Chapter 3 Ground Assault Day 1
As the Turian landing craft entered the atmosphere, the planetary AA guns opened fired, but for every Turian landing craft that was shot down, 3 more made landfall.
In the forests 150 kilometers outside of the capital of Shanxi.
"What's the set rep," General Juso Barius asked his immediate subordinate.
"We lost a quarter of our landing craft," came his response. "Fortunately we suffered relatively light casualties and most of our armor made it groundside." Just then gunfire could be heard firing upon them. "The distance to the main city is 150 kilometers from here. A single small settlement is between us and the city and it has a significant population that could be trouble on our rear if we bypass it."
"Send the necessary troops to quell any potential uprising," Juso ordered as the Turian saluted and carried on with his orders, Juso turned to another officer. "Send scouts to the city to see what kind of resistance we will be facing."
The second officer saluted in understanding.
-Shanxi Military HQ-
"We've downed a fourth of their landing craft but they keep on coming," a random officer stated in a panicked voice.
"Keep it together soldier," Williams ordered in a stern tone. "We've been preparing for this eventuality for 30 years."
As General Williams looked at the holographic map before him he said, "Their main force is 150 kilometers outside the city. Their first move is to secure all the Freedom town."
"Except for the town of Freedom, all civilians have been safely evacuated and in the city emergency bunkers," a first lieutenant said.
General Williams sighed as he lit his cigar with his fire elemental abilities and asked, "How long will they come to Freedom?"
"At their current pace, an hour tops before contact," the same first lieutenant responded. "As for the Armored Krogan unit, it'll take them upward of 2 if they pause at Freedom."
"What I wouldn't give for a Nebula-class battleship battle group right now. Sergeant Johnson, who is the bravest and craziest son of a bitch that we have," Williams asked as he took a whiff of his cigar.
"That would be Lieutenant Jack Sparrow sir," was Johnson's response. "He's a flier."
"I have a job for him," said Williams with a grin as smoke came out of the cigar he was smoking.
-Armored Krogan unit outside Shanxi-
"First unit of Armored Krogan of Clan Urdont," Battlemaster Maturan exclaimed to his unit of 49 other Krogan, "Today we start repaying the humans of freeing Clan Urdont of not only the Genophage but giving us new homes on Mandalore, Kashyyyk, and Tatooine! Now for the honor of our Clan we march on the Turians and we will teach them how our Clan repays their debts!"
With that much stomping of agreement the metal covered Krogan.
"Forward," the Krogan battlemaster ordered as he began his charge as brief blue flames emitted outward of his armor to increase his already impressive speed, as he was followed by his entire unit.
-Turian Dreadnought Spirit of Palavern-
"I could use any news right about now," General Desolus commented.
"Sir, I managed to get the systems up and running again," said the computer specialist in charge.
"What virus did those primitives hit us with first lietinut," Desolus asked in a serious tone.
"That's the thing, it wasn't a virus. It was a first contact package and it would appear that it overloaded the systems because our VI's mistook it for multiple computer viruses and due to standard protocol it went into purge mode to protect our systems to keep them from spreading."
"You have got to be Spirits damned messing with me," Desolus responded as he nearly lost his composure over it.
"No I am not. Worse yet, the only information that survived was the name for themselves and they are somewhat aware of us and are not happy."
"What does this new species call themselves and why are they not happy with us?"
"They are called humans and as to why, it wasn't part of the package we recovered."
General Desolus let out a frustrated growl, "Can this get any worse?"
"General sensors have confirmed that Krogan are groundside and heading towards General Juso forces!" One of the bridge crew's ensigns shouted.
"Forward ground probes have confirmed Krogan are taking defensive measures in the planet's main city," another shouted. "They've been ID'd as belonging to Clan Urdont!"
"Weren't they banished 30 years ago for trying to unite the Krogan Clans," asked a lieutenant.
"Looks like we found them," Desolus commented.
-Wolf System Second Fleet HQ-
Onboard a MC80 Star Dreadnaught, Bismarck, a Japanese decent 50-year-old Admiral Haruto Yamato is currently speaking with the Admiralty board over holo-communication in his office/room with 6 members in front of him.
