Chapter 5
Edited by a person of many names Blood Raven AKA TimedRaven117. Go check out his story Mass Effect: X-Com Theory!
THS Hierarchy's Fist, Relay 314 system, 2657GS April/23/2329 AD
"So let me get this straight, a couple thousand years ago, the original members of the Citadel Council came across a species known as the Rachni. This species was a highly advanced, hive minded, insect like creature that was extremely hostile to outsiders. Unable to open negotiations, the Salarians were forced to uplift a minor species known as the Krogan, who by their very evolution are the perfect warrior. Then they unleashed the Krogan and were able to exterminate the Rachni." Erica Chavez was still trying to process the good fortune she must have to come across this discovery, not only had these aliens faced something that sounded close to the arachnid empire, but had a way to defeat it soundly. "By any chance are the Krogan still around?" She asked trying to keep in the preemptive joy she was feeling silent.
The Turian Admiral, Albirus Varlikam, seemed uncomfortable as he replied, "Yes."
"I am getting the feeling there's a but." Erica said looking expectantly at the Turian.
Still looking uneasy, Varlikam nodded and continued, "Well after the victory, the Council realized that uplifting the Krogan was a... bad idea, they were too violent and expansionary, they didn't receive the needed time as a species to evolve culturally to a stable platform. They tried to resolve things peacefully but that ended with the Krogan Rebellion. During this period they discovered my species and through our military expertise and the use of a biological weapon called the genophage we were able to end the rebellion. Although, I must admit, the Krogan very nearly won anyways. The conflict lasted three centuries."
Erica slumped into her chair stunned by this revelation of how foolish this Citadel Council was, yes there was no way for them to have known about the arachnid empire, but the galaxy is massive and she doubted they couldn't have accommodated a few new colonies. She stopped that line of thought and tried to put her own bias out of her head. Then she considered the source, they had their own bias and the Krogan Rebellion had catapulted Turian's into a high position within this Citadel Council. Once put in that perspective she was lucky to have gotten any info on the Krogan Rebellion at all. Hopefully someone would be able to do some proper research and find out what happen once things settled down on this front. After that line of thought, all she could think to say was, "So whatever's gonna happen if you run into more Rachni like creatures or possibly worse?"
The Turian looked at her with a look that implied such a thing was impossible as he gave what the Commodore interpreted as a shrug, "I very much doubt we can find something worse than the Rachni."
Something about the arrogance of that statement set Erica off, she let out a dark giggle and stood up from her chair, "You don't think you could find something like the Rachni?" She proceeded to pull off her military gray jacket, "And you don't think anything could be worse?" The Turian looked at her oddly as she disengaged the upper part of her power suit and pulled it off revealing her shoulders and both her right normal arm and her prosthetic left, "The Terran Federation is currently engaged in an ongoing war with the arachnid empire." She disengaged her left arm and put it down on the table to make it clear it was not part of her. Varlikam stared at the arm in alarm as Erica continued, "They are an insect like species, bent on conquest, with a hive mind. Among their abilities we know for certain; they can change their genetic structure within a couple generations, They're able to survive the vacuum of space, giving them the ability to colonize airless asteroids and moons, and they can do all this without building any technology. They can in fact grow their own living ships capable of faster than light travel."
Varlikam was now looking at her with a mix of horror and interest, "Admiral I lost my arm seven years ago in the first Klendathu invasion, there were things on that planet capable of turning the best military operation we could put together into the worst massacre in Terran history, and the Arachnid empire spans what we believe to be hundreds of planets at least. so yes there are things much worse than the Rachni out there."
Shanxi, northern part of the city, central avenue April/24/2329 AD
Sergeant Major Erich Hannawald crawled through the remnants of an apartment complex, incoming fire from the skinnie forces peppering the building. The north front was fucked, well all the fronts were fucked but they were holding out a lot better than the north. The skinnies had sent in 3 waves of raiders and Speeder Chariots, and though they had held them back on the first two, what was left of his light infantry had been forced to pull back into the city where the power suit medium infantry had manned the secondary trench line behind the first city district in a large city park. From what he had heard the other fronts had only been hit by one wave, probably sent to pin them down while the skinnies hammered the north.
