Chapter 5 Ground Assault Day 3
-Shanxi Capital-
Damaged and destroyed city buildings are covered with various plant life that choked, crushed, or outright ate Turians as they tried to pacify the city. Flashes of various lights, weapons fire, and explosions could be heard throughout the city, with giant pillars of either rock or dirt appearing randomly in the city.
A human wearing white armor shot lighting from one of his fingertips as he fried a random Turian and said, "Take it easy big guy! There's plenty of birds for both of us!"
A Krogan honor guard pushed what was left of a brick wall onto a pair of unsuspecting Turians and replied, "43."
The human replied by shooting two more arcs of electricity and hit two Turians that were taking aim at the Krogans rear. "You are slowing down old man, 'cause that was 47."
"47?! I ain't gonna lose to some no good scrawny human," the Krogan said in a rage as he looked for more enemies.
"You love me and you know it!" The human shouted back in humor as he chased after the indigent Krogan.
-Shanxi Orbit-
"General, the front lines have secured the first kilometer into the city," a lieutenant said. "Resistance has been heavier than expected. The reports say there is a 37% casualty rate and an unknown amount of missing, presumed dead ground units."
"Do we have any POW's," Desolus asked.
"13 sir," the lieutenant replied as he pulled up holographic images of humans, two of them appeared to have bird like wings attached to their backs, in different cells. "These Hamuns haven't been less than cooperative with our integrations. Holding them has been even more difficult."
"The last two days they have shown time and time again that they're more stubborn than a Krogan during a Blood Rage," Desolus growled. "Get me a line to the Primarch!"
"Sir," the lieutenant replied.
-Citadel-
Councilor Vetra hasn't been in a good mood for the last three days. As the Turian 3rd fleet disappeared from its patrol routes, planets that relied on them for protection are demanding explanation, the Primarch refusing his inquiries, and now the Council has been called for an explanation of the fleets disappearance.
As he entered the Council Room, the Asari and Salarian councilors were already there, sitting at the table.
"I'm assuming you know why this meeting has been called," the Asari councilor asked. Tevos the most experienced of the three councilors as she has been one for nearly a century.
"The disappearance of the 3rd fleet and 3 dreadnaughts," Vetra replied.
"Good, we don't have to waste time," Esheel, the female Salarian, stated in an annoyed but pleased tone. "Slaver groups have quickly taken advantage of this and raided one of the Eclor more industrial border colonies. Aide has been sent and we are still unsure how many were taken, with current reports of 32,987 dead, 48,732 injured, and over 50,000 missing!"
"The Primarch refused to release any information to me once I became aware," Vetra replied. "He has yet to receive any other of my communication requests."
"So you have no idea of where they have gone?" Tevos asked as she gave him a questioning look.
"Unfortunately, as of an hour ago I had to use my contact in Naval Inellegence to find out that an unknown group has activated the 314 relay, beyond that I assume that they went to enforce the Councils laws," Vetra replied.
"314? But nobody has explored that region of space," Esheel stated.
"Except maybe the Quarians," Esheel said solemnly. "We know that they have been searching for a suitable planet so they can fix their population limitations."
"They can't be that stupid," Tevos exclaimed. "After what happened with the Geth!"
"Stupid? No, desperate maybe," Vestra replied in a calm tone.
"Get a fleet together while I'll inform the Destiny Ascension of the situation," Tevos ordered. "If the Hierarchy started a war, goddess help us."
"It might be a new race," Esheel stated.
"That may be even worse," Tevos replied. "I'm assigning SPECTRE Tela Visor to make sure this mission goes sideways."
"I must inform you that even at the fleet's best speed it'll take five days to reach 314 relay," Vestra stated. Tevos clenched her fist and a faint blue light emanated from it.
-Shanxi Capital-
Hannah Hackett Shepard and Djarin have reached the city limits from the south. Djarin took the lead as he had his rifle at the ready, followed by Hackett with a pistol. They heard distant gunfire and explosions in the distance.
"Looks like they remodeled the city while we were gone," Shepard said as she looked at some of the foliage growing from the buildings in the distance.
