I've made a few more changes to previous chapters. I took out the plague rounds- they were just too much of an advantage for the humans. I also realized that with the presence of smart AIs, it was stupid to use manned fighters. Unmanned fighters controlled by AIs would be smaller, meaning the CRs could carry more of them. Also, the lack of a need for life support and pilot space would allow for heavier armaments and stronger engines.
I'd also like to give a big thanks to l3ct0r, fray253, deathleader,, DivineWhisperV2, RightHandOfPalpitine, Zauber, Yinko, TheGhost129, Nargus, bandgsecurtiyaw, jmsdragn, KhasintheDark, jabbarulez, and darkplayer35 for leaving reviews.
(Codex Updated- Fighter Drones- Roughly five meters in diameter, the spherical unmanned fighter drones of the Imperial Navy are a force to be reckoned with. Each drone is equipped with its own dumb AI, which, combined with a strong internal network allows a smart AI very close control over each squad of fifty drones, permitting complex tactics and maneuvers. In addition, the lack of a pilot means that the drones are more heavily armed and have stronger engines. These engines allow the drones to perform aerial feats which a human being would be unable to survive, granting extreme maneuverability. The drones are armed with two small but powerful AMACs and a levitation shield.)
Lastly, KhazintheDark pointed out that there may be some confusion as to the nature of the Levitation Shields. The basic idea is that the levitation charm moves items "upwards" in relation to the ship. Now, in my original idea, this would mean that if you fired at the "bottom" of the ship, then the levitation charm would carry the projectile "up", towards the ship. To solve this problem, I've decided that the ship is rotated during the casting of the levitation enchantment. This means that the spell's definition of "up" changes. At the "top" of the ship, the levitation charm is moving objects "up," but at the "bottom," the spell is backwards, and moves things "down," because that direction was "up" when the spell was cast.
A simpler way to look at it is that rather than a levitation charm, it's simply an object repelling ward that moves things away from the ship. But that's not as original, so I'm still calling it a Levitation Shield.
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Admiral Prewitt took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. One of the disadvantages of being a pyromancer was that he had a tendency to catch fire when he was angry. And he was furious. They'd been on the way to discuss peace with these aliens. The presence of an alien fleet outside the Tuning Station had caught them by surprise, though, and the Emperor had hesitated for a moment before contacting the aliens. That moment was the moment when the aliens had opened fire. The Emperor himself had been going to meet these aliens' leaders to discuss peace, and the fucking bastards had intentionally, deliberately targeted his ship. The most revered man alive, murdered on a peace mission.
All of this added up to explain why most of the bridge crew was now being treated for second degree burns. When the projectiles hit the Emperor's Hand, the ambassadorial ship, Prewitt had been so furious that the heat radiating off of his flaming body had burned every crewmember within ten feet of him.
Fortunately, the tactical officer had been unharmed.
"All ships are to fire at will. No surrender, no mercy," ordered the still-burning Prewitt.
There was a pause while the Imperial ships relayed and confirmed the orders. And then they fired with everything they had.
The first strike was launched by the flagship of the fleet, the INS Empire's Might, a dreadnought. Three gigantic beams of light were launched from the ship's primary cannons. The first beam tore through a Turian cruiser, destroying it, then went on to kill two frigates and cripple a third. The second beam ripped open a dreadnought and overloaded its Mass Effect core, causing it to explode spectacularly. The third sliced clean through a cruiser and went on to hit another, delivering critical damage.
After the flagship had fulfilled the honor of beginning the Emperor's vengeance, the other ships joined in. The destroyers in the first squadron were equipped with energy weapons as well, which were responsible for the deaths of three more cruisers and a frigate. At the same time, the ships let loose with their missile launchers and AMACs. Thousands of AMAC rounds and missiles and hundreds of AI pods were all fired in concert, while the remaining destroyers let loose with their plasma cannons and the carrier released its entire detachment of twelve hundred fighter drones.
The Third Galactic War had begun.
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"Captain, they've taken engineering," reported the logistics officer onboard the HNV Resolution.
Commodore Flavius Tentun swore viciously as he glanced at the CIC board. So far, the enemy boarding mechs (it seemed obvious now to everyone that these creatures weren't AIs) had managed to take over the the crew quarters, Weapons One, the armory (that had been a big blow), the general storage area, and now Engineering. That left Medical, Weapons Two and Three, the munitions station, the docking bays, and the army quarters under his control, and the mechs were already well on the way to taking Weapons Two. To make matters worse, having taken Engineering, the mechs now had an easy, direct route to any other part of the ship they cared to attack.
