OOC
Aureliana System
Aurelian Federation
For over a thousand years the Federation has stood as a beacon in its own corner of the Galaxy. The original human settlers recall from scant records and data fragments having arrived several millennia prior on ancient starships now no longer existing. Whereby centuries past as these human colonists feuded alongside each other and neighboring alien species. Until finally first the humans and then several alien races signed the Aurelian Pact. Bringing peace and prosperity to their section of Galaxy, which they had no contact with others outside of their interstellar neighborhood, believed to be permanent. That changed with the arrival of strange ships in the farthest flung systems of the Federation. The Outer Colonies. Initial contact yielded information about an 'Imperium of Man', a 'Great Crusade', and an 'Emperor of Mankind,' who ruled from what was supposedly the fabled homeworld of Humanity: Terra. However, relations soon soured when it became apparent that not only the Federation consorted with 'Xenos' but also 'Abominable Intelligence.' What the Federation knew as Artificial Intelligence. What followed was at first a protracted conflict between arriving Imperium fleets. But these were beaten back for over three years. Until a sudden and overwhelming force appeared. What was once separate fleets numbering at most a dozen to two dozen ships became invasion fleets hundreds strong. Fielding post-human warriors known as 'Astartes' and led by what Federal Naval Intelligence called a 'Primarch'.
Within six months the Outer Colonies fell to the onslaught. One hundred and six worlds lost in not even a year. The Federal Armed Forces suffering heavy losses in space and on the ground were even initial Pyrrhic tactical victories turned into defeat. The Inner Colonies were swiftly invaded soon after. With the Federation mass mobilizing and fortifying its remaining star systems it held on. Forcing this Imperium to besiege entire planets into submission. Xenos member worlds of the Federation fell the fastest for the Imperium seemed to make no effort in dialogue with the non-human citizens of the Federation. No quarter or qualm about violently exterminating these member species off the Galactic map.
Now, four and a half years into the conflict the Federation had marshalled much of its remaining strength in its capital system of Aureliana. A dual binary star system home to six inhabited planets and over half a dozen asteroid colonies. Preparing to launch a mass counter-offensive against this 'Imperium' and drive it back.
Aureliana Prime
Langrange Defense Ring Command & Control
Gentle steps shuffled on the metal floor as heavy magnetize capable boots moved forward. A man in a blue and white uniform of the Federal Naval Service moved onto the large circular command bridge of the massive Geo-synchronous defense network covering the Capital Planet of the Federation. This sphere of weapon studded stations and orbital magnetic accelerator cannons pointed outwards into the blackness of the void. Vigilant for any sign of the 'Imperium'. On the bridge a large black haired creature reminiscent of ancient Terran Great Apes, also in a blue and white uniform, turned and spoke in a guttural voice. Its voice modulated and genetically altered to be able to speak. The wonders of the Federal Uplifting Program. “Commander, its busy but quiet out there. NAVCOM reports that scout ships at the edge of the system show clear scopes and no gravitic disturbances.”
“Good, just what we like to see,” replied the Commander as he brought a steaming cup of caff to his lips. Tasting the brown, cream sweetened beverage, feeling the welcome rush of caffeine. Not that good mattered to his compatriot. His homeworld had been decimated by these Imperials and his entire people there put up against a wall. The thought of such acts of xenocide made his stomach churn. But to his subordinates credit he made no emotion or sign of mental compromise. We'll get these bastards, just you wait. FEDHIGHCOM has a plan.
Moving over to the outer system scanning team he looked over a brunette human woman's head, a fish like man with six digit fingers typing furiously on a computer console, as he brought up data pertaining to a commercial bulk trawler named the Spring's Coming.
“Ice trawler? Anything I should know about?”
“Not sure Commander. The Spring's Coming has been out in the outer belt collecting ice for the water market on the desert planet of Sahar-El. But there was a very brief, only a couple seconds, radio burst from the ship before it went dark for twenty minutes.”
“Ship is fine now though, right?” said the Commander as he ran a hand through his black hair. His olive skin not helping to hide the bags under his eyes.
