章 3: 3: Fall one by one, under the gun.
2 Hours after confrontation
Captain Icitana Hilnius, aboard the THS Resolution,
Icitana did not understand just how she could have gone from being nothing but a captain of a cruiser in a regular patrol fleet, just one of thousands, to being the highest-ranking officer alive in her fleet and attempting to salvage their operation to contact the newest race to encounter the citadel council.
Their orders were simple- they were to stay at range, where not even a dreadnought could hit them, and listen to radio transmissions and start building a profile for the first planet to be found inhabited by this new species. This was to give time for the linguistic team that had been hastily shuffled onto the flagship time to build at least a basic understanding of their language.
The first thing that went off course was that the new species started hailing them almost immediately, and rather often. They had not expected a presumably young species to notice them as fast as they had, not with what primitive equipment was on the vessel which had been destroyed after attacking a turian patrol. What really made the tension rise among her crew was that they were ordered to stay silent for now, and if a ship attempted to approach them, to simply run away. With the precedent of the Yagh first contact, no one wanted to risk a repeat of that situation, but to her it seemed that not answering was also not without risk.
If they knew nothing about each other and one side was not willing to communicate, there was no possible way to ensure that things would stay peaceful.
Her fears gradually came true a little later beginning when the aliens first stopped trying to communicate, and then increasingly fast when they detected a large power buildup in the two orbiting stations, along with a release a couple of seconds later. At the time they had no idea what had been done with the power and, initially, had not even considered the possibility of it being weapons fire due to a lack of mass effect signature- ready to dismiss it as some primitive nonsense.
Their calm was shattered some twenty seconds later, with sensors detecting 2 very big incoming objects. Their first thought had been some sort of fighter or drone due to its sheer size, but another twenty seconds later it became clear that their trajectory intersected their own perfectly, and that what it was precisely was irrelevant, because it was effectively a relativistic kill vehicle thanks to the speed it needed to have been going at to have reached them so quickly. Impact came another five seconds later.
One moment there was calm, then two of their cruisers, though luckily not the leader, were gone. Chaos erupted all around her on the bridge, but her subordinates were well trained and composed themselves quickly, despite the shock at losing two ships so suddenly, and cruisers no less! Her only consolidation was that they could have lost their leadership immediately to the first shots fired, but it was purely thanks to good luck.
Some seconds later they got the order to advance. They were to close in on the platforms and attempt to destroy them as quickly as possible, in case it was not a one-use weapons system. This plan too, was also almost immediately derailed when 2 new contacts rose out of atmosphere and started accelerating to meet them.
Once they got into extreme range, she, along with her comrades, all received orders to open fire, and open fire they did. Letting loose a terrifying barrage, she fully expected the enemy ships to be scrap soon, but this expectation did not come to pass. Instead, the ships seemed to dance around their shells, through gaps in their firing patterns previously thought to be unexploitable and they were still steadily approaching to intercept after multiple salvos missed in their entirety.
When they detected another energy build up in the orbital platforms they immediately scrambled to get out of the way of the incoming shells. It was not enough however, and she cursed the fact that they had not thought to change their formation. Thanks to the tightness of their cluster the lead cruiser was not able to evade the shell meant for it, with her own ships having more luck being closer to the outer edges of the formation and being able to dodge effectively. Others were not so lucky though, and the shell presumably meant for her ship instead slammed through the side of a frigate, transmitting an immense amount of energy onto the small vessel and sending it spinning off its course, and into nowhere.
With the rear admiral most likely dead, command now fell to her. She ordered the 11 frigates to form up around her ship and begin focusing fire on the smaller of the enemy ships. Soon her efforts were rewarded with their first hit of the engagement. She was surprised by the fact that at least one of her enemies did not have kinetic barriers. She was beginning to see a theme- it seemed as if they didn't have any eezo technology, except perhaps an FTL drive if the planet they were defending was not their homeworld. After all, eezo had not been found in any large quantity in the only wreck they had examined.
She was surprised yet again when the enemy ships finally opened fire- though what was surprising was not how close they had opened fire, but the amount of missiles now heading directly at them in a monstrous wave along with the cannon rounds. All she could do was watch as all their GARDIAN arrays started firing all at once, and for a moment it seemed as if it might even be enough, that the GARDIAN would protect from all but a few of the missiles, but it was not to be. She lost 3 more ships, with a fourth frigate barely surviving, it was out of the fight, but it could still provide cover with what remained of its GARDIAN array if they had enough missiles for another salvo like the last one.
Another thing was that while they had been hit by the cannon of one of the ships, it was not nearly as devastating as that of those damned orbital platforms. The bridge crew had not even noticed that they had been hit by it until after engineering checked the status of the shields after the missile barrage. It hit like a shell from a dreadnought would, enough to drastically reduce their shields, but also not enough to destroy them in one, or even two shots.
It was at this point that she seriously considered retreating. It may have been dishonorable, but it would at least prevent the loss of more turian lives and ships. While she was hesitating whether to announce a retreat or not, especially discouraged by the fact that they had achieved practically nothing so far, she received so far the second bit of welcome news: they got another hit, this time on the larger of the vessels. She decided, then and there, that she would continue pushing on the attack.
She was soon reconsidering her decision yet again. With another missile salvo, seemingly even bigger than the last one headed towards them, all she could do then and there was hope that they would survive.
They pulled through though, and despite losing another four ships- including the one that had gotten lucky with the last salvo- they seemed to have finally reached a turning point in the battle. They had maneuvered so that the enemy ships were interposed between them and the orbital platforms, and the enemy seemed to have realized this, changing their course away from both the planet and them, seemingly finally trying to run away, most likely having expended their entire stockpile of their most effective weapons.
