A/N: Sorry for the bit of a delay, but here's chapter 5! Thanks for all the support so far everyone. The start of this chapter might be a bit odd, but I felt like sending the Battle for Shanxi off with a bit of something different. As always, like, hate, see something you think could be changed or want to ask a question about the setting? Leave a review! I try to PM answer most reviews with such questions. The War's not over yet though.

Disclaimer: Don't own ME.

New Yuncheng

Private Ren vaulted the broken piece of wall in front of him. Alien bullets whizzing by sounding like the rain that was falling for the fifth day straight, pattering against the wall and the ground around him. Beside him Corporal Yasu's torso span and fell to the ground as blood followed a round that passed through his shoulder. A few feet away Private Yori fired downrange with a heavy Type 33 machinegun. The weapon barked out brightly against the night, rounds spinning through the darkness. Bullets hitting alien and ground alike.

One round pinged off a lamp post, Junior Serviceman Dieus ducking from it as he ran. The turian trying to keep out of the way of the machine gun's line of fire. Behind him a Hepestis rolled into the street, a bright Spirit of Palaven painted on the side of the turret. The tank turned it's cannon toward the human's position and fired. The 37mm round trailed blue light behind it as it rocketed down the street, breaking through the wall of one of the intact buildings at the end of the road.

In the room below, showered with plaster and dust, an IJA 105 Type 22 cannon sat, crewed by two men. Loader Hideyoshi pushed a round into the breech a moment before Gunner Yuuma hit the firing lever. The flash of the large cannon followed by a spit of fire as the chemically propelled and mass effect enhanced round returned the Spirit of Palaven's fire. The anti-tank round punched through the tanks shields before bouncing off the front armour.

As the tank rocked from the impact, Principal Plaso growled.. The man shouted at his gunner as the turret turned and his tank fired again, dust obscuring the results of the shot.

Yuuma wiped dust and blood from his eyes, then looked at where Hideyoshi had been moments before. Now there was little more than blood and rags there. A hole had punched clean through the gun shield. Grabbing the shell his comrade had been about to load Yuuma slammed the round into the breech and hit the fire lever without aiming. The gun roared once again.

The round sparked as it hit the hull of the Spirit of Plaven, metal deforming under metal as the round drilled through the tank's armour before the round broke apart mere inches from Plaso's body. Dieus shielded his face as the Spirit of Plaven exploded. The tank's eezo reactor breaking containment.

Shrapnel flew in all directions, a single piece shooting into the air. The piece flew over the heads of the IJA lines, flying past the head of the Major. The man called into his radio for fire support for the Japanese lines. Finally the piece would hit the ground, embedding into a box of ammo. Private Nori nearly cut his hand on the piece of shrapnel as he grabbed a round for the 155mm howitzers, marked with a bright white symbol, and passed it on to the next private.

The round soon enough found it's way into the breech as Captain Kazuto dropped his hand, the firing order going out to the two dozen guns under his command. The howitzer rounds flew away in a plume of fire as they soared through the air. The white markings on the shells stark against the dark night. The shots arced gently through the air until they broke apart over Turian positions with a 'pop' instead of the normal boom.

There were things that were similar across the galaxy. While neither side knew it, the Human Xylophone was replicated by a Quarian instrument known as the Vibrophone. Turians had something similar to a guitar. Krogan, Asari and Humans all shared the tuba. Drums were universal. Everyone had some form of TV screen.

And yet there were always things that were unique to any species. When the Salarians had first come to space, they had underwater exploration equipment that had dwarfed the asari. Turians brought anti-radiation equipment and medicine techniques that were never seen. After the Krogan had been uplifted they were the only species to harness the splitting of the atom as a weapon. For humans, one of the unique innovations they brought to the galactic stage would be chemical warfare.

