Chapter 14
Edited by a person of many names Blood Raven AKA TimedRaven117. Go check out his story Mass Effect: X-Com Theory!
~[==|==]~
Southern Terran Federation, Southern Command Space Station, Wolf Run, 2657GS September /25/2329 AD
Sky Marshal Richard Riverfield paced around his office, pissed, and wishing he hadn't stopped smoking. Everything had started going so well, the fleet was getting in position, the troopers were moving to secure frontier worlds, and he thought he would be able to launch the Road to Petolemy Campaign by mid october.
Now he needed to retake Cassandra, and find out if those defences he had gotten in place had held under the Skinnie onslaught. All of which would delay the Road to Petolemy Campaign to the beginning of next year if things went well. He was left with few options, though he had begun preparing an attack on the Skinnies around Cassandra. The problem was he didn't have access to most of the fleet, since it was cut off as long as Cassandra was in enemy hands.
This meant he had to get creative, and he may well regret it, he had gathered the scraps of the fleet he could; four Dreadnoughts, Corvette Destroyers, old Cruisers, anything he could get his hands on, including Patrol Boats. Though since they didn't have interstellar drives they would have to be pulled into battle by the other ships.
Every ship and every trooper he could get his hands on were massing either here or at several other points that were in range of Cassandra, but he needed something that would give him an edge or it would end in obvious disaster. Thankfully something like that could be arriving today, he just had to convince a special Captain to join him.
"Sir, the Ryuho has just entered the system." Richard's secretary said over the intercom.
"Thank you Emily, please have the Captain contact me as soon as possible." Taking his seat he waited patiently, thankfully not for long as Captain Mahin Biswan, responded with all haste, "Sky Marshal Riverfield, it's an honor to speak with you sir!" She reported, saluting the screen.
Returning the salute Riverfield nodded, "At ease Captain Biswan there is no need or time for formalities." Richard replied, wanting to get to the point fast, though this statement seemed to have left the captain confused, "You left Luner port before the news reached Earth. The Cassandra relay was lost to a Skinnie invasion fleet."
"Dear god," Bizwan commented with a horrified look, "how did they find Cassandra?"
"We have no confirmation, but MilInt has proposed that a rogue General, who we were hoping was dead, may not be as dead as he led us to believe. I'm putting a warrent out to have Pathfinders find him, and make make our belief a reality. But right now we need to focus on getting Cassandra back under our control, so I ask you Captain, is the Ryuho ready for a fight?"
Biswan looked rather unsure for a moment, and seemed to be evaluating her options, before finally she reported, "She may be ready, we're still working out some power issues, and we haven't tested the Auger Cannon yet, but all her other Laser Cannons work as advertised, I wish we would have had more time to finish her shakedown cruise before she went into combat, but if you need her, Battleship Ryuho is at your services, just expect to roll the dice every time we fire."
Richard nodded, "We'll need her, but I will keep your concerns in mind. Keep near the center of the formation, in case anything goes wrong, so you have support." Captain Biswan nodded, "Prepare your ship for battle Captain, the tactical briefing is in a few hours."
~[==|==]~
Shanxi, Terra's Gift, Turian Military resupply Station 2657GS september /25/2329 AD
Vice Admiral Gainus, watched as several supply ships landed on the airfield the Terrans had hastily constructed for them. In order to keep the Turian forces ready to help with the attack into the Hegemony, they had given them a bit of land outside of the destroyed city of Shanxi, not too far from where the Vanker went down. The accommodations were spartan, but serviceable. Most of the buildings were built out of cheap metals, but they were definitely not the worst place he stayed in during his long career. The food could be better though.
Gainus was a little annoyed that they had not been allowed to explore into the Federation territory, and begin operations against the Skinnies as they said they would. But he could understand it. The Federation for one were paranoid about aliens, so having them running around without chaperones, as insulting as the word was, would cause a stir even if they were doing good. For another, the Turians couldn't get to the Skinnies just yet, from what he understood the Skinnies were about a week's travel from their current location, and since the Federation didn't use element zero, there was nowhere for them to refuel unless they spent days skimming Helium 3 manualy. Though he thought that may change soon.
The Federation fleet had been sending some of their fuel ships to transfer Element zero and Helium 3, some of those ships went deeper into the Federation, to where he had no idea, the others were still in orbit. To him this meant they planned to feed the fleet's need for Helium 3, absorbing the cost as a trade off for not allowing them to explore too far way from their refueling ships.
If that's how they wanted it to be, so be it. As long as they allowed them to fight, he would be happy, and then once this war was over he could retire as a war hero. Not an old soldier who never saw a real war, like most of his predecessors.
