A/N: Just to clear something up - Rannoch is, in fact, TEC territory. The Turian scouts mentioned in Chapter 1 came to the system after the Geth extraction but before the relay was dismantled and Rannoch was resettled.
GA'HERIEL BALAK, UNKNOWN VESSEL, FEBRUARY 5 2188
The alien woman slowly walked across the bridge, seemingly ignoring the twenty five weapons trained on her unarmoured form as she approached a wide semicircular panel.
"We were doomed right from the moment the Unity was split. We broke away, believing the Unity had become corrupted by hate, fleeing the impure loyalists. In the end we couldn't sustain ourselves, unsure if we should fight the enemy seeking our destruction or destroy each other."
She ran one hand over the panel, making the entire room light up in a soft blue luminescence.
"This starless battlescape is where our two fleets finally ran into each other. The Loyalists attempted to convert us back to their version of the Unity. We were too strong. For every one of ours they took, we took one of theirs, and before we knew what had happened our kind had slaughtered one another without either fleet firing a shot."
The Batarians all felt a slight hum in the decks as the enormous titan's power core came online.
"Take care of the Eradica, Ga'heriel Balak. She's yours now. My people are extinct. Better if I join them."
Her body lit up with a blinding white light, then crumbled into ash. The Batarians looked around, blinking, shellshocked. Balak was the first to decipher the alien's last words.
"Send a message to the Fist. Instruct them to bring the fleet in and deploy engineering teams to this ship. I think we've just moved into the penthouse, boys and girls."
He settled himself in the command throne, his throat feeling tight. He dismissed the feeling as nothing more than a by-product of his excitement.
The warrior-castes fanned out, each one seeming to gravitate towards a station.
-So I live again?-
Every head in the room jerked up and around, seeking the source of the ethereal voice.
"What are you?"
Suddenly his throat constricted violently and he dropped to his knees, clawing at his neck. Then his eyes started to burn and his whole head ached with a pounding fury. Then, almost as soon as the sensation appeared it was gone again. The Batarians on the bridge slowly picked themselves up. Balak almost panicked as he looked at the warriors. Where before they had possessed skin of rich clay and earth tones, their faces were deathly pale, with a slight blue tint to the skin, and where their eyes had been warm reds, browns and blacks, they now shone with an unnatural white brilliance.
"Wha ..."
-Welcome to the Unity. Bring your crews aboard so I may convert them.-
"Who are you?"
The voice seemed to chide him softly.
-Isn't it obvious? I'm the Eradica.-
VASARI GENERAL, KRON, FEBRUARY 8 2188
Honestly he hadn't expected it. But he supposed it made sense.
Harbinger had noticed a pattern. With every cycle that passes the races of the known galaxy are harder and harder to defeat. And this cycle really are proving tough. That rogue species, disassembling the Relays, using their own FTL drives - sneaky. Luckily Harbinger had the foresight to keep the Protheans alive, after a fashion.
Reapers were AIs, at their most fundamental all they were was very advanced computers. And like any computer they were constrained by their programming, not having the power to modify it. That was the one thing the Reapers lacked that organics had. Creativity. Flair. Intuition. Call it what you will, it was the intangible quality that managed to turn crushing defeats into heroic last stands and pyrrhic victories. Not enough to negate the advantages of numbers and firepower - yet. That was the purpose of the Vasari. To turn the organic's sole advantage to the purposes of the Reapers.
Enough semantics. Harbinger had insisted Vasari tech have nothing in common with Reaper tech, save the absolute necessities like element zero drive cores. These phase drives might give the Vasari the advantage they need to finally crush this rogue element.
He wasn't sure if he was indoctrinated or not. Granted, his body had been subject to the questionable ministrations of the Reaper nanites and most of his consciousness was stored in an array of quantum supercomputers jackknifed into that shrivelled lump of nerve tissue that used to be a brain, but he was still capable of reasoning for himself. He wasn't a puppet of the Reapers. At least, not directly. Or was he? He couldn't tell. He supposed that when his forces began their offensive and headed places the Reapers literally could not follow he'd see for himself exactly how his soldiers reacted when removed from tightbeam range of a Reaper, but for now he needed to prepare. When the time came he would board his flagship, still under construction, and personally lead the assault. Hopefully with the TEC fleets annihilated by the trap waiting on Palaven there would be minimal resistance to his forces sweeping in and taking TEC territory for themselves.
