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The Clans of Earth (Battletech/Mechwarrior X Mass Effect)

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Chapter 16; The Darkest Dawn
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    • Chapter 16;
    The Darkest Dawn
    Citadel
    3040 (2176)

    The Presidium was packed with people, and the council chambers were no less packed as the only scheduled meeting of the day met. The Councillors moving to stand at their podiums as a path to the podium below was cleared of anyone else who might have been interested in requesting an audience of of the Citadel Council. The sound of monstrous footsteps forcing an Elcor to move moderately quickly to avoid being walked over by the powered armoured men flanking the terran ambassador.

    The two giants in their Elemental suits did not have the SRM launchers mounted on their armour, but the small laser and machinegun were both in place and nobody wanted to find out if they were willing to use it. The man who they escorted was Leo Showers. This was not the human ambassador people hissed and whispered. This was one of the Khans of the Clans Martial. The Khan of Clan Smoke Jaguar. And people could almost feel the raw rage boiling off of the man as he ascended the stairs.

    The murmurs of the crowd went silent as the human took the place at the end of the small bridge. "Ladies, Gentlemen, Civilized beings. I am not here today to make a request of the Citadel Council. I am not here on behalf of peace. I am not here to beg for assistance. Our people will not bow and scrape." Several presses of buttons called up footage from Elysium. The footage. "The threat from the Terminus Systems has long been hotly debated, the havens for pirates, slavers and dezgra unworthy of the breath they continue to hold. Six days ago, a massed fleet from the Terminus attacked our colony of Elysium with one thousand and sixty three vessels, of those less than two hundred have successfully escaped." People listened passively. Still watching with eyes glued to where one of the attackers, a Batarian, breached into a building full of babies in artificial wombs.

    "They. Murdered. Our. Future." The words of Leo Showers pierced every single soul there. "The young are the future. The young are where the promise of things to come are laid down. These pirates walked into a creche, and MURDERED OUR CHILDREN." The roar of rage needed no digital aid to make his words heard clearly to every sapient soul present.

    An unease began to build.

    "I am Khan Leo Showers of the Clan Martial Smoke Jaguar. I am here today, representing the full might of the Clans Martial as their elected ilKhan in this matter. A declaration of a Trial of Annihilation against the Pirates and Slavers of the Terminus Systems. The full might of the Clans Martial not required for the immediate defence of the Star League will be mobilised to enact this trial of Annihilation. No pirate will be allowed to survive. No slaver will live to ply their trade once more. No world or station will be permitted to shield them from our justice. Those who shelter them will be burned from whatever holes they claim for their own. Those who offer them comfort will share in their fates. The Ares Treaty and Citadel Conventions are suspended in this trial of Annihilation against those who refuse to be bound by civilised laws." Leo looked around, not just at the Citadel Council.

    "And those who wish to may support this trial of Annihilation. We welcome those who will choose to join us on this crusade to purge a scourge from the galaxy. Turian, Asari, Krogan, Elcor, Volus... we do not care, if you desire to join this Crusade you will be welcomed. You will be trained should such be necessary. You will be rewarded. If you do not desire to aid us. Stand out of our way."

    Councillor Sparatus held up a hand and Leo Showers eyes focussed on him like a laser targeting beam and the Turian felt discomfort. The Clans choice of ilKhan in this matter spoke volume about the seriousness of their declaration. This would not be a war, it would be an annihilation, a purge, a pogrom. A Crusade. An opportunity to see the Clans unchained and unbound. "ilKhan Leo Showers of the Smoke Jaguar." His formal words drew a lot of attention, "I will pass your words on to my people of the Turian Heirarchy. And I so vow, you and your people will not be alone in this." The fact was, the Salarians little spook groups, and the Shadow Broker, had already confirmed to him that the architect of the Skyllian Blitz was no less than a Turian pirate. "Elanos Haliat has brought further shame to the Turian Heirarchy by orchestrating this assault with the funding and favour of Batarian pirates and slavers. We would like to expunge the shame of this."

    Tevos and the new Salarian Councillor looked at him in surprise. But Tevos was not a stupid woman, and neither was the Salarian... Tevos spoke first. "I cannot promise the aid of the Asari Republics, and I would be loathe to risk war with the Terminus systems, but I will not countenance any who would prevent my peoples from aiding you in this time of tragedy."

