Chapter 7
Edited by a person of many names Blood Raven AKA TimedRaven117. Go check out his story Mass Effect: X-Com Theory!
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East Federation territory, Shanxi system, TFS-CB William Wallace April/25/2329 AD
Private Ailis Pedersen heard the banging before she even left her dream world. One moment she was about to talk to her high school crush, something she had failed at too many times, the next she watched an anvil fall from the sky and smash him and splash her in his blood, then another anvil and another. She woke on the fifth one, and stumbled out of bed hitting the button to open the door and find out who was trying to break it down.
"About goddamn time! Listen sleeping beauty, do you not hear that alarm or are you just deaf?" The screaming was coming from Sergeant Major Roch Raoult, the right hand man in Third platoon and resident hard ass.
"Alarm?" Ailis asked, tilting her head in confusion, before hearing the stand by for action alarm.
Her eyes widened as a knowing grin spread across Roch's face, "Oh, now it registers. Since you're now understanding the situation why don't you walk your ass back in there and get dressed or would you prefer to drop in nothing, but-"
Ailis slammed the door in his face, she was sure she would pay for that latter on, he was her superior officer, but anything was better than the embarrassment of the coming comment. She ran over to her locker and began pull out and cover herself with her underarmor jumpsuit for the power suit. Once she had that secured, she pulled on an outer layer of armor, standard issue green, the Tawns hadn't opted for a personal color like the Bernstein's Zebras Regiment, or Bela's BlackShields.
She pulled on the boots and strapped on the shoulder pads, thigh armor, and the three finger gloves that really needed to be updated before shoving her helmet on. She pulled out her sidearm and slid it in the holster. Then she reached for her cameras. "Off to another glorious day as a Fednet reporter." She complained, strapping one of the cameras to her shoulder.
She stepped out into the hall and jogged down with the flow of people heading to the armory and drop bays. She reached it in time to see a work crew lifting crates marked C.H.A.S. onto a Redhawk Drop Boat along with other supplies, and Second platoon loading their Exosuit armors onto two of the four Slingshots retrieval boats. She flicked on her camera as she moved over to the armory and grabbed a Morita 201-A Assault Rifle "Ape Maker", she strapped it to her back hoping against hope she would not need it, and focused on getting some good shots of all the preparatory action. She knew those ex-workcrews absolutely loved this shit.
Where were they dropping on anyways?
She turned in time to see lieutenant Lewis Dale walking to the others in the platoon who were gathered by the other two Slingshots. She moved to catch up, but Sergeant Major Roch stepped between her and the others, "Twenty push ups."
"Excuse me?" Ailis asked, annoyed that he was standing between her and information.
"Listen I can have you run around this dropbay four times for slamming the door in my face, and make sure you don't find out what's going on, or you can give me the push ups and you might make it over there and you get a scoop." Roch said, being frank with her.
Ailis groused, "Damn frenchmen." Before starting her push ups. In her Power Suit it was almost insulting, with her mechanically enhanced strength, she could literally do it all day.
"It's French Canadian, and thirty now." Roch ordered, watching her to get through five before he added, "The planet we've been deployed to has been invaded, instead of withdrawing and going for help are industrious leaders decided to go stomp the Skinnie attackers."
"Fifteen, Captain T'Phai's taking us into combat? But we Tawns are a mixed Skinnie Terran company, I though-"
"Yeah well Captain T'Phai's a close friend to the leader of the Roughnecks, and the Tawns are offshoots of Roughnecks as well, he will get off scot free since everyone knows that regulation is political crap." Roch theorized.
"Twenty, how are the Tawns an off shoot of the Roughnecks anyway?" Ailis asked, she had only been part of Third Platoon for a month, and had not gotten a history on the three other platoons.
"You don't know?" Roch asked as if she was joking, "Shit you suck at your job, who is the leader of Second Platoon?"
"Twenty five, ah the old guy, E-Emilio Rizo?" She thought she remembered the name right.
"It's LIEUTENANT Emilio Rico, Brigadier General Juan Rico's father." Roch stated.
"Your Joking?" Ailis stopped to look up and Roch
"Twenty seven, and no, he's the father of the hero Jaun Rico, and if you had done any research at all you would know T'Phai was saved by, and then part of the Roughnecks a decade ago."
