Hey guys, I'm back. It's only the third week of uni now, so I still have some time to write. Now to answer review questions.
-Apex85: I've already answered most of your questions, but yeah I did kinda pull some of those alien races out of my ass. Need some way to progress the story. And yeah, Mari is descended from Yuuya and Yui. Yeah I know. But whatever. It was the only pairing that worked in my mind anyway.
-ferduran, GrimKid98 and Lone Gundam: Thanks
-HolyKnight5: You've just given me a lot of ideas for fleshing out quarian-geth society, and maybe ideas for a spin-off if I ever get the time.
And now onto the story.
April 26th, 2157
Taiyun Base, Shanxi
"Trooper, hand me your weapon."
The Trooper Venir looked at the human sergeant with a slightly bewildered look on his face. He turned to his Lieutenant, who simply nodded in affirmation. He nodded back, before unfolding the Vindicator and passing it over to the human woman.
"Thank you. Standard issue rifle?" Asked Sergeant Alenko. She turned the weapon over in her hands, taking in the details and alien script printed on its side.
Venir nodded. "The M-15 Vindicator is the standard issue rifle for soldiers serving in the Citadel Defence Fleet."
"I see," said Alenko, who turned towards the shooting range, "let's see how well it fares against the enemies you boys volunteered to fight."
Venir took a moment to take in the target, as did the other turian soldiers gathered around the range. Sitting there were four targets, each more disturbing to look at than the next.
"These are the four smallest types of BETA. As you can see, they are still bigger than both humans and turians. Now, from the left, Warrior-class, Soldier-class, Laser-class and Tank-class, although you probably won't have to worry about Soldier-class BETA during this mission."
The first reminded Venir of an elcor combined with an upside-down pyjak. The second was…more of a blob with arms and a blank eyed toothy face. The third was kind of like a brain with eyes and legs. The fourth, however, looked like a spider. A big, red, hands-for-feet walking mouth of a spider. Venir shuddered a little at the sight of it. Each of the BETA species had more eyes than they had any right to.
Alenko began speaking again once the turians quieted down. "These are life-sized models made out of ceramic and ballistic gel. We use them to simulate the effectiveness of weapons during tests. Now, I want to see what your guns, which I've been told run off of space magic," There were chuckles from a few of the turians, along with some of the human Marines in the vicinity, "do to small scale BETA."
Venir watched as the human shouldered the unfamiliar rifle, and with almost unnatural ease cracked off several bursts of hypervelocity rounds into each of the BETA simulacrums.
Smoke rising from the barrel, Alenko lowered the Vindicator, with an expression similar to an asari frown on her face as she stared at the targets. Examining the pictographic instructions on the rifles' frame, Alenko collapsed the Vindicator, before handing it back to Venir.
"I'm sorry to say, but your weapons are going to be somewhere next to useless against the BETA. In all honesty, all you're going to be able to kill are Laser-class." She turned to one of the other Marines, who handed over a different rifle. A human-made one.
"This is the M6 Individual Combat Weapon System. Commonly known as the Accipiter. Fires an 8mm round at 2437m/s. Now, watch this."
Alenko lifted the rifle to firing position, exhaled, and squeezed the trigger. The weapon's report sounded similar to a heavy calibre mass accelerator sniper rifle, but firing on automatic.
In the blink of an eye, three of the four targets were turned into piles of mush. The fourth, the Tank-class, was still somewhat recognisable, although there wasn't much left of its 'face'. A significant improvement over the tiny holes made by the Vindicator.
"We pack the rounds with some of the most powerful explosive compounds ever created. Tears smaller BETA apart."
There were some murmurs from within the crowd of turian soldiers. One of them pulled out her Vindicator, swapped out the ammunition block for one with a symbol on it that Venir didn't recognise, and held it out to Alenko. Alenko simply shrugged, before turning the weapon on the remains of the Tank-class target.
There was a single crack and a roaring boom, which was followed by the loud beeping of the Vindicator overheating.
Alenko turned towards the assembled turians, massive grin painted across her face. "I think you guys might stand a chance, after all."
