Ravens of Eternity

85 Massacre at Dendrus, Pt The Hussars under the colonel’s command didn’t even hesitate to fire, despite their mark being right on top of her. They all understood how far the colonel was willing to go for the Hegemony. There wasn’t a shred of doubt in their hearts and minds, even as they pulled their triggers.

Five hundred of the Hussar rearguard then fired missiles out of each of their shoulder-mounted missile pods. They shot out by the dozen, which left white streaks as they darted over and towards their targets.

“Scatter!” ordered the colonel.

She and her siege Hussars immediately fled the hill at full blast in every direction even as the missiles soared overhead. Since the Phalanx was far too slow to evade the strike, they instead raised their shields to absorb the blow.

Scans of the missiles showed that they didn’t have the penetrative power to break through their defenses.

One of the Phalanx captains sneered at the attack, confident in his unit’s invincibility.

“Let ’em waste their weapons on us! We’ll just crush ’em later, when they’ve got nothing left to fire!”

Once the missiles were only a hundred meters overhead, they suddenly changed trajectory, and angled themselves at a downwards angle. Second-stage propellant then caused the missiles to surge forward with a burst of energy.

They slammed down on the Phalanx – but only a relative few actually struck their shields. Those that detonated on their shields did so with great force. It was enough to cause their arms to buckle from their explosive energy.

.....

But hitting the mecha wasn’t the intention at all. Because the colonel had previously loosened their formation, they weren’t able to turtle up and protect a wide area. Instead, the majority of missiles slipped past the huge gaps between their shields, and detonated on the hill itself.

Each one struck the hill with a great BOOM. And there were thousands of them. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The artillery barrage, rockets, hammers all had done significant damage to the bunker. The added thundering and sheer weight of the Phalanx caused everything to buckle. Every step they had taken weakened the bunker considerably.

Now, the impact of thousands of missiles finished it off. The ground erupted with fire and energy as each missile pounded the ground. And everything underneath it, crumbled.

The ground under the Phalanx simply vanished and fell away underneath their feet. Phalanx mecha themselves had fallen in afterwards, as though they were swallowed up by Dendrus itself. They tumbled uncontrollably as they crashed down into the sprawling bunker below.

Even their thick armor cracked from the impact of their fall. And they had absolutely no time to recover and get out of there. Soil fell all around them, even as they tried to stand up. It only took moments for them to get completely buried under tons of dirt and soil. Those whose armor was already damaged were eventually crushed by all that weight.

Those who survived the fall and the cave-in had no choice but to wait for rescue. Nothing they could do would get them out of their predicament.

More than two-thirds of the Phalanx who were on that hill had fallen. Never in their long history did they suffer such a humiliating defeat, or such high casualties.

Inside, huge chunks of the walls and ceilings came down. Dirt and soil and stone and mecha streamed in, eager to fill the vast, empty space beneath.

Bunker personnel who were still in the hallways made a mad scramble to get the hell out of there. Everything began to collapse all around them, and sheer panic had set into all of them. Many fled desperately for their lives, abandoning all reason and decency and camaraderie.

But it was useless. The world fell faster than they could run, and all turned black in an instant.

A number of technicians made it out into the hangar bay, the captain right behind them. Dirt and soil suddenly clogged up the doorway behind them, and sealed away the rest of the bunker forever. Many were still trapped in there, but there was absolutely nothing that could be done about it now.

The captain never felt more useless in her life. All her training and all her experience, and the best she could do in this moment was keep running. The moment made her feel miniscule, to be reduced to something that only craved survival.

The captain quickly ran over to an open military hopper and jumped in. A bunch of her techs came in with her and crammed it full before it launched into motion. Large hardener rubber wheels squealed off the metallic floor as cracks began to spider down from the walls around them.

The hangar’s ceiling cracked more and more until large chunks began to fall all around. A number of wheeled hoppers sped towards the open airlock doors, and dodged debris as they fell. They slid across the hangar bay floor as large chunks of the ceiling rained down all around them.

A ridiculously large chunk of the ceiling came crashing down and smashed on a number of hoppers closeby. It was so large that they had little chance to escape their fate...

The captain hoped that they died quickly and without any pain.

And when their hopper neared the exit, the ceiling entered a full collapse. Dirt and soil streamed in just as the walls and ceiling caved.

Dozens of military vehicles flew through the airlock at breakneck speed, determined to outrun the devastation. A huge cloud of dust blew out from behind them as the whole thing visibly collapsed.

The once-grand hill had been pounded into a plateau, then carved out into a bowl in the space of a few hours. Thousands had died to the Hussar’s relentless and brutal attacks.

The male captain turned paler and paler as the events transpired before him. His mouth was slung agape, his horror at all the death shocked him. Then a thought shot through him, and brought him back to his senses.

“Captain! What’s your status?! Captain! Do you read?”

There was no response. He quickly sent a ping to the Phalanx’s commanding officer.

