Chapter 2 (Redo) Electric Boogaloo
Nihlus has a bad day
Vice Admiral Nihlus tapped his fingers on his desk overlooking the bridge, the relay hundreds of kilometres away rotated in defiance to the laws of the council. The ruins of several Batarian pirate corvettes spun in space rendered scrap by the slugs of his dreadnaught. The four eyed star scourges annihilation made his mandibles twitch slightly in joy, he would have laughed if it weren't a breach of his finely manicured officers composure. Even if one of the varren shits had escaped through the relay a victory was always appreciated.
"Sir we're receiving a hail from the Admiral!" the scrawny junior comms officer squaked at him. The teenage squeaking of a boy barely out of academy grated on his nerves, why did the spirits curse him with looking after the new bloods?
"Patch him through'' Nihulus could hazard a guess that the good Admiral wanted him to follow through the hitherto unopened gates to unknown space. Great, unknown space such fun, Nihlus mandibles quickly set into firm displeasure.
"Nihlus, I need you to take Captain Atticus and Captain Flavius through that relay and finish off the Batarians" as expected the imposing form of Admiral Viticus passed on the less than stellar news.
"Sir, who knows what's beyond that relay would it not be best to call upon a few more ships to aid us?" If Nihlus was going to pass into completely uncharted space with that drooling moron Flavius he would snap his mandibles, unfortunately he couldn't simply insult his fellow officer among the grunts. At least he has Atticus, the Captain was a veteran and fine gambler.
"I don't see why not, take Drusus and the recon ships, a few corvettes should help scope out the system. Now get to work, Nihlus, I'll be watching the engagement." On that kind point Viticus ended the transmission, much to Nihlus frustration. Of all the times to test the freshies.
'Uuugh'… Nihlus groaned in his head, Drusus was, in Nihlus opinion, even worse than Flavius, it was a miracle the imbecile could get dressed let alone command a section facing off even a blind and incapable batarian slaver. 'This is going to go horribly' Nihlus thought as he began organising his expedition.
Aboard the Battlecruiser Batajun High Adept Boris Yulashenko chosen of Yuri was utterly and mind bogglingly bored. 'This promotion was not worth it' he thought, drifting above Shanxi for three weeks waiting for something to happen had dragged on his nerves and unlike his subordinates he wasn't high. An officer of the cause was held at higher standards after all.
If only he hadn't botched that job for the Amis, now it was all boring work where 'the daft idiot won't cause any more bloody trouble' in the words of his kind and honoured father Lord Yulashenko of Yuri's council. Clearly they were honoured for his service having wrangled three battlecruisers to his service, the his own Batajun the Samanė and Vana Tallinn,
The sudden shuffling and confusion of his crewman therefore was a pleasant break from his reverie. "Uh… captain there's like, uh, um…" why in Yuri's name did he let his crew indulge in the local flavour, if he couldn't then they shouldn't, damn his kindness!
"Well spit it out boy!" Boris snapped, his nerves already ground away by the misery of being the only sober person on deck. The poor lad seemed to jerk up at the reprimand and gathered his thoughts. "There's, uh, a ship sir by the big moon over there." the boy pointed behind Boris.
"I'm going to assume you mean in space and not behind my back"
"Yeah, it's weird though, ain't built any Chronosphere jump links out that way yet, this is the last leg on the Kasman line" the boy replied remarkably clearly.
"Is it one of ours?"
"No recognisable IFF signal man, so uh, no I guess? Of wouldya look at that mor-"
Not to miss an opportunity to fire on a trespasser Boris jumped from his seat grasping the lever to the mind control beacon. Smiling at the chance to finally do something he set it to focus. With the jerk of a lever his crew lazing in drug induced malaise set to task with a silent crazed fervour. Speaking to the intercom Captain Boris, chosen of Yuri , gave a command "All hands to battlestations!"
Jumping through the relay Nihlus gripped his desk in apprehension as it displayed the battlescreen and his compatriots arriving alongside his dreadnought. The speartip of the expedition quickly identified the Batarian ship and scanners picked up a planet and several dozen potential starships.
"For the spirits sake" Nihlus couldn't avoid letting out much to the sudden worry of his crew. 'Oh I shouldn't have said that' he thought, realising his academy freshies did not need to be more shaken. But to be fair to himself the situation was much worse than he imagined, the planet and ships likely being Batarian crossing his mind.
The rocking of his shields as a mass effect slug struck the ship turned his attention to the battle at hand. 'Potential pirate base later, Pirate cruiser now' Nihlus allowing his years of experience to take hold. "Disperse and fire on that ship, don't let them get away" the pirate cruiser rapidly fleeing, its rear guns laying on mass effect fire.
The pirate stood no chance before the amassed firepower of a full Turian section, mass effect slugs and missiles quickly rendering the outdated scrapheap little more than drifting sludge. All in all Nihlus was quite happy with another easy victory, his mandibles twitching again, pleased with the effect of his barrage. It seems his worries were unfounded after all.
"Sir unidentified ships are closing in!" Bugger. "Three of dreadnaught grade!" double Bugger. A sudden lance of light that cut across the system careening in those minutes toward Flavius' cruiser. Shit.
The Chrono-Jump Drives churned as the Battlecruisers light-lance pierced across the sky toward one of the trespassing ships. Boris was sure the boy had said there was one of them but couldn't be bothered by such trivial thoughts, the more the merrier after all. From one to eight was a much more enjoyable fight.
As the ships jumped within knife fighting range Boris knew this would be an easy battle, his fleet outnumbered these trespassers two to one. The Trespassers were sluggish, the small ships around the larger angular ship firing rapidly and inaccurately at his sudden arrival. The light-lance had clearly shocked them as the molten slag that was once a cruiser equivalent drifted aimlessly, the two largest ships the only real threats.
The enemy Battlecruiser equivalent fired and quite admirably struck and crippled one of the destroyers in screening his spearhead. The other smaller cruiser sent a slug that pummeled the Samanė and flashed off its drained psychic deflectors. Adept Viktor of the Samanė was hailing him. Such an annoyance was unneeded and Boris rejected the hail and focused his flagships connection to the Samanė's mind control systems to up Viktors fervour.
Battle-lust set in and Boris ordered his ships to pile on. Thinking was for losers after all and Boris, well Boris was a winner. The Batajun and its supporting cruisers unleashed a vicious barrage of missiles swarming the pitable defensive lasers of the Trespassers.
"You limp dicked suka! I try to tell you but no, you never listen Boris!" The crash and hellfire of a broken psychic array sent the insults of its now late captain to Boris as the Samanė was overwhelmed by a barrage of slugs from the enemy. As the Samanė crumpled Boris' missiles, the small ships screening the Battlecruiser and cruiser were rendered to ash.
"Ha, complain now Viktor! Boris wins again!" This exclamation of joy was short lived, the two remaining trespassers suddenly disappeared in a blue light through the large glowing thing that to be honest Boris was embarrassed to have missed completely so focused was he on battle. Oh well, Boris saw himself as a wise and content man and so took this moment to revel in his victory anyway, even if it was odd that the ships left so quickly rather than the hours it took normally to cool down from a Chrono-Jump.
Nihilus stood despondent as he gave his report to his Irate admiral and perhaps most unfortunately the exceptionally unlikable dimwits that formed the council. "Honoured councillors it appears we were thoroughly routed…"
Authors Notes: Redo of chapter two, it may make the later chapters a bit iffy until I rework chapter three (and there may be a new chapter four but well see. Review if you like, its chill though.