He moved over to his desk to take a sip of his drink when Rear Admiral Chavez opened the door, with a rather tired look in her eyes. "I believe most species find it polite to knock." He commented, not bothering to look away from his desk, getting a tired look from her before she straightened her uniform jacket, and knocked on the open door.
"I hope that's better, because I'm too beat to do more." She commented, taking a seat in front of Gainus' desk after given permission by him to do so. It was strange for Gainus, his people were pragmatic and just simply took a seat when they entered, if they needed it.
"Quite." He assured, taking his seat, he took a look over the Terran and recognized the look about her. He knew she'd been running between her post here on Shanxi, and the Citadel as the message girl for the Federation. He guessed she was getting a lot more responsibility than just those posts as well. He'd seen it before, when a Primarch was testing a possible successor, he didn't know how the Human government worked for sure yet, but she had done good work for her Federation by establishing peaceful contact with the Citadel, so he wouldn't be surprised to hear in ten years she was the Sky Marshal of a region... if she didn't crack first.
"Thessian Tea?" He offered.
"Thank you." She replied graciously, taking the drink and sipping it. "Still want to beat the Skinnies head in?"
Looking up from his drink he nodded, "Of course, me and my men are happy for your hospitality, but we're getting a bit antsy just sitting here with our thumbs up our ass, that's the right expression correct? What opportunities are you offering?"
"News just came in that the Skinnies made the first move, hit a strategically located planet that relays most of the messages from the Federation proper, to the south, most of our forces in the region are now cut off and can't communicate with each other without the use of courier ships. Sky Marshal Riverfield is putting together a force to take that planet back, and if we leave by tonight, we can be at one of the assemblage areas in time for the attack." She explained, sipping the last of her tea down. "Thank you for the drink by the way."
"I assume the fuel and route has been taken care of?"
"For the most part, we just need to practice. Your first outing from Shanxi was going to have hiccups in the first place, better to get all the gigs out of the way now."
"Then I will prepare the fleet immediately."
~[==|==]~
Southern Terran Federation, Cassandra, 30 miles south of the ruins of New, New Cassy city, 2657GS september /26/2329 AD
Luke sat across from the Smug, so named because they were smarter then the bugs, and because their face always looked a bit Smug. They'd been moving further north to avoid the Skinnie and Smug patrols. The Skinnies were starting to get harder and smarter, sending real soldiers and not clueless conscripts after them. The Smug patrols were really no better he guessed, either they didn't have much of a military tradition, or they had only sent soldiers they didn't need for their own protection. Likely, they were the poor performers, sent to be taken care of. Either way they always had to be careful when dealing with them, because they would shatter the sky at the slightest provocation.
There was one good thing; the rain had let up, but by that point the roads were completely transformed to mud. The civilians were at their breaking point, blaming the Federation for everything. They needed a substantial win within the next week or the civies may start thinking surrender was a good idea. It wasn't, but they'd been spared most of the horrors of interstellar war so they were allowed to be dumb.
Right now they made camp at a rocky outcropping in the middle of a clearing, and good clear air was blowing down from the nearby mountains. After a few minutes silence, a mech-trooper rushed into the clearing from below, "I FOUND IT!" He yelled with exuberence, putting the TALC box down on the boulder between them.
"You think that old thing will work?" Luke asked monotonously.
"Well it either works or we shoot the prisoners, which would you prefer?" The mech-trooper retorted, inspecting the box.
"Shoot 'em, but I have to make the effort at the very least." He said, switching the machine on, once it was set up and attached to the Smug, "So now do you understand me?" A moment later Petol, the Skinnie trade language, came out of the box.
The Smug looked happy and relieved, then replied, "I understand the barbaric Petolemaic language."
"Barbaric? Glad to hear that from the Skinnies' ally. Let me guess, roped you with a bad treaty?" Luke returned calmly.
"Yes, they were very insistent on us helping them fight the Human land stealers, as they called you."
Luke finally showed some emotion, smiling maliciously, "So you have no stakes in this war?"
"We of the Libertatem League wish for no war, we have an army and we have a navy, but we have not been able to upgrade them, since the Petolemies force us to share whatever tech we build, with them."
Luke's smile grew downright insidious, spreading from the corners of his jaw, "So what if I offered your people the chance to not just be rid of the Skinnies forever, but perhaps forge a political alliance with the Federation?"
"While it is appealing to me, I have no idea where my government would land on the issue. However, I know my people would be very interested in this deal, as long as you Humans can be trusted to keep your word, and not fire upon us." The Smug himself leaned in very close, showing the universal sign of interest.
