Mark was a simple man. He grew up on the streets of Earth in the year 2523 after the dreaded Aeon attack that changed history forever. Humanity was going to war with an alien race that was hellbent on destroying them, supposedly because we attacked their ancestors on their home planet, unprovoked, Seraphim II.
Not long before this, however, Doctor Gustaf Brackmen had successfully combined the human brain and an Artificial Intelligence implant resulting in a new race: the Symbionts. They were commonly used as slaves and seen as little more than mindless creatures that served no other purpose but to obey.
During a time of exploration of space, a new, inhabitable planet was found; Procyon. The Symbionts had made their home there, and had then applied for independence. The Earth Empire responded in force, in order to insinuate complete dominance and activated a secret loyalty program that pacified anyone with an A.I. implant. However, Dr. Brackmen had freed his closest friends and allies and formed the Cybran Nation. They would fight for their freedom.
The Earth Empire had started to collapse. With the Aeon invasion, the Cybran retaliation, and riots breaking out across the galaxy, they took to an old idea: Unite the galaxy and restore order, no matter the cost. The United Earth Federation was about to created, when the Aeon had attacked their home world- Earth.
The aftermath of the carnage was unspeakable. Even after years and years of repairs, humanity's original world was in complete disarray. Crime, riots, and carnage everywhere. And Mark's parents, who had tried to give him the best the could, had died when he was at an early age. From there, Mark had to resort to a life of crime, and when he was of age, enlisted in the military.
Even when he first started, he had tried his best; after all, he had nothing to go back to besides a broken world ravaged by war and crime. He had been the top of his class at every turn. Eventually, he moved through the classes of both the ranks and training to become a commander, and soon enough, he did.
His first assignment was to assist in the defending force of an Aeon invasion. It was reported to be an aggressive scouting force that was meant o be able to colonize the planet if there was minimum defenses. However, the UEF interpreted this action and sent in Commanders beforehand.
-1 hour and 15 minutes before gate-
"Commander Mark, report to briefing room" Mark heard throughout the intercom. As he got up, out of bed from reading his favorite book series, Warriors, he proceeded to get dressed. As he was getting ready, he almost tripped because his shoes were still untied, due to the fact that he was eager to gate in for his first assignment. After tying his shoes, he proceeded to march down the hallway, people saluting him as he combined walking and jogging into a hybrid he dubbed as 'woggling'.
Not too much later did he find himself seated as the only one in a room with a projector screen installed. As he sat down, a grizzly looking, old man walked in through a door he had not previously noticed.
"Welcome, commander. I see you have arrived. My name is Commander Grhys. We have received disturbing news that the Aeon have sent a scouting force to the planet of Phasic IV. Although we anticipate a only a light invasion force to follow, we want to show the crazed fanatics that we are going to make a show of force, and are determined to not leave a single one alive. This is why we are sending you. We want as many commanders out there to not only show numbers, but also give you guys a chance to prove yourself." Mark gulped. "Don't worry, we also have plenty of experienced commanders
on deck and are ready to give you a helping hand, if you need it. You gate in 1 hour, any questions?"
"No sir." Mark replied.
"Good. Then get ready."
-Gate-
"Commander, get ready to gate in 15....14....13...." He heard over the intercom.
"Don't worry, rookie. Stick to your training, follow orders, and everything will be just fine." Mark heard Grhys over his in-commander speaker. "7....6....5....4....3...2...."
"Oh, and one more thing....try to relax."
"1." The announcer finished.
-Quantum Hole-
When the announcer finished, he was greeted by a blinding burst of light, almost as bright as the sun. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted by a bright blue light that didn't seem to be moving at all, but Mark knew better. He was traveling at hundreds upon hundreds of mile per second in a Quantum Hole, only accessible vie Quantum Gate and he had the schematic already downloaded onto his commander, along with everything you would need in a battle; factories, radar, defenses, and if worst came to worst, Experimentals.
Personally, Mark had never built an Experimental, but veterans of the UEF told of their majestic appearance and their fierce firepower. An Experimental was a unit that you had to build separately, and where extremely expensive. However, when finished, they could destroy most anything, except stronger Experimentals.
And then he was greeted by a familiar sight; one of a bright light shining brighter than the sun, except it followed with a feeling not to distant than the feeling of falling and hitting the floor.
-Phasic IV-
When he opened his eyes, he saw his Heads Up Display, except it wasn't a simulation. His HUD allowed him to view a full scale battle at all times, showing him where his radar could see, his buildings could see, and also allowed him to control his individual units to his entire armies at a time. This was the real deal with real commanders and enemies, with a chance of actually dying.
