Chapter 4: For Shanxi! (Space Battle)

A Female Eldar by the name of IshaElsinal a Gunnery Officer of the Acclimator II class star frigate "Lenient" sent to be the first line of defense three months ago and now all she is doing was run a diagnostic tests on the ship checking every weapons of the ship and making sure that it's in peak capacity if ever they needed it.

After checking a few of the Diagnostics she then looked at the viewport of the ship some Acclimator I filled with Civilians exiting the Planet and entering Hyperspace.

A month prior of the deployment of the Fleet, a Relay activated itself. With the newest member of the Republic the Quarians and because of their Codex, The Republic feared the worst that it was the Batarians who activated the Relay and not the Citadel.

She also remembers the debate of the Senate that the Republic must made contact of the Citadel but others turned it down believing that the Grand Army of the Republicis still not ready. They feared that war against the Citadel will be inevitable and that the Republic must prepare is forces first before making another first contact.

After the diagnostics check of every cannon and launch tubes, Isha then stood up from the chair she's sitting on and started to stretch her body.

The Captain of the ship, a Mon calamari then noticed Isha and said "Officer Isha, you have been running diagnostic test for quite some time now. Take a break and the rest, we will take it from here" with Isha answering "Thank you Captain".

Isha then left the bridge with a bow and finds herself in her quarters; it is not big but not too small. It has a working desk that has a laptop on it a small bed that can really just fit one person and some pictures of her homeworld and family back in Arcturus. She then notices the old pictures during her time at the academy. She then remembers the day that she first met Ricardo and his group.

It was that faithful day that her heart skipped a beat towards for Ricardo and when she manages to tell him how she felt, Ricardo rejected her feelings as he would only trust the wider Galaxy for him to know who is destined to be. This train of though was cut off when the alarms went off.

When Isha exited her quarters she then saw another officer running and asked "What's the problem?" and the officer answering "Multiple ships just exited the Relay Hundreds of them!" before running to his station.

Isha then runs as fast as she could until she reaches the bridge hearing the captain giving orders such as "establish defensive line right now!" and "I want all starfighters ready at any given moment!".

"Aye-Aye Captain!" the helmsman of various species said in unison and Isha running towards her desk and begins the make a last-minute weapons scan.

"Isha, I want all of our guns heated up and tubes loaded with ship to ship missiles" the Captain said and Isha replying "Aye-aye captain"

Then the Ship's AI, a Human male wearing a Slav armor saying "Orders from the fleet admiral to prepare defensive formation and make way for the colony laser"

"Thank you Gaidar" the Captain said.

"Captain, multiple hails are being sent to the unknown fleet. They are not responding" the communications officer said.

"Fleet admirals orders! 'once the unknown fleet enters the killzone, they will be mark are hostiles and be fired upon!'" he continued.

The fleet then made way for the colonial space laser Dahlia as it begins the beginning stages of charging the gun.

Isha and the rest of the crew of Lenient felt the air as heavy as carrying large boulders as they are fearing that another war is about to begin.

Galaxy Effect

After exiting the Relay, Irogag was stunned as his fleet of hundreds of ships saw the planet,the race they are about to attack was actually not a backwater but a space faring race that can field an impressive amount of ships although notas large as the fleet he brought with him.

"Lord Damdah, our fleet is receiving multiple hails from the unknown fleet, shall I patch it thru?" the communication Helmsman said.

"Let it be, it's likely just a surrender to the mighty Hegemony fleet" Irogag said "Have all ships to move forward at full speed!"

The helmsmen then obeyed his orders without question, "Lord Irogag, is it wise to ignore the Hails?" the captain of the dreadnought said

"are you questioning my judgment?" Irogag asked with an intimidating tone

"No milord it's just"

"Then keep your mouth shut or I will have it closed forever"

The captain then just kept quiet albeit uncomfortable as they are about to attack a space faring race. He knew that this is not a homeworld, but a colony of a new civilization yet to be seen

"Captain! The ships are starting to make their move!" one of the operators said "They are moving away from the superstructure"

"Let them be, keep our ships moving forward" Irogag said

The Captain on the other hand noticed the weird behavior of the fleet, and the huge hole in the center of the Superstructure. If it's air vents then it's way to huge and the same can be said if its for waste disposal until it hit him

"Have all ships! Batarian or not elevate or descend now!" the captain ordered

"What are you up to Cap-" Irogag is about to scold the captain when a helmsman shouted "High energy output is being detected in the superstructure and climbing fast!"

