," Mallory confirmed. "Engineering recommends a reduction of 40% to power output."
"In this fight?!" Locaron's incredulous outburst was punctuated by another hit to the ship. "We'll lose maneuverability and weapons power."
"And we'll lose the ship if the reactors melt down," Julia pointed out.
"Orders, sir?"
It was one of those tough decisions that could mean life or death for her ship, her crew, and herself… not to mention the friends she had aboard. Julia pondered the issue over the course of the following seconds before making her decision.
"We keep fighting," she said. "Give me everything you can, and hope the battle ends before we melt our reactors down."
The SS detachment, a reinforced squad from the Liebstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, was tasked with a special mission from Oberführer Fassbinder; hold the entrance to the backup stairway for the Führerbunker, buried below the similarly-named Führerhaus. Said structure, regardless of the name, was not entirely a residence for whomever was considered the leader of the Greater German Reich, rather it was an adjunct to the nearby Reichkanzli, where the ruler kept his offices. The Führerhaus was partly for social receptions, partly for housing the Führer's guests if any were in the capital. The actual leader rarely lived regularly in the structure, but it was still maintained over the centuries for the presence of the bunker complex beneath the building, a relic of the 20th and 21st Centuries when the Reich might still expect attack from foreign powers. This assured the bunker's reactivation as the Coalition forces drew closer and closer to Earth.
With a rapid fire disruptor pulse cannon, crew-served, watching the only approach to their position, the SS felt confident in repulsing any would-be assassins or attackers.
But for all of their confidence, the SS had one problem.
They didn't know anything about Krogan.
When Wrex came bursting through the wall beside them, their shock was complete. The gunner for the disruptor cannon barely had a moment to react before Wrex shot him in the face with his Claymore shotgun, making for a messy result. Behind Wrex Ashley and Kaidan poured through the hole in the wall, the latter throwing a biotic shockwave that knocked two more members of the squad down while Ashley gunned down another. The SS soldier nearest the disruptor cannon turned to go for the weapon. This allowed Shepard to blindside him with a biotic charge. After she slammed into him and sent him flying into the wall nearby, Shepard shot him with her Crusader shotgun, blowing a hole in the man's chest.
Not to be outdone, Garrus got the last with a pinpoint shot from his assault rifle, and Tali shot the two soldiers Kaidan had knocked down in quick succession.
A couple more shots for the remaining members of the detachment were necessary, but it was all over in ten seconds. "Looks like we found the entrance," Shepard said. She triggered her commlink. "Shepard here. We found a backdoor into the bunker."
"Still busy," was Robert's reply. "Good luck."
After the call was over, a bewildered Ashley asked, "Was that lightning I heard in the background?"
"Sounded like it to me." Garrus checked his rifle. "Probably some arcing power conduit. So, I've always wanted to capture a genocidal dictator."
"Just in case, I'd like some backup," Shepard said. She used her omnitool to tap into the Coalition military comms. "This is Commander Shepard of the Systems Alliance. My team has secured an entranceway into the Führerbunker."
Several moments later a reply came. "General Kylarjha here. I have troops on the north end of the Führerhaus that I can divert to your support. They will arrive shortly."
"Thank you, General. We'll hold until they arrive. Shepard out." Shepard looked to her team, who all responded by assuming defensive positions.
I wonder how the university assault is going Shepard thought to herself.
The assault cannon swung Tra'dur's way as she continued playing, and she knew there was no chance of getting away. She had already survived several minutes longer than she should have after Talara's collapse thanks to the need of the Nazi commander to recall his gunners from small arms positions in the flak tower. The blast from its superheated plasma striking the ground would claim her even if she stopped playing and jumped. In that one crucial moment, she felt the supreme fear of imminent death that probably any mammal had, certainly her sister Nah would have said so, and yet she pushed it away. So, mother, she thought, and it was not about Shai'jhur, will we meet? Why were you … She shook away the vision and tried to think chants to the Gods at the same time she played.
The gun never fired.
There was a spurt of blood from control room. The gunner tried to scream, but it was little more than a gurgle through his opened throat accompanied by a brief bubbling of the blood now flowing freely into his lungs. The other gun crew sought out their comrade's killer, scrambling for their sidearms, but saw none. Not even as blades pierced their chests and throats did their killer appear before them.
In five seconds it was over. The gun crew lay slain upon the concrete decking around their dormant weapon, and the wraithlike figure descended, killing and killing again, sweeping through the tower from top to bottom.
Tra'dur played on. From the distance she couldn't see the fate of the gun crew, only that someone had gotten to them before they could fire on her. She celebrated her survival by playing the Blue Bonnets ever more enthusiastically, as if to spur on the weary soldiers of the Black Watch in this final assault.
In the end, it certainly worked. It was a squad of Black Watch soldiers who reached the flak tower first and another that secured the entrance to the Von Braun Academy. When they entered the flak tower, they found its defenders already dead. Few people in combat that fierce spend much time worrying about good fortune. Instead, they pushed on to fully clear the tower while a Lieutenant who had survived and spoke German raced to the top. The Nazis had been slain too quickly to lock down the controls, and he was successful in spinning the gun around to turn on its former owners. Now they would be the ones conducting a massacre.
The Dilgar went to work gathering surviving foes for captivity-when their officers could actually force them with shouting and punching to obey the laws of war-and the Marines and Naval Infantry flowed into the Von Braun Academy, rushing toward the labs that were their target. Tra'dur ceased playing when the firing stopped. She turned toward Major Trewen to thank him for his confidence.
