Sergeant Ikumi Ito's mind was mostly on the job, but a small part of her in the back of her mind wandered. For the longest time, she had considered patrolling Earth's Red Zones for pockets of Nod survivors to be the most dangerous position in GDI's armed forces, and she had been more than a little proud that she had been considered capable of handling it. But now it turned out that Nod hadn't been reduced to a handful of paltry cells hiding across the globe, they were back to their old strength and rearing to go for round #3. And she was on the wrong continent for that war.
Now, to be fair, it wasn't like she was doing nothing to contribute to the Third Tiberium War. Nod forces had been spotted in the R-7 Red Zone, not far from the ruins of San Francisco. InOps was speculating that Nod had hundreds, possibly a thousand, men hiding in R-7, possibly as a prelude to a second attempt to take the North Eastern American Blue Zone, or maybe to instead push west into California or Alaska. The general theory was that Nod was crossing through R-7 to reach a Yellow Zone on one of the other sides. Which of the other sides, InOps couldn't say, orbital recon had been spotty ever since the destruction of the Philadelphia, so orders had been given that a few enemies were to be taken alive for interrogation. All of the Blue Zones had been hit rather hard in Nod's initial attack, and they needed to know if Kane had any hidden secondary forces waiting to launch a new assault.
Ikumi kept telling herself that this was important, and ZOCOM's duty was to operate within the Red Zones, a job no one else was properly equipped to do. At least, not to the degree that they were. But it just felt wrong to be chasing down pockets of Nod this light while the main war had shifted to Europe, with an all-out attack on the new Temple Prime being ordered. Good men and women were giving their lives in an attempt to bring that place down, their bones no doubt collecting with those of the soldiers that had done the exact same thing nearly fifty years ago. Her father's mother's bones were somewhere around there, as were her mother's great uncle. ZOCOM should be there helping them, standing with them, and dying alongside them if need be. Ikumi felt ashamed to be on what, by comparison, felt like a milk run while that was happening.
And this was without getting into the rumors that something had happened at Temple Prime. Something horrible.
The Hammerhead that she was in was very quiet, barring the occasional report from the pilot. The other three Zone Raiders were doing a good job of mimicking her, silently hanging in their straps, grenade launchers at the ready, but not saying anything. Ikumi could spot dozens of other Hammerheads that made up the rest of the loose formation that her's was flying in. Below, around a hundred vehicles were speeding through the barren wasteland of the Red Zone, often having to make adjustments to avoid particularly thick deposits of Tiberium. Half of the vehicles in questions were Guardian APCs, while the rest were a mishmash of Predators, Pitbulls, and a few Shatterers. All in all, the 9th ZOCOM Expeditionary Force.
"ETA from the suspected engagement zone, half an hour," the pilot of their Hammerhead reported. "No signs of Nod structures. If they have any bases in the area, it looks like they'll only be temporary ones, low on static defenses."
"That's always good news," her corporal, Agustina Gonzalez, said. Agustina was a good second in command. She was from the Argentina Blue Zone, most of her forces were from one Blue Zone or another, recruitment from the Yellow Zones wasn't the best. She was certain Katya was from a Yellow Zone unless her family had been lucky enough to be born in the small parts of Russia that weren't covered, but Ikumi didn't feel comfortable asking.
She had learned in history class that countries used to be divided up based on where they had stood during the Cold War, back when countries had been the ones making all the decisions. It seemed quaint to Ikumi, and indeed it seemed her opinion was shared by most who had been born after the turn of the millennium. Nowadays, borders weren't drawn by men and women deciding where one country ended and another began, they were drawn by men and women figuring out where the Tiberium hadn't gotten to yet. There weren't first world countries and there weren't third world countries anymore, the countries that were still around felt more like a formality anyway. There was only Blue, Yellow, and Red Zones nowadays.
