Ashley Williams:

Somehow, the Hegemony had never had the pleasure of a 'official' visit from the upstanding members of Earth & Mars Coalition's, Little Army. Thirty years since first contact, and Hegemony and EMC had been performing a deadly intergalactic dance in the Skyllian Verge. Both believed the Verge only belonged to one of them. But neither had been willing to be direct about it.

"If it wasn't for the Council, we would have been here years ago. That smug trifecta uses these multi eyed face fucks as a buffer to humanity".

Major Kaidan Alenko and his friend and CO Major Ashley Williams were on their way to the first wave staging area of their aeronautic Forward Operating Base.

"10 credits says the blue-monkeys threatened to pull their dicks out.. Citadel panicked and dropped the freaks." Remarked Major Williams as she playfully punched her friends armor pauldron.

"Yup, you know damn well it was the blue monkeys. But hot damn you seen the specs for their soon to be revealed Kamikaze Class Dreadnaught Ash. I bet they declared war just to give them a proper shake down.."

"The Kamikaze's are not ships. They are a space fort with a FTL drive" Sarcastically replied Williams.


Truth be told the Batarians had been wise to leave the 'blue humans' alone. A substantial minority of upper class Laconians had undergone proto-molecule gene therapy. This charichateristcally led to blue shimmer under the skin and a unnaturally blue discoloration of the iris. This only made Laconians nobles look even more like Asari's.

Proto-therapy also lead to super intelligence, strength and durability. Some of the first Laconians to modify themselves, including Imperator Duarte, were still alive after 250 years.

A Batarian slaver abducting regular Laconian peasant citizens was a bad idea. In the past the Laconian Imperial Navy would send one, just one, of its Magnetor Class battlecruisers to the closest Batarian system. Uninvited. These 'cruisers' were considered super-dreadnaughts by Turian pre-first contact standards. At almost 1.5km they held within them 10 scimitar assault Destroyers as a start.

Laconian Cruiser Captains, who hold substantial respect and authority in imperial society, would give the warlord/president/CEO what or who ever was considered the 'political leader' an arbitrary amount of time to find the enslaved Laconians. Considerable reparations to the Imperator were also accepted. As such their were only 4 known instances of a Laconian peasant citizen being abducted by slavers.

As a point of conversation a Hegemonic Ambassador to the council had posited a hypothetical situation to his Asari handler.

"What would happen if a 'rogue slaver' somehow enslaved a proto-augmented human of Laconian citizenship?"

The Asari Ambassador without missing a beat looked him in the as many eyes as she could focus on and said

"The Matriarchs have shelved such an event as a Goddess damned galactic catastrophe."

She had made it clear. Keep Batarian slavers out of Laconian Imperial jurisdiction; or the Laconian Navy will be forced to "maintain order" within Hegemonic jurisdiction.


Perhaps, a major reason a proto-augmented human had never been abducted by slavers was because of the practical policies of the Laconian Imperial court. Imperator Duarte considered the protection of his fellow augmented class a matter of national security. As such, each proto-augmented family was guarded by a fireteam of Laconian Autonomous Military Androids; AMA's. Part machine, part proto-engineered organism, these deceptively elegant androids also serve as the basic infantry unit of the Laconian and EMC armies.

Unfortunately for the Batarians, no system is perfect. The catalyst to the conflict Kaiden and Ashley found themselves in was the enslavement of a Laconian noblewomen and her family while they were in Hegemony space.

Although the operation had been otherwise flawless. Each AMA guarding the family had been able to record and transmit their violent abduction on encrypted Laconian frequencies until their destruction.

This immediately sparked a diplomatic incident between the Laconian Empire and Batarian Hegemony. Which then by necessity drew in the interest of the Council and the EMC.

The Laconians wasted no time taking the initiative. After taking a two year public hiatus. Imperator Duarte delivered battle speech aimed at rallying the Laconian people behind their Navy. His speech ended in the traditional Laconian declaration of war. "Les Bleus has been mobilized. May fate have mercy on our enemies. For Laconia will not."

In literal minutes the protection the Citadel Council extended to the Batarians evaporated. The council faced the real possibility of Luna and Laconia uniting, the two capitals of humanities mightiest nations. With no choice the Asari pushed for policy initiative number ONE: Never take a position that will unite all or most of humanity.

Following the Laconian declaration of War. The Citadel council suspended the Batarian ambassador.


Williams and Alenko were eagerly marching towards the AMA mass staging hangar. They, like the roughly 1 thousand other humans and 10's of thousands of androids were inside of a Zion Aeronautic FOB. The massive pre-made fortifications were part refueling and resupply base part fortification. Giant quadcopters while airborne; most of the dozens of FOB's involved in the invasion of Bataak were still hovering over their Area of Operations. Safe zones had not yet been established planetside.

As N7 Army 'Operators' Ashley and Kaiden commanded 10 human 'Specialists'. Each of these specialists then controlled 10 AMAs. Major Williams could also call on several walker tanks, a couple close air support drones and a robotic mortar team; Ashley commanded a modest force capable of taking and securing a small town.

Human N7 Operators and Specialists donned self regenerative Goliath heavy combat skins, while armed with Avenger chem-rail assault cannons and Predator hand cannons. The Goliath skin also had automatic retracting shoulder mounted gatling guns. Primarily used as a point defence cannon for anything the Goliath skin couldn't nullify on its own.

Although sleek, the Goliath combat skins were by no means 'thin'.

The two operators had arrived at the final exit door. Before entering Major Williams looked over at her friend and sarcastically giggled to herself.

"A damn treaty between the EMC and Laconia is the only thing keepin the Laconians from genociding these face-fuckers. The galaxy is inside out right now Kad..."

