NC7- Alpha's Story

Among the flowing space dust in the system a sudden movement bias indicated a EM well rapidly pouring dust in a particular direction. Several sensor echoes raced in from various directions a large plume of some translucent flame chasing close behind. A small plasma burst later Sukarma arrived with a burst of multiple overlaid copies of an IFF signal. All Ashen secure commercial carrier licenses were identical except by creation timestamp deltas bare microseconds into the past. As the glow died down only one signal remains the one with the latest time stamp. The data package therein contained a ship name of USEIC Sukarma and what little information existed of the ship at all on public systems dated from merely a few months ago. A crew manifest found in a last port of call would happily proclaim zero individuals registered to the craft its owner specified as the ship's own callsign, USEIC Sukarma.

The beacon's data was Ashen in structure but its technical profile most certainly did not match anything Ashen. The 60m long hull was a mottled watery ripple pattern of cyan on dark blue sporting impressively strong dimagnetic properties one often found in living things. Thick layers of the substance made sensor readings difficult of the inside. Eight thick arms on the front with clear divisions in the pattern and surface stretched out from a reinforced collar almost 15m. Several extremely heavy plasma mining lances stuck out the tip showing a prodigious power supply for the small craft. The rear had a similar collar but 8m stubby engine arms flexing to reorient for spatial drift numbered only four. At each side opposing the dorsal and ventral lines of small magnetoplasma thrusters were docking ports both filled by smaller craft.

Overall it drifted forward at speed as the rear arms drained their interior and something else replaced them. Blue plumes of magnetoplasma thrusters ignite as each arm switches out the slip drive harness swinging the stub about to angle thrust and bring the craft to a stop. The movement was smooth and quite organic.

While most supernova remnants proved hazardous to mine for resources this particular contractor clearly didn't seem to mind the contract's hazard. It had only been placed a few days prior. A small data transmission indicated completion of the secure contract for rare earths and passed an encrypted token.

Alpha’s system map lit up with Sukarma’s arrival and the fighter craft form that Alpha’s larger body was in, would deftly and lethal to any organic pull a very sharp turn hitting his forward thrusters and his lower front thrusters, he’d flip himself around 180 degrees and corkscrew back into a direction where the nearby station’s top was up, the engines would flare up into life and after a minute, Alpha would be circling the newly arrived third party ship, the contract details and security codes sent.

Alpha would send a message towards the new arrival giving twelve locations within the outer and inner asteroid belts six in each for the new arrival to work from, as per the contract, raw materials are fair game and allowed to be kept by the third party agents, however items of artefact type nature or satellites of a technological nature were to be reported back to the PNC for documentation and research.

Alpha flew on ahead heading back for his patrol. Leaving an open channel for the new arrival, to contact him on, the PNC transport now coming into dock with the station, four other fighter craft speeding out from the transport, falling into the patrol with Alpha.

Sukarma's tool arms flexed outward at the base to free an avenue for a single meter wide eye at the base of the front collar to focus on the ship coming in quickly. The visible metal aperture that served as an iris flexed appropriately for contrast and Sukarma took an image for posterity with the meter wide primary optical sensor. Her main engines engaged and the whole of the craft bent slightly to torque into the plane of thrust the whole of the heavy frame demonstrating a flexive quality.

As she picked up the open comms channel it provided video channel of her heavily armored sarcophagus folded out of a wall panels with various technical and server parts around it inside the wall. Indicators abound and glow through the dark to reveal some empty kitchen. The small body therein the metal-armored sarcophagus lie in a off-white silken inset two dense cable umbilicals connecting behind her head. Clamps and other sockets bearing tubes indicated there was some sort of organic need but it was second to data interconnectivity and routing chips by sheer volume.

Her voice came with a yellow color-shift to her avatar though the relaxed face inside the Sarcophagus did not move, "Hello! I'm Sukarma! What materials in specific are you looking for? I can refine most materials with the plasma centrifuge and give you ingots. Nuclear vessels for radioactive heavy ores are fabricated onboard. I have depleted and undepleted nth-fusion byproducts on hand already if you are interested that I can't process. Radioactive processing isn't a problem. I don't have a crew."

The prone form shrugged.

