Chapter 8
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/26/2329 AD
Admiral Varlikam saluted as Vice Admiral Kalio Gainus stepped out of his shuttle onto the flight deck of the ship, "Vice Admiral Gainus. Good to see you sir!" Varlikam said holding the salute until Gainus returned it. Gainus was an old warhawk who had been a career soldier his entire adult life, he had mentored more than his share of young commanders in his day.
"Good to see you too Varlikam, I hear you walked right into a war." Gainus replied as General Spueus Tiburtus walked off the shuttle. Varlikam did not know much about Tiburtus, he was supposedly a good soldier and went by the book.
"More like a nest of wars," Albirus giving a quick salute to Tibertus, "But thankfully we only have to deal with one. For now at least."
"Yes these Skinnies?" Gainus commented, "I read the report on the trip to this system, I'm surprised a race that is that fractured could obtain space capabilities."
"It is surprising but perhaps they were unified along time ago?" Albirus surmised.
"Perhaps we should worry more about the fact these Skinnies have strange infantry weapons that are not even thorized by most scientist." Tiburtus commented.
"Hopefully these slavers will take one look at the fleet that we amassed and flee." Gainus added and it wasn't hard to argue with him, there were now three dreadnoughts and enough support vessels to keep them secured in this system, ready to bring retribution down on the Skinnie's heads.
"We can only hope you're right, but if not I'm not sure if we should begin operations with the Terrans on the ground, unless they can lend us advisors to minimise our losses." Albirus commented as he gestured for the other to follow, "I have invited the Terran commander aboard my ship, and she has agreed to answer all questions you may have in relation to the Skinnie."
"You said that it's a nest of wars, what do you mean by that?" Gainus asked.
"The Terran has stated that they are in on and off hostile contact with four species, one of which she claims is far worse than the Racni." Albirus explained
The other two looked at him like he was joking, "I find that suspect. The Ranchi wars went for centuries and claimed billions of lives, how long have they been at war with this Rachni-esque species?" Tiburtus asked.
"She didn't reveal that, but she did say they have living ships, are able to rewrite their DNA within a generation, and can colonize airless rocks open to the harshness of space. And they have a variety of forms that puts the Rachni to shame." Albirus responded opening the door, the two generals looked taken aback, so he added, "I'm sure you can get more info out of her if you talk to her, I think she really likes Thessian tea as well." He hinted playfully.
~[==|==]~
Shanxi, crash site, April/26/2329 AD
Eva Coré watched as a unit of Skinnie soldiers moved through the corn field, patrolling around the crash and keeping them from leaving. Didn't stop her Turian partner from joking that it was themselves who were stopping them from leaving.
The Skinnies had shown up at sunset and set up a fire base on the other side of the hill she and her fellow mercs had climbed the day before. So far they were not making any moves to attack their position, just watching them and keeping out of fire range.
"Hows are our new friends?" Jack asked pleasantly as he walked down the trench with the Turian commander, Colonel Stradas.
"Quiet as the corn and spread out over the living room." Eva retorted amusedly, lowering herself down, "My guess is they just want to keep us pinned here and out of the way"
"Possible." Jack commented, "Or their plan of attack was disrupted last night"
Eva smiled at that, the news of the brief reinforcement had been one of the first bits of good news since the destruction of that Skinnie Dreadnought and seemed to impress the Turians a significant amount when Jack had played the video over for the entire camp to enjoy. The fact the Skinnies had hit a planet with barely any advanced weapons or even a significant garrison and were still being held off, made them look weak to the Turians.
So when an orbital drop onto the southern lines not only obliterated the Skinnies there, but had made the Humans look even better. It had also resulted in respect when Jack mentioned his group of mercs were all former cap troopers who had done that kinda drop at least five times in the past. At least she thought it was respect, it could be a questioned look of their sanity.
"Either way, there is just enough to keep us from easily breaking out and supporting the main force. Although these Turian snipers are no joke, They have taken out at least a platoon of conscripts and warriors so far."
The Turian moved to the edge of the trench, "So these are the soldiers you mentioned, why do they were gold colored armor, it makes them easy to spot in the field."
Jack shrugged, "I think I heard something about their eyes being similar to dogs," he realised the alien would have no point of contact and amended, "They can only see bright flamboyant colors, but to tell you the truth I have no idea, bling of war perhaps? You could always ask a Terran aligned Skinnie."
