Shanxi Relay
"Admiral, jump complete. Navigation switching to Shanxi Barycentric Celestial Reference. Drift is adequate and ships are in formation," reported the Flight Lieutenant.
The Second Alliance Fleet scrambled together as soon as the distress call from Shanxi had been received. Unfortunately, the Alliance had been at peace for a long time; its fleets were not ready for immediate quick reaction attacks. Crew had to be assembled from leave while arms and ammunition were scrounged up from various warehouses and holding facilities. Word of hostile contact had come a complete surprise, after decades of exploring the relay network no aliens had been encountered. The only reason the Alliance still had a military was the fact that the relays stood as proof of other intelligent life in the galaxy.
"Very good, link us into whatever network is left in-system and prep the FTL for jump into Shanxi orbit," ordered Admiral Drescher. "And find me the enemy." The last order came out nearly as a snarl.
"Aye, Ma'am. Faint contacts in orbit of Shanxi, focusing sensors now!"
The Alliance Second Fleet was a 34 ship composition. Comprised of 1 dreadnought, 2 carriers, 7 cruisers, and 24 frigates it was a force to be reckoned with. Admiral Kastanie Drescher was currently aboard the SSV Everest, a class leading dreadnought that was serving as the command ship for the Second Fleet. The only ships that didn't jump with the fleet were the two carriers, they stayed behind and waiting for the main body to take account of the situation.
"Admiral! I have got a clear picture!" Yelled out a communications officer.
"Get me a situation report." Drescher stood up from her Captain's chair and stalked behind her subordinates.
"About twenty possible cruiser and frigate analogs, confirmed one dreadnought contact. They're in a standard siege orbit," A nervous sensor operative reported to his superior. "We outnumber their combat vessels by a third Admiral! It's not a full combat fleet, maybe just an invasion force!"
"Flash message the carriers not to jump in, no reason to show our ace," decided Drescher.
"Designate the enemy dreadnought as our priority target, we're going to knock it out from the start," ordered the Admiral. "Frigate Wolfpacks 1 and 2 will go with OPLAN Trident, 3 and 4 will stay in defensive position delta over the cruisers. Have us leading point. Engage."
Drescher was quick to pounce on the enemy. Heat, light, and EM radiation traveled very fast, but the Relay was many light hours from Shanxi, meaning the alien ships wouldn't have yet received indication of their presence. The windows of the ship glowed red as the FTL activated and shifted spectrums of light. Traveling around 12 light years per day, it was nearly instantaneous to the alien fleet.
The Second Fleet appeared to the side of the enemy fleet, so they could fire without risking stay rounds hitting the planet below. The aliens frantically detected their entrance and began maneuvering for firing solutions, but they couldn't leave orbit as the aliens had troops on the ground. To make matters worse for the aliens, it seemed their dreadnought's engines were completely inoperable. Damage was obvious on the ship, a trough plowed down one side of the vessel. Small repair shuttles desperately detached from the hull of the dreadnought and retreated back to their cruisers.
The Everest shook as a 20-kilogram slug was ejected out of it's main gun into the enemy dreadnought. The alien ship had to just sit their and take its punishment, its secondary engines the only working thrust struggling to maneuvering away from the Alliance capital ship. Flashed of orange surrounded the bird like ship as mass effect barriers slapped aside the rounds.
"Disruptor launch detected! Wolfpacks 3 and 4 on intercept!" informed another bridge crewman.
"Answer with our own! Double salvos on enemy cruisers," viscously responded the Admiral.
The outnumbered Turian ships couldn't send enough torpedos to get through the GARDIAN defenses on the Alliance frigates that were screening the rest of the Alliance fleet. The more numerous Alliance ships, though, had no such problem. Blue streaks of light raced across the void, occasional lasers causing them to prematurely explode, but a good amount made it to the avian ships and easily stripped down barriers.
"Enemy cruiser making to shield the dreadnought!"
"Punch right through it!"
The bridge of the Everest felt slight rumbles as its own barriers began to be the target of enemy ships. But without the firepower of the enemy dreadnought, the Alliance ship wasn't going to be taken down any time soon. Soon enough, the Everest was once more punishing the alien's capital ship with its main cannon.
"Enemy dreadnought barriers are falling, looks like it was on secondary power and that just went down."
"Stop firing and prep boarding parties! I want that ship," ordered Drescher, eyeing the daunting vessel that was even bigger than her own. The wide sweeping wings gave it an appearance of size even bigger than its already massive length.