That didn't mean that the inequalities between developed and developing nations had gone away, no, they had merely taken on new forms. People living in the Blue Zones had it better than those in the Yellow Zones, there was just no getting around that fact. Mutations, Ion Storms, violence perpetrated by the Brotherhood of Nod and those looking to prey on the weak. What really frustrated Ikumi was that things could be better in the Yellow Zones. The Germany Yellow Zone wasn't a thing anymore, GDI had successfully purged all out of control Tiberium from it. The people in the Yellow Zones could get a better life if they were given the right help.
she reminded herself.
The rest of the half hour passed in silence as the 9th Expeditionary Force traveled across the brown, green, and occasionally blue desolate wasteland that had once been the mid-western United States. Then, slowly, the Hammerheads began to descend. "We'll go on foot from here, the last Nod position was a dozen or so klicks north of here," the voice of Colonel Steyn crackled over the local hardened COM lines. "Don't want to give them too much of a heads up with the Hammerheads. We'll engage them while the Hammerheads take the long way around and hose them down in the back."
Ikumi gestured to her squad as the Hammerhead landed, the clamps that were holding them in position unlocking and enabling the power armor-clad soldiers to disembark. Dozens of other Hammerheads were doing the same, while Guardians had skidded to a halt, their back ramps opening up to disgorge hundreds of men clutching rifles and rocket launcher. All of them wearing state of the art sealed suits, designed to enable men to operate in Red Zones without the use of power armor.
"Zone Raiders, I want you taking point," Steyn's voice said. "Get up on the rooftops and scout out ahead. You're our vanguard. Everyone else, follow at a safe distance, at least one klick behind. No one is to engage the enemy unless they spot us first or I give the order. Let's make this fast and quick before they realize what's going on."
"You heard her," Ikumi said, switching her suit's radio to the squad's channel. "Up high." They had landed on the edge of the ruins of Oakland, many of its crumbling skyscrapers coated with bright, green Tiberium. It was otherworldly, buildings that had once played home to hundreds of thousands of people, now being consumed by the mineral from outer space. It had taken humans thousands of years from the first civilization to spread to every corner of the globe. Tiberium had managed it in half a century.
Moving forward on the street they had landed on, Ikumi fired her thrusters, bringing her up to the top of a two-story building that had once been a fast food joint, three more Raiders right behind her. On both sides of the street, around two-hundred Zone Raiders were doing the same thing as them. 1st company on her side, 2nd company on the left. "No sign of any hostiles Ma'am," her point man, Elizabeth, said. "Advancing."
While Ikumi's main reasons for joining ZOCOM had been about doing her part, she had to admit there was a sort of primal thrill to utilizing the thrusters on a suit of GDI power armor. Zone Troopers and Zone Raiders had an on again off again rivalry about who was the better shots, the better scouts, etc etc, but when it came to comparing jumps, things got a lot more friendly. Ikumi had fond memories of live training exercises with the thrusters, competing against local Zone Troopers to see who could beat the obstacle course the fastest. It had given her tiny tingles in her stomach, tingles that just about every Zone soldier admitted to having, and the one she was getting right now as she leapfrogged from building to building.
Despite that, there was a tension in the air. Time ticked by, first an hour, then two. Nod had been estimated to be 12 klicks north of their position, and they had traveled 20. The advance was brought to a halt while the officers requested further orders, only for it to be confirmed that they were to continue advancing. Ikumi could spot telltale signs of impatience and resentment in her brothers and sisters in arms, and had a bad feeling that many were starting to suspect that they were wasting their time."
"God, just a year ago we could've spotted these assholes within seconds and then dropped men from orbit on them," Agustina said bitterly. "Or better yet, just have the ion cannon vaporize these asinine cultists and call it a day. Not like there's any chance of collateral in a Red Zone, even most of the Forgotten want nothing to do with these places."
"Corporal," Ikumi said, her voice stern. "I understand you're frustrated, but we are GDI soldiers on a high importance mission. Please refrain from letting your exasperation get the better of you and from clogging the channel with chatter."
