Five

Chase and assault.

Eleventh day of the seventh month, year 110560 of the imperial calendar (January 8th 2153).

Chasing forces of the UEI.

Sergeant Anya Abramova was thankful that unlike the crew tanks of the ancient legacy models she didn't have to stick her head outside to see or operate the machine guns of the tank, seeing the field on which their tank was traveling. Everything was full of charred corpses and artillery craters, with the blood pooling in multicolored puddles, from time on time the AI of the tank would report them of the possibility of an enemy survivor.

There is where the tanks would close in with all their weapons trained at the survivor and blow it up if it proved to be dangerous, like what she only describe as a wizard whom thrown a fireball at them. The ball set off the ERA armor and received a short burst of 14.5mm projectiles and just like those dragons the wizard had shields that flared up momentary and then collapsed leaving it defenseless against the API bullets.

She heard that others tanks and IFVs have had better luck, finding different monsters, orc and elves that threw the weapons and began to grovel in the mud whining in pain. Some APC would stay behind to guard them while the IFVs and tanks chased the retreated army.

And that would have actually something marginally less boring if it weren't for their damned shield. So far she and other tankers have tried their luck but without avail, there wasn't any single kind of ammunition that they have, APFSDS, HEAT, etc., capable of pushing through the shield, only the white phosphorous seem to have any effect and indirectly at that.

So they have developed a routine. Lieutenant Leonid Lebedev was driving and once the artillery crews managed to take off the guys powering the shields the lieutenant would fasten towards that section and she would take as many shots as possible before the enemy ran again under the cover of the shields still standing.

Sometimes some of what the images uploaded to the battle net showed to be "elves" would take pot shots with their infantry weapons at them. Most of the shots went wide but the 3 glowing pink crystals nailed in their hull were testimony that the enemy could hurt them.

A methodical yet boring process of slowly but sure wither down the alien army. They still have standing orders of capturing as many of them possible but given the language barrier, none of the warnings given have had any effect.

'Lieutenant'

'Yes seargeant?'

'How long do you think it will take until they realize this is hopeless?'

'I don't know but they don't have any option, the only advantage they have are those shields and every time the artillery takes one it shrinks leaving them more exposed and crowding the shields still standing.'

'Then why don't they surrender already?'

'They don't have reason. They came to our planet with the intent of conquer us, that was clear after they attacked without any warning or attempt of peaceful contact so they might fear that we will do them whatever they wanted to do to us.'

'Slave them?'

Leonid thought for a moment while driving, it wasn't too demanding given the slowness of the retreating army. He knew that the sergeant hated slavers and even went to great lengths to be personally involved in the punishment of any captured slaver and even if he wanted to tell her right now to don't make any judgment the true is that he couldn't. How could he? For all he knew that is exactly what those aliens wanted or they could just want to eat them or exterminate them and take the planet for them.

'Probably exterminate us, take earth as a new addition for their real estate.'

'We probably should do the same to them, tit for that.'

'Even if they wanted to slave us?'

Leonid saw the sergeant slightly squirm in her seat. That was a low verbal jab and while he didn't have the intention to offend her, he didn't like a bit the bloodlust she had a times.

'No, Lieutenant, but that is up to the higher ups to decide, but at the very least we should make it very clear that we won't tolerate aggressions against us.'

'Ha, if left to the higher up, we might end being the ones taking their planet, after all ours is too far gone.'

Both laughed even if they knew, in the deepest reach of their minds that it was a golden opportunity if the higher ups were them to order to capture the elves' planet and others planets they have access, something blatantly obvious given the enormous variety of sapient or quasi sapient species with them.

The radio crackled. 'All the forces engaging the alien army hold your positions, there will be an airstrike to try to take them off.'

'You heard the colonel.'

Lieutenant Lebedev and Sergeant Abramova stopped just like all the armored units following them and some even drove backwards as the bomb fell and then they saw it. Instead of angelic plumes of white smoke a tar like substance in flames spread over the enemy shield in burning waves and as it slowed down it began to slowly drop inside it, first some large drops here and there and then like a fountain.

Both sat impassible, only witnessing the burning and sudden collapse of the majority of the shields still over the enemy yet they didn't receive orders to move in, both knew that they were bound to be sent there once the flames disappeared.