“Well we think so but there is something about the transmission...” The woman began dialing in some knobs while the fish like creature to her left, also in the blue and white uniform, turned and spoke through a mechanical radio grille. His voice customized by his own choosing to be soft and perhaps a bit posh. “The ship gave standard reporting and operating procedure kickbacks exactly twenty minutes and six seconds after going dark. Report log listed a communication glitch and possible computation error in its navigational system. It will be checking in at Commercial Dockyard 7 to have it looked at.”
“Alright, good, send that report up to NAVCOM for their analysts to take a look at it. What about the transmission?” The Commander leaned down as the brunette haired ensign pressed play. A crackle over her console's audio speakers for then a blurp of something. Something definitely audible.
“Play that back?”
The ensign played it back and there it was again, a blurp of something popping. At least it sounded like popping to the ears of all three present. “Okay, send that up to NAVCOM too. Keep a scope on it just in case.”
“Aye, Commander.” The sensor reading of the ice trawler drawing ever closer.
Nodding the Commander rolled his neck in a nice relaxing stretch as he maneuvered in a large circle about the bridge. Checking in at various posts before he wound up looking out the wide view ports down at the planet below. The surface under him gradually going from light to dark as the hours past below on that rotating orb. Before him the vast array of the Federal Military Shipyards. The Kala'den Commercial Shipyards and Wharves. The System Communication Array and NAVCOM Headquarters. All arrayed in a vast network of metal girders, Geo-synchronous structures, or cresting the massive towering spires of the planets eight space elevators.
Night settling over the Western Hemisphere of Aureliana Prime. Its five oceans and six continents sandwiched between two pleasant stark white polar ice caps. The Commander took another sip.
“Spring's Coming you are clear for approach vector in system. Hold onto charted course line 47-3-B. You will be given a signal for final approach on my mark.”
Checking his wrist watch the Commander enjoyed the sight below him before closing his eyes for a moment to relax. The space before him alight with thousands of craft and ships. Mostly civilian. But hundreds of warships of the Navy were mustered or in dockyard berths arrayed neatly like a massive three-dimensional fabric lattice.
“Spring's Coming adjust course. Spring's Coming you are moving off course. Spring's Coming do you read?”
The Commander nearly choked on his next sip as he heard these words from the brunette ensigns mouth. Growing more stern by the syllable. Turning around swiftly the Commander rushed over. “What is it Naveen?”
“Spring's Coming just ignored our hails. They're off course, and every second a data spike is being sent out of system.” The Commander looked at the sensor readings. The Spring's Coming was not going to hit them but was now moving well off course. “Try to raise them again. Notify NAVCOM and Grand Admiral Hood that we have a possible problem.”
“Spring's Coming just went full thrust!” spat the fish like naval ensign seated to the right. Collision alarms and warning klaxons blared as the Spring's Coming main plasma drives ignited. Cycling rapidly up to full power as the kilometer long bulk hauler began to accelerate exponentially.
“Signal w-!”
“SHIP LAUNCHING CRAFT!” came a frantic scream of a shout from behind him. From the tactical team behind him. The Commander turned to watch the central viewing screens to see four smaller pod like craft with claws shoot out of the side of the Spring's Coming towards the Command & Control station. Within seconds the craft ignited their fusion cutters. Blasting and slicing into the station as its claw like mandibles anchored the pod like bodies of the craft. It was all happening so fast!
The Spring's Coming went beyond normal safety parameters for acceleration. Red-lining its core as the ship rapidly approached an appreciable fraction of light speed. The ice hauler rocketing past the Command & Control Station to collide with the Commercial Dockyards. Smashing through steel girders. Four civilian ships and two bulk freighters were annihilated by the impact. The Spring's Coming continued on as debris rained out in all directions. The deaths of twenty thousand dock workers behind it. Crashing into Battleship Row, grazing the carrier Ralliere, and ripping the fore-third of the cruiser Demtre away in a shower of alloy. The ice hauler continued on its orbital rampage unabated. Its momentum seeming unassailable as it impacted the NAVCOM headquarters station in a thunderous detonation. Thirty-six thousand navy personnel died as the structure went critical. The ice hawler, now a massive slag heap of red hot metal, erupted from the back of the station and careered on its orbital death arc to crash into the System Communications Array. The debris and devastation of its path an expanding cloud. Sixty-seven other ships were destroyed by the expanding debris outright as several damaged ships died at their berths or cores went critical. The Battleship, three and a half kilometers long, Lacreion, smashed from its girders now listed freely. Its drives off and half of its crew having died from the exceedingly violent impact. Drifted like a bird struck mid flight to planet side. A plume of smoke and debris following it as the mighty warship began its death dive. Prow first.
