Relevant Notes Will Be At The End Of The Chapter
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Mobile Suit/Mass Effect
Episode 14:
At The Bottom of The Gravity Well - Part 1
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Larian tapped his fingers on the control stick as he waited for a report from the scouts he had sent ahead. He absentmindedly watched the landscape and coastline through his cockpit's monitor, shrouded in the darkness and fog of early dawn as it were, the Lieutenant still appreciated the natural beauty of the alien world he was on.
Of course, he wasn't just sightseeing. The Lieutenant was leading a quick recon mission, to survey the spaceport they were supposed to take then to quickly return to the 2nd SNLF Group's main body. Figure out the enemy's defenses, figure out where to focus their efforts, report to Captain Corinthus, then -spirits willing- fight and win the battle. When laid out like that, it sounded so simple, yet the Lieutenant knew in his heart it never could be like that.
The two scouts Larian sent out on foot have been out there for three hours now. They should've reported back by the second. Nervousness crawled itself into the Lieutenant's belly and he found himself becoming more and more anxious as the minutes passed by.
Where in Spirits' name were Vex and Hantar? Larian hoped they hadn't been caught or killed by the enemy. Regardless if the enemy can't interrogate those two, getting caught means the 2nd Group would lose the element of surprise. Given their currently reduced state, they'd need all the advantages they could get to win.
Larian continued to watch for the two scouts. The sun slowly rose to the sky, coloring the foggy sky of 314-2 in a strong purple-orange hue. Soon enough, the concealment of darkness wouldn't keep the scouting force hidden anymore. The tapping on his control sticks increased in tempo as his patience stretched thin. Larian chose Vex and Hantar because he knew they were reliable, so they should've gotten the job by now.
The MoWS Leader contemplated what to do next, when suddenly a bright orange burst of flame illuminated the fog covered landscape. The sounds of explosions followed soon, gunfire shortly after.
With practiced ease, Larian flicked a few switches in his cockpit, flipping the Arma Gigas out of its low power 'stealth mode'. The MoWS' powerplant quickly spooled up, flooding power into the bipedal war machine's systems and bringing it to full power. The Lieutenant watched as power hungry sensors previously deactivated kicked in one by one, activating everything from infrared, LIDAR, RADAR, and much more.
Vex and Hantar's IFF beacons were the first to show up on monitor, followed shortly by RADAR pings of what appeared to be three enemy MoWS units.
"Damnit all!" Larian cursed. "All MoWS units, engage! Cover those two idiots!"
Larian raised his machine from its resting position, and so did the nine others on standby with him. The ten of them crested the hill they hid behind together before activating their grav sleds all at once. The scouting force barreled down the slope like a stampede of iron-skinned Taurens, charging headlong towards the enemy bipeds. LADAR sensors gave each pilot a rough image of the terrian they traversed, letting them avoid fog covered obstacles even as they drove at high speeds.
Energy bolts blazed across the field towards Larian's scouting force, illuminating the foggy landscape in fiendish pink light. The enemy must've picked them out on sensor and began firing preemptively. The shots came sequentially, rhythmically, with each enemy machine firing their weapon after the other ensuring a constant stream of death came at the attacking SNLF machines.
Surprisingly, the aliens didn't balk at the superior numbers of Larian's forces. Instead of doubling back to a more defensible position -like any sensible Turian trooper would do- they committed to the attack.
"Wha- Are they crazy?" A Turian pilot exclaimed, taken aback by the aliens' seemingly lack of self preservation.
"Taran, pick up Vex and Hantar, get them back to their machines!" Larian ordered. "All other teams, split the enemy apart and destroy them in detail!"
With their three-to-one advantage, it shouldn't have been very difficult... but the alien pilots proved to be good. Very good. Each one was more than a match to the Turians individually. Their ability to juggle multiple enemies at once, even in the middle of such blinding fog, was awe inspiring.
"Damnit, these guys are crack pilots!" Larian's 2nd-in-command yelled out after narrowly dodging a beam shot that would've landed square on his cockpit.
"I'm going in to pin the bastard down, cover me!" The Lieutenant said. "Once I've got him locked down, hit him from the side!"
"Yes sir!"
Larian stomped on the accelerator in his cockpit, firing the maneuvering thrusters on his machine and charging right into what he assumed was the enemy leader. With the fog shrouding everything, everyone had to rely on sensors and silhouettes to make out anything. It was tough to tell which machine was the command unit when all one had to go off was LIDAR markers, cockpit HUD outlines, and the faint glow of the enemy's visor heads. Fortunately, Larian had been able to identify the leader... well, maybe guessed would've been the more proper word.