She directed her remains of a once proud patrol fleet, now reduced to what amounted to a frigate wolfpack- directed by a cruiser- to make us of their seemingly better acceleration to close the distance further. With the enemy unable to run away they made short work of their ships.
They ignored the last two missiles launched at them, disregarding as nothing more than an act of desperation, she did not even pay any attention as the first one was swatted by the GARDIAN of the rearmost frigate. She was right in that it was desperation- just of a different sort. The other missile detonated so far it would not have done anything to her ships if it had been a conventional warhead, but alas, it was not a missile like the others.
The rearmost of her frigates was swallowed by the blast, its already weakened barriers collapsing and the ship adding to the explosion with its reactor fuel and munitions. She could only watch disheartened as her already pyrrhic victory took on an even darker shade, stained with nuclear fire.
Now as she sat in her suite and waited for further orders from high command, she also quietly despaired over what might come. Ultimately, she told herself that she was a good turian, and that good turians follow orders. Setting aside her feelings, she rose from her seat and stalked out of her cabin.
She found the person she was looking for almost immediately upon entering the CIC, captain Octaso Honolius, in command of the 3rd company of the 2nd Aruta guard battalion, attached to their fleet, and most likely the highest-ranking surviving member, with both the colonel and major having been on the flagship.
"Captain, are you willing to dedicate your forces to securing a landing site for our reinforcements?"
"Captain, I am unsure if that it is wise course of action. I would hae to recommend against it- not only did we lose a large portion of our manpower, but our heavy equipment was aboard the other cruisers. If we are to oppose the might of a planetary government, we are far from enough."
"Do you believe it would be feasible to set up a forward operating base somewhere as far away from civilization, where we would not be attacked?"
"Frankly speaking, absolutely not- we are understrength, do not possess the necessary equipment, and our morale will definitely be low after the navy's showing today. I am unwilling to freely give away the lives of my men."
"Very well then."
As she walked away, she thought about how else she might salvage her honor and the situation, but no ideas came forth, except one. Perhaps they could destroy the platforms using their fighters and disruptor torpedoes, or even just by shooting at them until they got lucky.
She gave orders to dispatch a frigate to the nearest comm buoy with the information they had gained in their engagement. Not satisfied but left nothing else to do but wait for a response and let her crew do their jobs, she stalked back to her cabin, not even noticing the crew getting out of her way for fear of her wrath.
No matter what happened next, she would try to regain the honor of her fleet, her own, and salvage the operation for the sake of the turian Hierarchy.
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5 hours after the confrontation
Fleet Admiral Tulcus Acasis, Emergency meeting of the military council of the turian Hierarchy
There was chaos in the grand meeting room of the highest-ranking persons in the Hierarchy. They had all been told to show up as soon as possible
Tulcus was silent as his colleagues argued around him about course the Hierarchy should take in the near future. It was as he turned his attention to the primarch of Palaven, Fedorian, that the open forum finally started quieting, with more high-ranking officials, both military and not, regaining their composure after learning of the possibility of war erupting from a first contact gone awry.
The last ones standing also sat down the quickest once the tumult calmed down. It was then that the primarch, the unofficial leader of the entire hierarchy, chose to speak: "Honorable priamarchs and others, it is my belief that we stand now, at a junction for the turian people. No matter what we decide now, it shall decide and shape our future, It is with this in mind, that I propose for a final effort at peace to be made, before we dedicate ourselves in our entirety to war."
At least the primarch seemed to be set on something, but unfortunately his idea did not gather unconditional support among his spectators.
"This is an outrage! Our fleet was attacked and almost destroyed entirely, and for what reason? None! We must gather our forces and strike back, search for their worlds and defeat them for this affront!"
"I concede that we were attacked unprovoked, but I have every intention of securing payback without shedding more turian blood. If this argument does not sway you from your positions, at least consider that we are far from ready for a war. While we may be the only council race that has expeditionary capability, we are far from ready to use it. We may possess the largest fleet to ever exist, but our ships are dispersed across our vast territory, with most being needed where they are now. Abandoning our positions is not an option. We must consider that if we were to pull them from their postings, the warlords of the terminus may very well get confident enough to actually attack our fringe holdings."
It may have seemed like nothing but a nice speech to the politically unaware, but Tulcus was aware that this was as close as they would ever get to a direct address of the militarily minded- a sort of faction formed of turians with similar opinons and a distinct preference for military solutions. The primarch then went on: "If moving our existing ships is not an option, we would naturally have to switch to a partial wartime economy to compensate which, while not crippling, would do no good to our already lacking ability to compete with the asari in the civilian market. These are the two most important reasons I hope that peace may yet be secured. Please prepare to cast your votes for this course of action."
The results were about what he expected. The primarchs of the 30 most affluent colonies, including Aephus, Digeris and others of similar standing were firmly behing Fedorian. Many others joined them and only the true opposition did not vote for the Fedorians proposal.
"The assembly has chosen! A peace mission will be sent to the alien system, but not alone. A fleet shall be dispatched, first to Nimines, and then as escorts for this mission. Next we shall vote whether to ask the asari for assistance."
Tulcus cast his vote but ignored the results deep in thought. Nimines was the home port of his 27th fleet, they were a reasonable choice for the primarch- not actively on any assignments, and just about to finish refitting their cruisers with the latest upgrade packages.
He left the meeting early, determined that if his fleet was chosen, they would be ready. Despite his determination though, he wondered what it would be like to go against a foe which had destroyed two thirds of a patrol fleet- no small force- something which had not happened for decades outside of freak accidents.
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