3-12-4
A wave of Nazi Z-2500 destroyers, one of several dozen in the enemy fleet, began an attack run ordered by the SS commander on the cream of the Alliance fleet: the Aurora, her Enterprise-class cousins, and the Unity herself. The attack ordered by Shai’jhur meant they converged at a high closing rate, the attack having been thrown together in response to Shai’jhur’s own manoeuvre. The ships raced in at high acceleration, straining their engines to maintain the maneuvers to keep their ships alive long enough to finish their attacks.
The first target of the attack was a Dorei starcruiser which had already been damaged in the fighter action. They formed up smartly and delivered their torpedo salvoes into her flanks as they turned in toward the port of Shai’jhur’s formation. Weakened shields were overwhelmed and the starcruiser erupted in sheets of flame from venting oxygen down her flank. As they moved beyond the burning Dorei starcruiser, the luck of their attack had already run out.
Amber energy lashed out in pulses that pummeled at one of the enemy ships. A solar torpedo went through its weakened shields and slammed into the engineering section, the "handle" of the Nazi destroyer's dagger shape, resulting in the vessel disappearing in a white fireball brought on by antimatter containment loss. The Attackers had arrived, nimbly shifting through the regular order of the formation to plug gaps and respond to contingencies.
Having finished off one of its prey, the Starship Koenig directed its attentions to the rest. The attack ship directed its fury at another enemy destroyer. This one didn't die like the last, with their shields holding just enough to take the follow-up torpedo hit. The destroyer captain maneuvered sharply to evade the Koenig's fire while trying to stay on his attack run.
Creighton Apley, the Koenig's XO and piloting officer, kept his nimble ship on target, allowing April Sherlily, the tactical officer, to savage the enemy ship with another phaser burst. The destroyer broke apart under the attack. There was no time to celebrate before emerald pulses slammed into Koenig's shields. "Shields down to seventy percent," Magda Navaez warned as the ship shook. "Two enemy attack ships to stern, A-2000 class."
In the command chair, Will Atreiad remembered the designation, a newer Nazi attack ship built to counter the Alliance's Trigger-class, which were based on the Koenig. They were handier ships, in principle, with their wings and manoeuvring vanes, but they had a few weaknesses. "Evasive Pattern Delta," Will ordered.
"Aye sir."
Apley sent the Koenig into a tight series of maneuvers. Under that evasive plan, the ship used her more compact mass to take advantage of shorter impulse times for initiating violent, jerky manoeuvres that the sweeping turns of the magnetic vanes on the A-2000s couldn’t match even if they could turn inside of Koenig. The two enemy ships, dagger-shaped like the destroyers but a little smaller and far more agile, kept on the Koenig, though most of their fire was evaded successfully in the violent snap-rolls and turns.
Just before Will could order an attempted shift to the offensive, weapons fire struck one of the attack ships. Disruptor torpedoes from the Normandy blasted through the ship's shields and crushed the Nazi vessel's armor, inflicting internal damage. The Systems Alliance frigate twisted hard to avoid an incoming disruptor bolt.
"Attack Pattern Echo, execute!"
Apley maneuvered the ship once again, this time spinning the ship about her centre of mass to bring her forward guns to bear as the thrusters fired in a complex sequence to place her en echelon to her pursuers, able to deliver fire to both in overlapping coverage on the same heading. Under fire from another angle, the pursuing attack ships failed to fully match his maneuver. The first ship targeted was already damaged. Amber phaser bursts slammed into its degraded shields until the side of the ship was exposed. A single torpedo followed and blew it to hell.
"Another one down," Sherlily crowed.
Nobody had time to respond to her boast, not with more enemy vessels in the fight.
A Reich Sedan-class cruiser drew alongside the Aurora and struck at her deflectors with repeated beams of emerald energy. As the cruiser's disruptors cycled, a second and newer cruiser, identified as the Tannenburg-class, joined in with pulse cannon disruptors that battered away at the Aurora's shields.
As the bridge shook under her, Julia readied to give an order to return fire, but it proved unnecessary. The starboard plasma cannons and emitters lit up, their sapphire light burning into the red hue of the Reich ships' shields. Continued hits on the Tannenburg finally blew through the ship's shields, creating plumes of flame and gas wherever the Aurora's weapons sliced into the ship. Violeta turned the Aurora to port on Julia's command. Not only did this evade fire from one of the big dreadnoughts looming ahead, it presented the aft cannons toward the enemy cruiser. Angel was quick to acquire a target lock and fire. Thick pulses of blue energy slammed into the damaged ship, setting off further explosions that gutted the cruiser. More blue beams played over the Tannenburg-class cruiser's shields, which flickered and weakened when solar torpedoes from the aft launchers slammed into them.
The thick pulses of plasma that finished the cruiser off didn't come from the Aurora, however, but from the Thunder Child, side batteries receiving maximum energy for a brief burst of fire which ripped the nacelles to shreds and tore through her victims armour in a hundred places. The heavy cruiser spun off, power dead and escape pods loosing from her sides.
The Enterprise-class ship veered in across their field of vision with a moment’s warning for Violeta through the taclinks, a quick coordinating message based on standard patterns. In this case, Thunder Child bravely stood in, absorbing fire meant for the Aurora and focusing on an enemy battlecruiser. Another of the same class, the Olamte'se, joined the Thunder Child in hitting the Nazi Lützow-class warship hard. The converging fire of the two big cruisers overwhelmed her shields and wrecked the starboard flank batteries of the battlecruiser and she fell back into the protection of her compatriots.
Given the amount of attention the enemy fleet was applying to the Aurora, it could be hard to forget she was hardly the focal point of the battle, nor the most capable of the ships. Over a hundred thousand kilometers away, on the other end of the formation, the Challenger and the ASV Enterprise were exchanging fire with a Reich dreadnought. A spread of white-lit quantum torpedoes announced the intervention of the USS Enterprise into that fight. Under Picard's command the Enterprise laid into the port side of the dreadnought, absorbing a couple of powerful disruptor hits to her shields as she did. The Akira-class Sitting Bull joined that fight with an even larger spread of quantum torpedoes that blew large chunks from the side of the dreadnought. The Challenger's plasma banks and cannons laid into the bow of the dreadnought. A return shot from the spinal mount disruptor barely missed the smaller cruiser.
One thing Julia was picking up from the fight was that Shai'jhur's tactic was, for the most part, working. The heavier enemy fleet's formation was breaking up from the allied fleet's charge into close-quarters combat. As the Aurora shuddered again, with Jarod informing her that shields were down to fifty percent, Julia wondered if it would be enough in the end.
The wide boulevard known as the Horst Wesselstrasse was one of the major arteries leading into the center of Welthauptstadt Germania. Flanked to either side by parks and smaller buildings - a commercial area for the capital - the road was well-maintained and the sight of a number of memorial statues. It was also vast, six lanes in each direction with electric trams on the outside and wide sidewalks, with pedestrian overpasses to access the immense linear park in the middle subtly integrated with the vast number of distributory flyovers that were anchored on buildings and decorated in the standard Reich architectural pattern, the Volkshalle rising above them in the near distance.
Much of the area was already a ruin. The molten, wrecked remains of a statue to Heinrich Himmler provided some cover for Robert, King, and Tra'diur. They were the closest to the road in question while the others were further behind and toward the eastern flank of the advance. The debris of urban warfare filled the streets, including the bodies of the slain. Burnt, wrecked frames of vehicles abounded. Shattered and violently rearranged roadblocks and gun positions marred the sidewalks and storefronts.
There was little time to take in the sheer devastation. Across the road Nazi panzers were still in hull-down defensive positions, covering the lateral road from Teltow they'd taken. A pair of burning Aururian vehicles nearby spoke of their effectiveness. Above them an emerald beam streaked, melting a little more from the statue. "I wonder if they'll get in trouble for destroying the statue?" Robert mused idly. The sheer intensity of the battle had deadened his nerves to the point that even the splash of some droplets of molten bronze on his coat didn’t make him flinch or try to take further cover.
That won him something of a glare from King. "This is hardly the time to consider that, Captain."
She was right, of course, but it still stuck in Robert's head. He chuckled mirthlessly. "I guess it'd suck to survive all of this and then get executed for wrecking one of the Nazi statues." Sensing King's increased aggravation, he shook his head and forced the thought away. "Dale to Carrey," he said into his omnitool. "We're pinned down here. What's your status?"
There were distant sounds of battle over the comm line, indistinguishable from the sounds they heard directly. "The going's hard. Shepard and her team cleared one of the buildings sniping the Aururian tanks and Lucy, Meridina, and Talara cleared another. But we've taken more casualties and the Nazis aren't giving any ground. How did the flank attack go?"
"Poorly," Robert replied. "They had a detachment holding the intersection. Our vehicles are down and we've got a lot of dead and wounded."
"I'll let General Kylarjha know. We'll get to you when we can, Carrey out."
Another heavy disruptor beam sizzled nearby. More importantly, Robert sensed approaching troops. He glanced toward their direction just enough to see figures in feldgrau entering the street. If they kept coming that way, they'd certainly flank the three of them. "We're sitting ducks if we stay here," Robert said to the others." He glanced around and noticed that one of the Aururian vehicles was still mostly intact, if disabled. "There."
"Fifty meters, about," King noted. Resolve showed on her face. "It's our best shot."
"You two go, I'll cover you before I join you."
"Captain, are you sure…?"
Robert nodded at Tra'dur. "Go!"
The two jumped from cover as Robert's lightsaber ignited in his hand. When he stepped out of cover a moment later his blade intercepted a disruptor beam of the same color, sending it back to the shooter. The shooter collapsed with a cry of pain and surprise.
This drew more fire, of course, and Robert focused himself on stopping that fire. His arms seemed to move of their own accord, blocking shot after lethal shot sent his way. After several deflections he felt an opening to counter-attack. He reached out with his power and gripped a chunk of the Himmler statue, throwing it toward the oncoming enemy. Three of them were unable to get out of the way in time and were thus crushed under the ruin.
As they ran, Tra’dur and King both took turns diving to the ground and firing with rifles to provide further cover for the other. It was too far to cover in one go. As they withdrew, however, Robert attracted the true effort of the advancing Wehrmacht troops. Even an Unteroffizier knew where to find the schwerpunkt and concentrate against it; it was obvious that the lightsabre-wielding man was critical to the enemy advance in this sector.
