Chapter 36
The MSV Mayhem along with the first fleet, which it led, had resumed its patrol of Alliance space after transferring the Salarian "Guests" to Arcturus Station where they could continue their work. This of course was secondary to the primary reason of placing them there, their safety was in jeopardy as they were openly defying the Salarian Union and the dalatrasses likely already knew about it.
The fleet now had both its Admirals, Xen had been eager to return. She loved visiting Rannoch, but her home would always be in space. She had been swarmed and interrogated by the Quarians aboard the Mayhem who hadn't been able to visit. She had kept a rock from the visit and all were eager to touch a piece of the homeworld, even the ones who had no intention of moving there after reunion. It was still a part of who they are.
Xen settled in her office and started reading reports when a ship wide alert went out. She struggled not to spit out the mouth full of coffee she had when she read the details, dropped her datapad and began sprinting towards the bridge. Having also been alerted, all of the crew she encountered immediately stepped out of the way to let her by, then proceeded to their stations to prepare for a possible engagement. When she got to the bridge, Chambers was already active and issuing orders.
"Engage full active stealth, passive sensors only we can't give away our position. Listen up for the drone updates." He ordered, everyone complied without verbal confirmation as they'd been trained.
"What do we have?" Xen asked
"Massive contacts detected three hundred light years away from the border, heading our way. Looks like they're gonna try and hit Shanxi. ETA eight hours." Chambers reported.
"Have we heard from command?" Xen asked.
"Yes, they're sending the Fourth and Fifth our way, Third's on standby, Rothschild has the Second sneaking in behind them." Chambers confirmed.
"Well at least we're prepared for them. Now we just need to find out who it is and what they want. Bearing and speed suggests Batarians, and they can't want anything good. Rothschild, is the Second close enough to get sensor readings?" Xen asked, Rothschild materialized into existence assuming the image of a cartoon sea captain used to advertise a children's cereal from back in the 20th century.
"Confirmed, Batarian origin. I count three hundred ships mostly frigate-sized but there are 20 cruisers and three dreadnoughts as well. Too big to be a slave run." He reported.
"Has the Prime Minister been informed?" Chambers asked.
"Acknowledged, she will be broadcasting to the fleets in a few minutes. In the meantime her orders are to continue as you are, and report any anomalies." Rothschild said.
"Yes sir." Chambers said, as Captain Crunch bowed and dissolved into nothingness.
"Admiral Xen, how versed are you on Batarian weapons and tactics" Chambers asked.
"Very. We fought off slavers constantly when we were still spacebound. The Cruisers are just cannon fodder, those frigates you have to worry about. While they're making a big noise splashing tungsten against our barriers those frigates will try to sneak in and land ground troops on the planet, meanwhile the main weapons on those dreadnoughts are stolen Turian design, so they're potent enough to cause a threat." Xen replied.
"Shit. Ok, we need all spare hands armed and guarding all docking ports. I want status checks on all shield capacitors and weapons banks." Chambers said.
"Watch the heat sinks 8 hours in active stealth is going to be pushing our capacity. Be ready to jettison primaries on short notice." Xen said. The Mayhem had primary and secondary heat sinks, and the thermal conduits were switchable between the two. It could run visible and noisy on the secondaries but the stealth systems required the primaries to be cool and in working order if they got too hot they could bake the crew so they were designed to be jettisoned and either retrieved after dumping their heat or replaced if destroyed.
Meanwhile on Tuchanka, Anderson was holding council with Wrex, Uvenk, the female shaman, Shepard and Raan. The day before the science teams had determined that the Genophage cure test was an unmitigated success. All ten volunteers survived, suffered only minor cold-like symptoms and were now genophage-free. Production and distribution of the cure was in full tilt and the Krogan were pleasantly surprised to see that for the first time in their memory, another race had come through for them. The reactors and engines of the Normandy had been restarted and it was warming up on the landing pad, most of the crew had already boarded
"We just got word, the fleets are assembling on the Alliance order, massive incoming fleet 300+ vessels, probably of Batarian origin. Heading for Shanxi, that's one of our colony planets right at the edge of our space." Anderson announced, closing the display on his omnitool.