She found Talara kneeling beside Trewen. A massive burn mark covered his failed armor over the heart. Tra'dur felt a rush of sadness for the brave man that died at her side, unnoticed in the heart of the fighting.
"He was exactly the same mettle as the Canadians at Balos," she murmured, and dropped down at Talara's side. Wresting his helmet from his armour, she closed his eyes and then used her combat knife to cut off some of his hair, thinking his family might want it as a Dilgar's would if he were not recovered from the field.
"The Canadians at Balos?" Talara looked up.
"Yes, the Canadian Black Watch. They played their pipes as they died, covering the retreat of the rest of the human army into the tunnels during the old Imperium's war. They fought like each of them was worth twenty Dilgar. I can barely believe I did the same."
"I can barely believe this! How do you Dilgar survive it? How do humans survive it? Was this what my ancestors knew…" She looked down to Trewen's face and started to cry.
Tra'dur reached out and hugged her, impulsively. "You fought as bravely as any other, and saved my life once already this night."
Talara pushed away. "And that's not enough, Tra'dur. There are people dying. Now." She shook herself, and spun away to find the wounded and try to help.
Tra'dur stood there and watched her go. Then she swept her gaze across the battlefield. The big gun was firing now at the Nazis instead of her side, driving them further back from the University. The tanks were burned out by the dozen along the line of the entrenchments. There were medics working everywhere, but just as many dead bodies simply abandoned.
She turned to head into the university when an invisible fist knocked her into the dirt. "You stupid, stupid kit."
"Mrroff..." She rolled on the dirt, blinking her eyes and realising her vision was obscured because her night-vision goggles were covered in dirt. She pulled them off, blinking hard.
Fei'nur was standing above her, glaring. "How could I survive the Supreme Warmaster's wrath if you were killed that stupidly, fighting a war for glory and not survival? How could I live with myself if one of the girls I raised since before they could speak were dead? How could I survive the quiet sadness in the Warmaster's eyes when I returned?"
"She's not alive, she's not coming back… And my mother-Shai sent these girls off to die, the least.."
Fei'nur kicked her. "Do not do such things. By rights, you should not have survived. The enemy spared you because they thought you were mad, because they had not faced such a lunatic in so long that they did not realise until too late the moral effect you had on your human troops. Learn your lesson, girl!"
Tra'dur groaned. "I'll never do it again," she whispered softly.
"Good. The death of many is not solved by the death of one. It just means you're dead." She reached down and hauled Tra'dur up by the scruff of her neck, the girl collapsing into a mass of relaxed muscles under the enormous strength of the Spectre.
And then Fei'nur hugged her tightly and kissed her cheeks. "You scared me so much, girl. Now, don't forget this lesson."
"I won't… Thank you, Fei'nur."
"You're welcome," the old commando snorted softly, and gestured on to the university. "Now, come on, I'll help you catch up with what you were actually supposed to be doing down here."
The battle in the Führerhaus foyer showed little sign of abating. Lucy continued her careful dueling between two adversaries, anticipating their attacks enough to eliminate their numerical advantage. Her blade stayed in near constant motion, parrying and deflecting strikes. Her concentration was absolute; her defensive stance unyielding.
Meridina had little time to note this, although she still did. Her opponent's unique style and talent with the blade forced careful attention from her. She attempted another mental attack just for the SS duelist's mental defenses to block it. While he was not a telepath, his darkened swevyra gave him some protection. Enough that she could not focus her mental gifts enough to break it without leaving herself open to attack.
There was a common concern for both; Robert. He remained in the fight as well, but his relative lack of skill with a lightsaber required him to fall back on the raw power he now wielded. He used his blade for defense only, deflecting lightning and lightsaber strikes from his foes while giving ground as necessary. He was not above an attack with his powers either. One of his foes leapt at him with a raised lightsaber, looking to catch Robert on his weak side. With a flick of his wrist and a greater surge of focus, Robert sent a table in the foyer flying into the man. He caught his foe in mid-air with the table and sent both flying to the ground. He immediately shifted his attention back to his other foe. Lightning, hued purple and full of cold, deadly hate, crackled at Robert. He caught it with his green lightsaber blade, deflecting the lightning into the ceiling.
Meridina sensed the growing frustration of her opponent. He was used to winning more swiftly than this, and he found her dueling style simplistic but difficult to overcome. This frustration was to his detriment and her aid, turning his movements into aggressive but ill-thought strikes she easily parried. She watched her footwork carefully until the moment to strike came. Her enemy misstepped in a strike at her, allowing Meridina to evade said strike and get a clean attack of her own. Her lightsaber plunged into his chest, striking the lung. A surprised look came to the scarred man's face. He choked something before collapsing.
Meridina readied to go to Lucy's aid. She turned toward her former student to find Lucy being attacked from both sides. Her foes had maneuvered themselves so that one could get a clean strike at her back.
Which was exactly what Lucy wanted.
She sensed the lunge coming and ducked down, spinning as she did. Her foe's blade nearly struck her despite the maneuver, landing a glancing blow her armor absorbed. She swung her lightsaber in an upward cut that passed cleanly through her foe's forearms. The SS man cried out in shock and pain at his sudden dismemberment. Lucy kicked him hard enough to send him to the ground.
The kicking motion continued, letting her spin and catch her other foe as his weapon came for her. Her lightsaber parried that blow, then the next. Her foe's frustration turned to anger. The dark power within him intensified, but Lucy gave him no time to bring it into play. She parried the third blow and followed up with a swipe of her own that grazed the shoulder of the SS fighter. He reached instinctively for the wound before returning his attention to the fight. Lucy attacked again, then yet again, and it was soon clear she had her opponent on the backfoot.
