Interlude
Admiral Kaestus Sylcus stood upon the command podium of his flagship the Defiance of Irune, the flagship dreadnought of the glorious warfleet gathered to strike at the Batarians and begin the first steps in pacifying the damned Batarians with superior Turian military might even if they had to let the Humans strike the first blow.
That was the intent at least. Now he clenched his talons hard enough to draw blood as his eyes took in the list of casualties and damage from the battle. He had lost roughly half of his escort and cruiser assets and third of his soldiers in the first battle of the war. In fact the total number of troops lost probably would have been even higher if the majority of them were not in the transport ships await for their signal to enter into the system once the fighting in orbit was over. The ones that died were the vanguard troops intended to begin immediate deployment once the orbital forces were wiped out.
And wiped out they were but not because of the Hierarchy's effort. There was no denying their presence affected the outcome of the battle, but that was it, affected. Most of the accolades went to the Alliance Navy and none could gainsay it as the records of the battle were disseminated through the captains in the fleet and servicemen both to inform them of the enemy capabilities, which were vastly superior to before, and for morale purposes.
The same enemy fire which was badly mauling their shields and ships were absorbed by the Alliance ships like how they were supposed to be. Before with normal ships with normal weapons and normal shields. Like how it had always been in battles between the Turian Hierarchy and the Batarian Hegemony. Now it wasn't. The transferred battle data showed a frightening reality, everybody was hitting far harder than their size, frigates hit like cruisers, cruisers like dreadnought, while the dreadnoughts were unleashing firepower greater than anything recorded on something not land based or installed into immobile weapons platform.
Fleets worth of fighters dueling in between the two fleets like buzzing insects with a criss cross of lights indicating weapons fire trading between the two. A massive swarm of PI drones swarmed the battlefield flooding the field with firepower upon the enemy fighters and ship torpedoes. They would have likely won the space battle themselves if it wasn't for the Batarian's latest weapon. A mech suit. Giant Asarioid mech suits capable of space flight darted through the swarms and fighters unleashing death upon everything around them. The number of drones visibily thinning around wherever they were present with entire fighter wings getting instantly turned into debris upon contact. No doubt if they were no drones in play the amount of dead pilots and destroyed fighters would have likely been catastrophic or even total. Lasers, particles, kinetic rounds, missiles, and more were unleashed by those spirit damned suits. Suits they were and not outright mechs as confirmed by scans indicating a living pilot inside of each of them with whatever tech experts in the fleet all agreeing those were likely suicide troops as there was simply no way for them to have enough life support to range so far from the fleet, fight the battle, and return alive to their motherships.
Suicidal mech pilots. Another thing to add to his report of failure. A failure it was no matter the end result of this operation. With so many losses someone would have to shoulder the blame and responsibility and as the highest ranking admiral in charge and a dutiful Turian it would be his shoulders that bear it. A dishonorable discharge would be the lightest sentence he could see himself getting.
Focusing back on the present he observed the battle recordings of the Alliance vs the Batarians as he watched the effectiveness of their ships against the Batarians compared to his own ships. The Alliance, such a young race, but whose ships and skills were now fully or will fully be recognized after this battle. The skirmish at Shanxi was inconclusive as the battle was much too short and too small scale for anything besides doubt of just luck to settle in the eyes of the Turians about Human naval capabilities, but now, they had ample proof of just what they are capable of. A few smaller fleets had destroyed more enemy ships of a larger fleet, survived far more firepower than what the 5 larger fleets of the Turian navy had taken, and took overall less casualties even with them being the vanguard force of the invasion.
There was one Truth the Turian Hierarchy had to learn from this battle. Their ships were outdated, and if all of the rest of the Batarian fleets were updated like the ones here were already, then seriously needed to be replaced yesterday. The Hierarchy would need to significantly expend more resources both into the production of new ships but also in the development of better ones. If only they had their own Shepard as well to advanced their tech like she did for Humanity, rumors was that all of the Alliance ships had underwent recent upgrades to Paragon standards within the last few years which upon seeing the battle seemed quite likely to be true now. Though he did wonder how they managed to get so accurate with their volleys as he watched the very aesthetically pleasing shots of a wall of main gun volleys smashing multiple rounds into the Batarian ships simultaneously and cause them outright explode.
Looking away from the data in front of him and out the bridge viewport past the heads of his bridge crew, who were all seriously and quietly working at their stations, he looked out at Torfan, now undefended in orbit. The ground portion would soon begin after they took out the orbital station. He wondered just how powerful the Alliance ground troops would be compared to the Council's own attempts at replicating their efforts in the field of power armor, with nothing to speak of regarding their latest vehicles.
Admiral Kaestus felt a thrill of anticipation and dark glee race across his crest as he thought about the carnage which would soon be unleashed upon the four eyed bastards. They had gotten so many good soldiers killed and enslaved so many more, if the Alliance power armored troops were even half as effective as their ships, and if even a quarter of what he had been hearing about Parsec's operations were true, then the Batarians would have no idea what hit them.
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AN: enjoy this little snippet, trying to get something out so you know I am working, if slowly.
