Gabatrix: The Cipra Campaign

"I surrender!" yelled a wayward bystander on the street. It was some human woman. Her hands were up. A look of terror was seen on her face. The Aksren soldiers on one side of the street saw her.

The Aksren continued to march forward and could clearly see the woman. They seemed to be studying her as she continued to plea for herself.

"Please.....I don't want to die," the stranger called out. "Take me to your prison.....I give up."

The lead soldier of the five responded simply by lifting up her rifle and aiming it at the woman. The human woman screamed before a set of burst fire was poured into the woman. She collapsed onto the pavement, dead. The other Aksren continued to look around. Yuchen could feel more anger surge through him. He wasn't going to give up. He had to fight to the end. No matter what. Even if no one would tell of his story, he still had to do it. The soldiers were close enough now. They were nearing his building.

"See you in hell!" Yuchen said as he stood up and aimed his machine gun down upon the Aksren. He had a full target lock on the lead Aksren soldier. They were in the wide-open as he set his weapon to burst fire.

Fifty caliber rounds echoed from the scene as they went crashing down into the lead Aksren. Unlike the mech, the armored bodies of these people were insignificant. Five rounds splashed into the armor and hit the pavement behind her. The leader of the group fell to the ground dead before Yuchen turned and aimed at another. However, the other soldiers reacted quickly. They were fast.....very fast. They scattered into multiple directions, with one that was firing her gun directly into the marine. The Aksren rifle appeared to be weaker than the typical human rifle in turn. These rounds splashed off of the UHN power armor, but Yuchen wasn't fully aware of how well his suit would hold out. He recoiled a little bit as he tried to regain lock on another. He could see one of the soldiers that had stopped. She was talking on towards her wrist, possibly signaling to bring in reinforcements....or something else. Yuchen had a lock as he fired a wave of burst fire onto her. The rounds slammed into her head as she came tumbling to the ground dead. He had no idea if she had succeeded or not.

More ground fire erupted as the other squad of Aksren from the other side of the street opened fire on him. Again, their rifles didn't seem to have much effect, but he did see one of the soldiers come to a stop. She had a much larger rifle in her hand than the others. This was his signal for him to retreat further in on the roof. Just as he moved, he could hear the round slam at the very edge of his power armor. A small breach alarm sounded in his suit, but he felt no pain. It was incredibly close. However, as he could swear, he felt the wake that the bullet made. This Aksren was armed with some sort of anti-material rifle. She was the most dangerous of the group because he knew that it was the only thing that could penetrate his armor. He got clear of the line of sight as he had to make his decisions quickly.

A new alarm registered in his visor. There was some sort of energy lock that was made on his suit. He couldn't see them, but apparently, two of the soldiers had activated something and tossed them straight up into the air. They flew straight up and had some sort of propellers on them. They appeared to be some sort of grenades with the ability to seek their targets.

"Son of a bitch!" Yuchen yelled out. He tried to ready his gun, but these things were like trying to shoot fast-moving drones. He barely had a lock on them when the sentry turret activated. The quick tracking computer locked onto one and shot it down. Yuchen heard the sounds of a beeping sound that was repeating faster and faster before the second one was destroyed.

A series of shots echoed outward. One of the hover tanks, one that was armed with a straightforward firing railgun, had parked itself on one of the intersections. It was slapped on the ground and had the barrel pointing straight at Yuchen. Instantly, it fired a fast-moving projectile. The hypervelocity round smashed into the corner edge blowing the sentry turret and a large portion of the wall down to the street below. The marine knew that he had nowhere to go. He decided it was best to let the end come. He heard more shots echo in the distance as he started to run forward. This time it was coming from one of the assault carriers. It had fired three rounds of the mortar turret. His gut instinct told him that it was directed towards him before the computer's threat alarm began to ring off.

Despite the heavyweight of the power armor, he was still able to move at a steady rate on foot. He was going to run off the roof and jump dead center of them. It was the only way that he could inflict the most amount of damage that he could.

