Post by EmperorMyric on Dec 17, 2017 13:27:52 GMT
It was morning on Tau Volaris as TBL rebel stood on the tower of a crane, the dust of the day blowing about far above him and below him, the area the top of the crane was in was getting much less dust than the ground, but still enough to wear sealed uniforms. the dome of the city glowing to his right as he sat on the arm of the construct, gunships visible flying within. the lights from the ground below were barely visible, even though it was a matter of about 150 meters away. He looked to his left has he heard a low thudding in the back of his skill and the crane quietly rattled, he thinking it was artillery fire. he thought little of it, but he kept watch as to confirm his suspicions...
The Thudding meanwhile, continued becoming subtly more pronounced as the rebel where he was standing on the crane. For a time, it remained distant, and could have easily been mistaken for distant artillery fire. But, as several minutes passed. it became more apparent that, that, was not its origin. The muffled boom of the reverberations increasing in volume and regularity, but still keeping distant. The dust filled atmosphere of the world doing a huge amount to keep its origin hidden beyond the cover.
As he listened more, something would have become apparent as the rebel listened, the sound now perceivable beneath his boots through the crane. The structure creaking slightly in time with the thuds, small puffs of dust issuing from cracks between metal plates on the construct.
The man began to become worried, thinking the slave army known as the 'Union of Worlds' may have deployed one of their so-called Collosi, which he had heard of during his imperial service from foreign legions, but had never seen. He pressed the neck buttons for his radio.
"This is recon tower B3, requesting scan pulses to be sent to the south ahead of schedule, over"
"Why in the gods' names do we need to do what?"
"You can't hear the thudding?!"
"...you mean it isn't the fortification workers?"
"NO, it is NOT!!!"
"err... uh... gotcha, sending the pulses!"
The recon soldier quickly turned to the cranehouses' door, and ran to the elevator, and looked off to the South, hand on the elevator's button and the other on his radio activation controls, his rifle slung over his back, as sweat beaded up and dripped down his face, the humidity fogging up his viewplate. The thudding got more and more pronounced, until it stopped for a moment. He became worried, and glanced back at the defensive lines, the exterior-most line being easily a half mile away, he then looked back out the window, feeling an odd presence, and a sinking feeling of dread in his heart. He gulped as the radio came up;
"Pulse... Sent!!!"
The wave sped towards the tower, and he waited until it contacted whatever was there...
What the pulse would have revieled, was monstrous. The pulses signal highlighting a hulking construct standing about a half a kilometer from the tower, yet facing in the direction of the dome. the silhouette being well over 25 stories high in its height. it had a hunched gorilla like posture, with its thick arms and legs supporting a thick and solid torso. It, Could have classified as a colossi. But it was not of any design of construct that he, or rather any of the rebels that would have seen the scans would have been able to identify.
Stranger still, and instilling even more dread in his heart, he saw now that it was not the only construct out there. countless smaller... Things, followed the construct in its wake. Their own footfalls to subtle to be heard through the thick atmosphere.
As the recon soldier watched, looking in the general direction of the... Thing. That stood monolithically out there in the wastes of the planet. His radio would have started to malfunction, Badly. odd Sounds neither frequency nor patterned in any way he could recognize issuing out of the head set, mingled with strong interference. although, as he found, he could still hear his command networks.
This was nothing from any of the slave armies of the empires. This was something else entirely.
The man tried to activate his radio, attempting to call this in.
"numerous hostiles and a big one inbound! prepare for combat, repeat, prepeare for combat!!!"
He pressed the elevator button, and it rapidly decended, the soldier running to his Sandlion and getting in, the filter blowing out the dust after he closed the door, he began turning it on, glancing behind him and back, the engine revved up, and he began driving, trying to get back to the defensive line.
As he reached the bottom, and made his way to the vehicle. a glance back at the location of the dying signature of the scan would have shown him that the large construct was shifting its stance. Planting its weight differently. A stance he would recognize immediately as something prepping itself for a frontal charge. The sound its feet thudding as they replanted themselves on the dust being louder and more pronounced then they had been previously. The impact being felt even through the shocks of the vehicle.
For a moment, everything out in the distant was still as the blindness of the dust settled back in. then, in the next instant. There was a flash of bluish lavender light from the direction of the construct. like blue flames issuing from the crevices of the things armor as it apparently brought itself up to power. The bizarre interference of the rebel soldiers radio surging for a moment.
