Blood & Metal

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.