Post by nocreditneo on Nov 10, 2021 3:25:29 GMT
West Lorena ruins, New Tetrearch, Anderson System, Ancerious Congressional Republic Space
Something unnatural stirred beneath the ruins of the city wracked by the devastation of the Shadows War. For years now no one questioned why the city planners used a set of pre built tunnels as the city's foundation or where they led to. At the heart of the planet layed a slumbering menace, an ancient empire that long ago went into hiding to avoid the devastation of the ancient wars. Inside a decorative cryo chamber a cadre of individuals slept for millenia.
“Warning, Warning, Power levels critical. Initiating recovery status.” An automated voice chimed inside the room to itself.
The Chambers hissed and whirred and as old hydraulics were moved for the first time in millenia. The individuals were taken from the walls into the centre of the room. Their tubes opened up as machinery snaked across their naked forms to reawaken long dormant organs.
“Revival process, complete. Welcome back My lords and Ladys. It is currently the year nine, nine, ni-” The voice cut out as an audible screech took over the speakers.
“Selene, take Aeneas and go to the control and see what’s going on.” Lord Dorian commanded.
“Everyone else get dressed and get ready, we may have to fight our way out of here.” He said again and was greeting with a round of acknowledgments.
In the control room Dorian could see for himself the situation he and his remnants were in, the sun had been dimmed, their homeworld left to freeze and become a desolate hellscape. It was truly the end times he had feared and had protected against. He turned the Aeneas, with a face mixed with hope and despair.
-
“How many?” Dorian asked solemnly
“Just us milord, whatever happened here killed our people or disabled their life support.” Aeneas said with tears welling in his eyes.
Dorian slumped in a nearby chair and wept for a moment before regaining his composure. He stood up proud and looked to his subordinates. He began to channel mana around him and into the console in front of him.
“IF THEY’RE GOING TO TAKE OUR PEOPLE AWAY THEN WE SHALL DO THE SAME, RISE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, YOU WILL HERALD THE DOOM FOR THIS GALAXY THAT HAS FORSAKEN US.” Dorian shouted as the others joined him in channelling energy.
“Dorian you can’t just assault the whole galaxy, its ludicrous!” Selene said angrily at his declaration.
“THEN WE WILL FORGE A NEW NATION, ONE FORGED FROM THE UNTIRING ADVANCE OF OUR FALLEN.” He said again channelling with the other.
-
“Very well, i’ll prepare a list of targets for us to conquer.” She said going through the computer.
All around the planet a malevolent green energy buzzed through wires finding their way to their intended targets. Slowly the millions of dead began to reanimate, breaking out of their cryo tubes by force and walking quickly to organise themselves on the underground fleet waiting to launch. Around the planet the few ACR outposts began sending distress signals as the ground shook and sections opened up to reveal the massive cavities below. One by one the outposts were taken offline by the hordes of undead as ginormous ships rose from the earth into space. Dorian's conquest was about to begin.
-
Presidental office, Prime City, Marn system, Ancerious Congressional Republic Space
“President Welkin sir we should consider the possibility that we may need to evacuate-” The Presidential Guardsmen was cut off.
“What example would that set to everyone if I left at the first sign of trouble? These people are probably confused as if our readings are right, they only just emerged from Anderson. I’ll open a dialogue with them first before I consider a military option.” President Louis Welkin said firmly to his guard.
There were several attempts made to communicate with the oncoming ships before a message was finally received. One that Welkin would rather not receive.
“Submit to the New Order of the Avarian or be a footnote in its establishment.” Welkins secretary read out loud.
“Send the Prime Fleet, they’re gonna find that others have taken residence here are not going to give it up easily.” Welkin commanded
-
In orbit the Prime fleet moved to engage the new enemy who was rapidly approaching from the systems edge. If timed correctly they would meet at the mid point between the other edge and Marn Prime. Although it took hours it seemed like only a heartbeat until the two fleets were in engagement range, to the surprise of the Fleet commander the enemy bypassed the Prime Fleet and continued its course. Their ships took everything the Prime fleet had but it still wasn’t enough with only one confirmed downing of an enemy ship. Soon the vast orbital array opened fire and still having the same effect the strangest thing was that they weren’t returning fire, they took hits but never returned fire, until they got into orbit of the planet. Quickly orbital platforms began going dark as did the initial return elements of the Prime fleet, boarders seemed to be the main cause of their demise with dozens of torpedoes sticking out of the ACR ships. Then entire chunks began breaking away from the main ships and plummeting towards the ground, articulating and countering the force of gravity to come to a rough but stable landing outside the city limits in the various wastelands that dotted the landscape.
-
Hours had passed at this point and Welkin was getting uncomfortable in his office finally, who were these people and how could such power have been beneath the Republic's notice. It was insane to think about but they were currently on the defensive in their capital.
“Diplomatic districts are being locked down and the national guard is in the later stages of mobilisation. The first combat units should be meeting them soon. Police are enforcing a stay at home order until the emergency is over.” Secretary of Defense Samantha Rodgers told Welkin calmly.
-
Only a scant few kilometres separated the enormous landing craft and the city, Republic FAVs sallied out in force supported by everything they had available. But what came out of the transports they weren’t ready for. Hordes of unarmed civilians raged forward in a tide, some ignored the FAVs and ran towards the city while some tried to attack them with their bare hands. Using speed to their advantage they managed to avoid the horde while thinning down its numbers. That was until a cadres of black armored and green glowing persons stepped forward. One of them let out a lance of energy that had the destructive power of an ATGM and hit one of the FAVs destroying it instantly. When they were fired up another one performed a weird set of gestures and the bullets froze in the air before falling to the ground. The rest of them made short work of the FAVs before the last few retreated back to the city. The initial defences held for a short time before ammunition became a problem and the city gates were blasted open by the powerful individuals. The hoard now had access to Prime city and it wasn’t going to stop.
-
Hours again passed the news was looking grim, Republic forces hadn’t been able to hold any position and were now separated and unorganised. Morale had plummeted and the death toll grew as did the size of the horde, it was horrifying to see that members of the ACR military and even their own civilians had joined it. It must have been some disease that was able to propagate from person to person. Official calls for help were put out by the Republic government as more of its forces were gathered into the system. The Prime fleet which had been taken over was now aiding the enemy force and conducting open warfare against their brothers in arms. Joining the Prime fleet was the Republic 2nd, 3rd as well as the UDS 237th Expeditionary Fleet. Several other nations were also sending forces to respond to the crisis, notable fleets included the Minevans, Ingenious and Kepler.
Marn Military Outpost, three kilometres from the Diplomatic District.
Sergeant Marie Watson had taken what was left of her squad into an old base left derelict for a century. It had walls and automated weapons which could be activated as long as they could stay in front of the horde. The two IFVs reversed to the front gate of the complex while the squad disembarked. It took them only a few minutes to open the doors but the horde could already be heard from down the street. Taking a position on the walls while Privates Holly Dean and Cassandra Ryan looked for a way to power up the defences. The basement was dark and ominous with only the sound of gunfire heard from overhead.
“I believe it's this one here Holly, if you want to try your luck.” Cass said calmly pointing to a breaker box and a monitor
“It's not a gamble, its skill!” Holly snapped back as she busted open the old cabinet.
-
The breakers were in good condition despite their age and just a few flicks they were all on and the monitor next to the cabinet powered up too.
“I just have to alter its IFF program so it doesn’t shoot us instead.” Holly exclaimed excitedly as she got stuck into the computer.
“And done.” She said with a smile as one of the nearby gun turret hatches opened up and raised to the surface with a loud mechanical whir.
“Aw, you really are talented.” Cass said sweetly patting Holly on the back.
“It's nothing really.” Holly replied blushing
“You two get out here now, we’ve got reinforcements.” Marie said over the radio.
-
Running out of the basement the two could see that the landing pads were beginning to fill up as Kepler, Ingen and Minevan forces arrived. Holly and Cass ignored them to join the rest of the squad at the front to fight the horde. The automated defences were working a charm and had thinned the horde out enough so they couldn’t begin clamouring over each other at the base of the walls.
“There’s a distress call from the RANGSI Embassy just a few clicks towards the Diplomatic District, they’re getting overrun around the District walls. We need to regroup and reform the line. The horde is getting too spread out now to properly concentrate its numbers.” Maries said to the rest of the squad who were gathered up on top of the wall.
“We’ll see what these other guys are gonna do to help and we’ll team up and roll out.” She said walking towards the disembarked soldiers.
The ACR called, and the Minevan Sovereignty answered decisively. Osvald Lemore, the representative of state, had promised their aid against the more nefarious and supernatural forces in the wider galaxy, and Minevans were generally not the type to make weak vows. Now, it was time for the Sovereignty to put their money where there mouth was, and they answered by forming the 1st and 2nd Conditional Flotillas. Both were forces made of 100 pairs of Grimwold-class and Falkoner-class destroyers, accompanied with 50 Velkna-class corvettes that served as command-and-control for their automated vessels and each carried a company's worth of volunteers that would make haste to get to the ground at vital junctions.
Hours and minutes were becoming critical, and the Minevan companies landing didn't have the luxury of picking their ideal drop sites. Many of these units dropped into hot LZs and moved quickly to aid their ACR counterparts to keep the wave at bay and corral all civilian assets to an establish safe zone. Very swiftly, they realized, they were finding plenty of blood but very few bodies. Even quicker, they realized that their casualties were joining the wave they were holding back. The independent infantry companies were making full use of their combined arms; the chainguns on their IFVs, the loitering munitions of their SPGs, and the main cannons of their MBTs to shred through their opposition. Still, they were determined to salvage this as a rescue mission, doing their best to not give ground until the last precious moments.
Another distinct signal went through the command nets with urgency, along with an intel packet. The call from the RANGSI embassy; gate guards and sentries were deep in the shit, and even though they didn't have much manpower to spare, they were going to get to them one way or another.
---
"I'm not getting Lennox, anyone have positive comms?"
"Say again! You're coming in broken and unreadable!"
"Left flank is breached, where is Lennox and his guys?"
"His platoon's fucked, we gotta pull back!"
"Negative, I'll get my guys over there! Do not give the fucking ground!"
"Ino, we have to pull back! Republic guys are trying to reinforce Sector 3 so they don't pass phaseline green!"
"Fuck it, cover them-"
"Break, break, break; got eyes on Lennox platoon, they're turned and we are being overrun! Please advise!"
---
Garnet Linden felt sick to his stomach; both from their fast and loose ride in the dropship with his cohorts, and from rolling through the local nets with the desperate planning of his compatriots. He was broken from his reverie as his spotter, Mian Nel, gave him a firm pat on the back. He switched back to his team's net, hearing the commotion of the distant fight no more.
In his dropship were two scout teams and an enigmatic Savant; a psion that shared the same sleek power armor that the soldiers wore. He carried no weapon aside from a small psionic attunement tool on his hip; a contraption resembling the handle and crossguard of a sword, with a knuckle guard. His name was Flamente. The other pair was armed with the same DMR and rifle combination; the marksman was Dan Leone, and his spotter was a woman named Fio Wilanka. Very few words had been shared between them up to this point, both pairs and the Savant coming from 3 separate ships and sharing the common trait of coming from shredded units.
The shuttle made a touch-and-go pass in the landing pad, wasting no time to dust off the moment their feet had left the craft. They only spared quick glances around them to absord their environment and notice the arrivals of everyone else, before briskly jogging to find the Republic soldier in charge. Though they had no team leader amongst them, Garnet would represent them, waving down Sergeant Marie Watson.
"Oi, I'm Garnet! Before you ask, us five are it; there are more coming but it's going to take awhile," He shouted out, coming to a quick stop in front of her, "And it sounds like we are out of time." (edited)
ZHANG-YU CASTLE
Admiral Minowara had received scattered reports from the 3rd Regiment marines guarding the Jade embassy in the Marn System, but they had abruptly gone dark and now concerning and confusing messages from their contacts in the ACR military suggested some kind of large scale attack on the system.
The news could not have come at a worse time. A large bulk of the IJN assets in the Ancerious galaxy were tied up with the blood-soaked Sarnath Campaign, and more of his forces had been committed to help secure Gauss trade routes whilst that nation's navy fought a war against the Furrelians. He was spread thin, and could not send serious aid to the ACR lest he expose his own territory.
He could not sit by and do nothing, however. He drafted some orders and began placing some calls, to the local JIAN and Huoming Temple honchos and back to the Kokubusho on Laptev for reinforcements...
LATER, MARN SYSTEM
Juana de la Cruz Rioja y Cuernavaca, commonly known as "Juana", was a priestess of the Precept of Wisdom, the discipline of the Huoming Temple dedicated to preserving knowledge and understanding. A small Yokeneko, barely four feet tall, she was not entirely comfortable at being sandwiched aboard a gunship with two dour-looking JIAN shinobi and parcelled off to a warzone.
"Sir, it's a mess down there. Not getting much reply." announced the pilot. Goreya, one of the agents, was silent for a moment. "Set us down with the nearest friendlies." he replied, having expected the worst after already passing through the wreckage of the space combat.
The sleek gunship swooped to a hover over Sergeant Watsons compound, and out hopped a small green felid with a glowing tail and orange robes, followed by two black-clad near-humans with only their eyes visible under loose black combat suits.
"Hello," Juana announced, her forced joviality at odds with the desperate situation, "We are from the Jade Empire and we are here to help!"
One couldn't really sleep where they had been. As soon as you closed your eyes, you heard laughter or screams, or whispers, flashing lights that were not really there. The body never relaxed, muscles tight until you took enough sleeping pills to put out a Karokalian, and the poor bastards had to take much more than that. You woke up feeling like your head was full of copper to find that five minutes had gone, or maybe five days. You still felt the same, unrested, alert, always watching for things in the shadows. Beyond the windows of the ship things looked the same but it wasn't, like everything had a fuzzy tinge to it, washed out of color like an old film that had been run through a tape machine a few times too many.
Where it wasn't that it had been riotous color, fractals within fractals and shapes within shapes and things of fire of light of ash and brilliance and a cold watching intelligence that always Saw you no matter where you went. Things that to look upon them would drive men mad, had done so. There was no coming back from that. No planet had held life, even ones that should have, there was no speaking to anyone else.
It was the worst sort of loneliness, even with twenty thousand comrades beside you, you were alone. They were alone. There was nothing. Only cold, only dark, only stillness, only light and only madness.
Until there wasn't.
Space rent violently on the edge of the Marn system, split open like someone had taken a knife with a jagged edge and had ripped through the fabric of the void, spilling light and fire into space until four ships emerged, at which point the rift snapped shut. Bulky and heavily built, the Restevian vessels emerged from the rift that matched no type of FTL that the RSC had ever used, and stranger still was their pennant codes to anyone that had a catalog of AGA IDCs in the area.
All of them had gone missing years ago.
------
It took a long moment for the bridge crew of RSCNT Skromnyy to realize what was happening. Crew stared at their sensors confusedly, blinking as though they couldn't parse what they were looking at. Comms signals. Comms signals. That more than anything else took them off guard, the fact that they were picking up signals that encrypted or not with CES that they couldn't understand meant there were people talking.
But was that an illusion too?
Across the tiny fleet, troopers and crew prayed, wept, looked upon stars that for the first time in however long seemed real, seemed real enough to reach out and touch. Commanders and bridge crews conferred on what to do, because a comm request to RSC Command if they had returned hadn't gone through. Where were they? What was happening? Were they even in Ancerious anymore?
But then a distress call cut across the fleet network, and rote memory snapped into action. Technicians pinpointed the location of the distress signal, they couldn't understand the encryption or what it said, but they could tell by one that something was happening, something was wrong. Fleet command made the decision then to send a unit to investigate, not only to assess the situation, but to figure out where they were, what to do.
------
Strela-15 swooped down into the atmosphere, engines screeching and the hull creaking like an old tin roof as the pilot brought it in steep, plunging down from space at a sharp angle. Gear racks rattled overhead as within its bay, the lights dim and the entire thing stinking of fuel and lubrication oil, but none of the troopers within it seemed to really care.
Indeed, the fact that they could smell it at all seemed to have them cheerful, in good spirits and chatting with one another as they ate rations that had taste again, listened to sounds that were crisp and clear. All of them were nervous of course because who wouldn't be before a mission, but they were happy, visibly so that they felt like they could actually experience things again.
"Minute thirty to LZ comrades, I'm picking up some allied IFF." the pilot reported, and Senior Sergeant Igoshin arched a brow, racking back the bolt on his shotgun.
"Allied? Explain? Sensors said we're nowhere near the front."
"We aren't, comrade sergeant. But I'm picking up Minevans, clear as day."
"Maybe the war's gotten this far west?" Somov ventured, his voice muffled by the vegetable stick poking out of his mouth like a cigar.
"Blyadj, I hope not! That'd mean we're losing!" Kurdin retorted, smacking a hand on his shield. The rest of the troopers laughed, but shared a silent look. What if the APP had gotten this far? The pilot reported the city was on fire...
"Forty seconds, comrades."
"Stand by!" Igoshin barked, and all five troopers stood, hefting weapons as they sealed helmets, the click-hiss of seals like a quiet but synchronized chorus as they heard the landing gear deploy. Igoshin hit the side door release and it slid back, letting in the screech of the engines and the whipping wind as he got on the comm and accessed the universal allied channel.
"Minevan troops, Minevan troops, this is Sergeant Igoshin, RSC 621st Division. Do not shoot, we are landing now, confirm our ID."
The Minevans looked amongst themselves in disbelief. They had seen a few strange things today, but this was definitely at the top of the list. The corners of their HUDs identified the transmission from an older set of codes; going on fifteen years old, it seemed. They craned their necks to watch a last-generation shuttle gunning for the landing zone, both confused at the withered armor plating on the craft and the last people they were expecting to see drop planetside. Still, it was better them than another mob of their comrades turned into abominations.
"Wait, Igoshin?" Dan Leone muttered aloud. He was the oldest man in their group, his unhelmeted face having as many lines as years he lived. Bewildered, he continued, "Luka Igoshin? The 621st?"
He frowned as his blood ran cold and felt a pit of dread in his gut. He stepped in the direction of the craft as it was coming to land, watching the aged blast door scrape open. Meanwhile, Garnet was communicating to the others in the ragtag force of potential incoming friendlies.
After his countrymen returned to realspace, Dan had tried to pinpoint what exactly had happened after the Battle of Kalathan. After they fought off Justicar boarding parties and parted ways, the Skromnyy hadn't been heard from again; assumed lost. "It's Dan Leone; that's you, Luka?" He grimly blurted out.
"Dan Leone?" came the response over the comm, the voice of the Restevian soldier in the door of the shuttle sounding surprised. From this far it was obvious that the man was in Restevian gear alright... last series, early war by any estimation, the rifle on his sling one of the older 234s, not the newer 246s.
"Dan, you mad goat, is that you? Shit, tovarisch, good to hear a familiar voice! Da, it's me, it's Luka. How goes the front that you're all the way out here?" he went on, the shuttle extending its landing gear as it set down, landing smoothly if... heavily. (edited)
Marie watched the exchange go down between the Restevians and the Minevans and was humoured by it, but something felt off about the Restevians that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Nevertheless some reinforcements had arrived and it was time to introudce herself. She stated by clearing her throat loudly to get the attention of the two in front of her.
"I'm Sergeant Marie Watson, Seventy Fifth Company, Ninth Prime National Guard Division. Thank you for responding to our distress call, can i get some names and units... and military's?" She said directed the last one towards Igoshin since she had only seen Restevian military on the AncNet. (edited)
"That's right, friend," Dan forced out, wanting to be happy but forcing through heavy uncertainty. Something wasn't quite right. He had read the report, and knew the Gromnyy had a faulty jump. And the way that Igoshin was talking, it was as if they hadn't skipped a beat since they last interacted nearly fifteen years prior. It looked like their gear, vehicles, and weapons had also missed the memo and hadn't skipped a beat either. "You should hurry down here. I think... there is a bit we have to talk through. This ain't the Two-A-W." He raised his hand in a wide gesture to the Restevian in the craft, beckoning him over to where the leadership was talking.
Garnet turned to Watson, clearing his through and offering a curt bow. "How rude of me; Garnet Linden of the Minevan Second Conditional Flotilla, volunteer of the vessel 'Corvin'. Acting team leader here." (edited)
Palatial Villa of the System Anochaq, Chor Reknu, Pordish World-Disk
Drychaq Atalyn scowls at a report. The Pordish embassy in the ACR went dark some time ago, and all of the information coming out of the region has been...
Dreadful, Torchüq, her aide, finishes the thought. He inhales slowly. A thick cigar hangs out of his mouth, and on the heels of a particularly long drag, he blows a few puffs of smoke out into the room. Moments later they yield to the ceiling, and he sighs with an exhale nearly as long as his earlier drag. So this seems to be a major issue, he says finally. We have to investigate.
Drychaq's scowl fails to abate with the comment. Torchüq is correct. But of the information coming out of the ACR, every bit of intel seemingly painting the portrait of a large scale attack are but actors desperately crying out for a proportional Pordish response. A large scale movement of forces is out of the question - the eyes of the KZH are focused elsewhere - but something more limited in scope, that certainly is more practical.
Let me set up a few meetings, she replies to Torchüq finally, I've got something in mind.
Marn System, Pordish Shuttle
Yanoch nam-Kalyn looks over his gear. After all - one can never be too careful. It's been a long time since he's heard news of trouble in the capital of a fully-fledged star-state. And if the reports are anything to go by... Well, if nothing else, excitement certainly is in the cards. There's probably a good place to put down around here that's not overrun, he tells the pilot. His bushy mustache and even bushier beard muffle his words slightly.
The pilot nods despite this. There's a good spot up ahead. I'll drop you off there. One moment.
Good, nam-Kalyn says. He stands as the pilot brings the machine around and eases it over the landing area. For a brief moment it hangs motionless as nam-Kalyn and his team - five other Pords with varying types of equipment and gear - exit onto the ground below.
nam-Kalyn, recognizing the garb of Ingenious, Minevans, and many of the gathered, makes his way over and speaks up. Good to see others here as well, he says, I am Yanoch nam-Kalyn of the KZH - Pordish KZH that is - 45th Natynozh.
The dropship had landed, and with little fanfare, five Restevian troopers filed out. Two of them held combat shields, two of them looked like normal assault rifles-- if over a decade out of date. And then there was Ishogin, carrying a combat shotgun, his rifle slung now on his back. All of them looked like they'd been through it, urban and forest camo mixed and matched, though they all looked in decently high spirits. Ishogin signaled the shuttle, and the pilot gave a thumbs up, lifting from the ground in a flurry of dirt and dust as the fireteam began to jog over.
"Greetings, comrade Watson," Luka said as they made their way over, giving a nod and a loose salute to Dan before he continued.
"621st Combined Arms division, Restevian Socialist Confederation armed forces." he said, before he looked solidly over at the Minevan. Through his goggles, Luka looked pale, very pale... and he had a sort of an odd feeling about him. But the man didn't seem to be letting that get him down.
"Good to see you, man. Wondered if I was ever going to see you again, but here we are. What did you mean, 'this isn't the war?' What isn't, these days?"
"Well. This whole situation has absolutely gone down the shitter." Lieutenant Sorkanen said over the helicopters radio as he made his way up to the cockpit and looked through the segmented canopy of bullet proof lass. The pilot, Azar, and her copilot sat side by side and were bringing them in from out of the city.
"Without a doubt, we should be in the city soon." Azar said, there was a bit of worry among her voice, they were here for some training operations well before this whole mess unraveled. Not to be subject to this mass incursion that threw everything under the run, so much for an easy deployment.
"How many of our own do you think are still out there?" She said.
"Well, you two, my unit, and Swordfish's crew. Base AI reported back that all were KIA...."
