The Long War (Total Annihilation/Multicross)

[Kyros]

This is a fanfic that follows the Arm commander in the final days of the war and also throughout the Core Contingency. I love Total Annihilation, and I wanted to write this in a way that brought the setting to life, with inspiration from Neal Asher's writing style and from the stories that were written by Fusou, Drich, Gideon020, Faith, and torroar (which were excellent)

Constructive feedback is always appreciated! I'm always looking for ways to improve my writing, so let me know what you think

Being Really descriptive is actually kinda challenging, it turns out. Like, how the heck do you describe a PeeWee in a satisfactory manner to someone who's never seen one?!

I'm gonna have a lot of time to infodump how tech works and how units look, move, and sound, since the missions ingame only slowly give access to all the units. I'll put that down to ROB bullshit maybe or try to integrate it as escalating warfare, who knows.

As far as "multicross" goes, we wont be crossing into any other universes for a long time. {however, as an FYI} I am using the excellent Total Annihilation: Escalation mod as the base point for what units are available and also all the gameplay changes that mod made. Unfortunately, a majority of those units aren't available in the campaign (without modifying the game files), even though you can play the campaign with the mod installed (with the balancing changes made to vanilla units)
However, I think I can take some "creative liberties" as long as I stay true to the original story, which is my aim.

(spoiler: it ruins the campaign if you enable all the units for all the missions lol, I've done it and its fun, but it kinda takes the challenge away)

Also, I'm scaling up the ranges to more realistic lengths, and sizes relative to the trees ingame (so no 50 meter tall commander, because he's not)

Also I can't format to save my life, so, sorry. Read it on the phone, its what I do lol (Maybe it'll look better)

(Disclaimer: I own nothing, and am doing this for fun)


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Chapter 1

What began as a conflict over the transfer of consciousness from flesh to machines has escalated into a war which has decimated over a million inhabited worlds. The Core and the Arm have all but exhausted the resources of a galaxy in their struggle for domination. Both sides now crippled beyond repair, the remnants of their armies continue to battle on ravaged planets, their hatred fueled by over four thousand years of total war. This is a fight to the death. For each side, the only acceptable outcome is the complete elimination of the other.

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Mission One
It was near the end of the war, and after four thousand years, the Core Empire stood on the brink of total victory over the Arm Rebellion. Arm forces throughout the galaxy were overwhelmed by the superior numbers and firepower of the ruthless Core. Their bid for freedom nearly lost, the battered remnants of the Arm military clustered in the single star system which contained its home world, Empyrrean. Empyrrean too would have fallen, were it not for the skill of the sole surviving Arm Commander. A shrewd tactician and resourceful warrior, the commander took advantage of the system's relative isolation and was able to keep the enemy at bay. Arm troops weathered wave after wave of Core attacks, and it seemed as if they would be able to do so indefinitely. The stalemate ended when a small Core insertion team managed to slip through planetary defenses and establish the last of a chain of space-folding galactic gates which lead directly to the surface of Empyrrean. A decoy engagement was staged at the Arm outpost on the outer planet of Calibran in order to lure the Commander away from Empyrrean, leaving the planet virtually defenseless. The invasion began.

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MISSION.10001ARME

ESTABLISH A GUARD DETAIL AROUND THE GALACTIC GATE
*PRIORITY CRITICAL*
Core agents have somehow breached our security and are on Empyrrean. Worse yet, the Commander is off planet and the Core waits in ambush near the gate through which he must return. Take your units to the gate and secure it. Our commander must return safely or we are lost.

INFO FEED
The Gate is located in the crater to the north. Expect Core patrols.

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Empyrrean
Empyrrean is a sparkling Temperate world covered in thick prairies and open forests. It is the home world of the ARM Rebellion, one of the two factions in the Great War, and it reflects the retainment of nature that the ARM sought in its rebellion against the CORE Empire. Empyrrean itself is covered from pole to pole in wide oceans and long, thin continents. It has no deserts and small polar regions.

Empyrrean is not an artificial world like Core Prime but owing to the nature of the ARM, this actually benefits them. Spider nerve cells from the Empyrrean biosphere were no doubt instrumental in the creation of the Spider tanks, which can often paralyze whole squadrons and allow much smaller arm squadrons to destroy them with ease. Empyrrean's oceans are also used in the most desperate of times to provide ARM forces with water. Empyrrean also has reserves of metal and geothermal resources at its disposal, although these are never likely to be exploited by the ARM the extent that other planets, such as Barathrum, have been. In crisis cases, however, the appearance of mines and geothermal power plants across battlefields is a common sight.

With lush, rolling green hills and trees covering the landscape, Empyrrean is truly one of the last pristine "living" planets left in the galaxy. Most of the bio-organisms on the planet are adapted varieties from Old Terra and many native varieties of grass, bushes, and trees grow wild throughout the land. The planet's atmosphere and soil are as close to Terra's own as the Arm's terraforming efforts could get them. Empyrrean's landmass was different from Old Terra's though, with many smaller continents spread throughout the globe, instead of several large ones. It also had only fifty percent water to land, as opposed to Old Terra's seventy percent.

Empyrrean's name means Heavenly Rose, and it is truly one of the last paradise worlds left in a galaxy torn apart by four thousand years of total, brutal war. Sprawling, beautiful high-tech cities cover parts of the landscape, and the rest is untouched wilderness, with only a few homesteads spread throughout the land. Since the ARM is a post-scarcity society, it is not necessary for them to exploit the natural resources that make this planet so beautiful. Thus, the natural beauty of the planet is preserved, in remembrance of what the ARM is fighting for: The preservation of all biological life in the galaxy.


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The valley was a beautiful sight in the late spring sun. Brightly colored butterflies and other insects fluttered and buzzed around flowers of deep blue and vivid yellow that grew among the grass. Stately coniferous trees gently swayed in the soft breeze. A small herd of deer grazed placidly at the undergrowth, enjoying the taste of new spring shoots. Suddenly, their ears perked up, and, in unison, their heads came up as they peered into the forest. Muffled rumbling of metal tracks and heavy percussive thuds, though faint in the distance, grew louder and heavier, coming towards them. Tremors shook the ground and caused leaves to tremble in the vegetation all around them. Engines whined in the distance, and they were growing louder. Startled, the deer bolted away, tails flashing white in alarm. With the crackling, grinding noise of bushes being crushed beneath the treads of eighty tons of ultra-dense alloys, the blocky, angular shape of a Stumpy medium assault tank burst through the trees, its engine roaring. Dirt and detritus flew from behind its quickly spinning treads. The tank, low and menacing, came to a stop in the middle of a clearing, and waited, its fusion engine purring softly. Its gunmetal grey and blue armor shone dully in the midday sun. Its turret, with a 200 millimeter heavy plasma cannon offset to one side and a sensors and targeting suite on the front, swiveled slowly from side to side, searching for targets.

Several more metal beasts broke through the underbrush and formed up around the first tank. Their bipedal shapes of different designs, all around ten meters tall, stomped into the clearing, shaking the ground with their passage as they took positions around the first tank. Three more tanks crashed into the clearing, engines roaring as they took their positions behind the mechs. Two fast wheeled vehicles, shaped like dune buggys with huge tires and a small laser turret on the roof of their low, sharp-cornered bodies, roared into the area as well, spinning around the main body of massive machines as they took up positions in front of the main group of machines. The group came to a stop, waiting.

Colonel Nicholas Coldren sighed. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. Another metalhead hunt, except this time, the bastards were on the home world. He had been awoken from sleep by the wail of sirens and alert klaxons. Somehow, those frigging tin cans had made it to the surface. CORE was here. On Empyrrean! Well, he'd be damned if he'd leave them time to set up some kind of planetary beachhead. This is what the Empyrrean Defence Forces had been created for!

He was a first responder, trained and ready for just this situation. It was his (and his brothers-in-arms) job to stop those bastards cold if they ever made landfall. Him and his AI battle units. Sure he wasn't a real commander, and sure, he had to actually ride along in his own bloody battle tank, but screw it, this wasn't good old days where there was a commander for every planet (and then some). Be that as it may, he had a fairly powerful skirmish group under his command. Scout vehicles, tanks, infantry Kbots, Rocket Kbots, and even an Artillery Kbot! What more could a Colonel of the glorious Arm Forces ever ask for? Except for his own Commander Chassis. Oh well, dreams could be dreams.

Even if his Stumpy was destroyed and he was killed, his units would fight on to the death, following their last orders, or, failing that, they would return to base and try to link up with another skirmish group. They were very capable fighters on their own, but his job was to be the human mind in command, that extra little bit of intuition and creativity that could be useful in a complicated situation. At least, that was the idea.

His thoughts were interrupted by the twitter of his communicator. "Colonel, is your group in position?"

"Yes, Command. I'm five klicks out from the AO, and on the move. Scanning for hostiles."

"Excellent. And remember, the Core CANNOT be allowed to control this zone! We must secure it for the Commander's return. He's on his way back. Kick some tin can ass out there!"

"Copy that, Command. I'm moving out."

His communicator clicked an acknowledgment and he looked at his sensor readout and frowned. So far, nothing was showing up. He knew that wouldn't last long, not if the intel pukes were correct, which he didn't doubt. His wasn't the only skirmish group on the move, and Command wouldn't have scrambled so many if they weren't sure. Several Arm units had been lost in this area, and he wasn't about to take chances. The crater with the gate was at the end of this valley, and he had to get there and secure it.

He ordered his units to move out. His five PeeWees took the lead, flanked by his Jeffy scout cars. The ten meter tall infantry bots moved forward at his command, their EMG's at the ready. The Jeffys began to move out, their tires throwing up dirt and debris as they shot forward. They had the best sensor suites, so they would give him early warning, should those Core units show up. No ambushes for him, thank you very much. Behind them, his three battle tanks, one Stumpy like his own, a medium assault tank with a plasma cannon, and two Flashes, light assault tanks with twin heavy EMG's, followed closely behind. The two Rocko rocket Kbots, and his Hammer, the Artillery Kbot, brought up the rear.

As they advanced through the hills, an alert came in from one of his Jeffys.

Enemy unit spotted, 2 o'clock, 2000 meters, scout class, Weasel. Request permission to engage.

He grinned tightly, and gave the order. No reason to give those fuckers any more intel than necessary.

His units oriented themselves towards the target, and began to move towards it. His PeeWees started running at full speed, trying to close the distance, since the hills restricted firing lines. His tanks started throwing dirt of their own as they began to tear their way towards the target. The Rockos and the Hammer began to jog, seeking a clear sight. The Hammer folded back its barrel covers and began to target the radar signature of the enemy Weasel.

As the distance closed, Coldren saw more signatures on the sensor map.

Five AKs, damn it! And a rocket Kbot of their own! This must have been one those damned patrols of theirs. This is gonna be a fight, for sure.

One of the Rockos got a clear line of sight on the Weasel first. An antimatter tipped rocket crossed the distance in a flash, and struck the scout vehicle on the side. The blast shattered it, sending burning debris flying in all directions. The PeeWees raised their guns and ten lines of rapid fire plasma traced towards the AKs, whose hunchbacked forms had just crested the hill five hundred meters out from their position. Laser bolts began to burn the air a lurid red between the enemy Kbots and his own as the AKs returned fire. The enemy rocket Kbot, a Storm, peeked over the hill and fired off its own rocket, blasting apart one of his Jeffys which had strayed a little too close to the enemy battle group. Coldren cursed and ordered his own units forward.

His tanks swiveled their turrets toward the enemy and began to blast the enemy with heavy fire of their own. Heavy plasma shells and fire from the EMGs tore craters into the hilltop, exploding trees and enemy Kbots alike. One of the AKs received fire from several EMGs which tore off one of its gun arms which was followed closely by a heavy plasma shell from one of his Stumpys, center mass. It exploded in yet another fiery blast of hot metal and plasma. His Rockos fired rocket after rocket, each blast crippling or destroying an AK. The Storm got off another rocket which caused heavy damage to one of his infantry bots before a hail of EMG rounds from PeeWees and Flashes alike melted its rocket pods and caused critical damage to its main body. It sagged to ground, a smoking, burning ruin. One of the heavy shells from the Hammer exploded between two AKs, crippling their legs. They were still able to return fire though, and laser bolt after laser bolt struck one his Flashes. Return fire blasted them into so much debris before they were able to destroy it, but it was heavily damaged, missing one of its heavy EMGs and most of its reactive armor. With only two AKs left, the enemy scout patrol was no match for his skirmish battle group, and they were quickly destroyed.

Coldren shook his head in irritation. Down one scout and several heavily damaged units in less than thirty seconds. Those bastards weren't going to make this easy at all. He ordered his units to move up past the burning wrecks of the enemy patrol. He wasnt finished just yet. He had a mission to accomplish, and he was damned if he was going to let these Core chipheads have a free run at Empyrrean. Fortunately they were only three kilometers from the gate, and if they could reach and secure it, the Commander could return.

They began to move up, covering ground quickly. Coldren watched the sensor map intently... There! More contacts! The scout party had definitely done its damage. It appeared as though all Core units in the area were converging on his position. His group was in a valley, with rock outcroppings jutting from the ground all around. He ordered his units to seek cover, and as they were moving to comply, the first of the enemy Kbots came into view, seven hundred meters away.

It was another AK. It began to fire as soon as it could see his group. His units fired on it as well, but it was aiming at one of his more damaged PeeWees. Burning red bolts of light lanced out from its guns and struck the PeeWee center mass, cutting through what was left of its armor. The infantry Kbot sagged, nothing more than inert metal. Return fire stitched the air with incandescent packets of plasma and blasted the enemy AK apart, but more were beginning to come into view. AKs, three more storms, and dozen weasels roared over the hill, moving in for the kill. Fiery explosions from the plasma packets fired from the main guns of the his tanks, Hammer, and PeeWees were answered by lances of coherent light which vaporized metal, soil, and plants alike. Trees exploded on both sides as the water in them was boiled in an instant. Kbots took cover behind the rocks, but even they were shattered in violent explosions from fire on both sides. Burning metal was blasted everywhere and clouds of steam billowed from vaporized plants. Antimatter tipped rockets crashed into targets, often crippling them in a single blow, and when they missed, huge gouts of dirt and rock were blasted into the air.

Coldren's Stumpy took hit after hit, but the heavier armor on his tanks was enough to turn the tide. All his tanks were heavily damaged, and one of his flashes even lost a gun to a direct hit from one of the Storm's rockets, but they held the line. He ordered his battle group to focus fire on the enemy rocket Kbots, and they quickly went down. The enemy infantry Kbots and scout vehicles soon followed in fiery death. The strike group was reduced to scrap, but at the cost of all but one of his PeeWees, and a Rocko.

Adrenaline was rushing through him, but Coldren forced that down. He had to remember the mission. The Gate. He ordered his remaining units to make a beeline towards the crater where the Gate was. There they would fort up and await the Commander's return.

They crested the lip of the crater, and Coldren breathed a sigh of relief. The gate sat there, its blocky frame covered in moss, and its transmitting and receiving dishes intact. Metal that showed through the plant cover gleamed in the sun, and the energy returns from his sensors showed that everything seemed to be optimal. The Core scouts hadn't destroyed or sabotaged the gate, at least not that he could tell. The Commander would be able to return from Calibran.

He opened communications to TacCom, "Command, we've arrived at the Gate, all hostiles in range neutralized, how copy."

"Colonel, excellent work. Maintain position and prepare to be reinforced. A heavy battle group is on route to your position. We must hold that gate at all costs. The Commander will be returning shortly. Command, out."

Coldren sat back in his chair and breathed out a sigh of relief. He checked over the damage reports from his units and was pleased to find the self repair was doing its job. His group would be fighting fit in no time at all. But this wasn't over. Not by a long shot. There was no way that those Core bastards brought such a small fighting force to the surface, not if they expected to accomplish anything. Smart of them, luring the Commander away. Coldren expected the fights to come would be vicious.

Hah! Like all the others haven't been? Someday we're going to finish this once and for all. Core prime will burn. Either that, or Empyrrean will, and those metal freaks are closer to their goal than we are. At least I won't have to be in the thick of it, when the Commander returns. Too bad about that.

 

[Kyros]

Mission Two: The Kbot Lab

Although they had managed to free the captured gate, and return their commander to Empyrrean, ARM forces continued to weather attacks by Core forces in increasing numbers. It became apparent that the Core had managed to establish a Kbot lab somewhere on Empyrrean itself, and was building an army as fast as it could.

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MISSION 2.0002ARME
*SPECIAL PRIORITY*
Core has established a Kbot lab on Empyrrean!
Remove its loathsome presence before Core strengthens its foothold on our home world!

INFO FEED
The Kbot lab is across the river to the south. Expect Core patrols.
END

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Kbots: A Primer

Kbots (Kinetic Bio-Organic Technology) are a unit type in use by both the ARM and the Core. They are generally bipedal mechs which are used in various combat, construction, and scouting roles. Their method of locomotion, legs, allows them to be more maneuverable than heavier vehicles, although they often sacrifice armor and firepower as a trade-off. Specialized artificial muscles provide the lifting and pushing power of their legs and other moving parts.

Most Kbots are bipedal, but there do exist some quadrupedal varieties, such as the infamous Sumo Advanced Armored Assault Kbot and the Fido Skirmisher Kbot. The Core Roach Mobile Bomb and Mite Scavenger Kbots are examples of six-legged Kbots.

Arm Kbot doctrine is speed and flexibility, and they have many useful Kbots at their disposal. One such is the PeeWee, a ten meter tall light infantry Kbot which carries twin Energy Machine Guns, or EMGs for short. This unit is often used as a harassment tool and scout in the early stages of an engagement, seeking out enemy metal extraction sites and energy generation plants. Some battles have been won in minutes by these diminutive bots, when an enemy Commander was unprepared for a rush by a group of them.

Other Arm Kbots include specialized varieties such as the Zeus Assault Kbot, armed with a powerful ion cannon, or lightning gun, and the Shooter Sniper Kbot, which sports a long ranged, deadly particle cannon capable of eliminating even the most heavily armored targets.

Core Kbot doctrine calls for massive firepower and heavy armor. Their advanced heavy assault groups usually consist of Armored Assault Kbots such as The Can, a waddling block of armor armed with a heavy laser turret and Sumo's, an even bigger and slower block of armor armed with a double barreled particle cannon. In support they generally have units such as Morty Mobile Mortar Kbots and Pyro Flamethrower Kbots, which are death to any lighter units they encounter.

When Kbots were first introduced, ARM versions were piloted by cloned soldiers, and Core versions were piloted by specialized patterned minds. However as the war dragged on and weapons became more powerful, ARM High Command realized they would never be able to match the Core's production of new pilots for their battle-suits and other units. Cloning was simply too slow a process to replace those killed in action. As a result, they began in introduce minds of their own, in the form of sophisticated, purpose-built AI's who could be effective pilots for their war machines. At first, flash grown human brains were used as central processors that would house the AIs, since brain tissue was an incredibly sophisticated piece of hardware. Even that was soon made obsolete as the ARM began to use the same crystal matrices that the Core had already been using for patterns. Today, the only true human being on the battlefield is the Arm commander, and all combat units are highly sophisticated AI-controlled drones, capable of fighting as well as any highly trained soldier or pattern. The Core, however, continue to use patterns, although they are simple combat drones, greatly stripped down from the original personality of the individual they used to be.

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Empyrrean, 9342 PD
Empyrrean/Calibran Gate, 45 minutes later

The air was still in the Gate Crater. The soft sounds of servomotors whirring could be heard as Kbots shifted on their legs. They were waiting. Two more skirmish groups had arrived in the last half hour, and all had been relatively silent since the Core scout group had been dispatched, but news from Calibran had been worrying. It had seemed as though this would be another stalemate fight, as the rest had been, but Core had increased their efforts immensely around the same time of news of an insertion team on Empyrrean had come in. They were trying their best to delay the Commander, to keep him from pulling back to the home world so their team could get a foothold. The battle had become vicious, but after suffering heavy losses, the Core had pulled back.

High Command had been suspicious. Why this, now? Was it because their ambush around the gate had been foiled?

News of another Core attack had arrived soon after. A Core battle group made up of tier one Kbots had assaulted an ARM garrison. A counterattack had destroyed the enemy to the last pattern, but where had they come from? Scouts were dispatched, and the news was grave. The Core had established a Kbot Lab on Empyrrean! It was fully operational and would be difficult to uproot. If the Core were able to establish their economy on the home world, they could expand indefinitely, and the fighting would be fierce. It was possible that forces from the front would have to be recalled, thus altering the balance of power in the area, likely breaking the stalemate and spelling the end for ARM. However, the Commander would be returning soon. With quick, decisive action, the Core could be routed from Empyrrean, and possibilities would be open. If the Core's gambit failed, it was possible that they had over extended themselves. That remained to be seen however.

Alert! Gate active! Incoming quantum signature.

Colonel Nicholas Coldren sat up in his command chair. "Its about time," he said. He looked over his tactical station's screen readouts and smiled tightly. No contacts in sight. Yet.

The air around the Gate began to ripple like a heat haze. A bright spark appeared with a crackle of electricity in the air over the Gate's receiving dish, flashed once, and disappeared. With a sound like a thick steel cable snapping, a second, brighter spark flashed, whiting out the sensors directed at the gate.

As the feeds cleared, he saw the shape standing next to the gate. It was massive, standing twenty meters tall, standing proudly on two thick legs with heat shimmering the air around it. Its chest was bulky, with broad pauldrons on its shoulders, and the twin glowing cylinders of its resourcing pack on its back. Its right arm was its engineering unit, and its left its death dealer, its Disintegrator cannon. The head was a short, tapered cylinder, with the wings of its sensor suite jutting up from the front, and the baleful red glare of its optics slit shone from between. It was painted the gunmetal grey and blue of the ARM fighting forces, with the proud emblem on the ARM Rebellion stenciled onto its chest.

The Commander had returned to Empyrrean.

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THE COMMANDER

The Gate powered up with a subsonic whine, and space folded. I stepped through, from Calibran, to Empyrrean in less than a nanosecond.

I began to receive data from my surroundings immediately. A battle group of the ARM Planetary Defense Forces was spread throughout the crater. Good. The entrance points to the crater were secure.

Systems check. All systems normal.

I sat back in my cockpit chair, stretched and sighed. It had been a long day. I had already been briefed on the situation, so there was nothing for me to do but wait for my pickup.

"Welcome back, Commander. You have command." said Coldren.
"Thank you, Colonel. I have command."
"There's an Atlas inbound for you. It'll pick you up and drop you off in the Saar River valley six kilometers from where the Core Kbot lab is located. ETA two minutes."

"Affirmative."

The Atlas roared in overhead, short blades of flame stabbing out from its triple thrusters. It's main body was shaped like a blocky spearhead, and its thrusters extended out from it as it hovered over me and picked me up in its gravity clamp. Dust flew as it lifted off and headed to the LZ, and I could see five more transports join our formation as we flew.

Good. I had some backup.