Meridina turned her attention instead to Robert, still holding off two opponents with his abilities if not his blade work. She rushed forward and used her weapon to parry a blow from his second opponent, who backed away at facing a new foe.
Robert's other opponent responded by generating as much dark lightning as he could. Robert met it with his blade, shielding Meridina from the attack to let her focus on her new adversary. As soon as the lightning weakened he pushed his free hand forward. A bolt of force slammed into his enemy, throwing him back into a portrait of what looked like Goering. The SS trooper nearly got back to his feet when Robert gripped him with life energy and sent him flying into the far wall, then into the ceiling.
While Robert kept his lone remaining foe in the air, slamming into the walls and ceiling of the foyer, Meridina found her new opponent an inferior duelist. She easily parried his frustrated blows with his crimson-bladed lightsaber. In a flash of blue light her own weapon slashed across his left arm, wounding and distracting him. Her next strike was barely deflected in time, but it left her opponent open to a powerful push with Meridina's swevyra that threw him into the wall. Meridina followed that by using the same power to grip his weapon and pull it from his weakened grasp. Disarmed and wounded, he was now susceptible to fall to mental attacks. Meridina forced a sleep command into his mind.
Lucy's remaining foe made one desperate attempt to regain control of the duel, throwing a series of wild strikes toward Lucy's head. Lucy deflected them easily, one two three, and on the fourth maneuvered into place. Again her lightsaber flashed and again a pair of severed limbs struck the floor. She whipped her lightsaber around in a brief flourish before pointing it toward the SS trooper's hate-filled face, triumph showing on her own.
Sensing the others were finished, Robert slammed his opponent into the ground. All of the impacts left the SS man so dazed he didn't resist Robert reaching out with his life energy to pull the lightsaber from his foe's weak grip.
His opponent glared hate at him, as did the others still conscious. Then, one by one, each bit down on something. There was a small cracking noise before they started to convulse.
"Suicide pills." Robert frowned.
Meridina went over to the only one of their foes who was in no shape to commit suicide, the enemy she'd rendered unconscious with her telepathy. "I will attempt to find and remove the suicide capsule from this man."
"Sounds good to me." Robert looked toward the lift Fassbinder had gone down in. After sensing Lucy's readiness to join him, he pressed a key on his omnitool. "Dale to Shepard. We're done here."
"We're going in. You're free to join us."
"We're on our way," was his immediate response.
More weapons fire played across the hull of the Aurora, preventing her weakened shields from regaining the coherence needed to repel fire. They left scorch marks across the azure skin of the vessel, marks slowly disappearing with the operation of the armor self-repair system.
On the Aurora bridge Julia watched Angel return fire against the responsible foe, a Nazi cruiser. The vessel, a slant-hulled design, suffered immediately from the pulse plasma cannons on the Aurora's bow. With its shields failed, the cruiser couldn't endure the strikes to its unshielded hull. Its own weapons blew apart under the fury of the Aurora's firepower.
"Heat levels in the reactor systems are approaching the redline, Captain," Mallory reported. "We need to power down most of the reactors."
Before either Julia or Locarno could disagree, their case against this was provided by the approach of another Reich dreadnought. Once, the presence of a single one had been attended with terror, but in this battle they had fought, and destroyed, more than Julia could even remember at the moment, a fact that drove home the intensity of the fighting, and her own grueling exhaustion.
The ship completed a sharp turn to contact, and the spinal-mounted "super-disruptor" assembly opened fire immediately. Only by a tight maneuver, one impossible with the desired shutdowns, did Violeta evade enough that only of the three beams struck the ship. That blow was severe enough, carving a deep gash through the primary hull and destroying one of the pulse plasma cannons.
Julia re-opened a channel to Engineering. "Mister Scott, we're still under heavy fire, we need those reactors running!"
"I cannae do much more, Captain," was his response. "Th' stern's taken tae many hits, we dinnae have th' time t' cut through th' wreckage an' make repairs!"
"What if we shut down power to weapons?" Locarno asked. "We focus entirely on evasive maneuvers until the coolant system is repaired or we can break free of the battle?"
Julia considered that. The Aurora was taking heavy fire and suffering from it with her lost shields. Trying to pull back in the formation to make quick repairs made sense.
The problem was there was nowhere to pull back. While Maran was engaging the bulk of the enemy fleet out past Neptune, the SS fleet was numerically larger than the support fleet. Every ship was needed at its place in the line. The slightest loss of offensive capability could turn the battle against the fleet. Until the battle was decided, she needed to keep the ship firing as long as possible.
"No. We keep weapons and engines going." Julia re-opened the channel to Engineering. "Mister Scott, shut down all non-essential systems and dial down the reactors as much as you can to keep us flying and fighting."
"It willnae be nearly enough…"
"I know, but the fleet needs our guns in the fight." As Julia spoke the Aurora's weapons battered away at the damaged enemy dreadnought. An Aururian dreadnought-the Silver Sea-was alongside the SS ship, pouring fire into it as well, and on the holo-viewer she watched the Enterprise execute an attack run with the Koenig while the Maya-Mayi and the Thunder Child directed heavy fire into the beam opposite the Silver Sea. Given the defenses of the SS vessel, these ships still needed the Aurora's guns and torpedoes in the fight. "Do what you can, Mister Scott. But keep us fighting. Bridge out."
"Primary Reactors 1 and 4 are at maximum safety threshold for heat. 2 and 3 are at 95% and still climbing," Mallory warned.
Julia said nothing in reply to that. She'd already said everything she needed to.
