0600
It was a sight to behold. Row after row of vehicles and tanks proceeded toward Baikonur. For miles, it was columns of soldiers riding off to battle. By 0900 they had reached the launching point for the attack. Aaron could see on his HUD what they were facing. "Jesus Sarah, look at those defenses. They Have AA on every hill and troops guarding the passes" Aaron said. "I see them. Infrared picks up more on the hills there and there. Probably snipers" Sarah said highlighting the locations. This drone strike should happen soon right?" Aaron asked. "It should. We're in position and I detect 6 inbound drones entering our battlenet data link" Sarah said.
Sarah was right. At a height of 40,000 ft., 6 shadow drones was beginning their attack run. When they dropped to 30,000 ft. they readied their pencil sized antimatter missiles to fire. All of a sudden, the sky lit up with streaks of plasma bolts from the hills. In seconds, the sky lit up brighter than the sun. The shockwave slammed into the Union forces 5 seconds later. "Ahh! What happened?" Aaron said blinded. "They destroyed the drones along with the warheads!" Sarah answered. "How?! Those drones are the size of gnats compared to them!" Aaron said. "They must have known they were up there" Aaron yelled. As the two wondered how the drones were detected, the sky lit up again but his time in a specific direction.
"Tracer squadron report damage!" the squadron leader yelled. "No damage to Tracer 3!" one pilot said. "Negative damage to Tracer 4!" another said. "No damage to Tracer-AHHHH!" he screamed before a small fireball was seen on the horizon. "Tracer squadron break formation! Break-AHHHH!" the squadron leader yelled before he was hit by a stray bolt. The three remaining planes broke away trying to avoid the hypersonic plasma bolts screaming their way. They punched to full throttle and made a beeline for HQ. Tracer 2 was the only one who made it back. She had to watch Tracer 5 and 3 get struck from behind and be obliterated.
"We lost Tracer squadron" a radar operator said. "How did they know where to fire?!" a Colonel yelled. "Seems we had a spy in our ranks! Order our forces into the pass. Send the STRIKE teams to pave us a road!" Longstreet ordered. "Time to go Aaron you ready?" Sarah asked. "Find me something to listen too. You know how I like to hear something to get the blood pumping" Aaron said closing his eyes to concentrate his thoughts. He opened them when he heard an old song from the 21st century. "No scared by One Ok Rock?" Aaron asked amused. "Thought it was appropriate" Sarah said. "You thought right my digital babe. LET'S DO THIS!!!" Aaron yelled willing his machine into a full sprint.
Aaron closed the distance in mere minutes. At full speed, he could run at over 250 mph. His backup was barely keeping pace just by flying a few feet above the ground. Plasma vulcans and carbine fire streaked toward him. Aaron pivoted left and right zig zagging but not firing. He wisely held back and charged his cannons. With seconds to spare he reached his first target; an Ingress woman giving orders to the squad. Aaron extended his sword and with a flash and gust of wind stopped just behind her. At first, everyone thought he had missed, until the giantess' head slid off her neck. Panic broke out in the ranks as they watched their commander's blood spurting out of her neck like a fountain. Still listening to the music, he gave a mental command to deploy the BITS. With just a thought, he chose the targets. They fired at the same time as he did. He spun in a 360 degree circle laying waste to the anti-personnel squad. The smoke cleared and Aaron alone was still standing.
The BITS returned to his back as he scanned for another close target. Locking on, he saw another anti-personnel squad. Not missing a beat, he fired the shots he had been charging. A large blast demolished the squad. The few who were alive were dispatched with quick shots. The STRIKE teams watched in awe of him. They had heard stories about how good he was but to see him in action was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. The ones who would survive this day and tell the tale would give him the nickname "The Mozart of Combat".
Aaron gave them orders to fan out. He knew the shock of battle would wear off at any minute and he was right. The pass began to fill with energy fire. Snipers fired on their position as did the anti-personnel with their plasma vulcans. Aaron boldly picked up a vulcan and began firing back. He fired away using his shields to protect him and mowed down anyone in the pass. The vulcan overheated and he threw it down. Now he was 2/3 of the way in and passed by a dead Ingress man who had on his belt grenades. Aaron didn't toss the grenade; he tossed the whole belt into the group ahead. With nanomachine precision, he fired a quick shot at the belt as it was in the air and detonated them all. A 2 kiloton blast engulfed the last two anti-personnel teams.
