26 JUN74
Torfan
The carrier SSV Boltzmann had a quarter of its normal fighter and interceptor complement, instead serving as a regiment level troop transport. In a “corner” made by seven MV-24H Vulture troop transports in one of the hangers, a platoon of veteran marines gathered. Their armor had seen a lot of action - the paint was nearly fully scuffed off, chips and dings and replacement sections visible, matched by the appearance of the weapons being checked and cleaned, and distinctly apparently against the cleaner feel of the carrier hanger deck around them.
A brown-haired soldier moves into the area with his helmet in his hand. Giving a whistle that was barely heard at the edges of the “corner,” the man waved the marines over to him. “Okay, platoon. This is it. We’ve beat the Batarians back from their worlds. We’ve cut their supply lines and demolished anything military that wasn’t defended. The things that were defended, were obliterated by the Navy. Down below us is the last major base the Batarians have in the Verge. The fighting has been hard to secure the orbitals, and it’s now up to us Marines to go down and dig out the remaining forces so we can put this base to use for further operations.”
The lieutenant passed his gaze over his unit. “The sector we’re being dropped in is heavily fortified and the first wave was nearly wiped out. So, we get to go in and make the entire hole through their defenses instead of exploiting the gains of the first wave. The plan given to us is full of shit, but we’re stuck with it, so the company will be making a frontal assault right into the fortifications just like the previous wave. Luckily, there are several squads of Type IV mod 5s in orbit that we can call down for support if necessary.”
Second Lieutenant Shepard gave a sad smile. “We drop in five. Padre’s available and make sure to do final equipment checks. I’ll see you on the ground.”
While he let the time pass, Shepard gazed at the seemingly anachronistic design of the crafts that would be taking them to the surface. The Vulture was an old design even for a pre-Mass Effect physics era VTOL, with rotating wings and jet engines for vertical landings. The spindly wings and long “neck” cockpit with a fairly fat - in comparison - main body made it clear how it received its name. Two launchers sat in the wing roots, straddling the troop compartment and firing at a level between the pilot and gunner seats. Beneath the gunner was a fairly vicious looking gun turret. The design only carried six passengers, which meant they had been needing to make multiple runs to bring down troops in most engagements. Between that and it’s lesser capabilities from being a pre-ME design, it was likely to be replaced soon by a more modern design. He would miss the craft, though the newer A-61 Mantis gunship looked to be carrying on the general design legacy.
Five minutes later, the two engines on each Vulture began spooling up. The platoon finished putting on their helmets and ensuring the seals, then broke by squads to the designated transports. Second platoon’s command team shared the transport with Shepard’s team. The Vulture’s gunner shut the rear hatch and moved down the row checking restraints were secure as the transport lifted off and began moving for the hanger exit. He disappeared forward into the cockpit area, sealing the hatch behind him. Most of the engine noise abruptly cut off, indicating that the Vulture was now in space.
“This is the pilot speaking. Today’s flight is heading for Sector B of the Torfan main fleet base defense line. Ground conditions include rocky terrain and short mountains that could be tall hills, intense anti-air fireworks, and thousands of Batarians that want you dead. Weather is smoky with a chance of artillery or mortar bombardment and a high chance of bullet precipitation. We will be passing through turbulence, so all passengers must obey the seat belt and no smoking signs. Thank you for flying Air Alliance.”
The soldiers chuckled and shook their heads, trying to ignore the fact that the transport’s smooth flight had begun shaking randomly from surface-to-orbit “flak” fire. An unheard sigh of relief was given when the smooth flight shifted to slight steady vibrations and the engine noise began increasing due to entering atmosphere.
A rapid increase in the whine of the engines was the only warning before the Vulture banked and dove for the ground, spitting out countermeasures to spoof the enemy’s atmospheric anti-air defenses. Several balls of fire dropped towards the ground as some Vultures and Mantis gunships weren’t as lucky in evading the determined defenders’ fire.
The dive leveled out a seeming eternity later, and the lights in the passenger area switched to red. Both teams removed their seat restraints and readied weapons. A slight back tilt provided a warning just before the rear hatch opened. Second platoon’s team disembarked rapidly, followed by Shepard’s. The fire team continued moving as the hit the bottom of the ramp, heading west to meet the rest of the platoon. Behind them, the Vulture closed the hatch and took off for a rear area.
Torfan was a moon, and not a particularly pretty one at that. Like with many moons, it was fairly barren though its gravity was high enough to avoid “bounce” issues and had a thin atmosphere. Given that it was the location of a major fleet base, it was also fairly large for a moon. To the marines fighting on its surface, all this just meant they could hug the ground while moving and lacked easy concealment, with an added bonus that there were a large number of Batarians that would be trying to kill them.
