[b]Mass Relay Loka[/b]

The Asari 12th fleet sat in orbit around the Mass Relay that took them to the Galactic Center. The fleet of 52 ships was commanded by the newly promoted Admiral Ralla V’ Naari. She stood before her crew in the CIC of the dreadnought Madron watching the data being sent through her holographic sensor display. 20 unknown vessels at over a hundred thousand kilometers away from them. There was a tense standoff as the Asari attempted to hail the strangers several times with no success. 

“Request their surrender. We both know why we’re here anyway.” Ralla ordered to the crew who all knew what she referred to. These vessels all carried the same signatures of the ships that raided their colonies. The few aliens captured gave them a brief glimpse into their language and even motives. They were nothing but pirates.

“We’ve been hailed!” 

“On screen.” The words of the alien language appeared on a hologram for everyone to see. At this point their intent was known. 
Surrender Ships, Weapons and Personnel or DIE.

The entire fleet saw these words and none were particularly enthusiastic about the idea of Surrender. The enemy fleet began to move as their weapons were readying. Ralla decided to sit down in the captain’s chair. While combat meant unnecessary loss of life to the Admiral it was the simplest scenario to deal with regardless of the results “No matter the species, raiders are the same. Commander Mera!” 

Second in command of the Dreadnought Commander Emisa T’ Mera walked to the Admiral’s side and stood at attention. She was rather tall at 6 feet 3 inches, dark blue skin with emerald eyes. “Yes Admiral!”
“Enemy ships appear to be powering weapons and are moving towards us! ETA thirty mins.” The disembodied voice of the ship’s VI said for the entire crew to hear. NIA (Naval Intelligence Assistant) was one of the newer Virtual Intelligence out there. Not necessarily as adaptable and independent as a AI but powerful enough to match one in electronic warfare. It was powerful enough to essentially be borderline AI, but the military allowed it simply to experiment with its capabilities. 

“The situation is escalating what would you advise Commander? If these were usual pirates we would eliminate them with little hesitation, however we know very little of their technology other than their ground personnel preferring plasma based weaponry.” 
Emisa nodded and thought for a minute on the plan. “NIA show us the current battle map.” A screen appeared in front of them showing current fleet movements. The enemy fleet was a collection of rather large and heavily armed vessels. Scans showed that they had enough armaments each to be a serious threat in knife fight range. They clustered together in a long spindle formation. The most heavily armed vessel in front with the nimbler ships towards the rear. “Wouldn’t usual doctrine in this situation call for an envelopment? The only issue I see with that is if it would work against the enemy’s speed. They are unusually quick for ships of their size.” 

“It’ll work Commander you just need to tweak it. Let’s begin.” 

Admiral Naari ordered the fleet to spread their formation far enough to retain some density but also allow for maximum maneuverability. “FIRE!”

On command, the fleet fired repeatedly at the oncoming attackers, but due to their range no shot hit, but instead it forced them to constantly evade fire. Each Asari ship is capable of firing small slugs every two seconds or less forcing the enemy to try and avoid hundreds of slugs each minute slowing down their movement considerably. As they drew closer the Admiral barked another order. “Began a half envelopment. The fleet of cruisers will split into these sections. Frigate flotillas and fighter squadrons go for close quarters combat and harass them. Just be aggressive enough to keep them together no need to neutralize unless they’re open.” The Admiral’s orders along with more precise data for fleet moments were sent to the fleet. With the cruisers moving in a threatening posture the enemy fleet decided to pick up speed and even ignored the constant suppressive fire. They intended to take some damage instead of risking an envelopment. However, as they moved in frigate and fighter squadrons pounced on the enemy with constant attack from Disruptor torpedoes. Each blast from a torpedo caused a small miniature singularity that tore through the shields used by the enemy ships. Lasers from the pirate vessels and fighters cut through space as the skirmish continued to heat up. Combat lasted for over an hour and up to ten frigates took damage and were forced to retreat. 

“The only DEWs kinetic barriers may be able to handle are Plasma based. This isn’t surprising. Let the injured lick their wounds.” 
The Commander watched the fight realizing what the Admiral might be going for. “The enemy fleet is still heading towards us. If they get close enough they’ll break through our formation. It appears the two dreadnoughts are the target.” 
 
The Admiral simply watched the display. She told her fellows the plan already and expected it to be followed through. The pirates charged in quickly and were just in range of the dreadnoughts. While strong the two Dreadnoughts along with the carriers only had ablative armor to deal with directed energy weapons. The Admiral wasn’t too confident in the dreadnought’s ability to handle energy weapons of unknown yields.  Instead she simply was going to let the front-line soldiers beat on them. 