Robert sensed danger a moment later and reacted with instinct. He pushed out with the force of his life energy, concentrating it into a hammer of invisible power that forced the turret gun of one of the tanks upward. A shot that would have landed on him instead struck the building behind them, blowing off pieces of debris and partially collapsing at floor.
This created a shower of debris that rained down upon Tra'dur and King, just as they neared the ruined tank. Most of the pieces missed…
...and then one landed on King's head. She collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
Tra'dur reacted immediately, bending over to collect the unconscious woman, while Robert kept his attention firmly on the enemy tank. He gathered the warm energy inside of him and pressed it below the tank, feeling his control shudder as he did. The tank suddenly popped up into the air, rising by at least six meters before it twisted and fell on its own turret.
That didn't stop the infantry fire from coming his way. It was everything Robert could do to reflect it with his weapon. He managed to send one bolt into an enemy infantryman. This was hardly enough to stop the barrage of fire that was pinning him in place and keeping him from counter-attacking.
Relief came from the pulse fire that struck the Reich troops from their flank. A streak of blue energy proved to be Shepard, who slammed into one of the soldiers and sent him flying. Her shotgun barked and a solid slug ripped through the heart of a second soldier.
The fire against Robert ended. He lowered his blade and brought his left hand up, using it as a focus for the energy he summoned. Invisible force struck several Reich soldiers, throwing them to the ground. Most were mowed down by weapons fire before they could stand. Confident that the reinforcements had turned the tide sufficiently Robert turned away and ran over to where Tra'dur was examining King. "How bad is it?"
"She is alive," Tra'dur said. Her omnitool was showing the results of a medical scan. It wasn't as detailed a scan as a medical-model omnitool would provide, but it provided the necessary basic information. "There is some head trauma consistent with a concussion."
"Let's get her to the others," Robert said.
By the time they lifted King up, Zack and Meridina were approaching them. Both were starting to show the wear of the day's fighting on their suits and in their tired expressions. Meridina immediately noted King's state. "I can help her," she said. "Allow me."
As Tra'dur did so, Robert turned his attention to Zack. "I didn't think you'd get here so fast."
"We had a little help," said Zack, indicating the sight behind him. Along the Horst Wesselstrasse troops were marching with vehicles rumbling beside them. Robert immediately noted that they were not all Aururian, in fact, instead of being tanks they were giant 10x10 IFVs with tank turrets. They were so completely piled with applique armour, slat armour, ERA blocks, extra plate welded on the front, you name it, as well as bedding and packs and what frankly had to be plunder from peoples’ houses, they sagged overweight on their tires.
"The Dilgar caught up to us and cleared the other side of the road,” Zack explained. “Look at ‘em, they’re fighting with total crap, too, but they don’t seem to care and they’ve got a lot of it.”
There was a very high ratio of IFVs to soldiers in the Dilgar units. "Even so, good timing," Robert replied. "Your troops are following up?"
"They're securing some prisoners first, but they'll be joining us soon."
"Right." Robert took one more look at the Dilgar troops. Mostly very young and a mix of the smaller ones from Rohric--a few coughing blood right on the battlefield--and healthier Dilgar from Tira. He could sense their fear,their equipment was all forty-year old designs from the Dilgar war that had sat in depots in Rohrican caves for decades, they knew it was inadequate, but they had a lot of it so there were always replacements and always another IFV for a unit. But you couldn’t replace a life and they were taking much higher casualties than most of the other units in the offensive. He could feel the numbness in their minds, mixed with grim determination, a natural instinct to duty, which carried them on through countless dead comrades. They were almost entirely conscripts, and that fact made his soul ache.
Feeling sick again, he glanced toward Meridina and King. He could feel Meridina's power reaching into King's head, soothing the bruises and healing tissue, concentrating on her and using that concentration to acknowledge, but not dwell on, the feelings of those around. She wasn't a fully trained healer, so King would still be feeling the blow, but it would help King recover quickly. "Let's rejoin them, then."
They continued on through the wreckage, as much of lives as of the city.
In orbit the fight between the fleets continued in all of its fury. Another round of shaking through the ship pressed Julia against her harness. The tactical display beside her showed the source of the attack; the remaining SS-crewed dreadnought, even now coming about to bring its spinal-mount super-disruptors to bear on the Aurora. Violeta kept the Aurora maneuvering to prevent this.
The Aurora's own weapons continued to blaze away, filling space around them with sapphire beams of plasma and the more powerful bursts from the plasma pulse cannons set into the bow and stern of the ship. Much of this fire was directed at the dreadnought, causing red energy to sparkle into existence around the impact points. Again and again the Aurora's weapons lashed out at the enemy ship as its weapons lashed out at her.
Julia noticed the threat from the other side just as Angel did. From their starboard another of the Reich battlecruisers was locking on, its own spinal mount weapons coming to bear. "Evasive Pattern Echo," Julia ordered, mentally tracing the movement against the tactical map. The maneuver would, if successful, keep them clear of both capital ships' spinal mounts.
The Aurora made a twist and something of a turn, shifting away from the oncoming battlecruiser. When its weapons fired they achieved only glancing shots.
"Shields still at thirty percent," Jarod said.
"Focus on that battlecruiser," Julia ordered.
Angel responded with as great a barrage of fire as she could manage from the ship's current angle. This attack intensified as they completed a turn and brought the bow guns to bear on the battlecruiser. Its shields flashed red under the sapphire onslaught, holding with increasing difficulty. Fire from other Alliance ships in the vicinity joined theirs in ripping into the shields of the ship. The battlecruiser's shields began failing.
The enemy dreadnought fired on them again, as if to aid its comrade. The heavy disruptor mounts tracking them struck the Aurora's shields, which crackled and weakened. At Engineering Lieutenant Mallory noticed the result of the hit immediately. "Primary Shield Generator 4 is down," he said. "All secondaries and tertiaries are engaged."
The latter report did little to assuage Julia's concern at the initial one. The primary generators were primary for a reason, and with one down the shields' regenerative cycle, and capacity for deflecting or absorbing incoming fire, would be diminished.
It was therefore no surprise that after several more hits Jarod's response was, "Shields now at twenty percent."
In the meantime the enemy battlecruiser was no longer a problem. Fire from the Aurora and other ships reduced the ship to a flaming wreck. The dreadnought retaliated with another barrage on the Aurora. "Shields down to fifteen percent, stress damage on Secondaries 2, 5, and 6."
"Maintain evasive maneuvers!"
Violeta did so, to the best of her ability and that of the ship's. Of course, a kilometer-long starship couldn't shift course on the fly. The evasive maneuvers did not evade every hit, and in their situation even a single hit was now potentially dangerous.
This hit was delivered rather soon after the previous. "Shields are at ten percent, cohesion is failing," Jarod warned. "Hull breaches on decks 7, 9, 10, and 15, multiple sections."
"Armor self-repair systems are operational," Mallory assured them.
"Do something about that dreadnought, Tactical!"
"Trying now, Captain." Angel didn't look up from her console while replying to Julia. With her systems showing a firm target lock Angel triggered the weapons on the port side of the Aurora. Repeated beams of sapphire light continued to meet the red of a deflector shield over the dreadnought. The Aurora twisted slightly, a maneuver to throw off another heavy shot from the dreadnought. Even then, its smaller mounts continued to lash the Aurora's faltering shields, some of the emerald beams persisting long enough to scour the azure hull. An SS cruiser delivered several more hits to starboard, exploiting the weakening of Aurora's shields.
Said cruiser didn't get a second shot. Energy fire overwhelmed its weakened deflectors, with spinal-mount scale grav lasers ripping into the vessel until it was left a gutted ruin. The Dilgar battlecruiser Wrath ignored her victim and focused her next barrage on the enemy dreadnought, striking from a new angle, firing the two Hyach spinal lasers again and again on continuous beam. She maintained the heavy assault until the enemy ship began to divert some of its shield energy to face the Wrath.
Angel was quick to take advantage, with help from Violeta. Violeta turned the Aurora until her bow weapons could bear on the dreadnought. Angel quickly confirmed a target lock and opened fire with the bow mounts. Ten pulse plasma cannons erupted with sapphire fury, their bolts tearing through the dreadnought's shields and impacting on hull. Torpedoes followed up just as the plasma fire died down, allowing them to crash into the enemy ship without shields to stop them. Flame flowered from the dreadnought's hull, accompanied by gas and debris.
Wounded, the dreadnought retorted with her weapons yet again. The spinal-mount disruptor fired, missing the Aurora and instead impaling an Alliance vessel beyond her. The other shots repeatedly stabbed at the Aurora with emerald light, many of them hitting. The Aurora's shields likewise faltered, below the ten percent level that maintained cohesion, and the armored hull took most of the blow.
For all the damage caused by the hits, they didn't do anything to degrade the effectiveness of the Aurora's weapons. The bow cannons blasted chunks of hull and armor from the enemy ship. The port side of the dreadnought received another barrage from the Wrath that destroyed some of the weapon emplacements on that quarter of the ship as her unshielded status meant that the Wrath was able to use guided missiles with naqia-enriched thermonuclear warheads for pinpoint fire, wrecking entire sectors and directly targeting and blasting through even heavily armoured weapons mounts.
Burning and dying, the dreadnought began to maneuver away. Angel wasn't letting it go that easily and quickly put another spread of solar torpedoes into the SS ship. The blue-white sparks savaged the bow area as it continued its turn away. Blue beams lashed into the damaged area, followed by the pulses of the Aurora's main battery.
A sudden brilliant flash erupted from the forward end of the dreadnought. One of the shots from the Aurora had struck the main capacitor for its powerful spinal mounts. Now that energy was violently released with an explosion that blew the bow off of the Reich warship. The Wrath, seeing the weakness, immediately poured more fire into the dreadnought. The Koenig and Normandy led an attack run of fighters that sent a volley of torpedoes and energy fire into the wrecked bow while the Aurora continued her own withering barrage.
Further explosions came from the interior of the dreadnought until a final, terrific series culminated in a flash of white light that engulfed the vessel, signifying the loss of its antimatter fuel. The SS dreadnought was now nothing but a field of molten debris.