"Friendly Skinnie?" the Turian asked confused, "I thought you were at war the them?"
"Well, um no." Jack seemed to get very uncomfortable so Eva jumped in.
"The Terran Federation is at war with the Skinnie Hegemony in some areas, mostly in the south and southeast galactic region which borders this system, but in the south west we're allies against a much greater threat which we are trying to eradicate, which is why you will find Skinnies serving in the Mobile Infantry. Unfortunately the sames goes for the Skinnies, you will sometimes find Humans seduced by the ideas of the Skinnie Hegemony working for them or leading their own campaigns into our territory. So yes we're at war with the Southern Hegemony, but unlike the war in the west it's a war of cultures not extermination. Which we try very hard to avoid. This is actually a touchy subject when you start to get into our history, especially the Second World War's Great Patriotic front between the Russians and the Germans."
"Extermination? What exactly are you fighting in the west to warrant total extermination?" Stradas asked it so inquisitive if not for Jack being behind him slashing his hand across his throat with a comical look on his face to tell her to speak no more about the bugs, her maternal instincts would have talked all day about the arachnid empire.
"Giant Bugs, and I shall say no more on that subject." She commented not giving any more clarification.
Stradas did not look satisfied by that, but an explosion broke up the little meeting. Everyone turned to look toward the sound which was were the Skinnies had hidden there camp, as another explosion followed by the very distinct sound of machine guns and screaming.
The Skinnies that had been patrolling around the ship at a distance rushed back towards their camp, giving perfect shots for the snipers to ply their trade and eliminated them to a man.
"Did your general send us more aid?" Stradas asked as a missile shot up in to the sky then rocked down to create an earth shaking kaboom
"He hasn't given me an update on anything that could do that." Jack said picking up his snooper to get a better look at the battle.
A Skinnie ran from of the top of the hill, arms in the air wildly gesticulating and shouting at the top of his lungs. From behind, something large crested the hill a moment later. "Holy fucking hell. Eva muttered awestruck as the 9 foot tall green Robot fired it's twin MGs into the back of the fleeing Skinnie turning his body to chunky salsa.
A group of Skinnies opened up on it with their Boneshard rifles, and it simply turned and aimed its massive right arm at them and roasted them alive in a wash of flame from its flamer.
"What is that?" Stradas asked as the machine began moving down the hill toward the ship, killing anything that got in its way, which was damn few thanks to the snipers.
"That's the XM-550 Cybernetic Humanoid Assault System Robot." Ben called from where he had been standing further down the line, he had several Turian around him also looking at the green giant, "Also known as a C.H.A.S Unit, a thinking learning machine designed to do one thing; go were normal troopers can not." The CHAS unit arrived at the base of the hill.
"It's going to set off the mines!" A Turian sergeant shouted in alarm.
"No it's not, the CHAS unit has sensors for that. It won't be fooled by them." Ben said as he started climb over the trench wall and step forward. The last thing they needed it to do was start a friendly fire incident once it killed all the Skinnies.
It didn't take long for the Robot to reach the other side, after all of that, it and nary a scratch with only burn marks and chips on the paint. Ben stopped short of the minefield, "Hey Titanium man, slow up."
The machine stopped, looking at Ben then asked in the familiar robotic voice all CHAS Units shared. "Lance Corporal Ben Hislop, retired, formerly of Garcia's Gaters power suit Company?"
"Never Forget."
"What are you doing with these aliens?" The machines asked the question like it would determine if people would die, it probably did.
"Allies, Skinnies shot them down. So why don't you give us a bit of an update on the situation outside this lovely cornfield."
The machine stared him down, after a few minutes of processing it spoke, "Affirmative, Ammunition levels are below 20% do you have resupply? I wish to squash more meat bag Skinnie slavers."
"I'm sure we can find you something." Ben commented as Eva, Jack and Stradas came up to take look at their new friend.
Stradas looked it over and asked "You said this thing is a thinking learning machine, do you mean this Robot is a Artificial Intelligence?" Something about the way he asked the question made the three Terrans look at each other.
In the glance they knew the best answer, but Eva said it before the others, "We're not at liberty to say."
~[==|==]~
East Federation territory, Shanxi, northern line, April/26/2329 AD
Sergeant Major Erich Hanna Wald huddled against a brick wall that had been part of some pizzeria until it had been destroyed by a Bigfoot artillery strike. Which would probably increase the property values around this neighborhood since the place had been left to rot for years, and was creepy as all hell.