Larian figured that particular machine was the leader, not through anything substantial, but instead through a feeling in the back of his mind. It was like his instincts were yelling at him, screaming into his mind that the machine he was staring down was the one calling the shots. An authoritative presence emanating from it, like a flame extending outwards, touching upon those he lead to battle. He wasn't quite sure how he knew it, only that he did, and that he would risk his life on that feeling.
In a flash, the Lieutenant's Arma Gigas lunged forward, stowing the autocannon it wielded before quickly grabbing the vibro axe on its waist hardpoints. He raised the melee weapon up high, bringing it down in a vicious downswing that caught the enemy leader by surprise. The enemy machine reflexively blocked the attack with its rifle, which Larian then violently yanked away, leaving the alien disarmed. A second strike followed quickly, but the Turian pilot found his strike had been blocked when a flash of bright pink flared to life.
His axe had been deflected by the enemy's energy blade.
"Damn you!" Larian hissed out, preparing another follow up. "Just die already!
Swing after swing, the vibro-axe was swatted away. The Turian continued his relentless assault, viciously striking until suddenly his weapon was stopped dead in its tracks. Through the blinding light still burning in front of him, Larian saw that the alien had caught his weapon in blade lock. Wild energies sparked as the high frequency vibrations of the giant axe clashed against the intense powers of the energy sword.
But as his eyes slowly adjusted to intense flashes, Larian saw something... surprising.
The bipedal machine he was fighting wasn't like the ones he saw in space. It's armor was bulkier, more angular, its visor narrower and glowed an orange hue instead of blue. Most notably, its armor was painted in a white-red scheme, as opposed to the white-green of the ones Larian encountered in space.
Was this a ground only variant? Why did the aliens need a separate variant for ground operations in the first place? Was the green machine too expensive to be used to garrison planets?
These were all questions that plagued the Lieutenant's mind, but he found that he couldn't dwell on them... because if one thing was certain about these red machines, it was that their performance wasn't found wanting compared to their green space counterparts.
The blade lock finally broke when the alien jumped backwards to avoid getting swarmed by Larian's subordinates. The Lieutenant kicked his machine's grav sled active to make chase, but suddenly found that he wasn't closing the gap at all. Instead, he saw the alien machine continue moving backwards, somehow gliding over the terrain without having to take a single step. It was only with a quick glance at the enemy's feet that Larian realized what was going on.
The red machine was hovering. Using what, the Lieutenant couldn't be sure, except for the fact that it wasn't Mass Effect technology. No, this must've been something archaic, like using the brute force of several thrusters to keep the machine afloat.
This was a big problem. That red machine now was much, much more mobile than he had anticipated. While certainly not as nimble as as the Arma Gigas, the enemy ground types could dodge and weave far better using that hover tech than it would've with feet planted on the ground.
Simply put, the situation had become more complicated.
"These machines can skim around like ours can!" Larian quickly relayed his discovery to his subordinates. "Corral those bastards into a corner, don't let them escape!"
Try as they might, trying to pin the enemy down proved to be harder than trying to catch a wet Lekh Eel with fingers dipped in grease. Each time the Turians tried to flank them, the enemy would slide away from their line of fire. Every time the Arma Gigas pilots tried an envelopment, the red bipeds would slip through the lines. Time turned into a blur in the Lieutenant's eyes. Surviving the skirmish was taking up all of the Lieutenant's focus, for even if the aliens were outnumbered three-to-one, the enemy's honed skill and experience made up for the disadvantage in numbers.
Eventually, the enemy pilots managed to break away from the Turians, disengaging and withdrawing from the skirmish entirely. They fled to the spaceport in the north, their escape covered by the morning fog which was only now starting to pull back.
"Damnit, these guys must be aces!"
"Shit, shit, shit, what do we do?"
"Don't lose your nerve!" Larian encouraged his subordinates through the battle network. "We'll regroup with Taran's team and withdr-"
"Belay that order!" Someone suddenly interrupted. "This is Captain Corinthus. Lieutenant, I've already received the intel from your scouts."
Simultaneously, the tactical maps on all the Arma Gigas units were updated with new intel. In combination with the satellite photography performed by Coalition Naval assets in low orbit, the 2nd SNLF Group now had reasonably good intel on the enemy's defenses in the space port.
The spaceport facility was split into two, that being the north and south sections. In between was the large river which fed into the cove in the coast. Three bridges connected the two halves, two large ones stretching across the cove and one smaller one running over the river. These bridges have been marked as high priority targets by Corinthus. Other markers indicated spots where the enemy were entrenched - weapon emplacements detected by orbital recon and then verified by Vex and Hantar's scouting run. These were scattered across the facility in various strategic locations, though Larian noted that there quite as many of them as the Lieutenant had expected.
"The enemy appears to be stretched thin covering the entire facility. We have to take advantage of this and strike before they can concentrate their forces or rally reinforcements." Corinthus continued his crash briefing. "Lieutenant Vienas, hold the line and continue skirmishing with the enemy. The rest of 2nd Group will follow shortly for the main assault. Corinthus, out."
