Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 17:23:31 GMT
Hydra Guard Headquarters
Celefra
Capitol Space
It would not be long until the army of Capitol fully dissolved into chaotic warbands. The army commanders and government officials knew this, many of them had fled the capital after plundering the coffers of their units and departments. The enlisted were left to fend for themselves, a directionless horde that crashed against the fortified walls of the Hydra Guards headquarters in a bloody storm of gunfire and artillery. Riots were everywhere but what was going on in the massive dome-like headquarters was nothing short of full, high-intensity war. After several carpet bombing passes by remaining operational bomber squadrons, the fortress was assaulted by the combined force of six different infantry divisions whose dead piled up in mountains around the trenches and defilades of the building. A seventh division had remained in the rear guard, conducting lateral maneuvers all along the front to force the severely depleted, disorganized divisions ahead to grind themselves against the machineguns and minefields of the Hydra Guards' headquarters rather than face them. And no matter how much resistance the fierce Triarii commandos and Inarist fanatics posed, mowing down the assaulting troops by the thousands, they remained a significantly less threatening presence than that one division going back and forth behind the frontlines, the 499th Vanguard. It was the only full-strenght division remaining in the entire battlefield, the ruins of the city were turned into a grotesque necropolis wherever it went.
'Looter', 'Defector', 'Coward', 'Spy', 'Inarist' were the words written in bright red letters on the dead bodies of soldier and civilian alike, strung up and hung from lampposts, antennae and balconies. Everyone who was found fending for themselves, trying to escape, looking for food or water was executed on the spot; only those throwing themselves at the fortified battlements of the Hydra Guards were spared. The 499th scoured the city for any smaller warbands and commander-less units, marching them to the battle and eliminating all those who either resisted or were not in condition to assault the Hydra headquarters. This way they maintained a stream of men and materiel to deplete the defenders as fast as possible. Regardless of training and fanaticism, the internal security forces of Capitol were nowhere near armed enough to face such a tidal wave of bodies and tanks. Every tactic was used, men set fire to their own trenches, donned suicide vests and consumed superstimulants to go down in a berserker rage taking down as many of their frightened enemies with them. They could not understand why did the attackers simply keep coming. If their own ferocity and entrenched positions were not enough to deter them from attacking, something truly inhuman must have been pushing them from the rear.
"Neither pleasure nor pain should enter as motives when one must do what must be done." Laikos spoke after being intubated. A surgical tube went through his mouth into his lungs, draining all the blood and liquefied brain matter that was dripping down his throat from his shattered skull after the Hydra sniper had hit his mark perfectly. Not much remained of his head above the mouth, only one bloodshot eye partially popped out from its orbit by the pressure of the impact. "Thank you brother."
The medic helped the general get up. The rest of the makeshift headquarters had been left half-assembled, equipment thrown all over what was once one of the memorial gardens laid out in front of the massive neoclassical Hydra headquarters. The rest of the command staff was taking cover, looking for other sharpshooters while several IFVs from a recon section lit up the antennae that the sniper hid in until it collapsed in flames. There were a few mid-rank officers present in the improvised camp, kidnapped from their houses and shuttles by Laikos' men and forced to lead their own in a brutal assault; they were as horrified from him getting up as they had been relieved and overjoyed when they thought Laikos had been killed.
"It seems as though the Inarist spirit is still burning strong in certain places." Laikos gargled and finished his walk from the APC to the frontline headquarters like nothing had happened. His bodyguards crowded around him, advancing as a single body around the general, whose blood flooded out of a mangled head. "How long do we have left?"
"Sir, the front is completely breaking down, we can't keep doing this to our own brothers!" An army commander pleaded, a lowly colonel who had been put in charge of multiple entire brigades. "We are just throwing men at them, it's senseless slaughter! Just give me a couple hours, sir! A couple hours is all I'm asking! Let me pull the forces back, we can set up a proper coordinated attack instead of sending so many people to their deaths!"
"Commander Taronoi, you and your men are doing an excellent job. I suggest you do not change a plan while it's working." Laikos asked, coughing up fragments of his skull. The sniper had picked him up from miles away even though he was wearing a rankless battle uniform, he was genuinely impressed.
"It's not working, sir, we haven't gained an inch!" Taronoi pleaded, throwing himself on his knees in front of the general, trembling and squinting to the sound of nearby artillery. "Please, I can't keep on doing this, I don't want to send more of them to die!"