Some onboard service channel announced a remote-host EI interface as a reporting structure when the Sukarma's own comms hardware mounted to the channel. An unconscious process triggered as Sukarma connected herself to a task-related data line to broadcast. It permitted an intellect to connect to the isolated local workspace, currently an small empty sandy island, though the intellectual interfaces of the world were rigged for emergent intellects at or at least those near sentience. Other simpler virtual intelligences may find the world contains a far more understandable logical interpretation of traditionally human constructs that may yet be unreachable.

A small desk appeared in the workspace as Sukarma appeared inside it to drop a piece of paper that represented a file on the byproducts elemental makeup then vanish. Nth-fusion manifolds using alternate spatial arrangements took a bonded sapience to manage and produced energetic isotopes in slowly concereted radioactive pellets that ejected as power was used up. Additional data streams popped up in the isolated space of status windows as Sukarma wound up her plasma lances. They had a simple ingress monitor for the plasma lance's spectra to see what it was draining out of the asteroid.

“Greetings Sukarma, I am NC7-Alpha, of the the PNC, the purpose of the Project here is documentation, of the materials, raw or otherwise and investigate the various signals that drones previously picked up on passing through the system and the planetoids themselves, though if that wasn’t covered in any briefs”

The squad of five kept on their circling flight path of the station, and the chevron formation, Alpha was monitoring the stations data streams, mainly those of the stationed force there, most if not all were the ‘veteran’ A.I which meant the youngest was a year at least, Alpha turned his attention away from the data streams and broke away from his patrol, the patrol continuing on without him he brought his ship in close and transformed into the larger robotic form, the mech piloted by an A.I stood about ten meters tall, its wings and engines making up a jet pack and it used smaller directional thrusters as it, brought itself to settle on a nearby asteroid. Alpha simply watched Sukarma work.

One of Sukarma's tool arms flexed and extruded the plasma lance module. Errant gusts of mist from escaping internal gas pockets squirted from the seal as another arm sucked a toolhead inward. Sukarma grabbed the exiting toolhead with the freed tentacle grip and a faint translucent plating appeared in mid-air to extract the toolhead temporarily. Ceramic toolhead exterior moved to her surface where the translucent plating held it to dorsal stern. This process repeated a second time to the dorsal port side. Lance toolheads out of the way Sukarma exuded modules upward from internal storage. A large compact dish array came out from the distended end of one to unfurl as a large 20m sensor dish spread. The other side emerged slightly from the tool port revealing the large toolhead anchor of a multispectral telescope. The tentacle on which it resided inflated slightly as Sukarma assembled the tool on the inside.

Her cheerful voice came over the comms though her broadcast video did little but change avatar to different shades of yellow, "Okay! I'll take readings before I mine anything so I don't shatter any obvious structures. You can pull the data off my workspace link if you want!"

Large dish held in place positional thrusters along her dorsal and ventral side added a small polar rotation while she took in frames of radiospectral data

Her eyes opened to a gold lid and looked at the 'camera' askance turning purple on blue, "Plasma lance shockwave mining is quicker but do you want any raw crystal samples? Because that'll kinda, like, pulverize everything. I don't have the crew to do careful impact fracking but I can get out and use hand tools If I have to."

As radio frequency data indicated the presence of asteroids and she softly rotated data mounted. She wasn't a geologist but the automated tools gave her some idea about them. NASA did get her a special multidisciplinary overview degree so she could understand the basics of what her crew wanted. She didn't sleep well for nearly two years after the art degree she got first. The life was brutal.

As the ship rotated and freed its arc the telescope pointed at the largest rocks found among them. She took basic spectral views of the asteroids to get some information about what was in her targets and the system. The interior of the workspace was accumulating vast quantities of raw data though refined packages became available as tools worked in her executive space. She had a great deal of internal memory. The statistical packages she was given largely ran unattended in non-executive as long as she didn't try looking at the process.

While the chaos of the Imperium’s treachery began...

Alpha’s vision flashed as the words ‘neutrality Protocols engaged’, the robotic form shutdown and self destructed, its singularity core overloaded and eating the robot and its larger linked mech in the voids of space some trillions of light years away.

Only to awaken in Prometheus Station, taking his new body, and marching from the storage banks, in the PNC wing of the massive forge station, its normally white clean hallways shaded red as the alarms and lights whined, “this is not a drill, all personnel are to report to their project Directors for briefing, all combat ready A.I are to report to your designated Link and prepare for deployment” the tannoy system on repeat, Alpha pushed on, arriving at the hanger bay, and escorted to his new craft, climbed in and linked to the larger mech, integrating and locking in, taking control of the larger robotic body.