Things were bad enough as is but with the skinnies now facing power suits, they had decided they would send in the next wave, and these weren't more raiders.
As Erich got up and ran past an open door, several yellow lasers hit right above him and scorched the wall. Those beams had been fired from a Heavy Laser, the skinnie version of a light machine gun, a popular weapon with skinnie soldiers. Staying low Erich popped his head and fired a couple shots at the gold armored skinnies, managing to graze one before he ducked back down. The skinnie soldiers actually had power suit themselves which meant that shot probably did very little, if nothing at all.
Sighing in discontent Erich checked his ammo count and then looked around. As far as he could see, most of the other troopers near his position were dead, and as far as he knew most of the other troopers in this building were dead too. He was either going to have to fall back to a building behind him and hope he could reconnect with friendly's there or try and get nextdoor where power suit troopers were supposedly holding the line.
"Fuck it." Pulling out his Lucky coin and flipped it, letting fate decide his luck. He reached out to catch the coin and, it slipped through his fingers landing between two pieces of rubble on its side.
"What's that supposed to mean!?" He demanded in irritation, before he reached down for the coin.
As he leaned down to retrieve the coin the wall behind him exploded inward.
Erich was sent flying across the room, hitting his side against the wall, possibly breaking a rib judging by the pain he felt. Turning himself over so he could face the enemy, he saw a skinnie, a Venerable Marauder or what troopers like him called, a stilt walker, armed with a heavy laser and a Mass Driver, the machine looked like a tall metal skinnie with an open cockpit. The mechanized suit was controlled by the respective limb of the occupant, who himself was very exposed to small arms fire, if it weren't for the two large armored plates that acted as as shield. The things formidable weapons were located where the head would be situated on a skinnie. The skinnie operating the machine seemed to be smiling as he aimed the mass driver at Erich.
But before he could do anything, a grey M8 Ape used its jump jets to land on the Skinnie stilt walker, and forced it to the ground. The Ape operator triggered the IW-303-A Morita Ape Special in the right arm, unloading the dual machine gun into the open cockpit of the downed Skinnie warmech.
The M8 then triggered its MW-209 Trip Hammer Mortar blasting a group of Skinnie soldiers advancing on their position, as two more M8s jumped in on either side of the first one.
The trio then began to advance, dispensing death as they went. Staggering to his feet, Erich went and picked up his rifle and his lucky coin before moving over to the hole in the wall, taking a knee he began to take shots at the enemy trying to cover the walking tanks as they advanced.
Citadel Space, Citadel, Citadel Tower 2657GS April/24/2329 AD
Councilor Tevos walked up the stairs, to the back room behind the podiums where the council would discuss things privately. The meeting had been called by Gallius Gratlienus, and thus was very unusual. Tevos been on the council a long time and most Turians did not call meetings. It was usually her or the Salarian representative who called a meeting, and the listing as an emergency sparked her interest. Taking the last few steps she came to the meeting room and entered.
The meeting room had been decorated in some finery over the years, mainly marble tiling on the floor, a finely decorated ruby madera wood table from a jungle planet in the Asari Republics, with matching cushioned seats. It was a nice enough room to discuss in and completely bug proof.
Gallius was already inside, sitting at the table going over something on his omni tool, but when he saw Tevos enter he closed whatever he was looking quickly.
"Hello Councilor Gallius." Tevos greeted the old Turian with a smile as she moved over to take her seat at the table.
"Good morning Councilor Tevos." He responded with a Turians smile, his mandibles flaring outward, a bit.
Taking that to mean nothing good was afoot Tevos asked with a touch of concern, "Is something the matter?"
"Yes and no," He stated mysteriously, "There has been a small incident on the border of Citadel territory that has grown into something… bigger. And now requires a full meeting of the council."
"Would this small incident have to do with Relay 314?" Councilor Cenike of the Salarian Union interjected as he stepped into the room.
To his credit Gallius did not seem surprised, and Tevos knew why, the STG were really good coming across information. Sighing, Gratlienus asked, "How much do you know?" He sighed in a tired tone.
Cenike took his seat at the table and straightened his hooded robe. "I know that a patrol was scheduled to go by the area and only half the ships came back, and I know that yesterday a strike force sized force went back to the relay. As far as I know, they have yet to return. So what happened at the Relay? Another Rachni War?" He spoke quickly like most of his species, yet seemed disinterested in the conversation.