Twenty minutes later, the transports dropped me, two Peewees, two Rockos, and a Hammer off on the south side of the Saar river with three viable metal deposits. The river flowed west and a small tributary broke off to the south just two hundred meters east of my position. My vision of the area was extremely limited on the ground, but I had seen the factory southwest of my position, on the west side of the tributary, as we came in to land. I immediately began the construction of metal extractors and solar collectors and queued up a Kbot factory of my own. I would have to be quick.

Green light flared as the green fog of construction nanobots was sprayed from my engineering arm, and the specialized nanomachines quickly found their places in the blueprint I had selected and fused together, forming the solid pieces of the Metal Extractor's pulsing green frame. The extractor's fifteen meter long pill shape quickly formed and grew more substantial.

Before I had even finished my first extractor, hostile contacts began to appear on my sensors from the south, on my side of the river. It seemed the Core were on the ball. A patrol group of five AKs were on their way here. I ordered my units into position and continued building as I waited for them to come into range.

The artillery and rocket Kbots opened fire first, sending antimatter tipped rockets and heavy plasma shells screaming downrange. One AK popped in a burst of flame as a rocket struck it directly under its hunched forward head. The Hammer fired its gun with a deafening CRUMP and one AK was knocked over as the plasma shell impacted near to it, but it rose from the ground quickly, scarred, blackened, and damaged, but not down. The rest peeled off from the attack and headed west, trying to cross the river.

I ordered my infantry bots to pursue, but as they ran forward, fire from enemy artillery Kbots from across the river began falling on their positions. The ground around my PeeWees heaved up in great clouds of dirt and detritus as heavy plasma shells impacted around them. The AKs quickly reversed course and came into range.

Thuds! Damn.

Another rocket struck an AK on the side, blasting off one of its arms, then the infantry Kbots were in range. One of my PeeWees was cut down in a hail of plasma shells and blood red laser bolts, and three more AKs were eviscerated by rockets and a plasma shells from the Hammer. I pulled my units back out of range of the enemy artillery and the Rockos continued to send dumbfire missiles after the remaining two infantry bots. One was hit in the leg and was sent flying in a massive explosion, the remnants of its body cartwheeling limply. The Hammer's guns bellowed again, but the remaining AK was missed, narrowly. It stumbled as the shockwave from the impact slammed into it, but it ran on, over the river.

My Kbot Lab finished, and I queued up more units to replace the ones I had lost. This was going to be fun. I ordered my suit to assist in the construction of Kbots and watched my screens. And waited.
In a matter of minutes I had six of each infantry, artillery, and rocket Kbots constructed, and more were coming out of the Lab every ten seconds. I had detected more patrols to the west, and my Hammers were lobbing shells over the river at their positions. The reports of their shells impacting was music to my ears. The enemy artillery seemed to have pulled back. They had tried to duel with my own pieces, but their fire had slackened off after thirty seconds of trading barrages. I lost two Hammers, and two out of five enemy signatures went off my sensors during the firefight. They weren't going to win THIS numbers game. I had already reclaimed the wrecks of my fallen units and replaced them. I grinned in cold satisfaction, and ordered my strike group to cross the river.

Smoke was rising from burning vegetation on both sides of the river, and steam from shots that landed in the river had created a light fog in the area. Burning craters pocked both riverbanks and the western hillside.

The weapons fire from both sides increased as first the rocket Kbots and then the infantry Kbots came into their respective ranges. Burning orange packets of plasma formed bright traceries across the river and vaporized metal and soil alike as the PeeWees opened up with their EMGs.

They were answered by vivid scarlet streaks of burning atmosphere as the Core infantry bots returned fire with their lasers. White lines of smoke and vapor punctuated by massive antimatter detonations indicated where the Rockos had been firing. Heavy plasma shells from artillery on both sides sent towering gouts of dirt and metallic debris into the air.

My strike group was across the river, and the Core scum were being pushed up onto the hill. I could see through the optics of my units that there was a radar tower atop it. I ordered one of my Hammers to fire on it, and the heavy plasma shell formed a bright arc through the air and it struck with a satisfying clap of thunder. The tower flew apart in a cloud of molten metal and dispersing plasma.

Now the enemy could only target units in visual range, and I could flank if I wanted to. Not that I wanted to. I was steamrolling them. I idly wondered if they had a proper economy set up yet. If not, that would explain why there weren't more units to oppose me here.

As my units pushed over the hill and into the valley on the other side, several Light Laser Towers began to open fire on them. The PeeWees, damaged as they were, died instantly to the high intensity lasers. I cursed and pulled my units back, rockets and artillery fire hammering into the towers. One of them was reduced to slag, but I knew it wouldn't be enough. Most of my Rockos blew apart from yet more laser fire.

I regrouped my units on the other side of the hill and sent more units to reinforce them. I was running low on metal, so I decided to go ahead and reclaim the wrecks on the other side of the river. I moved up and began to reclaim dead units, my factory continuously building more.

In two minutes, I was ready. I ordered one of my PeeWees to scout ahead, and my Hammers to prioritize the LLTs. I had no sensor coverage in the area, so the turrets would have to be visually identified. The infantry bot peeked over the hill, and quickly ducked down again, but not before taking a glancing blow from one of the turrets that carved a glowing furrow into its armor. It was enough though. With a deafening roar, a salvo of heavy plasma shells was delivered onto the position of the LLT. Two down, one to go. I ordered my main force into the valley, with orders to destroy everything. My Hammers, I ordered to fire on the last turret, then to fire at will.

The small army of Kbots rushed over the hill, opening up with all weapons. The last LLT disappeared in a fireball, and the few remaining AKs in the area were reduced to red hot wrecks. The factory was in sight. The complex had half a dozen solar collectors and just three metal extractors providing the resources to the Kbot lab, and an energy storage building. There was another AK on the production pad, almost complete.

As the first shots roared in, the solar collectors closed up their armored shutters, but they were blasted into scrap soon after. The metal extractors exploded from the centrifugal force of their spinning material pump as shots hammered into them. Rocket after rocket, plasma shell after plasma shell impacted the Core Kbot lab, and it crumpled like a crushed can. Its internal fusion power plant and energy storage units burst in fiery sympathetic detonations. It would never assemble another war machine, for anyone.

It was done. The Core Kbot Lab was destroyed. Another infection cleansed from Empyrrean. The ground across the battlefield was rippled with craters, blackened and scarred. Smoke poured from burning wrecks and vegetation. I shook my head in disgust. Core had invaded Empyrrean. It had been inevitable, of course, but the sight of it still caused a deep rage to stir at my center.

Core had been hunting true humans for over four thousand years, and while the ARM had given as good as it had gotten, it still hadn't been enough. We were on the brink of final defeat.

But we weren't finished YET.

The superweapons of the height of the war were gone. The fleets of solar system destroying warships, gone. The metal planetoids, the ringworlds, the orbitals that could rival a planet for surface area, gone. A million inhabited worlds, gone. Nearly a hundred billion planets, resource rich, consumed to feed the war effort. Over two billion suns harvested for their energy, drained into cold lumps of char, consumed outright for their matter and energy, or caused to go nova, all to feed the flames of war. To build those fleets of megaships. To build those planet consuming armies. All of it, gone. The galaxy had been reduced to so much radiant heat, useless rock, and spreading clouds of metal vapor. Most of the stars in the galaxy were either dead or dying.
If someone could have observed the galaxy from the outside during the height of the war, they would have seen it visibly change. Stars going out or going nova. Becoming dimmer, fuzzier. The galaxy, shrinking.

These memories are mine. I was there, when fleets hundreds of thousands of ships, anywhere between ten to two hundred kilometers in length, firing weapons that could shatter planets in a single blow, obliterated each other in a matter of minutes. After two thousand years of this, we were reduced to fighting on planets because we ran out of materiel to build ships with. The resources that were used to build them with were blasted into waste heat and spreading clouds of dust. Even then, less than half a century ago, the armies the Core and the ARM sent against each other covered whole continents. Their air forces blotted out the skies. Their ships covered the oceans.

Now? We recycle the metal from the wrecks of the broken machines from those past battles. We fight skirmishes that are tiny in comparison to what once was.

We fight on graveyards. There are no more natural resources on the planets we fight over. Only the remnants of past battles.

I was there when my bother and sister Commanders died to the guns of Core scum.

I remember. I have their memories, their skills, their gene codes.

I'm one of the last two Commanders left after millennia of fighting. The other is Core. I've seen glimpses of him, in the battles we've fought, but he never faces me directly.

Neither the Core nor the ARM can build more Commanders. There simply aren't any resources to finish the blueprints. We can build knockoffs, decoys, but now, if either of us dies, whoever stands in the crater afterwards wins.

And I'm going to kill him.

The Core made a mistake with their gambit here on Empyrrean. Their forces are overstretched.

I saw that on Calibran. The time to hit them is now. I'm going to punch through to Core Prime, and crush that tin can under my suit's heel. The war will end soon, either with ARM victorious, or crushed underneath Core tank treads.

 

[Kyros]

Mission 3

It was during the conflict on Empyrrean that ARM scientists made a dramatic breakthrough with a new type of all-terrain tank. The control brain tissue for these vehicles was hybridized with clusters of nerve cells from spiders. This allowed them to overcome the perceptual difficulties which had previously made attempts at such complex modes of locomotion impossible. The new Spider Tanks would would give the ARM a considerable advantage on difficult terrain.

******************************************************

MISSION 3.0003ARME
Secure the Spider ATK units. At least one Spider must survive. Bring one of the Spiders back to your base.

PRIORITY 1
A group of experimental Spider ATKs have been isolated behind enemy lines. The Spiders are armed with an effective paralyzer weapon, but you will need to rely on your combat units to clear a path through for them. The Spider's paralyzer weapon and superior Spider technology must not fall into Core hands.

INFO FEED

Core has numerous patrols in the area searching for the Spiders. Build your base quickly and secure a Spider tank.

Reclamation technology accelerates energy and metal acquisition.

END

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Commanders: Warfare Perfected

In the first several centuries of the war, the ARM Rebellion introduced a novel concept onto the battlefield. Nanolathing technology had advanced to such a degree that it had become possible to create a unit that could singe-handedly build an army on the battlefield in a matter of hours. The Command Unit was introduced, and it was proven to be an incredible success on the planetary battlefield. The logistical and strategic advantages the Commander provided proved to be invaluable in the fight against the Core Empire. The Core were losing the war for over half a century, only surviving by sheer weight of numbers and resources, until they introduced their own version of the Commander. This proved to be a balancing force, and only the most skilled Commanders could change the course of the war. Over the centuries, the building time span was reduced immensely, so that today, a Commander can build an extremely powerful army within half an hour.

ARM Commanders are genetically modified humans who possess the memories and skills of all the Commanders who came before them, along with the tactical and strategic knowledge of the greatest military minds the ARM were able to record. The ARM have been continually improving their bio-sciences for millenia, and today's medical science has made humans biologically immortal, free of any known disease and genetic defect, and capable of adapting to nearly any environment. Commanders go further than that, however. They are cybernetically linked to their suits. The Command suit is practically a part of their bodies, and their units and buildings are extensions of themselves of which they are totally aware. They are capable of processing incredible amounts of information at quantum computer speeds and their reaction times are measured in picoseconds.

The same characteristics apply to Core Commanders, albeit they have no physical bodies aside from their Commander unit. Core Commanders are patterns of the greatest military minds the Core has ever produced melded into a single soulless killing machine.

The Commander Unit stands twenty meters tall, and is equipped with a fully featured engineering suite along with a medium laser on one arm, and one of the most powerful weapons in existence on the other. The Disintegrator Gun, or D-Gun, while short ranged, is capable of destroying any known target in a single shot. On its back is a resourcing pack, which contains all the energy and metal production and storage the Commander needs in order to kickstart an army on a hostile world.

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Empyrrean, 9342 PD
Saar River Valley, One Hour Later

THE COMMANDER

I surveyed the burned and blacked ground of the Saar River valley that had been the battlefield around the Core Kbot Lab. Craters had churned the ground as far as I could see. The broken stumps of trees and remains of pulverized and scorched vegetation were scattered across the land. Wisps of grey smoke still rose from the embers of smoldering plants and wrecks. The air was hazy in memory of the blazes that had filled the air with columns of thick black clouds just an hour ago. The devastation that had been visited upon Empyrrean here in these few square kilometers saddened me, but I knew that this would not be the last time this would happen. If the Core were not repulsed from the home world, all of Empyrrean would burn.

I had reclaimed the wrecks of fallen units and broken buildings, and set my Kbot factory and my metal extractors on standby. They would wait until they were needed again.

I feared it would be all too soon. Core was still on this planet, and I needed to move on.

I was alerted to an incoming transmission from Tactical Command.

"Commander, grave news. Several roving Core battle groups have engaged our units along the eastern side of the Greypeak mountain range. Our units have been pushed north into strongholds where we have stalled the Core advance for now.

As you know, one of our weapons development teams that had been researching the new Spider tanks was located in that area, and they have been overrun. We were able to pull out the scientists, but a group of Spiders was carrying out trial runs at the time. We were unable to pull them out before the area was attacked by the Core. Several were destroyed before they could be captured. The remaining tanks have pulled into the foothills, where they have so far been able to elude capture.

We need you to secure those tanks. We have dispatched a transport wing to your location, and they should be there within fifteen minutes.

Be aware that there is a significant Core presence in the area searching for the Spiders. They cannot be allowed to capture them.

Good luck, and be quick, Commander. TacCom, out."

Fantastic. The Greypeaks and the foothills surrounding them are incredibly difficult terrain, with steep slopes that were very nearly cliffs and narrow passes. It was good thinking on the Spider's part to move there, but punching a path through to them is going to be hell's own bitch. But this is what I was born to do.

As I waited for the Atlas's to show up, I reviewed the mission data and topography of the AO and began to plan my assault. This was just a small fire to stomp out, albeit an important one. The real goal would be to roll the main Core battlegroups back to wherever they are based and expel them from Empyrrean once and for all. That part would be challenging.

******************************************************

The transport wing dropped me and my escort off south of the Spider's position. The imposing ridge line of a steep, rocky hill was just to the north of where my base would be. A shallow stream flowed southwards a kilometer to the west, out of the the jagged foothills of the Greypeak mountains, which stretched away to the north and southwest for thousands of kilometers.

As soon as I came into range, three Spider tanks pinged me and I took command of them. They had taken refuge on an inaccessible hill just three kilometers from my LZ. I ordered them to hide in crevices where they could and await my forces.

There was one metal deposit right where we touched down, and I had detected two more a little ways to the north, and another on the top of the ridge to the north of that. As soon as we touched down, I began construction of a metal extractor and two solar collectors. I would move to the next metal deposits and there build another solar collector and my Kbot lab.

I decided that if the Core presence in this area was as heavy as TacCom had indicated, a Vehicle Plant would be needed, so that I could use the extra firepower and armor of Flash light tanks and Stumpy medium assault tanks. In order to sustain the extra drain on my resource reserves this would cause, I would need to find more metal sites to exploit. The output from the three extractors I had active was just barely enough to run both for some time as long as no construction units was assisting them, but they wouldn't be able to do so for long. I could supplement the deficit from reclaimed wrecks and metal rich rocks, but as helpful as they would be, they were also finite, and required me to actually win skirmishes.

As the pyramidal shape of my second solar collector solidified and unfolded its armored plates to the sun like an azure bloom, I ordered my Rockos to scout ahead of me while I moved to the next metal deposits, a quarter kilometer to the north, closer to the ridge line. The Hammers would follow behind to provide covering fire.

The trees trembled slightly with each of my Command suit's and Kbot's footfalls. We soon arrived, and work on the metal extractors and solar collectors was quickly completed. I began the construction of a Kbot lab, and ordered my Rockos to scout further north.

Just as my Lab was completed, I detected movement to the north. A bright orange spark of light flew in a long, lazy arc towards my base. With an ear-splitting CRACK, the plasma shell smashed into my Kbot lab. The impact site was cratered, and heat released from the shell caused the building's ultra-dense armor to glow cherry red around it. Before the smokey grey cloud of vaporized metal had cleared, another shell rose over the ridge line and followed its companion in, to similar effect.

It seemed the Core had finally taken notice of my presence and were reacting to it. They must have moved artillery Kbots atop the ridge overlooking my base.

I cursed and immediately ordered all of my Kbots forward. I queued up ten more artillery Kbots followed by a mixture of infantry and rocket Kbots in my factory. The rectangular building unfolded and settled into production mode, and its production pad began spinning slowly as the glowing green fog of construction nanites sprayed from its nanolathing heads.

As another shell came in, I began repairs on the factory, the green light and spray flaring from my right arm as I raised it towards the damaged areas. The impact craters on the shell of the Kbot lab began to reform into their original shape as the repair unit reclaimed damaged material and freshly manufactured nanomachines took their places in the affected area.

The volume of plasma rounds landing on my base began to increase as my small combat group struggled to reach the enemy positions. The steep slope made it difficult for the Rockos to climb to the top. My Hammers were already in range and firing blindly, but it was ineffective. I had no sensor coverage of that area, so my units needed visual confirmation of the enemy's positions in order to hit anything. Finally, one of my Rockos surged to the top of the ridge. It immediately identified all enemy targets in its area, raised its rocket pod, and began unleashing hell of its own.. It counted six Thud artillery Kbots, along with a guard detail of three Storm rocket Kbots and four AKs.

The Thuds immediately oriented themselves on the Rocko and took aim, ready to fire as accurate heavy plasma fire from the Hammers began to fall on them. One of the Thuds took an antimatter rocket to the left side of its chest, the explosion rocking it to the side and wrecking one of its guns. Another disappeared a massive gout of flame, dirt, and metallic debris as five heavy plasma shells struck it almost simultaneously. At the same time, the Storms had reacted fast, and three enemy rockets slammed into the Rocko within the space of a second. The blast sent burning shards of metal and detritus flying back off the hillside in a horizontal spray.

Another Thud was reduced to white hot slag by fire from the Hammers, and another two were badly damaged as the second Rocko peeked over the hill behind the wreckage of the first. Its rocket pod was at the ready, and it fired and quickly ducked below the hill. A faint white streak of vapor traced the air where two enemy rockets flew above it's head, and the hilltop in front of the Rocko erupted in a huge gout of earth as another impacted in front of it. One of the Thuds vanished in a fireball as the Rocko's munition struck home.

By then, I had another four Hammers in the field, adding their weight of fire to the original squad of four. I immediately switched over to rocket and infantry Kbots. The sixteen barrels of the artillery bots bellowed again and again, lobbing eight shells at a time, at a rate of one salvo per second onto the enemy positions on top of the hill. Trees were shattered into burning splinters as shell after shell incinerated the hilltop and rippled the ground with craters. I could feel the seismic vibrations even from nearly two kilometers away.

Two of my Hammers were blasted into burning wrecks as return fire from the remaining Thuds struck them before they too were finally silenced. The Storms and AKs began running forward, over the hill, trying to get into range of my artillery pieces and fire on them. My last rocket Kbot quickly lifted itself over the hill again and fired a rocket at them, damaging an AK before four scarlet laser bolts stabbed twice into its chest and melted its rocket pod, and two rockets from the charging Storms sent its broken body tumbling backwards down the slope.

The Hammers used the targeting data provided by the Rockos sacrifice to accurately place shots, and the attacking group blew apart in fiery clouds of metallic debris and dispersing plasma. Two of the AKs and one of the Storms were able to cross the ridge line and fire on my units. The laser bolts made vivid scarlet lines as they impacted the armor of one of my Hammers with the snap, snap, snap of violently heated air and vaporizing metal, damaging its sensor suite and nearly punching through to its vitals before the AKs disappeared in explosions of their own. The rocket Kbot was able to launch two antimatter rockets, heavily damaging two more of my Hammers before it was destroyed in turn.

I pulled my units back to my base and immediately began construction on a Radar Tower. I needed intel fast. Fifteen seconds later, it was completed and began scanning for targets within three kilometers. It found them. A LOT of them.

There were at least a hundred contacts on the board, spread all throughout the foothills. With a heartfelt obscenity, I ordered my Kbot Lab to build a Construction Kbot. I would need a hell of a lot more units than I had now, fast, and I'd have to reclaim the metal to build them.

As the Construction Kbot was completed, the factory switched over to PeeWees and Rockos, five at a time. I order the C-Kbot to begin reclaiming the wrecks from the previous skirmish followed by a repair order for all my damaged units. I began construction on a Vehicle Plant, even though I wouldn't be able to use it as much as I'd like to.

It seemed that the Core weren't sending all their units to me at once. Capturing the Spiders must have been more of a priority than killing me. Good. That would give me time to assemble a larger army and hit them hard. I'd make them pay for forgetting there was a Commander on the field.

A group of ten contacts had broken off from the main group and were heading my way. The Hammers opened fire as soon as they entered their range. Seven AKs and three Instigator Light Tanks came into visual range, the infantry Kbots loping quickly towards my base in that birdlike stride AKs were known for. The Instigators were tearing up the earth at better than eighty kilometers per hour as they attempted to close the distance. Fire and soil heaved up around the group and trees exploded in bursts of steam and flaming debris as shells impacted around them. Several units were hit, infantry Kbots either vanishing outright in fireballs or being sent sprawling, too heavily damaged to continue the fight. One tank was struck on the front and sent was into the air as its nose was driven into the ground and its rear lifted by its own momentum , spinning end over end, trailing smoke and fire.

I had only five infantry Kbots built to support my artillery, and both sides opened fire simultaneously as the enemy skirmish group entered their range. Streams of burning orange plasma packets slammed into the enemy line, and lines lurid red coherent light strobed into my own lines, vaporizing metal and punching into vital components on both sides. Units on both sides were reduced to burning wrecks, and many of the enemy units were shattered into globules of molten metal and slag as my artillery Kbots hammered them. One of the AKs made it close enough to my base that I was able to target it personally. I raised my right arm, and the laser built into my arm next to my engineering suite stabbed out once, punching through the weakened armor of its chest. I burned out the infantry Kbot's brain, and it sprawled forward, skidding for twenty five meters before its momentum was drained. There it lay, smoking and sparking as internal electrical connections shorted out.

I walked forward, my construction Kbot accompanying me, and immediately began to reclaim the remains of the fallen. The Kbot began repairing battle damage before moving on to help me reclaim. I would need the metal. Already more units were stepping off the production pads, but I would need more. Many more. The Vehicle plant opened, its two rectangular halves splitting in the middle and two nanolathing head unfolding as it converted itself into production mode. The outline of a Jeffy scout car formed on the pad as glowing green fog enveloped it. Up next I had queued some tanks. Soon, I would be ready.

Another group of enemy contacts twice the size of the last was closing in, but I had more units to counter them with. I began constructing a Light Laser Tower to help repel the Core scum.

As the Jeffy rolled off the production line, its long range optics revealed that the Core were were bringing more AKs, light tanks, and this time, several rocket and artillery Kbots to fight. As the car moved up, I could see several Weasel scout cars were patrolling the both sides of the creek, providing the enemy units with increased intel. The enemy battle group came into range, and both groups began to trade artillery fire. The enemy rocket and infantry Kbots rushed to close the distance, and one of the Storms fired a rocket which destroyed my Jeffy.