Julia had been watching the fight. She knew he was good but not this good. He fought nowhere near at this level in D.C. What she didn't know was when he was with Omega; he was downloading every Ingress engagement recorded. He was being a "good soldier" for them. Years of training and experience reduced to gigs of data to be uploaded via nanomachine uplink right into his brain. Aaron chose to continue this after he was freed. Right now, he was using the Elite Ingress fighting style he had been subject to in D.C. Julia noticed as well that Aaron no longer hesitated to kill the women or teens in the enemy ranks but Julia knew the reason for this one.
The night before, the Stray Dogs got together for drinks knowing it may be for the last time. Jake of course drank juice since he was only 10 but the rest got liquored up. Half drunk, Julia asked Aaron a question. "Since we got recruits in their low teens, I'm pretty sure the enemy does too. What you plan to do about that Aaron seeing what you went through" she asked. Leila rolled her eyes at the insensitive question. Aaron took a drink of his whiskey and spoke. "We've come to a point where most have chosen a side. They know about people like Leila who chose to live among us. I seriously doubt anyone is still on the fence. If they throw down their weapons to surrender fine, if not, fuck 'em. I'm not going to ask them to leave the dark side while I fight the most important battle of this war to date" Aaron said.
Everyone looked at Aaron. They never expected to hear such a hard assed answer. It was becoming clearer that his stay at Omega changed some of his views. His childlike view of everyone having a good side was gone.
"Let's go everyone! We can't lose this momentum!" Aaron yelled racing up the nearby hill. Aaron popped up like a Jack in the Box in front of an AA team. Aaron fired quick shots at the gunner and spun around to take out the two soldiers giving support. His camera caught sight of a sniper aiming at him and with borrowed training; he grabbed a barely alive male Ingress and held him by his neck. He used him as a shield as he took a steady aim of the sniper. "Please don't fire..." the giant gurgled before his friend shot him trying to get to Aaron. Aaron fired back killing the sniper.
Julia had taken out a nearby AA emplacement and was patting herself on the back until she saw Aaron holding a dead Ingress by the throat and tossing his smoking corpse to the side like garbage. "Get together girl. This is the same guy who constantly saves our asses. I just wish...he didn't have to grow up so fast" Julia muttered to herself. "Julia, we need to hit the next AA gun" a computerized voice said. "Understood Anna" Julia said back to her OS.
It was dangerous work but eventually they cleared the pass of its defenses. Now the main forces could advance. "So far so good. 37 Ingress down" Aaron said. "Yeah and 2,950 plus to go" Sarah said. "At least we can get some air support. Radio the General and tell him to bring in the next Valkyrie and shadow squadrons" Aaron said. The call went out but Longstreet radioed that it will be some time before air support could arrive. Now it was time to charge the enemy base in full force.
It was recorded in history later that in the first 5 minutes of the forces exiting the passes, the human death toll was over 6,000. The crossfire was enormous. Keep in mind one plasma bolt could kill 10 people. The STRIKE teams pushed forward as best as possible. A stratagem they used was to have the first line charge their positron cannons and fire at the enemy. When that was done, the second line took point and fired as well. A rotating line of fire was cutting down the enemy while at the same time mitigated damage from enemy fire. It worked well until the enemy used their plasma cannons and grenades. From as far as 20 miles away, one could see the blue flashes and mushroom clouds.
Aaron jumped into the fray swinging his sword like some mechanical samurai. He sliced down his targets and more than once had to think of shaking his head to shake off the blood splatter on the cameras. Then a powerful blast hit his back. "Shields down to 64%" Sarah said. He turned around to see a young girl no older than 14. She gripped cannon almost bigger than she was. If she was properly trained and had charged the cannon like she was taught, Aaron would be dead. Aaron growled and lunged at her. He knocked the cannon from her and held the sword to neck. He could see her tears streaming from eyes that begged him not to kill her. A flash of memory hurt Aaron's head. He thought about sparing her until he saw a STRIKE get blown to smithereens. He closed his eyes and pulled the blade to the right. He couldn't see it but he could hear her flesh cut open and the wet gurgle that came from her mouth.
Sarah said nothing but knew through their uplink that Aaron was fighting a panic attack. His blood pressure and pulse were elevated beyond what one would expect from combat high. "I'm fine" he said quietly knowing Sarah was unusually quiet. Aaron looked around. Everything moved so slowly to him. The ground was littered with debris, bodies, and ashes and scorched bones of humans. "Enough...ENOUGH!" he screamed taking to the air. Aaron spread his arms like he was flying and with manic eyes locked onto 12 targets. "Go BITS! STRIKE THEM!" he screamed.