The line went dead with silence. None of the pilots dared break the silence until Taran finally spoke.
"Lieutenant... what do we do?" He asked.
Larian didn't answer immediately, instead taking some time to process a plan of attack. He tightly gripped his control sticks as he viewed and reviewed the tactical map.
This was going to be tough. Even if the enemy was stretched thin, he had only 12 bipeds with him at the moment, with the rest only coming in later. Given the skill of the enemy they faced, the Turians had to proceed cautiously.
"We follow our orders." He finally answered. "All bipeds, form up behind me. We're rushing the middle bridge."
-000-
We pilots in the Risima rushed to put on our normal suits as klaxons blared in our ears and Warrant Officer Kessler briefed the entire ship on the current situation.
"As of 0510 Local Time, we've received reports thatenemy skirmishers have engaged with Congressional forces stationed at the Dragon Farm. Current estimate places twelve enemy mobile suits on the field, with more likely on the way." Kessler read out in an even and matter-of-fact tone. "Be advised, we only have a small Army and Navy garrison to work with, no more than nine Mobile Suits combined. Most friendlies will be infantry or light armor units with limited anti mobile suit capabilities."
"Looks like we'll be doing the heavy lifting." I murmured as I slipped into my normal suit and grabbed the matching helmet out of my locker
I ran out the ready room and into the adjacent hangars still zipping up, stumbling slightly as the Risima cut through a large wave as it steamed through the Aster Sea. I regained my bearings slowly, grabbing onto the upper platform's railings to steady myself.
It took more time for me to scramble into my mobile suit as I couldn't simply kick off the railing and torpedo myself towards the cockpit. I had to go step by step this time, holding onto the platform railing to stop myself from tripping while on my way to my designated MS scaffold. It was things like this that really made me dread planetary operations... the enemy wasn't the only thing I had to fight, gravity was an adversary too. The Z axis wasn't something I could easily exploit here. There were such things as lift, drag, wind turbulence, gravitational pull, the coriolis effect, and other such variables that didn't exist in space.
I stepped into my Gunstrike's cockpit and quickly readied it for a sortie. As I did, Derrick came by for his usual pre-launch chat.
"Hey, LT, turns out your machine was sluggish last sortie because we forgot to calibrate it for Shanxi's gravity before launching." The big man said, passing me a non-pressurized bottle of water as he did. "Gave it a lil' tune up and it should be just as snappy as you're used to."
"Thanks a million, Derrick." I nodded while I checked all the systems on my Gunstrike. Just as he said, everything had been properly tuned for gravitational operations. "Honestly no clue how that slipped my mind."
"Yeah, well, don't forget that everything naturally wants to go down now that we're planetside." He gave a gentle reminder. "Good luck."
I sealed my cockpit as soon as Derrick left, then after freeing my machine from the MS scaffold brought it over to the catapult.
Blue Team was taking point on this sortie, no other way around it. Rosen's Hroeger couldn't fly in atmosphere, so it had to be loaded into one our heavy lifters along with our marines. Verns and his wingman would have to escort the lifter until it could drop Rosen off near the battlefield, which means that as the second most senior mobile suit pilot in the squadron, it fell to me to lead the attack.
"Attention all pilots, fog is projected to thin out within the next hour. Wind is still blowing from inland, west to east, so expect extra wind resistance on your way to the Dragon Farm. Can't have our pilots get blown away right before battle, right?"
"Got it, Kessler." I acknowledged. "Blue Team is launching!"
The crushing Gs of catapult launch pinned me into my chair as I took off into battle once more, only relenting once I had sufficiently gained altitude. Then, the only other member of Blue Team joined me in the air shortly after. We held in a holding pattern over Squadron 13 for a few minutes while the other teams launched, gathering our strength and also getting our proper bearings flying in atmosphere.
Soon enough, we were on course to Yuu Liang Spaceport. In our rush to get there, we didn't even bother getting into formation. We didn't expect enemy aircraft to swoop in and attack us, especially considering the enemy seemed to be focusing their resources on pacifying the southern section of the continent.
In hind sight, we probably should have, even if only to save the boots on the ground from a bit of a scare.
"Attention, unidentified flight coming in from the east!" A voice bordering on panic spoke up on an open channel. "This is Lieutenant Chen Maxson, in charge of the Yuu Liang Garrison's anti air defenses. You are currently flying in restricted airspace! Identify yourself or I'm going to personally drive a missile so far up your ass your mothe-"
"Whoa, easy there big guy!" I cut him off, quickly trying to deescalate. "This is Lieutenant Irena Kreusgluck, Shanxi Space Fleet, 13th Squadron. I'm leading a flight of Space Force Gunstrikes coming in to reinforce the spaceport. Couldn't you see our IFF tags?"