I had one Rocko, two Flashes, and two Stumpies built by then, and as the enemy group came into range, they began to fire. Units on both sides were shattered by intense barrages of plasma, lasers, and antimatter rockets. Two LLTs punched intense laser blasts into enemy units, quickly destroying and crippling many of them. My artillery units targeted the few that the Core had with them, and they were destroyed before they could do any significant damage to the towers. Several plasma shells and rockets struck one of the towers, scarring and causing its superconducting armor to glow white with heat, but it wasnt enough to put them out of action.The ground was rippled with craters and burning vegetation. Shards of metal debris blanketed the ground for a kilometer.

I reclaimed more wrecks, fueling my factories. Soon it would be time to clear a path to the Spider tanks. The Core had expended a significant amount of its fighting forces in the last three attacks, and according to my sensor coverage, they were thin enough on the east side of the stream for me to punch through. I waited for a few more units to be built, and gave the order.

Fifty Kbots and tanks crossed the stream to the west and engaged the enemy. In five minutes, two square kilometers of open forest was reduced to blacked ground pockmarked with craters and scattered tree stumps. Seventy burning, smoldering wrecks of combat units were scattered across the land from the stream to the foothills of the Greypeak mountains.A path was open for the Spider tanks to leave the mountains and join my army, and so they did, scuttling out of the their hiding places and down the hillsides, where they were escorted back to my base.

The Spider technology was securely in ARM hands, for now, but this had been a minor skirmish compared the battle that was ongoing further north. Core had been stopped, and from my position I could cut off reinforcements to the units that were attacking the ARM strongholds in the north. There, I would link up with those elements of the EDF and push the Core back to where they were based, wherever that was. I would find out, and I would finish this, once and for all.

 

[Kyros]

Mission 4

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The Core invasion of Empyrrean reached its most critical point when Core forces destroyed one of the major planetary habitats, and used the raw materials to construct a full scale outpost. The Core base extracted resources directly from Empyrrean itself and began producing battle units at an alarming rate. This represented the foothold needed by the Core for the success of its invasion on the ARM home world, which in turn would ensure the ARM's final and complete destruction.

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MISSION 4.0004ARME
Locate Core mining and communication facilities. Destroy all Core units.

PRIORITY 1
Core contamination of Empyrrean has gone too far! Destruction of the Core mining and communications base on the frontier will disrupt Core data transmissions, and deprive them of rare minerals.

INFO FEED
*WARNING*WARNING*WARNING*
The Core base will be well protected. Establish a base in order to have sufficient strength to complete the mission. The enemy is aware of your intent and may send Pyro assassination teams against you. A Zeus Model ARM-Zeus is provided for your protection.

Repair units when possible.

END

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The Long War

For over four thousand years, the ARM and the CORE have been at war. This war has ruined the entire Milky Way galaxy. The immense cost of the war only made itself known in its final few centuries. The price was paid in the blood of trillions and the destruction of ninety eight percent of the galaxy's stars and planets. Resource rich planets were harvested practically overnight to fuel both side's immense war machines. Whole stars were devoured for their energy and matter to create warships and superweapons of incredible scale and destructive potential. Entire fleets made up of millions of starships, each one capable of denuding entire solar systems of life and land, destroyed each other in minutes. What little remained after such battles was recycled to create yet more ships and weapons. After millenia of such warfare, the majority of the galaxy's matter and energy was dispersed into the black void of space in the form of radiant heat and highly dispersed metallic dust and gases. The remnants of both armies were reduced to fighting over what few planets had any resources left. Soon, even those worlds were reduced to ash and dust through centuries of fighting. Today, the number of planets with any resources left to harvest could be counted with two digits, and of those, only two have any natural resources remaining: Barathrum and Empyrrean. The rest are mostly barren worlds, machine graveyards, where the detritus of battle is buried in the ground or under the sea to be harvested again and again until there is nothing left worth fighting over.

Before the war, humanity had achieved a golden age of unprecedented peace and prosperity. The benevolent central government of man, a conglomeration of humans and artificial intelligences known as CORE (an abbreviation of the "COnsciousness REpository") ruled over a people that had spread throughout the galaxy, inhabiting over a million worlds. During this peaceful time, the CORE made a breakthrough in which they discovered a way for the human consciousness to be transferred safely into a machine through a process known as patterning, which theoretically granted humans immortality. The peace was broken when the CORE imposed a mandate on humans to undergo the patterning process as a public health measure. Many people refused the process, and the CORE announced that anyone who refused patterning would be obliterated. A rebel band known as the ARM (because they were mainly based in the outer rim of the galaxy) was formed out of colonies throughout the galaxy, consisting of humans who refused to leave their natural bodies.

Nobody knows who fired the first shot, either ARM terrorists or CORE enforcers, but the resulting conflict escalated into a war which has lasted four millennia.

Today, the original reasons for the war have long been forgotten by most, the mutual hatred of both sides feeding the flames until there is no more fuel left to consume and the Milky Way breathes its last. Both sides are practically indistinguishable from each other, aside from their core philosophies and residences of their minds. Both sides use a form of patterning and both sides have nearly identical war machines, the only differences being aesthetic, design philosophy, and combat doctrine.

The ARM value biological life, and strive to maintain it. They have long since mastered the biosciences, allowing humans to be biologically immortal and adaptable to nearly any environment. They back up the memories and genecodes of all their citizens, so that the knowledge and genetic heritage of humanity is never lost. Should a human's body be killed in a way that does not destroy it instantly, it is possible that their minds can be transferred into storage, and reuploaded into clones, thus that individual can live on. Cybernetic augmentations allow them to access data much in the same way as would patterns, though an individuals mind is never tampered with. To copy a consciousness in the way that Core patterns are routinely handled, as needed, is abhorrent to the ARM, for they value the individual above all else.

The Core desire to be purely machine entities. They are also immortal, so long as their minds can escape from their bodies at the time of its destruction. The key difference is that the Core have no qualms about copying patterns and editing them to fit any role that is required of them. Their individual minds exist in a central repository based on Core Prime, where they live in digital worlds, limited only by their imaginations. The central consciousness is a collective consensus government that all minds can participate in to make the decisions that govern the course of the entire CORE Empire, or what's left of it.

****************************************

Empyrrean, 9342 PD
Karathi Highlands, 10 kilometers South of Karaith City, 13 hours later

THE COMMANDER

The sun was setting on the Karathi highlands. The sky to the west was blood red with pollutants from fires across seven hundred kilometers of forests and plains. The flashes of weapons fire could be seen from horizon to horizon to the north. Staccato rumbles of thunder rolled in from the distance as ordinance exploded and war machines died. My army was locked in battle with Core forces near the ruins of what had once been the great city of Karaith.

I had pushed the Core from the Greypeak mountains over the course of ten hours of vicious battle. Thousands of battle units struck each other down with hell-fire, leaving a thousand kilometers of burned and blacked forest littered with the gutted wrecks of fallen machines behind them. The forever-damned Core hadn't died easily, but after seven hours of grueling battle, I found the base from which they were spawning their army. Four Kbot labs and three vehicle plants, along with their assorted resourcing operations and defenses had been supporting Core operations in the mountains. They were crushed, reclaimed, and used to forge new units for myself.

While I had been engaged in the mountains, the Core had launched a massive second offensive twenty-five hundred kilometers to the east in the Karathi highlands. They had pushed Arm forces all the way to Karaith City, and overran it before everyone could be evacuated. In the ensuing chaos, as the Core dismantled the city and used its raw materials to build another, even bigger base on top of its ruins, they had slaughtered thousands. Now, they were pumping out units at an incredible rate.

Karaith was gone. While most of the populace had been evacuated, nearly twenty five thousand people had unable to flee in time. All those men, women, and children, gone. Twenty five thousand more names added to a list already hundreds of trillions of entries long. My people. A cold rage sat like a stone within me. Core would pay for what they had done. Core would pay for every person they had killed or patterned into cold, digital molds. I could do nothing less, lest I betray the trust the last living humans in the galaxy had placed in me. There was work to be done.

Core had to be stopped. To that end, I had airlifted my forces, nearly ten thousand Kbots and tanks, using Hercules Heavy Transports. Two hundred of the massive multi-unit transports, each two hundred meters in length and capable of carrying twenty units, had carried my units in two main waves from the Greypeak mountains to the battlefield on the Karathi highlands, seventy kilometers behind enemy lines. Core units were streaming in from the north, were Karaith had been located, but the main bulk of the enemy army was engaged with EDF forces south of my position. In a classic hammer and anvil maneuver, the first of wave of my units, four thousand strong, immediately turned south to pin the main Core army between our two forces. In a furious storm of fire and plasma, the Core forces, outnumbered and enveloped, died to the last machine in just over an hour.

When the Core reinforcements saw what had happened to their main army, they began a fighting retreat seven hundred kilometers back to their base. Three hours into the battle now, our combined armies were still hammering away with ruthless implacability at the Core forces.

The Core had nowhere to go now. We had them surrounded on all sides, but their defenses were strong. Punisher plasma batteries and Gaat heavy laser towers kept our forces at bay with withering barrages of heavy plasma shells and viridian lances of light. A bold strategy would be needed.

I and a small escort of two Rocket Kbots and a single Zeus Assault had moved up to establish a base ten kilometers from the main Core stronghold. I would quickly produce a powerful force and move in to crack the Core's defenses while the bulk of my army would keep the main Core force's attention. The movement of war machines and EM cover of weapons discharges would keep the Core from discovering my location until it was too late.

I detected two rich metal deposits just fifty meters further north of my location, and began to construct my base. I quickly built a radar tower and queued up the metal extractors and solar collectors I would need.

As the radar tower solidified and spun up, my sensor cover increased dramatically. I saw a small patrol of two contacts heading my way. I ordered my escort to move up and meet the enemy.

The two enemy contacts came into visual range quickly, and I identified two Raider medium tanks. Their square, low black and red painted hulls jounced up and down as they sped over the rough, grassy terrain. My rocket Kbots brought their rocket pods into ready position as they took aim, and white vapor trails sped away from them as two antimatter rockets flashed across the distance the meet the tanks. One narrowly missed and a cloud of soil was thrown into the air as it detonated just twenty meters behind the first tank. The second rocket struck the leading tank on the left front side and rocked the vehicle to the side as it exploded. A glowing crater in the vehicle's ultra-dense armor marked where the missile had scored a hit, but it wasn't out of the battle.

The Zeus brought its lightening gun up and took aim at the damaged tank, and an actinic flash of light lit up the area as a thick, jagged bolt of electricity struck the tank directly on its turret, melting armor and frying sensitive electronics exposed by the blast. A second later, all three Kbots fired again and again, nearly crippling one of the tanks and scoring hits on the other. The Raiders entered their own weapons range and bright muzzle flashes lit up the near twilight as their guns belched plasma shells. Two shells struck one of my rocket Kbots and the twin blasts struck it center mass, knocking it onto its back, its chest a gaping, glowing ruin. A lightening blast punched into the more heavily damaged of the two tanks, and it exploded in a blast of metal shards and dispersing fire. The other was able to score a few minor hits on the Zeus before it too was reduced to slag.

I finished my metal extractor and repaired the assault Kbot before continuing the construction of my base. The enemy contacts I could see with my sensors didn't seem to have reacted to the quick firefight. There was time yet.

As I finished my solar collectors and began construction of a Vehicle plant, another group of contacts from the west sped towards my position. I counted three of them, and guessed they were here to investigate the destruction of the Raider group. Three Weasel scout cars came into visual range, their oblong triangular shapes throwing up dust and debris as they sped along at better than one hundred and twenty kilometers per hour. My Kbots reacted quickly, the Zeus bringing its weapon up fast and striking the leading Weasel with pinpoint accuracy. It exploded in a shower of molten metal, and a rocket streaked through the cloud of debris, narrowly missing the second car in line as it swerved to avoid its fallen companion. Another blinding bolt flashed into the rear car, and it exploded as well. The last car sped behind a small copse of trees, and a rocket directed at it exploded as it impacted on one of them. The group of trees exploded outwards from the blast, burning and toppling over. A final bolt from the Zeus struck the vehicle on the side, and it suffered the same fate as its companions.

The Core knew for certain I was here now. There was no way that the enemy scouts were unable to get a message off to their brethren. The enemy signatures on the radar were already reacting. I needed more units, fast.

The last few nanobots found their places in the Vehicle plant's blueprint, and I ordered it to construct a group of assault tanks. It split down the middle and unfolded into production mode and the pad at its center began to spin up, the green fog of nanomachines already taking the low, menacing shape of a Stumpy medium assault tank.

I built a third metal extractor, and running low on metal reserves, began to reclaim the two wrecks of the Raider and my dead Rocko. A Stumpy rolled off the production pad, its fusion engine roaring, and was quickly followed by a scout car of my own. I ordered the Jeffy to search for more metal deposits, and it located two more within half a kilometer of my base. I smiled with satisfaction and moved to build on them and place several light laser towers to deter any more quick raids by the enemy.

Just a kilometer east of my position, on a low hill, the Jeffy found two enemy LLTs and radar tower. They would have to go, quickly. Three assault tanks and the two Kbots moved to destroy the enemy emplacement. The tanks quickly began to receive fire from the turrets, but their heavy armor easily soaked up the punishment for the few seconds it took to get into weapons range. Plasma shells and an antimatter rocket struck the first tower, heavily damaging it before a bolt from the assault Kbot cut the target in half, its elevated weapon falling the earth. Another jagged line of lightening struck the radar tower squarely at its base, and the fragile structure shattered as the concussion from the explosive vaporization of metal traveled up its length. The remaining tower exploded in a cloud of molten metal and dispersing gases as three more plasma shells impacted on its armor and an antimatter rocket penetrated through into its vitals.

A construction vehicle had rolled out of the vehicle plant, and I ordered it to build metal extractors where it could and reclaim the wrecks of the towers. The big, lumbering tracked vehicle immediately began to carry out its orders as I completed the construction of a Kbot lab and it began to produce artillery Kbots.

The Jeffy continued to scout ahead, and it located several enemy metal extractors just north of where the enemy LLTs had been. I ordered a tank to move up and destroy it. No need to let the Core extract more of Empyrrean's vital resources.

The construction vehicle built a radar tower and LLT on top of the low hill to the east, and more sensor coverage became available to me. I could see a large group of enemy units gathering to the northwest. I had seven tanks and five artillery Kbots ready to defend my base, just in time as the enemy battle group moved on my position. My Jeffy was scouting in that area, and several plasma shells from enemy artillery units fell on its position, destroying it instantly. The construction vehicle had moved up to build another extractor, which, unfortunately, brought it into range of the enemy artillery pieces. It took multiple hits from heavy plasma shells which scored its armor with glowing cherry red craters as it beat a steady retreat back to my base, but it wasnt fast enough. A final shell exploded on its rear, jolting the vehicle forward and on its side, where its glowing wreckage settled into the ground, smoking.

At least there will be plenty to reclaim, I thought to myself.

I cursed lightly and moved my own battle group into position to meet the enemy assault. My Hammers folded back their gun covers and began to fire on the enemy, bright sparks of orange light arcing through the air from both sides as artillery units exchanged fire. A group of five enemy Storm rocket Kbots came into visual range, and antimatter rockets began impacting on the heavy armor of my tanks. One was heavily damaged by the first salvo as both battle groups sped towards each other.

Rocket Kbots, while excellent damage dealers, have much less armor than even light tanks. As rockets crashed into the frontal armor of my tanks, answering plasma shells from the tanks and artillery Kbots struck the enemy Kbot group, blasting them into glowing chunks of metal that littered the battlefield. Trees exploded or were set on fire all around from the heat of plasma packet detonations. The Thuds were soon visually identified, four of them, and my artillery began to accurately target them.

As the smoke from the firefight cleared, I took stock of my casualties. I had lost three artillery pieces and several of my tanks were critically damaged. They could still move, however, so I ordered them back to base for repairs and moved up to reclaim the wrecks as they limped towards me.

I ordered my Kbot lab to produce a construction Kbot. While it had a less powerful engineering suite than a vehicle, it was nonetheless faster on the ground and more maneuverable. I needed more metal, as I was redlining my reserves with two factories running. The wrecks would provide this until I could secure the metal spots the scout car had identified earlier, and the Kbot would help with reclaiming efforts.

Another group of tanks sped in from the north, and before could be dealt with, they destroyed one of my metal extractors. I shook my head with a slight frown and ordered it rebuilt, along with two LLTs. They would eat into my metal reserves, but the reclaimed wrecks had already nearly filled my storage space.

I had spotted a large group of artillery Kbots patrolling to the north, near a grouping of metal extractors and a radar tower. When the repairs of my damaged units were complete, I ordered my battle group to engage the enemy. Thirty infantry, rocket and artillery Kbots and forty light and medium assault tanks made their way towards the enemy group at assault speed. Plasma shells filled the air as my units closed with the Thuds. I could hear the rapid fire thumps of exploding ordinance from five kilometers away, and it was beautiful. Behind the enemy artillery group, fifteen Storms quickly ran to reinforce them. Units on both sides died on both sides as they exchanged heavy plasma shells, antimatter rockets, and rapid fire EMG plasma packets, but the heavy armor of my tanks allowed my group to survive much heavier punishment than could their tier one Kbots. Many of my Peewees and other Kbots were heavily damaged or destroyed outright, but I lost few tanks, though many were heavily damaged.

I had secured a rich source of metal in both wrecks and metal deposits. My scouts continued with their search patterns, and quickly scouted out the definite location of the enemy base. It was located three kilometers south of the city of Karaith in a flat valley behind a line of steep, rocky hills to the west of my position that acted as natural walls. There were only two ways through the hills, narrow passes would be hell to punch through, and the enemy had emplaced heavy defenses on the slopes. I would need heavier firepower to crack this defensive shell. I had my construction Kbot begin work on an Advanced Kbot lab while I continued to reclaim the wrecks in the north and my battle group rolled to the west, picking off straggling Core units in the surrounding forest. Pyro flamethrower Kbots were identified at the choke points through the passes, and I ordered my units to avoid contact with them. A Pyro's flamethrower could easily melt through even the thickest armor, and I didn't need to lose any of my lighter units before it was time for the main assault.

While the lab was being constructed, I built more solar collectors, as I would need much more energy to run the advanced structure. As it finished, I ordered it to begin constructing more Zeus assault Kbots and Fido skirmisher Kbots. A group of Spider tanks would be required as well, as their paralyzer weapons would be invaluable against the Pyros.

As the lab completed its work order, I ordered my heavy assault group to link up with my main force. The lumbering, hunchbacked Zeus's began to make their way towards the hills, and the doglike Fidos loped along beside them. The Spiders skittered along ahead of the group, their weapons moving to and fro, searching for prey.
The assault on the enemy position had begun. I would repay the Core for everyone they killed in Karaith. That valley would be in ARM hands within the hour.

As the the battle group advanced, artillery fire from enemy Thuds began to fall on their positions. Bright sparks of orange light arced through the air and struck the ground like thunderbolts, throwing debris into the air in huge gouts of flame. Ruby lances of laser fire from LLTs positioned on the slopes struck my units, vaporizing metal and reducing many of the lighter units to burning wrecks. My own artillery roared with deep, throaty bellows, and the slopes bloomed with blazing plasma flame, enemy artillery units going silent as they were struck, and the armor on the turrets glowing white hot with fresh impacts. Fido skirmish bots struck out with their own weapons, long ranged plasma shotguns firing spreads of plasma packets that covered the slopes with fire. Zeus lightening guns struck with devastating impact, each shot going home to blast a turret or enemy Kbot to pieces. Antimatter rockets blasted from both sides, tearing into the heavy armor of tanks or advanced Kbots, or tearing great craters into the ground if they missed. Paralyzer weapons froze enemy units in their tracks, where they soon died, exposed and helpless.

As my lighter Kbots hit the slopes, massive streams of flame sprayed from Pyros and reduced many of them to glowing streams of molten metal. Actinic bolts of lightening struck them as they came from cover, and the heavy armor of the flame bots absorbed blow after blow, until either they were destroyed or got back into cover.

The Core were pushed through the pass, and the intensity of the fighting increased as more turrets and units entered the fray. From the leading elements of my units, I could see the Vehicle plants and Kbot labs churning out more units, and row upon row of tanks, scouts, and Kbots being brought online. Metal extractors were churning away at Empyrrean's precious rare mineral stores, power generators and solar collectors were humming away, providing the power to run the Core war machine. Cylindrical energy storages, glowing with pent up power, stood in rows behind the factories, and tall metal storages next to them held the Core's ill-gotten gains.

More of my own units, freshly constructed, brought up the rear as my army punched its way through the pass, and heavy ordinance began to slam into the factories and resourcing buildings. One of the energy storages vanished in a blinding flash and a stunning WHOOMP. Metal extractors flew apart as weapons fire destabilized their rapidly spinning resource pumps and the factories crumpled as their armor was blasted away in furious attacks. The valley was lit up in a cacophony of blue, white, red and yellow light as weapons discharged in the last rays of the setting sun. Burning vegetation filled the air with thick smoke as the heat from hundreds of plasma discharges set the valley ablaze. The rapid-fire strobing of lightening guns filled the air with peals of thunder, and combat units fell to the ground burning, melting, dead.

In less than fifteen minutes, my units stood alone among the burning wrecks of my enemies, victorious. The Core would never be able to pay in full for the dead of Karaith, but this was a start. A good one.

I ordered my construction units to reclaim the metal from the battlefield and to build more factories and extractors. They would be needed for the greater conflict. Core was not quite finished yet.

I turned my attention away from the scene and out towards where the main ARM and Core forces were still engaged in vicious melee. There would be no more reinforcements for the Core, and from what feeds I received, it was beginning to show. They were beginning to pull their forces further to the west, towards the coastline.

I smiled to myself in satisfaction and ordered my units to move to engage the enemy army. We would hunt them down to the last and purge this infection from Empyrrean for good. Core was on its last legs on this planet. Its invasion had failed. I would find a way to bring the fight to them. No longer would we be on the defensive, bottled up in one star system. The end was near. I could feel it.

 

[Ryven Razgriz]

Shees, what a bleak universe.

 

[Virian]

Shees, what a bleak universe.

Click to shrink...

Could be worse.... Will be worse ,so don't worry.

 

[Xon]

Shees, what a bleak universe.

Click to shrink...

Each Peewee has a cloned human brain (no idea if a body is included) inside, normally with their ability to sense pain is disconnected. They also last <25 seconds in actual combat.

The ARM also had a bioscience program to create a better clone, as in an organic entity which could be a thread on the Total Annihilation battle field. The CORE's response was to blow up the planet from another solar system using an FTL superweapon composed of 3 planets.

 

[Virian]

Now imagine that trillions like that died possibly per battle and that tactic was used several times and wasn't even the worst. See? I told ya it can be worse.

 

[Kyros]

Shees, what a bleak universe.

Click to shrink...

Oh yes, the TA universe is extremely grimdark, when you think about it.

Each Peewee has a cloned human brain (no idea if a body is included) inside, normally with their ability to sense pain is disconnected. They also last <25 seconds in actual combat.

Click to shrink...