He looked down to watch the warriors being grown in the tanks, thousands upon thousands being created explicitly for the purpose of loading up into Jarrasul Evacuators and heading off to obliterate the TEC, planet by planet. His fleet of warships orbited Kron, the ball of lava somehow caught in the safe zone between black holes, covered in shipyards, laboratories and refineries. And over it all, like some unholy eye, hung the Reaper oversight node. The Vasari General idly contemplated ordering his station to destroy the node, it would be a prime opportunity to test out the disintegrators, but just as quickly dismissed the idea, not quite managing to be horrified that he would even consider it. He turned and scratched another X into the 'Not Indoctrinated' column of the chart carved into the bulkhead, then turned his attention back to the shipyards. He could see the shells of three Marauder battlecruisers taking shape alongside a bevy of Skirmisher and Assailant frigates and a squadron of carrier cruisers.
Just another day at the office.
TALI'ZORAH NAR RAYYA, SIGMA TRAINING FACILITY, FEBRUARY 12 2188
Dear Uncle Wrex,
It's been a while since I wrote. Sorry. I've been a bit busy.
We spent most of today playing with heavy weapons. My personal favourite is the Icarus, but maybe that's because it's the most technically demanding. Most people don't really like it because of the amount of tinkering the plasma coil needs to squeeze peak performance out of it, but I like the challenge. The only other person who feels the same as me is Garrus - he even spends his spare time in the armoury calibrating the sets for tomorrow. Technically the armoury techs should have kicked him out but I think they appreciate the help.
So anyway, right now I'm sitting in the grass with my squad, drafting this letter. After this I think I'll go for a swim. You know, I think the only thing I enjoy more than swimming is being in space. Being weightless is so fun!
I just checked my outbox. Last time I wrote to you was almost a month ago. Well, since I last wrote we've been through a major combat exercise. We armoured up, jumped out of a ship and dropped from orbit, then we had to take a (fake) Marine camp and defend it against a bunch of mechs. It was good fun. James got shot, but he's fine now. Spent most of the exercise swearing like his dad though.
Kaz and Kari are both doing fine. Not that this will be a big surprise, but Kari and Garrus are officially an item now. Took them long enough. I think Kaz is trying to get Ash and James to hook up, but I don't see it. They just aren't like that. Besides, I reckon Ash has a major crush on Kaz. Well she can't have him. He's mine.
We encountered that training sim you warned me about in your last letter too. I'm still having nightmares about that thing. But we all stuck together and saw each other through. James was really great - he got really mad for a bit, then just seemed to shrug it off and took care of the rest of us. I'm really glad he's here.
Rumour has it that soon we'll be shipping out from [REDACTED] for a bit and heading out to some barren rock for hostile environment training. Sounds fun like the dentist.
Oh, looks like Garrus has a pack of dextro cookies. Got to go.
Love Tali.
URDNOT WREX, MARS STARBASE, FEBRUARY 13 2188
Tali,
Hey, there you are! I was beginning to think you'd been eaten by a thresher maw.
First things first, are you sure you guys are okay after that sim? I know there's not much I can do about it if you aren't but you know me. Old men always worry. If you want to talk anything out I'll be here.
In other news, first orbital drop! Congratulations on not dying. I've seen enough orbital drops go wrong in my time, there's nothing left bigger than a Turian's right nut. Glad you got down in one piece. I should have guessed Massani's kid would have a tongue on him. I mean, seriously. Zaeed kisses his kids with that mouth? If he swore any more frequently his lungs would be classed as bioweapons.
Yeah, I never much liked the Icarus. Damn thing's too fiddly for a dirt pounder like me. Give me an MG14 any day, I'll put some holes in some husks. Now that's a weapon I could get behind. Mind you if I was in front of it that would mean I was in the wrong place, probably a couple of feet shorter than I'm used to.
