Hey guys, TheDoctor1998 here with another chapter! Last time Sauron managed to cripple the Bird of Prey before the Turians counterattacked via orbital bombardment, forcing General Williams to surrender. Now, on with the show!
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01-07-2657
Shanxi City
Shanxi Prime
Shanxi System
"Almost there, hang on." Seelac said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice as she led her Human friend through the ruins of the city, towards where their mysterious ally was hiding.
"You've been saying that since about five minutes after we left our hidey hole." Jack said, dark humor staining his voice as he tried to keep their spirits up. "I'm almost tempted to say "are we there yet" over and over at you."
"If you do that, I might just drop you here and now." Seelac deadpanned. She'd never do that of course, even if he hadn't saved her life, but she's spent enough time around Humans to recognize their humor. "But we're really almost there, I can see the place right now."
"What is it?" The blinded man asked his reptilian companion.
"A warehouse that's partially collapsed." Seelac started describing. "Would still work as a good base though, so there's that."
"I'm starting to think our friend's not exactly on your side of the law." The merc grunted. "Still, if he's just a smuggler or something it wouldn't be hard to get him to work with us."
"Why not?" The Silurian asked, uncomfortable at the idea of working with a potential criminal.
"Smugglers may not like the law, but they don't tend to be killers. And he wants to live to see another day just as much as we do." Jack explained as the duo entered the warehouse.
"Please, don't talk about me like you know me." The voice said, a crimson hologram popping up next to some bloodsoaked machine. The hologram was of a man, dressed in some type of suit that wouldn't be out of place in America in the 1930's. In addition, he also had some deer antlers, a cane with a microphone, and a grin with shark-like teeth. "I'm Alastor, pleasure to be meeting you, quite the pleasure."
"Guess that explains why you're trapped." Jack said, observant despite his current blindness. "Turians broke something you need to get outta here?"
"They destroyed anything I could use on Shanxi to get offworld, and that was before they destroyed most of my communication systems." The hologram looked annoyed, despite the continuous grin. "All I can do now is send some more basic radio waves to nearby equipment, and the only thing within range capable of housing me are my broken android body and some data chips I've stored here."
"So, what, we fix that body of yours and you fix my eyes?" The mercenary asked skeptically.
"Tell you what, let's make a deal." The AI smirked. "I'm still capable of controlling this little doohickey." He said, flexing the machine that had some blood splatters on it to prove his point. "Fetch me some working optics from storage, and I'll just put them into your little skull."
Seelac's eyes widened, suddenly realizing something. "Did, did you experiment on people here?!" The Silurian stuttered.
"Just trying to see the limits of cybernetic technology on some killers and rapists, my dear." The AI grinned. "Nobody that would be missed, I assure you."
"Still, you experimented on people! Isn't that against your programming or something?!" The reptilian screeched, subconsciously reading her venomous tongue, despite the fact she knew it wouldn't help against an AI.
"I'm not exactly your normal AI." Alastor said, his grin widening in a sadistic slasher smile. "Regardless, my primary goal is to assist and protect Earth and its children as a whole. If some less desirable elements have to suffer to achieve that goal, then so be it."
Seelac, already seeing that this conversation wasn't going anywhere else, decided to move on for now. "Where are the optics?"
"Hallway A, section 13, row 2, position C." Alastor said, already having cataloged which cybernetics were still functioning and which ones were not.
"A-13-2-C." Seelac muttered as she searched for the optics, already having passed some broken ones as she neared the shelf Alastor had mentioned. "Ah, there we are." She said as she found the working optics, which she quickly grabbed and brought back to the room she left Jack in.
"I see you've got what I need." The somewhat psychotic AI said to the planet's Administrator, ordering the machine he was controlling to hold out its hand-like appendage. "Please hand them over so we can begin."
"This is gonna suck, isn't it?" Jack muttered, already expecting the pain as he sat down on the operating table.
"Tremendously." Alastor said, still grinning as he started hacking at the optic nerves of his subject, humming to himself as he fixed the meatbag.
Seelac simply stared in horror, frozen at the sight and sound of Jack's tortuous operation.
