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Sol System, Near Pluto.
10:30 hours GMT
Captain Hackett was personally terrified as he sat in the command seat of the XNV - Last Order, the first of humanity's new super battleships.
The order had only come down two hours ago across fleet wide comms from THE Commander of X-COM that the human colony of Shanxi had gone dark after a brief distress signal, everyone was on edge. And then the mobilization orders came through for Hackett to take the Commander's personal flagship along with three full fleets to Shanxi to subdue whatever alien threat was there.
As he attempted to put on a cool exterior to his crew as they prepared for their warp jump to Shanxi, Hackett couldn't help but tremble with nervousness and anticipation. He hadn't even been born until after the Ethereals had been defeated, so this would be his first real engagement, and he couldn't help but realize it was the same for much of the fleets' crews.
Still, as he looked towards the command crew, he gave the necessary order with as solid a voice as possible after his XO Anderson gave him a slight nod of approval.
"Navigation, give the fleets the order to jump."
OoOoO
Orbit Over Shanxi.
10:30 hours GMT.
Captain Adrien Victus stood upon the bridge of his destroyer, considering his double edged luck as a lieutenant brought him a list of overall casualty figures for the patrol group he was now in charge of.
Only two hours ago, though it now seemed like weeks, the Commodore had been leading their patrol group past Relay 314 when scans had picked up a ship of unknown design attempting to activate the relay. Kicking this information up the Turian chain of command given it was a potential first contact situation, the Commodore had received orders direct from the Primarch himself to prevent the activation of the relay, and failing that, to subjugate the race on the other end of the 314 Relay.
And oh spirits how did that go Adrien considered as he looked at the tactical display, watching the melted, burned, and shattered remains of the Turian cruiser Flag Bearer drift above the smoking hole that had been the alien's fortress on the garden world below.
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Flashback
"All ships, assume formation and prepare for combat. We may have taken care of the ship at the relay easily enough but we don't know what's waiting for us here," the Commodore ordered over the fleet wide comms.
"Commodore, we have a garden world, three planets from the star, that's likely where the alien ship came from. Scans detect numerous small objects in orbit," the turian at sensors had reported.
"Alright, jump to just outside the planet's orbit and then approach at one half flank speed," the Commodore ordered.
There was a brilliant blue shift as the Turian patrol group accelerated into FTL before reappearing back into normal space a million kilometers distant from the garden world. As one, they reoriented and picked up speed and and accelerated towards the world, confident in their capabilities.
Confident that the primitives on the world below wouldn't be able to stand up to their might.
OoOoO
X-COM SHANXI, Shanxi colony
"Colonel, the unknowns just vanished from the vicinity of the relay and are now one million klicks and closing," the sensors officer reported from his post, a tinge of nervousness in his voice as he spoke.
"Alright everybody, you know the drill," Colonel Richard Tobius called out in a gravelly voice as he looked over the X-Ray's deployment, "There are civilians that need to be protected and we are humanity's sword and shield so let's get ready. Have all four fighters prep for launch and ready the Fusion Lance for firing, target that big bastard at the back of their battle group. Don't make any moves until we know they can't get out of the way. We're pinned to the ground so we'll only get one shot at this."
A veteran of the Ethereal war Tobius knew what he walking talking about, and his steadiness in the face of this new threat was exactly what his people needed.
"Comms, have the X-Rays attempted to hail us at all?" The Colonel called out.
"No sir, hyperwave has detected ship-to-ship chatter but nothing directed towards us."
Closing his eyes for a moment and then sighing, Colonel Richard Tobius uttered the words he hoped never to have to say. "Very well. Then by the communication silence these aliens have maintained, their aggressive posturing, and the disappearance of our scout and her crew beyond the relay, I am here by declaring a hostile first contact scenario. Engineering and the labs are to hear by purge all files and documents under WHITE GLOVE contingency under the chance that we are going to be invaded. All functional prototypes and samples are to be destroyed as well and all troops are to go to combat readiness level one," he declared.
