Chapter 19: Hymn of the Cybrans
Layla is quick to arrive at planet Altora with just one warp with her armada as they split into fleets with Svidana's envoy squad that was docked inside one of Layla's battle carrier. "Deploy the turret platform surrounding their planet and land one of the mobile factories at their capital city. General Rokosovsky, get down there and make it personal." Layla gives the order in a decent tone. "Yes, Regent Layla!" Rokosovsky saluted sharply to his mentor and departed to his assault battleship via the teleportation room. She looks closely to the other sectors that have been assimilated by the abyss creatures. One of her tacticians give her the calculated estimate time for them to arrive at this sector.
Svidana's squad of warships departed from the battle carrier and entered orbit near the mediumly advanced modern capital with space ports. As they landed, she was greeted by the king's daughters. "Svi, why are we forced back here from our envoy mission?" Asked by them. "More importantly, is that gigantic warship landing?" one of them say it to Svidana. The battleship landed on the far side of the king's castle with the mobile factory at its side. The missile platforms opens up on the battleship, it shoots multiple projectiles across strategic areas as it land and expands. This surprises them as they are thinking it was an enemy attack, Svidana tells them they are allies establishing the defense line. The expanded projectile activates into wide gates, Cybran soldiers comes out of the gate as they stride in formation and set up their perimeter respectively. The defense was quickly deployed using multiple methods while General Rokosovsky arrives at them with his CT-20M hover tank with four large hover ISV (Infantry Support Vehicle). The formation effortlessly cross over the high wall of the outer castle and halted in front of the waiting Valkyrie.
Rokosovsky disembark first while the ISV soldiers remains on standby. "General Rokosovsky of the Cybrans. Regent Layla assign me here to guard the capital while her army groups deployed all over the planet." He saluted at the weary highborn of the Altora as some of the civilians also surprised to see countless soldiers fortifying the outer city. Only Svidana saluted back with her escorts. "Welcome general, how are your soldiers adapting to this environment?" She asked. The general scoffs shortly while watching the temperature on his outer combat suit, it was -40 degrees Celsius. "Our soldiers are much resilient than what you expected them to be. Some of us even have entered cryosleep and enhanced before just to reserve our manpower."
As he speaks out the facts, Svidana escorted him to see the King with his daughters in tow. They exchanged short stories while Rokosovsky look around the castle, it has ember looking crystals placed at certain points. Svidana notices him doing so. "Those are high thermal crystals, we mined them off planet; a magma planet to be precise near this system. We used them to prevent Icing and redistribute heat." He nods hearing Svidana explanation while he sees the thermal reading on his right cybernetic eye. They approached the King that was in conversation with his consort. He immediately halts the conversation and looked at Rokosovsky. "My guess that you are the one that deployed outside of our capital city?" The Valkyrie bowed to him with her guards, the king's daughters walked to their father's side while looking at the General. He did not bow to him and remains steadfast. "And looking bold too, not respecting the higher ranking of another nation." He looks at Rokosovsky with a stern look. The Cybran general in return take his high-density lightning bolt rifle and slam the rifle stock to the floor without angling it to the king, it makes an echo in the castle. This surprises the king's daughters of the sound it makes.
"I only bow or kneel to my Emperor and Empress. I can kill everyone in this room by myself if commanded to do so." Rokosovsky stated it with a strong zealous voice. The king remains in silence of hearing the general's words. His communicator suddenly light up and he turns it on with the audio enhancer. "General, have you meet with the King yet? The abyss will approach this sector tomorrow. Inform it to him." The projection of the anthro is seen and heard by all in the room. It intrigues them more seeing the technology rather than being angry at him. "Yes, Regent Layla. He is right behind you." As he said that, Layla turned the projection around to see him. "You have quite a subordinate. Regent Layla was it?" The king says to her. "We don't have much time left, that is why I ordered General Rokosovsky here to deployed his forces early. My apologies in advance of their strong zeal for the Emperor and Empress. Both are the strong figure of the Imperial Cybran Empire." Layla apologies to the king. "No harm is done, they are loyal. I will prepare my nation forces to bolster our defenses. Do you need a space faring fleet to support you? We don't have much warships." He asked the regent. "I am afraid we don't need any. Have you looked outside to the sky's yet your highness? You might be surprised of what you see." She smiles while saying that before cutting off the communication.
The king and his daughters quickly go to the veranda behind. He sees the massive armada guarding the planet and nearly blocked away the bare sunlight that the planet received. "My my, what a force to be reckon with." The look on his daughters clearly says that they are shocked with the large space faring vessels and its numbers. The sound of Cybrans soldiers including their heavy war machines marching to their post make the soldiers of Altora riled up; looking up at the king to do something. The king returns back and give a short version of his introduction after seeing how serious the Cybrans are. "Alright General, I am king Zela." He started pointing out to the neat line that his daughter has made. "Starting from my left; Fenrica, Fenrusia, Fenris, Fenrir and lastly Fenya. Now let us prepare for the upcoming battle." He nods at the cybran general. Rokosovsky gives a short salute and leaves while seeing the king give orders to mobilize his forces throughout the planet with his daughters.
