Ch 8.
For the first few hours of nighttime there was nothing up there but the lofty sky and clouds all lighten up by the great space battle.
But then midnight drew near and the first sign of a direct assault on the base began in earnest.
At least that was what Robb Stark, heir of Ned Stark saw as he along with his father and brother watched the map that now displayed bombardments from the Maran fleet.
The clock struck eleven
The first wave struck hard and true.
Right in the bay of seals.
"All long range artillery and archers prepare to launch ground type ammunition."
The voice of General Khan was heard trough the speakers of the base as Robb looked at a glass of water on a table and saw how the surface was trembling from…from something big. And it was coming this way.
"Here it comes." He heard his brother Jon say and he turned his gaze at a farview and saw a great Kraken formed out of seas water coming over the horizon from the Western Sea.
No, it wasn't formed from the sea, it was the sea, it was the ocean, taken the form of the ancient apex predator of the deep.
The great beast flew straight for them as around, above and beneath it the shapes of other beasts of the ocean, shark, serpents, great giant whales and schools upon schools of sea snakes and all manner of creatures with teeth and plenty of them was the shape which the ocean itself took to come cross the land and strike at their positions.
"Units loose, artillery fire, missiles precede barrage!"
The order of the general where heard and Robb could see the small wave of arrows, missiles and Earth Shaker rounds leave the outer defensive walls and trenches of the base.
The small arrows flew towards their target and got bigger, and bigger, and bigger with each meter they crossed.
When they reached the beasts of the deep the volley had harvested soil from the earth that they flew above and by the time they reached the wave the once small arrows where the size of towers, the missiles grew to the size of small mountains and the artillery rounds exploded sending at first a shock wave where they landed before and explosion of green plants was brought forth, and as this jungle grew and the very Earth itself was ripped apart and thrown at the tidal wave , the water half broke and was half deflected and dispersed by the Earth barrage until there was nothing left.
Nothing cept the now muddy half swap, half great salty lake terrain that surrounded the base and the sudden downpour of salty rainwater that from the shockwave of the clash flew so fast and so high that hail the size of one's fist started raining down on the base.
The first quarter had come and gone
Now the ground started to truly tremble as the glass of water now shook violently as another wave of enemy bombardment hit the ground making great abysses appear from the tears brought about by this earthquake.
The ground shook, then ripped itself apart, and then it rose.
It rose forming great giants of earth that as the flood came from the East, these came from the South.
Looking at them Jon could see the remains of forests and fields, of grasslands and farms still intact on their form, some still had houses on their shoulders and heads.
But those thoughts where soon forgotten as the dozens upon dozens of giants were joined by smaller Golems that where two to three, to five times the size of a man.
"All units switch to water type, use the water and hail to our advantage; artillery will target one giant at a time starting from the left, the infantry are to target every third giant exclusively, do not use individual targeting me must mass our fire!" The General once more gave his orders as another barrage flew from the walls and trenches.
Small floods and wave now hit the golems and giants, this was one half of the barrage, the other half of arrows, missiles and artillery rounds flew through the air, collecting water and hail stone, freeing them until the arrows where now spears, the missiles looked like the sky itself was falling and the artillery rounds exploded into a blizzard of snow on the bodies of the giants and advancing golems before Robb's mind registered what was happening.
Many of the Titans and countless of the golems now dissolved into mud in the ground beanth them under the Empire's blows.
But many more than them reached the wall.
The second and third lines of defenders continued to fire water arrows at them as the first rank lowered their bows and arbalests and drew their spears and formed a shield wall with water spears and earth shields.
The wall of water spears where lowered at the Golems, each spear was at least 6 t0 7 meters in length and they all pierced the closest golems that where climbing the wall.
And where 10 to 20 meters away.
This was the first time Robb had seen the power of the water spears outside of battle.
Water based weaponry mixed itself to great speeds until it could cut foes like hot iron trough straw, it also could double to triple its reach by drawing on the water around and like the unholy child of spear and arrows they struck fats piercing several ranks of golems.
As the spears dissolved from the magic in the spell being spend a few Golems managed to reach the ranks before their could give another great thrust.
The infantry raised their shields, to bash the foe.
Spikes emerged from the earth shields, ones that did not stop there, but who twisted and danced all across it's surfaced, turning each soldiers defense it into a square foot chainsaw and the wall of men and women into a wall of rip and tear.
And those where only the raw recruits.
Robb spied another farview screen that depicted a veteran brigade.
One that before using the water based weapons used a combination of fire long spears, throwing spears and arrows along with their wind counterparts to strike at the golems, and only after they were hit and heated by this did the other half of the troops that used aqua weapons struck, not with water, but with ice.
Ranks upon ranks of mindless golems fell this way as the rocks within them cracked from the great shifts in temperature, this method was so deadly that it was used to deal the killing blow to a wounded but still plenty of battle worthy Giant.