As far as this story is concerned, in the early stages of the war, all ARM units had fully human pilots in them. As the war progressed, biological components were increasingly phased out in favor of crystalline "brains" that held special AIs due to various factors, such as increasing weapon lethality (neutron weapons could bypass the relatively thin armor of units to kill the brain inside, and flame weapons were designed to cook the occupants of war machines like crabs in their shells, for example), difficulties in growing enough clones to keep up with CORE production, and the simple fact that biological brains simply don't have the information processing potential of other, better alternatives.

This phaseout took millennia, of course, because the ARM were reluctant to move from biological to crystal based platforms, simply because the CORE had already been doing it from the beginning. Despite that reticence, it was either adapt or die, and the ARM adapted.

TLDR; That's my opinion

Mission five coming soon!

 

[Kyros]

MISSION FIVE

The Core invasion of Empyrrean had failed, although the remaining troops would fight on until they were destroyed. It was then that the ARM Commander recognized the singular opportunity to take the offensive, using the Galactic Gate against its creators. It would be the turning point of the war.

********************************

MISSION 5.0005ARME
Locate the Galactic Gate. Eliminate the Core base. Destroy all other Core units and capture the Galactic Gate.

*SPECIAL PRIORITY CRITICAL*
Destruction of the Core base will eliminate their foul presence from Empyrrean once and for all. The Galactic Gate through which the Core entered our homeworld is in the area. Find that Gate and capture it. The Gate will be used to take the fight off-world!

INFO FEED
Immediate construction of a secure base is critical. Core deployment is massive, and their patrols are frequent. Core's weapon technology has advanced.
You are advised to build advanced units also.
You will find a limited number of units from the Empyrrean Navy at your disposal. You will find the new Triton class amphibious tank useful on this mission.

END

********************************

Electronic Warfare During the War

The Long War wasn't merely fought with guns and missiles. Electronic warfare played a major role all throughout the conflict. Sensor jamming technology allowed shrewd Commanders to set up surprise attacks, hide their bases and expansions from enemy view, deny the enemy targeting data on their forces, and generally be an all-round pain in the ass for whomever they were fighting. Cloaking technology allowed certain units to hide from nearly any kind of detection, including optical detection.

Data attacks became more and more sophisticated as both sides attempted to infiltrate each others computer networks, stealing or corrupting knowledge libraries, weapons technology, research data, and even destroying genecodes and patterns. Viruses and worms became self-editing, capable of nearly sentient levels of cunning. Hunter-killer programs and antiviruses grew in sophistication alongside them.

Over the millennia, many unit designs and much knowledge was destroyed and rediscovered during the constant back-and-forth informational warfare. Today, all sensitive data is kept secure in offline storage that is backed from time to time, to avoid the loss or corruption of some critical unit blueprint or weapons technology. Units in the field have fail-safes that self-destruct any data storage device they might carry in the event that they are destroyed, in an attempt to deny the enemy any tactical or strategic knowledge he might be able to glean from the onboard memory of the unit.

The Capturing process is a hostile takeover carried out by a Commander, when he makes physical connections to an enemy unit via his engineering suite, and assaults the target through massive viral attacks, overwhelming its sophisticated firewalls and other defenses through whatever means necessary to take control of a unit. In this manner, Commanders on both sides have been known to use enemy technology against each other on the field of battle.

********************************

Empyrrean, 9342 PD
Karathi Highlands, 25 kilometers west of the coast, Gulf of Kusell, 9 hours later

THE COMMANDER

The sky had taken on a rosy tint to the east as the night drew near to its end and the sun raced closer to the horizon, heralding a new day over the ravaged land. Several kilometers to the west, the red glow of fires and the constant flashing of weapons fire could still be seen as the battle to expel the Core from Empyrrean still raged. The continuous rumble of exploding ordinance in the distance had been my constant companion for the last nine hours. The sky had turn cloudy as the intense amount of heat released as plasma and lasers were thrown around had sent huge amounts of water vapor into the skies, causing thunderstorms. Lightening flashed intermittently through the clouds, and it had rained several times already during the night.

For over six hundred kilometers, the Core's fighting retreat before the relentless assault of the combined forces of the EDF and my own forces had brought us here, to the Gulf of Kusell. The scarred land behind us, pockmarked with blackened craters and the scattered wrecks of broken machines, some still smoking from the scorching heat of their demises, lay testament to the viciousness of the last nine hours of battle. The Core's backs were against the sea now, and we would drive them into it.

The earth trembled as my Command unit walked towards the fight, flanked by the lumbering, broad shouldered forms of Zeus assault Kbots. A flight of Peeper scout craft, their broad, swept back wings reflecting the light of the early morning sun, left contrails behind them as they rocketed towards where the enemy base was presumed to be located. Traveling at a cruising speed of mach five, the four tiny eyes in the sky would provide valuable reconnaissance data to my forces, locating enemy defensive strongpoints and resourcing operations. With this data, I would know where to focus my attacks to crack the armor of the Core's last bastion on the homeworld.

In the last few hours, the Core had begun to deploy more advanced units to match my own. If this went on, the battle could drag on to an unacceptable degree, giving the Core a chance to escape with some construction units and establish another front somewhere else, or even escape into the sea. If it was within my power, I would not allow this. The Empyrrean Navy had already moved elements of its forces into position off the coast in the Gulf of Kusell, and our land forces were moving to envelope the enemy, keeping them trapped there. Unfortunately for us, the Core had chosen a very defensible spot, and seemed to be well entrenched, with Gaat heavy laser towers and several coastal defensive plasma batteries to deter bombardment by the navy. Given more time, they would be able to strengthen their position to an unacceptable degree.

I received sensor data from the air scouts as they began to make their reconnaissance flight. It seemed the Core spread themselves around a small peninsula with two tall, steep hills to the north of their positions. North of those two hills, there were several rich metal deposits yet to be exploited by the Core. Heavy defensive positions covered the approaches from all sides in a five kilometer area, and strong patrols of Kbots and tanks roamed out from their base, providing mobile defense in depth.

As the scouts approached the base, I could see several factories along with their resourcing operations, defended by Pulverizer missile towers and Gaat guns. The surface to air missile launchers quickly tracked my scouts, and began to launch their weapons. Grey vapor trails tracked towards the Peepers, and despite their attempts to evade the missiles, one by one my sensor feeds began to wink out. The last scout made it over the peninsula before it was destroyed, and relayed something to me that brought a slow smile to my face.

The energy readings were unmistakable. The Core had built their Galactic Gate here. That's why they retreated to this location. It was possible that they intended to move powerful units through the gate if they were given enough time. It was far too energy intensive to move armies through a gate, but they might just be able send one or two tier three units through the gate provided the Core could get send a message back through. Units of such destructive potential could easily cause massive damage to any attacking force, extending the amount of time the Core had to formulate some sort of plan to escape from this deadlock. I could not allow this.

The Gate had been charging slowly, but the constant firing of laser weapons from the turrets must have been greatly reducing the amount of energy they could feed into its capacitors. I did not see any fusion reactors or resource generators in their base during the recon flyby, so they must be relying solely on solar collectors and wind powered generators. The solar panels would have been practically useless during the night, but the recent storm front created by the release of so much heat into the atmosphere had increased wind speed to a fairly respectable strength. Given time, especially with the sun rising and contributing to their energy generation, it might have been enough. They could have sent a message to the other side of the gate.

I had other plans for that Gate, however. I would capture it and mount a counteroffensive on the other side. It was my hope that the Core would be unaware of my arrival, giving me time to establish a war machine and bring the fight to them.

I saw that the eastern side of the base was the most heavily defended, and the northern approach seemed to be relying more on mobile units for its defense until they could build static defenses in the area. I would order the main bulk of my forces along with the EDF contingent to attack from the eastern and southern approaches, thus forcing the Core to move more units into those areas for defense. This would weaken the northern approach, allowing me and a fast, mobile battlegroup to approach from the north under cover of a mobile radar jammer. The plan was to build a base, quickly produce a larger army to sweep in behind the Core lines, trash their base, and seize the Galactic Gate before they could either destroy or sabotage it. I didn't actually need the Gate intact, just the destination codes to the planet on the other side. If it was destroyed however, the opportunity for an off-world counterattack would be lost, probably for good.

It was time to turn the tables on the Core scum, to make them pay for attacking Empyrrean. It would be tight, I would do what I could.

********************************

The forces of the ARM and the Core clashed in furious battle with renewed vigor once again as the assault on the Core's last bastion on Empyrrean began. From the south, EDF artillery and mobile response teams hammered defensive positions with deadly storms of plasma fire, and from the east, my own assault force unleashed their own version of hell. Core patrols responded like I expected them to, moving some groups from the north to reinforce the embattled positions. Punisher plasma batteries provided supporting fire for the enemy, raining heavy plasma shells down on my advancing forces from far beyond the range of my own artillery Kbots. Gaat HLTs fired lances of blazing yellow coherent light into the heavy armor of my units, vaporizing metal and crippling those unfortunate enough to be hit in weaker areas.

My own forces closed at assault speed, sending return fire sleeting down on the enemy positions. Hammer's guns bellowed, launching plasma projectiles to slam down on turrets and units alike as they entered their weapons range. Antimatter rockets flashed across the distance to strike the heavily armored towers, scoring hit after hit. Lightening flashed from the guns of assault Kbots, and sprays of plasma shells were launched from Fidos. Bulldog main battle tanks soaked up punishment from the towers, returning fire with the twin barrels of their heavy plasma cannons, and providing mobile cover for lighter units with their twelve meter tall, bulky frames. The battle had begun in earnest, and it would be a long, hard slog to reach the enemy base for those two groups.

My own group, consisting of four Jeffy scout cars, three Zipper fast attack Kbots, five Fidos, two Bulldogs, and a single Zeus, all covered by the sensor blanket of a Jammer mobile radar jamming vehicle, quickly moved in from the north. Just off the coast, two Skeeter patrol boats, two Lurker attack submarines, and four Triton amphibious tanks traveled along the coast, keeping pace with us.

I arrived at the area where the metal deposits had been detected and quickly began the construction of my base. I detected four viable metal spots in my immediate area. Two metal extractors, three solar collectors, a radar, Kbot lab, then two more extractors were quickly queued up.

We hadn't been spotted yet, but we were only four kilometers from the enemy's outer defenses. I expected patrols any minute now.

I ordered one of my scout cars further south, searching for enemy units. I found them, in a tightly clustered group of ten Thuds just two kilometers south of my position. I quickly ordered my scout to stop behind a group of trees in a low dip in the ground, out of their sight, and ordered my Fidos to engage them. The quadrupedal skirmish Kbots quickly loped south and began to fire on the enemy, spreads of medium plasma shells striking multiple targets at once from long range. The artillery Kbots quickly sustained damage, their armor cratering and deforming as dozens of shells impacted all around them. Several lost use of one or both of their guns, but those that could return fire did so. Plasma shells arced away from the enemy group, striking all around the Fidos, causing moderate damage as their heavier armor absorbed blows. Several trees were set on fire from the blasts and debris was cast high into the air, but the lighter armor of the enemy Kbots was no match for the Fido's overwhelming firepower. In less than fifteen seconds, the entire enemy group was reduced to glowing wrecks.

One of my scouts confirmed the location of an enemy wind generator guarded by two AKs just off the coast to the south, so I ordered my Tritons to approach the area and attack the position. They surged from the water, medium plasma cannons barking, and the AKs disappeared in fiery blasts before they had time to react. The wind generator came apart, its spinning blades arcing through the air as plasma shells impacted its fragile armor. The Tritons disappeared back into the water as quickly as they had appeared, just as an enemy response group of rocket and artillery Kbots rushed to counter them.

A spread out squad of AKs came from the south to investigate the destruction of the artillery group, coming into range of the skirmish Kbots as they did so. The Fidos spat fire and dozens of medium plasma shells tore up the ground all around the infantry Kbots. The AK's light armor failed quickly in the face of the sun-hot sleet of sparkling orange projectiles. Their burning wrecks slumped to the ground, shattered by the onslaught.

I finished my Kbot lab and began work on more metal extractors and solar collectors as I ordered it to begin work on a construction Kbot. I would consolidate my position here and reinforce my strength before beginning the assault, but I couldn't wait too long. The Core might realize what I was up to, and the results could be disastrous.

My radar tower online and my sensor coverage expanded, I saw that there was only a light scattering of enemy units patrolling to the east, where there more metal deposits. I needed those, so I ordered my Bulldogs to move to engage them, along with the Fast Attack Kbots. The heavy tanks turned ponderously on their treads, lumbering on their way towards the enemy. The Zippers, man shaped and eight meters tall, looking for all the world like massive power armored marines, each one armed with an EMG rifle, ran to form up alongside the huge tanks.

The enemy units soon came into visual range, several infantry Kbots and a pair of rocket Kbots. The twin guns of the heavy tanks boomed, and powerful plasma shells crashed into the ground all around the light units. AK's were outright destroyed or heavily damaged by single shots from the massive guns of the tanks. The zippers moved ahead in a combat stance, their guns raised, and streams of plasma packets slammed into the enemy Kbots. The enemy group returned fire, twin blasts rocking the huge tanks but only causing minor damage as antimatter rockets slammed into their armor. Bolts of ruby light stabbed out, burning and scoring the armor of the fast attack Kbots before the AKs were reduced to glowing wrecks. In a blaze of plasma fire, the Storms quickly suffered the same fate.

The area was clear, and I moved in with my construction Kbot to build more resource buildings and repair my damaged units.

I built another radar tower to the east and could see more enemy movement to the south. That would have to be dealt with. I ordered my construction Kbot to build a Guardian plasma cannon in the area that I had just cleared. It should have enough range to reach the enemy patrols in the south, two kilometers away. Meanwhile, I built a Vehicle plant to reinforce my armor strength and build more scouts. Nearly thirty Kbots had already walked off my lab's production pad, a mixture of artillery, rocket, and infantry units. The ten Hammers I ordered south, where they would harass enemy patrols at range. They stumped off to fulfill their orders, and soon I could see sparks of orange light arcing south to crash into enemy positions and set the land ablaze. Some return fire from enemy artillery in the south landed in the Hammers vicinity from time to time, but it was quickly silenced as ten heavy plasma shells crashed into the enemy position.

I sent a scout forward, and it detected nearly fifteen Storms dug in on the two tall hills to the south. My Artillery moved forward, and the hilltops bloomed with gouts of debris and plasma flames. Rockets were launched from the enemy positions, but it was inaccurate at such range, and only a few scored any hits. The rest plowed into the ground, sending huge sprays of earth into the air and setting trees ablaze as their munitions detonated.

The Guardian was soon finished, and I moved two scout cars south of its position to spot for it. The plasma batter ponderously turned its heavy guns towards the enemy as they came into visual range, and heavy shells began to fall from the sky, exploding in massive clouds of fire, dirt, and debris larger than even the Bulldog's guns could produce. The Core patrols of infantry, artillery, and antiaircraft Kbots were forced to pull back, as each shell that hit an unfortunate target reduced it to scattered wreckage and heavily damaged any nearby units.

I had built a Construction Vehicle by then, so I ordered both it and the Construction Kbot to build their respective advanced factories while I moved to reclaim what I could of the wrecks to the south. I had only been here for twenty minutes, and soon my army would be ready to begin the assault on the Core's base.

As I moved to reclaim the wrecks near the hills, suddenly three Pyro flamethrower Kbots rushed from behind them, closing in fast. My Fidos and artillery Kbots reacted quickly, sending scores of medium and heavy plasma shells in their direction, but the advanced Kbots were more nimble than they appeared. They dodged and juked, many of the shells missing, those that didn't only carving glowing craters in the heavy shields they carried. I retreated, firing my laser at them, but they closed the distance. Sheets of flame spewed from the dripping muzzles of their flamethrowers, melting layers of armor from my Command suit. I reacted instantly, raising my left arm and firing my D-Gun. The matter disintegration blast dug a six meter wide furrow into the ground as it slammed through one of the Pyros, and the enemy Kbot vanished in a blinding flash and concussive BOOM as the molecular bonds keeping the unit's very substance together came unglued. The Fidos sprinted like dogs to interpose themselves between me and the remaining two Pyros as my D-Gun recharged, firing all the while. Dozens of plasma shells and ruby pulses from my laser hammered into the assassins, blasting away at their armor. One of my Fidos was reduced to a molten wreck and the rest were heavily damaged by the superheated flames before the two were finally brought down.

Shit. That was too close. Their wrecks should be enough to finish my factories, then its time to repay the favor.

I repaired my skirmish Kbots and moved to reclaim the fallen assassins and Fido. The Construction Vehicle was nearly done with its project and I ordered it to repair my suit and assist in reclaim duties.

The Advanced Vehicle Factory was completed, and I ordered five Luger Mobile Artillery units and twenty Bulldogs to be built. When they were ready, I would begin the assault and supplement it with Zeus's as they were built, if they were needed. The heavy armor and weaponry of the Bulldogs should be enough to punch through their defenses into the enemy base, and the Lugers could out-range anything the Core might have, delivering massive firepower from a distance.

The Advanced Kbot Lab was soon completed as well, so I ordered the Construction Kbot to build several Sentinel Heavy Laser Towers in the eastern part of my expansion to deter any further raids against my metal extractors in that area. Several quick infantry raids had already occurred, the AKs being fast enough to avoid the fire from the plasma battery, and they had destroyed several extractors before they were finally put down. I couldn't allow that to happen again. It was only a matter of time before the Core realized what I was planning to do, and although they couldn't move forces from the southern and eastern lines, they might just decide to destroy the Gate and die in place. I needed to move faster.

I moved two Lugers to defend that position as well, and as the second Sentinel was completed, another raid was spotted by one of my scout cars. This time it was composed of rocket Kbots. The twin guns of both HLT's opened fire before the Storms were within range to fire back accurately, viridian light spearing their armor with pinpoint accuracy, tearing open their internals as metal was explosively vaporized.

The Lugers also opened fire instantly as the Jeffy provided them with targeting data. The long barrels of the mobile artillery batteries recoiled as the guns fired, heavy plasma shells streaking through the air at blinding speed, striking with devastating impact. The Lugers both focused fire on a single target at a time, each twin blast reducing one of the rocket Kbots to glowing wreckage. Only a few reached their own firing range, the antimatter rockets blasting armor from the one of the Sentinels, leaving great glowing craters and deformed armor, but otherwise only causing moderate damage. Blinding yellow laser bolts set the air on fire as they hammered into the Kbots, cutting them to pieces. The glowing wreckage of the Storms slowly cooled as the smoke from burning bushes and grass slowly cleared. I doubted they would try that again, unless they could bring a more numerous or powerful force against me.

My tank platoon was nearly ready, and I moved my units into position. It was time to push towards the Gate. The group of nearly a hundred Kbots and heavy tanks moved towards the enemy base, the roar of fusion engines, squealing metal tank treads, and the thunder of metal feet shook the air.

I had been right. The enemy base's mobile defenses were greatly reduced, the majority of the enemy units engaged with my main force to the east and south. Only a few patrols of Kbots were left to defend against my onslaught, the enemy having spent their forces earlier in the constant attacks on my position and resourcing operations. Their glowing, burning wrecks were ground beneath six hundred tons of ultradense armor and firepower as the Bulldogs rolled over them. The Pulverizers, unable to target ground units, were smashed beneath the weight of fire from my battle group. HLTs dealt their damage, but the heavy tanks easily soaked up the damage, taking only minor losses before the mobile artillery vehicles cut the turrets in half with devastatingly accurate fire. Kbot Labs and Vehicle Plants, both standard and advanced, were smashed into unrecognizable lumps of twisted metal by the incredible weight of fire brought to bear by my advanced vehicles. Energy storages violently exploded in bright flashes as the giant batteries were destabilized by plasma shells. Metal storages were cracked open, their contents streaming to the ground in molten rivulets as the heat from weapons fire melted them. Scattered metal extractors were shattered as whatever units could target them, did.

It was over in minutes. The Core had lost their last base, and were surrounded. They would fight to the death, of course, but it was over for them. I sent my battlegroup to attack the remaining Core army in the rear as I focused on the Gate.

It was located on the peninsula, just half a kilometer from the base. The Core had heavily defended it with Heavy Laser Turrets on the inland side. It would be painful to punch through there, so I decided not to bother. I had a group of fifteen Tritons ready to go, and I would use them to assault from the west, away from the Gaat guns. Just to keep them busy, I ordered my Lugers to pound them with fire from outside their range.

The Tritons surged from the water all along the beach, plasma cannons blasting away any and all hostile targets. HLTs swiveled to face them, their triple barrels spinning as they sent bolts of coherent light into the Tritons. Several Tanks took critical hits, their fusion engines exploding from within them, and their burning wrecks clogged up the beach. The Lugers, firing more accurately now that they had targeting data from the Tritons, smashed into the enemy turrets. As plasma shells screamed in, the turret's armor was pitted and scarred, glowing white hot as superconducting layers drew the heat away to thermal generators, giving the lasers even more power. Even they could not withstand such punishment for long, though, and the turrets began to come apart in fireballs, glittering metal shards slicing through the air. It was over. The smoking wreckage of turrets and tanks glowed with heat, causing the air to shiver with heat waves around them. Blackened craters smoldered in the gentle breeze, and amphibious tanks surrounded the Galactic Gate, waiting for me.

I entered the azure waves, sending spray into the air as I made my way towards the Gate. In minutes, I was standing before it, and I raised my engineering arm, engaging its capture function. Emerald light flared as the fog of nanomachines was directed towards the Gate, penetrating its systems, forming connections. Viral attack programs were transmitted through the connections, bypassing security measures and rapidly taking control of systems within the Gate. I gained access to diagnostic logs, control programs, and Gate address codes. I could see that the Core had not sabotaged the Gate, and smiled. They had only been able to charge its capacitors to a little over fifty percent before my attack had destroyed their energy production. The scum on the other side didn't even know the Core invasion had failed. The Gate was under my control. I painted it the gunmetal grey and blue of the ARM military, and disengaged my engineering arm.

The Gate led to Thalassean, which had only recently been taken from us. I was looking forward to my return, although I knew the Core weren't. But first, I needed to charge it up, and look to the battle in the east.

I ordered my construction units to build more solar collectors and wind generators, and directed the excess power into the Gate's capacitors. It would take roughly fifteen minutes to charge, less as I added more energy input.

It turned my attention to the battle, which had begun to die down. The Core units were indeed fighting to the last machine. Surrender was a term that had lost all meaning millennia ago. The last few Core war machines died ignobly in storm of fire. The field of battle was silent at last, aside from the crackle of flames, the whine of servomotors and fusion engines, and the gentle breeze. I sighed and leaned back in my command chair, closing my eyes and gently massaging my temples. A wave of pure exhaustion coursed through me. I couldn't let it rule me, though. I hadn't needed to sleep in thirty six hundred years. My cybernetic augmentations and genetically enhanced body allowed me to continue to function at peak efficiency, indefinitely. I was exhausted though, mentally and physically. I pushed those feelings away.

It was time for this to end, and I would start that process in less than ten minutes.