Then the construct shifted its weight, and started to charge, its thudding footsteps starting again, more rapidly then before, swelling in volume.
the man stared in awe as the massive being moved at speeds astonishing for it's size, and he looked as some of the rebel forces retreated, but most bolstered, and vehicles and men alike opened fired on the behemoth, hundreds of lights arcing towards the construct and the mass behind it, doing no visible damage through the dust and distance. He hit the pedal and sped even faster back to the dome, wanting to get to the eastern door
The construct continued in its avalanche like charge. Smashing boulders as it moved along its course at insane speeds that seemed almost impossible for it to achieve, crossing the half a kilometer in less then half a minute. All the while its Thudding footsteps causing tremors among the rebel troops that only got stronger and stronger. The construct Casually reaching out with an arm and swatting at the crane construct as it passed near it, Closing the distance between it and the rebel forces rapidly. the crane construct crashing to the ground as it was, almost casually knocked out of the behemoths way, its parts sent flying away into the dust storm. the sound of the metals impact ringing through the dust ridden air.
The arcs of light fired from the rebels could be seen now as they impacted its armor. And the sight terrified the men as they found, more often then not. That rather then damaging the construct. Their blasts of energy either refracted off its armored torso, or were assimilated into the glowing lavender blue mass of flame like energy that issued from its joints and armored chinks. more pronounced now as the Things mountainous form could be seen through the dust cover.
The man realized it then, What the thing was charging at as it began to loom out of the dust and into their lines of visibility, moving with an oddly suicidal determination and speed.
It wasn't aiming for the troops... It was aiming itself at the dome, their dome... and more specifically. the Eastern door, the same door he was trying to reach, and he was right between it and its target.
The man realized this, and swerved to the right and into the field, in order to avoid the thing. He turned on his radio again and attempted to contact the rest of the men;
"Target is attempting to breach the door, not us! get AWAY from the door! weapons fire is having no effect! repeat, no effect!" He got out as his vehicle plunged four meters into the plains below, and he kept speeding at full speed, looking to his right to see the status of the mass of smaller figures...
They could not been seen. the smaller figures were smaller then the larger construct and much more distant, the dust still preventing him from making out their forms and positions. They would take time to cross the distance between them and the dome. But, in a strange way, he could sense them, crossing the wastes. Getting closer to the lines of rebel forces out there.
His thoughts were lost as the Behemoth construct charged past him along the main road. it's elephantine feet chewing up the pavement into chunks of rubble in its wake, and he could see now, that it was... not truly a mech at all... But rather. Something that looked like it had been thrown together from a strip mining rig. its.. "Head" being the cylindrical bucket digger usutally mounted to the front of the units that he had seen abandoned across the planet.
His thoughts were broken however, as he saw it close the final 200 yards between it and the airlock gates, its silhouette illuminated horribly, almost apocalypticly against the light of the domes energy fields. raising its arms upward, its club like upper limbs posed high above its torso. other rebel forces at the eastern entrance turning and fleeing back into the smaller airlocks. mounted next to the main one.
Then it reached the main airlock doors, and brought its arms down in a downward swing movement into them.
the man watched as it brought it's arms down, after looking back from the other direction. he kept watching, wanting to know if it could break the doors
under the combined forces of the Behemoths charge, as well as the force behind its downward swing. The massive forms of the airlock doors first crumpled, Then imploded inward on themselves with a crash and vibration that he could hear even through the cab of his vehicle, their frames in the dome shattered as the torso of the thing collided with it. First the inner airlock doors collapsing, then the inner pair of second doors exploding outward as the thing plowed through into the domed city, destroying the eastern airlock completely, the inner atmosphere of the dome rapidly decompressing through the gaping hole with typhoon force winds.. the construct Destroying and toppling buildings and structures alike as the constructs momentum carried it onward.
