Shanxi

Alliance Command and Control

General Williams looked down on the battlefield map. The small orange holographics dreadfully announced his impending doom. Marines had salvaged the invaluable piece of technology from Fort Jackson, rushing it out during the evacuation.

The fighting had started off well enough. The enemy simply didn't bring to bear enough fighters to gain complete air supremacy. There were no carriers attached to the invasion fleet, meaning the few air bases of Shanxi had numerical superiority.

This situation wasn't much of a surprise, the logistics of making an invasion were horrendous. It took years for the invasion in D-Day to be put together. This alien quick reaction force probably left with seconds to scrounge together materials. It's not surprising that a defending planet would be more numerous, as cargo is so limited in space craft.

Earth had millions of soldiers and tens of thousands of aircraft. It would take a literal armada to match those numbers in an invasion, much more than the fleet in orbit. Unfortunately, Shanxi wasn't Earth or Fortress Europe. Shanxi was a small but prosperous colony on the outskirts of System Alliance space. It's militia was nothing but a requirement, as set by the Anti-Piracy and Self Defense Acts of 2122.

The people of Shanxi had it easy; the fertile ground grew food for several harsher colonies. The farming all done by high efficiency automated machines. The pre-planned cities were spacious with wide roads for future growth. Green energy sources had been prebuilt to meet the fledgling colony's demand. Homelessness and joblessness was low, and those were easily met with state shelters and soup kitchens. Exports were so profitable to the colonial government that taxes were nearly nonexistent.

Government provided education was so well supported that they tied the two private institutions in ranking. Medical advances made on Earth in the past century meant that health care was cheap and easy. Health insurance had become a non-issue in politics, as it took but pennies out of the government's pockets. The world was simply a paradise. It promised to be a jewel in the stars, the first colonists lucky to get there so early.

But Eve had picked the forbidden fruit. The Garden of Eden was receiving a hail of fire and brimstone that would bury its people under piles of ashes.

The aliens threw their first forces into the meat grinder. Hundreds sent to their deaths to destroy the two main airbases outside Jinyang. Shanxi didn't have the area denial to stop the incoming shuttles. The planet was highly unpopulated, and defenses centered around the capital city. The aliens had an entire planet to pick their landing location, all they had to do was keep their distance from the main defenses.

When the enemy forces finally landed, they setup a steel umbrella; several interlocking mass effect barriers. An impenetrable beachhead for continued reinforcements. As the shuttles poured down, a withering network of GARDIAN lasers was erected to deterred any reprisals.

Then, thrust after thrust was sent to secure the defending air strips. The enemy hover tanks and personnel carriers sprinting across the uninhabited countryside. Each attack was nearly indecipherable from the next, an endless barrage of right hooks directly to the face. The enemy providing a textbook example of combined infantry and mechanized doctrine.

Unfortunately for the aliens, Mantis gunships were great anti-armor platforms. Element zero meant they could stay on target long without refueling, and their mass accelerators had plenty of ammo. Shanxi became the resting place of entire armored division. But it was a forgone conclusion. Who knows why the aliens hadn't don't it in the first place, but after the failed land attack; round after round of orbital fire scortched the airbases.

William's would've give anything for a proper base barrier, he bet they could've held out for weeks. Still, the General was lucky for what he had. What use was artillery against lightning fast pirate attacks? A few more years of lobbying may have even seen all of his armor support removed. He was the leader of a militia, after all, not an army.

General Williams, when he was in Fort Jackson near the capital city, realize his position was in shambles. Without the airbases, his planes would be down from neglected maintenance in days. Furthermore, Fort Jackson could just as quickly be obliterated from orbit as the airbases had. This quickly prompted an evacuation into the city, where he gambled the enemy wouldn't bombard because of civilians.

A makeshift runway was created out of the highway running through Jinyang for the remaining gunships, shuttles, and interceptors not caught in the orbital fire. Anything not bolted to the ground was shipped to this new base. Taking ideas from his enemy, General Williams had ordered the shields stripped from his artillery emplacements. These individually weak barriers were interlaced to create a strong lattice over his command area, not enough to stop orbital fire but enough to hold a few bombs and artillery.

The highway ran under the city for a good couple of miles. It was similar to the old Boston Big Dig, providing a perfect hardened fall back location and civilian shelter. This was where he had spent the last few days, putting all his time in the makeshift command and control area.

The initial assault on the city had gone well, bloodying the enemy in the new fighting environment. But the wide roads of Jinyang played right to the enemy, allowing them to push forwards in their tanks. It was only through prepared converging cones of fire that then lines hadn't completely broken; and even then, several bridges and tunnels had to be collapsed to prevent a break through.