Luke nodded and leaned back to look like he was completely relaxed, "I know for a fact, that soon the Federation will send every ship and every trooper to this cursed world, when they arrive they will wipe out all forces that don't end up running. Of course, we ourselves will take quite the beating and likely force us to reconsider our entire strategic operations in this sector. But, if someone in the middle of the formation were to suddenly destroy the Skinnie commander and his lieutenants, they would be well rewarded by my government as worthy allies. Help us destroy the leadership and overthrow their Hegemony. Simple choice, in return for your commander considering this bargain, I won't attack any of your Libertatem comrades. And I'll even give you the Auxiliary IFF codes so the fleet knows you are friendlies."
"And how do I know your species will abide by this, if and when they arrive? And not just destroy us all if it's convenient?"
"Kill the enemy leaders and flee, we won't pursue you if you just helped us, and have the codes. And I'll put a good word in for you. Scout's honor." Luke said honestly, giving a two fingered salute.
"If we accept your deal, we'll contact you for the codes. I assume one of your retinue will show me out?"
"Of course," Luke idly waved one of his troopers over, "Have a good trip now. Be a shame if one of the big apes got you before you sent your message."
~[==|==]~
Southern Terran Federation, Nearing Cassandra system, TFS BB-Ryuho 2657GS October/3/2329 AD
Captain Mahin Biswan calmly sat in the command chair of the Ryuho trying to exude confidence. She was doing a good job she thought, but really her stomach was in knots, the Ryuho was quite possibly fully operational, which was a miracle considering that this was the first ship constructed by Yini-Mina Precision Devices. But she was worried that when they got into battle, it would be no better than their first attempts at laser rifles.
Taking discreet deep breaths, she reviewed the reports from engineering. The kilometer long ship had two primary powerplants, one to move, the other to provide the power for her guns. Hell, she sorta had three with the augur laser having its own power source that was specially made and activated during the firing of the weapon. The ship in reality, was one big gun with double turrets and broadsides on her fuselage, and four pylons on the back. The primary bridge was located in the most structurally sound location, a bit above the dead center of the ship at the 800 meter mark, the first two hundred meters were pointed stabilizer wings, made to stabilize the augur laser. The secondary command center was located below her, near the firing array for the augur laser
The ship was so big, that the tertiary bridge was located behind hers on top of a docking ring, meant to control the hundreds of missiles and strike wings attached to the ship.
The last major feature was a massive communication relay tower between the third bridge and forward of the engines. The ship had none of the old cylinder designs and instead was more flat and arrow head shaped, if anything it looked like two parallel arrowheads from a top view.
The ship was such an odd design, it had been hard to get her out of port at first. But they had gotten some time to get to know the ship, and were confident she would be able to fight well in the coming battle, "Ma'am we will be arriving at our destination in a few minutes."
"Thank you lieutenant." Mahin said before she turned on the intercom, "Crew of the Ryuho, we are about to charge into the enemy as part of the biggest Terran fleet action in the south ever, not only that, this is the first action the Ryuho will engage in. I'd like to say nothing major is riding on this fight, but there is. The first is the south, without this buffer, within a few years the Skinnie could begin hitting Earth with slave raids. The second is we must show the value of large ships with this fight, for too long the Federation has avoided massive ships, citing them as too costly, but their cost is offset by the death they can reap, and we must show definitively, the death we can reap. Good luck and prepare for war."
A scant moment later they arrived in system with the Battle Fleet, "Ma'am we're scanning the system now, there are 300 Skinnie ships in orbit above Cassandra." Mahin did not like that, they would have four hundred total Federation vessels eventually, but right now they only had about two hundred present, another wave would arrive soon hopefully, and the third wave should arrive very soon after that.
~[==|==]~
Republic Cruiser Hammon
General La'Mon watched the map as two hundred Terran vessels advanced toward Cassandra. They had the smaller ships, corvettes, bombers, and fighters, in front as a skirmish line, and it would come into contact with the raider ships soon, but he was surprised they had only sent two hundred ships forward.
Either they were very tied down against the bugs, or they were keeping their reinforcements out of system. A smart move, he was doing it to. He had three hundred ships in system, but he was keeping two hundred out of system as reserve and flanking forces.
If he had it here, he had no doubt that he could crush the Terran force, but until he knew what they had in reserve themselves, it was better to keep them prepared and ready to counter Terran reinforcements and for flank and rear attacks in their formation.
It was a good day for a battle, moral was at an all time high thanks to the success of their strategic offensive. Planets throughout the southern Terran region were falling to the Petolemaic soldiers. Sure there was stiffer resistance on some planets then had been predicted, but that didn't matter. As long as moral was high, more tribes, clans, kingdoms, and republics would join the war, and when this battle was won, their numbers would grow ever higher.
