Chapter 2
-Shanxi January 12, 0013 hours-
"They destroyed the Defiant as it was transmitting the first contact message," General Williams asked as he spoke to Captain Archer's hologram.
"Yes sir," the hologram replies as it flickers. "I then provided covering fire for the survey convoy as they made it back through the relay."
"What's the status of your ship," Williams asked.
"Multiple breaches on decks 6 through 13, main core is offline, main cannon mounts 2, 7, and 8 are severely damaged, long-range comms are down, and 406 members of the crew are either dead or injured," came the reply. "Only the survey ship Defiant was destroyed."
"Return to command," Williams ordered. "Your ship is mission dead as it is. I want you to inform command of our situation."
"At our best speed we will be in comms range in 4 days," Archer replied.
"Understood," Williams replied back as the hologram flickers off. He then walks out of the room and he looks out onto his base as everyone is preparing for what might come.
"General!"
"Lieutenant," Williams replied to the young woman that came up to him and gave him a small data pad.
"All civilians have been notified, and most of them are making their way to the closest spaceport or bunker," the lieutenant stated.
"Most?" Williams said as he raised an eyebrow as he looked through the data.
"The town of Freedom is refusing to cooperate," the lieutenant clearifies as it was oblivious she was choosing her words carefully.
"The town of Fire Elemental supremacists," Williams asked.
"Yes sir."
Williams frowned and ordered, "Leave them for now."
"But sir…"
"If these aliens are truly hostile, we can save more lives by focusing on those who are willing to cooperate. Do I make myself clear lieutenant?"
"Yes sir," she replied with a salute. Her tone made it clear she wasn't happy about it as she left to continue her duties.
Williams entered another building with a massive machine inside it and asked the lead tech, "How's the city shield generator coming along?"
"Not good," came his grim reply. "The generator is 90% complete and we were waiting on some essential parts from Talos IV. I'm having my men jury rig the needed parts here. If it truly comes down to it, I don't know how long the shield'll hold."
"See what you can do," Williams ordered.
Three Krogan walked up to the General and the leader of the group said, "Word is that you are expecting a fight. We want in."
William gave them a blank look and said, "Wrex, I can't give you orders and at the same time I cannot stop you from helping."
The old Krogan mearley smiled as he replied, "You humans gave the banished Clan Urdnot a new home. It is time we repaid the debt."
-0708 Turian 7th Patrol Fleet-
"45 ships destroyed, and another 46 with various stages of damage," Admiral Septimus stated to General Desolus on the Generals Dreadnaught Palaverns Pride. "All this done by a single unknown Dreadnaught?"
"Yes Admiral," Desolus replied.
Septimus smiled as he said, "Orders from Palvern. All remaining ships from the 7th Patrol fleet are to join up with the 3rd fleet."
"The 3rd," Desolus replied in surprise. "The largest fleet in the Hierarchy Navy, with over 700 ships, why?"
"If a single unknown Dreadnaught could inflict so much to your fleet, imagine what would have happened if it had the support of an entire fleet," was his reply.
Desolus kept his composure as he mentally shuddered.
"The Primarch wants them to join the Citadel as a client race of the Hierarchy, if possible," Septimus added.
"And if they refuse," Desolus asked.
"That's why he ordered the 3rd to go first," Septimus replied. The implication was not lost on the General.
"For the record, I protest any further bloodshed," Desolus said.
"I'm sure the aliens on the other side of Relay 317 will consider your protests a mute point as you gave the order that destroyed an unarmed ship," Septimus casually said as he walked off the bridge. "As soon as I'm on my ship, I want you to join the 3rd fleet."
"Understood."
The 47 ships Desolus commanded waited on their side of the relay as they waited for mobilization.
-0937 Shanxi Garrison-
A loud siren could be heard throughout the base as soldiers and other ground crew scrambled as in the command center General Williams looked at a holo display and stared, "What are we dealing with?"
"Over 700 ships," an officer said, "3 battleship length, 127 cruiser length, and the rest are frigates of various sizes."
"Confirmed, no dedicated carriers are among them," a second officer replied.
"Our long range communication network is still down from the terrorist bombing at 2337 last night," a third said.
"What are our defenses?"
"The cruiser France, was the only ship assigned here. We have 2 Pluto battle stations, one at each pole, and 27 orbital gun platforms in orbit, with 60 fighters split between the 2 battle stations," came the response from the first officer. "But the fighters are the old Z-95 'Headhunters' that were built during the Luna-Earth war."
"If this is an invasion, we won't win in space," Williams stated grimly.
-Turian 3rd Fleet Flagship Hammer of Palvern-
"We are detecting 2 stations orbiting the planet's poles," an officer said while looking at his console. "With an additional 27 gun platforms orbiting the second planet. Sensors detect no presence of a second relay, Admiral sir."
Septimus looked at the holographic display of the system. The first planet is a barren world barely bigger than the pirate moon of Torfan that is tidally locked, the second is the garden world that they were invading and the last planet is a typical gas giant.
"Any ships," Admiral Septimus asked.
"None sir," was the reply.
"Must be a new race, just reaching for the stars," Septimus mused. "Prepare the invasion force!"
"Yes sir!"
With General Desolus, he knew that invasion of the planet was coming, but something didn't add up.
"What's the status of the surface," Desolus asked.
"Unknown," came the response. "Whatever they sent over is messing up the sensors. I can't penetrate past the planet's atmosphere."
Desolus mentally growled at this.