Forty-three other ships were heavily damaged. Twelve others listed from damage to cause further havoc.
The Commander dropped his half drank cup of caff onto the floor as he could only watch the horror unfold before him in a matter of seconds. Nano-seconds of damage translating into cascading waterfalls of subsequent terror as the debris of the ice trawlers suicidal charge expanded at a fraction of light speed. Shredding lightly armored craft in a hailstorm of razor metal. Habitation units vented. Industrial complexes suffered hull integrity failure. The Spring's Coming ripped out the other side of the System Communication Array, enough of its punch robbed to come out like a shotgun blast of several fiery pieces, cascading to strike the the habitation orbital rings around the nearest space elevator. Over a hundred thousand homes had their interiors, within the span of nano-seconds, given over to the cold embrace of hard vacuum.
A heavy hand gripped his shoulder, he turned, it was his hairy subordinate. “Commander!”
It was then that he registered the other alarms. SECURITY BREACH, DECKS 27, 42, 51, AND 103. SECURITY PROTOCOLS ENGAGED. ALERT. SECURITY BREACH.
The message repeated and in the distance else where in the station he could hear the thuds of weapons fire. “Close off the bridge! Secure the area. Alert all commands! We're under attack!”
The deep space observation officer, a lieutenant, whipped his head around, “Incoming multiple gravity disturbances. Detecting over nine hundred plus enemy ships exiting into Realspace!”
The Commander looked above, “Mother of Mercy.” The enemy fleet, no doubt fed data last minute from the Spring's Coming had made a calculated jump to be within close range. Merely a million kilometers away.
His apish subordinate dashed over to the security panel as the lights in the bridge twinkled for a moment. A boom below them sounded. People were screaming blood curdling wails in the hallway. A hairy paw of a hand smacked the emergency release protocols. Right as a pair of Navy personnel came sprinting frantically around the corner of the hallway. “Stop!”
The emergency blast doors shut on them. Their fists banging as the man and woman that rounded the corner screamed for them to open the doors. Their cries soon matched by rapidly approaching foot falls. Heavy foot falls. Their screams rose to ear splitting, hair raising, shrill wails before a pair of thudding booms silenced them.
“Draw your side arms.” said the Commander. Behind him the blast shutters lowered to shield their view ports. Everyone, the Commander included, drew their phase pistols and pointed them at the blast doors. The sound of something on the other side made the Commander cautiously step back. Then it clicked in his head. “Get do-!”
Slagged metal shot inwards as plasma charges detonated. Three of the bridge crew were blown back bodily. Naveen was killed by shrapnel to the throat, skull, and chest. The fish like ensign was thrown bodily back to have what amounted for his spine snap back across his console in a sickening manner. The lieutenant from earlier exploded from some other impact. Then another bridge crew member, then another. The Commander opened fire. Beams of energy rapidly cycling into the vapors of the Plasma discharge. His arm exploded. The Commander screamed. Looking down a pair of silvery-grey armored feet stood before him. The muzzle of some heavy looking weapon hefted by an inhuman sized body pointed at his chest. The Commander closed his eyes...
* * *
Federation City
The city was a teeming metropolis covering over sixty-eight thousand square kilometers. The capital of the Federation. Amid the urban residencies of the spacious palatial homes of the city's upper class a celebration was held for a young woman's birth day. Friends and family gathering as they drank and sang till the Sun of Alpha Sol diminished below the horizon. The festive attitude only diminishing as groups gradually took their leave to head home. Only one late comer arrived and was greeted by the person of the hour.
“Uncle Merrick!” A late middle aged man in the livery of a Federation Navy Vice Admiral smiled as a young adult woman, his niece by the sounds of things, gave him a big hug. “Hey there mountain bear chill, chill, you'll break this old man's back with your strength.” They separated as the young woman adjusted a conical multi-colored birthday cap on her red haired scalp. Her fair face beaming with joy.