Whether it was through luck or a difference of nature not even the warlike Krogan and Turians had invented such a weapon in their histories. Weapons like Mustard Gas, Xylyl Bromide, Phosgene, these were unique to humanity, White Phosphorus was too. No other species had suffered a war like the Great Trench War, where all bounds of reason and international law had broken down completely.

So as the shells made their almost gentle sounding 'pop's against the hell below. The turians were utterly unprepared for the white clouds that spread across their forces. Burning pieces, hot enough to fuse armour to skin, hot enough to melt through even the radiation tested plates of the turian people. Screams came from the cloud as soldiers writhed, their lungs burning from the inside out.

It all paled to what came next. Eyes turned to the sky as another streak of artillery came in, green and blue Crosses marked along their sides. Again they struck with the harmless sounding pops. Some of the shells seemingly doing nothing, others spewing out green or brown gas. Turians unsure of what it was edged away from the shells. The men worried it might have been targeting flares for more of those incendiary rounds. Junior Serviceman Vimius was among those numbers.

Then Vimius felt the burning, his throat aflame. Dextro-acids might have rendered levo-food useless, but some elements and compounds reacted the same no matter what your protein base was. Phosgene blocked the turian's ability to breath while chlorine turned the moisture in his respiratory tract into acid. He was suffocating as his lungs were clogged and melting from the inside out. Mustard Gas burned what little skin was exposed and seared his eyes, blinding him as turians around activated their helmets.

The turian forces arrayed were mostly ground troops, planetary and colony garrisons that were called up by Bromraka for combat operations. They weren't marines. Their suits were designed to keep out dust, not hard vacuums. The last of the chemicals in the shell did its own near harmless yet insidious work.

Xylyl Bromide. A harmless chemical that caused irritation to mucous membranes. Remove yourself from the gas' area of effect and the symptoms disappear in less than an hour. It was also extremely good at getting through filters.

Turians found themselves trapped with the chemical in their helmets. Blinding them, causing them to cough relentlessly as the gas did it's work. Not knowing just what they were dealing with soldiers dropped to the ground and tried to work through it. Yet the irritation built until desperate men clawed their helmets off to breath, forgetting what else was in the air.

Junior Serviceman Dieus watched on. He had escaped to a second story of a nearby ruin. The soldier stood there watching as turians dropped to the ground, coughing out their last breaths. The men were unable to muster the air to scream. Blinking what tear gas made it to him out of his eyes he clutched his gun as he heard the humans roar. The cry was a sound any Turian knew now signified one of their charges. Dieus watching as they came into the cloud, rushing past him. Dying turians shot as humans with trunk like masks that hid their normally exposed skin advanced, leaving only the eyes visible through glass covers. Dieus was unsure if the humans actions counted as mercy or not but he would do his duty to the last. Raising his gun he saw one of the humans turning to him to shoot him down.

Then Junior Serviceman Dieus, and Private Ren stopped even as they had each other in their sights. Through the clouds both natural and not, blinding light shone. Day was hours away and both knew it. The two's eyes and many others around turned to the sky, where they saw a second sun.

TSF Unbreakable was plummeting down to the city below. The dreadnought burning from multiple hits.

New Yuncheng was lit by a towering explosion for the second time since the siege began.

-WoE-

In Orbit Above Báitóushān, Shanxi System

Vice Admiral Tsuyoshi stood rigidly in his quarters. His fleet, along with Admiral Makoto's were hanging over the mountainous world. A relatively new planet that had only a thin enough atmosphere to trap some ice on the peaks below, and hence it's name. The aliens had more or less left them alone after they disengaged. Focusing on the siege of New Yuncheng. Both IJN fleets had been licking their wounds, repairing what damage they could. The fleets aiming to make a break for the relay.

They had finally reached the point when they could try. His Dewa's holes had been repaired with spare steel from the stores. The patches wouldn't hold up to fire, but it wouldn't strain the shields like keeping up the small barriers was doing. Following the conversation he and Admiral Makoto had had before, he was going to need all the shield power he could get.

