It was late in the night when the battle started, the Exoskeleton with scout function and the long range detectors from the city defense systems gave out the alarm.
"Incoming enemy, wait for the end of the long range barrage and prepare to engage" announced the commander.
Missiles took flight, while the long range high caliber cannons roared one after another lighting up the night sky. The explosions could be seen in the distance, however the enemy kept advancing with the sheer power of numbers. By land or air they still pushed forward.
"Middle range, join in" the few machines from Jerkins base that had middle range capabilities opened fire.
Still the enemy pressed on. As the pilots saw the tenctopus advance like a flood they felt scared.
"Jesus, so many!" was heard in the open comunications frequency.
"We are getting into close range, activate the Network link" Richard gave the order.
Samuel and the Jerkins base team plunged into enemy lines in their usual disorganized way.
"What the hell are your men doing captain Cromwell?" Some other commander asked.
"Never mind us, that is how we fight at Jerkins; you do you, and leaves us alone"
The pilots of Jerkins base laughed. They laid waste to everything in sight, still the number of enemies was overwhelming.
"MARTA, give us an extra boost, the good stuff" ordered Richard.
[The use of stimulants has not been authorized by high command]
"I don't care, tell the high ups to cut the crap; we are cannon fodder, with this difference in numbers we will die in a few minutes anyway, tell those assholes to gives us a fighting chance"
The decision didn't take long.
[Stimulants have been authorized]
"Lets get this fuckers!" yelled Richard as his brain got flooded by the drugs increasing his focus and numbing the pain.
The increase in performance was astonishing. Samuel swords cut through everything that was on reach with the grace and speed of a feline, while his machine guns mowed down the enemies that dared to aproach. Samuel training payed in the end, his performance was above the rest of his team mates. However that was not enough, as the time limit of abuse of the network link and the stimulants came closer, the team started to lose its edge.
"MARTA, prepare to kick out the link the pilots that overload"
[Understood]
A few minutes later one of the pilots started moving uncontrollably, his exoskeleton fell to the ground twitching in weird angles.
"Retreat! To all pilots, move away from the Raviery, now!" Yelled Richard.
Everyone ran away from the fallen machine.
"Good bye Robert" Richard activated a command in his exoskeleton.
A huge explosion took place, many tenctopus were affected directly by the conflagration or by the resulting shrapnel.
"Are you guys insane?" asked one of the pilots of another team.
"Yes, we are" answered Richard in an indifferent attitude.
"You are gonna face martial court for this"
"Well, if we survive this, I would gladly do; too bad there is no chance in hell we get out of this one alive" replied Richard in a mocking tone.
Like if to exemplify what he was saying one of the over sized tenctopus was launched in the air by his peers, the creature flew at an insane speed with one of its tentacles pointed forward like a spear and impaled the exoskeleton near the commander that was complaining to Richard. The pilot died on impact.
"Now, that is what I call a useless death" said Richard laughing.
The other commander disconnected from the communication channel.
"Commander, that was new, they have never done that before" Samuel pointed out.
"So what? Focus on the fight Terrence"
The pilots went back to confronting the enemy; even with the amount of monsters they eliminated, more kept coming.
"Out of ammo"
"Me too"
The pilots started running out of bullets. While another pilot from the Jerkins team started convulsing and was taken out of the network. Once again there was an explosion. Like if it was a signal, a wave of Roids got to the front lines pushing the enemy advance; their progress was unrestricted while they dodged the middle and short range weapons fire, their attack broke the line of resistance and the normal Tencts pushed forward.
"Fuck!"
Those were the last words of Commander Richard Cromwell as his exoskeleton was buried in a sea of enemies. Samuel's nimble and fast machine had moved away from harm in the nick of time. Jerkin's team and the rest of pilots that fought on the front line drowned in a sea of monsters, several explosions took place behind enemy lines.
"Well done pilots, now get back to the rear and reload" the voice of one of the generals irrupted the communications channel.
