3074AD Four Months later….
[..]
Krul and Magellan’s predictions were both perfectly correct; without them, the Empire sought to deal with this enemy, the knowledge passed along from the meetings on Persia, compared to the currently engaging fleet, wasn’t of a quality enough to encourage any landing.
The Vampire fleet as such was small, the goal was saturation bombardment, to in a literal sense glass the surface, the vampiric Vessels each were prepped, they were being led by an Admiral and Kommandant known as Kelsie.
Her lead formation, a formation of fifty carriers, was exclusively covered with a specialized Lead battleship bolstered by additional plating.
The carriers were with her in the formation of several other battleships
Fighters were often obsolete with Mechra lasers, but if they could draw enough attention, the fighters could intercept them….
kill-vehicles mindlessly and suicidally swarm, fighters are one of the only main counters, even the Vampires' own energy point defense can be overwhelmed with how many kill vehicles are often deployed.
Kill-Vehicles, aptly nicknamed Spiders were one of the few Mechra units that were hardly ever upgraded. With the many years this war had been ongoing, there was no need; they were perfect from inception and usage.
But that was not all the formation; there was the main portion of the strike fleet
and a buffer for the kill vehicles if any got through, that was the rest of the eight hundred ships in his vampiric Micro-fleet were destroyers, heavy cruisers, and several battleships
The fleet exiting out of terrorspace within a range of 74,000 Kilometers of the target planet and the fleet.
Leveraging their unique affinity and adaptability for terrorspace, excited from warping immediately scattered into tight groupings, Kelsie commanded them to strike as they moved.
Kelsie steeled her resolve. They knew very little; they knew only scarcely of what had been spoken of by Magellan’s nest, but for such a critical operation, they had such few numbers….
“Children of the Empire, we are, they began the slow exit from close-range and closed distance nearing knife-fighting range, attacking the surface defenders who quickly opened on them and the hostile fleet, all at once.
Vampiric ships packed the primary weapon on the central body, center piece, a key weak point for vessels that relied heavily on their unnatural armor and the alloys it was made from.
The cannon varied in size and power based on the size of the ship rather than role, each omni-cannon would utilize a contained volatile event utilizing a classified material.
Allowing it to shoot a more penetrating kinetic shot, or concentrated or broken beam of energy, Kelsie saw the remnants of Krul’s extraction of the shocktroopers here, and they used the debris as limited cover for the fighters, the carriers began to dump and launch.
The Mechra saw through this prioritized fire, even taking a few losses just to prioritize sending sweeping energy barrages to them. There wasn’t just plasma bolts propelled through space in magnetic spheres of containment.
The release of such spread out damage across hundreds of fighters at once, but a general sweeping use of lasers, denied the Vampiric ships most of their advantage in kinetics and missiles, sweeping the projectiles before they landed.
Threw her hand forward, “KEEP CLOSING DISTANCE! PRIORITIZE THE ORBITAL FLEET AND THAT––” She shouted sternly but was cut off.
She saw it– that Unified Vessel, surrounded by hundreds of Mechra ships, mostly a formation of destroyers.
She grimaced at the realization that the Mechra still knew they wouldn’t need much to challenge even a mixed fleet of destroyers, carriers, fighters from the carriers and cruisers, and battleships of a Vampiric strike fleet.
Under Kelsie’s desire to break them quickly, knowing odds were stacked, the 5Th strike force of this sector in space advanced.
They began to take sweeping losses, losing their vital naval carriers.
And that was by no means just targeting for the sake of it, the unified destroyer opened, like the maw of a giant planet, the large, long vessel having–…
‘No, that couldn’t be…’ It was a star contained within its center, and from its gigantic tendrils, which separated from its maw and dove.
They were massive silver, they had a slight hue of purple, meaning a plume or an engine, but it seemed to be segmented all over the body of the two tendrils, and unattached from the Unified vessel strangely…
‘What the hell…?’ Kelsie paused in thought as time froze, unsure what they were facing…Was this a new ship?
She responded quickly, “TWO NEW SHIPS ON APPROACH, PRIORITIZE TARGETING!” Kelsie shouted and then fear swept into her vampiric heart.
The tendrils seemed to explode, fragmenting into shrapnel–no, an innumerable number of tiny dots, that were impossible to number, each keeping the hue…. Missiles!? A clustered tendril of missiles?
But the fleet responded, “THAT’S NOT TWO SHIPS, KINETIC-KILL-VEHICLES, MILLIONS OF THEM!”
Kelsie shouted, “HALT APPROACH, DEFENSIVE POSTURE!”
The tendrils floating through space seemed to be ignored with a purplish flare and heat, supplemented by the barrage of their fleet and defensive guns on the surface of Fracturia, they exploded into millions of dots on the two tendrils.
Four million kinetic-kill vehicles descended upon the Vampiric Ships, but they were armed differently.
They burst in, crews looking at the sheer number of them penetrated any armor as well as a million ants dug up a hill,
And with it seemed to shoot streams of drifting orange floating ravenous clouds into the ships…
Some ships were initially holding out, they utilized side and top and bottom mounted engines to flip the ships bottom to face the incoming KKV’s so they could disperse damage into two areas, risky and initially idiotic,
The attempt was made as some heavier Vessels intentionally lured KKV’s all over their entire hull, a partial sacrifice as nearby friendly ships fired into them with light saturation.
This worked initially, killing many KKV’s, but they were overwhelmed anyway
The sheer amount of KKV’s just swarmed there, no matter the distance or spacing. They were actively attempting to create individuals. Catastrophic losses were occurring across the board on readout,
signatures blipping out into darkness...
Some crews aboard the ships are taking up arms, and firing upon the legs of each KKV that punched a hole in, not worrying about being launched out the vacuum, each ship’s atmosphere stored elsewhere and removed to prevent such a thing.
But it hardly mattered; casualties continued to mount, ships entered, and they turned red with the blood of vampires.
KKV’s punched into the holes of vampiric ships, pipes filled with human blood made to feed vampires for long durations, bursting.
The additional combined stream of the Mechra puncturing this fleet and causing total losses made vampiric ships explode into massive balls of red, drifting blood in zero-g.
fifteen-meter mechanical beasts trotting through their ships, hobbling and wriggling like angry spiders
Kelsie was hearing screaming on the comm’s from Vampires, screaming like cattle, something so dishonorable, but she couldn’t blame them,
And by now, the Mechra had a more amassed weaponization of the nanites they themselves had invented to reign in vampires; they were flooding breached ships with it.
A sweep of all frigates and even several carriers of her formation was broken…
They were being wiped out…
“FOCUS ON DEFENSE, HIT THE SURFACE WHILST WE STILL HAVE SOMETHING TO BURN IT WITH!! SHATTER THEIR SKIES!!!” Kelsie erupted in fury and suicidal desperation, they began to abandon point defense,
Across many ships, interior crews seeing the massive kill-vehicles drill in, drilling through several levels of honeycombed interiors, until they reach the soft but durable vampires inside
The spider-like legs, having now punched through multiple levels, segmenting the plates, fluttered upwards like scales on the legs, black tendrils splitting off
, leaving a bare synthetic flesh spindly leg now fully bare of its armor plating, leading to them
The separated plates became thin, razor thin, but they were box cutters with extreme durability. They then began to flail in a calculated manner, still held together by wired tendrils,
segments swiping and beheading vampires with unnatural precision. Beheading Vampires to ensure an immediate kill and counter any attempts at regeneration or energy.
In ships less fortunate, those big enough breached into holds, even with emergency sealing crews all over surviving battleships and cruisers enduring the hell of fighting off.
KKV (Kinetic Kill Vehicle) boarding actions, in some engagements they would wait for the crew to reseal and simply activate their thrusters letting the heat vaporize defenders inside.
Causing catastrophic internal damage in whichever part of the ship they were unfortunate enough to get inside of.
The Mechra fleet now closed distance on its own, finding a weak point in clustering and ripping through with precise bombardment of already weakened or attacked ships…It was a massacre…
And to the great panic of the vampiric fleet, after an attempted secondary sweeping launch of warheads, most warheads failed to land.
An immense number of arrays had been built on the planet, the warheads instead detonating in the atmosphere, scorching the skies, then darkening them with awful clouds.
The goal to wipe the surface of the planet was failing
The Mechra was a precise machine; every advantage was leveraged by them, and their fleet was scattered. They mirrored every movement Kelsie’s fleet tried to make with an inverse, it was instantaneous and wide between them and the surface.
