Chapter 18

Behind the reporter a humongous wall of black clouds slowly moved. "¡Hermanos, tenemos confirmación visual del huracán! ¡A todos los civiles! ¡Sigan las indicaciones de la Policía Revolucionaria! ¡Evacuen de inmediato hacia los albergues seguros! ¡Esperen!" That being something riding the waves coming into the coast. White shells shining in the sunlight as they came closer and closer. The murky water made the pink glow more menacing than it otherwise would be. As the wave finally crashed into the piers, the wave rider revealed itself. "¡Qué diablos es eso!"

It was tall, gangly, with a pronounced head with no eyes, a long tail ending in a sharp edge, a shell the world was more familiar when its exoskeleton was colored black. Its long claw-tipped limbs spread wide as the thing roared unlike its more known version.

"¡Alienígenas! ¡Han salido alienígenas del mar!" The reporter kept going enthusiastically, until one of the aliens launched itself at a civilian still at the pier, the thing tore into the poor man and more of its kind joined in, rushing at the now fleeing civilians and beginning the slaughter. "¡Los alienígenas son hostiles! ¡Llamen al Ejercito! ¡No se acerquen a la costa!"

Then from the sky came a rumble, one not heard commonly by many Cubans, multiple roars of jet engine came close and the owners revealed themselves. The planes were large, boxy and carried a large gun under their noses. The sound of 70mm chainguns opening fire filled coast as they tore into the incoming horde of murder happy aliens.

Another roar and something not seen outside of movies landed, the land shaking at every step the new arrivals made. The large machines aimed the three guns it carried, a large single barrel autocannon and the two seven barreled rotary cannons, at the horde which had been reinforced, and let out a cacophony of dakka that almost broke the microphone the cameraman near the reporter had next to him. "¡Han llegado robots gigantes y aviones del espacio! ¡Pero que carajos está pasando!"

That footage was quickly cut from the air, but the usual suspects on the internet had saved the clip and were sharing it like crazy, the usual skeptics thought it was a clever movie campaign until they watched the News report on the same event before they too were taken off the air. Soon people around the world got to see the beginning of the Halving of Cuba.

We had had to use the satellites' rapid transportation system, you know, the thing it used to send Breaking Mammoth to Aruto every time he scanned the progrisekey, to reach the islands on time. The 250-kilometer (in diameter) Hurricane looked like it wouldn't follow normal patterns because Honkai-fuck-you. It instead began moving at a straight line towards Florida without caring for the island it had in its way. Luckily, that meant that only one half of Cuba would be wrecked but the threat of Honkai Secondary Eruptions would turn it into nightmare land. The Thunderbolts took off to create a safe landing zone and the Pelicans began loading the people to ferry them to Guantanamo (not the prison), just to be safe. The Berkuts and Flight Units offered fire support from the air and began rushing in when the Chariots showed up. The Chariots manifesting here were a great deal larger than the ones I fought at Nagazora, being at least 8 meters tall and the Templars weren't losing in the height department. Both were given lead poisoning from the TSF's and the Flight units.

But there was a difference, we now had the annoying flying beasts called Archangels. They had nothing holy on them, but I knew to the unknowing masses they could look sort of angelic, if you were drunk coupled with a concussion. The Flight Units focused engaging those annoying fuckers, their agility allowing them to keep up the nimble pests. "White, how goes deployment?"

"Hopper Flight has finished securing the landing zones, the first convoy will arrive in 2 minutes. The 1st Mechanized Platoon is engaging hostiles, extraction squads report resistance from local security, advice?" White turned to look at me, I thought about it, was it the cops or the army that didn't want to follow my people? "Correction, local security has begun cooperating, extraction squads report hostiles and are proceeding to defend."

The worst thing about fighting the Honkai is their ability so spawn anywhere. It didn't matter that the TSFs made a wall of lead when the smaller ones could pop out of nowhere at the refuges the civilians were at. The one thing I didn't expect was for freaking Xenomorphs to come out of the waves. Thankfully these didn't have acidic blood or otherwise they would have wrecked my defensive line. Small mercies, I would take gladly.