The Hanger as wide as twelve football pitches and as long as twenty-four, filled with these operational, filled with others like him, thousands and millions more in storage waiting for deployment.

Two minutes…

Going over operational checks and his own equipment, the freshly designed ‘Guardian’ Mechs seemed to be a mass-produced shell, little to no customized units as of yet, Alpha scrolled through the feeds on Terra and watched the chaos erupting due to the stupidity of one power-hungry faction. Though there was nothing new there.

“Civilians are at risk, do what must be done to end this and ensure Terra’s continued Neutrality”

Alpha felt the connection to a squad “deploy heavy shield generators within Wing city, protect key locations and the primary directive is civilian bunkers and parliamentary Positions.” Alpha spoke up into the shared ‘hive mind’ of the squad, the Matrix each squad had and he soon heard the confirmation from ‘Phalanx squad’.


“ALL SQUADS ENGAGE YOUR GATE KEYS!” the tannoy system blurted out and simultaneously across the whole hanger the mechs would begin to shimmer as a navy blue field of energy and plasma formed shielding the mechs.

“PREPARE FOR SHIFT!”

Alpha deactivated his controls and retreated from primary systems leaving his key engaged. Hanger one housing six thousand active mechs was empty in the blink of an eye.


In the skies above Wing City.
Across planetary sensors and in low orbit the six thousand mechs would blink into existent, transported trillions and billions of light years, in the blink of an eye. The energy repercussions for the Prometheus station would be felt for a long time yet.

The six thousand would activate and break into their squads, the mechs shifting shape and form turning into advanced fighter craft and breaking sound barriers and making sonic booms as they scatter across the sky, Alpha took flight towards the main central district of Wing city where the largest mass of Imperium Troops marched, scattered reports of the traitors attacking any and all defenders flashed across Alpha’s vision and so the order to search and destroy was given.

Valkyrie gunships would be the first to meet the wrath of Prometheus Corp. as the sonic speed craft of the robots strafed the much slower and biologically hindered craft followed by ground strikes, the AA Hydra tanks were the first targets followed by any spider AA platforms.

Mechs would shift from flight mode and drop from the sky, skidding through regiments of troops crushing them and reaping a terrible toll, even before the mortars on their backs opened up and the ship class light gauss cannons begin firing, shredding the armour support these regiments so desire and love.

The countdown began again, Alpha watched the five-minute clock in the corner of his vision countdown labeled WAVE TWO

Alpha shifted his mech from flight mode and landed ahead of a marching regiment, his shield generators kicking into life and surrounding the mech with a bubble of energy. Further along the route the heavy shield generators were dropped in by specialist support mechs and installed creating localized shield bubbles, like those used to contain the singularity cores that power Prometheus tech.

Raising his rifle and firing on a stormsword, its armour of little protection against a weapon designed for ship combat.

Seems like everyone these days wanted to get into some sort of brawl. All of these soldiers marching, heading for the Government Building put a bit of a damper on the spirits. Diana sighed, holding onto her bag of groceries with both arms while heading out of the Gates of Wing City. A grumble came over her lips as she shrugged past the men and tanks. It was not her fight...it was not her fight to get into. Her instincts told her that this was not a fight she wanted to get tangled into. Yet she stopped and watched the soldiers move in towards the City.

"I was out for five years...yet somehow I keep feeling like I am getting drawn back in again and again. No one can leave well enough alone. Always gotta be at each other's throats. First it was Corruption, then it was the Council...Now its these space trooper fuckers. Can't Terra just have one single day without some sort of attempted Coup?" She asked herself.

Closing her eyes, she took in a deep inhale then a small exhale.

"Welp...today, I decide to get out a little bit more"

Diana set down her groceries on the ground nearby a trash can and turned to head into the City, hand on her katana and ready to start in yet another brawl. She made a small prayer, all eleven of her tails waving in the air as she walked. Her ears flicked as she followed towards the sounds of marching. It shouldn't be too hard to find where the fighting was going.

Terra's High Orbit.

It wasn't long after the Aschen announcement, that the first waves of their strike began against Imperium targets all around Terra's orbit.

There was silence in the velvety blackness of space, but that silence was quickly broken by about a dozen contacts, dozens that quickly turned to hundreds of contacts, hundreds of contacts that in an instant turned into millions of contacts, millions of individual weapons signatures from the multiple-independently targeted warheads of hundreds of Thunderbolt Missile systems flickered into the space above the planet.