Soon the entire fleet begins to obey the captain but the superstructure fired.

The powerful laser then started to melt the ships that wasn't able the leave it's line of fire in time. Irogag and the rest of the dreadnought's crew watch as the yellow colored laser ignores the shields of the ships and quickly evaporates it. The ones that remains are mostly cruisers that the few explodes because of the damaged cores while the rest just floats around.

The Captain watch in horror as the laser took out most of the forward ships and the ships in the rare that didn't manage to evade the shot in time.

"I want all of our ships to scatter and move at full speed! ready all of the drop ship alongside the deployment of all of our fighters!" The captain ordered.

"Captain! The superstructure is starting to recharge!' a helmsman said and the captain shouting "ascend!" and so the dreadnought with a few cruisers and frigates ascended while many ships such as one that belongs to the Talons and the Grim Skulls descended.

Irogag then opened the channel to all of the ships in his fleet and said "Too all of the Hegemony! We, the Batarians are the rightful rulers of this Galaxy and We! Will not be defeated by a backwater and inferior race!". Many Batarian cheered as they charge against the enemy fleet's wedge shaped dreadnoughts as the sides of the lead ship opens with hundreds of missiles was launch.

The front of the other wedge shaped ships then opened and started to launch a swarm of fighters. "show me a closer looks on those fighters!" Irogag shouted, the main monitor shows a large variety of fighters, From X shaped ones to the A shaped ones and more.

With the fleet scattered and still deploying their interceptors, Irogag's Raid fleet was taken off guard by the sheer number of Fighters the Aliens deployed. Many of the frigates and cruisers didn't stand a chance by the speed of the A shaped ones making a path for the K shaped and Y shaped ships that are most likely bombers for a attack run against his cruisers.

"The gardian lasers are having a hard time in taking out the enemy fighters!" One of the helmsmen shouted. Then the ship shakes, "Status report!" the Captain shouted. "We've been hit by some sort of an energy based projectile sir!" one answered before someone shouting "Our shield systems are down! Whatever hit us fried our shields!"

The Captain wasted no time and shouted "Have all ships move forward at full speed! I want all Batarian ships to cover our drop ships, Batarian or Not!" Irogag then said "Why did you take orders from him!?" and the Captain simply said in a calm manner "the moment that superstructure fired; we are already at disadvantage. We are lucky that I guessed its purpose right"

Soon one of the Dreadnoughts contacted then and it's captain said "We need support, two enemy fighter squads is approaching my ship!" and the captain answering "we will do what we can" before cutting the line and shouted "I want 1/6th of this ship's escorts head towards our other dreadnoughts and protect them" Irogag was about to say something but was cut off when another Helmsman shouted "Sir, some of our ships have manage to get pass thru the enemy defenses!"

Galaxy Effect

Barus. after he graduated the academy under the collage of combat aviation and joined the Republic's Fighter core. After the a few months into service, He became one of the Republic's daredevils known as the Aces as he took down three pirate squadrons with two ship kills using an aging Z95 headhunter.

Because of this, he is allowed to use a Personal fighter based on the Swordfish high speed Racing plane and calling it the "Swordfish 2" (Yes, same as Spike's personal fighter from cowboy bebop) giving him the nickname "The Red Blade".

He was assigned to the Venator Cruiser "Mirage's Dignity" and was sent to protect the Planet Shanxi. And now he finds himself leading a Squadron of both X wings and Arc 170s protecting a Squadron of Y wings.

"All wing under my command, on my mark we will hit the max speed and make a clear path for our bombers!" Barus ordered as he notices that a squadron of Alien fighters are closing as he shouted "Mark!".

Being the fastest amongst the fighters, Barus manage to get up front and intercept the Alien fighters taking them by surprise.

He uses all Four of his beam cannons taking out a considerable number of Aliens and putting them into disarray. Taking this chance, his fighter squad took out almost all of them as the enemy panicked.

"Alright Bomberman, she's all yours" Barus said to the lead bomber as they begin their attack run against the corvette size ship.

The Bomber then fired both Proton torpedoes and bombs taking out the enemy shield if they have any, and then finish it off with missiles and bombs.

The Lead Bomber then contacted Barus and said "we still have some payload; we still have enough to take out a Cruiser size one" with Barus just smiling and said "On me!" as his Squadron followed him.

They begin their attack run until Corvette and Frigate sized ships open fires at them forcing Barus to order them to Break and scatter.