Ahead and to Shepard’s left, another Vulture coming in rose up slightly too high to avoid an outcropping. Realizing their mistake, the transport started diving to its left a moment too late. A GARDIAN laser sliced through the right wing of the craft, taking out the engine and most of the wing. The explosion drove the VTOL down, and it went into an out of control spin even as the pilot attempted to regain control. A burst of smoke and dust past another outcropping indicated the out of view crash site only a hundred meters from the fire team.
Hustling to the crash site located one of his squads, as they exited the downed craft. The squad had already begun forming a defense perimeter by the time he arrived, and the platoon Corpsman went to work checking the marines and flight crew. The squad’s Service Chief rested on a seat at the back of the Vulture with his helmet off, receiving medical treatment for the slight injuries suffered in the crash. He looked up Shepard, commenting, ”I think we missed seeing the sign that said ‘Abandon all Hope, ye that Enter here,’ boss.”
Chuckles were heard across the platoon com-net. Shepard nodded his head in agreement and shifted his active comline to company level. “Bravo Four, this is Bravo Three Actual. Over.”
“Bravo Three Actual, this is Bravo Four. Go ahead. Over.”
“Bravo Four, this is Bravo Three Actual. Deployment mostly on target. Met up with Bravo Three-Two. Sierra-205 was shot down as it came in for a landing. No fatalities and no injuries in the squad or aircrew. Bravo Three-One will join momentarily, and Bravo Three-Three is already moving forward to link up with any first wave survivors. Do we have a designated location to send back wounded or aircrew yet? Over.”
“Bravo Three Actual, this is Bravo Four. No triage, medical, or flight crew recovery area designated currently. Enemy mortars and artillery make designating an area dangerous currently. If Sierra-205 crash site is not in danger of exploding and reasonably safe from enemy view, use location for temporary site. Over.”
A Mantis passing to their rear raining fire down on the enemy bunkers takes a pair of rockets in the side and another in the nose, leaving only a wing and the tail to fall to the ground from the explosions.
“Bravo Four, this is Bravo Three Actual. Understood. Placing Sierra-205 location on map and designating it as recovery and triage site. Bravo Three will now advance to link up with Bravo Three-Three and begin assaulting Torfan defense line. Over.”
“Bravo Three Actual, this is Bravo Four. Acknowledged. Out.”
Lt Shepard looked around to his men forming up and switched the comline back to platoon and local level. “Okay. Aircrew, stay here. Any other shot down aircrew will be heading here if possible currently. Wounded will also be heading back this way. Platoon, we’re pushing forward to link up with third squad and then hit the enemy. Let’s move.”
The first wave had done a good job clearing the first section of trenches, but had gotten chewed up badly by the bunkers overlooking the lower section of the defense line and a good section of the lower line was retaken. Reoccupying the lines without being torn up by the bunkers was difficult, but the lines were secured after several hours. Taking cover from the withering fire from the bunkers, Bravo Three gathered up the combat-capable survivors of the first wave into two squads. It didn’t seem to bad casualty-wise until it was noticed that those two squads consisted of people from three platoons.
A quick discussion led to a decision to send the scout squad, Bravo Three-Three, to handle the rightmost bunker of the trio in their section of the line. The infiltrator cloaks they were equipped with would serve well to get them to the bunker itself. Once they began their attack on the bunker, Bravo Three-One would engage the leftmost bunker at range in a feint to draw attention away from the right and center bunkers. The survivor squads along with the balance of the platoon would then assault the center bunker.
Three-Three used the defense trenches and lower bunkers to move to a covered position leading to their target. With a shimmer, the twelve troopers vanished from sight. They moved from cover to cover, allowing their cloaks to recharge between each move. Unfortunately, the last stretch to the bunker was a 50m long cleared area. A three-man fire team began setting up a sniping point at the last cover. The rest waited for the cloaks to recharge before rapidly advancing over the terrain, spread out to make it harder to hit. All twelve broke into sprints as the last energy in their cloaks emptied out.
Guns barked to life from both sides and grenades slammed into the front of the bunkers as the men finished closing the distance. Two rolled to a stop under the firing ports, and proceeded to toss incendiary grenades through. Two other fire teams swung around the edges to the rear entrance to the bunker. The five marines vanished from sight once more as the cloaks reengaged, and they slipped into the strong point unseen. Back in the cover, an anti-materiel rifle was set up on the rock, sending a round thundering the short distance every few seconds. Cracks from two other sniper rifles could be heard.
