Grand Slaver Army of the Verge
From FABT
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Active: |
3 October - 25 December 2176 CE |
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Organization: |
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Affiliation: |
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Type: |
Division |
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Role: |
Invasion and enslavement of Elysium |
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Size: |
10,000 troops |
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Part of: |
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Headquarters: |
Erszbat (assembly point) |
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Engagements: |
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Commanders: |
General Kharak Rac'megan † |
The Grand Slaver Army of the Verge, also known as the Grand Slaver Army or the Elysium invasion army, was an ad-hoc Hegemony Slaver Corps army assembled by Balak Uhtero and commanded by General Kharak Rac'megan. The brainchild of Balak Uhtero, an ambitious and well respected military commander in the Hegemony Armed Forces, the grand slaver army was an idea first touched upon by Balak during his earlier slaver raids against human colonies. In 2170 CE, following the Sack of Mindoir and hundreds of human civilians being captured and sold into slavery, Balak approached the Supreme Regent with the idea of stepping up the Slaver Corps' operations by attacking a massive human colony, with the aim of enslaving hundreds of thousands of humans and striking fear into humanity, hopefully halting their expansion into the Skyllian Verge in the process and taking all the worlds the Hegemony claimed was theirs. The Regent approved the idea, and Balak began assembling the the resources for a massive army and fleet of well over ten thousand troops and 400 vessels all for the purpose of attacking a large human colony. The army consisted of ten thousand ships, roughly an infantry division, accompanied by a single tank brigade of 100 tanks and three squadrons of 23 aircraft: air support for the army was very minimal, but it was believed the slaver fleet would cover for this with their own aircraft, and that once orbital superiority was established, air cover would be effectively secured. While Balak himself commanded the fleet, Kharak Rac'megan, a formerly retired general in the Hegemony Army and who had then-recently re-enlisted through the Slaver Corps, was given command of the surface attack, with Rac'megan chosen for his service record and experience leading large armies. By October 2176 CE, the army was fully assembled, along with the fleet, being ready to go and officially activated. Balak chose to delay until the 25th of December so the attack could take place on the human holiday of Christmas, where he believed the humans would be their most vulnerable.
On 25 December 2176 CE, the grand slaver fleet jumped into the system, cleared Elysium's airspace, and the army was rapidly deployed in transports and assault craft to Elysium's surface to commence the attack. Deploying in the streets of the capital city Valhalla, the army was able to form ranks whilst artillery and orbital fire suppressed Alliance defensive batteries and kept their troops bunkered down while the batarian army got into position to advance. Once the army was fully deployed, it advanced on the city center, where it was believed the Alliance would gather its civilians for evacuation, but to get there they had to advance through the greek markets, which had narrow streets and passageways that made it difficult for their vehicles to navigate, narrowing into two streets passing in parallel to each other. Despite this, Rac'megan was confident the Alliance would be in chaos and would be unwilling to mount a counterattack against their numbers, so he ordered a full advance on the city center. However, having predicted this, Lieutenant Shepard had set up a series of traps and ambushes within the greek markets and waited for the slaver army, hopefully to buy time for this squad to evacuate the civilians out of the city, ordering them to bypass the city center and head into the hills surrounding the city. As the slaver army tried to pass through the greek markets, Shepard repelled them time and time again, his efforts being so successful that Rac'megan believed he was facing a larger force than he actually was. Many attempts were made to dislodge Shepard from his excellent defensive position, but he refused to budge, and every attempt was repelled with heavy casualties. As Rac'megan realized what he was actually up against, he ordered one final charge against Shepard's position but was once again repulsed, with his escape cut off by fallen buildings and the streets so badly damaged that his remaining vehicles had no space to maneuver, and they were picked off, disabled or abandoned. Rac'megan himself was killed in the final charge when he was engaged in a melee with Shepard, and while he managed to stab the human in his side with his knife, Shepard followed up by shoving his own combat knife up into Rac'megan's jaw, before proceeding to bash his skull in with his rifle. The slaver army was broken by this final attack, with 9,400 of the 10,000 strong force killed: the rest either surrendered to Shepard or to the Alliance forces when they arrived to finish off the slaver forces.