His fleet, comprised of now only his own Battleship, the Heavy Cruiser Azuma, the Light Cruiser Kuzuryu, and a trio of Murakumo destroyers. Makoto's was in much better shape, and that was why they had come to the conclusion they had.

If they both tried to make a break for the Relay, it was likely the aliens would break the blockade to keep them from escaping. So only one of them could escape. The other one of the fleets needed to hit the aliens hard to distract them. Since getting Makoto's fleet out would be more helpful for the Empire in the long run. After all, the aliens had started to cut out of system communications a few days back. For all they knew they were spreading out across the rest of Imperial Space and they'd need any ship they could get to drive them back.

Looking over at the clock on his wall, he'd set his jaw. It was time to begin the operation. Stepping out of his quarters onto the bridge he began barking orders. A more charismatic man, or even Tsuyoshi a few days ago, might have given his men a speech. It wasn't necessary though, word had already spread through his fleet. He could see the grim but determined looks on his crew, and some had even fished out and made headbands with the symbols for Divine Wind on them. Finally came the last order. "All ships, initiate short jump."

-WoE-

TSF Unbreakable, In Orbit over Shanxi

Bromraka growled, looking back at the wreckage that hung in the air around the planet below. He was just hours away from the countdown he had set for his backup backup plan to go into effect. The aliens below continued to cling on stubbornly, and that probe still wasn't working. All in all he really wasn't too happy right now.

"Primarch! The alien's fleets are moving." Came a call from his sensor operator. Bromraka's growl getting even deeper. Could these Spirit's forsaken aliens not just let him invade their planet in peace! "The larger fleet is angling toward the relay, the smaller one appears to be pointed directly toward us."

So they were going to try to distract his fleet so the larger block could escape. Well, no worries. His numbers had increased since the last engagement. He would tear that smaller force apart and then burn out some of this anger on the larger fleet while it tried to run.

"Sir, the smaller force is activating FTL" The sensor operator started. Bromraka's nerves fraying even further. Activating FTL inside a system was difficult to say the least. Between how hard it was to maneuver while in non-relay assisted faster the light travel, and the relatively short distances anyways. Most fleets would just operate at sub-ftl speeds instead. Taking the few minutes of travel time over being blind on their sensors. Unfortunately though the aliens apparently didn't get the memo, and a moment later the smaller fleet was right on top of his.

The standard tenets of space combat, at least as far as Turian's were concerned, involved a few set engagement ranges. 'Extreme' when your enemy and yourself were both engaging with more than a minute of shot travel time. More than enough time to allow maneuvers and generally served little purpose other than harassment and taking down crippled vessels. 'Long' which was generally 30 seconds to one minute. Where engagement usually began, little damage but good for probing out an enemy commander's ability to react. 'Normal' which was anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds of distance. Just long enough that maneuvers sometimes worked, but sometimes didn't. A relative sweet spot where you could engage with good effectiveness without risking too much, where crew skill usually won out. Finally there was 'short' which was 5 to 15 seconds range. Very little engagement happened at this distance, usually reserved for pirates and krogan ships that would jump lone vessels.

What the aliens were using was well, beyond short. The vessels were quite literally right on top of his fleet. It was a small miracle they hadn't impacted in FTL. Though that miracle didn't keep the frigate Rimanus from being broken in half. The armoured bow of the human dreadnought cutting through it's center. Going by just how little damage the dreadnought seemed to suffer, he almost wondered if human vessels had been designed with tactics like this in mind. Even as he thought that the enemy fleet's guns were blazing. At this range there was no dodging. Shells hit milliseconds after being fired from their barrels.

Bromraka growled as he saw more of his ships faltering. The heavy guns of the alien dreadnought claiming another cruiser while the rest of the fleet savaged his frigates. Though his own fleet was responding soon moments later. Ships swinging bows around as their guns fired. One of the enemy frigate's shields sparking out quickly, when Bromraka learned a downside to solid core ammunition when you were fighting at such short ranges as this. Immense overpenetration.

