Attack on Tuchanka

From FABT

Previous:

Aralakh Incursion

Concurrent:

Skirmishes at Thanatos Epsilon

Next:

Battle of Thanatos Epsilon

Attack on Tuchanka
Part of the Rachni counteroffensive of 48 CE (Fourth Rachni War)
Rachni2.pngA lone rachni soldier during the attack, separated from the rest of the horde.

Date:

3 April 48 CE

Location:

Across the Que'k Wastelands / Daggo / Tuchanka

Outcome:

Tuchankan victory

  • Failure of the rachni counteroffensive to cut off the krogan from their heartland
  • The rachni invasion is repulsed with heavy casualties, and the rachni give up all attempts to take Tuchanka by military conquest
  • The krogan's will to be victorious over the rachni is only strenghtened due to the attack on their homeworld
Belligerents

KroganInsignia.png Tuchankan Empire

RachniInsignia.png First Rachni Collective

Commanders

KroganInsignia.png Zroksan Kredak

KroganInsignia.png Juntor Moro

KroganInsignia.png Nartak Shiagur

KroganInsignia.png Nartak Srurro

KroganInsignia.png Nakmor Train

KroganInsignia.png Urdnot Toga

KroganInsignia.png Weyrloc Grenda

RachniInsignia.png
Neon Enlightened

RachniInsignia.png
Light Will Dance Again

RachniInsignia.png
Dread Discounted

Strength
  • 1 Rachni cruiser
  • 6 million rachni workers
  • 50,000 rachni soldiers
  • 250 brood warriors
  • 3 rachni queens
Casualties
  • 3,200 troops killed
  • 25 vehicles destroyed, 18 more rendered out-of-action
  • 2 keeps heavily damaged from rachni bombardment
  • Rachni cruiser destroyed
  • All workers killed
  • All soldiers killed
  • All brood warriors killed
  • All 3 queens killed, with a third captured alive only to be executed later and its head used as a trophy.
 
"The attack on Tuchanka could have been all the rachni needed to put a stop to our rise to power before it began. They could have swarmed over Tuchanka's radioactive wastelands and snubbed us out. But they couldn't. We weren't weak like salarians, or squishy like the asari. We were of Tuchanka, and with its hot sands, poisoned air and angry children, the krogan grew only stronger. We were born in these harsh environments. The rachni couldn't see that until it was too late. They fought with numbers, aiming to swamp us...so we responded back, like an angry roar, and we ripped and tore them apart. And from that point on, we made it our mission to make sure nothing the rachni built would stay standing. They had dared to desecrate Kalros' wastes with their filthy footsteps. We would make them pay for that, and so we did."
— A krogan historian, detailing the second and last rachni attack on Tuchankan soil.

The Attack on Tuchanka, also known as the Great Rachni Hunt by some krogan historians, was a massive assault waged by forces of the First Rachni Collective on the krogan homeworld of Tuchanka during the earlier phases of the Fourth Rachni War on 3 April 48 CE. The attack was intended to set the stage for a larger rachni invasion of Tuchanka, correcting the mistake of their original invasion and withdrawal in 43 CE that had resulted in failure. At the time of the rachni's first contact with the krogan, the Third Rachni War was coming to its conclusion, with all remaining Council forces retreating to the Eastern Line to attempt to salvage their botched offensive. A rachni fleet had been exploiting the Eastern Line's vulnerable southern flank when it came across Tuchanka, mistaking the krogan presence there for a yet unidentified third Council race. Knowing nothing about this foe, the rachni fleet assumed they were weak (otherwise the Council would have deployed them in war) and deployed an invasion force to take the planet: thousands of dead rachni later, and the krogan were not only made aware of outside life in the galaxy other than their own, but the rachni had learned the krogan were too primitive to be part of the Council, and chose to abandon it (although many krogan historians argue it was because they had realized they had finally met their match, and chose to leave the krogan alone). As such, the rachni's brief first encounter with the krogan did not go well, and there were no further attempts to invade the planet.

