Half an hour.
That's how long for them to form in front of me.
"CACII inner SSCI and SSCII. CACI behind me."
"Blitzkrieg." Aurelius adjusted his right leg towards the gate, body favoring his left.
The words echoed fast through them, moving the assembly in real time as the Enarchies placed themselves as Aurelius intended them. Some allies were seen needing some nudge by the other Enarchies into their designations.
Their hesitations were justified for what Aurelius had planned.
"Penetrate our allies' formation from the path they've carved."
"We envelop our allies instead of the enemies."
"Let them recover briefly."
The air was humid amongst the exos gathered. Barely any hint of frost reached Aurelius by the end. The mingled Tevarians within Valtron's corps were a pleasant gnawing truce.
"Retake our territory and replace HC and SS corps until further notice."
"Corrans, you play a huge role in disrupting their formations."
"My people are stubborn, show your claws if they refuse to take a breather."
"You have my permission to tackle them."
The Corrans shifted rigidly by the sudden spotlight, yet all complied begrudgingly.
"You are beasts, kill them like beasts."
With an angled nudge of his head towards the Corrans, the CACI elongated their claws. The first front of their arrow had a synchronized motion as they lowered their body in preparation for the moment Aurelius turned the other way.
[COM:CPOE>All]
[AC on the move.]
[Do not panic.]
His wings stacked the feathers in an echoing clunk as they were tucked, merging with his back, ceasing his fusion from the prying eyes of the Corrans positioned behind him.
[Helminths Detected]
[Enemy Profile: Descendants of Helminth, the 4th descendant]
[Approximate: 26,000]
[Category: Mutating Helminths]
[Difficulty: Easy]
"Those who are not used to our way?" He glanced back, eyeing the half-beast exos behind him.
"Keep up or be the casualty." He breathed low.
"All units, ready yourself!"
With little to no acknowledgement, Aurelius sprinted for the gate, talons raised to break the flow of the air.
The gate fell swiftly, revealing the tiny gap they'd made for his corps amidst the bodies of exos.
[Current Location: Gliese 667 Cc | Elysium | Echolon | Twilight Zone]
[Status: N/A]
"Behind you!" Aurelius reached out, talons stretched apart. Some turned, facing Aurelius' voice. Aurelius motioned with both of his arms away, a command to force open the gap.
[Destabilizing Area Detected]
[Proceed With Caution]
"CACI, over them!" He ordered, eyes glued to the tiny gap he set to break.
Aurelius lowered himself; his chest grazed his tungsten patella, letting the Corrans surge over him, fleshing the helminths, decapitating them for the next layer of their formation to end the vulnerable helminths.
CC slowly broke apart from behind willingly as Corrans shoved their claws onto them into their blitzkrieg formation.
He surged upwards, pushing himself above the land the moment CACI and CACII took the lead in bulldozing the helminths. "Spread out, SSC! Take the space you need!" He gapped both of his hands aside.
The margin was obvious.
His people were protected inside; everything was going as planned. The risk was immense, but the risk of losing his mind over them was higher.
"Tighten the formation!" He barked, overlooking the arrowhead shape of their synchronized form with a tightened knuckle towards his chest.
[General Of Elysium Nearby]
Who?- His body swerved to the side, eyes between his soldiers.
[General Nefertari Uncia: 100% OP]
[COM:Valtron>CPOE]
[General Nefertari is on the field.]
Aurelius' gaze traced the sheer animosity that navigated from the side. An obsidian quadrupedal exo that absorbed the light with every swift slash of her claws. Her usual elegant size now tripled, fangs elongated, limbs bulked visibly.
The sight of her gaping the void jaw to clamp on the helminths that stood in her path as she dragged multiple in each of her claws was horrific.
[COM:CPOE>Valtron]
[She's on her own.]
Aurelius raised the temperature within Nefertari to her functional limit. "One wrong move and you are dead."
Nefertari slid the sand to a halt from her quadrupedal sprint underneath Aurelius as an acknowledgment, her feline muzzle cocked to the side as her spine exposed to his eyes, "Flank covered." She growled, airing out the heat that was threatening to clog her functions.
"Crowd control on me." Nefertari lowered her head to the sand with a gentle motion; her eyes were slitted, tail hardened to cease the helminths' stabilization with a swipe.
A distant familiar calling amidst the chaos whipped through the air. "Aerial combatants!"
Solivane surged upwards, his rhenium pointed at rest towards the soldiers below. "All aerials under my command!"
"Sevyron, hold the formation!" He boldly commanded another lieutenant of the same status.
Aurelius pivoted his attention, slightly approving the initiative, supporting them by widening his AOE to enhance all allies with a burning heat on their primary method of killing.
The AOE took effect instantly by the fact Solivane's sword tip was reddened, and so was the tip of Corran's claws. With each slash, followed by sizzles that burn their first layer of flesh to prevent them from regenerating.