"It's not that bad..." Gratlienus said with a reassuring look, before he moved to his explanation. "During relay patrol 300-350, the flotilla commander found an unknown ship trying to activate a relay, as citadel law dictates he tried to stop the ship. The ship now identified as the Ragnar Lodbrok fired an energy weapon and disabled one of his ships. Feeling threatened the commander responded in kind and during the fight another ship was lost and the Ragnar self destructed."
"Are you sure this is not as bad as the Rachni?" Cenike interrupted now sitting forward in his seat, looking at Gratlienus. "If I am understanding you correctly, you have found new species in the stars, with weapons we have yet to master, are hostile, and now they have an excuse for war, now that we have destroyed one of their ships for a law they aren't bound to. Even if we can talk to them this is a political nightmare."
Gallius nodded indicating he saw Cenike's point and countered, "We have since spoken with a member of their species who has claimed they have had their own bad first contact experiences, so though we will likely never know what caused the Ragnar to fire, we can surmise it was fear, not hostility."
He waited a moment to see if anyone else had any comment, and when there was none he continued, "Since we found no traces of element zero in the debris the patrol captain brought back, Primarch Fedorian assumed that the race was new to the Relay system and sent a small fleet through the relay to make first contact on are terms, and kowtow any more hostile actions."
"Let me guess they fired on the fleet and you want to ask for the citadel full support in subjugating this menace before it gets out of hand." Cenike confidently stated, sitting back in his seat looking like he cracked some awe inspiring code.
Tevos had remained silent, but it seemed it was coming close to her diplomatic territory "Did you even get the chance to try diplomacy first, or did they just shoot at you because you took a big fleet?"
Gallius smiled as if there was some joke he knew they did not. "They did not fire at our fleet, in fact they asked for our help." He let that seep in, smiling as Tevos and Cenike squirmed in their seats.
"Would you like me to tell you the full story, or would you like to continue to assume that Turians can't be tactful." Tevos stayed quiet out of embarrassment and she assumed Cenike did the same, "The fleet arrived in the middle of a battle between the first species which we have identified as the Terrans and another species they have identified as the 'Skinnies'. The commander in the field used his best judgment and tried to stop the fighting through negotiation. However the Skinnies turned and fired on us immediately and since our Fleet was outnumbered four to one, they were forced to retreat through the relay bringing what was left of the Terran fleet. They have asked for aid in retaking the planet on the other side of the relay, and since one of our ships was shot down on that planet I am willing to send an attack force to rescue those Turians and prevent the 'Skinnies' from getting our tech."
Now that Gallius was finished, Tevos tried the peaceful route again, "Can we negotiate with them, is it a possibility?"
Gallius shook his head, "From what I have learned the Skinnies are technologically advanced, but not centralized. Not even remotely. If we did make a deal they would only honor it until they saw our back turned, or work through intermediaries like the Batarians, and that's not even factoring in that there is no guarantee that the next group of Skinnies we meet would honor the agreement. Besides, we don't need to make a full war out of this. The Terran can fight them off on their own, but our forces are a lot closer, we can have ships and soldiers deployed there in a couple days, they can only have ships and soldiers deployed there in a couple weeks. In that time the planet would be stripped for the Skinnie slave trade and the tech including our ship will be looted."
Cenike looked like he was thinking deeply his brow furrowed before he decided, "All we need to do is help them reclaim the planet? It might be worth it to help them take this planet back." Tevos was shocked and was about to interrupt, but Cenike continued quickly. "If we help them it will put on a good footing with these Terran, enough so they may share their tech, if not it will definitely open up trade and that will allow the STGs to fill that lack of tech sharing over time."
Tevos thought it over and with an exasperated sigh, "At least give the Skinnies as the Terrans call them one more chance at peaceful solution."
TFS Vanker, Shanxi, 2657GS, April/24/2329 AD
Colonel Vibius Stradas watched the crop field though his night vision binoculars, looking for any disturbances in the way the field swayed in the wind. He was standing behind the front line toward the center, on an observation platform that had been taken from one of the Vanker's cargo holds. From this position he had a good view of the field to the north. Everything seemed fine so he looked north wondering how their improto allies were doing. There hadn't been any communications from the Terrans since they had been "welcomed", but they had been able to pick a local radio station that was… interesting to say the least.
