Alright, time for the final check for the coming battle.
Fleets ready? Check.
Organic forces ready? Check.
Special assistance from XCOM ready for usage? Check.
Looks like everything is ready to.
Well then, I believe it's time to show these Marauders what happens when you mess with a Commander.
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The battle began when a group of Artemi pulled out of FTL and fired on the Marauder's fleet, taking out ten ships in an instant. Following that, I sent in waves of fighters to begin harassing the rest of their fleet, while more ships began to drop out of FTL all over the system and engage other elements of the Marauder forces. I was not going to give them any chances to turn this around, even if those chances were already very slim.
As my forces began to overwhelm the Marauder fleets, I noticed that several more fleets that IFF identified as belonging to my enemies were approaching the system. Additionally, some seemed to be unmanned. Looks like they were going to use starship sized FTL missiles on me. Fortunately, I'd already planned for that: with their fleets still a few minutes out, I hastily assembled mine fields in the area of their predicted arrivals. When the ship finally entered the system, I merely had to sit back and watch the fireworks as the mines turned the ships into a whole lot of rubble. I sent in transports to pick up the survivors - I wasn't going to leave them to die.
All the while, my forces slowly whittled down their home guard forces until I held a colossal numerical advantage over them. Prisoners of war were being taken by the thousands, because a lot of the ships I was fighting ended up crippled, not destroyed - I'd added EMP cannons to my ships to allow for non-lethal takedowns. As for the rest, well, I won't lie, I did feel bad about killing all of these people, but a point needed to be made - you couldn't harm people who were weaker than you and get away with it. I knew I was being rather hypocritical in that regard, but right now, making the point was more important.
Occasionally, the enemy forces began to try making in system FTL jumps in an effort to take out some of my forces with suicide attacks. I simply countered this by using my superior hacking skills to shut down their engines, hacked their transmissions so that I knew where the jumps would go and moved my forces out of the way, and in some cases outright destroyed the engines of the enemy vessels so that making an FTL jump was not an option.
Soon, the enemy fleet was in ruins, aside from a few stragglers, which were mercilessly being hunted down and captured, leaving me to focus on the invasion of the Marauder Home World (also know as Cephei 37, for those who cared). The first part of the was disabling the orbital satellite network, which was accomplished by using nanites swarms to eat the satellites with military applications. These would burn up when they fell into the atmosphere, and if they survived, well, they'd be useless to my enemy.
Once the satellites were down, I sent in my organic forces to initiate the actual invasion. Time to make them pay.
As the first of my organic creations head to the planet's surface, I turn my attention to a large pod in my flagship. Within it gestates my final gift from XCOM. I stare at it for a moment, then turn my attention to a machine whose designs came with the genome for this parting gift. It's a cybernetic implant, and I'll need to add it to my main body before I can use my currently gestating ace in the hole to its full potential.
Well, here goes everything.
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Landing creature shakes as it goes through atmosphere. Warrior does not mind, all warrior cares about is getting to fight. At first, it hears nothing - no atmosphere means no sound. Soon, though, sounds began to appear. They're muffled, distant, but then they get louder and clearer. They're explosions, the sound of shells detonating in the sky. Creator's thoughts call them flak guns. Meant to shoot flying things out of the sky. Occasionally a weird squishing noise joins the chorus of explosions in the sky. The squishing sound signifies the death of a landing creature, along with all of the beasts within it. Many will occur before the first wave hits the ground. It doesn't matter - the first wave has too many landing beasts in it for all of them to die. Some will reach the planet's surface, establish a beachhead, and begin defeating the enemy.
The gradual slowing of its descent is accompanied by a sense of loneliness - the creator's mind is no longer connected to the warrior. It is outside the Master's range. Now, it must act on its own. It knows what it must do: strange buildings on planet block Master's control over machines. Warrior and its kin must break towers, defeat enemy on planet, and rescue any captives of the enemy. Must not let captives be killed. Allow beaten enemies to give up and not kill them. No killing leaders of enemy - need them alive.
Finally, lander beast comes to a stop. Transport sacs open, letting warrior jump into battle, charging toward a surprised looking Marauder. Claws pierce his chest, snuffing out his life in a moment. Female human tries to shoot first warrior with shotgun, only to be cut down by another warrior. Soon, a dozen warriors had landed, joined by new creation of Maker, a healer beast, as well as Gardener. Gardener starts making new nest to launch attacks from, while healer moves to join warriors. Warriors, meanwhile, search for targets.
First to be destroyed are towers dotting the landscape, which are trying to kill lander beasts before they can get to ground level. Towers are blasted with fireballs, vehicles dragged around with magnetic harpoons, aggressive marauders drained of life, all while more lander beasts make planet fall. Soon, local area, a dry forest, falls under control of Warrior beasts. Now, warriors can focus on primary mission: destroy weird signal towers.
New beasts join attack - some use armored fists to plow through tank lines, others shoot explosive spines to break opened hardened defenses. Flying beasts battle aircraft while swimmers fight naval vessels in the sea. Warrior wonders how enemy can use vehicles when the signal towers it must destroy interfere with all machines. Enemy must know how to work around signal, must have had time to adapt. Maybe Maker can adapt too?
First tower is soon in sight. Horde of beasts attacks it from all sides, armored creatures leading the assault. Enemy fights valiantly, but all are either slain or captured. Building is filled with organic fluids, which becomes explosive when mixed. Last few creatures barely reach safe zone as building explodes. A moment later, beasts feel calmer. Bad signal is gone now, Commander can bring in machines. Warrior unsure if he wants to use machines, though: only a small area where machines are good to use on planet.
Sight of lander ship gets warrior's attention. Ship heads to ruins of tower before landing. Rear of lander opens up, revealing a strange entity: looks like a human, but has white hair, with face obscured by blue face mask. Body is covered with sleek armor, with a few pieces glowing blue. Being carries three weapons: laser rifle, glowing sword, and strange sleek curved thing that looks like a gun, yet warrior knows it isn't.
Being looks strange, but gives off familiar psychic aura. Warrior recognizes it as Maker's aura. This body is an avatar for the Maker to fight in without risking himself. Maker wants to lead by example here.
Maker's shell body turns its attention to warrior, before drawing laser rifle and taking a combat stance. Then Maker speaks.
"Thank you for destroying the first tower. Now, let's show these people what happens when they mess with the Infernum Federation."
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AN: Two more chapters before the Beyond Earth arc ends. After that, expect things to go a lot faster.
[USER=319653]MasterG/USER: Modified the dialogue in the last chapter to explain Flame's reaction a bit better.
Also, the warrior beasts are the creatures that I originally called Brawlers. I am officially changing their designation to Warrior.
Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!