Erich flipped his coin hoping for heads, he caught mid air and found it to be so, "Well looks like I'm going to live at least another hour."
The battle on the northern front had turned into house to house combat, perhaps floor to floor Stalingrad style, room to room. He hadn't seen any members of his platoon let alone his Company since last night, they had been scattered by the repeated attacks by the Skinnies and up to the last couple hours he been hanging about with some Power Suit Troopers, but they got separated during the bombardment. The Skinnies had been pushing hard since this morning trying to break the line and he had nearly run out of ammo.
He was seriously contemplating picking up one of the Skinnie guns. At least he could get ammo for them.
He was about to flip the coin again when he heard foot steps, looking up he saw a quartet of Skinnies coming out from their hiding spots pointing there guns at him, "Human surrender and you live."
"As a slave of course." Erich commented getting up leaving his rifle on the ground.
"Of course." the Skinnie affirmed, his face hidden behind a visor.
"Yeah not a fan of that… but how about a game of chance eh?" Erich began holding up the coin, "Heads I surrender, tails I go down fighting?"
"You really have no choice in the matter." The Skinnie hefted the gun to make the point clear.
"OH I know that, but I'm generally lucky about games like this." He flipped the coin high into the air, he waited just long enough for it to reach the apex, as all of the idiots watched it like any good person did, then he drew his quick drawed his pistol and put two in the lead Skinnie's chest, another though the visor, and a third in the gut of the third before they reacted.
The fourth fired his bone shard rifle, cutting deep painful wounds in Erich's side, Erich responded by putting the last bullet in the alien's forehead. Erich fell back against the brick wall his blood leaking out on the floor, he put a few more round in the Skinnie bodies, making sure they were dead before he lost the ability to hold his pistol. He dimly wondered what happen to his coin before he lost consciousness and face planted into the creepy tile flooring.
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East Federation territory, Shanxi, eastern line, April/26/2329 AD
Ailis Pedersen set up a camera on a tripod and made sure the lens was clean and the mechanics were undamaged. Once she was satisfied, she pulled her helmet off and picked up her microphone, stepped in front of the camera her helpful assistant turned it on.
"This is Ailis Pedersen, Federation News Network reporting on the Siege of Shanxi, three days ago a massive Skinnie raider fleet assaulted this planet without reason or provocation. As usual. They destroyed most of the local defense fleet and if not for the stubborn determination of the planet commander, General Williams and the guile of the Fleet Commander Erica Chaves, the population would already be on their way to the slave markets. Thankfully, Williams was able to hold the planet and the unit I'm attached to, T'Phai's Tawns, were able to launch a daring night assault that I quote from the General himself, 'Kicked the shit out of the unsuspecting bastards'."
"The enemy has since then focused their assault on the north of the city trying to open the beach head wider, but from what I have been able to learn, General Williams has authorized all efforts to be used to stop them, from artillery bombardment to nuclear assets." She left out that the Skinnie had already breached the city several times from what she been able to learn, but after years of war, Fednet news reports had to gloss over the little defeats. Of course she tried to ignore the fact that if this planet fell it would be considered a "Little Defeat" and her death or enslavement would be glossed or forgotten.
"The current victories should be partly attributed to Fleet Commander Erica Chaves, for her heroic action in destroying a significant portion of the enemy's ground troops before they even got the chance to taste Terran bullets."
"Hopefully we can hold out long enough that the Skinnies decide they got their fill of death and wasted time on this assault on Federation worlds and freedoms. Of course I just hope I get to live long enough to actually broadcast this. For anyone getting this live now, know that help IS on the way, and soon I hear." They also had been rather non committal about where it was coming from, but it was probably a Terran fleet, which meant the closest one was two to three weeks away, unless they got lucky and a patrol fleet just happened to be around the galactic corner.
She was about to try and make a humorous joke about the weather, say something falsely patriotic for those ironic laughs, or even call up some people for interviews on their opinion, or some other news, she could always edit this footage after to take out her pauses, when the gunfire started.