"Twenty eight, I wonder if I can get an interview?"
"Survive the drop and maybe you will, of course you failed to get an interview with Lieutenant Dale, your own commander, I wouldn't be surprised if you fail in that too recruit."
"Thirty," Ailis stood up, looking at Roch and calmly stated, "Your the one who keeps getting in the way of that interview."
"Hmm your right." Roch replied matter of factly "Of course I might be stone walling you on Dale's orders, have you considered that?"
"Yes." Ailis glared at Roch, "Which is why I'm considering gunning for your job."
Roch stared at her for a moment and then started to sputter and then laugh his ass off, "Oh god girl you missed your calling, you should have gone into comedy." He walked off leaving Ailis annoyed and pouting.
"It wasn't that funny." She pouted out under her breath, about to start walking toward Lieutenant Dale when the alarms changed, going from the stand by to action alarm, to begin preparations for the drop alarm.
Several of her squad ran past her, heading for a Slingshot, "Oh God." She moaned as she chased after them and scrambled into the drop boat and headed for a seat. She was grabbed by her jump-pack and pulled toward the wall of the Slingshot, "Hey wha-" she turned and saw sergeant Johnson.
"You're late! I won't chew you out right now about that though. This bird is going to get us over the target area, so get ready!" He pushed her into a drop tube and hit the activation button causing the door to shut her in. She could still hear him thanks to the in built comms system. "Just remember reporter girl, hit the jump jets right when the suit says its safe or you will be chunky salsa on landing."
She gulped as a secondary re-entry suit, the M2 drop capsule, closed around her, and then she was left in the dark tube waiting. She used what motion she had with her fingers to activate the ship wide channel in hopes of finding out what was going on, however the ship had gone radio silent. She sighed wondering what was going on outside the little tube, when she felt a sudden FTL acceleration then another faster deceleration cause her stomach to do back flips then she heard a voice, possibly a member of the drop bay crew. "All boats you have a go." She felt the Slingshot be picked up by the crane above it and heaved out the William Wallace before being dropped into space.
She felt herself falling for a good while before the boat engines activated. She could hear chatter about the battle in progress from fighter craft that had been deployed. The Second and her own unit had gotten out of their bay without any problems but the other two platoons were having a much tougher time of it.
Something about one of the Slingshot's having been hit and exploded right outside the bay causing the mechanism for dropping the boats to jam. She wondered how they were going to get the rest of the Company out but then she was out of range of the conversation. A few moments went by and nothing happened.
Sergeant Johnson's voice came over her radio, "Time for the good part apes!" The dark lit up as the bottom of the Slingshot revealed itself to the emptiness of space. The world beneath her was almost beautiful and it would have been beautiful had the harness holding her not released her.
She descended, surrounded by dozens of other capsules filled with others from her platoon, it wouldn't be long until she was engulfed in the fires of reentry, so she took the moment to get a picture of the falling troopers.
She would have preferred to ride a boat down, but the fact was it was statistically safer for the troopers to be in the small, fast moving drop capsule, than a large boat with dozens of others.
She could barely see the William Wallace anymore, engaged in combat with a green Roger Young, and by the looks of it she was winning as a laser originating from her own side speared the opponent like a fish. She wanted to cheer, and got a picture just before she lost sight of everything but the fire outside her suit.
When the flames cleared she could no longer see the ships, only the dark night sky. The capsule automatically broke apart from her power suit, its remains' creating chaff to cover the rest of her fall.
She put herself horizontal so she could look to the green landscape below, and could just make out camp and cook fires surrounding a city, she flipped her targeting visor down and reported her target was the southern edge of the large siege camp, a combat insertion.
They were going to land right in the enemy at night, a massacre in the making for the Terrans if the power suit weren't already sharing info, the Terrans would know where their fellows were while the Skinnies would be just confused in the middle of the night, possibly shooting at their own in the chaos while the Power Suits would torch anything, shoot everything, and plant a couple demolitions charges on any structures.
She started to smile until a mass driver projectile flew past her, its wake sending her off course a bit. Correcting her course she was soon assailed by more of the rounds, causing her to dodge further out of the fire zone. She looked over her shoulder to see what the Skinnies were aiming at and saw the Redhawk in the line of fire, already burning, peeling off course and heading south out of control. She hoped they would land safely, they needed all the help they could get.