    The Salarian, being a sneaky fuckface, Sparatus was certain he was former STG, was less specific. "The Salarian peoples cannot countenance a war, though such a tragedy is indeed a terrible thing, and so I cannot formally offer any support if you know what I mean."

    Sparatus almost groaned. That was an almost open declaration of support, and wasn't intended to be taken any other way, while maintaining a public disavowal. It meant the STG were going to play in the terrible games to follow.

    The look on Leo Showers' face showed no reaction to their declarations of support, or vague hints at it. "Those who wish to join and show support may join us at the staging facility at Elysium."

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    Saren Arterius stood on the bridge of a cruiser as they emerged from FTL above Elysium, he was one of a number of Spectres that were deployed to aid and... monitor... the situation with the Clans and.. his breath caught in his throat as they emerged into Elysium space. Space was occupied with almost thirty thousand ships, not counting the craft the Star League called Dropships, though every single docking collar on those vessels was occupied with them.

    Since the First Contact War as the humans called it, their naval production had increased, even doubled, as they advanced. He knew that the Heirarchy was working with the humans on a retrofit to the vessel they called the SLS Normandy, though even his Spectre Credentials couldn't get him information on what that meant.

    "This is Spectre Saren Arterius representing detached duties. We have come to join the Trial of Annihilation. We bid one Company of Turian Marines, one Platoon of Armour, five Spectres and the Cruiser Ozymandias." The format of the declaration of support was strange and ritualistic, a product of the Clan Code of Honour.

    The nearest of the WarShips of the Star League broadcast back to him. "This is Star Captain Anderson of Clan Wolf. Welcome to the Trial of Annihilation. We will enjoy working with you. Please proceed to the following co-ordinates. We are sending you a data jacket on our Operational Corridor. Codename Operation JACKSPARROW."

    "Thank you Star Captain Anderson. Moving into position." He replied as he called up the files sent to them by the Clan Wolf Battleship. He felt himself pale slightly as the information scrolled down across the screen with the terms of engagement, goals and expectations and a slight sense of horror filled him. There was nothing kind about these plans. Nothing merciful.

    Clan Wolf was going straight for the throat. Aimed straight at the antithesis of the Citadel. They would be beginning with Omega. They were going to conquer Omega and use it as a staging post.

    Saren stood, his throat dry as he saw the list of 'auxiliaries'. A massive contingent of Krogan Mercenaries were joining the war effort lead by some Krogan called 'Wrex'.
     
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    • And thus, Omega Station became the neutral space for all Terminus sector for all kind of activities. As the rest soon learned what happened when infantry try to face off PPC and lasers. And Omega will be the first Outside of Star League to manufacturing Locust & Urbanmech. And yes, i mean the variant that can run up to 310 kph. And also home of the 1st Mech Mercenary force: Ankle Biter.
     
    Very fitting to have the Jags as Ilkhan for this. Also have to wonder if Wrex is going to try and bargain for human cloning tech for this. The slaughter of unborn children is something he can well relate to after all and I could easily see him having returned to Krogan space and forcibly drafting all of clan Urdnot and to use that show of support as a bargaining chip. He's crafty like that.

    Also: bye Omega 👋 you won't be missed! Time to deploy a full Cluster of Firestarters!
     
    The Citadel has been waiting for an excuse.
    One that doesn't step on each other's toes.

    The Clans have proven themselves such an excuse.

    And also an opportunity. Where once they were a dangerous curiosity. Now they are a enticing reality.
     
    Oh right. The Clans might be a little angry to hear about the Quarians losing their seat after losing their Homeworld.
     
    Malcanthet said:
    Oh right. The Clans might be a little angry to hear about the Quarians losing their seat after losing their Homeworld.
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    I mean, to be fair, the Quarians lost their homeworld because they were dicks to their robots when they realized said robots were gaining sapience. Had they treated the Geth like newly uplifted sapient beings instead of like rebelling slaves, the Quarians would still have a homeworld and a Council seat.
     
    Malcanthet said:
    Oh right. The Clans might be a little angry to hear about the Quarians losing their seat after losing their Homeworld.
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    Oh god. Another Clan of tech scavengers.
    DevilfishR606 said:
    I mean, to be fair, the Quarians lost their homeworld because they were dicks to their robots when they realized said robots were gaining sapience. Had they treated the Geth like newly uplifted sapient beings instead of like rebelling slaves, the Quarians would still have a homeworld and a Council seat.
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    Had someone made a Alternate History exploring this? Geth Quarian civ might be enough to stand against the Reapers.
     