“Figured I'd swing by on my way up to the Fleet. Got you something more appropriate for your age.” Merrick revealed a bottle of fine alcohol. 'Austerbrev Wine'. From the fertile and exquisite vineyards of Aureliana's Southern mountain chain of the same name. She gave a warm thanks and welcomed him in. But his mood turned dour as he spoke quickly, “Can't stay long. Got a schedule to keep. Take care.”
The Vice Admiral stepped away for the awaiting ground car due to take him to the nearest space port for transit up into orbit. His vehicle smoothly sliding away into the night as the young woman looked up and frowned. Various objects blossomed orange and red in the night sky. Getting bigger. Her eyes widened as over ten thousand fragments of space debris were lit by the fires of re-entry. She almost dropped the bottle of wine as she watched their impacts. Blossoms of fire and mushroom clouds arose in the distance. Something, once a conning tower, smashed into the financial district. Leveling five sky scrapers. She froze. Froze as she watched the wounded form of the dying Lacreion come singing from the heavens. Its hull glowing from re-entry. Its prow ripping the top levels off of industrial complexes as it sank into the ground at a speed surpassing the sound barrier. The boom of the shock-wave picking up an onrushing brown cloud of debris that flooded towards her. The ship digging a six hundred meter deep rut behind it as its hull was stripped away layer by layer. Cutting a path through four residential neighborhoods, two commercial districts, and then crashing to a stop amid the mid-town spires. Twinkling glass, shattered, presaged the collapse of twenty-four high rises. She could only watch as the onrushing dust cloud struck her. Blowing her off her feet...
The young woman coughed, her birthday cap torn from her scalp, her body covered in brown and gray dust. Screams and panic from onrushing people flooded the neighborhood. Others huddled in their homes. Windows and glass decorated the pavement around her. Gazing up at the sky she saw flashes of energy weaponry, thousands of detonations, and every now and then the violent blossom of a reactor going critical as a ship's heart went super nova. The power was out in the neighborhood. A hand gripped her, “Come on, Constantina, we have to go!” It was the voice of Uncle Merrick.
Constantia coughed as she was hauled up. Her ape like neighbor, belonging to the same species from Sahar-El, was next to him. His spectacles dusty while her family and friends came out holding whatever belongings they could carry.
“Come on! Come on! We need to get out of the capital.” Said Merrick as he pushed her along to follow her neighbor. Julian. The ape-man waving for them to follow.
“Shouldn't we take a car?” Constantina's mother said with dust matte hair. Merrick shook his head as they moved at a quickening pace. “No, everyone will be trying to do that. We'll try to get a mag lev out and then take a aircar from there to a space port to try and get off world.”
“Off world?” Constantina heard her mother say. Merricks reply was dour, “We got hit by this by surprise. NAVCOM is gone. NAVHIGHCOM got hit by atomics not too long ago. Massive MIRV assault blanketed the Southern Continent. Half our damn headquarter bases are gone like that!”
“Navy Command is gone?” said Julian from the front of the group as they continued. Moving into a shopping district as they thundered along the pavement. The battle in space silhouetted above them in a dazzling display of light and blossoming, silent, explosions. The fires of thousands of debris impacts. Gave a reddish hue to the atmosphere of the city around them as fires raged. Constantina stole a glance up as more debris began to rain down. Then the sky erupted in fire and fury.
The capitals atmosphere defense guns blossomed as thousands of AA pieces opened up across the city and surrounding rural areas. Missiles shot up into the sky. The blossoming blacker than blackness of flak rounds detonating. Lasers lancing up to the heavens. Moving through the district people were screaming, shouting, desperate to get anywhere other than where they were now. A short distance away the Nordrehn Aerospace Base was launching its fighters into the atmosphere.
The group moved on wards as booms sounded around them. Something from space was shooting back. Constantina again stole a look up as thousands of foreign craft dueled the Federation's pilots. The sky alight with tracer fire as a wave of fire-like-rain materialized before her.
“Come on!” said Merrick as he urged her on. Her eyes stolen by the strange sight above as she kept pace with her family and neighbor. The fiery rain coalescing into pods. Metal pod like devices on turbojet engines that crashed to earth. The surrounding environment suddenly rising in cacophony as fire arm discharge echoed across the city-scape.
Rushing along a plaza Constantina looked to her right to see Federation Army troopers deploying from trucks and moving into defensive positions. A tank rolling up behind them. To her left troopers on a roof top engaged something in the distance only to disappear in mists of red chunks. Constantina gasped. Julian reaching back to grip her and haul her along.