She focused more on the oncoming ground, forgetting the Redhawk. The moment her suit told her it was time to activate her jump jets she did. Hitting her chest plate, activating the jump jets and slowing her descent to a much less lethal speed. Even with her descent she expected to hit the ground with a stumble, but she misjudged her landing zone, and crashed through the roof of a dirt colored tent.
Disoriented she clawed off the ground and pulled her pistol on a Skinnie who apparently had been about to go to bed, half his combat suit off. She started at the alien as he flew back in surprise.
Suddenly the Skinnie jumped over his bed and grabbed Boneshard pistol. Ailis fired two rounds missing him before he fired back hitting her shoulder guard. She was thrown back into an armor stand and just managed to fire off a few rounds into the Skinnie's chest, spraying the tents wall with blue blood.
She waited to make sure the Skinnie was dead, then went about getting herself untangled from the fabrics of the tent. Once she was free she brought her rifle out, and exited the tent only to see several green armored Skinnie pointing their guns at her. "Ahh.. shit!" She complained as she saw how angry they looked. She wished the Federation included translators on their suits as she had no idea what the Skinnies were yelling at her.
"Get down!" A voice ordered over her comm and she dove for the ground as twin streams of rotary cannon ammo cut their way through the tent and Skinnies, likely going for much farther as it tore the next line of tents down as well.
Ailis looked up from the ground at the severed remains of the Skinnies before she flipped over to see here saviours. An eight foot tall grizzly exosuit, the suit was fully armored, no neck neck and helmet but instead the trooper was looking out a v shaped gold tinted visor in the head dome. On the suits shoulders rested sixgun rotary cannons that had turned the Skinnies to blue mist.
"Your lost." The suit commented, as if from god himself.
"Huh?" Allis asked befuddled.
"You're off course. Your platoon's a half a mile East." The armored soldier pointed off to the right, "Good thing for you we're heading to the same rendevous, get up trooper we only got minutes at best!" God explained moving forward.
Jumping onto her feet and checking her Morita for any damage, she figured she was the luckiest reporter in the sector. She'd love to get some good footage of a fucking assault trooper.
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East Federation territory, Shanxi, Petolemaic southern line, April/26/2329 AD
Captain T'Phai landed peacefully in the middle of a secured perimeter held by the Tawns First Platoon, the camp around them was burning and the ground was carpeted with Petolemaic dead. A small part of him was sickened to see the dead from his own species, they were simply doing something that was an a very old part of Petolemaic culture. He had even led raids on Terran colonies years before the Arachnid menace had come and enslave his world, but times had changed. The Petolemies and the Terrans needed to unite to fight the greater threat and if the fools who led the Hegemony could not see that, then they were his enemy same as the bugs.
Stepping toward the commander of First Platoon, Lieutenant Da'Pha, he asked, "Have the Fourth landed safely?" He was worried for the unit, half their battlegroup and Lieutenant Black were killed in orbit by a lucky shot from a captured Roger Young class, instead of the full muster of 38 troopers and 12 marauders the platoon was just over half that now.
"They are moving to link up with us now." Da'Pha stated at attention, his wasteland accent coming through strong in his native tongue.
"They landed by the the mass driver triple A. The… 'enemy' used to take out the Redhawk and destroyed it, they were unable to locate the 'enemy' commanders."
T'Phai took note of the way Da'Pha said enemy, but decided not to raise the subject. It was Da'Pha's right to find fighting their brothers disdainful, but as long as he stayed loyal and fought them, it did not matter. Besides making an issue of it in the middle of a battle field was just a flawed way to lead. "Good, Lieutenant Da'Pha when the Fourth regroup with us, you are take command of them and begin preparations to beat feet to the north and into the city of Shanxi. Maybe if we're lucky, we can convince the levies to surrender."
Da'Pha nodded and gave a Terran salute as T'Phai walked over to the edge of the battle square. He reached up to the side of the helm and raised the Second and Third, "Lieutenant Rico, Lieutenant Dale, what's your status?"
