3025 C.E

Coalition Task Force Omega

CSS Annihilator

Enroute to Aephus

When a ship engaged its fold-drive, encapsulating itself in a bubble of space-time that contracted and thrashed around, propelling the ship at speeds exceeding the speed of light, the only thing that could be seen was...nothing.

The vid-screen displayed nothing but an endless expanse of utter darkness, pitch-black and devoid of any features. There was no streaking stars, or hazy blue glow as shown in the ancient science fiction films; there was only the dark. Much like how sound could never catch up to a supersonic aircraft, when traveling at 40,000 times the speed of light, there was simply no way that light from an object could reach a ship.

Fortunately, the laws of physics still behaved normally within the space-time bubble, and thus, a dim glow came out from the many lights dotting the Annihilator's hull, making sure that not all of the ship was consumed in unyielding darkness. It was on these lights that Commodore Ulysses focused on; the view of lights within darkness soothed him, reminding him that even in the darkest hours, hope and couraged still burned away like a bright flame. In the darkest hours of the Combine invasion of the Vortigaunt homeworld and the occupation of Earth, it was the actions of a few brave individuals that brought hope to the survivors. And now, those flames of hope that the resistors had ignited had grew into a raging inferno, hell-fire ready to devour the Combine.

Ulysses was one of the few Vortigaunt naval officers within the Coalition Navy. It wasn't because of any prejudice or xenophobia on part of the Coalition that prevented more Vortigaunts from joining; rather, it was because that only a few vortigaunts had any inclination towards joining navy. Most vortigaunts, with their skills at high-energy physics and science, were employed by applied science and research companies, primarily the government funded Aperture Science; others were enlisted within the Coalition's ground army and intelligence corps, invaluable as support units and indispensable as infiltrators with their mental connection to the rest of the vortigaunt race. The notion of commanding starships simply didn't appeal to them.

But to Ulysses, there was nothing more romantic or noble than to be in command of an imposing warship, sailing through the empty vacuum of interstellar space, seeing worlds and stars that living eyes had never laid upon; indeed, it was his greatest desire to simply commandeer a ship and set out into uncharted space, never returning to the Coalition. Unfortunately, Coalition exploration policy was very clear regarding manned exploration of uncharted space: it was strictly forbidden and punishable by life-long imprisonment. Most exploration was conducted by automated nanoprobes, that relayed their data back to the nearest comm station. A rather unfortunate obstacle in Ulysse's dream.

Come to think of it, all Coalition citizens had a rather limited number of career paths; namely applied sciences and engineering, the military, politics and law, and medicine. The arts were practically non-existent, deemed by the central government as "non-productive during times of war or crises"; the last major pieces of art were the few that had survived the Combine occupation of Earth over 1000 years ago. With the discovery of the Prothean archives and the mass relays, the Coalition government had declared a perpetual state of war until it could be confirmed that the Combine threat was over; its entire population had been devoted into creating more destructive and efficient weapons of war.

And the government! The government controlled all the vital industries necessary to any space-faring civilization; transportation, food, mining, energy, industrial processes, research and development, the teleportation bureau, all were under the strict control of the government. The few private companies that existed only had control over non-important business, namely entertainment and private vehicles. In short, the government had absolute control over the Coalition; the government had stated before that this was to prevent the faults of the capitalist societies of old, and to focus the Coalition's industry towards that of war and defense, but Ulysses had his misgivings. Even though the government had been kept in check by various laws, safeguards, and the general population, Ulysses still believed that the possibility of corruption within the government was too high.

Ulysses wasn't the only one who had misgivings about the government. Insurrectionists and rebellions had plagued the Coalition ever since its foundation, wanting a more libertarian policy and a return to the old ways, attacking outposts and automated shipyards and manufacturing centers from hidden bases ; more and more resources had to be diverted away to combat them. Ulysses himself had been a veteran of more than 20 combat operations against the insurrectionists.

His musings were interrupted by the ship's navigation AI, reporting that the fleet would reach their destination in less than 5 minutes, and that the maintenance of the FTL converters had been completed. While highly efficient and durable as it was, the fold-drive was not without its flaws. When travelling for long periods of time or at incredibly high velocities, a collection of high-energy particles and lethal doses of radiation would collect at the front of the space-time "bubble" the fold-drive created; if not dispersed immediately, any object s in front of a ship that was reverting back to real-space would be instantly annihilated in a shower of tachyonic particles, or the buildup would be so great, that the bubble would collapse, and the ship would be atomized. Because of this, all FTL-capable ships were equipped with FTL converters, devices that would convert the buildup of energy and particles into useful energy, storing them into large energy sinks aboard the ship; this greatly helped extend the range and velocity of FTL ships. The Annihilator's FTL converters had been malfunctioning since the beginning of the transit, increasing the risk of a catastrophic failure, or at worst, complete annihilation of a star system.