"Oh fuck!" She grabbed her helmet off the ground and shoved it on, running for her camera and pulled it off the tripod. She then ran for the metal ramp and charged up the wall, wanting to get footage of what was going on, show something exciting to those poor souls stuck in those underground bunkers. On the top of the wall she saw light troopers unloading their firepower downrange. She linked the camera to her visor and saw through it, an army of over sized Skinnies built like bodybuilders and carrying either disruptor glaives or weapon that looked like they needed to be mounted on vehicles charging the wall. Several of the Brutes carrying mass drivers stopped and opened up with their cannons, destroying bricks and cement, but the wall held firm this time.
Ailis ducked and grabbed a rifle from a fallen trooper then peaked over the wall. The Brutes were running through the hail of fire almost like it was a light rain, there was some of them falling of course, but not enough. Then the Tawn riders came out of the horde, the riders were not much different than the brutes, maybe a bit smaller but still built, but the Tawns were a terrifying mix of horse and komodo dragon. The scaly beast quickly ran ahead of the horde and then began climbing up the goddamn wall with their clawed paws.
"Oh fuck this shit. I don't want to pull a Jaun Rico on this fucker!" Ailis Leaned over and began firing the rifle down the on the beast, she managed to kill the rider who had been about to aim it's Boneshard Pistol at her, but the beast kept climbing. It was about to crest the wall when it exploded into cooked meaty chunks.
"I always wondered which was more deadly." Sergeant Roch commented hefting his Triple Thud Grenade Launcher and firing it into a second Tawn.
"What a grenade launcher or a Tawn?" Ailis asked, confused.
"No, us Tawn verse the real thing." He fired again into another tawn. More of her company charged up the walkway to reinforce the wall and the brutes started throwing grappling hooks, as useless a tactic that was for a large defensive structure with the enemy literally firing down on their heads. She didn't care how ripped you were, a headshot and your dead or dropping down to the ground below.
The brutes started climbing, though some of them started to use there disruptor glaives as crow bars on the damaged plating and concrete, as she watched a hole in the wall was opened through literal brute strength, "Well I hope you're happy with your answer. To my live viewers, hope you're enjoying the look of this, and I sincerely hope you get to hear me again." She fired into the brutes as they charged on.
Roch took one look at that and replied, "Yeeesssssss~" Then fired his grenade launcher into the crowd, chuckling darkly as a geyser of blood responded to his attack.
~[==|==]~
East Federation territory, Shanxi, command center, April/26/2329 AD
General Williams watched the holo map intently as the forces in the east buckled, but did not break. It was thanks to the Tawns and their Exo suits that they were holding the flank against the muscled reserves the Skinnies unleashed. If they held out against this attack they may be able to hold out the few weeks necessary for reinforcements to arrive, however they would still have to sacrifice parts of the city to looting. An acceptable outcome, they wouldn't get far with that loot anyways.
They would just have to be careful and make sure the civilians were moved out and trap many of the buildings to add the extra casualties.
Looking at the map he tried to understand the strategy behind this. He thought they would attack the north harder, perhaps the east to draw forces there. That was until the double doors to the command center burst open and three red power suited Skinnies rushed in.
Williams had just enough time to pull his pistol before a dagger hit him in the shoulder. He fell to the ground and a Skinnie jumped on him ripping the dagger out of his shoulder and raising his blade ready to stab Williams in the heart. One of his staff pulled his own gun and shot the intruder in the face, shattering the visor.
One of the other intruders retaliated by shoving his short blade into the man's gut but before he could cause more harm a trooper who had been battered by the double doors hosed him down with automatic fire. The last red armored Skinnie attempted to close the distance, but the Trooper who had been on the other side of the door tackled him from behind and went to work on him with his combat knife, resulting in an explosive geyser of blue blood when his neck was slit with anger.
Williams sat up, slightly dazed and looked at the Skinnie who nearly taken his life, the red suited guard sat up, and Williams got his first look at what a guard looked like. It skin was a dark green and leathery, it's head shape was not the standard tall, but more compact and swept back.
It's face was terrifying it had no lips only teeth and it's eyes seemed to glow orange with malice, not the soulless black most Skinnies had. It roared as it tried to get up, but Williams raised his pistol and shot the face twice, It crumpled and stayed down this time.
"Sir are you alright?" One of his staff asked, helping him up.
"YES!" He hissed out in pain, the knife hurt like hell and hopefully was not poisoned, but he needed to get the situation under hand before he let them take him to the hospital. "Someone explain to me who FUCKED UP!?" He demanded.
A trooper who had rushed in from hallway reported, "Sir these three snuck in through an air vent and rushed through the hallway for this room. They must have killed the troopers they came across with their blades so we didn't know they had gotten in."
