AN: Well, I'm back…I would say life kept me busy, but in this case, I was just lazy. Anyways let's look at your reviews. SPARTAN-626, the rest of the Legions are currently tied up on the western edge of the galaxy, battling extra-galactic invaders (such as the mega-nids). I may do more TTS cameos/easter eggs, but we will see. Artyom-Dreizehn, because it doesn't make sense NOT to boost the size of ME fleets. I mean come on, humanity made more warships during the period leading up to WWI through WWII then the citadel has ever made (if my sources are right)…naval forces THAT small when they would realistically own hundreds (maybe even over a thousand) of worlds makes no sense. Their speed is better in some regards, but worse in others (I'll do a codex entry on this at some point). All I have left to say is "cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of war."

Speech

Thoughts

Radio/machine speech/scene change

314: The long arm of the law

Relay 314: Citadel controlled territory: 10 minutes after the last chapter

The once nearly lifeless system was now a hive of activity. The Turian 7th Battle Fleet, three hundred ships strong, was gathering at all speed. One of their own had made a startling find, one that demanded the full might of the 7th.

Shuttle craft had been traveling from the various wing command ships to the three kilometer long fleet command ship for the last nine minutes…and now, the command staff of the fleet had gathered for a briefing on this new potential threat.

Briefing Room of the Heavy Command Dreadnought: Eyes of Pavalen

The briefing room of the warship was massive, and easily held the every officer over the rank of lieutenant. The atmosphere was quiet and somber, a new threat to the Citadel systems was not a surprise, after all anything from a pirate coalition (such as the group that the 7th had shattered over a hundred years ago, the remnants of which now served as Omega's defense fleet) to a bomb threat could happen on a given day.

But no threat in the past century had required even a tenth of the force the 7th could bring to bear, often enough the mere appearance of a detachment from the 7th would cause the offending force to surrender, this set the crews a little on edge; but they were mostly unconcerned...after all, in its thousand years of service, the 7th had NEVER lost a battle, let alone a war.

The flanged voice of Admiral Gaius, nephew of the next Turian Councilor (Spartus), broke the silence: "Approximately ten minutes ago, a known Batarian slaver vessel, "The Ravager," re-entered this system…Through Relay 314. As I'm sure you're all aware, Relay 314 was inactive and Citadel law forbids its activation."

"After a brief clash with Task Force One, the destroyer was captured and the crew interrogated. Now, if the claims of the slavers are to be believed, and we all know they would do anything to save their own skins…" A brief bout of chuckles wracked the room, Batarians were rather infamous for their dishonesty amongst Turians (who formed the bulk of the Citadel's military and law enforcement).

"Then the slavers caught a Quarian vessel trying to open this very relay. Naturally we can assume that they had been chasing the vessel for a while, and the Quarians had opened the relay out of desperation; while this does not fully excuse their opening, we can be lenient with them. However the main issue is these warships."

A high quality image of the three Imperial warship appeared, before flashing through several more screens of them firing upon the Batarians. Murmurs broke out at the sight of these images, but the admiral gave a quick glance around the room to silence the talking.

"Sensor logs from the Ravager claim these ships range from one and a half to two kilometers long; and as you can see from the combat imagery, bearing weaponry at least on par with our own damage potential wise…more likely however their weaponry far surpasses our own."

"As such diplomacy is probably the best option, but if we hand this off to the Asari it's more than likely they would hand over unnecessary concessions to this new species…However, a show of force such as ours should be enough to get a more beneficial treaty for the council; because of this we will be going through the relay at full combat readiness. If these new aliens are not amenable to diplomacy, we will seize the planet and hold it hostage to force them to the table...any questions?"

General Arterius stood and spoke: "Admiral, I know we are going to try and do this diplomatically, but is there any intel you can share about potential opposition my boys might face on the ground if it comes down to an invasion?"

The admiral shook his head: "Unfortunately no. But a safe assumption would be that these unknowns have technology at least on par with the kind they showed in their brief engagement in space with the pirates, so expect heavy firepower and unknown level of defensive ability."

The general nodded in acceptance as he sat, already running through theoretical scenarios for what might happen if a landing needed to happen. A junior patrol captain then stood: "Sir, have we considered the possibility that the Quarians are actually the ones there? They have shown a dangerous disregard for common sense before, the Geth being a primary example of this."

The older Turian once again shook his head: "Considered, and rejected. If this was a Quarian project the STG or some other intelligence group would have discovered it by now, or we would have seen some defending the Migrant Fleet. I know your patrol group has been dealing with Quarian subterfuge and skirting the law before, but keep yourself in check captain, we do not need a diplomatic incident here."

The captain bowed his head in acceptance before sitting, and then a commodore stood: "If there are so few warships defending this planet, why even bother with diplomacy? We outnumber them by such wide a margin it would feel like an insult to the seventh fleet's legacy if we did not best them in battle."