Agustina stiffened. "Yes, Ma'am. Sorry Ma'am," she said, sounding a little ashamed. Ikumi considered saying more before deciding against it. Sometimes a slap on the wrist was all someone needed, a little jolt to remind them that they had expectations. In truth, Ikumi couldn't blame Agustina. Fighting Nod could be incredibly frustrating. They didn't hold borders or positions in the same way that GDI did, being much more fluid and maneuverable. She wondered if this was how Suleiman had felt when he had invaded the Safavid Empire. Able to march from city to city with no difficulty, but not able to find the enemy you were trying to defeat.
Then, everything Ikumi knew about the world was split in half. "Sergeant? Is it just me or is something-FUCK! Look up!" Ikumi craned her neck up. Her jaw dropped open. Something was descending from the sky at a staggering rate. At first, it was just a vague shape. Then, it came into sharper focus. It was purple and black, forming a sort of jagged cylinder with the occasional white light on it. It slowed as it descended, with nothing visibly affecting its speed, no rockets being fired, it just seemed to slow down of its own will. Then, almost gently, it landed in the middle of Oakdale.
All the Zone Raiders stared at it, dumbstruck. Then, Ikumi heard chatter over the radio. "Colonel, an unidentified object has landed in the middle of the city. Intentions are unknown. Unknown if the craft is of Nod origin." A small part of Ikumi thought that it had to be Nod who did this, what else could've done it? The Forgotten certainly didn't have the technology base for it. Yet, at the same time, Nod being capable of this seemed impossible. Nod had some advanced technology, but nothing THAT advanced. And, unless she was mistaken, this thing had come from space. Regardless of everything Nod had managed to do in secret, there was no way they could have possibly have created a space program without GDI noticing.
"All Zone Raiders, fall back and regroup with the main force," came the reply. "I am requesting further details from command. Apparently, there has been a radical development in Europe that may be affecting our current situation."
"What the shit," Elizabeth whispered. Ikumi's thoughts exactly. But they didn't have time to stop and stare. There was a deep, gaping feeling in her gut that was screaming at her that something very bad was about to happen and that they needed to get far, far away from that spike-ship.
"All right, you heard the colonel, fall back," Ikumi said, trying to keep her voice level as she ordered her squad. The very last thing that they needed was to hear an NCO cracking under the impression. If she couldn't lead by example in terms of professionalism, how could they be expected to act like proper soldiers? Thankfully, they didn't let her down. The retreat backward was just as crisp and orderly as the advance had been, if anything it was actually faster. The added benefit of knowing that there were no enemy forces between them and their destination, enabling them to move faster.
Then, a series of explosions reached their ears. Ikumi's blood froze. Those hadn't been from in front of them, so that meant that the rest of the 9th Expeditionary Force wasn't under attack. But that raised the question of what had exploded. "Sergeant?" Elizabeth asked, nervously. "Do you hear that." Ikumi perked her ears, listening hard. The faint sound of running engines reached her ears, coming from behind her. Turning her head, she saw two things. One was what she had been expecting, around two dozen vehicles painted with the red and black of Nod, a mix of scout bikes and buggies, speeding in their direction in a loose formation, all of them being bathed with a red outline by her suit's IFF systems. The second was something she didn't know how to comprehend.
There was a horde behind the Nod vehicles, a horde of various shades of purple. At first, Ikumi tried to make sense of it as an enemy army, but it lacked infantry. There were bits and pieces that could be classified as vehicles, structures that resembled tanks and strange walker creatures, some the size of a person and others the size of a Predator, but there was nothing humanoid in that horde.
Instead, a strange swarm seemed to permeate the entire horde, not unlike a cloud of insects. But they didn't move like insects, they were too concentrated, and there was a strange blur around them. If Ikumi had to make a guess from this distance, it would only make sense if they had five or six sets of wings that were all buzzing in unison. And whatever the horde was, it had air support. Giant structures that were vaguely crustacean in form, dark purple, and the air around them seemed to shimmer.