The same data was showing on the boards of Main Engineering. The chamber itself was heating up as well. Sweat dripped down Scotty's face while he looked over the board. "Ensign Aung, have ye got th' new shunt line through yet?"
"Negative, sir," Aung answered. "We can't get through the wreckage to Section P and the heat exchanger hook up."
"I sent ye a team…"
"They're trying to cut through, but there's so much damage…"
"Do what ye can, lad, or we're losin' th' ship!" Scott turned away and noted one of his teams spraying a reactor down with liquid helium, trying to cool it. It was itself a dangerous method, and it might even require extensive repairs to the reactor, but if it saved the ship Scott considered it worthwhile.
He eyed the damaged sections in the stern again before keying the comms. "Scott tae Barnes. C'mon lad, are ye there? I'm showin' a life sign…"
"...lad, are ye there? I'm showin' a life sign, Tom, I know ye're alive in there…"
His mentor's voice helped coax Barnes back to consciousness. He tried to move his right hand, but couldn't. Pain shot through the arm, terrible pain. He ended up reaching with his left hand until he was able to get a grip on the shattered plating over his head and move it.
His legs moved more easily. He wasn't completely buried under the wreckage of the deck that had fallen upon him. Barnes used his legs to begin pushing himself free, whimpering as he did at the savage pain shooting up his right arm. Only as he got himself free did he look toward said arm to confirm his suspicions.
For one thing, the arm was broken in at least two places, courtesy of the heavy structural member that landed on it. His hand hung limply from the pieces his arm was sandwiched between.
But on top of that, there was the sharp piece of broken, blood-stained metal showing through his bicep and thrusting into the debris below. His arm wasn't just stuck, it was pinned in place.
"Frak me this Goddamned hurts!" he shouted.
"Tom?!"
Scotty's voice helped him gain focus. He nearly bit his tongue from the intensity of the pain. "My arm… it's pinned. Frak me it hurts!"
"Tom, ye're th' only one who can save th' ship now."
That remark drew Barnes' attention through the pain. "What?" he croaked.
"I cannae get any teams in t' restore th' shunt. Th' last break is right there by ye. If ye dinnae fix it, th' reactors are goin' tae overheat. We'll lose th' ship."
Barnes immediate recommendation was to just shut reactors down until the cooling systems could handle the load. But he immediately knew that wouldn't work. The Aurora needed power for its weapons, its engines, its sensors. Maybe not as much power as it needed to open IU jump points or power the warp drive, but enough that the some of the reactors were still needed and, in turn, needed to be cooled. And if the secondary heat exchangers were down…
He swallowed. Heat wouldn't destabilize naqia by itself, rendering it delicate and unstable, but it would still wreck the reactors and they, in turn, would ruin the drive section with the resulting meltdown. The Aurora wouldn't survive that in the middle of a battle.
A distant hull breach had sucked all of the plasma out of the compartment, at least, so he could see clearly. He looked up to the breach in the plasma line he'd been about to fix when it all came crashing on top of him. It was still open. "Scotty, just the one breach, right?"
"Aye."
Nearby his plasma welder and the plate to cover the breach were still intact. He reached with his left arm and pulled the plate over, then the welder. His attempt to stand up quickly showed he couldn't. His right arm was still locked in place by the wreckage. He pressed his body against it, but nothing would yield. He was stuck and it hurt.
"Lad, we dinnae have much time left! All o' th' reactors are overheatin'!"
Tears of pain were starting to obscure his vision. He didn't dare remove the helmet to wipe them away. He glanced from the damaged shunt line, out of reach from here, and back to his pinned arm.
And he knew there was only one way this was going to work.
"Frak me," Barnes grumbled, picking up the welder again. "Frak me frak me frak me…"
In orbit over the burning Reich capital, the fight between the support fleet for the invasion and SS naval forces raged in all of its fury. The Aurora, despite her increasing damage, remained in the thick of the fight. On her bridge Julia could do nothing to relieve the tension of waiting to see if the reactors would finally melt down. Both the tactical viewer and the main holo-viewer showed the ferocity of the battle raging around them. The Aururians were now taking the brunt of the fight and giving as good as they got. She watched a burning SS dreadnought, one of the long-dreaded Aryan-class ships, skewer the Maya-Mayi right before their eyes at close-range, with a solid hit from its spinal-mount disruptors while the Aururian battlecruiser was evading the same weapons mounted on a Reich battlecruiser.
The shot tore through the primary armour and straight through half the hull before coming to a stop. A moment later a massive explosion from one of the reactors vented straight out the hole the disruptor had just created. Half of the dreadnought-sized battlecruiser's engine banks immediately went dark. "Shit," Violeta muttered from her station. Julia was for a moment expecting the worst, but the massively armoured internal subdivision of the ship held. When she realised it would, she sighed in relief.
The Aururian ship was only wounded, not dead, and given the reputation of her captain, the famed Margrethe von Lohringhoven, she retaliated with a tremendous fusillade from her missile batteries, turreted plasma cannon, and point-blank heavy torpedoes. The enemy ship's shields were degraded enough that they couldn't stop every missile, causing explosions to flower along the ship's dark surface. Without orders Angel assisted, scourging the enemy dreadnought with the Aurora's remaining plasma cannon emitters on the port side. The double lightning bolt insignia of the SS was erased by the sapphire beams ripping along her hull.
The bombardment allowed the Koenig and a pair of Trigger-class attack ships to make a successful attack run. Solar torpedoes blew apart the spinal mounts that had just damaged Iron Margrethe's vessel. Pulse phaser cannons ripped up hull and further damaged the dreadnought. The Aurora's weapons thundered again, blasting chunks of hull and material away from the stricken bow.
