The battle continued to rage. Missiles stormed over the tree line in heavy numbers. With the loss of heavy support, the cyborgs began to push forward. A sound halfway between grinding metal and squealing range out before a pack of smaller creatures ran forward, still made of twisted metal and flesh, but much more animalistic than their taller brethren. These mechanized creatures ran between packed soldiers and straight into the trenches. Upon reaching the front, they released long, fleshy tongues that latched on to Turian soldiers, the afflicted quickly seized up and convulsed. A problem quickly solved by their squadmates riddling the creatures with holes. But every creature was a gun taken off from the hordes. It was a war of attrition, and the numbers weren't favoring the Turians.
Those numbers only got worse as the roar of engines began to blast over the field. The cyborgs had called in yet more vehicles, the first burst onto the battlefield as it plowed over several trees. Unlike the previous trucks, these were recognizable as tanks, complete with hovering. It was a sight easily understandable by a soldier, and that made it all the more terrifying. Some soldiers put away their rifles and hefted rocket launchers at the mere sight. They didn't get a chance to fire.
The distinctive KRA-THOOM of a mass accelerator cannon sounded out less than a tenth of a second before a turret gun exploded, shattering into a million pieces of metal and element zero. Lesser soldiers would panic at a tank unleashing its firepower against them. Especially as it fired once more, the kinetic barriers of a Tyrus failing against the power of a proper tank with an energized pop before its front half too exploded. But Turian soldiers were trained to react in these crisis situations. With calm, they readied Hastel missile launchers and locked on to the tank. A barrage of missiles was unleashed from across the battlefield, smashing into the tank with many explosions. The front crumpled in and the cannon took two missiles to the base, taking it offline. With sputtering sparks, the hover drive also shut off, leading the vehicle to fall into a useless grounded heap.
If anything, the loss of their armor support seemed to incense the cyborgs. Rather than pull back or reassess the situation, they charged in even greater numbers. Even as the bodies piled up and the turians kept firing, the tide did not stop. Metal and flesh kept charging in a tide of death, and terrifyingly, it was almost working. Enough fire came that some Turians were always being peppered with rounds, more than a few had already been disabled from lacerating blades or energy bolts.
The horde still seemed unstoppable, until a shift occurred at the back of the field. The telltale blue waves of biotic power began to coalesce, some of the cyborgs stopping to gaze before several points of extreme gravity formed, five singularities that each grabbed dozens of enemies. A cheer rose among the ranks of the beleaguered troopers, the cabals' sudden strike causing a lull in the battle.
"Took those biotics long enough. We needed this support yesterday" Termis spat.
"Watch your tone," Pervax instructed, "Those cabals are some of the most dangerous agents the hierarchy have. They were probably busy sabotaging enemy assets while they were away from the front."
Termis quickly responded "Of course, they certainly weren't hiding until we took care of the big threats like a bunch of assassins."
Insubordination wasn't something Pervax was going to tolerate. There would be repercussions after this battle. But that thought was stored for later when a Turian in a nearby squad muttered "Weren't there more missiles?"
The phrase gave Pervax pause before he looked up. It was true, there were much more indirect fire coming before. Now only a missile came every few seconds. The cabals had obviously done their job, and he would have to instruct Termis on it later.
Yarden didn't like this. The missiles had stopped coming in. They hadn't even reached the artillery's location yet, much less had time to destroy them. Why would the enemy slow down on the fire support?
Nonetheless, he and his teammates had done some damage to the enemies. Traps, sniper fire on priority targets, and of course, the recent biotic strikes. It wasn't like they were sitting out this battle. Messages from the other biotics streamed across his visor, indicating their positions and current objectives. Some of them had found a convoy of natives and were tracking them. Yarden himself harbored doubts about how effective a race that hadn't even achieved spaceflight could be in this battle, but the support would be nice nonetheless.
Suddenly a new stream of data came into view. Several cabal troopers were reporting a large convoy of enemy vehicles, combined with a grouped formation of soldiers. He scowled as he considered the new assault. In lieu of an artillery barrage, the aliens had finally gone for an armored push. If what he was seeing was true, then at the front was another new engine of war, much larger than the previous examples, and certainly bigger than anything they had at the base. It wasn't the kind of thing they had the equipment to deal with early. And their biotic powers had already proven useless against the smaller tanks.
He was really beginning to hate this planet.
The tide had finally stemmed. Morale was at a bit of a high among the Turians. With the enemy assaults slowing down, it had seemed that the battle was almost over. While this was a small battle in the course of any actual war, in a situation like this, stranded on a planet with almost no resources, any success was worth celebrating.
