Soundtrack Start: Battlefiled 1 OST: Steel on Steel

With a whine coming from its engine, Dragoon-17 reversed out of the way of an oncoming shot from the Drengin tano, which took out a nearby building. This fight had been going on for a few minutes, with neither party gaining an edge over the other. The fact both had only one way to go didn't help the stalemate. Both had managed to hit their opponent, but they hadn't done much more than damage each other's armor despite their best efforts. Odds were, if nothing changed, this fight could drag on for over an hour.

Seventeen found this very frustrating. It knew this fight was going nowhere, but it could not see an easy way to end it. Based on its calculations, the quickest way to victory was circle around its foe and hit either its flanks or rear, both being less armored than the front of the war machine. Doing so would expose Seventeen's own flanks and rear to harm, though, and it didn't doubt the Drengin tank would be able to do serious damage if it hit either area. As is, there was no way to win.

Not that the Drengin cared, though. They were fine delaying the hovertank as long as possible. According to their hacked communications, they were merely holding out for aerial reinforcements that would try to exploit Seventeen's flanks while Seventeen fought the tank. The fact that all of their reinforcements so far had been wiped out by Illuminate aircraft before they'd even come within five kilometers of the tanks did not seem to dampen their mood at all.

Speaking of Illuminate forces, Illuminate tanks had arrived to replace the three that the Drengin supertank had destroyed. The tank had merely responded to this by bunkering down on its end of the intersection, refusing to advance for any reason. If Seventeen or his allies wanted to advance, they would likely be torn apart, especially since the Drengin tank could easily destroy the Illuminate ones. The standstill was upheld.

Yet that was about to change.

Scanning the city revealed the presence of a set of tunnels running below some of the major roads, meant primarily as storm drains. One was located underneath this road, with easy access available in a nearby building. This was an advantage Seventeen was not going to leave unexploited. Hastily, it sent a message to the Illuminate tanks, asking for their assistance with this plan. Though somewhat confused by the exact details of the plan, they nonetheless agreed to put it into action.

The two tanks rolled up as far as they dared to the intersection and opened fire on the Drengin tank. The shots missed the tank by a few yards and hit the ground in front of it, throwing up a large cloud of debris...which was exactly the plan. As the organic tanks pulled back, Seventeen used the cover provided to sneak into the storm drain entrance and advance down the tunnel. It traveled until it was rigght behind the heavy tank, then re-oriented itself so that its frontal armor was facing the opposition's backside. Then, and only then, did it fire.

The ceiling of the tunnel disintegrated into rubble, and a moment after the initial explosion, the Drengin armor fell into the tunnel. A second shot slammed into the tank's rear, hit the front end of the tank, and exploded, reducing it to a burning husk. A third shell was fired, just to make sure the tank was out of commission. Finally, a fourth shot was fired, reducing the enemy tank to rubble.

It's path now unobstructed, the Dragoon moved directly under the hole in the ceiling, then used its hover system to ascend until it was back on the main road. It sent messages of gratitude to the friendly tanks, before informing its master that it was safe to traverse to the evacuation site. At lat, its current mission was complete. Now it could go back to its normal mission: fight the enemy. No restrictions, no limits, just destruction.

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Finally, that tank was gone. Time to move out.

"Alright, we can move! Let's go!"

My companions didn't need to be told that twice. Surprisingly, despite the fact all of them were very tired and scared, the wayward civilians didn't disintegrate into a disorganized mob once they knew the coast was clear. They managed to maintain some semblance of organization as they ran to safety. After the titanic mess that this day had dissolved into, it was a rather refreshing change of pace.

Our destination turned out to be what I assumed to be a fallout shelter, albeit one made for orbital bombardment. I guess that evacuation was no longer an option, so the Altarians had decided to focus on getting people to relative safety until the battle was over. While it wasn't the planned exit my companions had in mind, they weren't going to object to it right now - they simply entered as fast as possible without dissolving into chaos.

Speaking of orbital bombardment, it looked like the Drengin were considering doing just that to the city, as one of their ships had entered the atmosphere and was taking aim at us. My calculations indicated it didn't have anywhere near the level of firepower to harm the shelter, and from hownit was aiming, it wasn't going to hit anywhere near me anyway. Still, I should probably take cover right now-why is Melissa standing on that skyscraper?

My ROB stared defiantly at the ship for a moment, before extending out her right hand, which began to start...charging, for lack of better word. Seriously, I could see lines where it was sucking in energy, ready to strike. Before she could finish charging, though, she suddenly flinched and bent over, holding her sides in pain.

What the hell?

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Melissa cringed in pain, her entire body trembling from a deep, all consuming torture, though it's epicenter was at her back. The source of the pain made itself apparent within her head.

'When I agreed to left you interfere with your pawn's actions more so than normal, I gave you certain restrictions. I do not want those lines crossed. Am I clear?'

'Yes sir,' thought the female Random Omnipotent Being. Instantly, the pain eased up, allowing Melissa to let her arms fall to herd sides. Panting in frustration, Melissa turned her attention back to the Drengin ship, which was still getting a lock on the city. While she could not destroy it with her own power, she had no intention of letting it even get a shot off. A quick thought gave one of her ships a lock on the Drengin vessel, and a moment later, said vessel had been blown in half. Smiling, Melissa savored her victory, before turning her attention back to the city.

...oh, there was her pawn.

...why was he hiding-oh. There were Drengin trying to kill him. Well, she could deal with that.

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"So, how are you doing?"

She chooses to reacquaint herself we me now?

Also, she seemed to be back to her normal self. Good - I didn't want to deal with a shell-shocked ROB, the normal one was annoying enough.

"Quite well, all things considered...I'm, could you help me with the Drengin?"

"Hmm...no, I think I'll have one of my servants do it."

Before I could question her in that, something fell out of the sky and squashed a Drengin APC. Emerging from the remains of the APC and what had hit it was...a Contemptor Patrwrn Dreadnaught? And were those Space Marines?!

"Where did you get that?!"

"Please, you think the Colossi were the only thing I acquired from the multiverse? It wasn't hard to take some weapons and armor from the Imperium, and those ones in particular won't be missed. And once I had them in my possession, making robotic versions wasn't that hard."

Considering the weapons and armor bore the Pre-Heresy Emblem of the Emperor's Children traitor legion, I was inclined to believe her. Though, now I had a new question: why would she have this stuff in the first place? Progenitor tech trumped everything. Maybe it was rule of cool?

...oh. Apparently, the fleets battling above us had just disabled the ship carrying the Artifact that was disabling my Commander net, which had somehow disabled the Artifact, meaning I had my army back. I quickly set my forces to work dealing with the Drengin. Things quickly turned in our favor.

An hour later, and the last of the Drengin forces were limping away in defeat. The battle of Iakesh B was won. Not that it made me feel any better.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!