Hi, readers this was something I've always wanted to write about and I figured that lock down was a perfect time to give it a try. This story will not take priority over my other work, The Damaged ODST I've just always wanted to write a AU Humanity in the Mass Effect Universe.

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As always all rights reserved by Bio-ware. All rights reserved to Guerilla Games for the Story Image.

"Admiral the rebels have pushed back our invasion force off-world, we no longer have a foothold on the planet, what are your orders sir?" the communication officer relayed.

Sebastian stood looking out of the command deck at the planet below which was now Firmly controlled by the rebel scum and only one thought came to mind.

"Locate all civilian centres, shelters, bunkers and even the hospitals I want them all accounted for."

"One moment sir" an officer called out.

After a short pause a reply came back, "all planetside civilian centres accounted for, sir"

"Good, have the fleet target those centres and on my order commence orbital bombardment. "

"Sir you can't, that's a war crime I don't understand." the communication officer pleaded.

"There is nothing to understand the rebels slaughtered all those loyal to the Empire in the streets, the law no longer applies to them." Sebastian coldly replied, after a short pause he continued, "broadcast the order to all ships". Sebastian ordered.

The officer did as commanded, condemning hundreds of thousands of innocent people to death. The Fleets secondary armaments blared to life as they began the bombardment of the planet below, within minutes all major civilian centres laid in rubble. In those few minutes, the casualties for the Xu Nur rebellion jumped from a few thousand to well over a hundred thousand.

With such high civilian losses and the looming threat of being bombarded from orbit again, the rebel commanders formally surrendered, ending the conflict of Xu Nur and the rebellion before it could grow and threaten the Empire. The event became known as the Genocide of Xu Nur, earning Sebastian the infamous title of the Red Admiral for all the innocent blood spilt due to his orders that day.

Sebastian for his actions was promoted to the newly introduced rank of Grand Admiral and made Supreme Commander of the Navy alongside his promotion, he was awarded the highest military honour the Terran Star and was fully pardoned for his crimes and lauded as a national hero of the Empire.

10 years after that day.

The same man was standing on his command deck aboard his flagship, the superdreadnought TENV Terrans Pride and was about to give the most important speech of his career, to the entire Empire.

"Two weeks ago our Empire suffered a terrible tragedy, the colony of Sigmar was suddenly and brutally invaded by unknown alien forces. Though Sigmar may have fallen I can promise you this, the enemy will not advance any further into our glorious Empire. For we are Terrans, we fight, we compete, our evaluation is continuous! The Empire and Humanity will continue its march into the future uninterrupted, even the loss of Sigmar proves the Empires dedication to progress! We shall fight on, we shall struggle, compete and dominate! The future shall be ours." silence filled the deck and all of the Empire was quite for a brief moment, then Sebastian raised his fist.

"All hail the Empire, all hail the Empire!"

All across the Empire, the chant echoed, a cry for vengeance.

With that, the monitor blinked off, Sebastian was free to finalise his plan to retake Sigmar.

Sebastian turned and spoke as he began to walk back to his command chair, "Captain Ethan, when is the First Fleet ready to move out at full strength?"

"Approximately two days sir" replied Ethan.

"What of the Second and Third Fleets?"

"Sir Admiral Cecile says the Second will be combat-ready within a month and Admiral Arlo says Third Fleet will be combat ready in three to four months, Sir"

Sebastian thought on the information he received as he once again turned and began to walk to the bridge's viewport to marvel at his Fleet.

Apart from his Flagship the 2.2-kilometre long super Dreadnought, his Fleet also Consisted of two Hades Class Dreadnoughts, six London Class Heavy Cruisers, twenty Everest Class Cruisers and forty Markov Class Frigates.

The years of peace and no real threat from piracy had left the navy ill-prepared for a situation like this and it showed, only being able to muster the First Fleet to Full Combat readiness in a somewhat timely fashion, and if the Intel from the last transmission from Sigmar was Accurate this 'Turian Hierarchy' had no such problem.

Sebastian was thrown from his thoughts by Captain Ethan.

"Sir General Thompson wishes to speak with you"

Sebastian nodded his head and the familiar face of General Thompson appeared, sacred from a lifetime of duty.

"Sebastian it's been too long since we last saw each other, shame it's not under better circumstances," sarcasm lacing the old man's words.

"I hope that wasn't the reason you wanted to talk to me, Thompson?" Sebastian shot back.