Attention was yanked to the other side of the bunker trio, as missiles and grenades started striking the bunker and the ground in front of it, spraying dirt and rock into the air. Decent sized pieces of rock were encased in a transparent blue glow before being flung towards the bunker firing slots. Bursts of fire lanced out from cover to the strong point.
With attention drawn two different directions, the remainder of the force began leap-frogging up the cover towards the center bunker. Snipers among the survivors kept the Batarians’ heads down. Smoke grenades landed in front of the bunker and began spewing out smoke, allowing two squads to move up to the bunker. One squad moved to the back door, and prepped breaching charges on it. The second squad moved to flank the firing slots.
An explosion flashed out of the rear doorway, and two flamethrower equipped survivors from the first wave followed up by sending streams of fire through the firing slots at the front of the bunker. Screams erupted from within as Bravo Three-Two breached the doorway. The flames cut off as the two troopers stopped to avoid blue-on-blue and moved to get behind the bunker in case one of the nearby bunkers still had some fight in it. Gunfire and screaming continued for several seconds before both cut off.
“Bravo Three-Two, bunker secure.”
Shepard signaled the survivors, grouped into Bravo Three-Four and Bravo Three-Five, to move and support Bravo Three-One’s push against the last bunker along their stretch. They acknowledged and moved towards third platoon’s left flank. He entered the bunker, where second squad was policing the dead and checking equipment.
One of the squad members waved him over. “Sir, this looks like triangulation gear. If they have this at various points along the defense line, they could use it to locate rear areas by their transmissions without needing to listen in.”
“And we’ve been checking in progress this entire time as usual. Damn.” Quick flip to get on the company level. “Bravo Four, this is Bravo Three Actual. Over.”
He stood there several seconds gazing at the parts of the bunker. “Bravo Four, this is Bravo Three Actual. Acknowledge. Over.”
Shepard brought up his tac-map overlay and oriented it with his current view. The location of the command squad looked to be quiet. With a frown, he switched his line back to platoon. “Bravo Three-Five, disengage and move to Bravo Three-Three’s current location. Bravo Three-Three, is your position secure? Over.”
“Three here. Position is secure. It looks like Bravo Two’s having issues, but we’re good here. Over.”
Watching the tac-map, he followed “fifth squad” as it shifted from the left flank to the bunker third squad controlled on the platoon’s right flank. “Three-Three, pull back and double time it to Bravo Four’s last known location and report. They aren’t responding to communications. Over.”
“Aye-aye. Out.”
The platoon finished securing their section of Sector B and fortified the positions somewhat should the Batarians decide they wanted it back. Wounded were patched up and worse cases ferried back to Sierra-205’s location by “fourth squad.” Long minutes later, news came in. “Bravo Three Actual, Three-Three here. Looks like artillery or mortar or both hit this area thoroughly. We’ve found bits and pieces, but it looks like Bravo Four is KIA. We’re sweeping the area to look for survivors now. Over.”
“Three-Three, Actual here. Acknowledged. Sweep the area, get any wounded to Sierra-205, and get back here. Out.” He switched lines to company level. “Bravo One Actual, Bravo Two Actual, this is Bravo Three Actual. Bravo Four appears to be gone. Any elements of it with you? Over.”
“Bravo One Actual. Negative on Bravo Four elements. Over.”
“Bravo Two-Two. Two Actual got wiped out a couple hours ago by mortar fire. Negative on Bravo Four elements as well. Could use some assistance in our section though. Over.”
“Bravo Three Actual. Understood. Pass me each platoon’s current tac-map. Contacting battalion. Out.” Shepard grinned as he turned from the view out of the bunkers to see the squaddies had cobbled together a command post from the equipment in the bunker. His chief brought up the platoon’s current tac-map, updating it as the rest of the company sent its information. He winced; Second platoon was indeed in a bad spot and needed help. He switched back to platoon level. “Three-Three, infiltrate and recon the general area where our area links to second platoon’s. Look for viable orbital insertion LZs. Over.”
Second squad was keeping busy, removing Batarian corpses and dumping them in front of the bunker. The tac-map updated: Able company linked up with his platoon’s left flank, and was pushing forward to finish securing their sector. He switched to the never-before-used-by-him comline. “Battalion, this is Bravo Three Actual. Over.”
“Bravo Three Actual, this is Battalion. Go ahead. Over.”