"Reinforcements?! Sweet Buddha, I didn't think anyone was coming to save our sorry asses!" The man on the other side of the line said, relief immediately showing in his voice. "The continental battle network's been on the fritz since Long Mountain went dark days ago, so we're stuck to the local area network only. I'll beam over our network key so that we can sync up quick. We don't have enough forces to hold the aliens off ourselves, please hurry!"
"Copy that, we're twelve minutes out."
Lieutenant Maxson worked fast. It wasn't a minute and our whole flight had been connected to the garrison's battle network, which then we shared to the Risima, Monty, and Darrian. We heard the panicked and stressed voices of the boots on the ground, yelling and making callouts as an overwhelming force began applying pressure on their stretched out numbers. However, that all changed when they noticed we had joined the battle.
"Holy shit, we're being reinforced!"
"The Space Force? Down here?"
"I don't believe it, we might actually make it out of this alive!"
Cries for help turned to cheers. Cheers turned to resolve as the garrison got that second wind they needed to keep from breaking.
"This Captain Erren Zhang, of the Xinzhou Colonial Defense Forces. I'm in charge of this AO." A gruff and authoritative voice now called to us. "The aliens are focusing on the Carlos Shen Bridge at the center. We have six Army Mobile Suits holding that corridor and a Navy Marine Armored Scout Brigade covering Xiao Long Crossing to the west. We've got nothing but CDF militia on the Basuki-Bruchmuller Bridge to the east. Focus your efforts there."
"Aye, Captain. You heard the man! Time to kick these alien bastards right where it hurts!"
We descended on the enemy, landing on a hill at the rear of their formation. It was relatively hilly where we were fighting, the Basuki-Bruchmuller bridge was massive and started out from a large mound about half-a-mile off the cove proper, before stretching all the way across. The rise and fall in terrain made for good cover for the enemy to advance, but it also meant they gave up the high ground to make use of that cover. With the advantage on our hand, all ten Gunstrikes following me opened fire against the enemy. Each of our beam rifles fired in sequence, creating a continuous stream of beam shots. These... well, I hesitate to call the tanks we faced conventional considering they hovered and whatnot, but the way they were used weren't far off from how we used ours. They were a breakthrough weapon, working with infantry to provide direct fire support. The Army's M-70A3 Hussar Tanks might just be able to go toe to toe with them... but that was a question for another time.
Right now, we Gunstrikes were too busy blowing them away left, right, and center with our beam rifles. Most of our shots would instantly destroy the enemy hovertanks, either blowing them in half or causing a cookoff and popping its turret. On occasion we'd hit them at an odd angle and the beam shot would ricochet off an invisible shield, probably the same kind that wrapped around their ships on space. Given that their mobile suits had shields equipped with that same barrier technology, it shouldn't have been so surprising that their tanks had them too... and yet it still caught me off guard.
"Lieutenant Kreusgluck, enemy reinforcements incoming from the south!" Ensign Alec yelled out into the battle network. "There's a whole bunch of them!"
"Damnit, that's sooner than I thought." I cursed. "Alright, everyone reposition! Remember to keep each other covered and don't let them split us apart!"
-000-
"We have to split off!" Larian ordered. "3rd Company just got wiped out... Taran, you're in charge of the main thrust. I'm taking Pratal's team to reinforce the eastern push!"
"But Lieutenant, we're barely holding on a-"
"Spirits, just do as I say!" He yelled back, just narrowly avoiding cussing out.
The Lieutenant took six bipeds with him in total, his best pilots were among them. Reinforcements would arrive to shore up the main attack shortly, so Larian at least felt comfortable leaving Taran and the company of Equitae hover tanks to hold the line.
The MoWS units took a side road along the coast, riding hard and fast to reach the eastern end of the cove where enemy reinforcements had arrived and turned the tide. However, just as they were starting to build up speed, a hail of small energy shots peppered othe ground ahead of them, forcing the bipeds to swerve around or to stop entirely. Tracing where the shots came from lead Larian to one of the alien's bipeds flying towards them from the east. The machine then landed right in the middle of the narrow road, blocking the Turians' way forward. It was one of the leaner, lighter, space types.
But upon closer inspection, Larian discovered that this was not merely another space type biped. With alarm, the Lieutenant realized that he had seen this specific paint scheme before! The red stripe going over the shoulder armor and head unit was an exact match with one of the machines that attacked the 2nd Group during atmospheric reentry!
Immediately after this realization, a wave of fear seemed to wash over Larian. Menace radiated from the machine standing in the Lieutenant's way.
"What... what is this pressure?" Larian asked himself.
It was truly an alien feeling. It was like he could... feel the alien's very being, even separated by the slabs of armor and distance.
"Where do you think you're going?" The alien announced on an open channel. "My best friend is busy mopping up your goons, so you're just going to have to settle for me."
