Hey my faithful readers! I've played Mass Effect for the PS3 and it's super fun! I can't wait for ME3 to come out, I will be so happy! So, let's all congratulate my new beta Amymimi for her wonderful job editing all the small errors from my work so that you can better enjoy the material! And so, without further ado, I give you my latest chapter =D

Fawkes shifted his position in the pilot's seat as his squadron zoomed off towards their next mission. Command on the ground wanted a second front in the northwestern part of Dhazil. Raven squadron would be partnering with ground forces for the opening stages of the assault, focused mainly on close-air support. On top of that, each of their gunships had an YMIR mech ready to be deployed into the combat zone. "Everyone check in, make sure you're ready to deploy your package," Fawkes ordered.

"Raven Two, package secure and clamps green," Mac's gravely tone assured him.

"Raven Three, my back end is too heavy. I can't fly too well," Shawna complained.

"Thanks for stating the obvious," Fawkes responded quickly, "but I was talking about the mech."

"Uh- Raven Four here," Colin quickly interrupted what was sure to have been an angry retort from Shawna. "I can maneuver just fine, but it makes me nervous that we're carrying all these munitions."

"Don't worry Colin, I'm sure you'll avoid enemy fire long enough to see your charge safely… into the combat zone. Anyways, how are you doing, Raven Five?"

"Ready to deploy when ordered," Seranni replied calmly.

"Okay guys, here's how things will go down. We are flying support for our armies on the ground. They'll light up targets for us. It's our job both to keep the airspace in corporate hands, as well as make sure they can penetrate the city's outer defenses."

"How will we divide up the targets if there's more than one?" Seranni asked.

"Understood," the asari responded. "What do our forces look like?"

"We're protecting an entire company, complete with armor support and an artillery battery. Reinforcements will come pending a successful assault. Infantry units will follow behind the frontal armor assault in APCs."

The squadron was silent after that, each gunship keeping its own counsel about the coming battle. Fawkes was optimistic: he knew what his squadron could do. He wasn't worried about losing anyone on this mission.

Before too long, the rally point for the assault was below Raven Squadron. Tracy whistled appreciatively at the size of the force they were escorting. Rows of tanks, mobile artillery batteries, and APCs were lined up in combat formation. Near the rear, the commanding officer's personal tactical vehicle was surrounded by anti personnel, armor, and aircraft weaponry. In all, it was pretty intimidating. "Gotta love a corporate budget," he praised as Fawkes took his gunship low overhead.

"If you're so enamored with a tank, request a transfer," his pilot retorted.

The gunner shook his head and sighed. "I need to be here to save you from certain destruction. I wouldn't be able to sleep well at night knowing you were in danger and I wasn't here to protect you."

Fawkes rolled his eyes. "I'm touched," he replied sarcastically.

"I was talking to the ship," Tracy stated in a serious voice.

Fawkes' bitter retort died in his throat as the gunship's VI beeped. A grizzled old colonel's voice spoke into the cockpit. "Is your squadron ready, captain? We're all set to move out."

"Let's kick some ass," Fawkes responded, turning his gunship around and boosting toward Dhazil. Raven Squadron formed up behind him, and on the ground below the mechanized force roared to life. Line upon line of armor and firepower shot forward, following the Ravens into combat.

"City's coming up," Mac warned. A moment later, he banked to the left, avoiding a long-range artillery shell. "Lucky shot," he stated to a concerned captain.

"Ground command to air support, copy?"

The colonel's voice already sounded urgent. If he was losing his cool this early in the battle, Fawkes wondered how good of a commander he was. "Raven One at your service," he replied.

"We're tagging some artillery pieces our spotters have found inside the city proper. Take care of them for us before we're torn apart down here." A moment later, Fawkes' viewport lit up with red ticks, signifying enemy units. "Confirm you see the targets Raven One."

"Targets confirmed. Raven Squadron, engage and destroy indicated enemy artillery and other targets of opportunity." There were about a dozen enemies on screen, but they were all in groups. So Fawkes picked a cluster at random and accelerated. "Ready, Tracy?" he asked his gunner.

Tracy flexed his fingers against the grips on the trigger. "Sure am. Let's finish this before nightfall this time." There were three artillery pieces before the Warrior Queen. They were holed up on top of a building that had a commanding view of the city outskirts and surrounding countryside. Fawkes took the gunship in high, above their accurate firing range. Once directly above them, he pointed the ship downward and hit the throttle. Tracy opened fire with the mass accelerator cannon, ripping through one of the big guns and its attending operators. The other two he destroyed with well-placed rockets. Fawkes leveled out the gunship just before it struck the building and shot back towards the advancing army.

