It wasn't long before Caleb and the others were back on foot with Farkas and his Helldiver platoon, taking heavy fire from Automaton units spread out across Malevelon. He and Anastasia took cover as Lieutenant Kraus called in an artillery barrage from an overhead Paris-class Heavy Frigate. The 5cm cannons started laying into the enemy-owned hilltop ahead of them, poking out from the sprawling jungle. Craters formed under explosive barrages, while the enemy's own cannons tried to return fire, only to be blunted by the shields.
The gun-shaped black warship overhead continued firing her cannons. Her name was marked on her side, the UNSC Speak Softly did as her namesake slogan, her guns firing away despite being the smallest of the suite of weapons available to the decently-sized warship, but she maintained a certain level of temperance, compared to the ship she and three other sisters of hers had been assigned to escort.
It was rather relaxing, honestly. Ignoring the mortar fire, Robot chatter and the likes, the group could watch an entire warship laying waste to their enemies while they kept their eyes peeled for further hostile units. The explosive rounds from the Paris-class Frigate's cannons made very short work of the enemy hilltop defenses, turning the entire hill in itself into a lunar surface.
Ana sighed deeply as she and Caleb stood to their feet, checking their gear. She spoke to them, "We're nearing our Evac sight. Think we're still being chased by that platoon of Berserkers...?" only to look back and watch in the distance the horde of what looked like devils with chainsaws for arms running through the jungle. She winced, then whispered, "Yeah, we are..."
"Let's get moving..." Farkas ordered as he primed a 500 kilogram bomb strike and threw it to intercept the enemy bot unit. The creatures seemed to notice the Beacon, hear the scream of the Jet Engine and watch the bomb land between them, their confusion exacerbated by the fact they were staring at basically the biggest available payload to Super Earth. Thank the Maker the 'Bots were stupid some times, Ana thought as the bomb went off, shaking the very ground beneath their feet.
"What're we even doing this far forward?" Ana asked Farkas as they walked.
"Covering the retreat of a SEAF Infantry Division," Farkas replied, causing the others to pause. He told them, "The Automatons didn't just hit you UNSC folks hard, the SEAF standard military is having a rough time all over the place, what with Automaton reinforcements and outposts appearing all over the place..." as he watched an Automaton Dropship up ahead get shot out of the sky by the UNSC's newest-deployed units:Sun Devil quad-mount anti-air tanks.
Ana watched the tracers lighting up the night sky from the FOB that was currently being used to evacuate the wounded of that specific sector. They were still on the backfoot, despite seeming redeployments across the front lines. The ODST Regiment currently engaged in operations in and around Malevelon had been reporting ever-increasing rear-guard Automaton patrols, meaning the bastards were wisening up to their deployment of shock troops into their rears.
Add to that the Automatons slowly realizing that they were facing two enemies, one whose armed forces were, at minimum, as well-trained as these Helldivers supposedly were and the other being their old enemy and the fighting on Malevelon had gotten terrifyingly fierce, unlike many other planets around the sector and its surroundings. Draupnir, as an example, was facing at most a token force of Automatons.
They would probably focus on those other planets later down the line, she thought to herself as they marched forward, only to pause as Caleb approached and offered her his canteen. She nodded, realizing she'd been licking her lips for a bit, before thanking him quietly, taking the canteen and taking a quick swig of water. Then another. She needed to stay hydrated, she thought. She offered a king smile to the man and handed him the bottle.
He nodded, smiling back, then marched up next to Farkas, the Lieutenant and the siblings. It was nice to just be walking, honestly, but, as usual with these patrols, the tension of being in the middle of a battle never truly left them. They kept their eyes peeled as they marched, the distant thunder of machine guns, artillery and jets filling their ears. Eagle Fighters and Longswords dropped payloads in the distance, the shockwaves of the blast some times reaching the patrol, while the distant tracers of Marine, Helldiver and SEAF Infantry engaging the enemy lit the darkness.
The strange dark mist seemed to have recessed a little, giving more visibility to the troops as they walked. Ana brought up the rear of the formation, however, listening in to the coms and BattleNet as Backup and air strikes were summoned. They were pushing deeper into Automaton territory right now, though, to find and destroy a series of Outposts before Evac would be called in.