All of this clogged the city block that they were moving down, taking up every square inch, numbers beyond counting, assuming Ikumi even knew where to start counting and pouring down at a frightening rate, with no end in site of where the collum ended. It was a tidal wave that was crashing down on the Nod vehicles, which were like pitiful sand castles in its wake. All of it coming from the direction of the strange ship.
"Sergeant?" Elizabeth said, terror building up in her voice. "Please tell me this isn't what I think it is. T-they aren't human. Is this happening?" It was. Whatever those things were, they had the Brotherhood terrified. Ikumi had never seen Nod fleeing so desperately from GDI forces, with an utter lack of coordination, with no clear plan for where they were heading, and only scattered pockets of laser fire from their buggies at the horde, dealing no significant damage.
The crustacean aircrafts glowed brightly, and a storm of glowing purple disks shot out of them, arcing downward with the force and precisions of missiles. They homed in on the bikes and buggies, tearing into the sides with fighting efficiency. If by some miracle, one of the vehicles managed to avoid being hit by a burst of the disks, another swarm would descend on it right after. Within seconds, half of the vehicles had been reduced to burning husks, either exploding and flipping over, or simply being consumed by the energy raining down on them and rolling to a halt, lifeless.
"Previous orders still stand, fall back!" Ikumi shouted, louder than she needed too and possibly louder than she should have, but it got the point across. She fired her thrusters and took off in a jump, leapfrogging to the next Tiberium coated building in front of them, back in the direction of the main force. She heard thrusters being fired off behind her and was comforted when she realized that her squad had kept their nerves and were following her lead.
The rest of the vanguard had shaken themselves out of the stupor that the alien, and there didn't seem to be any getting around the fact that they were aliens, army appearing. They had fallen back into their old pattern of controlled jumps, a rhythm that was designed that one pack of Zone Raiders would life off just in time for another to land and prepare for their next jump. A tactic that looked simple from a distance, but was deceptively difficult to master. Jump thrusters took expert precision to use in a squad, let alone larger formations. There was a reason they didn't let in anyone who signed up into either Zone Troopers or Raider. Aside from Commandos, they were easily one of the most elite units in GDI.
None of that changed the fact that they needed to retreat as fast as possible, they were not equipped to fight a full frontal assault that was utilizing combined arms, whatever that passed for with these things. But there was a difference between an orderly retreat and a panicked route. Nod was routing, breaking down, every last soldier they had fending for him or herself. The two-hundred Zone Raiders, on the other hand, had remained a cohesive whole, barring a squad or two lagging behind at the very end of the formation. But it was a minor lag, and considering the uniqueness of the circumstances, Ikumi felt that it was an acceptable slip-up.
Another jump and the 9th Expeditionary Force came into voice, Hammerheads hovering over it again. "All Zone Raiders, the combat zone is too hot for an air extraction. We're going to have a fighting retreat. Spread out, but stay on our flanks on the roofs. Prime up your AA and standby for me to mark targets. Until then, you are weapons free on all ground forces. Keep up with the formation and maintain as high a velocity as you can. All forces. Our goal is to extract and report our findings here to GDI. We are not, I repeat, we are not to engage these forces more than needed, we don't have the numbers for a frontal battle against these many unknowns."
"You heard the colonel. Squad, 180! Thin out!" This was where GDI's Zone forces really put their skills to the test. Landing, Ikumi spun on the spot so that she was facing the approaching alien horde. A quick button press on her arm and a video feed of immediately behind her started playing, a tool that would allow her to utilize her thrusters moving backwards without smashing ass first into a brick wall.
Three jumps backwards followed in quick concession as they began their retreat, the vehicles of the 9th Expeditionary Force coming about and speeding off. Ikumi heard a slight whimper from Elizabeth's COMs, which she let go by unchallenged. Backwards jumps in an active combat scenario were about the most stressful thing you could ask a Zone soldier to do, even with the feed, it gave you such a horrible sense of vertigo. Ikumi herself was feeling a horrible sense of wrongness, her body screaming "I can't see where we're going! Turn around turn around turn around, for the love of God, please turn around!" So far, however, everything had remained stable.