At the moment we're cooped up in Mars Starbase while the engineers sit around playing with their quads not installing our Thanix cannon. They keep talking about 'component acquisition delays'. I mean, please. Some of these engineers are Quarian Thanix specialists who came all the way from Rannoch and they're sitting around waiting for the magnetic coils to get here from Venus. Human efficiency my cloaca. Your dad's bouncing off the walls with boredom, Wings convulses every time a refit crew comes within fifty metres of his engines and Legion is halfway through painting a mural of Tuchanka on the wall of the observation deck. Cadmus is running his gunnery crew into the ground drilling them for Kol weapons.
Oh, by the way, you got censored once in your latest letter. I make that 4-3 to me. You need to be more careful.
Wrex
JEFF MOREAU, TON SONORA, FEBRUARY 19 2188
"So this is our base for the time being?"
"It appears that way."
Joker had to admit, he was impressed. He had honestly never expected the fleet engineers to jam the Normandy into the fighter bay of a Percheron light carrier. But somehow they had.
"Lieutenant Moreau?"
They turned to see a dark-skinned man saluting them. Joker and Edi returned the salute, exchanging an amused glance. He clearly wasn't pleased about Joker, an eighteen year old cripple, getting the shiny new toy. Although it wasn't clear in this case whether he considered the Normandy or Edi to be the aforementioned shiny new toy.
"Lieutenant Steve Cortez. I'm the Sonora's helmsman. Please, this way. Bring your AI too."
Joker immediately bristled at the way he referred to Edi.
"I'm quite surprised, Lieutenant. Does the captain usually use his helmsman as an errand boy?"
Edi shot him a cautioning glance and he subsided, bottling up his snark with visible effort. The helmsman stiffened at the words but didn't reply as he led Joker and Edi through the corridors of the light carrier and up to the bridge.
"Ah, Lieutenant Moreau and Edi, is it? Glad you could join us."
The captain's command throne revolved to reveal a Salarian captain, one hand still manipulating his haptic console even as his attention was fixed on Joker and Edi. Joker was suddenly hit with the irrational notion he might start to melt under the intensity of the captain's gaze.
"Captain Padok Wiks, at your service. How much experience do you have flying a Normandy class?"
"Not as much as I'd like. About twenty hours flight time plus sim training, but I qualified to elite level on Shriken corvettes."
"Good, good. Impressions of the Normandy?"
"Bigger than I'm used to but she handles just like a Shriken. She gets a bit sluggish with the stealth systems active though."
"Hmm. I see. How about Edi?"
She blinked, surprised to be consulted. Of course, she didn't really need to blink, but she had written sub routines into her platform to emulate Human behaviour such as breathing and blinking.
"Based on my simulations I estimate that at peak performance the Normandy should be equal to a Shriken-class corvette in manoeuvrability. The stealth systems draw power away from the thrusters however, and excessive manoeuvres reduce the effectiveness of our stealth systems."
The captain rubbed his chin.
"So it's a trade off then? Agility versus stealth?"
"Correct."
"Thank you. I trust the quarters aboard the Normandy are sufficient?"
"Yes sir."
"Very well. I won't keep you any longer."
TALI'ZORAH NAR RAYYA, SIGMA TRAINING FACILITY, MARCH 18 2188
"Kaaaaz."
"Mmm?"
"Kaaazimiiiir."
"Mmm?"
"Wanna have sex?"
"Mmm. Maybe later."
They had just been through their second Vasari training sim. The traumatic experience had left them in the mood to do something very, very dumb. So they had snuck out of the barracks and swam across to the island in the middle of the lake, and proceeded to get absolutely hazed.
Ash passed the bong across to James, who took an enormous puff and then slumped on the floor in a fit of high pitched giggles. She had no idea where they had got the device but she wasn't about to question what Kari referred to as 'porvidense' while high as a Varro node.
"Hey Tali."
"Wanna have sex now?"
"Later."
"So what?"
...
"I forgot."
"Kay."
There was a short pause during which they listened to Ash and James inanely giggling and not quite drowning out the sound of enthusiastic humping from the bushes Kari and Garrus had sequestered themselves in.
"I'm all hot and bothered."
"You're hornier'n a ... thing. With horns."
She shuffled backwards so she was lying over Kaz's stomach, her back arched over his bulk.
"I wanna have seeeeeex."
"Fine. Passa bong."