"Hey there, Rookie! Name's Don, please to serve with ya!" Mark heard a voice with a accent that rivaled a colonist on one of the outer colonies. "We already got you a base to start, just sit there and look good. Meet our fellow commanders, Erika..." He pinged a spot on his HUD, showing an airbase not to far from Mark's position, just a little northwest.
"Hey there, you ready for a little action?" He heard a female voice say from his intercom. "I got air position, but like you probably heard from command, we won't be getting into much. Just showing those fanatics that we aren't pansies to be messed with." He took a look at her base, and saw that she had at least a dozen air factories, pumping out ASFs, or Air Superiority Fighters. He also saw that she didn't have many defenses, but a lot of Fusion Reactors that allowed her to supply everyone's shields and factories. Towards the southern part of her base, he saw a lot of Mass Fabricators that also made up half of her resource system, due to how a field base economy works where there are only two resources: Mass and Energy. Erika seemed to also take the economy.
"We also have Perkin..." Mark got another ping on his Hud showing an African American in his mid 30s towards the north, away from the rest of the commanders.
"You do your job, I do mine." He told Mark.
"Bit of a buzzkill, eh?" Don replied in response to Perkin's bad attitude. Mar also looked over Perkins base; standard front line defense. It included multiple land factories, shields, point defense, a little AA, and patrolling Heavy Mobile Artillery, designated 'Demolisher'. In addition, he was also in control of their Omni Sensor, a radar instillation that consumed massive amounts of energy, but in turn, had extremely long range that, most times, covered most of the battlefield.
"And, like you, a Rookie who had gated in just 30 minutes ago, Ronny."
"Hey there, this is my first time on the battlefield, like you." Ronny said, with a touch on nervousness.
"Don't worry, just stay calm and listen to us and command. We know what we're doing." Don said, trying to brighten up the mood. "And if worst comes to worst, we can always exit through our Quantum Gates." Unlike the previous bases, Ronny's base was a little spread out across a ridge and the plains that stretch between the front line and Mark's position. He has light-medium point defense with shield generators, along with medium anti air turrets, with scattered Flayers. However, he had multiple tech 2 tanks and a couple heavy assault bots dubbed Percival, which had high health and damage, just extremely slow and with a low fire rate, were behind the Titans, which were also assault bots, lead the patrol route with their regenerating shields and high fire rate. He also had Demolishers in the rear, allowing him maximum damage.
"Huh, well, you guys have some pretty awesome bases....what do I got?" Mark asked, wondering what they set up in terms of a pre-base.
"Eh, you won't need much. Your just gonna be the last line of defense, something that will only take place after I'm dead." Perkin said, with a voice so cold Mark thought his ACU put out air conditioning.
"Well, looks like it's a good day to die..." Erika said jokingly. " Besides, you could probably take 'em by yourself. You got straight As, right?"
"Yeah, but I don't think I could do it. I'm not ready-" Mark started as he looked around his base.
"Ah, you would do just fine!" Don told Mark. As he said that, Mark noticed something odd. He had the most balanced base here by far. He had land and air factories, and light to medium defenses and patrol routes, along with shielding. He also controlled the nuke defense that protected everyone.
"Make sure you don't lose that, because if you do, we all go boom." Erika told him.
And last but not least, it showed Don's base towards the middle of Mark and Perkin's base, allowing him to be the middle ground. It consisted of a decent build, much like Mark's it didn't have anything of a major importance. However, his commander did have a teleport function, a resource allocation system that allowed them to get a huge income of mass and energy, and a tech 3 engineering suite, a function that allowed him to build higher tech structures.
"Lay off 'em, he knows what he's doing." Don remarked. As he said so, their long range communicators sparked to life.
"Attention commanders, this is Commander Grhys. We're getting readings of a little more Aeon commanders dropping in then we expected, but don't worry, the situation is under conro-"
As he said that, he, and every other city in the world lost communication with each command.
"Command? Command? Hello, is anyone out there?" Ronny yelled as he frantically ran a diagnostic checking his systems. "If other commander is out there, we los-"
"Cut the whining, Rook. I got a reading on some units appearing in the west, nothing too....wait....what? That can't be right...." Perkin started.
"What is it, Perkin? Something wrong?" Don asked. "Yes....there is. Something VERY wrong." Perkin stated, in a voice that told Mark that the situation isn't good. "Over a dozen units appeared and have started building structures towards the north. My Omni-Sensor can't tell if they are command units, but they sure as hell ain't fake and nothing else can just appear and start building. We gotta prepare." He said, as Mark frantically started building more power generators and factories. "We gotta switch up to all defense, nothing else. Get those civilians into the....wait, what?" He questioned as he pinged a spot on the map where the Quantum Gate was located. Instead of being a normal blue tinted light emanating from the sides of the two pylons that came of the the structure's flat base, it flickered on and on as a red lights flashed, indicating a Jammer on-planet was preventing any Quantum Gateway from working, wether you are going in or out.