The machine worked as one mind, the swarm of kinetic-kill vehicles by now was being struck rapidly by point defense, but there were far too many, and they priotritized ships that could still output more offensive than defensive power, putting their attackers on defense.
A key weakness of the fleet composition Kelsie was given..It was a slaughter.
But a transmission came…. from Magellan herself… ‘Close Distance, close distance!’ But the communication was jumbled, and even their equipment was hardly working.
Equipment and technology that by no means should be able to receive a signal were destabilized, the Mechra in a literal sense corrupting it, especially in the region of Fracturia, even the most archaic and near-analog of technologies developed, killing the ease of use to prevent this were affected.
-
The distance of their combat meant the Vampiric fleet, with all its disadvantages, was being eviscerated, but was still holding out.
Kelsie and her fleet had adhered to the strange command and closed the distance…. Now they were being slaughtered, hundreds of ships shot down to maybe thirty, it was suicidal, but she mindlessly followed any order given…
But from the deep hurtling from terrorspace came a strange vessel.
“SECONDARY TARGET, DEAD-SIGNATURE ON APPROACH KOMMANDANT KELSIE.” One of the ships alerted the flagship of this attack fleet as they were being battered.
The ship came in out of terrorspace, which by now was no means it was friendly by The Mechra heavily utilized it.
Signature, it came in a shadow over even the stars in space, a pitch-black negative space even seen in the darkness of the void, before it flashed with an ambient bright white hue of light, a warping, wet, liquid sphere, before it exploded into the ship of its shadow.
A ship is emerging.
A voice suddenly shouted as the ship was in range, nearly about to collide with several of the hostile ships, hurtling close to the surface of the planet.
“Hold fire!” One of the ships yelled to the crew aboard
Kelsie’s flagship personally scored twelve kills in return for most of her fleet being wiped out; the odds were against them…
But something changed, the KKV’s seemed to slow as this ship finally appeared.
Kommandant Kelsie sent a hail to demand the identity of this individual, and strangely it was easily received, with the levels of interference the Mechra were outputting constantly at near galaxy-wide. It should’ve been hopeless, especially in active combat…
But there was a response.
“THIS IS KOMMANDANT KRUL, ASSIST OUR LANDING, FOCUS ON THE HOSTILE FLEET, DRAW ATTENTION!”
The ship was already burning into orbit, catching fire as the ship swung in, in some strange way, the Mechra interference dimmed down as this ship appeared, their surface guns, which were assisting its orbital fleet, lessened, and their targeting became frantic.
‘With due damn respect we already have all their attention….’ The Kommandant seemed to think, seeing Krul’s ship swinging in, already damaged from previous combat, old combat…
And it hurtled past the Mechra fleet, being hit by a flurry of energy rounds…
The Mechra seemed to be outputting more projectiles per second, but it grew wild, and they seemed directionless now…
The Kinetic Kill vehicles atop certain ships seemed to deactivate as if the presence of this new vessel brought it on…
Kelsie was in awe…. What was happening?
Kelsie stood on her shaking bridge; the interior had sparks
Looking over the ship burning in toward the planet... “I’m not going to argue against any blessing, by God give them all the damned support.” The Kommandant snapped her finger forward.
What was left of this fleet's dangerously shifted approach, taking advantage of the massive local disturbance in the machine mind, closing in on enemy targeting and machine intelligence by closing their 24,000-knight fighting range.
They entered and exited the 24,000 KM threshold, entered knife fighting, and even physical kinetic projectiles shot by the vampires were fired here from the electrical propulsion systems.
But this time it was devastating. The Mechra seemed to be ineffectively fighting back, ships halted KKV’s began massive walls of floating debris,
Drifting lifelessly off the ships they’d been attacking, the redundant minds of the KKV’s were not enough to survive or just be disturbed by whatever interference was around.
It was actively killing the processing of each KKV. and deactivating any of them inside any ship they boarded.
Now the assault began as they engaged not only the Unified Vessel but the Mechra fleet with new fervor.
They hadn’t taken out the groundside guns, but now they were butchering the Mechra fleet…giving those headed to the surface their opening.
But the lack of response to take out the surface guns would only slightly save them, though their firing solutions seemed hampered by Aleph’s active mental interference of the machine hivemind…..
[…]
“THIS PLAN OF YOURS BETTER DAMN WELL WORK SHOCKTROOPER!” The Vallschrim Aleph identified as John shouted as they were leading him to the cargo pit where most of the shocktroopers were in this immense vessel.
The shipp had scarce few weapons still loaded but they could feer the thumps of missiles being ejected near their location as the destroyer they were on rain hell on the surface..
John was knocked against a wall as the ship bucked, the vampire grasping onto it, his fingers impaling the metal wall, Aleph unfazed nodded to him.
They could hear the rumble of heat as the ship was burning in toward the surface.
A few vallschrimagers behind them were running after them to aid them...–
THOOM
A burst of flame and heat hit the hall behind them, John shouting as it burned through!
The Vallschrimagers not vaporized were launched out as bits of shrapnel and debris from the interior were sucked out.
John magnetizing his boots but Aleph slamming his fist into a wall and clinging to it…he dug his fist into another part of the wall and both fought their way through the hall.
The ship gave a pounding boom, and by the time they got to the cargo bay… The flames of re-entry flowing inside, and the powered armor of the vallschrimjagers barely holding.
But considerable resistance and near immunity to such heat was shown on the Shocktroopers who casually stood, supernaturally stuck to the floor at this.
The boots of the Vallschrimjagers even magnetized struggled but the Shocktroopers didn’t, They were all in the room readied, they knew the ship would get shot down but were counting on it, it’d be durable enough to be the point of attacking…
The Vallschrimagers would crash it entirely into the city, utilize it as a Forward-operating-base and draw as many as they could into the city, kill as many as they can until the Shocktroopers regroup with them.
The lack of interference assured by Aleph’s active usage of his ability ensured that possibly maybe only half of who were attacked were dead and thankfully they were all Vallschrim, he didn’t enjoy their deaths, but he knew who was vital here...
Him and his fellow Shocktroopers, but he knew at the end of this he’d find some way to repay them, not now and not if they all needed to die just to crack the planet’s core if they damn well needed to.
Afterall His ability wasn’t beating the enemy but was a key to making engaging them even possible, most of all making a landing like this in maybe a quarter of a piece possible.
“They’ve breached in the lower deck of the vessel! Energy just burned through several layers of halls! We have an opening!” Was sounded on the intercom and Johns houted.
“Damn it you should all launch now!”
The massive hole in the cargo hold was helpful, they didn’t need to open it.
“Out of the opening! Jump!” Aleph spoke as soon as he walked in, the two thrusters on his mobility pack moved, and this was the first time he was ever using it, VLIR predicted what he needed and with its connection to the M-P it was going to be helpful.
The seventy remaining didn’t question this, and soon they ran toward the burning hole in the vessel, diving through the re-entry and fire, and now were falling through the clouds with the burning ships.
Aleph shouted at local comms, his ability straining his mind but holding up just enough for him to shout to all seventy shocktroopers.
“BURN!” It was one fruitful command as they all activated their thrusterpacks all at once, he saw Juno with them and they were all hurtling down like fireballs to the surface, their weapons barely hanging on…
High in the ash clouds as a massive hole in the clouds of ash that once again blotted out the skies of Fracturia were broken by their ship burning in, the clouds clumping up as it hurtled in further.
They weaved through the skies now, they had too much mass and too much velocity to slow up now even with the mobility packs, there was a whistle as the wind became so sharp with speed it seemed to be causing their armor to screech, a whistle akin to a bomb as they came hurtling down.
And to twisted irony they land at the hill, where the one-hundred-forty-four thousand had become seventy, a massive, scorched hill….
When they came down each impact was considerably that of a bomb, and yet they hadn’t even been shaken by it, the shocktroopers had come from the clouds, a 7000-meter drop, the fire surrounding their bodies gone.
Each shocktrooper landed sizzled, Aleph here landed, his red monoeyed visor flashing…the resolve had it twisting color, it became purple as he stood from his personal 2 meter crater…..Grasping his heavy gun.
But even as they emerged on the surface, they could see it in the distance, just like before.
When they first landed on Fracturia originally the machines predicted every drop site and hit them all scattered, but this was different, they saw massive hills roll with silver.
“It should’ve been impossible to predict this!” He heard a familiar voice shout, Juno as her own sniper seemed to be modified for this a cylindrical magazine….