After decades of un-answered slave raids on EMC colonies by the Batarians. The most the EMC had been able to do was stern economic finger wagging. Council protection kept the Batarians outside of direct EMC military intervention.

As a result of this perceived submission to aliens from the Citadel by EMC policy makers. Years of resentment and speciesism had birthed The Political movement Terra Firma on Earth and Mars. Heavily funded by wealthy Laconian species nationalists the political movement called for the 'eradication' of all 'threats' to humanity within the Skyllian Verge. Some pushing for what was called the "Final Solution" to ensure humanity would become and remain the demographic majority in the Verge.

Ironically, it was the Earth & Mars Coalition itself that had come to the Batarians semi rescue from complete annihilation. Thanks to treaties on 'spheres of influence' that had been signed; on the urging of the Laconians 30 years prior. These treaties carved out future territory claims of each benefactor member. As well as which benefactor faction was allowed to send her warships where. The Laconians of course claimed the entirety of the Terminus systems, while the EMC claimed the Skyllian Verge. The Empire had been loose in its interpretations of the treaty; but had never sent anything more than a pair of Cruisers into the Verge.

In backroom deals, hours after the Laconian declaration of war; the EMC delegation promised the Laconian privy council that the 'Batarians would pay' in exchange for the Laconian navy mostly staying out of the conflict.

Of course as a matter of optics it would be Laconian special forces that would perform the very public rescue of the enslaved noble family. As well as a Laconian battle group that would annex the Batarian system harboring the offending slavers. Nevertheless, as quietly agreed, the rest of the conflict would mostly be fought between the EMC and Hegemony. Laconia would keep its fleets at bay.

"Yuup. Earth and Mars effectively used the Laconians as a guard dog against the Council, so that we could devour the Batarians without having to look over our backs. Brilliant state and trade craft if you ask me Ash.." Approvingly responded Alenko.

Rolling her eyes Ashley started teasing her long time friend. "If i put on a tin foil hat i might actually believe the Laconian conspiracies…"

"What about?" Interrupted Kaiden.

"You know. That the slavers who kidnapped the blue freaks were financed by the Earth & Mars intelligence bureau..."


The staging area was filled with 5,000 androids and roughly 700 humans. Ashley had used the large hanger as her athletics track in the weeks leading up to the invasion. She had once been able to play a full six on six handball games without interrupting daily operations. Now, packed with man, synthetic men and plenty of machines, the staging hangar seemed much smaller.

Alighting in front of her mixed company of man and android Major WIlliams called them to attention

"Specialists, be briefed or be dead. XO the show is yours".

"All Raiders listen up, in less than 30 we will be landing in the slave district of Zomrat. In the southern coast of Bataaks big continent. Command has designated it Gamma sector."

Just then, all 110 or so soldiers and androids under the command of Raider 1-1 began seeing a visual representation of the brief over their HUDs.

A large topographical map of the southern region of Bataak's largest continent was littered with dozens of blue rectangles on mostly one side. While red rectangles mostly littered a small corner of the opposite side. Some of the rectangles were over seemingly random patches of dirt. While several tended to be concentrated over cities.

The presentation zoomed to focus on just one of the blue rectangles in one of Bataak's coastal cities. White letters suddenly became visible. They clearly spelled GAMMA over the blue rectangle.

"GAMMA will be our area of operations until the Zion FOB can land in BILBAO sector. Our primary objective is to destroy what's left of Hegemony military capabilities in this district. Secondary to capture all high ranking slavers. Tertiary objective is to neutralize as many potential 'resistors' as possible. We are cancelling any insurgency before it happens Specialists."

As Major Alenko spoke the image flashed from Batarian anti-air installations still believed to be hidden in the district, as well as what appeared to be Batarian biotics teams on street patrols. The image then flashed to portrait pictures of some of the wealthier Batarians. Each was given a corresponding card in a poker deck for easy identification. To humans, Batarians are almost indistinguishable from one another. Therefore VIT Batarians had to be identified using computer assisted facial recognition and an easy to remember deck of cards for quick ID.

"Any Batarian that was not a slave is to be treated as hostile. Any Batarian slave that doesn't look broken, is to be treated as hostile. All other slaves are to be treated with extreme caution. Remember folks you are not Human Engagement Teams… you are mother fuckin N7 shock troops. You are here to kick ass and kick more ass."

The brief then shifted to a light hearted popular N7 satirical meme. It showed two EMC 'soldiers' one man one women in colorful non standard EMC dress uniform. They were hugging children and giving out free things to helpless looking Batarians.

"Enough of that all-beings matter shit." Shouted a random N7 Shock trooper.

Without dropping a beat Alenko finished the briefing

"Raiders, let the H.E.S come in and do the "liberatin'. That's not your job. Your job is to secure that shit out of GAMMA. Do not interact with the slaves; leave that to the care-bears.. You have all been assigned your sub-sectors. Have your AMA's do the heavy lifting… watch your backs. End of brief." Alenko took a step back and nodded at Williams.

Ashley nodded back and addressed the troops. "All right Raiders you have your assignments. Load up into your drop pods! See you in hell!"

All 100 or so men and machine under Major Ashley Williams command snapped to one direction and began loading onto Heavy drop ships.

Ashley smiled to herself. That meant she was nervous. Although She had been in combat situations, those had been small isolated 'diplomatic' conflicts. No operation outside of training had prepared her for something as large scale as a planetary invasion.

As soon as Major Williams and her company were airborne, her G-Force tracker lit up her HUD. She now had operational permission to see objectives and threats in or close to her AO. All of this information was overlaid in her vision. She was looking at the symbols through the floor of her drop ship.

"Major, I guess this is how it begins?" Kaiden said on his private channel to Ashley.

"I guess so Kad, never really done a planetary invasion before… Buckle up. I'll see you on the other side."