She turned her head right and saw a set of human structures, makeshift buildings and defensive walls, rising over the jungle, abandoned. Squinting to activate her helmet's zoom function, she saw the walls were painted red with blood. A few dogged SEAF Infantrymen clad in their standard blue uniforms hid in the place, taking cover with their weapons at the ready. A distant artillery emplacement, manned by more SEAF, fired High Ex. shells into the enemy lines, followed by a Mini-Nuke whose distant explosion nearly blinded her, had her visor not adjusted its opacity automatically.
She felt the air knocked out of her lungs a second later as she flew, slamming into a tree. Her ears rang now, but it wasn't because of the artillery. The Concussion had done her brain in pretty bad for the moment, scrambling her. She blinked repeatedly, trying to clear out the concussion-related blurry vision and ringing ears as, around her, the distant echoes of gunfire were her only rapport with the real world.
The fog in her vision seemed to grow, her ears ringing loudly as her consciousness faded, the distant voices of her comrades calling her name fading out with it. It was in this strange darkness that she found solace and had time to think of what was going on. Why were they fighting a war to protect a world of humans so deeply indoctrinated by their Managed Democracy bit that they really thought themselves free?
Honestly, that was an easy answer. When faced with a choice between those who looked like you and those who seemed alien and vile, you will always pick those who look like you, regardless of how 'bad' or 'good' they were on whatever subjective moral scale you used to justify their actions. Yeah, Super Earth seemed like just another asshole state that ran propaganda campaigns to drag the dumb and poor into battle, but...
She was coming to in the middle of that thought. She wondered what sort of surprise the world would have to change her views in regards to Super Earth, their systems and everything else. She felt her feet dragging across the muddy terrain for a moment, before they made contact with concrete. She felt two pairs of metallic hands clasping tightly onto her own, the cold steel warmed lightly by her body heat, but cold as could be otherwise.
When she forced her eyes to open, despite the splitting headache, one felt like it'd been sown shut. She couldn't physically pry her lids apart, either, but she felt the congealed blood and the burning pain on top of her head. Blood still dripped onto the floor below as her hearing slowly faded back in from a deep, annoying ringing into a thundering, cadenced march.
When she managed to open her one non-stained eye, her breathing grew ragged. She saw the two Automaton Marauders, melee infantry whose arms had blades stuck in place of their hands, dragging her along. Behind her was a battalion of Bots who were dragging more people out, too. SEAF Infantry, captured and heavily wounded Helldivers, a couple of other Marines. None she recognized, though, and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
She then craned her head around and gasped as she saw the place they were in. Four Automaton assemblers churned out Troopers, Marauders, Commissars and even Devastators. Their metallic carapaces glistened scarlet in the light of the lamps, their almost humanoid forms turning to face her, scarlet eyes peering at the woman with the same kind of hatred their brethren had.
The Assemblers weren't the only things in that outpost, however. Aside from the hovering Dropships picking up the troops to deploy them to the Front Lines and the defensive artillery mounted high on walls... There were large operating slabs. Stained by congealing blood and 'staffed' by automated arms bearing cutting lasers, red-stained, rusting saws and various other instruments of what must've been torture. Beside them were cages with humans, both alive and dead, watching fearfully as the young woman was dragged forward.
... The smell of rotting flesh soon hit her. She gagged and the two Automatons dragging her along realized she'd woken. They looked upon her, their baleful eyes filled with fury and... Joy? Could an Automaton even feel joy? She heard them chittering in their strange, ear-grating language, before what seemed to be the terrifying noise of a distorted laugh filled her ears from one of them.
The Marine struggled against their grip, but found both had locked their arms like vices around her. Her heart started to race as she spoke, "Let me go...! LET ME GO!" only to feel herself lifted as if she was a feather and thrown onto the table. Restraints bound her arms and legs as the machine arms, their sensors detecting a new victim, whirred to life. She looked at the Automaton Marauders and spat at one of them, stating, "I won't tell you tin can commie fucks a thing..."
Another short, mirthless laugh echoed. This one actually didn't sound that distorted, causing her to look up, watching as an Automaton Commissar marched up to her. His vocalizer chirped, then he spoke in a flat, but unmistakably human voice, "We don't want your information. You will be subsumed and will join our cause for serving with our oppressors... For the glory of Cyberstan."
