August 5 63 AE (military calendar)August 5 2086 AC (global calendar)General Tanya Rex

  Onboard the Onager

  I’m in my quarters watching the news and going over reports. The fleet is parked above Earth for some supplies and more bodies. The test push against Mars failed as have any attempts for America.

  The news is doing an anniversary report on the war, seeing as two generations have been born over its course.

  They’ve already gone over the defense of the Unified East and the annexation of Russia followed by the near colpse of our ship-building capability.

  After that it got worse somehow, we got sent to Europe and dropped behind Germany invading Engnd and France and then surrounding Germany. After years of nothing happening, we let it settle into effectively a quarantine to keep them in pce.

  Then we hit Europa and pushed NATO off it preventing them from harvesting the water. More hit and runs and some minor gains and that brings us to now. Luna Mars Earth Venus all have more craters than before and Phobos is gone.

  A knock at the door brings a welcome distraction. “Come in” A moment ter Lieutenant Casper comes in. It was quite a shock when I figured out he was the Casper. Still not sure why he decided to leave heaven and join the military. Maybe he was bored.

  At least he gets along well enough with the rest of the division. I don’t fail to notice he has another bottle of very very nice whiskey. “Take a seat what brings you here” he sits and I stash the bottle for ter. Can’t really drink when I’m working.

  “Well Bliss believes the war might be over soon” he states “That’s sudden did she say why” he shakes his head and I gather it’s not because of any intelligence. Not to bash the new intelligence agency.

  Before either of us can say anything else my comm squeals and as I answer I don’t even get a chance to say anything because Bliss is shouting “Deploy everything on the mainnd and have the Admiral ready all ships for combat I’ll give you nding zones shortly” then it cuts off.

  I blink twice then jump out of my chair and get my armor on. Casper luckily already had his and we rush to the hangar together while I pull my colonials and Cole into a single channel.

  “All troops prepare to drop Admiral ready all weapons and be ready for anything we’re dropping on the mainnd” Before I even got a few words out the ship diverted power from the lighting leaving everyone with the red battle lighting.

  The hanger is beautiful chaos as pumas, tanks, mechs, and more are loaded into slings and infantry piles into drop ships. “Arrange a fighter escort” I throw out letting it get handled and trusting my guys enough to get it done.

  I run up the ramp of a drop-ship and move up to the cockpit. “How fast can you get to the ground,” I ask. A moment ter and he answers “About ten minutes without destroying our armor and other systems” I sigh “Good enough”

  I turn around and find Casper in a seat along with my new command squad. I feel the engines rumble to life and take a seat and strap in. Next thing I know we’re racing towards the surface in a psma plume thick enough to partially disrupt our comms.

  I pull up a map of the mainnd and realize I don’t have any information so I try to get a line to Bliss… which fails and I’m directed to someone else. “General Rex I assume you're reentering the atmosphere as we speak”

  Picking through the static comes with practiced ease “In force what’s the situation on the ground” I get a data packet before they even speak “Bliss has overall command I’ll coordinate with you and your fleet”

  Based on the new map data and Bliss having direct control doesn’t inspire confidence. That’s compounded when the pilot excims “What the fuck is going on down there” I magnetize my boots and carefully make my way to the cockpit.

  There are dozens of bright fshes and the sky itself looks like it’s on fire. Red Lightning covers the sky and several hurricanes are off the coast. “What’s your callsign” I ask the person on the radio.

  My dread grows with their answer “Just me Siff here’s your nding zone you’ll have to work with the Liquidators as you're the only ones that will be able to operate there soon” The zone that’s marked is near the fshes I saw.

  To make matters even better I get a message from Cole that he’s having to move out of the gravity well because a fleet is on its way. Why push this hard now and on the capital no less?

  The ship begins to shake violently but I lock a glove to the ceiling. I gnce at Casper without moving my helmet. “Casper division-wide please” After a moment and a thumbs up from him I speak confidently.

  I also pull an external camera feed and put it on my comm for all to see. “We ride into the apocalypse men, in our wake rings thunderous triumph. Let’s show those NATO dogs the cost of attacking our home. Don’t give any ground nor any thoughts of mercy, we’ll put them all out of their misery today and end this war”

  Somehow the ship manages to shake more violently and I realize they are shooting fck at us. I stumble back to my seat and secure myself just in time for the pilot to throw us into a roll and I hear the scream of a missile as it misses.

