Blood & Metal

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...."