UNS Athens, Shanxi Orbit.
Lieutenant Hannah Shepard rubbed her forehead. The clutter and bustle of the CIC was so very much preferable to giving that guided tour down at Taiyun. The salarian scientist that had been part of the salarian delegation had practically talked her ear off with questions about TSFs and BETA, most of which she hadn't been authorised to answer. Apparently, Doctor Solus' nephew, Mordin, was even more excitable about science. I hope I never have to meet him…I wouldn't be able to handle the endless questions.
Her one consolation was that her husband had asked General Williams to put through a request for extended leave once they returned to the fleet bases at Charon, Chiron and Eunomia. Williams had chuckled and said that the entire Expeditionary Fleet needed extended leave. Rear Admiral Rush was also backing the proposal. We need to take Terry somewhere to make up for John leaving her with his parents. Somewhere with lots of places that a kid can explore. Chiron again? Or maybe Demeter. I hear it's nice this time of year.
Captain Advani adjusted his cap next to her. During the entire incident, he'd been constantly overruled by both Lieutenant General Williams and Rear Admiral Rush, but since both were preoccupied trying to integrate the support fleet and the turian forces into their assault plans, he finally had command of his ship back. And Shepard had managed to return to her duties as the Athens' XO. Even Lieutenant Vakarian had returned to the turian fleet, most likely to give his report in person. To someone who hadn't been there, it would probably seem like a fairly fantastical tale.
Instead, the turian troops joining the Marine infantry on the ground would be transmitting data to their fleet for the entirety of the battle. Even so, they must believe it somewhat, if they're actually willing to commit troops into a fight against an enemy they know almost nothing about. Or maybe they're just paranoid.
She glanced down at the datapad in her hands, double checking the readiness of the elements being deployed from the Athens' Fighter, Bomber and TSF squadrons.
"Captain, all squadrons reporting ready. Awaiting confirmation from General Williams to launch"
"Good, keep them on standby. It's still a few hours until drop."
"Aye aye. Going to standby."
Shanxi Airspace, South-Southwest of Objective 3, several hours later.
Well, this is unusual. Never done a combat drop with aliens before.
Lieutenant David Anderson sat in the jump-seat inside the UN Navy D-22 Sabretooth dropship, triple checking his M-15 SABR. To his right sat a turian soldier, who had introduced himself as Lieutenant Saren Arterius. The turian, who seemed fairly young compared to the other soldiers around him, had been asking questions since they took off.
"So what is that?" asked Saren, gesturing towards the weapon locked to the underside of Anderson's right forearm.
"This, is the M-15 Squad Anti-BETA Rifle." He gave the three barrels a quick spin. The weapon's magazine wasn't loaded, so there was no danger of it going off inside the troop bay. "Similar to the M-6 and M-7 rifles you lads were shown during the weapons demonstration this morning. Except with more barrels. The recoil is a lot higher though, which is why it has this:" He pointed to the subarm connecting the SABR to the exoskeleton that ran from his lower back to his feet. "Good for dealing with hordes, but it chews through ammo and power cells like crazy."
The shuttle shook slightly. Anderson pulled up the Sabretooth's flight data on his wristpad. They were flying over one of Shanxi's vast forests, which, for the most part, had been left alone by the BETA for some reason. A few seconds later, the pilot's voice came over the intercom.
"Lieutenant, get ready, we're almost at the dropzone. I should warn you though, the fleet is pasting the area, and we have drop capsules in the air. Lasers are taking the bait, watch for falling shrapnel and Anti-Laser rounds."
"Aye aye, Flight Lieutenant." He turned to his men and the turian soldiers seconded to his command. "Prepare for drop."
The shuttle flew low over the tree tops, before settling at as low an altitude as it could without scratching the paint. Although considering what Shanxi's forests were like, low altitude was about thirty metres above the ground. Which was now swarming with Warrior and Tank-class BETA that had been forced above ground by the orbital bombardment. Anderson's Force Recon unit had been unlucky enough to have been tapped for collapsing the hive entrance that had been identified in the forest, which was too dense for TSFs or armoured vehicles to fight in. And after that they would continue collapsing tunnel openings until either they or the BETA were all dead.