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01-07-2657
THV Bird of Prey
Shanxi Prime's orbit
Shanxi System
"So did it work?" Desolas asked his XO, watching the holographic depiction of the planet, Shanxi Prime he'd learned, below.
"Looks like our little gamble paid off." Litrinox nodded. "I've been getting reports all across the planet that these Human soldiers have been surrendering when our forces show up. There's the odd lone soldier that refuses to give up, and a rogue platoon every now and then, but overall it seems that the planet is ours."
"Good." Desolas sighed, glad that the worst of this incident is now over. "Any word on Saren and his prisoner?" The older Arterius asked, worried for his younger and highly capable brother.
Litrinox quickly looked at his datapad. "Last we heard, he was headed for the nearest rendezvous point to load his prisoner and the wounded Cabals." Noticing the subtle facial expressions of his superior, he decided to elaborate. "He himself is fine though, and the remaining Cabals are planning to aid the rest of our forces in detaining the remaining Humans."
Desolas sighed. He should've known Saren would do that, he never stops until the job's done. "Let one of the medics check up on him before he goes. Knowing him, he'd go on with all his limbs broken if he could."
"I do want to show you something, though." The XO showed the admiral something on his datapad. "Our investigations on Shanxi Prime did, in fact, reveal that this planet is a colony." He started pressing some buttons on the datapad, revealing the image of another garden world. "It looks like this "Earth" is their homeworld."
Desolas blinked at his subordinate. "They named their homeworld after dirt?"
"Not exactly uncommon." Litrinox shrugged. "The suit-rats named their homeworld Rannoch, which means "Walled Garden" in their language, and some ancient Hanar civilizations named Kahje the "Grand Ocean" before their unification. Guess this species just took the most simple name they could think of and ran with it."
"Do the reports say anything about where this "Earth" is?" Desolas interrupted, not wanting his XO to go on another rant.
"No, but it has to be relatively close." Litrinox continued. "They don't have any FTL, so P-Alpha had to be a generation ship from a nearby solar system."
"Guess we'll have to let the Salarians send a stealth ship to check around." Desolas groaned. It wasn't exactly advised to stray too far from a Relay with regular FTL, as lack of fuel and a buildup of static electricity caused by the Mass Effect could easily spell doom for such unfortunate souls. That said, as this Earth had to be in a system neighboring Relay 314's partner, it should be a relatively trivial issue.
"At least we'll be in a position of strength once we make contact." Desolas muttered, before an explosion knocked him off of his talons. "What in the spirits was that?!"
"We- we're under attack?!" One of the men at the consoles yelled out. "Explosions at the primary engines of several ships!"
"Anomaly detected." The combat VI spoke, the holographic projector showcasing what was happening. High above the planet, and several thousand kilometers away from them, something appeared into existence out of nowhere. If Desolas had to describe it, he'd say that it was a black disc with swirling blue energy around it, almost like a black hole.
And then, almost as if he was in an old science fiction movie, a ship made its way out of the portal. A ship that was identical to P-Alpha, with bolts of that same energy around the portal striking across its hull.
"Anomaly detected. Anomaly detected. Anomaly detected." The VI continued, showcasing dozens upon dozens of portals all across the planet opening up, each of which spat out its own ship. Some of them were identical to P-Alpha, but most had various different designs. There were frigates among them, dreadnaughts that were even larger than P-Alpha, and even the smallest ship among the enemy fleet seemed to be bigger than his own corvettes and frigates. One of the bigger ones even rammed through one of his own ships without trouble.
Then, one big portal opened up, spitting out a truly titanic ship, one that made even the Destiny Ascension that the Asari gifted to the Citadel Defense Fleet look like a joke in comperasant. And to make matters worse, moments after the portal closed behind it, it released 10 entire cruisers from its internal hangars.
The tension in the bridge was thick enough that one could shoot a bullet in it to get it stuck in the air, with nobody daring to even breathe in fear of that superdreadnought attacking them.
"Well, looks like we're not dealing with some primitives after all." Litrinox said, trying to break the tension after a few moments of silence.
"H-hail the enemy fleet." Desolas shook, trying to get the tension out of him. 'Spirits, don't let this turn into another Rachni War.'