All of this Robb had seen on the Empire's practice grounds, but seeing it now in person, well…
He was glad that they were on their side. And as he pondered this the Golems and Giants where finished, the only evidence of their existence that was left was the rough terrain of cracked boulders and great piles of dirt that now replaced the swamp/lake surrounding the base.
From the areas where the more experienced/elite troops where stationed you could still see steam pouring out of the ground.
The half an hour mark came and went.
And with that the ground exploded as a great volcano of ash and fire erupted the from the ground South of the base, courtesy of the third enemy barrage from the battle in space.
From these bleeding wounds of fir hatched forth great dragons made from the flame that filled the northern sky as they flew, raw, crawled and rode the wave of magma that now poured from North of the base.
This time no orders came, nor where they needed it needed.
It was fire plain and simple and the only counter for it was basically any mass that could make it spend its energy/ explode/burn out before it reached you.
A veritable blizzard of water, earth and even fire was thrown at the dragons.
Who roared their defiance as they, with the last moments of their very short lives crashed into the main ranks of the more greener troops, who shot random barrages of all varieties of all measures of the three elements.
They were trained how to counter this, but not enough and even then the only thing that can prepare you for battle is actual battle.
The veterans used controlled barrages of first earth, then water strike at the dragons, these where first cooled down by a combination of water( what few was left) and cold air.
The earth thrown was not random, rather it was design to funnel in the magma to the water, and the ones meant for the dragons where just the spear tip, who upon colliding and exploding made the fire dragons half disperse themselves, leaving them vulnerable for the cooled until it was now an ice/hale/snow blizzard.
But even the most experienced of troops could not stop or stand forever and eventually a few of the dragons reached even them as was evident by the great explosions that shook the base and the dying screams of men and women burned alive by the dragons.
Three quarters have passed.
The fourth and final barrage now struck as the winds of the West started picking up.
First came a breeze. Then a gust. Then a storm.
The storm grew into a hurricane.
With it came its brother, the first, second, third, fourth until it appeared.
The F5, the greatest tornado that could ever exist on an inhabitable world, the Storm giant had touched down on the lands of the North.
" 1st, 2nd, 3rd corps use water and ice to produce a cold air blizzard now! 4rth 4th and 6th prepare Phase two of the countermove." General Khan ordered as the F5 made its way towards the base.
Closer and closer the tornado came and as the base shook, it's lights started to flicker, Robb noticed that the F5 was not an F5
For within it lightning emerged and swirled around it's body as light's came from within it until it was a cyclone of fire and lightning borrowing down on them.
A great gust of wind smashed against the twister.
Within it's great tug of war storms wrestled with blizzard, the pale white of snow dueled with the grey of rain as the tornado continued to push, the Empire pushed back.
They pushed back and pushed back, and pushed back, until it stopped.
And then they tugged.
They tugged as a great barrage of artillery, flew straight into the F5 making the tornado itself explode!
A great wave of wind, fire and lightning discharged itself all over the field before the base.
It lasted for only a moment, and as the lights went back on, the ground stopped shacking and Robb could finally open his eyes he let out a breath of relief at that it was all over.
The glass was now calm
The clock stuck twelve.
But that was not happened, Robb did not relax now that it was all over, for what stopped him from doing so was the look his brother Jon had in his eyes as he gazed at the PULSAR depicting the battlefield as a grim look came over him.
"Send forth and firth platoon to fix as much damage as they can before it's too late, the rest are on standby and be ready to move out immediately." His brother gave the commands to an aide.
Robb could see Jon tightening his fists and as he looked around he noticed that the atmosphere
Did not ease up, but everyone in the command room, now, only now did they look like they were bracing for a fight.
The glass was now calm; it then burst into a million pieces.
The ground now shook as if it had never shook before, a greet screech from the sky came, one so great that Robb could hear it even here deep beneath the earth, in the very stronghold of this great base.
"This is General Khan, all ground forces stand by."
The black sky was now a great reddish white as an infinite number of barrages now rained down upon them and from these eggs, and as the light from their descent faded nightmares hatched.
From the East another great Tsunami came over the horizon.
No! There came a Tsunami that was the horizon, that stretched from left to right and behind it another and another and another until beyond there was nothing but waves of destruction.
From the North came once more Giants, first in hundreds, then in thousands, then in hundreds of Thousands as million of Golems followed their larger brethren south.
A second sun erupted from the South as Dragons of fire rose to fill the sky until there was no sky, only smoke and flames above and a field of volcanoes and ocean of magma flowing toward the base beneath.
Finally there came the West as rows upon rows, upon columns of tornadoes filled to the brim with lighting and roaring with fire marched forward.
"The enemies probing of our defenses has stopped, the attack begins now."
Twelve o clock and all's well.