As soon as the shuttle came to a halt, Anderson and his men tossed the drop-lines out of the Sabretooth, before handing his one to Arterius. He turned to the Marines and turian troopers behind in the bay with him, before screaming "Go, Marines, GO, GO, GO!"
Anderson leapt out of the dropships open drop-ramp, plummeting towards the ground. Falling, he spun to avoid hitting several branches, before triggering his jumpjets ten metres up to break his fall. He landed with a heavy thump, the impact reduced by his exoskeleton. The five Force Recon Marines in his squad slammed into the ground around him, followed by the six turian soldiers fast-roping to the forest floor.
Anderson didn't even turn to look at his squad before dishing out orders. "We need to link up with the rest of the company. Dagogo, Zhao, take point. Arterius, keep close to us, or you will die. Hear that echo? Those are BETA." He double checked their surroundings. Nothing but trees. "Let's move."
It didn't take them long to encounter advance BETA units. A large number of Warrior-class and a few Tanks. Who noticed the humans and turians almost immediately.
"Marines, OPEN FIRE!" shouted Anderson, lifting the SABR mounted under his arm. The three coil-wrapped barrels spun up rapidly, and the air filled with explosive-cored steel. The other Marines joined in, their Accipiters blasting grey and red chunks from the horrors advancing quickly towards them. C'mon, C'mon, diediediediedie.
David turned to the turian troops, who looked somewhat terrified at the horrors they saw before them. He understood how they felt though. Considering that a Tank-class was essentially a mouth that walked around on six legs that were pretty similar to human arms, right down to the hands. And then they had another two arms for tearing things apart to shove in their colossal mouths. And all of that was without mentioning the unsettling number of eyes, the skin texture that really didn't feel right to look at, and the disgusting smell of sulphur they gave off.
He looked Arterius in the eyes, eyes that were afraid even though the person they belonged knew that he was disciplined and trained enough to ignore such fear.
"ARTERIUS!" he shouted, "SNAP OUT OF IT! THESE THINGS CAN BE KILLED! SO START SHOOTING!"
Saren jerked slightly, blinked a few times, before lifting his Vindicator rifle and firing explosive rounds, one every few seconds, into the horde. The other turian soldiers snapped out of their daze, before forming a firing line with their lieutenant. They took turns firing, with two firing at a time while the other four let their weapons cool down from the massive thermal energy produced by the explosive ammunition firing.
After a minute or so of shooting, the twelve had cleared the immediate area. Anderson took a few steps towards Arterius. That could have gone better. In front of him, the turian lieutenant had collapsed to his knees, shaking. There was a puddle of what he assumed was vomit draining into the soil.
"Good work, lieutenant, you and your men survived their first engagement with the BETA." Even if it was a small force.
The turian shuddered. "Spirits. Those looked nothing like the models that we saw at the base. I don't even have the words to describe how disgusting those things were."
"You survived, didn't you? Back on Earth, we had a name for it; the Eight Minutes of Death. You've survived that, and you aren't even in a Surface Fighter. Your men did well." Anderson held out his hand. "Come on, we've got to link up with the rest of the infantry."
Saren looked up at him, and nodded. He took the hand, and David pulled him to his feet.
Shanxi, southwest of Objective 03, near Entrance SE-14
Shizuka pulled her knife out of the guts of the Tank, and then slashed it across the front of the one to her right, followed by a burst of cannon fire into the Grappler that had come charging out of the Tank horde. She spun her thrusters, and charged at it, ducking under its claws in a manoeuvre that would have been impossible in a regular size TSF, and buried her knife in its body. Another burst from her assault cannon to finish it off, and then she boosted off the carcass, knife and knee block blade armour slicing through another two tanks. At a thought, Shizuka's jets flashed again, flipping her onto the back of another Grappler. Before it could swing its claws at her, she slammed the knife into the area on its body where its brain was. For good measure, she smashed her armoured foot down on the PB-knife, further burying it and snapping the handle.