Instantly the normal white lighting of the base was replaced with emergency red as klaxons began to blare and blast doors started to close.
"Colonel, unknowns have crossed the five hundred thousand mark," the sensor officer called loudly to get the Colonel's attention, looking more alive in the red lighting than he ever had before...and more frightened.
"Very well, charge the Fusion Lance and fire it as soon as it's ready. Launch out missiles as soon as the enemy is in range and as soon as our fighters are in the air," Tobius called out.
OoOoO
Flag Bearer, Approaching Shanxi, less than 500,000 kilometers
"Commodore, massive energy build up from the center of the city!" The sensor officer called out.
"Put it on screen now!" The commodore demanded, and indeed was immediately rewarded.
What the screen showed was a dramatic zoom-in of what had previously a twenty-five meter tall skyscraper lined with teeth on the inside that had now tilted to point directly at the Turian battle group approaching the garden world as a venomous green glow built at the base of the prongs within a blue core of light.
"Evasive maneuvers! All ships break formation!" The Commodore shouted in desperation, however it was already too late.
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The Turian cruiser Flag Bearer, lead ship of the battle group had been targeted by a MK VIII Ground-to-Space Fusion Lance which functioned much like the fusion lances equipped to fighters in the Ethereal War, only a magnitude larger and it used Mass Effect technology to introduce a horrifying new realm of speed to the shot.
The teardrop shaped bolt of lime green plasma crossed the intervening 465,737 kilometers in barely a split second to hit the cruiser. Had the ship not been maneuvering the round would have gutted it stem to stern, but as it was, the Flag Bearer had been attempting to pull up and away from the shot so the bolt splashed across the belly, hardly even being noticed by the cruiser's kinetic barriers as the tremendous heat of the plasma boiled away the Turian hull plate like a thin sheet of plastic under a blowtorch.
The bolt continued melting through the hull till it passed through the CIC and then out the top while it eventually hit the reactor inside, turning the ship into a giant fireworks show as the blast sent scrap tumbling amongst its brethren.
The Fusion Lance, however, would take thirty seconds to recharge.
OoOoO
Adrien Victus was silent in shock. For a matter of fact, so was the entirety of his bridge crew. Closing, opening, and then closing his mouth like a fish, Adrien attempted to mentally collect himself before he began shouting orders.
"Comms get a line to all remaining ships!" He shouted, "Weapons, get a firing solution on the source of that shot and fire as soon as possible. Pass that order along to the other ships. Navigation, continue evasive maneuvers and get us as close as possible, I don't want them to have an easy time hitting us!"
Within seconds, Adrien could feel his destroyer accelerate beneath him, rocking and twisting as it shot towards the planet before a massive thud resounded through the hull as the main gun fired.
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Colonel Tobius wore a vicious smile as he watched the largest of the X-Ray vessels detonate under the hit of the Fusion Lance in spectacular fireball. The rest of the group was taking evasive actions, but were still easy targets.
"Launch the Firestorms! Have all missile tubes on automatic! Brace for return-" Tobius began to bark out before being cut off by the sensor officer.
"INCOMING!"
The entire base had a scant half second to brace themselves before a quartet of rounds struck down upon the base, one after the other though their was some variance in the timing between them.
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The kinetic barriers over X-COM Shanxi flared furiously with the repeated impacts, burning a brilliant, electric blue as the shrugged off the first round, the second, then the third and fourth before fading from view to leave nothing but a slight haze over the city as the vaporized remains of the slugs from orbit dispersed into the air, burned off by their kinetic energy being converted to heat in their sudden halt. This was the second warning the remaining citizens of Shanxi had to flee to the bunkers, to join those who had already gone and fled to the massive facilities built around the outskirts of the developing city.
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"No damage on target, Captain," the sensor officer reported, a minor waver in his tone. It was only minor now, and had fallen dramatically from when the Flag bearer had been destroyed. With someone in charge, the turians were moving and obeying as they were trained to, and on the inside, despite what he was facing, Adrien couldn't help but smile at the reliability of his soldiers.