"General," the comms officer said, pulling Desolus out of his musings, "Admiral Septimus has ordered us to join the battle group attacking the station at the southern pole."
"Acknowledge our orders and position ourselves in accordance with the battle plans," Desolus ordered as he viewed the planet before him. "Any signs of the ships from before?"
"None sir," said an officer. "They could have easily left the system by traditional FTL."
"We detected no eezero on their ships," Desolus said to no one in particular. "So where are they?"
Before anybody could respond, a bridge officer said, "The battle stations are releasing strike craft."
"Not unheard of," Desolus said. "How many?"
"60," came the reply. "They are holding steady near the planet."
"With the planet's gravity well, we will be in effective fire range of our guns in 30 seconds," said another officer.
Immediately as she finished a frigate exploded near them.
"So it begins," Desolus stated. "Make sure our MAC ready to fire as soon as we are in range."
"Yes sir," the bridge crew said as their Dreadnaught shuddered as the fire from the battle stations and gun platforms hit neighboring ships, either outright destroying them or putting holes through them.
The crew braced themselves as they were forced to make quick course corrections as a cruiser in front of them completely vented its atmosphere, causing its crew to the cruel mercy of space, and the ship dead in space.
"15 seconds until we are in range."
"May the spirits have mercy on our fallen brothers and sisters."
"10 seconds."
"The strike craft have engaged our frigates."
"5 seconds."
"36 ships have been lost or disabled."
"We are in range."
"Fire," Desolus ordered as his Dreadnaught and several of the cruisers in his battlegroup fired at the battle station as the frigates fired on the gun platforms with their MACs.
Upon impact the station's barriers glowed a bluish hue but still held.
"No damage," said an officer.
"3 gun platforms are disabled or destroyed," said another.
"Keep firing until that station is down," Desolus ordered as his ship's guardian array destroyed one of the strike craft that got too close.
They kept firing at their assigned targets but their casualties kept climbing higher.
"What are they hitting us with?"
"Whatever it is, I'm not picking up what."
"Missiles," said a second, looking at his console.
Indeed the battle station launched several volley of missiles, fortunately for them their guardian array system destroyed a good chunk of them while the rest collided with the barriers of their ships. Only a couple frigates were destroyed because of the missiles.
"Their barriers are down!"
"I want that station destroyed," Desolus ordered as the cruiser next to them was destroyed by whatever they were firing at them.
The remaining cruisers and his Dreadnaught must have put a hundred rounds into the station alongside with countless disruptor torpedoes before what was left of the station stopped firing.
With the last of the gun platforms destroyed as well Desolus orders, "Send over a boarding party. I want intel on this new species."
"Yes, sir."
"Causality report."
"Out of the 60 cruisers that accompanied us, we were down to 19, and we lost half of our frigate escort. We sustained minimal damage due to the enemy's strike craft."
"We just received word from the battle group at the northern pole," said a comm officer. "We have been told that Admiral Septimus' flagship has been destroyed, no survivors."
"I just got confirmation that Admiral Septimus is dead," said a second officer.
"Who is in charge now," Desolus ordered.
As the communication officers checked with the other ships, one of the comm officers said, "You are currently the highest ranking officer and we are the only functioning dreadnaught."
"Get me a readout of the ground," Desolus ordered.
As the fleet scanned the surface, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
"Sir, the fleet finished the scan, they are reporting that the planet has one major city surrounded by several smaller towns."
"This isn't their home world," Desolus said out loud.
"Sir," his XO asked.
"This is a mere colony."
"How do you know that? There is only one relay in or out of the system and we detected it's activation."
"Tiberius, if you want my command someday, you still have much to learn. Orders are orders, prepare landing forces!"
"Sir I may have an answer as to why their rounds bypass our barriers," the senior sensor operator said.
"Continue," Desolus said as he looked at the operator.
"I've compiled sensor data from all our ships and discovered two things," he started. "First their shots are traveling at 98.9% speed of light."
"How," Desolus asked.
"Unknown," came his response. "The second is their rounds have no detectable mass."
"Some form of energy weapons?"
"Probably."
-Shanxi-
"General, the aliens have launched their landing craft," a lietiunt said.
Williams smiled as he gave out an order, "Give the Armored Krogan unit the green light."
"Yes sir," the lietsunt replied.
At a random barracks on the planet a group of a hundred Krogan, wearing forest green metallic armor with clan Urdnot colors, left the building as metallic footsteps could be heard with each step they took.
Codex:
Shanxi: The planet was the farthest colonized planet from Earth and was colonized 3 years prior to first contact. Population of 200,193 humans with another 15,000 in the armed forces. It had no permanent civilian Krogan residents planetside. As it was a young colony, it didn't have any established trade routes, pirates ignored it as such it didn't have a standard defense fleet to deal with such problems. Before the war with the Turians, it was meant to be a staging point for further exploratory missions.
Pluto Battle Station: A 350 Meter long by 200 meter high by 275 meter width station armed with multiple hard light cannons, point defense systems, a couple dozen missile tubes and can hold upwards of 50 strike craft in its primary hanger.
Genesis Virus: When it first appeared the origins of this virus unknown, despite multiple attempts to find it through the decades after its disappearance. But when Humanity found the Krogan they found more than they bargained for. It wiped out half of humanity and gave powers that were previously only seen in the pages of comic books.
A/N: For the most part I will use the Star Wars franchise as a basis for the Alliance Fighter craft.