Anna whistled allowed, drawing attention “We got the ammo this time.”
And the familiar Vito stood up “Yeah but we’re surrounded…”
The shocktroopers then ducked as the heard the whistle and thunderous boom of the ship they had dropped from hurtle in overhead of them, toward their target city…
A bright flash filling their vision, causing many to raise their hands.
Aleph flinched at the sight of it crashing down, the blast that erupted in that city was monumental, but the ship seemed…. slightly intact…the skyscrapers it collided into not-so..
They saw the silver hills move toward them...
“Targets 360 degrees, this HUD is good but it’s only letting me know there’s too many!” Juno announced, and rose, scoping in with her sniper….
She could see the hordes of machines, there appeared to be no Polaries with them this time, simply machines...
“Same as before, but more, double…. what there had to be at least more than a hundred thousand last time we engaged.” Juno laughed hysterically…
Saiyah looked to Aleph as if trying to get some hopeful statement out of him.
Saiyah.. looked around…Frozen…” Asaph…” She didn’t just remember but relived it, seeing him melting away again.
Saiyah seemed to break, her fingers twisting, fluttering as her head twitched under the helmet, “Aleph, we’re surrounded again…” she croaked audibly...
Aleph looked around, ahead of all the other shocktroopers, not at the top of the hill but at the front, desperate to be first for better or for worse...
“Good,” Aleph spoke simply. Racking his weapon, letting the sound of a shell eject go against the distant scream of the machines…
A few of the shocktroopers' heads snapped at him.
Juno’s head left the tilt toward the scope, her yellow monoeye snapping in his direction.
As if silently denouncing him Juno stated,
Though like many others, her rifle shouldered, prepped for the fight.
Saiyah didn’t seem to raise the rifle, having a bullpup this time, she instead took out the blade, holding it.
Saiyah inspired a few others, including Vito, though they hadn’t equipped themselves with the longsword,
instead taking out a combat knife in their left holding a bullpup rifle one-handed in their right hand
Anna added, “We don’t have enough ammunition, and we’re one one-hundred-forty-three thousand short...” She looked around, glancing at the remains of Asaph’s helmet and the other shocktroopers' empty armor filled with ash left on this hill...
Like an omen…
Aleph answered, “Before I had no objective, I led you along as lost as I was, as we were dropped here with hardly any support, only a vague idea of what we were facing, and no direction…. And still nearly wiped them all out at the cost of nearly everyone...”
“We conquered a city, defeated stronger armies…But in the end, we made it…But I know where I’m taking you all now…”
Aleph looked to them all, “I failed you all last time and scraped by with ignorance, intel, and direction is going to assure I won't fail you all no matter these odds.”
Aleph spoke as now plasma bolts began to land around them; they ducked, crouched, and ducked, but Aleph stood.
Aleph walked back a few steps, crouching and taking Asaph’s helmet, he let the ash fall to the dirt, but hooked it to the straps on the waist of his armor.
“My brother Asaph died here by their hand, with all those I failed, I watched them melt and butcher those I couldn’t save.”
The plasma bolts continued to fly, but they all seemed to hold fire, waiting for them, until they could see the gradient shift in their glowing mechanical eyes.
Aleph argued to all the seventy…
“You know how our memory works; I’m still there in that moment amplified by my presence standing where I stood when he died...
” By God.” Aleph swore boldly, “They wouldn’t want us to run out of ammo as we stand upon the bodies of those, they took from us.” Aleph seemed to threaten the machines as they were on a fast approach.
This caused them all to be completely ready
And so, the second battle of Fracturia began.
The battle was not like before, the shocktroopers surrounded were only seventy, but the first engagement pushed them to absolute limits, but they found a new resolve, standing among the bodies of those they had lost incurred a desire for vengeance.
It only took twelve hours of the first part of the battle to expend the ammunition of the shocktroopers with only scathing hits and not a single loss, they ripped through hordes.
The silver mass of various Mechra castes rushed up the hill, firing, intelligently weaving back as the vampires fired back, and utilizing their incredible numbers against enemies in open terrain still couldn’t break them.
The Shocktroopers regenerated wound, the inside of this new armor, allowed them to avoid being cooked.
And when they ran out of ammunition, they tore into the enemy….
But unbeknownst to the shocktroopers, in orbit…the fight had been won, and during the chaotic battle. […]
Aleph was amid the battle, in the thick of it, beside those two who had been with him since the beginning
Aleph, Saiyah, Anna stood together, bits of their armor were broken off and replaced with older plating,
Each had taken remains of Asaph’s armor amid the fight, and Aleph let his HMG (Heavy-Machine gun, roar, sweeping a line of approaching machines.
They began to change in caste and type, and the battle was going for the worse, though no one was lost.
Then a sudden wave of heat hit the shocktroopers and machines.
Thoom!
A heat, a fiery blast struck the backline of the machines, the explosion was at first purple, shooting into red like a star, the shockwave knocked over hundreds of thousands of more machines.
Aleph let waves of fire and heat strike him and his armor, as did the other seventy beside him.
Saiyah shouted “DID THEY JUST BOMB THEIR OWN FORMATIONS!?” the silver hordes covering hills and mountains were turned to scorched remains.
Blasts echoing out that crushed millions of machines from above…
But Aleph glanced up, seeing purple columns of light hit the surface….it seems the Vampires had won the battle in orbit, and were now unleashing waves of devastation. This ensured any artillery that would’ve been prepared wasn’t...
A boon!
Aleph held his HMG with one hand holding it to his hip, raising a fist in the air with the other.
“FORWARDS!”
Against all odds and preservation, they charged through the fires of orbital bombardment, slaying machines in their wake, evading plasma bolts.
One of the machines was the larger one he’d encountered some time ago during his first landing, its fist swinging for him, it sailed for his face but went too long,
Aleph’s ability worked double the time.
‘HARVESTER’ it was a tall beast, dwarfing even Aleph, it had four arms on its body, the lower section of the two arms and shoulders rotating, spinning with fists.
Aleph was barraged twice, almost dropping his HMG, causing him to stumble back.
He was caught in the fight, the others were too busy to aid him, another machine doubled the advantage of their numbers, two of them as one brought down four arms.
His head was smashed with so much force that the entirety of his HUD became static, as the second harvester tried to wrench two clawed arms into his neck, holding plasma cannons in its upper two.
Aleph swung his rifle up, clasping the trigger, letting each shell eject and leave, stumbling at the machine as it pounded its hull, each Viper-Shell ripping at its torso until sparks and fire exploded into his face.
He swung the rifle up higher and blew open its head…now holding his HMG with one arm again.
‘Too close…’
But Aleph was struck in the chest, feeling the impact recoil all over his body, the dirt under his feet causing him to sink as the first Harvester continued its assault.
Aleph used one arm to trade blows with four arms barely holding them off.
It finally ended with a clash!
The machine sent another fist that sailed for his head in an open palm to behead him with five clawed mechanical fingers
Instead, striking his left forearm quickly thrust upward to block it, a resounding shockwave throwing flames off both Aleph and the Machine.
Its eyes began to shift color, and he heard a robotic tone…The hivemind.
“Intruder of our divine collective, we looked for you! Why did you hide yourself until now!?” they shouted, immense chaotic gunfire and the droning pulses of plasma weapons discharged at them both.
The immense thunderous booms that drowned out the world...–
Aleph gave a response, having remembered the assault on the planet called Cyrus mentioned briefly; he couldn’t help but smirk under that helmet.
“Wrong planet!” He twisted his elbow, and broke from the clash, his left arm shot upwards with tremendous velocity, caving through the skull, leaving a valley between its mechanical head–
The bits of shrapnel and debris exploded as sparks followed his fist, but he brought it downwards, slamming through remnants
Aleph raised his weapon with both hands this time, staring at the battle, he saw the numbers thinned out and the bombardment ceasing.
‘They did enough to clear their numbers.’
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Aleph looked toward the rest of the enemies…
He counted well more than several hundred thousand, a planet's worth of swarmed them, and here they were having wiped them out…
This was the greatest advantage to having fought them like this, they pulled their forces out in the middle of nowhere and damn near completely depleted them in orbit and on the ground.
They were prevailing!
Aleph rallied the shocktroopers and they kept up the charge, they were damn near almost empty of ammo wide, but it didn’t matter this time, no machine could bear the weight of their fist, blade or them charging head on into them.