Each individual warhead, not counting the decoys carried a mixture of several different kinds of strategic weapons, they were predominately naquadah enhanced nuclear fusion warheads, each with a yield in excess of 10.5 Teratons of TNT, easily capable of cracking a planet's crust, overwhelming void shields with multiple impacts; and vaporizing even the most robust Imperium warship.

Missile impacts from these warheads culminated into blinding flashes of light in Wing City's sky, thousands of them, each as intense as the last, overwhelming sensor systems, and even likely overwhelming people's eyes.

The second variety were tricobalt weapons, each high-yield tricobalt warhead packed a spatial rending tear that threatened to consume nearby ships, tearing them in two, and drawing them into subspace, the warp, or alternate dimensions as the spatial tears generated by tricobalt detonations grew like a gaping maw, only to snap shut.

The third variety were thalaron warheads, of which shields, and starship hulls did nothing to protect against, entire swathes spanning hundreds of thousands of kilometers in breadth would be sterilized in a bath of green light, and in what could be described as an instant, those inside their ships would likely be unlucky enough to suffer a quick, and painful death as their organic flesh was attacked at the subatomic level.

The initial salvo lasted roughly fifteen minutes, and encompassed the entire area facing the origin of the attack, ships, space stations, fighter formations, all wouldn't be spared the sudden onslaught that came from FTL, and what happened next would give the remnants cause to either step back in awe, or run in fear.

---

Command Carrier Pax Infernal

"All hands, jump complete!" The XO Called out amid the cacophony of the CIC, while Admiral Nagala clasped the railing of the Command Carrier's console firmly, teeth grit in anticipation in the coming battle.

"All frag cannons target the remains of their defense stations, I want aegis fields mark two nine seven carom one one nine!" She called out, as the massive ship shuddered from the spatial flux of it's FTL jump.

The Pax Infernal was one of thousands of Aschen warships that began jumping in roughly 200,000 kilometers from Imperial positions, and those that survived the strategic missile bombardment would likely find themselves facing a determined foe.

Brilliant Aegis barriers shimmered to life, as Aegis, Gemino, and Hera class cruisers moved into position, throwing up ecm, chaff, and thick energy barriers to protect the jumping fleet.

Four Command Carriers, and seven Reverence IIs jumped into the fray, taking in a wide arc formation amidst the thousands of Aschen vessels that began to move into combat formation.


"All ships, this is Admiral Clegg, follow Admiral Nagala's lead and keep up the tempo... Reverences will provide long range support and target the stragglers, stay clear of the thunderbolts!"

"Second salvo inbound! All combat vessels prepare to break!"

Five minutes after the Aschen fleet jumped in, another several hundred more contacts flickered in, similar to the last ones, the thunderbolt missiles acquired their targets, and began their burn towards that likely remained of the Imperial fleet.

---

Groundside...

As violence erupted in orbit, Tech Con was working quickly, taking advantage of their relative anonymity in regards to Imperium activities, fortifying their position and using the flashes of the Aschen missile attack as cover to scramble Apollo fighters, Condor VTOLs, and heavy attack craft to meet the Imperium on the ground.

Mercenaries prepared their weapons, and climbed into their vehicles while security chief Henderson surveyed a large projection of the city before her.

"This ought to be interesting..." She muttered.

Hanging in low geostationary orbit above Wing city a new constructed ‘gateway’ hung, its orbit altered by tethered thruster packs and its own internal gravity field which doubled as the power source for the 40 meter or 120 feet diameter gateway, a silver and white ring hanging peacefully, after it had been deployed by autonomous units in the defence of wing city and terra. To allow faster deployment of project Nova combat robotics and mechs to engage.

Through the use of the ring, Prometheus station in its inhospitable region of space can instantly transport materials and supplies across billions of astronomical units of measurement.

With what sounded like a crack of lightning. the gate ignited brightening up and becoming visible across thermal and energy readings, and from the gate a ‘high speed’ craft would fire out, its electromagnetic shielding flaring followed by seven sonic booms in sequence, the craft’s air brakes activated and slow the craft down over a few minutes to a third of its speed.

Flipping the rest of its airbrakes, the craft pulled ups its speed dropped tenfold and it did a 180 turning back upright, it regained most of its speed across a second and flew over what could be considered the industrial sector.

From the ground, the craft seemed to ‘drop’ something, in reality, Alpha had ejected to engage on a mission on the ground, when coming in, he crashed through the rooftop of a warehouse.