The dreadnought's loss was not the start of the retreat, but it certainly contributed. Even before it blew, a number of the most damaged Reich ships made the emergency jump to warp. That number escalated in the minute after the dreadnought died until every intact ship of the Reich had successfully fled, leaving only their broken comrades.
"No new contacts on sensors," Cat confirmed. "They're running!"
"For now anyway," Locarno said. "I'm sure they'll be back."
"Maybe, but it gives us the chance to get some damage control done." Julia released the harness from her chair. She looked Cat's way. "And a location for that research facility would be nice."
"This fighting made it impossible to keep up the analysis, too much interference." Cat tapped several keys on her board. "But now that it's stopped I can resume the search." She looked over her screen. "The team's still not close enough for me to be certain, but I'm narrowing it down now."
"Relay any information to the planetside team. And then get some rest. Cots are in the conference lounge." Julia looked to Angel next. "The same to you. I want everyone taking rest periods when possible."
She received no complaints.
The daylight was long gone and night settled uneasily over the city. An orange hue covered the horizon on all sides. The continued sound of battle was a din in the background as the group assembled in a trade school's cafeteria. Nearby classrooms were being employed by their supporting naval troops as temporary barracks Outside the window Aururian and Dilgar troops and their vehicles continued to hold positions along the Horst Wesselstrasse, with very heavy fighting still raging in the distance.
"Why aren't we pushing on?" Lucy asked. Despite some enthusiasm in her voice it was clear she welcomed the respite.
"It's been a hard day, Lucero," Shepard answered. "Taking the time for chow and a nap will make the fighting to come easier to survive."
"She's got a good point," Robert said.
"Well, if you think that…" Lucy reached into the pack she was carrying. It was a standard issue one, meant for emergency supplies - rations, water, first aid - but Lucy had clearly added another pair of items, on the bulky side. Robert recognized them as a pair of insulated tubs. She sat the tubs on a nearby table and opened them up. The appealing scent soon wafted into every set of nostrils in the room.
Tra'dur's nose visibly twitched and a hungry look came to her eyes. "Sausage stew."
"Fresh from Hargert… when we left anyway," Lucy explained. She nodded to Tra'dur and then Shepard. "One of each type to fit your dietary laws."
"Dietary laws?" asked Garrus.
"Some religions restrict the kinds of food you can have," Robert explained. "Lieutenant Tra'dur follows Hindu dietary law, so no beef. Nothing from the Earth cow, I mean."
"And the other has no pork." Lucy smiled and nodded at Shepard.
Seeing the looks from some of the others, Shepard shrugged. "I've never been a particularly observant Jew, but we don't eat pork. Or anything non-kosher."
Lucy went digging into her pack. "Now we just need some bowls. I thought I packed something…"
Zack jumped up from the seat he took and went to the side of the room. "We're in a school cafeteria, so… yep!" He pulled up a tray with utensils and plain white ceramic bowls and grabbed some spoons from another receptacle. "These should work."
Lucy gave Garrus and Tali an apologetic look. "I'm afraid Hargert didn't have any dextro-compatible food. I did replicate some…" She provided them insulated containers.
"Very thoughtful of you, Lieutenant," Garrus said, accepting one. Tali took the other.
"You've been carrying around that extra weight all day?" asked Kaidan.
Lucy nodded. She gave Meridina a knowing look before saying, "I'm used to dealing with weight."
Meridina returned the look with a small smile. Talara sighed, familiar with the exercises Lucy was referring to.
Robert chuckled, also aware of what she meant, but not saying so. Taking the bowl Zack had given him, he accepted his portion of the stew, selecting the beef sausage variant.
While the bowls were put to use to give out portions, Ashley looked at Tra'dur with some interest. "So your people converted to a Human religion? Why?"
“It's complicated,” Tra'dur observed, “but my mother-Shai preached a dharmic interpretation of our Gods from the copy of the Gita that mother-Kaveri left with her, at the time of our greatest hopelessness after Omelos, when the suicide rate was brutally high. It isn’t that we converted so much as human religion offered a new philosophy of explaining how we were utterly defeated and most of us died at Omelos, and how we might have a path forward from that.”
"To repair your people's broken spirits, your mother embraced a spiritual solution," Meridina remarked.
"There were many more that might have been lost otherwise." Tra'dur gave Lucy a look full of gratitude as she spoke, freely mixing her speech with mouthfuls of the stew. Even inside a building some of the party had difficulty hearing her over the continuous roar of the shelling in the background.
The roar briefly gave way to a particularly loud blast from nearby. For a moment everyone was silent. Robert spoke first, saying, "That was pretty close."
"I'd say we should have found somewhere safer, but there's nowhere in the city that's 'safe' at the moment," Zack said. He looked toward Robert. "I remember your granddad saying a few things about what it was like for him."
"A few, yeah," Robert said. "Grandpa Allen didn't like to relive some of the things he went through, though, so most of his history I only found out after he passed away."
"Your grandfather fought in a war?" asked Ashley.
"Yeah. Our world's World War II, to be precise. He fought in the European Theater against the Nazis." Robert chuckled lightly at that. "So he and I have that in common now."
"That war must have been very different from this one," Tali observed. "I mean, your technology wasn't nearly as advanced."
"No, but it was still vicious." Robert dug a spoon into the stew. "No smart munitions, but they still had lots of artillery, armored vehicles, bomber aircraft. The war killed millions." He glanced toward the window and the distant carnage raging outside. "I was always a little disappointed in how some of his stories didn't have actual fighting in them. Now I suppose I can understand why. He didn't want to relive this part."
"Not many do," Shepard noted. "War is hell."
"I was just a child when my father went to assist with one of the Interdependency's wars with the Coserians," Meridina noted. "He never spoke much of what it was like. It was the one activity in the Order he did not share freely with me."
"Is there anyone who thinks war is something other than bad?" Zack asked rhetorically. "Besides Klingons, I think."
Nobody answered immediately. Slowly, a rumbling chuckle was gaining everyone's attention. Shepard looked to the source and asked, "Something to add, Wrex?"
The Krogan Battlemaster snorted with amusement. "I find it funny that all of you people talk so much about not liking war, but you're always ready to fight them. And people say we're the violent species."
Tra’dur glanced up. “To be honest, I’m not sure if Dilgar are more inclined to like war than humans, or that was just the propaganda of the Old Imperium days and we still live in its shadow.”
"War is often driven by the darkness inside of living beings," Meridina noted. "Fear, anger, hatred. Whether driven by darkness itself or an imbalance in life, it can drive any people into war. And as war fuels such darkness, it spreads to others touched by it, creating a terrible cycle that fuels itself on the darkness war brings to all."
"That's certainly more poignant than 'War is an extension of politics by other means.'" Everyone turned to see King walk into the room. Despite her usual bearing, it was clear she was still a little uncertain on her feet, and her head was wrapped in a white bandage.
"How are you?" Robert asked her.
"The corpsman confirmed the concussion and provided means to reduce the swelling and coax the cells to heal," King replied. "He also made it clear I'm to avoid serious combat if I can. I consider it an act of great forbearance on my part that I did not point out the folly of that restriction in our current situation."
"I suppose you can't blame him for trying," Shepard said.
"It's your pick, Captain," said Lucy. "Sausage stew without pork or without beef?"
"I'll take either," she answered while taking a seat. Zack offered her a bowl. Shortly after he handed it to her the building rattled from another stray shell going off nearby. "I see we are still close to the fighting. Any updates?"
"The Dilgar and Aururians are going to keep pushing down the Horst Wesselstrasse," Robert replied. "To give us as close a jumping off point as they can give us. And some Alliance troops have broken through the Seelow Heights area and are entering the eastern part of the city. We might still hook up with them in the heart of the city, if they manage to keep up the momentum."
"Well, that is excellent news," King remarked. She took a bite of her food and was plainly impressed. "I had forgotten what an excellent cook Mister Hargert is. Thank you kindly for the reminder."
"You're welcome," Lucy said.
In the heart of the Aurora's drive hull, Main Engineering was a hub of continued activity. Scotty kept his place at the control table near the master systems display for the ship, noting all of the yellow and red showing damaged and offline systems.
Barnes approached him, looking tired and frustrated. "Just as I thought," he said. "Primary 4 is down. It's going to require a complete rebuild to get our shields back to full strength."
"Aye. That's what I was expectin' tae hear," answered the older man. "Anythin' else affectin' the shields?"
"Primary 2 is offline for repair, I've got a team that should have it finished in an hour. Section G on Decks 10 through 14 is still on backup power, the power conduit feeding the area needs replacement."
"Did ye make sure th' medbay has full power?"
Barnes nodded. "I did. Secondary lines are up and running. Even if all of Deck 12 loses power, the medbay will still have its lights on."
"Good lad." Scotty sighed and tapped at the table. "We cannae have th' doctors losin' our crew from no power."
"Yeah." Barnes looked over the display. "Anything more about those microfractures in the cooling system?"
"Nae problems so far. I've put a team on settin' up a bypass around th' fracture zone."
"Best we can do until we're in dock," Barnes agreed. He looked over his mentor and noticed the obvious. "It's been a long day, and Thama set up some cots in Section Storage. Why don't you get some rest?"
That got him an irritated glare. "Dinnae ye baby me, Tom." The rebuke was heated, especially since it was clear Scotty knew he needed the rest too.
"I'm not Ju-... the Captain," Barnes countered, correcting himself as he did. "But I figure the Ratzis are gonna be back, and it might be better if we're ready for the long haul, y'know?"
"Aye, I do, an' I'll get a wee bit o' shuteye soon, but I need to brief th' Captain on our progress."
"Why don't you let me do that?" Barnes asked.
For a moment a refusal formed in Scotty's voice, but he stopped himself. "Alright, lad, I'll leave it t' ye. Let me show ye a few things before I head off."
A look at the sensor screen showed Cat she was starting to get close. The instruments Tra'dur had taken with her gave Cat's systems a better look at the specific particle emissions she was seeking. The zone of possibility was shrinking appropriately, becoming a smaller circle in the middle of the capital.
"The results are promising, Cat'Delgado," Tra'dur said in a near-whisper over a commline. Cat could barely hear her over background explosions. "Once we fight into the city center we should be certain."
"And the closer you get, the smaller I can make the circle," Cat said. "I may have an exact coordinate for you by the time you're approaching the middle of the city." After a moment's consideration, she asked, "So, how is everyone?"