Gaius gave the commodore a harsh stare as he spoke: "Because, commodore we have no intel about this race. This could be a primary world; it could be a newly founded colony. These warships could be the largest they have, or they could be their equivalent to our destroyers, as unlikely as that may be. To top it off what are their ground forces like, better equipped than our own, are they equipped to the same level? Now are there any more questions?" When none came he nodded his head: "To your ships then, we enter the relay in five minutes."

Shanxi system: Bridge of the Minotaur

Captain Onrys looked through the report his small group's automated drones had transmitted about the destroyed ships' remains. A scowl formed on the Eldar's lips as his suspicions were confirmed, those vessels were pirates at the very least, and slavers at worst. The ships had been modified for speed and firepower, armor was shaved down and what should have been shield generators were leaking much weaker energy than it should for vessels of their size.

The scan reports of the few intact holds showed that there were holding areas in there with restraints, proving that they at least took captives, probably to sell later on some slave market in whatever territory they controlled. As such he felt no remorse when he ordered the automated drones to massacre the crews that may have survived aboard the wreckage of the ships.

As the automated kill bots carried out the orders he issued, he turned to the other issue he faced. He had dispatched one of his escorting frigates to take the "friendly" xenos to one of the sector's shipyards to get repairs and meet with diplomatic representatives. A wry chuckle passed through the Eldar's lips, "xenos" he was starting to sound like one of the Imperials. Still the fact remained that his defensive group had been reduced in strength by a third, if they faced any serious second attack they would be in a LOT of trouble.

As if summoned by his musing, warning klaxons blared out a warning; and Athena appeared, looking grim: "Captain, the relay is hot; there is a new batch of contacts coming through…Three hundred ten strong."

A silence descended as this bit of news sunk in. Even if the ships were as weak as the earlier ones, their sheer numbers would allow them to get in close, and overwhelm them. However, unlike what most would expect, instead of descending into a panic a cold certainty settled over the crew; they would do their duty, even in the face of such overwhelming odds.

Without orders or prompting, the coms officer sent off a warning to Shanxi Prime, informing them that it was time to initiate contingency plan "Castle." As soon as that message was sent, he turned his attention to sending a message to the rest of the Imperium…But before he could get farther then saying that an unknown Xenos force was coming, the relay disgorged all three hundred Turian ships; causing a massive pulse of energy to leave the relay and temporarily disable most of the non-essential systems on board the two Imperial ships…including the communication array.

Bridge of the Eyes of Palaven:

Admiral Gaius stared at the tactical display as his fleet exited the relay, there were only two of the expected three warships guarding the world. Amongst the debris of the Batarian pirate there was no trace of any ships that matched the ones in the captured readings and images of the slaughter, nor was there any trace of the Quarian vessel. As such it was very likely that these unknowns had detached one of their ships to escort the Quarians to a ship yard to get repaired, and probably initiate some form of diplomacy.

Speaking of which, he spoke to the com office of his flagship: "Send the first contact bundle. Let's see if we can get a response from them." The younger officer, from the colony of Thracia judging by her markings, nodded as she sent the transmission.

A tense silence washed over the crew as they waited…For half an hour no response came, and then it came to Gaius: "Spirits…These aliens might not have sufficiently hardened their technology against relay emissions. Their non-essential systems are probably in the process of being repaired right now. No wonder there's been no reply so far! As soon as their vessels have repaired their equipment send another transmission."

As soon as he finished speaking the sensor officer, a young male from Palaven, called out: "Sir! Our sensors are detecting massive surge from the unknown's ships!"

A slight chuckle escaped the admiral's mandibles: "Calm down, that's probably their systems rebooting. Send the message agai…"

He was cutoff when the same officer spoke up in a slightly panicked voice: "Sir, Commodore Aurelius' battlegroup just opened fire on the unknowns!"

A chill ran down the flag officer's spine, his gaze snapped back down to the tactical display to see that Aurelius' battlegroup had indeed fired…What's more they were advancing in combat formation to get in range with their torpedoes and other shorter range weaponry. At that moment it felt like the weight of the galaxy was pressing down on his shoulders.

At this point in time he had two options. The first choice was to destroy the insubordinate commodore's group, costing thousands of Turian lives…It might work out well, the unknowns might take this at face value and know that they were punishing what were essentially traitors at this point…or it might end up badly, with the unknowns getting reinforcements and slaughtering his depleted fleet; which would leave no one able to inform the Hierarchy of this new war.

On the other hand he could back his treacherous commodore's action, and after destroying the defending ships hold the world hostage to get a cease fire and diplomacy started. Of course this could result in a lot of Turian deaths if it went wrong as well.

Gaius growled: "Spirits damn the man. All ships, support the commodore. After this battle is done deploy ground troops to secure the planet and its population as a bargaining chip; and get some marines to take Aurelius into custody, I want it clapped in shackles by the time this is over."

General POV: Shanxi

With the order given the rest of the fleet jumped into action, advancing in combat formations and firing. Most of their rounds found their marks, impacting on the armor plating of the Imperial warships, but did little beyond surface damage.

The Imperials did not sit idle as they were shot at either, the frigate opened fire with its spinal MAC, obliterating or at least damaging one ship (clipping off wings, removing decks from the top or bottom of the Turian vessels, ect) with every shot; and the Minotaur rotated so its broadsides faced the incoming hostiles.