"It's like you said Stone....." Yuchen said, running. His adrenaline coursing through his veins "Sometimes you have to grab the enemy by the throat......and shake hard with their knife in your gut." He reached the edge and jumped. "REDDER THAN BLOOD!"

By the time he had leaped from the building, the Aksren vehicle had fired another railgun round. It hit the building again as the round continued straight through, narrowly hitting him in the process. As he jumped, the mortar shells were coming straight down on the roof. The scattered cluster bomb separated and slammed into the top of the building. A series of explosions echoed from the roof as the entire installation took multiple direct hits. Finally, the top floor caved in onto itself and fell upon the floor below it.

Yuchen was flying and heading straight down the center to meet the enemy. The computer system in his suit recognized that he was falling and activated a set of thrusters to help slow his descent a little bit. Regardless, he fell down three stories into the streets below. He wasn't far from the collapsed admin building with both hands firmly gripped onto the machine gun. His boots slammed into the pavement hard as the shocks barely held on. Pain echoed in his body but barely registered in his mind. He turned and took aim at the Aksren that were seemingly surprised by the sudden charge of this fellow human.

"Argh!" Yuchen screamed as he aimed at the first soldier. She was using some of the debris as makeshift cover as some of the soldiers took aim with their rifles and opened fire. The bullets bounced off his suit as his M18 was set on full auto. He fired a stream of shots that punched through the debris and into the Aksren soldier. She took multiple hits and fell to the ground. Yuchen was holding onto the fire button as he turned the gun on the next soldier. This one ran and ducked for cover, narrowly getting hit.

Many of the Aksren seemed unprepared for the sheer tenacity of the marine. He stood out in the wide open, and the rifles didn't seem to phase him.....all but one of them.

Yuchen barely felt it. Breach alarms were going off. The Aksren with the high-powered rifle was unleashing into him. The gun's sound was different as he turned his weapon towards her direction. One round....two rounds....three rounds hit his body. Each bullet was penetrating his thick armor. His adrenaline was at full strength as he barely acknowledged it. He screamed wildly as the machine gun was almost pointed at her.

Click........his gun stopped firing as another fourth bullet hit him in the chest. The anti-material rifle had struck his M18, disabling it. It was here that the other Aksren soldiers stopped firing at him. They instead got out of cover and walked towards him. It was here that Yuchen looked down at himself. Blood was pouring out of his suit as the computer was barely online. It was trying to seal the suit, but it couldn't seal up his wounds. How many of his organs had gotten hit? It didn't matter to him. He hit the disengage button as he felt himself growing weaker and weaker. His helmet disconnected from his suit and fell to the ground. He dropped his disabled weapon and pulled out the last of his resort. It was his M70 pistol. He unclasped the magnetic lock on his armor and quickly aimed at the nearest Aksren soldier.

By now, the Itreans saw that he was down to his last ounce of strength. He fired a few rounds and struck one of the soldiers, but her armor easily deflected it. The handgun was simply too low-powered and didn't have the strength to punch through it. Yuchen could feel his strength was getting weaker. He was having a hard time breathing, and even an adrenaline-filled body understood that it was running out of gas. Instead, Yuchen simply pressed the attack. He inched forward as his body was barely responding. He saw the Aksren aim their rifles at him, but they didn't shoot. He kept up with the gunfire. Round after round would either hit and do nothing against them or miss.

Another powerful shot rang out as Yuchen's gun clicked. He ran out of rounds as he looked down upon his body. There was a clear hole that had gone through the mid-section of his chest. His heart beating was slowing, and blood was all over the street. He continued to pull the trigger even if the pistol didn't go off. Three of the Aksren disengaged from their cover and walked towards him. Their rifles were at the ready. He had a clear view of the aliens now while his body was crumbling to the ground.

"See.....you.....soon......family....," Yuchen said.

One of the Aksren had tried to say something, but he couldn't understand it. It wasn't English or any language that he was familiar with. Instead, it consisted of warbles, hissing, and clicking. Other words sounded like solid words, but he didn't know what it was. The mouths were moving, but his eyes barely showed them as they spoke.