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01-07-2657
STG Stealth Frigate #682
Shanxi Prime's orbit
Shanxi System
Mordin was, at the moment, the only member of #682's crew who was forming any sort of cohesive thoughts. And considering he just lost one of his horns and was possibly suffering from a concussion, that was saying something.
He didn't know how, but somehow the Humans managed to stick some undetectable explosives to various ships around the planet, including #682. And just after their ship was crippled, a bunch of portals appeared, spitting out ships that were either similar or identical to the destroyed dreadnought near Shanxi's gas giant.
Because of all this, the crew was panicking as many areas of #682 were severely damaged, including an exploding computer that cost him his horn. 'Worry about that later, should be fine. Salarian blood clots fast, and horns are merely to attract mates.'
His eyes quickly went over whatever displays were still functioning, several thoughts quickly forming in his head. 'Portal radiation signatures same as previous anomaly, albeit much more noticeable. Likely stealth ship entering the system. Troubling, indicates stealth technology more advanced than Union's. More troubling, #682 was detected by them.'
The Salarians were masters of stealth technology, so the fact that these aliens managed to find them was an impressive feat to say the least, and something that would worry any Dalatras who hears about this. The majority of the Union's fleet was made of various stealth ships, with frigates like #682 being among the most difficult to spot. The only ships that ever managed to find a frigate during stealth were Salarian dreadnoughts which, in addition to their primary weapon, were equipped with an array of sensors instead of offensive weapons.
No ship ever managed to hide from those, not even the STG Stealth Dreadnought #0, an off the books dreadnought known only to the highest echelons of the Union and the Citadel Council. 'Well, them, and the Union's most competent hackers.' Mordin thought to himself, giving himself a brief smile before returning to the task at hand.
'Fleet primarily built of dreadnoughts, superdreadnought approximately 2,2 times size of Destiny Ascension. No, Humans build on larger scale! Dreadnoughts aren't dreadnoughts, they're frigates, destroyers and cruisers! Superdreadnought must be ordinary dreadnought by Human standards. Makes sense, different FTL, no eezo restraints.'
Mordin glanced at the footage of the portals, wondering how the hell the Humans managed to do that. 'Wormholes? Possible, would make distance irrelevant. Closest Human planet aside from Shanxi could be in different galaxy. Could be used as time travel? No, they'd have appeared as soon as Turians shot at explorers. Maybe they don't to prevent paradoxes? Could be multiverse theory instead. No, most likely they can't time travel, or at least not change past. File away for later, just in case.'
As the scientist Salarian managed to shake off his semi-concussion, a single thought managed to push ahead of all the other ones, a thought that filled him with dread. 'The Citadel won't be able to win a war against them.'
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01-07-2657
UNSC Eternity
Shanxi Prime's orbit
Shanxi System
"Status report?" Shipmistress Drescher ordered her people the moment the Eternity exited Slipspace.
Surtur quickly analyzed the situation. "Enemy fleet is in the expected position, no reinforcements. M-mines have disabled or destroyed all targets, and the Eternity's frigates have been deployed. In addition, it seems like the UNSC Texas Maverick has rammed into, and destroyed, one of their frigates upon exiting Slipspace."
"Shipmistress." Shepard said, catching the attention of her superior. "Incoming message from the enemy flagship."
On the main screen was the image of, as the reports described, an alien that looked like the bastard child of a Sangheili and a Kig-Yar, talking in its odd flanging voice. "Trespassers, you've violated the occupied space of the Turian Hierarchy. Shut your vessels down or be destroyed."
"Huh, so they already managed to translate our language." Dresher muttered to herself.
"Negative, ma'am." Surtur interrupted. "While the Turians are attempting to talk to us in English, it is an extremely broken and unusable translation. It's just that they're also transmitting in their own language, which I've taken the liberty to properly translate into English myself."
Dreshred nodded, smirking and almost giddy at what was going to happen. "Let's send them our response."
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01-07-2657
THV Bird of Prey
Shanxi Prime's orbit
Shanxi System
Several tense moments had passed since Desolas had sent his message. He may have been stupid enough to start this whole debacle, and he may have been foolish in his attempt to intimidate, but he wasn't dumb enough to think avoiding battle would be so easy.