Then, one of the alien crafts was outlined in bright red, a sign of the colonel painting a target. "Everyone! Let loose!" she ordered, pressing a button on the center of her left palm, the trigger for her shoulder mounted missile launchers. Half of her primed missiles were loosed, the rest of her squad and most of the Zone Raiders on her side of the street doing the same. Hundreds of the projectiles arched through the air, right on target for the lead ship. Ikumi waited for the counter-measures the enemy vessel would doubtless deploy but was surprised to see all of the missiles proceeding unharassed until they impacted and detonated. A full meter away from the ship.
Dozens of missiles detonated prematurely, all of them falling short at the same one-meter mark, no matter which angle it approached from. Even the smoke from the explosions was pushed away as the ships moved through it, nothing being able to get within a meter, the shimmering air around them seemed to be acting as a barely visible barrier. Now the lack of obvious counter-measures made sense. Who needed chaff or flares when you could just make it so that incoming shots couldn't fully connect?
Over the COM lines, Ikumi heard several officers asking Steyn for clarification on their orders. "Your previous orders still stand! 2nd company, fire!" This time the volleys of missiles came from the far side of the street, targeting the same ship. The first dozen met the same fate as the rest, hitting the barrier around the ship and exploding harmlessly. But after that, the rest didn't meet the same resistance, arcing through the one-meter distance and slamming into the hull of the ship. Explosions dotted the lobster-like craft, bright purple flames billowing out of it as it began it veer to the side, before losing altitude, crashing into the top of what had once been an apartment building.
"All right, those things take a lot to kill, more than any GDI or Nod aircraft ever would, but they go down," Steyn said grimly. "You are to maintain trigger discipline even more strictly than usual, we can't afford to waste AA capabilities on these things." Ikumi suddenly became painfully aware of how many munitions she was carrying. Zone Raider armor had to be compact for jumps and therefore could only carry so many missiles. Three racks, one rack being enough to get a volley out of one of the shoulder mounted launchers. She had used one of her already loaded racks, and now the internal mechanisms of her suit were replacing it with one of the two backup racks. She and everyone else had used up 25% of their capacity to bring down one alien ship. Zone Raiders had not been designed to be dedicated AA units, therefore the limited ammunition on that front made sense, but it didn't make Ikumi feel any better about the current situation.
She turned these negative thoughts away and turned her attention to the alien ground forces. They were slowly gaining on the 9th Expeditionary Force, to the point where bullets and purple energy disks were being traded between the two formations. The tail ends of both 1st and 2nd company were now raining down sonic grenades on the alien horde. To her glee, they were proving to be surprisingly effective. They weren't smashing vehicles to pieces, but whenever the grenades impacted in the middle of those odd insect things, the effect was devastating Any one of them caught in the disruption field popped like a ripe tomato being smashed with a hammer. Even some of the smaller walkers were meeting similar effects. The horde was so thick that this was only thinning out its lighter elements, but it was a welcome sight.
The Predator tanks in the 9th Expeditionary Force had brought their main cannons to bear and were firing as they retreated, magnetically propelled slugs crashing into the alien forces. It said quite a bit about the quality of GDI engineering that these tanks were able to fire accurately while retreating at full speed. The tankers seemed to be coordinating as well because all of them had concentrated on the same alien tank. The first few slugs impacted on the front, causing the alien vehicle to slow and smoke before a final one tore into the plating and caused something within to explode. A bright purple explosion bloomed at the front of the alien ranks as the tank exploded, a few small creatures being swallowed up by it.
The other vehicles in the formation were doing what they could and managing to hold their own, despite lacking the firepower of the newest and most up to date Predator tank. The Guardian's machine-guns were spewing AP rounds at whatever bit of the horde was closest in its pursuit, killing a swarm of the flies here and some of the smaller walkers there, but that wasn't their real strength. Guardians could deploy mines, and it Steyn had obviously given that order. It was an ideal situation for them, they were spread out, the street made a good choke point against the alien forces, and they were tightly clustered. The Guardians emptied their stores of mines, all of them clattering down onto the street, into the path of the horde. The resulting daisy chain was blinding and forced Ikumi to blink as her eyes reflexively reacted to the shine.