The battlecruiser the Maya-Mayi was facing opened fire on the beleaguered ships as well. But while its disruptor beams played along the damaged hull of the Aurora, the heavier bombardment it loosed did not strike the Maya-Mayi as intended. A Traynari-class emergency-construction cruiser in Dilgar colors, the Ghatarn, soared in to take the blow on partially-intact shields, giving the overwhelmed gravitic shielding of the Maya-Mayi an important reprieve. Julia smiled tightly. She knew that was Zhengli Varma over there, fighting as courageously as she had at Tira.
Of course, for all that, none of it could save them as long as they stayed in action at full power. Like an old waterborne dreadnought damaged by a torpedo and electing to strain her bulkheads by staying at full power to keep in the line of battle, Julia's command was literally killing herself to keep fighting. Dreading the answer to the question before she'd asked it, Julia looked to Mallory. "Reactor status, Mister Mallory?"
"All reactors are overheating," he said. "If we don't power down now I estimate… wait."
"Ensign?" Julia asked pointedly, not particularly patient on the survival of her ship.
"Heat levels are decreasing." Mallory checked his readouts. "The primary heat exchanger is dumping heat again. The coolant flow has been restored to 80% capacity."
Julia's initial thought was that Scotty really was a miracle worker. Her second was that she had to keep the ship alive long enough to thank him for being one.
The Wernher von Braun Academy was several stories tall, not counting the subbasement. Through it's halls the 5th Naval Infantry Company and the Aurora Marines moved on. Each hallway corner, each room, was a potential strongpoint for the defenders, as scattered and disorganized as they where.e the space the
Zack and Anders led their forces cautiously as a result. Every room was carefully screened. The slightest resistance resulted in grenades or heavy fire from the remaining power-armored Marines. As each section of the building was secured, the Alliance and Dilgar troops behind them moved in to hold these areas.
Zack sent Tachibana and one platoon to begin securing upper floors. He and Anders headed down. Lifts were avoided - they were too easily booby-trapped - and the stairs utilized. Locked doors were quickly blasted open. Zack kept glancing back toward his omnitool, following the particle trace Caterina had found.
This led them to the third subbasement, which was where they found their heaviest resistance in the structure. Rapid disruptor fire, from disruptor pulse cannons, filled the hall leading to what the signs' translations indicated was a lab. Zack kept to cover with Anders, who motioned for his Marines to double around. "Sonic imaging of the floor indicates a side approach," Anders said to him.
"They probably have that covered too."
"But by how many weapons? If that's their only heavy weapon, they can't easily cover both approaches."
The answer soon came: it was the only weapon. With that knowledge in mind Anders quickly formulated a plan. "Coleman, have your squad link shields. It'll buy time for us to take them out."
"Roger."
Moments later Coleman's squad came from the closer approach. Four power armored Marines with their armor's protective fields linking together. The heavy weapon's shots dissipated against the shields. They wouldn't for long, though, so Anders and Zack had to act immediately.
They did, moving up behind the armored Marines and tossing grenades over them. The one-way shields allowed the grenades to pass and land near the enemy. There were surprised cries in the moments before the blasts thumped through the hall. The Marines' shields held back the blast, but the enemy light infantry had nothing to do the same with.
The unit moved onward into the lab, spreading out to take control. Men in white lab coats surrendered the moment guns came up. The fear in their faces made Zack wonder if they expected summary execution or something of the like.
King was soon behind him. She looked as ragged as everyone else, a look enhanced by the bandage wrapped around her head. "The trace is strongest here," she said.
Looking at the center of the lab, Zack nodded. "Yeah, and it's pretty clear why," he noted.
In the middle of the lab, covered in wiring and cabling, was the familiar sight of an interuniversal jump drive.
For centuries the Liebstandarte SS Adolf Hitler remained named for the First Führer, proudly serving as the bodyguard unit (and occasionally Praetorian Guard) for the rulers of the Reich. Nominally an infantry regiment it was occasionally raised to the level of division depending on the whims of the Führer or, now, in a war with a vast Multiverse of species and nations who stood in agreement that the Reich should be destroyed.
Now some of the best soldiers in that regiment, members of the bodyguard company of their Führer, were holding defensive positions in the war room of the Fürherbunker. The holographic displays told everything about the Reich's dire situation, with half of the Reich's territorial space lost to the enemy or to revolt, the fleets scattered and broken, and Welthauptstadt Germania herself ablaze over their heads. For these desperate men, this was nothing less than the Gotterdammerung. But each was ready to drag a hundred enemies of their Reich and Volk with them into the Abyss.
When the far door blew open, each man opened fire with their disruptor rifles, spraying the entranceway with deadly green light. Only after several seconds of firing was it clear no foe was entering.
When the attack came, it came from above. The ceiling above them was blown downward by an incredible force, the debris smashing the central holotank of the chamber. Through the hole dropped two foes, both hated untermensch females of bronze coloring.
Lucy and Shepard landed back to back, Lucy's lightsaber flashing to life in the seconds before she landed, and immediately went to work. The sapphire blade of Lucy's weapon cleaved through the air and sliced a disruptor rifle in half, after which an invisible shockwave of force threw four of the SS soldiers back. Shepard's arm shot forward and a wide ripple of biotic explosions raced across the floor, wrecking more of the war room displays and throwing SS soldiers backward and sideways. Biotic energy formed around Shepard and she shot forward, the dark matter thick enough to distort a disruptor beam that stabbed at her shoulder. The shooter was blown into the far wall with enough force that he blacked out. One of his comrades was a half-second from firing when Shepard's shotgun barked, blasting a hole through the soldier's armor.