"Wolfpack 1 is reporting depletion of torpedos!"
"Rotate them with Wolfpack 4! Send 3 with a cruiser group to close off the hole at coordinates 21 by 13 by 8!"
Admiral Drescher was trying her hardest to keep her forces aligned with their frontal armor taking the most hits. The Alliance ships were like tanks in that their frontal armor was sloped to be give more effective thickness. Of course, once shields were down this amor would only be able to take a few hits before the high velocity accelerator rounds tore straight through.
"Enemy frigates are attempting to clear a path!"
"Target them with our main gun!" Ordered Drescher. If the enemy dreadnought hadn't been damaged, the aliens may have been able to fight to a stalemate. But since that ship was knocked out, the Everest had free reign to terrorize the enemy. Without another ship to occupy it, the Everest was tearing through the alien fleet. A few shots was all it took for the main gun of a dreadnought to destroy an enemy cruiser, even less for a frigate.
The firepower of a dreadnought was exponentially more than the next highest class of ship. The power available for the dreadnought to allocate to the mass accelerator was much more proportionally to its size than a cruiser or frigate. This resulted in a massive jump in capability going from cruiser to dreadnought size. With the alien dreadnought disabled, the Alliance had an unprecedented advantage in the battle from their own dreadnought.
"Split pack 1, send them above and below. Pin them in," coordinated Admiral Drescher.
The Alliance had long theorized that space combat would be short and inconclusive. The lesser opponent often disengaging and fleeing. Often a battle would be long ranged artillery duels that accomplished nothing but delaying an actual battle. On the other side of space combat were the brutal knife fights; short intense minutes of maneuvering that left gutted ships littering space. This type of fighting occurred when one side had to defend a static interest, and couldn't retreat without giving up whatever they were trying to defend. Shanxi was such a case, as the Turians had troops on the ground and thus wouldn't hasten to retreat.
"Two frigates just went to FTL, they're bugging out!" shouted out the sensor officer. "One cruisers and nine frigates left, they're covering that dreadnought!"
It wasn't possible to stop a retreating force in FTL. There were no sensors to track them or weapons to harm them. Furthermore, even the closest space battles occur at such distances that maneuvering a ship to block an FTL path was nearly impossible.
"Break them up, bring our secondaries into line," ordered Drescher. The Everest class ship had 53 mass accelerators lining each side of the ship for a total of 106. Only the planned Kilimanjaro-Class, with 156 total broadsides, would have more.
As the Everest slid up against the enemy cruisers, the sides of the ship lit up in a chorus of lights. The mass accelerators were firing so fast that by the time the last had fired the 1st was reloaded and firing again. The fast rounds looked as if a beam of light had for a few second been spread between the two ships. The machine gun like explosion of rounds had ripped apart a cruiser and frigate. The metal of the once predatory ships had been twisted and crumpled under the extreme force of the penetrators.
"Barrier stress on sections 82 through 115!" The Everest was one tough nut, but it could only take so much damage before it began to crack.
"Roll us around, present the belly and keep the fresh sections facing those frigates!" Drescher was in her zone, easily managing all the information running through the bridge and keeping her ship and fleet one step ahead. The remaining alliance ships quickly had the remaining alien frigates cornered, the fire controls on the alliance ships making sure they didn't hit one another.
"Report!" Called out Admiral Drescher.
"Three frigates lost with all hands from Wolfpack 1 and 2, three total more with partial demcompression in all packs. Cruisers Dallas and Chennai are reporting minor barrier issues, Dallas with a major hole in its GARDIAN network, structural damage to the Pula has disabled its main weapon," answered one officer.
"The Marines are away, contact with enemy dreadnought in minus three," informed Drescher's XO.
Alien Dreadnought
The Alliance had gone through many different experimental boarding craft programs. A few ideas involved leach like vessels that would make their own opening with drills or lasers. One proposal involved dropping marines onto the surface of the ship wearing magnetic boots and armed with explosives to blow open an entrance.
While some of the ideas showed much promise, and the surprise factors would make ship capture much easier, bureaucracy had shut them down. In the end, a Kodiak variant was produced that would have a special breaching arm. It had a collar like opening that would clamp itself around bulkheads and breach. Remaining airtight wasn't necessary, as the marines had a short supply of recirculated and scrubbed air from their special armor.