Sorkanen replied back through the door he was standing in. He was interrupted by an incoming signal, from the RANGSI Embassy in the city and the other ones over the channel.
He replied back over the radio to the other forces. "Copied RANGSI, this is Kepler Coure du Armiya Lieutenant Sorkanen, Air Cavalry, we are en route."
".....Azar, Swordfish, set a course for the embassy. Rest of you lot better ready up."
Smoke from the city and its lights were well visible from within the cockpit, various dials and computer gauges flickered across the cabin. A deafening roar permeated the cabin from the twin turbines keeping them up in the air, further amplified by the Swordfish flying in formation above the transport. There was no real attempt at being quiet. They flew fast and low, towards the city and the rangsi embassy.
-------------
The lieutenant stepped back into the main cabin to see his other two infantrymen and their small collection of robotic infantry, the machines were sitting silently and stiffly in the hold. One of the infantrymen, Kalin, was checking his rifle, and the second was staring off against the wall. They were going to land soon, and the tan yellow helicopter and its escorting gunship hovered above an empty spot in the landing zone near the friendlies before touching down.
Sorkanen stepped out of the sliding side door of the transport, same with Kalin, the other rifleman, and the five combat drones before making their way to the other forces. He recognized a few of them already by their uniforms. The pilots remained inside.
"Wish this meeting was done under different circumstances. Lieutenant Mikal Sorkanen, Kepler Coure du Armiya, second cavalry division. Or whats left of it. Do we know how the RANGSI are holding up so far?
Dan was sizing up his anomalous Restevian friend, looking like a concerned mother with a pensive frown and a hard furrow in his brow. "I, uh... Inara's been dead for over a decade, man. AGA's dismantled." He offered a quick paused before putting a pin in it, "I'll tell you what, you help us run our next objective and we can talk more on it." He gave a firm slap to Luka's pauldron.
As the Minevan team leader, Garnet was sizing up this seemingly random ensemble that managed to come in a timely manner. To him, this was absolutely riveting, and it was plain on his face. He offered a cordial reply, "Just seems to be one of those days, ol' el-tee. Most of them are fresh but they're holding out, for now."
"Well, if that's everything i think our immediate concern should be to re group towards the senate building, they seems to be holding the best out of everyone and we can help the RANGSI embassy along the way. These streets are mean and that's before the horde, We've got room in our IFVs if you don't wanna hike it on foot. Which i recommend you don't. My squad and I will be moving out in five, this base is automated so the guns will keep firing until they're killed or run out of ammunition." Marie said sternly to the gathered crowd of a multinationals before turning around and re joining the rest of her squad.
"Oh, well i think you could of been nicer about it Sergeant. They might think that every republic leader is rude now." Cass said in a hushed tone looking up at the crowd.
"We could make it on our own, if they want to chit chat all day. We've made it this far." Holly remarked coldly
"There's four of us left from fifteen, we're hardly getting anything done apart from getting killed and becoming one of those things. I'd rather serve the republic to my end and not join up against it. But better yet i still want a good chance at killing what ever started this." Talia the squad fourth member said gritting her teeth.
"Just focus on grabbing any gear we have left over and what ever can be salvaged from this base-"
"We didn't find anything Sergeant, the only weapons in the base were the gun turrets." Cass interrupted smiling at her efforts.
"Fine, mount up and make room for the reinforcements." Marie ordered, she got onto the long range radio to the RANGSI forces.
"This is Sergeant Marie Watson from the Marn National Guard. Reinforcements are en route, we're three klicks out and closing. Just hold on a bit longer." She said stoically into the radio. If anything a good tone of voice would help make it seem like a properly organised force was incoming.
RANGSI ACR 3rd Embassy
2nd Provost Security Company
11th Military Police Brigade, 885th Combined Arms Division
“-I repeat, this is the RANGSI 3rd Embassy. We are under attack by unknown forces and are surrounded from all sides. We are trapped in the underground car park with no way out. We have ACR and RANGSI civilians, we have limited food supplies and we are running out of ammunition. Requesting immediate assistance. I repeat. Requesting immediate assistance. I repeat -”
The company signaller had been at it at the radio for almost hours. Clinging onto hope that someone outside the embassy walls would respond to their distress call.
Master Sergeant Nikola Lim shook her head as she walked past the signals post. The only thing anyone could do now was to cling onto hope and not much else. If they do not die getting ripped apart by the enemy outside, then they will die slow and painful deaths from starvation and dehydration in this warm, humid and barren subterranean prison known as the embassy car park.
Private vehicles are parked on the surface. But it was here in the underground carpark where the embassy stores its real toys in case of emergencies; armored SUVs for chauffeuring VIPs and their security details, vans and a handful of the military’s new Type 50 Skirmisher armored cars and emblazoned with the words ‘MP’ and ‘MILITARY POLICE’ in bold white as well as the RANGSI flag painted on the sides for identification. Armored cars such as the Type 50s were a standard feature of embassy security for convoy protection, especially for diplomatic personnel going into conflict areas, though for a stable country like the ACR these had never been called upon. Until now that is. (edited)
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The Type 50s have been repositioned near the defensive line established at the entrance of the car park, their GPMGs pointing at the shutters which were shaking and clattering violently from the enemy trying to brute force their way in. Individual platoons were rotating sections around in their respective defensive sectors to try and minimize fatigue, though even off duty away from the makeshift barricades of cars and barriers, a provost could do little to ease the anxiety of the situation at hand, much less sleep with all the constant noise.
Nikola walked over to the quarantine area to find 2nd Lieutenant Ahmad Kolguritz sitting down on a chair next to the caution tape, near a body bag, with a small pocket-sized green book in his hand. A very young officer, a 20 year old conscript, like all the others in the company except for Nikola herself. One would rarely assume he was the commanding officer of the 2nd Company here.
He was mumbling prayers for the body. That was all he could do. He had never been in a combat zone and thought he would be here to wear a snazzy ceremonial uniform and put on a show for the ACR dignitaries who visited every now and then. Ahmad was not out of place, the same mindset was shared by the 2nd Company. Most of them now were in their MP No.3, a plain dark green ceremonial guard uniform specially made for the Military Police. With white belts, white aiguillettes and gold name badges, it was hardly rated for combat. Only those on QRF duty were in proper gear.
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Nikola looked at the body, the zippers were partially opened, revealing its face. Blood dried up around the visible hole in its forehead. Done in by a 5.7mm pistol bullet. How she even knew it was exactly a 5.7mm bullet was simple - it was hers.
The body in question was their patient zero. A Private standing guard at the embassy gate when suddenly the enemy force arrived. He raised the alarm and stood his ground trying to fend off the hordes of ‘undead’ overwhelming his duty post. When his buddies got him out of there, he was severely mauled, bitten and injured. Moments later, when they brought him inside, he turned. Nikola whipped out her pistol and the rest was history.
It was not long before the entire company was driven back. They tried to recapture the guard posts, failing that they then fell back to the building to buy time for the personnel’s evacuation to the underground carpark. Gradually, after several organized retreats, they were now here in the underground carpark - their last hope. A platoon tried to drive out with some Type 50s and bash their way out, but they got quickly mobbed before they even reached the gate. It was then there was no other choice but to close the shutters and hold out for help.
----
“They replied! They replied!”
The base suddenly perked up from the company signaller’s excited announcement. Provosts were waking up and looking at him, eager to hear in on the news.
Nikola took a look at 2LT Ahmad. He did not move or say anything. Shaking her head, she then turned around and rushed to the radio post. Transmissions were coming in from familiar names; Kepler, Minevan, ACR and other various forces. By the looks of it, a multinational op. Strength in numbers. Better chances at survival.
She picked up the mic from the signaller, responding to the ACR channel. “Sergeant Marie Watson, this is Master Sergeant Nikola. RANGSI 2nd Provost Company, 11th Military Police Brigade. We are still holding but the enemy has overrun our entire perimeter and drove us down to the carpark. We are trapped and cannot evac with the sheer amount of hostiles on the surface. If you can provide fire support and thin down their numbers, we can move out and escape this place proper. I will get everyone into the convoy, just let us know when you are near. Over.”
Nikola then shouted to the entire company. “Alright ladies and gents! Help is on the way! Get your ass up and stand to! You!”
A random team sergeant nearby stood at attention as he was pointed at. “Yes Master?”
“Get the civilians into the vehicles and arrange the convoy!”
“Yes Master!”
Life returned to the 2nd Company as hope was on the horizon.
Juana looked confusedly around at the swirling multinational crowd, in which she and her two guardians had seemingly gotten lost. Some were clearly survivors from the combat on the surface, whilst others were allies and reinforcements here for reasons not dissimilar to her own.
She squeaked again, attempting to make herself heard, but her voice was lost in the chaos. Goreya rolled his eyes and chivvied her towards one of the IFVs, the one the four surviving ACR soldiers were climbing aboard. Unlike the little monk, he was six feet tall and clearly a combatant by nature, as was the woman behind him. Dressed in what looked like loose black cloth, they carried swords at their sides. The man clutched what seemed to be an ornate arquebus, whilst the woman carried a more familiar-looking SMG.
Goreya nodded to the Pords as they passed, and then again to the ACR platoon as they settled in alongside their newfound allies.
"Zombies," he said abruptly, gesturing out towards the chaotic city beyond. "We have much experience fighting the insane and the corrupted. Our little cat here wants to practice magic amidst this nightmare, but Yamane and I are here to find out what happened to our embassy and offer support to the ACR. Point us at a target and we will kill it for you."
His voice was heavily accented, almost comically so, but he spoke slowly to be sure of the words and his tone was matter-of-fact.
Flamente drew in a deep breath, not involving himself with the politics of the crowd. The scents and tensions from everyone were so drastically different, but permeating through it into the core of his being was a feeling that screamed aloud in despair. Not the common emotions, from the mostly common folk surrounding him save the more anomalous individuals in their quilt of a task force; the things that normal folks felt in their chest such us bluster, fear, anger, pride, uncertainty. No, he could feel something monolithic and predatory saturating everything around him. The Minevan Psion silently walked to the IFV separate of the other teams. He sat in the troop compartment, honing his focus through all the battlefield noise.
Flamente remained silent in thought, contemplating what he was experiencing, or perhaps, what was causing it. Nothing he saw today was a natural occurrence, but without a definitive answer he did not wish to speak confidently.
Dan and Fio would mount up in the next IFV over, the older of the pair ensuring that weapons and optics checks were complete, and both fitting on their helmets. Their faces were masked, now only represented by the dull red eye in their visor. On the other hand, Garnet and Mian petitioned the Kepler officer to serve as the unit's overwatch in their transport bird. He would be the unit's eye in the sky, to serve and an early-warning for oncoming threats. (edited)
Looks like we won't be going on foot, Atka Kalan says to nam-Kalyn. Her voice is low and purposefully muted to avoid carrying too far to the others. Turning towards where they will need to go, she looks off in the distance. I can see why we lost contact, she says after a moment, this place has fallen apart.
nam-Kalyn nods slowly. IFVs faster, he says. We'd be alone in fighting our way in otherwise. The wind catches on his white shoulder cape - the garb of a KZH infantryman - as he looks over the others gathered. His own group is simple enough (one team of skirmishers; one team of regulars) but the others? They're an unknown factor. To work more smoothly, they'll need to become a known factor.
But of all things, zombies? Atka questions, this time louder than before. Her mind races with thoughts on the implications. The raised dead are soulless, mere shadows of their former selves. A corpse has no place in the Cycle, not without the benefit of outside intervention. At least... As far as she understands. She turns back to her superior, who continues with his prior thought:
Mount up with the Ingenious. I will go with the Minevans. See what more you can find out.
Atka salutes and gathers the other two Pords of her skirmisher team before piling into the IFV with the Ingenious and the remnants of the ACR squad. Some distance from them, nam-Kalyn and his team join Dan and Fio.
nam-Kalyn is first into the IFV, followed by Chor Tyrazh (a rather stocky individual, even by Pordish standards) and Sylna Toqsan; they head for seats while greeting their new companions.
Luka's pauldron felt solid as Dan's hand contacted it, but it felt... cold, for some reason. Luka nodded thoughtfully as he pondered what Dan had just told him, frowning. The war was over, and the AGA was dismantled? Inara was dead? Just as well that Dan promised that he would talk about it, and Luka had a lot of questions.
"Mount up!" he barked to his fireteam, and the troopers headed for the IFV with Dan and his companion, checking weapons and settling into the seats inside it, chattering amongst themselves on closed comms. They saw how people were looking at them, and it unnerved them. They were just Restevian troopers, was that truly so strange?
"So comrade sergeant, we're going to reinforce some RANGSI?"
"Da," Luka nodded, checking his rifle's magazine. "It's a regular alliance reunion."
Sorkanen, Kalin, and Xhao stood near the main group, listening to the ACR Sargeant among the crowd of different races and ethnicities. This situation was for certain not a very good one, they were stationed here for training initially, not exactly to tackle a full on incursion.
"Private, any issues with the bots so far?” Sorkanen said to Kalin after Mare finished her speech.
“None so far boss. I’m just glad we were able to get them here in the first place.”
“Good, we’ll need them. Mount up, tell Azar to wait a few.” Kalin and Xhao nodded and ran off back to the helicopter that was sitting idly a few dozen meters away. Sorkanen proceeded to walk up to Marie with a proposition.
“Sargeant, I’m Corporal Sorkanen, part of whats left of the Kepler Cavalry unit here, I’ve got a proposition. We have two airworthy birds that can cover the advance to your Senate building, some scouting, and air cav. Best to use what assets we have proactively.” Sorkanen said to the ACR Sargeant.
-----------------------------
Back at the idling transport helicopter Xhao and Kalin got themselves situated again and saw the two Minevans approaching and getting on.
“You need a ride? We’ll give you one if one of you can man that door gun, keep the heads down of the ones that are shooting at us.”
Xhao yelled out to them as they climbed on, mainly to be heard over the turbines spooling up. He opened up the side cargo door and swung down the 8.5mm heavy machine gun on its flexible mount from the ceiling.
“Know how to use one of these things?”
---------------------------
After everyone was mounted up on the transport helicopter, they began the trip down an infested city to clear out the tide and take some stress off the RANGSI.
"Good thinking corporal, keep an eye out on the major roads where you can for any movement." Marie responded sharply to the Kepler soldier
Upon being engaged by the Ingenious in conversation she felt uneasy about them, talk about magic seemed insane to her and she almost though that she was being made fun of.
"I'm interested to see a lot of things come to light about this situation, but i have to ask. Magic? are you for real?" She asked the Ingenious sincerely trying to hide her disbelief and slight annoyance.
The ride over to the embassy was about as quiet as it could be considering the situation. The turrets from the fire base covered everyone's escape for as long as they were within range. The radio in Marie's IFV was still on and turned up for any kind of report about a proper counter attack or reorganised force. But it was till the same panicked calls for retreats, evacs and reports of positions falling. She eventually turned it down to try and keep some morale amongst her remaining troops.
The embassy was swarmed by a crowd for at least hundred re-awakened, they were clamouring at the doors, gates or anywhere that would get the access to the building that hadn't already been destroyed. The only remaining signs of life was the RANGSI hold out keeping the re-awakened at bay by funnelling them into the underground car park.
"RANGSI Embassy this is the Marn National Guard we are engaging with the horde and will open a path for you. We're at your ten o'clock moving forward." Marie said to the RANGSI elements.
"Dismount and engage, Cass and Holly cover everyone else. Talia grab that LMG and open up on the horde." The squad responded witha stern roger as they back doors dropped and they disembarked.
-
Cass and Holly followed orders and established over lapping fields of fire to cover each other and everyone as they began getting out. Talia simply strode out lugging the LMG in her arms like a baby humming the Republic National Anthem. She levelled it down at her hips and began unleashing hell. She never let go of the trigger and simply sprayed lines of death across the incoming horde. Marie jumped out and assisted kept Talia covered when she had to reload or had a jam. The IFVs maintained a strong rate of fire against the horde as thier auto cannons sent limbs and gore everywhere as they ripped through the unarmoured crowd.
The Minevans on the ground popped out of the IFVs under the covering fire that the ACR soldiers were giving them, while Linden and Mel served as eyes in the sky. Linden watched the catastrophic damage from above, watching adjacent roadways and ingress routes to ensure no other masses of the enemy would come up on them and surprise them. His eyes continuously scanned the open roads, looking for the anomalies that hadn't come yet. Perhaps they were hidden.
He was surprisingly able to focus on this task as the shorter Mel was ripping into the crowd of savages with the 8.5mm. From vehicles, to the mounted guns, to the man-portable light machineguns; their makeshift force had a hefty base of fire to lay on their undispersed foe. Even a crowd of hundreds didn't stand a chance.
Dan and Fio made a swift dash to the left flank and the rear of Talia. Fio maintained overwatch, calling out targets and distances to Dan and watching their vulnerable sides. Dan, on the other hand, was focused on engaging runners; every few seconds a distinct 'CRACK' was heard as a glowing red beam was shot from his long rifle, ejecting a spent casing and punching holes clean through his targets.
In the other track, Flamente cleared his throat and politely nudged his way past the Pordish riders. He took in the fresh night air once more, now drawing in the fresh scent of burnt chemicals and the lingering cordite that left an acrid taste in his throat. He drew his pistol only to check the chamber, before holstering it again. The psion pensively rubbed his jaw, still chewing on the anomalous feeling that cut through the atmosphere.
Freeing him from his reverie was a single runner that bolted at him between the IFVs. His brow furrowed in anger at the being that broke his focus. Flamente simply raised his hands into a fighting stance and struck the air between him and his foe. The air visible rippled towards the reanimated corpse, the impact forcefully slamming it to the pavement for a final time.
He saved his thoughts and feelings for later, now briskly walking offside of the blazing guns and using his abilities to hold runners in place.
Juana offered Marie a gentle smile in response to the incredulous question.
"The ways of the Ingenious are rooted in thousands of years of tradition. It is unsurprising that you would not understand."
As the convoy pulled up, the Ingenious let their comrades pile out first before stepping out into the chaos beyond.
Goreya and Yamane activated their AA-26 hikatana, straight-backed crystalline blades with slightly curved handles and a curved cutting edge weighted towards the tip. Goreya wielded an emerald blade, Yamane an orange, and the weapons glinted and danced with light, seemingly aflame within.
The two Shinobi held back, occasionally hacking down undead that slipped past the overlapping fields of allied fire. It was the tiny Juana, however, who made the most difference.
Standing with her eyes closed, she began to mutter in a strange language, monosyllabic and barely related to Ingenious. A yellowish glow diffused across her section of the field, and the undead there began to move in seeming slow-motion, even easier prey for the Shinobi and the allies.
“Roger that Sergeant, we’re coming out now! Watch the fields of fire!” Master Sergeant Nikola replied to Marie’s transmission. She then gestured to a couple of Corporals to open the shutter doors. Everyone was in a vehicle, rifles sticking out of the window and turret gunners gritting their teeth anxiously for the big fight ahead.
“Three! Two! One! Opening!”
The RANGSI convoy was in a staggered line to maximise their field of fire. As light from the surface flooded the carpark, the gunners of the first two vehicles started firing away at the line of Awakened at the door. It was not long before first vehicles plowed through them and the rest of the convoy following suit, every rifle, machine gun and even pistols furiously opening fire on everything around them in a desperate bid to preserve that few inches of free space between them and the undead.
“Don’t stop! Don’t stop you motherfuckers! If any of you stop I’ll make sure you do guard duty later!” Nikola barked into the radio. Her RTO then ran dry and got grabbed by one of the Awakened outside before Nikola turned over, pointed her pistol at its head and squeezed, the echo of the shot sharply ringing in everyone’s ears as the ‘crack’ bounced around in the confines of the vehicle. The convoy rushed to the safety of the allied lines.
The mention of magic draws a few chuckles from the Pords. It is very much real, Atka considers privately. She doesn't voice any displeasure, however, merely looks over to the other Pords with her with a knowing glance.
But some abilities probably shouldn't be real.
Elsewhere, nam-Kalyn and his men dismount from their IFV. While Atka begins to engage with her skirmishers, nam-Kalyn is slower in setting up. He surveys the area and watches as the zombies come forth. Here they come, there's a lot of them, and not a lot of us, he says as he flips the converter switch on his rifle and opens fire.
Off to his side, the stocky Pord, Chor Tyrazh, agrees with the sentiment. He takes aim at a few zombies being held in place and fires a handful of times. I've got this lane covered, he says - firing a few more times - we can keep them back.
"Understood, I wish you good luck down there." Sorkanen gave Marie a quick nod and jogged back to the helicopter that was spinning up its rotors and getting ready for takeoff. The turbines were rather shriek and the infantrymen all put on hearing protection.
"Everyone on board? Looks like we got some guests huh, good on picking up the gun. Shoot anything that don't seem living, don't go overboard now." He said over to his two squadmates and to Garnet and Mian while giving them a pat on the back while getting seated up in front with the combat robots that were currently inactive.
"Yeah we're all here. Nothing else holding us back right now, prepare for takeoff"
Azar said over the radio as she began to give some power to the rotors and the helicopter lifted off the ground and began its flight into the unknown. The Rangsi were out there somewhere, hopefully mostly alive. They covered over the main convoy of the IFV's carrying their few allies, an occasional burst of autocannon fire from the gunpod mounted to the side of the helicopters fuselage rained out on the thicker groups of them ahead of the convoy. Showers of body parts and rotted flesh splattered around the impact sites.
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Kalin lead the 5 combat robots equipped with rifles and some miscellany weapons out of the helicopter with Xhao covering with spurts of light machinegun fire from behind cover, occasionally striking a zombie and putting them down on the ground. They were not going to ride that bird directly into combat, rather just a way to get close.
"Swordfish and myself are going to be getting out of here to somewhere a little less hot. We'll keep you updated on aerial recon and help where we can."
"Understood, try not to get shot down." Sorkanen replied to his units pilot as they took up positions behind cover near their allies at the embassy. The combat robots were positioned closer to the front and delivered their firepower with inhuman accuracy and efficiency, cutting down the zombies seen as the greatest threat.
Things seemed normal as it could feasibly be until the strange Jade priestess did something strange with this yellow energy. No one in the kepler unit had a clue what it was. Sure as hell didn't seem like psionics or anything natural.
"What the hell is that!?" Xhao yelled out as he swung the machinegun around to take advantage of the slowed down foe.
"Overlapping fire, coordinated fire! Cut 'em down, lads!" Igoshin roared as the IFVs came to a stop and the doors opened, already raising his shotgun as he leapt from his seat.
"URA!" the squad answered, and the Restevians went into action.
Sorokin led the way up with his shield in front, aiming for short, precise shots with his pistol. The Varjag's reputation for fireballs was no myth today as the pistol roared, bang bang bang as he put two in the chest of the nearest of the dead, the third through the bridge of their nose as he advanced. Kurdin was to his flank, doing much the same though his fire was far more rapid, putting shots into the dead as they advanced as fast as his trigger finger could put rounds down. Soon enough he had to reload, hunkering down behind his shield as he dropped the mag, and that was when the rest of the fireteam went up.
Igoshin leveled his shotgun at more or less shoulder height as he advanced, opening up in a thundering four round burst as to his flanks Both Kadinsky and Somov lay down bursts from their rifles, aiming to half-way suppress on the off chance that these things had brain left enough to do it, and half-kill shots, their AKs spitting fire and metal. The gore of their assault was immediate and heavy, though the godsdamned things simply didn't take a hint. Two charged the squad already full of holes from their fire and that of their allies, and Sorokin with an inarticulate roar switched to his blade, slamming his shield forward as the heavy sabre-like weapon chopped into an undead head like an axe splitting a stump.
"Gods damn-- fuck!" Sorokin yelled at the smell, but he chopped again and again, slamming his blade until it went down, and he whipped to hit the other, still clawing wildly at his shield. (edited)
"HOLD FIRE, HOLD YOUR FIRE" Marie shouted over the cacophony of gunfire.