The Lieutenant's eyes widened in surprise when he felt as if he understood the enemy's message. Not its words, no. The one standing before him spoke in its alien language... but the spirit of its words instead. How this could be, Larian couldn't understand.
Regardless of all that, he needed to get through this bastard, though that wouldn't be an easy task. The alien might be outnumbered six-to-one, but in this narrow road the numbers advantage was severely reduced. Only two could face him at any given time... unless they could somehow get behind him, then it'd be a four-on-one fight.
This was going to be a tough one, and to make things worse, time was of the essence.
"Damnit, we don't have time for this!"
Larian raised his autocannon to attack. Simultaneously so did Pratal to his left raise his macrogun and let loose a burst of shots. The alien responded by raising its machine's left arm and activating the energy shield, blocking the hail of bullets Larian and Pratal fired. Now, it was the enemy's turn to retaliate, but what it did was something Larian couldn't have seen coming.
Instead of firing its energy weapons, instead it stowed away the rifle on its rear skirt armor and grabbed a cylindrical object from a waist mounted rack. Before Larian could even figure out what the device was for, the alien was already halfway through the motion of throwing it at him.
"Lieutenant, get down!" Pratal yelled out, shoving Larian's machine off to the side.
The cylinder exploded mid-air, releasing a spray of what Larian could only describe as 'liquid fire'. The flames engulfed Pratal's Arma Gigas, covering it head-to-toe in fire so hot and intense the armor plates began to warp and deform.
"Ensign, activate your fire suppression system!"
"I-I can't!" Pratal's panicked voice replied. "Th-the hatches aren't opening!"
Pratal flailed around, trying but failing to put out the flames that was slowly destroying his machine... and cooking him to death inside.
"The water! That'll put out the fire!"
Larian suddenly felt a sudden jolt of danger in his mind, coming specifically from the water. He felt a presence coming from it, like a predator waiting for its prey to fall into a trap. He wanted to stop the burning Ensign from jumping into the cove... but he was too late.
Pratal dove feet first into the water, but that hadn't solved a thing. The fire kept burning on even as the Ensign's Arma Gigas sank below the surface. The water boiled around the machine as it slowly slipped below the waterline.
"I-it's not working?! Oh Spirits! Lieutenant! Help me! I don't want to die like th-"
An explosion from the water cut off Pratal mid sentence. Water splashed all around, raining on the waterside road and the machines standing in it.
Larian was stunned by Pratal's death, but not so much because he had died... but for a different matter entirely. No matter how intense the fire enveloping his unit, it shouldn't have caused an explosion.
No, something else killed the Ensign. That previous feeling of dread and danger suddenly returned to the Lieutenant in full force.
"Everyone get down!" Larian yelled out, making his machine duck down.
That feeling spiked hard when three massive objects suddenly launched itself from the water. The objects flew over the group and then landed on the buildings to the right of the Turians.
Once all the dust and rain had settled, Larian finally got a better look at them.
They were big and bulky machines. Vaguely Turioid in silhouette, bordering on Krogoid in shape. Its outer shell was thick and bulky. One could easily fit one of the alien's ground types inside one of these... aquatic types. The bulky armor wasn't the only way the aquatic bipeds broke tradition either. It had two large claws at the ends of each arm instead of the smaller five digit fingers found on the others.
"You Gundivers sure took your time." The voice from earlier spoke again, though Larian could tell the words weren't directed at him or the Turians.
"Well, you know how we are, Spacer! we had to make an entrance!" A different voice spoke.
Then, to make things worse, two more alien bipeds arrived at the standoff. Another of the space types, as well an entirely different, bulkier model colored in red and black, similar to the ones that attacked at the asteroid belt. The red and black machine flanked the menacing space type to its left, while the other space type hovered over the sea to its left.
"Jeez, Lieutenant! Did you really have to leave me with the kid?"
"Hey, I'm not a kid!"
Whatever it was the aliens were bickering about -and make no mistake, Larian definitely knew they were bickering- had no bearing on their willingness to fight. The space type on the ground, which for the moment Larian assumed was the leader of the bunch, drew the energy sword hilt from its backpack and lit it up.
Things just got a whole lot more complicated.
-000-
"This is Hedgehog 1! There's too many of them, we're withdrawing to the secondary line!"
"Damnit, Hedgehog!" I cursed out loud into the battle network. "Who the hell is going to keep up our air defense if you leave?"
"I'm sorry Lieutenant Kreusgluck, but if we don't leave now, then we'll never leave at all!"
I watched as the Flytrap Self Propelled Anti Air vehicles and their Bison IFVs pack up their gear to make a run for the Basuki-Bruchmuller Bridge. While their guns could still fire on the move, the same can't be said of their missile launchers. A massive hole in our air defense had just opened up, and while the enemy only deployed a few VTOL gunships so far... it would only be a matter of time until strike bombers showed up.
