["So that"s the city… Impressive."]"How is it impressive? It"s just a small city."
Looking at the capital city of the Northern Republic it could indeed be called a small city. Well worn and solid wooden buildings marked with different colorful clan markings and large gla.s.s green houses that supplied the city with food all in total made something Dax normally wouldn"t even cla.s.sify as a village, but the criteria was different for this world.
["Is that so? You seem to forget that there"s no tree"s here, no quartz sand, no iron. Everything gathered here has been done so by a insane effort in manpower, h.e.l.l I would bet that some of the wood in that town has seen more of the world than the people who lives there combined."]
"That is true… Never looked at it like that."
["Every single brick, piece of wood and lick of paint are proof of the people"s efforts, that"s why we"ll avoid as much structural damage as possible. Reaper drones are to act in 4 man cells, shoot to kill authorized on confirmed hostiles, but limit cla.s.s 2 weaponry to heavy contacts such as exoskeletons and high level mana users. I"ll run CSF with you Solaris, so be on my a.s.s at all times."]
"CSF? You don"t want me on overwatch as normal?"
Over the last month Solaris had fought with Dax against the Northern Republic, and had such gotten used to all the acronyms he was constantly using in normal speech.
["Nope, I have tasked most of my aerial drones for that. ICI handle the mesh, Solaris on me."]
"O-on you? No thanks."
But apparently not completely used to the way of speaking yet, making Terra intervene.
""On me" means to stay next to him at all times. Not what you"re thinking about."
["And "stay home while I sort this out" means stay home while I sort this out, not join up with us out here in the f.u.c.king wasteland because you"re bored!"]
"AW! I said I"m sorry okay?!"
Being wracked in the head by Dax"s armored fist Terra turned teary eyed as she once more apologize for coming to the help of her teacher.
"Come on forgive her already Dax.."
["Nope, and you"re not forgiven either Alice. I"m cutting your pay after this."]
"EHH!?"
["That"s what you get. Now let"s get back on track people, even if I am opposed to you two joining me here I appreciate the help. Alice you lead the western approach in your exoskeleton and take over the greenhouses then keep them out of harm, Terra leads a task force on the eastern flank that will circle around and cut off any retreating forces. Me and Solaris lead the central strike force and take over the council building, then hunt down the so called monster. Any questions?"]
"No sir~ I"ll go heat up my exoskeleton."
"What"s my stance towards fleeing hostiles?"
["Shoot to maim, but for G.o.d sake triple check before you do so, 1 single civilian casualty and I"ll beat you to death with my bare hands."]
"U-understood."
Leaving with those words Dax felt a stare, then turned around to see Solaris grining in amus.e.m.e.nt.
["What?"]
"Nothing~ I just thought that you have some good underlings."
["Yeah I do, I would almost trust them with my life at this point."]
"Almost?"
["Yeah almost, my old underlings I had fought a war with for over 200 years. You can"t make that kind of connection in such a short time as I"ve been sharing with those two."]
"They sound like someone you trust."
["They were the kind of people I could trust with my life even without mentioning it, I was truly blessed to have known them."]
"you were blessed to have known them?"
["They"re all dead. I lead them into an ambush in rage after the enemy had killed someone I cared for."]
"That"s not your fault."
["It is. And to avenge them I need to get off this planet, but instead of working towards that I"m stabilizing this region for you angels. Now let"s get this over with, ADVANCE!"]
With those words 40 drones all powered up at the same time, before splitting out in 3 groups each lead by Dax, Terra and Alice and slowly started advancing towards the capital city of Homestead.
-
"They are advancing."
Inside the center of the council building of Homestead what remained of the high council had gathered, with a single outsider sitting at the table. The outsider was from the republic as well, but that was were the similarities ended. She was small in stature, mostly disappearing in her heavy fur coat, she had short pure white hair and pure red eyes that seemed uninterested in everything in the world.
"Why can"t we kill that f.u.c.king t.i.tan!?"
"How many of our men has he killed so far!? Your weapons have proved completely useless!"
Most of the council that still remained in the hall and hadn"t retreated to their own clans were understandably upset at the enemy at the doors, and some took to blaming the monster that had supplied them with advanced weaponry.
"It"s not my weapons, I just salvaged them and made them work. The t.i.tan clearly knows the way to use the rifles and have been trained for "rifle warfare" longer than any of us have lived, this was just the natural result."
Responding completely level headed nothing seemed to to move her in any way.
"What the h.e.l.l do you mean "natural result"!? That thing have killed over 400 of our mages and warriors!"
"392 by my estimates."
"That"s the same f.u.c.ki!-"
"It"s a difference of at least 9. I can see I"m not needed here, if any of you clan leaders survives you can find me at my workshop after the battle."
Getting up form the central table with those words, the outsider left in her at her own pace as a soldier ran in.
"Reporting!"
"What is it?"