They flew off his back and fired on the targets. A pilot desperately firing at the enemy hoping the next shot doesn't pierce his compromised armor saw a blue beam burn right through the giantess bearing down on him. He looked up to see Aaron's black STRIKE X hovering over them, his thrusters' glowing exhaust looking like wings. "The angel of death" he muttered. Aaron's rampage didn't end there. He fired charged shots at an advancing Ingress squad and then blasted an incoming shuttle with his positron cannon. His rage was broken by a sight on the ground. It was the woman who assaulted his wife and doubted his commitment. She was lying on the ground injured badly. A wound on her side was bleeding profusely. He used Sarah's sensors and saw she had a thready pulse and her blood pressure was crashing.
Aaron landed next to her. "You come to kill me because of what I said?" she asked weakly. "This is going to hurt" Aaron said aiming a plasma cannon at her. She yelped at the pain. "This is the end for me. I knew he couldn't be trusted" she said to herself. Just then she felt herself being lifted into his arms. "That low intensity beam should have cauterized the wound and stopped the bleeding. I need to take you to the medics though" Aaron said. Aaron jetted into the air and flew back to the mobile HQ. "Why are you doing this? Out of pity or to prove something?" the giantess asked weakly. "No, even though you did say some things that were out of line, I don't think you should die for it. Besides, you are a fellow soldier and we look after our own" Aaron said to her. The giantess said nothing else for the short ride. She was glad the wind blew away her tears when she felt the shame of how she acted.
Aaron dropped her off and got a call from Longstreet. "Yes General?" Aaron asked. "We need you to escort the incoming air strike. Frankly this battle isn't going well and we need them to deliver their packages" Longstreet replied. "How bad is it General?" Aaron asked. "We've lost over 29,000 troops and 56 Ingress so far and we can only confirm 400 or so enemy kills. For every one we kill, we lose 200" Longstreet said. "Sir, we need to bring in our shuttles. We can't hold them out for the attack on the pillars" Aaron said. "I agree. That's why they will be coming in behind you after the initial attack run" Longstreet said. "Roger General. Give me the coordinates" Aaron said.
Aaron received the coordinates and flew to the location. He found them on radar closing fast. 5 shadow drones, 7 Valkyries, and 4 Ingress friendly shuttles on hot approach. "No others?" Aaron asked. "This is all we have. We've lost so many fleets and bases in the beginning of the war our air forces are barely 20% of what they used to be. All the rest of the fighters and drones are deployed to support evacuations around the world" Sarah said. Aaron grunted. "Patch me in to them. Attention strike teams. Our targets are the second defense line. Me and the drones will go in at treetop level to avoid any AA still out there. The shuttles will use long range cannon fire to distract the enemy while the Valkyries will take out survivors. Get ready to for the attack run in 4 minutes. Patch me into our forces in the second line Sarah. All forces in the second defense line are to fall back immediately. Repeat fall back!" Aaron shouted.
3 1/2 minutes later, Aaron had Sarah link up with the drones. They zipped past the first line as the people below watched and then shot 10,000 ft. up and dove hard. An AA gun fired away at them but with an adaptive mind like Aaron and a precise mind like Sarah guiding them, they were dogging the fire with precision corkscrew turns while staying on target. "FIRE!" Aaron shouted. Each drone fired its missile as Aaron and the drones turned away to escape the blasts. Aaron watched the rear camera and within seconds, each missile airbursted. Five 20 kiloton explosions incinerated the second line. Aaron's machine shook from the concussive blast. Everyone waited, and I mean everyone, waited for the smoke and mushroom clouds to dissipate.
"Go Valkyries! Strafe the area!" Aaron yelled. The planes dove down and began firing a miniaturized version of a plasma vulcan at the ground. They couldn't see what they were firing at but not one cared. Each one thought it was payback for Tracer squadron. The planes pulled up finishing their run. 10 minutes later the smoke had cleared for everyone to see. The second line had fallen. "Fuck me that's a lot on Ingress" Aaron said looking at the charred skeletons and bodies. “I’m reading over 200 Ingress bodies down there. I think that qualifies as a shitload Aaron" Sarah said equally surprised. "Alright, we need to push into the third line. We take it out and we can get to the pillars and the Ark. What resources we still got?" Aaron asked. "One moment. Linking up with the battle net. We got about 3 more antimatter warheads left, 6 shuttles including the ones we got under your command, 58% of the STRIKE's are still alive, we're down to 112,000 troops, 309 Ingress, and 388 tanks" Sarah said.