The last Awakened had fallen to the ground and the immediate area was clear of the horde. All in all it was a small horde of 100+ Awakened. Marie gave the order for the IFVs to move towards the main gate of the embassy to target any Awakened stragglers coming out from the inside of the embassy. Marie caught the convoy leaving from the underground car park and raised them on the radio.
"RANGSI convoy this is SGT Marie, i'd like to talk to your commanding officer if possible. If not I'll send through the coordinates of a Firebase where evacuation drop ships will be able to pick you up." She said to them.
Looking around at the corpses there was a mix of civilian, ACR military and RANGSI Embassy staff. It really did affect everyone who died, it was during this contemplation that Talia suddenly shouted out to her.
"Sergeant, its the congress complex. The line has been broken!" Talia shouted in a state of shock.
Over the radio there were calls for reinforcements and SITREPS over where the horder had broken through. It took a minute of listening to understand that they simply ran out of ammunition before supplies could be airlifted to them. The main defences were breached but holdouts were forming mostly around the Presidential estate, with most retreating back there in an unorganised manner.
Goreya shook the blood from his blade, wiping it on the least foul rags he could spot within easy reach as sporadic shots signalled their allies putting down the last few members of the horde that had been attacking the embassy.
He sheathed his hikatana with a deliberate, practised motion and then turned to walk back to Marie. As he passed Juana, she looked at him expectantly, excited for praise following her contribution to the fight, but he simply scoffed and did not break his gait.
He and Yamane came to a stop near Sergeant Marie and her troops, next to the Minevans. Goreya turned to Dan as the Minevans gathered themselves. He had seen a few of the vaguely canid Minevans back at Takabara, hanging around the factory quarter.
"You acquitted yourselves well. Have you fought monsters such as these before?" he asked in his accented Common.
"Cease fire, cease fire," Linden spoke calmly over the frequency, relaying the command, "Check your ACE, pick a sector." The sounds of battle were barely heard between the deafening droning of the aircraft he was in, as well as the sound-dampening helmet hugging his skull.
Even a brief engagement of gunfire could prove taxing to a fighter's ammunition. In order to not be caught flat-footed, Dan and Fio conducted a tactical reload with fresh energy cartridges moments after the ceasefire. They retained the spent container on their gear. The pair exchanged a quick nod. "Yeah Garnet, all good."
Flamente had dropped his focus after the last Awakened had dropped, conserving his mental and physical energy. He only paused to draw a deep breath, before following behind Goreya. Watching his dismissal of Juana, he offered an incredulous smirk to Goreya's back. Flamente took a momentary stop by the much shorter Yokeneko, giving a single firm pat on her shoulder.
"Outstanding work. Your skill may get us through these dark days," The psion continued walking after giving the reinforcement he thought was earned.
Dan had Fio check her gear, and then scout around their unit's general area. She brought her rifle to the high-ready and darted off, both to check their perimeter and make visual contact with the RANGSI troops. Dan, on the other hand, was sizing up the Ingen oncomer; a swordsman, not an uncommon sight to an old Minevan like him.
"You as well, sir," The old man replied to Goreya, taking a moment to contemplate, "Similar, I think. Live long enough and I suppose you'll fight every kind of monster there is to offer. I take it you have as well?"
With a simple hand gesture up in a fist Sorkanen ordered a cease fire from his two other infantrymen and the five robots. It became eerily silent after the last rounds rang out into the horde. They lay there dead in the dozens. He poked his head up from behind cover and looked over at Kalin and Xhao.
"Shit thats not good. We got a bird that can airlift the VIP's."
“Anyone hurt over here?” He said to the rest of the allied forces. Visually atleast his own two men seemed fine and the robots sported only minor scratches and damage, nothing to concern about.
“Everythings alright here… Gotta say that ain’t something I’ve seen before.” Xhao said.
“Good, get those bots securing the perimeter.”
With a nod Kalin sent a control order out to the five robots to go out from their more forward located positions to go check out the perimeter and get confirmed visuals on the RANGSI in conjunction with the minevan forces, careful in their footing to not step on the pile of corpses accumulated around their position. Time was of the essence.
The bot was painted in a desert tan with a red and blue stripe going down its side and it jogged mechanically over to Minevan Fio in order to link up and spoke in a synthesized voice. "Anything out here?"
Goreya nodded. "I begin to wonder if such abominations are the natural way of the universe, and that right-thinking beings are the exception."
Not too far from Marie, nam-Kalyn is the first Pord to ceasefire, but is quickly joined by the others. He ponders quietly to himself before turning to Chor Tyrazh, who takes the opportunity to speak up -
Looks like everything is in working order, he says, even considering their numbers.
nam-Kalyn shrugs. There will be more of them, he replies, looking over his gear once more. They make their way to regroup with Atka Kalan and her skirmishers by Marie and the Minevans. The third member of his fireteam, Sylna Toqsan, walks ahead of them, having fought from a position closer to the others from the start.
Unlike nam-Kalyn or Tyrazh however, Toqsan's environmental barriers are continuously enabled. She is not nearly as acclimatized to the atmospherics or temperature as the others, but she was chosen for her technical knowledge, not resilience to the scorching heat of other worlds.
Coming to a stop, she looks over to Dan and Goreya. Her gaze shifts past the sheathed hikatana and then to the rest of the gear carried by the shinobi - tools all so similar and familiar yet utterly foreign all the same. Having overheard his query while approaching, she interjects into the conversation:
Yes, she agrees, and isn't that why we are here? To ensure that the universe doesn't fall to the chaos of such abominations?
A few minutes passed after SGT Marie’s request to speak to the RANGSI commanding officer, presumably that would be 2LT Ahmad, lingered in limbo.
Grunting in frustration, Nikola picked up the radio. “Sir, the ACR sergeant wants to speak to you. Please reply, over.”
“...”
“Sir? Are you there?”
“Sergeant-Major, I will take a platoon to escort the VIPs to the firebase. Please speak to them on my behalf, over.”
“Cowardly worm…” Nikola grumbled quietly to herself before clearing her throat of contempt. “Roger that, sir. Ordering 2nd and 3rd Platoon to break away from formation on the battlenet. Out.”
She adjusted the knobs on the radio set and flipped some switches to reach the ACR channel. “Sergeant Marie, this is Master Sergeant Nikola. Our commanding officer has ordered me to stand in for him while he escorts the VIPs to the firebase coordinates. We are turning around over to your position now, standby, over.”
The RANGSI armored cars then returned to the embassy, joining the rest of the allied forces. Nikola hopped off and waited for the ACR Sergeant to talk to her, be it on the radio or in person.
The Restevians ceased firing quickly when the order was given, Sorokin working on cleaning his blade of the foul ichor that clung to it like treacle. It smelled god awful, but unlike its previous owner, the ichor at least wasn't trying to eat him. The rest of the team reloaded their weapons and did a general ammo check, shells and bullets as they regrouped with the rest of the teams. Indeed it'd been a small horde all things considered, all the better with the current situation being as it was if the radio was anything to go by. As the RANGSI vehicles approached, Igoshin raised a hand in greeting before he dropped it, heading over to the Minevans with the rest of the team.
"Hell of a day so far," he commented, taking a deep breath and setting his shoulders. To onlookers it was still strange to see them, unnaturally pale, almost flickering in existence to psionics, but Igoshin was calm and lively as he could be, his men the same.
"So what's our next move, if the congress here is trakhal?" (edited)
Running the perimeter, Fio gave a speculative smirk at the machine that strode up to meet her stride. She had expected a normal conversation from a programmed personality as was common with Minevan drones; namely the Mako that also carried a display of human expressions. "No," She replied in between deep breaths, "Nothing but trash and bodies for now."
Dan drew a deep sigh; he may have been an introspective man but he chaffed at the more esoteric direction of the conversation. He returned to the practical topic at hand, turning his gaze to the ACR personnel. "Sounds like we got our next task cut out for us, I can't hear anyone on the division net who is en route to those VIPs. We should seize the initiative and not waste any time."
Marie had signalled the RANGSI Sergeant-Major to join her to where she was, she also signalled the leaders of the other squad as well. When she had their attention she began looking grimly towards the pillars of smoke that was the Congress building.
"This Task force One Two, we are en route to the Congress building but we need a LZ cleared, can anybody read." A voice suddenly came in over the net. Suddenly Marie looked down in surprise.
"Task Force Twelve?" She said to herself. Before looking towards the other squad leaders.
"If we can get them that LZ we can take back the congress building." She said assuredly bringing up a map of the congress building and its surrounds.
"If we go to the building here and activate the emergency shelter protocol, It'll drop into the ground and give enough space for the reinforcements!" Marie exclaimed excitedly
"We'll have to bypass the horde here, we'll have to go underground and abandon the vehicles." She said drawing a way point on the map.
"Once the building is dropped we can move to the Presidential Residence and join the defence there." Marie stood and waited for input from her new found comrades.
Westland Stadium, Marn Prime
Dorian sent a blast of energy through the walls of the stadium to clear him a direct path to the field in the centre. He watched as the evacuation staff moved out of the way and how the citizens simply froze as he walked out into the field. He took in the sight of the near full stadium and was reminded of his younger days infront of the representatives chamber answering their questions and proposing the solution which had now failed them. He held back a tear at the thought of that failure.
“I’m not here to kill or to conquer your people, please believe me. I am merely here to liberate you from this faux existence as we had once did before millenia ago.” Dorian spoke in a friendly and caring tone after he enhanced the volume of his voice.
“As long as you remain here the awakened will not come as they have avoided every other evacuation area and emergency shelter. Once the dirty work is done a new golden age will shine upon Marnius once again. There will be no suffering, no discontent, no hunger or homelessness, and you will all be free. We will even work to reawaken your light so that you may walk among us as gods like myself and my compatriots do.” He announced again.
-
The crowd merely looked on in terror at the man standing in the middle of the field offering them honey while their planet burned around them. Dorian reading the room took one last look before walking back outside to where his prisoners were. About two hundred soldiers had merely given up at the sight of the weak display he put on for them.
“Lord Dorian, the Awakened are losing momentum and our constructs in orbit are slowly being overwhelmed. Are we moving onto the next phase with these prisoners.” Selene asked in a muffled voice through her helmet. As the prisoners looked around in horror at the fate that was in store for them.
“Yes, it must be done. The hearts of these Marniums are undevoted and easy to work with.” Dorian replied, looking down at the closest soldier to him and picking him up by the front of his shirt.
“Let him go!” someone shouted. Dorian complied and put the soldier down walking over to the source of the voice towards the middle of where the prisoners were. A woman with an officer's rank now stood up to face him.
“You can’t just kill prisoners or do whatever you want, it's cowardly and if you want your own men to be treated with some respect you’ll stand down.” She said staunchly to Dorian despite his imposing figure. Selene lifted herself off the ground and began moving towards the officer only to have Dorian signal her to stop.
“You’re brave to stand up to me… You’ll be first then.” Dorian said, picking the woman up by the shoulder. She frantically kicked and punched at him to no avail.
“Know that I don't take pleasure from this and that I'm sorry that it has to be done. When this is over I will make sure your souls are put to rest.” Dorian said apologetically
Energy swirled around Dorian's hand before plunging it into the woman's chest. She screamed, kicked and punched frantically, but still to no avail. Dorian continuing his ritual put his hand around her heart and felt for the inkling of power that still remained after millennia of neglect. He lit it like a fire and a field formed around her heart separating it from her body. She went limp as life drained from her eyes. The other soldiers could only look on in horror as Dorian pulled out her heart and let it float up into the air. Very quickly the air around it shimmered and flickered until dark metallic panels began to form from the air and bend and warp into different shapes and sizes, it was a brief moment and the heart was encased inside what was now a fighter. Energy sparked to life at its back end and it took off for the skies letting off a wailing cry that sounded just like the officer who was just killed. Dorian looked at his creation with disgust on his face before slapping his hands together and forming more energy this time however the process was repeated en mass as all the prisoners around him began to convulse and scream as their hearts were pulled from their chests and they were turned into the first wave of fighter craft. The awakened were assembled around Dorian and Selene where they were turned into more fighters, mechs, soldiers, tanks and other military equipment.
It was a petrifying moment for Igoshin as somewhere, somehow, some thing rippled across existence. He didn't know how he could feel it or what it even was, but what came with it almost immediately was fiery pain. Agony so intense that being shot with the best APP rifles could not match it, it felt as though his heart was in flames, jagged claws tearing at his innermost self, and he dropped his rifle to the ground with a clatter, clutching at his chest, fingers scrabbling against his chestplate and the metal and ceramic that kept the pain inside, kept it bottled up, trapped. The rest of the squad, his solid boys were in similar states, sucking down breath that simply did not come fast enough, crying out in pain beyond anything they had ever experienced before. It drove Igoshin to his hands and knees, a whining wail of suffering thin and high enough as though to come from an animal emerging from him as he saw Kandinsky jabbing a painkiller into his thigh, powerful enough to go to work almost immediately, but even that did nothing.
For those that saw the suffering of the Restevian fireteam or heard and turned to look, it was not only their pain that was deeply concerning. It seemed... no, it simply was, that their bodies were flickering and wavering like candle flames in wind, colors bleeding out, washed to grey before snappng back before washing to grey all over again. The sort of soft and fuzzy aura around them sharpening to dark shards of glass, blazing with a fey blue fire. Something was deeply wrong with them, and it was only getting worse.
Nikola nodded as Marie called her over and stood with the rest, joining in the planning of their next moves.
“I think your plan is the best shot we have so far. Anything to keep those undead off our backs for once-”
She jolted when Igoshin and the Restevians dropped his rifle and clutched onto his chestplate. Her eyes widened for a second, unsure of what to do, before rushing over to attend to him.
“Soldier! What’s happening! Talk to me!” Nikola then started to notice the changes as the Restevians started to seemingly flicker in and out of reality, adding on to the surreality of the entire situation.
Igoshin wrenched his head up to look at her, his bones creaking and his eyes a million miles away. They were almost pure white shot through with streaks of starry black, and as she looked at him, it seemed the flickers were almost being pulled somewhere. He couldn't rise but he reached out to her, his hand shaking like a leaf in the wind and his armor plates rattling as his voice emerged, laden so deeply with pain and an unspeakable agony as to seem impossible, but speak he did.
"Help..."
"Plan sounds good for me, we got our two birds to help evac them and help clear out that LZ." Sorkanen added onto Maries statement as himself and the other two kepler infantrymen were getting ready to head out again.
"Do we know what's in the tunnels? For all we know they could be infested Sir." Kalin replied to Marie. The four robots got ready too, the one out in the perimeter with Fio did not respond once it finished its sweep, only programmed to speak when it is needed or directly commanded.
"Tunnel's sure beat the crawling roads. Lets-" The third infantryman, Xhao, was interrupted by Restevians suddenly dropping. Himself and Kalin scurried over to them in horror and tried to help them down safely to the ground. He pulled a waterskin off his waist and tried to offer it to the Restevian Nikola was helping.
"What the hell.... What's going on?"
Goreya and Yamane span at the sounds of pain, swords half out of their scabbards. They froze, watching the Restevians carefully but making no move to help. Juana took a tentative step forwards but Yamane held out a hand, checking her.
In Ingenious, she muttered firmly to the little yokeneko.
"No. We do not know what is wrong."
Juana stared aghast up at the agent for a moment, then set her jaw and closed her eyes, attempting to divine what was wrong. Her primary abilities were telekinesis and farsensing, but her lack of redaction ability meant she could do nothing to directly help the Restevians, only to perhaps glean an idea of what was happening to them...
Chor Tyrazh scrunches his face in disgust as Marie speaks. He turns towards nam-Kalyn; tunnels, he scoffs under his breath, if ever there's a place to not be.
nam-Kalyn shrugs. If it keeps us from getting overwhelmed, he tells the stocky Pord, I think it's a fair and solid plan. Another thing to consi-
His words are broken by the Restevians. Doubled over, their pain is deep, far more than merely physical, as he senses. Of this, there is nothing he can do. He turns away after a moment, back to Chor Tyrazh who continues in his hushed tone:
They're leaving us, Tyrazh says, not in a good way.
Flamente strode towards the group of Restevians with an air of urgency, worriedly remarking, "They were never here, conventionally speaking." He brushed past the others standing about, trying to grasp at one of those writhing on the ground. His hand gave into the material like a soft mud momentarily, before being rebuffed harshly away.
He was beginning to understand; these men were only here temporarily. Much like the ghosts of Alpha Ceti, shunted into subspace or rendered into little more than abstract energy to be manifested, their existence was both conditional and unstable.
Flamente had to think quickly. While he was mostly a kinetic expert, all former members of the White Hand were thoroughly familiar with various manners of abjuration. He would use his will to anchor their physical bodies to the material world, in a manner akin to shielding a small fire from heavy rain.
Without a word, the Minevan rested on his knees and set his hands on his lap. In this meditative, relaxed state he was able to draw great focus. Very swiftly he found he would have to maintain this constant focus to keep his Restevian friends bound. He realized that this was going to greatly restrict his combat abilities.
"Igoshin," Flamente guided his attention, feeling his own energy rapidly drain, "What do you feel?"
Dan grimly surveyed the entire scene, realizing that their task grew more complex by the second. "Whatever plan you got we will facilitate, but we need to resolve this now and move."
Marie tried to help the Restevian when he hit the ground only to find that she had trouble trying to pick him up. Her hands simply went through the man, the shock of it sent her stepping back as the others gathered around. She listened intently to what they were all saying about the situation, and although none of it made sense to her she tried to make heads and tails of it all.
"Do what you have to do, then we'll move on." Marie said plainly to Dan.
Igoshin could not see. He felt himself standing upon a precipice that led to a chasm that had no bottom, and a cold wind tore at him, ripped at every line in his skin, every wrinkle and crease in his coat as it threatened to drive him into the abyss. The abyss though he could not see it terrified him, a thing he could not fight and he could not understand, and the worst part of all this was-- he had been here before. He remembered it from his dreams, he knew it from a nightmare that came again and again and again, no matter what the doctor prescribed-- how could he when the entire division had the same terrors? And here he was again. The abyss, the chasm, the pit, and the path that led to the stifling silence of no return.
But there came a voice. Someone was calling to him. Igoshin looked over his shoulder, and suddenly he could see a light in the darkness, a point of fire like a star in the shadows all around him. He could hear the voice again. It called his name. Igoshin turned to the voice, to the light, and though the cold wind drove against him now with a savage force he took a step forward. His boots splashed in the dark waters, ice filled his limbs, but he took another step. And another. And another.
--
Flamente could see as he focused, extended his power that slowly the Restevians came back 'into focus', the sharpness of the auras around them softening, color returning to their skin, their armor and uniforms. It was a strange process to see, but eventually Igoshin moved, his men began moving, and his voice emerged, however thin.
"I feel... cold." he said, hoisting his head up to look at Flamente. "I heard you... calling me...?"
Flamente lessened his focus, albeit feeling notably weaker than before. Using his mastery of the psionic field to tether the Restevians to their material world was still only a temporary fix; it would hold for the foreseeable future. Examining his handiwork, the older Minevan cracked a soft smile.
"That's right. Bear with us for now," Flamente said, "Don't be alarmed; I do not think you are 'of the living', so to say. We'll solve that when we get to it."
Dan cleared his throat, making an exaggerated wave over his head as the hand-and-arm signal for 'attention'. "Before another peculiar circumstance befalls us, I suggest we make haste. Sergeant Marie, on you." He nodded to the ACR's team leader.
Well, that is for sure not natural. Xhao took a step back in horror as his hands phased through the Restevian and a cold snap went through his body, this was no where in his own expertise. As the more psionically inclined among their impromptu joint force tended to the Restevians the Keplerites stood back and were doing a quick check on the combat robots, ensuring that they had enough ammunition to fully take the point of the tunnel expedition.
"Those Restevians aren't right." Xhao muttered as he walked away still in a bit of shock.
"Snap out of it soldier. That's not the strangest thing we've seen today, and probably isn't our last. We're heading out soon once they get back into it." Sorkanen firmly said to Xhao while Kalin was putting in an extra belt of ammunition for one of the robots machineguns. The Kepler corporal picked up his transponder and radioed to Azar.
"Bird 1 and Swordfish do you copy?"
"Loud and clear. We're holding out of the city, lot of activity down there."
"Crap. I'm sending you coordinates to the LZ. Plan is that we take the tunnels to avoid overland congestion to get there and clear it out for you. Sorkanen out." He turned off the radio and got ready to go, just waiting on the other soldiers to finish dealing with the ghosts.
"Mount up and lets move!" Marie said signalling everyone to get back into the IFVs.
"We've got to make space for those reinforcements"
The trip was going to be a hazardous one they had to go with two city blocks of the main horde, but something else was going on now. Black, knife like fighters tore through the skies and contested the airspace with the Aerospace Corps. The Republic had just lost its edge. Even as everyone disembarked the escalation of the conflict became apparent as giant constructs could be see moving between the buildings and flying overhead. Several of the fighters had noticed the group and began attacking in earnest targeting the Kepler helicopters first. The rest of the team disembarked at the entrance to the underground service tunnels, these had a multitude of purposes mainly to do with maintenance and evacuation.
The three Ingenious rode in comparative silence, the shinobi contemplating after their first taste of action on this planet whilst the little priestess digested what she had learned and made notes about how the magic had behaved.
When they arrived they were quick to dismount, stretching their limbs and peering around them. Goreya unslung his Kazedama DMR and scanned the tunnel slowly, but couldn't spot anything yet, whilst Yamane turned to watch their allies dismount
The Restevians were quiet through most of the ride, murmuring among themselves about what had just happened, what they... might be, now, and just what price this was going to have on Flamente. What it meant. It was a conversation none of them enjoyed, and when the vehicle came to a stop, it was an interruption all of them grasped upon.
Igoshin gave the order to form up and keep to cover with the appearance of these hostile fighters as they awaited their next orders, guns up and weapons ready, shields raised as they watched and waited, alert and ready.
Linden was perched over Mel in the blast door of the Kepler helicopter. The duo shared a similar wide-eyed expression as their clear skies turned hostile. They watched packs of fighters grazing horizontally over the cityscape, engaged in their fatal dance of dogfighting Republic aircraft. Amidst the blossoming fireballs of struck fighters in the distance, the Minevan team leader watched a pair of fighters peel off and make a beeline to them.
Linden's heart sunk, not even able to mutter a curse as his blood ran cold. He let go of Mel and shambled over to the cockpit. Even though his helmet was hardwired to the aircrew, he rapidly smacked the metal bulkhead.
"Fast movers, our three!" Linden shouted, desperately alerting the pilots.
The duo on the ground grit their teeth after hearing the callout on their net. Dan and Fio looked to the sky, then followed their muscle memory to hug the earth and lay perpendicular to the oncoming gunrun.
"I see them! I see them Linden!"
Azar yelled over the intercom as she and her co-pilot banked the heavy twin engine transport helicopter around and fired off flares visible from the ground below to little avail. Fireballs streaked past the cockpit and one glanced Swordish, blowing off the tail and sending it into an uncontrolled spin through one of the sky scrapers. The fire was too heavy and they really did not have much of a chance.
A burst of cannon fire rang out to little avail from the gunpod as Azar tried to engage the oncoming fighter, a head-on that they had little chance of winning. Fire consumed the cabin as the helicopter jerked around and began to spiral towards the infested ground. There was no word from the cabin, both Azar and the co-pilot were killed in the quick exchange of gunfire.
-----------
The three surviving keplerite infantrymen and their combat robots tucked inside the APCS were listening to their own radio chatter and its sudden change to static. Sorkanen looked out the vision block and saw a glimpse of the crash and the familiar sound of a fuel explosion.
