Hey everyone and welcome back to Xcom: Human Incursion! Sorry for the late update as some things were going on as well as me being busy. Plus writer's block. Writer's block doesn't help. Last time, The Alliance was forced to retreat from Eden Prime, all but leaving the ground forces on the planet to die. Optimistic isn't it? But without further ado, the chapter. Thank you. *bows*
Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered
Automatic weapons.
― Douglas MacArthur
2109 July 11th 11:16 AM Earth Time
12:00 PM Eden Prime Time
Species Alliance colony, Eden Prime, Colony capital city, Eden's Garden, city plaza
"They're all over us!" Someone screamed as Triple A exploded above the plaza. Nickolas peeked over the edge of the now crumbling road block to be greeted by multiple shooters firing at him, aiming for his head. He quickly ducked back behind cover and waited a few moments before peeking out again, loosing a few shots before having to duck and into cover again.
"Damnit, last mag!" Nickolas cursed, reloading his gun. The battle had been insane, the garrison's original plan after loosing the city plaza was to hold the perimeter and slowly fall back, first from the outer industrial centers, then to the inner residential sectors, than to the city proper, and finally to downtown which had been made into a proverbial fortress, all to buy as much time for reinforcements as possible. And it worked for the most part.
Most of the city had been evacuated either into the countryside or into readymade fallout bunkers made just for this eventuality. Many had fled to stay with relatives outside the city where the fighting would be less intense and to continue the partisan war in the wilds. However, the aliens had been pushing them hard, and they had fallen back to their third defensive line, any farther and they would start losing civilian bunkers and houses. And with it, civilian lives... There was no telling how these ETs would react to civilians.
"Fall back!" A soldier called, shooting off a suppressive burst with a plasma rifle before he started making the dash for better cover farther back. The soldier passed Nickolas, desperately dodging several Mass Effect pellets in the process. The soldier obviously wasn't good enough as a bullet clipped his MK IV Titan Armor, ricocheting off his armor. The alien's weapons were next to garbage when compared to their armor, but the aliens had enough fire going downrange that even gabage ME weapons could get lucky.
The aliens had their aim in, and a hail of dozens of pellets pelted the poor soldier, with a snapping "PLINK!", the soldier yelled out as he fell a few feet in front of Nickola, dropping his gun and gripping reflexively onto his bleeding leg, a useless gesture considering his armor' automated medical processes already clamped down for him. Nickolas cursed as another volley of pellets flew past his head, slowly whittling away his cover to the nub. Crawling towards the soldier, he continued to clutch the leg wound, cursing in several languages as he fumbled for his medical dispenser, a small cylinder on his hip. Nickola began to drag the nearly half a ton soldier back into cover, his suit's super strength allowing him to pull it off.
The soldier, no longer worrying about being shot, he started to regain control of his breathing as his suit began automated medical procedures, taking the medical dispenser he handed it to Nikolas, spraying the wound shut, and taking a small patch of armor metal and ripping the adhesive strip from it, he covered the bullet hole in his suit to retain his comrade's airtight combat environment in his suit.
A loud explosion brought Nickolas back to the fight as a chunk of the roadblock was blown away. Activating his low light vision, he made out what looked like an ET with an RPG. 'That's not good.' Nickolas thought as he put the half empty medkit back in the soldier's utility belt, and slung the wounded soldier on his shoulders in a fireman's carry. Grunting even with his armor's enhanced strength, he yelled over the radio,"Cover me! Falling back!" When the gunfire picked up on his side he hefted up the soldier and started to run out to a side alley to the fallback point to drop off his comrade.
2109 July 11th 11:16 AM Earth Time
12:00 PM Eden Prime Time
Xcom X dreadnought, SAV Confido In concealed orbit ofSpecies Alliance Colony, Florida Puro, Species Alliance Space
Admiral Winchell Gaillard took another sip of his coffee, an increasing necessity as massive amounts of paperwork began to pile up on his specially made redwood desk. He put his coffee aside and scowled at the new message he had received from High Command. Winchell sighed as he opened the new piece of mail, begging to read it.
Urgent: Read at Once
CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET INFORMATION
SPECIES ALLIANCE OFFICIALS EYES ONLY
/
/
/
RE: Invasion
To: Admiral Winchell Gaillard of the Species Alliance XCom 1st Naval force.