"That's not the only remodeling that they've done," Djarin said as they passed a shop with broken windows.
"I'll remodel their faces," Shepherd replied.
"In the process you'll remodel their external organs."
"That goes without saying."
Just then a noise came around the corner, they quickly took cover. Djarin looked at Shepard as he gestured at her and they quickly rounded the corner and pointed their weapons at a trio of rats going to town on an abandoned garbage bag in the middle of the sidewalk.
Shepard shuddered as Djarin said, "Rifles have no effect on you, but you are afraid of rats?"
"Nasty little creatures," Shepard said in disgust. "They ate my Elsa."
"Elsa?"
"My favorite stuffed animal. A saber tooth snow frog."
Djarin looked at her but didn't dignify it with a response as they continued their march through the city. Luckily for them most of the fighting seems to be on the western side of the city.
"Do you pick up any telepathic thoughts near us," Shepard asked in a whisper.
"It still doesn't work that way," Djarin whispered back.
"Do the birds think in bird or in Alliance Basic," Shepard asked.
"You always ask that question about any language."
"And yet somehow you continue to avoid the question."
Just then something hit the ground near them. "Ow," the object says.
It was a human wearing gray armor, with armored bat-like wings, laying face down, as the 2 N7 came up to him. Djarin is already getting the first aid bag out of his compartment built in the back of the armor, Shepard carefully turns him over on his back.
"Are you ok soldier," Shepard asked.
All she got was a groan, she managed to take off his helmet and set it to the side. Djarin widened one of his eyes and shone light from a pen sized flashlight into his eye and said, "You don't appear to have a concussion. Is anything broken?"
"What in this city isn't broken," the soldier replied in a groan of pain.
"At least his sense of humor isn't dead," Shepard deadpanned as they helped the soldier to his feet and gave him back his helmet.
"What's the sitep in the city, soldier," Djarin asked.
"The birds have managed to push into the city by a kilometer and are currently trying to push in more," the soldier replied. "The Armored Krogan have been hammering their rear since the shield fell."
"What are the Generals current orders," Shepard asked.
"Hold the line," the soldier replied. He then gave them a salute before spreading his wings and flew off.
"You heard the man," Shepard said as they moved through the city.
Meanwhile Wrex was laughing as he smashed in the head of an unlucky Turians head, with his hammer, and then using his biotics to lift another into the air and threw him back into a broken metal pole, which impaled him in the heart. Since the Turian entered the city the previous day, only 5 of his honor guard were killed, leaving him with 25. Meanwhile countless Turian corpses littered the street in front of them.
"Humans know how to throw a party," a dark blue armored Krogan said as a hover tank rounded the corner.
Wrex signaled another Krogan and he fired both barrels of his rocket launcher at the tank as it aimed its turret at them. The first shot took down the barrier and the second left it a wreck.
"I haven't had this much fun in centuries," Wrex replied with a toothy grin.
-Shanxi HQ-
An explosion rocked the bunker's roof as the command staff looked at the tactical table displaying the city.
"We estimate that the Turian ground force has nearly 40% casualty rate," an aide said. "Meanwhile we have a 67% casualty rate. We must consider our options!"
"Have you forgotten that they've been killing every human that they have come by," another shouted. "Including civilians who didn't have time to get to the bunkers!"
"If we surrender now, then they might have mercy on us!"
Williams gestured to a pair of MP's and said, "Maybe a few days in a cell will calm your cowardice."
As the aide was being dragged out by the MP's the aide shouted, "Following Williams will to our doom! DOOM!"
"Sir if my calculations are correct, the Alliance will know of our plight within 24 standard hours," an officer said.
"Warlord Wrex will be disappointed that his fun will be interrupted," Williams stated.
That caused a few nervous laughs from the command staff. As another stated, "He'll probably get his fleet to retaliate against such disrespect."
"I would have thrown you in the brig too for making such an accusation if it isn't so true," Williams said as he exhaled smoke from his cigar.
-Turian Forward Operating Base-
Several dozen human corpses in the secondary medical facility a Turian doctor and General Juso stood in the facility.