Finally, they stood next to him as one of them kicked his bloody chest. He crumbled to the ground and was coughing up more blood. He was unable to speak as he had a clear view of the sky from his back. The lead soldier slammed her small four-digit clawed foot into his armored chest and then pulled out a large sheathing dagger of some sort. She momentarily looked into his eyes as the red eyes peered into him. For a brief moment, the marine swore that he could see the reptilian eyes that lay underneath her helmet. The soldier got on her knees and began to stab repeatedly into Yuchen's forehead. It was a quick death....one that he barely had to feel as all life left him. His eyes were still open as the soldier stopped and stepped back. She then turned to the others as the alien soldiers began to disperse and continue moving forward. One of the soldiers had stopped and began to look over the dead marine closely. This Aksren seemed focused on looking over anything of value. She was looking for a souvenir of some sort. The clawed fingers were looking at the head and face closely. For a minute, she looked at the hair or scalp and then looked at the gun before retrieving one of the rounds.

Another Aksren soldier stepped towards the body. Unlike the others, this one seemed a little bit different. She was carrying the large, high-powered rifle that made the kill shots on the marine. The other Itrean soldier that was looting the remains seemed to give a congratulatory look and posture towards this lone Itrean. Unlike her, this female soldier had a significantly large chest but was covered up by the armor. She seemed shaken up by the fight that had just transpired. Her head turned to look at the dead comrades in the distance before looking back at the dead human. Her stance was jittery as she did her best not to show the others that she was shocked by everything. However, if anything, the other Aksren only seemed happy that she made the kill. One of the female soldiers padded the shoulder in an affirmative gesture and seemingly gave her the honor to loot Yuchen's body.

The large-chested Aksren gave a series of quick nods as she got down on her knees and began to put her hands upon the armor. As the others began to press forward slowly and away from her, she seemed unsure what to get. She was attuned to finding something, and one of her sharp armored claws had found something. It was the disconnecting lock switch button for the suit that Yuchen wore. Immediately, the material snapped off as she took her hands and lifted the chest piece off of him. There was blood everywhere as she seemed to be breathing hard. Her armored face couldn't show the emotions that she had, but she didn't seem too pleased with what she did. She had to retrieve something, however. It would help confirm her kill and impress the others. Her fingers fished into the pockets of the uniform before she found something. She pulled out a small tablet computer device. She used one hand to activate it. The screen had been cracked and partly damaged from her shots. She stood up and used her thumb to check it out. It was different than the tilon devices she was used to, but it had a similar function. She slapped the rifle onto her back and freed up both her hands.

Yuchen had no password system on his computer tablet. The device was functional enough that the lone Itrean woman continued to walk forward and away from the dead body. Her thumb began to bypass several files that were on it. Finally, she ended up finding a gallery page with images on it. She tapped her thumb on the file as it brought up a series of pictures. Each one depicted that of family photos.

At first, she seemed nonchalant about it until one of the images made her stop in her tracks. She began to breathe harder again. She used her other hand to caress the tablet as if she had seen something that she had been unused to seeing. The image was that of Yuchen, alongside his wife and child. The son was proudly standing with his marine father. The Itrean was looking closely at the child noting the features carefully.

Her breathing became staggered as if she was crying underneath the armored suit that she wore. This child of the marine.....he was so different than the Itreans....so unique and most likely dead, killed by the very attack that was brought down upon the planet. Her face began to look at the other dead of her fallen kin and humans. Each human was so different. Different ages, different shapes, and different genders....

Her tail barely moved with her as she continued to walk forward. Her crying persisted as she kept the souvenir of Yuchen close to her. It was cradled to her as if it was the only thing important to her during the entire siege......

Chapter 3: Exactly One Year Later

October 23^rd, 2350, would see a dramatic change in the overall spectrum. The red planet of Mars stands in the background as the vestiges of space are construed about. An amassing fleet of seven warships is gathering far from the gate array of Fort Prisidia. Six of these warships are of the Magellan class Battleships. Their centripetal rings spin at a slow continuous rate. Their formation indicates that of a guard formation protecting the single most crucial ship in the center.