From: The Office of President Soule
Admiral Gaillard, as you are aware the enemy forces have pushed us back from Eden Prime's orbit and the remnants of the defensive fleet has fallen back to Shanxi. This was unexpected, however the situation is not lost. From what we can determine, the enemy has launched a full on ground assault on the fortified city of Eden's Garden. From their force deployment we have come to the conclusion that the enemy will be receiving no reinforcements in the near future. The reasons for this is unknown, and is being investigated, but in the meantime we have tasked your naval group with eliminating the enemy's fleet assets in the system and counter attacking the enemy.
Primary mission: Removal of hostile alien from Species Alliance Territory
Available Assets: All of the Species Alliance's non defensive oriented forces are at your disposal for this attack.
Primary Objective: Relieve the Eden Prime colony
Secondary Objectives:
1: Counter attack alien supply and communication nodes
2: Capture an intact alien main computer on one of their ships, specifically star charts, military information, and enemy capabilities.
3: Eliminate any "Cerberus" Forces that are hiding in your command, or in other SA aligned forces. You may use any means necessary.
That is all. End Message.
Signed, Species Alliance Space Naval Command
/
/
/
Winchell looked over the document again just in case he missed anything, "Well shit." Winchell muttered, opening up a neural link to all ships.
"The President and his Cabinet has of this time, authorized a full liberation of the besieged Eden Prime. I have been given authorization to commandeer any forces I deem necessary to accomplish our objective. But I know, that our vessels are enough, we will strike like a spear into the heart of the enemy formation, destroy them, and then counter attack with the full force of the Species Alliance. Vigilo Confido. That is all."
Looking to his bridge staff they waited expectantly for his orders, "I expect us to relieve the colony yesterday. Full speed towards Eden Prime, Crescent sphere formation, and get the fighter bays hot for deployment."
2109 July 11th 11:18 AM Earth Time
12:01 PM Eden Prime Time
Spirits' Dance recovering from battle with Species Alliance above Species Alliance colony, Eden Prime
Ganus' mandibles flexed in satisfaction. The planet's largest city was almost entirely under control, the last remains of resistance holding out in heavily fortified positions in the southern part of the city in what had to be downtown. The invasion force in the city had taken near catastrophic casualties despite the conservative advance. It was only through the ever growing sphere of control that Ganus was exerting that he was getting enough soldier to even hope to take the city for a few days.
Deep inside Ganus, a struggle over control of his own body was taking place, between the entity and Ganus' himself. It was fairly one sided with Ganus desperately trying to regain his own body. The being had just quelled Ganus' mind again when several panicking voices started shouting over the comms.
"Detecting spatial anomalies!" His sensors reported
"Where did they-" The captain of the Prefectus said before his line died with his ship.
"They're firing!" His weapons control officer reported as suddenly a large fleet of 100 warships came out of nowhere, and immediately fired, starting to destroy his fleet.
"Evade, evade, evade!-" A captain uselessly panicked as he and his crew were vaporized.
Ganus hissed. This is what Ganus feared, that reinforcements were imminent and fast approaching.
"Bring up a visual." Ganus hissed. The vid screen soon filled up with the reinforcing fleet. From the estimates he was receiving, most of the ships there were 2.5 kilometer ships paired with a few 1 kilometer ships who were currently releasing mass amounts of fighters. All of the ships however sported the same cursed marking, the upside down hexagon, an ominous black X in the middle with the words Vigilo Confido carved above it.
"Swing the fleet around to face the ETs, launch all fighters and focus fire on the three kilometer ships." The surprise attack, alongside the crippling opening volley had reduced his fleet. He had only 50 ships in his fleet, now more than half had been destroyed, the rest of his ships spared thanks to pure distance from the main body of the fleet. Estimates were that at least a few hundred thousand fighters had been released. He didn't have the ships to fight this off, and the loss of his fleet would be pointless.
"Yes sir." The comms officer said, relaying the message to the other Turian ships. Ganus didn't like this; they hadn't found the chosen one yet. If the chosen one wasn't found… that would have drastic implications.
Implications Ganus didn't like to think about.
2109 July 11th 11:20 AM Earth Time
12:01 PM Eden Prime Time
Species Alliance colony, Eden Prime, Colony Capital city, Eden's Garden, Southern outskirts
Johnas Shepard slammed his back against the makeshift barricade, gripping his laser rifle, sweating under his air conditioned Titan Armor. Johnas attempted to take a quick glance out of cover but was forced to rethink that as a hail of mass effect pellets flew past his head, close enough to touch. Soldiers all around Johnas valiantly tried to shoot back at the invading force but morale had gone to hell and the the number of men left was low. Many had received injuries that while not life threatening, had foreclosed them from being on the frontlines.