Through the door the assault now came. Robert rushed in first, the green of his weapon flashing through the air and deflecting the disruptor beams of his foes. Behind him Ashley and Garrus entered, assault rifles blazing, with Wrex and Tali behind them and a squad, then a whole platoon, of Aururian soldiers joining the fight. Kaidan dropped down through the hole in the ceiling in the company of an Aururian soldier. Both fired as they landed and began moving, clearing the way for more Aururians that jumped down through the hole.
The SS men were caught by surprise and never really regained their footing. The room was overrun too quickly for them to do so, and in less than a minute from the initial breach they were utterly defeated.
In their resistance they did manage some return fire. One disruptor bolt clipped Tali. Shepard and Robert immediately went to her where she collapsed, seemingly more stunned than in pain, but Robert sensed a surge of fear before she confirmed, "My suit is breached. I need help," Tali insisted with a voice on the verge of panic.
Robert knelt beside her and focused his hands toward the breached suit. It took a lot of focus to generate invisible, airtight force around the break, such that Shepard had to nudge him when an Aururian corpswoman was ready to slap a wound sealant on the breach. He let her do so.
"My suit's been breached," Tali said again.
"Her species has a non-existent immune system," Shepard said to the Aururian. "Any infection is dangerous. If you can arrange for the SSV Normandy to land and pick her up, Doctor Chakwas is equipped to care for her."
"I understand, Commander," the woman replied with a thick Russian accent.
"You're in good hands, Tali," Shepard assured her.
"We'll be right back," Robert added.
"Get the bosh'tet," Tali demanded.
They walked on to join the others. Lucy and Ashley were in the lead, Lucy's lightsaber already melting through the armored door to Führer Sauckel's inner office and living quarters. "The room's shielded, so sensors can't tell if there's anyone on the other side," Ashley informed them.
Shepard glanced toward Robert, but it was Lucy who said, "I don't sense anyone alive on the other end." She finished a circular cut that left a glowing box in the middle of the door. Robert did the honors of smashing the door in, sending the cut portion flying in with enough force to ruin the day of anyone inside. Once the gap in the door existed, Shepard rushed in, shotgun at the ready, with Lucy and Ashley behind.
Within seconds the entire team was inside, the Aururians close behind. The moment was surreal to Robert: here he was, in the inner sanctum of the leader of the Nazi Reich, and ready to face that same leader. He knew from captured images and propaganda broadcasts that Führer Ludwig-Friedrich Sauckel was hardly the image of Aryan perfection. He was a slight, balding middle-aged man of dark hair and brown eyes, unmarried, a life-long Party bureaucrat who was elevated to his position as a compromise following an indecisive internal struggle between the various factions of the government. Half of the reason he was picked was apparently due to his ancestry as a descendant of Fritz Sauckel, one of the first generation of Nazi officials, and the propaganda benefits of this familial link.
Now Robert might finally get to meet this man, the embodiment of the evil that had shed so much blood over the last five centuries of the S4W8 universe.
He was still wondering how Sauckel would react to capture when he stepped with Shepard into the bedroom. It was barely furnished, with a hard cot. The only sign of habitation was a desk with miniature starship models laying upon it, some only half-painted, and a painting set to one side. A figure was slumped over on the table.
Disappointment welled up within Robert. He said nothing as Shepard went up and examined the figure. "He's dead," Shepard said. She seemed disappointed as well.
Robert stepped up and pulled the body back. There were no marks on it. No disruptor burns. Just a look of pain and resignation on the face of the German Führer, testament to his final moments. He quickly keyed his omnitool. "This is Captain Robert Dale to all Coalition commands. We have captured the Führerbunker. Sauckel is dead. I repeat, the Nazi leader is dead."
"Damn," Garrus mumbled. "I guess that one's going back on the… what did Doctor Chakwas call it again?" He looked to Kaidan. "The pail list?"
"Bucket," Kaidan answered numbly. "Bucket list."
"All of this way and the bastard suicided," Ashley grumbled. "Goddamned Nazi coward."
"I'm not sure he suicided," Lucy said.
"Why do you say that?" asked Shepard.
"There's no disruptor burns," she replied. "And he didn't hang himself. I don't sense poison, and his lips aren't blue. I guess there are poisons that wouldn't show themselves, but I… no, I don't think it's poison. Plus, there's another problem." She gave Robert a worried look.
"Oh?" asked Wrex.
"Fassbinder came down here," Robert said. "So where the hell is he?"
While word quickly spread through Germania that the Reich's Führer was dead, the battle in orbit continued between fleets that seemed locked into place by their own desperation. Both sides were fighting until their ships died or simply quit from excessive damage. The Aurora was one ship still in the fight while clearly at the edge of her endurance. Her azure hull was marked with battle damage that her overtaxed self-repair systems had yet to patch. Multiple weapon emplacements were down. The ship's stern section was a mess from extensive battle damage with two nacelles mutilated by attack.
Yet despite her damage, the Aurora remained at her place in the battle, continuing to fight alongside the rest of her comrades and allies.
An enemy cruiser, Sedan-class, was coming up on the starboard side. Ordinarily the Aurora was more than a match for a vessel of that design, but in her damaged state a Sedan was a dangerous foe and demanded attention. Julia considered the tactical map as another series of disruptor beams cut into the Aurora's hull. "Damage on multiple decks, multiple sections, primary hull," Jarod said, his way of informing her the actual list of decks and sections would take too long to mention aloud. "And the armour self-repair mechanisms on the primary hull have also failed."
"I just lost two starboard plasma emplacements," added Angel.
