Chapter 10: hoc est solum initium est.
There is only one tactical principle that is not subject to change.
It is about using the means at hand to cause the maximum amount of wounds,
Death and destruction on the enemy in the least amount of time.
-General George S. Patton
UTCFG Dark Sun: Cargo Bay
The situation on the cargo bay of the Dark Horizon was calm; some were making a last minute checks on the vehicles, while were loading the helicopters' weapons. Some more were sitting down, filling their mags or partaking in drill practice. L-23, an elite N7, was more preoccupied with looking at his opponent, a Deathclaw called Jezz, whom had challenged him to arm wrestling. Many of the nearby onlookers were stunned and impressed after seeing how easily Jezz was containing 23, then with an easy motion Jezz slammed down 23's arm, winning the match.
"I believe you owe me a hundred dollars," said Jezz with a grin plastered on her face.
"Yeah, yeah," grumbled 23 as he reached into one of his pockets, pulling out some crumpled bills and throwing them on the crate. "Happy now?"
"Very much," she replied as she took the money and left, still smiling.
Suddenly an alarm sounded throughout the cargo bay, everybody stopped what they were doing and ran to the armoury. 23 entered the designated area for N7s, where another few were already equipping their armor, he moved to his locker and started to clasp the pieces of his personalized black and white armor together. After checking and double checking his armor, he grabbed his two-handed axe and attached it to his back, he then grabbed a nearby glock and a desert eagle, attaching them to his thighs. He made sure they were loaded then he rushed outside to report to his corresponding drop pod, he was the first to arrive.
'Shit' he thought.
UTCFG Dark Sun CIC: Warp Space
"Ma'am?" asked Cindy as she materialized.
"Yes, Cindy?" asked Kelly.
"All the soldiers have reported to their drop pods."
"Excellent," she said with a broad smile. "And the Deathclaw?"
"Also reported, ma'am."
"Good, how much until we exit warp space?"
"Six minutes, ma'am."
"Good, tell me when there's one minute left," instructed Kelly and Cindy nodded then disappeared.
The AI reported back at the specified time.
"Open a link to all ships, make sure that everyone can hear," ordered Kelly, Cindy nodded and did what she was told.
Kelly took a deep breath. "I'm going to be short; everybody knows their job and why we're here. In the next days, weeks, maybe months we will make sure that eleven millions souls will rest in peace, and we will make sure that the turians understand plainly the one phrase that has always accompanied us." Her lips curled into a cold smile. "Don't fuck with the human race. I'm Admiral Kelly Parker, cut and out."
The Milky Way, Cima Apien: Trebia System
The situation above Palaven was tense. They had known about the imminent attack for the last few months so they have been on almost full alert. The defending fleet, roughly consisting of fifteen hundred ships, consisted of frigates, cruisers, and a few fighters. They needed more ships but most of their reserves and those being built were either sent or promised to the Citadel, they clung to the hope that if something went wrong, their fleets at the Citadel would arrive to assist. No one could be more wrong.
The Milky Way, Nebulosa Atenea: Parnitha System
The calm in the asari home system was interrupted as thousands of ships suddenly appeared from the relay.
"Ma'am," said the XO of the lead ship. "Ground control is asking what we are doing here."
The Matriarch didn't answer.
"Ma'am?"
"What?" snapped the Matriarch, leaving her XO in a stunned silence.
"Ground control asked what we are doing here," replied the XO.
The Matriarch changed the galaxy map to a tactical screen of the system, not even one enemy ship.
'What the hell?' she thought confused, her eyes then opened wide.
"This is a setup, tell the fleet to back to the relay, now!" she roared, the XO did as ordered, and a few seconds later, the ships left the system.
UTCFG Dark Sun: Leaving Warp Space
"Leaving warp space in three… two… one," said an ensign.
The ship decelerated once it had exited warp space, closely followed for another thousand ships.
"Long range scan indicates there are fifteen hundred ships in this system."
An icy laugh escaped Kelly lips. "Alert the New York and tell it to deploy her toys, dispatch a group of AIs to turn off the relays."
"Done, ma'am," said Cindy happily, a smile decorating her face.
UTCC New York:Hangar Bay, Second Floor
Mark rushed down the stairs, alongside another dozens pilots, and then he ran as fast as he could in direction of his fighter, which was being quickly checked by some engineers. He immediately climbed the ladder supported at the side, grabbing his oxygen mask on the way up.
'Ok, ok, let me see,' he thought once inside the small cabin. 'Thrusters? Check. Weaponry? Check.' His hands danced as he checked the different functions of the fighter, half a minute later he connected the mask to his pressurized suit and activated his HUD, after that he gave a thumbs up to the engineers. They removed the ladder and left, he felt his fighter being rotated, now he was pointing at the fully opened hangar doors, he grabbed his controls just before his and the other fighters were violently ejected from the carrier, five minutes later the fighters were in delta formation, rapidly approaching to the turian 'fleet'.