The bong appeared in his hand and he took an enormous puff before holding it up to Tali, who looked at it apprehensively, shrugged and filled her lungs with the drug. Turned out that hash was a cross species thing.
"Okay. Sex now?"
Tali fell asleep.
GARRUS VAKARIAN, SIGMA TRAINING FACILITY, MARCH 19 2188
"Remind me why I let you guys talk me into this."
Delta and Echo squads were currently running on the spot in the quadrangle, each one holding an MG14 above their heads and being laughed at by the other trainees as they passed by. Turned out the Lieutenant did not take kindly to his trainees getting hazed.
"If I recall it was James's idea."
Kaz grinned at Garrus with absolutely no humour.
"So how was sex with my sister?"
To his credit Garrus didn't quail under the laser like glare.
"Would have been better if I could remember it."
URDNOT WREX, MARS STARBASE, MARCH 20 2188
Tali,
It's your prerogative what you do in your spare time, although as coping mechanisms go I might recommend something slightly less chemical. How the hell did you pyjaks manage to smuggle a bong into the facility anyway?
To say your dad is mad doesn't really do it justice. I can practically see the steam coming out his ears. Expect several very, very angry letters. Keeps blaming Zaeed's kids for their bad influence. As for the Major himself, he thinks it's hilarious, which just makes Rael even more mad. Cadmus and Carissa haven't heard yet - they're taking Solana to Disneyland Elysium - but when they do you can bet your ass there'll be more fireworks.
In other news the Thanix cannon finally got here and are getting installed. The Karamazov has her teeth, now we're just waiting for the relay armour to finish off the shell. Then we'll finally be ready to deploy. Can't say it's too soon, the engineers really took their sweet time with this one.
Stay safe and don't do anything else stupid.
Wrex
TALI'ZORAH NAR RAYYA, SIGMA TRAINING FACILITY, MARCH 22 2188
Dear Uncle Wrex,
The Lieutenant had us run on the spot in the quadrangle holding MG14s above our heads for a good twelve hours. I think I learned my lesson. You were right about Dad - he really isn't pleased. Judging by the amount of mail in my inbox, he has a few things to say about it too.
Tomorrow is the start of vehicle training. We're all shipping out to a moon and learning how to drive and shoot tanks for two weeks. I'll be out of Varro node range, so I won't be writing for a while.
As for that other thing, we had our second sim recently. That was why we were getting baked in the first place. Those things terrify me. They've become a regular fixture in my nightmares. When it came at me this time I froze up. I was so scared I froze up. Please, Uncle, how do you fight them? I think if I knew how to kill one I'd feel better. As is, I can hardly focus. I get panicky just thinking about it. Keelah, how am I supposed to kill them if I have a panic attack every time I see one?
A/N: Well, my story juice just ran out so I'm making this a codex heavy chapter. Hope nobody objects too strenuously.
CODEX- EAGLE APC
Designed to carry a squad of soldiers to a fight in relative safety and then provide fire support to said squad, the Eagle APC is the backbone of the TEC's mechanised infantry. The Eagle is designed to be dropped from low orbit, using a high powered skyhook to prevent the tank from being destroyed on impact.
An Eagle, instantly recognisable by its three hoverfans, is armed with twin-linked MG14s in a top turret and a launch rail for antitank and antiaircraft missiles, as well as a high caliber grenade launcher that fires heavy fragmentation, warp, EM or smoke grenades. Using this weaponry and its high grade energy barriers, the Eagle can protect itself and its twelve passengers from attack, as well as providing fire support for infantry units, and the hoverfans mean it can travel over terrain that prohibits the use of wheeled vehicles.
The Eagle originated as a fast transport designed to provide supplies and medical personnel to disaster areas. The design was appropriated by the makeshift PDF units that existed before the Advent wars, armed and shielded models used for police actions and counter-piracy operations. During the Advent Wars, enormous numbers of standardised military Eagles were constructed for military operations, where their high speed and ability to be orbital dropped made them favourites among PDF rapid response teams and offensive units alike. The design has remained relatively unchanged since the Advent war, deployed in roles from military police to Sigma insertions.