It was a massacre as synthetic joints, heavy plates were utterly devastated as they went through them…
On their way to Greecia.
[..]
Fracturia Surface Side. Greecia The Tower
Joan’s arc.
Screams erupted in the devastation of the city, this wasn’t like before when the skyscrapers collapsed; most of the city was flattened... her home was gone now, there wasn’t fighting that brought the city to ruins by it had been flattened by a vampire's Destroyer. And yet she was denied the honor of the fight.
The She Nephilm she trained went out…. She was required elsewhere, they were close…...
In the interior of the tower, she was there with a select she-nephilim braced, their armor no longer that white silver, but etched black with red accents…
Delta and Astaria stood in a chamber with the many humans left…
Astaria spoke “There can’t be that many of them landed... they should be outnumbered!” She spoke hysterically.
Delta even him the machine somberly spoke “The ones inside the city attacking from the ship are no issue, we’ve inflicted tremendous casualties on them, the issue is those outside the city…. seventy of the greater demons have returned…”
Joan flinched…. Remembering them who destroyed her home, who had slaughtered so many.
“We have the entire planet, you prepared larger armies, you should be rolling on top of them!” Astaria chastised Delta, who looked down... “Their leader survived…the fleet in orbit is gone, all across Triangulum, the Vampires are keeping us diverted…”
Joan flinched… ‘The leader...’ it must be why they were able to land, able to beat the fleet, able to survive so long and not get shot down into scrap and rather crash as a full vessel into her home…
Joan spoke, “It’s him, isn’t it…The one I failed to kill...” Her eyes under her helmet were glazed with tears, her past failure brought to the forefront...
Astaria went to speak, but Delta interrupted, “Yes, it would only be that one.”
“To hell with the nephilim!” A human-man shouted, and Joan flinched, hearing her one of her God’s say such a thing…she stepped back shaken...
“The Nephilm had been found wanting years ago when they attacked before! To hell with them we will rely on the Mechra still!” The man trembled with a shout, stamping down a cane in his white robes with grey hair.
Astaria seemed younger but the Mechra must’ve modified her cybernetically she still stuck out....
They were all older now, they were running out of time to complete ascension and to be alive for it…Joan saw it..
She quietly wept in her heart…
Another man spoke.
“That is the exact Polarie that failed us! Send her, send all of them against them alongside the machines”
“Unnecessary my lords.” Delta spoke “There are far too many of us, should the vessels currently engaged fail to beat the enemy, there would be nothing the Polaries could do, save for slow them down and buy enough time for the ritual to be complete.”
The humans grumbled and Astaria spoke “What about the Polaries loosed into the city?”
Delta spoke “They are dealing well with the Vampires, they appear to be vallschrim class, intended to supplement the strength of a Shocktrooper but found lacking, they’re being easily dealt with.”
Joan felt a bit of pride in that…she hated to admit that internally to herself, but Delta turned to look at her as if sensing it before he looked around to the humans in the room elevated at different levels.
They all surrounded the strange alien sphere, and the top of the ceiling seemed segmented as if it would open, strange lenses.
Delta rose his mechanical arms “My Lords have faith in your servants, , should we fail…The Nephilm…and the Archangels have a 90% chance of stalling them long enough for you to be brought to your genesis!” He lastly pointed to Joan.
Astaria seemed to ungratefully remark “The God’s expected more than 90% devotion...” And Delta answered “There are many Polarie children, we could give the emergency enhancement-“
“Do it, send them out should the situation call for it…”
Joan seemed to flinch at this…and Astaria noticed. “Does your faith falter because your goddess asks much more of you?”
Joan felt terrified and disturbed…but took such statement with ashes, all this would be rectified maybe when man is brought to his godhood, he will revive them…
, and compelled to lie she shook her head, Astaria believed that and turned her head…
“The starvessel in orbit is nearly prepared, should it succeed in eliminating the vampiric fleet, we may be closer to assuring safety and the ritual may be complete!”
Astaria gave a nod….” You fight all over the galaxy and can’t spare much more for your gods? More than simple hope.”
Delta responded, “Despite all our advantages we still only hold constant invasions in Triangulum, the Vampires are too resilient to be brought down with attrition...” Delta spoke.
And Joan could believe it, the Vampires could survive incredible things…if there were any more like the many that invaded the first time and the ones invading now,
the Mechra were impressive for even holding this world, they should’ve been swarmed, Is what Joan thought.
But she couldn’t help but think such a blasphemous thought against mankind... ‘Ungrateful.’ Unbeknownst to Joan, the polaries beside her thought it too.
The Nephilim, beside Joan, quietly murmuring
Joan thinking of their ungratefulness, had to consider, if worst came to worse, they’d send the last of the Polarie children; she almost felt sacrilegious, seeking selfishly to save them…
Her faith didn’t just waver, it cracked she would assure man’s ascension, but she couldn’t let many children die.. she thought of her kid-sibling, massacred by the undead menace…the machines hassled by his corruption of the hivemind just from his presence…
“Let me go out to face him!” Joan quickly shouted interrupting any further debate or questioning, boldly declaring it Moreso than asking, and especially out of turn.
Astaria shouted “You forget yourself! Arch-Servant!”
Delta was going to join in chastisement even as a fellow servant but of higher-rank than the alien-hybrid polaries but then… The tower shook….
Delta spoke “Orbital bombardment….”
The room went tense and silent, they looked to the massive spear center, and how fragile this all was, it was why they’d waited initially during the first invasion for the Shocktroopers to retreat outside Greecia, the capital city away from the tower to wipe them out with artillery, there was too much at stake.
Delta was tense, their artillery had been wiped out by the ship that crashed itself in Greecia and its payloads dumping close range as it crashed down…. The only hope was the unified vessel in orbit to break the Vampire fleet, recover from the hivemind intrusion...
Delta looked to Joan…. Then to Astaria.
Joan fell to a singular knee in honorable submission. “Send me! My gods! The demons interfere with your holy servants the machine, but I am not just a machine, I am fresh! Send me! If I kill him, we can turn the tide!” Joan devoted, fervently shouted...
Delta seemed to calculate the gamble, The humans didn’t respond to Joan; they turned their heads to Delta, who calculated and nodded.
Astaria swiping her hand, “Joan Archangel of the Ascendancy! Defend our ascension! Go forth!”
Joan quickly rose from her knees, “By your words, goddess.” She prayed, hoping to find grace in the eyes of man again.
[….]
New Greecia streets, the crashed destroyer.
The Destroyer lay in the city, over the streets, over the pavement, over an entire town square, and atop the rubble of an immense skyscraper,
ambiently the guns on its top were still firing off, automatic cannons rapidly giving thuds each time they ejected a shell and hit a gunship or nearly missed it–
Circling overhead, several gunships harassed the destroyer by firing rapidly into its opening, landing missiles inside key openings, the Serah caste mechra machines that acted as a fighter and gunship hovering nearby.
The fires on their engines rapidly pluming with fire then dimming, based on their axis or how high or low they were attempting to hover and maintain altitude…
In what was now with direction came to the ship by not being in space but surface of a planet, on the left side, from where the ship pointed forward was
the immense hole left in the cargo bay hit by the surface gun
This immense hole in its side had been turned into a primary exit
The Vallschrimagers had already left it prior, it had been blocked slightly by immense amounts of rubble turned into a makeshift trench that was halfway in and halfway out the ship.
Alas, there was a trail of vallschrimager bodies leading out, indicated by their heads facing forwards, going several blocks down,
and a trail of bodies, ditto facing toward the ship this time
leading up to this trench
All decapitated,
Streams of light stretched out this entrance and hole, and orange bolts were flung back inside, from the dark rubble of nearby buildings with angle..precise shots that were hardly ever missed.
Krul, having attempted to lead the Vallschrim to fulfill his part of the plan in taking the city, it was initially successful due to a lack of enemy response, but soon, rather than mechra.
Something they hadn’t encountered yet appeared, Polaries, the Mechra’s religiously converted cyborgs, attacked not in waves but in a singular strike that within hours had pushed them back to the ship.
It was night time now, the vampires needing no illumination but the cyborgs having all they needed, the lasers fired from the ship, by tha vallschrimjagers rifled emitters, giving away their positions.
Krul himself stood amongst this rubble half inside the ship with the roof of it covering him
He only wielded a sidearm an AUTEC9|44 hand cannon intended for shocktroopers, he didn’t need to do much convincing to declare he needed it, any other vis-stasi would’ve struggled to use it.