For a while it seemed the aliens were resolved against civilian casualties. But their patience obviously wore thin, as they began bringing gunships to wipe out entire city blocks. Williams couldn't use the interceptors that had been saved, they were a trump card only to be used once. So he had responded with extensive MANPAD deployment, the enemy responded with more orbital fire. Small mushroom clouds blossomed as what once was a suburb became a grave yard.

So General Williams completely changed tactics, he pulled his armor completely back. He allowed the enemy to advance farther into the city, and planted marine squads in every ambush position imaginable. There would be no head on head fighting. The line between enemy and friendly territory blurred and orbital support couldn't be called without friendly fire, if they even cared that was. The aliens were forced into a door to door search of ever house as they pushed toward Williams' HQ, else they leave behind a squad of marine to stab them in the back latter.

It was a form of combat perfected by humans in the middle east. Each building could have a fire team, any bag on the road could be an explosive, a sniper was looking down every alleyway. And just when the aliens had gotten used to ambushes and hidden explosives, an actual attack would press straight ahead.

Two days ago he had received a call for surrender. No doubt the aliens, identifying as Toreens(?), had just deciphered their first contact package. A message sent in peace, now being used in war. How ironic.

And surrender he would have to do. Not at that moment, but soon. It wasn't a problem of munitions. Element Zero made ammunition plentiful, at least for guns, they could last for a long while more. Eezo lightened vehicles used smaller amounts of fuel, he had a few more weeks on that front. No, his problem was a problem of food. Very soon General Williams wouldn't be able to feed the tens of thousands of civilians huddled under tents and sleeping on mats in the cold and damp floor of the highway tunnel. Soon he wouldn't have food to feed his militia. He cursed the people who decided to keep the massive food storehouses by the space port and away from the city.

That is where General Williams found himself. The enemy attacking from the north-west, gunships hammering city blocks, the occasional orbit fire support raining down god be dammed if they killed their own troops. He couldn't retreat, he had no where to go if he left the city. There weren't any prepared tunnels in the forests, or caves in the mountains.

If only he had more supplies, then he could hold out for reinforcements. The enemy force was of a manageable size; you could only fit so many soldiers onto a ship, after all. He may even have numerical superiority. Their defense had already killed a large portion. But most of the planet's farms lied in the opposite direct he could retreat to. If they tried to fight out a guerrilla war they would sooner starve than be killed by the enemy.

"General, we have action in orbit," called out one of his technical assistants. The young man, practically a boy, had his fingers flying over a communications table. The small console was dedicated to off world comms, so it wasn't doing much but monitoring the enemy ships at the moment.

"Alert my commanders," first ordered General Williams. "Is it Alliance?" Hope filled the question despite General Williams' best attempt. Soon he would be at a point of no return, he needed help before then. Heck, he needed help now.

"I-I'm not sure, sir." Confusion evident in the boys voice as he tried to interpret his readings.

"Not sure? It either is or it isn't," said the General as he walked over to look at the young soldier's console. "Well, spit it out."

"U-u-um, multiple enemy ships just went silent. Their auxiliary attachment and the dreadnought to be exact, all of them in highly irregular orbits," reported the boy, pointing to undecipherable information on the projection in front of him.

"Disabled?"

"Most likely, they've made no orbital correction attempts."

"But no sign of any friendlies?"

"No, sir."

General Williams considered this information. It couldn't have been one of his, there were no ground-to-orbital weapons installed on Shanxi. If it was the Alliance, then a fleet would be engaging right now. But four ships randomly going offline?

"Are they firing on each other?"

"No indications of that, sir."

"General," quickly saluted Lieutenant General Maitland as he entered the command post. He had been a battalion commander at the start of the invasion but was promoted in the field. His unfortunate predecesor being caught in a gunship strafe. Very soon afterwards Colonel Rupert arrived, he was the commander of the remaining air units formed up under the 2nd Air wing.

"We are going to go on an immediate counter offensive," explained General Williams after catching his commanders up to speed. "Colonel, we're going to need an immediate strike on their advanced airfields. If we knock them out of the picture with their auxiliary ships down, we'll have complete air superiority. They'll have no reinforcments."

"Yes, sir. We should also take a look out at Lauderdale, recon shows they haven't even touched it," proposed the Colonel. Lauderdale was an out of the way airfield. The colonial government planned expansions out to the far north east, so a small landing strip had been built there. When the invasion started it was deemed too isolated to defend and Williams ordered its evacuation. It could still have spare parts, munitions, fuels, and practically everything their small air force needed.

"Perhaps after we achieve a break out. General, their command should be completely disrupted with the loss of their dreadnought. But we don't know how long that will last, we're gonna have to make this count," said Williams to Maitland.