He stopped the vehicle a moment, watching as some of the forces began to retreat to the backup HQ in a mine off to the southwest, but not many, only about a third of the forces. a group of gunships flew out of the door, their engines creating stark lights in the sky as they got out of the dome. some of the tanks drove down the road to the south in order to intercept the beings, likely loading HE and frag shells, as Alkalai Mk. IV's drove to the door to fire on the behemoth from behind. The man looked on in awe, worried whether Rorix would survive this attack. He then looked back, hearing a noise from the rise in the direction of the mass of beings
the noise grew in its volume, a deep rumbling isuing from the dust to the west. The ground subtly trembling as it did, although it wasn't as strong as the behemoths passage. It give another impression, one of massive numbers, as the sound swelled even more. Now intermingled with a heavy scuttling and metallic reverberation that came with it. While the atmosphere from within the dome continued to bleed out through the gaping hole in its side. ples of rubble and debris choking the floors of the ruined airlock.
As the man took all of this unfolding chaos in, he was only subtly aware at first, as he looked around at the area, that the noise from the mass of beings had gone suddenly, and unexpectedly quiet. The sound of, whatever was advancing in them ceasing as they apparently choose to stop their advance. still too far beyond the dust cover to be seen.
In that instant, there was only silence.
He started up the engine, and began driving back towards the road, but at an angle away from the rise. He saw the HIBT Mk. II's stopped at the road, their guns trained into the dust, as some more forces escaped from the airlock, massive amounts of gunfire being heard from the dome, as well as a few explosions. He couldn't easily comprehend what was going on, as these things didn't appear to be any of the colonial empires.
The silence persisted for several long, grating minutes. The rebel troops becoming more and more agitated and nervous as they trained their weapons on things that had seemingly shut off from their charge. the wind blowing the clouds of dust into odd forms, the grit building up on their suits and equipment.
then the mass of unknowns in the dust beyond their sight opened fire, and chaos overtook the line.
In what seemed like an instant, several areas of the same bluish lavender glow appeared beyond the dust. Their illuminating glow being seen faintly through the storm. Several HIBT Mk. II's re angling their guns to cover them.
Then the beam of corrupted phasic energy shot out from one of the things with a sound of deep bass, and hell started to rain down.
the Beam of energy Striking one of the tanks lower halfs and Detonating with a force that utterly destroyed the units lower chassis and treads, while sending the flaming upper segments and gun flying upwards and backwards with a clang of ringing metal among troops that stood behind it.
Across the line the same was occurring. Tanks and other heavy units were blown or sliced in half as similar beams shot out from the dust storms. Decimating armored units and sending the line into chaos, while, as the lines struggled to maintain order. The Sound fo the Constructs advances resumed, the rumbling and scuttling of their movements Resuming, only now louder then they had been.
The recon soldier looked on in horror as the tanks were decimated by the things, as he sped behind a dust dune, narrowly escaping the beam of one. He continued speeding across the wastes, hoping to group up with the retreating TBL forces. It was then that the multitudes of men and vehicles near the dome that didn't have the angle or view to fire on the behemoth turned and fired at the mass of beings, creating a truly spectacular sight as the dust amplified the glow of each projectile piercing the air and speeding towards the hostiles. The man kept speeding, seeing a slow leakage of retreating forces towards the secondary HQ, but three fifths of whatever remained seemed determined to fight to the death. He stopped to let in a small squad of retreating soldiers, glancing back at the mass to see what they would do in retaliation to the hellfire unleashed on them by the numerous tanks and other armored vehicles.
from the mass beyond the dust, there was only the swelling sound of the rumble of their oncoming assault. The constructs and twisted figures now just barely seen through the storm undeterred by the retaliatory attack as the smaller ones among them were felled by the returned fire. Before the larger shapes in the dense dust cover opened fire again, their beams of phasic energy targeting the tanks and vehicles they had missed in the first attack, blowing them to shrapnel even as they returned fire, or aiming in sweeping paths among the troops that had remained, obliterating troops and light vehicles alike.
Then the mass was upon them.
As the man watched as he sped away. he could see as the mass met the defending line. countless hundreds of the shambling horrors of all odd shapes and bizarre sizes tore into the line of visibility, leaping or scuttling along the dunes either on two legs, or in some cases four.
As they met the lines of soldiers, some were felled in the initial volley of fire. but others made it among the soldiers. Slashing or Simply Tearing them apart with strength that betrayed their gaunt forms as they rended the men with lithe movements as the rebel soldiers scrambled to get out of their reach. The Larger constructs of the mass coming into view as they advanced, asymmetrical four legged thing's that silently went about firing and destroying tanks that continued to fire on them. much smaller constructs darting or skittering about among the Frey.