"Bird 1 and Swordfish come in. Come in"
"Got anything?" Xhao asked as he was getting ready to dismount and into the tunnels.
"Down 2... We need to rethink our plan out of here... I'm sorry Flemente." He yelled this over to the ACR troopers and Maria and did not sound exactly pleased with the news, especially considering surviving this long. With a heavy heart the kepler soldiers dismounted with their robots taking point with the others and into the tunnels...
“Air attack! Convoy scatter!” Master Sergeant Nikola barked in the radio. In the next second, the deafening ‘crack’ as the Kepler helicopters went down, and the earth shook beneath them as it crashed while the armored cars swerved to the sides of the road, taking cover behind what remained of ACR buildings and the alleyways between them so as to remain out of sight for the next pass of the enemy aircraft.
Many individual squad sergeants took the initiative to order their troops to disembark out of the vehicles, not willing to be sitting ducks. RANGSI riflemen stared at the skies, pointing their rifle barrels upwards waiting for the knife-like fighters to appear again, crouching behind the buildings and their vehicles for cover.
“Shit never seen those kind of fighters..” one of them murmured.
“Zombies with air power? Fuck that shit man we just lost our only one edge against the walking dead brotha.”
“Oi shut the fuck up,” Nikola slapped the back of his helmet, sending him forward a little. “See plane all gabra already no balls ah? Like that you call yourself soldier?”
“Fight is not over,” she continued as she gestured to the other platoon sergeants. Slowly, they began to peel off from the road, one by one they dashed across into the safety of the tunnels, carrying whatever they could salvage from the armored cars; ammo, food, supplies, for the long journey ahead.
The Pords dismount silently, having already discussed the plight of the Restevians and the implications of their presence during the ride here. Above them, the loud and unwelcome screech! of airpower arrives in full force. nam-Kalyn ducks towards the ground while Chor Tyrazh looks up to see the flaming remnants of what once was a helicopter.
Get in the tunnels! nam-Kalyn yells, no sense in staying out here!
One of the other Pords nods even as dark forms loom over the buildings around them.
Maria wasn't pleased about the news that they had just lost air support but it couldn't be helped. She gave Flamente and the Keplerites a consoling look but they had to stay focused on the mission or more soldiers and civilians were going to die. The tunnel was wide enough to a small truck but the IFVs were still to big so they stayed behind to cover the tunnel entrance and stop anything from coming in. Once inside they were going to lose comms until they were at the destination. The tunnles were barely illuminted with only emergency amber lights flashing down its corridors. Luckily the Maria and her squad had helmet mounted flash lights and took point.
"Talia get the motion tracker out, keep an eye on it as we go." Maria ordered
Talia took off her back a small scanner that let off an innocuous tick as it scanned in front of her for any movement.
"Sorokin, Kurdin, up on point with Maria's boys." Igoshin ordered of the two assault troopers, getting affirmative nods from both of them as they hustled up to join the ACR troopers with their shields and pistols. Both of them had their visors down, watching through night vision cameras as they advanced. Both of them had blades loosened in scabbards in order to facilitate a faster draw, and just behind the ACR squad came the other three Restevians.
Igoshin had his shotgun out and ready, and having given the order for Somov and Kandinsky to use their rifles, had taken point of the three. Close quarters like this were not ideal, especially not with this sort of enemy. Somov remarked something about a zombie vid he'd seen once, and Igoshin rolled his eyes. He didn't tell Somov to stow it either, because this... was not anything in the manual. So he advanced, they all advanced with the ACR squad, and he listened to the motion tracker's tick between the crunch of his boots on the ground.
The Minevans in the aircraft were more than likely dead before they made their violent impact, shredded by the volley of incoming projectiles or vaporized by thermal energy. Dan pensively looked to the sky, tracing the path that the gunship had taken to its end, before shaking his head and walking away. Fio's lip was quivering in front of clenched teeth, a nauseous pit in her stomach forming from white-hot rage.
For a brief moment, Flamente looked dejected in response to the sympathetic glances, before punctuating their responses. "There is still work to be done."
Flamente took confident strides forward alongside the vanguard, eyes shut and feeling out the tunnel in his head. Dan and Fio pulled rearguard, getting a headcount of everyone that entered the tunnel and planning to enter last. As individuals passed Dan, he physically counted with a tap on each shoulder. Fio, for the moment, was internal. He would give her this transition time and give her a firm grab of the shoulder when the rest were through.
The RANGSI provosts took it upon themselves to form the rearguard, nodding to Flamente as he turned around to join his forces. The RANGSI soldiers slowly peeled off squad by squad in a backwards bounding motion after everyone was inside, making sure that at all times as they moved with the rest, there were always guns pointing to the back to the tunnel entrance where everyone came from to make sure no one gets the creeps on them from behind.
“Basics boys, basics,” Nikola commented softly in the radio net as she oversaw the movement of her platoons all while keeping a close hand on her rifle. (edited)
July 19, 2021
The Beef (Ingen) — 07/19/2021
The Ingenious glanced uneasily at one another, activating flashlights on their own headgear. Designed for a long battery life, the dark confines of the tunnels were still threatening to them, just as a half flooded tunnel would be to anyone else.
They stuck to the middle of the pack, keeping close together.
The mood among the Keplerite's was rather dour, they were down to half of their strenght in manpower alone. Three of their close friends and comrades along with members of the Minevan group they came across were dead along with them as well. Only one way to keep on going, forwards.
Kalin dispatched the robots to help near the front and cover the middle as well, with their LIDAR and thermal optics helping to find a clear path throughout these dreary subterranian tunnels better than the human eye with night vision could ever see. The rest of them took up the middle along with the Ingenious group, some a bit shocked.
"Azar and the others are dead, how much longer do you think it will take for the rest of us?" Xhao muttered under his breath in contempt at the situation.
"Don't lose hope yet. We have our mission first, get out of these tunnels with the VIP's, and figure out extraction." Sorkanen replied keeping his voice down low to not draw too much attention. They continued their trot through the tunnel
The tunnels provide cover from the encroaching enemy air, but provide their own challenge. The Pords advance slowly in the dark as their sensory suites adjust to the lighting. Coming in a pace or two behind Flamente, making up part of the vanguard, their attention constantly shifts as they keep an eye out for branch paths or other areas of potential ambush as - fittingly - Atka Kalan and her skirmishers lead.
As the team walked forward through a a twisting maze of tunnels, Talia suddenly raised her fist as a new noise came from her scanner.
"Contact rear!" Talia said just loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Numbers?" Marie asked.
"Just one, its big though."
"Keep going forward, it might not have seen-"
Marie was cut off as a scream filled the tunnels, for a moment it sounded like a person mixed in with a metal scraping noise. The creature or whatever it was benag moving more quickly towards the group, the heavy clunks of its foot steps in the walls only grew louder and more violent. Someone shined a light on it revealing a jet black construct, blood stained its 'face' as it looked towards the team with multiple insect like eyes and a gaping mouth. It moved on four long awkward that dug into the concrete allowing it to hang upside down. Despite this it was still able to move at a fast pace.
"Run!" Marie shouted.
Goreya whirled, seeing the monster approaching them, and hefted his ornate Kazedama, two shots of 15mm q-cyl barking from the dragon's mouth at the muzzle and ripping towards the oncoming beast. Yamane, meanwhile, hurried the little priestess along - despite the Yokeneko's shorter legs, she was fast and agile and soon was running at the head of the pack, whilst Yamane stuck in the middle, clutching her SMG and glancing backwards at Goreya's silhouette as he tried to hold off the hideous beast.
“Contact!” the provosts began shouting as soon as they heard the monster shriek and reveal itself.
“Holy fucking shit…” one of the Sergeants muttered as he gazed at its horrific form, before slapping himself back into reality a second later. “O-O-Open fire! Open fire!”
The section at the rear did not even bother to aim in such tight space and began unloading bullets at full auto, spraying their guns at the hip. When Marie gave the order to run, the organised leapfrogging quickly devolved into a mess of people running straight at full speed, though some simply stood frozen in fear, doomed to a certain death at the hands of whatever that thing was.
“We need...we need to...bring it out into the open…” Nikola huffed into the allied radionet as she followed the call and ran with all that she got. “We...can’t use...our heavy weapons in...such tight spaces…”
Flamente stepped to a halt as the situation unfolded. The vanguard continued forging on ahead without him it would seem, with the main body following and only the ones closer to the rear stopping to shoot worried glances behind them. The psion stopped feeling his way through, instead using his eyes and observing the artificial beast violently shutter about in the strobe of muzzle flashes.
Who knew how long these tunnels would rage on? Tight quarters against an enemy who so far only relied on melee ambushes and rush attacks; he should have known this would be a fool's errand from the start. They did not have the arms, ammunition, nor space to deal with a being of this caliber. What they lacked in weaponry, he found in his own resolve.
"Not yet, my friends," Flamente spoke out in a normal tone, projecting his voice into the minds of those around him as clear as a calm day. He was still, now swallowed up by the rearguard and staring up at the oncoming abomination. He had just one moment to act, not being able to consider those within range of what could be considered a melee.
His lips curled back in a fierce grimace with cuspids bared, his arms raising up in the same shuttering light as the construct. A growl of effort rumbled deep in his throat, his mind reaching out into the solid walls around him and burrowing into its surface as if it were invisible fingers reaching into soft snow. He intended to drop the tunnel on himself and their attacker; if nothing more, than to get his new motley crew of friends into a more advantageous position.
Ambush. They should of known beforehand. Everywhere they go they are helplessly outnumbered, especially so in this tunnel. The robots sprung the alarm first for the Keplerites in sync with the rest of their impromtu platoon members in the coming chaos, the leading two kept up with the others while three broke off to help cover the rear with supressive machinegun fire.
Sorkanen yelled out to his two surviving squad mates. "What the hell is that thing!"
"No clue!" Xhao yelled back in confusion, Kalin had a bone white look in his eyes from behind his goggles in fear as he tried to keep up but was lagging behind ever so slightly. This was not something that they were ever expected to come across. Everything was wrong.
The three robots in the rear were burning through the ammunition in their machineguns, one of them ran dry and got torn apart by the quick beast in the middle of trying to reload. Suddenly the atmosphere changed as Flamente stood his ground still, and begun to bring down the wall on the beast and himself. There was not enough time to stop it all. As the debris fell, Kalin fell down with it just barely out of being completely crushed from debris.
His leg was in a different state, a piece of concrete and rebar fell from the ceiling and crushed his shin into a pulp. "Shit! Man down!"
"We got a man injured!" Sorkanen yelled to the rest of the platoon running away as Xhao joined him in trying to aid their comrade quickly, with the help of the two surviving robots they tried to pry off the concrete and carry their squadmate to safety in this brief window.
Chor Tyrazh grimaces. If ever there was a reason to not be in tunnels, that reason has found them. The domain of beasts - of creatures swift and mighty - holds nothing back from those in visitation. The stocky Pord turns amid the growing gunfire with a deep frown and determined command of his weapon; his gaze peers through the unyielding darkness of the lengthy chambers, broken only where their lights pours through uninterrupted.
They're coming in behind us, there's got to be more, he says quickly, we gotta take it out!
nam-Kalyn nods, but still motions to hold fire. Wait, he says, it's not in a good spot.
Ahead of them, moving more swiftly with her lighter kit, Atka Kalan agrees silently. But the rumble of the walls catches her attention. She turns with her skirmishers, yelling, it's coming down!, as the tunnel collapses in the distance.
Keep moving, nam-Kalyn orders, don't want to get caught up here.
Igoshin whipped up his rifle when the creature appeared, bellowing an order for the others to get ready as he let loose a chattering burst down the way they had come to hit the beast. Somov yelled that he had a rocket ready, but they weren't in a good place to use it, not unless he Igoshin wanted to be juiced. Instead he kept firing, and that faltered for a moment when he saw what the old Minevan was doing.
"Flamente! Get the hell out of there!" he roared, scrambling for another magazine. Igoshin would never reach Flamente in time, not with how far ahead they were. Time seemed to slow as he kept up his fire, bellowing curses and exhorting Flamente to run once the tunnel was coming down if he could.
The walls of the tunnel cracked and buckled under Flamentes power, the sound o concrete ripping and tearing filled the tunnel and then suddenly it collapsed all around the Psion with chunks of concrete crashing and smashing to the ground until there was only a pile of the material blocking the way back. Flamente was under the rubble somewhere and the creature as well which was somehow still alive as its muffled screams could still be heard from under the rubble. Marie stopped to look at the wreckage for a moment to see if there was any sign of the man.
"I think he's gone sarge." Talia said
"You're right, lets keep a move on." Marie replied
The tunnels felt like they went on forever, twisting and winding underneath the city. It wasn't until Marie stopped the group at a ladder.
"This is it, prepare to ascend." She said to her soldiers
The ACR guardsmen took a turn climbing up the ladder and securing the immediate area as they awaited the rest of the group to join them. They were once again greeted by the sounds of battle as what was left of the ACRs defences held out against the horde and now this army of 'constructs'.
---
It did not take the motley crew very long to figure out the congressional complex was a lost cause. There were no crashing waves or hordes of unintelligent humanoids, but a very organized force mixed of those drawing forth from the leylines and their deadly thralls. The reanimated casters were able to utilize their otherworldly energy to deny the band of troops use of any open space. The fleshy abominations that were summoned lurked in the dark and cramped interior corridors, falling quickly to bullets but taking targets of opportunity.
The allied band had been split up, redirected, and ambushed many times over as they made their push to their objective. Still, the closer they made it to the safe room, the more numerous and strong their enemy became. Their best efforts aside, the group had lost their guides from the ACR.
The group was several stories above ground level on an overpass headed south, directly away from the congressional complex. There were buildings on either side of them restricting visibility, not at all helped by the cloud coverage, smoke, and poor illumination from a new moon. Most of the ambient light was given of by a bright green pillar many miles in the distance that billowed on the horizon before stretching up to kiss the heavens.
They had finally found a moment of peace after the bloodbath. Now, without a proper objective, their only reasonable goal was to survive and get out.
The pair of Minevans that made it out of the tunnel had made it to this point. Dan was miraculously unscathed, if not mentally depleted, but Fio was missing the better half of her cybernetic arm leaving her to manage a rifle with just the other.
The older man turned back, trying to survey who was still with them. "Our old Assembly Area is due south of here; any luck and we got a ride on a shuttle or a Corvette. You ladies and gents trying to get out of here?"
Goreya had been killed in the tunnel collapse with Flamente, but Juana and Yamane had made it through just about alright, a few bruises and scratches aside.
"By the Heavenly Form Of The Dragon, yes!" gasped Juana, prompting a disapproving glower from Yamane.
Nevertheless, the JIAN agent did agree. "Leaving would be nice." she added laconically, checking her SMG magazines- she only had two left, and six rounds in the current mag, the muzzle blackened from repeated use.
All three of the Keplerites managed to crawl themselves out of that cave and into the rubble of this city. Just barely. They lost another one of the combat robots during the tunnel collapse, a piece of rebar and concrete impaling it down the center and breaking it to the point where no quick fix was possible, especially considering the other dangers currently occouring for them. Kalin's legs were little more than mush below the knee, he was barely pulled out of the rubble with his life and was holding onto the back of the last robot with all that he could manage.
Sorkanen and Xhao lead the way for their injured friend and tried to keep up with the IJN and the surviving Minevans, not exactly knowing where the others had been. Everything about this situation was well above their league, there was no way to save the day here beyond for what was left of them. Escape with ones life was all that mattered now.
At the overpass the combat robot set down in this moment of respite to give Kalin some needed momentary rest and Xhao checked his torniquets and bandages to ensure the bleeding was stopped and slowing down. He gave his injured compatriot some more water and antibiotics to stave off infection for as long as possible.
"Is that even a god damn question? Yes." Sorkanen said as he looked across the burning land and the ghastly green pillar that hurt for him to even look at.
"I want to go home...." Kalin moaned at the sound of a possibility of finally escaping this hell.
Of the five Restevians that had landed when this accursed mission began, only two remained. Kandinsky had been cut off from their path of retreat, and when Sorokin had gone to get him out, both of them had been overwhelmed by the horde, even with suppourting fire. There were just too damn many of the dead. The team had seen the explosions as the troopers had detonated their grenades, a final, fiery act of defiance to buy time for their comrades, and to ensure that no matter what, they did not rise again to hunt their friends.
Somov's fate was less clear. Coming under attack from another beast, the demolitions trooper had used all four of his rockets upon it before he was lost in the smoke and the rubble. Biometrics had said he was still alive, or as alive as one such as himself could be, but he did not return. His location now was unknown, his status unknown, even when his beacon appeared for a moment or two on their HUDs.
This, left Igoshin, and Kurdin. Both troopers were exhausted from the team's flight, filthy with dust and gore and soot, streaked with gunsmoke and stinking of cordite and burnt ETC solution. When Dan spoke, Igoshin was going through what few shells he had left for his shotgun, Kurdin tossing his utterly ruined pistol aside after he'd had to use it to bash in a zombie ACR trooper's head. Without a word, Igoshin handed the younger man his own sidearm, and slung his shotgun in favor of his rifle once more. His voice was quiet, hollow for a moment.
"Of course, Dan. We haven't come all this way to lay down and die now. Anybody need some stims? Grenades?"
After the tunnel came down thanks to the work of the Minevan, the Pords advanced where they could. The constant stream of enemies, however, separated them from the others, and soon they were alone in the caverns.
Chor Tyrazh was the first to succumb. Slowed by his heavier load, he stayed back to cover the escape of the other Pords. Weapons fire flashed in the blackness as his position was overrun and he was taken to an early grave.
At the head of the formation, Atka Kalan and her skirmishers met with a particularly savage group. Forced into close quarters battle, they drew swords and allowed nam-Kalyn and his remaining few to take another path; the ground grew slick with snow and blood as they too joined Chor Tyrazh.
The last to fall were nam-Kalyn and the remaining Pords with him. A group of casters came from the shadows to bring about their demise; the battle between gun and magic was short: it ended when a caster brought down a section of wall which pinned nam-Kalyn to the ground; his life faded as he was slowly crushed by the rubble.
What had been entire platoons was now reduced to a squad after being grinded down from all the ambushes and attacks. Only a mish-mash of various survivors who stood to tell the tale.
Many were slain on this day. Too many.
Nikola was knelt down beside one of the provosts, severely mauled, bleeding and about to turn anytime soon. Just a private among many but no one too unworthy of their sergeant-major being by their side for their last final moments.
“Master Sarge...” he coughed up blood, as his face was turning blue and the veins near his temples black. “I-I-I did good today right?”
“Yes, yes you did,” she clasped his hand. “You did damn well. You make me proud.”
“It’s-it’s an honour t-to-to serve…” his eyes began to glow. He knew his time was up. He gritted his teeth, clenched all the muscles in his face as he tried to resist the call to turn. “D-d-don’t let me become one of them! Do it!”
“I’m ready!”
“Majulah Singapura,” she nodded as she took out her pistol and shot him right in the forehead, ending him before he could turn. With the last of her fallen provosts taken care of, she turned to the Minevans.
“We don’t have any fighting power left, leaving is the best...no...the only option we have right now.”
She then turned to the Restevians. “I’ll take that offer. At this rate, even my wounded have no choice but to run and fight if we want to escape alive.”
"Kurdin,"
"Yessir?"
"Stim 'em up. We don't have a lot of time." Igoshin said, still watching the tunnel entrance. Kurdin nodded and broke out the medkit, setting to work. The stimulants were old, and far from the most modern variant, but they'd still get the wounded up and moving until they wore off. Hopefully, that'd only be once they were on the ship.
Dan looked back at his ragged assortment of survivors, now eagerly banking on his promise of an escape he was unsure would still be there. With any luck, there would still be friendlies waiting at an assembly area to wave them down and give a warm welcome. His intuition told him otherwise; the sounds of battle were frantic, but distant. They were either in a relatively safe space, or in uncontested enemy territory. Overhead, a pair of smoking strike craft that Dan recognized as from his conditional fleet buzzed over their street, hotly pursued by a flight of stark arrowhead-shaped fighters.
Dan cleared his throat, quickly calling out, "Everyone pick up your shit, let's go."
Fio clenched her jaw, watching the grim procession of the dead and dying conclude, the wounded being scooped up or limping along, before bringing herself to the same trot as earlier. She began scouting around and ahead, relying on her optics and system scanners to detect any anomalies in her field of view and any structures around them.
Their travel was uncontested as the smartly navigated the roads and various danger-areas, and as far as they could discern there were no observers or satellite forces to impede them. On the flip side, there was not a single friendly unit about either. The only contact they received was as they began to near their objective:
All stations, this is General Roderick. Full retrograde is in effect. All units are ordered to evacuate the planet's surface by any means necessary. Be advised, less than one hour before friendly destruction of Prime City. I say again-
"Holy fuck."
Dan called a halt to the group, coming up on the desolated park that served as a staging area. They were situated on a pass overlooking a massive field flanked on all sides by buildings, and in the center there certainly was a Foss-Class Corvette as he had promised. The only issue was, it was under new management.
In various positions were assortments of man-sized crystals suspended in mid-air, new pieces of covered laid about, some of the prolific spellcasters they had encountered were casually shuffling around issuing orders to the hulking beast they had created. It appeared they were quite literally stacking the bodies of the former defenders and crew nearby, to what end Dan did not know.
He could not get a good read on the enemy's disposition, but he knew the floating pylons served as sensors and automatic turrets, the casters were a big threat, and the shamblers they created were not slouches either. They'd have to descend to the park, get their way into that ship, and wake up the onboard AI.
Dan caught himself grinding his teeth.
Yamane wished Goreya's marksman rifle hadn't been buried along with him back in the tunnel - this was the perfect setup for a sniper, but all she had was her SMG and a terrified little monk.
She glanced over at Dan, the most senior member of the surviving blufor team.
"Orders, sir?" she asked simply.
Juana, meanwhile, squinted incredulously down at the pile of corpses. Naive optimism told her that the enemy were just cleaning up after battle, but in her gut she knew it looked too ritual for that. What they were doing, she had no idea, but she knew she did not want to find out...
With a couple of hand signals, Nikola’s rag-and-tag squad, for what it was worth, somehow still managed to fill up all of its billets intact, with exception of the Marksmen role, who was now a single lone GPMG gunner - his assistant had become a goner from a stray sniper shot during the previous chaos. Their AT billets also now possessed a 90mm recoilless rifle rather than the standard RPG-55AM, which was more powerful but also heavier as well as a trade-off.
Nikola immediately began placing her fireteams behind what cover they could afford. She then turned to Dan and the rest of the group.
“We got enough 40 mike-mikes to bombard the area for 3 rounds. We can time it with your sniper.”
For the Keplerite side of things, things were not looking all too good. Kalin was still pretty beat up, and all they had to spare was a light machinegun ripped off from their combat robots arm and rifles. One thing was cleat atleast, they needed to get away and out of here as soon as possible, Dan was right with that atleast. He looked over off the bridge at the large group of enemies, not something they would be able to fully fight off on their own.
"I don't know if forty mike grenades will buy us enough to get through. We've got our squad automatic and a handful of grenades ourselves. They seem to be too much to fight at once, is there another way around?"
Sorkanen added on as well as Xhao got set up against a pile of rubble and was scanning the horizon with his set of binoculars while the robot set down the crippled Kalin and got its own machinegun trained on the enemy below.
Igoshin quietly began loading his rifle's launcher, surveying the situation before them. It wasn't good to say the least of things, but it wasn't the worst he'd seen... and it wasn't that indescribable hell. This was something they could fight.
"I'll provide suppressing fire and move with the wounded. If there's a way around this, I don't see it. Kurdin, make sure you get aboard if nothing else, I'll be right behind you." he said, looking to Kurdin and giving the lad a solid nod before he turned his attention to Dan.