Shizuka clicked her tongue in frustration, before lifting her assault cannon with both hands, burning round after round into the horde. Dammit. That was the third blade. One left. I should have gone with another knife instead of extra cannon ammo.
Around her, the rest of C Company was waist deep in BETA. Each and every Marine was full visible, because attempting to use their cloaks when they were using up so much energy for close quarters combat, not to mention their engine outputs and the disruptions from their cannon fire, meant that even attempting to cloak would be a complete waste of power. Not that there was any point in using the cloak, since Laser-class were unlikely to target anything that was at ground-level. The Marines ground forwards through the advancing red-green sea, hopefully diverting the main BETA horde enough that the Marine and Navy pilots in their full-size TSFs would make it through to the Hive's main hall alive. Where a squadron of full-size TSFs was likened to a skilled warrior diving into a battle with a high-grade sword, a micro-TSF unit was more like the poor bugger sent into a warzone with a dull knife. But even the dull knife could kill given enough skill and cunning. And Marine pilots had a lot of that, no matter what the Army and Navy pilots said.
Captain O'Hara popped up on the comm window, and was broadcasting to the whole company. "Watch it, Condor-Company; up-high is reporting that we might have a Destroyer charge incoming. They'll soften them up as much they can, but we're going to have to finish them off."
Sergeant Alenko came on-line. "You heard the man, be ready."
Silently in the background, the squad AI, Ariel, added the orbital data-feed to Shizuka's.
Dunn, who was somehow still alive after Shizuka had seen his Phoenix swallowed up by a heap of Tanks, piped in, "Dammit!" The man ground his teeth. "We're already neck deep here and now we're about to be buried in Destroyers. FUCK. THAT! Hell, the only things we don't have out here are Fort-class!"
Even Mirelle was jumping in, despite the squad still being buried in BETA. "Hey, don't jinx it. If you do, you get to pay for drinks after this is over."
Alenko let out a chuckle through her gritted teeth. "Hah! I like the sound of that." She dialled in the entirety of C-Company. "Listen up, everyone. If we encounter a Fort-class, Corporal Dunn here is buying drinks for all of Condor Company after the mission. So stay alive."
The Company comm-net was filled with Marines shouting, "OORAH!"
Shizuka shook her head. No more drinking for me…
Airspace above Objective 03
The air burned into plasma as the drop-shell plummeted towards the surface. Around it, the atmosphere filled with anti-laser smoke, to protect against the beams of light that lanced up from the surface, trying to reach the falling pods with their deadly touch. And streaking down to meet the source of the beams, dozens of high velocity warheads.
Inside her F-62A Comet inside the pod, 1st Lieutenant Mari Bridges waited for the pod to reach its break altitude. It still had a long way to go, so she was fiddling with her wavy brown hair. According to her father, it, along with their family name, had been a hold-over from one of her ancestors, who had been half-American.
As the pod reached a low enough altitude, Mari finished retying her hair before triggering the pod's release mechanism. The heavy metal pod components broke away, falling ahead as she switched over to cloak and set her jump-units to the maximum safe thrust. The two Comet's descents slowed.
The comm-net lit up, and acting-Colonel Smith spoke to the battalion. "All pilots, vector towards Entrance SE-14. The Phoenix Company holding there is being overrun. We'll bail them out, then link up with the Navy pilots from the Athens in the main hall."
The other Comet, piloted by Sasha, danced in the air.
"C'mon Mari, let's go. Drinks are on me when we get back."
Mari just shook her head. "No more drinking for me. You remember what we did to Shizuka, right?"
"Ah, it'll be fine. We'll have some of those weak American drinks, instead of Vodka."
Mari groaned. I'm not getting out of this, am I?
Spinning as she descended, Mari touched down with a gentle wump, while Sasha landed with her back against hers. They had landed near the Phoenix II company, who, according to the squad AI, had a Fort-class closing in on their position. She patched into their comm-net, and was immediately confronted with shouts of "OORAH! DUNN OWES US ALL DRINKS!"
Did they really need help?
Outside Entrance SE-14
"Shit." Shizuka swore as a Tank tore off her remaining arm. She was down to a single sub-arm carrying her last CIWS-8 assault cannon, and her knee blades.