"Too flashy?" Fawkes asked his gunner.

Tracy shook his head. "Watch Raven Three." Fawkes turned to see the Heartbreaker ram an artillery battery head on, smashing it to pieces and sending the operators leaping off of their perch for their lives. He sighed and spun his gunship to look for more targets. Any that remained were in the process of being destroyed by his squadron.

"Raven One to ground command. Artillery destroyed, mission accomplished."

"Good work, Raven Squadron. Hold above our current position and await further orders." Raven Squadron formed up above the Corporate force as it continued advancing towards Dhazil. There was no State resistance as they continued to advance, and before too long the front rank of tanks was less than a mile away from the city limits.

"Scout to ground command, scout to ground command! We have State tanks advancing down the main thoroughfare. They've brought out an entire battalion!" Fawkes could already see them, a thick grey-green line of vehicles pouring out of the city to meet the advancing corporate forces.

The colonel cussed loudly into the mic, then started firing off orders. The APCs would slow and divert to a secondary objective away from the fighting. The tanks would form up and attempt to smash through the front rank of the enemy and move into the city, where the numerical advantage would count for less. They would be supported by a determined artillery barrage and dedicated air support.

Already, targets were lighting up for Fawkes' squadron. The captain was spouting off orders of his own. "Ravens Two and Four follow the APCs. Ravens Three and Five start smashing a hole in those tanks!"

"What about you?" Shawna demanded angrily as she angled towards the rapidly advancing State tanks.

"I'm going officer hunting," the captain responded as he took the gunship high above the rest of the battle. Below, the first lines of tanks were opening fire, and Fawkes' gunship squadron was beginning to strafe the enemy forces.

"Fawkes, what's officer hunting?" Tracy asked, curious.

"We find whoever is leading this tank division and fill him with rockets," the pilot replied. They were coming over the next rank of tanks. He scanned the vehicles below, but saw nothing that looked like a command vehicle. For their part, the vorcha and krogan below wasted no time opening fire on the lone gunship above them. Fawkes took the Warrior Queen around a building to avoid a barrage of mass accelerator fire, then safely ascended above the weapon's accurate firing range.

"We should've just shot them," Tracy complained. "I feel so useless not shooting people."

"You'll fire all you want once we find the damned command vehicle," Fawkes assured him. "So shut the hell up and let me concentrate!"

Tracy grumbled mutinously in response but otherwise kept his mouth shut.

Fawkes continued to fly over and around buildings, doing his best to search the ground for an important-looking vehicle. It was a tricky business, because not only did he have to avoid the mass accelerator fire from below, he had to be sure not to fly too high for too long, or else a rocket emplacement would shoot him out of the sky. Once, he had been forced to destroy a cannon emplacement to make sure he could fly over a bare stretch of land safely. By then, the Warrior Queen was well inside the city limits and over enemy territory.

Fawkes was beginning to consider turning around, when Tracy suddenly cussed loudly and began firing the guns. "Pull us up!" he shouted. The tone of his voice brooked no argument, and the pilot yanked at his controls, swinging the gunship into a steep upward spiral. It was then he noticed the large blip on the radar. The large and fast moving blip. Not a moment later, a frigate-sized vessel shot by beneath their aircraft.

"They were going to ram us," Fawkes mumbled dumbly. "How did I not notice…?" He righted the ship, turning hard to keep the larger frigate in view. He wasn't about to caught off guard again.

"They just suddenly appeared on the radar, captain!" Tracy explained, his guns pelting the kinetic barriers on the ship. "They probably have some of jamming signal or stealth system."

Fawkes banked to the right to avoid a burst of GARDIAN laser fire from the frigate. "Stealth system? On this planet? Not likely!" he snorted.

"Maybe you just weren't paying attention then!" Tracy retorted as he fired a rocket. The projectile shot forward and struck the ship's kinetic barriers.

"You're right; it must've been jamming of some kind," Fawkes said lamely. "But for now, we need to worry about how to get rid of it. We can't make a dent in those shields." He rose above another GARDIAN attack, then descended rapidly to avoid a SAM fired from somewhere on the ground.

"You're the thinker! I just shoot the guns!" his gunner responded, still peppering the frigate they were chasing. Fawkes sighed, then decelerated his gunship slightly and broke off, spinning it back towards the battle at the city limits. The larger vessel turned to pursue them. Fawkes descended and fell between the buildings below, darting through openings to avoid GARDIAN fire. "Fawkes, you'll get us killed!" Tracy cried in fear, instinctively ducking as a skybridge passed overhead.