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    Chapter 17; Hells Morning
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    • Chapter 17;
    Hells Morning
    Omega
    3041 (2177)

    Omega was a hive of activity. The word from Citadel Space had been far from encouraging as they had watched the broadcast in horror of the Clans Martial declaration of war effectively on the majority of the terminus systems. The defences of the counterpart to the Citadel began to increase as the gangs and pirates who called it home began to augment it. Aria's investment in controlling the gangs and maintaining their unity was not overly necessary, fear and self-preservation, and preservation of their personal power, binding them more fiercely than ever. But she was under no illusions. She had seen leaked images of the fleet that had mustered at Elysium, the corpse of the man who brought that news was floating among Omega's debris cloud, she couldn't allow him to survive to bring word to the gangs of what was going to roll into the Terminus systems.

    But she had her backup plan already in place and play. False identification, an unarmed ship, enough wealth squirreled away to start again. Fuckstick! She mentally cursed to herself. One dumbass Turian fucking up was bringing a fleet that every pirate in the Terminus couldn't even begin to...

    "Activity near the mass relay." Came the message over her omnitool. There was sensor imagery with it from the little pirate cutter now travelling faster than light towards Omega. The imagery was of poor quality, the degrading systems of the little pirate ship not really up to the job. But it was enough.

    Four of the ships the humans called Battleships, and another four dozen other craft.

    Then the little ships sensor feed showed another dozen craft arriving, a mix of Turian and other races ships. Aria frowned as she screamed in rage into her own head as she called up the data on the forces she could call on. She was no so weak as her attackers might have thought, but she was also not prepared for a force nearly so large. She could call on a few hundred ships, but only three of them were even Cruiser grade, and none were equal to any Dreadnought or Battleship.

    And they weren't collectively either. Then the human ships disappeared in a flash of light and she felt the fear anew. They were not beholden to the laws of physics everyone else was, this was common knowledge by now, the secret of human ship drives was one that even the Citadel Council couldn't coax out of the Star League. She knew that they would be reappearing in the closest LaGrange point to Omega. Time to intercept? How long would it take them to reach Omega?

    Not long was the answer, and to make matters worse they were between her and the Mass Relay. She sighed. "Garka. Light the flag."

    ---

    Star Captain Anderson took the SLS Normandy in towards the station called Omega at the flank of the Clan Wolf fleet assigned to the duty of purging it. The Night Lord class Battleship was the subject of talks with the Turian Heirarchy to modify it, but nothing significant had come to discussion yet, and so in this trial of annihilation it found itself on the front lines with two McKenna and a Potemkin. The transport ship that had been fleeing ahead of them would be too late in realising that its enemies had jumped ahead of it to the nearest pirate point to Omega.

    "Star Captain, enemy fleet is in disarray. The SLS Dawntreader arrived at this point, the two McKenna have arrived at point two and are accelerating into range for their broadside weaponry."

    "Understood. Proceed at best speed to Omega, we are escorting the Dawntreader to a million kilometres where they will drop their flotilla of dropships, from there we will cover them in." Anderson leaned back in his command chair. "All escort vessels are free to eliminate the Pirate flotillas. All auxiliaries are free to act as necessary once they catch up."

    ---

    Weapons fire began to light up space as Wrex thumped his arm rhythmically down on the arm of the reinforced chair he was occupying. The feeds from the ships sensors were being fed to him so he could keep apprised of the situation. Frustration was building as he watched the trails of kinetic rounds zipping between vessels, the Clans Martial jumping closer and forcing the assault into a multi-pronged one had undermined the entire defence of Omega, they had been prepared for an assault coming from the direction of the Relay, and now they were being forced to re-deploy. But it was too late for that, the dropships were falling off of the WarShips like parasites being shed before their drives hurtled them towards the station.

    GARDIAN weapons came to life and were annihilated in searing waves of laser energy from one or more of the human ships. Searing bolts of lambent energy lighting up space and creating puffs of gas from Omega was the weapons fire breached the station in various places. Ships were trying to flee from the battle, running for the relay, many of them unarmed, no shortage of them armed. And pursuing them fighters chipped away at their engines until they began to tumble in the heat of the battle.