As he watched, sections of the lines of defense fell, or were breached, and groups of the things began to converge on the gaping hole in the domed city.
The TBL forces began to turn and run, the faster vehicles having a better chance of getting out. the men inside the dome? there was no hope for them. The soldier sped along the wastes towards the hilly valley that the secondary HQ was at, trying to balance his attention between driving and making sure he didn't get hit, as the squad he had just let into his vehicle yelled and clamored about, ushering him to drive faster. one tried to mount the MG in the roof hatch, the recon soldier simply elbowing him in the groin and chewing him out as to not draw they masses' attention, and he looked back to see a group of five gunships fly out of the dome. one appeared to have a small sphere mounted below it's frame, with a blinking red light in the middle... A chuda shockwave bomb, one of three that the TBL had managed to salvage. four of the gunships began to open fire, as the fifth did the same but went full-speed ahead towards the center of the mass after dumping all of it's rockets into one of the four-legged constructs, and firing missiles to intercept with the next closest one. they intended to detonate the weapon in the center of the mass, the bomb -should- do reasonable damage against them, but not enough to to slow them down much...
The line meanwhile had nearly completely fragmented under the masses of the constructs as they advanced over them. The bodies and burning and molten wreckage of the tanks and vehicles that supported them littering the ground while the shambling things and the larger constructs that had broken through made their way towards the gaping hole in the dome, lashing out at and scattering remaining rebel troops that stood between them and the city. Scuttling over the piles of rubble and wreckage that lined the remains of the air lock as groups of them began to make their way into the city on the other side. The sound of the behemoth as it tore through the infrastructure of the sprawling metropolis already dying down into the distance as it got farther away from the edge of the dome.
The larger constructs had largely at that point had been focused on the remains of the line. Destroying the remaining tanks, while lancing out Arcs of the corrupt energy at the fleeing soldiers. Turning swatches of the dust into blackened glass at their feet. While beneath their blade like legs, the smaller constructs had gone to work on the dead and dying, Latching on to sternums, spines.. or attaching themselves to severed necks, and. While the men in the gunships watched, began the process of transmuting their bodies into yet more constructs. Twitching and spazeming on the ground as flesh tore and bones were rearranged or processed into new materials. Geodes of the odd crystal-like materials that sprouted on the other constructs bursting from the rebel soldiers bodies as they stood, as if in a daze. Before joining the ranks of the rest of the mass.
The man realized then, as he looked back one last time from the cab and saw the beginnings of this. That the charge on the city had not been a simple military strike. it was a harvest.
The man watched as the last of the men were either killed, harvested, or escaped into the hills, as he had just arrived within them. the constructs didn't seem interested in chasing them, only cleaning up there. one seemed to fire at the gunships, one had already been shot down, lucky bastards flying the damn thing dying on impact telling by the explosion. The gunship with the chuda bomb dropped it into the mass, and hauled ass away from the detonation point. once those things are primed, there's no stopping them he remembered, and drove faster towards the large mouth of the mine, men guiding who they could in before they closed the blast door. a good amount of the forces made it, and enough vehicles to stand for at least a bit against a slave assault, but the construct horde might be a different story he thought as he, the last vehicle in, drove through the door and heard an explosion in the distance. the doors began to close behind him, he feeling so lucky yet so damned for he should have been the first to die in that charge...
As they sealed themselves away into the mines to continue what of their operations they could. The detonation of the chuda shockwave bomb in the center of the mass leveled a massive amount of the constructs as they advanced within its bast radius, while others, including Even the larger four legged creatures were flattened by the shockwave as it radiated outward.
In short, it decimated a third of the mass that it went off in the center of, its detonation echoing out across the wastes, while the seismic vibrations of its detonation would have been felt even across to the next domed city. the sound of the blast dying away to the winds of the storm as they closed back in across the burning and scarred expanse.
Yet, for all of its success in destroying a huge portion of the mass of constructs, the ones that itt had failed to kill remained functional, if not badly stunned. Several minutes of silence going by before the first of them began to pull themselves from the dust and the rubble. their bluish lavender glow pronounced among the orange glow of the flames and the amber glow of the dome. Shaking themselves of the dust that coated them as more and more of the mass began to pull itself from the crater, while the remainder of it simply moved around it as its numbers continued to advance from the mining centers to the east, continuing their advance on the now defenseless city. Pouring in through the now unguarded hole in its wall into the streets, which had already begun to devolve into chaos as the ones that had gotten in earlier started to kill and infect civilians along the path through the buildings the behemoth had torn.