From his estimations, he had a fourth of all Hegemony ships involved in the campaign, under his command, that number would change after this battle, he was sure. This war may be the thing to unite the Hegemony into a great nation once more, if so his contribution would surely gain his republic many lucrative trade deals, and his family's name firmly etched into the new history of the Hegemony Navy, and perhaps some day... he stopped himself from the thought of ruling the Hegemony's Navy, as that was the future, and now was the time to focus on the enemy in front of him.
"Order our raiders to engage the forward combat screen of the Human Fleet, keep the bigger vessels back, and have the Dreadnoughts spin up their harmonic shields. They won't do much good against those lasers, but their missiles will go haywire. Keep them at the front of the cruiser wings to act as shields. Keep the Libertatem back and guard the planet, the satellite network will work wonders on the Terran fleet if they get too close." La'Mon paced up and down the bridge, giving orders to each of his officers as they worked frantically in the command center.
~[==|==]~
Alesia Destroyer, TFS-D-Fremont
[song: Another One Bites the Dust, by Queen]
Lieutenant Commander Edmund Tromblay sat in the captain's seat of the Fremont, watching the Skinnie raider ships get closer.
His mission was simple; scout their skirmishers, and hit the sides of the enemy formation, but the skirmishers were keeping them from accomplishing the latter goal.
Currently the forward fighter and bomber wings were engaging their counterparts, and the Skinnie raiders were now moving in to provide fire support for their numerically inferior fighters, "This is why I hate Riverfield, his command staff always tries to control the battle, right down to the individual dogfights." He complained, wishing the Sky Marshal would be replaced already. He liked the southern theater, it was simple for him and his crew: Kill the slaver, free the slaves.
But the Sky Marshall made it politically charged, by forcing everything here under his control and that of the Federation, even colonies that were not under Skinnie or bug threat. He just didn't realize that people who were out here just wanted to be independent, to be free from the pressure of the Federation, and live lives with good hard work.
"What do you expect? He's ambitious, and the only way up is the Sky Marshall in Chief. He probably believes that if he gets enough territory, the senate will recognize him and elevate him to that status." Lieutenant Commander Mayo Shinya commented on his side screen, sipping from a self contained juice pack. She looked to her side, and gave muted orders before her ship fired a few anti-Fighter missiles. She wanted to get into the thick of the fight, he could tell.
"Yeah well we're going to lose those pilots, if we don't do something." Edmund muttered.
"We'll, we can't stay here Tromblay, we'll need to move in and smash their lines." Mayo replied with vigor in her voice.
"Alright, Corvette wing 27-5, we're moving in, cover our backs and let's punch a hole through them. I want anti-bomber cover all around us while we deliver the package." Edmund ordered, with Mayo doing the same, and suddenly their stretch of the battle line began to break formation, increasing speed to charge the enemy lines.
"I'll start the kill tally sir. I wish to beat the Walker this time." Fremont, the ship's AI, said as a small counter popped up.
"Fremont, Walker, you are currently breaking formation. What's your issue?" The message came from the Section Commander, who was in charge of the section of the Skirmish line. He sounded worried, after all, he had worked with the two before, and he found their lack of discipline troubling.
"Sir, we need to move forward, otherwise our fighter screen will get destroyed." Edmund returned as this spearhead advanced forward in a cone formation.
"Well Commander Tromblay, has it occurred to you that the reason we are moving this slow is because we don't want to set off a trap?!" His section commander blared out in annoyance.
"Well sir, think of us as the people who will set it off! Either we break through and launch the package, or we die." Edmund returned as they rapidly closed the distance.
"Damn it Tromblay! You're forgetting the bigger picture. Damn! Wings 24 through 29! Move to assist, spearhead formation! Over and under, we need that line broken. Athenas! Hit the heart!" The commander ordered, growling out as his own line moved into the salient.
"Lieutenant, prepare the ship for general attack. And play some music." Edmund ordered.
"Going to do your classic rock again?" He asked.
"Yes, the usual please." Smiling wide, his ship was brought to full battle stations, with every gunport open to fire. He began to hum along to the song, Another One Bites the Dust.
~[==|==]~
Outside of Cassandra system, TFS-C-Ollanius Pius, Valley Forge Class
[Song: Winged Hussars by Sabaton]
Captain Michael Shepard checked his pocket watch once again, the order was late. He was put in command of the second wave of the old and outdated Valley Forge cruisers and escorts, most had been pulled from mouth ball and didn't even have lasers, instead having the old chemical propellant anti air cannons. They may do some damage, but that was not the reason they'd been pulled from mothball.