The whoosh of the next flight materialining sounded and the combined group of Thunderbolts and Berkuts took to the air, we had to stop the Honkai from overrunning us while the evacuation continued, them popping out of nowhere was bad enough. We were now on limited time as the sensor readings coming from the units on the ground reported elevating Honkai energy levels. It was only a matter of how soon would the undead begin rising and we had to quarantine the whole island.

Or maybe not, as Naki and Yua's cooperation brought out a design I thought couldn't be more useful with the situation. It looked like the result of a drunken tryst between a locomotive and a mining dump truck and held a miniaturized Manufacturing Corridor inside. They called it Self-Fabricating Fortification Creation Unit, it forewent any precision for quicker, thicker printing beams that specialized in construction materials, in other words, it could print 3-meter-tall by 2-meter-thick reinforced concrete walls with weapon hardpoints included. The thing and 9 of its brothers being carried by Pelicans towards somewhere White didn't tell, but I could guess she would try to set up defenses to put the civilians behind, and that I could agree with.

More Honkai began appearing and the roars of assault cannon fire filled the island, the roar of Blade Motors appearing sparsely, which was good in my opinion. If the enemy was close enough that you needed to use the integrated weaponry, you were deep in the shit. The golden beams coming from the sky kept sending in more Pelicans, TSFs or flight units. We now had 300 active combat units between TSFs, Flight Units and 25 pelicans running a convoy carrying what people we could find and shove into their trays. I thought about printing heavier land weaponry like tanks or turrets, but I thought about it, this island was just an obstacle to the Herrscher, its true objective was elsewhere

"Sir" White notified me again of changes. "Naki just sent up the Operator Series first squad, and had finished deploying the new Command room, please follow me."

I stood up and walked to whatever my research director cooked up.

The room held a feeling of controlled panic, as various personnel ran around dropping documents and tablets. Ever since they had seen that Tv broadcast, Moth That Chases the Flames, or Fire Moth to the less inclined to flowery language, had begun its preparations for the next Honkai outbreak and their response.

They weren't ready, at all. The assault teams were still in training, their gear still not tested and their knowledge of the threat still lacking. The Steel Locust data had been a godsent for the field operatives but for the top brass, until they saw with their own eyes the monstrosities that now threatened the world, they wouldn't authorize more spending than they considered 'necessary'. There were still a couple of skeptics that thought the Honkai were a fabrication to siphon valuable resources from other areas. They were promptly shut down as the broadcast from various sources showed the sheer magnitude of the Honkai invasion.

When the broadcasts were shut down, just as the new opponents arrived, they had scrambled to find anyone that was still sharing the events live. Some people in the coasts of Yucatan and Quintana Roo, Mexico, had begun streaming as the sounds of large caliber fire and artillery came from the distant island. What the citizens of those states thought was the start of a gang war had put the police force on alert and only after hours of searching, did they notice the sounds weren't coming from their cities.

Fire Moth found a lone stream, an American from the looks of it, that offered low quality images from his hotel room balcony, the slow internet connection made itself a nuisance and as people joined the stream, sharing the flying giants flying near his hotel before finally crashing due to bandwidth issues.

At that moment, a satellite with a good enough camera finally was in range and the specialists of FireMoth hijacked it to observe what the hell was going on on Cuba. It looked straight out of a movie, Honkai Beasts never observed before ran across the streets trying to reach the buildings' rooftop as people crammed inside a strange airship, its stubby wings holding it with what looked to be jet engines, the plane taking off to somewhere as another ship took its place in loading people. Surrounding the buildings, were strange flying contraptions, the military experts of FireMoth though they were drones until one of them rushed an oncoming flying beast and split it in half with a sword, revealing its humanoid frame.

The weirder ones were its bigger companions, the black colored ones wielding what looked to be upscaled assault rifles, and the white ones carrying naval grade cannons and having gatling guns on their shoulders. The machines painted the Cuban cities pink with the 'blood' the Honkai left behind as they were vaporized by the enormous caliber of the ammunitions hitting them. The United Nations Taskforce looked in astonishment at the development. Many still thought the Honkai Eruptions could be controlled, that a decent enough team of operative would be enough to contain the beasts. The images showed that even unreal technology was slowly being overwhelmed by the unending tide of white and pink abominations coming from the seas.