The first volley of shots from the Minotaur's energy turrets vaporized a squadron of Turian destroyers. With this display of power the 7th fleet fanned out, making it harder to destroy multiple ships with a single shot. This, along with the mostly cosmetic damage being done, forced the attacking fleet to concentrate their firepower on one spot on the Minotaur. This coordinated barrage finally broke through the superior armor of the Minotaur, taking out a full battery of energy turret.

This change in tactics was expected by the Imperials, who countered as best they could, but there were just too rich of a target environment; especially as Turians had deployed their fighter and bomber craft, which swarmed around the two Imperial ships, interfering with the lines of fire of the guns and inflicting minor damage and knocking out several guns.

The dozen Imperial fighters who launched to meet the threat of the Turian attack craft were overwhelmed and wiped out, but not before scoring disproportionately high kill ratios of roughly forty to one. But that was nothing compared to the two spaceborne mobile suits deployed by the defenders, both were old Geara Zulu pattern suits, between the two of them they shot down two hundred single attack craft, and sunk six frigates and four destroyers before finally being killed.

But without the defending craft, the two Imperial vessels were all too vulnerable. Soon enough, the escort frigate, Priam, exploded in a shower of metal fragments and plasma energy as it's powercore was detonated by one of the Turian Guardian Heavy Dreadnought's shells. The explosion vaporized six frigates that were too close along with thirty of the remaining fighters. The Minotaur, when it finally was destroyed in a fireball twice the size of the Priam, destroyed three cruisers, including the flagship of commodore Aurelius.

This brief battle, lasting ten minutes, cost the Turian navy dearly, a full third of the seventh's ships and three quarters of their attack craft destroyed, with no survivors from those ships; and another third crippled by enemy fire. In total the Turians lost five hundred thousand people.

The Imperium by contrast got off rather light numerically; a little over one thousand dead, two obsolete warships, two obsolete mobile suits, and a squadron of obsolete fighters.

However, now the Turians held orbital control over the colony…The Turian Legions would now do their part in what later historians would call: "The greatest military blunder of the citadel era."

Next time: 314: The Wolf of Shanxi Prime

Codex: Turian 7th Battle Fleet, is a rather famous (or infamous depending on who you ask) formation. The 7th Battle Fleet is one of the most successful formations in the Turian Navy, in its one thousand years of existence the fleet has been deployed to numerous pirate suppression sweeps throughout the "terminus" systems. As well as pirate suppression, the 7th is infamous for their role in crushing several small scale uprisings and subjugating several "minor" races that had violent first encounters with the Citadel.

The crewmen of the 7th are, for the most part, highly disciplined professionals; and their marines are more than a match for most forces they might encounter, due to their rigorous training.

The core of the 7th are five "Guardian" Heavy Dreadnoughts and the Heavy Command Dreadnought "Eyes of Palaven," a special variant of the Guardian designed to coordinate the actions of an entire fleet over multiple fronts. Around that core are ten carriers (each carrying one hundred fifty fighters and fifty bombers), twenty four dreadnoughts, seventy two cruisers, one hundred forty destroyers, twenty four supply ships, and forty four assault troop transports.

Codex: Turian Naval Doctrine

The Turian Navy is an old and well respected institution amongst the Citadel powers. Where the Asari focus on decapatory strikes and economy of force, and the Salarians focus on hit and run as well as stealth warfare; the Turians are the anvil of the Citadel military, smashing apart any foe they may face with overwhelming numbers and fire superiority.

Their fleet formations reflect this well. Each fleet is able to carry out any mission it may run across; whether it be interdicting pirates, fighting fleet sized engagements, or invading planets. A Turian Sector Fleet (the largest formation in the navy), is sub divided into up to a dozen battle fleets depending on their area of operation.

Battle fleets in turn can be broken down into individual fleets, self-contained units intended to deal with moderate threats. See the "Battle at Hells Pass" for an example of the actions a fleet might be called in for.

Fleets can be further subdivided into patrol fleets, which are intended for scouting and dealing with minor threats; like up and coming pirate gangs or meteors that need to be destroyed before they impact planets.

Lastly patrol fleets, in large enough sectors, can be further divided into "battlegroups" a catch all term for any formation with less than twenty warships. Battlegroups are the backbone of the Turian Navy, used in all scenarios where speed and aggression is preferable to bringing a more powerful, but more ponderous, formation to bear. As such battlegroup commanders are usually the most aggressive and independent of all commanding officers in the Navy.

Codex: Castle Contingency

The Castle Contingency plan was developed to counter the threat of invasions by numerically superior foes. All settlements are evacuated back to cities that are built in easily defensible locations, so prevent the invaders from taking hostages or slaves. During the evacuation, CDF units are to set up defenses in choke points and block as many routes to the city(ies) as possible (whether by deploying in that area, or making it impassible is up to the commander). From these positions the CDF is expected to hold until relieved by either CDF first repose units or other Imperial forces.

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