“Major! We’ve gotta get them outta there! There might still be survivors under that rubble!”

“I’m sorry for your losses,” replied the major. “But we don’t have the time for that.”

Somehow, he was still calm and collected, despite having lost a great many of his own units. The captain was aghast.

“No time? These are men and women of the Federal navy! And we’ve got a chance to save ’em!”

“We’ve got our own troubles, captain! Fifteen hundred Hussar mecha are en route to our position. We’re about to be swarmed by these fucking dogs, two to one. And you wanna go digging around in the dirt?”

“You’re saying we should just forget about ’em? Or your own pilots? To fight some Hussars?”

“Do what you will, captain. But this is what we do in the Phalanx Corps.”

The major then cut the line as he ordered his unit to reposition to face the incoming enemy. They then marched in formation eastwards, away from the bunker. Now that it wasn’t a critical resource, there was no need to defend it.

Undeterred, the captain ordered his squadron to immediately go and support the rest of his personnel.

“All squadrons to me,” he ordered. “We gotta make sure everyone’s safe!”

He and his mecha quickly sped over to the bunker entrance, where they met up with the surviving personnel. A little over a hundred military vehicles had made it out of the base, which the captain was certainly thankful for.

It dawned on him that they had lost more than half their people, and their loss knotted up his heart. He never really got along very well with his fellow captain, but she was hardworking and loyal.

And she fought to the death.

Just as the remaining personnel began to retreat away from the chaos, the colonel appeared on the captain’s comms display.

“There you are!” she exclaimed. “We’ve got unfinished business.”

“You’ve beaten us! What the hell more do you want?”

“I told you, I’m gonna stomp you all out of existence.”

The colonel and what remained of her siege hussars blasted their way into visual range, their mecha damaged and worn. In fact, some were barely standing. But the fight was clearly still strong in them.

“Not gonna let you do that,” he replied. “You might be eager to die, but we’re not.”

The captain brought his rifle up to bear, and pointed it directly at the colonel. His mecha had been severely damaged, and had difficulty holding the weapon at all. Its tip swayed slightly as he fought to keep it steady.

The rest of his squadron followed his lead, and turned their rifles on the Hussars.

“We’re certainly eager for you to die,” said the colonel.

“Just look around you! You’ve already wiped out everything! Haven’t you had enough?”

The colonel immediately turned red at what he had said. Something angered her deeply.

“I have had enough! I had enough eight years ago, after you all came here a decade ago and massacred my family. Right here, on this very fucking hill! Well, guess what? Now it’s time to lay them to rest!”

She and her Hussars immediately charged, and the Federation mecha fired on them in response. Many were struck, but they pushed through the damage. They wanted blood. All else was trivial.

The colonel charged at the captain with her hammer reared back. Consumed by the need for destruction, she poured every ounce of herself into her strike. It didn’t even matter that the captain riddled her mecha with bullets, and that her armor shattered with each hit.

All she desired was for her hammer to hit.

The captain didn’t even try to get out of the way. He was done. He had lost everything and was at the end of his rope. It didn’t even matter that his fate was sealed.

All he desired was for his gun to strike true.

And when her hammer struck his chest, and his bullet struck her core, a purple blast of energy shot out from between impact points. Time slowed greatly as both captain and colonel were thrown back by the blast.

They hung in midair as a thin fracture emerged from the center of that impact. It was like a bolt of lightning that connected the two of them, but frozen in time.

Arcs of the same purple energy lashed out from within as it grew wider and wider. Everything the arcs struck was gouged out, as though by some unseen talon. The wounds they left were like a deep obsidian, and edged with crackling purple energy.

The captain fell to the ground, his mecha covered in dozens of blackened gouges. The edges of which slowly blackened the rest of the chassis. But he barely noticed it, as he was awed by the glowing fracture that hung in the middle of the air.

It lashed out arcs of purple lightning as a shadowy ooze dripped down from under it.

Beyond the fracture was the colonel’s mecha, and she was as torn up as he was. Blackened gouges spread slowly all over. On top of that, the shadowy ooze had consumed a portion of her legs, and blacked them into oblivion.

On his screen, the colonel was screaming as she was enveloped in whatever that dark shadowy thing was. Terror lodged up in his throat, and every instinct in him demanded that he run far, far away.

But there was nothing that he could do.

His own mecha was damaged all to hell and was losing power fast. Red warnings were plastered over every single one of his MFDs. He frantically swept across his control deck and tried everything to get going, but there was no use at all. His mecha was barely responsive.

The dark material crept up and around the edges of his displays, as well as his control console. When he grabbed on his ejection lever, he noticed that half of it had blackened as well. And had become completely inoperable.

Worse, his palm began to blacken. Pain coursed through him as he felt it “eat” away at him. It felt as though every single cell in his body was being consumed and converted and reconstructed. He was filled with horror as the shadow swept across his body slowly, methodically, and painfully.

And after what seemed like an eternity filled with excruciating pain and unimaginable dread, everything turned dark.