"We've come this far, bratan. Let's do this."
Something unnatural stirred beneath the ruins of the city wracked by the devastation of the Shadows War. For years now no one questioned why the city planners used a set of pre built tunnels as the city's foundation or where they led to. At the heart of the planet layed a slumbering menace, an ancient empire that long ago went into hiding to avoid the devastation of the ancient wars. Inside a decorative cryo chamber a cadre of individuals slept for millenia.
“Warning, Warning, Power levels critical. Initiating recovery status.” An automated voice chimed inside the room to itself.
The Chambers hissed and whirred and as old hydraulics were moved for the first time in millenia. The individuals were taken from the walls into the centre of the room. Their tubes opened up as machinery snaked across their naked forms to reawaken long dormant organs.
“Revival process, complete. Welcome back My lords and Ladys. It is currently the year nine, nine, ni-” The voice cut out as an audible screech took over the speakers.
“Selene, take Aeneas and go to the control and see what’s going on.” Lord Dorian commanded.
“Everyone else get dressed and get ready, we may have to fight our way out of here.” He said again and was greeting with a round of acknowledgments.
In the control room Dorian could see for himself the situation he and his remnants were in, the sun had been dimmed, their homeworld left to freeze and become a desolate hellscape. It was truly the end times he had feared and had protected against. He turned the Aeneas, with a face mixed with hope and despair.
-
“How many?” Dorian asked solemnly
“Just us milord, whatever happened here killed our people or disabled their life support.” Aeneas said with tears welling in his eyes.
Dorian slumped in a nearby chair and wept for a moment before regaining his composure. He stood up proud and looked to his subordinates. He began to channel mana around him and into the console in front of him.
“IF THEY’RE GOING TO TAKE OUR PEOPLE AWAY THEN WE SHALL DO THE SAME, RISE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, YOU WILL HERALD THE DOOM FOR THIS GALAXY THAT HAS FORSAKEN US.” Dorian shouted as the others joined him in channelling energy.
“Dorian you can’t just assault the whole galaxy, its ludicrous!” Selene said angrily at his declaration.
“THEN WE WILL FORGE A NEW NATION, ONE FORGED FROM THE UNTIRING ADVANCE OF OUR FALLEN.” He said again channelling with the other.
-
“Very well, i’ll prepare a list of targets for us to conquer.” She said going through the computer.
All around the planet a malevolent green energy buzzed through wires finding their way to their intended targets. Slowly the millions of dead began to reanimate, breaking out of their cryo tubes by force and walking quickly to organise themselves on the underground fleet waiting to launch. Around the planet the few ACR outposts began sending distress signals as the ground shook and sections opened up to reveal the massive cavities below. One by one the outposts were taken offline by the hordes of undead as ginormous ships rose from the earth into space. Dorian's conquest was about to begin.
-
Presidental office, Prime City, Marn system, Ancerious Congressional Republic Space
“President Welkin sir we should consider the possibility that we may need to evacuate-” The Presidential Guardsmen was cut off.
“What example would that set to everyone if I left at the first sign of trouble? These people are probably confused as if our readings are right, they only just emerged from Anderson. I’ll open a dialogue with them first before I consider a military option.” President Louis Welkin said firmly to his guard.
There were several attempts made to communicate with the oncoming ships before a message was finally received. One that Welkin would rather not receive.
“Submit to the New Order of the Avarian or be a footnote in its establishment.” Welkins secretary read out loud.
“Send the Prime Fleet, they’re gonna find that others have taken residence here are not going to give it up easily.” Welkin commanded
-
In orbit the Prime fleet moved to engage the new enemy who was rapidly approaching from the systems edge. If timed correctly they would meet at the mid point between the other edge and Marn Prime. Although it took hours it seemed like only a heartbeat until the two fleets were in engagement range, to the surprise of the Fleet commander the enemy bypassed the Prime Fleet and continued its course. Their ships took everything the Prime fleet had but it still wasn’t enough with only one confirmed downing of an enemy ship. Soon the vast orbital array opened fire and still having the same effect the strangest thing was that they weren’t returning fire, they took hits but never returned fire, until they got into orbit of the planet. Quickly orbital platforms began going dark as did the initial return elements of the Prime fleet, boarders seemed to be the main cause of their demise with dozens of torpedoes sticking out of the ACR ships. Then entire chunks began breaking away from the main ships and plummeting towards the ground, articulating and countering the force of gravity to come to a rough but stable landing outside the city limits in the various wastelands that dotted the landscape.
-
Hours had passed at this point and Welkin was getting uncomfortable in his office finally, who were these people and how could such power have been beneath the Republic's notice. It was insane to think about but they were currently on the defensive in their capital.
“Diplomatic districts are being locked down and the national guard is in the later stages of mobilisation. The first combat units should be meeting them soon. Police are enforcing a stay at home order until the emergency is over.” Secretary of Defense Samantha Rodgers told Welkin calmly.
-
Only a scant few kilometres separated the enormous landing craft and the city, Republic FAVs sallied out in force supported by everything they had available. But what came out of the transports they weren’t ready for. Hordes of unarmed civilians raged forward in a tide, some ignored the FAVs and ran towards the city while some tried to attack them with their bare hands. Using speed to their advantage they managed to avoid the horde while thinning down its numbers. That was until a cadres of black armored and green glowing persons stepped forward. One of them let out a lance of energy that had the destructive power of an ATGM and hit one of the FAVs destroying it instantly. When they were fired up another one performed a weird set of gestures and the bullets froze in the air before falling to the ground. The rest of them made short work of the FAVs before the last few retreated back to the city. The initial defences held for a short time before ammunition became a problem and the city gates were blasted open by the powerful individuals. The hoard now had access to Prime city and it wasn’t going to stop.
-
Hours again passed the news was looking grim, Republic forces hadn’t been able to hold any position and were now separated and unorganised. Morale had plummeted and the death toll grew as did the size of the horde, it was horrifying to see that members of the ACR military and even their own civilians had joined it. It must have been some disease that was able to propagate from person to person. Official calls for help were put out by the Republic government as more of its forces were gathered into the system. The Prime fleet which had been taken over was now aiding the enemy force and conducting open warfare against their brothers in arms. Joining the Prime fleet was the Republic 2nd, 3rd as well as the UDS 237th Expeditionary Fleet. Several other nations were also sending forces to respond to the crisis, notable fleets included the Minevans, Ingenious and Kepler.
Marn Military Outpost, three kilometres from the Diplomatic District.
Sergeant Marie Watson had taken what was left of her squad into an old base left derelict for a century. It had walls and automated weapons which could be activated as long as they could stay in front of the horde. The two IFVs reversed to the front gate of the complex while the squad disembarked. It took them only a few minutes to open the doors but the horde could already be heard from down the street. Taking a position on the walls while Privates Holly Dean and Cassandra Ryan looked for a way to power up the defences. The basement was dark and ominous with only the sound of gunfire heard from overhead.
“I believe it's this one here Holly, if you want to try your luck.” Cass said calmly pointing to a breaker box and a monitor
“It's not a gamble, its skill!” Holly snapped back as she busted open the old cabinet.
-
The breakers were in good condition despite their age and just a few flicks they were all on and the monitor next to the cabinet powered up too.
“I just have to alter its IFF program so it doesn’t shoot us instead.” Holly exclaimed excitedly as she got stuck into the computer.
“And done.” She said with a smile as one of the nearby gun turret hatches opened up and raised to the surface with a loud mechanical whir.
“Aw, you really are talented.” Cass said sweetly patting Holly on the back.
“It's nothing really.” Holly replied blushing
“You two get out here now, we’ve got reinforcements.” Marie said over the radio.
-
Running out of the basement the two could see that the landing pads were beginning to fill up as Kepler, Ingen and Minevan forces arrived. Holly and Cass ignored them to join the rest of the squad at the front to fight the horde. The automated defences were working a charm and had thinned the horde out enough so they couldn’t begin clamouring over each other at the base of the walls.
“There’s a distress call from the RANGSI Embassy just a few clicks towards the Diplomatic District, they’re getting overrun around the District walls. We need to regroup and reform the line. The horde is getting too spread out now to properly concentrate its numbers.” Maries said to the rest of the squad who were gathered up on top of the wall.
“We’ll see what these other guys are gonna do to help and we’ll team up and roll out.” She said walking towards the disembarked soldiers.
The ACR called, and the Minevan Sovereignty answered decisively. Osvald Lemore, the representative of state, had promised their aid against the more nefarious and supernatural forces in the wider galaxy, and Minevans were generally not the type to make weak vows. Now, it was time for the Sovereignty to put their money where there mouth was, and they answered by forming the 1st and 2nd Conditional Flotillas. Both were forces made of 100 pairs of Grimwold-class and Falkoner-class destroyers, accompanied with 50 Velkna-class corvettes that served as command-and-control for their automated vessels and each carried a company's worth of volunteers that would make haste to get to the ground at vital junctions.
Hours and minutes were becoming critical, and the Minevan companies landing didn't have the luxury of picking their ideal drop sites. Many of these units dropped into hot LZs and moved quickly to aid their ACR counterparts to keep the wave at bay and corral all civilian assets to an establish safe zone. Very swiftly, they realized, they were finding plenty of blood but very few bodies. Even quicker, they realized that their casualties were joining the wave they were holding back. The independent infantry companies were making full use of their combined arms; the chainguns on their IFVs, the loitering munitions of their SPGs, and the main cannons of their MBTs to shred through their opposition. Still, they were determined to salvage this as a rescue mission, doing their best to not give ground until the last precious moments.
Another distinct signal went through the command nets with urgency, along with an intel packet. The call from the RANGSI embassy; gate guards and sentries were deep in the shit, and even though they didn't have much manpower to spare, they were going to get to them one way or another.
---
"I'm not getting Lennox, anyone have positive comms?"
"Say again! You're coming in broken and unreadable!"
"Left flank is breached, where is Lennox and his guys?"
"His platoon's fucked, we gotta pull back!"
"Negative, I'll get my guys over there! Do not give the fucking ground!"
"Ino, we have to pull back! Republic guys are trying to reinforce Sector 3 so they don't pass phaseline green!"
"Fuck it, cover them-"
"Break, break, break; got eyes on Lennox platoon, they're turned and we are being overrun! Please advise!"
---
Garnet Linden felt sick to his stomach; both from their fast and loose ride in the dropship with his cohorts, and from rolling through the local nets with the desperate planning of his compatriots. He was broken from his reverie as his spotter, Mian Nel, gave him a firm pat on the back. He switched back to his team's net, hearing the commotion of the distant fight no more.
In his dropship were two scout teams and an enigmatic Savant; a psion that shared the same sleek power armor that the soldiers wore. He carried no weapon aside from a small psionic attunement tool on his hip; a contraption resembling the handle and crossguard of a sword, with a knuckle guard. His name was Flamente. The other pair was armed with the same DMR and rifle combination; the marksman was Dan Leone, and his spotter was a woman named Fio Wilanka. Very few words had been shared between them up to this point, both pairs and the Savant coming from 3 separate ships and sharing the common trait of coming from shredded units.
The shuttle made a touch-and-go pass in the landing pad, wasting no time to dust off the moment their feet had left the craft. They only spared quick glances around them to absord their environment and notice the arrivals of everyone else, before briskly jogging to find the Republic soldier in charge. Though they had no team leader amongst them, Garnet would represent them, waving down Sergeant Marie Watson.
"Oi, I'm Garnet! Before you ask, us five are it; there are more coming but it's going to take awhile," He shouted out, coming to a quick stop in front of her, "And it sounds like we are out of time." (edited)
ZHANG-YU CASTLE
Admiral Minowara had received scattered reports from the 3rd Regiment marines guarding the Jade embassy in the Marn System, but they had abruptly gone dark and now concerning and confusing messages from their contacts in the ACR military suggested some kind of large scale attack on the system.
The news could not have come at a worse time. A large bulk of the IJN assets in the Ancerious galaxy were tied up with the blood-soaked Sarnath Campaign, and more of his forces had been committed to help secure Gauss trade routes whilst that nation's navy fought a war against the Furrelians. He was spread thin, and could not send serious aid to the ACR lest he expose his own territory.
He could not sit by and do nothing, however. He drafted some orders and began placing some calls, to the local JIAN and Huoming Temple honchos and back to the Kokubusho on Laptev for reinforcements...
LATER, MARN SYSTEM
Juana de la Cruz Rioja y Cuernavaca, commonly known as "Juana", was a priestess of the Precept of Wisdom, the discipline of the Huoming Temple dedicated to preserving knowledge and understanding. A small Yokeneko, barely four feet tall, she was not entirely comfortable at being sandwiched aboard a gunship with two dour-looking JIAN shinobi and parcelled off to a warzone.
"Sir, it's a mess down there. Not getting much reply." announced the pilot. Goreya, one of the agents, was silent for a moment. "Set us down with the nearest friendlies." he replied, having expected the worst after already passing through the wreckage of the space combat.
The sleek gunship swooped to a hover over Sergeant Watsons compound, and out hopped a small green felid with a glowing tail and orange robes, followed by two black-clad near-humans with only their eyes visible under loose black combat suits.
"Hello," Juana announced, her forced joviality at odds with the desperate situation, "We are from the Jade Empire and we are here to help!"
One couldn't really sleep where they had been. As soon as you closed your eyes, you heard laughter or screams, or whispers, flashing lights that were not really there. The body never relaxed, muscles tight until you took enough sleeping pills to put out a Karokalian, and the poor bastards had to take much more than that. You woke up feeling like your head was full of copper to find that five minutes had gone, or maybe five days. You still felt the same, unrested, alert, always watching for things in the shadows. Beyond the windows of the ship things looked the same but it wasn't, like everything had a fuzzy tinge to it, washed out of color like an old film that had been run through a tape machine a few times too many.
Where it wasn't that it had been riotous color, fractals within fractals and shapes within shapes and things of fire of light of ash and brilliance and a cold watching intelligence that always Saw you no matter where you went. Things that to look upon them would drive men mad, had done so. There was no coming back from that. No planet had held life, even ones that should have, there was no speaking to anyone else.
It was the worst sort of loneliness, even with twenty thousand comrades beside you, you were alone. They were alone. There was nothing. Only cold, only dark, only stillness, only light and only madness.
Until there wasn't.
Space rent violently on the edge of the Marn system, split open like someone had taken a knife with a jagged edge and had ripped through the fabric of the void, spilling light and fire into space until four ships emerged, at which point the rift snapped shut. Bulky and heavily built, the Restevian vessels emerged from the rift that matched no type of FTL that the RSC had ever used, and stranger still was their pennant codes to anyone that had a catalog of AGA IDCs in the area.
All of them had gone missing years ago.
------
It took a long moment for the bridge crew of RSCNT Skromnyy to realize what was happening. Crew stared at their sensors confusedly, blinking as though they couldn't parse what they were looking at. Comms signals. Comms signals. That more than anything else took them off guard, the fact that they were picking up signals that encrypted or not with CES that they couldn't understand meant there were people talking.
But was that an illusion too?
Across the tiny fleet, troopers and crew prayed, wept, looked upon stars that for the first time in however long seemed real, seemed real enough to reach out and touch. Commanders and bridge crews conferred on what to do, because a comm request to RSC Command if they had returned hadn't gone through. Where were they? What was happening? Were they even in Ancerious anymore?
But then a distress call cut across the fleet network, and rote memory snapped into action. Technicians pinpointed the location of the distress signal, they couldn't understand the encryption or what it said, but they could tell by one that something was happening, something was wrong. Fleet command made the decision then to send a unit to investigate, not only to assess the situation, but to figure out where they were, what to do.
------
Strela-15 swooped down into the atmosphere, engines screeching and the hull creaking like an old tin roof as the pilot brought it in steep, plunging down from space at a sharp angle. Gear racks rattled overhead as within its bay, the lights dim and the entire thing stinking of fuel and lubrication oil, but none of the troopers within it seemed to really care.
Indeed, the fact that they could smell it at all seemed to have them cheerful, in good spirits and chatting with one another as they ate rations that had taste again, listened to sounds that were crisp and clear. All of them were nervous of course because who wouldn't be before a mission, but they were happy, visibly so that they felt like they could actually experience things again.
"Minute thirty to LZ comrades, I'm picking up some allied IFF." the pilot reported, and Senior Sergeant Igoshin arched a brow, racking back the bolt on his shotgun.
"Allied? Explain? Sensors said we're nowhere near the front."
"We aren't, comrade sergeant. But I'm picking up Minevans, clear as day."
"Maybe the war's gotten this far west?" Somov ventured, his voice muffled by the vegetable stick poking out of his mouth like a cigar.
"Blyadj, I hope not! That'd mean we're losing!" Kurdin retorted, smacking a hand on his shield. The rest of the troopers laughed, but shared a silent look. What if the APP had gotten this far? The pilot reported the city was on fire...
"Forty seconds, comrades."
"Stand by!" Igoshin barked, and all five troopers stood, hefting weapons as they sealed helmets, the click-hiss of seals like a quiet but synchronized chorus as they heard the landing gear deploy. Igoshin hit the side door release and it slid back, letting in the screech of the engines and the whipping wind as he got on the comm and accessed the universal allied channel.
"Minevan troops, Minevan troops, this is Sergeant Igoshin, RSC 621st Division. Do not shoot, we are landing now, confirm our ID."
The Minevans looked amongst themselves in disbelief. They had seen a few strange things today, but this was definitely at the top of the list. The corners of their HUDs identified the transmission from an older set of codes; going on fifteen years old, it seemed. They craned their necks to watch a last-generation shuttle gunning for the landing zone, both confused at the withered armor plating on the craft and the last people they were expecting to see drop planetside. Still, it was better them than another mob of their comrades turned into abominations.
"Wait, Igoshin?" Dan Leone muttered aloud. He was the oldest man in their group, his unhelmeted face having as many lines as years he lived. Bewildered, he continued, "Luka Igoshin? The 621st?"
He frowned as his blood ran cold and felt a pit of dread in his gut. He stepped in the direction of the craft as it was coming to land, watching the aged blast door scrape open. Meanwhile, Garnet was communicating to the others in the ragtag force of potential incoming friendlies.
After his countrymen returned to realspace, Dan had tried to pinpoint what exactly had happened after the Battle of Kalathan. After they fought off Justicar boarding parties and parted ways, the Skromnyy hadn't been heard from again; assumed lost. "It's Dan Leone; that's you, Luka?" He grimly blurted out.
"Dan Leone?" came the response over the comm, the voice of the Restevian soldier in the door of the shuttle sounding surprised. From this far it was obvious that the man was in Restevian gear alright... last series, early war by any estimation, the rifle on his sling one of the older 234s, not the newer 246s.
"Dan, you mad goat, is that you? Shit, tovarisch, good to hear a familiar voice! Da, it's me, it's Luka. How goes the front that you're all the way out here?" he went on, the shuttle extending its landing gear as it set down, landing smoothly if... heavily. (edited)
Marie watched the exchange go down between the Restevians and the Minevans and was humoured by it, but something felt off about the Restevians that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Nevertheless some reinforcements had arrived and it was time to introudce herself. She stated by clearing her throat loudly to get the attention of the two in front of her.
"I'm Sergeant Marie Watson, Seventy Fifth Company, Ninth Prime National Guard Division. Thank you for responding to our distress call, can i get some names and units... and military's?" She said directed the last one towards Igoshin since she had only seen Restevian military on the AncNet. (edited)
"That's right, friend," Dan forced out, wanting to be happy but forcing through heavy uncertainty. Something wasn't quite right. He had read the report, and knew the Gromnyy had a faulty jump. And the way that Igoshin was talking, it was as if they hadn't skipped a beat since they last interacted nearly fifteen years prior. It looked like their gear, vehicles, and weapons had also missed the memo and hadn't skipped a beat either. "You should hurry down here. I think... there is a bit we have to talk through. This ain't the Two-A-W." He raised his hand in a wide gesture to the Restevian in the craft, beckoning him over to where the leadership was talking.
Garnet turned to Watson, clearing his through and offering a curt bow. "How rude of me; Garnet Linden of the Minevan Second Conditional Flotilla, volunteer of the vessel 'Corvin'. Acting team leader here." (edited)
Palatial Villa of the System Anochaq, Chor Reknu, Pordish World-Disk
Drychaq Atalyn scowls at a report. The Pordish embassy in the ACR went dark some time ago, and all of the information coming out of the region has been...
Dreadful, Torchüq, her aide, finishes the thought. He inhales slowly. A thick cigar hangs out of his mouth, and on the heels of a particularly long drag, he blows a few puffs of smoke out into the room. Moments later they yield to the ceiling, and he sighs with an exhale nearly as long as his earlier drag. So this seems to be a major issue, he says finally. We have to investigate.
Drychaq's scowl fails to abate with the comment. Torchüq is correct. But of the information coming out of the ACR, every bit of intel seemingly painting the portrait of a large scale attack are but actors desperately crying out for a proportional Pordish response. A large scale movement of forces is out of the question - the eyes of the KZH are focused elsewhere - but something more limited in scope, that certainly is more practical.
Let me set up a few meetings, she replies to Torchüq finally, I've got something in mind.
Marn System, Pordish Shuttle
Yanoch nam-Kalyn looks over his gear. After all - one can never be too careful. It's been a long time since he's heard news of trouble in the capital of a fully-fledged star-state. And if the reports are anything to go by... Well, if nothing else, excitement certainly is in the cards. There's probably a good place to put down around here that's not overrun, he tells the pilot. His bushy mustache and even bushier beard muffle his words slightly.
The pilot nods despite this. There's a good spot up ahead. I'll drop you off there. One moment.
Good, nam-Kalyn says. He stands as the pilot brings the machine around and eases it over the landing area. For a brief moment it hangs motionless as nam-Kalyn and his team - five other Pords with varying types of equipment and gear - exit onto the ground below.
nam-Kalyn, recognizing the garb of Ingenious, Minevans, and many of the gathered, makes his way over and speaks up. Good to see others here as well, he says, I am Yanoch nam-Kalyn of the KZH - Pordish KZH that is - 45th Natynozh.
The dropship had landed, and with little fanfare, five Restevian troopers filed out. Two of them held combat shields, two of them looked like normal assault rifles-- if over a decade out of date. And then there was Ishogin, carrying a combat shotgun, his rifle slung now on his back. All of them looked like they'd been through it, urban and forest camo mixed and matched, though they all looked in decently high spirits. Ishogin signaled the shuttle, and the pilot gave a thumbs up, lifting from the ground in a flurry of dirt and dust as the fireteam began to jog over.
"Greetings, comrade Watson," Luka said as they made their way over, giving a nod and a loose salute to Dan before he continued.
"621st Combined Arms division, Restevian Socialist Confederation armed forces." he said, before he looked solidly over at the Minevan. Through his goggles, Luka looked pale, very pale... and he had a sort of an odd feeling about him. But the man didn't seem to be letting that get him down.
"Good to see you, man. Wondered if I was ever going to see you again, but here we are. What did you mean, 'this isn't the war?' What isn't, these days?"
"Well. This whole situation has absolutely gone down the shitter." Lieutenant Sorkanen said over the helicopters radio as he made his way up to the cockpit and looked through the segmented canopy of bullet proof lass. The pilot, Azar, and her copilot sat side by side and were bringing them in from out of the city.
"Without a doubt, we should be in the city soon." Azar said, there was a bit of worry among her voice, they were here for some training operations well before this whole mess unraveled. Not to be subject to this mass incursion that threw everything under the run, so much for an easy deployment.
"How many of our own do you think are still out there?" She said.
"Well, you two, my unit, and Swordfish's crew. Base AI reported back that all were KIA...."
Sorkanen replied back through the door he was standing in. He was interrupted by an incoming signal, from the RANGSI Embassy in the city and the other ones over the channel.