"The t.i.tian is advancing towards the city! He has set 12 golems on each side with himself and an angel in the middle, furthermore a larger golem is approaching the greenhouses, and it appears that a human has joined on the golems on the eastern flank."
"Hmm… How fast are they moving?"
"The t.i.tan and the large golem are moving a bit slower than the side with the human."
"Then the human is responsible for cutting of the city, we need to crush that ellement first while slowing down the t.i.tan, message all forces to move appropriately."
"SIR!"
With the soldier leaving silence returned to the large and now mostly empty council room that until a months ago had been so loud with optimism and hope for the Republic"s future.
"No matter what happenes today the republic will never be the same ever again."
"Yeah… The losses we have endured are too much to bear, after today there might not be a republic at all."
---
"So that"s the so called great capital city of the north? All I see is a f.u.c.king hole in the ground."
After having run into some natives of the frozen plane using the technology of her own world the marine had spend G.o.d knows how long searching the frozen wasteland for her worlds technology, and destroying it.
"And the root of the problem seems to stem from here… Now just to find that so called "monster" and killing it be- Ack!.. Before that happens again…"
Over the last few weeks the marine had slowly felt her health deteriorating, ever since she opened her suit to eat so many weeks ago.
"To think I would die before even remembering my own name… But at least I will stop weapons of war from being used by people that have not paid the price for them."
Lux fully believed that the people of this world didn"t deserve access to the technology of hers, not because they hadn"t payed Rex of Guardian industries for them, but because they hadn"t suffered like her world had. Even with her extremely limited memories Lux remembered the suffering of her fellow marines, she knew of the pain engineers and designers had gone through over thousands of years do incrementally develop the tools of war she and her fallen comrades had put their life and trust in the hands of, and the very thought of some primitives just picking up a rifle on of her fallen allies had fought and died with without showing a single sliver of respect infuriated her to no end.
"Is that?.. It is, rifle fire, range 4 clicks.. Might be some internal struggle, that works out for me."
Looking down at her worn rifle the marine checked her remaining ammunition.
"4 times 40mm AP, and 1 times 40mm AD-LBD HEAT…. Let"s hope I can get close enough to the monster while they"re distracting themselves…"
[ZZZzzz E-E-ERRROR, NoONFORMAT.]
"Yeah yeah I know, that"s all you say now a days…"
Even her ICI unit had started falling, and after days of constant error messages and warnings popping in her mind the marine had mostly disabled it, limiting the unit to only verbal communication so she wouldn"t completely lose her mind to loneliness.
"All I wish for at this point is being burried at home, wherever that is…"
Loading the rest of her rifle rounds into her last magazines, the marine headed towards the city, for her last battle.
---
[CONTACT FRONT, 950 METERS.]
"Yeah I see them, cover me!"
[CONFIRMED, COVERING FIRE IN 3..2..1 MARK.]
With ICI"s cold voice emerging from a nearby drone as a mark, Terra dashed forward about 10 meters before dropping to one knee and letting lose a single round from her rifle.
"Shooter down! Advance now!"
Watching the enemy soldiers head disappear through her greatly enhanced eyesight Terra shouted for the drones to advance as rounds flew over her head. Keeping her head cool Terra lead the charge towards the city from the eastern flank of the city that had been heavily barricaded with walls of ice and garrisoned with what remained of their elite fighting force.
"They"re charging! Get ready!"
On the other side of the improvised ice barricade what remained of the Northern Republic"s elite fighting force readyed for what would be a bitter fight.
"Mages now!"
From behind the barricade the mages channeled mana and invoked a wide area destruction magic that made the ever present ice floor erupt with deadly spikes, and the a silence followed. When the silence started turning deafening, one of the mages popped his head over the ice barrier to witness his work, and was immediately impaled with a ice shard.
"GHA!-"
"Surprise motherf.u.c.ker!"
Reminding the republic forces that they were not the only side that used magic, Terra jumped over the wall armed with a pistol in one hand and challenging spells with the other she almost glew in the dark from her highly potent strengthening magic. Landing in the center of the enemy forces Terra used the same kind of magic as they had used on her, and erupted the area around her as she landed in a hail of ice spikes that decimated the immediate surrounding forces, moving as if she had trained the exact movements Terra pointed her pistol at the nearest targets and squeezed the trigger as she drew a short handed sword with her other hand and imbued it with magic as the ice shards around her shattered as she cut off the mana supply and then rushed towards the next target.
"Rifle!"
[RIFLE. LOADED AP, NO SAFETY.]
Shouting a command Terra was tossed her rifle by a nearby drone as she turned towards the remaining retreating forces before picking off a couple before they disappeared into the nearby buildings to regroup.
"Advance!"
[ADVANCING.]
Leaving behind a sea of copses and a few broken down drones that hadn"t been able to doge the wide area magic Terra advanced to cut off the retreating forces.