'You know what lieutenant?'

'What?

'I'm happy to don't be in the NBC teams.'

Leonid only snorted at the comment of his sergeant. Then the radio crackled to live.

'Surround whatever is left of that army and keep them from running.'

'You heard the colonel lieutenant, lest move.'

Elven retreating army.

Strategos Aera was in a world of pain, his clothes were burning and could do nothing but roll in the ground to try to stop the flames from ravaging his body.

He could see some of the magicians conjuring water and ice and try to keep themselves from being consume by the flames but that didn't work, whatever this viscous material was couldn't be suffocate with water, it just keep burning and burning like the damnable white power.

In his pained state the only thing he could do was to warn Chaesalor and hope for him to keep these apes from crossing the portal.

'Telepath, send a warning to Chaesalor of what happened to us.'

He didn't hear the telepath to acknowledge the order, he too was rolling in the floor, just a scream resembling a "done".

The last thing Aera saw before losing the knowledge were those metal chariots of the apes surrounding his burning army.

Fifteenth day of the seventh month, year 110560of the imperial calendar (January 12th 2153).

Enterprise CIC, 30 km out of the coast of the Antarctic coast, near the Zeta site.

Admiral McElroy was looking at his watch, the marine complement of his strike group was already on their way and Paschal has just informed of the takeoff of the heavy bombers.

The plan was simple, given the success of the "experiment" 3 days ago against the retreating army that Yang and Federov's marines were chasing, they have just captured 5,000 enemies in total. Most wouldn't survive as consequence of their horrendous burns and their complete alien biology.

Apparently, the preliminary analysis performed by the NBC teams in the bodies fail to even register the genetic material in the bodies of the majority of the species, hell, their medics could only determine that some were technically alive with visual inspections and one of the latest reports indicate that they can't even cultivate any kind of microorganism from them in simple grown mediums. Malikov wasn't a biologist but he knew enough to know that those beings should have microorganism in their bodies, thus something should grow if they were capable of feeding on earth's life.

But even if that preliminary test brought some hope that there won't be a biological apocalypse, it would still be a couple weeks before the quarantined troops could be allowed to left the quarantined area. Better safe than sorry.

'Admiral, General Paschal informs that the bombers are in position.'

'Thanks Captain.'

He was looking at the screen showing the landing of his marine complement 2 km at the south of the site Zeta close enough to the shield for their plan.

It was a shame, McElroy wished the shelling would have provided lasting results, they had managed to poop a section of their shields after several hours of shelling. It only highlighted the necessity to find an alternative to bypass those shields but at last, they have taken out the majority of dragons while on they were on the ground and the troops outside the structure after their ships have taken out that section.

But the rest of the enemy was entrenched in the structure and they couldn't just shell it and destroy it and that is where his marines came in.

Based on the experience gained in the combat in Palmer Island his marines would try to just walk through the shield. It worked for the enemy beasts and given how the slow moving smoke of the white phosphorous and the napalm dropping like water through the shield as if they were a leaky roof there was the theory that any enough slow moving object could cross the shield from the outside.

'Colonel Russo you are free to proceed with the operation.'

'Yes, admiral.'

In the screen the admiral saw how the tanks and other armored vehicles advanced to the point where the border of the shield was. This was the moment of truth, driving as slowly as they could he could see the vehicles approaching more and more and then, they were in!

Cheers were heard in the CIC and then the voice of the colonel over the coms.

'We are in Admiral.'

'Engage and colonel, try to keep the structure as intact as possible.'

It appeared they could avoid to completely burn the structure, as long as his marines weren't repealed.

0.5 km south of Zeta site.

Lieutenant Carla Sanchez worried for her platoon and she had several reasons to be.

They were equipped with the armored exoskeleton XBM-15, a descendant of the ancient Ratnik and TALOS systems, allowing them to carry almost 400kg, half of which was the 15mm compound armor, for 6 hours, that time limit made the exoskeleton unsuitable for protracted battles but perfect for assaults on heavily armed and entrenched enemies, like what they were about to do.

But what was especially unusual was their combat load. On top of the rifle version of the LAMG, the standard weapon for the exoskeleton troops, they were equipped with QLZ-87 grenade launchers and some 6p62 .50 anti-materiel assault rifles. Ancient designs, barely portable for troops without exoskeleton.

