“The last of the Interceptor wings has successfully returned to the hangar, ma’am.” A quarian reported while Revan focused on the tactical holo.

“Status?”

“Three fighters destroyed and eight with minor damages. Replacements have already been rotated in so the wings will be at full strength for the next deployment.”

That was good news. The galaxy as a whole had very little information about the Reapers’ tools besides the Husks that had been widely deployed before the main arrival and the handful of reports made about Sovereign’s capabilities before it was destroyed. Something Revan and her Admirals had been worried about was that the murderous machines would have small scale fighters that vastly out-performed anything they could produce.

And while the Eye-droids did have the advantage in speed and maneuverability thanks to the lack of a pilot, it wasn’t so great that it couldn’t be overcome thanks to the greater durability the ray-shield systems offered Revan’s own Interceptors and the non-kinetic based weaponry.

In fact even a standard SA fighter would theoretically be capable of destroying an Eye-droid one-on-one as long as its weapons were upgraded.

A crucial factor since as the war dragged on both ships and experienced pilots would become harder to come by, where the Reaper forces would remain at the same level or improve. That the existing designs could compete should Revan manage to supply them with the weapons they needed meant that many more pilots would return after a fight and that she could rely on them as more than blaster-fodder to preserve her own forces.

The bigger issue was the medium to large scale ships.

Revan wasn’t immediately sure if the local Turian fleet had been crushed by superior numbers or simply because the Reapers out-classed them so much – perhaps a combination of both – but by debris alone it seemed for every Reaper they had destroyed, the Turians lost three to four ships of their own.

Completely unsustainable.

Drowning your enemies in your own blood only worked if you outnumbered them. Which they did not.

Now it was time to see how the Reapers fared against ships not built following the design path they left behind fared against them.

“Enemies passing maximum effective range in ten seconds, Empress! Orders?”

“Launch sixty percent of our fighters, thirty of our bombers. I want them enveloping the enemy’s flanks. Have the main battleline ready to split in wing formation four with the Flag as the centerpoint on my command.”

Once again, the bridge crew rushed to carry out their orders as Revan spread her awareness out into the Force.

Twenty ships vs her own fifteen…not to mention the enemy reinforcements already in-system and an unknown amount more on the other side of the planet…

This was not a battle she could afford to get pinned down in.

She nodded minutely to herself and confirmed her opening strategy.

“Enter formation.”

At her order her escorts split off into four groups of three, spreading out diagonally in all directions while the two other Harrowers formed up in a line with Revan’s ship in the middle.

From there every ship began slowly advancing while angling slightly away from the incoming Reaper group, creating a gradually expanding cone with escort class ships at the edges and the larger, slower Harrowers acting as a hammer.

“Ion cannons, focus on the capital ships. Once those are disabled, destroyers, focus on picking off their escorts. I want bomber groups targeting their main weapons, fighter groups – guide them in. All other guns – fire at will.”

Space erupted in a frenzy of lights as red turbolasers and blue ion cannons fired, as starfighters accelerated out into the void and dogfights broke out against the Reapers’ starfighters. Revan could feel the deck below her vibrate slightly as the Harrower unleashed its considerable armament against the enemy.

Then came the most excruciating part of a battle for a commander.

Trusting others to do what was needed.

Revan had given her orders. It was up for the ship captains to carry them out. Not only would attempting to micromanage them be detrimental, it would likely blind her to the reaction from the Reaper group. She was under no illusion that this battle would be as overwhelmingly one-sided as the first one.

Instead she expanded her vision and began looking for traps set by the enemy forces and how she could counter them.

“Have fighter group six break off, they are being led into an ambush.” The Sith Empress ordered as she moved her viewpoint throughout the battlefield. “And bomber group three redirected to Reaper Capital Ship 04. Its hull has a breach on its starboard side – I want proton torpedoes in that hole before it recovers its kinetic barrier. Hunter groups, there is a squadron of Eye-droids targeting the aft of Escort 07 – I want them destroyed…”

Revan continued barking out orders even as reports about ship statuses flooded in before her.

So far the combination of kinetic barriers and particle shields had prevented any major hits from the Reapers’ main armaments while ray shields were only slightly effective, but the constant strain of trying to deflect the main beam weapon even the destroyer class Reapers used were causing some of the shield generators to come dangerously close to overheating or straight out failing in some cases.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Two escorts had been targeted by multiple Reapers at once and had taken glancing hits that burned holes in their duralloy metal hulls.