CODEX- ENLIL MEDIUM TANK
Dwarfed by its big brother the Anu, the Enlil is nevertheless a powerful ground force multiplier. A four legged, heavily armoured battle tank, the design originates back in the Advent Wars.
Unlike most TEC military units, the Enlil is not a hastily converted civilian model, instead being purpose designed for combat. The walker's legs are splayed out like an insect, giving it a low profile and allowing it to navigate difficult terrain with ease. The main weapon system is a high powered gauss cannon in a top turret, accompanied by a missile pod and a high-calibre coaxial autocannon. The tank also has a front and rear turret, each one containing twin linked anti-personnel autocannon and a medium bore grenade thrower. Unlike the Eagle, the Enlil cannot carry any infantry.
With thruster jets implanted in the feet and belly, the Enlil can be orbital dropped along with Eagle units using skyhook units from a Corsev assault transport, allowing it to provide heavy hitting firepower in a hot drop. Thanks to its thrusters a skilled crew can actually manoeuvre an Enlil in space, as demonstrated during the assault on the Advent core world of Hapke, where a squadron of Enlil broke free of the Skyhook lanes and smashed into an Advent heavy cruiser threatening the carrier squadrons, the tank crews boarding it and overloading it from the inside. Then-Sergeant Zaeed Massani was the only survivor.
The design of the Enlil was overhauled during the Reaper war when the Geth first made contact with the TEC. Borrowing from their Armature units, the legs of the Enlil were completely redesigned, giving it superior mobility, able to outrun even an Eagle on favourable terrain, and gecko pads upscaled from hopper platforms allowed the Enlil to run up vertical surfaces and even on ceilings, provided said surfaces can support the weight of a one hundred ton armoured main battle tank.
CODEX- ANU HEAVY ASSAULT TANK
The Anu heavy assault tank originated in a civilian designed planetary exploration rover, designed to house a team of explorers, biologists and geologists in relative comfort and traverse almost any terrain encountered while protecting the occupants from incompatible atmospheres, meteorological events and the local fauna. The vehicle class was only appropriated towards the end of the Advent wars as a force multiplier for the groundside invasions of the Advent home system, in particular the desert giant Torias Telion, the Advent homeworld. The Anu were fitted with corvette-strength energy barriers and deflectors and reflective armour to deflect Advent laser and beam weapons, and heavily armed with four anti-personnel autocannon turrets each containing twin-linked autocannon, two at the front and two at the rear, two frontal missile turrets and two miniaturised Gauss cannon in a heavy top turret along with an additional co-axial autocannon. The six legged walkers also have enough space to transport two full squads of fully armed Marines. The Anu walkers were mass produced in enormous quantities and spearheaded a Blitzkrieg style mass vehicular assault on the Advent core worlds. The Advent commandoes were completely unable to present a challenge to the firepower and defences of the Anu, leading to an incredibly rapid takeover of the ground cities, quickly forcing an end to the war and the resulting mass suicide of the Advent.
After the war the Anu, like the Kol, was exclusive to the TEC, although civilian model Anu were sometimes found in the hands of the PDF, refitted into lightly armed APCs. The Anu remained the core of the TEC Marines right through to the commencement of the Reaper war, with some infantry units making superior pirate forces surrender just by replicating the whirring sound of an Anu walking.
The Anu II was pressed into service after Operation Thresher Maw, where it was revealed that the once-unassailable Anu was little more than target practice for Reaper Ravagers and Harvesters. The energy barriers were strengthened and the main weapons updated, but the real rebirth of the Anu came after the Geth integrated into TEC society. Using their designs for Armature and Colossus class units, they vastly improved the mobility and survivability of the walkers while at the same time giving them a distinctly Geth aesthetic, especially the legs. The two railguns and the autocannon of the top turret were replaced by a single overhauled gauss cannon and two autocannon, completing the refit. There are plans on the table to experiment with relay armour on the Anu, although at the moment all relay alloys are slated for Kol Battleships.