"Quite tired. Many of them are asleep or nearly so. Even I may be dozing off soon."
"Yeah. I know the feeling." Cat checked the time and stifled a sudden yawn. She wanted to get to sleep soon, even if it would only be a cot in the lounge and not her bed. "It's really bad, isn't it? The fighting, I mean, and the people dying…"
"It is. Today has been a lesson." There was brief silence on the other end. "I used to wonder what made Fei'nur the way she is. To know she endured this for years, I can hardly imagine staying sane."
"I can't at all," Cat admitted. She remembered Fei'nur, the big bodyguard cyborg for Shai'jhur, undoubtedly over on the Magaratha at the moment. "You know, I thought it was funny to see the way she reacted to replicators, but knowing she had to survive for so long… it's not really funny now."
"Between Balos and the decades on Rohric with the poor food, I am not surprised at all that she is enamored with replicators. Most of my people are. And for those who remember Omelos, who remember food not tainted by spores, real filling meat… Gods, it makes me ravenous just talking about it. And my family runs a meat canning factory to begin with."
Cat giggled quietly. "I'm sorry to make you ravenous," she said. "If I could, I'd send you something."
"Lieutenant Lucero was kind enough to carry Mister Hargert's stew for all of us."
"That's Lucy for you. She always likes to make people feel better. It's part of her 'Life Force Knight' thing or whatever it's called." Cat's eyes examined the long range sensors next. There was no sign of any further ships coming in, although the sensors showed the main fleets still out by Neptune. The battle there was now more of a skirmish, but likely just to give the Nazis time to get reinforcements in. At any time the fleets would likely re-engage. "I should let you get some sleep."
"I appreciate the conversation, but yes, I think…"
Over the line, Cat heard sudden shouting and the distant whine of disruptors. "Tra'dur?" she asked, confused for the moment. "What's going on?"
After several seconds of nothing, Tra'dur's reply came with haste. "I must go, we're under attack!"
In seconds the sound of nearby disruptor fire roused everyone who had actually managed to fall asleep. Hands went to weapons and Robert and Lucy quickly unfolded their robes - they'd been using them as makeshift pillows - and pulled them on over the armor. Garrus' voice came through their short-range commlink. "They're coming from the north. Vehicles, infantry, and mechs."
"Panzergrenadiers, probably," Shepard remarked, putting her shotgun back on its small-of-back mount on her armor. She scooped up the assault rifle last. "How close?"
Everyone heard the shot from Garrus' rifle. "Close enough."
Zack's voice came through next. "My unit's ready."
"Have them take up defensive positions." Robert ran toward the door with Lucy and Meridina trailing, the others behind them. The exit to the north was nearby. Between the energy he was calling upon and the adrenaline rush, any remnant sleepiness was fading. He triggered another comm. "This is Dale to Union command post, status?"
A Dilgar voice responded, "An enemy counterattack has broken through our northern flank. They are closing in on your location."
"We spotted that. Anything else?"
"We have sent troops to support your position. Hold until relieved."
"They won't, then." Robert looked to the others. "We'll stop them." He re-opened the channel to Zack. "Get your unit ready. We're going to give the Nazis a surprise."
The approaching enemy were crossing the wide boulevard of the Horst Wesselstrasse when the naval infantry's return fire reached it's peak. The entire unit was now engaged, using the windows and doorways of the school to fire from cover. Anders and his Marines focused their efforts on the enemy armored forces, power armor infantry and tanks, using the heavier munitions they were equipped with to deal damage to those foes. In turn their return fire struck at the structures of the school, blasting through walls and ruining entire rooms.
Not every shot like this hit as expected, however. One of the tank gunners was surprised to see his shot thrown back to explode in the street, as if it had been deflected.
Having performed that deflection, Robert drew in a breath and felt the life energy within him swell in readiness. When he called upon it again it was to reach out and grasp the offending tank. He caused it to fly upward into the air and twist, after which it landed on another tank, smashing the turrets of both. He repeated the process with another, although this time the tank landed in such a way as to not crush the other tank's turret, simply its main gun.
His senses warned him of the incoming attack. He jumped from the window and hit the ground below with a shockwave of dust, the result of his effort to cushion his landing. Above him several shots from the enemy tanks all struck, blasting much of the upper floor. "Is everyone clear?" he asked into his comm.
"Affirmative," Shepard answered. "Although you gave Garrus a scare. Either way, we're ready."
"Good," Robert replied. "Let's go. Zack?"
"We're ready when you give the signal."
"Consider it given." Having said that, Robert ignited his lightsaber and ran ahead.
From the east side of the school came the rest of the team, weapons blazing, Lucy and Meridina in the lead deflecting incoming fire.
At Robert's signal, the rest of Zack's unit sallied from the damaged school, following Anders' Marines. Their training in field operations, rushed as it had been, taught them enough that with the Marines in the lead, they provided the necessary numbers to the counter-attack to give it a chance.
In the years of the Facility, Zack had seen some terrible things. He'd seen what was left of Human beings starved in work camps and prisons, beaten, tormented, ruined, among other horrors. And there had been fights, true. He'd even once gotten his jaw broken in a tough fight to rescue kids being used as slave labor. Such things had always seemed truly hellish to him.
But that hadn't been this. This kind of fighting, with energy weapons and shellfire everywhere, freaking tanks shooting at you along with heavy weapons on big armored infantry… it was an entirely different kind of Hell. Any moment he could be blown apart or hit by a shot that could overpower his personal forcefield and kill him. The same had been true to an extent while commanding the Koenig, but combat between starships lacked the visceral (sometimes literally so) nature of the battle.
Zack hit the deck as fire swept nearby, narrowly avoiding a disruptor shot. While prone he lifted his pulse rifle and fired it toward the source of the beam. In the night he couldn't see if he hit anyone, but even if he hadn't hopefully his fire was forcing someone to hit the ground or otherwise hold their fire. After squeezing off several more shots while prone he got to his feet and, accompanied by Lieutenant Tachibana and several of the others, kept moving ahead. Their running carried them into the street and to a damaged, abandoned Nazi tank that they used for cover.
Whatever he was accomplishing with his pulse rifle and shouted commands to the other platoons over his commlink, Zack knew it was very little compared to some of the others. Over the other sounds of battle he could hear the booms and thundering from Shepard's biotic attacks and her shotgun. He also thought he heard the occasional high-pitched buzzing of the lightsabers in action. Robert, Lucy, and Meridina were doing more than their share of damage with their powers and their weapons. And Anders and the armored Marines in his unit were doing more damage with their heavier weapons by far.
The enemy noticed this too, and that meant the team heavies were drawing disproportionate attention from the Nazis. "All platoons, keep going," he said, readying himself to go back out. "We've got to keep them off-balance so they don't regroup!" Affirmations from the platoon commanders came over the commlink. He nodded to Tachibana, who smiled thinly and nodded back. "You didn't sign up for this either, did you?"
"Not particularly," she admitted, her voice accented with Oxford English despite her name. An amused glint in her brown eyes made Zack grin. "But I did sign up to stop the Nazis. It's why I'm here and not with my ship."
"Right. Well, here goes!" With that Zack emerged from cover, trying to stay low while spraying pulse fire where he could. He caught one infantry soldier trying to get a bead on him and Tachibana shot the soldier before he could fire. With the rest of the unit they were almost to the other side of the Horst Wesselstrasse and the enemy seemed completely surprised by the attack.
Zack looked to one of the enemy tanks in the road rotating its cannon around to fire on the others. The same rotation turned the turret away from his position with Tachibana. "Cover me," he ordered. She nodded just as he turned away. Zack jumped from cover and pulled a demolition charge from his field uniform's belt. It took only seconds to get close enough to place the charge up on the turret ring, after which he turned and sprinted back toward cover.
Before he could get back, the charge detonated. Spalling from the torn metal tore into the crew space, ripping them apart in the second before the destruction hit the ammo storage. A massive shockwave slammed into Zack, throwing him into the air. He tumbled and landed hard, knocking the air out of his lungs. He sucked in several breaths trying to get over the shock of the hit, wondering briefly if he was more severely wounded.
He was just about certain he wasn't and started to get up when a boot kicked him in the side of the head. Even through his protective helmet Zack felt an impact that might have caused a concussion without said helmet. The world spun in terrible colors as he fell over on his side and looked up at his attacker, a frowning, angry-looking enemy soldier. Strands of blond hair showed around his enemy's face, with hate-filled blue eyes glaring at him, and a pair of SS thunderbolts prominently displayed on his collar beside rank insignia. Wordlessly the soldier brought his disruptor rifle up to shoot Zack, who was still recovering his equilibrium.
There was a powerful impact that splintered the SS trooper's helmet. Blood erupted from the other side of the helmet, joined with some gray matter, and the enemy trooper dropped with a hole in his head. Given the nature of the wound, and the fact there was no flash of pulse fire, Zack guessed at his savior and croaked into the comm line, "Thanks, Vakarian."
"You're welcome," Garrus replied.
Zack got back to his feet and had a moment to take in the battle now that it was on the north side of the boulevard. The counter-attack was working; the SS unit was disintegrating. To the west Dilgar infantry were riding up on mechanized vehicles, joining the counter-attack.
"Are you alright?"
Zack turned his head. Robert was approaching, his lightsaber now off and hanging from his waist again. In his blue armor and those brown robes he was a unique sight compared to the uniformed soldiers and naval troopers around them, including Zack's own field uniform. Sweat coated his forehead, much as it did Zack's own. "Are you alright?" Robert repeated.
"Got my bell rung. Twice." Zack rubbed at his head. "But nothing serious."
"Good." The sounds of battle were moving further away. "The Dilgar got their reinforcements to us. The SS battalion's in full retreat. I'm betting they didn't realize how ferocious your unit could be."
"Or that you were with us," Zack said. "I doubt they planned for three life force whatever users, and certainly not for Commander Shepard."
"Seeing her in action as I have, I don't think anyone can plan for Shepard. Not unless it counts surrendering immediately upon encountering her." Robert chuckled. "So, think you can get back to sleep?"
Zack's reply to that was a harsh laugh. "No. Not happening now."
"Thought so." Robert gestured toward the road leading to the center of the city. "I guess we should press on, then."
"I guess," Zack agreed. "The sooner we get to the center of the city, the sooner this ends."