In the practice landing marine regiments almost never were deployed with such loads and exoskeletons unless they were expecting to face a very dangerous and armored resistance or the brass needed to swiftly crush the opposition.

That alone told to Lieutenant Sanchez what kind of resistance the higher ups were expecting from these aliens. The rumors from the force that engaged the enemy main force in Palmer Island were that some of the largest monsters were quite resistant and even the 7.62mm machine guns weren't enough to kill some of the larger monsters.

So yes, Carla was worried about what was going to happen once they engaged these aliens. The brass obviously sent them with weapons that would be overkill against most human enemies and even if most of the enemy has already been killed outside the compound they didn't know how these things would fight in close combat against infantry.

The thoughts of facing what was essentially the unknown muted the uncomfortable feeling of being in the cramped interior of the IFV with everybody wearing their exoskeletons, leaving only the feeling of an icy ball of dread in her guts for the time being.

What snapped her from those dark thoughts was the sound of the tanks cannons and the auto cannon of their own IFV firing upon the enemy structure. It was time to deploy.

'Were are about to deploy guys and gals, and don't take your chances, the weapons of these guys are not joke even if they look like museum pieces.'

A few moments more and the hatch opened.

'GO, GO, GO.'

As her marines exit she saw some pink crystals impacting the armor of the tanks behind her, some shattered like cheap glass and some managed to stay nailed in the armor.

She ignored that and while taking cover she finally took a look to the structure they were assaulting with her own eyes.

It looked like those ancient citadels, with high crenellated walls but instead of stone these were made using some sort of greenish-purple metallic material, those walls presented large doors, similar to hangars doors bur considerable smaller. A strange sight, the blend of ancient and modern design styles.

From those crenellated walls is from where most of the fire they were taking was coming.

Carla aimed and fired at the crenellations where she saw figures moving and opened fire upon them. At the same time the crenellations in other parts were in process of being blowing up by the tanks, leaving only twisted and deformed metal in its place, in others there were big holes, the result of auto cannon impacts.

She heard the voice of her sergeant, Sergeant Angelo Roy.

'Lieutenant, we are sitting ducks, just how does command expect us to break in with those doors closed?'

'We are going to provide cover fire to the sappers, the higher ups doesn't want for the place to get too wrecked.'

'Damn.'

For the next minutes they could only keep their cover, raking the top of the walls where the damn elves and other things dared to fire. Just how could their muskets-like weapons fire so quickly?

She was already hating this operation, the mortars were useless under that damned shield as they exploded against the ceiling of the shield even with the smallest charge trying to hit the troops on top the crenellation, that left them only with direct fire weapons until they could take out whatever or whomever were powering those shields.

The front of their IFV was starting to look like a pincushion with all those damned pink crystals, fortunately the closest door blew up failing with a loud thud.

'That is our ticket in, run, run'

Her platoon and more marines ran last 200 meters to the base of the wall while the vehicles keep the top of the walls under fire for them to cover the short the distance left to the base of the wall, something they did in under 10 seconds thanks to their exoskeletons.

Lieutenant Gutierrez sighed, fortunately nobody in her platoon has been directly shoot with those pink crystals yet.

Once right in the base of the wall she prepared her platoon next to the fallen door in order to begin the direst and more critical part of the operation, the actual storming of the structure.

More explosions and the sound of more doors failing were hear.

'Flash bang.'

Some flash bangs were rolled into the door with the hope of disorienting the enemies immediately behind it.

Carla and her marines poured in she saw what appeared to be a large road, straight with several buildings at each side beyond the wall and at the distance what appeared to be a control tower like those in airports and the enormous Arch next to it.

And everything was swarming with enemies.

'Fire at will!'

What followed was a grueling urban combat. She and her platoon moved from coverture in coverture, killing hundreds of the monsters. Most were easy, armed with little more than bladed weapons and were mowed down easily, others like the crabmen and wolfmen resisted the 7.62 rounds of their LAMG and in the case of the crabmen even needed to be put down with the 6p62 for good.

Those enemies were complicated due their biology but others were due their gear, armed with those strange looking rifles firing the pink crystals, those were the greatest threat even if their overall tactics were lacking.