Back on Layla's flagship the ICS Quantum she reported back to the emperor with Vexis watches her in the background. "They will attack tomorrow, give me your blessing master and Vexis." The end of her report asking for Naiki and Vexis blessing. Naiki and Vexis only nods with a smile to her. Layla smiles in return and changed the channel to her general. "How's the situation on the capital city?" She asked Rokosovsky. "We have finished the defense line network and all of my soldaty (soldiers) are ready. The Altora's are late to deploy. Sloppy…" He grunted the last word. "Take it easy, they are not as advance and ever ready as ours. On my side of the overall planet defenses including the other side of the planets are also completed, now we brace for what is coming to us. Our armada only handle the outer planet threats and will prevent them from sneaking into the Cybrans main core planets." Layla briefed him. The general only salutes and turn the channel off. She clearly worries of the other regents and started calling them. Ilya is the first to answer before Lenora. "So, how was your status?" Layla fires away while drinking her nitro cold brew coffee. She stops drinking after seeing Ilya's armada in combat. "They are like some sort of black crystalline including their weaponry." Ilya answers a quarter. "Fleet 2, Form a lightning ark wall and concentrate fire!" Ilya shouted the order while busy creating an attack pattern on her command table.
She turns her attention for a brief second at Layla's face before directing it back to the table. "Layla, they attack in hordes; much larger than the sentinels. You need to use wide area of effect weapons when encountering them at the space." She suggested it to Layla. Then Lenora answered the communication after 5 minutes. The sakhalin fox is clearly trying to hold her calm in the chaos she is in while explaining her situation. "We were able to push them back but some of them are trying to swallow our warships and our assaults are slower than anticipated." Admiral Andreas calmly give the orders to work in a twin arrow formation with combination of other tactics while they faced the dark mist. As soon as she heard the news from Lenora, one of the crew of Ilya shouted 'shield breached!'. The pitch-black lance grazed her ship, Ilya slammed the deck hard in anger while the ship's shield comes back online. "Abysmal fuckers scratching our paint job; use the ultra-wave laser superweapon and set it in scatter mode!" ICS Nemesis; Ilya's flagship, open a portion of its port and starboard bow. It fires intense laser energy pass the ship's triple shielding unit to the bow of the ship that has the director of the beam. The beam spreads evenly 90 degrees in front of her ship; destroying the portion of the abyss creature's host vessels.
"They are not like any other creatures that we have seen Layla, even General Sokolovsky under my command is struggling a little on my sectors defenses." Ilya growled while gritting her teeth for the newly approached abyss creatures in front of her armada. Lenora's armada advance is also halted as she hears the warning from what her crew just detected. "My god…" she sees it and was forced to cut her communication early. "Lena respond, Lenora!" Layla yelled. "I will contact you later Layla, we also see something that is coming at our fleet." Ilya look at her with a worried face and turns it off. Layla watches the horizon as the next day have come. She finally sees what they are supposed to hold back; a swarm of abyss creatures that circles around its carriers, it is different from what she sees from the both of them are facing. The swarm is met with her scattered turret platforms. "All warships, engage at your discretions and take independent orders from your admirals of your fleet!" The swarm ignores her defenses firing at them and directed the attention on the planet and her armada.
Altora cities was engulfed into darkness as they aimed directly at living beings first than the planet resources. The king's men fought side by side with the Cybrans. At the capital, a horde of abyss liquid creatures with spear vines encloses to them. They can see the metal like bones in their bodies. "Protect the civilians at all cost!" Shouted by one of the Altoran commanders. They bulwarked their formation at the side of the Cybrans; activating their laser shields and readying for long range combat with the laser spears. The Cybrans Megalith IV's creates a low tone sound at the enemy's entering its range, it fires its two quad plasma turrets at it; followed by the infinity beam turret mounts on its side. The results can be seen from afar, the horde thin by a little and picks up the pace to their foe. Its agile speed is enough to dodge the sweeping laser beams and plasma impacts. "What the hell…" The guarding captain says while in shock by the short warping capabilities of the black creatures that approaches them. The autonomous four legged assault bots started firing the pulse lasers as it enters their range. The Altoran soldiers watches their ally soldiers remains in silence with some even smiling at the foe. A loud shout from Fenrusia starts the salvo of attacks against the dark monsters. She looked over and worries that they are nearly 500 meters from them. With a randomly darted view, she tries to search for the Cybran general but he cannot be found at the frontline. Only 200 meters from them, the Cybran soldiers fires a relentless barrage from their mixed weaponry. Altoran soldiers immediately stops after seeing the firepower that only Cybran soldiers can do. They leave their auto defenses and walked towards their enemies with a curated formation after analyzing the enemy's pattern of attack. A hymn was sung by the Cybrans soldiers in sync at the whole planet.