"Then get your people ready, and I'll alert the others," Robert said. He turned and looked down the road, as did Zack, toward the silhouettes of the city's massive structures in the far distance, barely illuminated by the brief flashes of artillery strikes. "It's time to make our push."
The first target of the attack was a Dorei starcruiser which had already been damaged in the fighter action. They formed up smartly and delivered their torpedo salvoes into her flanks as they turned in toward the port of Shai’jhur’s formation. Weakened shields were overwhelmed and the starcruiser erupted in sheets of flame from venting oxygen down her flank. As they moved beyond the burning Dorei starcruiser, the luck of their attack had already run out.
Amber energy lashed out in pulses that pummeled at one of the enemy ships. A solar torpedo went through its weakened shields and slammed into the engineering section, the "handle" of the Nazi destroyer's dagger shape, resulting in the vessel disappearing in a white fireball brought on by antimatter containment loss. The Attackers had arrived, nimbly shifting through the regular order of the formation to plug gaps and respond to contingencies.
Having finished off one of its prey, the Starship Koenig directed its attentions to the rest. The attack ship directed its fury at another enemy destroyer. This one didn't die like the last, with their shields holding just enough to take the follow-up torpedo hit. The destroyer captain maneuvered sharply to evade the Koenig's fire while trying to stay on his attack run.
Creighton Apley, the Koenig's XO and piloting officer, kept his nimble ship on target, allowing April Sherlily, the tactical officer, to savage the enemy ship with another phaser burst. The destroyer broke apart under the attack. There was no time to celebrate before emerald pulses slammed into Koenig's shields. "Shields down to seventy percent," Magda Navaez warned as the ship shook. "Two enemy attack ships to stern, A-2000 class."
In the command chair, Will Atreiad remembered the designation, a newer Nazi attack ship built to counter the Alliance's Trigger-class, which were based on the Koenig. They were handier ships, in principle, with their wings and manoeuvring vanes, but they had a few weaknesses. "Evasive Pattern Delta," Will ordered.
"Aye sir."
Apley sent the Koenig into a tight series of maneuvers. Under that evasive plan, the ship used her more compact mass to take advantage of shorter impulse times for initiating violent, jerky manoeuvres that the sweeping turns of the magnetic vanes on the A-2000s couldn’t match even if they could turn inside of Koenig. The two enemy ships, dagger-shaped like the destroyers but a little smaller and far more agile, kept on the Koenig, though most of their fire was evaded successfully in the violent snap-rolls and turns.
Just before Will could order an attempted shift to the offensive, weapons fire struck one of the attack ships. Disruptor torpedoes from the Normandy blasted through the ship's shields and crushed the Nazi vessel's armor, inflicting internal damage. The Systems Alliance frigate twisted hard to avoid an incoming disruptor bolt.
"Attack Pattern Echo, execute!"
Apley maneuvered the ship once again, this time spinning the ship about her centre of mass to bring her forward guns to bear as the thrusters fired in a complex sequence to place her en echelon to her pursuers, able to deliver fire to both in overlapping coverage on the same heading. Under fire from another angle, the pursuing attack ships failed to fully match his maneuver. The first ship targeted was already damaged. Amber phaser bursts slammed into its degraded shields until the side of the ship was exposed. A single torpedo followed and blew it to hell.
"Another one down," Sherlily crowed.
Nobody had time to respond to her boast, not with more enemy vessels in the fight.
A Reich Sedan-class cruiser drew alongside the Aurora and struck at her deflectors with repeated beams of emerald energy. As the cruiser's disruptors cycled, a second and newer cruiser, identified as the Tannenburg-class, joined in with pulse cannon disruptors that battered away at the Aurora's shields.
As the bridge shook under her, Julia readied to give an order to return fire, but it proved unnecessary. The starboard plasma cannons and emitters lit up, their sapphire light burning into the red hue of the Reich ships' shields. Continued hits on the Tannenburg finally blew through the ship's shields, creating plumes of flame and gas wherever the Aurora's weapons sliced into the ship. Violeta turned the Aurora to port on Julia's command. Not only did this evade fire from one of the big dreadnoughts looming ahead, it presented the aft cannons toward the enemy cruiser. Angel was quick to acquire a target lock and fire. Thick pulses of blue energy slammed into the damaged ship, setting off further explosions that gutted the cruiser. More blue beams played over the Tannenburg-class cruiser's shields, which flickered and weakened when solar torpedoes from the aft launchers slammed into them.
The thick pulses of plasma that finished the cruiser off didn't come from the Aurora, however, but from the Thunder Child, side batteries receiving maximum energy for a brief burst of fire which ripped the nacelles to shreds and tore through her victims armour in a hundred places. The heavy cruiser spun off, power dead and escape pods loosing from her sides.
The Enterprise-class ship veered in across their field of vision with a moment’s warning for Violeta through the taclinks, a quick coordinating message based on standard patterns. In this case, Thunder Child bravely stood in, absorbing fire meant for the Aurora and focusing on an enemy battlecruiser. Another of the same class, the Olamte'se, joined the Thunder Child in hitting the Nazi Lützow-class warship hard. The converging fire of the two big cruisers overwhelmed her shields and wrecked the starboard flank batteries of the battlecruiser and she fell back into the protection of her compatriots.
Given the amount of attention the enemy fleet was applying to the Aurora, it could be hard to forget she was hardly the focal point of the battle, nor the most capable of the ships. Over a hundred thousand kilometers away, on the other end of the formation, the Challenger and the ASV Enterprise were exchanging fire with a Reich dreadnought. A spread of white-lit quantum torpedoes announced the intervention of the USS Enterprise into that fight. Under Picard's command the Enterprise laid into the port side of the dreadnought, absorbing a couple of powerful disruptor hits to her shields as she did. The Akira-class Sitting Bull joined that fight with an even larger spread of quantum torpedoes that blew large chunks from the side of the dreadnought. The Challenger's plasma banks and cannons laid into the bow of the dreadnought. A return shot from the spinal mount disruptor barely missed the smaller cruiser.
One thing Julia was picking up from the fight was that Shai'jhur's tactic was, for the most part, working. The heavier enemy fleet's formation was breaking up from the allied fleet's charge into close-quarters combat. As the Aurora shuddered again, with Jarod informing her that shields were down to fifty percent, Julia wondered if it would be enough in the end.
The wide boulevard known as the Horst Wesselstrasse was one of the major arteries leading into the center of Welthauptstadt Germania. Flanked to either side by parks and smaller buildings - a commercial area for the capital - the road was well-maintained and the sight of a number of memorial statues. It was also vast, six lanes in each direction with electric trams on the outside and wide sidewalks, with pedestrian overpasses to access the immense linear park in the middle subtly integrated with the vast number of distributory flyovers that were anchored on buildings and decorated in the standard Reich architectural pattern, the Volkshalle rising above them in the near distance.
Much of the area was already a ruin. The molten, wrecked remains of a statue to Heinrich Himmler provided some cover for Robert, King, and Tra'diur. They were the closest to the road in question while the others were further behind and toward the eastern flank of the advance. The debris of urban warfare filled the streets, including the bodies of the slain. Burnt, wrecked frames of vehicles abounded. Shattered and violently rearranged roadblocks and gun positions marred the sidewalks and storefronts.
There was little time to take in the sheer devastation. Across the road Nazi panzers were still in hull-down defensive positions, covering the lateral road from Teltow they'd taken. A pair of burning Aururian vehicles nearby spoke of their effectiveness. Above them an emerald beam streaked, melting a little more from the statue. "I wonder if they'll get in trouble for destroying the statue?" Robert mused idly. The sheer intensity of the battle had deadened his nerves to the point that even the splash of some droplets of molten bronze on his coat didn’t make him flinch or try to take further cover.
That won him something of a glare from King. "This is hardly the time to consider that, Captain."
She was right, of course, but it still stuck in Robert's head. He chuckled mirthlessly. "I guess it'd suck to survive all of this and then get executed for wrecking one of the Nazi statues." Sensing King's increased aggravation, he shook his head and forced the thought away. "Dale to Carrey," he said into his omnitool. "We're pinned down here. What's your status?"
There were distant sounds of battle over the comm line, indistinguishable from the sounds they heard directly. "The going's hard. Shepard and her team cleared one of the buildings sniping the Aururian tanks and Lucy, Meridina, and Talara cleared another. But we've taken more casualties and the Nazis aren't giving any ground. How did the flank attack go?"
"Poorly," Robert replied. "They had a detachment holding the intersection. Our vehicles are down and we've got a lot of dead and wounded."
"I'll let General Kylarjha know. We'll get to you when we can, Carrey out."
Another heavy disruptor beam sizzled nearby. More importantly, Robert sensed approaching troops. He glanced toward their direction just enough to see figures in feldgrau entering the street. If they kept coming that way, they'd certainly flank the three of them. "We're sitting ducks if we stay here," Robert said to the others." He glanced around and noticed that one of the Aururian vehicles was still mostly intact, if disabled. "There."
"Fifty meters, about," King noted. Resolve showed on her face. "It's our best shot."
"You two go, I'll cover you before I join you."
"Captain, are you sure…?"
Robert nodded at Tra'dur. "Go!"
The two jumped from cover as Robert's lightsaber ignited in his hand. When he stepped out of cover a moment later his blade intercepted a disruptor beam of the same color, sending it back to the shooter. The shooter collapsed with a cry of pain and surprise.
This drew more fire, of course, and Robert focused himself on stopping that fire. His arms seemed to move of their own accord, blocking shot after lethal shot sent his way. After several deflections he felt an opening to counter-attack. He reached out with his power and gripped a chunk of the Himmler statue, throwing it toward the oncoming enemy. Three of them were unable to get out of the way in time and were thus crushed under the ruin.
As they ran, Tra’dur and King both took turns diving to the ground and firing with rifles to provide further cover for the other. It was too far to cover in one go. As they withdrew, however, Robert attracted the true effort of the advancing Wehrmacht troops. Even an Unteroffizier knew where to find the schwerpunkt and concentrate against it; it was obvious that the lightsabre-wielding man was critical to the enemy advance in this sector.
Robert sensed danger a moment later and reacted with instinct. He pushed out with the force of his life energy, concentrating it into a hammer of invisible power that forced the turret gun of one of the tanks upward. A shot that would have landed on him instead struck the building behind them, blowing off pieces of debris and partially collapsing at floor.