"Order the soldiers to fall back from Army One and fortify themselves between Engineering and the bridge. The soldiers in the docking bays and Army Two are to reinforce the defenders in the munitions center. Have the soldiers in Army Three to withdraw to Weapons Two. Once they've arrived, the Cabal is to withdraw and launch a counterattack on Engineering."
The Cabals were the Turians' squads of biotics. Highly trained and extremely deadly, they were the Hierarchy's special forces, and most dreadnoughts carried at least one Cabal. Early on in the fight, somebody had discovered that if the mechs were hit with a biotic attack, they would shut down. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was the best weapon they had- the armor on the mechs was so strong that Mass Effect rounds simply bounced off, and the only reason anybody would use explosives on a spaceship was if they were extremely desperate, insane, or both.
"Yes, sir," said the logistics officer, transmitting the orders to the various groups of Turians.
Tentun sighed and resumed the task of guiding his fleet, even as his ship was being taken over from the inside.
This battle was not going well for the Turians.
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Corporal Tiberisius Genetion, an engineer onboard the HNV Memory, crept along behind two other Turians, automatic rifle in hand. About half an hour into the battle, every dead Turian on the Memory (and there had been a lot of them- those damn teleporting missiles had hit the army quarters, among other areas)had gotten up and begun attacking the survivors. Blast doors had immediately been sealed, trapping the zombies wherever they were, but also trapping the soldiers. Then, about ten minutes ago, Weapons Two had been hit by a MAC round. Genetion had been given a protection detail of four soldiers and ordered to see what could be done to fix the damage. One of the soldiers had died almost immediately, thanks to a swarm of zombies waiting just outside Engineering. The squad leader had been killed about five minutes later when a zombie that had been hiding behind a bulkhead jumped on him and ripped out his throat.
The three remaining Turians moved carefully, checking every crevice before moving to the next doorway. The lieutenant who was now in charge prepared to punch in the access code, while Genetion and the private took aim at the doorway. The door slid open to reveal... nothing. Genetion sighed in relief- that was the last room before Weapons Two. The Turians scoped out the room, and, finding nothing, prepared to open the last doorway. The blast door slid to the side, and a headless zombie that had been scratching at the door jumped through. Genetion and the private opened fire with their assault rifles, the high speed Mass Effect rounds tearing the zombie in half at such close range. Unfortunately, that did less good than one would expect. The undead Turian's torso continued to move, and grabbed onto the lieutenant's leg. Even worse, the sound of combat had attracted the rest of the zombies in the room. Seven more of the creatures surged forward and, without a sound, tore into the screaming lieutenant. Genetion let loose with his rifle until it overheated, tearing the arms off of another zombie, while the private blasted the head off of a third. Of course, the loss of its head didn't affect the zombie in the slightest, while the gunfire attracted its attention. The undead monster, along with two others, turned in the private's direction. Blood spattered the walls as the zombies tore off his arm, and the soldier screamed as the zombies clawed at his eyes with their talons.
Genetion, shocked by the horror of what was happening to his comrade, completely forgot about his own trouble until the zombie whose arms he had shot off bit him on the arm. The Turian engineer yelled, and tried to shake off the monster, but it held on tightly. The three zombies who had been slaughtering the private finished their grisly work, and turned to the incapacitated engineer.
Genetion had time for one last thought before his former comrades ripped open his gut.
This battle was not going well for the Turians.
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Linscus swore as the enemy fighters swung around for another attack run. Whoever heard of using fighters as an attack force like this? And such small ones, at that? Sure, Citadel ships carried a few fighters with them, but the entire fleet barely had two hundred of them, none of which were nearly as well armed as the ones the aliens were using, and the aliens had hundreds of the damn things. He'd released his fighters as soon as he saw the aliens release theirs, but that had turned out to be a waste. Even though he'd ordered them to stay within range of the GARDIAN lasers and act defensively against the enemy fighters, they'd still been reduced to a third of their numbers within ten minutes. They'd taken their toll on the enemy fighters, yes, but not enough to make a difference. The enemy fighters were too small and fast to hit easily, and were ridiculously maneuverable. The damned things would swarm a ship a hundred at a time, flying past at insane speeds and letting loose with their MACs until their target was a worthless piece of scrap. They'd even managed to take out a dreadnought doing that. The dreadnought had put up a decent fight with its GARDIAN lasers and its surviving fighters, but it had still been taken down.
"Confirmed kill, captain. Bogey Four has been destroyed," reported the sensors officer.