"So we've lost almost half our forces and we've got another defense line to crack before we hit their main forces" Aaron said. "Don't forget we've used our trump card. If we hadn't lost those drones in the beginning..." Sarah said. " I know. If I find that traitor..." Aaron said clenching his teeth. "Aaron I got an idea but it's a crazy one" Sarah said. "If it's crazy it'll probably work. What is it?" Aaron asked. Sarah explained her idea. "You're right. That's batshit crazy...and I love it. How long will it take?" Aaron asked. "They will be in position on about... 22 minutes" Sarah said. "Understood. Contact the Stray Dogs. Have them meet us here. We need to take out any AA inside the third line for this to work.
"So let me get this straight. We need to clear the AA here in 15 minutes and then run like hell?!" Chen asked. "Yep. Trust me you don't wanna be here in 15 minutes" Aaron said. "What happens in 15 minutes?" Jack asked. "A surprise. You like surprises right kiddo?" Aaron asked the boy. "This better be a good surprise. We're getting our asses handed to us out there" Rex said. "Oh I can promise you it will be good. Did you find them Sarah?" Aaron said. "Took some looking but I found them. They're on their way" Sarah said.
The team split up to take out the AA. The Ingress wondered why the enemy avoided them and went only for the AA teams. They acted like time was of the essence. Was it desperation or something else they wondered. 15 minutes was soon approaching. "To all forces withdraw from the third line!" Aaron shouted. Longstreet beeped in. "What do you catch yourself doing son! No order of retreat was given!" Longstreet yelled. "Trust me on this General. This area is going to see some rain in about 5 minutes" Aaron said. The way he smiled told Longstreet that Aaron wasn't withdrawing due to cowardice to trauma. The teen had a plan.
"Alright, everyone's clear" Aaron said. "And not a moment too soon. Here comes the first few" Sarah said. The enemy Ingress heard tiny sonic booms overhead before a group of fireballs their size of their heads slammed into their location. The blasts shook the area. "Here comes a few more" Sarah said. More fireballs but bigger struck the third line randomly. "And the final one. The big daddy of them all" Sarah said. A fireball the size of a small house pummeled the third line. The mushroom shaped dust cloud rose into the air.
"What we looking at?" Aaron asked. "The plan worked. We took out half their forces in their third line!" Sarah said. "Can't believe that plan worked! De-orbiting abandoned satellites and crashing them here! What was that last one? It was fuckin' huge" Aaron asked. "That one was the Hubble Telescope" Sarah said. "THE Hubble!? You dropped a historic satellite on them?! That is fuckin' boss!" Aaron yelled. "Well nobody's been using it since 2057. Might as well put it into some use" Sarah said.
(Author's note: The Hubble Telescope is scheduled to fall back to Earth around 2030 or so. So let's just say for the sake of the story NASA decides to use it some more than previously planned ^_^)
"Can you do that again?" Aaron asked. "Not in the time we got. We got less than 4 hours before they can launch" Sarah replied. "Fine we do this the hard way. All forces push into the third line! Take them out before they can recover!" Aaron ordered. The surviving forces swarmed the third line and overwhelmed the shell shocked Ingress. In less than an hour, the third line had fallen. "We took the third line sir. Ready to proceed to the main objective" Aaron told Longstreet. "Excellent job Captain. Your crazy stunt gave us some breathing room. We're down to half our forces but so are they. Be careful son. Reports put the enemy strength there at nearly 1500" Longstreet said. "...yes sir" Aaron said.
Weary and tired, the Union forces made their way to the spaceport where the Ark was getting ready to launch. "Empress, the third line has fallen. The enemy has reached our area!" a solder yelled. "Form a defensive line around the launch platforms. Defend them at any cost! Can we use our defense turrets?" the Empress asked. "No ma'am! We need all available power to shields, engines, and gravity control!" the engineer replied. "Curses! These fools are getting too close! We should have crushed them by now!" the Empress yelled. "They are being led by the Black Demon armor!" the comm officer said. "Him again?! That human cost me a valuable base and spread insurrection throughout my people! Send some elites to deal with him personally!" the Empress yelled.
The Union forces pushed into the spaceport. The Ark sat there on its rear in a launch position. Encircling it was the spaceport's launch pillars. A steady hum of magnetic generators could be heard. The fight was fierce. The enemy didn't hold back their ferocity. They weren't armed with plasma cannons or grenades for fear of damaging a pillar but what they lacked in firepower was made up by sheer tenacity. Some of the Ingress would abandon using weapons and relied on brute force. They would kick over tanks or crush others with their giant feet. A few, hungry from fighting would feast on a random soldier. Jack watched the fighting and became afraid at what he saw. He watched a man beg for his life as a giantess ripped his clothes from his body and toss him into her mouth. He watched her crunch away his life and the bloody drool seep from her lips. "Don't look Jack" Deborah said changing the screen. Jack's breath quickened. Deborah thought the boy was going to have a panic attack.