This Valley Forge Class was a missile cruiser, and each cruiser and escort had been loaded to bear, with every warhead they could get their hands on. Checking his watch again, he turned to Commander Pressly, his XO, "Has the Hel received any word?" The Hel was an Athena Class Super Carrier, and among its tech wizardry, it had the fastest long range communications equipment in the fleet.
"No sir," Commander Pressly said from his seat, the balding man in his late 20s sipping a cup of now lukewarm coffee, "It will take a while to pull the Skinnies into the position we want them, or perhaps the Skinnie were not as numerous as we guessed?"
"Perhaps, but a plan never survives combat with the enemy, so just as likely, someone didn't give the enemy enough credit." He guessed, checking his watch again and smiling at the picture of his wife, Hannah. Rubbing it affectionately, she was back home watching John, though she wanted to be out here fighting, they agreed to take two to three year shifts. His shift was up last week, so he should've been heading back to Sanctuary. Instead he got called out here to waste time with the damn Skinnies.
"Sir! Hel is reporting the Skinnies have moved into position." The comms officer called from her seat.
Pressly gripped his hand to the railing and his coffee extra hard, while Michael looked up and smiled wide with a fiery glint in his eye, "About time! Put the call out we're transitioning to the battle." Michael shouted w, and was met with an enthusiastic cheer, causing the bridge to go into organized chaos. Within moments, the fleet was underway for Cassandra, and a moment later the fleet appeared behind and above the Skinnie's formation.
Now above the foe's position and defences, they had perfect shots to attack until they reoriented, "Open fire! Fire at will!" Michael ordered, and the fleet did so, sending several hundred missiles, and thousands of solid shot rounds towards the enemy formation. Dozens of ships were destroyed in the opening salvo, never even given the chance at evasion or preparation. The only thing saving perhaps a hundred ships was the Skinnie dreadnoughts sprinkled in the formation, the harmonic shields deflected a large portion of the missiles away or caused them to blow up early, preventing the attack from being a solid victory right then and there. And it left Shepherd's fleet with its pants down, reloading their missiles.
"Withdraw, withdraw!" Shepherd ordered, as his ships began to reorient away from the fighting so they could escape and regroup for another run.
"Sir, detecting magnetic disturbances behind us!" Pressly exclaimed in alarm.
"Shit! Prepare for incoming, escape as soon as possible!" A moment later a second Skinnie fleet of 100 ships appeared, cutting off their original escape route, and trapping them between the enemy fleets.
~[==|==]~
Vice Admiral Gainus stood on the bridge of his flagship, Redeemer, looking out on the viewscreen. Any moment now his mixed force of the Turian Expeditionary fleet, and the fuel vessels the Terrans were loaning them, would arrive at the Battle of Cassandra,
possibly already under way.
As a result he had all crews on standby for battle, and had taken a bit of Terran tech they had offered for ease of use. A holographic table that would collect data from all the Terran ships and would project the battle, so he could get a sense of what was happening. Technically they had this tech themselves, but this one already had access to the Terran battlenet, and considering what he knew about the way they conducted space combat, and how close their ships could get, he would need this tech to have his dreadnought target the enemy ships, and not hit a friendly.
"Signour, we'll be arriving soon." The Terran observer reported from the holographic table.
He briefly considered giving some speech, but there was no time, they needed to get into the thick of this fight, and show these barbarians that you did not attack Turian vessels on a peacekeeping mission, he'd been denied that at the Battle of Shanxi, he would not be denied that here.
"Thank you." Gainus replied, watching the space outside. He smiled, today was going to be a good day.
The Terran next to him was muttering something under his breath, clutching in his hand a small crucifix necklace. He had given Gainus a medallion of Saint Christopher, which Gainus had attached to his armor as such. He wouldn't be rude, and deny a gift, even if it was a trinket for good luck.
A moment later he was worried for their current tactical situation. As his ship arrived, he could already see the battle underway, and a glance at the map showed him a disaster in the making.
The Terrans had formed a salient in the left flank of the enemies battle formation, but the light class of ships meant they couldn't pull back nor disengage, or they would be annihilated. the Terran's flanking force had been boxed in and were scattering and trying to escape in any direction possibly. The other part of the Terran fleet was doing it's best to try and pry their trapped comrades free, but were not having much in the way of luck. Things looked a bit grim for the Terrans all and all.
"Oh, bondad sin! This isn't good." The Terran next to him whispered, as he pulled up specific battle data, and brought up the com links to the two force commanders.
"Well, we were looking for a fight! Send Frigate Flotillas 8-10 and Cruiser Pods 9 and 10 to support the entrapped pocket. The rest of us, we need to clear a hole between the Terran forces. Move the dreadnoughts to maximal range of the main guns we're going to pound the center of the Skinnie formation to lay off our friends. Frigate Flotillas 4-7 stay near the Dreadnoughts, Cruisers and remaining frigates, move forward to engage." Gainus ordered, moving to support his allies. This would be tough, they were close to the planet and the system's sun, they would have a few hours before the heat buildup would reach maximum levels and they would have to withdraw.