Krul had scored two kills, the Viper round impacting a cyborg, the thrice entanglement impact exploding torsos into gusts of red wind in this dreadful battle.
the weapon barked, giving morale to the Vallschrim here on the rubble with him.
The cyborgs had taken limited casualties, and several of the mechra’s machine gunships harassed the ship still, continuously, but through enough counter-battery with the near broken ship, the destroyer turned F.O.B beat back the aerial attackers…
John shouted, “Left!” he swung his rifle and fired into one of the cyborgs,
Unlike the shocktroopers rifle, this weapon relied on pure energy rather than an immense-sized quantum-viper round, the rifle emitting a straight beam that melted nearby debris.
But not their cyborg opponents…
Whatever plating on their silver armor, they had appeared to be able to withstand that, initially, but enough concentrated fire of the beam let the Nephilm squeal like an animal.
The fire burning through the cyborg, he saw part of her body burst into flames and explode, blood pouring out, yet she rushed him in desperation.
“BY THE GLORY OF MANKIND!” she roared on fire, rushing John, causing John to be locked into close quarters combat, trading physical blows and he was almost outclassed.
Relying on the genes of his mother, who surprisingly was a Shocktrooper to not be immediately decapitated by the knife-hand of this twisted cyborg, s
He seemed to have enough physical force to rip through his wrist with a knife-hand, chopping at him like a martial artist
His hand grew back, and he clocked the underside of her helmet
Ada his XO was dead, and he was angry enough to bring this fight to a quick close. As a blow burst his helmet open, he dove on the cyborg, biting her unarmored neck, ripping at flesh
The struggle was violent, and she was flinging him around as she flailed, but eventually slowed…until she stopped moving. he picked up his rifle and kept fighting…
John is checking around. There were hardly any of them left.. This truly was a suicide mission.
The other Vallschrimjagers were too busy, fired at others attacking them still, one aiming for one attempting to get a shot off on Krul. The long trail of the beam had struck one of the Polarie-Nephilm, the heat melting rocks, rubble, and steel beam debris of the city,
yet the polarie was fine and the sustained contact of the beam was broken by incredible movements of the polarie,
On a scale, the vallschrimjagers had been bred as a cheap non-autonomous replacement for Shocktroopers, but it was a failure, and they hardly reached their level, needing the powered armor that boosted the already supernaturally powerful beings physically.
And even then, they hardly kept up with their enemy, targeting assistance within their helmets not quickly enough for the cyborgs who swarmed and weaved through.
A polaries was rushing their line, raising a rifle and a blade on the other hand, leading to a full charge.
A blazing firefight where arcs of purple light went toward the Polaries and orange bolts went toward the vampires,
The orange bolts being a full-scale weaponization of the harmful nanites that ate away at the vampires employed in large rifles; now also having heavy armor piercing capabilities
anyone not hit was alive.
Anyone hit was dead, for a vallschrim or any other lower caste, it would’ve taken just seconds to reduce them to much rather than moments, even with small dosage or a single bolt making it into them.
The vallschrimager’s powered armor was barely surviving the devastation.
They were overwhelmed, and through the hull of the crashed destroyer, they held out.
The battle continued for hours, with only a dozen or so cyborgs lost out of what was several hundred continuing the assault for exactly a hundred vallschrim left…
In total, there were only a hundred of them left, most lost after they crashed and sallied out to try and take the city….
Krul, in this moment, had realized how impressive it was the Shocktroopers had ever been in this city and took it fighting against worse odds and an entire barrier and automated defense network.
And worse now Krul could see his last moments,
They heard firey engines amid the fight as crowds of cyborgs rushed their frontline.
THOOOM. Something fast was approaching…likely more hostiles…this was bad! Likely a gunship!
And the Polaries seemed to notice it too, but it was odd the way they shrunk, slowing their sprint into a careful slinking around, paranoid…looking to the skies…as if expecting something..
Like some awful memory…
the vallschrim and Krul firing helplessly against them, they had blades ready to decapitate the vampires...
him, the sound of her cybernetic augments hissing as she fired into the neck of a vallschrimager.
The rounds traveled with relativistic speed, ripping through the neck of the vallschrimjager.
John tried to throw himself in the way but was tackled by another cyborg…After getting the first one that entered close quarters with him down
Krul saw the cyborg coming at him, raising his handgun, pointed in the air…...
But that sound of an engine finally made sense….
A purple blur came from above, surprising the cyborgs and Vallschrim who both stopped firing.
In the moment the purple that sliced down impacted the Polarie like a steel beam landing on a child, it was immediate, the torso exploded, the cybernetic portions stressed badly under several tons of vampire and the heavy armor.
Sparks flew as there was a quick cut scream, and their blood exploded around the boot on their back, the engine sound being the mobility pack on….
Aleph!
The cyborgs crouched and shrank from the darkness…. from him!
They remembered the monster with a purple monoeye who had been said to have broken the hivemind and led an assault that almost brought all their plans to an end here long ago…...
These children, now grown up, saw him…he and those monsters were real!
in the cold of the night, a purple monoeye shifted in their direction as he turned, and behind him, more shocktroopers landed…
Just like before, monsters…. coming from the sky into their city…
The battle that took place after was brief and not even one of those four hundred Polaries was left alive, fists, clawed hands ripped through them…
They had run out of ammo, and no death given was quick
[…..]
Four hours later…
“I think I’m in love.” Vito hugged a Vallschrimjager handing him a magazine, he wouldn’t need to rip an arm off and use it as a makeshift weapon like last time, he loaded up on extra ammunition still left in the ship.
-
The shocktroopers and Vallschrim by then regrouped together, those without ammo, the seventy or seventy-one including Aleph regrouped…..
“This is what we got, only bit of what survived, we aren’t capable of using your weapons…well save for Krul.” A Vallschrimjager spoke, as they passed a magazine and rounds to a shocktrooper.
They were taking up position in the rubble, the vallschrimjagers seemed predatory ready, their hands separated on each arm, only holding their rifle in one arm.
But the shocktroopers casually sat around loading weapons.
Juno took another box magazine, loading it like her hands were a conveyor belt as she reloaded the box magazine and slammed it back into her Shamshir sniper, racking it..
“Different than before, the odds are different when you haven’t been left for dead with no resupply…” Juno commented in disdain, looking toward Krul as he spoke with Aleph in a distance.
John the vallschrim was nearby and heard her “It would’ve been different if you’d all made it faster…” He chastised
Juno looked about to laugh, looking to the dead Vallschrimjagers and rose her finger and her thumb “Should’ve been worth all the Empires given you to–“
Anna quickly stepped in…before the two got to fighting each other…
[…..]
“You made it…very late…” Krul grimaced looking to all the dead…
“It wasn’t my intention...” Aleph spoke somberly...
The shocktroopers and vallschrim regrouped, organizing an assault further into the massive city as Krul and Aleph spoke outside the crashed vessel.
“It’ll be difficult for us to hold the city for you all now when you assault the tower….Any counterattack after will be too great you’ll have to be quick–.”
“I see…...” Aleph cut Krul off His eyes looking upon the beheaded corpses, too many losses for whatever plan further in the city to work
“Then it’ll just be me…”
“Just you?” A voice broke out Saiyah caught up to them, hearing this and approaching.
“Don’t question me.” He rarely bit at Saiyah and she seemed visibly stunned, going quiet but clenching her fists.
Krul spoke “You’d be risking everything, if we lose you, who knows what the machines could do…. We barely survived because–.”
“You did well.” Aleph cut in again, and Saiyah and Krul tilted their head in unison.
Aleph answered, “I hampered their coordination in the fleet, and of the surface side guns from being completely able to rip us apart, the rest was all us.”
Krul seemed to grin…
“Why would you go alone?” Saiyah interrogated.
Aleph gave a nod. “Because there’s no way I’d be quick enough; they have an entire planet…”
Krul glanced up, “…and any lingering orbital support by now is gone…” he saw the Unified Destroyer, and not the lights of the vampiric fleet fighting; it appeared they had retreated...
Aleph shrugged. “They did well enough for what they had, but that’s why I’d rather go alone, I can open any doors, disturb any machines, prevent this ritual they’re doing.” Aleph wasn’t telling them his ability allowed them to sense they had about an hour before the entire planet came to this city.
His best bet was having all shocktroopers stay and help the Vallschrim who he originally was aware would’ve died anyway, even with their prior numbers, but this time have the Shocktroopers remain, hold them off at all costs whilst he works into the tower...