"Give me control Deborah" Jack said. "But Jack..." "NOW!" Jack yelled. Jack took over on the controls and flew right at the murdering giantess. Jack punched her in the face at over 200 mph. "That hurt you fucking-" she yelled before his small fist lodged in her mouth. "Eat this" Jack said pulling the trigger. The bolt burned right through the back of her head like it was butter. Her eyes, frozen in death, were locked in terror. "Another! I want another!" Jack yelled. Deborah was afraid this might happen. The child had snapped under the trauma. Jack was running up to the enemy and shooting them in crueler ways as the time ticked by. He would blow off an arm or leg and let them bleed out in the beginning. Later on though, he would shoot one in the ass and laugh or find a wounded Ingress to torment by cutting off their limbs. He was like a child pulling the wings off an insect.
Deborah put a stop to it later when Rex noticing his odd behavior went to check on him. "You okay kid" Rex said coming closer. Jack turned to face him and fired a cannon burst. Rex barely had time to dodge it. "Calm down kid it's me Rex!" he shouted throwing his arms up. Jack pulled the trigger in his manic state and saw nothing happened. "No! Fire! FIRE!" he said pulling the trigger. "I disabled the controls" Deborah said in a weeping voice. "Why! He's the enemy!" Jack yelled. He was so drunk on bloodlust and trauma he saw anyone over 10 ft. tall as an enemy. "Captain. Jack Akers and Deborah are unable to continue the mission. Withdrawing to HQ" Deborah said to Aaron. "...understood" Aaron replied. Deborah began to fly back while Jack kept shouting for her not to leave. "I have to kill more giants! I have to kill more giants!" he screamed. Deborah said nothing but wept digital tears.
Aaron didn't want to lose them. He had his hands full leading the fight. The enemy made them pay for every square foot of territory. Loses mounted as they pushed forward. Friendly shuttles were sent in to lend fire support which they did as long as they could before taking too much damage. The Valkyrie squadron was eventually shot down. Their leader me a grisly fate.
Flight commander Kyoko Fujiwara at age 23 was just 4 months out of the flight academy in Okinawa. She had the hard luck of seeing her friends she graduated with shot down one by one over the course of the war. And like any war, the fastest way to get a promotion was by your commanding officer being killed in the line of duty. She felt honored to part of the strike force that would stop Project Baikonur. The rush of gunning down the enemy inside the second and third lines coursed through her body. That rush disappeared though when her wingmates were shot down one by one. Now it was just her. Kyoko rolled and dodged trying to avoid the fire but was hit. Her wing gone, the jet spun out of control. She desperately reached for the eject handle and pulled it.
Her canopy popped off and she was thrusted into the air. Kyoko was relived to be free of the doomed plane but her relief turned to sheer terror when she saw an Ingress woman holding her mouth open. Kyoko yanked desperately on her control lines on her parachute to no avail. She screamed in Japanese as she drifted into the giantess' awaiting mouth. The giantess closed her mouth cutting off the screams. The parachute draped over her chin. The giantess ripped the parachute free and held it. Then she began to chew. She made exaggerated chews to get through her uniform. Kyoko was screaming every time those horrible teeth came down on her until one of those teeth cane down on her head.
Now all the sounds from her mouth were crunches and squelches of meat. Ground to a paste, the giantess swallowed her Japanese meal. The giantess frowned feeling something in her mouth and reached in with a finger. She pulled out a bloody boot and flicked it away. She licked her teeth to see if anything else was there. Satisfied there wasn't, she used the parachute in her hand as a handkerchief to swab away the human blood on her lips. Her enjoyment of her meal was short lived when a headshot from Balthus' sniper rifle splattered her brains all over the pavement. "That's another down! Sir, I think I can clear a path for you!" Balthus yelled over the comm. "Roger that!" Aaron said.
Aaron began running toward a launch pillar. Rows of enemy Ingress blocked his path. Balthus took aim and fired. Aaron, confident in his teammate didn't try to dodge anyone. He just watched them get sniped as he passed them. It wasn't easy for Balthus. He had been pulling that trigger so many times he was developing a blister on his index finger. "Ignore the pain. Keep firing" he told himself. Aaron saw his target in sight and began charging his positron cannon. Those 15 seconds seemed like forever to Aaron as he watched the charge percent counter rise. When it hit 100% he took aim at a pillar and fired. The red beam shot out of the cannon. The red flash blinded the enemy Ingress who could do nothing to stop it.