There was a moment's pause before a response, "Rico here, we hit the area you suggested, negative on finding the commanding officer, we lost one Exosuit to constrictor cannon, but the trooper was able to eject. We're breaking through the enemy to meet up with you now, and have picked up some stray Thirds. ETA five minutes to link up."
"This is Dale we got scattered by the anti aircraft fire and have been trying to regroup, minimal losses, but we landed right on their weapons cache, airfield, and fuel dump. Once we have it set to blow we will move to meet you at your location, ETA fifteen minutes."
"Good work, keep the enemy pinned down, don't let them get the chance to regroup and take the initiative, turning this surprise attack into a massacre." T'Phai ordered. He looked to the western sky and called out, "Alpha Squadron, what happen up there?"
"Sir, Redhawk one crashed to the south east. It's burning so I don't think the enemy will get anything from her, Redhawk two landed in the city 30 seconds ago and is offloading supplies. Three of the Slingshots made it into the city and are offloading supplies. The last one crashed in the no-mans land along the path you will have to take to get into the city. My Gunships are attacking the enemy lines up and down the south, No loss as yet, but the longer we wait the more fuel we burn. Thunderbolt's have left orbit and will be outfitted for a bombing runs in 15 minutes, where do you want them to hit?"
T'Phai thought about it for a moment then ordered, "Have the commander of the Thunderbolt wing strafe the southern perimeter, that's where they are keeping their reserves so priority targets are mechanized forces and transports."
"Yes sir!" The Alpha Lead confirmed.
T'Phai held his arms behind his back as he watched an force enemy rush at the perimeter the Terrans and Petolemies under his command had set up, decimating them remorselessly. Something was off, he admitted that Petolemies tactics could be lacking sometimes, but the attacks that were coming at his men seemed more like mob mentality than any real tactical formation.
'Perhaps we got the commander and just didn't know it.' He mused as the Fourth came up behind the enemy and let there Chieckhank marauders smoke the enemy into mince meat, 'Or perhaps he is just as confused as his underlings.' Not to long after that, Second platoon joined them, and Third joined up as the wing of fighter bombers hit the enemy.
"Lieutenant Junior Grade Ivanovych sir! We heard a party's being thrown at Shanxi, would you mind opening the door Alpha lead? We'll buy the drinks!" The eager second to Third platoon inquired.
"Willco, have fun out there boys and girls." The voice responded, and a few seconds later a wing of hypersonic firefoxes came in low, firing dual rotary cannons and birdbolt HE missiles, once again proving the age old adage, "Incoming fire has the right of way".
The Federation forces moved quickly to capitalize the opening, jogging through the torn up bodies and the remains of sleeping quarters. The Fourth were leading the way followed by the Third just to make sure the Jumpy Terrans didn't fire at friendlies.
T'Phai was among the last few to jump into the trench having turned to look at the devastation one company had unleased. The camp was burning and though he doubted they killed more than what the enemy could afford to lose, he knew such an attack would harm the moral and with any luck may cause desertion of this campaign by those who thought the defenders had already fallen.
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East Federation territory, Shanxi, Ptolemaic eastern line, April/26/2329 AD
General Projak did his best statue impression as a glass flew by his head. Skinnie Lords were not known for keeping their anger in check, Tel'Rock had ordered his commanders here in order to find out what the hell had happened the night before, unfortunately the commander who had control in the south last night, Lo'Ho had yet to show his face. He was either dead or more likely on the run thinking his failure to hold the line last night was his death sentence. But while Tel'Rock could be an angry Petolemaic, he was not a cruel one, especially not towards friends.
"When Lo'Ho gets here I'm going to break his hand!" Tel'rock muttered in a dark rage as he picked up another glass and filled it with Valorian Shine. "General ProjaL what happen last night? You said the Terrans wouldn't get reinforced for at least three weeks!" The question was pointed and there was dark tone to his voice.
Luckily Projak was prepared, "I've reviewed the footage from my ship in orbit, and It was one ship my lord, and a battlecruiser at that, if it wasn't already coming here to join the fleet it was simple poor luck that it stumbled on our operations here while on a scheduled patrol." The battlecruiser had nearly destroyed the Errant Venture in last night's battle before it escaped into FTL when the rest of the fleet moved to try and destroy her. He doubted that ship would come back, battlecruisers may have an impressive array of weapons, but only one type of ship could get over the number disparity and that ship was most certainly not a Federation dreadnought.