"Raszchak, take your team and cover Hedgehog's retreat! If they bite the bullet, we can forget all about surviving until tomorrow!"
"Roger that, LT!"
Raszchak's team of three mobile suits immediately took off to ward away any enemies that tried to pursue Hedgehog Platoon. The secondary line was a much tighter ring of defense around the mouth of the Basuki-Bruchmuller bridge.
The plan, at least as it was relayed to me, was to hold the south section for as long as possible so that non-essential personnel could be evacuated to the northern section of Yuu Liang Spaceport. At the same time, materials that couldn't be transported across the bridge were to be destroyed. Doing both simultaneously was going to be a tough job, one that would need to take time to be done thoroughly. Unfortunately, time was a luxury in very short supply, as the enemy's immense numbers threatened to overrun the southern section before any work could really be done.
"Rico, tanks on the right! Suppress them!" I rapidly dolled out orders. "Miller, flank and finish that mobile suit squad before they can disengage again!"
No matter how many of the enemy's units we destroyed, they only seemed to keep on coming. They wouldn't stop pouring in... no, they couldn't stop. It was a faint feeling, but the aliens fought with an air of desperation in them. They had to take the Spaceport somehow. Their plans must depend on Yuu Liang being under their control.
"It's not like we can hold the station eith-"
My quiet mutterings were interrupted by large explosions coming from the west. It was a series of detonations, followed by a shockwave that reached us even at the eastern end of the spaceport. Looking to the direction of the explosion, I saw what had caused it, and the image of it sent chills down my spine.
Carlos Shen Bridge was collapsing into the cove. Thousands of tons of metal and concrete snapped bit by bit, one after the other, falling into the water below when a section became too damaged and could no longer hold its own weight up.
Panicked voices filled the airwaves quickly. The center was where Captain Zhang had concentrated most of the forces. They had been expected to hold the area while civilians and support units were evacuated to the north section. Once that was done, they were then supposed to cross the cove through Carlos Shen bridge. Now that the bridge had collapsed...
"Jesus, Mary, Joseph, what do we do now?"
"Our route to the north was just cut off! We need an alternate route ASAP!"
"Oh God we're all going to die!"
The Colonial Defense Forces, the vast majority of which were local militiamen who went through light refresher training a couple of times every year, started to buckle under the pressure. They didn't have the same kind of grit that Army and Space Force personnel had, and it showed.
The CDF center group just had their escape route cut off. With things spiraling out of control quickly, this battle could turn into outright disaster if we didn't stabilize the situation quickly. The militiamen barely held their own as it were. Without any way out of this fight, they're liable to panic. If they panicked, then the whole spaceport would be lost...
No... the spaceport was already lost. With the overwhelming alien force attacking relentlessly, and the poor quality of the defenders we had, losing was just a matter of time.
"Sweet Jesus Christ, things never get easier, do they?" I cursed. "Doris, take command of the squadron!"
"T-take command? But Lieutenant, what about you?"
"I'm taking Rico to reinforce Lieutenant Hedder's team and keep the center force's escape route open. I'm trusting you to make sure the withdrawal goes smoothly, so don't let me down!"
"I-I'm... I mean, aye ma'am! I won't let you down!"
With that, Rico and I activated our flight packs and took off westwards, where the fighting was thickest.
With the battle devolving so quickly, I just knew Verns and Rosen were in trouble. Enemy forces would be trying to pin down the center force and to destroy them in detail... and that meant Red Team would be caught in the middle. Given that the situation at the Basuki-Bruchmuller Bridge was stable enough for me to leave in the hands of a subordinate.
I had to get there quickly, before it was too late.
-000-
As blades clashed and sparks flew, Larian realized that he was fighting someone who was more than his match. The alien's space type biped had been dueling the Turian Lieutenant for Spirits knows how long now. It had been nothing but a never ending back and forth of slashes, blocks, dodges, and counterattacks. Larian just barely dodged a downward strike thanks to his machine's ability to hover over the ground. One would think that such agility would've given him a much greater advantage in a melee battle, but the enemy's honed skill invalidated that entirely. The alien's footwork was immaculate, perfectly matching each and every one of Larian's moves. His strikes were measured, precise, each blow mean to be a killing blow.
Despite this, Larian managed to find the opportunities to deliver his own blows.
The alien lunged forward to drive a stabbing attack right at Larian's cockpit. The Lieutenant batted away the strike with his vibroaxe, barely deflecting the attack away at the last second. He then goes for a wide swing, only for the alien to step close and stop the vibroaxe by grabbing the Arma Gigas' forearm. Wasting no time, Larian used his machine's left arm and delivered a vicious hook at the enemy's head unit, pushing him backwards. The two stepped back for a moment, before starting their deadly dance anew.