********************************

Incoming transmission for you, Commander.
"Put it through," I said.
The video screen showed a grey-haired man with a lined, dark skinned face. He spoke in a deep, pleasant baritone, and said "Commander, this is General Beckett of ARM High Command. Allow me to be the first to congratulate you on this victory."

"Thank you, sir. Light up a cigar for me, would you?"

"Consider it done, Commander. I take it you're going through the Gate, though."

"That's right. This isn't over yet."

"Do you know where it leads?"

"Thalassean. Fought over that world for nearly ten years before those bastards took it from us. The Gate'll be finished charging soon, then I'm going to surprise the tin cans personally. They shouldn't suspect a thing, since the Core weren't able to transmit out before I cut them off at the knees."

"Ah. Well. Good luck, Commander. We'll keep a case waiting for you. TacCom'll be with you all the way."

"Thank you, sir."

The transmission ended just as I received a ping from the Gate. It was ready, humming with power. I began the startup sequence, and the air around the Gate began to shimmer. The way to Thalassean was open, and the world turned white around me as I stepped through, weapons primed.

 

[Motoko]

Hot Damn! This is amazing! Keep up the good work!

 

[Kyros]

Thank you

 

[Kyros]

AN/ A little bit shorter one today, but it is a short mission, as some of you might know.
Too tired to do much proofreading

Here ya go.

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Chapter Two: Thalassean

Mission Six

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Following through the Core gate, the ARM commander made a bold counterattack on the Core outpost from which the invasion of Empyrrean had been launched. Thalassean, a windy planet largely covered by water, had been captured by the Core quite recently. Core forces there were unprepared for the sudden appearance of an ARM Commander in their midst.

********************************

MISSION 6.0006ARMTH
Secure a beachhead on Thalassean. Set up a base, build a shipyard, and destroy all Core units in the area.

*PRIORITY CRITICAL*
Thalassean stands between the Core and Empyrrean. It is critical that you secure Thalassean for the ARM.

INFO FEED
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
Expect armed guards on the Thalassean side of the Gate. Be ready for instant defensive action.

Though you may have the element of surprise when you step through the Gate, Core will rally quickly. Prepare your defenses quickly.

********************************

Thalassean

Thalassean is an azure orb of endless oceans interrupted only by small, scattered windswept island chains. Massive storms circle the globe, the vast seas contributing to their ferocity as heat from the system's star evaporates huge amounts of water into the air. Its natural mineral resources are rare, but the planet's primary value comes from its oceans. The seawater is harvested as a source of fuel in fission-fusion power plants, among other things. The planet was once almost completely covered in oceans, with only a sparse scattering of tiny islands covered with hardy vegetation. Many decades of exploitation of the ocean by ARM and Core forces has lowered the sea level significantly however, forming islands where before there were none and reducing the strength of the storms as less surface area is available to fuel them.

A diverse marine ecosystem exists on Thalassean, but the constant warfare between the ARM and the Core on its oceans has substantially reduced it from what it once was. Coral reefs abound in the warmer parts of the oceans, and the seas used to teem with colorful alien fish and crustaceans. Giant cephalopods and cetaceans ruled the seas before battleships and cruisers exchanged death on the surface, polluting the water with heavy metals and other toxic substances. Concussive shockwaves from antimatter torpedoes stunned and killed marine life for kilometers around their detonation points. The ocean floor is littered with broken ships, seeping poison into the surrounding water.

While the ARM has stored much of the genetic data from the ecosystem of Thalassean in its genebanks, it is unlikely that life will ever be returned to this world, so long as the war between the ARM and the Core continues.

********************************
********************************

Thalassean, 9342 PD
CORE Outpost TH-46, .000002 femtoseconds later

THE COMMANDER

My feet struck the white sands of Thalassean, and my consciousness was filled with sensor data of the area around me. Several AKs were in the immediate vicinity, turning their guns towards me in an instant as I raised my own. Coherent light flared ruby red as I fired my laser, vaporizing chunks of the infantry Kbot's armor, punching through their vitals and reducing them to smoking ruins. Return fire struck me as well, causing my armor to glow red hot and deform slightly where it received hits as enemy lasers struck out. I didn't bother to use my D-Gun, since it wasn't needed and the energy could be put to better use constructing a base. One after another, the four raptor-like enemy infantry Kbots died, reduced to shattered, glowing metal.

I had arrived on a small, C shaped island of white sand, a kilometer across at its widest point. Vibrant green jungle growth surrounded me, a ready source of energy, should I need it. To the west, near the coastline of the island, I could see a Searcher scout vessel patrolling the waters. The AKs would have been able to get an alarm out, so I had to move fast. Core would be sending a response force soon.

I detected two metal deposits nearby and moved to construct extractors to make use of them. From my previous experience on this world, I knew that metal would be hard to come by, and I would need to make every gram count. I could reclaim the Gate for a large boost to my income, if I needed to. There would be no retreat from this world, although I could build another Gate at any time, provided I had the resources.

I built the metal extractors quickly, followed by several solar collectors and wind powered generators to take advantage of the constant winds. A radar quickly followed, and I moved to construct a shipyard in the small bay just south of my arrival point. Naval power would be the key to victory on this planet.

I finished the shipyard and ordered it to build a construction ship, followed by two Skeeter scout boats and several Crusader destroyers and Lurker submarines. I, meanwhile, moved to build Tidal power generators to supplement my energy income. "Diversify, diversify," as the old axiom goes.

Metal would be scarce for the moment, and my unit production would suffer for it. I needed to locate more metal deposits. The seas surrounding my base didn't seem to have any deposits worth noting under the waves. Unfortunate.

The angular, thirty meter long form of the construction ship solidified in the shipyard's bay and slid out, ready to assist in construction efforts. I ordered it to build a sonar station and stand by for new orders.

The low, sleek shape of the scout ship soon followed after the Construction Ship, and it immediately spotted more metal deposits, as well as more infantry Kbots on the other side of the island to the south. They began exchanging fire with their lasers, bright red bolts burning through the air. The light lasers of the scout ship were not enough to destroy the infantry Kbots quickly, so I moved out of the water to assist in their destruction and claim the deposits for myself. Soon two more extractors spun up to feed my economy.

The massive, armored form of a Crusader, forty meters from stern to prow and shaped like an oblong spearhead, sliced through the waves as it left the Shipyard. The twin barrels of its large bore plasma cannon turret gleamed in the sunlight, ready unleash the fire of suns onto my foes. The two wings of its sensor unit jutted up to either side of the turret, providing it with a high resolution sensor view of its surroundings. My first combat naval unit was completed. Excellent. I would build four more and begin to hunt down enemy ships, securing the area for the ARM.

Two enemy scout boats moved to the northern coastline of the island and were providing intel to the enemy. I couldn't allow this. I moved to meet them, clearing the way through the thick undergrowth of the jungle with my D-Gun, the disintegration blasts vaporizing anything in my way. I fired at the boats with my laser, cutting deep into their thin armor. They attempted to escape, throwing up a wall of water as they turned away from me, but several well placed shots penetrated their engines and sent them to the bottom. As I moved in to reclaim the wrecks, a cruise missile streaked in from the north struck the ground near me, sending the earth heaving upwards in a massive plume of sand and fire. Another one followed soon behind it, narrowly missing me as I submerged myself in the water and sending fire and steam into the air as it exploded.

I saw the sensor contact to the north. There was a Core missile ship, a Hydra, sitting out there, several kilometers away. It would soon begin to target my base once it saw my own sensor reading enter the water, out of its reach. The enemy vessel could destroy my base by itself in minutes, if allowed to.

I had two destroyers ready for action. I sent them to engage the enemy vessel, and they threw up spray and foam as their hydrojet engines sent the sixteen hundred ton vessels rocketing out of the small bay at fifty two knots. They soon came upon the enemy ships and discovered there were more enemy vessels than I had thought. A fleet of five enforcer destroyers and two Hydra missile ships were patrolling the area. The missile ships opened their missile bays and began to launch cruise missiles, and the destroyers opened fire on both sides, their guns roaring. Heavy plasma shells arced through the air, blasting craters into armor or sending fountains of steam and water into the air if they missed. My two ships veered off the west, spitting flares and other countermeasures into the air in an effort to avoid the missiles and targeting the Hydras. Plasma shells impacted the two ships again and again, both of them taking heavy damage. They were able to sink one of the missile ships, and I quickly withdrew them for repairs and reinforcement before they were lost. Three Lurkers were finished, and I sent them to defend the beleaguered ships.

I was still in the water, and the two ships came to rest above me. I raised my engineering arm and glowing green mist flowed up from the seabed towards one of the ships, enveloping it and reforming its cratered hull with new metal. The process would take a while, and I hoped that the enemy would not push its advantage just yet. If they did, we were close enough to the coast that I could just move out of the water and use my D-Gun, but I didn't want to risk it. Destroyer's guns were quite powerful, and if one of those missiles hit me, I would die in seconds as the Enforcers finished me off.

An alert from my sonar station drew my attention to the mouth of the bay. Two sonar returns were entering the bay. Submarines. I quickly ordered my Lurkers to engage them. Two of them had already left the bay, and they turned around scanning the area ahead of them for electromagnetic signatures and sonar returns. They found them. Two Snakes were silently making their way towards my shipyard. The Lurkers launched torpedoes at them from their forward jutting launch tubes. Their supercavitating drives left streaks of gaseous water behind them as the antimatter warheads arrowed in towards the enemy submarines. The first torpedo struck an enemy submarine in the side, the blast crumpling its armor like tissue paper. The snakes returned fire with their own torpedoes, and in the exchange of concussive blasts, I lost two of my own subs.

Fortunately their wrecks were relatively intact. Submarines didn't carry as much armor as ships did, and usually their remains were scattered too far apart to bother with reclamation. I ordered my construction ship to move in and reclaim what was left of the four destroyed submarines. Their metal would be used to build more destroyers. When it had completed the task, it would build a Harpoon torpedo launcher at the entrance of the bay to discourage more such sneak attacks.

Another Crusader slid out of the Shipyard, bringing my total up to three. I saw another sensor contact two kilometers to the east, and dispatched the two north of the island to attack it. It was another Enforcer, and the three ships hammered each other with massive blasts of plasma. The enemy destroyer managed to heavily damage one of my ships before it was sent to the bottom, a glowing, deformed hulk. I had enough metal to allow my construction ship to assist the shipyard.

Just then, a strike group of three more destroyers attacked the entrance to the bay. The two out to sea immediately headed back to assist in the defense of the base. My remaining submarine, along with the single destroyer in the bay and the Harpoon torpedo launcher kept the enemy at bay long enough for the other two to arrive. The enemy destroyers launched depth charges at my submarine, quickly destroying it, but not before several torpedoes crashed into their hulls, damaging them badly. The Harpoon continued to launch torpedoes, and the single Crusader fought valiantly. Plasma fire set the sea ablaze, and steam mixed with metal smoke created a thick fog in the air which was quickly whisked away by the constant winds. Massive blasts hammered into the ship, even as it returned fire desperately. One of its gun barrels was reduced to molten metal as a plasma shell struck it full on.

The two Crusaders from the north rocketed into the bay, their own gun barrels bellowing with concussive force as they blasted fire into the enemy. All the destroyers kept launching depth charges, hoping to crack the hulls of the enemy beneath the waterline and send them to the bottom. The ships were jolted in the water as blasts from both beneath and above the waves smashed into them. In the inferno, six destroyers were sent to the bottom before it was over, leaving me with only two heavily damaged ships remaining. Another Crusader solidified in the shipyard's embrace, just in time to launch a single shot at the last foundering Core destroyer.

At least I'll have enough metal for my shipbuilding efforts. I quietly chuckled to myself and shook my head. Each of those wrecks would be turned into another destroyer for my fleet. I just had to hold out long enough to build enough firepower for myself so that I could strike out in force. The Core would not dislodge me from this place easily, unless they were able to bring battleships to bear. I hoped to hell that wouldn't turn out to be the case.

Two more Enforcers made a try at my base over the next few minutes, but they were quickly smashed into crumpled pieces as my firepower increased. I built another Construction ship to increase the speed at which I could build destroyers.

My fleet of ships was up to six when they came again. Two Snakes and four more Enforcers. Ten destroyers exchanged fire viciously as they attempted to blow each other into so much debris. Depth charges turned the sea white with steam bubbles. Five Crusaders went to the bottom before the enemy assault was halted. Several more cruise missiles streaked in from the north, vaporizing metal extractors and wind generators in massive fireballs of molten metal and dispersing gasses. I sent three of my remaining four destroyers to hunt down the Hydra, and they chased it for kilometers to the southwest before they were able to bring it down. The enemy fleet caught those destroyers, blasting them to pieces. I was left with a crippled economy and one combat capable ship.

I cursed viciously and turned my mind to the task of rebuilding. There were thousands of tons of metal sitting at the mouth of the bay after the recent battles. I would need all of it. I began to reclaim furiously, ordering one of my construction boats to build several more tidal generators make up for the energy deficit that had resulted from the destruction of my wind farm. The other I ordered to continue assisting the shipyard. I needed more combat power, or this was over. I wasn't ready to give up just yet.

The tidal generators built, both construction ships began to assist the shipyard. They poured resources into new destroyers faster than I could reclaim it. Within minutes, I was back up to six Crusaders, with more being built as almost as fast as they could clear the construction bay. Soon it would be time to hunt. I could see intermittent sensor contacts circling to the south, the enemy fleet sending occasional cruise missiles hammering into my buildings. I had a strong feeling they were waiting for reinforcements. That had to be the reason they hadn't thrown everything they had at me. Maybe they had already spent too much of their local strength in the previous attacks? I was waiting for the hammer to drop.

When I was up to eight destroyers, I sent them north, searching for Core ships while I rebuilt my economy. A single patrolling destroyer and submarine were sent to the bottom as my fleet executed their search pattern. They soon found more of them, a fleet of six Enforcers and two Hydras. I ordered them to engage, and the battlegroup turned the sea white in their wakes as they turned to assault the enemy. Dozens of heavy plasma shells arced out from both sides and slammed into heavy armor or plowed into the sea. Armor cratered and deformed under the incredible weight of fire, and the sea was thrown into the air in massive plumes of steam and spray as plasma shells detonated underwater.

I ordered my units to destroy the enemy missile ships, as they were the greatest danger to my base. The Hydras crumpled beneath the blast waves and flame of dozens of plasma shells, and my ships withdrew, leaving two of their brethren behind them, burning. The enemy fleet chased them near to the island before withdrawing. After repairing my damaged ships and reinforcing them, they would strike out once again.

I built a Kbot Lab and a Construction Kbot, ordering it in turn to construct several Guardian plasma batteries. The heavy guns, despite how expensive they were, would crack the armor of destroyers easily, deterring any more attacks from the Core. They could even reach out and touch Hydras with their devastating firepower if they could get targeting data on them. As one of the big guns was completed and the fleet, now grown to thirteen ships, was preparing to move out, another strike group of four Enforcers moved in from the North. The plasma batteries on the Crusaders turned towards the interlopers, and thirteen heavy guns bellowed as one. The Guardian turned its own massive cannons on the enemy, and the sound of its weapon firing shook the trees around it. The enemy strike group was reduced to molten, broken wrecks and they sank to the bottom of the sea, ready to be devoured by my ever-hungry economy. I ordered my own fleet north to hunt down the remaining ships in that direction.

The fleet found only a few ships in that area, and quickly destroyed them. I turned them towards the southwest, several kilometers from the island where the three destroyers had been caught out. It was time to exact some revenge for those faithful three. Thirteen ships turned as one, their sleek, forty meter long hulls slicing the waves as their sharp prows pointed towards where the enemy fleet had last been spotted, vengeance keen in their crystalline hearts.

As the fleet of Crusaders sped through the waves at nearly one hundred kilometers per hour, enemy contacts began to appear on the sensors. The Core fleet had been located. The fleet turned towards the enemy and began to fire as they came into range. Eight enemy destroyers and three missile ships turned to meet them as they closed the distance. Scores of plasma shells slammed into ships on both sides, but the enemy was outgunned, if only by a few ships. Tens of thousands of tons of metal went to the bottom in less than two minutes in the form of broken ships, still glowing white hot, and steam bubbled from their shattered forms as they rapidly cooled.

It was over, for now. The last Core fast response fleet had been eradicated. It was time to consolidate my position here, spread out to more islands in search of metal to fuel my growing industry, and build a fleet capable of challenging the Core for control of this world. These last ninety minutes had only been the beginning. The seas of Thalassean would once again know total war. Should I lose here, Core would be able to continue to assault Empyrrean. I, however, intended to be the victor here, or die in the attempt. No other outcome was acceptable. The Core would know the fury of the ARM once again.

 

[Kyros]

AN/ In the immortal words of the mighty DJ Khaled: "Anotha one"

/give chapter readers 1

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Mission Seven

Using the advantage of surprise, the ARM Commander set back the Core line on Thalassean, and established a beachhead at Larab Harbor. Meanwhile however, Core forces on the rest of the planet had had a chance to regroup. They were certain to attack.

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MISSION 7.0002ARMTH
Defend Larab Harbor. Preserve the Moho Mine there. Destroy all Core units.

*SPECIAL PRIORITY*
The ARM stronghold and supply depot assembled at Larab Harbor must be preserved against all Core assaults. Metal is so rare on Thalassean that the Moho Mine at Larab must be protected at all costs. Should the Moho be destroyed, you will have failed your mission.

INFO FEED
We have reason to believe that there is a Core fleet hiding within a hurricane moving towards Larab. Be prepared! The Enemy is sure to target the Moho Mine.

END

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Naval Warfare: a Primer

On planets with oceans, a strong navy is often critical to success. To this end, the ARM and the Core deploy massive ships to rule the seas. These vessels range in size from diminutive patrol boats to gigantic dreadnoughts which are practically floating islands of guns. The largest vessels in use today are the Core and ARM's respective flagship classes, kilometer long behemoths which, once introduced onto the field of battle, are nigh-unstoppable.

Naval units are heavily armored, capable of withstanding incredible amounts of punishment. They carry some of the most powerful weapons available to either side, and often provide fire support to land assaults on coastlines. As a consequence of their incredible firepower and survivability, naval units are quite expensive in terms of resources and often take a long time to build.

On worlds with little land area it is impractical to build land-bound bases. There is an entire subset of underwater buildings available to a commander to take advantage of the resources and opportunities an undersea base provides. He can build an entire war machine without any land to build on, with factories, resource facilities, and a plethora of defensive structures.

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Thalassean, 9342 PD
Larab Harbor, six hours later

The Commander

The frenetic activity in and around Larab Harbor gave testament to the importance of the base. Coastal plasma batteries and Dragons Teeth were being rapidly emplaced, ready to greet the impending Core assault with hellfire. Defender missile towers were built, ready to greet any air assault with antimatter tipped guided missiles. Warships were being mass produced as fast as the local economy would allow. Which, unfortunately, wasn't very fast. I cursed and took stock of the situation.

After establishing a secure perimeter around ground zero, my arrival point on Thalassean, I accelerated my production of warships to its full capacity. I expanded to as many islands as I could reach, adding their paltry metal resources to my growing war machine. Groups of submarines and sub hunters played hide and seek as they sought to destroy each other and any enemy vessels they could catch. Fleets of Crusader destroyers, Conqueror cruisers, and Ranger missile ships roamed the seas, engaging Core fleets and pushing them two thousand kilometers further south. For over six hours, the battles raged, bringing fire and death to the seas of Thalassean.

My fleets discovered Larab Harbor, and quickly moved to exploit it, crushing the Core base there into so much debris with coastal plasma and missile bombardments. Larab Harbor was a small, defensible bay on the south side of a rather large island. Its mineral resources were quite rich for Thalassean, and I had taken advantage of that fact. A Moho Mine, a massive structure capable of penetrating the Mohorovicic discontinuity and extracting mineral resources at a phenomenal rate from beneath the crust of a world, had been constructed. Several metal and energy storages had been built to stockpile the resources gathered there. The supply depot was an incredibly important strategic asset, and its loss would cripple my efforts on this planet.

A powerful hurricane was moving in from the southwest, and it seemed it would hit Larab Harbor within the hour. As storm drew near to the supply depot, my scouts detected intermittent enemy signals from within the storm. I came to the conclusion that the Core were using the cover of the hurricane to launch a desperate assault on the supply depot. They would hold nothing back. Neither would I, although my units were out of position. I cursed softly yet again.

Should such an assault succeed, the results would be disastrous for my campaign on this world. My shipbuilding efforts would be slowed to a crawl as I was forced to rely on smaller metal extractors scattered throughout the islands I had captured, and the Core would be able to overwhelm me with sheer numbers and superior firepower. This was unacceptable.

Three of my fleets were on their way to relieve the few units I had defending the harbor, but they would not arrive in time. Only one destroyer and missile ship, along with several scout boats were in position to assist in its defense. A light Kbot force of Jethro antiaircraft Kbots and Hammers was stationed there, ready to take defeat any air assault and add what little fire they could against enemy vessels. I had been airdropped there as well, helping to strengthen the defenses as the Core drew closer. Larab Harbor would stand or fall on its own.

The edge of the storm was over us now, sending tall, white-capped waves crashing into the coastline. Heavy rain sleeted from above, and the wind was steadily rising to a gale. Lightening crawled across the sky, and thunder followed in its wake. The Core would arrive soon.

************************

The Core had arrived.

Riding the choppy seas, a lone Enforcer escorting a Hydra came out of the storm, heading towards my base. I was surprised that there weren't more ships. It seemed that the Core fleet had become spread out in the midst of the vicious hurricane. I took my blessings as they came. Fewer ships at a time would give me the opportunity to increase my local firepower and reclaim sunken ships between assaults.

The Hydra and the Ranger began to fire cruise missiles at each other, the Starburst missiles streaking in from the sky to smash armored bulkheads with massive antimatter explosions. As the two enemy ships came into range, my plasma battery and the lone Crusader added their weight of fire to the skirmish. Plasma shells carved great glowing craters into heavy armor on both sides as the enemy destroyer returned fire. One of the Guardian's heavy shells cracked open the armor of the Hydra, and a cruise missile from the Ranger smashed into the breach, detonating the Core missile ship's magazine. The vessel was split into two pieces in the massive explosion. The Enforcer followed suite soon after in a huge fireball as plasma crashed into it.

My Ranger was heavily damaged during the firefight, having taken multiple hits from enemy cruise missiles. The Crusader had only taken minor damage. Two ships would never be able to stop the Core from taking the base. I needed more mobile combat units, desperately.

As the intense pace of building defenses continued, three more contacts appeared to the south, moving fast. Three enemy attack bombers, Shadows, came screaming out of the storm, heading straight for the Moho mine. Their wide wingspan and long, narrow fuselages cut through the heavy rainfall at high speed, fire flaring from their afterburners. Missile pods extended from the sides of the Jethros as they targeted the enemy aircraft. Two missiles streaked towards them, striking the bombers and jolting them off target with the force of the impacts and subsequent explosions. Three more missiles from the other Jethros cut dark lines across the sky as they homed in their targets. One of the guided projectiles struck a bomber before it could reach the mine, slicing off its right wing, and it left a hundred meter furrow in the beach as it spun into the ground, nose first. The second Shadow disintegrated in multiple explosions as the Defenders added their own missiles to the defensive barrage.