The coming of the Fourth Rachni War soon changed this perspective. The salarian STG had observed and exploited this weakness, making note of the failed invasion and using it to justify uplifting the krogan and making them a spacefaring race. The Tuchankan Empire provided fresh troops, resources and equipment to an otherwise exhausted Council military, and brought a counter to the rachni that they were not expecting. When the war broke out, and it was krogan warships and troops attacking them, not the Council, the rachni were taken entirely by surprise. Battle after battle was lost, with the rachni securing a few minor victories, with their earliest major defeat being at Tregegard. Despite being new to the interstellar stage, the krogan had proven themselves a dire threat to the rachni, and thus the subject of an invasion of Tuchanka was looked at again. And this time, the rachni were determined to conquer the krogan and rip out the source of the Council's new armies before they overwhelmed them. Part of a new counteroffensive meant to set the krogan off balance, the rachni dispatched a large fleet to invade Althak Vepar and take control of it before the krogan could develop large enough autonomy to defend it. The Aralakh Incursion was a success, and the rachni quickly gained control of the system, and began deploying troops across the surface of Tuchanka, this time across numerous landing zones, instead of one concentrated one like they had before, while a rachni cruiser remained in low orbit to provide fire support and bombard krogan settlements. This cruiser managed to destroy the keeps of two minor krogan clans, and the rachni quickly overran their landing zones, securing them and planning where to attack next. The stage was set for a rachni victory, but they had once again underestimated their enemy. The krogan were proven to be far more efficient and relentless than initially predicted, and had already constructed a massive planetary cannon at a specialized military facility. The weapon was enormously powerful, with the krogan boasting that it bissected the rachni cruiser and destroyed it in a single hit, despite its shielding. The cruiser's wreckage crushed one of the landing zones, and cut the rachni off from their supply of fresh troops. Despite this, they pressed on with their assault on numerous keeps in the nearby area, among them being Urdnot Keep, Weyrloc Keep and Juntor Keep, the most powerful krogan clans in the region.

The krogan fought viciously against the invaders, and one krogan legend suggests that a special horn was blown by Nakmor Train to summon thresher maws to aid the krogan in their battle. However, while thresher maws were observed attacking rachni during the battle, it was also noted that they attacked krogan as well and that they killed indiscriminately: there is also no proof that this horn, known as the "Horn of the Calling" in krogan mythology, was ever in possession of Clan Nakmor, or that it ever existed, and this claim has largely been dismissed as krogan propaganda or drunken fancy. What can be confirmed was that it was Weyrloc Grenda who led the countercharge into the rachni lines, Urdnot Toga who personally slew six hundred rachni soldiers, Juntor Moro who single-handedly killed dozens of brood warriors before killing the rachni queen they protected, Zroksan Kredak (then-ward of Juntor Moro, whose clan had conquered Clan Zroksan a century ago) who bore hand-made armor made out of rachni chitin and was said to have lured a large force of rachni to the Great Hammers of Vaul, where he proceeded to fight off countless numbers of rachni troops, his blood rage fueling him until none were left and he started fighting his own men, looking for further blood shed; and Nartak Shiagur, brood-mother of Clan Nartak, who rallied the female clans to arms, and led them to annihilate an entire rachni force to the north of Nartak Hall and secure one of the landing zones personally, but not before dragging the second of three rachni queens, alive and kicking, back to Nartak Hall where she then had it beheaded and its head preserved and displayed on the wall, where it remains to this day.

The attack was yet another disaster for the rachni. They had once again underestimated their foe, and their ground forces routed and destroyed. Unlike last time, none of their forces were allowed to escape, and the skin of their fallen brethren was taken by the krogan and used by Zrokan Kredak to build an armor that was resistant to rachni acid, and would be used by the Purgetrooper Corps of the Tuchankan Imperial Army in the latter stages of the war to venture deep into rachni nests and purge them of all life. It would be the last time the rachni ever laid foot on krogan soil, and after a brief naval engagement, the rachni fleet was soon forced to withdraw as well, abandoning all hopes of ending the war quickly.

The battle also has a longer standing legacy. Shiagur, then only the wife of a weak and low-regarded krogan chieftain, had made a name for herself when she took the opportunity to undermine her husband's authority and personally led an assault against the rachni. The clan saw her as a hero, but upon her husband's return, she handed over her shotgun, demonstrating her devotion to the krogan gods and her subservience to krogan tradition, which dictated women only fight when needed for survival. Srurro saw this as a mockery however, perceiving her heroics as an attempt to emasculate him and a challenge to his power. He invoked the Rite to Chiefdom, confirming Shiagur's challenge to his chieftainship. Shiagur killed him in the ensuing duel, and became the first female chieftain to exist under the Tuchankan Empire, and one of krogan history's most famous krogan warlords. Shiagur's legacy was secured in the Fourth Rachni War.

Prelude[edit | edit source]