  The next few minutes is much of the same, getting rattled so thoroughly that I felt as though my bones would shake themselves free. Finally the amber light flicks on indicating we’re near the ground. With battle pns made and a simple goal, the true battle would be to survive.

  The ramp drops and we pile out and the ship leaves to the pnet side hangers. “Form up, prepare positions” I call out. Tracers and psma streaks through the air. I see a heavy concentration coming from and focusing on a single point. Zooming in a spot I think Bear along with others.

  Not important right now. Engineering vehicles roll up and create basic berms for cover. Our mechs and tanks roll up shortly after ying into anything they can see. I poke my head over the cover and frown. Those six-legged walkers and thousands of those new stupid humanoid bots. “We’ve got grunts” someone shouts.

  Suddenly I see a huge plume of fire arcing over us and a fsh uncomfortably close. The dust and wind whip past us. “The fuck was that” a younger-sounding soldier shouts. One of my more senior men replies “Atomics. they're dropping atomics near us” Now I see why they put us here.

  I push that from my mind and watch our defenses solidify. Five more plumes arc over us. Now I have to ask “Siff what the fuck is going on” The response is immediate “Ori has been given full control of our missiles I'm reying coordinates to her so don't worry” I frown more “How many does she have,” I ask and stiff ughs “most of those were conventional and she just brute forced them”

  Right… not important right now, now I need to focus on the battle, psma races past our lines, or impacts upon our impromptu cover. “You all know the drill mortar teams thin the grunts, machine gunners keep them back anti-armor clear the walkers, and snipers find anyone that looks important”

  The rapid thumps of mortar shells cascade throughout my lines and shortly after they explode in the throngs of bots. If this is anything like the st time we dealt with them the human soldiers will be behind the bots waiting for us to run out of ammo.

  I motion for Casper to come with me and begin to walk up and down our defenses satisfied with the dugouts for the tanks and the fact that our mechs are acting like artillery staying further back.

  Minutes turn into hours with no real change in the tempo of battle, we’ve been supplied several times by a dedicated support unit keeping our ammo stocks up. Still no sign of their usual troops and Cole has engaged the fleet he spotted.

  While not bad I wouldn’t call this situation ideal either. After all who would call having their capital besieged a good thing? I notice Casper twitch and fully turn to look at him.

  “You alright” I ask “I’m fine but… oh no” he pauses a breath and I notice he goes into the division-wide channel “Take cover and brace now” We both dive against the wall closest to us.

  “Casper what’s wrong” I ask and I hear possibly the strangest answer possible “Ori started singing” I shrug “oOkayand” he sighs “I’ll have Siff expin” aAshe says that a ripple of explosions set off so close together that they may have been one explosion rocks us and makes dozens stumble.

  “Siff what’s going on” I hear a string of what can only be curses from the tone but I don’t understand a word. “Ori dropped a few too many and has lost it” My eyes widen as more gigaton explosions rock us.

  “Expin in detail please I’m currently pinned down because of those detonations” I hear another string of curses “She sShefeeds on radiation normally just the background noise but she treats the high energy particles as a delicacy the dirty stuff thrown off by atomics have a tendency to… how do I put this… make her high basically”

  “The rooms she’s in is so radioactive now that it’ll immediately corrode mundane alloys. Hold onto your teeth while someone gets in there”

  I hear a flicker of another comm channel for a few moments and realize it’s the inside of the unch control room “Drop that bomb drop another one” repeated in a sing-song voice. unnerving doesn't begin to describe it.

  I gnce at my Geiger counter and stare. It’s rapidly climbing to the max angrily clicking like a swarm of insects. then it maxes out.

  As the world around us is continuously ripping apart the entire division watches as the air itself begins to glow and bck rain slowly falls. The ionization of the atmosphere has built up to such an extent that my visor is having fits of static and my teeth feel like they are vibrating.

  “General now's your chance push through and disable the rey at this position also refrain from using your rifle unless you want to be a pink smear on the ground” barely able to understand through the static and my map stuttering on my hud I see the point.