"Sarge, I'm going to have to punch out soon, I'm almost combat ineffective."
"Dammit. We won't be able to cover you, not with that Fort closing in. Try falling back."
Shizuka frowned, then rechecked the status of her TSF. "Negative, jump units are busted, leg reactors inoperative." I'm either walking out of here or I get chomped. Neither sounds good.
"Maybe we can be of assistance," said a very familiar voice. So familiar, it sent a chill up Shizuka's spine. "This is First Lieutenant Bridges of the 54th Orbital Diver Battalion. I can give her a lift if she needs it."
Alenko raised an eyebrow. "Alright, Private, you heard the Lieutenant, punch out."
Shizuka nodded. She set her Phoenix II to autopilot, before disconnecting herself from its systems. Her hand went to the canopy-control lever. Sayonara, Phoenix.
The canopy opened, and she climbed out, into the waiting hand of Bridge's Comet. The cockpit of the F-62 opened, and the hand dropped her into the passenger seat, which sat over the pilot's left arm.
"Hey, Shizuka. So what's this I hear about Corporal Dunn buying drinks?" Shizuka groaned.
And then Sergeant Alenko had to make things worse. "Lieutenant, you and the rest of your battalion are welcome to join us. We continue to leave lil'Zuka in your care." There was laughter from the rest of the squad, except from Dunn, who wasn't going to have anything left from his pay. "Now, let's go kill us a Fort."
"OORAH!" The line went quiet.
Mari looked up at Shizuka, who felt her face begin to heat up slightly. There are two people in here; of course it's going to get warmer, right?
"Hold on, okay? We're going after that Fort. Sasha, cover us." Oh God, Sasha's here as well.
"Aye Aye. Oh, hey, Zuka, fancy meeting you here."
Mari triggered her jump-units. As she blasted off in the direction of the Fort-class, she saw Shizuka's Phoenix standing almost as still as a statue, its last remaining cannon firing at anything moving that wasn't a TSF. It kept firing until it ran out of ammunition, and it fell silent.
Up ahead, she could see the Fort-class. Not that it was hard to miss. The colossal wasp-like thing stood sixty metres tall on its ten thin legs. Below it, the long acid-tipped barb on its hornet tail lashed out at the TSFs flying at it. In a flash, three of the Condor-Company Phoenixes were crashing to the ground, their armour dissolving from the super-strong, highly concentrated acid. And then its skin began lighting up as the Marines opened fire on it with everything they had. The 20mm cannon rounds were able to penetrate its thick hide, but given the size of it, they weren't having much effect.
Mari pinged Sasha, who acknowledged. She raised both of the cannons in her hands, and swung forwards the ones on her Mount Pylons. Sasha followed suit. Good thing the Colonel assigned us as Gunsweepers. I hope the rest of the battalion is doing alright. The rest of the Helljumpers had landed closer to the entrance, to thin the swarms advancing on the Marines from the 81st.
Mari opened fire with the four 120mm launchers mounted on her assault cannons. Twelve shots from each cannon, forty-eight in total. A mix of armour-piercing sabot and high-explosive squash head rounds slammed into the side of the Fort, cracking its hardened skin and tearing large chunks from its flesh. As she continued to dump munitions into the giant abomination, a thought entered her mind. The turians would probably shit themselves if they were around to see this. That gave her a reason to pause. Wait, no, they'll probably see the corpse later.
She stopped firing to reload, and while she did, one of the Marines flew their fighter into the wound, there was a long burst of cannon fire, followed by several explosions; then the blood coated Phoenix burst out of the wound. And like a felled tree, the Fort collapsed with a resounding thud.
She opened the comm. "Colonel Smith, the Fort is down. We're advancing on your position."
"Good work, Lieutenant. Get up here as soon as possible, we're behind schedule. The Navy pilots are already halfway to the main hall."
"Aye aye, Colonel. Just so you know, I'm bringing a passenger. One of the pilots from the 81st had to bail."
"Alright, Lieutenant, just remember that we're going into the Hive. Smith, out."