"We can take advantage of the confusion and get the First and Second Battalions of the First Armored Brigade out through I-80 tonight. Have them circle around and close on their flank while we launch a counter. If we time it right we could form a pocket, they wouldn't dare fire on us from above with their army in such a position. We've seen what a mantis can do to their tanks, if we get air support we could make it work," said the Lieutenant General.

"They've pulled most of their reserves up, haven't they? We could go for the throat and hit their beachhead once we encircle the army, knock out the rest of their supplies," said Williams. The enemy hadn't had to worry above any rear-guarding actions, until now Williams was in no position to counter attack. Thus there weren't any real reserves.

"Yes, but the site is heavily defended by shields and GARDIAN, we'd take heavy losses trying to go for it from the air," thought Colonel Rupert out loud.

Into the Night

Bridge

"We sure stirred up the hornets nest!" Bubbly laughter spilled over the network from Minerva. The smallest alien vessels had begun aggressively patrolling around their disabled brethren. Small, one manned fighters had slipped right past the Into the Night as they attempted to find the instigator. "Command has reviewed the situation and agrees with your actions. They want you keep our presence hidden, needless to say."

"The defenders are making for a counter attack," observed the tactical officer. Screens in the bridge helpfully brought up scans of aircraft being prepared for launch, infantry moving out, and a brigade of armored vehicles exiting the capital city to the south. The powerful subspace sensors on the stealth ship allowed them to see straight through the ground and into the makeshift bunker formed from the highway tunnel.

"The aggressors?" asked Captain Burke, swiping his hand through the air so that the virtual display scrolled to the enemy positions.

"Their General called for a halt. He's commanding from their beachhead location, but it doesn't seem to have the capacity to pick up the workload their capital ship was doing," answered the tactical officer.

"Minerva. Is the analysis of the FTL device complete yet?" Questioned Burke. The AI had been tasked with looking into the multi-kilometer long device holding a distant orbit in the system. Their ship had gotten another good scans of it in action, as a vessel had left the alien fleet to use the device and out of system.

It was an interesting piece of technology, very similar in use to the ancient Alteran hyperspace conduits that led from the Milky Way to nearby galaxies. At the same time, the device was completely strange. It worked on principles completely different than any studied by the United Terran States.

"Its got this new element, same as both sides of this conflict" started Minerva. "With an atomic number of 0"

"Neutronium? That's not new," questioned the Captain.

"No, it's completely different. A different isotope, and its orbitals and nucleus are structured weirdly. It shouldn't be possible, really," said Minerva.

"Shouldn't be possible?" quietly chuckled Burke, those weren't words often used by the AI.

"We knew there were going to be differences, I just didn't think the laws of the universe would be changed," protested the intelligence. "I can list seventy-two different reasons why this element should rapidly degenerate. It's got no right to be stable!"

"Captain!" Interrupted the sensors post. "I've got something"

"Show me," commanded Burke, sitting straighter in his chair. The holographic representations of the FTL device fading away, being replaced by the alien Forward Operating Base on the planet below. The picture zoomed in, past the hurried arrival of shuttles that could not longer dock with the destroyed ships in orbit, past the roaming patrols and into a prefabricated building and down onto a storage container. A piece of technology was highlighted in red.

"These aliens are barely a Type-3 Interstellar civilization. And only that with the FTL object they're using, no way this tech is theirs," said Minerva, complaining at how her structured world was filling with so many exceptions. She preferred everything to work out just like she thought it out in her mind.

"No need to keep me guessing," prompted Burke. He summoned the ship to provide him some data, revealing a sensor reconstruction of what could be called an art sculpture. Twin white arms encircling a pulsing blue light.

"Electromagnetic based neural manipulator. Sitting right in the middle of their beachhead," told Chambers, the sensors officer. "Whoa! I'm also seeing some serious nanotech. Definitely a third party here."

"Same as the FTL device?" asked Burke.

"Well, they're both advanced compared to the two conflicting factions, but I'd need more details to see." said Minerva. "Can't rule it out though."

"Interesting, let's not leave it to these aliens. Should we beam it up?" decided Burke. The Into the Night could instantaneously transport matter through its Asgard derived, and Alteran upgraded, transporter.

"Sgt. Griffin is itching to stretch his legs," suggested Minerva.

"Very well, is his team ready?" asked the Captain.

"I have then suited up already, Captain." The stealth ship had several direct action team assigned to it. In addition to the security forces already station onboard, these solider were specifically for any stealthy Tier-1 actions that the stealthy ship might need to be done.

"Might as well cause some more trouble," commanded Burke. "Tell him to give these aliens another headache."