  I stand up and draw my sword and pistol “Now's our time to repay our inconsiderate guests” I throw out the location for all the good it’ll do. As one we rise from our defenses and rush across irradiated fields. We’re met by grunts reverted to their basic programming rather than central orders making our push much easier.

  The pumas race ahead trailed by the tanks most of whom at least slowed down so the infantry could get on the track pods and hitch a ride. The treads roll over and crush the already broken grunts or in the case of the walkers they just get shoved aside.

  At the end of our push is a beached ship with yet more walkers and grunts guarding it. The mechs shred their lines with long bursts from their Gatling weapons while their spinal-mounted cannon deals with anything noteworthy. I'm really gd I got those.

  “Mechs focus fire and breach the hull, open me a door” I shout and moments ter a glowing hole the result of high explosive-shaped charges and thermite greets me and my men. The fight inside is entirely cking. There isn't anything dead or alive.

  “Snorble secure the inside everyone else secure the perimeter” I bark while I walk through the tilted corridors. This doesn't feel right. They deployed enough metal here to not only have us pulled to the ground but necessitate the liberal use of atomics on top of it. That and the fleet that Cole is engaging in. This almost feels like a very expensive diversion but a sane man would use a diversion to assault the capital not use the capital as the diversion, what's there to gain.

  Whats going on here? My comm chimes and it's Snorble “General the ship is empty and we rigged the servers to blow” At least there's that “Detonate at your discretion” I tell him and walk back outside. A few minutes ter the ship rocks and is ripped in half.

  With that, it feels as though things are winding down. In a break in the ash fog and radiation, I spot a ship, a famous one. The UER Beholder. A supper dreadnought that Bliss commands. Ironically she opted to wait to transfer her command to a void vessel until a ter date.

  The vessel I see however is showing substantial amounts of battle damage as it navigates through half-sunk wrecks, its deck and sections of its hull abze and the conning tower has obviously been hit several times. Following it is the rest of our fleet also on fire and looking like they sailed straight out of hell.

  I'm tempted to take a drink from my canteen rather than the helmet's straw but seeing as how the air is glowing I decide to not risk it. Another comm chime and this time it was Bliss “Good job thanks to you we held that fnk those grunts were marching through the bsts you only fought the stragglers”

  I blink a few times suddenly thankful for the glowing air and the pain in my teeth “Your ship has seen better days” I comment getting me a chuckle “True but we won't have time to fix it before… wait one” knowing that this is likely only a lull I enjoy every second ready for the next wave of hell to hit.

  “General your fleet engaged a NATO fleet that was on an intercept course correct” she asks me “Yes mam” I reply “That's a shame we’re getting strange readings from our remaining satellites over America… that can't be right… fuck we’re out of position with no fleet in orbit to stop them” suddenly worried I ask “what's going on”

  A few moments turn into a few minutes then I finally get an answer “Huge ships unched from America on a direct opposite course of where our fleets are” she sighs “Organize your men while I monitor this… I'll be sure you're well reworded to make up for my sister”

  Several hours pass as we rex slightly and our medics comb through everyone checking any injury and trying to get a baseline for our radiation exposure. Finally, I get some news “I hope you're ready for a surprise” Bliss starts “Somehow the war is a draw. they just left”

  I furrow my eyebrows “What do you mean they just left” I can hear a frown through her tone “Just that. those colossal ships were generation ships, light huggers. I guess the prospect of living on this dustball if they managed to win wasn't appeasing so they decided to leave for somewhere else”

  Utter shock grips me and it takes me a few moments to process what I'm hearing “So... the wars over” I ask. Her response is cold, this clearly wasn't the outcome she wanted “I imagine we'll see them again but yes we won” I smile and a weight lifted from my shoulders, my men's sacrifice all these years meant something.

  “Attention” I call out startling many “As of now begins the cleanup operations. Those NATO dogs have been driven out of Sol” I shout through both my radio and external speakers. Cheers hugs and other celebrations take pce especially among the old blood of the 104TH as some have never known peace.

  This doesn't feel real. I doubt it will for a while. Yet now the future feels brighter than ever… or is that just a hole in the atmosphere?