"This isn't good...."
The Aeon had landed. First it was a dozen, as was to be suspected, but then in a matter of minutes, it turned into over a hundred. Countless ACUs had made planetside, and were starting to build factories.
Within minutes, the entire planet fell into the darkness, except for one last city, Golden Ages.
The battle had gone on for over an half an hour while the last four commanders tried to formulate a plan, and with every passing moment, more and more troops arrived to assist the already large amounts of units hammering the defenses. However, they would not go out without a fight.
"They're going for another pass, except they're using Absolvers!" Perkin yelled over the intercom. Absolvers were tanks that did little damage, but took down shields with extreme precision.
"I don't know if I can hold out any longer, there's too many!" Perkin told them, while his shields broke and Harbingers, four legged assault bots that fired bolts that did a good number on anything they hit, started to charge into his position, getting in between his long range point defense. However, Perkin used his ACU to try and slow their descent into his base. But instead of destroying the units, they just started to prioritize his extremely important yet extremely durable unit.
Meanwhile, in the skies, a battle waged on that was not in favor of the valiant UEF.
The Wasps, the UEFs ASF, never got any type of reprieve, after the first couple waves of scouting forces. At first, they would only have to combat the 4 or 5 gunships that would start to harass Perkin, but it quickly grew to large amounts of lower tier air units. By the time Perkin's defenses were overrun, enemy ASFs swarmed the wasps, using their extremely agile forms to outmaneuver the sturdy wasps.
"Damnit, I can't get them to go away! Soon enough, they are going to be able to start landing transports into the middle of the pass because these fucking buggers don't end!" As she said so, the last of her wasps died out, relieving the UEF of air superiority but also letting their ASFs get destroyed by the heavy AA that surrounded her base.
"Oh no...the units...they stopped..." Don said, fear in his voice.
"How is that bad? That's AWESOME!" Ronny yelled, excitement in his voice. "We finally get a reprieve!"
However, a sole unit could be seen on the HUD. Normally, an non-experienced commander would get cocky and not bother to scout that unit. On the other side of their predicament, they had no units to spare without leaving their defenses exposed.
"Oh god...if that's what I think it is, we need every air unit available to TAKE IT OUT!" Don yelled, strain and panic heavy in his voice.
"I can't, that wave of ASFs took out all of my units, and I need to get up my patrols otherwise any air assault will take us out!" Erika yelled, frustration heavy sinking into the commanders.
"Perkin, get out of there now." Don told him, in an effort to try to save him.
"You know that won't do anything, I'm just going to have to throw everything at it, and hope that takes it out." He said. And as he did, it appeared in sight; the Galactic Colossus.
It was a giant, humanoid figure that was famous for breaching enemy lines, destroying bases, and being a finisher to a battle. The GC was armed with dual traction beams located on it's arms that pulled in any non- experimental unit and either crushed it our shot it back at any other unit. However, it's main weapon was the giant laser upon it's head that annihilated any unit that stood in it's path. In addition, the giant had the most health than any other unit, and took many, many, artillery rounds to destroy.
It started firing, and within seconds, the powerful shields that withheld the assault had vanished, allowing it to destroy the once great defenses and shields. However, Perkin had started to spam Demolishers that took off at least a percent every time they hit. He had accumulated over 5, and they were wailing on it in addition to Ronny's Klink Hammer artillery installations.
As Perkin's ACU advanced, he started to overcharge. Overcharging will use up a lot of energy, but will inflict massive amounts of damage, but in this case, just shed of 3 or 4 percent of the behemoth that was assaulting his base. By the time he got within the GC's range, his defenses had been completely wiped out, and it's HP down to about 40%. As it prioritized the ACU, Don, Erika, Ronny, and Mark could only watch as it went off in an enormous nuclear explosion, that took it out with it.
"Alright, we can't let his sacrifice be in vain. We have to get those civilians to safety." Mark declared, while starting to upgrade his ACU.
"And how do you suppose we do that? Just ask them nicely?" Ronny questioned, sarcasm dripping in his voice.
"I agree, I think we'll need a plan." Mark concluded.
"As do I." Erika joined in.
"And don't worry, I do." Don stated."I'm going to upgrade my ACU with a teleportation suite, so I will be able to get inside their base and take them out. I'll send off transports to the sides to distract their troops, while I get in and take out the base." Don proclaimed.
"Don, you don't have too..." Erika started.
"You know if I don't do this that we are all going to die, right? Better I go than you guys. Hold them off while I'm upgrading, then you will get a small window of opportunity to take the civilians and get out of here." He said, while he started his teleportation upgrade.
