My first wave of units immediately opened fire on the alien force, practically disintegrating an escort vessel, which wasn't really a loss for me. I mean, yeah, I lost the tech within the ship, as well as any chance of examining the crew, but I already had one back on Chiron to, in the words of Mark Watney, 'Science the shit out of'. Besides, the escort was a bigger threat than the bombers, destroyers and assault ships, as while they did more damage, they weren't likely to hit my fast units unless the escorts' stasis guns locked my troops in place.
The shock of my first attack quickly wore off, though, as the ships began to scatter and return fire, attempting to obliterate my forces with massed fire. I could on smirk at this as their attacks were stopped in mid air by my troops: since most of the weapons on the ships I was facing consisted of bombs or missiles, I simply blasted the projectiles out of the sky. I did have to dodge the disruptor beams, though; I couldn't defend against those yet.
I launched a second barrage of attacks on the aliens, downing another escort. I swiftly moved to mob it with my forces, eager to eliminate any resistance I encountered. A Megaspawn emerged from the wreck, ready to destroy my forces, only to be fried by a squadron of Icarus drones. I swiftly moved in a few fabbers to build restraints for it, while my commander began building a containment facility within my territory. Examining a living weapons platform might give me insight into making better tanks and bots.
Around this time, the second wave of forces from Chiron arrived. Tacjets of all sorts began to open fire on my enemies, managing to down a bomber on their own. A destroyer attempted to return fire, only to be reduced to what could best be described as barbecued mushrooms (since they were, essentially, mushrooms). The aliens that survived the crash soon found themselves being swarmed by robots, humans in battlesuits, and packs of very hungry wildlife from Chiron. The results were...messy.
It was around this time that XCOM's native aircraft finally made themselves known by levelling an Assault Ship. The ship exploded on impact with the ground, making it pretty obvious that there were no survivors from the crash. Still, I sent in a few bots to make sure that was the case.
Idly, I wondered just how well the battle was going. I mean, the aliens had lost more than a fourth of their assault force (which I noted was larger than any force you would face in a normal game of Apocalypse), but so far, I hadn't taken any losses, and according to the communications I was listening in on, neither were my allies. Civilian losses were something I couldn't keep track of, so I wasn't counting them for now.
So, this was what a curb-stomp really felt like...
Eh, I'd get used to it.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
On the other side of the city, Alexis peered through her binoculars to watch the unfolding battle. The new arrivals were laying waste to the aliens, utterly devastating the mushroom shaped ships with their machines. Occasionally, she could also make out regular soldiers fighting side by side with the machines, along with the occasional giant bug.
Life had been hard since the aliens came. It wasn't uncommon to find a section of road fine one day only to be filled with craters the next. Occasionally, a city block might find itself without power, or a food shortage would occur. Then there were the aliens. You never knew when they would come, but when they did, things got bad. She'd seen people end up on the wrong end of their weapons, and it was messy. She still had nightmares of seeing someone for Diablo be at ground zero when one of those fat, two legged aliens exploded.
Oh god, that was so...so...
As if that wasn't bad enough, this crazy cult had shown up, claiming the aliens to be our saviors and that resisting them was wrong. This, while people were being melted by acid, sometimes right in front of the cultists. Worse still, sometimes the cult took part in the aliens' attacks, helping them take over buildings and try to sway corporations to their side. She'd heard the rumors that Transtellar was working with the aliens, but she doubted that - at least, for now.
True, people had fought back against the aliens. Strange soldiers with Xs on their armors attacked the aliens, and they often won, as did Megapol, but to Alexis, this seemed to be a losing battle. Even if the strange new soldiers were attacking the aliens on their home field, something she'd heard her classmates talk about, time seemed to be running out, and it was only a matter of time before the aliens won.
Now, though? Not so much. Whoever had come from those portals clearly had no love for these aliens and was quite keen on fighting them. Out of the two dozen ships in the sky, she'd already seen half of them destroyed or disabled.
Whoever the new arrivals were, Alexis would have to thank them. Maybe, just maybe, mankind could now win this war.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Tobias ducked into an alley as a stream of disruptor fire whizzed past him, barely a meter from his face. It was followed by whooshing sound, followed by a gurgle and thump as something hit the ground. Daring to put himself in danger to see what had happened, he found himself staring at the freshly made corpse of a skeletal creature. He stared for a moment, before quickly returning to the sheltered alley; now was not the time to be taking risks. Let the soldiers and aliens fight it out, and move only when they had moved on.