Their objective was simple. Eliminate all enemy fleets and orbital defenses, deploy their arks, before moving on to the next star system, with the goal of neutralizing all combine-held factory worlds, and if possible, locating their main base of operations. If the element of speed and surprise was to be kept, the fleet could not provide any orbital support to their ground troops; they would have to move on immediately, leaving their ground and air units to fend for themselves, which would mean that there would be no orbital support. Ulysses had been in favour of simply bombarding the planets until their crusts were molten rock and metal, but the military council had opted for a surface invasion, in the hopes of capturing manufacturing facilities and Combine technology.

The navigation AI once again appeared before him, reminding him that the fleet would revert back into real space in less than 2 minutes.

Ulysses snapped to attention. "Charge all weapon batteries, and have FleetCom on standby." he ordered "Activate all defensive measures. Prepare to engage, and shield our PAC and Carriers."

The warp bubbles surrounding the ship's of the fleet dropped down, allowing light from a distant star to reach the ships. Using his nano-augmented awareness, Ulysses was instantly able to discern the features of a blue green planet illuminated by the starlight, parts of it's skies and surfaces choked with fire and smoke from factories.

Ulysses frowned. Combine factories had been remarkably clean and efficient, as demonstrated during the occupation of Earth and the invasion of the Vortigaunt's home universe; instead, while the sky and surface had been clear of smog and smoke, great chunks of land had been ripped out to feed the factories, while oceans had been drained by super-portals. Additionally, nano forges and femto-manipulators produced virtually no waste products, and certainly not the pollution that had plagued the factories of old. The planet in front of him bore more resemblance to a world stuck in the age of mechanical processing, reliant on extreme heat and pressures to fuse and forge metals. The planet below them did not bear any resemblance to a Combine factory world.

In less than a millisecond, his attention had been diverted to that of a defense fleet, locked in geosynchronous orbit above the planet, their bows pointing towards a mass relay in the distant. Once again, Ulysses frowned mentally; he had heard of Captain William's report that his encounter with the Combine had been with ships no longer than a kilometer, but he had always assumed that that was a recon force. The planetary defense fleet in front of him consisted of no more than 20 800-meter ships, accompanied by 38 200-meter long frigates. To put such a small amount ships as a defensive fleet for a factory-world off all things, with not even a single dreadnought to reinforce them was unlike the Combine.

But Ulysses had his orders, and attempting to disobey those orders would result in a charge of high treason or execution. Even so, he had an inkling feeling that this attack would be a very very bad mistake.

He didn't have much time to think anymore, as the Coalition fleet sprung into action, executing a well-known tactic: the blitzkrieg. Well not precisely the same as the tactic used by ancient Germany during the Second World War, the modern blitzkrieg was still devastating, used thousands of times by the Coalition military.

In the bowels of the nuclear cannons mounted onto every dreadnought and artillery ship, chunks of frozen deuterium were suddenly struck by hundreds of high-powered lasers, creating a nuclear fusion detonation. The explosion was then frozen and confined by tesla-field strength magnetic fields, accelerated down a barrel, before being propelled by into empty space. As the magnetic bottle began to weaken, the nuclear fire within expanded, before at last the bottle fell apart, and the nuclear explosion blossomed into a fireball of destruction, vaporizing at least 20 ships.

Then from the center of the fleet, a black swarm emerged. Thousands of AI controlled fighters and hundreds of manned-interceptors took off from their carriers, bright exhaust trails flowing from their plasma thrusters, illuminated by the blue glow of dark energy weaponry, as the cruisers and dreadnoughts opened fire with their main batteries; following them were packs upon packs of missiles, loaded with voracious nano-swarms, terror-drones, plasma warheads, warp bombs, and cluster missiles. Meanwhile, wolfpacks of frigates darted in and out, using their speed and agility to avoid harm while firing torpedoes and dark energy beams.

The Combine ships reacted with surprising speed, turning to point their bows towards the Coalition fleet. Bright flashes of light punctuated the darkness, as kinetic rounds travelling at 2% the speed of light sped towards the Coalition ships every 2 seconds, disintegrating against disrupter shields. However, as the Combine ships began to focus their fire on specific ships, Ulysses began to receive reports of shield failures, hull breaches, or even total ship destruction. In a nanosecond, Ulysses had sent out an order, telling his more vulnerable ships to fall behind the dreadnoughts and allow the dreadnoughts to shield them.