"Then it was just a run of bad luck?" Mar'Rack commented sarcastically, "There no such thing, first we run into aliens using Terran languages, now a Terran battlecruiser causes havoc on our force's morale, this campaign's been cursed."
Projak raised an eyebrow, "Colonel Mar'Rack, I would never have pegged you for a believer in the paranormal."
"When you get over a hundred years, everything seems possible." The Petolemaic said taking on offered drink from his Lord.
"Yes well barring there being some god like being deciding to cast this campaigns fate as doomed, We can launch an attack tonight that will end this siege." Projak stated.
Tel'Rock downed the glass he had in his hand, Rel'Rock spoke up from where he stood "That may be true, but we can no longer put the raiders in the first wave, their confidence was broken last night and I have seen three ships of them leave this morning."
"Cowards." Tel'Rock scorned and he poured himself another drink.
"What do you expect from Conscripts?" Projak commented reasonably, "The raiders have been and always will be cannon fodder, let my brutes take up the first wave, they will break the Terran lines in the east and the rest of our forces can finish them off while they are falling back."
Tel'Rock looked thoughtful before a look of determination came over his face, "General Projac I order you obliterate that eastern line."
Projac bowed, "It will be an honor my lord."
A Raider sergeant opened the pavilion's flap and entered, "My lords! I bring news of Colonel Lo'Ho."
Tel'rock looked resigned as he asked "Speak, what has happen to him?"
The raider looking fearful as he began, "He is Dead, We found his body in his Pavilion my lord. A Terran assassin fell through the roof of his tent and executed him with two bullets to the chest."
"Damn them." Tel'Rock spoke broodily, he looked down at his glass before he rose up, "I'm putting a reward out on Lo'Ho's killer, I want it alive to suffer the wrath of his family."
~[==|==]~
East Federation territory, Shanxi, command center, April/26/2329 AD
General Williams was happy, hard to believe since they were all doomed nonetheless, but any moment of joy was one he took nowadays. That joy was knowing that that the southern line of the Skinnie front had been decimated to the point that any attack coming from there would be crushed remorselessly. Best part of all was the devastation of the Skinnies had come with the added bonus of Exosuit reinforcements, something that would make this fight much more even though they were still outnumbered by who knew how many to one.
Williams viewed the city map, trying to find where the strikes would fall. the first day they had hit the north forcing him to move his heavies there, the second attack had been in the west to draw out the destroyer.
That left the south and the east where they had yet to press, and the south was broken. Which he kept in mind in case he had to have his forces make a fighting withdrawal from the city.
They only had two good places to hit from the north where the fighting would be hell, and the east where the line was untested and thus weak to a Skinnie mind. He reached over and picked up the radio, "Get me a line to Captain T'Phai."
A moment later his order was achieved, "This is Captain T'Phai." The hissing voice strangely soothing.
"Captain officially, I don't condone the breaking of protocol, unofficially if we survive this I'll pull every damn favor I have to make sure this is swept under the rung while personally building a statue in your honor."
"Thank you General Williams, Sir."
"No, thank you, now I need to take your troopers and redeploy to support the east wall, I think the enemy will hit us hard there, and your boys can gives us a chance at fending them off. And if you're feeling particularly clever, attack them first."
"I will move my forces immediately sir."
"Good luck Captain, and give them hell."
~[==|==]~
Terran Gunsmith's Extraordinaire Codex edition, Volume 1:
Morita 201-A Assault Rifle "Ape Maker": While effective against humanoid or psychologically affected targets, the weapon was initially ill suited for fighting the bugs. The heavy ammo and weapon, bulky size, and insufficient stopping power was made up for its availability, ease of use, and modability with underslung attachments ensuring its continued use despite its flaws, and in experienced hands of veteran or even properly trained soldiers, they can make these flaws into non issues or advantages. The general production and issuing of this rifles spawned the term apes for the first time, mainly because you'd have to be as strong as a primate to even hold one for a few minutes, and indeed how veteran a soldier is can be determined by how large their biceps are.
Units produced: ~100,000,000,000 (100 Billion)