Merrick moved them to the left and down some subway stairs into the city's metro. “Come on off the streets!” He waved them down the steps as the sounds of weapons fire grew louder and louder. Shouts from soldier and civilian. While in the distance, back from where they'd come, Constantina saw a lance of light strike the ground. Merrick dove down the steps after them as another dust cloud flooded the streets. The group moved along and saw they were not alone. Thousands of civilians had huddled in the metro.
Merrick was moving already. Pushing his way past people. Constantina's father now spoke, huffing and puffing from the physical strain. “Where are we going Merrick!”
“Fallout Shelter from the old wars down here.” Was Merrick's response.
Following Merrick's lead the group took a wide side corridor and then down some more steps. Past some more people. The metro suddenly rumbled and the ceiling shook from surface detonations. Something with treads rumbled by above them. Taking a right they arrived at some open doors to reveal a room huddled with people of various species. The fallout shelter was full and no personnel from the government were present. Seeming to spot the other side of the shelter in the gloom of red emergency lights, Merrick beckoned them to follow. Moving and filing them along next to the far door.
He moved in close to them, “Alright, we stay here for a moment to catch our breath. Then we go through this door. This will lead us to a metro sub-station a kilometer down the track. From there we go up into the Magornor District, its residential, we move from cover to cover till we get to the mag lev lines.”
Everyone nodded in affirmation. The ceiling shook again as the war above them increased in fury for one minute, then a second, then silence. Leery silence. Constantina's stomach knotted while the images of those soldiers exploding into red mist made her eyes water and she began to ventilate heavily into her hands.
“hey hey, mountain bear, be strong. We will get through this,” said Merrick as she mimicked breathing deep and smoothly, out and in. The musky air sucked in and out of her lips as she tried to calm herself. Closing her eyes for a moment she could feel the pounding of her heart rate slowly begin to lower itself.
Crash. Clunk-clunk. Screaming erupted as a tidal wave of people surged into the side hallway and towards the shelter. Others no doubt fleeing down the tracks. Julian looked at Merrick who unconsciously spat, “Right, leaving.”
Gripping the circular handle he twisted hard right and kept turning. Until the heavy bolts of the shelter door disengaged and the door swung outward. Merrick went through, then Constantina, and Julian, then the onrush of people swept into the entry way. “Mother! Father!” shouted Constantina as she looked back and saw her mother fall, trampled, her father crushed up against the doorway as a flood of people frantically tried to escape.
Julian, gripped her, hoisted her up, as she screamed for her parents until her lungs gave out. The trio moved running into the darkness of the metro access tunnel.
* * *
They had been running for what seemed like forever when they came across a doorway leading to a still lit stairwell. Opening the door with a clunk of bolts Merrick went in first. Then Constantina, with Julian watching their backs. They could hear no others behind them in the darkness, the pitch blackness which required them to keep a hand on the walls for guidance, not that there wasn't anyone following of course. The thought made Constantina sweat. A nameless horror of these invaders following them!
They ascended the stairs and peeking through a doorway they exited into a sub-station. Booming detonations above them but not as direct as before. Curiously enough, the metro sub-station was entirely devoid of life, no civilians huddled nor station personnel. A tram sat empty and silent to their right. Moving up the stairs gingerly to the ground level they peered over concrete railings to see a scene of burnt out vehicles. Pockmarked roads, and corpses. Thousands of military personnel and civilians dotted the streets, balconies, and rooftops. A pair of burnt out tanks, a burnt out convoy, and a downed rotor-copter that had crashed into the fourth floor of an apartment block. Flames crackling from its still burning fuel supply.
Then the ground shook so violently that Constantina nearly fell over. Julian once again picked her up to her feet and the trio made their way towards the mag lev line. “Air strikes,” muttered Merrick at the carnage. Above them Constantina could still see dueling air craft and the blossoming barrages of void warfare above them. But back where they had come she could see larger landing transports lowering to planet side from space. They weren't Federation.
