Birdy

Palaven, Trebia System - August 20th, 2157

The strongest military in the galaxy was mobilizing. The Primarch didn't even know why. "Would someone tell me what is going on?"

"Apparently one of our fleets discovered a new race, Primarch," an advisor said.

"One that apparently came from Relay 314, which had been inactive until then. General Arterius tried going through and subjugating them, but somehow his fleet was mostly wiped out." Primarch Goraet looked at the reports.

"How?"

"They appeared to use fighters and some form of energy weapons." Kinetic barriers were useless against energy weapons: it was why every ship had thick ablative armor to keep GARDIAN lasers from doing any lasting damage. Not that that ever happened, but it could. And they burned through the armor?

"Those had to be some powerful weapons then."

"They also had powerful jamming fields. The reports from the frigate sent back are… panicked." Turians were well-trained. For them to panic under fire meant that their enemy was VERY powerful and terrifying. "How many ships are available to reinforce Arterius?"

"We're putting together a fleet with six dreadnoughts, and appropriate numbers of smaller ships," the advisor replied.

"Hopefully that will be enough to bring this new race to heel."

"Six? For…" The primarch read the reports. "For 16 ships?!"

"They ARE powerful, sir. We need to cut them off. If the other Council races find out, our position is in question." "…Send the fleet as soon as possible."

The home of the council, of a very confused pair of councilors. "Are you sure?"

"STG sources quite sure: the turians are conducting mass military movement." Tevos, the Asari Councilor, sighed. "They wouldn't be running drills - they wouldn't require as many ships," she said. "And I haven't heard word of any pirate attacks…"

"Could be another answer. New species." That made sense. The Turians had a colonial attitude and would treat any new species like a new conquest. They only dealt with the council because they would lose more than they would gain. A new client race would give them more. "In that case, we'd better find out what's going on, and bring any conflict to a peaceful end before it gets any worse," Tevos said. They had NO idea.

TSV Victorea The lead dreadnought dropped out of FTL, joined by almost two hundred warships. The other dreadnoughts led more warships through. Fedorian stood on the bridge, grimacing as best a turian could manage. These were no primitives. They were advanced, dangerous and not to be taken lightly And from what the long range scanners could tell, there were more of them than expected.

This wasn't their homeworld. This was a colony. "General, I'm picking up a transmission from the lead enemy vessel. It-It's in turian!"

"No doubt they have a translation program. Put it through."

"Turian forces, this is General Alistair Williams of the Orokin Empire Space Forces. Your attack on our exploration ship and the destruction of one of our space colonies is an unwarranted act of aggression on the part of the Turian Hierarchy. You now have two choices: leave our space after apologizing for your predecessor's act of genocide, or die fighting a battle you can't win. Choose quickly."

Space Colonies. They had Space Colonies, something the Citadel Races had never been able to achieve. General Arterius had destroyed one. Fedorian wanted to facepalm. This would not end well. Still, orders were orders. "This is General Toael Fedorian of the Turian Hierarchy. Know that I deplore the actions of that IDIOT, but I have my orders from my superiors. I do not wish to fight you, But I must."

"Well, I'll make no promises about keeping damage to a minimum. General… good luck. You're going to need it. All ships, general quarters!"

"Combat alert!" Fedorian ordered. "All ships, combat formations! Launch fighters!"

The Turians had brought five carriers full of fighters, stripped of their troop carrying abilities to carry fighters. Over 800 fighters were deployed over Rubicon. They faced 450 Mobile Suits.

They had a handicap, but it wouldn't save them. One fighter got a near miss from a Minovsky blast, then was hit by a barrage of missiles. Another was vaporized by a direct hit. A dozen were sliced apart in seconds by the white machine with the folding sword. And so it continued.

"This is Galic Flight Lead! These things are overwhelming us!" His wingman opened fire on a Jegan, managing to damage the head unit, but he was shot down by 60mm cannon fire. "We need more fighters! MORE FIGHTERS!" He turned to engage a Windam, screaming. The Turians had met their match.

"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" "Damn it! Report!" "324 fighters destroyed! We're launching more, but those… things are killing them all!" "Get us in closer to the enemy fleet! And prepare droppods!" To save his fleet, he would have to take this battle to the ground.