The boarding Marines were also provided explosives if they needed to force the issue, although this risked damage to the ship they were trying to take. The front of the Kodiak had also been retrofitted with thick armor to protect the boarding craft from the defensive fire of enemy ships. This creating a distinctive bulge on the front of the variant.
"The reactor is offline, but could come back on at any moment! Our job is to secure it before that the aliens can get it back online and attempt any scuttling operations!" Instructed the Sergeant leading the squad. While the intel officers of the Second Fleet doubted the ship had a designed self destruct, such things were science fiction, any attempt at sabotage needed to be stopped.
"One Minute!" Yelled the pilot over the intercom.
"Ready 10! Ready 11! Ready 12! ... ," The marines of the first assault team began to sound off their status as the shuttle prepared to attach to the enemy vessel. A great thump and rumbled filled the Kodiak as the pilot rubbed the craft up against the enemy dreadnought. A sucking sound filled the shuttle as the collar attached itself to the hull of the dreadnought. The Kodiak depressurized and eventually the cargo door slid away to reveal the grey hull of the dreadnought.
A small circle shaped door was directly in the middle of the hull. It jutted out slightly and was covered in knobs and handles for a docking collar to attach too. Small holes indicated where various hoses would attach to exchange gases or even connect data lines. The marines decided to bypass all of that.
The soldiers carefully stood out of the way as the Sergeant hit the breaching controls. A large arm disentangled itself from the ceiling of the Kodiak and, after a moment of hesitation, started cutting into the door of the dreadnought. After a minute of cutting the mechanical arm shed the cutting tool for a ram head. The hydraulic arm then slammed the ram into the bulkhead. After only three more attempt the ram succeeded in forcing through the bulkhead.
Arc grenades were the first thing thrown into the alien ship. Normal frags were to dangerous to use on a ship, lest they blow the whole section apart. These did nothing, however, to stop the hail of bullets awaiting the marines. The few seconds of safety provided by barriers of the marine armor allowed the boarding party to escape the bottleneck and expand into the hallway.
The ship had high ceilings to accommodate the large avian aliens. The interior was bathed in a red emergency light, a backup as the reactor was offline. The gravity was not on either, but that could have just been a heat saving method used during combat. The marines, though, instinctively activated their magnetic boots and attempted to push on the defenders.
The marines rushed out of their Kodiak and exchanged one death zone for another. The Kodiak had breached into a hallway parallel to the hull with defenders poking their weapons around bulkheads both to the left and right. One enterprising marine grabbed the cut-out rectangle hull piece from where it had been thrown and used it as a makeshift riot-shield.
The alien security teams were at a disadvantage. The dreadnought was a combat ship, not a troop transport. Most personnel were crew and not security, and there were only so many armories for the crew to arm themselves. Furthermore, the damage done to the vessel earlier meant that many people had been evacuated off ship while repairs were underway. With the reactor offline, the automated turrets and defensive barriers that were key to preventing boarding actions were disabled. This created a situation where the aliens were undermanned, outnumbered in soldier count, and their main defenses were useless.
"This is team 3! We're can push out of our Kodiak, requesting support!"
That didn't mean the Alliance had an easy time going about it. The aliens were disciplined, an invaluable quality for the hard-nosed fighting that ship boarding action bogged down into. The alien weapons were also superior to the Alliance's. The M-8 Avenger was the most common alliance weapon. The assault rifle was tough, reliable, easy to use, and cheap. While a deadly weapon and good at piercing shields and armor, the rifle had range issues. Luckily the marines didn't need range inside a ship.
In comparison, the aliens wielded similarly reliable and rugged weapons. Except the aliens rifles packed much more punch and could go longer before starting to over heat. The added punch of the alien weapons was especially deadly in close quarters, stripping marine barriers away in short order.
"Team 2 here. We're reached some kind of auxiliary control center, but it looks completely locked out!"
The alien defenders, though, were not suited out in full heavy armor. Unlike the groundside soldiers, these security forces' barriers were only slightly (instead of exceptionally) better than alliance barriers and the armor wasn't so protective. This was a major boon for the alliance marines, if the aliens were outfitted in the same equipment as the soldiers on Shanxi; the boarding action would result in many more funerals.
Team one continued their assault towards the reactor room. The location of said room wasn't known to the Second Fleet, but if the ship was anything like the Everest then the marines were heading in its general direction.
