Next:	Skirmish in the Vetus System
Battle of Elysium Part of the Skyllian Blitz
The SSV Shiloh, with 6 SX5 Yellowjackets from the SSV Queen Elizabeth, dive bomb the batarian slaver fleet from above.
Date:	25 December 2176 CE
Location:	Valhalla / Elysium / Vetus / Petra (surface) In orbit over Elysium / Vetus / Petra (orbit)
Outcome:	Tactical Alliance victory Marcus Shepard, against all odds, managed to rout an enemy force of over 10,000 Reinforcements from Second Fleet destroy the majority of the slaver fleet, which will later be finished off at the Vetus system Most of Charlie Squad is wiped out Beginning of the Skyllian Blitz Large-scale damage to infrastructure on Elysium
Belligerents Systems Alliance Batarian Hegemony Commanders Donald Korin † Marcus L. Shepard Martinez Cogs Erik Jensen † Elanos Haliat Kharak Rac'megan † Strength Systems Alliance Navy Second Fleet 104 Mermaid-class corvettes 33 Warsaw-class light frigates 7 Melbourne-class heavy frigates SSV Agincourt 25 Saratoga-class light cruisers 11 Geneva-class heavy cruisers 3 Kilimanjaro-class dreadnoughts 1 SSV Shasta 400 SX3 fighters 67 |SX5 interceptors 1 Charles de Gaulle-class supercarrier SSV Queen Elizabeth Systems Alliance Colonial Army Elysium Colonial Guard 2,000 troops Systems Alliance Marine Corps 52nd Valhalla Garrison Charlie Squad 600 marines Hegemony Slaver Corps Grand Slaver Army of the Verge 10,000 troops 100 tanks 23 aircraft Grand Slaver Fleet of the Verge 404 ships 13,000 aircraft Casualties Stf Sgt.Roshia Pelps Sgt Mj. Donald Korin LCpl. Joseph Summers LCpl. Zach Walsh Clnl. Erik Jensen Most of the 52nd Valhalla Garrison wiped out Two thirds of the Elysium Colonial Guard 5 SX3 fighters 13 A-61 Mantis gunships Grand Slaver Army of the Verge wiped out 9,471 ground troops killed 67 tanks destroyed, 9 disabled, 7 abandoned All aircraft shot down Grand Slaver Fleet of the Verge decimated 363 ships destroyed, 16 severely damaged All aircraft destroyed General Kharak Rac'megan

"I've never seen anything like it...an army of ten thousand, right at our gates, ready to enslave us and ruin our lives. But there he stood...the Lion of Elysium. He wasn't just the gatekeeper; he was our hero."

— A human farmer describing Marcus' actions at the Battle of Elysium.

The Battle of Elysium was a large-scale invasion of the planet Elysium by forces of the Hegemony Slaver Corps led by Balak Uhtero on December 25, 2176 CE. The battle saw the largest deployment of troops since the Krogan Rebellions, with 10,000 assault troops deployed on the ground, and a slaver fleet of just over 400 vessels. Considered the most ambitious and brutal slaving operation of the last millenia, it was believed that the operation would quickly overrun the garrison stationed there, allowing them to enslave Elysium's population of 8.3 million. However, after the attack on Mindoir six years earlier, Alliance patrols had doubled, especially in core systems; the entire Second Fleet (whose headquarters are on Elysium) was patrolling near Gilead when the slaver fleet launched its offensive. The 52nd Valhalla Garrison, while initially overwhelmed, was able to successfully evacuate civilians from the frontlines. There, Marcus Shepard made his historical last stand, famously slaughtering almost the entirety of the ten thousand strong batarian army. Not long after, the Second Fleet arrived and routed the slaver fleet.

The Battle of Elysium is historically seen as the final straw for the Alliance after Mindoir and led to the full-scale military retaliation known as the Skyllian Blitz which would end the Hegemony's activity in the Skyllian Verge altogether, leaving it with a humiliating military defeat.