Disclaimer: Mass Effect does not belong to me. It belongs to it's respective owner, namely Bioware.
Kallis Pula Ridge, Zada Ban, Xe Cha System, Shrike Abyssal, Milky Way Galaxy.
1st August, 1917 CE.
General Varlyx Tarradus, was analysing the battleground with a pair of ScanFinders, outside of the Scakol command & control vehicle that was parked on the Kallis Pula Ridge, a high ridge that overlooked the Turra Kan Plains, where his Turian brothers and sisters were holding the line against the Rachni advance, with the help of the Quarians and the Krogan.
"General Tarradus? Battlelord Uryenx wants to speak to you, sir. He's on the line".
Putting down his ScanFinders, and turning around to look at his aide, Lieutenant Castius Arterius, General Tarradus sighed and wordlessly lead on to get inside the 'Ops Center' of the Scakol, somewhat dreading talking to the Gatatog Battlelord.
Inside the Ops Center, as he went to the BattleSpace Map, Tarradus could see Colonel Nyreen Oraka's 47th Legion on the map, holding at the center of the defensive line, while the Quarian's 32nd Marine Division were on his left flank, while Battlelord Uryenx's 206th Division were on the right flank.
Putting Uryenx on the line, the holographic image displayed the Gatatog warlord, who wasn't exactly looking happy.
"Ah, finally! When are you gonna let us lead the charge, let us bash some bug skulls, while you boneheads mop up the mess we leave behind?"
General Tarradus held a hand up to silence Uryenx, and said "Hold up, Warlord. Rachni positions are still quite formidable, even after having withstood orbital bombardment, so we can't just rush in. Rachni are superb ambushers, you know this. We need to be smart if we need to drive the Rachni off".
And before Uryenx could retort Tarradus' statement, the General turned to his aide, "Alright, get me in contact with General Reegar and Colonel Oraka. We'll need a battle plan before we get started? If you please, Lieutenant?"
At Lieutenant Arterius' nod, two additional holographic images of General Tez'Reegar nar Adas and Nyreen Oraka appeared alongside Uryenx's holographic image, and Tarradus asked the two, "Generals, how are things holding up on your ends?"
General Reegar let Oraka answer first, and she reported, in prim-proper Turian fashion, "Sir, the 47th Legion stands at the ready, ready and waiting to do their part".
Tarradus nodded his head and then faced Reegar, who answered, "Well General Tarradus, my Marines are battle-ready, and awaiting the go-ahead".
"Good to hear. Now, we need to formulate a plan of attack against Rachni positions, before we can commence our attack".
Uryenx, impatient as ever, boasted, "Good, because we're done waiting around. Just point us in the right direction, and we'll squash those bugs straight into the void, while you just clean up after us".
As Reegar and Oraka shot the Krogan a stern look for such a comment, and were about to speak out for him to mind his tongue, Tarradus rose a hand to silence a forthcoming argument and then asked his aide, "What support assets do we currently have at the moment?"
Lieutenant Arterius checked his datapad and dutifully said, "Well, the 47th currently has a Armoured Fighting Formation of AFUV-59 Vurkyx armoured fighting vehicles, 2 Heavy Fire Support Formations of HAFSV-84 Derirelix self-propelled artillery vehicles and 4 Aerial Support Elements of A-45 Marnix gunships. Oh, and the Geth cruiser GCC9M1347 and the Batarian cruiser Krektok, are in orbit, General".
Nodding his head, Tarradus asked Reegar if the Geth cruiser had a contingent of Geth to spare.
After affirming that, Tarradus soon formed a battle plan,
"First, the Krektok is to launch an orbital bombardment of Rachni positions targeted by the troops on the ground. They'll keep the Rachni suppressed while the 47th Legion, the 32nd Marines and the 206th Division start their advance. Then the Geth, will commence an orbital drop, behind Rachni lines and advance, towards our troops. With that, the hope is that our advance will crush the Rachni positions, then we will hold those positions, consolidate, gather our strength, and then prepare for the next battle", and finished off with "Now, I leave the next phase in your hands. Prepare for battle".
Firebase Krarsh, Turra Kan Plains, Zada Ban, Xe Cha System, Shrike Abyssal, Milky Way Galaxy.
1st August, 1917 CE.
Second Sergeant Solana Kandros, detachment leader of Perelyrk Detachment, 5th Platoon, Rostra Section, 1st Formation, 47th Legion, was now in one of Firebase Krarsh's hangars, which had been repurposed into a briefing room for the entire Formation.
Once in the assembled briefing room, Major Arrarus Tyix entered the room and an officer somewhere shouted "Officer present!"
Every Turian within the Formation, who had been sitting down on their assigned chairs, doing whatever they were doing, now stopped what they were doing and immediately shot up into rigid position of attention.
Major Tyix stood in front of the entire formation, before waving his hand at everyone and saying,
"Alright, stand at ease, everyone. You may sit down".
With that order, the briefing began as every Turian relaxed from their position of attention and sat down in their chairs.