Within hours, its panicked transmissions for aid would go silent, as the sprawling metropolis went dark one sector at a time...
...The aberration had come to Tau Volaris.
The Thudding meanwhile, continued becoming subtly more pronounced as the rebel where he was standing on the crane. For a time, it remained distant, and could have easily been mistaken for distant artillery fire. But, as several minutes passed. it became more apparent that, that, was not its origin. The muffled boom of the reverberations increasing in volume and regularity, but still keeping distant. The dust filled atmosphere of the world doing a huge amount to keep its origin hidden beyond the cover.
As he listened more, something would have become apparent as the rebel listened, the sound now perceivable beneath his boots through the crane. The structure creaking slightly in time with the thuds, small puffs of dust issuing from cracks between metal plates on the construct.
The man began to become worried, thinking the slave army known as the 'Union of Worlds' may have deployed one of their so-called Collosi, which he had heard of during his imperial service from foreign legions, but had never seen. He pressed the neck buttons for his radio.
"This is recon tower B3, requesting scan pulses to be sent to the south ahead of schedule, over"
"Why in the gods' names do we need to do what?"
"You can't hear the thudding?!"
"...you mean it isn't the fortification workers?"
"NO, it is NOT!!!"
"err... uh... gotcha, sending the pulses!"
The recon soldier quickly turned to the cranehouses' door, and ran to the elevator, and looked off to the South, hand on the elevator's button and the other on his radio activation controls, his rifle slung over his back, as sweat beaded up and dripped down his face, the humidity fogging up his viewplate. The thudding got more and more pronounced, until it stopped for a moment. He became worried, and glanced back at the defensive lines, the exterior-most line being easily a half mile away, he then looked back out the window, feeling an odd presence, and a sinking feeling of dread in his heart. He gulped as the radio came up;
"Pulse... Sent!!!"
The wave sped towards the tower, and he waited until it contacted whatever was there...
What the pulse would have revieled, was monstrous. The pulses signal highlighting a hulking construct standing about a half a kilometer from the tower, yet facing in the direction of the dome. the silhouette being well over 25 stories high in its height. it had a hunched gorilla like posture, with its thick arms and legs supporting a thick and solid torso. It, Could have classified as a colossi. But it was not of any design of construct that he, or rather any of the rebels that would have seen the scans would have been able to identify.
Stranger still, and instilling even more dread in his heart, he saw now that it was not the only construct out there. countless smaller... Things, followed the construct in its wake. Their own footfalls to subtle to be heard through the thick atmosphere.
As the recon soldier watched, looking in the general direction of the... Thing. That stood monolithically out there in the wastes of the planet. His radio would have started to malfunction, Badly. odd Sounds neither frequency nor patterned in any way he could recognize issuing out of the head set, mingled with strong interference. although, as he found, he could still hear his command networks.
This was nothing from any of the slave armies of the empires. This was something else entirely.
The man tried to activate his radio, attempting to call this in.
"numerous hostiles and a big one inbound! prepare for combat, repeat, prepeare for combat!!!"
He pressed the elevator button, and it rapidly decended, the soldier running to his Sandlion and getting in, the filter blowing out the dust after he closed the door, he began turning it on, glancing behind him and back, the engine revved up, and he began driving, trying to get back to the defensive line.
As he reached the bottom, and made his way to the vehicle. a glance back at the location of the dying signature of the scan would have shown him that the large construct was shifting its stance. Planting its weight differently. A stance he would recognize immediately as something prepping itself for a frontal charge. The sound its feet thudding as they replanted themselves on the dust being louder and more pronounced then they had been previously. The impact being felt even through the shocks of the vehicle.
For a moment, everything out in the distant was still as the blindness of the dust settled back in. then, in the next instant. There was a flash of bluish lavender light from the direction of the construct. like blue flames issuing from the crevices of the things armor as it apparently brought itself up to power. The bizarre interference of the rebel soldiers radio surging for a moment.