The last report he had heard was extremely weird without context, "These Skinnie ass bastards won't break our citizen soldiers! They may have surprised the northern districts and made our boys in grey pull back from the outer trench, but my sources say our forces have already begun a counter attack! It's only a matter of time until The General activates the Atomic Protocol and our boys get to blast these invaders into dust and ash!" It was hard to tell if it was purely propaganda or actually had a grain of truth in it, due to the way it was presented. Although from the energy of the announcer he could power a starship.
Vibius was about to check his radio again when he noticed something off about the movement in the field. It was slow, but a few stocks moved the wrong way. He tapped his omni tool once, activating the possible contact silent alarm. Bringing his binoculars to focus on the disturbance, he decided to switch it to thermal. The disturbance lit up like a neon light at night. From how bright it was he guessed it had to be at least 150-200 degrees hot. The being was very tall, going on 8'8, it was lean and wearing some kind of full armor suit. Surprised he zoomed the binoculars back and saw that there were more of them than he realized, slowly moving toward the forward line of explosives traps.
Before the enemy reached the traps Vibius sent out commands via his omni tool alerting the soldiers under his command to the approaching enemy. Though he saw two messages come in just as his went out, his watch Captain confirming his sighting. Picking up his binoculars again he saw the group of "skinnies" reach the mines. There were eighteen of them and though they moved carefully and with a pace that suggested some amount of military training they seemed to not suspect a trap.
However just before the lead skinnie set the bomb off, the one in the back of the column seemed to spot something amiss and pulled two of his buddies back. Most of the the skinnie squad was wiped out, but the three in back survived and quickly tried to flee.
Shooting someone in the the back was not the most honorable thing, however they could not risk that group warning any others about the mines. He quickly ordered them taken out and snipers hidden along the line did their duty, two of them dropping dead. The third was hit in the shoulder and fell to the ground. He laid, unable to drag himself away.
"RF1, move forward and retrieve the survivor." Vibius ordered, maybe they could get some answers out of the skinnie, or at least learn something about them other then that they were hostile.
Skinnie Tribal transport on Shanxi 2657GS, April/25/2329 AD
Lord Tel'Rock,Master of the Kingdom of Lockhet, and council elected commander of the Ptolemaic Hegemony invasion of this planet, watched the yellow sun rise. He adjusted his suit setting since he would not need it to be as warm once the sun was high in the sky, he then picked up his favored sword and walked over to his assembled Lieutenants for today's briefing. Looking over his four officers, he was pleased to see they seemed in good spirits.
Colonel Lo'Ho, Leader of Raiders, his mandible tusks were spread wide in a smile, the gold patterns shining on his matt green suit as he spoke to Colonel Mar'rack, Leader of Soldiers. His golden armor gleaming, Mar'rack held his helmet under his arm, a green cape with gold designs draping his shoulders to his ankles. He was smiling as well as he described some long ago battle Tel'Rock did not remember.
These two had served Tel'Rock ever since he had taken control of Lockhet from the previous regime five years earlier. Lo'Ho was the younger of the two and had pledged his loyalty to Tel'Rock before he dethroned the last lord, and had since then led many raids into Terran territory, Petolemies barbary worlds, and a few other minor races. Mar'rack was an old war tawn, a humorous turn of phrase considering Mar'Rack had failed to ride those beasts on his trips to Tel'Rock's stables. He had served in many campaigns within the Hegemony, from putting down slave rebellions, to wars against tyrants who thought they could take Lockhet for themselves. If he had been born in one of the few republics and not a kingdom he would mostly likely have been a general and been in charge of this war.
Next to them and listening closely was Rel'Rock, Tel'Rock's son and heir, Leader of Venerables. He was wearing the Venerable heavy armor power suit, the Petolemaic analogue to the Terran Power Armor, colored bronze red with stylized gold markings. It was in point of fact the same suit Tel'Rock wore when he had been a young ambitious warlord, though he wore a short red cape as his station required. This was his first time outside of the Hegemony and his first time on campaign, which was good. If he was to someday lead Lockhet and hopefully be skilled enough to end "The Time of the Headless Tribes", he would need to become a warrior and statesmen of much skill, and not just inherit his father's name and wealth.