The four man team exited out of the back ramp of the Jumper Mark-II. The small orbital insertion vehicle was an upgrade of the Lantean gate ship design. It was a remarkably versatile craft, being able to fit through a stargate with ample cargo space yet housing powerful engines and weapons. It's cloaking made it a mainstay of special forces since its introduction.

The Mark-II was simply a more ergonomic design than the original cylinder shaped craft. It had been slightly modified to be easily mass produced. All but two of the expensive interior drone missiles were replaced with particles weapons, as the missiles tended to be expended too quickly in battle.

The insertion team was equipped with top of the line stealth armor. The suits were fully mechanized but not overly bulky. They stuck close to the body yet had enough give for easy movement. The anti-gravity modules helped the soldiers move lightly in the armor, aided by the use of lightweight alloys. The full head helmets had no visors, that would be a weak point, instead closing completely over the face and reconstructing an image of the outside.

The suits were mostly focused on stealth. The aforementioned anti-gravity modules helped keep an unnoticeable footfall. A plethora of cloaking devices kept the users from any sensors. Compared to regular infantry, or specialized heavy units, these stealth armors weren't that protective. Of course, they weren't designed to be and could still decimate a 21st century battlefield.

The weapons the soldiers carried were similarly inconspicuous. They were very clean looking, with curving and organic lines running on the outside of the dull white metal. The best description would be to take a stealth fighter and turn it into a sub machine gun. You couldn't see any openings or marks on the weapons, just the flat metal.

Further inspection would reveal no barrel opening, just a small indentation at the front. The stun rifles fired quick bursts of small energy bolts. They could overload a nervous system of fry a computer, but did no environmental damage. Perfect for quiet work.

As the four man team exited out of the back ramp, they fell down the forty meters the jumper had been hovering. The whole time the shuttle and the men were invisible to any means of detection. At least, any means available to these aliens. The insertion team phased through the roof of the warehouse prefab building, before using thrusters to come to a stop on the ground level. The anti-gravity modules made it easy to use thrusters on a powered armor suit.

A mini-fusion reactor powered each suit, with subspace capacitors drawing extra dimensional energy as a backup. These power sources supplied the hungry computers and technology in the suits. Said devices analyzing every part of the base around the soldiers.

Neural interfaces in the suits streamed data directly into the minds of the soldiers, and allowed them to use their minds to hack like an AI. To the soldiers, it seemed as if there weren't any helmets on their head. Instead, each solider had their vision completely reconstructed by the sensors of the suit. In the corner of their eyes a small map showed the movement of friendlies and enemies and the layout of the area. Icons identified everything from cameras to the closest enemy. With a stray thought these professional could see through walls or zoom their vision onto the smallest piece of dirt in the room.

Flashing red warnings popped up, their suits warned that defensive measures were being taken. Some type of radiation would interfere with their neural interfaces. Each soldier prompted their suit, and got an x-ray look inside the shipping container they had surrounded. A tripod propped up a piece of artwork. Two spiraling arms of slick white metal enclosed a pulsing blue light. It didn't seem too harmful.

Then again; Lantean head suckers didn't seem that dangerous either. But get too close and they would turn your brain into jello.

"Archer, Jackson. Secure the package," ordered the team leader.

The two men phased into the side of the shipping container, completely bypassing the locks and alarms on the front.

"Thing's rigged, shit will go down when we move it," reported Archer, looking at the small alarms attacked to the device.

"Turn then off."

"Last one's a deadman switch. If it stops transmitting they'll know the object is gone. I can fake it, but as soon as we leave they'll know," told Archer.

"Doesn't matter. They'd realize it was gone eventually," said Staff Sgt. Griffin.

"Sgt., there's a body in the next container. Human, active cybernetics and nanites matching the artifact," called out Warrant Officer Portland.

"Don't quite feel right taking a body. Command?" Asked the team leader.

"The artifact is enough of a sample for us," Minerva replied.

"Destroy the extra tech then," instructed Griffin.

Portland phased through the container, aiming her energy weapon at the body. With a flash of blue, all the nanites had been rendered useless.

"Alright, Portland you're with me. We're gonna do a little more intervention. Archer, when the commotion starts take Jackson and the package to the primary extract."

The two special forces soldiers moved off through the ground level building, their HUDs guiding them to the best targets to cause a disruption. They stalked past massive store rooms of munitions, fuels, and other logistics before coming outside. A massive trailer like vehicle had clamped itself into the ground and was stretching an antenna into the air.

Griffin grabbed ahold of its control interface, his suit interfacing directly with the shield generator. It was un-networked so he had to do this manually. Within a few minutes he and Portland had made it to five other important locations and tampered with them all.

They moved with efficiency but not hurry. Knowing nothing here could pose a threat, except maybe orbital bombardment.

With a thought, the team leader pushed instruction to the jumper to meet at the extraction point.