This created a shower of debris that rained down upon Tra'dur and King, just as they neared the ruined tank. Most of the pieces missed…
...and then one landed on King's head. She collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
Tra'dur reacted immediately, bending over to collect the unconscious woman, while Robert kept his attention firmly on the enemy tank. He gathered the warm energy inside of him and pressed it below the tank, feeling his control shudder as he did. The tank suddenly popped up into the air, rising by at least six meters before it twisted and fell on its own turret.
That didn't stop the infantry fire from coming his way. It was everything Robert could do to reflect it with his weapon. He managed to send one bolt into an enemy infantryman. This was hardly enough to stop the barrage of fire that was pinning him in place and keeping him from counter-attacking.
Relief came from the pulse fire that struck the Reich troops from their flank. A streak of blue energy proved to be Shepard, who slammed into one of the soldiers and sent him flying. Her shotgun barked and a solid slug ripped through the heart of a second soldier.
The fire against Robert ended. He lowered his blade and brought his left hand up, using it as a focus for the energy he summoned. Invisible force struck several Reich soldiers, throwing them to the ground. Most were mowed down by weapons fire before they could stand. Confident that the reinforcements had turned the tide sufficiently Robert turned away and ran over to where Tra'dur was examining King. "How bad is it?"
"She is alive," Tra'dur said. Her omnitool was showing the results of a medical scan. It wasn't as detailed a scan as a medical-model omnitool would provide, but it provided the necessary basic information. "There is some head trauma consistent with a concussion."
"Let's get her to the others," Robert said.
By the time they lifted King up, Zack and Meridina were approaching them. Both were starting to show the wear of the day's fighting on their suits and in their tired expressions. Meridina immediately noted King's state. "I can help her," she said. "Allow me."
As Tra'dur did so, Robert turned his attention to Zack. "I didn't think you'd get here so fast."
"We had a little help," said Zack, indicating the sight behind him. Along the Horst Wesselstrasse troops were marching with vehicles rumbling beside them. Robert immediately noted that they were not all Aururian, in fact, instead of being tanks they were giant 10x10 IFVs with tank turrets. They were so completely piled with applique armour, slat armour, ERA blocks, extra plate welded on the front, you name it, as well as bedding and packs and what frankly had to be plunder from peoples’ houses, they sagged overweight on their tires.
"The Dilgar caught up to us and cleared the other side of the road,” Zack explained. “Look at ‘em, they’re fighting with total crap, too, but they don’t seem to care and they’ve got a lot of it.”
There was a very high ratio of IFVs to soldiers in the Dilgar units. "Even so, good timing," Robert replied. "Your troops are following up?"
"They're securing some prisoners first, but they'll be joining us soon."
"Right." Robert took one more look at the Dilgar troops. Mostly very young and a mix of the smaller ones from Rohric--a few coughing blood right on the battlefield--and healthier Dilgar from Tira. He could sense their fear,their equipment was all forty-year old designs from the Dilgar war that had sat in depots in Rohrican caves for decades, they knew it was inadequate, but they had a lot of it so there were always replacements and always another IFV for a unit. But you couldn’t replace a life and they were taking much higher casualties than most of the other units in the offensive. He could feel the numbness in their minds, mixed with grim determination, a natural instinct to duty, which carried them on through countless dead comrades. They were almost entirely conscripts, and that fact made his soul ache.
Feeling sick again, he glanced toward Meridina and King. He could feel Meridina's power reaching into King's head, soothing the bruises and healing tissue, concentrating on her and using that concentration to acknowledge, but not dwell on, the feelings of those around. She wasn't a fully trained healer, so King would still be feeling the blow, but it would help King recover quickly. "Let's rejoin them, then."
They continued on through the wreckage, as much of lives as of the city.
In orbit the fight between the fleets continued in all of its fury. Another round of shaking through the ship pressed Julia against her harness. The tactical display beside her showed the source of the attack; the remaining SS-crewed dreadnought, even now coming about to bring its spinal-mount super-disruptors to bear on the Aurora. Violeta kept the Aurora maneuvering to prevent this.
The Aurora's own weapons continued to blaze away, filling space around them with sapphire beams of plasma and the more powerful bursts from the plasma pulse cannons set into the bow and stern of the ship. Much of this fire was directed at the dreadnought, causing red energy to sparkle into existence around the impact points. Again and again the Aurora's weapons lashed out at the enemy ship as its weapons lashed out at her.
Julia noticed the threat from the other side just as Angel did. From their starboard another of the Reich battlecruisers was locking on, its own spinal mount weapons coming to bear. "Evasive Pattern Echo," Julia ordered, mentally tracing the movement against the tactical map. The maneuver would, if successful, keep them clear of both capital ships' spinal mounts.
The Aurora made a twist and something of a turn, shifting away from the oncoming battlecruiser. When its weapons fired they achieved only glancing shots.
"Shields still at thirty percent," Jarod said.
"Focus on that battlecruiser," Julia ordered.
Angel responded with as great a barrage of fire as she could manage from the ship's current angle. This attack intensified as they completed a turn and brought the bow guns to bear on the battlecruiser. Its shields flashed red under the sapphire onslaught, holding with increasing difficulty. Fire from other Alliance ships in the vicinity joined theirs in ripping into the shields of the ship. The battlecruiser's shields began failing.
The enemy dreadnought fired on them again, as if to aid its comrade. The heavy disruptor mounts tracking them struck the Aurora's shields, which crackled and weakened. At Engineering Lieutenant Mallory noticed the result of the hit immediately. "Primary Shield Generator 4 is down," he said. "All secondaries and tertiaries are engaged."
The latter report did little to assuage Julia's concern at the initial one. The primary generators were primary for a reason, and with one down the shields' regenerative cycle, and capacity for deflecting or absorbing incoming fire, would be diminished.
It was therefore no surprise that after several more hits Jarod's response was, "Shields now at twenty percent."
In the meantime the enemy battlecruiser was no longer a problem. Fire from the Aurora and other ships reduced the ship to a flaming wreck. The dreadnought retaliated with another barrage on the Aurora. "Shields down to fifteen percent, stress damage on Secondaries 2, 5, and 6."
"Maintain evasive maneuvers!"
Violeta did so, to the best of her ability and that of the ship's. Of course, a kilometer-long starship couldn't shift course on the fly. The evasive maneuvers did not evade every hit, and in their situation even a single hit was now potentially dangerous.
This hit was delivered rather soon after the previous. "Shields are at ten percent, cohesion is failing," Jarod warned. "Hull breaches on decks 7, 9, 10, and 15, multiple sections."
"Armor self-repair systems are operational," Mallory assured them.
"Do something about that dreadnought, Tactical!"
"Trying now, Captain." Angel didn't look up from her console while replying to Julia. With her systems showing a firm target lock Angel triggered the weapons on the port side of the Aurora. Repeated beams of sapphire light continued to meet the red of a deflector shield over the dreadnought. The Aurora twisted slightly, a maneuver to throw off another heavy shot from the dreadnought. Even then, its smaller mounts continued to lash the Aurora's faltering shields, some of the emerald beams persisting long enough to scour the azure hull. An SS cruiser delivered several more hits to starboard, exploiting the weakening of Aurora's shields.
Said cruiser didn't get a second shot. Energy fire overwhelmed its weakened deflectors, with spinal-mount scale grav lasers ripping into the vessel until it was left a gutted ruin. The Dilgar battlecruiser Wrath ignored her victim and focused her next barrage on the enemy dreadnought, striking from a new angle, firing the two Hyach spinal lasers again and again on continuous beam. She maintained the heavy assault until the enemy ship began to divert some of its shield energy to face the Wrath.
Angel was quick to take advantage, with help from Violeta. Violeta turned the Aurora until her bow weapons could bear on the dreadnought. Angel quickly confirmed a target lock and opened fire with the bow mounts. Ten pulse plasma cannons erupted with sapphire fury, their bolts tearing through the dreadnought's shields and impacting on hull. Torpedoes followed up just as the plasma fire died down, allowing them to crash into the enemy ship without shields to stop them. Flame flowered from the dreadnought's hull, accompanied by gas and debris.
Wounded, the dreadnought retorted with her weapons yet again. The spinal-mount disruptor fired, missing the Aurora and instead impaling an Alliance vessel beyond her. The other shots repeatedly stabbed at the Aurora with emerald light, many of them hitting. The Aurora's shields likewise faltered, below the ten percent level that maintained cohesion, and the armored hull took most of the blow.
For all the damage caused by the hits, they didn't do anything to degrade the effectiveness of the Aurora's weapons. The bow cannons blasted chunks of hull and armor from the enemy ship. The port side of the dreadnought received another barrage from the Wrath that destroyed some of the weapon emplacements on that quarter of the ship as her unshielded status meant that the Wrath was able to use guided missiles with naqia-enriched thermonuclear warheads for pinpoint fire, wrecking entire sectors and directly targeting and blasting through even heavily armoured weapons mounts.
Burning and dying, the dreadnought began to maneuver away. Angel wasn't letting it go that easily and quickly put another spread of solar torpedoes into the SS ship. The blue-white sparks savaged the bow area as it continued its turn away. Blue beams lashed into the damaged area, followed by the pulses of the Aurora's main battery.
A sudden brilliant flash erupted from the forward end of the dreadnought. One of the shots from the Aurora had struck the main capacitor for its powerful spinal mounts. Now that energy was violently released with an explosion that blew the bow off of the Reich warship. The Wrath, seeing the weakness, immediately poured more fire into the dreadnought. The Koenig and Normandy led an attack run of fighters that sent a volley of torpedoes and energy fire into the wrecked bow while the Aurora continued her own withering barrage.
Further explosions came from the interior of the dreadnought until a final, terrific series culminated in a flash of white light that engulfed the vessel, signifying the loss of its antimatter fuel. The SS dreadnought was now nothing but a field of molten debris.
The dreadnought's loss was not the start of the retreat, but it certainly contributed. Even before it blew, a number of the most damaged Reich ships made the emergency jump to warp. That number escalated in the minute after the dreadnought died until every intact ship of the Reich had successfully fled, leaving only their broken comrades.
"No new contacts on sensors," Cat confirmed. "They're running!"