"Fucking Batarians. We've never even met officially and this is the second time they've attacked us." Shepard said.
"Batarians tend to assume any space not claimed or protected by the Council is theirs to conquer. They tried landing an invasion party on Tuchanka once. That was fun." Wrex grinned.
"We're being ordered to rendezvous with the rest of the fifth and make ready for war." Anderson said. Raan and Shepard nodded and stood.
"Wait, Anderson. Your people flew all the way out here after just hearing about our plight and gave us our future back. I don't have warships to lend you, but I have thousands of Krogan bored and itching for a good fight, and enough transport vessels to move them. Let us help, our people can defend the colony while yours shoots those bastards out of the sky." Uvenk said.
"It would be greatly appreciated. I'll radio ahead and let them know to expect you." Anderson said. The meeting dispersed and they all went to perform preparations.
"Shepard." Kurg said, Grak and five other younger Krogan approached.
"Kurg, Hey. I don't have a lot of time we need to get going, the Batarians are attacking one of our colonies." Shepard explained.
"We know. The Batarians like boarding ships during a fight. We like killing Batarians. We would be honored if you would take us along." Kurg said, the others nodded eagerly. Shepard looked over where Anderson and Wrex were standing.
"They're fully trained, just waiting to be old enough to take the rite. They're good fighters and know how to take orders. I'd recommend taking them up on it." Wrex said.
"Any objections, Captain Anderson?" Shepard asked.
"No offense intended, but aren't they kids?" Anderson asked.
"Yes, they are adolescents, but before taking the rite they have to prove their worth to the Shaman by undertaking a dangerous mission. This one would suit that, and frankly offers a higher chance of survival than some of the things they'll do to earn the rite." Raan said.
"You know much of our people." the female Shaman said.
"I read quite a bit during our stay here." She said.
"Your call Shepard. If you take them you're in charge of them." Anderson said. Shepard didn't hesitate.
"Welcome aboard. Stay close to me until we're underway then I'll show you where you can set up." Shepard said.
"You seven, listen up. For the duration of this mission, Shepard is your battlemaster. She says, you do, understand?" Wrex bellowed.
"Yes Sir!" They all yelled.
"These are good kids, Shepard. Take care of them." Wrex said.
"Definitely, Sir." She said. She turned and led them onto the Normandy. Anderson and Raan said their goodbyes and boarded the Normandy. Within a half an hour it had taken off and was headed towards Shanxi.
"Damn shame we can't go with them." Wrex said.
"We're needed here, brother. Let's go find some volunteers and get them headed after them." Uvenk said.
"Given how long they took to come back last time, how much you want to bet halfway through the battle they come back with a cure for Krogan Halitosis?" Wrex chuckled
"Not even the humans can cure your breath, Wrex." the female Shaman said. Uvenk laughed and Wrex grumbled.
On the surface of Shanxi, colonists were being directed into emergency bunkers as sirens throughout the settlements blared. Shanxi had three medium sized settlements, each with around a thousand people, however after the discovery of the nature of the Charon relay, they had installed heavy bunkers with enough space for ten times that deep within the rocky soil of the Northern continent. Anti-Aircraft weaponry was in place, and supplemented by swarms of nano fighters, food storage was secured, water reclaimation was set up and in place, as was waste management. The colonies moved like greased machinery and everyone was ready ahead of schedule.
Ships started landing adjacent to the colonies, and the AA guns spun to get a shooting solution before recognizing them as Krogan in design and returning to standby. The Krogan hooked up with Alliance ground troops and fell in with them, thankfully Alliance commanders had been briefed shortly before about the incoming reinforcements.
The Krogan were pleased to see their Human and Quarian counterparts were as eager for battle as they were, the Alliance military with exception to those involved in the defense of Arcturus Station had yet to be tested in real battle and were anxious to see how they compared to their opponents.
"The Humans have been a good influence on you." A Krogan sergeant by the name of Kurn said to Nel'Buuna Vas Shanxi, a soldier assigned to the colony as he stripped down and checked the components of his service rifle.