"It's only a matter of time before we meet one of the Citadel Council races, we need to have a plan if war breaks out between us," Yamato said towards the board.
"This Citadel is supposedly a peaceful coalition of races," a male member stated.
"Supposedly," a female member said. "They created the Genophage that still plagues most of the Krogans or the Quarion Migrant Fleet. They haven't been able to settle on a suitable planet. When they try they are always forced off of it for one reason or another."
"These Batarians border is 132 light years from our outermost colony," said a third. "Not to mention they are still practicing slavery for millennia after discovering interstellar flight."
"The Council species ships have a hard limit of 15 light years a day," said a fourth. "Their barriers and armor have minimal defense against our ship weapon systems."
"The relay network subverts their current ship speed limit," says a fifth. "A third of our systems have a relay in them. I agree with Admiral Yamato's caution."
"21.38 billion human lives hang in the balance," the final one said.
"Let's set an outline of a worst case scenario and we'll present it to the Alliance President and Senate for review," said the fourth one.
"It won't pass," said the first.
"It is our job to protect the Alliance from all threats," said the second. "The public will call for blood if the worst does come to pass."
"Why is Warlord Wrex on Shanxi," asked the fifth.
"He is overseeing the final training exercise of the First Krogan Armored Unit," Yamato replied.
There was some mumbling of disapproval before completing the other topics they had scheduled before signing off.
The ship's XO, a man of African descent, entered shortly after and placed an electronic tablet on the Admiral's desk before stating, "The fleet's daily patrol report."
"I should reprimand you for your lack of protocol just now," Yamato stated as he picked up the tablet before continuing, "Give me the cliff notes."
"A: I'm the only person on this ship to give you honest tactical advice and B: it's mostly quiet in our patrol areas as almost all pirate bases have been routed out, except in Sector 51. There has been an unusual spike, of 123%, in that area, sir," came the XO's reply.
"Reroute Task forces 5, 8 and 11 to assist," came the Admirals response as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Is anything wrong, sir."
"The Admiralty board is giving me more trouble as of late."
"Do you want me to send Task Force 13 to give them a kick in the ass for you?"
"Don't tempt me."
-Ground Side Town of Freedom-
The smell of burning Turian flesh filled Private Preitor's nose as he and his squad finished sweeping the town of any survivors as they passed a group of human corpses with pinkish colored skin.
"How do they produce those flames," one of Preitor's squad mates asked.
"With some tech we haven't managed to ID yet," Preitor responded as they passed a human corpse with black skin.
"My Omni-Tool didn't ID any tech on them," responded another private.
"They are designed to ID known tech and we know that they don't use any known tech," Preitor shot back.
"Keep your voices down," their sergeant ordered. "We need to make sure this town is secure."
"They fought to the last man," whispered one of the privates.
"Why are we whispering," a voice asked.
"So the locals won't find us," said the sergeant dismissively before the entire squad turned to see a male human wearing plain looking clothes and goggles over his eyes among them.
"Oh right," the human said as if it was perfectly normal.
Instantly the entire Turian squad turned their rifles on the human and faster than they could blink the human became a literal blur of motion and Preitor realized he was holding his entire squad's rifles.
"Classic," the human said before punching Pietor in the face, causing him to drop the rifles and land on his back. "Beep beep!"
The human sped off and less than a second later, he was gone from their view.
"What just happened," Pietor asked as he get back up from his feet.
"I don't know but we need to call this in," the sergeant replied.
-Shanxi HQ-
About a minute after the incident with the Turians, the human that punched Pietor in the face is standing at attention as General Williams questioned him, "There were no survivors?"
"They even killed the infants sir," came his response. "I saw the bullet holes in them myself."
Williams flames flared around him for a second but nobody flinched. "How's the shield generator coming along?"
A communication officer said, "They just said they are good to go."
"Turn it on."
-In Orbit-
"General, an energy barrier has engulfed the main city," the officer supervising the surface scans said urgently.