There were two creatures that Carla could see with those rifles, the first were the least skilled. Hulking green monsters, walking in a hunched posture. They didn't took cover, just standing in the open while firing their weapons with almost none accuracy.

The second group, and the ones that actually were problematic were the elves. They took cover and actually aimed their shoots quite well, the pair of pink crystals nailed her chest plate were proof enough of the superior training of those creatures.

But just like the rest of creatures they were took out. Their quite artistic and colorful uniforms providing none protection against human weapons and while some have used some strange metallic wagons as makeshift pillboxes, they were easily taken down by the grenadiers.

As the mopping up continued she could feel the crystals poking her skin, the exoskeleton armor managed to stop it, but if those things could almost punch trough armor supposed to stop 7.62 rounds, she was more than happy that they have been sent with the exoskeletons instead of normal body armor.

'Sargent report.'

In her earpiece she heard the voice of Sergeant Roy.

'Some of those bastards wolfman attacked us with swords while checking something that look like showers in what seems to be a mess hall. One of the bastards broke his sword on the shoulder pad of Wright, bending it before we took it down. These guys are strong I tell you, like damn bears or something.'

'Is Wright Ok?'

'His shoulder is bruised but nothing broke luckily.'

'Ok, continue with the cleanup.'

Carla stared far into the distance, towards the arch, there were streaks of light, auto cannon fire carefully aimed to avoid damaging the buildings but taking whole lines of enemies, blowing them like water balloons, paining the streets of multicolor gore.

As the advance continued her and her platoon reached a third of the distance to the arch, their final objective and where the enemy was evacuating, returning to whatever place they came from. Her platoon have stopped to be resupplied by one of the small BigDogs quadruped logistic drones, always a blessing for the frontline troops in need of more ammunition

'Lieutenant we have found something that you need to see.'

It was the fireteam she had sent to explore what could be considered the no man's zone between them and the fleeing enemy army. Her men took them to one of the side streets, just 20 meters further of the edge of their advance and pointed to a semi concealed figure.

There, between two weird looking crates was standing a strange robbed figure, an elf for the looks, a glowing staff in its left hand, emitting a faint golden light and its right hand inside one of the crates, more of that golden light was seen where its hand was inside the crate.

'What do you think sergeant? One of those wizards that were reported by the forces in the Island?'

'It beats me Lieutenant, but what else could it be?'

'I don't know, but if it is one of those wizards it might have shields like the dragons.'

'If we surprise him we might take him out before he can raise his shields.'

'Too risky sergeant, I don't want to get a fireball at the face.'

'Then a flashbang? They have worked out quite well so far with all the freaks we have fought so far.'

Lieutenant Gutierrez thought for a moment, the plan of the sergeant was their best shot to don't get burned or whatever else these wizards could do.

'Ok, throw the flashbang and we will jump on top of him.'

'Capture him? Why?'

'He is the first one of those wizards we have seen alive and that makes him a HVT, we have orders to at least attempt to capture some HVT, anyway, if he proves to be too dangerous kill him.'

'Yes, sir.'

After the flash bang detonated three things happened. The first one was that two members of her platoon jumped and were on top of the wizard barely seconds after the detonation, pinning down the creature with a sick crack with the excess strength provided by the exoskeleton.

The second was a surge of light from the wizard's staff that signaled the collapse of one small section of the shield right over them.

And the final thing were some monsters bursting out of the closest doors, some lizard men which were taken out by the rest of the platoon.

'Well, Sergeant contact command and inform them that we have one of those wizards.'

Lieutenant Gutierrez saw some members of her platoon tying up the elf. "It" looked way too similar to humans but something was wrong, like uncanny valley wrong. It had 6 fingers instead of 5, its eyes sclera was ligth blue instead of white, its ears were pointed and thin and its skin, the color was off, similar to that of a recently deceased corpse.

But for Lieutenant Gutierrez the most unsettling thing was its gaze, it has an insectoid feel in it, the way this thing look back at her feel wrong in so many levels that creped her deeply far more than the bodies of its fellow elves or even the other monsters.

'Take this thing out of my sight and get its staff too.'

Her men dragged the gagged creature back to the vehicles that were following them in their advance.

And now that she was far from that thing she needed to rest a little, she and her platoon to keep pushing into the compound and the arch.