CODEX- NEMESIS GROUND ATTACK PLATFORM
The Nemesis ground attack platform is designed to lay the maximum amount of hurt possible on Reaper ground forces from relative safety. The platform is a large triangular aircraft with three integrated aerofans keeping it aloft, armed with numerous weapon systems. Its primary weapon is the minicannon. A fusion of the ancient six-barrelled minigun and osmium munitions, the minicannon fires one by four slugs with a cyclical fire rate of six hundred rounds a second, able to tear through almost any target in less than a tenth of a second. Despite an enormous onboard munitions pool, the weapon carries only enough rounds for seventy five seconds of continuous fire, meaning the gunner has to be frugal with his use of the minicannon. Along with this formidable weapon is a number of Dienekes missiles in a launch rack in the belly of the ship and a heavy quad-barrelled plasma cannon. The ship itself is protected by an energy barrier and thick armour, although the aerofans are a weakness Reaper ground forces have successfully exploited numerous times, especially during Operation Thresher Maw.
The Nemesis design was created by a team of Quarian engineers following the need for heavy air support so clearly demonstrated by Operation Thresher Maw. The design played a major part in convincing the military of just how valuable Quarian engineers were.
CODEX- CRONUS SCOUT BIKE
Cronus scout bikes are known in the TEC for two things: the most insane, aggressive and sadistic pilots in the Coalition and returning from missions sporting bright red colour schemes that definitely aren't paint.
The Cronus scout bikes originated in an all terrain dirt bike popular on desert colonies where other vehicles would get bogged down in the sand. This feature caught the interest of the TEC midway through the Advent war, when they were finding their existing vehicles less mobile in the sandy conditions of the Advent's favoured colonies. The solution they came up with was to weaponise the sand bikes and the Cronus was born.
Designed as fast hit and run raiders, the Cronus was equipped with a primitive but effective cannon capable of firing numerous munitions, from shotgun-like blasts of flechettes to high explosive shells and even micro nukes. The Cronus riders quickly discovered another weapon - momentum. The Cronus's enormous front wheel, covered in sharp ridges to aid grip in difficult terrain, proved just as effective at pulping organic matter, hence the bright red colour schemes. This tactic had a secondary effect - anybody who went on a mission as a Cronus pilot without immediately requesting a transfer was the kind of person who didn't really mind being covered in blood.
After the war, there were several calls for the Cronus squadrons to be disbanded and discharged from the military but the sheer effectiveness of the bikes prevented that from occurring, despite their questionable morals. Over the interlude between the Advent and Reaper wars, the Cronus bikes were used as a terror weapon, deploying at pirate bases and wreaking havoc before the regulars moved in to take the inevitably surrendering pirates into custody. During this time they only cemented their reputation as bloodthirsty, ruthless and sadistic.
Operation Thresher Maw was disastrous for some classes of vehicle, in particular the Anu. Not the Cronus. The deserts of Tuchanka proved to be the perfect ground for the bikes, blowing up and running down Reaper infantry with impunity. The Cronus bikers to this day are nicknamed the 'Sons of Kalros' by the Krogan.
CODEX- TYPHON MOBILE MISSILE ARTILLERY SYSTEM
The Typhon missile artillery is essentially a Javelis missile pod mounted on an extended Eagle chassis, but despite its makeshift nature the Typhon mobile missile artillery system is brutally effective on the battlefield. Designed in the lead up to Operation Thresher Maw, the Battle of Tuchanka was a baptism of fire for the Typhon units.
Capable of firing an enormous variety of missiles, from high explosive to micro-nuclear, 'Fire Hive' cluster bombs and even five hundred gram Abbadon warheads, the Typhon units proved themselves beyond a doubt during Thresher Maw, the first salvo fired during the battle being a full spread of Abbadon warheads that took out a Reaper destroyer that had escaped the fleet to attack the ground forces, thus giving the Typhon unit 'Jackson Five' the honour of being the only TEC unit ever to bring down a Reaper from the ground. Not content with that honour, the Typhon units then went on to saturate the Reaper staging area with Fire Hive munitions, smashing their command and control node into shrapnel and throwing their forces into disarray. Gatatog Uvenk (now Artillery Major Uvenk of the TEC Typhon Mechanised Artillery Corps) said of the Typhon units:
"When that Reaper fell I never thought I'd see anything more beautiful in my life. Then I saw it raining fire on their staging area and I changed my mind. It was like Tuchanka herself had decided to erase the invaders."