"Commander Taronoi, don't be so hard on yourself." Laikos patted him on the shoulder and leaned over him to offer comfort, inadvertently spilling blood all over Taronoi's back much to his fright and disgust. "I am not asking you to gain any terrain or take any building, I am asking you to throw men at that facility and you are doing a stellar job of it."
Laikos' bodyguards walked up to his side. Imposing men, completely silent, hiding their faces under balaclavas and wearing uniforms similar to the Triarii that were defending the headquarters. Whereas the defenders had loaded themselves to the teeth and brought out every heavy weapon they could find within the labyrinthine marble caverns of the headquarters, Laiko's bodyguards appeared completely unarmed save for combat knives. They looked at the general, awaiting orders, but he kept talking to Taronoi.
"Do you know how long it takes for a good Triarii battalion to rig this entire building up with explosives? Not much, let me tell you. Give them thirty minutes -let alone two hours- and it's all going to be rubble, all 150 square kilometers of it" He slowly patted Taronoi's back. "But with you and your men fighting so gallantly, they can't do as much as take a shit without being overrun. You see, entering the building is my job. Keeping every able-bodied men inside it holding a gun instead of a detonator is yours. And as long as this building remains standing so will the datacenters inside it. And as long as those remain active, we can find out the name of every single last person who our soon-to-be-former empress Inara has chosen to help her with her most unfortunate mistake. And then I will make sure they are all purged from this earth down to the last man; if Inara thinks she can just leave and appoint a replacement she is sorely mistaken."
Laikos stood back up, signaling one of his bodyguards to cover his split-open skull with some gauze so he wasn't bleeding as much. They did so quickly, bandaging his head from the top down.
"Do not despair, commander." Laikos said before his mouth was covered by the gauze. "Keep up the action for a good hour or two more, that'll be enough. For now enjoy the fact that you are participating in the birth of something greater, is that not what you signed up for?"
Shadows crept up the bodies of the bodyguards, shrouding them and blurring them in a thick aura that hid their forms until they were just pitch black silhouettes barely recognizable as soldiers. Laikos began undergoing a similar metamorphosis just as his bodyguards opened their eyes, now glowing red through the dark fog that envelopped them. Slowly they began phasing into the ground, entering the tunnels below, unsheathing their blades.
"Hail the Great State."
Celefra
Capitol Space
It would not be long until the army of Capitol fully dissolved into chaotic warbands. The army commanders and government officials knew this, many of them had fled the capital after plundering the coffers of their units and departments. The enlisted were left to fend for themselves, a directionless horde that crashed against the fortified walls of the Hydra Guards headquarters in a bloody storm of gunfire and artillery. Riots were everywhere but what was going on in the massive dome-like headquarters was nothing short of full, high-intensity war. After several carpet bombing passes by remaining operational bomber squadrons, the fortress was assaulted by the combined force of six different infantry divisions whose dead piled up in mountains around the trenches and defilades of the building. A seventh division had remained in the rear guard, conducting lateral maneuvers all along the front to force the severely depleted, disorganized divisions ahead to grind themselves against the machineguns and minefields of the Hydra Guards' headquarters rather than face them. And no matter how much resistance the fierce Triarii commandos and Inarist fanatics posed, mowing down the assaulting troops by the thousands, they remained a significantly less threatening presence than that one division going back and forth behind the frontlines, the 499th Vanguard. It was the only full-strenght division remaining in the entire battlefield, the ruins of the city were turned into a grotesque necropolis wherever it went.
'Looter', 'Defector', 'Coward', 'Spy', 'Inarist' were the words written in bright red letters on the dead bodies of soldier and civilian alike, strung up and hung from lampposts, antennae and balconies. Everyone who was found fending for themselves, trying to escape, looking for food or water was executed on the spot; only those throwing themselves at the fortified battlements of the Hydra Guards were spared. The 499th scoured the city for any smaller warbands and commander-less units, marching them to the battle and eliminating all those who either resisted or were not in condition to assault the Hydra headquarters. This way they maintained a stream of men and materiel to deplete the defenders as fast as possible. Regardless of training and fanaticism, the internal security forces of Capitol were nowhere near armed enough to face such a tidal wave of bodies and tanks. Every tactic was used, men set fire to their own trenches, donned suicide vests and consumed superstimulants to go down in a berserker rage taking down as many of their frightened enemies with them. They could not understand why did the attackers simply keep coming. If their own ferocity and entrenched positions were not enough to deter them from attacking, something truly inhuman must have been pushing them from the rear.