"We won't be able to tell what their going to throw at us now. Be prepared for anythi-" Don tried to warn them before Aeon transporters tried to drop off their passengers into the middle of Ronny's firebases. They were carrying scouts, harbingers, and Obsidians, shielded tanks.
"Erika..." Mark started.
"I can't take them all out, but I can take out some." She stated. However, as soon as she sent her newly built air units to try and counter, a terrifying site appeared just within their vision; two Czars, giant saucers that had 4 sam turrets and depth charges attached, massive amounts of health, and it's main weapon was similar to the Galactic Colossus': A beam of death that emerged from a gaping whole located at the bottom. However, it's main feature was that it could act as a mobile factory and create every type of air unit, store them, then unleash them inside the base.
"Crap, I'm going to have to re-direct my troops to counter. You guys are on your own," she told them as the sound of missiles colliding with air units and beams of destruction hitting the ground filled the air. "I got my quite the handful here already." She said, before focusing her attention on trying to maneuver her units manually by giving them move and attack orders that allowed them to be more affective then if they piloted themselves, also known as 'micro'.
"Well, Ronny, let's do this!" Don said, as he started to position his troops to counter theirs whilst Ronny's Titans, parashields, mobile shield generators, and Percivals moved forward to provide a headstrong wall of armor and shields. As they did so, Don shouted: "30 percent!"
To the brave soldier's dismay, more and more units piled on top of each other swarming to get a chance to degrade and eventually destroy their shields so they could destroy the ACU and complete their mission.
But the brave and honorable comrades held their ground steadfast as the over zealous Aeon tried to break them.
5 minutes in, Erika was busy trying to hold of the hordes of Gunships going for the ground units that were the only thing standing between Ronny and Don and death. However, after she destroyed the dual Czars, she was able to send Engineers over to Reclaim the mass so they could use it's crash site for their own mass. This allowed her more factories, and the ability to build units faster. But against a dozen enemy commanders, she couldn't hold them off for much longer.
The situation on the ground was far worse. As Ronny and Don pooled their resources in, they had put over half into Don's teleportation add-on and units. The Aeon numbers, like in the sky, were numerous and unrelenting. They had to micro as the best the could with as little as they could, but they both knew it wasn't going to be nearly enough if they wanted this plan to work. But bright news was coming.
"95 percent!" Don yelled out, nervousness hidden bellow the calm demeanor. While the Commanders had been fighting off the waves of troops, Mark had started to plan and load his now-built transports with Pillars, heavy tanks that could take a beating, and were also cost effective.
"Alright, here's the plan," Mark had started to tell them. "We go for one final push while we fall back and Don gates in. once inside, he destroys the jammer, and as many units as he can. We launch the transports after the next wave of ASFs,"
"Hey guys..." Ronny spoke weakly.
"We then give them air support and try to lure away their air as far from our transports as possible,"
"Guys?" Ronny tried again.
"Afterword the troops hit the ground, we make a beeline straight for the gate and await the devices destruction. Any questions?" Mark asked.
"On a scale of one to a hundred, how screwed are we?" Ronny asked, as his ping went down on three GCs closing in.
"One hundred!" Don yelled in excitement.
"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence..." Ronny told him.
"No! The teleporter is done, it just needs thirty seconds to fire. Move the transports!" Don said, as Erika switched her production to Heavy Gunships to try to at least take down one GC. She sent the half of her ASFs to cover each fleet of transports racing off to either side of the Aeon's base.
As Don started to charge the teleporter, the GCs started to rain down their beams of death upon their bases while all units concentrated fire onto one of the GCs.
While Don was preparing for his final journey and Mark micro-ing as best he can while trying to keep it together, Erika loaded herself onto a transport, sent her Gunships to shred damage of once GC, and dropped herself off in front of the third. As she started to dish massive amounts of damage with her overcharge capabilities, both Mark and Ronny screamed: "No!" as the shields dissipated. The GC trained it's eye of death upon her, and as Don teleported out into the enemy stronghold, the transports simultaneously dropped of the troops and were subsequently destroyed by enemy air, just as Mark and Ronny were already inside the city's almost non-exsistant walls.
Erika went nuclear.
One Galactic Colossus survived and was already making a beeline for the Quantum Gate, already firing upon Mark's line of defense.
Don teleported, then subsequently self destructed at the Aeon's main base, destroying the Jammer.
And then The Gate activated, allowing the civilians to pass through.
But as Mark and Ronny were the last ones to go, the GC reached them and started to fire upon Mark.
"GO!" Ronny yelled, as he committed his final act to saving Mark, positioned behind Mark's ACU so to allow it to absorb all damage.
And then, by chance or luck, at the exact same time, Mark gated as soon as the Gate exploded.