Krul gave a nod. “I hate your wretched caste.” Krul bluntly stated, and Saiyah’s clenched fists twisted almost as if she was ready to kill Krul here
“But your boldness makes me proud I got hold of all of you wretched children,” Krul spoke, looking to Saiyah, grinning…
Saiyah laughed, “You had intended many times to kill us during training.” She remembered.
“Mostly Asaph” Krul laughed, and that caused Saiyah to pause that he had cared enough to mention him… “He was impressive, a shame you lost him…”
Saiyah raised an eyebrow at Krul–
“Yeah…a great shame…” Aleph noted
Krul sighed, “I may not have been as good as any shocktrooper trainer, but I’m sure I made you all better….” He spoke,
Saiyah gave a respectful nod. This seemed heartfelt from someone who seemed to hate them long ago…. It seemed he was doing this to not have the same of those he trained failing, but this seemed different…
Was he ashamed at the idea of those under his mentorship dying? Were they, his pride then?
Saiyah didn’t get an answer, Aleph cut them both off from conversing further with his plans of departure.
Aleph gave a nod. “I’m going.” Aleph spoke and began to take steps away, loading in a new box magazine…
Krul seemed to laugh. “Straight to work…. Before, you were like a human, though with worse pain tolerance…now you’re indistinguishable from the rest of us.”
Aleph spoke “I never stopped feeling pain, but it’s clear that God seems to allow pain to build intangible strength...” Aleph spoke. “The strength to work despite it.”
“God?” Krul questioned…
Aleph shook his head. “You wouldn’t know him, I know I don’t...” Aleph bitterly spoke…
Saiyah grimaced as he began to walk away at first, but she snapped at him, her hand grabbing his wrist, clasping tightly.
“I’m coming with you.”
Aleph turned to her, reversing the grip, but it changed to the bottom of her helmet, pulling her in close, the ventilation piece near the mouth of their helmets touching.
“You bring too many advantages if you stay behind; they’ll need you.”
Saiyah shook her head. “I could set up any number of ambushes you want, but you made it clear it’s just buying time. I broke into that tower partway once; let me go with you...”
Cover angles you can’t.” Saiyah seemed to speak desperately…
Saiyah leaned her helmet in, “Aleph, you’ll be surrounded by enemies and all alone. That’d be unnecessary odds to face by yourself for no reason…” She spoke less like they’d be any different if she came with him...
Aleph realized it…. He sensed it in her voice. “You want to die with me…..” He stated simply, Saiyah didn’t respond, answering with silence.
Krul seemed to walk back to the formation, leaving the two.
Saiyah pushed “Asaph would’ve wanted to be here to die with us, we three…were the only ones so close if we are dying, we should’ve died all together…” Saiyah started
Aleph’s eyes flashed with a bit of anger under the helmet, and headbutted their helmets closer together, mashing them, “Quit lying! This has nothing to do with Asaph!”
And Saiyah just took in deep breaths, he could hear them coming from her helmet….
Aleph remembered Arianne, the way Saiyah’s breath quickened as they were close, he panicked, shoving Saiyah back, she didn’t stumble, just skid against the rubble.
“What you’re showing is childish and human.”
“Can you tell me about the shame in it?” Saiyah spoke, “Do you think I hound around you, because of some form of brotherhood?” Saiyah spoke, it was almost possessive….
Aleph clenched his fist… “Saiyah, I’ve come to terms, I realized I am a Vampire, I’ve become distant from my human weaknesses…”
Saiyah clenched her fist. “You’re still honorable if you keep one...…” And they both paused, staring at one another…
Aleph clenched his left fist, letting his HMG or ‘Saw’ hang from his right hand, pointed at the ground, as he glanced up at the sky, seeing the Unified Vessel opening….
‘It was going to release a ground force…along with whatever was local...’.
Aleph looked to Saiyah “We don’t know what’s going to happen when we stop the ritual, we may get swarmed, die anyway, but have this human weakness do me this favor...”
Saiyah’s head tilted.
“Have hope where there should be none.” Aleph simply stated….
He turned from her and stalked off, and she was left staring toward him, blade in her hilt…unable to resist following him…
Aleph marched off, not alerting the Shocktroopers, letting Krul inform him as he started the march for the tower.
This confession, now of all times, was not lost on Aleph, vampires driven by lust and possession; she showed it the only way she could…but he had no guarantee of survival, only that he had a shot at victory.
But in his mind, he had a resolution. if he made it out, and she survived, he’d kill whoever’s left to regroup with her, back on Persia or one last time here...
[….]
The shocktroopers regrouped with the vallschrim, the second phase initiating. This wasn’t like before; now they were re-arming, giving ammunition that survived the crash, packed into the ship.
Aleph is preparing to head out alone, many of the Shocktroopers are unhappy about such a decision, and one of them is incredibly unhappy. Saiyah…. When they sailed forth, she disappeared from them.
In the hour they were in brutal combat…
But one last thought in case he died was brought to his mind Aleph…. thought on Saiyah’s voice….
“Aleph, you’ll be surrounded by enemies and all alone.” He thought of those words from Saiyah
Aleph let these words fill his ear and gave no response until he was in the vast no man’s land, facing the gigantic glowing pyramid-like structure.
In his vision, it was massive, the size of many skyscrapers, hundreds of feet with a staircase going up several stories leading to an entrance.
It was immaculate despite the wartorn state of the world it was resting in…
And surrounded by an innumerable number of enemies…. Harvesters, Saturn-Castes, and a stranger machine, tall, rotating cylinders made to emit plasma bolts at rapid rate, a shoulder-rocket pod.
Aleph finally gave a response, remembering the last time he fought alone, surrounded…when, despite the pain, human adrenaline surged through his dead body and his heartbeat for the first time.
“When haven’t I been...”
Aleph hipped the heavy machine gun. And let it sing against the numerous enemies...
His rifle barked, sweeping lines of machines, rockets slammed into him, bursting his armor, but he hadn’t stopped, even when his visor flickered out for half an hour in the brutal firefight.
Not even when the guns on the pyramid rose up.
He took out his Autec 9|44 when his weapon broke and the boxed magazine exploded in his hands, fingers regenerating.
He blazed through the hordes of enemies, his combat knife, lighting up with energy like the longsword, having enough charge for him to rip through them, they grabbed his body, twisted his body, grappled, and held him as they pummeled his body with plasma shots.
But the plasma shots lessened, as he saw a shadow land atop the tower from plumes of fire, taking out the turrets higher up…
’That better not be her…’ Is all he thought as he wrenched his fists free, left holes in the heavily armored machines with singular punches like he had done in training, this wasn’t the first time he faced against such odds…
But now he was drained…having lost so much blood, the fires boiling him until steam erupted from his nostrils and mouth…. he needed blood…
But that hunger made him go feral
And with enough time, he stood on the steps to the pyramid not remembering how he got there, one of the few times a Vampire had a lapse in memory, he was covered in debris, scraps, scorch marks..his visor flickered back to life….Holding the skull of a harvester class the immense head titanic even in his mighty right-hand.
Where he faced an immense ten-foot gate on the second-story level of the steps….
He could’ve used his ability…to just open the door in essence with his mind, but he was feral and already using it to read the interior of the facility, the layout…and sensing where he needed to be, quickly finding it...
His heart went alight.
‘They are close to completion...’
One singular hand went into that bulkhead door,
fingers dug through titanium-alloy, wrenched through and split the first slips where the door would separate, he felt the weight of the pyramid yet…
SHIFT
But as he expended his strength, he felt a terrifying feel…hunger…..
Such came with the effort to lift this immense thick metal gate, he could see it was more than five feet thick,
He felt it buckle under his fingers…he would have his way in! and he thirsted….
[JOAN]
This was Joan’s destiny.
they had defeated millions of machines in the scorched hill where she faced that monster, taken Greecia, and reinforcements on the outer perimeter had fallen.
It seemed all was lost…. Greecia has fallen…but she had to delay them here…she couldn’t stop the children from being cyberized, quickly, inefficient…
But she was glad there were twice as many adults, out of the seven hundred accompanying in this room, only one hundred were children. Thousands died in the sub-levels too weak to survive augmentation.
‘May mankind remembers their sacrifice and revive them to whatever eternity our gods create.’
Whoever was left was armed with the nanite rifles, made to kill the vampires... and swords…but if the vampires were this close it was already over, they had been ready to rush out.