After blowing their way through several closed bulkheads, and losing a few marines along the way, Team 1 came upon what was undoubtably the core room. The thick blast door were unmistakable, its distinct design to keep a core leak from contaminating the rest of the shit.
"Team 1 at objective alpha!" Called the Sergeant leading the squad.
The large containment ball in the middle of the giant cavernous room was unmistakably the eezo core. Several smaller enclosures off to the side, with pipes running to the core, must have been the fusion reactors that supplied charge to the mass manipulating devise. The larger coils probably brought power from the farther anti-matter engines.
"Doesn't seem to be anyone here..." muttered out one of the marines.
"Keep it quiet!" snapped the Sergeant, who tightened his hands around his weapon. He didn't stand a chance when a glowing blue ball ripped him apart where he stood. In a single second the veteran marine leader had been reduced into dozens of pieces.
"Contact!" yelled out one of the older veteran marines, his experience allowing him to sight the enemy trying to sneak back behind a piece of machinery. A spray of bullets ran towards the alien and large explosions of steam erupted from ruptured pipes.
"Shit, did you see that?" asked another marine over the radio, "That wasn't any barrier like I've ever seen before!"
"Shut it! Just keep your hands on your... ahhhhhh!" That time the marine managed to slightly sidestep the whirlpool of blue, only being knocked to the side. The marine team adapted at that point and spread out to protect themselves from whatever weapon was attacking them.
"This is Team 1 in the reactor room! We need immediate assistance! Unknown hostile, extremely dangerous!" The Corporal that was second in command finally made a smart decision and called in back up.
"Daniels, Peter, Jackson! Setup on the left side of the containment core! Everyone else, we'll flush this bastard out from the right. Whatever this is, they wouldn't be hiding about if they could take some fire! Move it!" The Corporal took command and put together the hastily created plan.
"Ohh Rah!" The marines called out their battle cry and raced into the valley of death. The plan wasn't a bad one, but marines hadn't ever faced an enemy quite like this one. When the Alliance forces tried to implement an attack, so did the biotic Turian.
The Turian had been stagnant in his military career, the Hierarchy not receptive to biotics in their military. He had been look over for promotions many times and when dangerous repairs needed done to the leaking eezo core of the dreadnought; he had been chosen.
Regardless, just because other Turians didn't respect his abilities didn't mean that his biotic warps any less deadly to the alliance marines. A series of Throws and Shockwaves instantly forced back the marines advancing around the right. Moving to the left side of the room, the Turian raised a barrier to halt the bullets fired by the other three marines. A glowing ball of energy in the hand of the alien signified incoming doom for the alliance marines.
"Engaging!" A light machine gun exploded into life. The gun was so powerful that the marines could feel each shot vibrating through the floor. The hail of accelerator rounds forced the biotic Turian to release his attempt at a singularity and put all his effort into maintaining his barrier. Two more guns joined in on the assault, sub machine guns that seemed to release an unimaginable number of rounds per second.
The marines, meanwhile, renewed their assault and added their own fire to that of their rescuers. The overwhelming bombardment felled the glowing mass effect barrier. The body of the Turian engineer quickly became riddled with holes, as the only thing he had on was a hazmat work suit to keep away eezo contamination.
The marines then turned to see their saviors. A massive man in matte black armor carried a light machine gun. The bright red crest of the System Alliance Special Operations Command stood out on his breast, a bird in a shield. The two other operatives, a man and a woman, were smaller and more lithe than the hulking mass carrying the machine gun. They similarly had matte black special forces armor with red SASOC emblems.
"Thanks for the assist," one of the marines said over his comms. He started scanning the room for any other threats, trying to stop gaping at the intimidating special forces.
"Yeah, that was FUBAR," joked another marine, trying to cover up the death of their comrade with humor.
"You're welcome," responded the woman. Her voice carried a soothing melody, something eerily out of place in the warzone they stood in. It was like a shiver going down your back.
"Team 4 needs assistance pushing towards the bridge. We'll finish up here," said the hulking man with the light machine gun, his gravel filed voice indicating the suggestion was actually an order.
The other operative, the small man wielding the sub machine gun, stalked over to the dead Turian. He'd already began stripping the alien of his suit.
"Uhh... Yes, Sir," stammered out the marine Corporal. He was now the highest ranking officer in the marine squad. Since the start of the boarding, the three fire teams of twelve men had been whittled down to eight. As the marines left the core room, the Corporal gave one more glimpse back. The special forces had already stuffed the alien into a body bag and were dragging it away.