The three Shatterers they had, however, were proving to be the dark horses of the battle. With a fixed, forward cannon, it was retreating backwards, sending high power sonic waves at anything that came too close. It was nothing short of devastating. Anything they hit was either destroyed or badly damaged, the smaller units being swallowed up by the sonic blasts in a fraction of a second. Something connected in the back of Ikumi's mind. Sonic weaponry was highly effective against the aliens.
Sadly, while the Shatterers were proving to be highly effective, the Predators were utilizing their usual efficiency, and the Guardians were putting up a noble resistance, this was all that the 9th Expeditionary Force could offer against a much larger foe. The Pitbulls were not designed to fire while retreating, and its design made it less ideal for backwards firing than the hovering Shatterer. Despite this, one brave driver was taking the risk. Spinning hit Pitbull about, he shifted into reverse, flooring it, while unloading his payload of missiles. It engulfed one of the larger walkers in a ball of fire and force, but the momentary delay that had from turning and shifting gears had proven to be fatal to the Pitbull. A dozen different purple beams from the horde, as well as an uncountable mass of disks from both ground and sky, descended on the Pitbull. Ikumi was certain that would've been enough to tear it in half without the Pitbull's fuel and munitions cooking off, but the cook-off occurred despite that. There was barely anything left of the armored recon vehicle.
This was sadly indicative of how the rest of the retreat was going. While the retreat was textbook and the return fire was precise and expertly placed, Ikumi was fairly certain they were outnumbered three to one and had limited air support compared to their foes. The Hammerheads had maintained their course from when the plan had been to catch Nod in a pincer move, and they had ended up behind the enemy force. They were now strafing the aliens from behind, vulcans blaring nonstop as they hosed down anything that fell in their line of sights. But vulcans were a primarily anti-infantry weapon, and not usable on enemy air. Compared to much stronger disks and beams being utilized by the aliens, they were outnumbered and outgunned, and it was starting to show.
Despite the valiant attempts of the 9th Expeditionary Force to put up a fighting retreat, the aliens had been firing non-stop ever since they had entered effective weapons range, and the damage was starting to pile up. APC after APC was destroyed, either after a concentrated swarm of disks tore it apart, of after a bad hit from a beam caused a vehicle to lag behind, whereupon it would be torn apart by five times as much firepower as was needed. Ikumi couldn't help but think of zebras lagging behind the pack before getting pounced on by a lion when she saw this. A desperate struggle for survival that was proven to be a cruel exercise in futility. And then two Predators were on the receiving end of a barrage of disks from above, their armor peeled apart within seconds and the rest cooked just as fast.
"Keep pouring it on!" she shouted, more to lift up the morale of her squad to anything else, as she fed a fresh belt of sonic grenades into her launcher before resuming firing. Aiming was almost a formality at this point, the horde was so thick, that grenades were raining down nonstop, only pausing when Raiders had to either reload or were in a point in their jump where they couldn't fire safety.
The insects were still popping nearly instantly with the help of the sonic grenades that were positively saturating the aliens, and even some of the vehicles in the blast zones were starting to show signs of wear and tear. This didn't go unnoticed by the aliens. They had been ignoring the Zone Raiders, for the most part, showing more interest in the fleeing vehicles. But, as another one of the alien ships was painted for target and a volley from every single Zone Raider present brought it down, this time right into the middle of the advancing hostile formation, they decided that the Zone Raiders were worth their attention.
A good portion of the insects broke away from the main swarm and billowed into the buildings that were lining the street. For a second, Ikumi thought that they might be retreating, escaping the barrage of sonic grenades because it was becoming too costly to maintain the pursuit. Her heart leapt for a moment, thinking that they could focus more on the vehicles now. And then the insects started bursting out of the roofs
Ikumi and her squad were near the middle of the 1st company's formation, and the insects had appeared at the tail end of their formation. As such, she couldn't see what they were doing to the rear guard. But she could hear the screams.