Fawkes didn't respond as he continued to bob and weave through the city streets. The frigate kept up overhead, occasionally firing its lasers at them. Fawkes did his best to make it difficult for the ship's VI to get a good shot, often changing directions or flying below overhangs to get cover. The State forces on the ground complicated matters, as they relentlessly fired whatever they could at the fleeing gunship. So despite Fawkes' best efforts, several shots did connect with the Warrior Queen's shields. Fawkes could only watch helplessly as the readings on his dashboard continued to decrease. 75%... 53%... 31%..

"Raven One! What is your status?" Seranni's voice broke through the intense period of silence inside the cockpit, jarring Fawkes' concentration. He was so startled that he almost turned straight into a nearby building. He cussed loudly and yanked back on the controls, sending the gunship straight up into the air. They were close, the tail thrusters burned through several windows. Overhead, the frigate shot across their view-screen.

Fawkes wasted no time in giving orders. "Ravens Five and Three, disengage and sanitize the airspace. Blow that ship out of the sky." They weren't out of the city yet, but he could see corporate tanks combating the State forces below him. It looked like the battle was progressing in their favor.

A beep from the gunship's VI told the captain a message was incoming from the colonel. "Play it," he ordered as Tracy opened fire on the frigate once again. "Raven One, I'm not sure where you found that frigate, but our techies are detecting a mass of data being transmitted from it. They believe it's the State Command Vehicle."

Tracy sighed in exasperation and shot another pair of rockets at the ship they were chasing. The projectiles smashed into the kinetic barriers of the ship, still not penetrating. "And here I thought this was just a random frigate that decided to welcome us to this lovely planet!" he half-shouted as he kept the mass accelerator guns trained on the ship. The frigate was doing its best to shake them, twisting and spinning in the sky above Dhazil. But it was too large to attempt a chase through the city streets, and its thrusters weren't nearly as precise as the gunships. Fawkes remained on its tail, giving Tracy all the opportunity he needed to whittle away at its shields.

"Commander, we're at your six," Seranni informed him. Four more rockets screamed past the Warrior Queen and struck the frigate's shields. The kinetic barriers didn't even flicker.

"This is taking too long," Shawna complained from her gunship. Fawkes was about to tell her to shut up when he saw the Heartbreaker streak past his windshield, headed straight for the ship in front of them. He watched, mute, as Shawna took her ship high above and ahead of the frigate. All at once, her gunship started dropping like a stone, its nose pointed straight at the ship below. As it passed beneath her, Fawkes winced in anticipation of the Heartbreaker striking its shields. But instead, the gunship passed through them harmlessly, and unleashed missiles and mass accelerator rounds into the exposed ablative armor.

A tiny course correction saved the crazy woman from a head on collision, and she was able to safely recover from the nosedive before hitting the ground below. The frigate was in much worse shape. Shawna's daring maneuver had disabled one of its thrusters, reducing its turning ability and speed considerably. "Raven One to ground command," Fawkes said, feeling triumphant. "See if you can knock this thing out of the sky."

Tank rounds, rockets, SAMS, and mass accelerator rounds were soon peppering the crippled ship. It was now attempting to find safety behind State lines, but it was moving so slowly Fawkes was surprised it was still airborne. All at once, the frigates shields flickered and died. Dozens of rockets and SAMs found their mark on the frigate, and smoke began pouring from the hull. The remaining thrusters stuttered, and the frigate shuddered, giving off a strange metallic peal. The Ravens redoubled their efforts, focusing mass accelerator fire on the rear and top of the ship. Fawkes knew the miniature rounds would easily penetrate the bulky armor and ricochet around the inside, tearing through equipment and flesh with ease. With an odd sense of finality, the frigate's thrusters swung wildly up and left, directing the ship into a downward spiral. Then the thrusters died entirely, and the whole smoking hulk crashed into the city below.

"Raven Squadron confirmed kill. Now get back to those tanks," Fawkes ordered, spinning his gunship around and dropping below the line of buildings to engage the ground forces below. The battle turned even more in their favor after the frigate crashed. It seemed the colonel had been right; that ship had been the command vehicle for the State tank battalion. Without it, they had no orders, no enemies to engage, no streets to bypass, no units to reinforce. They were easy prey for the more organized and disciplined corporate forces. The further they were pushed back, the more disorganized they became. In the last minutes of the battle, dozens of tanks turned tail and tried to escape the death-trap the battle had become. The three Ravens mowed them down, demolishing the armor and sending whoever they missed running through the backstreets.