His Squadron still manages to get close to the cruiser, but the enemy's point defense weapons begin to fire at them. When hit, it takes a considerable amount of their shields for a few seconds before breaking it and took out at least three of the X-Wings and two Arc 170s

Knowing that those point defense grids are a problem, Barus then said "I want all fighters take out those lasers; our bombers are in dangers if they got close".

As his remaining fighters got close, the laser then opened fire but being a Republic Ace, he manages to dodge the attack and charges his Annihilator beam cannon. Its slick long barrel may wreak havoc on craft's stability and balance, but when used by a worthy pilot, it can take down any ship larger than its size.

Barus then fired the cannon taking a considerable chunk of the ship instead the laser cannon only. He then noticed that the ship then turned disarray as the ship started to flee.

His fighter squadron then took this chance and took out the remaining point defense weapons giving the bombers their needed chance to succeed the bombing run.

The Communications then erupted with the admiral of the fleet saying "Barus! Few of the enemy ships manage to breakthrough our defenses; we are losing ground and being pushed back. I want you to help our A-wings to allow those ships down! The ground forces will handle the strugglers"

Barus then answered "Aye-Aye Admiral" and cut the feed.

He then ordered his squadron to return back at to the Luckerhulk battleship "Iron Gauntlent" to restock and refuel.

As he landed and exited his fighter, members of the maintenance group scramble as they change the battery packs of the beam cannons of all fighters and bombers as well as the fuel cartridges. The others are making a hasty repair on the damages.

He just sat inside the Swordfish's cockpit while they do the same on his fighter while watching more fighters arrive and leaves the large hangar of the ship.

Galaxy Effect

Admiral Antony Luna watches the battle inside the space station Dahlia. Knowing that if ever he orders another super laser to fire, it will create a large unnecessary hole in the battle formation and combine it with the scattered enemy fleet, it will completely endanger the entire station and the planet it's protecting.

The middle aged admiral rubs his mustache as watches many of his corvettes get sunk by the enemy fleet. Meanwhile, he was force to cut his fighters into two, one to support his fleet and the other is to slow down the invading forces making a landfall on the planet's surface.

Admiral Luna then opened to coms and to all of the ship captains in his fleet "I want all the ships in my fleet to slowly withdraw into the kill zone of our defense flatforms. We are losing ground faster than anticipated. If we lose, Shanxi will fall!"

He then called out the Station's AI "Floki" and blinking next to his command chair. The AI wears Viking armor minus the helmet and holding a one hand axe.

"I want a clear status of the battle" the Admiral said with the AI showing a holo-map of the entire engagement. "We are clearly being pushed back; they have anti shield torpedoes similar to our plasma torpedoes." Floki said.

Both of them watch the battle thru the holo-map and notices that the enemy fleet is now taking a more aggressive approach "They are trying to punch thru our defenses" Admiral Luna said and looks at the Floki and said "contact the defense flatforms, we cannot let anymore ships to slip our lines!" with the AI answering "Already on it".

They then noticed a small group of ships consisting of a single frigate size and a large number of corvettes moving in. The corvettes are protecting the frigate by surrounding along side some fighters making a wall of starships as it miraculously passes thru the Lenient and other ships.

He then saw that the Swordfish 2 is chasing this group of ships and said "Lieutenant Barus, you need to Disengage. Let the group forces handle the strugglers. "Our fight is here in space" and the ace answering "Aye-Aye admiral" with a frustrated tone.

One of the officers then shouted out of panic "Admiral! the Resolute have ordered the deployment of all of it's fighter compliment and majority of it's crew are in escape pods that is heading towards the other capital ships!". The Admiral stood from his chair and orders to contact the said ship.

The holo-screen then shows the captain of the ship who is a Sanghelie and he asks "Why are you leaving the formation Captain!?" and the Reptilian Captain simply answered "I'm expecting you to contact me Fleet master Luna".

The Admiral just glare at him and asks "Please explain why are you leaving the formation?" with Venom. The Sanghelie closes his eyes and rubs his mandibles and said "The shit already lost her shields, we are still alive because of the ship's thick hull armor but it will not last long" he then let out a sigh and said "I ordered most of my crew to abandon ship and make their way to the other capital ships. We will create a confusion within enemy ranks, please use this to prolong the battle" before cutting the feed.

Admiral Luna just sat back to his chair and ordered "I want fighter squadrons to escort the Resolute and defend it. If ever his plan succeeds, we will create a damage that will slow their advance"

"May the force be with you" the Admiral silently said as he watches the Venator class ship advances towards the enemy ranks.