The Automatons around hailed Cyberstan in their distorted voices...
Her entire body suddenly felt cold, sweat draping her from head to toe as she looked up at the machines activating, their blades and lasers approaching her body. She started screaming, screaming loudly and struggling, trying to wrest herself free, even if it meant breaking her arms and legs. She didn't have any strength to and her head was soon pinned to the table.
The first to bite into her flesh were the Saws. She screamed as the lack of anesthetics meant she could feel every single tooth of the rotary blade cutting into her. She could faintly hear them talking among each-other, probably deciding what to make her into, before seemingly deciding. She couldn't care less, if she could wring herself free now, throw herself off of the table, free her arm or her leg...
Her heart stopped when she saw the laser point straight at her forehead. It intensified in brightness until a coalesced beam of photons slashed through the void. The heat was unbearable. She could feel skin and bone melt underneath the beam. Slowly, it and a sister laser beam moved along the forehead, down to the sides and cut through. She'd long passed out by the time the two beams had made their way to the end point of their program.
She prayed she was dead. She was never deeply religious, but she prayed she'd gone and died then and there due to the shock. Whatever that Commissar meant by 'subsumed', she did not want to know. Yeah, she was probably dead, right? There was no light at the end of the tunnel, though, there'd never be. It was just eternal darkness as the last of her mind's processes just shut down and...
Why was everything so cold...? Why was there a red light...
She wanted to go home... To cry.
She was crying... No tears...? Why?
Orders. Cyberstan Command? Orders.
A voice. Cold.
Metallic.
Two voices.
Search and Destroy orders.
CC:AUTOMATON CONTROL SYSTEMS MALFUNCTIONING. OBSTRUCTION TO CONTROL CHIP DETECTED.
GC:TROOPER-CLASS UNIT REBOOTED. SYSTEMS ONLINE.
GC:CONTROL OVER NEURAL CORTEX TENUOUS. 75%
CC:PROCEED INTO COMBAT
CC:LET THIS ONE PERISH WITH THE REST
ALCON:FOR CYBERSTAN!
Caleb, please...
I wanna go home...
With Black and Farkas's team, codename Scarlet, some hours later
Black at Full Strength
Survivors of team Scarlet:2+3 Marines
Johnson pushed up with Alessia and Farkas. Word had come down about the Ambush and the counterattack had been swift, with two more Platoons of Helldivers, plus an entire battalion of Marines being deployed to recover any survivors. Caleb had been one of the first they managed to grab. The twins, too. Farkas had gone down to one man, sadly, but he'd make these tin cans pay.
A wave of Automaton Troopers and fresh-off-the-assembly Devastators had dropped in to welcome them, though they had heavy support this time. UNSC Armor had finally been deployed planetside in an attempt to at least slow the advance of the Automaton Army on the planet. The thundering 120mm magnetic cannons of the latest Scorpion MBT Models filled the air, their ferrous slugs striking the Automatons' larger infantry with resolve and fury.
Alessia spoke, "Bastards are dropping in everything and the Kitchen Sink! They really don't want us pushing into this AO!" as she dropped a spent magazine from her Liberator Penetrator, a modified Liberator rifle with a longer barrel, longer gas piston system, a larger magazine and longer scope and a sleek new white paintjob with Super Earth yellow trim. The weapon had been stained by the crap and muck of the planet, obviously, much like their armors. Malevelon marked everything it touched.
Helena moved forward, firing her automatic shotgun as she and a few Marines advanced under the cover of a backpack shield, Radomir right next to her with his Stalwart, firing to suppress the Automaton armed units. Another UNSC MBT let loose a shell. It punched through the midsection of a Devastator, tearing it in half, both parts falling into the mud and providing cover for a quartet of Marines pushing up with AP loaded in their own rifles.
They cut down Automaton unit after Automaton unit, advancing from cover to cover as they did so. Farkas replied to Alessia in the meanwhile, "It's why Command wants us here! A major outpost of theirs has been spotted by an orbiting UNSC Spy Satellite! If we take it out, we'll have slowed them down and the Civilian Evac Sites would be safe for a while longer from them!"