[COM:Valtron>All]
[General Caius argued that the rhythm supply was being drained.]
His wings faltered a beat at the reminder.
Does he not see that Aurelius was saving everyone?
At this rate, Caius was becoming an obstacle.
[COM:CPOE>Valtron]
[Kill him if he says more.]
[You're stronger.]
One less rhythm synchronizer to think about anyway.
[You're still unsure of your own authority, and it's embarrassing me, Valtron]
Solivane's voice commanded through the battlefield, flying over as he called their codenames with tactical formations they'd trained before. The aerials formed evenly in a staggered line breaker formation with vertical elevation creating a tiered, ladder-like structure.
Multiple tapered, broad, long, blunt wings were presented. Batting their wings to stay afloat, waiting for Solivane's orders. Whistles of grazing feathers filled the sky; some beat sharply, while some beat heavily, yet all served to dampen the wails of the massacre below.
The battlefield ceased from stillness, even if it were the sky. So long as Aurelius exists, the sky, the land shall not know peace.
A coordinated wave of consecutive aerial dives surged below with Solivane leading the breakthrough. His mana sword parted the helminths in half, creating a domino effect for the first layer, followed by the discoordinating avians behind Solivane. The decapitated helminths scrambled to weave their body together, their arms flailing futilely as Corrans' claws stretched their body apart, letting their vulnerable flesh sizzle beneath the feet of heavy-weighted SSC's.
It was a declaration for anyone who sees.
One by one, the aerials retake their position in the air, timing their follow-through obsessively with nothing other than a few piercing exchanges. The Enarchies within had done this many times.
However, the sudden space forming beneath Aurelius didn't go amiss. His wings drew in tight against his back. He knew instinctively that the formation wouldn't last.
The Tevarians within SSC were a little faster, CACI struggled to pace their agile move, leaving SSC behind with a widening gap. The mismatch of their style was disastrous as they advanced without situational awareness.
That didn't stop Aurelius from plunging down in a swift. The aerials had struck down the helminths by his side.
Aurelius flinched behind him,
"SSC! "
What was supposed to be a sequential attack, came to a halt.
His back was open.
The Corrans were far ahead; the heat was cooled by the helminths' fluids. A layer of flesh blanketed the war field, absorbing the heat for their comrades above them. They'd become a stepping stone.
His mistake. He was too high;
"Halt!" He had his talons out to Solivane. His wings pushed him for the fifth row of exos. They too started to hesitate when their field of view was suspiciously spacious, void of allies to follow through their intentional deterioration.
"Control your descent!" He snapped his jaw, moving past at a low altitude. Risking himself from a helminth grab as his wings stretched tightly, becoming a barrier from them to the upcoming aerials.
Aurelius struck his leg to a brigadier's obliques, his left talons shot out to pull the other exo from their dive towards the Tevarians below. "Reposition!"
"Stop!"
"Regroup!"
Aurelius clenched the tip of the wing of the brigadier's, "Critical situation, get back together!" He cast the soldier into SSC's formation, pushing himself towards the opposite flank before he could face the other side properly.
Aurelius searched for Solivane's position only to find his wings flared above him as he used his titanium plates to shield his soldiers away. It was obvious he was surrounded, swallowed by the eager helminths to bring him down.
Just because of a second gap— it gnawed at the fourth layer of the aerials. That fragile second caused the helminths to envelop them from all angles.
The visible cracks of their plates,
the discarded feathers,
the faint wave of rhythms as their core was touched.
That was a kill of his own.
Solivane's black primaries wings folded onto his secondaries, engulfed beneath the stacking swarm.
Solivane?
No, no, no.
"Solivane!" He pushed through them, through the haze, his wings thrashing hard onto the helminths with a loud, deep thunk, smashing their bodies into the burning sands. "Fly, you idiots!" He brought his feet up to mash the helminths down into the heat, talons deep into the ribs of the helminth, wings smashing those helminths, "You disgusting—!"
An anguished wail disrupted the flow.
Aurelius whipped around, focusing on the far end of what he could see.
"Don't stop!" his wings batted the sands in an exclamation. Some of the injured helminths were torn by the impact of his flap beneath them.
Row by row, the helminths echoed the calling.
[COM:CPOE>All]
[Stay alert.]
[Resurface the aerials.]
[Keep your distance]
[COM:Seyvron>All]
[They're retreating on my side.]
The helminths are retreating..?
[COM:Solivane>All]
[They're easing, keugh—]
"SSC and CAC retreat!"
[COM:Solivane>All]
[Sir?]
[COM:Seyvron>All]
[This could be an opportunity—]
[COM:CPOE>All]
[I didn't ask.]