CODEX- EKI'GAL SPACE SUPERIORITY FIGHTER
Designed to replace the numerous ageing fighter designs used in Thresher Maw and Nomad Empire, most dating back to pre-Advent times, a team of Quarian engineers under Shala'Raan vas Tonbay (now vas Ellipsia) created the Eki'Gal space superiority fighter in little under a month of feverish work. Armed with state of the art weaponry and engines, the Eki'Gal is the basis of the TEC's strike craft forces and a common sight in any carrier ship in the TEC.
The fighter is armed with two Xen-pattern minicannon of the same type deployed in the Nemesis gunship, although the weapons hold far more ammunition than the Nemesis. The ships are also armed with a Dienekes missile launcher for longer range engagements and basic energy barriers, making them far superior to Oculi fighter units. The superiority of this design of strike craft was demonstrated during Operation John Connor, where a single squad of twelve destroyed the entire Oculus complement of a Reaper capital ship, suffering only four casualties in return.
CODEX- CHEVRON STRIKE BOMBER
The Chevron Strike Bomber was designed as a specialised bomber craft partway through the Advent war, complementing the Impala heavy bomber. Where the Impala was designed as a delivery system for the heaviest firepower the TEC possessed, the Chevron's weapons aren't as powerful but are designed more for harassing duties than knockout blows. Against the Reapers the Chevron is less effective than the Impala in anything but the largest groups, but makes up for it by its ability to enter atmosphere, hitting grounded Reapers with weakened kinetic barriers or performing bombing runs on Reaper infantry.
The Chevron is armed with a single Quarian-designed minicannon, added after Operation Nomad Empire, and two missile pods that hold micro-nuclear, Dienekes, Fire Hive or Abbadon munitions. The ships are almost as fast and agile as an Eki'Gal fighter and when armed with Dienekes missiles are almost as effective in an anti-strike craft role as the fighters. In sufficient numbers they can overwhelm destroyers with twenty-gram Abbadon warheads and use micro-nuclear or Fire Hive munitions against ground targets.
CODEX- IMPALA HEAVY BOMBER
Designed for maximum hurt on Reapers, the Impala heavy bomber only carries one payload - two Marza sized Abbadon missiles. Because of the sheer size of the missiles the Impala is almost forty metres long and highly vulnerable to Oculi attack because of its low manoeuvrability compared to the Chevron. The Impala bombers are designed to fly their payloads right down the Reaper's throats and unleash them at minimum safe distance before fleeing. This is an insanely risky move, running the risk of being obliterated by a Reaper's Thanix beam and of being caught in the blast of their own munitions, resulting in Impala pilots having the lowest life expectancy of
CODEX- OSMIUM MUNITIONS
More correctly called imploded osmium impact shells, osmium munitions are the ammunition used in all TEC autocannon munitions. The osmium pellets themselves are cylindrical pieces of metal with a blue-grey shine to them, about three centimetres in diameter and ten centimetres long. Osmium has the highest natural density of any known element, at 22.9 grams per centimetre cubed, and repeated implosions using powerful mass effect fields have increased the density of this new 'imploded osmium' shell to something approaching 50 grams per centimetre cubed, meaning that a typical three by ten shell has a mass of three point five kilograms. Because Osmium has an incredibly high melting point, it can be accelerated to speeds far in excess of a ferrous mass accelerator slug, producing velocities of up to 0.06c. This means that a typical three by ten slug has a kinetic energy of 2.26x10^15 joules. The slugs deliberately have fault lines built into them, much like the dumdum shells of a shotgun, meaning that they fragment into twelve pieces when they hit, punching through armour plate then tearing through the vulnerable insides of the target. Unfortunately osmium munitions are next to useless against Reaper capital ships unless firing at the vulnerable firing chamber, meaning that in the Reaper war all but the largest calibre ship mounted autocannon have been relegated to anti-fighter defence. The exception to this rule is the Kol Battleship's two frontal autocannons, with a twenty by eighty slug size, the sheer impact force is enough to give pause to even a Reaper capital ship.