"These Humans are an interesting race," said the doctor. "They may mostly look the same, but genetically speaking there are 5 individual sub-species."
"Walk me through their biology first," Juso ordered.
The doctor activated a holographic image of the humans internal skeleton and organs, "Their skeletor structure has minimal difference from an Asari, humans have a 0.03% denser bones. Their internal organs are what you expect, a set of lungs, a single heart, brain, and digestive system. They are a two gendered mammalian race."
The doctor pushed a button as the human muscular system overlapped the human skeleton and he continued, "The females of their species are of similar muscular density to the Asari while males can rival us."
"You said most," Juso commented.
"That's where the first sub-species come in," the doctor replied. "Based on the few corpses I have studied, their internal biology is very dense where they can easily lift multi-ton objects with relative ease. For comparison another human subspecies with a similar body build ranges from 100-120 kilograms to them ranges from 275-350 kilograms. I wouldn't be surprised if they can live on the same, if not higher, high gravity worlds as the Eclor, without any no biological signs of stress. Not to mention their skin is tougher than tank armor and standard arms fire has minimal to no effect on them."
"How were they killed in the first place?" Juso asked.
"Multiple grenades or several hits from the main turret of a tank," replied the doctor.
"What's the second sub-species?"
"Unlike the first one, they are of average strength but very fast," the doctor said. "According to the field reports they can move upwards of Mach 2. The ones that were killed were killed mostly unawares. Based on those reports, I believe their brains can process more raw information than any other sentient organic species."
The doctor pushed another button and an image of a human with wings, "These are the third sub-species, their wings are fully functional and can fly upwards of 500 kph, maybe even faster. I do not know how high they can fly as they can easily make easy work with our AA systems."
"The fourth," the doctor continued as the image returned to the average human, "can manipulate various forces of nature. Though they can only manipulate one of these forces. I have yet to figure out how they can do that. Other than that, they are like any other race."
"Finally the last, at first glance there is nothing special about them," the doctor pushed another button and the image changed to the human brain. "But based on their brain's neural pathways are more complex than anything I have ever seen. Neither I nor the medical VI's can make sense of it."
-Day 4 Enterprise-
The ship entered the outer edge of the Shanxi system. 123 Fury-Class Corvettes, 2,138 Droid Vulture Starfighters, 2,738 Droid Tri-fighters immediately exited their launch bays and maintained a defensive patrol around the massive ship.
"Report," the Admiral commanded.
"I'm not picking any communications from Shanxi," replied one of the multiple comms operators.
"I'm reading 473 unidentified ships in orbit over the planet, with a massive debris field around the planet," the sensor officer replied before his console beeped. "Ships now ID'd belonging to the Turian Hierarchy!"
"Deploy the CR-90's and MC30's to blockade the relay," the admiral ordered.
"Sir," the comms officer replied.
-Turian Dreadnought-
"Sir, our frigate picket has detected a gravitational anomaly," the comms officer piped up. "They have visuals now."
The holographic image displayed a massive object just passing nearby the gas giant and the XO stated, "A random moon. It must have been obscured by the gas giant."
Unlike the XO, Desolus noticed that it was entirely made of metal and hundreds of multiple sized turret platforms said in horror, "That's no moon. It's a battlestation!"
To be continued…
Codex:
Fury-Class Corvettes: The largest of the corvette designs at 100 meters in length, 88 meters in width with a single deck and a crew of 4-15. It has 12 fixed forward mounted 60 mm cannons, embedded into the ship, 2 twin 155 mm cannons, one on the top with the on the bottom. Its primary rule is an anti starfighter/bomber rule. Its Warp drive is underpowered for a ship of its size, getting only 7.3 Lightyear jumps per day, so it mostly relies on specialized carriers or the Mass Relay network for long distance interstellar journeys, otherwise it stays close to habitable planets as added protection. Despite its weak warp capabilities, it has an exceptionally strong shield for its size, capable of taking a MAC round from a Turian frigate before collapsing. Based on the Star Wars Sith Imperial Class Interceptor.