However, before the Combine ships could inflict more damage, the first salvos of fire from the Coalition ships impacted against the Combien vessels, easily bypassing their kinetic barriers before dissolving their hulls. Following closely behind were missiles and fighters, which proceeded to mob the enemy ships in large clouds, picking away at their defenses. It was really a vicious cycle, for there was no way the Combine could focus on two threats at once: either the Combine ships had to divert their attention to the fighters swarming them, or focus on the capital ships bombarding them and risk being picked apart by the fighters. Ship after ship quickly succumbed to the intensity of the attack.

Ulysses casually selected several Combine ships, ordering his fighters to merely disable them. Promptly, bombers swooped down upon them, deploying shield-piercing missiles; the missiles, using their limited teleportation capabilities, quickly scanned their surrounding area before teleporting behind the Combine's kinetic barriers, before quickly accelerating and ramming into their hulls. The missiles opened to reveal their payload of nano-swarms and terror drones, that immediately spread out across the ships. Screams of pain and agony could be heard aboard the Combine vessels, as the nano-swarms rapidly devoured any organic tissue aboard, while terror drones hacked into computer systems, shutting down life support, opening air locks, venting oxygen, and mercilessly butchering opponents with their plasma cutters and saws. Once the crew were dead, the drones deactivated, allowing easy recovery of the disabled Combine vessels.

The engagement was over within minutes. Even though several more Coalition ships had succumbed to concentrated kinetic fire, the Combine ships had been unable to withstand the massive barrage of fire that came their way, and was utterly decimated. While recovery drones moved in to recover the disabled Combine, the rest of the fleet turned towards the orbital defense platforms surrounding the planet; they were promptly destroyed by combined fire. Overall, Ulysses was quite pleased with the battle; the only casualties had been several light frigates and a cruiser, along with a small amount of fighters. Not bad at all for an engagement against the Combine.

The Coalition fleet glided through the wreckage of the battlefield, parking themselves in a geostationary orbit above one of the planet's oceans. In the middle of the fleet, large, torus shaped ships-planetary assault carriers moved into position, their teleports roaring to life. Down below on the planet's ocean, there was a bright flash of light, as several hexagonal-shaped objects with round protrusions appeared just above the ocean's surface, before settling down gently on the water. They sat there like that for a moment, before slowly descending below the water.

High above in space, the Coalition fleet was seen streaking away towards the stars, as they moved onto the next world.

3025 C.E

Planet Aephus

Turian Planetary Defense Command

"Nothing?"

The aid shook his head. "Absolutely nothing. They annihilated our defense fleet, smashed through our orbital defenses, and then left. No dropships, no transports, no surface invasion. They just left."

Commander Victus looked at his aid, his mandibles spread out in confusion. "Are you absolutely sure?"

"Positive sir. Scans show nothing in orbit or within the atmosphere. They simply left."

"But why?" Victus asked. "Our defenses were shattered; they held orbital supremacy. The logical step would be to attempt an invasion of our surface."

"I don't know." the aid replied. "But just to be prepared, I have ordered all our forces on high alert, and evacuated all civilians to designated safe zones."

"Including that archaeological team?"

"Including them as well."

"Can we send a message back to Palaven?" Victus inquired hopefully. "Ask for more reinforcements."

"No sir." the aid replied negatively. "Before leaving, our attackers jammed our communications; we were lucky enough to send of that distress signal. We could send a courier drone through the relay, but it might take days to reach Palaven."

"Do that then." he ordered. "As soon as possible."

Victus eased back into his chair, weary and exhausted. "Who attacked us?" he asked. "They didn't use the relay to arrive, they didn't use kinetic barriers or mass accelerators, their initial assault force possessed more dreadnoughts than all of the Turian navy, and we only managed to take down some of their lighter frigates and cruisers. So tell me, who attacked us."

"I don't know sir. But we should be thankful that they left, rather than pursuing their attack."

At that precise moment, a comm officer burst into Victus's command center. "Commander, 3 of our military-industrial complexes are reporting that they are under attack. They are suffering heavy casualties and are requesting reinforcements."

Victus's jaw dropped. "What!" he exclaimed, running towards the tactical displays. "But scans aren't picking up any unknown air or orbital signatures! How is this possible! Explain you fool!"

"Sir, they aren't attacking from the air or from orbit. They're attacking from the sea."

Victus's stared at the officer for a good solid minute before sinking back into his chair.

"Well, fuck."

A/N: Well things are heating up here, and now the Coalition fleet is advancing deeper into Turian territory. This can't be good can it?

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