"Neither pleasure nor pain should enter as motives when one must do what must be done." Laikos spoke after being intubated. A surgical tube went through his mouth into his lungs, draining all the blood and liquefied brain matter that was dripping down his throat from his shattered skull after the Hydra sniper had hit his mark perfectly. Not much remained of his head above the mouth, only one bloodshot eye partially popped out from its orbit by the pressure of the impact. "Thank you brother."
The medic helped the general get up. The rest of the makeshift headquarters had been left half-assembled, equipment thrown all over what was once one of the memorial gardens laid out in front of the massive neoclassical Hydra headquarters. The rest of the command staff was taking cover, looking for other sharpshooters while several IFVs from a recon section lit up the antennae that the sniper hid in until it collapsed in flames. There were a few mid-rank officers present in the improvised camp, kidnapped from their houses and shuttles by Laikos' men and forced to lead their own in a brutal assault; they were as horrified from him getting up as they had been relieved and overjoyed when they thought Laikos had been killed.
"It seems as though the Inarist spirit is still burning strong in certain places." Laikos gargled and finished his walk from the APC to the frontline headquarters like nothing had happened. His bodyguards crowded around him, advancing as a single body around the general, whose blood flooded out of a mangled head. "How long do we have left?"
"Sir, the front is completely breaking down, we can't keep doing this to our own brothers!" An army commander pleaded, a lowly colonel who had been put in charge of multiple entire brigades. "We are just throwing men at them, it's senseless slaughter! Just give me a couple hours, sir! A couple hours is all I'm asking! Let me pull the forces back, we can set up a proper coordinated attack instead of sending so many people to their deaths!"
"Commander Taronoi, you and your men are doing an excellent job. I suggest you do not change a plan while it's working." Laikos asked, coughing up fragments of his skull. The sniper had picked him up from miles away even though he was wearing a rankless battle uniform, he was genuinely impressed.
"It's not working, sir, we haven't gained an inch!" Taronoi pleaded, throwing himself on his knees in front of the general, trembling and squinting to the sound of nearby artillery. "Please, I can't keep on doing this, I don't want to send more of them to die!"
"Commander Taronoi, don't be so hard on yourself." Laikos patted him on the shoulder and leaned over him to offer comfort, inadvertently spilling blood all over Taronoi's back much to his fright and disgust. "I am not asking you to gain any terrain or take any building, I am asking you to throw men at that facility and you are doing a stellar job of it."
Laikos' bodyguards walked up to his side. Imposing men, completely silent, hiding their faces under balaclavas and wearing uniforms similar to the Triarii that were defending the headquarters. Whereas the defenders had loaded themselves to the teeth and brought out every heavy weapon they could find within the labyrinthine marble caverns of the headquarters, Laiko's bodyguards appeared completely unarmed save for combat knives. They looked at the general, awaiting orders, but he kept talking to Taronoi.
"Do you know how long it takes for a good Triarii battalion to rig this entire building up with explosives? Not much, let me tell you. Give them thirty minutes -let alone two hours- and it's all going to be rubble, all 150 square kilometers of it" He slowly patted Taronoi's back. "But with you and your men fighting so gallantly, they can't do as much as take a shit without being overrun. You see, entering the building is my job. Keeping every able-bodied men inside it holding a gun instead of a detonator is yours. And as long as this building remains standing so will the datacenters inside it. And as long as those remain active, we can find out the name of every single last person who our soon-to-be-former empress Inara has chosen to help her with her most unfortunate mistake. And then I will make sure they are all purged from this earth down to the last man; if Inara thinks she can just leave and appoint a replacement she is sorely mistaken."
Laikos stood back up, signaling one of his bodyguards to cover his split-open skull with some gauze so he wasn't bleeding as much. They did so quickly, bandaging his head from the top down.
"Do not despair, commander." Laikos said before his mouth was covered by the gauze. "Keep up the action for a good hour or two more, that'll be enough. For now enjoy the fact that you are participating in the birth of something greater, is that not what you signed up for?"
Shadows crept up the bodies of the bodyguards, shrouding them and blurring them in a thick aura that hid their forms until they were just pitch black silhouettes barely recognizable as soldiers. Laikos began undergoing a similar metamorphosis just as his bodyguards opened their eyes, now glowing red through the dark fog that envelopped them. Slowly they began phasing into the ground, entering the tunnels below, unsheathing their blades.
"Hail the Great State."