"I'll take that as a compliment, Krogan." Buuna said to him, grinning.
"Ha!" Kurn laughed in response slapping a heat sink into his shotgun and turning his gaze to the sky. As the AA guns lit up the sky.
"Fuck, Get down!" Buuna yelled as he grabbed Kurn by the armor and dragged him down under cover, just in time for fragments to go flying overhead. A Batarian shuttle had been downed a few hundred meters away and tossed debris at their station.
"Now let's see if you Krogan learned how to shoot straight." Buuna smiled, handing Kurn his gun and leaping over cover to run towards the downed shuttle as Batarians poured out of it firing wildly in their direction. Kurn smiled, this was definitely going to be fun.
In the space above Shanxi Alliance ships were tearing the Batarian fleet apart, but there were so many that some had managed to get past them and made the attempt to land. Like Xen had said, the Cruisers had started just flying around taking potshots and begging to be hit, the tactic failed as the Alliance ignored them and instead took to sharpshooting the smaller ships.
The Normandy jumped into the sector a few minutes after shots started being fired and leapt straight into the fray, easily outmaneuvering the smaller, weaker Batarian frigates. The Fifth had been ordered to concentrate on the frigates while Han'Gerrel and the fourth concentrated on the cruisers and dreadnoughts, one of which oddly wasn't firing its mighty spinal gun at all, just hanging back behind the other two dreadnoughts. The naval battle was hopeless for the Batarians, but they must have known that going in, given the Alliance display at the citadel as well as their response to the invading Batarians at Arcturus. The Admirals were all puzzled as to the point of this whole endeavor.
"Xen what do you think they're playing at?" Chambers asked aboard the Mayhem.
"No idea, I expected them to have some sort of new technology or maybe they were hiding their numbers, but they're getting utterly slaughtered. Our numbers are ten times their's and we have a fraction of their casualties." Xen observed.
"Xen, any idea what that dreadnought is doing? Is it just support or in reserve or something? It hasn't fired a shot." Chambers asked.
"I haven't a clue. Bring up the scans." She ordered a science officer, who obliged bringing up the scan data from that ship. Likely in response to the invasive scan, at that moment the mystery dreadnought began moving, escorted by the other two which were firing all weapons at any ships that got close. While Chambers tracked their movement, Xen poured through the data and came to a terrifying discovery.
"Keelah, there are Thirty thousand individual life signs aboard that ship!" She said.
"What?!" Chambers asked.
"Thirty thousand, four hundred and five to be exact! There are no signs of weaponry or shield capacitors aboard either. If they were looking for slaves it would be empty, what are they doing?" She asked.
The dreadnought broke off from its escort, and to their astonishment began landing procedures. Its hull lit up brightly by the friction of Shanxi's atmosphere upon its reentry.
"Fuck that's their invasion force. The rest of the fleet was just to get them in" Chambers said.
"How many people do we have down there?" Xen asked.
"Three thousand colonists, and fifteen hundred alliance soldiers and two thousand Krogan volunteers."
"Damn, prepare to fire on the dreadnought!" Chambers yelled.
"Wait, if you fire and miss you'll hit the colony." Xen said.
"Fuck! Warm up all the shuttles, all marines report to docking bays, fleet wide I want everyone carrying a gun on the ground now!" Chambers said. The cacophony in the passageways of the ships was deafening, the thud of boots on deck plating, the opening and closing of hatches and armory doors, the organized chaos of it all was a symphony. Five minutes after the order was issued the first shuttles were taking off.
On the surface, the AA Guns and nano swarm were doing their best, but the hull of a dreadnought was much stronger than that of the shuttles and fighters they were designed to deal with. Soon the Dreadnought had crashed to the ground, still remaining mostly intact. Dreadnoughts were not designed to be landed, they were constructed in and generally spent the entirety of their service life in space, so "landing a dreadnought" was really a process of trying to crash safely. Before the dust settled, thousands of armed Batarian soldiers stormed out of the broken hulk and opened fire on the defenders.
Up above, the Normandy was holding its own until a mass accelerator hit blew out the shield capacitors and brought main power down across the ship.
"Report!" Anderson yelled.