    Wrex looked once more at the rules of engagement as the Clans Martial had issued them. They were very simple and boiled down to 'if they lacked the correct IFF and had a weapon. Kill them.' He knew it was going to be a bloodbath, it was Omega, and if there was a more wretched hive of scum and villainy in the galaxy then Wrex was quite upset he didn't get an invitation to it. He listened in to the comms chatter as best as he was able to, the humans seemed to be quite efficient at containing their communications. But the pirates, slavers and others were far less efficient and protecting their comms.

    "Bloodspear, can you bring your main gun to bear on that human ship!? Bloodspear? Bloodspear? What the fuck do you mean which half... oh." ... "Keep those engines burning hot! We need to get the hell out of here, Aria's little collection of cutthroats aren't going to stop us making a run for citadel space anymore!" ... "This is the Firefist, we are being boarded! Repeat we are being fucking boarded!" ... "Oh spirits! The fires... the ship is on fire, we can't vent the atmosphere, the kids don't have environment suits! We don't have enough environment suit please stop firi..." The communications cut off at the same time there was a flash of an explosion on the sensors screens Wrex was watching.

    "This is Wrex, what just killed that ship?" He called up to the bridge.

    There was a delay before the answer. "This is the bridge, Battlemaster Wrex, we have no idea. There is enough high energy particles, laser and kinetic fire up here we can't track it all, but the trajectory of the wreckage is away from Omega, so it might have been friendly fire."

    ---

    Aria stood in her secure bunker on Omega as she tried to direct the defence as she waited for a moment to make a run for her shuttle, the human ships had shed parasite craft as they made their terminal approach to the station, and one by one Omega's defences were brought down, shattered and eliminated. She began to wonder if the Clans Martial even intended to take the station, each shot smashing into the facility without care. "What is the status of the chaff?" The chaff was all the dregs and spoil of the station that were now bailing en-mass, a vessel carrying families with their children had just been taken out by someone, the sheer volume of sensor distorting information beyond the ability to tell who killed what, it would take the most advanced VIs she knew to even try.

    "Mostly away... but a lot of them are being caught in the crossfire, the Clans Martial are disabling any ship attempting to escape, if they don't fire they aren't being destroyed, at least intentionally, but they are being disabled and knocked out of the fight."

    "How many have we destroyed?" She asked. The command room went dead quiet.

    "Three smaller ships of the Clans Martial have been damaged to the point of withdrawing from the engagement, numerous of the smaller deployed fighters have been eliminated." The answer beggared belief and Aria turned to look at the Batarian with frank and naked disbelief.

    "You mean to tell me that we have achieved NOTHING!?" She roared and Bray handed her a pistol. The officer gulped.

    The Batarian stood, straightened his back, "The Clans Martial bypassed our expected defensive facing by jumping to a position opposite to us. They are united, organised and... well they're fucking uptight assholes." They sighed with resignation. "We're a bunch of pirates, theives, slavers, gangsters, mercenaries. A collection of people the galaxy maligns because we value our independence over their groupthink. We would rather stand and die on our own two feet. But that means we aren't united, we aren't trained, we have no tactics outside of our independent groups. Something like a quarter of our strength has already tried to run, another half is wavering when they realised that the Clans Martial plans to exterminate them aren't some idle boast."

    Aria cocked her head. "And the last quarter are stuck here on Omega with orders to resist and no ship off." She finished. "Frank appraisal, what about using hostages?"

    The Batarian snorted. "They're already firing on refugee ships trying to escape. I doubt holding hostages is going to help."

    She frowned. "Bray, go prepare option c." She ordered. Her bodyguards formed up around the Batarian and headed for the ship she had prepared for her escape. Bray hesitated for only a moment as he heard the gunfire from the control room.

    ---

    "Boarded! We're being boarded!" The pirates behind the barricades cried out as the airlock doors were suddenly and violently wrenched open, those who had decided against intelligent decisions found themselves being sucked out into space as the forced airlock vented explosively and hell surged in through the holes. Three points of elementals surged in through the breach, tearing it wide open, the first two Elementals shedding their missile packs.