“FIRE”

A hail of slugs from the entire fleet fired. However, most simply fired at a section of space where the pirate fleet was moving towards. The moment they realized this was a trap it was too late. As if moving through a blender the fleet charged through a hail of slugs going at relativistic speeds. Their shields couldn’t take the punishment for more than a few seconds before succumbing. Some made it through attempting to take the dreadnoughts down, but each shot simply melted away some of the heavy dreadnought armor. The rest attempted to retreat.

“Only 50% of their fleet is intact.” 

“Pursue them, keep at least some vessels intact but disabled.” like wasps the frigates and fighters chased after the enemy trying to disable as many ships as possible. They destroyed five vessels with constant fire. Enemy fighters attempted to defend but were overwhelmed. The Admiral’s Dreadnought and its sister shifted positions and simply fired through the ranks of the enemy ships. Constant fire from the capital ships cut through shields and armor. Not long one after another they were beginning to fall. The cruisers began their pursuit and soon the fleet was eliminated. Only two ships were still intact leaving the job to Asari commandoes.

“NIA how many casualties have we received so far.” 

“thirteen frigates were damaged along with twenty fighters. There are approximately 70 casualties with only 20 dead. Your first battle as Admiral was a success.” 

Ralla frowned but knew the VI could notice how anxious organics were. Its attempt at relaxing her didn’t help knowing the most difficult portion still wasn’t over. “The top priority of the boarders are to take prisoners. Even just two is satisfactory to me.” 
“I’ll also inform the Justicar to be ready.” The Commander said as she was ready to leave. 

“Negative! I said I wanted prisoners. Tell Justicar Ametha she cannot step a single foot on that ship. It’s a direct order.” 
The Commander wanted to protest, but decided not to.  It wasn’t unknown that their Commander had a very severe view of Justicars and regardless of how the Asari view them no one wanted to challenge it. “Yes sir!” 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[b]24 hours Post Boarding

Enroute To Aurora[/b]

As the Admiral predicted the boarding of the two pirate ships was the bloodiest part of the struggle. They were large vessels designed to make nearly any boarding action extremely difficult. Up to 120 Asari commandoes participated in the operation. However even with decades of training they were still operating against unknown enemies. Each ship had nearly 200 crew members each. While their plasma weapons were effective biotics and superior training allow the commandoes to succeed. It took hours to clear the vessels, but there were far too many enemy casualties for Ralla to be satisfied. They were only able to capture 20 of the crew who were luckily very willing to talk after seeing most of their comrades get slaughtered. The information they gave up along with coordinates from their ships computers showed the location of their leaders and possibly Asari slaves. 

Ralla was in her quarters with the datapad given to her on the planet Aurora. The entire fleet was enroute to the destination as she examined what little data they had on it. Aurora seemed to be a mostly barren world with a few settlements. Most noticeably the main city is home to a crime lord who essentially commands a small sector of space. The small fleet they attacked was commanded by an ex naval officer who was being paid off for protection. 

“Admiral we’ve arrived in system. It would be preferable if you hurried. Commander Mera seems to mutter several curses to herself.” NIA informed the Admiral

“Thank you for that observation. I’m coming.” 

It took a few minutes but the moment she reached the bridge and saw what was on display she quickly understood. Commander Mera turned towards the Admiral and saluted. “Ma’am, we’ve detected many foreign vessels unlike the pirates we previously encountered. We also received a rather aggressive message. Its likely was sent out a day or two before our arrival.” 

“What does it say?” 

The VI decided to link the recording to the Admiral’s personal omni-tool. The recording played through it. "Listen, non-believers! You may believe that you have been blessed by your false gods, to survive this little and insignificant onslaught! But you too will soon face justice of the Great Journey, soon hellfire will consume you and your loved ones! Spread the word; That the Arrival of the Covenant have been ushered upon this sector, and those who wishes to halt the eventual forthcoming of the Great Journey will falter! If you wish to live for but a glimpse longer, tell all those whom inhabit and taint the planets blessed by the Creators, The Forerunners, that they will soon be cast into hell by the Wrath of the Covenant!"

“Strange, I wonder whose vessels are the Covenant out there. Send down probes to the planet I want to find the main settlement where this crimelord stays. We don’t know whose friend or foe out there so let’s wait a moment before establishing control. I feel like we jumped into a mess already.”