"All ships, continue to fire, we don't know how long that weapon will take to recharge and we have to destroy it before then," he ordered, filling his voice with steel as he spoke over the commander's channel.
"Sir, we have fighter sized contacts coming up from the surface," the sensor officer warned suddenly.
Instantly Adrien felt his blood run cold. If those fighters were armed with energy weapons like that ground based cannons, they could tear apart the battle group, instantly a meager little countermeasure came into his mind, an insane one, but a counter measure none-the-less. It was against everything taught in Turian Military training, but he needed to slow down those fighters if he couldn't destroy them outright before dealing with the ground based defenses.
"Deploy the fighters and interceptors to meet those fighters! As soon as they are engaged, deploy all shuttles to get into the furball! Have them just get in there and fly around to confuse the pilots, we need them delayed as much as possible!" He shouted.
There was a split second hesitation from the comms officer and confusion on the face of his tactics officer, but comprehension dawned on the latter's face before orders quickly went out and two or three fighters and and a matching set of interceptors left each ship to fly head on into the quartet of sleek, ovoid fighters streaking up from the surface.
Within moments, both groups had become entangled in a ferocious furball, already six of the turian light craft destroyed in small nebula like explosions. It was at this point that nearly two dozen shuttles, armed only with light, forward firing mass accelerators, shot from the remaining ships to join into the fray, further harassing the four fighter craft.
Adrien would have been thrilled with the success of his tactic at stopping the fighters at the mid ground, halfway between himself and the planet, but he was betting that the weapon down below was getting ready to fire again, and that left him desperately torn.
He could split the fleet apart and to make them as hard to target as possible, but leave them at the mercy of the alien fighters if they chose to break away from the furball and make a run. Or he could concentrate them together for shelter, but cut down their ability to dodge and leave them easy for that ground based gun to target.
In the end he decided to keep them relatively close together, feeling that was the wisest decision.
OoOoO
Beneath the surface of Shanxi
Colonel Tobius grimaced as the kinetic barriers of X-COM Shanxi continued to drain beneath the barrage of shells coming from the ships in orbit, listening to the deep, bass like beat of the impacts far above that still resonated through the air and into the planet below.
"How long on the Fusion Lance?" he queried, a touch urgently.
"Another eight seconds, sir," the weapons officer replied.
Tobius couldn't help but grimace. The firestorms were stuck in a tremendous snarl of single ships that had been released by the X-Rays and even though they were quickly cutting them down, they were too preoccupied to pull away and go after the enemy ships. Worse the vessels weren't in range yet of the ground based plasma missile batteries which would have made short work of them.
After several more seconds of intense pounding on the city's kinetic barriers, Tobius got the message he needed.
"Fusion Lance ready to fire."
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Holding at just under four hundred and seventy thousand klicks from the planet, Adrien watched with a growing coldness in his gut as Turian fighters and interceptors were picked off one by one till all of a sudden the furball seemed to disperse slightly, leaving him momentarily puzzled before his sensor officer began to shout something, only for the Serviceman, his own Destroyer's sister ship to disappear in a venomous green flash to the right before being over whelmed by the blue flare of a mass effect core detonation.
Captain Adrien couldn't have been more horrified by the results as he felt the ship beneath him lurch from another shell being launched towards the planet.
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Tobius's narrowed eyes flickered with pleasure as he watched the left most of the two remaining medium sized ships explode, leaving behind only what he'd guess were frigates and the the slightly larger destroyer firing them.
Still, it was a hopeless situation and he knew it. The instant the kinetic barriers fell, the base would likely be destroyed in only a few shots. For while an X-COM facility could certainly survive a nuclear detonation of several time what these alien's weapons provided, the issue came in that all of the problem came from the fact that this was several dozen kilotons focused into not even a quarter meter of area.
Their guns would cut through their armor like butter in just a few shots.