“Battalion, Bravo Three Actual. Bravo Four is KIA. Bravo Three has secured the bunker line in its section, Bravo One has nearly achieved same. Bravo Two is in trouble and needing assistance.” He paused as the tac-map rapidly updated with information from his scout squad and, surprisingly, first platoon. “Requesting Type IV squad deployment at Bravo Three-Three marker Golf and Bravo One-Three marker Echo. Over.”
“Bravo Three Actual, Battalion. Battalion Actual has designated you Bravo Actual for duration of combat. Type IV squad deployment at Bravo Three-Three marker Golf and Bravo One-Three marker Echo approved. Insertion in three-oh seconds. Squads designated Zulu Four and Zulu Eight. Over.”
“Battalion, Bravo Actual. Acknowledged command shift and deployment of Zulu Four and Zulu Eight. Out.” He swapped to company level. “Bravo One, Bravo Two, this is Bravo Three Actual. Battalion has designated me Bravo Actual for duration of combat. Bravo Two-Two, you are Two Actual. Over.”
Both platoons radioed acknowledgement. “Bravo Two, Bravo Actual. Two Type IV squads deploying in front of your line at Three-Three Golf and One-Three Echo. Callsigns Zulu Four and Zulu Eight. Insertion in one-five seconds. Over.”
“Bravo Two Actual. Acknowledged.”
Practical orbital insertion was a rather novel concept for everyone. As a matter of fact, Torfan was the first actual use of the ability in addition to being the reason it was developed. A company in power armor was inserted at key locations around the moon, disabling anti-air and communication capabilities to enable regular troops to land easier. As a shock-and-awe tactic in a combat zone, it was incredibly effective as well.
Twenty-four streaks burned down from space, spreading out into two groups of twelve. A kilometer out, each streak broke up as numerous reentry covers separated from the troopers. Half a kilometer out and a couple hundred meters off the ground, “brake parachutes” deployed, rapidly bleeding off speed before they also separated. Just before impact, the final pod section activated, using mass effect fields to bleed off the remaining speed and brace the troopers for touch down. Two clouds of dust and debris rose from the landing zones. Shepard linked his tac-maps to the two squads and designated the area needing assistance. After a moment, all hell broke loose for the Batarians as the power armor squads attacked.
Power armor was also fairly novel in the galaxy, though it had been in the field since the Skyllian Blitz, when a company testing the Type IV Mk0 design had a trial by fire and defended a ten kilometer front alone. Two years later, and the prototype design was up to its fifth modification. Type IV armor was, in most general terms, buffed up heavy armor. It was extended away from the wearer to accommodate a powered exo-skeleton, greatly increasing the carrying capacity and abilities of the armor.
That didn’t matter to the Batarians, just that those armors were Death Incarnate. Equipped almost exclusively with various heavy weaponry and machine guns, the two squads descended upon the defense bunkers with near impunity. Second platoon section’s flank bunkers were cleared before the Batarians could realize what happened. Then the secondary defense lines were flanked by the rapidly moving units as second platoon rallied and took the center bunkers.
After hours and hours of hard fighting and losses, resistance in Sector B ceased to exist fifteen minutes after the two squads landed without any additional fatalities in the Marines. The only damper on the feat was the loss of the SSV Boltzmann overhead, along with regiment command, to a last ditch attack with frigates and light-weight cruisers from the surface. According to reports, a mortally wounded Batarian frigate kamikazed into one of the Boltzmann’s hanger decks before exploding, causing a chain reaction of secondary and tertiary explosions that destroyed the carrier.
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04 JUL74
“The Systems Alliance has announced that the Batarian Hegemony has capitulated under the terms previously rejected in early June. At the time of the agreed ceasefire, Alliance forces had secured most key Batarians positions in the Skyllian Verge, interdicted resupply or evacuation attempts for other strongpoints in the Verge, and were aggressively invading deeper into the Hegemony.
“Among the terms of surrender, the Batarian Hegmony cedes the entire Skyllian Verge to the Alliance, along with all worlds captured up to the ceasefire. This will shrink the Hegemony to roughly a quarter its size and cost them most of their economic and resource rich systems. In addition, eighty-five percent of its navy will be decommissioned and handed over to the Alliance including every single Batarian dreadnought, and the Batarians are restricted from building dreadnoughts or carriers without Alliance approval.
“The general reaction from Citadel space continues to be shock and disbelief, though turian and some salarian government reactions seem more in line with ‘I told you so’ to the other races. Alliance Parliament has already rejected a Council offer of peacekeeping forces deployed to the ‘warn-torn’ regions. There are rumors that the Council also requested much of the technology the Alliance has deployed in recent years, but nothing official has been heard from the Alliance.”