Galaxy Effect

Ship master Riza'Tetam orders his remaining crew push the thrusters of his ship to max and one of the helmsmen the shouted "hostile fighters inbound!". But before the enemy fighter manages to get close enough for an attack run, they were shut down by some X-Wings along side some A and E wings.

The Resolute then charges straight towards the enemy fleet while all of the phalanx point defense weapons are blazing with most of the enemy corvettes and frigate ships being the main targets.

"Captain! An enemy cruiser is about to engage us broadside!" an officer said as the Resolute is taking position for close quarters combat "load the tubes with both Proton torpedoes and anti-ship missiles!" Riza'Tetam shouted as both ships meet side by side.

The enemy batteries pound the Resolute's hull plating making multiple breaches and some unlucky droids gets flown out into open space. The Resolute's Phalanx point defense manages do the same but this time, the small beam rounds pierce thru the hull plating hitting some unlucky Batarians killing them instantly. Then the Ship shakes as both Missiles and torpedoes smash the ship's hull plating. The same can be said to the Ships beam cannons as is chop away many parts of the enemy ship.

Inside the Resolute was also as bad as the enemy ship, Many Helmsmen are on the ground as the ship shook violently during the exchange of barrage. "There are multiple hull breaches at different sectors!" an officer said.

Riza'Tetam who is wiping some blood from his face then said "I want those blast doors shut!" and another answered "already on it captain".

"I want the status on the enemy cruiser?" the Captain asks as he was the many friendly fighters getting shut down by enemy fighters and corvettes. "Where's the next large enemy group?" The Sanghelie Captain said as he looks at the battle.

"1 kilometer to the starboard side captain" an officer said as the others checks the status of the now heavy damaged cruiser. "Whatever those torpedoes are, it managed to fry our shield, both Particle and Energy" another commented.

The Captain then orders to set course against the enemy group and notices that his plan is working because they are now gain some ground against the enemy.

Galaxy Effect

"What do you mean you are being pushed back?" Irogag shouted to his coms as the mercenary reported to him that the ground forces that manage to slip thru the enemy's defenses are losing.

Meanwhile the Captain watches the enemy dreadnought that is wreaking havoc to his forces giving the opposing fleet the chance to push them back.

"I want disruptor torpedoes to be loaded in each of our ships, this is our only chance to take those dreadnoughts down!" the Captain shouted.

Irogag then looks at the Captain and said "these worthless aliens can really put up a fight" with a snarl before saying "why won't they just surrender!"

The dreadnought's Captain just looks at Irogag with discontent, 'Worthless? They manage to build such a fleet and that emplacement for crying outloads' he thought as the fleet is starting to waver as the enemy fighters are picking them off one by one. Thanks to the Gardian laser, they can make the hostile squadrons cautious when attacking.

Then one of his Officers shouted "Captain! An unidentified element is starting to form up!" but before he could answer Irogag said "Let it be! All ships push them back to whatever hole they came from!" The captain could only snarl at the Batarian before loud thunder like booms was heard.

"What was that?!" Irogag said as the Captain just silently looks at the monitor with many wedge shaped ships entering the system "How many ships just entered the system?" the captain asked and a helmsman answered "60" softly.

"Just 60" Irogag scoffs and the Helmsman corrected himself and said "60 dreadnoughts had just entered the System! And it's rising. Hundreds of frigates and multiple super dreadnoughts!"

Knowing that the battle is lost, The Captain then orders a full retreat and Irogag complaining "We will not return to Khar'shan empty handed!". The Captain was about to retaliate when a shadow covered the ship.

They then saw a gigantic warship that dwarfs even the renowned Destiny Ascension with its wedge shaped frame, it's sized could even shadow an entire settlement. The ship immediately fires at the fleet taking down many Cruisers and frigates down almost wiping them out.

They manage to escape the entire slaughter with a handful of ships and on their way towards the relay 314. Majority of them are heavily damage with handful of mercenary ships. "Sir what about the troops left behind the Planet's surface?" one of the officers asked and the Captain answered "They are on their own now" with a solemn tone.

The exhausted fleet then exited the Relay but this time, an entire fleet composing of Turian and Asari ships. With no hope the captain ordered to look and apprehend Irogag as there are nowhere to run.

Chapter end

A/N: I made the Battle of Shanxi into two parts as it will be way too long for me to write if I combined it into one. The Codex will also be written there