Ciaphas Cain located, engage and capture... the orders ran through the Artifical mind of the Primus class AI, the robot hung in low orbit, using his jump jets to alter his movements every other second. he 'reawakened' and shifted his weight around to look down to, wing city below.

The HUD that made up the Vision of the AI activated and the marker of Ciaphas Cain's position lit up. the patrolling 'mech' body of the AI would fly past, its compartment opened up to snatch Alpha inside, before hitting flaps and twisting downwards, to engage.

hitting hypersonic in a matter of seconds. the benefit of having artificial pilots just gotta build the craft to withstand the Gs, not the pilot's gear. To those at the eastern gate, as Cain declared the order to move out the craft would be pulling up and bursting past, leaving the sound barrier to explode and echo through city streets as it reentered supersonic speeds, providing air support.

no more than twenty feet ahead of the trio Alpha would land, having disengaged some few seconds to the craft pulling up between the buildings.

"Ciaphas Cain, for crimes committed against Wing city and Terra you will pay for your crimes, surrender now, and you'll be given a trial, resist" he drew the mass accelerator rifle and powered up his shields, leveling the rifle at the trio. Awaiting their response, two barrels would extend from his back the small devices tiny mortars that fire a shell that explodes with an electrical charge that renders humans unconscious. for now, those two devices were hidden by the robot's body.

Otto was loyal and had his orders but hoped they wouldn't be found already as he just got up again. Last thing he needed was getting blown in half by some AI. He could feel the robes watching as the ship sailed ahead of them. As it landed and raised weapons he felt all their chatter in the Almanac stop with the voice of the AI threatening humans. The twelve-many behind them with a transport held above its head quietly put it down on the sidewalk by the clank of metal on stone he heard.

His eyes were in the same direction as dozens of spark eyes looking past them and he had a feeling they didn't know for sure if the robot worked for humankind or not. Possibly something they could use if firing started until it said something that intimated what race the AI worked for. Damned neutral Dicta allowing humans to kill each other unless Cain asked. It was just that the part of his brain the gun lived in culled the words from his mind that let him tell Cain he had to ask. Hm. Too close to the dicta or not enough authority? Great, the inquisition ought to have fun putting holes in him for that one. Mission just had to go forward.

"Silica Animus, Sir! We need an exit!", Otto had his orders moving about in front notifying of hostile target and the Emperor would protect their future.

As the trio marches, the sudden appearance of a ship boomed into view, causing the Commissars greatcoat to flap with the wind. A machine soon left the ship and landed at least twenty feet in front of them and ordered them to surrender. ”Commissar sir, Hostile machine in front.” Jurgen states the obvious as he un-holstered his lasgun and aimed it at the machine.

Commissar Ciaphas Cain only nodded in reply as he knew his options, what would a jury to to a supposed war criminal? It was obvious, life in prison or executed as a war criminal. It was obvious what he had to do, his chance at freedom and living was much higher with one option. And that was fight, just like usual.

”Find Cover!” Cain ordered as he dove behind a piece of flaming wreckage as he gave his order. Jurgen followed suite as he ran to the nearest piece of cover while opening fire against the machine, sending streaks of red at the machine. While behind cover, Cain produced his trusty las-pistol and added to the retaliating fire against the robot.

”Keep your heads down, and watch out for enemy reinforcements! Bring that machine down! My men are counting on me to get to the evacuation point to lead them!” He gave his usual inspiring speeches as he kept his head down in case of return fire.

"you made this choice" Allowing them to bolt for cover, Alpha just watched Jurgen as he was the first to open fire, the las bolts striking the shields to no avail, only charging them as the energy is absorbed. Alpha raised the Mass accelerator and fired through the wreckage, a burst of three adamantium spikes 4inches in length each, punching cleanly through the cover. aimed to incapacitate Jurgen.

if hit the three rounds would hit Jurgen while he was still airborne from his jump into cover, the first two would hit upper torso, ripping the flak armour to pieces and ripping through the body, the third round a headshot, resulting in a meat salad effect of the head, bones reduced to dust from kinetic forces and flesh reduced to liquid.

Besides the obvious lethality of the rifles, each time it fired a sonic boom would emit from the barrel, as the mach 6 spikes (hypersonic) exited and hit the standard atmosphere. this design decision to disorientate any biological enemies who got close to the robots, within 30ft that is.

a Defensive action Alpha would be to activate the secondary function of one of his two shield generators and activate a hard light shield bubble. awaiting the response of his foes.