"Get ready," thought Griffin to his team members. Within a few seconds, the malware planted in the shield generators activated. The technology may have been alien, but it was in binary just the same; the neural interfaces making it child's play to manipulate, and Minerva helping out a little too.

"Sir, we're on the way to the LZ, but we've ran into a prison block. Multiple humans," called out Jackson over the neural net.

"Your choice, just get to the extract in five," responded the team leader. Griffin and Portland were nearly to where the jumper would land, a small clearing outside the main concrete wall of the alien beachhead. A small depression in the grass was all that signaled the presence of the aerospace craft. Luckily, their helmets provided an outline of the invisible craft for them to see. The moment the two stepped across the threshold, the hyperadvanced interior became visible again.

Seconds later Archer and Jackson arrived, the latter supporting the artifact in an anti-gavity field. The wrist projected field easily supporting the heavy object. He set the device down on the floor of the jumper, an energy field quickly encompassing it to stop its harmful attacks. Already it had tried to electrocute the unseen force moving it along, stopped by Jackson's energy shielding.

Shanxi

Jinyang

Underneath East Kings Road

Lance Corporal Norman Goodwin crept through the small underground cable pipe. Trying as hard as he could to squeeze through in his marine scout sniper armor.

The aliens' biggest mistake had been invading off first contact. They knew next to nothing about humans. They didn't know human fighting style, doctrine, the weapons and vehicles in service, or even the typical number of soldiers in a squad or platoon. But most importantly, they didn't know anything about human cities. All throughout the invasion the aliens had been ambushed and surprised by soldiers using their superior knowledge of Jinyang. It was a terrible mistake for an attacker.

The invaders had been quick enough to block off sewage systems, check back alleys for cut throughs, eventually getting to know the favored IED tactics of humans. But they simply couldn't know everything.

Jinyang streets had been designed with the future expansion of utilities in mind. In addition to sewage pipes, there were large conduits for all the networking cables needed to satisfy the internet needs of modern civilization. As part of the current counter offensive, hundreds of marines were crawling through these pipes towards the aliens' lines. The marines would engage the defenders and hopefully use surprise to push them off their prepared defenses. This would allow the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Shanxi Armored Brigade to push forward without running head first into prepared anti-tank positions.

Goodwin pulled himself into an uncomfortable crouch as the squad in front of him came to a halt. He clicked off the lights from his helmet, sunlight streaming down from the entrance above. He stepped onto the knee of the marine helping people climb upward, giving a small push so he could grab a handhold above. Another marine helped by grabbing his arm and pulling him up over the ledge.

Goodwin looked around, they had exited in a giant server room. The cable pipe opened in a back maintenance room where the dozens of fiber optics ran to massively powerful computers. The marine platoon was quickly checking their weapons and forming up into their squads.

"C'mon marines, this op is kicking off in thirty minutes!" shouted out a Lieutenant to the last people climbing up out of the ground.

Goodwin waited for his spotter to climb out of the tunnels, before dragging him up the stairs of the office building. They quickly traversed up the fourteen stories to the top floor. The nondescript concrete steps quite the difference from the rest of the futuristic interior of the office building. They came out of the stairwell into a small foyer. Four unpowered elevators sat in the side walls and two glass doors led to an office space. Without a key card the doors refused to be opened, but the glass quickly shattered after a few kicks.

The office area was eerily quite and empty. No forces had been up here, the small carrels and larger offices completely untouched. On one desk sat a giant bell with a sign reading, 'Ring when signing a new client!'. Goodwin led the way to the north-western corner of the floor. He kicked in an office door, carefully checking each corner with his weapon.

The large area was no doubt for some big wig in the company. A television hung on one of the walls and three monitors were hooked together behind a desk. The rolling chair looked very comfortable to Goodwin's eyes.

Two giant glass doors ran floor to ceiling and led out to a patio. Looking out one could see the scared urban battlefield. Goodwin slung his pack off of his back, unpacking the M-82 Cobra from within. Meanwhile, his spotter carefully opened the doors leading outside. A bipod spread out from his sniper rifle and rested on the floor and a cloth was put over his scope to prevent any glares.

"Overwatch-32 in position," Goodwin said into his radio. Looking through his scope the marine tried to see the defensive line setup by the aliens. Using his HUD he marked a few locations with his rangefinder and pulled up relevant data like wind speed.

"Thousand two-hundred meters out, fast food sign on Fairfield street. Marking it on the HUD," said his spotter in a loud mumble, "Enemy roadblock setup just below."

"I see it," confirmed Goodwin. A series of barriers, made of a concrete like materials, protected a large machine gun and closed off the four lane road. Swinging his camera around the sniper saw a few collapsed pieces of fabric that may have been used the night before as sleeping tents. A small amount of movement caught his eye from inside the next door building. "Eyes on hostiles, next-door building. Small electronics store."