"No, no of course not." Thompson paused for a breath, "the 502nd to the 510th Infantry Battalions are ready for deployment along with the 68th Armored Core, 12th Artillery Company, 4th Scout Division and the 102nd Light Vehicle Core, we are ready to and waiting to retake Sigmar." Finished Thompson.

"Thompson are we not forgetting something?" added Sebastian.

Thompson locked eyes with Sebastian and after a moment's silence continued.

"Sebastian even though I have made my thoughts clear on this, your own personal unit has been outfitted in their custom uniform and armament and have been designated as Purge Troopers as per your request."

"Good, when can I expect my Purge Troopers to be assigned to my Ship?"

"Your Troopers," Thompson could barely hide the disgust in his voice," will be moved to your Ship within the hour."

"Thank you, Thompson, if that is all I have more pressing matters to attend to," smugly replied Sebastian, as he nodded to the Communications Officer and Thompsons hologram disappeared from the bridge.

Sebastian spun on his heel and made for the exit to go to his personal quarters.

"Captain the bridge is yours until I return," Sebastian said as a formality more than anything else.

After a short walk Sebastian entered his personal quarters and made his way past his ornate oak desk, to his drink cabinet to pour himself a whisky as he slouched into his chair and undid his shirt's top button and reached to open his draw to pull out a cigar lighting it, taking a long slow puff, he so rarely got to enjoy the little things recently.

He looked at himself in his desk mirror even though he was relatively young at 38 his features were no longer youthful, his raven coloured hair had started to grey, his ocean blue eyes had lost their shine and began to dim also his face had begun to look more rugged and serious as one would expect of the commander of the navy.

A flashing green button on his desk brought him out of his thoughts, he reached forward and pressed the button, a virtual display appearing on his desk swiping left to see the notification it was Admiral Cecile and Admiral Arlo calling him. Sebastian accepted the call and a holographic image of both the Admiral's appeared.

Cecile looked the same as the day Sebastian had first met her. Her light green hair was cut just above her shoulders nicely contrasting her amethyst eyes which had lost their shine like his but her features were flawless, as always she just screamed beauty. Most people in the Empire had no idea she was 2 years his senior.

Then there was Alro who was the spitting image of his late father and former Admiral of the Third Fleet who Sebastian had assassinated for publicly expressing support for Xu Nur survivors and family members, in fact, that was the only reason he was in command of the Third was because of his late father's influence on officers of the Third. Arlo had short dirty blond hair, his eyes were the colour of emeralds and still held the shine of his humanity. His face was young and full of youth, with not a scratch on it.

Sebastian had disliked his recent meetings with the other Admirals because of Alro, he was young an idealist who often clashed with him and Cecile over most matters to do with the preparation for the retaliatory strike, often saying that we should sue for peace or at least try negotiating with the enemy first before we escalate things further.

He and Cecile had no such problems, she was equally as ruthless and cunning as him and understood that the Empire had to appear strong to this new enemy in hope of diswaying the Enemy from continuing the war.

"Greetings Grand Admiral it seems you're smoking and drinking on the job again" teased Cecile.

"As always your concern for me is noted and appreciated Cecile" joked Sebastian.

"I'm glad maybe you'll listen to me this time but we'll have to continue that talk another day, I and Arlo have come to discuss the retaliatory strike," said Cecile as she turned to Arlo.

"I thought we went over the plan and had agreed on it already, had we not?" questioned Sebastian.

"Yes we have Sebastian, I know I will not be able to disway you from your current plan but I will ask you this, do not take the entire First Fleet with you, take half and leave the rest for planning an effective defence." Said a nervous Arlo.

"Alro do you think that I will not succeed in retaking the colony?" Sebastian said, raising his voice.

"No I do not, but First Fleet is the only operational fleet while Second and Third finish undergoing their retrofitting and repairs if it is lost, you cannot rely on your reputation as the Red Admiral…."

"It will not be lost and I will teach them why I am called the Red Admiral!" interrupted Sebastian taking a puff of his cigar "if that is all then you are both dismissed."

Arlo opened his mouth to speak but quickly closed it due to Sebastian's and Cecile's glare after a few tense moments Alro's hologram blinked out but Cecile's remained.

Sebastian glanced up at Cecile and made brief eye contact before speaking.

"What is it Cecile?" asked a calmer Sebastian.