As they retreated a new barrage of missiles and projectiles hit the advancing enemies, killing many of the Roids in the process. After what seemed to be a small victory, the enemy that was momentarily delayed started their advance once again with new vigor.
"Advance!" the general ordered.
A fresh batch of elite pilots and exoskeleton advanced mowing down the enemy in their way. In response, the monsters just increased the number of monsters pushing forward.
"Retreat!" ordered the general.
The pilots followed his orders and pulled back losing all the gained terrain and then losing some more. The exoskeletons were almost at the border of the city and the enemy was approaching fast.
"Fire!" At the general order, the multiple defense systems around the city opened fire on the incoming enemy while the exoskeletons reloaded.
As soon as the firepower of the defenses started to dwindle. The exoskeletons came back on the offensive pushing the enemy away even further than before.
"Push forward, lets finish this" the general and the high command ordered all troops to advance as the enemy retreated. Although the numbers of the enemy were higher, the effectiveness in combat of the exoskeletons was still superior, the monster tried to retreat and regroup.
"This is too easy" said Samuel as he advanced towards the front lines.
"MARTA, this is a trap, tell me how?" Samuel asked after a while of thinking.
[The enemy could have divided their troops and be planning a pincer attack]
"For that they would need to be behind us" Samuel looked at the ground.
"Is there any weird composition in the soil that might affect the seismic sensors?"
[No. However the seismic activity would only be detected if the enemy is moving underground and there is no interference]
"Oh fuck! MARTA get me with the command center"
[Understood]
After a while someone finally took their time to speak to Samuel.
"I am major Lietver, what is your request captain Terrence"
"Sir, this is a trap, the enemy is underground; the land forces advanced on top while some enemies moved underground, the battle above interfered with the seismic readings. They are under us or behind, they are just not moving"
A few seconds later a general came into the communication channel.
"I am General Omaley, explain your theory son"
Samuel explained the situation again.
"MARTA is this plausible"
[It is probable general]
"That is not enough. We are close to defeating the enemy and protecting the city, retreating now would be a mistake, push forward" the general ordered after a few seconds.
"Damn it!" Samuel cursed after closing communications.
A few minutes later the seismic sensors started going crazy as hundreds of Roids surfaced from underground and thousands of enemies from the rear took flight occupying the skies. The battle turned even more bloody, the defending troops were surrounded.
"Fuck!"
"What the hell is this?!"
Many pilots complained in open frequency, the moral was as low as it could be.
The general voice came into open frequency an announced the retreat. However the enemy would not make it easy.
"Activate the network link in all units!" ordered the general.
Samuel felt his head about to explode after experiencing this demanding and stressful situation twice in the same day. However he did his best to dodge, shoot and slash the ever incoming enemies.
The defending forces were in trouble, the ambush had cut their scape by land and the sky was filled with enemies.
"How can there be so many of them?" asked one of the pilot.
"Thats nothing. Incoming enemy" an scout capable Exo announced.
Even more monsters appeared on the sensors.
"Retreat, retreat however you can!" Ordered the general.
The hordes of monsters were squashing the machines, after getting trampled under a sea of enemies, only the crushing sounds and the pilots screams could be heard. Some of the machines did the ultimate sacrifice and exploded they ammunition, jet fuel, flamethrower canisters, or their fission nuclear reactors if they had them.
"Pilots, your sacrifice will not be forgotten" The general saluted as Samuel and the surviving pilots became confused.
"Launch the missiles" ordered the general.
From the inner city a barrage of ballistic missiles of high yield and short range launched.
"Fuck!" screamed Samuel as his fast machine tried to run away from the battlefield while avoiding the enemy.
The battlefield turned into a sea of fire as the hydrogen bombs detonated. When the ambient cleared, a bunch of machines in a pitiful state were trying to run away from the impact sites.
"This is captain Virna Liss, pilot of the Devon's Wrath; does anyone reads me"
"We read you captain, glad to see you made it" the high command answered.
"Made it my ass. I am carrying two heavily damaged machines, my flight engine is failing and overheating. I lost my sword and my ammunition is depleted. We are coming in hot, got a swarm of enemies on my ass, we need back up, any back up"
The badly beaten up Devon's Wrath was carrying the partially broken torso of the Magnus Doom and another machine while it tried to fly away.