CODEX- ABBADON MUNITIONS
Admiral Bakara once described Abbadon missiles as the 'Krogan headbutt of space weapons'. Regardless of how they are described, the fact is that Abbadon missiles are the most devastating weapon in the TEC arsenal, apart from their reverse engineered Thanix weapons. Each Abbadon missile has a casing containing a large number of magnetically suspended antilithium particles. As an example a missile fired from a Marza Dreadnought's main battery has a 5 kilogram warheads (any larger and the magnetic fields needed to contain it would interfere with the missile's navigation). Assuming every single antilithium particle impacts with the intended target the yield of the missile would be 225 gigatons. In reality this yield is rarely achieved due to random annihilations with fragments of the missile casing, debris and free floating hydrogen atoms, as well as blocks from the Reaper's kinetic barriers, but if only one gram of antilithium got through the yield would still be around 45 megatons, several orders of magnitude larger than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined. Because of the inherent risk in containing antimatter, precautions on the safe containment of Abbadon munitions are more strenuous than anything else, excepting the containment of antiproton starship fuel.
CODEX- DIENEKES MUNITIONS
Dienekes missiles were created during the Advent War as the pinnacle of TEC missile technology, proving incredibly effective against Advent ships and ideal for anti-fighter weapons thanks to their unique targeting mechanism.
Designed to sow chaos among the recipients of the missiles, Dienekes warheads are actually empty casings that contain seven smaller micro-missiles. Each missile has its own targeting algorithms and thrust unit and carries a small yet powerful micro-nuclear warhead. The revolutionary feature of the missiles is their targeting computers, however. Each micro-missile contains a miniaturised communications array, allowing real time communication with other micro-missiles, not just from the same parent missile but from any source, and a very small sensor package in the tip. Communing and pooling their sensor data, the micro-missiles can calculate the optimum firing pattern in flight, using it to take down the maximum number of enemy fighters or plot the optimum trajectories to slip through weakened shields. The Dienekes missiles are the very embodiment of fire and forget.
Recently there has been a good deal of experimentation with combining Dienekes and Abbadon missiles, and initial tests on these 'Fortack Munitions' are promising, but creating a containment vessel small enough to fit in a Dienekes missile without negatively impacting the missile's performance is proving harder than anticipated, despite several breakthroughs made by the Krogan/Quarian team.
CODEX- FIRE HIVE MUNITIONS
Fire Hive and Incoming are two phrases no soldier wants to hear in the same sentence. Designed at the close of the Advent Wars, Fire Hive missiles are based on Dienekes missiles and the ancient MLRS and Jericho missile systems, designed to sow chaos among enemy ranks as a terror weapon of the highest calibre.
The concept behind the Fire Hive is simple - a Dienekes missile casing, modified to contain instead of seven micro-missiles, almost a thousand incendiary bomblets. Able to saturate half a square kilometre with thermite paste, napalm's big mean brother, Fire Hive missiles were first used by Chevron strike bombers on Torias Telion, turning several Advent military bases and population centres into whirling firestorms hot enough to melt vehicle armour and stone bunkers, in one famous case detonating an ammunition dump buried under thirty metres of solid rock. The Fire Hive parent missiles have two detonation modes - saturation, where they cut their engines in high atmo and release their munitions while falling, creating a roughly circular area of destruction, and strike, where the missiles fly in fast and low before releasing their bomblets, creating long, thin infernos known as 'Satan's Skidmarks'.
Fire Hives were used extensively during Operation Thresher Maw, proving very popular among the Krogan, who reportedly cheered every time TEC forces announced an inbound Fire Hive strike.
CODEX- REAPER DESIGNATIONS
Rumba Oscar - Oculus
Rumba Delta - Destroyer
Rumba Charlie - Capital ship
Rumba Tango - Troop transport
Rumba Hotel - Harvester
Zulu Hotel - Husk (Asari)
Zulu Charlie - Cannibal (Batarian)
Zulu Mike - Marauder (Turian)
Zulu Bravo - Brute (Turian/Krogan)
Zulu Alpha - Banshee (Ardat-Yakshi)
Zulu Samba - Sprinter (Salarian)
Zulu Rumba - Ravager (Elcor)
Zulu Victor - Vasari (Prothean)
Zulu Papa - Praetorian (Asari/Batarian)
Zulu Delta - Devastator (Thresher Maw)