"BULLSHIT! Those air-vents are a foot by two big! And these fuckers don't look like small children. I want you to double check all entranceways and have all guard stations report in like they are supposed to! How did the cameras not pick them up! And get a damn medic in here we got wounded." He pointed to his staffer who was holding the short sword in his gut, his knee went out and he stumbled holding on to the table, he was losing a lot of blood from his shoulder wound, "for that matter can someone get me one too?" He whispered before slipping to the ground.
~[==|==]~
East Federation territory, Shanxi system, THS Hierarchy's Fist, 2657GS April/26/2329 AD
Rear Admiral Albirus Varlikam sat watching space return to its normal view again as his ship entered the Terran system for the second time. However he was not in charge, Vice Admiral Gainus was in change this time, most likely to give him one last hurrah before retiring.
"Sir we are on course for Shanxi, the Terran ships are requesting the honor of leading the spearhead."
"Good, are we receiving anything from the planet?"
"Nothing at us. I don't think the enemy has detected us yet, which makes sense from what we were informed by Commodore Chavez, but I am receiving signals from the planet that indicate there are forces still fighting on it."
"We got here in time then."
"Sir, Vice Admiral Gainus is broadcasting a messages on all channels."
"Put him on." Albirus was interested to hear what the official statement would be since he had kept it to himself since he arrived at the relay.
"This is Vice Admiral Kalio Gainus of the Second Turian Expedition, those known as 'Skinnies' in the Terran tongue must stop their attack now, and hand over Lord Tel'Rock to face justice in Turian courts for crimes committed here. If you do not comply we will prosecute war on your barbarous people until Lord Tel'Rock is dead or captured for piracy, murder, and anything else he has done or will do in the process of this informal war he started. I ask you to consider your position carefully."
~[==|==]~
East Federation territory, Shanxi, Petolemaic eastern line, April/26/2329 AD
General Projak listened to the message again and cursed, he had been worried about the aliens returning, but he had hoped it would have been weeks later maybe just in time to take the blame from the Terran reinforcements, but now he had to face facts, these aliens were pissed and coming for his boss' head. He got on the coms and called Lord Tel'Rock, it didn't take him long to answer. "General what is happening! Why has the aliens returned with such a large fleet so quickly?"
"I have no idea my lord, but we must disengage and retreat from this failed endeavor, we lack the forces to deal with them."
"We cannot show the enemy cowardice! We must fight-" It was this point where Projak snapped, he could deal with Skinnie tendencies to be feudal tribals, but he could not, no he would not, deal with warrior code bullshit.
"Now listen here you fool, there is no cowardice in abandoning the fight when it is already lost, we have three options ahead of us; you turn yourself in and watch your empire crumble from an alien's prison cell, retreat to fight another day, or die fighting a hopeless battle knowing that I left with my guard and will take your throne when I get back home."
"You would not dare-"
"I dare, but I don't need too. I show up with my guard and am the only living person on the planet with an army they will declare me the king so fast you won't even be in the grave, but I don't want that, I don't want to deal with the political and administrative shit that is running an empire," Yet he did have plans, but he did not have the forces or strength he needed to accomplish them. "I'd rather serve under your command with free rein than be watched and criticized incessantly by a Hegemony council. So my lord I beg you to retreat now to Hegemony space and let the Terrans fuck up this relationship with these new aliens like they always do."
The line was quiet then his lord stated, "General Projak, prepare to retreat back to Lockhet."
"I will my lord."
"And when we get back we are going to have a long talk about proper etiquette on the battlefield."
~[==|==]~
To Be Continued.
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Terran Gunsmith's Extraordinaire Codex edition, Volume 1:
Combat Knife: Standard issue combat knife. From the boy scouts to the greatest of Generals, the standard issue combat knife is both a practical utility, and a last ditch weapon.
Units produced: ~50,000,000,000 (50 Billion)
FedCom 401-GL "Triple GL" Grenade Launcher: The Triple GL is an oft used weapon system, mainly employed by specialized units. The TGL fires grenade tipped rounds at enemies, due to the wide variety of atmospheric, gravity, and even enemies the weapon must deal with, a trooper must be trained for all possibilities, drastically increasing training time. Hence why only specialized units are trained with this weapon.
Units produced: ~1,000,000,000 (1 Billion)