He replied back over the radio to the other forces. "Copied RANGSI, this is Kepler Coure du Armiya Lieutenant Sorkanen, Air Cavalry, we are en route."
".....Azar, Swordfish, set a course for the embassy. Rest of you lot better ready up."
Smoke from the city and its lights were well visible from within the cockpit, various dials and computer gauges flickered across the cabin. A deafening roar permeated the cabin from the twin turbines keeping them up in the air, further amplified by the Swordfish flying in formation above the transport. There was no real attempt at being quiet. They flew fast and low, towards the city and the rangsi embassy.
-------------
The lieutenant stepped back into the main cabin to see his other two infantrymen and their small collection of robotic infantry, the machines were sitting silently and stiffly in the hold. One of the infantrymen, Kalin, was checking his rifle, and the second was staring off against the wall. They were going to land soon, and the tan yellow helicopter and its escorting gunship hovered above an empty spot in the landing zone near the friendlies before touching down.
Sorkanen stepped out of the sliding side door of the transport, same with Kalin, the other rifleman, and the five combat drones before making their way to the other forces. He recognized a few of them already by their uniforms. The pilots remained inside.
"Wish this meeting was done under different circumstances. Lieutenant Mikal Sorkanen, Kepler Coure du Armiya, second cavalry division. Or whats left of it. Do we know how the RANGSI are holding up so far?
Dan was sizing up his anomalous Restevian friend, looking like a concerned mother with a pensive frown and a hard furrow in his brow. "I, uh... Inara's been dead for over a decade, man. AGA's dismantled." He offered a quick paused before putting a pin in it, "I'll tell you what, you help us run our next objective and we can talk more on it." He gave a firm slap to Luka's pauldron.
As the Minevan team leader, Garnet was sizing up this seemingly random ensemble that managed to come in a timely manner. To him, this was absolutely riveting, and it was plain on his face. He offered a cordial reply, "Just seems to be one of those days, ol' el-tee. Most of them are fresh but they're holding out, for now."
"Well, if that's everything i think our immediate concern should be to re group towards the senate building, they seems to be holding the best out of everyone and we can help the RANGSI embassy along the way. These streets are mean and that's before the horde, We've got room in our IFVs if you don't wanna hike it on foot. Which i recommend you don't. My squad and I will be moving out in five, this base is automated so the guns will keep firing until they're killed or run out of ammunition." Marie said sternly to the gathered crowd of a multinationals before turning around and re joining the rest of her squad.
"Oh, well i think you could of been nicer about it Sergeant. They might think that every republic leader is rude now." Cass said in a hushed tone looking up at the crowd.
"We could make it on our own, if they want to chit chat all day. We've made it this far." Holly remarked coldly
"There's four of us left from fifteen, we're hardly getting anything done apart from getting killed and becoming one of those things. I'd rather serve the republic to my end and not join up against it. But better yet i still want a good chance at killing what ever started this." Talia the squad fourth member said gritting her teeth.
"Just focus on grabbing any gear we have left over and what ever can be salvaged from this base-"
"We didn't find anything Sergeant, the only weapons in the base were the gun turrets." Cass interrupted smiling at her efforts.
"Fine, mount up and make room for the reinforcements." Marie ordered, she got onto the long range radio to the RANGSI forces.
"This is Sergeant Marie Watson from the Marn National Guard. Reinforcements are en route, we're three klicks out and closing. Just hold on a bit longer." She said stoically into the radio. If anything a good tone of voice would help make it seem like a properly organised force was incoming.
RANGSI ACR 3rd Embassy
2nd Provost Security Company
11th Military Police Brigade, 885th Combined Arms Division
“-I repeat, this is the RANGSI 3rd Embassy. We are under attack by unknown forces and are surrounded from all sides. We are trapped in the underground car park with no way out. We have ACR and RANGSI civilians, we have limited food supplies and we are running out of ammunition. Requesting immediate assistance. I repeat. Requesting immediate assistance. I repeat -”
The company signaller had been at it at the radio for almost hours. Clinging onto hope that someone outside the embassy walls would respond to their distress call.
Master Sergeant Nikola Lim shook her head as she walked past the signals post. The only thing anyone could do now was to cling onto hope and not much else. If they do not die getting ripped apart by the enemy outside, then they will die slow and painful deaths from starvation and dehydration in this warm, humid and barren subterranean prison known as the embassy car park.
Private vehicles are parked on the surface. But it was here in the underground carpark where the embassy stores its real toys in case of emergencies; armored SUVs for chauffeuring VIPs and their security details, vans and a handful of the military’s new Type 50 Skirmisher armored cars and emblazoned with the words ‘MP’ and ‘MILITARY POLICE’ in bold white as well as the RANGSI flag painted on the sides for identification. Armored cars such as the Type 50s were a standard feature of embassy security for convoy protection, especially for diplomatic personnel going into conflict areas, though for a stable country like the ACR these had never been called upon. Until now that is. (edited)
-----
The Type 50s have been repositioned near the defensive line established at the entrance of the car park, their GPMGs pointing at the shutters which were shaking and clattering violently from the enemy trying to brute force their way in. Individual platoons were rotating sections around in their respective defensive sectors to try and minimize fatigue, though even off duty away from the makeshift barricades of cars and barriers, a provost could do little to ease the anxiety of the situation at hand, much less sleep with all the constant noise.
Nikola walked over to the quarantine area to find 2nd Lieutenant Ahmad Kolguritz sitting down on a chair next to the caution tape, near a body bag, with a small pocket-sized green book in his hand. A very young officer, a 20 year old conscript, like all the others in the company except for Nikola herself. One would rarely assume he was the commanding officer of the 2nd Company here.
He was mumbling prayers for the body. That was all he could do. He had never been in a combat zone and thought he would be here to wear a snazzy ceremonial uniform and put on a show for the ACR dignitaries who visited every now and then. Ahmad was not out of place, the same mindset was shared by the 2nd Company. Most of them now were in their MP No.3, a plain dark green ceremonial guard uniform specially made for the Military Police. With white belts, white aiguillettes and gold name badges, it was hardly rated for combat. Only those on QRF duty were in proper gear.
------
Nikola looked at the body, the zippers were partially opened, revealing its face. Blood dried up around the visible hole in its forehead. Done in by a 5.7mm pistol bullet. How she even knew it was exactly a 5.7mm bullet was simple - it was hers.
The body in question was their patient zero. A Private standing guard at the embassy gate when suddenly the enemy force arrived. He raised the alarm and stood his ground trying to fend off the hordes of ‘undead’ overwhelming his duty post. When his buddies got him out of there, he was severely mauled, bitten and injured. Moments later, when they brought him inside, he turned. Nikola whipped out her pistol and the rest was history.
It was not long before the entire company was driven back. They tried to recapture the guard posts, failing that they then fell back to the building to buy time for the personnel’s evacuation to the underground carpark. Gradually, after several organized retreats, they were now here in the underground carpark - their last hope. A platoon tried to drive out with some Type 50s and bash their way out, but they got quickly mobbed before they even reached the gate. It was then there was no other choice but to close the shutters and hold out for help.
----
“They replied! They replied!”
The base suddenly perked up from the company signaller’s excited announcement. Provosts were waking up and looking at him, eager to hear in on the news.
Nikola took a look at 2LT Ahmad. He did not move or say anything. Shaking her head, she then turned around and rushed to the radio post. Transmissions were coming in from familiar names; Kepler, Minevan, ACR and other various forces. By the looks of it, a multinational op. Strength in numbers. Better chances at survival.
She picked up the mic from the signaller, responding to the ACR channel. “Sergeant Marie Watson, this is Master Sergeant Nikola. RANGSI 2nd Provost Company, 11th Military Police Brigade. We are still holding but the enemy has overrun our entire perimeter and drove us down to the carpark. We are trapped and cannot evac with the sheer amount of hostiles on the surface. If you can provide fire support and thin down their numbers, we can move out and escape this place proper. I will get everyone into the convoy, just let us know when you are near. Over.”
Nikola then shouted to the entire company. “Alright ladies and gents! Help is on the way! Get your ass up and stand to! You!”
A random team sergeant nearby stood at attention as he was pointed at. “Yes Master?”
“Get the civilians into the vehicles and arrange the convoy!”
“Yes Master!”
Life returned to the 2nd Company as hope was on the horizon.
Juana looked confusedly around at the swirling multinational crowd, in which she and her two guardians had seemingly gotten lost. Some were clearly survivors from the combat on the surface, whilst others were allies and reinforcements here for reasons not dissimilar to her own.
She squeaked again, attempting to make herself heard, but her voice was lost in the chaos. Goreya rolled his eyes and chivvied her towards one of the IFVs, the one the four surviving ACR soldiers were climbing aboard. Unlike the little monk, he was six feet tall and clearly a combatant by nature, as was the woman behind him. Dressed in what looked like loose black cloth, they carried swords at their sides. The man clutched what seemed to be an ornate arquebus, whilst the woman carried a more familiar-looking SMG.
Goreya nodded to the Pords as they passed, and then again to the ACR platoon as they settled in alongside their newfound allies.
"Zombies," he said abruptly, gesturing out towards the chaotic city beyond. "We have much experience fighting the insane and the corrupted. Our little cat here wants to practice magic amidst this nightmare, but Yamane and I are here to find out what happened to our embassy and offer support to the ACR. Point us at a target and we will kill it for you."
His voice was heavily accented, almost comically so, but he spoke slowly to be sure of the words and his tone was matter-of-fact.
Flamente drew in a deep breath, not involving himself with the politics of the crowd. The scents and tensions from everyone were so drastically different, but permeating through it into the core of his being was a feeling that screamed aloud in despair. Not the common emotions, from the mostly common folk surrounding him save the more anomalous individuals in their quilt of a task force; the things that normal folks felt in their chest such us bluster, fear, anger, pride, uncertainty. No, he could feel something monolithic and predatory saturating everything around him. The Minevan Psion silently walked to the IFV separate of the other teams. He sat in the troop compartment, honing his focus through all the battlefield noise.
Flamente remained silent in thought, contemplating what he was experiencing, or perhaps, what was causing it. Nothing he saw today was a natural occurrence, but without a definitive answer he did not wish to speak confidently.
Dan and Fio would mount up in the next IFV over, the older of the pair ensuring that weapons and optics checks were complete, and both fitting on their helmets. Their faces were masked, now only represented by the dull red eye in their visor. On the other hand, Garnet and Mian petitioned the Kepler officer to serve as the unit's overwatch in their transport bird. He would be the unit's eye in the sky, to serve and an early-warning for oncoming threats. (edited)
Looks like we won't be going on foot, Atka Kalan says to nam-Kalyn. Her voice is low and purposefully muted to avoid carrying too far to the others. Turning towards where they will need to go, she looks off in the distance. I can see why we lost contact, she says after a moment, this place has fallen apart.
nam-Kalyn nods slowly. IFVs faster, he says. We'd be alone in fighting our way in otherwise. The wind catches on his white shoulder cape - the garb of a KZH infantryman - as he looks over the others gathered. His own group is simple enough (one team of skirmishers; one team of regulars) but the others? They're an unknown factor. To work more smoothly, they'll need to become a known factor.
But of all things, zombies? Atka questions, this time louder than before. Her mind races with thoughts on the implications. The raised dead are soulless, mere shadows of their former selves. A corpse has no place in the Cycle, not without the benefit of outside intervention. At least... As far as she understands. She turns back to her superior, who continues with his prior thought:
Mount up with the Ingenious. I will go with the Minevans. See what more you can find out.
Atka salutes and gathers the other two Pords of her skirmisher team before piling into the IFV with the Ingenious and the remnants of the ACR squad. Some distance from them, nam-Kalyn and his team join Dan and Fio.
nam-Kalyn is first into the IFV, followed by Chor Tyrazh (a rather stocky individual, even by Pordish standards) and Sylna Toqsan; they head for seats while greeting their new companions.
Luka's pauldron felt solid as Dan's hand contacted it, but it felt... cold, for some reason. Luka nodded thoughtfully as he pondered what Dan had just told him, frowning. The war was over, and the AGA was dismantled? Inara was dead? Just as well that Dan promised that he would talk about it, and Luka had a lot of questions.
"Mount up!" he barked to his fireteam, and the troopers headed for the IFV with Dan and his companion, checking weapons and settling into the seats inside it, chattering amongst themselves on closed comms. They saw how people were looking at them, and it unnerved them. They were just Restevian troopers, was that truly so strange?
"So comrade sergeant, we're going to reinforce some RANGSI?"
"Da," Luka nodded, checking his rifle's magazine. "It's a regular alliance reunion."
Sorkanen, Kalin, and Xhao stood near the main group, listening to the ACR Sargeant among the crowd of different races and ethnicities. This situation was for certain not a very good one, they were stationed here for training initially, not exactly to tackle a full on incursion.
"Private, any issues with the bots so far?” Sorkanen said to Kalin after Mare finished her speech.
“None so far boss. I’m just glad we were able to get them here in the first place.”
“Good, we’ll need them. Mount up, tell Azar to wait a few.” Kalin and Xhao nodded and ran off back to the helicopter that was sitting idly a few dozen meters away. Sorkanen proceeded to walk up to Marie with a proposition.
“Sargeant, I’m Corporal Sorkanen, part of whats left of the Kepler Cavalry unit here, I’ve got a proposition. We have two airworthy birds that can cover the advance to your Senate building, some scouting, and air cav. Best to use what assets we have proactively.” Sorkanen said to the ACR Sargeant.
-----------------------------
Back at the idling transport helicopter Xhao and Kalin got themselves situated again and saw the two Minevans approaching and getting on.
“You need a ride? We’ll give you one if one of you can man that door gun, keep the heads down of the ones that are shooting at us.”
Xhao yelled out to them as they climbed on, mainly to be heard over the turbines spooling up. He opened up the side cargo door and swung down the 8.5mm heavy machine gun on its flexible mount from the ceiling.
“Know how to use one of these things?”
---------------------------
After everyone was mounted up on the transport helicopter, they began the trip down an infested city to clear out the tide and take some stress off the RANGSI.
"Good thinking corporal, keep an eye out on the major roads where you can for any movement." Marie responded sharply to the Kepler soldier
Upon being engaged by the Ingenious in conversation she felt uneasy about them, talk about magic seemed insane to her and she almost though that she was being made fun of.
"I'm interested to see a lot of things come to light about this situation, but i have to ask. Magic? are you for real?" She asked the Ingenious sincerely trying to hide her disbelief and slight annoyance.
The ride over to the embassy was about as quiet as it could be considering the situation. The turrets from the fire base covered everyone's escape for as long as they were within range. The radio in Marie's IFV was still on and turned up for any kind of report about a proper counter attack or reorganised force. But it was till the same panicked calls for retreats, evacs and reports of positions falling. She eventually turned it down to try and keep some morale amongst her remaining troops.
The embassy was swarmed by a crowd for at least hundred re-awakened, they were clamouring at the doors, gates or anywhere that would get the access to the building that hadn't already been destroyed. The only remaining signs of life was the RANGSI hold out keeping the re-awakened at bay by funnelling them into the underground car park.
"RANGSI Embassy this is the Marn National Guard we are engaging with the horde and will open a path for you. We're at your ten o'clock moving forward." Marie said to the RANGSI elements.
"Dismount and engage, Cass and Holly cover everyone else. Talia grab that LMG and open up on the horde." The squad responded witha stern roger as they back doors dropped and they disembarked.
-
Cass and Holly followed orders and established over lapping fields of fire to cover each other and everyone as they began getting out. Talia simply strode out lugging the LMG in her arms like a baby humming the Republic National Anthem. She levelled it down at her hips and began unleashing hell. She never let go of the trigger and simply sprayed lines of death across the incoming horde. Marie jumped out and assisted kept Talia covered when she had to reload or had a jam. The IFVs maintained a strong rate of fire against the horde as thier auto cannons sent limbs and gore everywhere as they ripped through the unarmoured crowd.
The Minevans on the ground popped out of the IFVs under the covering fire that the ACR soldiers were giving them, while Linden and Mel served as eyes in the sky. Linden watched the catastrophic damage from above, watching adjacent roadways and ingress routes to ensure no other masses of the enemy would come up on them and surprise them. His eyes continuously scanned the open roads, looking for the anomalies that hadn't come yet. Perhaps they were hidden.
He was surprisingly able to focus on this task as the shorter Mel was ripping into the crowd of savages with the 8.5mm. From vehicles, to the mounted guns, to the man-portable light machineguns; their makeshift force had a hefty base of fire to lay on their undispersed foe. Even a crowd of hundreds didn't stand a chance.
Dan and Fio made a swift dash to the left flank and the rear of Talia. Fio maintained overwatch, calling out targets and distances to Dan and watching their vulnerable sides. Dan, on the other hand, was focused on engaging runners; every few seconds a distinct 'CRACK' was heard as a glowing red beam was shot from his long rifle, ejecting a spent casing and punching holes clean through his targets.
In the other track, Flamente cleared his throat and politely nudged his way past the Pordish riders. He took in the fresh night air once more, now drawing in the fresh scent of burnt chemicals and the lingering cordite that left an acrid taste in his throat. He drew his pistol only to check the chamber, before holstering it again. The psion pensively rubbed his jaw, still chewing on the anomalous feeling that cut through the atmosphere.
Freeing him from his reverie was a single runner that bolted at him between the IFVs. His brow furrowed in anger at the being that broke his focus. Flamente simply raised his hands into a fighting stance and struck the air between him and his foe. The air visible rippled towards the reanimated corpse, the impact forcefully slamming it to the pavement for a final time.
He saved his thoughts and feelings for later, now briskly walking offside of the blazing guns and using his abilities to hold runners in place.
Juana offered Marie a gentle smile in response to the incredulous question.
"The ways of the Ingenious are rooted in thousands of years of tradition. It is unsurprising that you would not understand."
As the convoy pulled up, the Ingenious let their comrades pile out first before stepping out into the chaos beyond.
Goreya and Yamane activated their AA-26 hikatana, straight-backed crystalline blades with slightly curved handles and a curved cutting edge weighted towards the tip. Goreya wielded an emerald blade, Yamane an orange, and the weapons glinted and danced with light, seemingly aflame within.
The two Shinobi held back, occasionally hacking down undead that slipped past the overlapping fields of allied fire. It was the tiny Juana, however, who made the most difference.
Standing with her eyes closed, she began to mutter in a strange language, monosyllabic and barely related to Ingenious. A yellowish glow diffused across her section of the field, and the undead there began to move in seeming slow-motion, even easier prey for the Shinobi and the allies.
“Roger that Sergeant, we’re coming out now! Watch the fields of fire!” Master Sergeant Nikola replied to Marie’s transmission. She then gestured to a couple of Corporals to open the shutter doors. Everyone was in a vehicle, rifles sticking out of the window and turret gunners gritting their teeth anxiously for the big fight ahead.
“Three! Two! One! Opening!”
The RANGSI convoy was in a staggered line to maximise their field of fire. As light from the surface flooded the carpark, the gunners of the first two vehicles started firing away at the line of Awakened at the door. It was not long before first vehicles plowed through them and the rest of the convoy following suit, every rifle, machine gun and even pistols furiously opening fire on everything around them in a desperate bid to preserve that few inches of free space between them and the undead.
“Don’t stop! Don’t stop you motherfuckers! If any of you stop I’ll make sure you do guard duty later!” Nikola barked into the radio. Her RTO then ran dry and got grabbed by one of the Awakened outside before Nikola turned over, pointed her pistol at its head and squeezed, the echo of the shot sharply ringing in everyone’s ears as the ‘crack’ bounced around in the confines of the vehicle. The convoy rushed to the safety of the allied lines.
The mention of magic draws a few chuckles from the Pords. It is very much real, Atka considers privately. She doesn't voice any displeasure, however, merely looks over to the other Pords with her with a knowing glance.
But some abilities probably shouldn't be real.
Elsewhere, nam-Kalyn and his men dismount from their IFV. While Atka begins to engage with her skirmishers, nam-Kalyn is slower in setting up. He surveys the area and watches as the zombies come forth. Here they come, there's a lot of them, and not a lot of us, he says as he flips the converter switch on his rifle and opens fire.
Off to his side, the stocky Pord, Chor Tyrazh, agrees with the sentiment. He takes aim at a few zombies being held in place and fires a handful of times. I've got this lane covered, he says - firing a few more times - we can keep them back.
"Understood, I wish you good luck down there." Sorkanen gave Marie a quick nod and jogged back to the helicopter that was spinning up its rotors and getting ready for takeoff. The turbines were rather shriek and the infantrymen all put on hearing protection.
"Everyone on board? Looks like we got some guests huh, good on picking up the gun. Shoot anything that don't seem living, don't go overboard now." He said over to his two squadmates and to Garnet and Mian while giving them a pat on the back while getting seated up in front with the combat robots that were currently inactive.
"Yeah we're all here. Nothing else holding us back right now, prepare for takeoff"
Azar said over the radio as she began to give some power to the rotors and the helicopter lifted off the ground and began its flight into the unknown. The Rangsi were out there somewhere, hopefully mostly alive. They covered over the main convoy of the IFV's carrying their few allies, an occasional burst of autocannon fire from the gunpod mounted to the side of the helicopters fuselage rained out on the thicker groups of them ahead of the convoy. Showers of body parts and rotted flesh splattered around the impact sites.
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Kalin lead the 5 combat robots equipped with rifles and some miscellany weapons out of the helicopter with Xhao covering with spurts of light machinegun fire from behind cover, occasionally striking a zombie and putting them down on the ground. They were not going to ride that bird directly into combat, rather just a way to get close.
"Swordfish and myself are going to be getting out of here to somewhere a little less hot. We'll keep you updated on aerial recon and help where we can."
"Understood, try not to get shot down." Sorkanen replied to his units pilot as they took up positions behind cover near their allies at the embassy. The combat robots were positioned closer to the front and delivered their firepower with inhuman accuracy and efficiency, cutting down the zombies seen as the greatest threat.
Things seemed normal as it could feasibly be until the strange Jade priestess did something strange with this yellow energy. No one in the kepler unit had a clue what it was. Sure as hell didn't seem like psionics or anything natural.
"What the hell is that!?" Xhao yelled out as he swung the machinegun around to take advantage of the slowed down foe.
"Overlapping fire, coordinated fire! Cut 'em down, lads!" Igoshin roared as the IFVs came to a stop and the doors opened, already raising his shotgun as he leapt from his seat.
"URA!" the squad answered, and the Restevians went into action.
Sorokin led the way up with his shield in front, aiming for short, precise shots with his pistol. The Varjag's reputation for fireballs was no myth today as the pistol roared, bang bang bang as he put two in the chest of the nearest of the dead, the third through the bridge of their nose as he advanced. Kurdin was to his flank, doing much the same though his fire was far more rapid, putting shots into the dead as they advanced as fast as his trigger finger could put rounds down. Soon enough he had to reload, hunkering down behind his shield as he dropped the mag, and that was when the rest of the fireteam went up.
Igoshin leveled his shotgun at more or less shoulder height as he advanced, opening up in a thundering four round burst as to his flanks Both Kadinsky and Somov lay down bursts from their rifles, aiming to half-way suppress on the off chance that these things had brain left enough to do it, and half-kill shots, their AKs spitting fire and metal. The gore of their assault was immediate and heavy, though the godsdamned things simply didn't take a hint. Two charged the squad already full of holes from their fire and that of their allies, and Sorokin with an inarticulate roar switched to his blade, slamming his shield forward as the heavy sabre-like weapon chopped into an undead head like an axe splitting a stump.
"Gods damn-- fuck!" Sorokin yelled at the smell, but he chopped again and again, slamming his blade until it went down, and he whipped to hit the other, still clawing wildly at his shield. (edited)
"HOLD FIRE, HOLD YOUR FIRE" Marie shouted over the cacophony of gunfire.