Second Sergeant Kandros listened, with avid attention, as Major Tyix detailed the plan for the 47th Legion to advance, alongside the Quarian 32nd Marine Division and the Krogan 206th Division, while a Batarian cruiser commenced an orbital bombardment of Rachni positions.
Equally interesting, was that a Geth cruiser was in orbit also, and would be dropping a contingent of Geth, behind the Rachni lines, then the Geth would advance towards the Turians, the Quarians and the Krogan, trapping the Rachni in a 'vice movement', a manoeuvre that in Turian strategy, meant two of the same forces on opposite sides, advancing towards each other, destroying the enemy in front of them.
Kandros looked at the Turians assembled and there was some hushed whispers amongst themselves.
Ever since the Geth were created in 1849 CE, many had concerns over the Geth, and for very good reason, as despite the Quarians' stating that the Geth were not really AI, but advanced, non-sentient Virtual Intelligences, there was a tense feeling over the Geth, for fear of them rising against the Quarians and the Citadel races.
When the Geth gained sentience in 1895 CE, there was initially fears that the Geth would go rogue, but those fears were unfounded as some Quarian scientist, whose name Kandros couldn't remember, managed to plead that deactivating the Geth would make them revolt, and that in the midst of a war with the Rachni, it was not exactly wise to do so.
Thus, the Quarians allowed the Geth to go to full sentience and through some complex deal arranged by the Quarians and the Geth, the synthetics continued to serve as soldiers for the Quarians.
Despite many people's unease over the synthetics, Kandros herself, was of the opinion, that as long as the Geth could shoot some Rachni, she and them would have no problem.
Major Tyix was still continuing on with the briefing, detailing about the formations and the elements that would be participating in the upcoming battle.
"Colonel Oraka's lending over Krelliok Heavy Fire Support Formation and Artemic Element to the 32nd Marines. Teerkex Heavy Fire Support Formation and Darratus Element will be detached to the 206th, while we keep Baralix Armoured Fighting Formation, Terqius Element and Gorrek Element..."
Turra Kan Plains, Zada Ban, Xe Cha System, Shrike Abyssal, Milky Way Galaxy.
1st August, 1917 CE.
The attack was underway, and Perelyrk Detachment was moving to confront the Rachni, who were still being bombarded in their defensive positions by the Batarian cruiser Krektok.
But of course, even orbital bombardment was not enough to completely destroy the Rachni, as their defensive positions tended to be consisted of a network of tunnels, connected to burrows of various sizes.
And quite often, it was easy to mistake burrows to craters. And sometimes, craters were hidden by Rachni-made covers that camouflaged their craters, which meant that anyone who would make such a mistake to not check the ground, would often not get a chance to rectify a mistake.
As three Turians from her Detachment soon found out, when they passed the edge of a large water-filled crater, and soon, two whips shot out to impale the two soldiers, while the third, was struck in the helmet by acid spit.
As the third soldier screamed at the acid that melted right through the helmet and started burning his face, the whips quickly pulled in the two impaled soldiers under the water, and soon, the rest of Perelyrk Detachment were firing rounds into the crater, trying to hopefully kill the Rachni Soldier that had laid hidden in the crater.
However, the Detachment was wasting rounds, so Kandros shouted for everyone to cease fire.
As the guns fell silent, Kandros then ordered that a grenade be deposited into the crater, and thus a soldier, Legionius Adunn Porra'ik, one of the Detachment's 'fresh faces' (a term used by the Hierarchy for new recruits fresh from boot camp), got a fragmentation grenade, armed it and dropped it into the crater.
A few seconds and soon enough, a large plume of water, dirt, Rachni blood and body parts erupted, showering Kandros and her men.
The men, all exclaimed in disgust, before scrambling to brush off the water, the dirt, the blood and body parts, off their armor.
Kandros, unfazed by the muck and filth on her armor, then gave her next orders.
"Alright everyone, start moving up! Watch the ground and check those craters! I don't want those bugs to catch us by surprise again!"
Passchendaele, Belgium, Europe, Earth, Sol System, Unknown Cluster, Milky Way Galaxy.
19th October, 1917 CE.
Sergeant Charles Boyd had been here before.
It was such a long time ago, but he remembered being a recently promoted Lance Corporal in April 1915 (after impressing his commanders at Salisbury Plain whilst training there from October 1914 till February 1915). Not many people in the Battalion could really claim that they were around from the very beginning, when the 10th Battalion had it's baptism of fire at Ypres (or "Wipers" as they started to call it, after a few attempted tries at pronouncing the name just made everyone give up at trying to call it Ypres), and not just because they started getting killed in future battles afterwards.
Boyd had remembered the counter attack at Kitchener's Wood that resulted in a bayonet charge, and most particularly, remembered the chlorine gas that struck them.
The memories of smelling the mixed pepper pineapple odour and seeing the green cloud of the chlorine, were enough to make Boyd shiver and shake those thoughts away, refocusing back to the present day. He really did not want to go and relive those memories again.
Blinking his eyes, refocusing back to the present, Boyd realised that he was clutching the pouch for his Small Box Respirator mask, seemingly ready to pull it out and put it on his face.