Tobias was not a stranger to hardship - his father had been injured during a protest against the A.R.C. that had gone violent (despite the best efforts of the A.R.C. manager there, who apparently did care about his workers, unlike most business executives these days) and been stuck in the hospital for a few weeks. Shortly after that, his mom was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo surgery. Combined with his dad still recovering from having his spine cracked during the protest, and Tobias had been forced to take up the role of breadwinner for his family. His grades had taken a hit, but assuming he kept them where they were right now, he could still graduate high school with A's and B's.
Then the aliens had shown up.
Life had gotten steadily worse after the appeared. The hospital his mother was in had been invaded by the aliens, and while the had been dealt with, it had meant that her treatments had been delayed.
He still held on to the belief that she could recover (which, granted, was fairly likely), but it wasn't exactly easy to hold onto that optimism. Gang wars had become all to common, criminals exploiting the chaos to expand their territory and make power plays, and while the police were able to fight back (especially since some third party had decided to oppose the aliens), it was an uphill battle. The cult attacks hadn't helped either.
Tobias had seen people killed by the aliens, including a few acquaintances. Yet while he wanted to make them pay, the rational part of his mind always discouraged him from trying to fight them: he wasn't likely to win, and if he died, no one would be around to care for his sisters and parents. He did not want the gangs to take advantage of his sisters, especially considering how both of them were less than ten years old. It was for this reason that he never usually went near UFOs and avoided the aliens when possible. If he stumbled across their tools by accident, though, he wasn't above stealing them; the strange soldiers paid well for some of them.
Only when he heard the sounds of footsteps passing by did Tobias dare to peer out again. He saw soldiers charging onwards, clearly looking for more aliens to fight. Sensing that it was safe to move, Tobias broke from his cover.
He barely had time to walk before a long, sinuous form slammed into him. Quickly recovering, Tobias turned to face his assailant and want pail: it was a giant worm with sharp teeth. He'd heard people call them multiworms, because if you killed them, smaller worms would emerge from their corpses. Panicking, Tobias looked for a way to escape, but found one. Desperation beginning to overtake him, he pulled out a pocketknife he kept in case of emergencies, though he knew it was a futile gesture. Incensed, the worm charged.
A huge shape barreled into the worm, batting it aside and sparing Tobias from becoming its next victim. Slightly shocked, it took him a moment to notice his savior, which appeared to be some kind robot. It had a huge body, with arms ending in drills as opposed to hands. It seemed to roar at the multiworm, daring the beast to attack it.
The worm obliged, only to be batted aside, then head-butt by the machine, knocking it out cold. Then, the machine turned its attention toward Tobias, who froze up. Slowly, the machine approached him, the teen too scared to retreat. When it was practically right next to him, it stopped and looked at his head. Dimly, Toby, as his friends called him, realized he a cut on his head.
Suddenly, a sewer lid burst into the air as another multiworm emerged from beneath the road and latched onto the machine, which flailed around for a moment, trying to remove its assailant. All for naught: the robot lacked hands, preventing it grabbing the worm.
Yet the robot was not out of tricks: when it realized it could not grip its foe, it charged forward and curled into a ball, timing it so that its 'head', and the multiworm biting it, hit the ground first. The multiworm was forced to let go as its jaw was crushed, leaving it stuck on the ground, bleeding profusely. Before it could move, another brought appeared, this one wielding a sword that seemed to be on fire. In a moment, it had plunged the blade into the worm, setting it alight.
So transfixed was he on the sight of the burning worm that Toby didn't notice the giant robot approaching him until it was right next to him. Surprised, he turned toward the bot, fighting not to fall. He was surprised to see it holding out its left arm, pointing to the East.
Then, it spoke.
"Go. There is a field hospital that way. Report there to get your wounds treated." All of that was said in a deep, sonorous, metallic voice.
Nodding, Tobias headed East. It was probably a good idea to listen to the robot that had saved his life.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Levine-01 watched the boy run toward the filed hospital, before turning its attention to back to the battle.
It knew that almost all of the alien vessels had been disabled, and the battle against them was going well. That left two priorities: mop up alien survivors, or rescue human ones.
It had been unsure, at first, which to choose. Defeating the enemy was a goal of greater tactical importance, but saving an innocents caught in the crossfire was of greater strategic importance. Hearts and minds were not so easily won as battles were, and only through public acts of good will could they be secured, but all the same, rescuing innocents was a moot point if they would be throw into the fray again.
Now, though, its mind was settled: rescuing civilians came first. Many had been injured in the fighting, though no fatalities had been reported, which was good. Some might even say that the news made the robot happy.
It wouldn't be able to explain why it felt happy, for the concept was alien to it, but, all the same, 01 felt some happiness in saving one citizen. Now it was going to see what it felt like when it saved more than one.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!