Minor damage from what she could see, but proof that even Imperial ship designs were able to be destroyed by the genocidal spaceships.

It was not all bad news though.

A particularly clever Captain of one of her escort class ships had taken to rolling his ship to spread the attack over a larger area, allowing different generators to take some of the strain even if it meant fewer guns available to face the enemy. By coordinating with the two other escort ships in his group, they had been able to focus fire on one Reaper after the other. Destroying two of the enemy escorts and even one of the Capital class ships with a lucky shot to the core.

And that was something else Revan quickly noticed.

While the Reapers’ kinetic barriers made missile and ballistic attacks almost futile, they did not perform nearly as well against the heavy turbolasers or proton torpedoes Revan’s ships used. Make no mistake, the techno-organic hulls were incredibly durable and took several direct hits to damage significantly. But the Harrowers alone had over thirty turbolasers, not counting the rest of their armament.

Even the Capital class Reapers were quickly getting chewed to pieces.

Revan frowned as another two Reapers were destroyed. Even with the damage her fleet was accumulating…this seemed too easy.

She focused her Far Sight on the rest of the system. More of the Reapers were breaking off from Palaven and vectoring towards her fleet, but they were taking very wide paths for it – almost like they were trying to encircle her.

Ah, that was the trap.

The Sith took a moment to look more closely at the remaining ships the battlegroup was engaged with to confirm her thoughts. The remaining Reapers were starting to ignore the increasingly damaged escort ships and were accelerating into the heart of her formation without attempting to finish them off – directly towards the Harrowers.

“Order all ships to reverse course and recall all starships.”

The communications officer paused and looked back at her and then towards the ship’s captain. “A-are you sure...Empress?” he added belatedly.

Revan pushed aside the desire to snap at him to follow orders. It was understandable. From their point of view their side was winning decisively even if it wasn’t bloodless. Even if they couldn’t fight every Reaper in the system, they could still destroy this group with little risk before the other enemies could get close.

There was no reason to run away.

“Do it now.” Revan’s order gave no room for objection. But once the orders were delivered she allowed her voice to soften a little and explain. “The Reapers are preparing to ram our center directly. They no longer care if we destroy every ship here as long as they disable the Harrowers.”

“Permission to speak?” The Ship Captain asked to which Revan nodded.

“Only Harrower-03 has shield generators in the yellow. If we simply rotate the Harrowers to lower incoming fire even if all remaining Reapers managed to score direct hits with their main weapon, we should be able to shrug it off and maneuver away before their reinforcements got close.”

“Even if the Reaper lands on the ship?”

Revan’s question made the crew twitch. Understandable, since avoiding collisions in space was simply common sense. But the Reapers didn’t share that belief, there was no reason for the ‘leg’ segments to open as wide as they did otherwise and now that the Sith was looking for it, she could see a few Turian wrecks that looked like they had been physically torn apart rather than from an explosion.

“This is just the first battle,” Revan reminded them all. “We’ve proven we can defeat the Reapers in a straight fight, we’ve shown with certain advantages we can demolish them. What we cannot do is throw away our lives by forgetting the bigger picture.”

There was some grumbling among the crew that hardened into determination as they reminded themselves that the galaxy was now at war. Some clearly didn’t agree with Revan to retreat while they had the advantage, but all of them leaped back into their tasks with new focus.

Nodding to herself, Revan gave the final orders to engage the backup FTL drives and jump out of system to every ship where they would rendezvous before heading back to Imperial space. There was no need to show off the hyperdrives to the Reapers just yet. That would be a trump card for another time.

It was just the first battle, afterall, and they had already won where it mattered.

-o-

Shepard fired her shotgun at the last Husk remaining and took a bit of pleasure in how it exploded before looking around herself and frowning. They might have won this battle, but they had already lost where it mattered.

Palaven and its moons were still burning. And neither her nor the Normandy could do anything about that. But they still needed the new Primarch out of here if there was going to be any chance of getting the Council to actually put effort into saving themselves and the rest of the damned galaxy. And as much as the Commander didn’t like it or them right now, she needed to put those frustrations aside and build alliances if they were going to gather the resources to build the Prothean superweapon Liara had found in the Mars facility.