Sasha popped up. "Time to go, Mari."
"Look after Zuka for us, we'll hold try and divert the hordes our way. Godspeed, Marines. Alenko, over and out."
"Well, Zuka, in we go." The younger woman nodded.
An hour later
The drifts, Objective 03, Shanxi
The Marine Comets blasted their way through the hordes covering the floor, walls and ceiling of the tunnels. According to Jade, their squadron AI, they were close to linking up with the Navy squadrons. They had also been contacted by one Marine Lieutenant Anderson, who had reported that his unit had managed to collapse several of the BETA tunnels along their route, which had caused a large number of the BETA to divert to reopen them.
Because the hive was still only Phase 3, the Drift was only extended for about four kilometres around the Monument, the colossal mass driver that had been collapsed during the initial assault by the orbital bombardment. The deployment of Laser-class was similar to the case during the early invasion of Earth, where Lasers were only deployed as a reaction to human air-power.
The Marines of the 54th Battalion halted once they reached the final Barrier. Mari removed her S-12 Self-Destruct System from its housing, placed it as close to the Barrier's brain as possible, close enough that it would be hit with the brunt of the enormous conventional explosion, but far enough that it, and Mari's Comet, wouldn't be fried by the brain-stem's massive electrical voltage. Once the charge was placed, she darted back to where the rest of the Battalion was waiting. What was left of the Battalion, anyway. They'd lost another six TSFs on the way in to a cave-in caused by Grapplers digging a hole into their tunnel.
"Charge set, Colonel. Ready to detonate."
"Understood. Helljumpers, get clear."
The remaining fifteen Comets boosted back into the horde of Tanks charging at them from behind as the S-12, one of the most powerful non-nuclear weapons ever created by humanity. The blast tore the Barrier-class apart, and incinerated most of the BETA that had been clustering behind it on the other side.
Colonel Smith uttered a single word. "Go."
And the Marines flew like Comets into the vast chamber of the main hall. Down below, almost five hundred metres beneath them, Mari could see the tell-tale flashes of the plasma trails left by magnetic accelerator assault cannons. Looks like the Navy pilots made it.
They patched into the Navy comm-net. The comm began to fill with grunting, shouting, cursing, and someone shouting out a recipe for spaghetti for some reason. One of the Navy pilots contacted the Marines. "Hah, it's the Misguided Children. Nice of you to join us. Now, get these things off of our backs so we can kill that damned brain. Hell, I'll buy you all drinks tonight if we get the kill on it."
Shizuka let out a laugh. "One of the guys in my squad is already shouting my whole company drinks, and all of the Helljumpers. You're welcome to join us in making him miserable."
Laughter echoed across the comm-net. "We'll take you up on that, Marine. Hooah!"
The Marine TSFs slammed into the floor of the cavern near the heavier Navy TSFs. Over Mari's arm, Shizuka jerked in her seat from the impact. "Ow ow ow ow. There's two of us in here, remember?"
"Ah, sorry."
The Marines and Naval Aviators flew over the swarm towards the Reactor, killing everything in their path. They had to kill their way through, or else they'd be swarmed as soon as they touched down near the Reactor. Eventually, they cleared the area enough to set the charges around the base of the reactor. Mari looked up at it as the Navy Pilots dropped off their charges. The strange, glowing alien egg just sat there, silently, unmoving. Decades of reports had confirmed that the Reactors were sentient, so it definitely knew that they were there, but it did nothing but send Tanks and Grapplers after them. It made sense though; it couldn't use Lasers, the biggest threat, against them in such an without risking damage to the hive interior.
The hive infiltrators finished setting their charges, and returned to holding off the horde of Tanks advancing towards them. And then one of the Navy pilots shouted "Oh, fuck."
Advancing towards their position were a pair of Fort-class. The Navy commander, Captain Abbotsford, broadcast to every fighter. "We don't have the time or the ordnance to kill those things. Everyone break off and get out of here. Follow the Marines back out through their entry point. I'll hold them off, so get going."
Colonel Smith came on the line. "Captain, what the hell are you doing?"