Aurelius lowered his eyes to take in Solivane's pathetic state. "Move, Senior Lieutenant." His wings fluttered behind all the fuzzing allies. Yet, his eyes lingered towards Solivane's back, the way his wings folded neatly to become a cape, draping his exo.
As they retreated towards the northern gate, the expanse of the desert revealed the casualties of his doing. Exos of his own, as far as the eyes could see. The flesh of the helminths had long melted into the sand, leaving pieces of metal scattered, covered by nature.
As if they'd died fighting a phantasm of their own.
He hissed low, eyes overlooking the dunes that stroked the discarded, unresponsive exo plates.
[COM:CPOE>All]
[All lieutenants recover with your corps.]
[In 5 hours, gather at the Cort.]
*The war is nothing but prolonging the inevitable.
[Treat the reinforcements as your own; they fought alongside you.]
[No discrimination allowed. If so, one of your lieutenants will answer to me.]
Aurelius navigated the soft grains beneath him slowly as his guilt enveloped his core. The families he had to inform. The pleas for their lives pealing deep into the back of his mind.
Annoying.
He scraped the side of his face tentatively.
"Aurelius."
Aurelius froze slightly at Lucaen's voice, cocking his head up on Lucaen's.
"Save your praises." His external extension tucks neatly behind him.
Lucaen's irritation was short-lived when he walked past Lucaen, void of his usual retort after a job well done. His eyes were fixed on the capital where his soldiers gathered. The medics, the families, the friends presented, welcoming them.
Talons rested on his chest. "We had a lot of casualties, didn't we?" His eyes glazed over all soldiers. Despite the new corps of AC being made and all corps gathering, they had separated themselves by regions. The discrimination amongst them can't be helped as their celebratory cheer of the living served to dampen the grief of the dead.
Enarchies, as their discipline suggests, stood silent as tribute for their fallen comrades. Silently helping each other as they patched one another. Lieutenants giving their words of morale, reflecting their strategy. Some murmured praises of Aurelius, while others questioned the intention of their allies.
"I see all of you." Aurelius came close to the center between all of them.
"Nothing gets through our eyes."
His words were indisputable. Facts that dated long in Aurelius' reign.
"Surely nothing goes amiss from our talons." His head tilted slightly towards the Enarchies. Sharpening on Seyvron's division.
"Insubordination will not be tolerated..."
He trailed, longer than necessary.
"Explain yourself, Kaz."
Seyvron stilled, body whipped towards his major general of HC3. Whose exo was barely holding together. Fasteners patched around his plates; it was obvious his condition was far from ideal.
"With all due respect, orders are an instruction or direction that must be obeyed, Sir." He defined assertively.
Aurelius tilted his head at Kaz's words. "Where was your respect for my orders gone when you were at the ridge?"
"Do you think the orders were merely a suggestion?"
The implication silenced everyone. The movement of allies slowed, bodies rigid from the sudden tense confrontation.
"No, sir." He had his head bowed, hand respectfully to his chest.
"Then, who dared to speak, and I quote, 'I still have 3000 men, just because we received severe loss, doesn't mean we're falling back. If we have to, let the general drag my ass and my men out of formation.'?"
Kaz defended his ground immediately, "I mean what I said, sir."
"My corps can sustain the formation, without us, who knows what will happen to the division."
"Come closer..." Aurelius gestured with his talons.
Kaz went forward hesitantly, fisting his talons tighter with every step he took. "It would be bold, but dare I say because of us, HC3 did not sustain major loss—"
"Such commendable bravery." Aurelius cut him off.
"Let me show you something."
Aurelius stretched his left wing in a blink, shadowing the major general and him. "Shut your mouth and feel." His wingtip slapped, cutting the cold air.
A loud thwack echoed as Kaz's body was forced into the graphite, talons clawed wretchedly. His body slid to the other division's gathering with a lump of graphite gathered by his sides.
"Ke..uck—!" He gasped, propping himself up barely. His fasteners falling miserably on the floor, left arm flailed pliantly as the cracks of his forearms oozed protective lubricant.
Aurelius didn't move. Only his eyes gave a side glance to the disappointing exo that dared to question him.
"Your men that died,"
"Didn't have the luxury to yelp in pain when they were torn apart."
"No, you didn't hear them."
"What were you doing?"
"Busy chasing kills?"
[COM:CPOE>Seyvron]
[Retire him from the frontlines. His exo can't handle it anymore.]
"Had I not declared that your lives are of the utmost importance?"
"If merits are what you're after.."
Eyes shifted to Kaz, his exo arched in pain. His palm instantly covered the source of the dripping fluids, heaving as his head remained low.
Aurelius faced Seyvron on the other side.
"Seyvron,"
"Demote him."
[Make sure he returns safely.]
With a swift dismissal, he stepped farther towards the path to the Court of Cort. Plates retracted part by part efficiently. Letting the cold air of Enarc soothe his sweltering internal system.