Moving along the pathway for another hour. Occasionally, punctuated by artillery and air strikes in the distance, or the rattle of gunfire in some far off street battle. They could hear shuffles and cries. People were piling onto mag lev trains at the station. The long silver bodies of the magnetic track running trains piling high with people. A new train arrived while another left. Station personnel urged order but there would be scarcely any. A team of soldiers in combat gear fought to orderly have people board the trains for departure.
The trio made their way to the front and Merrick showed them his uniform, “You need to let me and my companions pass through.” The soldier, a young man barely nineteen, managed a sloppy salute as he looked at his companions. Nodding slowly he stepped aside. The act causing an uproar of protests as the trio were allowed past. A protest soon joined by a horn like dirge. Blaring at them like a herald of doom. Constantina looked back and saw from the raised platform of the mag lev shapes striding through the smoke and flame. Giant striding bipeds with various other smaller ones swarming at their feet. Though smaller could scarcely be accurate in that even the smaller bidepal war machines were easily the size of an apartment block. Many wielded massive chainsaws for arms while their other sported some projectile weapon. The larger ones sported practically all projectile weapons. Banners, black and silver, hung from large pennants or between their bipedal legs. Approaching opposite came an answering cry as the Federation's own Mecha of equal side strode forth from the country side. At their feet surged thousands of Army tanks, APCs, and mobile artillery. Entire corps of soldiers moved forth. While the invaders also sported various vehicles and infantry forces moving forward. Both sides erupted in a volley of deathly madness.
Pockmarking the earth. Renting trenches into the ground. Collapsing structures. Fires bloomed and blossomed as the city-scape and environment became a scarred and charred hellscape. Julian had to haul Constantina onto the tram she was so taken in by the awe inspiring sight. Gothic war machines dueling her peoples own giants of war in a terrible duel to the death.
The mag-lev lurched forward smoothly as they pulled away from Federation City. The growing distance allowing her to see the battle unfold with the backdrop of a burning and war torn city beyond.
* * *
The mag lev tram moved on its course at breakneck speed of 400 kilometers an hour. Merrick constantly checked his watch every minute. As if he was worried about being late for something. Julian was silent and rocking slowly back and forth. Everyone on the tram seemed dirty and despairing. She could only wonder how many families had been torn apart or lost in the fiery carnage.
Casting her amber eyes about she momentarily doused in darkness, save for the trams running lights, by a mountain side tunnel. It passed within a moment and there lay more devastation. People in hushed tones rushing to the windows as the towns and cities to either side burnt in the fires of war. Armies clashed while mighty warships could be seen descending into atmosphere. Constantina watched as one city she knew from geography class, Armorel, was suddenly subject to bombardment from a three kilometer long warship of unusual design. Its prow and superstructure angular like a serrated knife. Level the city in a series of barrages. Armorel, home to a million people, was leveled. Why? Who were these invaders that ravaged her home so?
A pair of black dots were looming towards them. Skimming the mountain range behind them and veering on an approach. Merrick turned and tore Constantina to the ground. The track behind them was cut in two by a series of explosions from missile fire. The rear compartments of the mag left barely making it away while the tram adjacent to them, moving just behind on its own track, erupted into fire and curling metal like a burst tin can. The two craft, painted red, zipped off and away. Their mission to cut the rail line completed. The other tram must have been only in the way. In the way. The thought mortified Constantina.
* * *
The mag lev tram slowly moved to a standstill. Giving everyone aboard pause. A pause turning to abject horror as their destination burned. Tracer fire and flitting swarms of foreign air craft above it. The rattling detonations of gruesome street battles ripping through its structures in a dazzling display.
“We need to get off the train. We'll take the underground.” Stated Merrick as the trio manually opened the doors. Some others seemingly had a similar idea. But milled about unsure while the trio took off along the side of the track. Keeping low in the ditch as they moved towards the first buildings. Closer than the woodlands alight with gunfire and pockmarked by detonations from the fighting in the around the city. “Down!” Shouted Merrick and all three hit the dirt as an invader aircraft roared above. A single missile leaping from under a wing to streak behind the trio. Striking the mag leg train in a shower of fire and shrapnel before zooming off.
Shakily rising to their feet the trio moved on with renewed effort. Legs shaking from strain and panting breathe the three moved into the city proper and into an abandoned apartment. The back door unlocked, food still on the table, but apparently abandoned as Merrick who had vanished inside came back to wave them in. Closing the back door behind them and making sure it was locked the trio moved into the kitchen.