Loud, piercing, desperate. Out of nowhere, the COM lines were filled with the sound of Zone Raiders screaming in horrific agony. Out of the corner of her eye, Ikumi could spot a couple of them that had fallen out of formation and were now lying on the ground, thrashing and twisting in pain as dozens of the insects mobbed them. From this distance, she couldn't make out what was happening clearly, but she could tell that an arm had been ripped off of one of the Zone Raiders because it was now tumbling off the building, grenade launcher still in hand.
"Ma'am?" Elizabeth's voice piped up. "Should we go back for them? They're still alive!"
Ikumi had to mull that one over. Elizabeth sounded terrified, but there was a determination in her voice that told Ikumi that she wouldn't hesitate to go back for their fallen comrades. Comrades that, sadly, Ikumi had a feeling were already dead, and a retrieval mission would just result in more pointless deaths. "Negative," Ikumi said, hating herself. "The convoy needs our support, we can't afford to divert manpower. We wouldn't be able to make it there in time to save them anyway."
Her voice sounded cool, detached, and professional, and she wished it didn't. The logical part of her brain pointed out that everything she had said was true and that there wasn't anything they could have done anyway. Besides, she had to set an example for those who were enlisted under her command. This was a bad situation, and if soldiers panicked and broke rank, even more people would die than were dying already. The more emotional part of her brain screamed that a little emotion wouldn't kill her and would be more likely to make Elizabeth, Agustina, and Katya to not hate her. In the end, the logical part of her brain won out, but she could feel her inner Id seething at the perceived injustice of it all. She would be a professional so long as she was needed, but she had a bad feeling about what would come spilling out when the mask of an NCO was no longer needed.
Orders were coming in more sporadically now, with the colonel ordered a strike on another alien craft that was moving up with the rest, continuing to rain down disks. 2nd company responded by firing half of its remaining missiles, downing the barrier as the ship was marked for 1st company to join the fight. Then the alien craft decided that it had had enough. Two craft that had been lagging behind, burst forward, shifting away from the road and over 2nd company. Without prompting from the colonel, 2nd company fired the last of the AA missiles at the headmost ship, the last few able to make an impact and deal moderate damage after the countermeasures had been dealt with.
It didn't make a difference.
Both ships opened fire, the same disks that had torn apart tanks raining down on second company. Dozens of Zone Raiders were torn to pieces, the disks slicing through their armor like it wasn't there, and 2nd company stalled as it attempted to evade the disks. At which point the insects caught up to them, piling onto the ones that hadn't been hurt by the disks. Second company suffered total annihilation within a minute.
As Ikumi looked on, panic started to bubble up deep inside of her. They were losing vehicles left and right, their flanking advantage was being compromised, and now 2nd company was gone. More screams were echoing through the COM lines as a few more members of 1st company were caught by the insects, even with the tail end firing grenades viciously at them. Every hole they punched was filled up seconds later and attempting to blast insects off those who had fallen only provided a few seconds of relief before a fresh batch picked up the slaughter.
The Hammerheads were the only part of the 9th Expeditionary Force that wasn't being massacred, and Ikumi had a horrible feeling that that was just because they weren't proving to be enough of a threat to focus on. Many of the Hammerhead pilots had realized the dire situation and had abandoned attacking the rear of the main formation. Instead, they veered to the side, their vulcans strafing the insect swarm that was still pursuing 1st company.
Meanwhile, the main battle on the streets was degrading. Half of the 9th Expeditionary Force's vehicles had been destroyed, and that number was falling lower as more disks and beams focused more and more on fewer targets. Two more Guardians were destroyed, then another Predator, and one of the two surviving Shatterers, all of them being swallowed up by a tide of fire that only seemed to be growing thicker.