After a minute of letting their FTL drives recharge, the Turian fleet moved with lightening speed, in moments his orders became reality, Turian frigates launched themselves to nearly point blank range of the Skinnie lines, darting in and out and cutting the small ships to pieces, forcing a corridor for the cruisers, focusing their fire on taking out the captured Terran vessels the Skinnies were using to supplement their force.
But the dreadnaughts were causing the most visible damage, their massive main guns ripping through the comparatively frail Skinnie ships, and it was not all because of the fact they were the main guns of the dreadnought, the damage they were dishing out was mostly due the fact the Skinnie ships had no defense.
Well except the Skinnie dreadnoughts themselves. Gainus saw the rounds that were meant to take out the "dreadnoughts" curve around their ships, or just skim the surface of the vessel only causing minor damage. He had heard about the harmonic shields that were deployed at Shanxi, so he summarized this must be the same tech. "Keep focusing fire on those smaller corvette sized ships, and don't get too close, they'll chew us up right back!" Gainus ordered. Their element of surprise would only last for another minute at most, before the Skinnies took out the ships in their midst with lasers, something the Turians also had no defense against.
As he watched, one of the Skinnie dreadnoughts changed direction and started to move towards his lance formation, intent on destroying the intruding cruisers and frigates. None of the mass effect rounds they hurled seemed to hit it, always scraping the edges, and he was worried that that ship was gonna make it into range so it could rip apart the cavalry. Then a massive crimson beam lanced out of the Terran's Fleet, and burst a huge hole through the ship, cutting it in half, and sparking massive secondary explosions that literally rippled space around it.
Wondering what ship had done that, he followed the beam on the holographic map, and saw that it came from the first dreadnought sized vessel he had seen the Humans use. And on the holographic map, he could see that the Terran ship was out of action, whatever it had done, the ship had burnt out its systems, leaving it a floating hulk of metal.
But he wouldn't forget the ship's assistance, "Auxiliary flotilla, move in and help that Terran dreadnought!"
~[==|==]~
General La'Mon watched the battle in annoyance, things had been going okay, despite the setback of the Terran flanking force, and the unexpected alien reinforcements, and the destruction of one of the dreadnoughts outright.
But he had a few cards left hidden, "Send 50 of the remaining reserves to hit the rear of the Terran formation against those aliens ships. Then call a tactical withdrawal to the planet." The Terrans and aliens would be forced to secure their rears while the main Hegemony fleet pulled back orderly, as the Terrans were disorganized, it would make it so his disengagement would not be costly, and he would then get the Libertatem's missile network to support him to cause the killing blow, alongside the remaining 50 reserve ships tearing apart their rear once more.
The forward defense had been a complete success, he was confident the Terrans had no more reinforcements incoming any time soon. Despite him losing nearly 200 ships to various causes. He was certain he could still win this.
"Sir the Libertatem are firing their missiles." One of the Bridge staff reported, perplexed a bit.
"Good they are not completely- wait what?!" La'Mon was at first expecting them to move up to support his retreat, but he realized almost immediately he had not given them the order, and they wouldn't risk themselves for his people. Looking to the tactical screen, he prayed, hoped that he was wrong. He hoped that what he expected did not happen, but it did, the missiles smashed into the retreating Petolemaic ships, and blossoms of nuclear fire appeared. Their perfect retreat almost immediately morphed into blind panic. Dozens of ship commanders voices screamed out in surprise and a request of knowing who fired. Many of them were also silenced mid sentence.
La'mon was thrown across his ship's bridge into a view screen, cracking his head and dazing him, "We've lost life support and propulsion! Structural integrity at 10%! We've lost nearly 100 ships in that, Admiral- ADMIRAL!" His XO reported and moved to him in alarm,
His XO, reading the situation, lowered his head in shame, before pulling up the intercom for the ship and fleet, "Evacuation, I repeat, evacuation is in order. All ships, disengage and withdraw from the battle! Curse the traitorous Libertatem!" Picking up his Admiral with the help of another, they ran to the escape pod for the bridge and left just in time, before their dreadnought was also reduced to chunks of metal.