"Main power is down, shield capacitors are blown, we're drifting." Joker reported.
"Damnit, Tali ETA on repairs." He shouted into the communications grid.
"Shield capacitor is damaged beyond repairs, I'll have power rerouted to the engine in three minutes!" She said.
"Shepard get the marines ready they're going to try and board us." Anderson ordered. She acknowledged and began gathering her team. They had before arriving in the system already donned their armor and prepared their weapons, so they just went through some last minute checks.
"Kurg, I want your team in the They'll have to go through there to get to the lower decks, and its tight quarters in there, perfect for your shotguns. Baxter, Kowalski, I want you to babysit Joker, make sure nobody gets in there. Jameson, Reegar, head down to Engineering and set up down there. We can't let them interrupt Tali's repairs, you got it?" She said and everyone nodded and ran to their assigned positions. She returned to Anderson's side to await further orders.
Right as she arrived the ship shook and an awful high-pitched shriek could be heard from the docking ring. They were cutting through the outer hatch.
"Open the inner hatch and get ready to fight, we can't have them break that one, we're going to have to run as soon as our engines are online." Anderson ordered, a second alter the hatch opened and smoke and sparks entered the inside of the ship. Soon, the hissing stopped, and Anderson brought his hand up to his face and moved it downwards, indicating he wanted everyone to wear and pressurize their helmets. He heard the grinding of a steel cylinder rolling across the deck plates followed by a small explosion and outpouring of an unidentified gas.
Batarians poured through the gas and began firing randomly, apparently their own masks didn't allow them to see through particulate matter like alliance ones did. Five pops could be heard, followed by six thuds as the Batarians fell to the floor dead.
"Who got the twofer?!" Baxter asked
"You may lavish me with praise and adoration after the mission." Reegar said, inserting a new heat sink into his sniper rifle.
"You guys wanna shut the fuck up now? There's no way there were only six on that tub." Shepard said. Then she brought up her omnitool and entered a series of commands that turned on the air vents, purging the gas from the air.
"Kowalski, Double-tap." Shepard ordered
"Yes Ma'am." She said, withdrawing her pistol and going around shooting Batarians in the head.
"Why is she doing that?" Kurg asked Shepard Just then one of the Batarians, with a minor wound in the arm sprung to his feet and lowered his rifle at her but Kowalski was faster, splattering his brain all over the wall behind him.
"That's why." Shepard said. Kurg nodded.
"Never trust a dead enemy." She said, patting him on the shoulder.
"I need two volunteers, I'ma go visit the neighbors." Shepard said. Literally everyone including Joker raised their hands. She laughed. Kurg, Reegar you're with me, everyone else stay here and get ready to cover our retreat." She said. They all acknowledged. She nodded at Reegar and Kurg and made her way across to the docking ring.
Batarians are built quite similar to humans. In fact the two species, like the Asari, were indistinguishable from one another when fully armored. If you were to put a Batarian woman, a Human woman and an Asari all in the same kind of armor it would be impossible to tell which was which. As such the inside of the Batarian vessel resembled a crude, cheap version of how the Alliance would set up the interior of a ship. The doors were about the same height and width, there were conduits running along the ceiling and down below the deck, and the layout was quite similar. They were easily able to navigate their way to engineering and dispatch the three Batarians stationed there, along with two more in the halls on the way. Without a headcount it would be impossible to determine how many were left but if they had a crew the same size of the Normandy's they still had a few dozen to go.
Room by room they went, racking up an impressive body count until they discovered the bridge where who Shepard assumed were the Captain and Executive officer were holed up, nervously waving sidearms at them.
"Stay back! I'll shoot you!" The captain said.
"Yes, your men already tried that." Reegar said, Kurg laughed.
"Captain, I am Lieutenant Commander Jane Shepard of the Alliance Navy. Please tell me, how many are aboard?" Shepard said.
"I'm n-not telling y-you!" The captain stammered. A loud bang was heard as he accidentally discharged his firearm, hitting Kurg's shields. Kurg didn't even blink in response.
"Ooooh, bother. That's gonna cost you, friend." Shepard said, relieving the captain of his left knee cap.