"Pushing info to the tac-map," said his spotter. A small red arrow appeared above the area and would be sent to the HUDs of the marines fire teams. "Two minutes," counted down Brady, his spotter.

Goodwin reached to his wrist where he activated his electronics to full. They had been running mostly silent to avoid the aliens picking up a spike in comms. Numerous little blue dots started appearing on his HUD. They were moving through buildings and back alleys, all making their way towards the enemy. Other red arrows appeared all along the enemy defensive line, showing where friendlies had marked enemy positions.

Looking into the corner of his vision, Goodwin counted down the seconds as his clock came to zero. Almost immediately several rockets leaped into the air. Looking through his sight, Goodwin watched the explosions as his fellow marines started the assault.

"Heavy weapon is being manned," called out Brady. Moving his scope Goodwin brought his crosshairs onto the machine gun. An alien had ran out to the gun without even putting his helmet on. The alien armor was distinctive, the chest and back expanding dramatically to cover the alien's thick carapaces. The sniper rifle automatically adjusted for range, drop, wind, humidity, and even the spin of the planet.

In between breaths Goodwin carefully squeezed his finger around the trigger. The force of a hypervelocity round leaving the barrel slammed into his shoulder. Thankfully, marine snipers were delivered specially designed armor with shoulder pads to mitigate the blow.

The single shot blew through the barriers and armor of the alien. Some had called the Cobra over-powered before the invasion. Paper pushers called for weaker firing snipers that cold put more rounds downfield. They said more sniper suppressing fire was ideal in modern combat, where shields rendered machine gun fire less dangerous. Nut mostly they just wanted to axe the expensive anti-material rifle. The Cobra, after all, had a 2.5 second cool down after every shot and if shot too many times in a row could dangerously overheat. This meant it not only had a slow rate of fire but often had to be repaired from melting.

These aliens, though, had barriers much stronger than the alliance. The cobra could punch through them in a single shot while the weaker 'marksman rifles' took multiple. Considering the disadvantage human were at, Goodwin was glad he had the Cobra.

"They're going for armor," called Brady. Sure enough, several aliens were pulling camouflage off of a hovercraft. The alien armored vehicles were the heaviest of tanks. They had massive barriers and sloped frontal armor, with cannons that could decimate human tanks. Distinctive little wings swept back on both sides, just like their space vessels. The tank was just like the strict and slow fighting doctrine that the alien armies followed.

It was a far cry from the flexible tanks of the Alliance. The Alliance called for swarm tactics, fast and cheap tanks that could provide a quick lightning assault of multiple rounds from the main gun. They were easily deployed, had a small logistical footprint, and kept good maintenance. Suffice to say, the Russians had won out on tank doctrine within the alliance.

Unfortunately, the fact that the alien tanks were hovercraft rendered most of the maneuverability of the alliance treaded tanks moot. Their barriers, armor, and guns furthermore completely outmatched humans. The armor battles were slaughters reminiscent of WW2 Sherman versus Tiger battles. Except the alliance tanks didn't have the luxury of a massive numbers advantage. There were more alliance tanks sure, it was hard for the aliens to ship many tanks through space without a huge effort, but the numbers weren't too lopsided. The infantry situation was nearly as bad, but the flexibility and tactics of human infantry was much more effective than for the tanks.

Four shots rang out as Goodwin halted the alien's attempts to get into their vehicle. Seconds later friendly forces rushed through the position, trading fire with the enemy but letting their shields take the damage while they rushed for cover. Command should be happy with the capture of the tank.

Looking closer to his position, Goodwin noticed a column of alliance tanks speeding up through the road. He winced as one hit what must have been a disrupter land mine, its twisted form flipping over to the side of the road. The next tank quickly fired out a rocket propelled line charge to destroy the remaining minefield.

Goodwin tracked his rifle across his designated area, trying to find additional targets to neutralize. A loud crack told his ears that there was an enemy sniper on the field. One of the friendly marine fire teams marked an area on the tactical net that they thought the sniper was in. With some searching Brady was the first to spot it.

"Marking him now, roof of a small strip mall," whispered the spotter, as if the enemy could hear him.

In seconds the Lance Corporal had eliminated the threat, only waiting a moment for his weapon to cool before similarly taking out the alien spotter. Looking off to the distance he could see the approach of a few enemy gunships, their reaction to the assault almost immediate. But before he could mark them two friendly interceptors had already streaked by and wrecked the alien machines. One of which crumpled and distorted in the spectacular display of an exploding mass effect core.