"Right. No getting around it," Steyn said, her voice bitter. "1st company? We've lost this fight. I'm going to order the continued retreat and we'll try and find a way to slip out, but it's looking bad. You're not in a position where you can provide effective covering fire, and with 2nd company gone, we're out of options. Your orders are to retreat using the Hammerheads. Put a couple blocks between you and the aliens and make a hot drop pick up. Get back to HQ, tell them everything we saw here, they need to know that harmonics cuts through these things like a hot knife. It's been an honor, you've all gone above and beyond. Steyn out."
A heavy silence followed, no one speaking. What few vehicles were left splintered into three different groups, shooting off down different streets in groups of four or five, the alien horde splintering to follow. "Come on," Ikumi said, her throat tight. No one complained, she wished they had. She wanted Elizabeth to call her a heartless monster, but Elizabeth was the first to follow after Ikumi jumped off of the apartment building they were on, landing in the next street over. The rest of the 1st company, still at 80% strength, moved across the street and over the building, landing in the middle of a deserted, Tiberium infested block. The Hammerheads were well ahead of them and had landed, pilots hastily telling the Zone Raiders to get in quick.
Trying not to think what those insects could do to vehicles, Ikumi took point and kept her grenade launcher at the ready, keeping an eye out for any more of the insects that might be following them. Thankfully, no more appeared, it seemed they were more concerned with the splintered vehicles. Ikumi felt sick. Elizabeth, Agustina, and Katya were all strapped in, as were the other members of 1st company in their Hammerheads. Without a word, she strapped herself in, the Hammerhead pilot taking off when she was only half in.
"Christ," the pilot said over the local COM. "There were so goddamn many of them. And this is happening everywhere!"
"What?" Ikumi asked, her voice hoarse.
"That wasn't the only ship. Every Red Zone on Earth a ship like that is landing," the pilot said, sounding like it was taking him a great deal of effort to not panic. "We got some scattered chatter from all over, this is a coordinated attack." He paused. "What do we do?"
Ikumi responded without thinking. "Take us back to base. Spread the word. Shatterers and sonic grenades seem to work. I don't know why, but get the boys and girls in R&D looking at it." Without a second's hesitation, she heard the pilot switch frequencies and begin to talk to someone else. Silently, Ikumi looked back on Oakland. She could still see the alien forces, splitting up to search the city, even as they fled. She wondered if the colonel would survive. If anyone would.
"Tiberium doesn't seem to bother them," Agustina noted. "And sonic weapons hurt them...wait...you don't think…"
"I don't know," Ikumi said. "And at the moment I don't care. As far as I'm concerned they're just like Nod. A threat. One that thinks it can walk all over us. And one we're going to crush." There was a fire in her chest now. She wondered if the aliens were feeling smug over their victory. She wondered if the aliens would be feeling that smug after they learned first hand what a MARV was. What an Ion cannon did to a ground formation. Why three wars with Nod, a robot uprising and Tiberium had failed to kill humanity and GDI.
She doubted it. These things could be killed. And there was going to be a lot more of that the second GDI was done with Nod.
XXXXX
Author's Note: I have an odd history with Command and Conquer. I know plenty about it, but I've only ever played Kane's Wrath. On the Xbox. Yeah. I imagine I'm going to be lynched for that. Still, I deeply enjoy the world it creates, with some really unique science fiction elements, creating two opposing factions that both get really cool units (for the record, my favorite faction to play as is Black Hand, if only because anti-vehicle flame throwers get all of my yes. Also stealth tank spam, though GDI does have the best epic unit) a third one that's also pretty cool, and of course, Kane.
And then Tiberium Twilight happened. I missed that when it first happened but going to ground zero years later, I'm shocked by how terrible the decisions made for it were. No base building? What?
Well, a big thanks to SuperFeatherYoshi for having me write this. Now I've got C&C on the mind, and my IRL best friend and I are going to buy Tiberium Wars and Kane's Wrath when it's on sale. (I really should read Peptuck's fanfiction on C&C, I hear he's an amazing writer. An amazing writer with a bad tendency to not finish his work, but I have no right to criticize.) I really hope he enjoyed it.