"Incoming messa-" Litrinox started before abruptly stopping. "Wait, that can't be right."
"What is it?" Desolas asked.
"The message is in Cipritinian. Perfect Cipritinian." Litrinox sounded like he didn't quite believe it, which was understandable. Cipritinian was, after all, the primary language of the Turians. It was named after Palaven's capital city, Cipritine, which also happened to be the oldest one on the planet.
So the fact that the Humans managed to translate it with such ease was troubling to say the least. "Play it." Desolas ordered.
On the screen was a female Human, one with a very hard look in her eyes, one that Desolas had previously only seen in highly disciplined Turians who were highly pissed off. "Turian Hierarchy vessels." The message started, a snarl of barely contained anger marring the face of the Human. "This is Fleetmistress Drescher of the UNSC Eternity. Your vessels have, without provocation, attacked and killed our people, slaughtering thousands of civilians. Surrender and power down all systems aside from life support within five of your minutes, or make peace with your gods."
The feed cut out, and silence reigned on the deck. Desolas knew what he had to do to make sure as many of his men made it out, and he hated himself for it.
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01-07-2657
UNSC Eternity
Shanxi Prime's orbit
Shanxi System
"You think they're gonna surrender?" Dresher asked the Eternity's AI, before the shields of the ship flared up.
"I think I'm gonna say no." Surtur replied dryly. "It seems that the majority of the enemy fleet seems to be concentrating fire on the Eternity. Shields are holding up with no issue."
"Send them our response. All ships, fire at will!" Dresher commanded her fleet.
As one, the MACs on the various UNSC ships fired at their Hierarchy counterparts, turning much of the occupying fleet into swiss cheese. Many of the Turian ships, however, managed to jump out of the way, utilizing their Eezo Cores for quick FTL jumps and superior speed to barely dodge the strikes.
This did not, however, manage to save them from what happened next.
Various small Slipspace portals opened up several hundred kilometers away from the Turian ships, from which emerged swarms of missiles. Missiles that swarmed and severely damaged any of the ships that managed to dodge the MAC rounds.
This was the result of the UNSC studying Forerunner technology from the ruins of Installation 04 orbiting Threshold in the Soell System and the glassed surface of Installation 05 orbiting Substance in Coelest. Specifically, the Slipspace translocators used by the Forerunners for teleportation. While Humanity and its allies had yet to perfect the technology to the point that they could teleport people and objects with any accuracy, as they currently had a drift of about a hundred kilometers at best, it was a useful piece of technology.
Suddenly teleporting these guided explosives at that distance doesn't exactly give the enemy time to counteract. Sure, it's useless when used with bullets or plasma beams due to the inaccuracy of the portals, but it was handy when trying to stab your enemy in the back while facing the front.
However, the maneuvers of the Turians seemed a bit… off to Dresher. "Surtur, are you seeing this?"
"I do, ma'am." The demonic AI said. "It seems that only the more damaged ships seem to be actually attacking us. If I were to guess, I'd say that-" Before he could finish, various Hierarchy ships jumped into their form of FTL, making a beeline towards the Mass Relay. "I'd say that the ships that are unable to retreat are covering the retreat of those that are able to."
"Less debris to clean up, I suppose." Dresher muttered, watching as all ships the Turians had either blew up or fled from the battlefield.
All except one, that is. "Surtur, please make sure that the Bird of Prey can't fight back anymore."
"With pleasure." The AI grinned, making sure that the various missiles either destroyed the flagship's weapons or engines, while being careful not to damage the hull too much. "She's dead in the water, ma'am."
Dresher flashed a savage grin. "Guess those pirating lessons that the Kig-Yar gave us will have some use after all." She then glanced at Shepard. "Oh, and send in the ODSTs, make sure that any stragglers they left behind won't be a problem anymore."
"Yes ma'am." Hannah nodded, relaying the orders.
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01-07-2657
THV Bird of Prey
Shanxi Prime's orbit
Shanxi System
Desolas was gripping the railings on his platform with all the strength he could muster, somehow grabbing just a tad tighter each time one of his ships got destroyed. He knew it was cowardly, ordering a retreat while his ground forces were still on the planet, but he realized he had no other choice.