"Of course they did," General Desolus said in an annoyed and unsurprised tone. "Tell the ground forces to head to that city. They can't hold out forever."
"At once General!"
-Turian Forward Operating Base Medical-
Several human naked bodies are on the examination table.
"Tell me Doctor, what are we dealing with," the base CO asked.
"They are a mammalian species, omnivore, judging by their teeth," the doctor said. "Based on their muscular they are slightly stronger than the average Turian, though not enough to be obvious."
"How are they able to produce those flames," the CO asked. "We found no tech that would explain that."
"I can't tell you," the doctor replied.
"Can't or won't?"
"Can't," came the response. "I ran every test that I could think of. No special organs or glands that I would expect to explain it. Every test I could think of came back saying that they shouldn't have said ability, but I did find an anomaly in their immune system."
"What kind of anomaly?"
"They have antibodies to the Genophage."
-Turian Front Lines-
Turians are firing blindly into the forest in front of them.
"Who is firing on us," a random Turian asked/shouted as he continued to shoot and the body count of Turians continued to rise and cries of 'Medic' could be heard.
"Spirits, I don't know," another replied. As a miniature missile appeared from the tree line and exploded behind her as cries of pain filled her ears.
Multiple turians eyes widened as multiple, fully encased in metal, multiple Krogan appeared from the shadows of the forests. Multiple rounds of bullets bounced off an unknown barrier that ecomposed them. The Krogan didn't hesitate to fire back from their unknown rifles as Turian barriers failed to stop them.
"Focus your fire on a single Krogan," an unknown Turian shouted. Every Turian complied, even though nobody knew who shouted that.
It took several long seconds for the first Krogans barrier to fail but their rounds continued to bounce off of the armor.
"Launchers," a voice called out. Several missiles fired at the Krogan whose barrier was down.
As smoke cleared from the explosion, the Turians were stunned as the Krogan was still alive but clearly his armor was damaged. Several other armored Krogan covered him as he fell back.
-Citadel-
"Primarch, mind telling me why the 7th Fleet was pulled from their normal patrols," the Turian councilor Vetra asked the holographic image of the primarch. "I have 8 planetary governments demanding answers."
"You don't need to know Councilor," the primarch responded in a dismissive tone.
"The other councilors will eventually find out, they will demand answers," Vetra responded in an increasing annoyed tone.
"When they finish with their assignment, you will have the details," the primarch said as the holographic image disappeared.
Vetra looked at a random aide and said, "Get him back on the line! Make it a priority call if you have to!"
Codex:
Warp Drive: Humans-faster-than-light propulsion system. It displaces the ship outside of known space-time. Unfortunately ships' weapons and shields are rendered inoperable due to the laws of physics outside in the 'Warp Space' which is currently outside humans' realm of knowledge. The current generation of Warp Drives can propel a ship 93.8 Lightyears a day before dropping out of warp for engine cooldown, though the current Warp Drive as of yet fleet wide.
Nebula-Class Battleships: The System alliance mainstay battleship 1040.3 meters in length. Main Armanament is 80 16-inch cannon triple barrel batteries along with 20 12.4-inch cannon dual barrel batteries, 32 triple 4-inch canons 46 quad-rotartary AA batteries, 8 torpedo tubes, and a complement of 12 star fighter/bombers. Standard crew complement of 6,800 with an additional standard 1,500 marine complement. Based on the Star Wars Legends Nebula-Class Star Destroyer.
MC80 Star Dreadnaught: A 1,638.23 meter Dreadnaught. Has 5 torpedo tubes, 32 triple barrel 16-inch canons, 40 double barrel 12-inch canons, 72 quad 4-inch canons, 123 quad-rotary AA guns. Standard crew of 5,500 plus an additional 7,500 marines. Has the capacity to carry upwards of 120 star fighter/bombers (very on mission profile). The smallest vessel in the System Alliance Navy to have a double layer of energy shields. Currently 12 in active service. Based on the MC80 Cruiser from Star Wars.