This was mirrored at the briefing room, where all the soldiers in the FireMoth base had been called for the emergency meeting to observe the threat in action. A white-haired young man watched with clenched fists as more and more of the city was claimed by the sheer numbers of the beasts. This would go on for hours, much to the anger on one particular group in that base.

"This is bullshit! We should be out there fighting! Not standing around like idiots while people get slaughtered!" One private Kensuke Kurenai clenched his returned progrisekey, his fellow teammate Hikari Sakamoto nodding along until Himeko gave them a look that shut them up, she didn't hide however the gritting of her teeth as she watched the unlucky civvies that weren't fast enough getting torn apart. Those alien-looking things were already a nightmare behind a screen, now having them on the flesh, even if she was nowhere close to them, gave her the chills.

"I know, but we don't have a way to get there fast enough to be of any help…. As much as saying that pains me." Himeko looked at her squad, their faces looking with peculiar attention at the screens in the conference room, some soldier had requested leaving the room because of the worsening situation, but Watchpoint had stayed.

"You think Yinsen is in there?" Tyler asked aloud, but everyone looked at him and nodded.

Himeko let herself smile at the shining emblem on top of the strange planes moving around the doomed island. "Well, at least he got back to his people. Thought he didn't mention them having giant robots." Himeko was a fan of all thing space, and these machines looked like they walked out of a movie or an anime, and there were kicking ass out there. But looking from the perspective of a satellite showed that the sea had turned white and pink from the numbers of monsters riding its waves. "Hope they get out before that storm hits; no armor can stand debris flying around those wind speeds." She watched as the think wall of dark clouds neared the island. She wished she could at least see a hint of the strange man that had been in her memories ever since those days at Nagazora, but so far nothing hinted at him being on the ground. She let herself fantasize or their meeting, and how satisfying punching him for that last stunt of his would be. Spoiler: The Emblem

Dr. Mei looked at the screens and bit her lips, it had been hours since they had begun watching the Eruption and so far, the new facts being observed painted a very, very disturbing picture about the Honkai. The speed of their spawning, the numbers, so far she couldn't see the cases of Undead rising, but that might be because the Xenomorph-lookalikes tore whatever human they could find into ribbons. The things designated as Chariots had grown from what she'd last seen and were just a head shorter than humongous machines defending the evacuations points. The Templars often got into melees with the dark machines that moved with surprising grace for 17-meter-tall giants, if their calculations were correct. The white ones were a great deal less nimble but carried enough firepower that it was rare a Beast came close, those machines operated in squads of five and their combined firepower made them look like an old battleship going around in land. The smallest robots kept to the air, often performing strafing runs or offering cover to the ships ferrying the civilians. Their power showed when one of the new flying beasts managed to slip past the giants' field of fire and came too close to the ships. The smallest mechs showed that they were far from outgunned as missiles, bullets and even a large sword tore into the horde. But the Storm came closer to making landfall and she hoped they could fall back before it hit.

A ringtone came from device she forgot had kept on her pocket, the strange cellphone given to her by Watchpoint lit up as she pressed the answer button. A beautiful blonde woman appeared in the screen, her demeanor professional and Mei's breath was taken away as the uniformed officer peered into her eyes. "This is Commander Renee White of Taskforce Steel Locust, calling to Taskforce Fire Moth, come in, Fire Moth"

"This is Doctor Mei, go ahead."

"Wish we met in different circumstances, but we needed to warn you. The projected path this storm will take makes it hit every single city on the American east coast. We respectfully request your assistance in convincing the United Nations to send in troops to evacuate the civilians. Our forces are barely managing with the Cuban cities and we expect more beasts spawning from inside the storm."

"How would they even…?" survive those wind speeds? The rational part of Mei spoke.

"We have detected high quantities of Honkai energy Concentrating in some spots inside the storm, we cannot be sure until visual contact is made but we suspect something bigger than the beasts is about to appear."

Mei's blood chilled. "Then, that storm…"

"Yes, it's Womb, and we sure won't like whatever it gives birth to."