"I just wanted to tell you to be careful and to make sure you come back in one piece," said a rather concerned Cecile

Sebastian stared at Cecile for a brief moment and could of, sworn he saw her blush."

"Don't worry Cecile when I return I'll take you to a restaurant, like you've always wanted." replied a smiling Sebastian.

"I'll hold you to that, I probably won't be able to speak to you again before you leave as I and Arlo are going to Mars to personally oversee the progress on the Fleets, so make sure you come back."

"I will, I will don't you worry" reassured Sebastian

With that, Cecile ended the call and Sebastian was back in his quarters alone, he downed his whisky and trimmed his cigar to place it back in his draw as he looked up to clock above him and thought, my new Purge Troopers should be arriving shortly.

Sebastian got up re-buttoning his shirt, exiting his quarters heading to the hangar ready to greet his personal unit. After a brisk uneventful walk and a couple of elevators later Sebastian found himself in hangar bay control.

"Gr, Gr Grand Admiral Sir we were not expecting you," stuttered a nervous hangar ensign.

"Compose yourself, ensign, has the transport containing my new Troopers arrived yet?" Questioned Sebastian.

"yes Sir and no your Troopers have not arrived yet, but are due any minute now."

As if cue, the enormous reinforced titanium hangar bay doors slowly opened as the kinetic barriers kicked in to keep the artificial atmosphere from escaping into the dark void of space. Once the doors had fully retracted a huge transport gracefully flew into the hangar bay, landing gears extending.

"Ensign inform the pilot of that transport to tell the occupants that I wish to carry out an expectation of them at once," ordered Sebastian.

"It will be done, Sir."

Moments later, the transports doors hissed open and a ramped extended out onto the bay's floor. A single man came marching out obviously the Commander, closely followed by two others then the rest of the unit filed out in a three by three formation.

Sebastian watched the men impressed by their discipline but more importantly, they looked exactly how he wanted them to, clad head to toe in pitch black titanium-reinforced plastil armour, but with blood-red fatigues underneath and two glowing red optical sensors on their faceplates, all 60 of them.

If Sebastian was any less of a man he would of, felt a small sense of fear or unease at their appearance much like the men in hangar control with him. Perfect he thought to himself.

Sebastian strolled out onto the catwalk above his men and looked down on them.

"I am Grand Admiral Sebastian and from today forward you shall be under my direct command you shall take orders from no one else unless I wish it, you are to be my right hand on the battlefield, you are to strike fear into my enemies and to follow my orders without hesitation no matter what I ask am I understood?" Asked Sebastian.

"Sir, yes Sir!" shouted the unit.

"Now that is over, which one of you is the commander?" Asked Sebastian.

The man who led the group began to speak.

"That would be me Sir, Commander Jack Harper Purge Trooper," replied Jack giving a crisp salute.

"Good don't disappoint me out in the field Commander, now Captain Ethan will show you to where you and your unit will be staying on my ship, good day gentlemen," remarked Sebastian as he made his way back to his personal quarters.

Now back in his quarters again he decided to take another look at the intelligence that the Navy's information bureau Cerberus had gathered about his enemy the Turian Hierarchy.

The initial force that had destroyed the Colonies small defence fleet of two Markov frigates was only two Cruiser analogues and ten Frigate analogues, but clearly that was only some form of scouting fleet because a week later a much larger fleet had appeared consisting of one Dreadnought analogue, five Cruisers analogues and twenty Frigate analogues as well many smaller axillary ships.

Meanwhile the ground Intel was not as clear as Sigmar was a relatively new colony its defences had not finished construction and was maned with a ghost garrison of a thousand men along with some light armour, this token force was swept aside within a week by the overwhelming force of the Turians and due to the commander of the garrison, General William Shepard who had surrendered the planet to the invading forces, instead of fighting to the last man.

Sebastian was confident that his forces would win the naval engagement because as the Turians did on the ground he would in the void, overwhelming force.

Hours went by as Sebastian looked over every single bit of information the Empire had over and over again to make sure there was nothing he had missed.

Once Sebastian felt he was satisfied, he made his way to his sleeping quarters half awake, half asleep. Now laying in bed alone Sebastian experienced a somewhat unfamiliar feeling, his stomach felt as if it was being rearranged along with uncontrollable fidgeting and sweating, that had caused him many a night of restless sleep, he knew what it meant even if he had not experienced it in years it was nerves, nervous that for once in his military career victory was not certain.