"We have only one way, forward! We are a very proud people; only truth, only honor; Our powers are limitless!" They hymn continues as some of them engaged with close range and brutally cutting down what oppose them. The soldiers sphere drones behind their back deployed and shoot at the abyss creature joints while their user deliver the killing blow. The warping enemies is predicted by them and quick to cut off its head. Altoran soldiers filled the empty gap of the defense that the Cybrans left, some of them were interrupted with the oncoming Cybran reserve forces marching and riding out; filling the empty points as they advance. The inhabitants of the planet remain flabbergasted of what they see.
"We can't be held captive! Hey comrades! Where is the fear!? There is no fear, no death! This is our answer to the galaxy!" The last sentence sees the proton collider barrage impacts the ground at the enemy far away from any of the populated zones. It was the supporting fire from Layla's warships while they push the enemies on the space with cruising speed. The assault bots follow in line behind the soldiers. Gunships the same size of the Altoran castle decloaks and roams the sky, giving support to the cybran ground force with its heavy electron bolters and precision cluster missiles. They continue shouting the last piece of the hymn.
"Glory to our Imperial Cybran Empire! There is no fear, no death! Glory to our Cybran people! There is no easy death! Glory to our Emperor and Empress! Our duty is eternal!" A cybran commander approaches Fenrusia with a bloodlust gaze, his personal shock units followed behind him. For the first time; she feels fear by the gaze; he passes by her while starting the hymn again with his units and jump off using the pulse boost from his combat boots. With a perfect landing, he and his units joined the frontline rank. The massive Megalith IV's slowly follows at their back with squadrons of interceptors, fighters and lancers attacking the abyss that enters the orbit.
"For Altora!" Fenrica run off with her Valkyrie battalion trying to support the Cybrans after seeing their zeal. They are kind enough to let the Altoran have some of the glory. Svidana approaches the awestruck Fenrusia who looked at her, even the Valkyrie is surprised by it. "The Cybrans…" Before she can speak her opinion to Svidana, General Rokosovsky enters her view. He walks toward them and halted at the view that they are looking. "Heh, there all riled up since the last battle they fought; Have you opened your eyes now of the Cybran people? Of our difference?" As the Hymn continues, He looks at the confused princess and the Valkyrie. Only Svidana responded. "Yes, you are not like our people. We know war and only battled with some of our neighboring sector out of spite before; including monsters. Now, they have been swallowed by the abyss creatures when we wanted to extend our truce." Svidana answers heavily just on their side.
"Us, the Emperor's ever loyal subjects and peoples; have trained in all matters of combat and tactics as a basic knowledge. With our technological advancements, we waged a virtual simulated war at each army, naval, orbital or space groups; pitting against each other's as a type of entertainment. Our past alone is enough to make us learn from each weakness and improve it tenfold. All of us are united and did not defies him, even if it was wrong. So far, the Emperor did not make any wrong choices thanks to his guardians and the Empress advising him. Even if our two ageless rulers bickered and behaved like children sometimes, the guardians will set them straight." He snickers while watching his soldiers march on. On the observatory, Naiki cough out the electron liquid he is drinking by the cause of someone mentioning him. "God dammit, who speak ill of me?" Vexis covers her laugh while Naiki cleans the splatter before someone gets accidentally electrocuted.
"Well, this is only just the regular troops. You have no idea what the Emperor's own elite guards; guarding our capital planet is like, especially the one that is augmented with nanoparticles in them." He walks away and reported to his mentor. Regent Layla is sweeping the remnants of the abyss space faring hosts when General Rokosovsky called in. "Mentor, um I mean; Regent Layla. Our combined forces across the planet are clearing off the abyss remains, Altoran troops are assisting as our rear guard." Layla who is commanding her armada while standing in front of her chair, nods of receiving the good news as she sees the final hosts is destroyed. She drops her body at the chair while sighing hard as the crew of her bridge cheered of success. The general sees his mentor in concern. He lowers his voice to speak at her. "Are you alright mentor?" Layla gives a minute to response. "Yeah this is more difficult than the sentinels. Thank you for your concern Rokosovsky." The general smiled out of the satisfactory win and closes off the com. She compiled the short reports of each fleets for damage and losses. On time, Lenora hailed at her. She opens it and sees Lenora; her upper nose is plastered with a cold bandage. "Lenora, what happened!?" Her sudden shout out of concern attracts the attention of both crews. Ilya finally connected to the communicator. "They rammed to my flagship before we killed the huge main host. I accidentally knocked my gut and nose at the command table during the impact. The wound is cured by the enhanced regenerative cell spray but I can still feel the pain." Rubbing her patched nose, she laughed a little while explaining it to her. Both Ilya and Layla are relieved of what she just said.
Ilya begins by saying her report. "My secondary armada swapped positions with me and are pushing the frontlines. My sectors governors wanted the main armada to take a break and report back to master and Vexis. How do you fare Layla?" Layla fixed her posture. "We are able to push them off of this sector, I guess it's time for me to expand to the outer sectors for setting up defenses." She noted it to the both of them as her bridge crew changes shift. "Be careful Layla and Lenora, all of us must come back to master. If he even loses on of us, it will be hard for him." The cold-hearted snow leopard gives a short smile to Layla and Lenora. She nods at them both and turned off the communicator. Layla makes a draft of her plans before going to the town inside her flagship for a quick snack.