To aid the Mechra outside…but the immense chaotic battle outside ended...
“There had to have been thousands of them…the angels! The Mechra outside lost! There have to be thousands of them, how can we hold them back!?” A child screamed, maybe only twelve.
“Th-they’re wrenching that door open!” Another screamed in horror, and a bit of fear was felt in the Arch-Angel Joan’s heart at this…., But she was resolved…this had to be it…she had to be the one…
“There has to be twice the amount of them to do that with such ease–!” A polarize shouted
“That door has held them back before!” Another shouted.
“STEEL YOURSELVES BE BRACED TO DEFEND YOUR GODS IN THEIR VULNERABLE STATE!”
‘Die like men…fall like one of the princes.’ Those old worlds echoed in Joan’s mind….
Seven-hundred, and one including herself…This had to be it…
But when that gigantic door was wrenched open…
It was just one…. It was him a purple eye in the mist of smoke from the broken hydraulics…
The door gave a hiss as it exploded open, and their bolts flew through into the mist, their sensors allowing them to read something.
Before Joan could give order to fire, they had unloaded, but her cybernetic eye’s read out as well as all theirs he was still standing
[FIGURE DETECTED: NO VITALS, HOSTILE, UNARMED] Their cybernetic eyes fed….he had no thermal signature beside that of lingering heat from their fire and past scorches…
There was nothing, no heat anywhere…but a slight lingering fire they seemed to see through a thermal readout in the chest region.
Joan seemed to be poised to give a command to retreat…this was her fight–
An alert filled her hud…. another infiltration…
‘no, no, no no, no...’ A ping by Delta commanded her elsewhere to respond to another attack.
She shouted into comms, but aloud all the Polaries turned their heads, not fighting
“No! They’ll die without me!” She shouted yet hadn’t resisted, quickly standing and running back
and the Polaries under their helmets had hopeless gazes backward toward her…
“ARCHANGEL YOU’VE FOUGHT THEM BEFORE, PLEASE DON’T ABANDON US!” many of the 100 children in the 700-composition shouted….
The looks of horror on their faces as she abandoned them were palpable.
But Joan had received the order, a second attacker had scaled the pyramid and was fighting their way down….. They had a straight shot to the chamber…She had to abandon them.
But as Joan rationalized, all would be fine…That it would be worth it the monster stepped in…
[….]
Aleph stalked forwards…carrying the skull of a harvester, the few hundred or so polaries in the room, exactly seven hundred were stricken with terror…
His helmet was off….and the nanites…they’d hit him with as many as they could…. they clouded around his body….
He took a sharp inhale, and they could see a gust of it enter him, more deeply…many nanites inside breaking down….
And he inhaled……. Blood pouring out his eyes, nose and ears, as he glared toward them, the Polaries quickly taking knives as they prepped to face this demon…
One of them standing amongst them all
“IF WE HOLD HIM, WE HAVE HOPE, FOR OUR GODS, FOR HOPE, FOR MANKIND!” one of the older ones spoke...
Yet the Shocktrooper began to take the initial steps, and the Polaries charged.
S2N2
Aleph hadn’t discarded his sidearm in this moment discarded, he stressed the nanites with his ability, in this state, he stopped them from eating away…but he needed blood….
The first Polarie to reach him shrieked, in a flash, a blur of purple, Aleph’s left fist went through their stomach, as the screeched, and Aleph’s helmet slid to the floor as he tasted the blood spray…
Aleph’s human determination brought him this far, and now his monstrous nature was going to feed him and empower him to get further…
He saw most of these Nephilim…girls…children….
The first to go down caused the others to pause…
He saw the younger ones barely even his knee level cowering back, and the older ones at the front, though there was no chastisement from them, they seemed eager to hold him back for those younger…
And he spoke…grasping the bleeding nephilm, his teeth wrenching into her as he drained blood, causing shrieks and screams as the young, indoctrinated children backed away in terror…
Aleph stared toward them. His hunger dying in his stomach in the pit of his stomach….
He remembered Arianne…saw her face as the helmet of the girl between his teeth slid off…but...–
“Your gods have abandoned you, I won't kill children, and I won't kill those who could look after them…I’m giving you a chance to–“ Aleph’s hunger, faded
But they only rose weapons, though the children seemed poised to surrender, those older the six-hundred remaining didn’t….
Aleph looked...
But one of the Polaries spoke to Aleph…. They spoke unconvinced “You’d spare children demon?”
Aleph looked “I’m not a demon…and I would, if you wish to fight me, even then I’d avoid taking their lives…” Aleph seemed to notice how all the she-nephilim here were women…it was something that disturbed him….
The cultish nature likely present in the humans revered as god, made it clear to him this distinct composition had implications that had almost had bile rising in his throat..
Aleph rose a hand, innocently toward them….
He saw the children behind them and the fear of God clasped his chest, because for people so young…there had to be hope…with how reluctant they were to fight.
The six hundred remaining readied themselves. “You have scarce honor, demon, spare our siblings, cousins, and face us, the destiny of our gods will not be abandoned by us, simply defended by those capable.” The Polaries spoke…they were staunch believers, yet, Aleph could see they were clearly shaken…
“It wasn’t your idea…God willing, when you die, I hope I can guarantee these children are spared.” He spoke as the children behind seemed to scurry out, but Aleph pressed.
The fight then after was brutal, Aleph couldn’t have dragged it out to give them an honorable sacrifice if he had wanted, his teeth sunk into necks, his fists tore apart bodies, by the time he was done…he was in the hallway.
Staring at those who had retreated, he could hear the whimpers, children with bots of their faces mutilated with cold steel, and cybernetics…. looking at him wearing the blood of their elders, maybe even siblings…
[……]
The lower level.
Delta, Astaria, and Joan were there with the many humans, two of which were gone, a shadow had slipped in, they couldn’t detect her until she was far in, whilst Aleph was fighting his way through the upper level downwards, this one appeared below, in the darkness of the room….
But Saiyah was beyond greater odds, her fight against Delta was swift, the high-class machine was capable of swinging far faster than she could react, and grappled her, tossing her seemingly in the bottomless
abyss below where she seemed to fade…
But now Astaria was being placed on an extended makeshift mechanical platform, going with the many humans as the spear was being prepared.
Above the pyramid was opening as the interior shook…
“Joan, be prepared. My sensors indicate the other is going to be arriving in few minutes you must defeat him!” The ceiling above them opened, as the pyramid itself was shifting, the shocktroopers and even Krul outside, fighting with the remains of the vallschrim heard it move, looking for a scarce moment.
The unified Vessel was there now, the energy of a star now beaming down into the spear, as Delta was moving toward it.
The preparations were now set to initiate the event, akin to the forcefields that once was over the city of Greecia formed at the tip of the spear, and Delta the machine barely even a quarter of the size of the spear seemed to grasp it, and it began to rise, aimed at the platform Astaria and the humans remaining were on.
There were many all over the world, but they were out of time.
Joan was watching it, the full moment of their rise…if only they could see it...
The room had two entrances, Saiyah left one like a torn sheet of paper, metal stretching toward the inside.
The same happened at the second entrance behind Joan
THOOM.
Blood-soaked Aleph stood, gazing at them all…
Astaria shouting from a platform before her voice faded from the ritual, “ELIMINATE HIM!”
Joan was readied and this was it…. but Aleph seemed to answer, “It’s you, aren’t it….” and Joan almost seized up but stepped forwards, taking out two combat knives,
laced with the nanites… Having a horrid orange glow
Joan was swift, swifter than most of the other Polaries, she had better upgrades, better experience, and had been training up until this moment.
Aleph was drenched in blood, his helmet secured firmly on his head again…
“You remembered me!?” Joan shouted in rage at the fact, as insignificant as she should’ve been on the grand scale of this, other than just another obstacle in her mind, he remembered her.
“THEN REMEMBER THIS TOO, MY CITY, MY FAMILY, MY GODS DEAD BY YOUR HAND!” She roared with rightful fury, and they clashed, Delta too occupied, the swirling energies coming down into the containment sphere, as it began to start.
But Joan and Aleph were going at it, Aleph was fast, Joan was fast too…But not fast enough, her knives went for his throat repeatedly, throat, wrists, neck, ankles... Missing every chance.
He wasn’t swinging, though, and soon enough her blades cut through the air fast enough for the friction of air and blades to make them heat up into a bright reddish color,
embers around the blades forming as if they were nearly on fire, but he still withstood, evading each strike until...