"Those things are probably coming here to deactivate the charges. I'm the only one with missiles left, so get everyone else out of here. I'll hold them off until you're in the tunnels, then I'll detonate the charges on my way out."
"Understood. See you on the otherside, Rob. Buy you a drink."
"Aye aye. I never say no to free beer. Now get moving."
The Marines saluted, before taking off, the Navy flyers on their tails. Behind her, she could see explosions erupting as Captain Abbotsford dumped everything he had at the advancing Forts. Missiles, high explosive shells, cannon rounds. And then as they turned to boost back into the drift tunnels, Mari heard a static-broken voice through the speakers. "…Humanity, Fuck Yeah!" Then there was a deafening roar as the six S-12 charges detonated.
Above the Southeast drifts, Objective 03, Shanxi
Lieutenant Saren Arterius stumbled as the ground shook. Earthquake?
The was an odd chittering sound, and the swarms of BETA that had been threatening to overrun them as they prepared to collapse the next tunnel started moving differently. Less in sync. Like puppets whose strings had been cut.
The human leader, Anderson, had obviously noticed it as well. "Looks like the flyboys did their job. The Reactor's dead. Kill them all before they can figure out how to reorganise."
"Roger that." Saren raised his Vindicator, and fired slowly, shot-overheat-shot. Despite the disorganised movements, the Tanks and Warriors were still moving towards them, and they were still heavily outnumbered. This is way more than we fought before. By the spirits, where do they keep coming from?
And then the horde exploded. Completely out of nowhere, the BETA were torn apart by heavy munitions and cannon fire. Saren's omnitool beeped. Someone was pinging the unit over the human's communications network.
"This is 2nd Lieutenant Hackett, VSFA-201 Sidewinders, off of the UNS Petra. Ready to lend assistance to ground forces."
At that, the remaining human Marines pumped their fists in the air, whooping and hooting. Anderson was muttering under his breath. "Never thought I'd be glad for those damned Navy Topguns."
In the air, a shimmering shape flew over the battlefield, before decloaking to reveal a fast flying aircraft that dropped bombs and missiles on the BETA horde, before recloaking and flying off.
If these humans join the Citadel, it's going to be a whole different galaxy, isn't it? Well, at least my brother has some authentic footage to show to the Council.
Codex:
Humanity and the United Nations: Fleet Disposition
The United Nations Navy maintains fifteen full fleets for the defence of Earth and her colonies, along with two ad-hoc fleets for exploration. These fleets are based at one or more fleet bases in each system.
-1st Fleet: Sol – Earth/Luna
-2nd Fleet: Sol – Mars/Jovian Moons/Ceres
-3rd Fleet: Sol – Pluto/Charon
-4th Fleet: Barnard's Star – Haven
-5th Fleet: Wolf-359 – Lupus
-6th Fleet: Alpha Centauri – Chiron (A)/Ardua (C)
-7th Fleet: Epsilon Eridani – Eridanos
-8th Fleet: Procyon – Arcadia
-9th Fleet: 61 Cygni – Abydos
-10th Fleet: Lalande-21185 – Ishtar
-11th Fleet: Epsilon Indi – Tribute
-12th Fleet: Tau Ceti – Demeter
-13th Fleet: Gliese-687 – Elysium
-14th Fleet: 40 Eridani – Vulcan
-15th Fleet: Arcturus – Arcturus Station
-Sol Drift Expeditionary Fleet: Sol System – Luna
-Relay Expeditionary Fleet: Arcturus – Eunomia
Well that's it for now. Next chapter is probably going to be the conclusion of the Objective 03 raid.
If you looked at the codex entry, you'll see that most of the systems mentioned are within the immediate area of Sol. Wanna guess where all of the names of the planets are from? Some of them are quite obviously references to other sci-fi series, others are less obvious references, and some are references that I've displaced from their original homes. Then a few of the names are just because I thought they would fit with the names of the star system. Oh, and I moved Elysium closer to home (please forgive me). And I've renamed the cluster the 'Sol Drift', because it sounds better than 'local cluster' and because Sol is one of many stars that is plowing sorta vertically through the plane of the galaxy.
Until next time.