RP [Fall of Osman] Operation 'Hard Hedoro'

Canyon - Night 14.

With the join consideration to gathering more intel, Night fell on the canyon. As the various coalition forces set themselves up a temporary camp and defensive perimiter, other were more active.

Scouts ranged under the cover of night in a canyon exceptionally dark with the waning moonlight doing little to Obscure short of pitch black to the naked eye. With more advanced technologies at hand however it became easier as night, infared, and other optics were utilized. The strays in the lead coordinated what they could, lacking the same body-heat limitations to their drone bodies the aap drones were easily identified a kilomiter ahead of the next closest scouts by IR-flashing strobes.

But while most of the scouts were on foot, other means had been employed to go beyond even them. Flying and otherwise drones zipped about in slow patterns in the canyon while coalition aircraft took to the skies and looked through their optics just waiting to identify their enemy.

Riverfront - Day 15.

As the sun rose over the canyon on the 15th day, with some considerable daring the first scouts ventured into the remains of the NMX camp. Few enough structures remains save for a handful of outbuildings like very obvious latrines, mess-hall tents, and some few small sleeping tents. The remains of fortified emplacements greeted them as they wound through a minefield that would have to be cleared later and found pre-fabricated bunkers, gun pits, defensive screens meant to catch grenades in the air, and even the pylons for a shield generator now absent.

Going deeper they found mortar and small artillery pits with most of the sites empty save for a few spiked guns of particle-artillery the coalition had already faced. Storehouses, ammo bunkers, and depots were all present and empty save for small random crates full of random supplies that together couldnt support the coalition action in the crater longer than a day.

The ground itself in the camp was solidifying mud trampled a thousand times by a liegon or more of Neko and other NMX troops but had slowly against the colder air and moisture from the nearby river finally settling only to be turned to mud once more as soon as the first boot touched the ground.

The entire canyon had been found like this. Be it drones or aircraft or even the scouts themselves all they had found was abandoned positions that if occupied would have given the coalition forces a considerable challenge.

All the remained now was an abandoned camp, and a ferry that had been clearly and intentionally dragged up onto shore where it was half propped up on a makeshift cradle. Climbing inside all the scouts found was a numbver of Durrandium plates secured to the front of the vessel alongside a makeshift turret and half-finished repairs to get the large vessel riverworthy again.

And also Parasites... a lot of parasites as some of the scouts doccumented the various tubs, and containers numbering nearly three thousand of the living weapons in canisters and containers that seemed only still secured shut by several pins holding down spring-loaded traps and all daisy-chained together by metal wire and a motor that would yank all the pins out at the flip of a switch found in the brige of the vessel which was quickly dissconnected and the impromptu disaster avoided.

It was not hard to come to the conclusion the vessel was intended as a disposable suicide attack to distribute parasites into Dawnton which now was visible to the scouts a couple kilometers away with the city looking more like modern art as those buildings visible looked like an irate child had taken a hammer to them in a tantrum and from which smoke still rose in a hundred places. From a scope of some kind secured in the Ferry showed no movement on the shore or few remaining docks save for sunken ships bobbing in the tide...

The canyon in its entirety was abandoned...

Still in full strength now the main objective, the city of Danwton, awaited them...

Planet Osman
Riverside (Death) Valley Resort

A scowl - plus an accompanying shake of the head - could be seen/heard as Uriel received the news that the entire valley was abandoned; clearly, he’d been itching for a fight in which he could’ve likely killed the two birds named Earning Kleos and Showing Off One’s Martial Skills. “Well tar-fuckin’-nation, an’ ‘ere I was thinkin’ tha’ these squiddies had some spine in ‘em. Silly me. Ah well…” - a pause as the Anthedon-clad Patrician got up from the semi-vaporized rock he’d blasted into a seat the previous night prior and switched over to the century channel - “…all right. Second, Third, Eighth, an’ Tenth Contuberniums, this is yer Centurion speakin’! Y’all were the last ones t’ roll call this mornin’ ya slackers, so yer gettin’ ship-cleanin’ duty! Once it’s safe t’ enter - I’ll tell ya when - I want tha’ bucket-o’-bolts swept from top t’ bottom, I don’ want any missiles wasted, an’ I want as few shots fired - y’all got built-in beam eyes, so let ‘em kill th’ critters for ya! Movin’ on, Sixth an’ Ninth Contuberniums, yer takin’ th’ right an’ left cliffs overlookin’ th’ river. Keep em’ secured, an’ keep an’ eye on th’ city an’ our flanks. Everyone else - tha’s First, Fourth, Fifth, an’ Seventh fer th’ math-challenged - stay put fer now, as we’ll be keepin’ security in th’ valley itself. Also do some stretchin’, ‘cause I have a feelin’ we’re gonna be carryin’ th’ heathen’s hover-lackin’ vehicles ‘cross th’ river.”