CRACK! She heard her cybernetics shut down all at once, as a fist had hit her stomach, it had opened, red gushed out, crimson blood pooling at her knees as she fell to one
She wanted to fight…but it was like before when they first attacked, strength was gone.
It was as if she was watching them kill Zeta again…as she collapsed to both knees now…
Joan was fighting beyond her means; this was much different. Aleph hadn’t relented this time…he was determined to end it quickly.
Joan went all in, the humans screaming in fear and Astaria hurling curses, demanding that Joan take victory as Delta was bringing them closer to the primary event.
Joan fell to a knee, clutching her stomach…this was different, before she faced him, she had hope, she was overpowered…but it was clear there was already existing intent to kill…. She remembered those words before he had given her…and he must’ve held to him.
She was dying slowly and clutched her stomach…... But the hand that should’ve come down and crushed her skull relented...
[…..]
Aleph heard her voice, remembered when he had spared her, and he paused for even a moment, almost losing time to stop this all….
“I spared those children, look to me.” He spoke and Joan glanced up…her faith wavering..now her gods were watching her, feebly on the ground….nearing their ascension as she faced her own doom, fear gripped her heart…
‘There’s no promise, they’ll revive me…do anything..I have no idea what power they’ll hold..I–..’ Joan looked up…
Aleph looked down “Pick up your entrails and walk, use whatever you have left…” Delta seemed to let go of the spear, and the field that protected the ritual seemed to go, there
One's skull bounced off the edge of the platform near the side of a wall, cracking his skull, and others hurtled down below where Saiyah presumably was,
But their corpses found no such monster beneath….
Aleph didn’t wait, rushing past Joan, he dove at Delta, leaping into the air, Delta raising his mechanical arms and colliding with Aleph, Aleph realizing this one was much stronger than any other machine vessel he’d encountered before.
It grasped his legs and slammed him into the spear, and in an instant, he felt it.
A device, utilized to bring about the Quantum Crisis…a local event, time paused as Aleph felt contact with it, his ability allowed him to manipulate technology, ancient technology was under no protection…this was not of the origin of the Mechra, but that allowed him to ensure this…
was a sudden sound a woosh sound, as the field and density that was being prepared to recreate the theorized genesis of the universe collapsed.
Aleph’s momentary connection to the spear allowed him to destabilize it.
Humans began to hurtle off the platform as the room was destabilized, chaotic energies swirling and darkening the interior with ash.
Astaria and the humans scream, falling off the platform…
One's skull bounced off the edge of the platform near the side of a wall, cracking his skull, and others hurtled down below where Saiyah presumably was,
Astaria looked up to Delta “No! No! No!”
Delta seemed to give a mechanical roar “YOU STAND IN THE ASCENDANCY OF OUR GODS, YOU’VE KILLED THEM IN MY SIGHT, READY YOURSELF LIKE THE GODS YOU CORRUPTED CORPSE STEM FROM, HAVE AN OUNCE OF THEIR GRACE WHEN YOU FACE ME!”
Astaria was silent and so was Joan
The energy given to the spear seemed to return as Aleph had landed back on the platform…his eyes set on Delta… He didn’t speak, Aleph had realized he was the anti-thesises to the hubris of man and machine in this moment, his abilities were best used to destroy machine…
His eyes turned behind him, seeing Joan the Archangel pick up her insides, hold them and waltz out in a trail of blood from the door he burst open.
…
Astaria looked up, “WHERE ARE YOU GOING!? WHY HAVE YOU ABANDONED ME, YOUR GODDESS!” she screamed toward Joan, but Aleph laughed.
Aleph and Delta in that moment seemed to just stare as Astaria held her side, wounded, but crawled to a stand.
“End him! We can still do it! We still can!”
Delta shook his machine-head “No…..he–..”
Aleph felt his heartbeat as he utilized the fullness of his ability, concentrated it to the spear, as energy from the star was given too the spear, instead he knew that the spear was still usable….
It seemed to cut through open space now, and reverse the energy back into the Unified Vessel above, there was a contracton as the star within the ship seemed to collapse…and quickly it began to rush upwards, the shadow of it leaving the surface…
Aleph laughing as a bright light engulfed them from above…and then there was darkness…..
When Aleph came to, he saw that Delta’s vessel stood before him.
“here, you’ve stopped all our efforts….destroyed it…vied against the gods, yet for a moment your heart came live…you hold humanity…why…we could’ve cured you…brought you divinity…”
Aleph didn’t answer and Delta accepted it, the vessel was quickly evacuated, as the large space-vessel in the air was hurtling back toward the surface with a slow whistle as the pyramid began to close, likely going to shield them from the eventual blast….
Aleph stepped toward Astaria who fearfully stood and backed away in terror, still slightly blinded from the blast….
Aleph looked her down..
“Are you going to kill me demon!?” She spat… but he could see despite her strength and venom she had tears running down her eyes, seemingly denied godhood….
Aleph sighed “No…I’ve killed enough, especially women, daughters you threw at me like cattle, I’m tired.” Aleph thought of all those he’d hurt, Saiyah, the Polaries, that one that seemed to remember him that he spared..it was finished…
It was over…
“I’m done hurting women, I’m tired of it..” Aleph spoke more to himself than Astaria as she backed up, wounded from the fall….
She almost seemed to laugh hysterically for a few seconds, but a dark voice came from deep behind her in the darkness of the pyramid as the roof closed again.
“But I’m not.”
Astaria went to turn, and darkness faced her, the unhelmeted, bloodied skull regenerated behind her, Saiyah’s smiling face staring her down, with a devious look...
Her first struck her in the skull before Astaria could process Saiyah sending it. Hardly even a blur…
[…]
Saiyah had not fully fallen into the pit below; she’d disappeared in plain sight and clambered onto the wall, crawling away like a spider….
should occur, the head of Astaria became red,
bits of her coated Saiyah’s fist, grey matter, all the hopes, dreams, delusions and fervor, and declaration of her divinity coated Saiyah’s fist, and the broken breastplate of Aleph…
Aleph looked…” I thought I told you…to remain…...with the others…” He spoke, unhappy as he watched the near headless woman’s teeth clatter against the ground, drenched in blood…
Saiyah stared… “You told me to have hope…. I had hope they could last without me help…...”
They both paused for a while….
“So now what? Where to next?”
“We fight the rest of the planet still filled with machines; I have a promise to keep.”
[…]
Quantum Crisis 3075 THE END.
It was later that the battle of Fracturia continued for a year with the seventy and the Vallschrim fighting alongside Krul across the planet, they had infected considerable losses. On the Mechra here, key materials and sites that brought the hivemind ever closer to the Quantum Crisis
Eventually, the battle of Cyrus had been won, and the shocktroopers from that world arrived, many fighting alongside their children…The victory rectified the deaths lost, and Aleph was personally
The mechra had brought tremendous numbers from the surface of the planet, and those that were on board the Unified Vessel when it fell.
But Aleph had kept his promise to the Preacher, he found remnants although cut in half– cut to the quarter in desperate executions of dangerous elements amidst the second battle of Fracturia.
He saved many more people below the cities of Fracturia….
Despite everything, Joan and the Polaries had escaped the planet, utilizing vessels by the Mechra in what managed to be the third battle of Fracturia…..
But in deep surprise, Aleph would not let this world be so easily retaken by the standard Empire, forgiven for the losses of the children of those elder generations of Shocktroopers he was given favor and he spoke that this place should be protected by their power and under them.
That the alien spear and artifact be controlled, as such, he let this become a home for the believers he promised the Preacher he would save, and returned many to the surface, cities more intact were kept…
Fracturia had become a dominant location of the Cyrus Enclave of Shocktroopers.
Aleph is inducted there, earning the title of High Sergeant.
But the war was not over, the vampires from then on knew the stake of the enemy they faced and the cost of defeat, they didn’t know if the Quantum Crisis would ever grant mankind his false claim to divinity, but they intended never to find out.
In 3077
Aleph neglected the chance to return to New Persia, continuing the fight against the mechra under the conjoined enclaves of the Shocktroopers he later discovered.
As he continued to fight in what eventually bloomed into..
‘THE GREAT WAR.’
Yet deep within the Empire, his success, his mutilation and vampiric mutations proved him to be Aleph, as translated to mean ‘one’; he was the first of many shocktroopers that would later be mutated unbeknownst to their knowledge at birth, from then on.
To fight the machine…giving the vampires…a chance… and most importantly........... hope…