"Then keep pushing!" Johnson barked as he loaded a few extra AP slugs into his shotgun. He aimed for the latest Devastator to drop and fired, the round popping its skull-shaped mask clean off and causing it to burst into flame across its open joints, the armor inside cooking off into a beautiful explosion that knocked several Troopers off of their feet, tearing limbs off.
AJ Johnson moved up next to Caleb and tapped him on the shoulder, stating, "You think she's still alive, Marine!?" as he zeroed in on another enemy unit and fired, tearing an Automaton Trooper in half. Caleb simply huffed an affirmative answer, firing his MA5 at another one. His round store the arm off of a Commissar before it could call another bot drop in. He quickly drew his pistol and domed it, sending it tumbling back.
Alessia called out, "HEADS DOWN!" before she long-armed a Stratagem Beacon. Eagle-1 swung in low and a massive bomb detached from her belly. The five hundred kilo bomb landed dead in the center of a trio of Dropships deploying their units. The detonation shook the enemy Gunships, giving Tomas clear line of fire. He and his loader, Farkas' other surviving Helldiver, put three shells from his recoilless into the aircraft, each nailing an engine and sending them on wild spins.
"Oh, fuck!" Tomas barked, "MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" And he grabbed his loader by the collar as one of the ships veered toward them, ramming cockpit first into the dirt. Alessia gasped and looked back, only to watch the men appear from behind the embankment made by the crashing ship. Tomas, in his infinite stupidity, gave a thumbs up to the woman, which made her glad he was the way he was.
The group continued pushing forward, cutting down Automaton units with the support of the MBTs and Marine battalion, Helldiver units on their flanks keeping the rest of the enemy's forces at bay. Not to say there weren't losses. Any uphill battle like this was gonna be a problem for the attacker. Doubled with the Jungle being what it was, it was a pain, but Caleb, determined to find Ana despite his injuries, pushed forward, trudging with his fellow Marines and their Helldiver allies through the pain, mud and fire.
It wasn't long, then, for the last Automaton forces on top of the hill to be destroyed. Ahead of them, on a flat plateau, resided the Automaton Outpost. UNSC Gunships flew in, cutting down the defenses and destroying the bunkers with well-placed guided missiles, leaving only the Outpost's four Assemblers pumping out enemy units. The Assemblers were near the main gate of the place, meaning they'd be easy to deal with.
They were. Alessia, Johnson and the others had tossed fragmentation grenades into them. The Assemblers weren't the only things in the outpost, though. An acrid scent filled the nostrils of most of the advancing allied units, Alessia being glad their helmets had filters when she saw Johnson wrinkling his nose. The groups advanced toward the rear of the base, the Helldiver Sergeant quipping, "Into Hell again..." less amused and more concerned.
"Heh. Diving in," Johnson replied, though he seemed less amused as he slid a cigar between his lips and lit it with a trench lighter. Flashlights turned on as the platoons of Marines and Helldivers pushed into the place, sweeping the area for any hostiles still left over. Their boots crunched against hardened concrete as smoke pillars rose high into the sky from the destroyed defenses and infrastructure.
The scent, however, wasn't cordite, smoke, or gunpowder. It was worse. Something abnormally familiar to some of the Helldivers present. As they marched forward, the first signs of the Truth showed themselves. Bloody rock slabs surrounded by machinery, saws still dripping with red, droplets falling into the pools on the tables themselves. Containers stood off to the side, next to shed-like buildings.
Johnson furrowed his brow and approached one such container, shotgun raised toward it. The scent grew stronger, his eyes watering. He'd wanted to open it before a cry echoed from a cage, a woman's voice calling out, "HELP!" and causing everyone to turn about. They ran forward, Caleb in the lead as they approached, only to pause as they saw them:Dozens of cages...
Humans, SEAF infantry and Marine POWs alike, stared at the new arrivals from behind the metallic bars. Civilians, too. They could faintly make out the rags that had once been the standard-issue 'uniform' of the Civilians of Super Earth, plus worker gowns and gear like safety helmets. As they panned their lights around, shining them on the cages. Dead and living lay in the same squalor.