The Primarch watched as a shell fired from the cruiser Indomitus passed through the enemy frigate, and then hit one of his own frigates as it overpenetrated. With the enemy fleet literally inside his own, rounds flew everywhere. A few burning up in the atmosphere of the planet below, others hurtling off into space. As his fleet adjusted more and more though, the overpenetration continued but the hits from those over shots to his own vessels didn't.

The alien vessels were rapidly starting to fall instead. The frigates were drifting through space, the smaller of the two cruisers was burning from multiple places. Only the larger cruiser and the dreadnought were still functioning.

"Sir! We have more signatures coming into the system. There are hundreds of them." The sensor operator called out, and Bromraka wasn't sure what to think for the moment. Either it was more turian vessels, in which case someone was muscling in on his glory, or it was more alien vessels.

He had a hard time believing the aliens could must that many ships though. Unfortunately he was proven very wrong, very quickly, when he turned to the sensors. Stark hulls, very obviously not turian. The vessels ranging in size from the frigates he had just destroyed, to one ship that dwarfed his dreadnought. "Spirits dammit it. Turn the ships, engage them!" He growled, as the new arrivals began to rapidly close.

The largest concentration of naval power humanity have ever put together was an impressive sight. A wall of steel, shields flaring as Turian rounds impacted off of them. The human vessels turrets barking their response as the ships moved almost like a school of fish. Turning together to bring their broadsides to bear. Their fire coming in like a tidal wave as they struck into Bromraka's fleet. While Tsuyoshi and his Dewa, along with the Azuma continued to cause havoc within the turian's own lines. Even as the Azuma took a hit that sent one of its gun turrets spiraling off into space.

The Turians were forced to split their fire, and quickly began to fall under the tide of shells. Not to say they didn't fight back effectively though. The HMS Response, a modern heavy cruiser, detonated as its magazine was hit. The German Carrier Graf Zeppelin took a full broadside from a heavier turian cruiser that bypassed the front line of the fleet, knocking out its launch bays and leaving the ship's repair crews scrambling. The Onevoy broke in half as the destroy was speared with multiple shots. Bombers were destroyed by the dozens as they were caught in the crossfire or hit by Turian anti-missile weapons. Even the HMCS Ontario, a Commonwealth battleship, took a series of hits that left the vessel crippled as its primary and secondary bridges were knocked out along with it's engines, until finally a round hit it's element zero storage and blew the rear of the ship off. Those were just some of the casualties of the battle.

As it was though, the most interesting battle was just starting. The Dewa had continued its forward steam, seemingly without care for the dozen or so holes in its sides from short range penetrations. It's engines burning at full pace as it closed in with the Unbreakable. Bromraka forced to turn his vessel once again as he felt his ship shudder under fire from the battleship's main battery. "Knock that dreadnought out already!" He shouted as he felt the guns charge up below him.

Then they fired, and tore into the Dewa. Punching into the vessel with another series of six holes. The damage leaving the ship venting more atmosphere as it still came. The smaller guns along the ship's sides lighting up and Bromraka followed the trails, practically looking like lasers at how close they were, as they impacted against his shields. Watching as the number started to rapidly decrease. Percentages of shield power disappearing every second. The secondaries doing their work at wearing his vessel down as the primary battery reloaded.

Bromraka's guns though reloaded much faster, another full barrage fired, and he let out a bit of a cheer to himself as the front turret of the enemy ship buckled, and then exploded. The explosion traveling through the vessel and blowing through much of the bow.

But still the ship kept coming. The second upper frontal turret seemed to be knocked out from the explosion, along with the lower front turret. Bromraka's smile dying long before it could even stop as he watched his shields drop down to 0. Then he could practically see the enemies' remaining main battery firing. Even as everything went black. The Unbreakable gutted from half a dozen 1000 kilogram shells detonating inside its hull.