"Helm, one six two mark three four four, on my mark," Julia said.
"Aye ma'am."
Julia waited another moment, just to be sure, before affirming the order. 'Mark!"
The Aurora turned to starboard and raised her bow, a maneuver meant to bring heavier weapons to bear on the cruiser. The cruiser commander, aware of the threat posed, maneuvered to keep his ship to the Aurora's starboard.
As Julia had hoped, this maneuver doomed the SS cruiser.
The SS commander was so focused on the Aurora he didn't notice the other threats taking an interest in his command. Not until it was too late. The Sedan-class ship was suddenly struck on two arcs by the Ghatarn and the Wrath. The two Dilgar ships-one a rebuilt relic from the terrible glory days of the Imperium, the other a brand new ship provided to the new Dilgar state by the Alliance they sought to join-worked together admirably to slice the Reich ship to pieces, delivering blow after blow. When the Hyach lasers on the Wrath fired, they stuttered down the length of the cruiser and tore completely through the hull. The dying blast left the ship annihilated, just blazing sparks disappearing into space to mark the deaths of her crew and steel alike.
Angel was already directing fire on another target when it all ended. The SS ships suddenly broke away from orbit. After a final exchange of fire with the battered support fleet, the vessels all jumped to warp speed.
For a moment there was no reaction on the Aurora bridge. Finally Angel asked, "Is that it? Did they all leave?"
Cat nodded. "The space around us is clear. The SS fleet… they just warped out."
Despite the intense curiosity Julia felt at that announcement, she knew she had other things to deal with. "Stand down from combat alert. I want every repair team we can spare getting the ship ready for another fight, if it comes." She pressed the key on her chair to open the ship intercom. "Bridge to Engineering, we're secure from combat for the moment. You can commence shutdown of all overheating reactors."
"Aye Captain."
"Great job with the cooling systems, Mister Scott." Julia permitted herself a relieved smile.
"Th' credit goes tae Tom, Captain. He did th' work."
"I'll thank him now, then, and let you get back to work Mister Scott. Bridge out." Julia promptly tapped the key again. "Andreys to Barnes." After a moment with no answer she said, "Andreys to Barnes. Is everything okay? Mister Scott says we have you to thank that the reactors didn't melt down."
"Yeah, I suppose."
Julia felt worry fill her at the sound in Barnes' voice. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"I could use some medical attention, actually… frak this hurts."
Given the clear anguish in his voice, Julia didn't even pay attention to his use of obscenities in an open comm call. "We'll get you a medical team immediately."
At seeing her worried look, Jarod confirmed the order. After he was done Jarod said, "Incoming call from the Magaratha. On the fleet channel."
"Put the Warmaster on."
It was clear from the image that Shai'jhur was as exhausted as they. But the small Dilgar woman, still clad in the red blood slash that would hide the blood should the spores of her homeworld bring another round of bloody coughing, projected nothing but confidence, strength, and triumph. "My people and comrades in arms, I bear good tidings to you all. We have received confirmation from our soldiers. The German Führer is dead. Our forces hold the heart of the city and the flags of the Union and the Alliance fly proudly from the Volkshalle! Germania is ours!"
The news was good, and Julia allowed her friends and crew their cheers and applause. For her, it wouldn't be a victory until Rob and Zack and the others came home.
By the time Robert stepped out of the Führerhaus with Lucy, Shepard, and the others, exhaustion had set in. It felt like real effort was required to walk the rest of the way to the waiting command vehicle sent by General Kylarjha to bring him and the others to rejoin Zack at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University. A second vehicle, a requisitioned ambulance, was present to bring Tali with them. She was holding up well although already showing signs of a potential infection. Due to the city's damage, the University common was the closest spot that the Normandy could land to pick her up.
The trip was a quick one. Some debris on the roads had to be avoided, as did the burning remnants of a German Lion tank, but the street was mostly clear. The same couldn't be said for the city at large, of course. The burning remnants of the city's massive high rises belched smoke into the sky. Together with the flames, it gave the city a crimson look that matched the blood shed upon its ground. In the distance the colossal Volkshalle still stood, albeit with a hole in its great dome. The flag of the Allied Systems fluttered in place beside that of the Union of Tira and Rohric, both placed by the Dilgar troops that swept the Nazi structure of its defenders.
For a moment Robert's exhausted mind considered just how destructive the fighting had been. How many families had been wrecked or killed by the fighting? How many more would suffer the same if the struggle continued? He didn't speak of these thoughts to the others. And they did not speak on their own. Everyone was too exhausted to do otherwise.
They arrived at the university just as the Normandy swooped in for a landing. The Aururian medics brought Tali to the cargo door while the others went for the entrance to the Von Braun Academy. Nearby Robert noticed an Alakin sky-hopper, an anti-grav short-range aircraft that was likely that of General Threek's. There were also a couple of towering BattleMechs with light blue camo patterns and the likeness of a ghost painted on them and a third painted black with a red hourglass symbol.
An Alakin soldier led Robert, Meridina, Lucy, and Shepard deeper into the academy, down into its subbasement levels. They stepped into a large lab area where Robert found he was in exalted company. General Kylarjha was joined by the other general-ranked officers of the Coalition forces. Threek and General Victus were also in uniform, as was a Free Worlds League army commander. Natasha Kerensky and Prince Victor were in MechWarrior BDUs, new full cooling suits developed for F1S1 'Mech pilots with the aid of Multiversal technology. The Dilgar ranking General, Gar'nak, stood with them. As a Paladin agent Robert was relieved of most usual niceties, but for diplomacy's sake he stood at attention. He sensed the commanders were nearly as fatigued as he was, especially Victor and - though she'd deny it fervently - Natasha. "Prince, Khan, Generals."