~[==|==]~
TFS DR-243 Río de la Plata, John A. Warden class Dreadnought
Sky Marshal Richard Riverfield released the breath he had been holding for nearly five minutes. "Oh my god, we won." He whispered to himself, as he watched the Skinnie Fleet flee in all directions. He didn't know why the ships near Cassandra had turned on the Skinnies, and didn't particularly care since they had fled immediately afterwards flashing the Terran Auxiliary codes, the only thing he cared about was the information they had gathered from this battle: The Skinnies weren't stupid, and were particularly clever and had an intelligence source. The weapons the Turians used were very good against Skinnie ships when they had the range and surprise, and that the Federation needed a good defense, in case the Federation and Turians ever got into a scuffle. Maybe he was letting his belief that the only people looking out for the Terrans were the Terrans, get the better of him, or maybe he was just being careful and that they needed to be ready for all eventualities. After all, the Turians weren't the only new force out there.
The other thing he had learned was that the Skinnies did have some commanders to worry about, though the one that had been leading this fleet was likely dead or soon to be captured. Although this was a battle that he would normally never have engaged in, but the pressing time table forced his hand. Normally he would have done a hit and run attack, pull the Skinnies out of their favourable position and catch them in a series of carefully planned ambushes over the course of a few weeks, grind them down in a war of attrition and then strike them when they were weak and running low on supplies. It would have been a campaign that would have taken months, but he didn't have months, he had days. And that haste in battle cost him thousands of good men and women, and nearly a hundred ships permanently destroyed, or critically damaged. He was a strategist, he wasn't like Enolo, who was a tactician, that's why he relied on a large staff of field commanders to command the battles.
Nearly every single ship had some form of battle scar and needed repairs, including the Turian ships, who despite their surprise and range, had taken losses of nearly 25% of their vessels, and all of their ships needed repairs ranging from catastrophic, to minor. But it was not unexpected, judging from the casualties they took at Shanxi, where they took a pummeling even against the fleeing Skinnie raiders. They relied too much on their kinetic barriers, and didn't have enough armor, resulting in the lasers causing almost fatal hits in a single shot. But god damn were they fast, agile, and quick firing. They were glass cannons.
Sitting back in his chair, he went about the business of finishing this campaign, the Mobile Infantry were preparing to land on Cassandra to clear out the rest of the Skinnie forces, and have the destroyers and the cruisers that are still in working order chase down the Skinnies as far as they can. Every one else was to secure the system to get that communication hub back up and running, and collate all the missed messages on the answering machine.
Although early reports were saying the ground forces were advised not to land on Cassandra by the local garrison, and that the Skinnies were actually in the middle of agreeing to the surrender terms he had laid out. It turns out the Curse of Cassandra had also affected them, and they only wanted to get off the planet. Fine by him, but now he needed to put them somewhere out of the action for a long time.
~[==|==]~
Somewhere in the Petolemaic Hegemony, 2657 GS october /30/2329 AD
Grand Admiral Tel'rock smiled happily, as he watched the work crews trying to free the device, from the layers of ice that it formed over it. He knew if he looked long enough, he would find another gateway, like the one that it brought the Turians to Shanxi, and so he had. Sure it would take some time to get her up and running, and figure out how it works, but whoever was on the other side would be in for a rude awakening.
In the back of his mind he thought, he probably should be focusing all efforts against the Terrans, but with how easy they conquered Cassandra, and by doing so, knocking the entire southern region out of the war for a few months, he thought he could take some time to open up a second front against the Turians, and make sure they didn't come to the Terrans aid.
To Be Continued
Author note
get a fanfic account Axcel *shakes fist* i like to talk to my reviews it gives me ideas.
Axcel
Chapter 1: Canon says mass effect universe frigates have no mass accelerators. Their only weapons are the guardian defense lasers. Alliance frigates include javelin missiles, but the other species consider that to be overkill and pointless.
The Turians brought this on themselves. Buzzing was a good idea, sending two ships to buzz is foolish as it appears much more hostile. It would be easy to misunderstand the maneuver as a "distract and shoot" kind of tactic. Though, this is one of very few fics I've read that has the Human-Turian first contact incident be a genuine accident.
By the way, I'm pretty sure the ships from Starship Troopers Chronicles and the new CGI movie have magnetic shields. Those would work against council ship weapons.
L4 of the West: huh didn't know that.
Well that is exposed to be an example of different doctrine the Citadel treat their vessels like planes, the Terran treat their designs like naval ships
Well yes and no, those magnetic shields are a by product of the FTL engine the Federation use, as a result the shields are only powerful enough to stop attacks when the ships is moving at high speed
Blood Raven: Uhhh, where does it say that? I tried to research your point, but I can only find evidence against that. After all what weapons would they use besides an Accelerator and GARDIANS? Missiles obviously, but then why don't you use an accelerator because it has a faster fire rate and much greater capacity for ammunition storage? That leaves questions of what would the Citadel use if not missiles or accelerators.