"Now, let's try this again. How many Batarians are aboard this ship?" She asked again.
"Never!" He said. She shrugged and shot him in the head, ending his rather annoying blubbering as he clutched on his ruined knee. Shepard walked over to the captain's chair, where the XO was standing frozen in terror. She sat down and looked up at the XO.
"Hey. So I have a bit of a problem here. Your guys tried boarding my ship, and we got the ones that tried, as well as at least 30 more on the way here, That's 37 down, now I'm looking at #38. I'll be your best friend if you tell me how many more there are on this ship?" She said, her voice light and casual.
"T-Twenty more. D-Docking bay." He said
"Thanks a whole bunch buddy!" She said, abruptly standing, then ramming the butt of her rifle into the Batarian's head rendering him unconscious.
"Yay friendship!" Reegar said, and began binding the Batarian's hands behind his head. Reegar shook his head in mock disappointment.
"I'm surprised at you, battlemaster, fraternizing with the enemy." Kurg said.
Shepard grinned and they all turned around to make their way to the docking bay. It wasn't far, Batarian captains liked to be able to quickly run back there to check on their shipments of red sand and/or slaves, Reegar and Kurg pressed up against the sides of the door, and Shepard ducked behind a cargo crate that hadn't made it into the bay yet. She pressed a button and within seconds the cargo crate had been riddled with bullets.
"That's not very nice!" Shepard said, inviting another flurry of gun fire. She nodded at Kurg who leaned over and tossed a grenade in. It exploded, also showering the poor crate in shrapnel, and Shepard leapt over cover running in with Kurg and Reegar right behind her. All but three of the Batarians were dead, the living ones having made it out with only minor flesh wounds.
"Weapons." Shepard said, the three survivors tossed their guns at her feet.
"Shepard we have a problem." Kurg said.
"What's that?" She asked
"I'm counting nineteen Batarians." He said.
"Shit. Reegar get up high and look around." She ordered, Reegar nodded and began climbing a nearby ladder.
"Where's your friend?" Kurg asked one of the Batarians. He pled ignorance but the one next to him confessed
"He's hiding in that ammo closet over there!" He said pointing. Kurg turned, and saw the door open and a Batarian rushing out aiming a pistol at Shepard. Kurg lunged at her, shoving her out of the way and taking a bullet in the torso, as his shields hadn't recharged from the last hit. The Batarian was dead before he hit the ground, Shepard screaming while overheating her heat sink pouring round after round into the dead bastard.
"Fuck!" Reegar yelled, running over to the fallen Krogan as Shepard replaced her heat sink.
"Please, Reegar, Tell me he's alive." She asked, lowering her weapon at the three remaining Batarians.
"I'm fine, battlemaster, gonna take a lot more than this pyjack's toy gun to put me down." He said rising to his feet.
"He shot you in the heart!" Shepard said.
"I'm Krogan. Redundant organ systems, remember?" He said. "Still hurts like a bitch though." He said, poking at the hole in his chest.
"You three, you're coming with me. Everyone back to the Normandy." Shepard said, all the false jovial bravado drained from her face.
"Shepard to Anderson, sir we're on our way back, we've got four prisoners and one wounded." Shepard reported into her communicator.
"Acknowledged." Anderson replied. Tali had told him four minutes before that the engine power had been rerouted and they were ready to depart. They rushed aboard, security officers collecting the prisoners.
"You gonna be ok, son?" Anderson asked Kurg.
"Yes sir. Caught one in the heart." Kurg said.
"Oh, you should be fine then. Report to Dr. Chakwas so she can remove it in case it's polonium." Anderson said
"'The fuck?" Shepard said,
"Redundant organ systems." Anderson explained.
"I repeat: 'The fuck?" She said Kurg sighed and stepped in.
"Krogan have redundant organ systems. Means I've got two hearts, two livers, four lungs, everything has a backup some even have tertiary organs. We also heal really fast. I'll be ready to fight in like four hours." Kurg explained. He then walked off towards the elevator to make his way to the medbay.
"So how'd it go?" Anderson asked.
"I made a friend!" Shepard said.