"Are you okay kid?" asked captain Virna. As the vitals readings on Samuel machine started to fail and the systems were shutting down.
"Fuck! I am fine" screamed Samuel, he could hear Virna speak but could not answer, his communications system was damaged.
"MARTA. MARTA are you there?" he tried his best to find any form of communication, however all he got was silence.
The emergency energy battery in the cockpit was losing power fast, Samuel tried to reconnect the systems that were shutting down, the waves of pain going through his body and brain from interfacing with a half destroyed exoskeleton made his eyes bleed. Still he managed to move what was left of the machine shoulder and touch against the Devon's wrath side in something like Morse code.
"I got the message kid, I know you are alive, you can rest now"
The cockpit went even darker, almost all system except life support and communications shut down. Samuel could do nothing but listen in the dark while trying to remain conscious as the pain ravaged his body.
"Command, we need help now; they are catching up and my systems are failing"
The voice of captain Virna made it clear she was under a lot of pain.
"We got nothing to help you with captain, you have to make it to the city so the defense systems can support you. At current speed your ETA is two minutes"
"We don't have two minutes!" Yelled the captain.
"General; launch detected, twelve units closing in, fast" announced one of the command center officials.
"From what city? What Unit?" asked the general.
"Sir is not, I don't think they are ours sir. The signals don't match any current unit"
"Enemies?" asked the general, there was some panic on his voice.
"It doesn't match the enemy signature either; but it could be sir, we don't know... Wait we have a reading, incoming code, is an old one but it checks out: AA88J sir, is the dead man hand. The first generation"
"What? Those guys are almost dead"
"Well sir they are coming, all the members of the unit known to be alive are in the air sir; we got readings from the Executioner in the lead, followed by the Saboteur, Jack in the Box, The Mad Gipsy, the Bulldog's howl, all twelve of them sir. They got it transmission range and want to open a communication channel. Their system is old, it could be compromised"
"Pass them through"
"Captain Magnus, good to know you are doing well; land in the outskirt of the city and stand by to defend while reinforcements arrive" greeted the general.
"Cut the crap Omaley, we are not doing well; we have a few minutes tops, we are dying so we wont sit around to watch over the city. Sam, can you hear me? Hold in there kid. I'm coming"
"Captain Magnus; your orders are to stand by and protect the city" repeated the general.
"Fuck off Omalei; we are retired, you can't order us to do shit. Saboteur out"
"Lets given them hell boys!" yelled Magnus as his team passed by the retreating Devon's Wrath at full speed.
"Grandpa" said Samuel with tears in his eyes as he listened in the dark.
"Hey Magnus, take the safety's off, give us some of the good stuff" said the pilot of the Jack in the box.
The first generation executioner's cockpit was a lot different compared to modern machines. It had a lot of touch screens, buttons, and levers. Magnus pushed on a red red button.
"Fuck yeah!" screamed Magnus over open channel as his brain was flooded with the ancient toxic concoction of drugs and stimulants used in their units.
The old machines flew, cut, stabbed, hacked, shoot down and even rammed the remaining enemies one after another.
"Gipsy, Gipsy you read me? Henry, you are losing altitude. Henry wake up!"
"He is gone Magnus. He is gone"
"Come on, come on motherfuckers, come get me, now you will know why the call me jack in the box" a swarm of tencts surrounded one of the old machines. A giant explosion blew most of the enemy apart.
After a few more minutes of fight the three remining old machines started losing altitude, the enemy was already gone, but their Exoskeletons were still shooting.
"Thats enough captain Magnus, tell your men to stop shooting... Captain Magnus? Captain magnus, can you hear me?" the officer of communications kept asking.
"Stop trying, they are all dead" Said one of the technicians.
"They are not shooting at anything, it is a reflex of what is left of their nervous systems" the general stood at attention and saluted.
All of the officers at the base stood at attention and saluted.