The beam hit its target and blew the launch pillar in half. "We lost a pillar! EM field down to 90%!" an engineer on the bridge yelled. "Can we still launch?!" the Empress yelled. "Yes but it can't fall under 70%! After that we won't have enlightened thrust to break the atmosphere!" the engineer replied. "Alright, that’s one down" Aaron said. "And that will be the only one you destroy black demon. Isn't that right dear sister?" a voice behind him asked. "Indeed dear sister" another voice replied.
Aaron turned to see two Ingress women standing nearby. Both looked the same with caramel colored skin and black hair. Aaron guessed they were twins seeing how alike they looked. They were at most 20 years old but what struck him were their eyes. Gas blue eyes that seemed to burn with malice. Aaron tensed up. That stance they took and that uniform. They were Elites! "This isn't good Aaron. We barely beat the last one and this time it's two at once!" Sarah said. "Don't worry Sarah. I've gotten considerably better since last time. Aaron mimicked their stance and with a smug tone told them to "bring it". "Foolish human! You think you can imitate us by watching our fighting stance!" a twin said. "Let’s show this human that experience means everything" the other twin said.
Both of them charged Aaron with short swords. Aaron didn't move till the last second. He used his left hand and palm struck a twin in the chin. Her momentum sent her sprawling into the ground. The other twin was hit in the face with a roundhouse kick. Both twins nursed their hurt faces. "You know what the biggest problem is with you Ingress? Other than the slow to adapt part. The problem is the arrogance. Your arrogance made you assume that because I am human I would be weak. Didn't even cross your minds that I might have learned you fighting style. Well let me clue you in on something. Humans are far from weak. We can kill with the best of them. Now get up! I got shit to do and people to kill and you're wasting my time!" Aaron yelled.
The two giantesses' stood up. The one struck with his palm spit blood and the other crooned her neck to straighten it out from the kick. "Sister, this one will be a challenge. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" one twin asked. "Yes sister, finally a worthy opponent" the other replied. It became a dance more than a street fight. Dodging sword swipes and parries every second. Aaron would maneuver into a killing strike only to have her sister distract him. Aaron tried unit every bit of downloaded combat data from the Ingress Elite he fought in D.C.
He tried to blind fire his cannons hoping to get a hit. Eventually he got lucky and with a foot swipe knocked one on her back. He used his sword to parry the other sister. He quickly fired on the giantess on the ground. Aaron was stunned to see she wasn't harmed. The giantess used his confusion to his advantage and quickly pulled out her pistol and fired it. The bolts hit his shield and made him stagger back. "What was it you said about us being slow to adapt? You didn't think we wouldn't improve our shield to withstand plasma fire did you? We're wearing the newest prototype shield system. Soon they will be mass produced and your greatest advantage will be gone!" the giantess twin laughed.
Aaron's confidence was dropping. His weapons could pierce their shields and the positron cannon took too long to charge. Their teamwork was incredible. One knew exactly what the other would do and move into position or attack a certain way. Rex nearby saw what was happening and rushed to help Aaron. Aaron kept busy trying to avoid shots and sword swipes. He watched as his shield drained. Aaron began to sweat when he saw it drop to 52%. Rex yelled as he ran into the fray firing a small plasma machine gun. The weak shots impacting a twins shield. The shots were weak indeed but a few hundred per second added up. Aaron watched the giantess look at her wrist. It dawned on him that she was reading her shield strength. Whatever improvements they made to their shields, it could still be collapsed with enough hits.
"Traitorous male!" the giantess yelled reaching into her boot. She took out a small throwing dagger and threw it right at Rex's head. *PING!* Rex having his eyes closed opened them too see that he was still alive. Aaron's sword was in front of his head. "No one else dies on my team. NO ONE ELSE!" Aaron swore. Aaron got the bright idea to use his auto cannons on their feet. He wanted to cripple them but their steel toe boots prevented that. It did cause something funny to happen. Both twins yelped in pain and tugged off their boots. The steel toe plates had been bent from the hits to the point it painfully squeezed their toes. Now stood two Ingress Elites barefoot trying not to pivot on their toes.
"Ooh...I bet that hurt. If you're nice I bet Rex here will kiss them and make them better" Aaron laughed. "No way man. I like my Chen's feet better and besides she would get jealous" Rex laughed. "You think this is funny! My sister will use the traitor as a foot slave and you I will use your ribcage as a toe rig!" the giantess yelled.