The third bomber opened its bay doors, releasing its payload of cluster bombs which left a broad line of fire towards and over the Moho mine, causing major damage to the structure. Three missiles slammed into the Shadow, shattering it into multiple pieces that arced towards the ground, streaming fire and leaving a trail of dark smoke that quickly dissipated in the heavy rainfall.

That was too damned close, and only three bombers! I need more missile towers. This can't happen again!

A Construction ship, newly completed, sailed out of the shipyard. I was running low on energy, so I gave it orders to build more tidal generators and reclaim the wreck of the sunken Hydra. I would use that metal to build a Kbot lab, so that I could increase the number of plasma batteries on the coast. They would be needed soon.

A third Crusader was quickly completed, and just in time. Two more Enforcers sped through the choppy waves, heading towards the harbor. I ordered my units to get into position and meet them under the cover of the Guardian. As the destroyers entered each other's range, their guns began to bellow. Plasma shells from ships and battery crashed into armor, lighting up the deepening gloom with bright orange flashes of fire. The enemy vessels were quickly blasted into molten wreckage and sent to the bottom.

I moved into the water to reclaim the two wrecks and ordered the Construction Ship to begin the construction of an Advanced Shipyard. Conquerors were the order of the day. Their heavy guns fired an anti-armor variety of plasma shell which is fired at much higher velocity than standard plasma cannons can achieve. A cone of sun-hot fire is blasted forward from its impact site instead of exploding in a large area like standard high-explosive shells, allowing the plasma round to be capable of punching through even the heaviest of armor. In addition to this, the seventy meter long vessels carried even more armor than Crusaders. Their firepower would give me the edge I needed to repel the Core fleet, especially if they continued to arrive in small groups as they had been.

The storm had increased in ferocity. The wind howled around me, bending the trees of the surrounding jungle near to the ground and sending spray into the air from the sea. Lightening crashed even more frequently, and the rumble of thunder was a constant companion to the roar of the gale. The waves outside the harbor had grown in massively size. The rain had become a downpour, an almost solid wall of water.

From those massive waves, a small group of four Searcher scout boats came hurtling though the water. My ships began to fire on them, and water was sent surging through the air in massive plumes of steam blown sideways by the wind as some of the shells missed. When they struck the diminutive boats, they vanished in short-lived fireballs as heavy plasma shells almost completely vaporized them. There wasn't much left of them to bother reclaiming, which was unfortunate. Every small bit of metal would be needed here. Beggars, however, cannot be choosers.

I poured the last of my metal into the Conqueror, and it was barely enough. The seventy meter long behemoth slid out of the advanced shipyard. It might just be enough to stop the next attack. Maybe.

A group of three Enforcers and two Hydras surged out of the gloom. My sonar station picked up two underwater contacts just behind them. It seemed they had brought along a pair of submarine friends. That was... unfortunate. While depth charges were great for killing the relatively fragile submarines, ships would suffer heavy damage in the process. I needed Harpoon torpedo launchers to decisively counter them, and I hadn't built any yet. I began to make my way towards the shore. I didn't want to eat any torpedoes today.

The Conqueror turned its twin barreled turret on the enemy, and sent two shells screaming towards the leading destroyer. The shells struck it directly on its prow, blasting two neat holes into the surface of its armor. Inside the vessel was a different story, however. The twin cones of fire gutted the ship, and jets of flame could be seen leaving through various intake ports and other orifices. The two shells weren't enough to put the ship out of action, but eight more impacts from the Conqueror did finally send it to the bottom, its hull cracked and its weapons a melted ruin.

The other four ships entered their own weapons range soon after. The two opposing groups pummeled each other with plasma fire and missiles. Torpedoes crashed into the hulls of my ships from below, jolting them in the already choppy seas. I lost two destroyers before the enemy surface vessels were destroyed, and the Core Snakes were able to blast apart my sonar station. Several torpedoes struck my Command suit before I was able to reach the shore, warping my armor and rocking me with the intensity of the underwater blasts. Depth charges from my remaining three ships finally finished off the enemy submarines, sending their crumpled wrecks and shattered metal shards to the bottom.

I went right back into the water to reclaim what was left after the skirmish, for no metal could be spared, and ordered my Construction ship to build eight Harpoons around the bay and a replacement sonar station. A second Construction ship slid out of the shipyard to assist in the construction of more cruisers.

Less than a minute later, yet another destroyer and two more missile ships came out of the storm. Starburst cruise missiles slammed into my remaining two Crusaders, heavily damaging them. The three ships turned to engage the enemy, the armor-piercing munitions from the cruiser allowing them to sink the Enforcer relatively quickly. The Conqueror turned its guns on the lighter armor of the Hydra, punching though it like it was paper and gutting it with fire. One of the shells must have struck the enemy vessel's missile rack, because it exploded massively, sinking to the bottom in two pieces. The remaining Hydra retreated, shots from the cruiser chasing it out of the harbor, heavily damaged.

I pulled my destroyers back for repairs. Before I could even begin, two Starburst cruise missiles streaked of the gloom from the south, slamming into the crippled vessels and blasting them apart, their weakened armor unable to stand up to that kind of punishment. Another Conqueror slid out of the advanced shipyard, and I ordered my two cruisers to hunt down the remaining Hydra. They sped out into the storm at nearly fifty knots, throwing massive plumes of water to either side of them as they crashed into the waves. They quickly caught up with the fleeing ship and treated it to the same fate as its companions. The fiery explosion was quite satisfying, but the loss of two destroyers had hurt.

I continued with my construction and reclaiming efforts. Two cruisers were nice, but they weren't nearly enough to defend against a strong assault.

************************

Another flight of bombers, this time six of them, along with an Avenger fighter escort, blasted out of the sky. I was more prepared for them this time, and twenty missiles streaked through the air to meet them. The four bombers survived to reach the base, the rest of the air units smashed to the earth in flaming ruins. Their heavy payloads crashed into several light laser turrets and storage buildings. The LLT's were destroyed in the subsequent blasts of cluster bombs, and the storages were heavily damaged. Missiles intercepted the remaining bombers, and their remains crashed into the jungle north of my base. The heat from their wrecks set the vegetation aflame for a few short moments before the rain quenched the fires.

I had three cruisers and six harpoons now, but it still wouldn't be enough if the enemy had Warlord battleships, and I knew they would. I needed to build at least two Millennium bombardment ships. Their massive guns might turn the tide of the battle, but metal was incredibly scarce. I was almost totally relying on reclamation to fuel my construction efforts at this point.

A massive assault force of Croc amphibious tanks appeared on my sonar returns. I was glad I had invested in the Harpoons. The square, thirty ton heavy tanks would easily overrun the land based defenses that I had if they were able to reach coast, although I could turn my ship's guns on them at need. A Conqueror's projectile, which was designed to punch through thick ship armor, could easily destroy such a relatively lightly armored unit. Most of them were destroyed in the water however, torpedoes slamming into them and shattering them with antimatter explosions, and the few that made it to the shore were soon crushed under the guns of my Conquerors. I thanked the Core for this great gift of metal and began work on a Millennium as the fifth Cruiser slid out of the construction bay.

The enemy did not come again for quite some time, and I was able to complete one of the bombardment ships. Just as more sensor contacts were appearing, the ship left the shipyard, its hundred meter long hull ponderously rocking in the choppy seas. The hulking vessel was a glorious sight indeed with its two massive turrets, each with three barrels apiece, capable of delivering rapid fire death at extreme range in the form of six high explosive plasma shells per second. It would be invaluable in the coming engagements.

The four enemy contacts came to a stop two kilometers outside the bay. I knew what had arrived. The Warlords had come, at last. I ordered my units to engage them. The two massive turrets of the bombardment ship turned towards the enemy and began firing, its six barrels cycling rapidly as they sent death towards the Core vessels. The Conquerors, their weapons shorter ranged than the bombardment ship's own, moved closer and began to punch holes into the enemy vessels with their armor piercing shells. As rounds from the Millennium began screaming in towards them, the Warlords opened fire with their own bombardment cannons. Viridian light lanced out from their heavy laser batteries towards my cruisers, burning away at their armor. While they only had one plasma turret to the Millennium's two, they still caused heavy damage to my ships. First one, then two Warlords came apart in massive explosions as their on board fusion reactors went critical. Two of my conquerors were smashed by the heavy guns and lasers of the enemy battleships.

Another, even more massive assault of Crocs was spotted coming in under the heavy guns of the Warlords. By the time the last two Core battleships were destroyed, the crocs had reached the shore. They took heavy casualties as torpedoes smashed into them, but over half the assault force surged onto land, their heavy guns opening fire on my light laser towers and Guardians. I fired my D-Gun into them repeatedly, vaporizing multiple tanks with each shot. My suit took heavy damage, but it held for long enough. The remaining ships of my fleet turned their guns on the enemy assault force, and the withering fire from their guns soon reduced them to burning wrecks.

Meanwhile, another group of aircraft screamed in from the south, bombers releasing their payloads on my ships and defenses. Two bombers were able drop bombs on the Moho mine, heavily damaging it before they were turned into flying shards of metal by multiple missile impacts.

Another group of four Warlords entered the bay less than a minute later, and my fleet was reduced to two ships, one Crusader and the Millennium, both heavily damaged before the enemy battleships were destroyed by the combined fire of my Guardian, fleet, and torpedo launchers.

A Cruiser was completed, and the storm had begun to lose its strength as it made its ponderous way further north. Two more Warlords sailed out of the southwest, and my Millennium, its massive armored form streaming smoke from hundreds of craters, was unable to slug it out with the two behemoths. It quickly succumbed to the massed fire of the Warlords and tipped over on its side, foundering. Water soon filled its interior, and the hulking vessel sank beneath the waves, having given its all in the defense of the harbor.

It seemed all was lost. The battleships ignored my two Conquerors however, instead focusing their fire on the last remaining plasma battery. They paid the ultimate price for their arrogance. One of the Warlords suffered a critical hit. Just as the two blasted the plasma battery apart, a shell from the cruisers penetrated deep into its armor, cracking the protective casing of its fusion reactor and destabilizing it. It came apart in a massive explosion which split the vessel down the middle and turned its stern into a massive, gaping, glowing hole.

The remaining battleship began to focus on the Moho Mine, hoping to complete its mission. The bastard made the mistake of coming too close to the shore, and I, having positioned myself underwater beforehand near the battleships, moved rapidly into the shallows. The Warlord responded too late to my presence, and as its massive weapons turned towards me slowly, too slowly, I raised my left arm and fired my D-Gun. The deadly blast cut straight through the vessel amidships, blasting out the port side, cutting the hulking ship in half. Its fusion reactor, missing half its housing, went critical, and the ship exploded in a massive fireball that sent pieces of molten wreckage hundreds of meters into the air.

I received a ping from my one of my battle fleets. They had arrived at last, just in time to see the fading fireball that had been the last enemy ship float away on the dregs of the hurricane which had brought them here.

It was over, for now. The supply depot still stood, barely. The Core had expended a massive amount of effort trying to destroy Larab Harbor, and it had cost them dearly. Nearly twenty battleships and close to sixty submarines, destroyers and missile ships, along with their entire compliment of air units were sunken in and around the harbor. The seabed was choked with metal, hundreds of thousands of tons of it. I would use it all to supplement my forces and push the Core off Thalassean. The fight was far from over, and the Core were a tenacious foe. I refused to lose, however. With the tremendous amounts of resources the Core had left me in the aftermath of their failed assault, the tables had turned. Their battleships would become my battleships. Their destroyers, my destroyers.

Their failure here would return to haunt them, soon. I would see to that.

 

[Kyros]

I'm working on the Mission Eight, but future updates will be intermittent as REAL LIFE rears its ugly head

I'm gonna be working 18 hour days for a while, but I'll try to update when I can, maybe once a week, maybe more. We'll see what happens, I guess.

 

[Kyros]

Yay! Mission eight, in which the Commander destroys a perfectly lovely resort island in a roaring rampage of revenge!

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Mission Eight

With ARM presence once again firmly rooted on Thalassean, the Commander began dispatching scouting teams in search of further objectives. They were successful. A squad of PT boats discovered energy patterns matching those of the Core Galactic Gate emanating from one of the northern islands. The island was heavily guarded. It would not be taken easily.

***************************************

MISSION 8.0003ARMTH
Capture the Galactic Gate.

*SPECIAL PRIORITY 1A PRIME*
A squad of Skeeter scout boats has found a heavily guarded island to the north. Energy emission levels indicated that it may be the site of a Core Galactic Gate. Find that Gate and capture it. By doing so you will be securing the Thalassean for the ARM!
... And open the door to another Core world.

INFO FEED
Immediate construction of a secure base is critical. Core will not relinquish the Gate without a fight! Be careful not to destroy the Gate with offshore bombardments!

END

***************************************

"Lost" Technologies

Over the course of four thousand years of war, many technological wonders have been lost to practicality. As the war dragged on and resources became scarcer, many ancient megastructures were destroyed and recycled for the massive amounts of resources they represented.

Ringworlds and other massive orbitals which had once been home to hundreds of billions and reduced to derelicts after many massive conflicts were taken apart piece by piece to feed the hungry war machines of the two warring sides. With the war taking place in space at that time, neither side could see the megastructures as anything more than a vast source of metals to build more fleets of warships with. And so, the jewels of the prewar empire were turned into daggers and swords, and they were no more.

Dyson spheres which would have taken a less advanced civilization hundreds of thousands of years to build and had been one of the crowning achievements of pre-war humanity were recycled for their metals as far more aggressive star harvesting methods were employed. While Dyson sphere harvested a star's energy over its entire lifetime, gravity spouts were employed to utilize the massive pressure inside the star to feed their very substance into gigantic forges and factories.

Entire planets were created and destroyed during the war. Planets composed of metal were built around massive super weapons capable of destroying an entire solar system in the blink of an eye. Other planets were made to be more natural, with biospheres and climates on the surface and placed in star systems to look and act like they had always been there. Underneath the surface however, massive factories, research centers, databases, and weapons systems were hidden. The only such structure left in existence today is Core Prime, and it's super weapons are inoperable due the lack of the extreme amounts of energy required to use them.

The spacecrafts employed during this time were immense things, the largest being over an astronomical unit in length and capable of unimaginable destruction. Fleets composed of millions of spacecraft ranging from tiny fighter and bomber drones to supercapital ships thousands of kilometers long slugged it out in vast battles, hurling fire and death towards one another. Many of the most powerful weapons used then have either been scaled down for use on ground units or faded from use as the war moved to the surfaces of the last few valuable planets.

As the war was confined to the surfaces of planets, Galactic Gates became the most common method of transport to and from different worlds. The power requirements of these space-folding devices were incredibly high, and it could take weeks to charge one up. In an emergency, massive amounts of power could be allocated to them in order to charge them in a matter of hours. The gates had a mass limit of a few thousand tons, and they tended to collapse if the mass limit was crossed too quickly. As the distance between gates increased, the energy requirements per kilo increased exponentially. While it is impractical to send anything bigger than a Command Unit through interstellar distances because of the extreme energy requirements, Galactic Gates and the Core's Ambassador are often used in planetary warfare to rapidly teleport units around the battlefield.

Although many of the old technologies have faded from use, they are not lost permanently, and should either side have access to resources on the level at which they were available before, they would quickly be reimplemented.

***********************************

Thalassean, 9342 PD
Larab Harbor, forty minutes after the assault

THE COMMANDER

As the hurricane which had assaulted Larab Harbor and brought the Core fleet crashing down on it faded into the distance, the air was filled with the buzzing of nanolathes as construction ships busily reclaimed wreckage and built more shipyards. Warships slid out of the yards constantly as the resources from the bottom of the harbor were funneled into new units as quickly as it was reclaimed.
There were close to a hundred shining new ships sitting out in the bay. Crusader destroyers, Conqueror Cruisers, Ranger missile ships, and Millennium bombardment ships filled the sea with hundreds of thousands of tons of metal.

The detritus from the battle had nearly all been reclaimed and turned into ships, but I had built a massive metal farm to supplement the expansion of my fleet. It was incredibly energy inefficient, but it allowed me to keep up the pace. Row upon row of tidal generators, wind generators, fusion reactors, and solar collectors provided the gigawatts of power needed to run the extensive collection of metal makers. There was no more jungle left on the white sands and brown rock of the island. I had covered the entire island of Larab with metal makers, storages, and power generation structures. I had increased the number of Moho Mines on the island as well, bringing my total up to six.

This was the power of the modern war machine. Even with six Moho Mines working at full tilt to bring precious resources up from below for my use, the amount of metal they were extracting was paltry compared to the amount I was fabricating out of energy in my metal makers.

There was a price, though. The energy requirements for such a massive metal farm were huge, and I had to build several square kilometers of tidal generators and ten fusion reactors to support it. I was using seawater as coolant, and as a result I was dumping massive amounts of mineral salts back into the sea and filling the air with billowing clouds of steam as the metal makers struggled to keep themselves cool enough to avoid going critical. One sufficiently powerful warhead could set my entire setup off like a thermonuclear bomb, wiping out Larab Harbor for good as it was blown below sea level. If I happened to be there at the time, well… That didn't bear thinking about. I just had to make sure there wasn't a Hydra near enough to bring about the aforesaid disaster.

To that end, I had dispatched squads of PT boats in all directions to locate any Core fleets. I would build several fleets of a hundred ships apiece to spread throughout the globe and eradicate Core forces. Larab Harbor would continue to produce units, and I would spread my manufacturing efforts to other suitable islands as I found them.

Several scout squads had already reported in, informing me that they had found Core vessels. I had dispatched the fleets that were already out at sea to intercept and destroy them. So far, everything was going according to plan. I hoped it would continue to do so.

*********************************

Core Stronghold in the Nesos Archipelago , twelve hours later

It was done. I had found it. The battle for Thalassean would soon be over, if all went according to plan.

For twelve hours, my fleets and scouts had scoured the sea, engaging scattered Core fleets with superior numbers and sinking them. Submarines had played hide-and-seek with each other as they sought to punch holes into the bottoms of ships or destroy each other. Enemy bases were bombarded mercilessly from offshore, and when there was nothing left, Hulks dropped off construction Kbot teams to establish my own bases on their ruins.

I had made excellent progress in my invasion of Thalassean, but I had noticed a pattern in Core movements. Core fleets were consistently heading north. I suspected they were gathering in numbers somewhere among the northern islands, regrouping and rebuilding their fleets. I could not allow them to establish themselves again after I had gone to such great pains to dislodge them from their strongholds the first time.

I had dispatched several scout fleets to search the area and discover the location of the enemy fleet. And it had paid off. After twelve hours of battle on the high seas, I received a report from one of my scouting parties. They had found a Core base in the Nesos Archipelago to the north. The Core had gathered together a powerful force of nearly five hundred warships to defend the base. Energy emissions were detected from the island, leading me to the conclusion that this was the location of the Core Galactic Gate. They would try to defend it at all costs, in an attempt to keep the me from capturing it and cutting them off from any kind of reinforcement or communication, as well as giving me the keys to the next Core world in the Gate chain.

I immediately mobilized several of my fleets to engage and destroy the enemy. They would assault the enemy fleets, drawing as many vessels away from the island as they could. Long range bombardment would be used to force the enemy to close with my own vessels, lest they be destroyed from afar.
I could not simply order the fleets to attack the enemy base and crush it with massive firepower, lest they accidentally destroy the Galactic Gate.

Under the cover of this assault, I would approach from the south, establish myself on one of the islands there, and swoop in to destroy the remaining defenders and capture the Gate. Once it was mine, I would use my forces to hunt down and destroy all remaining Core forces on the planet without worrying about them receiving help from the other side.

The assault began. Eight hundred of my ships , nearly eighty five percent of my total firepower, engaged the enemy. Bombardment ships and Rangers fired on the enemy from extreme range, forcing the enemy to close lest he lose most of his units without firing a shot. A veritable rain of plasma shells and cruise missiles streaked south to impact on the hulls of enemy ships in massive explosions or strike the water, sending it upward in huge plumes of steam. The enemy fleet, having been left no other option, sent the majority of its units to engage my fleet. My own ships began withdrawing, staying just inside their weapons range. They would lead the Core as far away as they could and keep them occupied while I made my own assault.

I, along with a small group of Jethros for anti-air support, was airdropped on a small island south of the Core base. An escort of scout boats, three Lurkers, a Crusader, and a Ranger sailed in from the south to give me some cover from the sea and extra scouting power.

It was a beautiful day. The sky was a crystal clear blue, and the omnipresent wind had decreased to a gentle breeze. The sun sparkled off the clear blue water and the sand of the beach. Jungle vegetation swayed and fluttered gently in the breeze, it's greenery a fantastic compliment to the white of the beach. It would be a shame to spoil such natural beauty.

Meh.

I quickly established myself, building metal extractors and energy generators. I set a shipyard down in the sea, and built a few modest defenses in the form of dragons teeth along the coast as well as five LLTs.

I ordered the shipyard to build a construction ship and several crusaders for extra defense, and busied myself with the construction of tidal generators. I would need metal makers to increase my metal income, and for that I needed power in excess.

Several Snake submarines came gliding in from the north underneath the waves. Before my own Lurkers could target them, they launched their torpedoes. The underwater missiles streaked through the waves on their supercavitation drives, slamming into two of my patrol boats, blasting them to pieces. The Lurkers fired on them, three torpedoes crashing into one of the Snakes and reducing it to a crumpled wreck with the concussion of their blasts. The remaining Snake was able to fire again , damaging one of my own submarines before the next trio of torpedoes tore it apart.

I set the construction ship to building tidal generators while I began to build metal makers on the island. In a spray of green light, the relatively cheap structure flew together, and I built four of them, pushing my energy generators to the limits. I would need many more in order to build a sufficient force to assault the enemy base.

As more metal makers and tidal generators came online, my energy expenditure increased massively, but my metal income increased dramatically as well. I ordered the construction of an advanced shipyard along with several Harpoons in order to discourage any more attacks by submarine. I built several metal and energy storages to increase my resource buffer in case I needed to spend resources faster than they were coming in.

Two flights of Avengers flew over my base, and my Jethros fired on them, bringing them down. It seemed the Core were scouting my position. I had a sizeable force of destroyers and submarines by then, so I would be able to fend off any but the most determined attack. Soon, not even those would be enough to stop me.

Minutes later, a group of four Enforcers rapidly made their way towards my shipyard. My Crusaders intercepted them, and the two groups of ships pummeled each other with plasma fire. One of the enemy destroyers got into range of my shipyard and started firing on it, heavily damaging it before it too was engulfed in fire and sunk.

I reclaimed the metal and used it to build a Kbot lab followed by an advanced Kbot lab. I built one of each respective construction Kbots and reclaimed their factories. I would use the Kbots to replace my basic metal extractors with Moho mines for a generous boost to metal income and to bolster my defenses with Guardian plasma batteries. I would need them in case the Core decided to attack in force.