"Captain." Victor nodded. He was officially the commander of the invasion army, so the other generals deferred to him despite being older in most cases. "We've heard the news. It's already spreading through both armies."
"Sauckel is dead. I wonder if that will really change anything," Robert said.
"Time will tell."
"We've already secured most of the city center, including all of the bridges over the Spree," Victus remarked. "There are some holdouts in the middle of the park of the Tiergarten and a concentration of forces at the northern edge of the Volkstrasse. We believe the remaining enemy commanders are using the Rathaus as a command post."
"They won't be for long, my Wolf Spiders are already in position to smash the whole thing," Natasha boasted.
"It might be best if they be given the chance to surrender," Threek said. "It may end the fighting more quickly."
"It would be preferable." Victor looked toward the center of the lab. "I am more interested in what our people have found here."
Robert followed his eyes and noticed what he was looking at. His heart skipped a beat at the sight of the long, cigar-shaped metal object laying on a table, colored dark blue with cabling and wiring covering it. It was at least fifteen meters long, which was to be expected for an interuniversal jump drive.
The assembled commanders, with Robert and the others, approached the work area. Robert noticed Lieutenant Tra'dur was working at one of the stations in the company of a much larger Dilgar. Meridina and Lucy both recognized her and mentally informed him of her name: Fei'nur, the cyborg Dilgar bodyguard of Tra'dur's mother, Warmaster Shai'jhur. Nearby King was consulting with an engineer in an Stellar Navy field uniform, a blue-skinned teal-spotted Dorei with Lieutenant Commander rank insignia. When she noticed the assembled senior commanders she stood at attention. "Highness, Khan. Generals."
"Were we too late?" Victor asked.
King looked back to Tra'dur and the Dorei. The Dorei shook his head. "I do not think so," he said.
"Everyone, this is Lieutenant Commander Tauram Sjitas, Chief Engineer of the Starship Thunder Child," King said. "With the battle above over I asked for a naval engineer to come and confirm some of our findings." She noticed the look of constrained fear on Robert's face. To his surprise, a mental thought clearly meant for him surfaced in her thoughts, free of the usual shields she kept her mind under when in the presence of potential mind-readers. The Aurora is intact, Captain Dale, but Commander Scott is busy with repairs, and I am informed Lieutenant Barnes was wounded and is not fit for further duty.
Thank you, he thought back, feeling a tinge of warmth in his heart. King was notorious for opposition to anyone reading her thoughts with telepathy, regardless of the kind of telepathy. An unshielded thought to relieve his worries privately was a huge gesture on her part.
"Commander, what have you found?" asked Victor.
"I have not finished my examination entirely, Highness, but I am at least able to confirm that this unit is not yet ready for operation," Sjitas said. His purple eyes showed palpable relief. "The projectors are not capable of creating an interuniversal jump point."
"Then we were not too late," said Kylarjha.
"We were not," Sjitas agreed. "Nearly so, I believe. They were getting close. Going by the testing rate and results I've seen, I believe that in a week or so they may have found the appropriate mechanism to form a jump point."
Robert felt a cold shudder at that. Not just from how close they'd cut it, but from thinking about what happened at Earth W8R4, when the Daleks had also played around with the jump drive… and what they'd nearly awoken. They might very well have prevented the Nazis from awaking the Darkness as the Daleks nearly had...
"Then the attack came at just the right time," Shepard said, not knowing what Robert was thinking. "Any later and they'd have a working drive."
"Yes. One that they could have easily manufactured off-world."
"And undoubtedly they already had arrangements to commence such manufacturing," King noted. "Even the fall of Earth would have done nothing to stop them."
"Then the sacrifices were not in vain," said Victus.
Robert sighed in relief. "No, they weren't."
"I will want to debrief the scientists here before finalizing my report to Admiral Maran and to yourselves," King said. "But I am in concurrence."
"Thank you, Captain King," said Victor.
"Highness." With that King stepped away to get back to work.
As King stepped away with Sjitas, a Turian soldier stepped up and saluted Victus. "General, we just received word from Captain Hadran. An enemy officer has approached the allied line near the town hall. He came under a flag of truce and wishes to speak to a representative of Coalition Command."
A short time later Robert walked out to the University commons and approached the enemy officer, flanked by Turian infantry. He wore the gray uniform of a German Army officer with the rank insignia of an Oberst, a Colonel. His brown eyes were full of pain, pain and shame that Robert felt radiate off of the man. Graying hair of dark blond color was visible under his officer's cover, marked with a German eagle. Upon looking Robert over there was visible recognition from the man. He snapped a salute. "Kapitän Robert Dale?"
Robert nodded. "Ja. Ich bin Kapitän Dale."
There was a flicker of surprise on the officer's face. Whatever he knew of Robert, apparently Robert's fluency with German hadn't been part of that. There was instinctive relief from the man as he continued, in German, "I am Oberst Karl Baumann. I come representing General Wolfgang Kleist, commander of the Germania Armeegruppe. He has sent me to request terms from the Alliance."
"Terms of surrender?"
"Ja." Again the pained look. "For all German army forces in Germania and the European continent."
"But not for the whole planet? Or the Reich?"
"He lacks the authority. Planetary command was transferred out of the capital."
Robert nodded. It had indeed been too much to hope for a wider surrender, not yet. But at least a local surrender would end the killing around the capital. He nodded to the officer. "Follow me then, and you can see what terms Prince Victor and the other commanders are willing to give."