Then the construct shifted its weight, and started to charge, its thudding footsteps starting again, more rapidly then before, swelling in volume.
the man stared in awe as the massive being moved at speeds astonishing for it's size, and he looked as some of the rebel forces retreated, but most bolstered, and vehicles and men alike opened fired on the behemoth, hundreds of lights arcing towards the construct and the mass behind it, doing no visible damage through the dust and distance. He hit the pedal and sped even faster back to the dome, wanting to get to the eastern door
The construct continued in its avalanche like charge. Smashing boulders as it moved along its course at insane speeds that seemed almost impossible for it to achieve, crossing the half a kilometer in less then half a minute. All the while its Thudding footsteps causing tremors among the rebel troops that only got stronger and stronger. The construct Casually reaching out with an arm and swatting at the crane construct as it passed near it, Closing the distance between it and the rebel forces rapidly. the crane construct crashing to the ground as it was, almost casually knocked out of the behemoths way, its parts sent flying away into the dust storm. the sound of the metals impact ringing through the dust ridden air.
The arcs of light fired from the rebels could be seen now as they impacted its armor. And the sight terrified the men as they found, more often then not. That rather then damaging the construct. Their blasts of energy either refracted off its armored torso, or were assimilated into the glowing lavender blue mass of flame like energy that issued from its joints and armored chinks. more pronounced now as the Things mountainous form could be seen through the dust cover.
The man realized it then, What the thing was charging at as it began to loom out of the dust and into their lines of visibility, moving with an oddly suicidal determination and speed.
It wasn't aiming for the troops... It was aiming itself at the dome, their dome... and more specifically. the Eastern door, the same door he was trying to reach, and he was right between it and its target.
The man realized this, and swerved to the right and into the field, in order to avoid the thing. He turned on his radio again and attempted to contact the rest of the men;
"Target is attempting to breach the door, not us! get AWAY from the door! weapons fire is having no effect! repeat, no effect!" He got out as his vehicle plunged four meters into the plains below, and he kept speeding at full speed, looking to his right to see the status of the mass of smaller figures...
They could not been seen. the smaller figures were smaller then the larger construct and much more distant, the dust still preventing him from making out their forms and positions. They would take time to cross the distance between them and the dome. But, in a strange way, he could sense them, crossing the wastes. Getting closer to the lines of rebel forces out there.
His thoughts were lost as the Behemoth construct charged past him along the main road. it's elephantine feet chewing up the pavement into chunks of rubble in its wake, and he could see now, that it was... not truly a mech at all... But rather. Something that looked like it had been thrown together from a strip mining rig. its.. "Head" being the cylindrical bucket digger usutally mounted to the front of the units that he had seen abandoned across the planet.
His thoughts were broken however, as he saw it close the final 200 yards between it and the airlock gates, its silhouette illuminated horribly, almost apocalypticly against the light of the domes energy fields. raising its arms upward, its club like upper limbs posed high above its torso. other rebel forces at the eastern entrance turning and fleeing back into the smaller airlocks. mounted next to the main one.
Then it reached the main airlock doors, and brought its arms down in a downward swing movement into them.
the man watched as it brought it's arms down, after looking back from the other direction. he kept watching, wanting to know if it could break the doors
under the combined forces of the Behemoths charge, as well as the force behind its downward swing. The massive forms of the airlock doors first crumpled, Then imploded inward on themselves with a crash and vibration that he could hear even through the cab of his vehicle, their frames in the dome shattered as the torso of the thing collided with it. First the inner airlock doors collapsing, then the inner pair of second doors exploding outward as the thing plowed through into the domed city, destroying the eastern airlock completely, the inner atmosphere of the dome rapidly decompressing through the gaping hole with typhoon force winds.. the construct Destroying and toppling buildings and structures alike as the constructs momentum carried it onward.
He stopped the vehicle a moment, watching as some of the forces began to retreat to the backup HQ in a mine off to the southwest, but not many, only about a third of the forces. a group of gunships flew out of the door, their engines creating stark lights in the sky as they got out of the dome. some of the tanks drove down the road to the south in order to intercept the beings, likely loading HE and frag shells, as Alkalai Mk. IV's drove to the door to fire on the behemoth from behind. The man looked on in awe, worried whether Rorix would survive this attack. He then looked back, hearing a noise from the rise in the direction of the mass of beings
the noise grew in its volume, a deep rumbling isuing from the dust to the west. The ground subtly trembling as it did, although it wasn't as strong as the behemoths passage. It give another impression, one of massive numbers, as the sound swelled even more. Now intermingled with a heavy scuttling and metallic reverberation that came with it. While the atmosphere from within the dome continued to bleed out through the gaping hole in its side. ples of rubble and debris choking the floors of the ruined airlock.