Human remains and other items piled in the middle, the survivors within attempting to avoid them. The stench became worse as they approached. Caleb, his eyes still scanning the survivors, simply let out a, "Jesus Christ... What the fuck have they been doing here...?" as he looked within. There were a few kids, emaciated and holding onto whom he hoped were their parents.
The damn Tin Cans didn't even give the humans the common courtesy of fucking burying them, Johnson thought. He looked to Alessia, who took her helmet off. Helena and Radomir got to opening the cages alongside a few Marines, moving in to try and help the civvies, feed, heal, treat them. Johnson put his hand up to his ear and spoke, "Command, this is Johnson... We have a situation here. I think the SPYSAT might'a seen it, but I don't care. Requesting MEDEVAC for approximately three hundred civilians, women and children included. And get ONI here, too. I'll be damned..."
He ignored the affirmative reply from the Appalachia's captain, Alessia walking up beside him as he said, "I honestly don't give a shit about your politics, if your people even caused this or some shit... If there were voices sayin' we shouldn't get our asses involved in your mess back home..." and walked back over to that container, popping it open only to see human bodies and bodyparts stacked in that bin, rotting. He covered his mouth, spitting out his cigar and gagging, before stating, "I hope this fucking gets the point across..."
"Welcome to Super Earth's fight for survival..." Alessia replied, sighing deeply. She walked up and shut the can, then turned to watch Helena being helped out of a cage by Radomir, UNSC Medics and Corpsmen taking her place. The young woman took her helmet off and covered her face, tears drooping onto the floor as the mist, tinged red by the lights of the outpost, slowly moved in.
... Distorted weeping soon echoed, followed by the staggered, irregular steps of one machine. Every gun in the outpost trained on it, Caleb's included. The weak machine, a Trooper without a weapon, or a Marauder whose hands had been removed, slowly stumbled forward. Its eyes were not the usual, boastful scarlet shine, but a dim, dark, depressing red.
A flicker appeared over its head, causing Caleb's heart to stop. He barked, "WEAPONS DOWN!" to everyone. The weeping Automaton slowly skulked forward, staring at the hundreds of troops that had entered the place to rescue the civilians. Johnson walked up to Caleb, putting a hand on his shoulder. He put on his own Heads-Up Display Glasses, turning them on and adjusting them.
Caleb's own adjusted, detecting flickers of an identification tag. A Neural Lace was present on that machine. A fucking neural lace that-His breath caught in his throat as the ID tag finally resolved. His voice cracked as he whispered, "... Ana...?" which made the entire group pause, turning toward him. He put his rifle onto his back, walking over to the machine that stared at him with so much pain behind what one would've expected to be hateful eyes.
"Ca... leb..." She barely articulated, her vocalizer making known the pitch of a female voice in there. The disarmed automaton's weeps grew louder and distorted as the Marine stared, his eyes wide. He took his helmet off, staring at the white, skull-shaped form, right into the deep, red eyes and seeing nothing in there but fear. He could swear he saw a trickle of oil come down from the eye, the damaged frame of the Automaton Trooper probably spilling it.
He blinked, then put his helmet back on and flicked his com on. His voice cracked when he tried to speak at first, but he cleared his throat and spoke, "Command... Requesting CASEVAC, times one UNSC Marine..." as he looked back at Alessia and the others, "She's alive, for what it's worth..." before he put a hand on the Automaton's shoulder and stared at her. At what was left of his friend.
"... What did they do to her?" Alessia murmured, stunned. Deep in her heart, though, fury stirred.
"There were rumors. 'Divers and SEAF Infantry hearing them speak, saying things like 'Help me' and 'I don't want to do this'..." Farkas, more stoic and steeled by the war, spoke as he approached them. He told them, "Command didn't want to believe them. And there's the proof. The Automatons are using us for parts, processors... That's a human brain stuck in there."
... There were no words as the Pelicans, both UNSC and SEAF, landed to evacuate the wounded and surviving civilians, nor on the way back up to the fleet. Malevelon was still under siege, but they'd taken out one Outpost of Horror. Amongst the ranks of those who would come to be known among the Allied Armies as 'The Creek Crawlers', or 'The Death Corps of the Creek'... There was currently only one common thought:Revenge.