The last Awakened had fallen to the ground and the immediate area was clear of the horde. All in all it was a small horde of 100+ Awakened. Marie gave the order for the IFVs to move towards the main gate of the embassy to target any Awakened stragglers coming out from the inside of the embassy. Marie caught the convoy leaving from the underground car park and raised them on the radio.
"RANGSI convoy this is SGT Marie, i'd like to talk to your commanding officer if possible. If not I'll send through the coordinates of a Firebase where evacuation drop ships will be able to pick you up." She said to them.
Looking around at the corpses there was a mix of civilian, ACR military and RANGSI Embassy staff. It really did affect everyone who died, it was during this contemplation that Talia suddenly shouted out to her.
"Sergeant, its the congress complex. The line has been broken!" Talia shouted in a state of shock.
Over the radio there were calls for reinforcements and SITREPS over where the horder had broken through. It took a minute of listening to understand that they simply ran out of ammunition before supplies could be airlifted to them. The main defences were breached but holdouts were forming mostly around the Presidential estate, with most retreating back there in an unorganised manner.
Goreya shook the blood from his blade, wiping it on the least foul rags he could spot within easy reach as sporadic shots signalled their allies putting down the last few members of the horde that had been attacking the embassy.
He sheathed his hikatana with a deliberate, practised motion and then turned to walk back to Marie. As he passed Juana, she looked at him expectantly, excited for praise following her contribution to the fight, but he simply scoffed and did not break his gait.
He and Yamane came to a stop near Sergeant Marie and her troops, next to the Minevans. Goreya turned to Dan as the Minevans gathered themselves. He had seen a few of the vaguely canid Minevans back at Takabara, hanging around the factory quarter.
"You acquitted yourselves well. Have you fought monsters such as these before?" he asked in his accented Common.
"Cease fire, cease fire," Linden spoke calmly over the frequency, relaying the command, "Check your ACE, pick a sector." The sounds of battle were barely heard between the deafening droning of the aircraft he was in, as well as the sound-dampening helmet hugging his skull.
Even a brief engagement of gunfire could prove taxing to a fighter's ammunition. In order to not be caught flat-footed, Dan and Fio conducted a tactical reload with fresh energy cartridges moments after the ceasefire. They retained the spent container on their gear. The pair exchanged a quick nod. "Yeah Garnet, all good."
Flamente had dropped his focus after the last Awakened had dropped, conserving his mental and physical energy. He only paused to draw a deep breath, before following behind Goreya. Watching his dismissal of Juana, he offered an incredulous smirk to Goreya's back. Flamente took a momentary stop by the much shorter Yokeneko, giving a single firm pat on her shoulder.
"Outstanding work. Your skill may get us through these dark days," The psion continued walking after giving the reinforcement he thought was earned.
Dan had Fio check her gear, and then scout around their unit's general area. She brought her rifle to the high-ready and darted off, both to check their perimeter and make visual contact with the RANGSI troops. Dan, on the other hand, was sizing up the Ingen oncomer; a swordsman, not an uncommon sight to an old Minevan like him.
"You as well, sir," The old man replied to Goreya, taking a moment to contemplate, "Similar, I think. Live long enough and I suppose you'll fight every kind of monster there is to offer. I take it you have as well?"
With a simple hand gesture up in a fist Sorkanen ordered a cease fire from his two other infantrymen and the five robots. It became eerily silent after the last rounds rang out into the horde. They lay there dead in the dozens. He poked his head up from behind cover and looked over at Kalin and Xhao.
"Shit thats not good. We got a bird that can airlift the VIP's."
“Anyone hurt over here?” He said to the rest of the allied forces. Visually atleast his own two men seemed fine and the robots sported only minor scratches and damage, nothing to concern about.
“Everythings alright here… Gotta say that ain’t something I’ve seen before.” Xhao said.
“Good, get those bots securing the perimeter.”
With a nod Kalin sent a control order out to the five robots to go out from their more forward located positions to go check out the perimeter and get confirmed visuals on the RANGSI in conjunction with the minevan forces, careful in their footing to not step on the pile of corpses accumulated around their position. Time was of the essence.
The bot was painted in a desert tan with a red and blue stripe going down its side and it jogged mechanically over to Minevan Fio in order to link up and spoke in a synthesized voice. "Anything out here?"
Goreya nodded. "I begin to wonder if such abominations are the natural way of the universe, and that right-thinking beings are the exception."
Not too far from Marie, nam-Kalyn is the first Pord to ceasefire, but is quickly joined by the others. He ponders quietly to himself before turning to Chor Tyrazh, who takes the opportunity to speak up -
Looks like everything is in working order, he says, even considering their numbers.
nam-Kalyn shrugs. There will be more of them, he replies, looking over his gear once more. They make their way to regroup with Atka Kalan and her skirmishers by Marie and the Minevans. The third member of his fireteam, Sylna Toqsan, walks ahead of them, having fought from a position closer to the others from the start.
Unlike nam-Kalyn or Tyrazh however, Toqsan's environmental barriers are continuously enabled. She is not nearly as acclimatized to the atmospherics or temperature as the others, but she was chosen for her technical knowledge, not resilience to the scorching heat of other worlds.
Coming to a stop, she looks over to Dan and Goreya. Her gaze shifts past the sheathed hikatana and then to the rest of the gear carried by the shinobi - tools all so similar and familiar yet utterly foreign all the same. Having overheard his query while approaching, she interjects into the conversation:
Yes, she agrees, and isn't that why we are here? To ensure that the universe doesn't fall to the chaos of such abominations?
A few minutes passed after SGT Marie’s request to speak to the RANGSI commanding officer, presumably that would be 2LT Ahmad, lingered in limbo.
Grunting in frustration, Nikola picked up the radio. “Sir, the ACR sergeant wants to speak to you. Please reply, over.”
“...”
“Sir? Are you there?”
“Sergeant-Major, I will take a platoon to escort the VIPs to the firebase. Please speak to them on my behalf, over.”
“Cowardly worm…” Nikola grumbled quietly to herself before clearing her throat of contempt. “Roger that, sir. Ordering 2nd and 3rd Platoon to break away from formation on the battlenet. Out.”
She adjusted the knobs on the radio set and flipped some switches to reach the ACR channel. “Sergeant Marie, this is Master Sergeant Nikola. Our commanding officer has ordered me to stand in for him while he escorts the VIPs to the firebase coordinates. We are turning around over to your position now, standby, over.”
The RANGSI armored cars then returned to the embassy, joining the rest of the allied forces. Nikola hopped off and waited for the ACR Sergeant to talk to her, be it on the radio or in person.
The Restevians ceased firing quickly when the order was given, Sorokin working on cleaning his blade of the foul ichor that clung to it like treacle. It smelled god awful, but unlike its previous owner, the ichor at least wasn't trying to eat him. The rest of the team reloaded their weapons and did a general ammo check, shells and bullets as they regrouped with the rest of the teams. Indeed it'd been a small horde all things considered, all the better with the current situation being as it was if the radio was anything to go by. As the RANGSI vehicles approached, Igoshin raised a hand in greeting before he dropped it, heading over to the Minevans with the rest of the team.
"Hell of a day so far," he commented, taking a deep breath and setting his shoulders. To onlookers it was still strange to see them, unnaturally pale, almost flickering in existence to psionics, but Igoshin was calm and lively as he could be, his men the same.
"So what's our next move, if the congress here is trakhal?" (edited)
Running the perimeter, Fio gave a speculative smirk at the machine that strode up to meet her stride. She had expected a normal conversation from a programmed personality as was common with Minevan drones; namely the Mako that also carried a display of human expressions. "No," She replied in between deep breaths, "Nothing but trash and bodies for now."
Dan drew a deep sigh; he may have been an introspective man but he chaffed at the more esoteric direction of the conversation. He returned to the practical topic at hand, turning his gaze to the ACR personnel. "Sounds like we got our next task cut out for us, I can't hear anyone on the division net who is en route to those VIPs. We should seize the initiative and not waste any time."
Marie had signalled the RANGSI Sergeant-Major to join her to where she was, she also signalled the leaders of the other squad as well. When she had their attention she began looking grimly towards the pillars of smoke that was the Congress building.
"This Task force One Two, we are en route to the Congress building but we need a LZ cleared, can anybody read." A voice suddenly came in over the net. Suddenly Marie looked down in surprise.
"Task Force Twelve?" She said to herself. Before looking towards the other squad leaders.
"If we can get them that LZ we can take back the congress building." She said assuredly bringing up a map of the congress building and its surrounds.
"If we go to the building here and activate the emergency shelter protocol, It'll drop into the ground and give enough space for the reinforcements!" Marie exclaimed excitedly
"We'll have to bypass the horde here, we'll have to go underground and abandon the vehicles." She said drawing a way point on the map.
"Once the building is dropped we can move to the Presidential Residence and join the defence there." Marie stood and waited for input from her new found comrades.
Westland Stadium, Marn Prime
Dorian sent a blast of energy through the walls of the stadium to clear him a direct path to the field in the centre. He watched as the evacuation staff moved out of the way and how the citizens simply froze as he walked out into the field. He took in the sight of the near full stadium and was reminded of his younger days infront of the representatives chamber answering their questions and proposing the solution which had now failed them. He held back a tear at the thought of that failure.
“I’m not here to kill or to conquer your people, please believe me. I am merely here to liberate you from this faux existence as we had once did before millenia ago.” Dorian spoke in a friendly and caring tone after he enhanced the volume of his voice.
“As long as you remain here the awakened will not come as they have avoided every other evacuation area and emergency shelter. Once the dirty work is done a new golden age will shine upon Marnius once again. There will be no suffering, no discontent, no hunger or homelessness, and you will all be free. We will even work to reawaken your light so that you may walk among us as gods like myself and my compatriots do.” He announced again.
-
The crowd merely looked on in terror at the man standing in the middle of the field offering them honey while their planet burned around them. Dorian reading the room took one last look before walking back outside to where his prisoners were. About two hundred soldiers had merely given up at the sight of the weak display he put on for them.
“Lord Dorian, the Awakened are losing momentum and our constructs in orbit are slowly being overwhelmed. Are we moving onto the next phase with these prisoners.” Selene asked in a muffled voice through her helmet. As the prisoners looked around in horror at the fate that was in store for them.
“Yes, it must be done. The hearts of these Marniums are undevoted and easy to work with.” Dorian replied, looking down at the closest soldier to him and picking him up by the front of his shirt.
“Let him go!” someone shouted. Dorian complied and put the soldier down walking over to the source of the voice towards the middle of where the prisoners were. A woman with an officer's rank now stood up to face him.
“You can’t just kill prisoners or do whatever you want, it's cowardly and if you want your own men to be treated with some respect you’ll stand down.” She said staunchly to Dorian despite his imposing figure. Selene lifted herself off the ground and began moving towards the officer only to have Dorian signal her to stop.
“You’re brave to stand up to me… You’ll be first then.” Dorian said, picking the woman up by the shoulder. She frantically kicked and punched at him to no avail.
“Know that I don't take pleasure from this and that I'm sorry that it has to be done. When this is over I will make sure your souls are put to rest.” Dorian said apologetically
Energy swirled around Dorian's hand before plunging it into the woman's chest. She screamed, kicked and punched frantically, but still to no avail. Dorian continuing his ritual put his hand around her heart and felt for the inkling of power that still remained after millennia of neglect. He lit it like a fire and a field formed around her heart separating it from her body. She went limp as life drained from her eyes. The other soldiers could only look on in horror as Dorian pulled out her heart and let it float up into the air. Very quickly the air around it shimmered and flickered until dark metallic panels began to form from the air and bend and warp into different shapes and sizes, it was a brief moment and the heart was encased inside what was now a fighter. Energy sparked to life at its back end and it took off for the skies letting off a wailing cry that sounded just like the officer who was just killed. Dorian looked at his creation with disgust on his face before slapping his hands together and forming more energy this time however the process was repeated en mass as all the prisoners around him began to convulse and scream as their hearts were pulled from their chests and they were turned into the first wave of fighter craft. The awakened were assembled around Dorian and Selene where they were turned into more fighters, mechs, soldiers, tanks and other military equipment.
It was a petrifying moment for Igoshin as somewhere, somehow, some thing rippled across existence. He didn't know how he could feel it or what it even was, but what came with it almost immediately was fiery pain. Agony so intense that being shot with the best APP rifles could not match it, it felt as though his heart was in flames, jagged claws tearing at his innermost self, and he dropped his rifle to the ground with a clatter, clutching at his chest, fingers scrabbling against his chestplate and the metal and ceramic that kept the pain inside, kept it bottled up, trapped. The rest of the squad, his solid boys were in similar states, sucking down breath that simply did not come fast enough, crying out in pain beyond anything they had ever experienced before. It drove Igoshin to his hands and knees, a whining wail of suffering thin and high enough as though to come from an animal emerging from him as he saw Kandinsky jabbing a painkiller into his thigh, powerful enough to go to work almost immediately, but even that did nothing.
For those that saw the suffering of the Restevian fireteam or heard and turned to look, it was not only their pain that was deeply concerning. It seemed... no, it simply was, that their bodies were flickering and wavering like candle flames in wind, colors bleeding out, washed to grey before snappng back before washing to grey all over again. The sort of soft and fuzzy aura around them sharpening to dark shards of glass, blazing with a fey blue fire. Something was deeply wrong with them, and it was only getting worse.
Nikola nodded as Marie called her over and stood with the rest, joining in the planning of their next moves.
“I think your plan is the best shot we have so far. Anything to keep those undead off our backs for once-”
She jolted when Igoshin and the Restevians dropped his rifle and clutched onto his chestplate. Her eyes widened for a second, unsure of what to do, before rushing over to attend to him.
“Soldier! What’s happening! Talk to me!” Nikola then started to notice the changes as the Restevians started to seemingly flicker in and out of reality, adding on to the surreality of the entire situation.
Igoshin wrenched his head up to look at her, his bones creaking and his eyes a million miles away. They were almost pure white shot through with streaks of starry black, and as she looked at him, it seemed the flickers were almost being pulled somewhere. He couldn't rise but he reached out to her, his hand shaking like a leaf in the wind and his armor plates rattling as his voice emerged, laden so deeply with pain and an unspeakable agony as to seem impossible, but speak he did.
"Help..."
"Plan sounds good for me, we got our two birds to help evac them and help clear out that LZ." Sorkanen added onto Maries statement as himself and the other two kepler infantrymen were getting ready to head out again.
"Do we know what's in the tunnels? For all we know they could be infested Sir." Kalin replied to Marie. The four robots got ready too, the one out in the perimeter with Fio did not respond once it finished its sweep, only programmed to speak when it is needed or directly commanded.
"Tunnel's sure beat the crawling roads. Lets-" The third infantryman, Xhao, was interrupted by Restevians suddenly dropping. Himself and Kalin scurried over to them in horror and tried to help them down safely to the ground. He pulled a waterskin off his waist and tried to offer it to the Restevian Nikola was helping.
"What the hell.... What's going on?"
Goreya and Yamane span at the sounds of pain, swords half out of their scabbards. They froze, watching the Restevians carefully but making no move to help. Juana took a tentative step forwards but Yamane held out a hand, checking her.
In Ingenious, she muttered firmly to the little yokeneko.
"No. We do not know what is wrong."
Juana stared aghast up at the agent for a moment, then set her jaw and closed her eyes, attempting to divine what was wrong. Her primary abilities were telekinesis and farsensing, but her lack of redaction ability meant she could do nothing to directly help the Restevians, only to perhaps glean an idea of what was happening to them...
Chor Tyrazh scrunches his face in disgust as Marie speaks. He turns towards nam-Kalyn; tunnels, he scoffs under his breath, if ever there's a place to not be.
nam-Kalyn shrugs. If it keeps us from getting overwhelmed, he tells the stocky Pord, I think it's a fair and solid plan. Another thing to consi-
His words are broken by the Restevians. Doubled over, their pain is deep, far more than merely physical, as he senses. Of this, there is nothing he can do. He turns away after a moment, back to Chor Tyrazh who continues in his hushed tone:
They're leaving us, Tyrazh says, not in a good way.
Flamente strode towards the group of Restevians with an air of urgency, worriedly remarking, "They were never here, conventionally speaking." He brushed past the others standing about, trying to grasp at one of those writhing on the ground. His hand gave into the material like a soft mud momentarily, before being rebuffed harshly away.
He was beginning to understand; these men were only here temporarily. Much like the ghosts of Alpha Ceti, shunted into subspace or rendered into little more than abstract energy to be manifested, their existence was both conditional and unstable.
Flamente had to think quickly. While he was mostly a kinetic expert, all former members of the White Hand were thoroughly familiar with various manners of abjuration. He would use his will to anchor their physical bodies to the material world, in a manner akin to shielding a small fire from heavy rain.
Without a word, the Minevan rested on his knees and set his hands on his lap. In this meditative, relaxed state he was able to draw great focus. Very swiftly he found he would have to maintain this constant focus to keep his Restevian friends bound. He realized that this was going to greatly restrict his combat abilities.
"Igoshin," Flamente guided his attention, feeling his own energy rapidly drain, "What do you feel?"
Dan grimly surveyed the entire scene, realizing that their task grew more complex by the second. "Whatever plan you got we will facilitate, but we need to resolve this now and move."
Marie tried to help the Restevian when he hit the ground only to find that she had trouble trying to pick him up. Her hands simply went through the man, the shock of it sent her stepping back as the others gathered around. She listened intently to what they were all saying about the situation, and although none of it made sense to her she tried to make heads and tails of it all.
"Do what you have to do, then we'll move on." Marie said plainly to Dan.
Igoshin could not see. He felt himself standing upon a precipice that led to a chasm that had no bottom, and a cold wind tore at him, ripped at every line in his skin, every wrinkle and crease in his coat as it threatened to drive him into the abyss. The abyss though he could not see it terrified him, a thing he could not fight and he could not understand, and the worst part of all this was-- he had been here before. He remembered it from his dreams, he knew it from a nightmare that came again and again and again, no matter what the doctor prescribed-- how could he when the entire division had the same terrors? And here he was again. The abyss, the chasm, the pit, and the path that led to the stifling silence of no return.
But there came a voice. Someone was calling to him. Igoshin looked over his shoulder, and suddenly he could see a light in the darkness, a point of fire like a star in the shadows all around him. He could hear the voice again. It called his name. Igoshin turned to the voice, to the light, and though the cold wind drove against him now with a savage force he took a step forward. His boots splashed in the dark waters, ice filled his limbs, but he took another step. And another. And another.
--
Flamente could see as he focused, extended his power that slowly the Restevians came back 'into focus', the sharpness of the auras around them softening, color returning to their skin, their armor and uniforms. It was a strange process to see, but eventually Igoshin moved, his men began moving, and his voice emerged, however thin.
"I feel... cold." he said, hoisting his head up to look at Flamente. "I heard you... calling me...?"
Flamente lessened his focus, albeit feeling notably weaker than before. Using his mastery of the psionic field to tether the Restevians to their material world was still only a temporary fix; it would hold for the foreseeable future. Examining his handiwork, the older Minevan cracked a soft smile.
"That's right. Bear with us for now," Flamente said, "Don't be alarmed; I do not think you are 'of the living', so to say. We'll solve that when we get to it."
Dan cleared his throat, making an exaggerated wave over his head as the hand-and-arm signal for 'attention'. "Before another peculiar circumstance befalls us, I suggest we make haste. Sergeant Marie, on you." He nodded to the ACR's team leader.
Well, that is for sure not natural. Xhao took a step back in horror as his hands phased through the Restevian and a cold snap went through his body, this was no where in his own expertise. As the more psionically inclined among their impromptu joint force tended to the Restevians the Keplerites stood back and were doing a quick check on the combat robots, ensuring that they had enough ammunition to fully take the point of the tunnel expedition.
"Those Restevians aren't right." Xhao muttered as he walked away still in a bit of shock.
"Snap out of it soldier. That's not the strangest thing we've seen today, and probably isn't our last. We're heading out soon once they get back into it." Sorkanen firmly said to Xhao while Kalin was putting in an extra belt of ammunition for one of the robots machineguns. The Kepler corporal picked up his transponder and radioed to Azar.
"Bird 1 and Swordfish do you copy?"
"Loud and clear. We're holding out of the city, lot of activity down there."
"Crap. I'm sending you coordinates to the LZ. Plan is that we take the tunnels to avoid overland congestion to get there and clear it out for you. Sorkanen out." He turned off the radio and got ready to go, just waiting on the other soldiers to finish dealing with the ghosts.
"Mount up and lets move!" Marie said signalling everyone to get back into the IFVs.
"We've got to make space for those reinforcements"
The trip was going to be a hazardous one they had to go with two city blocks of the main horde, but something else was going on now. Black, knife like fighters tore through the skies and contested the airspace with the Aerospace Corps. The Republic had just lost its edge. Even as everyone disembarked the escalation of the conflict became apparent as giant constructs could be see moving between the buildings and flying overhead. Several of the fighters had noticed the group and began attacking in earnest targeting the Kepler helicopters first. The rest of the team disembarked at the entrance to the underground service tunnels, these had a multitude of purposes mainly to do with maintenance and evacuation.
The three Ingenious rode in comparative silence, the shinobi contemplating after their first taste of action on this planet whilst the little priestess digested what she had learned and made notes about how the magic had behaved.
When they arrived they were quick to dismount, stretching their limbs and peering around them. Goreya unslung his Kazedama DMR and scanned the tunnel slowly, but couldn't spot anything yet, whilst Yamane turned to watch their allies dismount
The Restevians were quiet through most of the ride, murmuring among themselves about what had just happened, what they... might be, now, and just what price this was going to have on Flamente. What it meant. It was a conversation none of them enjoyed, and when the vehicle came to a stop, it was an interruption all of them grasped upon.
Igoshin gave the order to form up and keep to cover with the appearance of these hostile fighters as they awaited their next orders, guns up and weapons ready, shields raised as they watched and waited, alert and ready.
Linden was perched over Mel in the blast door of the Kepler helicopter. The duo shared a similar wide-eyed expression as their clear skies turned hostile. They watched packs of fighters grazing horizontally over the cityscape, engaged in their fatal dance of dogfighting Republic aircraft. Amidst the blossoming fireballs of struck fighters in the distance, the Minevan team leader watched a pair of fighters peel off and make a beeline to them.
Linden's heart sunk, not even able to mutter a curse as his blood ran cold. He let go of Mel and shambled over to the cockpit. Even though his helmet was hardwired to the aircrew, he rapidly smacked the metal bulkhead.
"Fast movers, our three!" Linden shouted, desperately alerting the pilots.
The duo on the ground grit their teeth after hearing the callout on their net. Dan and Fio looked to the sky, then followed their muscle memory to hug the earth and lay perpendicular to the oncoming gunrun.
"I see them! I see them Linden!"
Azar yelled over the intercom as she and her co-pilot banked the heavy twin engine transport helicopter around and fired off flares visible from the ground below to little avail. Fireballs streaked past the cockpit and one glanced Swordish, blowing off the tail and sending it into an uncontrolled spin through one of the sky scrapers. The fire was too heavy and they really did not have much of a chance.
A burst of cannon fire rang out to little avail from the gunpod as Azar tried to engage the oncoming fighter, a head-on that they had little chance of winning. Fire consumed the cabin as the helicopter jerked around and began to spiral towards the infested ground. There was no word from the cabin, both Azar and the co-pilot were killed in the quick exchange of gunfire.
-----------
The three surviving keplerite infantrymen and their combat robots tucked inside the APCS were listening to their own radio chatter and its sudden change to static. Sorkanen looked out the vision block and saw a glimpse of the crash and the familiar sound of a fuel explosion.
"Bird 1 and Swordfish come in. Come in"
"Got anything?" Xhao asked as he was getting ready to dismount and into the tunnels.