Aaron was hoping to enrage the two. Anger clouds judgment and makes you forget training and that's what happened. Their teamwork was broken. Each one attacked Aaron and Rex randomly. Rex used his plasma machine gun to parry a strike and get a shot off in return while Aaron's hits got closer and closer. You'd be surprised how much you use your toes to turn when you walk. The twins’ movements got slower and more unfocused as the pain intensified. The fight had been going on for 10 long minutes until a twin made a fatal mistake. One lunged with her sword and was blocked but when she naturally fell back she stepped on a sharp piece of concrete.
The pain shot up her leg and stopped her long enough to let Aaron's sword to slice off her arm. She screamed in pain as her limb fell to the ground. Aaron ended her screams by impaling her with his blade. The giantess looked down seeing the colossal blade going in the front and feeling it exiting from her back. Aaron pushed on her shoulder and she slid off his blade. Her wound gushed blood for a few moments till her heart stopped. The twin was dead. "NOOOOO!" her sister screamed.
The two sisters were inseparable. They grew up together and even entered the academy together. It was their dream come true when they both became Elites. Now their dream was ended by a blade held by a machine piloted by a human. She kept screaming as she pushed Rex aside and charged Aaron. Her savagery drowned out any pain in her feet. Her blows were stronger than ever before. Aaron was being pushed back and now he had another problem. "Aaron the sword is cracking! It can't take this kind of abuse!" Sarah said. "Sarah upload the combat data for the last 10 minutes!" Aaron shouted. "But we don't have time!" Sarah yelled. "Force upload! Don't compress the data. DO IT NOW!" Aaron yelled. Sarah did as she was told and uploaded the raw data. Aaron nearly had a seizure. His brain was bombarded with gigabytes of data in less than two seconds.
Aaron wiped the blood from his nose and smiled. "Download complete" he said. Aaron's fighting stance changed and he went on the offensive. The giantess blocked his attacks but soon realized what was happening. "No it can't be! That my sisters fighting style! IT CAN'T BE!" she shouted. Aaron used all the STRIKE X's might and struck downward with his sword. Her sword shattered and his blade sunk right into her skull. "Very much possible" Aaron said trying to pry his blade from her head. It surprised and grossed them out when his blade broke off in her skull. "Over already?" Rex asked sarcastically. "She had a lot on her mind. Come on. We have 9 more pillars to destroy" Aaron said.
As the battle wore on, the army attacked in a clockwise pattern taking out any opposition. Aaron fired away at another pillar eventually taking it out. "We need to launch now!" the Empress said. "If we do we won't be in position to attack the entire hemisphere! We're still charging the pillars!" the engineer said. "Is it enough to get into space or not?!" the Empress yelled. "Barely" the engineer replied. "THEN DO IT!" she ordered.
The entire spaceport shook from the roar of the Ark's engines. "Shit they're taking off already!" Aaron yelled. The pillars made a loud hum and a burst of power shot along the pillar ramp. People could only watch helplessly as the Ark flew up into the sky. "We have to go after it!" Aaron yelled. "With what?! We can't take that out with just what we got and we've used up our air support and antimatter missiles!" Sarah yelled. Aaron could only watch the huge ship climb past the clouds. "Guess it's up to our space forces now"
"Captain! We got confirmation that the Ark has launched!" the comm officer said. "Damn...sound General Quarters! Alert the fleet!" the Captain of the Trafalgar said. "Sir I got the Ark on satellite telemetry! She's climbing out of the atmosphere" the sensor officer said. "Tell me when we got a firing solution" the Captain said.
"Empress, we have left the planet's atmosphere and continuing to climb. We will use the gravity well to sling shot out of it and proceed to the colonies" the navigation officer said. "Can we fire on any targets?" the Empress asked. "We can only operate 3 turrets but we can proceed with target elimination in 5 minutes" the weapons officer said. The empress smiled seeing her plan come to fruition.
4 minutes later…
“Captain, we have a firing solution on the Ark!” the weapons officer said. “Fire all positron torpedoes! Repeat all of them!” the Captain yelled. All 4 ships fired its full complement of torpedoes. 32 weapons of mass destruction streaked to their target. “Torpedoes away! Impact in 2 minutes!” the weapons officer yelled. “Captain! Energy spike coming from the Ark! I believe she’s charging her turrets!” the sensor officer yelled. “Tell the fleet to evade!” the Captain yelled.
“Charging turrets! Ready to fire in one minute!” the weapons officer said. “Can’t you do it faster?!” the impatient Empress asked. “I’m cutting corners already by borrowing power from the shields! Anything more and we might fall back to Earth!” the weapons officer replied.
30 seconds later…
“Ellie contact my mom right now!” Chen yelled. “One moment. Got her” the OS said. “Mom? Mom you need to leave the city right now!” Chen yelled. “We are honey! We’re taking off in a transport now. Is something wrong?” her mother asked. Chen began crying.