"For now anyway," Locarno said. "I'm sure they'll be back."
"Maybe, but it gives us the chance to get some damage control done." Julia released the harness from her chair. She looked Cat's way. "And a location for that research facility would be nice."
"This fighting made it impossible to keep up the analysis, too much interference." Cat tapped several keys on her board. "But now that it's stopped I can resume the search." She looked over her screen. "The team's still not close enough for me to be certain, but I'm narrowing it down now."
"Relay any information to the planetside team. And then get some rest. Cots are in the conference lounge." Julia looked to Angel next. "The same to you. I want everyone taking rest periods when possible."
She received no complaints.
The daylight was long gone and night settled uneasily over the city. An orange hue covered the horizon on all sides. The continued sound of battle was a din in the background as the group assembled in a trade school's cafeteria. Nearby classrooms were being employed by their supporting naval troops as temporary barracks Outside the window Aururian and Dilgar troops and their vehicles continued to hold positions along the Horst Wesselstrasse, with very heavy fighting still raging in the distance.
"Why aren't we pushing on?" Lucy asked. Despite some enthusiasm in her voice it was clear she welcomed the respite.
"It's been a hard day, Lucero," Shepard answered. "Taking the time for chow and a nap will make the fighting to come easier to survive."
"She's got a good point," Robert said.
"Well, if you think that…" Lucy reached into the pack she was carrying. It was a standard issue one, meant for emergency supplies - rations, water, first aid - but Lucy had clearly added another pair of items, on the bulky side. Robert recognized them as a pair of insulated tubs. She sat the tubs on a nearby table and opened them up. The appealing scent soon wafted into every set of nostrils in the room.
Tra'dur's nose visibly twitched and a hungry look came to her eyes. "Sausage stew."
"Fresh from Hargert… when we left anyway," Lucy explained. She nodded to Tra'dur and then Shepard. "One of each type to fit your dietary laws."
"Dietary laws?" asked Garrus.
"Some religions restrict the kinds of food you can have," Robert explained. "Lieutenant Tra'dur follows Hindu dietary law, so no beef. Nothing from the Earth cow, I mean."
"And the other has no pork." Lucy smiled and nodded at Shepard.
Seeing the looks from some of the others, Shepard shrugged. "I've never been a particularly observant Jew, but we don't eat pork. Or anything non-kosher."
Lucy went digging into her pack. "Now we just need some bowls. I thought I packed something…"
Zack jumped up from the seat he took and went to the side of the room. "We're in a school cafeteria, so… yep!" He pulled up a tray with utensils and plain white ceramic bowls and grabbed some spoons from another receptacle. "These should work."
Lucy gave Garrus and Tali an apologetic look. "I'm afraid Hargert didn't have any dextro-compatible food. I did replicate some…" She provided them insulated containers.
"Very thoughtful of you, Lieutenant," Garrus said, accepting one. Tali took the other.
"You've been carrying around that extra weight all day?" asked Kaidan.
Lucy nodded. She gave Meridina a knowing look before saying, "I'm used to dealing with weight."
Meridina returned the look with a small smile. Talara sighed, familiar with the exercises Lucy was referring to.
Robert chuckled, also aware of what she meant, but not saying so. Taking the bowl Zack had given him, he accepted his portion of the stew, selecting the beef sausage variant.
While the bowls were put to use to give out portions, Ashley looked at Tra'dur with some interest. "So your people converted to a Human religion? Why?"
“It's complicated,” Tra'dur observed, “but my mother-Shai preached a dharmic interpretation of our Gods from the copy of the Gita that mother-Kaveri left with her, at the time of our greatest hopelessness after Omelos, when the suicide rate was brutally high. It isn’t that we converted so much as human religion offered a new philosophy of explaining how we were utterly defeated and most of us died at Omelos, and how we might have a path forward from that.”
"To repair your people's broken spirits, your mother embraced a spiritual solution," Meridina remarked.
"There were many more that might have been lost otherwise." Tra'dur gave Lucy a look full of gratitude as she spoke, freely mixing her speech with mouthfuls of the stew. Even inside a building some of the party had difficulty hearing her over the continuous roar of the shelling in the background.
The roar briefly gave way to a particularly loud blast from nearby. For a moment everyone was silent. Robert spoke first, saying, "That was pretty close."
"I'd say we should have found somewhere safer, but there's nowhere in the city that's 'safe' at the moment," Zack said. He looked toward Robert. "I remember your granddad saying a few things about what it was like for him."
"A few, yeah," Robert said. "Grandpa Allen didn't like to relive some of the things he went through, though, so most of his history I only found out after he passed away."
"Your grandfather fought in a war?" asked Ashley.
"Yeah. Our world's World War II, to be precise. He fought in the European Theater against the Nazis." Robert chuckled lightly at that. "So he and I have that in common now."
"That war must have been very different from this one," Tali observed. "I mean, your technology wasn't nearly as advanced."
"No, but it was still vicious." Robert dug a spoon into the stew. "No smart munitions, but they still had lots of artillery, armored vehicles, bomber aircraft. The war killed millions." He glanced toward the window and the distant carnage raging outside. "I was always a little disappointed in how some of his stories didn't have actual fighting in them. Now I suppose I can understand why. He didn't want to relive this part."
"Not many do," Shepard noted. "War is hell."
"I was just a child when my father went to assist with one of the Interdependency's wars with the Coserians," Meridina noted. "He never spoke much of what it was like. It was the one activity in the Order he did not share freely with me."
"Is there anyone who thinks war is something other than bad?" Zack asked rhetorically. "Besides Klingons, I think."
Nobody answered immediately. Slowly, a rumbling chuckle was gaining everyone's attention. Shepard looked to the source and asked, "Something to add, Wrex?"
The Krogan Battlemaster snorted with amusement. "I find it funny that all of you people talk so much about not liking war, but you're always ready to fight them. And people say we're the violent species."
Tra’dur glanced up. “To be honest, I’m not sure if Dilgar are more inclined to like war than humans, or that was just the propaganda of the Old Imperium days and we still live in its shadow.”
"War is often driven by the darkness inside of living beings," Meridina noted. "Fear, anger, hatred. Whether driven by darkness itself or an imbalance in life, it can drive any people into war. And as war fuels such darkness, it spreads to others touched by it, creating a terrible cycle that fuels itself on the darkness war brings to all."
"That's certainly more poignant than 'War is an extension of politics by other means.'" Everyone turned to see King walk into the room. Despite her usual bearing, it was clear she was still a little uncertain on her feet, and her head was wrapped in a white bandage.
"How are you?" Robert asked her.
"The corpsman confirmed the concussion and provided means to reduce the swelling and coax the cells to heal," King replied. "He also made it clear I'm to avoid serious combat if I can. I consider it an act of great forbearance on my part that I did not point out the folly of that restriction in our current situation."
"I suppose you can't blame him for trying," Shepard said.
"It's your pick, Captain," said Lucy. "Sausage stew without pork or without beef?"
"I'll take either," she answered while taking a seat. Zack offered her a bowl. Shortly after he handed it to her the building rattled from another stray shell going off nearby. "I see we are still close to the fighting. Any updates?"
"The Dilgar and Aururians are going to keep pushing down the Horst Wesselstrasse," Robert replied. "To give us as close a jumping off point as they can give us. And some Alliance troops have broken through the Seelow Heights area and are entering the eastern part of the city. We might still hook up with them in the heart of the city, if they manage to keep up the momentum."
"Well, that is excellent news," King remarked. She took a bite of her food and was plainly impressed. "I had forgotten what an excellent cook Mister Hargert is. Thank you kindly for the reminder."
"You're welcome," Lucy said.
In the heart of the Aurora's drive hull, Main Engineering was a hub of continued activity. Scotty kept his place at the control table near the master systems display for the ship, noting all of the yellow and red showing damaged and offline systems.
Barnes approached him, looking tired and frustrated. "Just as I thought," he said. "Primary 4 is down. It's going to require a complete rebuild to get our shields back to full strength."
"Aye. That's what I was expectin' tae hear," answered the older man. "Anythin' else affectin' the shields?"
"Primary 2 is offline for repair, I've got a team that should have it finished in an hour. Section G on Decks 10 through 14 is still on backup power, the power conduit feeding the area needs replacement."
"Did ye make sure th' medbay has full power?"
Barnes nodded. "I did. Secondary lines are up and running. Even if all of Deck 12 loses power, the medbay will still have its lights on."
"Good lad." Scotty sighed and tapped at the table. "We cannae have th' doctors losin' our crew from no power."
"Yeah." Barnes looked over the display. "Anything more about those microfractures in the cooling system?"
"Nae problems so far. I've put a team on settin' up a bypass around th' fracture zone."
"Best we can do until we're in dock," Barnes agreed. He looked over his mentor and noticed the obvious. "It's been a long day, and Thama set up some cots in Section Storage. Why don't you get some rest?"
That got him an irritated glare. "Dinnae ye baby me, Tom." The rebuke was heated, especially since it was clear Scotty knew he needed the rest too.
"I'm not Ju-... the Captain," Barnes countered, correcting himself as he did. "But I figure the Ratzis are gonna be back, and it might be better if we're ready for the long haul, y'know?"
"Aye, I do, an' I'll get a wee bit o' shuteye soon, but I need to brief th' Captain on our progress."
"Why don't you let me do that?" Barnes asked.
For a moment a refusal formed in Scotty's voice, but he stopped himself. "Alright, lad, I'll leave it t' ye. Let me show ye a few things before I head off."
A look at the sensor screen showed Cat she was starting to get close. The instruments Tra'dur had taken with her gave Cat's systems a better look at the specific particle emissions she was seeking. The zone of possibility was shrinking appropriately, becoming a smaller circle in the middle of the capital.
"The results are promising, Cat'Delgado," Tra'dur said in a near-whisper over a commline. Cat could barely hear her over background explosions. "Once we fight into the city center we should be certain."
"And the closer you get, the smaller I can make the circle," Cat said. "I may have an exact coordinate for you by the time you're approaching the middle of the city." After a moment's consideration, she asked, "So, how is everyone?"
"Quite tired. Many of them are asleep or nearly so. Even I may be dozing off soon."