All around the two, the battle raged on. The aquatic machines and the ace spacetype's subordinates held the line, even as more Arma Gigas and Equitae reinforcements arrived, hoping to envelop the enemy's center force and stop them from retreating. Even outnumbered almost three-to-one by tanks and MoWS units alike, the alien bipeds kept the escape corridor open.
"You're outnumbered and outgunned, why won't you bastards give up!"
Larian went low, dodging a high sideways slash and delivering his own attack. The Turian Lieutenant's attack bit into the 'chest' of the enemy's armor, though it didn't cut in very deep. The enemy responded in kind with an attack of his own, using the closeness of Larian's Arma Gigas to land an unavoidable punch right into the head unit. Three of the five cameras broke, as did the coaxial machinegun in the head unit's 'mouth'. Alarms blared in Larian's ear as the devastating blow rocked the Lieutenant and his machine, causing him to stumble back and yank the vibro-axe off of the armor piece it had originally lodged into. Then, sensing weakness, the alien launched another attack with its energy sword. A sideways slash -aimed for the Arma Gigas' midsection- very nearly turned into a fatal blow had Larian not boosted backwards. Still, the blade made contact with the MoWS unit's chest armor, burning through the armor plated cockpit hatch and exposing the cockpit itself to the open.
The two of them stepped away from each other, once more entering a short lull in their long duel. The two damaged machines, scuffed and battle damaged, now circled around each other uncaring of the blood being spilled all around them. Larian was starting to breathe hard, the exhaustion of near constant fighting since dawn was starting to take its toll on him.
But even so, he couldn't back down now!
Larian took the initiative, lunging forward and striking with a vicious downswing. The enemy sidestepped this attack before retaliating with his own cross cut, which the Lieutenant dodged with a backstep. He then raised his vibro-axe up high, aiming right at the enemy's head.
Predictably, the attack missed the intended target, but the enemy couldn't evade entirely. Whether it was because he got careless or because he too was starting to get exhausted, Larian couldn't tell. What mattered was that the axe struck true, cutting deep into the enemy machine's shoulder armor and biting into what appears to be its inner frame. The alien biped's left arm started shorting, losing strength.
"I've got you now!"
"Like hell you do!"
The alien, as if understanding what Larian had said and lashing out in defiance, made a wild attack with the energy blade held on his right arm. All Larian could do in response was to raise his machine's left arm in response, to try and block the attack... to predictable results.
The burning blade cut right through the Arma Gigas' hand, down through the forearm, then then clean through the bicep. Now both pilots are in a situation where both sides are crippled, exhausted, and at their limit.
"Lieutenant, are you okay? We saw you take damage!" One of his subordinates asked.
Two Arma Gigas, both scuffed and scorched from the fighting, came to back up Larian. One of them held a Macrogun while the other had his vibro-axe drawn.
"I'm fine!" The Lieutenant answered. "And stay back! This one's dangerous..."
Damaged as he was, this alien was still a menace. Far too big of a menace to leave alive. Larian himself was barely holding his own... any other pilot wouldn't stand a chance.
The Lieutenant readjusted his grip on his control sticks and braced himself. He was just about to charge right at the alien when a voice, barely heard through static interference, suddenly rang throughout his cockpit.
"This is th... warship ARS Mothe... Prayer of... Asari Navy to gr... forces in... AO. Please... -nfirm tha... enemy air def... have been disa... I repea... confirm that... -nemy air defenses have... -een disabled."
Was that... reinforcements? That caused Larian to pause. If reinforcements were truly on their way, then that changed everything.
"This is Captain Dullindal Corinthus, in charge of the 2nd SNLF Group." Larian then heard. "We can confirm, enemy air defense network around the southern section of the AO is being suppressed."
"Confirmed, Captain." The voice acknowledged, now clearly identifiable as Asari after the worst of the interference had been cleared up. "We're entering low planetary orbit. Manta Strike Fighters and Huntress drop pods are on the way."
-000-
The small, barely visible silhouette of a warship in low Shanxi orbit was enough to convince me that the spaceport was running out of time. Not long after I had spotted and reported the sudden appearance of that ship, Warrant Officer Kessler spoke on the battle network.
"Alert to all allied forces in the AO!" He spoke. "Sensors indicate the enemy warship is deploying some sort of... kinetic weapon, and lot's of 'em! Time on target is... Jesus, you guys have roughly twelve minutes before impact."
That little pause in Kessler's announcement gave me more anxiety than I thought mere words could.
The enemy was deploying a kinetic weapon? Just what kind was it? Did it have a nuclear warhead? I doubted that it was some kind of weapon of mass destruction, given that the alien forces wouldn't be able to evacuate in time. However, given that these are aliens we were dealing with... well, nothing was certain.