Calming himself down, Boyd took some deep breaths, trying to pull himself together, as he did really not want the men to see him in this state, knowing that they depended on him to stay alive in this man-made hell.
That Aussie Sergeant, Kenneth Standing, hadn't been kidding when he said 'Welcome to Hell. Literally', as the Canucks of the 1st Canadian Division relieved his fellow Aussies of the II Anzac Corps.
Boyd had lead his men across trench mats (basically, wooden plank boards), that had been set in between massive shell holes that had been filled to the brim with dirty, muddy water, and were slippery as fuck, due to the rainfall that had been falling since the 10th.
Worse, the mud had been very sloshy under the weight of the men walking across the plank boards.
Slipping, essentially meant an end to your life in the quagmire that they travelled through.
So Charles took extra care whilst walking on the plank boards, while issuing reminders to the men to do the same.
Now though, the Canadian Corps were about to commence an series of attacks on Passchendaele and the ridge of the same name at around on the 26th.
And even though the 10th Battalion were not going to commence the attack, due to the 1st Canadian Division being held in reserve along with the 2nd Canadian Division, their commander, Lieutenant Colonel D. M. Ormond, was taking no chances and had been drilling his men extensively, preparing for the assault as if they were going to commence the assault.
But right now, they were heading to a reserve trench, where they would be staying until called for.
Cambrai, France, Europe, Earth, Sol System, Unknown Cluster, Milky Way Galaxy.
20th November, 1917 CE.
The mechanical creaks, clanking and grin of the Mark IV tank, as it trundled along, were ever so present, even over the loud engine blaring away within the crew compartment.
Corporal Terence Wynne coughed heavily behind his leather/chainmail mask as the fumes of the Grouchy Gremlin's 6-cylinder Daimler-Foster 16 litre petrol engine filled the crew compartment, and squinted his eyes to look through the slits of his mask, in order to scan for targets with the starboard sponson 6-pounder gun.
In fact, Terence had spent so much time coughing, but it seemed that time flew by and as they approached, the Germans unleashed their attack onto the Gremlin, only for their rifle and machine gun rounds to ricochet or bounce off their armor.
The commander, Second Lieutenant Leonard Collins, immediately sprung into action, issuing the orders.
"Wynne! Get onto the gun and shoot back!"
Targeting the muzzle-flashes up ahead, Wynne manoeuvred his 6-pounder (which was the only one able to shoot straight ahead due to the sponson configuration not being mirror images of each other, unlike the tanks that came before the Mark IV) and pulled the trigger.
Immediately, he felt the immense recoil of the 6-pounder, as it's first round landed right on target and immediately, a plume of debris and smoke erupted.
Pulling the lever on the breech, Wynne then moved over to allow the loader/starboard Lewis gunner, Lance Corporal Morris Hume, to reach over to the rack of shells, select one and push it right into the 6-pounder with his fist, allowing the breech to close.
With the 6-pounder loaded, Wynne got back onto the gun and put his hand on the handgrip, finger hovering by the trigger, and scanned the horizon for more targets.
A selection of German bunkers, combined with German infantry, were soon in his sights, as the Gremlin turned left, and Morris let rip with the Lewis.
Collins yelled his orders, "Wynne, target the bunkers! Hume! Take out the infantry!"
Aiming the 6-pounder, the Welshman from Swansea pulled the trigger, and the bunker went up in a plume of smoke, fire and rubble, while, Morris targeted German infantry that got in his sights.
Wynne reloaded the 6-pounder and watched as the British infantry moved into the German trenches, clearing them out of any German soldiers still unfortunate enough to be still living.
Lieutenant Collins, satisfied that they had accomplished their part here, ordered the driver to move forward, and both Wynne and Morris started scanning for more targets, as the Grouchy Gremlin advanced.
And that is, the end of the prologue chapters.
Next chapter, we will be definitely jumping ahead to 1918, where the Rachni War will definitely be heading for Earth.
I had initially planned for a chapter dedicated to Private Albert Tillard and Corporal Terence Wynne's participation in the 1917 Battle of Cambrai, but Albert's part in the chapter wasn't working, and after taking it out, I felt that Wynne's part would have been too small for a chapter of it's own, so this is why the chapter closes off with Corporal Terence Wynne and the crew of the Mark IV tank, the Grouchy Gremlin, at Cambrai.
And with the Battle of Passchendaele, I had planned for parts with Sergeant Charles Boyd in the reserve trench, to provide a look at what went on in between battles within the trenches, and I also had planned a part with Johannes Kollmann, but those parts, I just couldn't get them to work. So instead, I just decided to hold off on Johannes Kollmann and see if I can add him in later (which we probably will, so do keep your fingers crossed).
Anyways, don't forget to leave a review whenever you can, and see you next time!
Update (29/5/17): Changed a redundant line and a typo. Special thanks to codythedude for pointing these out.
Update (27/6/17): Changed holo communication lines to italic and also added an additional line. Oh, and also changed the month of this update, as I had put 7 instead of 6. Whoops!
Update (29/6/17): Done some restructuring of the chapter, trying not to bunch up the paragraphs. Special thanks to Apollonir for pointing this out.