"Yeah. I know the feeling." Cat checked the time and stifled a sudden yawn. She wanted to get to sleep soon, even if it would only be a cot in the lounge and not her bed. "It's really bad, isn't it? The fighting, I mean, and the people dying…"
"It is. Today has been a lesson." There was brief silence on the other end. "I used to wonder what made Fei'nur the way she is. To know she endured this for years, I can hardly imagine staying sane."
"I can't at all," Cat admitted. She remembered Fei'nur, the big bodyguard cyborg for Shai'jhur, undoubtedly over on the Magaratha at the moment. "You know, I thought it was funny to see the way she reacted to replicators, but knowing she had to survive for so long… it's not really funny now."
"Between Balos and the decades on Rohric with the poor food, I am not surprised at all that she is enamored with replicators. Most of my people are. And for those who remember Omelos, who remember food not tainted by spores, real filling meat… Gods, it makes me ravenous just talking about it. And my family runs a meat canning factory to begin with."
Cat giggled quietly. "I'm sorry to make you ravenous," she said. "If I could, I'd send you something."
"Lieutenant Lucero was kind enough to carry Mister Hargert's stew for all of us."
"That's Lucy for you. She always likes to make people feel better. It's part of her 'Life Force Knight' thing or whatever it's called." Cat's eyes examined the long range sensors next. There was no sign of any further ships coming in, although the sensors showed the main fleets still out by Neptune. The battle there was now more of a skirmish, but likely just to give the Nazis time to get reinforcements in. At any time the fleets would likely re-engage. "I should let you get some sleep."
"I appreciate the conversation, but yes, I think…"
Over the line, Cat heard sudden shouting and the distant whine of disruptors. "Tra'dur?" she asked, confused for the moment. "What's going on?"
After several seconds of nothing, Tra'dur's reply came with haste. "I must go, we're under attack!"
In seconds the sound of nearby disruptor fire roused everyone who had actually managed to fall asleep. Hands went to weapons and Robert and Lucy quickly unfolded their robes - they'd been using them as makeshift pillows - and pulled them on over the armor. Garrus' voice came through their short-range commlink. "They're coming from the north. Vehicles, infantry, and mechs."
"Panzergrenadiers, probably," Shepard remarked, putting her shotgun back on its small-of-back mount on her armor. She scooped up the assault rifle last. "How close?"
Everyone heard the shot from Garrus' rifle. "Close enough."
Zack's voice came through next. "My unit's ready."
"Have them take up defensive positions." Robert ran toward the door with Lucy and Meridina trailing, the others behind them. The exit to the north was nearby. Between the energy he was calling upon and the adrenaline rush, any remnant sleepiness was fading. He triggered another comm. "This is Dale to Union command post, status?"
A Dilgar voice responded, "An enemy counterattack has broken through our northern flank. They are closing in on your location."
"We spotted that. Anything else?"
"We have sent troops to support your position. Hold until relieved."
"They won't, then." Robert looked to the others. "We'll stop them." He re-opened the channel to Zack. "Get your unit ready. We're going to give the Nazis a surprise."
The approaching enemy were crossing the wide boulevard of the Horst Wesselstrasse when the naval infantry's return fire reached it's peak. The entire unit was now engaged, using the windows and doorways of the school to fire from cover. Anders and his Marines focused their efforts on the enemy armored forces, power armor infantry and tanks, using the heavier munitions they were equipped with to deal damage to those foes. In turn their return fire struck at the structures of the school, blasting through walls and ruining entire rooms.
Not every shot like this hit as expected, however. One of the tank gunners was surprised to see his shot thrown back to explode in the street, as if it had been deflected.
Having performed that deflection, Robert drew in a breath and felt the life energy within him swell in readiness. When he called upon it again it was to reach out and grasp the offending tank. He caused it to fly upward into the air and twist, after which it landed on another tank, smashing the turrets of both. He repeated the process with another, although this time the tank landed in such a way as to not crush the other tank's turret, simply its main gun.
His senses warned him of the incoming attack. He jumped from the window and hit the ground below with a shockwave of dust, the result of his effort to cushion his landing. Above him several shots from the enemy tanks all struck, blasting much of the upper floor. "Is everyone clear?" he asked into his comm.
"Affirmative," Shepard answered. "Although you gave Garrus a scare. Either way, we're ready."
"Good," Robert replied. "Let's go. Zack?"
"We're ready when you give the signal."
"Consider it given." Having said that, Robert ignited his lightsaber and ran ahead.
From the east side of the school came the rest of the team, weapons blazing, Lucy and Meridina in the lead deflecting incoming fire.
At Robert's signal, the rest of Zack's unit sallied from the damaged school, following Anders' Marines. Their training in field operations, rushed as it had been, taught them enough that with the Marines in the lead, they provided the necessary numbers to the counter-attack to give it a chance.
In the years of the Facility, Zack had seen some terrible things. He'd seen what was left of Human beings starved in work camps and prisons, beaten, tormented, ruined, among other horrors. And there had been fights, true. He'd even once gotten his jaw broken in a tough fight to rescue kids being used as slave labor. Such things had always seemed truly hellish to him.
But that hadn't been this. This kind of fighting, with energy weapons and shellfire everywhere, freaking tanks shooting at you along with heavy weapons on big armored infantry… it was an entirely different kind of Hell. Any moment he could be blown apart or hit by a shot that could overpower his personal forcefield and kill him. The same had been true to an extent while commanding the Koenig, but combat between starships lacked the visceral (sometimes literally so) nature of the battle.
Zack hit the deck as fire swept nearby, narrowly avoiding a disruptor shot. While prone he lifted his pulse rifle and fired it toward the source of the beam. In the night he couldn't see if he hit anyone, but even if he hadn't hopefully his fire was forcing someone to hit the ground or otherwise hold their fire. After squeezing off several more shots while prone he got to his feet and, accompanied by Lieutenant Tachibana and several of the others, kept moving ahead. Their running carried them into the street and to a damaged, abandoned Nazi tank that they used for cover.
Whatever he was accomplishing with his pulse rifle and shouted commands to the other platoons over his commlink, Zack knew it was very little compared to some of the others. Over the other sounds of battle he could hear the booms and thundering from Shepard's biotic attacks and her shotgun. He also thought he heard the occasional high-pitched buzzing of the lightsabers in action. Robert, Lucy, and Meridina were doing more than their share of damage with their powers and their weapons. And Anders and the armored Marines in his unit were doing more damage with their heavier weapons by far.
The enemy noticed this too, and that meant the team heavies were drawing disproportionate attention from the Nazis. "All platoons, keep going," he said, readying himself to go back out. "We've got to keep them off-balance so they don't regroup!" Affirmations from the platoon commanders came over the commlink. He nodded to Tachibana, who smiled thinly and nodded back. "You didn't sign up for this either, did you?"
"Not particularly," she admitted, her voice accented with Oxford English despite her name. An amused glint in her brown eyes made Zack grin. "But I did sign up to stop the Nazis. It's why I'm here and not with my ship."
"Right. Well, here goes!" With that Zack emerged from cover, trying to stay low while spraying pulse fire where he could. He caught one infantry soldier trying to get a bead on him and Tachibana shot the soldier before he could fire. With the rest of the unit they were almost to the other side of the Horst Wesselstrasse and the enemy seemed completely surprised by the attack.
Zack looked to one of the enemy tanks in the road rotating its cannon around to fire on the others. The same rotation turned the turret away from his position with Tachibana. "Cover me," he ordered. She nodded just as he turned away. Zack jumped from cover and pulled a demolition charge from his field uniform's belt. It took only seconds to get close enough to place the charge up on the turret ring, after which he turned and sprinted back toward cover.
Before he could get back, the charge detonated. Spalling from the torn metal tore into the crew space, ripping them apart in the second before the destruction hit the ammo storage. A massive shockwave slammed into Zack, throwing him into the air. He tumbled and landed hard, knocking the air out of his lungs. He sucked in several breaths trying to get over the shock of the hit, wondering briefly if he was more severely wounded.
He was just about certain he wasn't and started to get up when a boot kicked him in the side of the head. Even through his protective helmet Zack felt an impact that might have caused a concussion without said helmet. The world spun in terrible colors as he fell over on his side and looked up at his attacker, a frowning, angry-looking enemy soldier. Strands of blond hair showed around his enemy's face, with hate-filled blue eyes glaring at him, and a pair of SS thunderbolts prominently displayed on his collar beside rank insignia. Wordlessly the soldier brought his disruptor rifle up to shoot Zack, who was still recovering his equilibrium.
There was a powerful impact that splintered the SS trooper's helmet. Blood erupted from the other side of the helmet, joined with some gray matter, and the enemy trooper dropped with a hole in his head. Given the nature of the wound, and the fact there was no flash of pulse fire, Zack guessed at his savior and croaked into the comm line, "Thanks, Vakarian."
"You're welcome," Garrus replied.
Zack got back to his feet and had a moment to take in the battle now that it was on the north side of the boulevard. The counter-attack was working; the SS unit was disintegrating. To the west Dilgar infantry were riding up on mechanized vehicles, joining the counter-attack.
"Are you alright?"
Zack turned his head. Robert was approaching, his lightsaber now off and hanging from his waist again. In his blue armor and those brown robes he was a unique sight compared to the uniformed soldiers and naval troopers around them, including Zack's own field uniform. Sweat coated his forehead, much as it did Zack's own. "Are you alright?" Robert repeated.
"Got my bell rung. Twice." Zack rubbed at his head. "But nothing serious."
"Good." The sounds of battle were moving further away. "The Dilgar got their reinforcements to us. The SS battalion's in full retreat. I'm betting they didn't realize how ferocious your unit could be."
"Or that you were with us," Zack said. "I doubt they planned for three life force whatever users, and certainly not for Commander Shepard."
"Seeing her in action as I have, I don't think anyone can plan for Shepard. Not unless it counts surrendering immediately upon encountering her." Robert chuckled. "So, think you can get back to sleep?"
Zack's reply to that was a harsh laugh. "No. Not happening now."
"Thought so." Robert gestured toward the road leading to the center of the city. "I guess we should press on, then."
"I guess," Zack agreed. "The sooner we get to the center of the city, the sooner this ends."
"Then get your people ready, and I'll alert the others," Robert said. He turned and looked down the road, as did Zack, toward the silhouettes of the city's massive structures in the far distance, barely illuminated by the brief flashes of artillery strikes. "It's time to make our push."