“Area’s clear, Shepard. Come on, the general is just up ahead.” Garrus called as he jogged back up to her and James. It had been a welcome surprise to run into him on Mavae, but Shepard wasn’t going to turn down a friendly face. Even if she was a little jealous Garrus had managed to keep the blaster rifle Revan had gifted the Normandy Specialists while her own were snagged by Alliance R&D and she was back to using unmodded, mass-produced crap until she could source better weapons.

“Let’s give him a moment to get sorted out.” Shepard suggested, seeing General Victus organizing the remaining defenders after they had repelled the latest assault. “James, any news from the Normandy about those issues earlier? Or about the mystery fleet that appeared on the other side of the planet?”

“Nada, Commander. Not sure if there’s a problem or the Normandy just isn’t talking right now.” The Alliance marine replied.

“Damn. Okay, let me know if that changes.”

The Normandy breaking down was just about the last thing they needed right now, but it had fled Earth while halfway through renovations. There was no telling what could break when pushed as hard as the Normandy had the last few days.

But that fleet was also a concern.

Fifteen ships of unknown design appearing out of FTL on the other side of Palaven smack dab in the middle of a Reaper invasion. And the only reason they knew about them were a handful of surviving satellites relaying the information back to the Turian central command post.

With the Turian fleet getting torn apart in space already, there simply hadn’t been the resources or time to send a ship around to establish communications, so Shepard had no idea who they were or what they were doing here.

Part of her hoped it was some client Race of the Turians coming to assist – she didn’t exactly know every model of ship in the galaxy – since if Palaven was retaken that would make convincing the Turians to spare a few fleets to assist Earth much easier. The rest of her simply hoped those ships wouldn’t bring more problems.

“Alright looks like he’s done. Let’s go get our Primarch and then get out of here.” She said, seeing Victus making his way over to their group.

“Commander Shepard of the Normandy,” the General started once he was within speaking distance. “I know who you are, and I can’t wait to find out what brings you out here.”

Taking a half second to wonder if that was a good thing or a bad thing and ultimately choosing to just ignore it, Shepard got straight to the point. “General, you’re needed off planet. I’ve come to get you.”

The general gave her an almost dismissive glare before shifting to look out towards the destroyed outpost. “It will take something beyond important for me to leave my men, or my turian brothers and sisters, in their fight.” He responded.

“General–” Garrus started before he was interrupted.

“Vakarian – there you are, where did you go?”

Garrus chuckled. “Heavy Reaper unit on the right flank. I believe your exact words were ‘get that thing the hell off my men.’”

“Appreciate it.” Victus snorted. “Now what’s so important?”

“Fedorean was killed – you’re the new Primarch.”

Victus’s mandibles opened in what Shepard assumed was ‘complete shock’. She seized the opening to try and convince the man to leave even though every cell in his body was likely screaming at him to stay on Menae to directly fight the Reapers.

“You’re needed immediately to chair a summit and represent your people in the fight against the Reapers.” She said softly, knowing from personal experience how hard what she was asking him to do was.

Victus barely seemed to hear her as he slowly walked forward, eyes locked on Palaven, as he just…watched the planet burn.

“I am primarch of Palaven?” he murmured. “Negotiating for the Turian hierarchy?”

“Yes.” Shepard replied simply.

The new Primarch looked back at her and despite the alien biology, Shepard saw that this had shaken Victus more than the invasion itself.

“I’ve spent my whole life in the military. I’m no diplomat…I hate diplomats!”

“War is your resume Primarch,” Shepard said, reinforcing the title. “At a time like this we need leaders that have gone through that hell. And honestly? Uniting these races may take as much strength as facing the Reapers.” Shepard pointed all around them, “See this devastation, Primarch? Double that for Earth. I need an alliance. I need the turian fleet.”

Victus gave her a long stare that quickly hardened into resolve.

“Give me some time to say goodbye to my men.” he said, to which Shepard simply nodded.

“Without him down here, there's a good chance we lose this moon.” Garrus said quietly as the General walked away.

“Without him up there,” Shepard replied just as quietly, “There’s a good chance we lose everything.”

“Spirits,” Garrus exhaled. “You think you can win this thing, Shepard?”

The Commander smiled a bit, even if the mantle of responsibility she carried felt just a bit heavier. “Yeah, I don’t know, Garrus. But I’m sure as hell going to give it my best shot.”