As the man took all of this unfolding chaos in, he was only subtly aware at first, as he looked around at the area, that the noise from the mass of beings had gone suddenly, and unexpectedly quiet. The sound of, whatever was advancing in them ceasing as they apparently choose to stop their advance. still too far beyond the dust cover to be seen.
In that instant, there was only silence.
He started up the engine, and began driving back towards the road, but at an angle away from the rise. He saw the HIBT Mk. II's stopped at the road, their guns trained into the dust, as some more forces escaped from the airlock, massive amounts of gunfire being heard from the dome, as well as a few explosions. He couldn't easily comprehend what was going on, as these things didn't appear to be any of the colonial empires.
The silence persisted for several long, grating minutes. The rebel troops becoming more and more agitated and nervous as they trained their weapons on things that had seemingly shut off from their charge. the wind blowing the clouds of dust into odd forms, the grit building up on their suits and equipment.
then the mass of unknowns in the dust beyond their sight opened fire, and chaos overtook the line.
In what seemed like an instant, several areas of the same bluish lavender glow appeared beyond the dust. Their illuminating glow being seen faintly through the storm. Several HIBT Mk. II's re angling their guns to cover them.
Then the beam of corrupted phasic energy shot out from one of the things with a sound of deep bass, and hell started to rain down.
the Beam of energy Striking one of the tanks lower halfs and Detonating with a force that utterly destroyed the units lower chassis and treads, while sending the flaming upper segments and gun flying upwards and backwards with a clang of ringing metal among troops that stood behind it.
Across the line the same was occurring. Tanks and other heavy units were blown or sliced in half as similar beams shot out from the dust storms. Decimating armored units and sending the line into chaos, while, as the lines struggled to maintain order. The Sound fo the Constructs advances resumed, the rumbling and scuttling of their movements Resuming, only now louder then they had been.
The recon soldier looked on in horror as the tanks were decimated by the things, as he sped behind a dust dune, narrowly escaping the beam of one. He continued speeding across the wastes, hoping to group up with the retreating TBL forces. It was then that the multitudes of men and vehicles near the dome that didn't have the angle or view to fire on the behemoth turned and fired at the mass of beings, creating a truly spectacular sight as the dust amplified the glow of each projectile piercing the air and speeding towards the hostiles. The man kept speeding, seeing a slow leakage of retreating forces towards the secondary HQ, but three fifths of whatever remained seemed determined to fight to the death. He stopped to let in a small squad of retreating soldiers, glancing back at the mass to see what they would do in retaliation to the hellfire unleashed on them by the numerous tanks and other armored vehicles.
from the mass beyond the dust, there was only the swelling sound of the rumble of their oncoming assault. The constructs and twisted figures now just barely seen through the storm undeterred by the retaliatory attack as the smaller ones among them were felled by the returned fire. Before the larger shapes in the dense dust cover opened fire again, their beams of phasic energy targeting the tanks and vehicles they had missed in the first attack, blowing them to shrapnel even as they returned fire, or aiming in sweeping paths among the troops that had remained, obliterating troops and light vehicles alike.
Then the mass was upon them.
As the man watched as he sped away. he could see as the mass met the defending line. countless hundreds of the shambling horrors of all odd shapes and bizarre sizes tore into the line of visibility, leaping or scuttling along the dunes either on two legs, or in some cases four.
As they met the lines of soldiers, some were felled in the initial volley of fire. but others made it among the soldiers. Slashing or Simply Tearing them apart with strength that betrayed their gaunt forms as they rended the men with lithe movements as the rebel soldiers scrambled to get out of their reach. The Larger constructs of the mass coming into view as they advanced, asymmetrical four legged thing's that silently went about firing and destroying tanks that continued to fire on them. much smaller constructs darting or skittering about among the Frey.
As he watched, sections of the lines of defense fell, or were breached, and groups of the things began to converge on the gaping hole in the domed city.