The last officer was General James Projak, the Terran turncoat Tel'Rock had taken into his army after he had sold out a terran colony a year ago. Projak apparently had ambitions along the lines of a tyrant, and the mindset of one as well. He wanted power and land and didn't care what he had to do to get it. A useful tool in the Hegemony as long as he was kept on a short leash, which Tel'Rock did, but a short leash in the Hegemony was a great deal longer than what the Terran would have kept on him. Projak had used the wealth he had gotten from selling out his fellow Terran to raise a small army of the fast moving assault troops known as Guards on Lockhet, then had used them to force three Petolemies barbary worlds under his, and by extension Tel'Rock's, rule. He had since added brutes from those worlds to augment his forces and built himself a castle on Lockhet. Of the officers in the room he seemed to bring down the cheer, as he grimly looked over a map laid out on the table. He was wearing a modified Terran uniform, instead of the grey with black trimming and silver buttons, it was green with red trimming and gold buttons.
"Good morning gentlemen." Tel'Rock commented as he walked forward to the table. The others quickly responded in greetings, wanting to get on to whatever concerns they had, but he wanted to get something out of the way first, "I know the loss of the dreadnought Lockhet lowers our chance of holding this planet when the Terran counter attack, so our objectives have changed. We are here to loot and capture as much as possible now, so with this being a massive raid and not an invasion. How goes our efforts?"
He looked to Lo'Ho expectantly, "We were able to force the Terran out of the northernmost district last night, and have forced the doors on several of the raid shelters taking about a thousand Terran prisoners. I have already had them packed aboard a transport for shipment back to Lockhet. We were stalled from getting too far in before they sent power suits to stop us. With the help of Colonel Mar'Rack's Soldiers, and Rel'Rock's Venerables we were able to fight further into the city, but there's apparently a unit of Terran Marauders within the city as well and they have forced us to pull back to the edge of the city at the outermost trench line and we are regrouping for another push."
"Good." Tel'Rock replied, "When can we launch another assault?"
Lo'Ho looked on blankly for a few moments before he gave the answer, "I can set up another attack on the northern flank by midday, however we will be hitting their most powerful forces."
"Then hit from the south," Colonel Mar'Rack said pointing his long finger at the map. "My warriors can hit the south and butcher the light infantry there before they can move troops from the north."
"That sounds like a good plan," Tel'Rock commented, "But what about that destroyer hovering over the city? Won't they bring that over there and use its main guns on any attacking force to purchase time for reinforcements?"
"They would." General Projak commented in his Terran accented Petolemies, "The only reason they didn't use it last night, is because of the rapid attack we used. The only reason they're not using it now is because we're jamming the Terran signals in the area, making it impossible to use nukes and lasers without possibly killing their own. Both of these assets we do not have in the south, which means we need to remove that destroyer one way or another."
Tel'Rock nodded, seeing the necessity of this action, but did not relish sending a ship to fight here, destroyers were purpose built for fighting Hegemony ships, and the Terran ship would have the advantage of MAC Haulers mounted with high density laser cannons as local anti air defences.
"I have a way to do it quickly." Projak stated, "If you wish it, I can begin working on taking that ship down, but it will require a feint in the east to draw its attention away from my forces and no fighting in the south."
Tel'Rock thought it over and figured one day would not harm them too much in the grand scheme of things, "You have authorization Projak." He looked to his other Lieutenants, and demanded, "What of the alien ship in the south?" He was interesting in hearing what the scouting party they had sent south had discovered.
Lo'Ho shook his head sadly, "They have not returned and I fear they have been killed by these new aliens." Tel'Rock doubted they would have been captured so killed was the likely assumption, if they had been captured, the raiders would end their own life rather than tell valuable secrets, "I would suggest that when we have the manpower, we send a more substantial force to attack them, and loot as much equipment as possible from the wreck while we're at it."
Tel'Rock agreed with the idea but took a more reasonable route they could accomplish, "Mar'Rack, prepare a raiding lance and send them south, for now lets just make sure they can't link up with the Terran, we will send more forces to destroy these aliens once we are sure that destroyer is dealt with."
to Be continued