    The pirates opened fire, machineguns, grenade launchers, assault rifles, sniper rifles, anything and everything that they had at the barricade as thirty men attempted to hold back the forces. One of the Elementals dropped to the deck as the overwhelming firepower managed to bring down the powerful kinetic barriers is had and finally turned the armour, and occupant, into scrap metal and meat. Then the small lasers of the other elementals began to sear bolts of light that suppressed them.

    The Patriarch stood and hurled a biotic push at the closest set of armour knocking it, and the three closest to it, down, a moment of triumph followed by a grim realisation. The shoulder fired launchers on one of the armours fired. Two missiles hurtling towards and at the barricade. When they exploded the Patriarch expected to be shredded with shrapnel from anti-personnel missiles, what he had not expected was to be showered with a thick sticky adhesive gel, a momentary realisation followed by genuine terror as the gel ignited and he, along with the entire barricade, was incinerated in moments as the temperature climbed past two thousand kelvin.
     
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    • ... And now everyone is going to do their damned best to reach weapons parity with the clans.

    Expect more opportunists, spies and thieves incoming.
    Omega might be gone but you have enlightened the entire galaxy to how outclassed they are.

    But more importantly. How little mercy they can expect from them.

    And this is just one clan.
     
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    And i became Death, Destroyer of World.

    Yep, there's no way BA can't lose in 1vs1 fight, given those are more than a match that can countercharge a Blood-raged Krogan and won. And thus many in the Citadel finally took note and rushing for development of Power Armor, with the motto of "if those non Mass Effect Star League can do it, so must we".

    And yes, they'll try to strap as much as AT and Stationary weapon on it as much as they can, force them to up-power, Down-scaling their existing GARDIAN laser and strap as much Starship grade ablative armor as they can onto their PA.

    And later, Elemental BA loadouts become Standard for PA Development. In OTL, Atlas Mech is available, meaning ME Ultralight is also on the table as well.

    It's also meaning Speed Junkies will appreciate a Locust that can run at minimum 520kph, jump( NOT jump jet assisted ome, Actual Myomers MASC jump) over 1.2km and land safely with Jet Assisted Landing and keep speeding along, too fast for even ground vehicles and Orbital Kinetic to even shoot at them.
     
    Reading the comms chatter about Elementals boarding the ships makes me wonder what Reaper comms will be like when they get boarded.

    >Reaper 1: Enemy boarding detected, activating anti boarding defenses.
    >Reaper 1: Internal defenses neutralized, fire detected, warning fire suppression systems ineffective.
    >Reaper 1: Get them out of me, requesting assistance, it burns I'm burning help me!
     
    Hellteddy said:
    Reading the comms chatter about Elementals boarding the ships makes me wonder what Reaper comms will be like when they get boarded.

    >Reaper 1: Enemy boarding detected, activating anti boarding defenses.
    >Reaper 1: Internal defenses neutralized, fire detected, warning fire suppression systems ineffective.
    >Reaper 1: Get them out of me, requesting assistance, it burns I'm burning help me!
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    Reapers however have the ability to quickly create new heavy platform types to counter PA. And they have very good recon on the Council races.

    The advantage will not last as long as you might think. And the more the council adopts clan tech the more examples they'll get.

    And if there is a defector ala Saren.( Possibly Aria, or Batarian/ Remnants) Then even more cats get let out of the bag.
     
    Cheap Orange Knofe said:
    Reapers however have the ability to quickly create new heavy platform types to counter PA. And they have very good recon on the Council races.

    The advantage will not last as long as you might think. And the more the council adopts clan tech the more examples they'll get.

    And if there is a defector ala Saren.( Possibly Aria, or Batarian/ Remnants) Then even more cats get let out of the bag.
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    If Fire Isn't Working Then You Are Using The Wrong Type Of Fire :p
     
    Cheap Orange Knofe said:
    Reapers however have the ability to quickly create new heavy platform types to counter PA. And they have very good recon on the Council races.

    The advantage will not last as long as you might think. And the more the council adopts clan tech the more examples they'll get.

    And if there is a defector ala Saren.( Possibly Aria, or Batarian/ Remnants) Then even more cats get let out of the bag.
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    *Squints* Who the hell is leaking my notes... again.
     
    Question: if Anderson is in charge of this part of the operation, wouldn't he be, at the least, a Star Colonel, if not a Galaxy Commander? There's between a cluster and a galaxy present here, if I remember my force sizes correctly.
     
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