As Rico and I drew closer to the center, we saw just exactly what Red Team was up against. They, alongside a team of Army Gunfighters and Navy Gundivers, were holding the line against a massive horde of enemy machines. Mobile Suits, tanks, IFVs, the whole bunch, were bearing down on them, trying to seal off the CDF's escape route.
"Verns, the enemy is deploying some kind of weapon. We have to fall back to the rendezvous point!" I told him as I landed right beside his machine.
I hadn't gotten a good look at him before, but now that I had I realized how battered his machine was. I've never seen his machine this damaged before. Not even the damage he took during our fight with Brother Lionhardt's Secessionist Force took this much of a toll.
"Verns, your machine is busted. You need to fall back!" I reworded. "I'll cover your retreat."
He stood there, staring at the enemy for a few moments. It looked as if he still intended on finishing his duel with the alien... but after a few tense moments, Verns activated his flight pack and took off.
"Fine." He said tersely. "I'm withdrawing."
Simultaneously, the damaged alien machine that previously fought Verns decided to turn tail and run. It would've been so easy to just shoot at the enemy while it sped away, but with all the chaos going on I had to focus my efforts on the ones that still pose a threat to the CDF.
The invisible timer that Kessler gave us ticked down as Rico and I fought a fighting retreat, taking Verns and his other Gunstrike wingman withdrew to the spaceport's northern half. Rosen had to tough it out with us, given that her Hroeger couldn't fly like our machines could. The three of us traded blood for every inch of ground the alien took. We were halfway towards the Basuki-Bruchmuller bridge by the time the alien 'weapons' made impact... and they were nothing like what I had expected.
Dozens upon dozens of these things dropped in from orbit, landing all around the spaceport's southern sector. When no immediate explosions followed the impact, I assumed that the enemy simply used some sort of kinetic bombardment weapon... a shoddy one that barely did any damage, but a kinetic weapon nonetheless.
What I wasn't expecting, was for infantry to pop out of the impact craters. They came out, four from each crater, all of them seemingly armed with esoteric weapons that gave them the ability to attack us with some sort of energy attack. I narrowly blocked a fast moving blue bolt with my beam shield, watching as the bolt clashed with the powerful I-Field that contained the barrier of violent energy. My sensors couldn't quite make sense of what they were throwing at me, only that it was dangerous, that they were relentless at using those weapons, and that I had to avoid getting hit by it at all costs.
Rico's machine had fallen victim this strange weapon. He had been a split second too late in activating his barrier, which meant his machine took a direct hit from the enemy's attack. A single bolt landed on his machine's head unit, and yet the resulting damage spoke to its potency. The armor plating appeared to have shred itself apart, destroying the main camera and the beam vulcan units. This left Rico open to more attacks, as the enemy poured in more bolts right at his machine. One struck his machine's beam rifle, shredding it and causing it to explode. Another hit his waist armor, left thigh, and right shoulder shredding those as well. Their barrage of energy attacks were only stopped after I swept through the enemy infantry with my beam vulcans, which either suppressed them... or even outright killed them.
"Ensign, are you okay?" I now checked on him.
His machine had been hideously damaged, rendering him functionally unfit for combat.
"I... I think my Gunstrike will hold, ma'am."
"Not if you stay in the battlefield any longer." I warned Rico.
As I looked over his machine, using both my scanner and the battle network to fully assess the damage, I saw that his flight pack hadn't been damaged at all.
"Your flight pack looks okay. Can you fly to the rendezvous point?"
"I could, but what about you, ma'am?"
"It's fine. I'll manage." I reassured him, though to be honest I wasn't quite sure of that myself.
"If you say so, LT."
Now Rico's machine took off, flying north to where Verns and his wingman had flown off to. That left Rosen and myself, as well as the surviving Army and Navy machines to protect the retreating CDF units.
This battle wasn't going to turn out in our favor.
-000-
A/N: Ended up splitting this particular battle into two episodes because of how long it was turning out, and that was *after* I cut out a bunch of stuff I originally wanted to include here. There was going to be a short bit where Larian reacted to the Asari reinforcements landing with their drop pods, as well as a short scene where Asari and Salarian fighters ran airstrikes on the Congressional forces.
On a tangential note, I might have some extra money coming in at the end of a month bcs of a low effort video I uploaded to YouTube blowing up and getting me plenty of ad revenue. I might be able to commission some more art sooner than I expected, though I'm not sure of what. I kinda want to have the Arma Gigas drawn, but I also want to have something drawn and ready for when I... reveal something, near the end of the current arc. A little bit of input from you guys would be appreciated.
Also I got to watch SEED Freedom a few days ago. It was really good! If you get the chance and even have the slightest interest for it, you should watch it.
-000-
THIS WORK IS CROSSPOSTED IN FFNET AND AO3