"Raven Squadron, urgent communiqué from the infantry platoon sent to secondary objective," the colonel informed Fawkes, before playing a message from a desperate-sounding private. "Secondary objective unsecure. We were ambushed by State-forces en route. We've managed to hole up in an abandoned industrial complex, and air-support is doing their best to keep the enemy's heads down. But we won't last long without support!"

"It's your squadron," the colonel explained after the message ended. "How do you want to play it?"

Fawkes considered the situation for a moment before coming to a decision. "The battle here is more than won. Secure our route forward and radio for reinforcements, then come as backup for the infantry to the north."

"Understood, Captain," the colonel replied. Funny, he said that like it was an order, Fawkes thought to himself. Then he shrugged the thought away and called for his squadron to form up. The three of them opened the throttles wide and flew north.

"Raven Two, come in!" Fawkes ordered into the comm as they got closer to the battle.

"Finally!" Mac exclaimed, sounding relieved. "Commander, I won't waste time explaining things. Just tell us what to do."

Fawkes considered the battlefield carefully. The industrial complex was basically a massive eezo refinery surrounded on three sides by Dhazil and on the western side by open country. High walls and barbed wire were erected around the other three sides of the building. Fawkes was surprised by the lack of holes in the walls, before he remembered that they would've been made to withstand all but the heaviest ordinance. Civil wars weren't uncommon on worlds dominated by the vorcha and krogan. The enemy forces were concentrated at the one gap in the walls, large gates that stood blown apart by whatever explosives the State forces were using.

The enemy had probably attempted to swarm inside and overwhelm the corporate infantry, but that plan had been stopped by the ring of APCs and their heavy weapons. A line of them stood downrange from the gate entrance, cutting down anyone who poked their heads out of the hole. Despite several smoking hunks of metal, the line seemed to be holding. And Ravens Two and Four weren't taking it easy on the entrenched State army either. Though they were out of rockets, and their mechs were deployed along the defensive line, the two gunships doggedly kept the enemies' heads down. As down as a krogan head could get, anyway.

"Right, here's what we'll do. Ravens Three and Five, get behind the State forces and wait for my go to deploy your mechs. Ravens Two and Four, go harass the enemy some more. Keep them occupied as long as possible, to give Seranni and Shawna some time. And someone put me in contact with the head of the ground forces."

Fawkes quickly explained his plan to the staff sergeant in charge of the corporate infantry. He was completely on board. As they spoke, sounds of screaming and mass accelerator fire could be heard in the distance as Mac and Colin did their part. "Right, wait for my signal," Fawkes instructed before shutting off his comm. He spun the gunship around and shot towards the state forces. He flew through the open gate, releasing the holding clamps on his mech at the same moment as he pointed himself skyward. He had timed it perfectly: the YMIR was perfectly intact as it activated. The State forces were still too distracted to notice a lone machine come to life in their midst. But they did begin to notice when mass accelerator rounds and rockets started shooting in all directions. "Release your mechs now!" Fawkes instructed the other gunships.

Ravens Two and Four finally broke off from their assault with their shields depleted. But the State forces still had to deal with the YMIR mechs that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Rockets and missiles flew in all directions as the vorcha panicked. "Now would be a good time," Fawkes told the sergeant. A moment later, a dozen engines revved from the APCs inside the compound. While the State forces had been distracted, the corporate ground forces had moved their vehicles into a spearhead formation. Now, they were prepared to recreate an old human battle tactic: the cavalry charge. The vehicles leapt forward and sped towards the gate, their weapons tearing through the enemy.

Between the mechs and the new threat, the enemy simply couldn't withstand the corporate counter-attack. Their disorganized ranks dissolved completely, with many simply breaking and running. "Chase them down," Fawkes ordered. The gunships sprang into action, their guns blazing as they mowed down the fleeing enemy troops.

"So explain to me how those chicks got through the frigate's shields," Tracy said as they worked. "I'm curious."

Fawkes glanced up from his controls long enough to see his gunner's expression was neutral. "Well, they shut off the eezo core to give themselves more weight, and they stopped the thrusters to give themselves less speed. The heavier and slower an object is, the less a kinetic barrier can do about it."

"I see," Tracy said simply. He let off the guns; there were no more targets. Fawkes circled back to the eezo refinery and got a status report from the sergeant.

"That charge alone accounted for half of the enemy force. I think we're secure here. And we had surprisingly few casualties. Not one APC was lost. Your plan was brilliant, Raven One."

Fawkes ran a hand through his hair, feeling awkward under the praise. "Thanks. Well, send a message to your CO telling him what's going on. I'm going to do a sweep for any remaining State forces." The Ravens were already forming around their captain. With his squadron behind him, Fawkes turned the Warrior Queen around and flew low over the city of Dhazil.

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