The TBL forces began to turn and run, the faster vehicles having a better chance of getting out. the men inside the dome? there was no hope for them. The soldier sped along the wastes towards the hilly valley that the secondary HQ was at, trying to balance his attention between driving and making sure he didn't get hit, as the squad he had just let into his vehicle yelled and clamored about, ushering him to drive faster. one tried to mount the MG in the roof hatch, the recon soldier simply elbowing him in the groin and chewing him out as to not draw they masses' attention, and he looked back to see a group of five gunships fly out of the dome. one appeared to have a small sphere mounted below it's frame, with a blinking red light in the middle... A chuda shockwave bomb, one of three that the TBL had managed to salvage. four of the gunships began to open fire, as the fifth did the same but went full-speed ahead towards the center of the mass after dumping all of it's rockets into one of the four-legged constructs, and firing missiles to intercept with the next closest one. they intended to detonate the weapon in the center of the mass, the bomb -should- do reasonable damage against them, but not enough to to slow them down much...
The line meanwhile had nearly completely fragmented under the masses of the constructs as they advanced over them. The bodies and burning and molten wreckage of the tanks and vehicles that supported them littering the ground while the shambling things and the larger constructs that had broken through made their way towards the gaping hole in the dome, lashing out at and scattering remaining rebel troops that stood between them and the city. Scuttling over the piles of rubble and wreckage that lined the remains of the air lock as groups of them began to make their way into the city on the other side. The sound of the behemoth as it tore through the infrastructure of the sprawling metropolis already dying down into the distance as it got farther away from the edge of the dome.
The larger constructs had largely at that point had been focused on the remains of the line. Destroying the remaining tanks, while lancing out Arcs of the corrupt energy at the fleeing soldiers. Turning swatches of the dust into blackened glass at their feet. While beneath their blade like legs, the smaller constructs had gone to work on the dead and dying, Latching on to sternums, spines.. or attaching themselves to severed necks, and. While the men in the gunships watched, began the process of transmuting their bodies into yet more constructs. Twitching and spazeming on the ground as flesh tore and bones were rearranged or processed into new materials. Geodes of the odd crystal-like materials that sprouted on the other constructs bursting from the rebel soldiers bodies as they stood, as if in a daze. Before joining the ranks of the rest of the mass.
The man realized then, as he looked back one last time from the cab and saw the beginnings of this. That the charge on the city had not been a simple military strike. it was a harvest.
The man watched as the last of the men were either killed, harvested, or escaped into the hills, as he had just arrived within them. the constructs didn't seem interested in chasing them, only cleaning up there. one seemed to fire at the gunships, one had already been shot down, lucky bastards flying the damn thing dying on impact telling by the explosion. The gunship with the chuda bomb dropped it into the mass, and hauled ass away from the detonation point. once those things are primed, there's no stopping them he remembered, and drove faster towards the large mouth of the mine, men guiding who they could in before they closed the blast door. a good amount of the forces made it, and enough vehicles to stand for at least a bit against a slave assault, but the construct horde might be a different story he thought as he, the last vehicle in, drove through the door and heard an explosion in the distance. the doors began to close behind him, he feeling so lucky yet so damned for he should have been the first to die in that charge...
As they sealed themselves away into the mines to continue what of their operations they could. The detonation of the chuda shockwave bomb in the center of the mass leveled a massive amount of the constructs as they advanced within its bast radius, while others, including Even the larger four legged creatures were flattened by the shockwave as it radiated outward.
In short, it decimated a third of the mass that it went off in the center of, its detonation echoing out across the wastes, while the seismic vibrations of its detonation would have been felt even across to the next domed city. the sound of the blast dying away to the winds of the storm as they closed back in across the burning and scarred expanse.
Yet, for all of its success in destroying a huge portion of the mass of constructs, the ones that itt had failed to kill remained functional, if not badly stunned. Several minutes of silence going by before the first of them began to pull themselves from the dust and the rubble. their bluish lavender glow pronounced among the orange glow of the flames and the amber glow of the dome. Shaking themselves of the dust that coated them as more and more of the mass began to pull itself from the crater, while the remainder of it simply moved around it as its numbers continued to advance from the mining centers to the east, continuing their advance on the now defenseless city. Pouring in through the now unguarded hole in its wall into the streets, which had already begun to devolve into chaos as the ones that had gotten in earlier started to kill and infect civilians along the path through the buildings the behemoth had torn.
Within hours, its panicked transmissions for aid would go silent, as the sprawling metropolis went dark one sector at a time...
...The aberration had come to Tau Volaris.