“Alright, on the other side of the city. There is a NAVSPECWEP facility.” Silence and blank looks matched Merricks statement. The Vice Admiral cleared his throat, “Its a top secret facility for special weapons being experimented on for the Federation. The war, despite what the talk show hosts say, has been going poorly for months. Now, I think we've for sure lost.”
No word from Julian. Only silent acceptance of what was likely the truth. A rumble of engines and the trio dropped to a crouch. Outside they heard hushed voices. In a language they knew. Rising slowly Merrick moved over to a window and smiled.
* * *
Captain Arv'ald of the 44th Federal Mechanized Division stood before them in the kitchen. His depiction of the situation to Merrick was grim. Contact with major cities gone or non-existent. Capitol was hit by a WMD of some kind. Building was basically vaporized. The red armored giants known as “Astartes” as what Arv'ald said had landed en masse. From what the Captain seemed to describe they appeared nearly impossible to kill without significant firepower. The Fleet's surviving ships had retreated from orbit in disarray. Grand Admiral Hood was confirmed KIA over Aureliana Prime about an hour ago. Further, the enemy was landing millions of regular human soldiers and various war machines in numbers the Federation had not seen before. Their strikes were like clockwork. Major installations and logistics bases taken out rapidly. Fleet Anchorage crippled within moments. Communication and energy grids gone if not compromised. Army Command was fragmented and falling apart more every hour.
Clunk clunk-clunk. Shouts erupted outside as the rest of the company outside suddenly opened fire frantically. Captain Arv'ald moved to a window to look outside. Only for his head and upper torso to detonate. Showering Constantina in red mist. She screamed as the kitchen's walls detonated from hypersonic rounds puncturing and detonating. By some miracle she was unharmed. Merrick grabbed her while Julian followed them out a side door. Falling over a corpse Constantina hurried into another apartment. Crossing the threshold to see that half of the building was now rubble. The street around them a battle ground between two forces battling it out. Federation troopers putting up a valiant if futile effort. Their weapons rattling off rounds and bolts of energy while others chucked grenades. Across the way red armored giants. Astartes. Surged forth faster than Constantina's eyes could properly track. Whirring blades sawed man and woman alike into meaty chunks. Grenades hurled by the Astartes shredded bodies. Their own fire arms reducing entire squads into pink-red paste.
A whirl of a jets deafened Constantina's ears as she tripped and fell. Julian pausing to lift her up. But the ape-man seemed off. Looking down she saw it. Shrapnel had lodged in his leg and side. “Jul-,”
“Go,” said the ape man. Constantina looked up and froze as the sound of the jet pack turned to see her. Standing over a freshly eviscerated Federation army sergeant. “Go!” he bellowed in the gutteral speech of his race. Shoving her back as he bellowed a challenge to the red giant. Merricks hands gripped her as he made her jump down a man hole cover into a murky dank tunnel. But Merrick did not follow. Instead he slowly closed the man hole cover and moved away with a muttering of 'go.' Followed by a small plastic card falling between the slits of the man hole grille. A card she barely caught.
Constantina watched as a red gauntlet gripped her Uncle's shoulder. Pulling him from view. She barely contained her sorrowful cry with shaky hands. She needed to move. But where? She knew where in the back of her mind. To the facility. It would be safe there. Looking to her right she abruptly dashed off with tears streaming down her face.
* * *
Two hours of running in murky dank sewage tunnels and she reached what she believed to be the Northern terminus. Shaky weak hands gripping rusty access railings she pulled herself up. Arms straining to lift and move the heavy metal grate above her. She peered warily over the lip. She couldn't see anyone. A small metal door embedded in the side of a hill, shielded by some trees, holding up the card as if it would tell her to move forward she crawled forth. Scampering to the metal door she could now see how heavy duty it was. Smooth gunmetal surface. Looked more like a vault that anything else.
A small black slot to the left of the door stood out to her. Sliding the card inside the rumbling sound of bolts unlocking. Mechanisms turning. A hiss of pressurized air and the vault door swung inward half way. Moving inside she was startled to see clear white light. What if someone sees! She hurried in and without thinking closed the vault door. Moving in she was met by another door. She entered the same card and again it opened. Moving inside she was met by white lights and a large space. Offices to the left. Smaller labs with clear window panes of hardened plastic. Walls of machinery that she could scarcely guess function of. Then a larger security door wide enough to fit a large transport truck through stood before her. A third time she slotted the card, eyes widening in shock, as the scene unveiled before her.