Still, among the more veteran members of their ensemble, there was an air of unease. The enemy's ceasing of attack had come too suddenly and there was a… feeling in the air. The sense that something terrible was coming up.
It began with a thumping sound. It was distant, but rhythmic, like footsteps. The less trained Turians quit their cheering and focused. Several reequipped their missile launchers. The stomping came closer and closer, whispers softly ringing out between soldiers.
They saw it over the trees first. It moved in time with the stomping sounds. A few rockets were fired already, but they barely did anything to the machine.
Finally, the convoy broke the line. Multiple of the tanks clustered around the front. But the center of attention was undoubtedly the walker. It was jet black, with ominous red light emitting from sensors and cameras around the whole structure. Each leg was a tall as an IFV and wider than a stone pillar. Where the arms would be on any actual life form where two colossal cannons. More than a few troopers thought of the Geth, and that thought sent many into panic.
Missiles and mass accelerators fired wildly, all focused on the walker. It did not let their fire go unanswered, unleashing a blast of energy at a turret, annihilating it in one shot. Walking forward as it attacked the machine came closer and closer to the battleline. The tanks did not sit and wait either, cannons blasting at the beleaguered defenders. Large parts of the line fell into chaos as the machines approached. If all that wasn't enough, a cry wrung out as another infantry assault came. The walker did not care for any of the attacks hitting it, simply firing shot after shot, reducing anything hit into vapor and rubble, and stomping towards the front.
The feeling was intensely grim. They survived for long, but this final strike seemed to be the tipping point. It was a battle that they were rapidly losing, as the machine struck down turrets and support vehicles and began to turn its aim to the spacecraft at the center, stomping over the trench and crushing a Turian beneath its foot.
That's when a new roaring became audible.
It turned the head of a few Turians, despair coursing through them as they thought the enemies had resumed artillery fire. Only for the rocket that came streaking from far to crash into the walker. It caught the attention of just about everyone in the field. The machine began to turn around, pivoting on one leg.
A new yell arose from behind the cyborg horde. A combination of grounded grinding and buzzing like a rotor came, soon revealing themselves to be tanks and aircraft. Though these were nothing like the earlier machines of the cyborgs, instead of the grim black and sharp angles, these were brown and boxy. A tank at the front unleashed a round at the walker, an explosion rocking out both at firing and the impact a microsecond later. The machine stumbled before moving its legs to the ground, stabilizing it. The flying machines unleashed missiles at the hovertanks, causing large dents.
The sight of the counterattack brought much needed morale to the Turians, who managed to halt their rout for a moment. Sergeants yelled orders, telling missile squads to unleash fire on the enemy tanks while the rest would take out the infantry. Thankfully, the order was understood as well as it could be, and proper return fire began to ring out.
As the new tanks fired on the walker, the took aim with a cannon. A ray of energy lanced out, frying and melting the front of the tank. A hatch popped out of the top where two new aliens clambered out, quickly running back to the treeline. More vehicles came, these ones with wheels and rocket launchers on top. They fired into the crowds of infantry as doors opened, disgorging more infantry who quickly began firing.
What started as a final push to topple the Turians turned around as now the cyborgs were routing, some of the infantry closest to the trees choosing to run away rather than stick to a losing battle. The aircraft had managed to smash down the tanks after so long, though in that time the walker had taken out three more of the new tanks, leaving only one left. But with the lose of the enemy armor, the Turians were free to direct their own weapons against it. And not more infantry launchers. Some of the remaining vehicles directed their weapons onto the machine, linking their firing together. As one, they all unleashed a slug at the hellish contraption. Alone, it may have just broke the armor, but altogether, their combined force absolutely crushed it. Both the cannons broke off, falling to the ground in a heap. The chassis bent and groaned and all the lights flickered off.
Many of the new aliens were wildly cheering at the victory, though just as many were regarding the Turians. The Turians watched them in turn, waiting for what came next.
"Is it complete?"
"Yes, though some of the attacks ended in failure."
"Not failure. We got exactly what we wanted. It appears these new ones have taken well to element zero."
"Of course. Shall we meet them in turn?"
"No. Prepare new vessels. I feel like this is not the last we will see of their ships."
Hey, I'm finally back! After… way too long. Yeah sorry, college just caught up to me and I have a lot more ideas for stories. But hopefully I can write this story more. This coincidentally happens to be the chapter I'm most nervous about. The previous chapters I could say were… not good, but at least logical and consistent. Battle scenes are something that trips a lot of writers up and I hope I don't fall into the same trap. Tell me if I did wrong.