22 seconds later…
“Charge complete! Locking on to targets in our firing arc. Beijing locked. Shanghai locked. Seoul locked” the weapons officer said. “FIRE!” the Empress yelled. The Ark fired its deadly weapons and three beams of pure death raced down to the surface.
3 seconds later…
“Honey I can’t understand you when you cry like that. What didn’t work? Ahhh! What is that bright light?!” she asked before the screen cut off with a “call terminated due to atmospheric disturbance” indicator. Chen knew what had happened. She sobbed in the cockpit.
“oh my god” an officer on the bride said to herself. The blasts were so intense; one could see them from orbit. In the blink of an eye, 30 megaton blasts wiped the cites off the map. “Direct hit to the Ark! She’s listing!” a sensor officer said.
“Damage report! I said damage report!” the Empress said. Multiple hits to our shields! Shield power is down to 20% Damage to ventral side! We’re venting atmosphere!” The engineer said. “It was your job to make sure the area was clear!” the Empress said pointing her pistol at the sensor officer. “It’s not my fault Empress1 They came from the poles of this planet! Hidden by the magnetic fields!” she said before being shot. “And you! Why didn’t the shields protect the ventral side of the ship!?” the enraged Empress said pointing her pistol at the weapons officer. “Forgiveness ma’am but you told me to increase the speed of the charge. I borrowed the energy from the shields. It must have left a gap in the ventral section” the weapons officer said. The Empress realized that the damage was her fault due to her impatience. “Plot a firing solution from the weapon’s trajectories!” the Empress said.
The weapons officer punched in the data and got a firing solution. Before she could fire the ship listed again but hard. “Empress! We’re losing engine power! Reactor 3 and 7 are offline! We’re falling back to Earth!” the engineer said. “Any way to reroute power?!” the Empress asked. “No ma’am! The functioning reactors are already running past the safety limits! We need all available power left to keep the shields up to protect us from the atmospheric drag!” the engineer said. The Empress just sat in her chair cursing her luck. “All hands prepare for emergency landing” the Empress said.
The Ark fell out of the sky like a burning mountain. The engineer and helmsman desperately boosting power to shields and engines to slow their fall as they split the sky in a fire trail 20 miles long. People all over southern Asia saw a line of fire in the sky and heard a low sonic boom. A village 20 miles from Osaka felt the ground shake. Everyone thought it was an earthquake till a massive boom was heard. People rushed out of their homes to see the source of the sound. Out in the distance, they saw a fireball literally crush a mountain out of existence. The entire prefecture was demolished by the city sized ship crashing into the Earth. The survivors knew not what had happened but later on would.
“Status?” the Empress asked picking herself off the floor. “Moderate damage to hull. We lost another turret. Engines are severely damaged. Shields are offline but can be restored” the engineer said. “When can we start moving again?” the Empress asked. “Weeks if not months. No telling what the hull look like underneath. It might be sooner if we get help from the homeworld” the engineer said. “Make preparations for the damage teams. Weapons officer, set up a perimeter around the ship. Navigation officer, check on the crew. Helmsman, get that incompetent piece of shit off my bridge” she said pointing to the dead sensor officer.
It was near the end of the day. Back at Baikonur, the battle was over. Out of the 3000 Ingress who fought, 2,880 were dead. The others surrendered. The Union forces losses were staggering. The losses were over 70%. Historians would come to call the Battle of Baikonur a pyrrhic victory. “At least our squad survived with no casualties” Sarah said trying to cheer up Aaron. “Yeah we might be the only one” Aaron said. Aaron got out of his machine and headed to Longstreet for a debrief. He happened to walk in on a holo-conference between him and his superiors in Main HQ.
“We got reports of it touching down hard in northern Japan” a man said. “Any word on how much damage it sustained?” Longstreet asked. “The Trafalgar reports multiple hull breaches before it fell. Given its size and speed, we presume it crashed intact but with significant enough damage that it won’t fly away any time soon. I’ve been told you have a team on their homeworld doing some hit and run missions. I need you to make sure they stop any help from coming to their aid” the man said. “Yes sir. I’ll contact them immediately” Longstreet said saluting before cutting the comm.
“You wished to see me sir?” Aaron asked. “Yes Captain. I plan to put you in charge of forming a siege plan but first secure the prisoners. That won’t be a problem will it?” Longstreet asked. “…no sir” Aaron answered. “Good, now I need to contact the Gremlins. They got a job they need to do. That will be all Captain” Longstreet said dismissing Aaron.