Rows of metal gurneys hooked up to heavy cables to various machinery with winking lights of myriad colors. Clear plexi-steel coverings over each one would allow one to peer inside. Moving in slowly, nervously, Constantina made for the closest one and looked. She dropped the card and gasped. Inside was a baby. Apparently asleep, with odd shackle like devices around its neck and limbs. She averted her eyes as she stumbled along the rows. Each one holding a child with the same bizarre restraints. Then there was one apart. One with a single collar for a restraint of black metal. Yet, there was something off about the baby. A certain wrongness.
“Its a blank child.”
Constantina froze. A sultry, honey sweet, rumbling mountain of authority for a voice coaxed her ears. It spoke her language but with a peculiar accent. Turning slowly she saw a giant clad in purple. Easily more than twice her height. A face of utter beauty and perfection staring back at Constantina with a bemused smirk on the side of perfectly formed lips. Perfect silver white hair, like fresh fallen snow, cascaded down from this amazon of a woman's scalp. A sword hung at her hip, just under her left arm which was positioned to rest on said hip. Coming into the room a pair of purple giants entered. Followed by a full squad of the red armored giants. Astartes. Constantina backed away into the gurney as fear gripped her.
The amazon of a woman held out her other hand cautiously, more likely out of fear of turning over the gurney than Constantina's own discomfort, “I have assured your Uncle that no harm of me or my legion would befall you.”
Constantina paused, aghast at what she had just heard, but the visualization of what followed caused her to sink to the floor in traumatic shock. The amazon stepped aside and there, unharmed, was her Uncle Merrick. The amazon woman indicated to him, “Quite the asset, your Uncle has become for the Imperium. A rich reward, governorship of this world in the name of the Emperor, I would find most befitting.”
Constantina began to hyper ventilate as everything she ever knew died tonight. So much so she could scarcely do anything as a giant in white armor with a helix insignia moved up and injected a sedative into her neck. Mercifully sending her into a medically induced coma.
Her last images of the amazon peeling back the top of the gurney and gently reaching in, like a mother to a child, such grace defying all expectation. As the magnificent purple-clad queen with hair of virgin snow plucked the child and held it to her chest. Stepping out of view as darkness shrouded Constantina's vision.
* * *
Eighteen Hours Post-Invasion of Aureliana Prime
Cythera stepped off the platform onto the fields outside of 'Federation City' as the locals called it. Stepping onto the short grass of what was once a massive marshaling field for public events. Rows of Sun Angels in perfect formation lined both sides. Columns of Imperial Army troopers behind them and beyond. While Titans of the Legio Mortis stood above. Knights of an assortment of houses pledged to the 25th Expeditionary Fleet stood beside them. Formations of aircraft soared above while no less than a dozen Navy ships hovered above the surface. Smoke plumes from the city still rose high in the sky as surviving civilians, of which three billion of an original seven billion population survived by effort of the Primarch's planning to limit expected collateral damage, were being corralled. To be subject to Iterators, Administratum personnel, and thus be on their initial steps to Compliance as new citizens of the Imperium of Mankind.
A purple Stormbird hovered into view and came to a graceful landing as the Remembrancers, including the imagist Cythera, watched. Her pict-caster snapping and video feeds recording everything of note. The Stormbird lowering its ramps to disgorge the Athanatoi and of course the magnificent eldest of the Primarchs. Though eldest was sort of a misnomer. Eldest only in most seniority of discovery and service to the Imperium. Of which it was not much more than some of her siblings like Atlas and Ravadiana.
The Remembrancers bowed deeply while the Astartes and Army troopers knelt. Even the Knights and Titans did a bow of sorts. More of respect than subservience.
Before her, surviving members of the Aurelian Armed Forces High Command awaited to formally give their unconditional surrender of remaining Federation territory. Their morale broken by the shocking defeat of over one hundred million Federation troops mustered on the planet. Much of their fleet currently reduced to ember burning hulks or clouds of debris now orbiting the planet. This battle was truly The Emperor's Victory.