-WoE-

IJN Dewa

Tsuyoshi couldn't help but grin at the sight as the enemy command vessel buckled and broke under his remaining guns. Even as he looked at the damage reports from his own ship. Turret A1 and A2 were gone, B1's crew had been taken out from the backblast. The Dewa's bow was gone, much of it's innards were too. The only reason most of the turrets was still working was that they were able to be sealed from the halls they were attached to. He'd take a guess that he was down to maybe a few hundred crewmen left from over a thousand to start. His fleet was gone, the Azuma biting it in the last minute before engaging the enemy flagship.

Still, he did what he needed to. They destroyed the enemy commander. The enemy fleet was without a head. Even as he watched around his ship, he saw the alien ships dying in droves under the weight of fire. Nobody was shooting him anymore. The alien ships aimed for the main fleet and he admitted they died like proper soldiers. Holding to the last as not a single vessel tried to break off. He wondered how many prisoners would be taken from the many drifting hulks.

Then he noticed something that made his eyes widen and he jumped from his musing. The enemy flagship had been caught in Shanxi's planetary gravity well. Falling toward New Yuncheng below. He was about to order his crews to fire on the broken hulk but that might just cause it to break up into even more parts, or cause his shells to miss and destroy the city anyways.

So all he, and anyone else that wasn't involved in the rapidly dwindling space battle could do, was watch as the

the vessel falling as it was caught in the planet below's gravity well. Dropping down into the atmosphere below.

And all they could do was watch.

Codex Entry: The Greater Japanese Empire

The Greater Japanese Empire stands as one of the 7 'Great Powers' of Human space and is in control of one of the three relays between Citadel Space and Human Space. Generally considered one of the smaller great powers, alongside Italy, this mindset tends to become less and less accurate with each passing year. The Greater Japanese Empire entered the space race late due to its war against China but quickly corrected for this following the war, and with the assistance of Italian Rocketeers. With the discovery of the Charon relay, Japanese explorers would manage to lay claim to a few of the connected planets and began the beginnings of its Star Empire. At this time the GJE holds control over 47 worlds directly, and another 6 through its allied states the Chinese Co-Prosperity Sphere and Korea.

The Capital of the Greater Japanese Empire is the Yamato System, and the country is ruled by an Emperor, which many within the Empire believe to be a divine or semi-divine figure. Though much of the day to day running of the country is done by the Prime Minister and a council of generals and admirals. In general the Empire is quite open about the power the Army and Navy have within it's politics, and it is generally seen in a negative light by most Citadel Species and the 'Western Powers' faction of Humanity.

The Greater Japanese Empire also has a track record of war crimes and atrocities, on public record despite the Empire's best attempts to suppress it. During it's invasion of China in the 30's the capture of the Chinese city of Nanjing resulted in weeks of violence and destruction that resulted in international outcry. During the 'Colonial Race' of the early 2000s, it was tied to no less then three incidents of civilian survey and exploration vessels from the United States, United Kingdom and Poland being destroyed to allow Japanese vessels to claim a planet first. This has in general left Japan as something of a 'pariah' state in international politics outside of Germany and Italy. Though in the years before the Shanxi War, the country has been settling to more peaceful international mannerisms and has regained some standing with the rest of the world.

In politics with the Citadel, the Greater Japanese Empire is generally seen as something of a vulture state. It's spread into the Terminus systems has generally been on the backs of failed independent colonies in the area. Once it has claimed a system and settled colonists there it refuses to let them go under any circumstance or pressure. As a result it has a very negative reputation among much of Citadel Space. Turians give them grudging respect for their refusal to back down during the Shanxi war, and their near suicidal zeal with which to defend their country and do their duty. Krogans in general respect the Empire for the same, though both alien species, along with any non-ambassador alien from Citadel Space, is banned from setting foot on Imperial worlds on pain of death.