This UHN warship is that of a fleet carrier design. It is much larger being over 400 meters in length. As we get closer, the full detail comes into view. Unlike the battleships, this vessel carries a limited armament. There is only one small light railgun mounted on the starboard section of the hull and only a few AIO turrets and four torpedo tubes. While the vessel follows a cylindrical design similar to the other warships, the ship seems to have a series of connecting modules. The shuttle and hangar facility is mounted behind two spinning centripetal rings. A series of small antennas could be seen jutting from portions of the hull. In the forward section of the vessel are two large jutting box-like structures. A series of tiny tubes line these sections. There is much activity that is going on with this central vessel. Shuttles are making continuous trips to the facility. Personnel is getting transferred back and forth.

As we get closer and closer, we can finally see that this is some sort of command ship. The name "UHN Ark Royal" is painted on the forward section near the four torpedo tubes. It is written in both English and Chinese with the registry of MCD-9. We eventually fly deep within the gray hulls as a series of habitable hallways line the interior section of the vessel. The ship is quite spacious, but there is some activity that is going on. Maintenance personnel seems to be double-checking each other's work. Great care is being put in to make sure that the carrier is in full operational readiness. We eventually reach a central room near the centripetal ring as we move through these hallways. Two marine guards are posted by this door. Their fully laden power armor shimmers in the overhead lights. The bottom deck is painted with the red, white, and blue symbol of the UHN.

Many high-ranking officers seem to be gathering in this room as the guards remain in place. Only the magnetic boots keep everyone floating around in the zero-gravity environment. Most of the female and occasional male crews have most of their hair cut or tied down to avoid having it float around in the air. In total, there are about fifty officers. All of them seem to come from respected ships in the gathering fleet. Their red and blue jumpsuit uniforms and black magnetic boots are their respectable form of uniformity. Many of the enlisted are staying clear of the hallway even if their maintenance duties may require them to cross the respected area. The severity of the situation alone was enough to make people more tense than usual. Of course, everyone seemed to have some form of apprehension in some form or manner.

Humans were not the only personnel that was heading to this singular room. A few of the alien officers were that of the T'rintar clan. These Itreans mostly consisted of the Yutilian variety being about four feet in height. Their shorter stature was reminiscent of an anthro Velociraptor. Their black, white, and green skintight uniforms had tiny dress rank insignias to them. They walked on their digitigrade legs and had red magnetic wrappings to their feet. They had feathers on their arms, head, and long tails. They would occasionally bump into others due to the amassing officers. Many of these humans didn't even show a look at their new allies, even if such an alliance happened almost ten months ago. Much as everyone knew by now, all of these Itreans were women. Their breasts pressed against their uniforms. However, these individuals were a little more attuned to themselves than the taller humans that walked around them.

Among one of the many human officers is that of a bald-headed individual. He had a black mustache and facial features reminiscent of someone that came from former Mexico on Earth. The name tag of Ramírez could be seen before he reached the door. The other officers barely noticed him, even if he seemed like he was being prudish. He only knew enough of what was going to come on this briefing. At the same time, he was still partly apprehensive. He had only heard so much as to what was coming. The whole concept of this planned operation seemed.... ridiculous or foolish.

The door in the corridor opened up as Ramírez stepped in. There was already some commotion as the main stateroom lounge was getting filled to capacity. Many officers already had found seats to sit down with others that were standing. Most of them were talking with others about everything that was about to transpire. With zero gravity, such a problem was mostly mute. Those that sat down had to strap themselves in. However, even then, it almost seemed to Ramírez that many of these officers had been used to sitting down for most of their lives. He folded up his arms and got a fair distance from the doorway.

The room itself was typical for a lounge. It was widely decorated, consisting of a metal table and numerous displays of the Ark Royal, including pictures of an ancient aircraft carrier of the same name on former Earth. There had to be at least thirty chairs. Ramírez already knew that these carriers had the best accessories and equipment to appease the highest of rank. The stateroom also had two large projectors that could be displayed for crew members to watch movies or shows. A portion of the room also had a large allocated wall for various forms of theater or presentations to be delivered.