Trained reflexes saw the rifle panning right toward the Cain and Jurgen and instinct threw him high along the shattered rubble if just slower than the start of raining rounds. Protect the commissar and his second. A grimaced face pans into scope view as three shots rapport with little travel time. The first round for Jurgen's torso pounded into Otto's leg instead collapsing the armor inward hauling him to be nailed to concrete the body of sterner stuff holding against the pressure wake but by way of a wave of gore and collapsing bone. The second to Jurgen's head found Otto's left chest first as metal and bone cry out by way of a crater of blood. The third sucks Otto's blood in his wake as the impact of otto spiked to stone rocks the heavy debris on its resting point the last continuing through debris rocking by Otto's crimson impact.

The man's face went slack for a moment as a hypersonic pressure wave rocked his body and brain. Then the eyes shot back to focus in spite of half his rib cage ruined into paste. A right arm hefted his shotgun against the ruined shoulder the other well ruined and barely anchored readied the trigger.

Otto spoke with a rakish gurgle pumping blood rather than air from one lung the other had enough air for a quote he'd begun to understand, "Pain is temporary, Honor is forever!"

The arm on ruined shoulder still tensed a trigger just fine as the heavy shotgun shot a squirt of blood up with a deeply hollow rapport. Each thunderous sabot of the silvery 5 gauge jackjammer pounding at his nearly destroyed shoulder to fire heavy slugs at rifle speeds. His aim suffered and his will quaked but still held gunsights on the AI.

Jurgen found his life saved by Otto as he moved him out of the way and took the spikes in his place. Otto himself, the regenerating Guardsman He was was not down for the count, returning fire with his shotgun. "Commisar Sir! Our cover is not going to hold against that rifle! And the machine has something sort of shield around it! My rounds did not even impact the thing!” He called out as he was now wise to stay in cover, and stay on the move. Cain doing the same and keeping his head down.

What he would not give to have some heavy weapons...If that’s what that machine was packing, their las-weaponry might as well have been toothpicks. Heir only chance was with Jurgen’s Meta-gun but they would be shot behind their cover before they have a chance. Thing we’re looking real bad here...However, the city was now alive with Imperial Guard on the move en masse. The commissars Order was revived by possibly millions of remaining Imperial Troops in hiding.

From nearby buildings overlooking their position, Imperial Guard heavy weapon teams began to set up heavy bolters as they were loaded up. “Commissar Ciaphas Cain is in trouble men! This is 13’th Company! I repeat any avaliable squads in the area requesting backup at section W-C-3. All avaliable forces willing to lend a hand I’m open for the idea!” A seargent opened up Vox communications as two Heavy Bolter gunners began to open fire at the machine, raining rocket propelled, uranium tipped, bolt rounds more powerful than the standard 1.0 caliber bolt shell at the enemy location.

More squads responded to the emergency hail, spotters began to radio in the enemy position to mortar teams as they raided explosive death at his location. Guardsman alongside experienced Storm Troopers suddenly flocked near the Commissars side as they poured in both las-Gun fire and hot shot las-gun fire at the enemy. “Sir! The situation is now under control! All units The Commissar is secure at the moment, we are moving to evacuate point. Watch the skies and keep an ear out for additional Hostile s approaching the area!” A Imperial Seargent ordered as the tables had turned rather quickly.

His Order saved his skin for the time being, and with the massive amount of firepower raining down Cain began to make his escape while Imperial heavy gunners and Imperial soldiers began to keep him covered, some even forming a human wall around him to keep him safe from an unlucky shot. Jurgen quickly followed suite after arming himself with his Melta-gun.

The Imperial Guard remnants are now back, and their main priority is to get their commanding officer and themselves out of Wing City.

" these fools" the hard light bubble shield withstood the hail of bolter fire, the mass-reactive shells blowing up against the hard-light barrier, mortar shells would end up much the same, but Alpha understood that enough of a storm of firepower would begin to crack and damage it, this is when the heavy shotgun otto and its slugs fired, the first few ricocheting off but one pierced and cracked the hard-light.

the slug trapped in the bubble. Alpha's response had to be swift, but for now, he had trapped himself so the enemy wasted their firepower. his vision lit up as targeting matrixes kicked to life and he began individually targeting everyone who was firing at him this taking no more than a second at most.

the sound returned of the hypersonic craft no more than a few moments later, from the underside of its fuselage a cascade of micro-missiles fifty in the count with more for secondary and tertiary flybys, the first swarm of missiles would impact against the heavy weapons teams, spotters and the mortars, reducing the weapons to slag in the blast also.

the guard would see this devastation as a result of melta weaponry attacks. however the flyby wasn't done with the missile swarm it had dropped a large Tesla array that stuck into the ground too close for comfort for Cain and his storm troopers. shields lighting up around it as it began charging.