***********************************

Twenty minutes had gone by with several probing attacks by the Core while I continued to build my base. My metal income had tremendously increased as I had built more and more metal makers. I had also covered nearly half a square kilometer in tidal generators to fuel these energy hungry machines. I had built fifteen destroyers and submarines, and my advanced shipyard was building cruisers at a phenomenal rate. I had ordered fifteen Conquerors and three Millenniums to be built, and the shipyard was nearly halfway through the production order. The time for the assault would come soon.

I sent several scout boats to reconnoiter the enemy base before the assault. They would confirm the location of enemy defensive structures and mobile combat units for my bombardment ships to attack. I didn't want to destroy the Gate after all this effort.

As the scout boats left, an assault force of ten Croc amphibious tanks attempted to sneak in underneath my ships. Fifteen submarines opened fire on them, sending torpedoes hammering into them. Their heavy armor took blow after blow, the concussions from the blasts deforming it and shattering coral reefs around them. Steam rose in great bubbles from the blasts, frothing the surface. One of the tanks made it to the shore of my main base, but it was heavily damaged and the LLTs cut it into glowing chunks.

I smiled. The Core had given me a sizeable gift in metal, and I would be sure to return it with interest, soon. Anything else would be… rude.

The Core definitely knew I was here. I was confused as to why they hadn't sallied forth in strength to attack me. I believed it was because they had sent most of their forces to counter my own fleets and they didn't want to leave their own base undefended in case elements of the northern fleet broke off and attacked while they were dealing with me. Too cautious of them, though that was exactly what I planned to do, should they attack me in strength. They might even catch me out and kill me. Then it didn't matter what happened to them, the ARM would be finished. Oh well.

My train of thought broke off as a Warlord and two Hydras sailed towards me from the island.

Damn. I spoke too soon.

If either of those missile ships gets a lucky shot into my metal makers, it would wipe out my base. I couldn't allow that. I ordered my fleet to engage them.

Fifteen destroyers, eight cruisers, and a bombardment ship sped through the waves to meet the comparatively diminutive enemy group. The two opposing behemoths began to fire, a rain of heavy plasma shells causing the ocean to erupt as they smashed into the waves. The two massive ships pummeled each other heavily, while the cruisers reached their attack ranges and added their devastating anti-armor ordinance into the mix and heavy cruise missiles from the missiles ships slammed into the Millennium, scoring its armored hull with massive glowing craters. The Conquerors shells slammed into the Hydras, punching through their lighter armor and gutting them. Fire flared from various ports as the plasma raged through the Hydras insides. Their missile racks exploded seconds later, splitting the ships in half and sending them to the bottom. As the Crusaders drew closer, the heavy laser turret on the Warlord began lancing out, viridian fire straight through their hulls and quickly destroying them. Many of the destroyers were sent to the bottom as the hulking Core ship tore them to pieces mercilessly.

The cruisers added their armor piercing rounds to the firestorm raging across the battered Core vessel, and it soon faltered as it was pummeled into a deformed, burning wreck. A massive explosion shook the ship, and it slowly foundered, keeling over on one side and beginning to sink.
I moved to reclaim the fallen units and, on my way there, I used my D-Gun to clear a small island of vegetation. I would build plasma batteries there, where they would be in range of one of the enemy's defensive islands. They would also add their weight of fire to any engagement that occurred in that area again.

I began to use my scout boats to spot torpedo launchers for my Ranger. One by one, the Core's torpedo launchers were destroyed all along the south side of their main island as cruise missiles hammered into them. The way would soon be clear for the main assault.

As I continued to build my forces, I turned my attention to the battle in the north. The Core's fleets were putting up one hell of a fight. Hundreds of ships were spewing fire and death at each other, and hundreds had already died, sent to bottom in a storm of fire. Dark clouds were forming in the sky above the battle as the massive amount of energy released had flash heated incredible quantities of water. There would be another storm on Thalassean. Rain was already beginning to fall above the warring forces.

Flashes of light and arcs of plasma could be seen from thirty kilometers away. Columns of dark smoke from burning ships poured into the sky, and the thunder of guns and explosions could be heard all the way back at my base. It was both beautiful and terrible, in its own way.

It was the most vicious fighting that Thalassean had seen for a very long time. The Core were giving it their all. As much as I hated to, I had to give my grudging respect to that doomed effort. They would never win, but the word "surrender" had lost all its meaning millennia ago. No quarter was given, and none was asked for.

*************************************

The fleet was nearly ready. Thirty cruisers, three bombardment ships, ten missile ships, and a strong escort of destroyers and submarines would assault the enemy.

I had built three advanced vehicle plants on an island to the east of my base, and sixty Triton amphibious tanks were ready and eager to assault the enemy islands. I would take the Core islands with those tanks and use the ships to clear the waters around them.

It began.

I sent a probing force of twenty Tritons onto the first enemy island, south of the main stronghold. They surged out of the water, and Gaat guns and the heavy plasma shells of warlords tore them to pieces, great gouts of sand and flame being thrown into the air as plasma shells impacted all around them and viridian lances of fire punched through the armor of the tanks. Despite that, it was a small island, and the tanks were able to assault under the cover of Guardian plasma batteries from the tiny island I had cleared earlier. They moved fast, plasma cannons barking as they fired into the Gaat guns and the few ground units on the island. Towers were knocked to the earth as plasma tore them apart, and Slasher missile trucks were helpless before the onslaught. In minutes, the assault ended as three out of an original twenty tanks crashed back under the waves on the other side of the small island, leaving wreckage and death behind them.

They regrouped with the main ground attack force, forty tanks waiting off the coast of the main Core stronghold, a crescent shaped affair with an inactive volcano on the northernmost side and heavy defenses all around it. The first wave of tanks surged out of the water like hunting crocodiles, but they were quickly destroyed in a massive wave of plasma and laser fire.

My fleet drew into range. The island and its surrounding waters began to bloom in massive explosions as three bombardment ships rained fire from the sky.

The enemy defending fleet moved to engage my own attack force, Warlords hammering my ships with lasers and rapid fire plasma, Enforcers adding their own fire to the mix. Hydras and Rangers sent cruise missiles hammering into the hulls of enemy ships, cracking armor and finishing off those already heavily damaged. In a massive storm of plasma, missiles, and lasers, nearly a hundred ships were sunk in total as the island's defenses were systematically crushed into powder.

The second wave of tanks, this one even larger, surged out of the water, plasma cannons blazing. Many of them died as heavy lasers tore them to shreds and heavy flamers from Reaper assault tanks melted them, but they poured over the into the caldera where the Gate was hidden. There they were met with a storm of fire from Pyros. It seemed the volcano had come alive again as fire poured over the rim, destroying tanks with its incredible heat. The enemy fleet had mostly been sunk, and my own ships turned their guns onto the remaining defenses on the island. In their zealousness to destroy the enemy, the fleet's bombardment of the island damaged the Galactic Gate, but I stopped them before they caused critical damage.

It was over. Fires still burned from wrecks all across the island, and the landscape was pocked with still-smoking craters. Smoke filled the air with its acrid scent as I made my way towards the Gate. I captured it, and with it, I stole away the Core's last hope on this world. The Nesos Archipelago was mine. Thalassean had been captured for the ARM. There were still scattered pockets of resistance on the world, but they would soon fall as my fleets hunted them down. The last major Core holdout on this world had fallen.

I reviewed the data stream from the Gate, and noted its destination. Tergiverse IV. Now there would be a fight. The world had once been one like Thalassean, but it had been drained dry by the Core, all its water consumed for industrial purposes. Now it was a blasted, dry hellhole, filled with incredibly rough terrain, canyons, salt flats, and massive mountain ranges. The Core were sure to be well entrenched there. I would enjoy prying them out of their redoubts like oysters from their shells.

But first, all the Core on Thalassean must be destroyed. I had time. The Gate needed to charge first, and this time, I wasn't in as much of a hurry. I would hunt down every last Core unit on this world. It would be cathartic payback for what the Core did the last time around. When that task was complete, I could move on to the next world, Tergiverse IV. I was looking forward to it.

 

[Orion Scimatarii]

You capture the cinematic feel TA has.

Very well done.

 

[Valden Regis]

Hey Kyros how many universes do you plan to visite in your story and do you take suggestions of said universes for ARMs multiverse spanning empire.

 

[Kyros]

So far I have three that I want to visit, probably as the subject of spinoffs. I want to explore the viewpoint of the characters in those universes from their perspective, with the Commander being some sort of presence in the background, affecting events from behind the scenes. Kind of like Neal Asher's Owner in his future histories.

I dunno how well I'm going to be able implement it though, because I can't write character interactions very well.
It's all just an idea in my head right now

I'll consider any suggestions you might have, and if I'm familiar enough with the universe, I might implement them.

 

[Valden Regis]

So far I have three that I want to visit, probably as the subject of spinoffs. I want to explore the viewpoint of the characters in those universes from their perspective, with the Commander being some sort of presence in the background, affecting events from behind the scenes. Kind of like Neal Asher's Owner in his future histories.

I dunno how well I'm going to be able implement it though, because I can't write character interactions very well.
It's all just an idea in my head right now

I'll consider any suggestions you might have, and if I'm familiar enough with the universe, I might implement them.

Click to shrink...

My advice for this is ask some of the primogenitors of the commander SI genre (they dont bite) maybe they have the answers you seek and maybe read Apathy, Commanders, Hitchhikers (PA Multicross)

hear are some universes you could visit
Sidonia no Kishi Manga
tons of biothech and gravity beam emitter technology
Neon Genesis Evangelion - Wikipedia
soul bending tech and super cyborg mechs
Muv-Luv - Wikipedia
endless swarm of BETA male aliens and tons of hot chicks
Warframe - Wikipedia
Space ninjas, space magic, hot space mom Lotus.
Destiny (video game) - Wikipedia
more space magic and beach ball Traveler on which your commander can use it as a mode of transportation or balance it self like this majestic horse

 

[Kyros]

I've read most of the PA/SI fics and I quite enjoyed them.

Warframe is the only universe of those four I know all that much about, though. NGE sounds interesting.

I'll check them out, but remember, its going to be looong while before any crossovers happen.

I have plans hue hue hue

 

[Valden Regis]

I've read most of the PA/SI fics and I quite enjoyed them.

Warframe is the only universe of those four I know all that much about, though. NGE sounds interesting.

I'll check them out, but remember, its going to be looong while before any crossovers happen.

I have plans hue hue hue

Click to shrink...

I can wait man work on your story at your leisure. And you should know that evangelion is one is a hell of a drug induced psychological ride so prepare your self bro.

 

[Kyros]

Edit: I'm an idiot and didn't look at the map before writing this to make sure I had the terrain described properly. Fixed.

Mission Nine

Making use of the second captured Core Gate, the ARM Commander took a step further into Core territory. Tergiverse IV was once a sparkling water world like Thalassean, but had been drained dry, its resources used elsewhere in support of the war. The Core had tapped into the last significant source of water remaining on the planet, a large underground lake more than a mile beneath the surface.

*******************************

MISSION 9.0001ARMT
Capture the Hydration Plant.

PRIORITY
We have withheld our air unit capabilities in our struggle against Core, until now… Core will be expecting us to attack by using our ground forces.
The time had come to surprise them. Build an Aircraft Plant and use the Air Units to take out their minimal air defense emplacements. Build an Atlas Air Transport Unit to carry you over their ground forces and capture the Hydration Plant.

INFO FEED
The Hydration Plant is located within fortified and patrolled territory. Your best chance of success is to fly over the Core defenses. Expect heavy Core ground forces, minimal air defense. As always, expect Guards at the Gate.

END

*******************************

Aircraft: A Primer

While they are a far cry from the space fighters and bombers of past centuries, modern air forces are still a force to be reckoned with. Fast and nimble, they are capable of delivering devastating surgical strikes, delivering death from above at hypersonic speeds.

All modern aircraft are VTOLs, using thrusters to lift off and change attitude and direction quickly. This allows them to land and take off from practically anywhere, no matter the terrain. Canyons and gullies are often used to hide an ambushing force of gunships for deadly attacks on mobile columns, and bombers can lie in wait near an enemy base under cover of concealing terrain until the time is right to drop their deadly payloads in concert with an attacking ground force.

Unfortunately, due to their requirements of an atmosphere for lift and the nature of their turbines and scramjets, they cannot operate in an environment without an atmosphere. They can, however, operate in any type of atmosphere, even ones without oxygen. Their fuel is manufactured as needed when they are built or they visit an Air Repair Pad, and each fuel cocktail is tailor made for any given environment for maximum efficiency and thrust potential. Overall, their fuel consumption is quite low, so they can operate for long periods of time without needing to return to base for refueling.

Aircraft, due to their natures as light and fast assault units, are relatively cheap in terms of metal, although they can take a while to build without assistance. Their energy requirements are often high, and their low armor rating leaves them vulnerable to fire from surface to air missiles and flak cannons.

There are many types of aircraft available to both the ARM and the Core, ranging from the fast and light Peeper scouts crafts and Hawk stealth air superiority fighters, to powerful Hurricane strategic bombers and Vindicator armored assault gunships.

*******************************

Thalassean, 9342 PD
Nesos Archipelago, Galactic Gate, eight hours later

THE COMMANDER

It had taken eight hours to finish off the last of the Core forces on Thalassean. It had been… enjoyable, but now it was time to move on. I had allocated as much energy as possible to charging the gate, since there wasn't much left to do here. It was charged and ready for my use. I wanted to make my way to Tergiverse IV.

The Gate hummed with power and the air shimmered around it, signaling that the matter transmission process was ready to begin.

I stepped through the Gate onto the soil of a new world.

*******************************
*******************************

Tergiverse IV, 942PD
Core Outpost G-349, .000002 femtoseconds later

Pyro A1-2 wasn't bored. He and his two companions weren't capable of feeling boredom, even though they had been stationed at the Galactic Gate for exactly seven years, eight months, three weeks, five days, nine hours, forty three minutes, eight seconds, and seven hundred and ninety three point four eight one three milliseconds, standard time.

They stood perfectly still, their battlesuits in perfect condition, their flamers primed for instant action, occasionally dripping flaming liquid from their long nozzles. They constantly scanned their surroundings, ensuring that there were no threats to their assigned areas and that the lone solar collector and radar tower on the flat top of the mesa were still there. The salty desert and heat of the day meant nothing to them, beyond the abstract sensor readings they represented.

All was in order, as it had been from the microsecond they had been stationed here.

The three had played hundreds of different types of board games, accumulating millions of completed games over the long years. At the moment, they were playing an old favorite, three-way chess.

Pyro A1-1 made his move in the chess game the three were playing, moving his rook to capture one of Pyro A1-2's bishops and put his queen in danger.

Before he could make his countermove, the three Kbots received data from the Gate. It was activating, its receiving dish orienting itself and preparing to open the way for an incoming matter transmission.

Pyro A1-2 turned his head towards the Gate.

The air began to shimmer around the gate, and a bright spark appeared above the receiving dish, crackling for a moment before winking out.

Pyro A1-1 sent a query to him. "There were no scheduled transmissions from Nigh Pilago."

"Agreed. Those idiots on the other side better have a good reason for this."

"Prepare. Alert Command."

"Done."

No more was said because there was nothing more to be said. Core were efficient that way.

Just then, with a loud SNAP, a second, brighter spark appeared, whiting out their sensors for half a second as the matter transmission was completed.

When Pyro A1-2's sensors cleared, he was momentarily stunned at what he saw. The one object he was designed to hate above all others, even biological humans. The twenty meter tall, humanoid figure of an ARM Commander was standing before him. THE ARM Commander. Here! It was unthinkable!

His alarms screamed their danger warnings at him, and he snapped out of his surprise.

All three Kbots oriented their flamers at the enemy Commander, firing up their pumps, launching sprays of astonishingly calescent flame at the hated enemy. The Commander reacted instantly as well, raising his left arm towards Pyro A1-1 and firing his D-Gun. The Kbot vanished in a white flash as the molecules that made up his body were torn apart. Nothing remained of him.

Pyro A1-3 quickly followed as the ruby star of the disintegration blast tore through him, carving a furrow from the top of the mesa.

Pyro A1-2 felt a tiny bit of despair as the deadly weapon swung his way. He continued to fire desperately, hoping to at least heavily damage his despised foe. The Commander's baleful red optics fastened on him, and the barrel of the weapon on his left arm began to glow a deathly scarlet. It flashed brightly as oblivion was released from the weapon, and Pyro A1-2 knew no more.

*******************************

THE COMMANDER

I stepped into the heat of Tergiverse IV, the sand crunching under my feet. As before, my sensors screamed threat alarms at me as it detected nearby hostile units. I silenced it and focused on the source of the warning. Three Pyros, all around me. They were turning their weapons towards me. Time slowed to a crawl for me as I reacted instantly. I raised my left arm and fired my Disintegrator Cannon, once, twice, three times. Three Kbots vanished in bright blasts as they were reduced to metallic vapor. Nothing remained of them.

Damage reports came flooding in as my suit's superconducting layers bled away the last of the heat from the flamers. The three had caused some serious damage to my suit, but the self repair systems were already at work. I would be fine, but I really should have been more careful.

I took stock of my surroundings. I was on the flat top of a small, steeply sloped mesa only roughly one hundred and fifty meters across. The sun shone brightly off the salty desert for kilometers in every direction. The white and tan sand, which had once been the bottom of a vast sea, was broken only by the occasional mesa like my own. There was very little vegetation, and what there was of it was hardy and almost inconspicuous, growing in what little shade there was. I detected only minuscule life signs, tiny survivors of the devastation of their world. There were small insect and reptile analogs, sleeping through the day's heat.

I could see light glinting off of the metal armor of what could only be Core patrols in the distance. I focused my optics on the floor of the desert, and through the heat haze i could see a fairly large patrol of infantry Kbots and the occasional Pyro. It was somehow… fitting, that the Core would use flamer equipped units in this blasted land.

The Core had placed a radar tower and a solar collector on the mesa where I had arrived. I moved towards them and raised my right arm, activating my capture protocols. Green light flared as the nanospray shot towards the structures, infiltrating their internals and forming connections through which viral programs quickly subdued them. In seconds, they were both under my control and I received a small boost to my energy income and a large view of the surrounding area through the radar tower.

There were two metal deposits on the top of the mesa, and I built extractors on them. Solar collectors would be useful in this environment, due to the near complete lack of clouds. Dust storms might be a problem, but by then I should have moved to fusion power. I built three solar collectors and began work on an Aircraft Plant. I needed to scout the surrounding area more thoroughly.

The Aircraft Plant soon solidified and I ordered several Peepers to be built, followed by a squadron of Freedom Fighters. The mesa I occupied was inaccessible by ground units and if the enemy sent bombers after me I wanted to be ready for them.

The Factory slid its protective cover off to the side, unveiling its production pad. It's nanolathing arms unfolded and began to spray their nanomachines as the pad began to slowly spin. The small shape of the Peeper began to take form, and soon it would be ready for flight.

A group of almost fifteen AKs began to circle the mesa, occasionally firing shots up at the radar tower. They slightly damaged it as its dish rotated, but they might have struck something critical if I didn't deter them, so I moved to the edge and fired my D-Gun down at them. Six of the infantry Kbots blew apart as the blast ripped through them, and the rest retreated.

I continued building more solar collectors and a wind generator or two. I built a single metal maker to take advantage of the excess power and began to ring the edge of the mesa with LLTs. Any units which strayed too close to the mesa would be fired upon by the light turrets.

I gave myself a small resource buffer by building an energy storage and two metal storages, and added to my anti-air defense by constructing several Defender missile turrets in the little space I had left.

I had run out of room for construction on the mesa. I needed to expand onto the desert floor. It would be dangerous, because the Core had multiple Pyros patrolling down there, and if they caught me out, I would be roasted. Quite literally.

The Peeper launched itself from the production pad of the Aircraft Plant, unfolding its swept-back wings and beginning its recon mission. It circled around the mesa, locating several Pyros waiting for me at the bottom of the slopes. Clever bastards. They would have to be dealt with quickly.

The scout craft continued on its way east, scouting out the desert floor and circling around to the south and west once it flew overflew it. To the west, there was another mesa, about the same size as the one I was on, and two metal deposits were situated between the two. As the scout flew north, it quickly discovered what the Core had in mind for me. A long, narrow plateau ran from east to west to t. There were two more mesas, one straight north of my position and another northeast. The narrow entrance between the two mesas was blocked off by Dragons Teeth and a large force of Reaper heavy flame tanks. On top of the two mesas were radar towers, Gaat Guns, and Crasher antiaircraft Kbots.

On the east side of this natural defensive position, where the desert was more open aside from a single small hill, were large patrols of rocket, infantry, and flamer Kbots, along with several more Reaper tanks. Weasel scout cars zipped across the dunes, throwing up clouds of dust as they patrolled the length of the defensive line. Among this ground force were five Slasher missile trucks, and they saw my scout.

As the Peeper flew over the Core defensive line, surface to air missiles began launching from the Slashers, tracking quickly towards the hapless scout craft. It only got a glimpse of the other side of the defenses before one of the missiles blew it apart, sending pieces of molten metal and fire slamming into the ground on the north side.

It had seen enough, though. Those few frames of imagery it was able to transmit showed me just why the Core had set up such a strong defensive perimeter. This was the location of their Hydration Plant, five kilometers north of my arrival point. Right here, almost two kilometers beneath my feet, was the last significant source of water on this planet. Water that could be used for fuel, coolant, and many other industrial uses. The Core were harvesting it using that Hydration Plant. It was a key strategic resource on this world, and I would have it. It would be very valuable to my war effort on this world.

A ground attack would be a long, hard slog, giving the Core time to call for more reinforcements and overwhelm me with sheer firepower. I had no time for that. While their ground based firepower was impressive, there was one critical weakness to their defensive line.

Core's antiaircraft defenses were light. There were no static missile towers, no flak guns. Aside from the missile trucks and Kbots, and possibly air support from a different base, they were defenseless. All the heavy ground based ordinance in the world would help not at all if I simply blew it to hell from the skies.

That was exactly what I planned to do. But first, I needed to clear a space on the desert floor to expand my economy and production capacity.

I moved off the south side of the mesa where two of the Pyros were lying in wait, the sophisticated balancing technology of my legs keeping me from slipping. As i descended the slope, I casually raised my left arm and fired at a cluster of rocks. The disintegration blast crashed through the boulders and blew one of the Pyros apart in a bright flash of atomic energy. The report of the explosions echoed off the nearby mesa walls. The other Pyro crashed out of its hiding place and started running towards me, its flame weapon spewing fire. I took aim at it and fired again, the blast carving a six meter furrow into the hard packed sand and tearing the machine apart in a fiery explosion. I chuckled softly and made my way towards the nearest metal deposit. I expected the other Pyros would soon make an appearance, so i queued up several LLTs to cover the northern approach to my prospective build site.

I began to place down a group of twenty solar collectors and five metal makers to use the excess energy, reclaiming metal rich boulders as I did so. When these were complete I built another three LLTs to cover the eastern approach to the energy farm.

When all these buildings were complete, I moved to the mesa half a kilometer west of my own, and built solar collectors, another aircraft plant, another radar, and more LLTs. The second aircraft plant I set to building bombers. I would need them soon.