"Warthog 1-2 on station and ready for tasking!" Came out over the radio as the aircraft prepared to drop ordinance on the alien positions. Flashing red circles speared on his HUD, showing where friendlies had called for close air support.

Goodwin reached back for his sweat rag. He pulled off his helmet and cleared the moisture poring down his face. There was something about seeing the life fall from a body that he couldn't get out of his mind. It didn't matter that these were aliens, that they had killed thousands of human. Seeing their bodies fall like rag dolls stained his eyes.

Slipping his helmet back on, Goodwin prepared for more action. The alien defenders were rushing to meet the unexpected human offensive, running right into his scope. One after another fell to the ground with their weird blue blood splattering the ground.

"That's what I'm talking about! You just blew Roark's numbers out of the water!" Brady slapped him on the back.

"Shut up!" Goodwin pushed his spotter off. He took his rag, drenched by now, and wiped more sweat off his face.

"We're pinned down in grid 232593, requesting immediate fire support!" The cry for help knocked Goodwin back to his senses, pulling his helmet back on and lining the scope up to the HUD.

An armored personnel carrier had forced its way through a small maintenance garage and right on top of a marine squad. Reaching forward on his rifle Goodwin pulled a switch to activate the high velocity weapon mod. A short warm up over charged the capacitors in the weapon. Goodwin lined his sight up to the vehicle, aiming for where he learned the weapon operator sat.

A massive crack echoed out of his weapon and the force threw his shoulder into pain. Looking back down his scope Goodwin saw that the anti-material rifle had punched right through the armor of the vehicle and hit something important. The APC was now a flaming ball of metal.

Shanxi

Alien Beachhead

"Jack!"

Explosions ripped apart everything. The face of terror collapsed down upon him. Fire. Fire everywhere. Thousands burning alive.

"Jack!"

A claw reached down from above. Suffocating everything it clutched.

"Harper wake up right this instant!"

Ships blotted out the sky. Descending upon the universe in the inevitable changing of the tides.

"We have to go!"

Jack struggled to pull in a massive breath. His whole body was shaking and sweat poured down his face. His vision was blurry, struggling to make out the light that flooded his eyes. A claw was reaching for him. The same claw. He jerked away, curling his body away from the terror.

"Jack!? C'mon!"

"W-what?" Eva? Jack blinked the stars out of his eyes. Shaking his head, the claw changed into a hand. Eva was reaching for him. Jack realized he was laying down on a cold floor. Looking around he saw a small room with metal walls.

"This is our chance, we've got to go!" Eva grabbed Jacks arm. She pulled him through the sliding door that had been ripped out of the wall. He struggled to pull his feet underneath himself. He was so weak. He couldn't be weak.

"Where are we?" Jack rasped through his dry throat.

"The alien said he was taking us to his ship, put us here half an hour ago. I'd guess he left us at their FOB waiting for a shuttle," she explained.

"Their beachhead..." he mumbled out. "The cell door? How?" It wasn't a specific question, but Eva understood.

"I don't know. Something ripped it apart right in front of me," she explained, "alarms were going off and the guards had all already rushed away."

"Wait -Ben!? Where's Ben?" Jack turned hysterical as he remember his fallen brother.

"They took his... body, when they threw us in there," Eva said softly. "C'mon Jack, he'd want us to save ourselves. We can come back again if we have to!" Eva tried to rationalize to Jack.

"No. No!" Jack pulled against her, forcing her to take a turn off the hallway they'd been running down. "I can... f-find him."

Jack pulled Eva down several corridor, just barely managing to keep his feet underneath him. He took a left, then a right, and then another left. To Eva it seemed as if he was going in circles, but Jack appeared to have a destination in mind. Every blaring alarm and loud shouts out of the speakers urging them to sprint fast.

They rounded a final corner and came upon one of the aliens standing outside a large cargo door. The low ranking guard had no chance against the two experienced mercenaries. While Jack couldn't do much in his state, Eva was perfectly capable of subduing the avian beast.

Jack ran up to the heavy blast door. Banging his hands against the metal frame in desperation. Looking around, he noted the oddly shaped orange panel on the wall. Taking a look down at the aliens weird hands, Jack realized it was an alien hand scanner. With help from Eva, Jack dragged the alien up to the door and placed its hand to the scanner. The door smoothly slid open after a short unlocking sound.

Eva picked up the alien's rifle, giving Jack the pistol. He was in no shape to be shooting the larger gun. They then proceeded into the next room.

Large metal cargo containers were stacked in a few small rows. The doors on the front of each had a glowing red half-square, Jack guessed that meant they were locked. Jack walked straight towards one in the middle, taking hold of the pistol and delivering shot after shot into the console. The first few shots destroyed the computer, the next few wrecking the entire interface, and finally the small hypervelocity rounds destroyed the entirety of the locking mechanism. A gaping hole was where the panel used to be.