"Here Red Leader," a voice sounded in his mask. "Enemy contact within fifteen seconds." He changed his HUD to combat mode. "Choose target and be ready to break formation." The enemy fighters were visible at a distance; Mark thought those were the worst designs he have ever seen. "Hunt at will."
Mark immediately left formation and began chasing a turian fighter that passed over his head, now on the rear of it, Mark didn't waste a second as he immediately fired the new version of his M61 Vulcan, which fired HE bullets of 45 millimetres. The turian tried to evade him, but his fighter was lacking the same agility and exploded in an impressive ball of fire. From what he could see on his radar, the rest of the enemy fighters were not having better luck, given that a red point disappeared almost every ten seconds. He laughed and selected his next target.
Milky Way, Serpentine Nebula: Widow System
The Citadel fleet re-entered the system, hoping to see the Citadel still in one piece, and a collective breath was released once they saw the Citadel still in position. After that, they attempted to use the relay only to find it deactivated and without any chance to reverse it. They were stuck in the system.
The Milky Way, Cima Apien: Trebia system
When the last of the turian ships exploded, a feeling of satisfaction rippled through the Oblivion Fleet, but as soon it started, it ended, now was coming the hard part: obliterating Palaven. The plan was simple, select a city on the dark side in the planet, detonate several massive bombs, then send in hundreds of thousands of soldiers, meanwhile the military bases would be destroyed. The plan began in earnest.
Rakhana
The calm of the city of Rakhana was abruptly cut by the piercing sound of the general alarm; the people weren't even able to get out of their houses before they were evaporated.
Unknown location, Defence Committee Headquarters
"This is a message from the Defence Committee and the Hierarchy Armed Forces," the soldier started. "Palaven have been invaded. Report to the closest safe location and bring only the necessities. One rucksack per civilian. If you see the invading forces do not attack them. I repeat, do not attack them!"
Palaven Outer Atmosphere: Drop Pod #452
First Sergeant Jill "Shadow" Smith sat down in the drop pod, making sure that his M16 was correctly loaded, he eyed the rest of the unit; there was currently five people in the pod with him, the rest of his platoon were launched in other two pods who where supposed to land with a few hundred meters away. At least, that was the idea. His chain of thought was abruptly interrupted by a loud crash, indicating that they had landed; he immediately stood up from his seat and turned to the wall, grabbing his weapon in the process. He pointed at the wall as it began to lower, the rest of the unit doing the same, when the walls were down and they were sure that the zone was clean, the rest of the unit formed up behind Shadow and advanced a few meters. Once outside, they could finally see the damage the fleet had wrought on the city; almost no building was standing, but they hardly cared, in fact, everybody had a shit-eating grin plastered on their faces.
"Here, Charlie," his earpiece sounded to life.
"Ahead, Charlie Team," he said.
"We've landed; if this thing is right, we're half a kilometre from your current position."
"Understood, where is Bravo Team?" he asked, swearing to have seen slight movement from the corner of his eye.
"They are still in the air, they will be on ground in the next minute."
As soon as Charlie Leader ended that sentence, a bullet flew a few millimetres above Shadow's head.
"Shit," he said, moving to a cover with his unit. "Charlie, we've stabilished contact with enemy forces, keep radio silence until Bravo touches ground."
"Understood." The link went dead.
"Open fire," roared Shadow, supporting his weapon on the pile of debris they were using for cover, from what he could see these were turian police. After killing a few turians, he lowered from the cover and recharged his weapon. "Use selective fire," he ordered his unit. "Remember that they don't run out of ammo."
They nodded and did as ordered, making every shot count; once the short but intense combat was finished, the police officers withdrew just as Shadow's earpiece came to life.
"Here Bravo Team, we have landed two hundred meters to your left, do you require assistance?"
"No thank you, proceed to the rendezvous point; Charlie is already on their way."
"Understood, on our way, Bravo out."
Shadow checked how many mags he had spent. 'Two? Fine.' He signalled to his unit to follow him, after advancing two hundred meters a grenade exploded in front of the unit.
"Ambush!" someone roared, and everybody moved to cover. Suddenly heavy gunfire was heard coming from the other side, making it a suicide run to move from cover.
"Here, Shadow Leader," shouted Shadow into the platoon link. "My unit has been ambushed by heavy enemy forces." His cover began to disintegrate, so he activated his plasma shield and ran to another one. "We request immediate assistance!"
"On our way," said Charlie and Bravo leaders at the same time.
"ETA?" he asked, hoping for the best.
"A minute," replied Bravo.
"Two and a half minutes, at best," replied Charlie.