Good. That was one of the enemy dreadnoughts down. That was the Turians' only advantage- numbers. They outnumbered the aliens by more than two to one. The problem was that the alien ships were much more heavily armed. That superdreadnought, though, was proving to be too much for his forces to handle. It had already taken out a dreadnought and two whole squadrons of cruisers. He hadn't wanted to focus fire on it until the enemy numbers were down some, but now that they'd destroyed a dreadnought and all of the cruisers with energy weapons, they could afford to focus fire more than usual.
"Have all dreadnoughts and CruRons Five, Seven, and Thirteen direct their fire to the enemy superdreadnought," he ordered. "The remaining cruisers are to focus fire on Bogey
"Orders transmitted, sir."
A few moments later, the Tac officer frowned and punched a few keys. His frown deepened, and he said, "The Resolution and the Infinity aren't responding, sir. They've gone silent."
Dammit! Linscus swore silently. That's five ships so far! And a dreadnought this time! Those spirits damned boarding mechs!
"Noted," Linscus said. "Open fire," he ordered.
With that, the designated ships fired as one on the alien superdreadnought. Dozens of Mass Accelerator rounds flew through space to tear into the unshielded alien ship and tear it apart. The aliens' point defense opened fire and tore the rounds apart, but it wasn't enough to take out all of them.
MA rounds crashed into the superdreadnought, flattening and transferring hundreds of pounds of force into the ship. Explosions rocked the vessel, and atmosphere streamed from holes rent in its armor.
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The ship buckled under Prewitt as more enemy fire battered at his dreadnought. Idly, Prewitt wondered why it had taken the Turians so long to focus their fire, but it was his philosophy to never look a gift horse in the mouth. He wasn't entirely certain what that meant, exactly, but he made a point to not do it nonetheless.
"Sir, the last of the escape pods just left. The crew is off the ship."
"Nobody refused to leave, then?" Prewitt asked.
"Oh, quite a lot of them did. I had to stun them and have bots carry them to the escape pods. Don't worry, though. They won't be faced with insubordination charges- their actions were completely off the record," Nightfall answered.
"Good. The course is set, then?"
"Straight for the heart of the enemy forces, yes sir."
"Very well. Set her on her way, and then upload yourself to the AN," Prewitt ordered.
"Yes sir. It's been an honor serving with you, Admiral Prewitt." Nightfall said.
"With you too, Nightfall. Make sure the Empire gives the Turians hell for me, will you old friend?"
"You have my word, Alan." Nightfall said solemnly. "Goodbye." With that, the AI uploaded himself to the Arcaneotech Network, and left Admiral Alan Prewitt to carry out his final mission.
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Linscus stared as the enemy superdreadnought moved toward his forces, accelerating at a rate he wouldn't have believed the damaged ship could manage, firing whatever guns remained wildly. The alien fighters in the area converged on it and put down a layer of protective point defense fire, blocking many of the Mass Accelerator rounds from hitting their target.
"Tactical, what's happening?" Linscus asked.
"The enemy superdreadnought is headed straight for the center of our fleet, sir. That, combined with the large number of pods it ejected a little while ago, implies that the commander intends to initiate some sort of self destruct mechanism."
Linscus blinked, then realized that the tactical officer's analyses was accurate. Furthermore, a ship that big would have a hell of a self destruct.
"Order all ships to fire on that SD!" Linscus commanded quickly. "If it makes it within thirty kilometers, all ships are to spread out and attempt to avoid it!"
The Turian ships turned their guns on the alien superdreadnought, firing as rapidly as they could without overheating their weapons. The superdreadnought was clearly taking damage- atmosphere was streaming from every part of the vessel, debris was falling off, guns were ceasing to fire, and it slowed down significantly. But still it came on, firing whatever was left, trudging towards its mortal enemy. Eventually, it reached the specified distance, and the Turian ships began to spread out. Unfortunately for them, in their attempt to destroy the superdreadnought, they had fallen slightly out of formation in order to get better shots. This meant that it was difficult for the ships to maneuver around each other to spread out. The ships on the edge of the formation were able to expand As the Turians struggled to reach a safe distance from the superdreadnought, the alien fighters put on a tremendous burst of speed and disappeared from the area, firing at Turian vessels as they left. Seconds later, they were gone.
The alien superdreadnought trudged towards the center of the formation, weathering Turian fire as it went. When it was about a third of the way into the Turian formation, it slowed to a stop. The bridge of the Maverick was silent for a moment, and then it abruptly disappeared alongside the alien vessel and a full fifth of the Turian fleet.
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Sorry that took so long to write. I've been distracted lately. Also, I need help deciding the fate of Those Damn Primitives. The old guy and I have decided that we have enough original material to turn it into a novel, rather than a fanfic. The Mass Effect origins would still be apparent, but it would be new material. Please vote on the poll on my profile.