A scream was heard overhead was a MK DEATH-bringer flew low overhead, releasing a volley of plasma into the enemy's rear ranks. Several aliens tried to shoot the DEATH-bringer down in vain, barely making a scratch. While the MK DEATH-bringers were one of the only reasons the Alliance forces had held out for so long, their numbers were rapidly dwindling due to fuel and ammo concerns. A relative handful had been lost to enemy action, but the loss of mountains of ammo and lakes of fuel to the enemy's advance meant they only had to make use of what the city had.
The aliens retreated back in a professional manner, falling back by squad, never devolving to a full on rout as they sprinted to where their dropships were parked in the next plaza over. One thing that had to be given to them was that they didn't break easy.
While a few pellets wouldn't take down a fully armored soldier, the sheer mass of firepower they could output was a concern. Zudjari engineers kept close behind the reinforcing soldiers to repair various equipment and cover, even laying down a few minefields and miniature turrets. Johnas checked his ammunition and clicked in a new magazine for his laser rifle, plugging the spent battery into his suit's recharger.
"They're back!" A soldier shouted from his crow's nest. The medics and engineers immediately packed up what they were doing and got the hell back. Johnas gripped his rifle and crouched to look over the barricade, aiming his rifle down the broken street. This time though, the ETs were playing their trump card. Five light tanks rolled around the bend in the street, all but obliterating the miniature turrets with only a few burn marks to show for it. This time though, no DEATH-bringers came to the soldiers' rescue. Thankfully, being light tanks, enough fire would wreck the vehicles, whose over reliance on shields meant they were vulnerable to laser fire.
Johnas fired a few shots at the oncoming tanks, causing a few severe bubbling marks as the armor was evaporated, but it would require an entire squad's concentrated fire to bring one down fully. Diving back into cover as a tank shell shot past his position. Suddenly, a tank burst into flames as it hovered over a mine, causing a small cheer among the soldiers of the Species Alliance to erupt. The cheer soon died as the remaining tanks simultaneously fired, completely obliterating most of the defenses with explosive shells. Through the night, the tanks rolled through the defensive line, literally rolling over any opposition.
"Hold you ground-agh!"
"The line has been overrun!"
"RETREAT!"
A/N: Now wasn't that exciting? Big thanks to my new Beta Reader, Timedraven117. If it wasn't for him, this chapter wouldn't be nearly as good and clean looking as it is! Just to note, I decided to just go ahead and change so that the Species Alliance opened fire upon the Cerberus ship. It really wasn't worth fighting you guys over. Note that i still very much need some cover art, the current one just… it doesn't really fit this story. Anyway, onto the reviews! Another thing, for some reason when I published the last chapter, it uploaded the first contact one. Sorry for all that were confused by that.
Guest- Noted.
OMACOO1- Is it the Uber Ethereal? Who knows? Besides of course me… ;)
F13D-
1: Yeah, I changed that so the Alliance opened up on the Cerberus ship.
2: In situations like this, the dialogue is somewhat realistic although yes, to some degree, it could be greatly improved.
3: Nailing boards can help in certain situations, it could stop a mass effect round in certain situations and if you're lucky. The boards fortify the building to some degree at the very least.
4: The sky is green and red because of the AA guns shouting off plasma and laser at the incoming dropships.
The communist creeper- Ja! And I just got a beta reader so that's fine. Thanks though.
5 coloured walker- As always, thank you for picking out those mistakes for me :)
AndreyKI- It all fits the plot, don't worry.
Alex- Thanks!
-Codex-
Xcom X Dreadnought- The X Dreadnought, measuring at an astounding (for citadel standard) 2.5 kilometers in length, 500 meters wide and 500 meters high. Rivaled only in length by the commissioned Mothership class ship, that first landed on Terra Nova (3 kilometers long, 2 kilometers wide and 500 meters high). The X dreadnought is exclusive to Xcom, the trump card, and last line of defense of the Species Alliance. The X Dreadnought combines the destructive power of Zudjari, Ethereal, and Volm laser tech, alongside the incredible Ethereal Plasma weaponry, making them the most powerful ship in the entire Species Alliance armada. The ship's twin laser cannons are located on the sides of the hull, designed and camouflaged to be hard to spot. A new addition to the X dreadnought is it's stealth systems which hide its heat emissions, protecting the ship from enemy radar. It can only use them however when the ship itself is not firing, for it would overheat the main frame.