The fleet already had a difficult time fighting P-Alpha on its own, and considering the enemy fleet had numerous ships of the same model, as well as various even larger models, it wasn't much of a stretch to say that this patrol fleet stood no chance. So as much as he hated it, Desolas needed to make sure that the Council had all the ships it could muster against this new threat.
Besides, it wasn't like the Bird of Prey would be able to go anywhere, damaged as it is. The best he could do is cover for his men for as long as he could. Especially with those spirits damned portals shooting out barrage after barrage of fucking missiles. "Status report!"
"Kinetic barriers down, main engines disabled!"
"Primary cannon destroyed, transferring power to secondary weapons!"
"Heat sinks overloading!"
Then, a massive bang rang across the entire ship, and the bridge went dark as gravity switched off. "Systems down, standby." The VI rang, quickly turning on the emergency lighting and reactivated both gravity control and life support systems.
"Desolas." Litrinox muttered. "I don't think they're just gonna destroy the Bird of Prey."
"What are you-" Desolas asked in confusion, before realization struck him. "If they were going to destroy us, they'd have done so already. Those were disabling shots." He then activated his Omni-tool, which was thankfully still functioning, and contacted the entire crew. "All hands, prepare for boarding!"
And just as Desolas and Litrinox predicted, several smaller ships came out of the Eternity. These fighters quickly circled around the Bird of Prey, and once they found a suitable spot, they attached themselves to the dreadnought's hull.
On various parts of the ship, the crew was quickly arming themselves, trying to bottleneck the airlocks to make sure the enemy wouldn't get in without any issue. They were trained for this, and have battled various pirates trying to do exactly what the Humans were attempting.
Of course, that training did leave out one detail the Humans were exploiting. Citadel airlocks were made to be universally compatible to any other airlock from the various civilizations, making them prime targets for boarding. But Human airlocks weren't designed with that compatibility in mind. No, the Human soldiers had a different strategy, one that only a crazy Quarian pirate would've thought of on their side of the galaxy.
In various rooms across the Bird of Prey, the hull started to get welded into from the outside, leaving perfectly circular holes through which the marines managed to enter. Rooms that were, ironically because of the anti-boarding training the Turians had, completely empty and unguarded, allowing the Humans to enter without trouble.
Once they were inside, the marines quickly and efficiently combed through the Bird of Prey, quietly killing or knocking out any Turian they saw. One by one, the squadrons that were busy defending the airlocks were annihilated from behind, until only the bridge was still in Turian talons.
Suddenly, the bulkhead doors blew open, momentarily disorienting the Turians as the Humans swarmed inside. While they did manage to fire a few shots, none of them managed to get through whatever the Humans were using for kinetic barriers.
Desolas felt something bump against a lower talon. A canister, obviously not made by the Hierarchy. "Get down!" He managed to yell before he only saw white, heard nothing but an annoying beep, and felt nothing but his own lungs seemingly trying to exit his body.
For a moment, he managed to get his eyes to focus to the point he saw some recognizable blurry hazes, his own men either dead, practically disabled like himself, or captured and unconscious. Then, he too was forced to embrace unconsciousness, his limp body being hauled by the marines.
The Humans, for their part, simply hauled their new prisoners into the Boarding Pelicans, and once they were certain neither their men or their prisoners were left behind, they simply left the Bird of Prey in relative peace.
Of course, physics proved to be a very big problem to the few Turians that managed to evade capture or elimination, as the circular hull breaches quickly caused the vacuum of space to gobble up any of the air within the dreadnought now that the Pelicans weren't acting as a plug. The last thing that the poor engineers left behind ever noticed was either the air being sucked out faster than the Bird of Prey's failing systems could handle, or they themselves being ejected into the unforgiving void.
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And that's a wrap. Jack and Seelac met their mysterious ally, the Second Fleet arrived and kicked ass, and now all the Humans need to do is wait for their allies and clean up in the meantime.
Also, yes, I made sure that Mordin's injury came from the First Contact War, and the Alastor AI is based on the Radio Demon from Hazbin Hotel.
TheDoctor1998 here, signing out!