OoOoO
Adrien's crew gave a small cheer as one of the ovoid alien fighters detonated in a ball of nuclear fire, leaving only three of the machines to be dealt with as his ships struggled to drop the kinetic barriers over the fortress below. Unfortunately, he couldn't bring himself to join in the cheer, already knowing the price it had cost just to destroy that one fighter. Nearly half of his battle group's fighters, interceptors, and shuttles were destroyed, their pilots floating in the cold embrace of space after their craft had been hit by a miniaturized version of that weapon firing at them from the ground.
"Sensors, which ship is that gun tracking now?" Adrien called out, working to figure out his next strategy. Without any knowledge on the strength of his enemy's kinetic fields, he was almost fighting blind, and he needed whatever vessel that was going to be shot at to do its best to dodge.
Only the reply he got made his blood run cold.
"Us, sir,"
OoOoO
"Colonel, our barriers will collapse within the next twenty seconds," one of Tobius's officers called from their position, engineering he remembered, as panic began to show in his voice and face.
"Steady son. We are X-COM and we will do our duty, so calm down. Weapons, make sure that the Fusion Lance is ready to fire and does so. Also ensure that all missiles are in automatic mode to target all craft not bearing human IFFs. Even if they take out this base, we won't make it easy on them," Tobius said calmly.
A small red alert flashed across the main display saying 'Automatic Mode Engaged' as he gave an honest smile before speaking up as he said over the comms, "Ladies and gentlemen, it has been an honor serving with you."
A quarter of a second later, in the silence of the X-COM Shanxi base, an alert flashed indicating the kinetic barriers had failed before the Fusion Lance then fired and a second later a half a dozen slugs from the ships in orbit obliterated CIC and continued on down into the base.
OoOoO
Captain Victus watched in trepidation as a second alien fighter exploded along with half his remaining single craft, leaving him heaving in suspense as he looked at the real monster of the fight, the enourmous energy weapon sitting on the planet down below.
"All personnel in the shuttle bay are to here by evacuate or prepare to be vented during emergency manuevers," Adrien suddenly called over comm lines. A new idea had occurred to him on how to possibly avoid the shot from monster of a gun on the planet, even as they continued to fire at the kinetic barriers protecting it.
If he succeeded he would get a medal and maybe even a promotion. If he failed...well he'd be dead but his family would be shamed.
"Sensors, the instant, that gun fires, vent the shuttle bay and put the engines into reverse," got it?" He ordered, shunting the proper commands to the officer's console.
There was another nod, less hesitation this time than last, as the officer prepared to execute his orders.
"All hands brace for emergency manuevers," he ordered.
Three seconds later, all sorts of hell broke loose everyone seemed to shout at once.
"Their barriers are down!"
"They've fired!"
"Venting bay!"
"Firing!"
Adrien nearly found himself thrown into and over the command console in front of him as his destroyer suddenly slowed dramatically, even by mass effect standards.
The lime green bolt of energy, which would have crashed into their nose, instead passed slightly beneath the ship, grazing the underside of both of the wing shaped assembles at the rear of the ship, melting and deforming them like a wax statue left out on a hot day.
Realizing they were still alive, Victus looked down at the surface of the planet below him to see a rapidly expanding mushroom cloud of duat and dirt before something else grabbed his attention.
Having noticed the destruction of their base, the two remaining fighters had given up on the furball and were making runs on a nearby frigate, leaving the fighters in their dust as they shot forward.
"Get the guardian system online!" Someone shouted.
"It is, they're not dying!"
Adrien cursed himself as the pair of fighters tore chunks out of the frigate before one of them finally exploded, followed in short order by the other one.
As the room quieted, Captain Adrien Victus, impromptu commander of the turian battle group was suddenly aware of just how warm the bridge was.
"Make ready to take on wounded, start on all possible repairs and send a message to high command requesting reinforcements. I'll be preparing a report for them as soon as possible," Adrien said quietly, "Once we've recovered the dead, pull us out to an even 500,000 kilometers distant."
With that, Adrien retired from the bridge and headed for his cabin. He was sure he had some ale stashed away somewhere to steady his nerves.
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So there's the new chapter and I hope you all enjoyed it. Explanations to some of the reviews will actually come during the next few chapters as X-COM learns what happened.