"Fuck," he muttered under his breath. "Understood." He killed the link and reached for a shield.
"Tossing a shield!" he shouted before tossing it between his unit and the enemy. After the wall unfolded, he and his unit opened fire on the attackers, who at first didn't understand what happened, but moments later returned fire although when their bullets impacted on the shield, they exploded. In forty five seconds the wall collapsed in an explosion due to the constant enemy fire.
"Shit," muttered Shadow say after seeing the explosion, he hadn't expected the explosion to be so massive. "Report in!"
"Here, sir!" everybody replied.
"Thank god that our armour was reinforced against this," someone said.
"Yeah," he replied and was about to fully stand up when his visor cracked. "Oh, shit," he said, dropping back to cover. "Why the hell won't they die?!"
"I've never seen bastards so stubborn," said one of his men.
"How long until Bravo arrives?" he asked just as a turian head exploded.
"Seconds, sir," he heard on the line, then what was left of the enemy was rapidly slaughtered, and as silence gripped the battlefield Bravo approached Shadow.
"What now, sir?" asked the leader.
"Wait for Charlie to arrive and then get the hell out of here."
"Are you sure, sir?" asked Bravo Leader carefully. "There are likely more enemy forces on the way here."
"Then we deal with them," snapped Shadow. "It was going to be a stupid to order Charlie to head to the rendezvous point, when they were already on the way here."
"Understood."
Charlie Team then appeared, completing the platoon. They resumed their march to the rendezvous point, hearing sporadic gunfire in the distance.
Classified Location
Ferodian was petrified in his chair. Rakhana had been lost a few hours ago, with almost every military base on Palaven now ashes, the system was now isolated from the rest of the galaxy. He had expected the humans to come, but not this. He had not even thought to be prepared for this. Every attempt to retake the city only seemed to end in failure, the humans were too damn adaptable; and as he sat there, his intuition told him the humans were preparing other cities for Rakhana's fate. He silently prayed, looking for the necessary wisdom to end this hell.
Rakhana: Main Square
What had once been a place full of life, laughter, and happiness was now the centre of operations for the human invasion of Palaven. Already a field hospital was in place, taking care of the few injured people from the initial attack, there were also many makeshift landing pads, allowing for the helicopters to be parked on the ground, alongside some planes using these pads as a refuel station.
"So, what's next?" asked the Marshal.
"Wait until the rest of watercrafts are deployed," replied the Fleet Admiral.
"Good thing that we already installed the GTAMs," said the General of the Air Force.
"Speaking of that," said the Marshal. "How many raids have they stopped?"
"At least five, we control the air space above this city."
Then a powerful sniper rifle shot was heard in the distance, followed by more shots of lesser calibre.
"What's happening?" asked the Marshal to a nearby soldier.
"They're trying to break in the north perimeter, you're going to be immediately evacuated, so please follow me."
They move behind the soldier and once outside the building, the dignitaries could see several platoons entering in APCs, who once fully loaded started, to move to the north alongside some tanks and jeeps, some attack helicopters were already taking off, then the omni-tool of the soldier flared to life.
"How many enemies are in the sector?" a voice asked, the sound of an engine in the background.
"At least an entire fucking company!" another voice replied, this time with heavy gunfire in the background.
"Hold on, we're almost there," the other voice replied, the gunfire was heard.
"Understoo-Oh shit! A tank!"
An explosion was heard, followed by static, the soldier turned off the link, shaking his head forlornly. As they approached a plane, its powerful engine roared to life as the three dignitaries entered, as a nearby rail gun fired into the combat zone.
Rakhana: North Perimeter
"Where the hell is the Titan support?!" shouted a soldier to no one as a whistling sound was heard approaching.
"They're already in the air!" someone shouted in reply as a tank was blown up by a rail gun slug. Another powerful sniper shot was heard, completely ripping off a turian's head, a few seconds later it felt as if the floor subtly vibrated, the few humans still alive immediately understood what was happening.
Their reinforcements had arrived.
The few survivors saw a tank slug rush over their heads, at the same time they heard the mounted and coaxial machine gun, killing many turians before they could reach safety.
"GO, GO, GO!" they heard someone shout at their backs, after a minute dozens of soldiers joined their position.
"Where the hell is the rest of your people?" asked a commander.
"That fucking tank took us by surprise, killed half of my men in a second," replied the company's leading officer.
Three whistles were heard approaching, then three titans capsules landed with a loud crash. The turians tried to fire at them, but their bullets bounced harmlessly off the armor, three pilots ran up and entered them. The guns came to life and the killing began, the rest of the humans opened fire on anyone the stupid enough to leave cover. Not even three minutes later, there were cries of joy heard over the gunfire. They had won the day, and the turians now knew the total brutality of the human war machine.
At least they believed that.