For the Magnetic shields, it's likely also a plot thing so it can excuse the fact that things moving at high speed don't go splat as they hit an undocumented asteroid, or micrometeorites, or dark matter, or the various crap in space.
Chapter 2: The ships sent by the hierarchy are too few to be called a fleet. More like a scout group accompanied by a dreadnought.
Blood Raven: It would still be an independent fleet, even if it was smaller than what would be considered normal. A better term for it would be a Task Force. Expect Changes in the future.
Chapter 3: Why are you having the Turians' weapons ignore shields? You also forget something. On impact, a laser explosively converts what it touches into plasma for an instant. This releases a massive amount of kinetic damage. Therefore, ships designed to fight enemies that use lasers would be designed to withstand at least as much kinetic damage as the barriers of a mass effect ship. Otherwise everyone would quickly reach mutually assured destruction.
L4 Of the West: They don't have shields they have armor.
Blood Raven: The Ragnar is a scout ship barely 150 meters long. It is lightly armed and poorly armored to increase its speed and capabilities. It wasn't made to go on a toe to toe fight with an unknown alien ship. It was taken out after a few direct hits by a Turian cruiser surprising it.
Chapter 6: This is an awesome fic full of badass! :D
L4 of the West: I try
Chapter 10: Kinetic barriers counter incoming mass, not force. The fact they still get taken out by a handful of shots of "smaller than a grain of sand" bullets implies a modern bullet would go through the barrier and still be quite lethal.
L4 of the West: Good because morita are better than modern weapons.
Blood Raven: The larger caliber of the Morita is like .30 cal or something ridiculous. Anyways, I always considered the ME guns to be seriously underpowered compared to modern day weapons. If the Turians or any ME force ever encounters a bug hive, I will literally write that not a single bug died to their guns, since if you watch the movie, you see the Bugs withstand a lot of abuse from the larger caliber, faster firing, and much more effective Morita rifles, and still keep coming with half their limbs blown off. It's like fighting Krogan, in blood rage, and there is a million of them coming to zerg rush. And that's just the basic bug.
Lord Foul: I have issues to this idea. not of the ME guns not working on bugs, sure all but the best ME guns will be very ineffectual just from numbers and speed alone not to mention the armor, but not with them being weaker than modern weapons or barriers not working on them that's just silly, also countering mass counters force by itself F=M/A and all that rot
Chapter 13: I love this fic! I especially like the reporter tearing into that Asari about better alternatives to or variations of the genophage and about the abandonment of the Quarians.
T'phai is right about Humans and scapegoats in our history. The reasons for minority cultures within larger societies sometimes being used as scapegoats is, I think, mostly due to survival instincts. Those who adhere to their own culture completely instead of merging their culture and the society their culture lives in are consciously or unconsciously looked upon with suspicion as a potential threat to the society. Even those who do integrate their culture with the society's culture can, at times, be seen as suspicious (though in this case, less likely to be considered a potential threat).
After all, the culture of a society forms around what is conducive to survival. Therefore, another, different culture existing within the society would cause those who are of the society's dominant culture to have an instinctive concern over that other, minority culture's presence as a potential risk to the survival the dominant culture developed to ensure. Thus, antagonism towards that "alien" culture's presence in the community can be easily stirred up to use as a scapegoat by individuals seeking to ride the violent wave to power or to maintain their power by using the scapegoat culture to look like they are protecting the society from visible, immediate threats.
L4 of the West: This is why you need an account that was a good long conversation that may have led to story ideas. (Translation, courtesy of Blood Raven) If you had an account we could have a conversation about the story.
Blood Raven: I remember reading that dictatorships and people like that use minorities as scapegoats and stuff to keep the gravy train of fear and suspicion on them so they can keep in control, (Hitler with the Jews. various islamic states with the Shia Sunni split, ect.). It's generally despicable. But it's sooo something the Federation would do being pretty fascist in its own right.
And I always found it odd that the Krogan were never studied and the very obvious threat of overpopulation coming into effect. Its very obvious thanks to their breeding habits, and yet no one ever thought that they should talk to the Krogan about it. I mean the Genophage is so bad, that Krogan females are literally considered infertile, and some will kill themselves over that. The Salarians made it to control population, but had no true idea of how it would affect the Krogan mindset, and that it would literally be a sterility plague, despite them not wanting it considered as such, it still ended up as it.
Chapter 15: Catachan Devils!? Yaaaay! The Guard has arrived! :D
L4 of the West: BLOOD RAVEN! Did you sneak warhammer in here!
Blood Raven: Yes yes I did. and I made one more reference in here as well for the Guard. A cookie if you spot it. I also made another Hero of the Imperium reference in that chapter.
Lord Foul: I love how shameless you are about that, hilarious