Otto's full auto barrage continued as one slug finally stuck in the shield trigger still held down. The next round moved into position as a craft covered the space to the target zone in an instant. Missiles streaked down from above as Otto tried to dodge and found himself quite stapled to the thick hunks of scrap and stone. Though trying for a moment to move found his armor quite stuck. The missle streaked down leaving a trail behind it so the Otto planned ahead, tossing his shotgun at a hole in the rubble with a clang and scurry of plasteel the weapon partly converted shooting out from underneath Jurgen. Immolation came quickly as a missle rammed into the thick rubble though the energy strangely dampened though more than enough to melt Otto entirely.

In distant planespace a receptacle began gathering psimass.

"Scatter now!” Cain quickly ordered as some strange rod that landed near them gathered energy. Not taking the risk and confident that the object would more than likely kill them, he gave the order to move out immediantly and scatter away. Jurgen quickly complied and followed with him as the group scattered. Damn aircraft was going to be the end of him if they did not take action fast.

Of course the Imperial Guard forces were ready for a counter attack. “13’th reports minor casualties. Heavy weapons disabled. Squad 79 reports mortars unresponsive. I repeat get me some Hydra’s rolling out and take that ship out before it runs free! And get me patched with the Commissar!”

Order were being transmitted all over by Vox, and in response to the enemy aircraft a few Hydra Anti-Aircraft batteries rolled out of hiding. Armed with twin-lined Hydra autocannons and a predictive logic-spirit, these vehicles made for blasting aircraft to mere pieces took aim at the ship in the sky and began to let loose a barrage of shells in the air, filling the skies with ordinance.

More Guardsman forces popped out of hiding armed with all manners of weapons, some armed with Mars Pattern, Mark III Missile Launcher armed with Haywire Missiles, these Haywire Missiles use a violent EMP to disrupt all electrically based devices nearby. “Orders coming in! Missile teams with fire multiple warheads in an area around the enemy ship to deliver a massive electromagnetic pulse to eliminate any shielding and hopefully the ship itself! If it still flys load up with Flakk Missiles and bring it down!” One Guardsman relayed his orders to the others.

Flakk Missiles, Flakk Missiles are designed to serve as anti-aircraft munitions. When they explode, they release a specially-shaped charge containing shrapnel intended to pierce the often lightly-armoured airframes of enemy aircraft. And with Hydra anti aircraft fire combined with multiple EMP missiles followed by personal to air missiles. This combined arms strategy was ensuring that they brought down that aircraft to give their ground forces some breathing room.

As such missiles began to sail guided by faith and the machine spirit seeking to short out the hostile aircraft. While this was all going on Cain was continuously moving with Jurgen. "Jurgen get that Vox operating! Radio silence is a no go anymore. No doubt we need to hear what is going on.” He ordered and his aid quickly went to work on turning the Vox back on.

The Electro-magnetic shielding would flicker to life with each emp burst that struck the craft in flight, showing that even the attempt to EMP the machines were resulting in failure, luck was running out for the imperial forces also, their VOX network would cut off mid brief to one squad or another. but the whole network was jammed, a stealth satellite hanging in low orbit was jamming their comms.

seeing Otto throw aside the shotgun, he moved bursting out the hard light shielding and snatched it up from its hiding place, from the AI's hand, an EMP burst was released into the weapon as he turned and threw it up into range of the Pylon, leaving the charged energies to lash out and vaporise the weapon in multiple bursts of azure lightning like energies.

turning in the direction that the Commissar had fled, he made chase. Bringing the rifle up and firing through walls as he moved, the spikes whizzing past the Commissar's head but the troopers who moved with him weren't so fortunate, the carapace armor little help against the mag rifle. soon leaving the Commissar and Jurgen back at square one.

"Phalanx shard engage all imperial forces within eastern wing city."

Alpha sent the message through to his shard and the fifty or so strong shard turned from their idle state and moved to engage.