Three move Pyros came at my position from the east. The LLTs tracked them with their fire, ruby lances carving out portions of their armor and leaving glowing craters in it. The armor failed on one of them, and it slumped to the ground as lasers punched into its insides. The other two reached their attack ranges and flame blasted the LLTs. I moved in to support the turrets, firing my laser at the most heavily damaged one of the two. It exploded as its fuel tank was penetrated. Two LLTs were melted to slag by the flames. I fired my D-Gun, vaporizing the last attacker. I rebuilt the towers, repairing the ones that were damaged and continued building my base.

The squadron of Freedom Fighters was complete, and I ordered them to patrol the skies above my base, ready to lend their air to air missiles in defense of my position.
The broad winged arrowhead shapes of the fighters launched themselves into the air and began a slow, figure eight patrol over my base, short jets of flame protruding from their center mounted engines and leaving a vague vapor trail behind them.

A Thunder strike bomber solidified on the production pad of my original aircraft plant, and its four powerful turbine engines roared as it launched itself into the air. The broad leaf-shaped bomber turned on its axis and settled to the desert floor, where it was soon joined by another from the second factory. I would build six of these and begin to harass the enemy antiaircraft units.

Several alert pings from the LLTs located on the north side of the warned me of incoming enemy units. Eight Pyros and three Reapers were making their way towards my base at full speed, throwing up clouds of dust as they approached. The six LLTs that could target them began to fire, lines of ruby fire vaporizing chunks of the enemy's heavy armor. More pings alerted me to an incoming enemy air strike. A squadron of Avengers and three Shadow bombers streaked in from the north at high speed, their broad sharp-pointed wings leaving contrails behind them.

My Freedom Fighters turned to engage the enemy aircraft, launching their air to air missiles at the opposing fighters. Defender missile turrets oriented themselves towards the Core units, their missile tubes spitting fire as anti-matter missiles streaked towards the bombers.

The Avengers fired their own missiles, and in the split seconds it took for each side's missiles to close, nine fighters were blown from the sky, pieces of their wreckage slamming into the ground at hundreds of kilometers per hour. Deep trenches were carved into the sand where larger pieces of debris struck the ground, and several pieces impacted the north side of my mesa, causing the slope to sag.

The enemy ground units took advantage of this and began to make their way towards the impact sites, covering ground quickly. The LLTs were damaging them heavily, but they would reach the slopes before they were destroyed.

The Defender's missiles also struck true, smashing into the bombers and knocking two of them from the sky before they could release their payloads. They vanished in massive fireballs as their bombs exploded onboard. The last Shadow was able to release its bombs before it was destroyed, the cluster munitions slamming into the north side of the mesa and heavily damaging several of the LLTs and two of my solar collectors.

The resulting collapse of the mesa walls allowed the surviving enemy units to target my buildings with their fire, and six LLT's were destroyed as fire washed over them and melted them into slag. The flames continued on to destroy four more solar collectors and two of my metal storages. Fortunately, there wasn't any metal stored there at the time.

Four Thunders had lifted off and targeted the enemy ground troops. Four lines of explosions walked across the enemy units, reducing most of them to blasted wrecks as the bombs struck them. I moved forward to where the last two Reapers were struggling to move their heavy bulks up the slope and fired my D-Gun. The two huge tanks vanished in massive explosions as the single blast eviscerated them.

I sighed and move to repair the damage to my base, rebuild destroyed structures, and reclaim the wreckage of fallen units. I needed more factories. At my present metal production rate, I could support six of them, since aircraft weren't all that expensive in terms of metal. I would move to build them as soon as I was finished cleaning up the mess.

Six Thunders were ready and waiting to begin their attack runs. I built four more scout planes and sent them to locate targets for the bombers. They streaked north and confirmed the locations of three of the Slasher missile trucks. The bombers were close behind them, two per truck. They released their bombs as missiles rose to meet them. Twin lines of explosions tracked across each of the Slashers, smashing them to pieces, and three bombers fell from the sky as surface to air missiles hammered them. The remaining three Thunders turned to make another pass, but more missiles slammed into them as they turned, and they fell to earth, spinning slowly and exploding massively as their payloads detonated from the shock of impact.

It wasn't a great trade, but my economy was rolling now. I could replace those bombers quickly. The next raid would be targeted at the remaining Slashers, then I would focus on the Crashers and radar towers.

I constructed more missile towers and three more factories. They would be set on a continuous bomber production cycle. When I had more units, I would begin the real assault. Until then, I would continue to harass the Core line with small groups of bombers.

***********************************

Wave after wave of bombers assaulted the Core's position, systematically destroying their antiaircraft defenses. Many were blown out of the sky in the raids, but soon, the missiles stopped coming. The Core's minimal air defense had been shattered. I could assault them from the air with abandon.

Fifty Thunder bombers lit up the valley with explosions as they hunted down helpless ground targets. The crackle of cluster bombs and whining of turbines was an almost constant roar for over fifteen minutes as the bombers did their deadly work. Smoke billowed into the sky from burning wrecks, and the desert was rippled with lines of blackened craters. Bright yellow lasers strobed the sky as Gaat guns attempted to shoot down the bombers, but they were too quick for them, the HLTs unable to track quickly enough to keep up. The remaining enemy units made their way quickly towards my base in a last, desperate attempt to do some damage, but they were met with yet more bombs and the ruby flashes of light lasers.

The Core line was broken, their massive ground defenses wiped out to a unit. The Hydration Plant was vulnerable to capture. I quickly built an Atlas transport, and it picked me up in its clamps and carried me towards my prize.

I raised my left arm, and less than a minute later, it was under my control. It would provide me with critical resources for my war effort on this world.

What had worked for the Core, would work for me. I would fortify this place, and use it as a base of operations from which I would systematically crush all Core opposition on this world. I expected a long, hard grind, and the Core were sure to do their damndest to make it so. The fight was far from over, but this was a good start to a great fight.

Tergiverse IV, which hadn't seen an ARM unit in centuries, would know war again. Not that it cared. It was already a dead world, like so much of this galaxy was.

The ARM, given time, could bring it back to life. But first, Core must be defeated, and I had a job to do.

 

[Valden Regis]

nice one bro keep it up
and also dont go just for the sci-fi settings try some fantasy univereses

 

[Kyros]

AN/ I decided to split this up into two parts because writing is taking longer than I'd like because time issues. I'm not too happy with it but whatever.

Have a chapter

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Mission Ten

Confronting the Core was difficult on Tergiverse IV, where its forces were already well entrenched. ARM Battalions were hard pressed to reach and destroy emplacements in protected locations such as the Bromid Maze, a complex natural canyon formation. The tactical advantages to the Core were such that even the ARM's speedy Fast Kbot scouting teams were often cut off and surrounded.

*************

MISSION 10.0002ARMT
Destroy all Core units and structures.

PRIORITY
Core emplacements entrenched within the windblown formation known as the Bromid Maze must be destroyed in order to secure Tergiverse IV.

INFO FEED
A Zipper scouting team has been isolated to the West. Rescue the team if you can. Their weapons and swiftness will be helpful on this Mission. If you are able to capture and interrogate a Core unit, their knowledge will become your knowledge - especially helpful in the Maze.

END

**************

Logistics in the Modern Era

Ever since the nanolathe was introduced and perfected millennia ago and the weapons of war became more autonomous, only two resources were required to drive the mechanisms of war forward: matter and energy.

Nanolathes are the systems used by construction units and structures to produce yet more units and structures. In a process similar to 3D printing, nanoscopic robots made of the elements required to build the finished product are sprayed onto a powered skeleton, where they fuse to create solid matter and finished components. Working from a blueprint in their memory, construction units can create nearly any object using this method.

The incredibly fast build speeds of this process enables the rapid construction of combat units and supporting elements to be built on the field of battle, reducing the need for outside reinforcements. The Commander units are designed to utilize this ability to flash-forge an army on the spot, maximizing tactical efficiency and flexibility.

In order for nanolathes to be used, they require the proper resources to feed them, and to this end, structures designed to produce metal and energy have also been created. Nanolathes can also harvest metal and energy from any suitable source in the environment around them through a process known as reclaiming.

The catch-all term "metal" refers to the rare minerals and metals required in the construction of units on the battlefield. While inferior substitutes can be used in a pinch, the efficiency of the resulting units will suffer as well, which is why it is generally avoided. Metal is harvested directly from the planet itself, using structures known as metal extractors. These structures drill deep into the earth, using deep penetration scans to locate sources of materials, from metals, to rare earth minerals, to crystals. These resources are broken down using sophisticated sonic pulse emitters and field generators into a molecular slurry. The slurry is piped into storages, where the varying materials are stored in an ultra dense state using a gravity compress. These materials are either used on site or transported to where they are needed.

Energy is produced from a variety of sources, including solar, wind, and fusion power. The most common energy production methods are solar collectors, which are incredibly efficient, if low output. On worlds where there is much atmospheric movement, wind generators are utilized as a cheaper alternative to solar collectors, but their utility is limited when the air is calm. Tidal generators produce energy using the water currents on worlds where such methods are viable.

Fusion power plants are the most powerful of the various production methods, far outclassing any other generators. Using hydrogen isotopes and oxygen as fuel, these power plants provide the gigawatts of energy needed to fuel the modern war machine. Each mobile unit in current service has its own miniaturized fusion power plant. Fusion power plant structures can work in tandem to increase their output if they are placed next to each other. This feature which both puts the structures at risk and helps the Commander by allowing two structures to do the work of three, is known as an "adjacency bonus."

Because of the compressed nature of its components, the common fusion power plant is incredibly volatile, and if critically damaged, will explode massively, the size of the explosion governed by the size of the reactor itself. Starting from tier one, fusion reactors can be built. The smallest and weakest general use fusion power plant is the Resource Generator, which has built in metal making capabilities. The most commonly built reactors are the tier two variety, which can provide more than enough energy to satisfy most needs until the Commander decides to escalate up to tier three and beyond.

The most powerful fusion reactors in use today are classified as "experimental", and produce up to seven times the amount of energy as a tier two fusion reactor. They are incredibly important strategic assets, as they are very expensive to produce, but just one is enough to fuel an tier one and two base by itself. If they are destroyed, however, these volatile structures can explode with the force of a thermonuclear bomb, wiping out anything unfortunate enough to be nearby.

Energy storages use giant laminar batteries to store the energy produced by energy generation structures. These structures, while incredibly useful in providing the Commander with a large energy buffer, are quite notorious for their volatility. If critically damaged while storing energy, the laminar batteries explode spectacularly, depending on the size of the storage. Massive structures such as the Core Vault can cause a natural catastrophe if they are destroyed while full. Energy storages can also benefit from an adjacency bonus to increase their storage capacity.

Modern logistics is carried out on a local scale using miniaturized space-folding teleporters to move resources instantly over a short distance. These tiny teleporters only have a range of about a hundred kilometers before the amount of energy required to operate them reaches the point of diminishing returns. This limitation requires that strategic logistics use transports such as Atlases, Hercules, and Condors to move about compressed metal blocks and canisters of energy.

While most units utilize some form of energy weapon, missile units must flash-forge their ammunition on site. They often have a magazine of ordinance, but due to the relatively small size of the missiles, they are able to keep firing even if they have exhausted their supply using the flash-forging equipment they carry. Large missile units such as the Diplomat or the Ranger carry a supply of materials with them, reducing the strain they might put on their Commander's economy.

Some unit's weapons, such as the Annihilator's particle cannon, a Gaat Gun's heavy laser, or the Juggernaut's siege cannon, use so much energy that it is impossible for their onboard reactors to provide the necessary power. In these cases, they must draw upon the Commander's power production facilities to utilize their weapons. This is a weakness that a shrewd Commander can exploit, destroying the enemy's power generators to silence their most powerful weapons.

*********

Tergiverse IV, 10 hours later
The Bromid Maze

THE COMMANDER

Fighting on Tergiverse IV was tedious. The Core had entrenched themselves well, and the rugged terrain of this world had given them a great advantage. For nearly half a standard day, my forces had been pounding Core defenses, kilometer after kilometer. Hellish canyon networks and rough salt deserts gave the Core narrow choke points where they could lay down withering fire on advancing troops. Dragons teeth and wrecks clogged up nearly every narrow pass, and Core ambushes cost me dearly. Every meter I took was hard won.

After securing the Hydration Plant, I had established myself in that area, creating a strong base of operations. I sent air and land scouts in all directions, searching for Core defenses and battlegroups. They found them, mostly in the north. I surmised that that was where their main bases were.

That… was unfortunate. The terrain to the north incredibly rugged. Vast networks of canyons, open salt flats, impassable mountain ranges and rocky, windblown valleys made moving large numbers of units difficult at best, and suicidal at worst. The Core were sure to have dug themselves deep into the rock, and the layout of the terrain would let them ambush and harry my forces. Aircraft would be crucial to victory on this world, their maneuverability allowing them to target enemy emplacements with pin-point accuracy while disregarding natural barriers.

Ground warfare would be a long, hard slog. I expected the enemy fortifications to bristle with Punisher plasma batteries and Gaat guns. I wouldn't be surprised if they had even placed Doomsday Machines. If they had the infrastructure to build and power a BFG, I was, quite simply, fucked. I doubted they had, though, because I would be dead already if that particular crust cracker was up and running. If they had Buzzsaw RFLRPC's emplaced, attacking with anything less than Centurion super heavy assault tanks, Raptor advanced assault Kbots, and Cerberus tier three armored assault tanks would be suicide. I didn't have the resources to build such powerful units, so I would hope that I wouldn't need them and that the enemy didn't have their own equivalents. A single tier three unit could stop an army of lesser units in their tracks if used correctly, especially in this terrain. I hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Tergiverse IV was beautiful, in its own way. Multicolored strata of rock could be seen in the windswept canyons and valleys and mesas, and the desert dunes were a striking white-gold color, with the occasional dun colored rock formation jutting from the salty old seabed. Forlorn shipwrecks stood out from the sand, half buried and reminding me of the battles of old. The land was incredibly inhospitable, with scorching days, subzero nights, sandstorms that could strip the flesh from a man in minutes, and no surface water to speak of on the planet.

As a small sidenote, dying in one of those sand storms would be excruciatingly painful, because most of the "sand" flying around was made of salt crystals.

What a wonderful place to fight.

I expanded my resourcing and production base, and constructed thousands of units as I fought a crawling battle against Core units. My battalions advanced north, into the teeth of Core defenses. Bombers carried out lightening air raids, targeting enemy resource facilities and intel structures. On the front lines, where my own ground forces were engaging Core defenses, the bombers attacked enemy heavy laser towers, damaged plasma batteries, and carpet bombed Core mobile units. Fighters dueled each other for air superiority in vicious missile exchanges. Transports moved battalions from my base over rough terrain to where they were needed on the front lines.

The ground fighting was close in and vicious, tanks and Kbots dealing death to each other in their attempt to punch through narrow choke points. Lasers and plasma fire lit up valleys and canyons with their bright, deadly releases of energy. Black and grey smoke poured into the sky from hundreds of burning wrecks. Canyon walls were brought crashing down in massive blasts, cutting off my units and funneling them into killzones, and Core defensive structures and platoons were ground into powder under a massive weight of artillery and rockets.

For ten hours, this went on as my units steadily pushed their way through eight hundred kilometers of hellish terrain further north. We had arrived at the Bromid Maze, a complex series of canyons that lived up to its name. Beyond the Maze, there much better terrain in the form of wide open salt flats. If I could punch through, my units could flood onto the flats and establish a landing zone for my transports to move units rapidly forward.

The problem was that the Bromid Maze was laid out in such a way that it would be impossible to bring the full force of my armies to bear against the Core. An inferior number of units could hold out indefinitely against superior odds, especially taking into account the Core's flame weapons. I had to draw them out somehow, punch through a weak point and flank the enemy. I had a plan. I wasn't sure it would work, but it was the best option available.

Air attacks against the Bromid Maze defenders would be suicidal, as I had discovered massive antiaircraft defenses emplaced there. I would break my army into two groups, attacking separate parts of the Maze. The weight of numbers would be such that the Core would be forced to divert units from other areas of its defenses to aid the beleaguered positions. Spider units would be key to victory in this, their ability to cross any type of terrain easily allowing them to support my attacking forces by paralyzing enemy units and leaving them unable to retaliate. This would only add to the pressure on the Core, and give them incentive to reinforce those areas, thus drawing away forces from other places, leaving them weak. I was counting on this.

I ordered my units to carry out the battle plan and sent in fast Zipper scouting teams to locate the enemy while I made my way to one of the areas of the Maze not being attacked.

***********

Bromid Maze, twenty minutes later
Zipper Scout Squad Theta

The seven humanoid battle suits moved quickly through the gloom of the narrow canyon, their EMG rifles held up in a combat stance as they searched for enemy units. Their night vision was active and their sensors were at maximum. The Core were about, and it wouldn't do to be caught off guard.

Night had fallen, the temperature dropping to below freezing, and the wind had picked up, its gusts sending sand into the air. Core ambushes were likely. Several squads had already been cut off and surrounded.

The Zippers were fast, angular battle suits reminiscent of the powered infantry suits of old, although they stood eight meters tall. Blocky pauldrons protected their shoulder servomotors, and their armor was relatively light. It had to be, since these Kbots were designed to reach speeds upwards of one hundred and forty kilometers per hour.

They were nearing the area where one of the Peepers had been shot down on its recon mission. Its shattered remains were strewn across the canyon floor, and a crater in its high sides showed where it had smashed into the wall as it came to earth.

"Damn. That guy sure made a splash."

"Shut it, three, and pick up the pace. Those sonsabitches are around here somewhere." the squad leader, Theta-1, said.

The canyon forked off to the left and right fifty meters ahead.

"Six, take point. We're going right."

"Roger."

Theta-6 moved ahead, rifle raised, and came to the fork. He reported no contacts moved further up and the rest of the squad followed.

He came to the next fork, and stopped.

"Something's wrong. I'm getting s-"

Sensors screamed warnings as hostile contacts appeared on top of the canyon walls and burst around the corner of the right fork. Two antimatter rockets flashed across the three hundred meters and lit up the darkness as they smashed into Theta-6, launching him backwards into the canyon wall. The thunderous roar of the twin explosions echoed through the Bromid Maze. A platoon of Core infantry Kbots and two Storms had ambushed them.

Lurid red lasers flashed all around them, strobing the night with their ruby glare, and the small squad raised their EMGs and began to return fire.

"FUCK THEM UP!"

The Zipper squad eagerly obeyed the order given by their squad leader, and EMGs stuttered as they sent lines of plasma packets towards the enemy. The Zippers sprang into motion, moving quickly to dodge laser fire and close the distance with the enemy Kbots. Six EMGs focused fire on the Storms as burning lines of red flashed all around them and rockets screamed by, sending shards of rock whizzing through the air from thunderous explosions as they struck the sides of the canyon. Theta-5 did a forward roll just as one of the rockets passed over him, and came up firing. The CRACK CRACK CRACK of superheated air exploding sounded all around him as AKs attempted to hit him with their lasers.

Theta-6 got to his feet shakily, adding his fire to that of the others.

Globules of molten metal sprayed from the Storms as plasma packets slammed into them. One of them exploded as its armor failed and its reactor went critical. The other got off another rocket and Theta-6, his motive systems heavily damaged and thus unable to dodge, exploded in a shower of burning metal. The rest of the Zippers focused on the remaining Storm, blasting apart its rocket pods and finally finishing it.

Sixteen AKs remained, though. Their fire found their targets and Theta-4 went down in a storm of lasers, his burning battle suit skidding to a halt at their feet.

"There are too many. New waypoint, two-eight-zero degrees. Maximum speed! We're going through them!"

Molten metal exploded from the infantry Kbots as the Zippers targeted them. They would have to run through them to reach the waypoint. The Peeper had discovered suitable cover there, though, so that was where they were going. The squad sped through the throng of AKs, taking many of them down as they went.

Theta-3 punched one of the infantry Kbots in its bird-like head with a massive metallic CLANG, tearing it off as he went by and fired a three round burst into another at close range, targeting a weakened point it's chest and melting its internals. The Kbot slumped to the ground, glowing white hot and burning. Lasers punched into the Zipper repeatedly though, and his own armor failed and his reactor went critical. He exploded in a fiery burst just as he took down yet another AK.

The canyon was lit up with fires and explosions as the remaining five Zippers blasted away with their EMGs as they ran, and molten metal sprayed into the air on both sides as lasers and plasma packets found their targets. The Zippers had heavier armor and were more nimble than the AKs, and that was the only reason they were able to escape at all.

Only three Zippers escaped the maelstrom of lasers, and they took down ten of the AKs before they were out of sight and range. Theta-1, 2, and 7 ran at full speed through the canyons to the northwest, finally arriving at the designated point. There were old ruins here, thick, dilapidated stone walls. They hunkered down behind these just as they received a ping from the Commander. He had arrived at his staging area. Theta-1 sent him an information packet containing everything they had discovered, and waited.

The Commander ordered them to move to his position just as the surviving six AKs caught up with them. The Zippers popped up from their cover, sending streams of plasma packets towards their hated enemy. All three focused on one target at a time, quickly disabling and reducing two of them to burning wrecks. Lasers stabbed into the stone of the ruins, sending shards of rock flying everywhere. Theta-1 knew they wouldn't be able to hide here for long. He ordered the retreat.

The remnants of the scout squad saw their chance then, and sprang from cover, hurtling towards the Commander's position at one hundred and forty kilometers per hour. Orange light strobed out from behind them as they fired on the pursuing infantry Kbots, and lances of red laser fire flashed all around them as they rapidly opened the distance between them and the enemy.

The Commander was roughly two kilometers south of them, and they threw up rock and dust behind them as their feet slammed into the ground and propelled them towards him. They broke through a narrow pass into the open area where the Commander was building his base. He had built several metal extractors and solar collectors, a radar tower, and a Kbot lab in the time it took them to reach him. They came to a halt and saluted him as they waited for repairs.

Two Spiders were stationed on the canyon walls, waiting for anything to come through, and a Zeus was stationed a little back, waiting to take advantage of the Spider's prey.

Several radar contacts were moving towards the base. It must have been the remaining AK's.

"Watch this, little ones," sent the Zeus in a deep and sonorous voice and chuckled darkly. The Spiders twitched their legs in anticipation.

As the squad was receiving repairs, the four remaining AKs came running through the pass, and blue-white beams flashed out from the Spiders as they fired their paralyzers. Two of the AKs juddered to a halt, frozen as their systems attempted to reboot their EMP stunned components and fight off the mutating viral attacks transmitted through the paralyzer weapons.

The hulking figure of the Zeus raised his lightning gun towards the helpless infantry Kbots. Thick, jagged bolts of lightning flashed out, lighting up the night with white light punctuated by explosions as the AKs died. It was over in seconds.

The remains of Theta squad laughed along with the Zeus and Spiders and thanked them for the show. The Zipper squad was quickly brought back into fighting shape and ready for action once more. The Commander had told them they would take part in the main assault. They spun up their EMGs and made a show of inspecting the weapons. They were eager for more battle, and the Commander would give it to them soon.