Eva moved to pull open one the doors to the container. Jack was quick to move in. He stood still and quietly over a lumped mass. Eva quickly followed in after him, looking over his shoulder at the body of her friend. She moved forward and quietly pulled the cover off of him, but quickly jerked backward and let out a small scream.

"What did they do to him?" she gasped. Scars littered his face, under which a blue metal shined dully. His eyes were wide open and but gave off no life. Just a dull stare in the distance.

"It. Not they," quietly said Jack. He pulled closed his friend's eyes and walked to the back of the crate. He bent over to pick up their confiscated equipment. He slipped on his armor and slapped his dual pistols onto his hips. A rustle of light over his body signified that his shield had activated. Eva followed his example.

Jack stretched out his limbs, the slight weight of the armor almost to much for his injured body. Why hadn't he purchased the armor with powered movement asisst?

"Pull him out, I'm gonna look in another's container." Jack quickly left the, leaving Eva to struggle to pick up their friend. She eventually pulled Ben out, then searched for where Jack went.

"It was here," Eva heard Jack say. Turning a corner she saw that Jack had broken into the next cargo crate.

"What was?" asked Eva.

"It," said Jack with conviction. Eva understood; the artifact.

"Come on Jack, we've got to go," she prompted softly. Eva didn't know what was up with Jack. But they had to get out of here, then she could find out what was wrong with him.

Jack poked his head around the threshold, looking for any sign of aliens. Looking out to the right he saw dozens crowding around one of their mobile shield generators. Eva stopped behind the corner to take a rest, pulling Ben's body against the wall.

"Looks like the sirens are because their shields are down," said Jack.

"Did the alliance do this?" asked Eva, still catching her breath from carrying her dead friend.

"No, they'd have just as quickly blown this place up. Must've been a malfunction or something," said Jack. He then pulled Eva out the door and quickly headed in the opposite direction of the aliens. They sprinted away, them both pulling Ben along behind them, trying to escape before anyone noticed. When they came to the edge of the base, the last obstacle was climbing over the tall concrete-like barriers erected around the base. Security was lax, but then again the battle was far away and the aliens were focused on their shield malfunctions.

Jack knelt to the ground for a second, running his hands through the grass. Eva looked over and saw that the ground had a large depression in it, like something heavy had sat there.

"It was here," muttered Jack. "Why can't I hear it anymore?"

Eva quickly grabbed onto Jack and pulled him away. They needed to get as far from the base as they could. They sprinted towards a thin tree line in the distance, it would provide a semblance of cover. Jack collapsed as soon as they made it to the trees. He had never felt this exhausted.

"Let's go, Jack. They'll send out patrols as soon as they notice we're gone," said Eva.

"Just, give me a second," wheezed the mercenary. He then reached down on his armor to activate a radio. As soon as he turned it on voices shouted right out.

"... Wolf 1-5, Warthog 1-2 checking in orbiting north 20 mikes at Angels 12. Ordinance is at full. 0+40 time on station. Ready for tasking, how copy? ... Overlord, Delta 3-2 engaging hostiles armor by shopping mall in grid 276839, request Broadsword support ... Overlord, Charlie 1-3. Relay to Bandit, good effect on target. Break. Enemy armor destroyed. Break. Request Bandit sweep left and clear remaining hostiles in AO. Over ... Charlie 1-3, Overlord copies all. Roger on Relay. Out ..."

"Shit. We're missing the good stuff," laughed Jack deliriously, leaning against a tree trunk.

"What?" asked Eva, propping Ben up against another tree. She was still on alert, looking around with her rifle in hand.

"Warthog... that's a mantis callsign. Delta and Charlie are full marine regiments," reasoned Jack. "Williams must be on an offensive!"

"Well what are you waiting for? Call us in some evac."

"Overlord, Overlord this is Darkstar Actual. Authentication Mike Alpha November. Stand by for report, over," Jack called into his radio,

"Darkstar Actual, this is Overlord. Send your traffic, over." Came back through the radio, a younger radio operator directing the flow of information all over the battlefield.

"Shields over enemy FOB have been neutralized. Break. Enemy HVT-1 last sighted in FOB. Break. Darkstar 1-3 is KIA, requesting immediate evac. Break. How copy so far, over?" Jack reported to command.

"Uhh say again line 1? Over."

"Shields over enemy beachhead are down! How copy?"

"Solid copy Darkstar Actual. Routing a kodiak to your location, ETA 20 mikes. Keep your heads down, that FOB won't be standing for long."

"Eva, we're getting out of here," said Jack, closing his eyes as he finally rested.

Edited March 14