"Down 2... We need to rethink our plan out of here... I'm sorry Flemente." He yelled this over to the ACR troopers and Maria and did not sound exactly pleased with the news, especially considering surviving this long. With a heavy heart the kepler soldiers dismounted with their robots taking point with the others and into the tunnels...
“Air attack! Convoy scatter!” Master Sergeant Nikola barked in the radio. In the next second, the deafening ‘crack’ as the Kepler helicopters went down, and the earth shook beneath them as it crashed while the armored cars swerved to the sides of the road, taking cover behind what remained of ACR buildings and the alleyways between them so as to remain out of sight for the next pass of the enemy aircraft.
Many individual squad sergeants took the initiative to order their troops to disembark out of the vehicles, not willing to be sitting ducks. RANGSI riflemen stared at the skies, pointing their rifle barrels upwards waiting for the knife-like fighters to appear again, crouching behind the buildings and their vehicles for cover.
“Shit never seen those kind of fighters..” one of them murmured.
“Zombies with air power? Fuck that shit man we just lost our only one edge against the walking dead brotha.”
“Oi shut the fuck up,” Nikola slapped the back of his helmet, sending him forward a little. “See plane all gabra already no balls ah? Like that you call yourself soldier?”
“Fight is not over,” she continued as she gestured to the other platoon sergeants. Slowly, they began to peel off from the road, one by one they dashed across into the safety of the tunnels, carrying whatever they could salvage from the armored cars; ammo, food, supplies, for the long journey ahead.
The Pords dismount silently, having already discussed the plight of the Restevians and the implications of their presence during the ride here. Above them, the loud and unwelcome screech! of airpower arrives in full force. nam-Kalyn ducks towards the ground while Chor Tyrazh looks up to see the flaming remnants of what once was a helicopter.
Get in the tunnels! nam-Kalyn yells, no sense in staying out here!
One of the other Pords nods even as dark forms loom over the buildings around them.
Maria wasn't pleased about the news that they had just lost air support but it couldn't be helped. She gave Flamente and the Keplerites a consoling look but they had to stay focused on the mission or more soldiers and civilians were going to die. The tunnel was wide enough to a small truck but the IFVs were still to big so they stayed behind to cover the tunnel entrance and stop anything from coming in. Once inside they were going to lose comms until they were at the destination. The tunnles were barely illuminted with only emergency amber lights flashing down its corridors. Luckily the Maria and her squad had helmet mounted flash lights and took point.
"Talia get the motion tracker out, keep an eye on it as we go." Maria ordered
Talia took off her back a small scanner that let off an innocuous tick as it scanned in front of her for any movement.
"Sorokin, Kurdin, up on point with Maria's boys." Igoshin ordered of the two assault troopers, getting affirmative nods from both of them as they hustled up to join the ACR troopers with their shields and pistols. Both of them had their visors down, watching through night vision cameras as they advanced. Both of them had blades loosened in scabbards in order to facilitate a faster draw, and just behind the ACR squad came the other three Restevians.
Igoshin had his shotgun out and ready, and having given the order for Somov and Kandinsky to use their rifles, had taken point of the three. Close quarters like this were not ideal, especially not with this sort of enemy. Somov remarked something about a zombie vid he'd seen once, and Igoshin rolled his eyes. He didn't tell Somov to stow it either, because this... was not anything in the manual. So he advanced, they all advanced with the ACR squad, and he listened to the motion tracker's tick between the crunch of his boots on the ground.
The Minevans in the aircraft were more than likely dead before they made their violent impact, shredded by the volley of incoming projectiles or vaporized by thermal energy. Dan pensively looked to the sky, tracing the path that the gunship had taken to its end, before shaking his head and walking away. Fio's lip was quivering in front of clenched teeth, a nauseous pit in her stomach forming from white-hot rage.
For a brief moment, Flamente looked dejected in response to the sympathetic glances, before punctuating their responses. "There is still work to be done."
Flamente took confident strides forward alongside the vanguard, eyes shut and feeling out the tunnel in his head. Dan and Fio pulled rearguard, getting a headcount of everyone that entered the tunnel and planning to enter last. As individuals passed Dan, he physically counted with a tap on each shoulder. Fio, for the moment, was internal. He would give her this transition time and give her a firm grab of the shoulder when the rest were through.
The RANGSI provosts took it upon themselves to form the rearguard, nodding to Flamente as he turned around to join his forces. The RANGSI soldiers slowly peeled off squad by squad in a backwards bounding motion after everyone was inside, making sure that at all times as they moved with the rest, there were always guns pointing to the back to the tunnel entrance where everyone came from to make sure no one gets the creeps on them from behind.
“Basics boys, basics,” Nikola commented softly in the radio net as she oversaw the movement of her platoons all while keeping a close hand on her rifle. (edited)
July 19, 2021
The Beef (Ingen) — 07/19/2021
The Ingenious glanced uneasily at one another, activating flashlights on their own headgear. Designed for a long battery life, the dark confines of the tunnels were still threatening to them, just as a half flooded tunnel would be to anyone else.
They stuck to the middle of the pack, keeping close together.
The mood among the Keplerite's was rather dour, they were down to half of their strenght in manpower alone. Three of their close friends and comrades along with members of the Minevan group they came across were dead along with them as well. Only one way to keep on going, forwards.
Kalin dispatched the robots to help near the front and cover the middle as well, with their LIDAR and thermal optics helping to find a clear path throughout these dreary subterranian tunnels better than the human eye with night vision could ever see. The rest of them took up the middle along with the Ingenious group, some a bit shocked.
"Azar and the others are dead, how much longer do you think it will take for the rest of us?" Xhao muttered under his breath in contempt at the situation.
"Don't lose hope yet. We have our mission first, get out of these tunnels with the VIP's, and figure out extraction." Sorkanen replied keeping his voice down low to not draw too much attention. They continued their trot through the tunnel
The tunnels provide cover from the encroaching enemy air, but provide their own challenge. The Pords advance slowly in the dark as their sensory suites adjust to the lighting. Coming in a pace or two behind Flamente, making up part of the vanguard, their attention constantly shifts as they keep an eye out for branch paths or other areas of potential ambush as - fittingly - Atka Kalan and her skirmishers lead.
As the team walked forward through a a twisting maze of tunnels, Talia suddenly raised her fist as a new noise came from her scanner.
"Contact rear!" Talia said just loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Numbers?" Marie asked.
"Just one, its big though."
"Keep going forward, it might not have seen-"
Marie was cut off as a scream filled the tunnels, for a moment it sounded like a person mixed in with a metal scraping noise. The creature or whatever it was benag moving more quickly towards the group, the heavy clunks of its foot steps in the walls only grew louder and more violent. Someone shined a light on it revealing a jet black construct, blood stained its 'face' as it looked towards the team with multiple insect like eyes and a gaping mouth. It moved on four long awkward that dug into the concrete allowing it to hang upside down. Despite this it was still able to move at a fast pace.
"Run!" Marie shouted.
Goreya whirled, seeing the monster approaching them, and hefted his ornate Kazedama, two shots of 15mm q-cyl barking from the dragon's mouth at the muzzle and ripping towards the oncoming beast. Yamane, meanwhile, hurried the little priestess along - despite the Yokeneko's shorter legs, she was fast and agile and soon was running at the head of the pack, whilst Yamane stuck in the middle, clutching her SMG and glancing backwards at Goreya's silhouette as he tried to hold off the hideous beast.
“Contact!” the provosts began shouting as soon as they heard the monster shriek and reveal itself.
“Holy fucking shit…” one of the Sergeants muttered as he gazed at its horrific form, before slapping himself back into reality a second later. “O-O-Open fire! Open fire!”
The section at the rear did not even bother to aim in such tight space and began unloading bullets at full auto, spraying their guns at the hip. When Marie gave the order to run, the organised leapfrogging quickly devolved into a mess of people running straight at full speed, though some simply stood frozen in fear, doomed to a certain death at the hands of whatever that thing was.
“We need...we need to...bring it out into the open…” Nikola huffed into the allied radionet as she followed the call and ran with all that she got. “We...can’t use...our heavy weapons in...such tight spaces…”
Flamente stepped to a halt as the situation unfolded. The vanguard continued forging on ahead without him it would seem, with the main body following and only the ones closer to the rear stopping to shoot worried glances behind them. The psion stopped feeling his way through, instead using his eyes and observing the artificial beast violently shutter about in the strobe of muzzle flashes.
Who knew how long these tunnels would rage on? Tight quarters against an enemy who so far only relied on melee ambushes and rush attacks; he should have known this would be a fool's errand from the start. They did not have the arms, ammunition, nor space to deal with a being of this caliber. What they lacked in weaponry, he found in his own resolve.
"Not yet, my friends," Flamente spoke out in a normal tone, projecting his voice into the minds of those around him as clear as a calm day. He was still, now swallowed up by the rearguard and staring up at the oncoming abomination. He had just one moment to act, not being able to consider those within range of what could be considered a melee.
His lips curled back in a fierce grimace with cuspids bared, his arms raising up in the same shuttering light as the construct. A growl of effort rumbled deep in his throat, his mind reaching out into the solid walls around him and burrowing into its surface as if it were invisible fingers reaching into soft snow. He intended to drop the tunnel on himself and their attacker; if nothing more, than to get his new motley crew of friends into a more advantageous position.
Ambush. They should of known beforehand. Everywhere they go they are helplessly outnumbered, especially so in this tunnel. The robots sprung the alarm first for the Keplerites in sync with the rest of their impromtu platoon members in the coming chaos, the leading two kept up with the others while three broke off to help cover the rear with supressive machinegun fire.
Sorkanen yelled out to his two surviving squad mates. "What the hell is that thing!"
"No clue!" Xhao yelled back in confusion, Kalin had a bone white look in his eyes from behind his goggles in fear as he tried to keep up but was lagging behind ever so slightly. This was not something that they were ever expected to come across. Everything was wrong.
The three robots in the rear were burning through the ammunition in their machineguns, one of them ran dry and got torn apart by the quick beast in the middle of trying to reload. Suddenly the atmosphere changed as Flamente stood his ground still, and begun to bring down the wall on the beast and himself. There was not enough time to stop it all. As the debris fell, Kalin fell down with it just barely out of being completely crushed from debris.
His leg was in a different state, a piece of concrete and rebar fell from the ceiling and crushed his shin into a pulp. "Shit! Man down!"
"We got a man injured!" Sorkanen yelled to the rest of the platoon running away as Xhao joined him in trying to aid their comrade quickly, with the help of the two surviving robots they tried to pry off the concrete and carry their squadmate to safety in this brief window.
Chor Tyrazh grimaces. If ever there was a reason to not be in tunnels, that reason has found them. The domain of beasts - of creatures swift and mighty - holds nothing back from those in visitation. The stocky Pord turns amid the growing gunfire with a deep frown and determined command of his weapon; his gaze peers through the unyielding darkness of the lengthy chambers, broken only where their lights pours through uninterrupted.
They're coming in behind us, there's got to be more, he says quickly, we gotta take it out!
nam-Kalyn nods, but still motions to hold fire. Wait, he says, it's not in a good spot.
Ahead of them, moving more swiftly with her lighter kit, Atka Kalan agrees silently. But the rumble of the walls catches her attention. She turns with her skirmishers, yelling, it's coming down!, as the tunnel collapses in the distance.
Keep moving, nam-Kalyn orders, don't want to get caught up here.
Igoshin whipped up his rifle when the creature appeared, bellowing an order for the others to get ready as he let loose a chattering burst down the way they had come to hit the beast. Somov yelled that he had a rocket ready, but they weren't in a good place to use it, not unless he Igoshin wanted to be juiced. Instead he kept firing, and that faltered for a moment when he saw what the old Minevan was doing.
"Flamente! Get the hell out of there!" he roared, scrambling for another magazine. Igoshin would never reach Flamente in time, not with how far ahead they were. Time seemed to slow as he kept up his fire, bellowing curses and exhorting Flamente to run once the tunnel was coming down if he could.
The walls of the tunnel cracked and buckled under Flamentes power, the sound o concrete ripping and tearing filled the tunnel and then suddenly it collapsed all around the Psion with chunks of concrete crashing and smashing to the ground until there was only a pile of the material blocking the way back. Flamente was under the rubble somewhere and the creature as well which was somehow still alive as its muffled screams could still be heard from under the rubble. Marie stopped to look at the wreckage for a moment to see if there was any sign of the man.
"I think he's gone sarge." Talia said
"You're right, lets keep a move on." Marie replied
The tunnels felt like they went on forever, twisting and winding underneath the city. It wasn't until Marie stopped the group at a ladder.
"This is it, prepare to ascend." She said to her soldiers
The ACR guardsmen took a turn climbing up the ladder and securing the immediate area as they awaited the rest of the group to join them. They were once again greeted by the sounds of battle as what was left of the ACRs defences held out against the horde and now this army of 'constructs'.
---
It did not take the motley crew very long to figure out the congressional complex was a lost cause. There were no crashing waves or hordes of unintelligent humanoids, but a very organized force mixed of those drawing forth from the leylines and their deadly thralls. The reanimated casters were able to utilize their otherworldly energy to deny the band of troops use of any open space. The fleshy abominations that were summoned lurked in the dark and cramped interior corridors, falling quickly to bullets but taking targets of opportunity.
The allied band had been split up, redirected, and ambushed many times over as they made their push to their objective. Still, the closer they made it to the safe room, the more numerous and strong their enemy became. Their best efforts aside, the group had lost their guides from the ACR.
The group was several stories above ground level on an overpass headed south, directly away from the congressional complex. There were buildings on either side of them restricting visibility, not at all helped by the cloud coverage, smoke, and poor illumination from a new moon. Most of the ambient light was given of by a bright green pillar many miles in the distance that billowed on the horizon before stretching up to kiss the heavens.
They had finally found a moment of peace after the bloodbath. Now, without a proper objective, their only reasonable goal was to survive and get out.
The pair of Minevans that made it out of the tunnel had made it to this point. Dan was miraculously unscathed, if not mentally depleted, but Fio was missing the better half of her cybernetic arm leaving her to manage a rifle with just the other.
The older man turned back, trying to survey who was still with them. "Our old Assembly Area is due south of here; any luck and we got a ride on a shuttle or a Corvette. You ladies and gents trying to get out of here?"
Goreya had been killed in the tunnel collapse with Flamente, but Juana and Yamane had made it through just about alright, a few bruises and scratches aside.
"By the Heavenly Form Of The Dragon, yes!" gasped Juana, prompting a disapproving glower from Yamane.
Nevertheless, the JIAN agent did agree. "Leaving would be nice." she added laconically, checking her SMG magazines- she only had two left, and six rounds in the current mag, the muzzle blackened from repeated use.
All three of the Keplerites managed to crawl themselves out of that cave and into the rubble of this city. Just barely. They lost another one of the combat robots during the tunnel collapse, a piece of rebar and concrete impaling it down the center and breaking it to the point where no quick fix was possible, especially considering the other dangers currently occouring for them. Kalin's legs were little more than mush below the knee, he was barely pulled out of the rubble with his life and was holding onto the back of the last robot with all that he could manage.
Sorkanen and Xhao lead the way for their injured friend and tried to keep up with the IJN and the surviving Minevans, not exactly knowing where the others had been. Everything about this situation was well above their league, there was no way to save the day here beyond for what was left of them. Escape with ones life was all that mattered now.
At the overpass the combat robot set down in this moment of respite to give Kalin some needed momentary rest and Xhao checked his torniquets and bandages to ensure the bleeding was stopped and slowing down. He gave his injured compatriot some more water and antibiotics to stave off infection for as long as possible.
"Is that even a god damn question? Yes." Sorkanen said as he looked across the burning land and the ghastly green pillar that hurt for him to even look at.
"I want to go home...." Kalin moaned at the sound of a possibility of finally escaping this hell.
Of the five Restevians that had landed when this accursed mission began, only two remained. Kandinsky had been cut off from their path of retreat, and when Sorokin had gone to get him out, both of them had been overwhelmed by the horde, even with suppourting fire. There were just too damn many of the dead. The team had seen the explosions as the troopers had detonated their grenades, a final, fiery act of defiance to buy time for their comrades, and to ensure that no matter what, they did not rise again to hunt their friends.
Somov's fate was less clear. Coming under attack from another beast, the demolitions trooper had used all four of his rockets upon it before he was lost in the smoke and the rubble. Biometrics had said he was still alive, or as alive as one such as himself could be, but he did not return. His location now was unknown, his status unknown, even when his beacon appeared for a moment or two on their HUDs.
This, left Igoshin, and Kurdin. Both troopers were exhausted from the team's flight, filthy with dust and gore and soot, streaked with gunsmoke and stinking of cordite and burnt ETC solution. When Dan spoke, Igoshin was going through what few shells he had left for his shotgun, Kurdin tossing his utterly ruined pistol aside after he'd had to use it to bash in a zombie ACR trooper's head. Without a word, Igoshin handed the younger man his own sidearm, and slung his shotgun in favor of his rifle once more. His voice was quiet, hollow for a moment.
"Of course, Dan. We haven't come all this way to lay down and die now. Anybody need some stims? Grenades?"
After the tunnel came down thanks to the work of the Minevan, the Pords advanced where they could. The constant stream of enemies, however, separated them from the others, and soon they were alone in the caverns.
Chor Tyrazh was the first to succumb. Slowed by his heavier load, he stayed back to cover the escape of the other Pords. Weapons fire flashed in the blackness as his position was overrun and he was taken to an early grave.
At the head of the formation, Atka Kalan and her skirmishers met with a particularly savage group. Forced into close quarters battle, they drew swords and allowed nam-Kalyn and his remaining few to take another path; the ground grew slick with snow and blood as they too joined Chor Tyrazh.
The last to fall were nam-Kalyn and the remaining Pords with him. A group of casters came from the shadows to bring about their demise; the battle between gun and magic was short: it ended when a caster brought down a section of wall which pinned nam-Kalyn to the ground; his life faded as he was slowly crushed by the rubble.
What had been entire platoons was now reduced to a squad after being grinded down from all the ambushes and attacks. Only a mish-mash of various survivors who stood to tell the tale.
Many were slain on this day. Too many.
Nikola was knelt down beside one of the provosts, severely mauled, bleeding and about to turn anytime soon. Just a private among many but no one too unworthy of their sergeant-major being by their side for their last final moments.
“Master Sarge...” he coughed up blood, as his face was turning blue and the veins near his temples black. “I-I-I did good today right?”
“Yes, yes you did,” she clasped his hand. “You did damn well. You make me proud.”
“It’s-it’s an honour t-to-to serve…” his eyes began to glow. He knew his time was up. He gritted his teeth, clenched all the muscles in his face as he tried to resist the call to turn. “D-d-don’t let me become one of them! Do it!”
“I’m ready!”
“Majulah Singapura,” she nodded as she took out her pistol and shot him right in the forehead, ending him before he could turn. With the last of her fallen provosts taken care of, she turned to the Minevans.
“We don’t have any fighting power left, leaving is the best...no...the only option we have right now.”
She then turned to the Restevians. “I’ll take that offer. At this rate, even my wounded have no choice but to run and fight if we want to escape alive.”
"Kurdin,"
"Yessir?"
"Stim 'em up. We don't have a lot of time." Igoshin said, still watching the tunnel entrance. Kurdin nodded and broke out the medkit, setting to work. The stimulants were old, and far from the most modern variant, but they'd still get the wounded up and moving until they wore off. Hopefully, that'd only be once they were on the ship.
Dan looked back at his ragged assortment of survivors, now eagerly banking on his promise of an escape he was unsure would still be there. With any luck, there would still be friendlies waiting at an assembly area to wave them down and give a warm welcome. His intuition told him otherwise; the sounds of battle were frantic, but distant. They were either in a relatively safe space, or in uncontested enemy territory. Overhead, a pair of smoking strike craft that Dan recognized as from his conditional fleet buzzed over their street, hotly pursued by a flight of stark arrowhead-shaped fighters.
Dan cleared his throat, quickly calling out, "Everyone pick up your shit, let's go."
Fio clenched her jaw, watching the grim procession of the dead and dying conclude, the wounded being scooped up or limping along, before bringing herself to the same trot as earlier. She began scouting around and ahead, relying on her optics and system scanners to detect any anomalies in her field of view and any structures around them.
Their travel was uncontested as the smartly navigated the roads and various danger-areas, and as far as they could discern there were no observers or satellite forces to impede them. On the flip side, there was not a single friendly unit about either. The only contact they received was as they began to near their objective:
All stations, this is General Roderick. Full retrograde is in effect. All units are ordered to evacuate the planet's surface by any means necessary. Be advised, less than one hour before friendly destruction of Prime City. I say again-
"Holy fuck."
Dan called a halt to the group, coming up on the desolated park that served as a staging area. They were situated on a pass overlooking a massive field flanked on all sides by buildings, and in the center there certainly was a Foss-Class Corvette as he had promised. The only issue was, it was under new management.
In various positions were assortments of man-sized crystals suspended in mid-air, new pieces of covered laid about, some of the prolific spellcasters they had encountered were casually shuffling around issuing orders to the hulking beast they had created. It appeared they were quite literally stacking the bodies of the former defenders and crew nearby, to what end Dan did not know.
He could not get a good read on the enemy's disposition, but he knew the floating pylons served as sensors and automatic turrets, the casters were a big threat, and the shamblers they created were not slouches either. They'd have to descend to the park, get their way into that ship, and wake up the onboard AI.
Dan caught himself grinding his teeth.
Yamane wished Goreya's marksman rifle hadn't been buried along with him back in the tunnel - this was the perfect setup for a sniper, but all she had was her SMG and a terrified little monk.
She glanced over at Dan, the most senior member of the surviving blufor team.
"Orders, sir?" she asked simply.
Juana, meanwhile, squinted incredulously down at the pile of corpses. Naive optimism told her that the enemy were just cleaning up after battle, but in her gut she knew it looked too ritual for that. What they were doing, she had no idea, but she knew she did not want to find out...
With a couple of hand signals, Nikola’s rag-and-tag squad, for what it was worth, somehow still managed to fill up all of its billets intact, with exception of the Marksmen role, who was now a single lone GPMG gunner - his assistant had become a goner from a stray sniper shot during the previous chaos. Their AT billets also now possessed a 90mm recoilless rifle rather than the standard RPG-55AM, which was more powerful but also heavier as well as a trade-off.
Nikola immediately began placing her fireteams behind what cover they could afford. She then turned to Dan and the rest of the group.
“We got enough 40 mike-mikes to bombard the area for 3 rounds. We can time it with your sniper.”
For the Keplerite side of things, things were not looking all too good. Kalin was still pretty beat up, and all they had to spare was a light machinegun ripped off from their combat robots arm and rifles. One thing was cleat atleast, they needed to get away and out of here as soon as possible, Dan was right with that atleast. He looked over off the bridge at the large group of enemies, not something they would be able to fully fight off on their own.
"I don't know if forty mike grenades will buy us enough to get through. We've got our squad automatic and a handful of grenades ourselves. They seem to be too much to fight at once, is there another way around?"
Sorkanen added on as well as Xhao got set up against a pile of rubble and was scanning the horizon with his set of binoculars while the robot set down the crippled Kalin and got its own machinegun trained on the enemy below.
Igoshin quietly began loading his rifle's launcher, surveying the situation before them. It wasn't good to say the least of things, but it wasn't the worst he'd seen... and it wasn't that indescribable hell. This was something they could fight.
"I'll provide suppressing fire and move with the wounded. If there's a way around this, I don't see it. Kurdin, make sure you get aboard if nothing else, I'll be right behind you." he said, looking to Kurdin and giving the lad a solid nod before he turned his attention to Dan.
"We've come this far, bratan. Let's do this."