After taking a breath and a sip or three of water, the Patrician switched over to the coalition command channel and continued, “Uriel from Beta Century ‘ere. Any of ya heathens got some spare enjuhneers or bomb nerds? I’m sendin’ my Second, Third, Eighth, an’ Tenth Contuberniums in t’ clear th’ ship, but I want t’ make sure it’s not rigged t’ blow sky-high first.”

Day 15
Riverfront

Bravo and Charlie Companies had spent the night setting up defensive fighting positions, placing their Type 45 "Cao" General Purpose Machine Guns and arranging them to make killzones within firing arcs. They even got the sand pits done to place the Type 45 "Jade Stinger" 81mm Mortars help out. When day broke, the two companies started bounding down towards the riverfront. What was initially careful movements, the lack of response to their actions gradually increased their paranoia as they came across abandoned positions. The drones overhead confirmed the desolate state of the canyon, which quickly turned the paranoia into disappointment. When the SnS scouts made their discovery on the riverfront, to say the disappointment among the mechanized infantry had grown to the largest state since that one ID-SOL was denied hooking up with a NH-29 harem after being forced to be on good behavior for 3 months by his boss.

"Ugh, they just cut and run?" one infantryman said to a Pioneer Combat Engineer in the process of reclaiming resources with a ministruct repainted to look more tactical. The Pioneer, face hidden by her Paradin's helmet just shrugged her shoulders towards the more massive individual and resumed her work. She was having her own frustrations the Pioneers were feeling but work is work. With the ministructs, they had brought enough elemental resources to make basic shielding behind the sand barriers used to slow down or take out energy from rounds and energy shots.

The two Pioneer fire teams that went forward with their respective companies, with their Buffalo Multipurpose Armored Vehicles, went about determining what could be salvaged and what could be left alone. Using their EnviroPro Environment Scanners, they determined the chemical composition of items and took topological and 3D scans of the area around the abandoned camp. The rest were in the process of digging a 2 meter burn pit to place the parasite containers into before they would lay out enough incendiary explosives to melt one of their IFVs. Though the actual act won't occur until they are loading out for the last chance.

"Uriel of Beta Century, Bravo-six. I got you angel man, scouting reports they dismantled a number of traps involving parasites. But it doesn't help to look over it again, they need to go over there and see if it is still waterworthy. These IFVs somewhat amphibious, but we don't really have the time to determine the physical characteristics of this river to see if it is a U or has shallow sides that allow us to traverse it properly." Lieutenant Kimura replied back, looking at what she had written down previously in com traffic. She then directed their drones to direct their attention towards Dawntown as she lamented why the boys at NRM would make the Ironblood environmentally sealed and run entirely off the fusion reactor as the methanol engine is protected from water damage. But they forgot to put any means to make the vehicles buoyant. She wondered if anti-grav units could be used to provide it.

The remainder of Bravo and Charlie platoons arranged themselves as wedges, watching Dawntown and their surroundings.

Day 15
Riverfront

As the frames of the Duskerian company stood guard around the ferry, guarding it against a potential assault while it was cleared by the Elysians. As the pilots of the frames stood by in their cockpits, Captain Chalet continued to feel a sustained sense of unease. This operation had gone on for two weeks without enemy contact of any kind, and most soldiers would be glad of this. However, Chalet was of that rambunctious and competitive sort that pilots are, and he still harbored concerns. Chiefly amongst them; when would the other shoe drop?

The support elements of his company began to arrange themselves to board the ferry once it had been fully cleared as some of his engineers examined the ferry to determine its suitability for a river crossing. Finding it to be at least watertight and capable of propelling itself across the river, some of them began to work on excavating a pit for the disposal of the parasites on board, with the help of one of the frames standing guard.

Meanwhile, Chalet called up his CAFF counterpart many kilometers behind their current position. He had a bad feeling, and he'd rather be uneasy with air support than uneasy without it.

-----------------------------------
Day 15
Stiggies Basin
Airfield
2nd Combat Aviation Squadron

The vessels in 1LT Leah Sabine's squadron sat sheltered in primitive hangars adjacent to the field-expedient runway that had been constructed by reinforcing a dead-end road near to the edge of the base. She and her pilots were resting between sorties when a call came in over her secure line from Captain Chalet. She held distaste for the man's attitude, but she did know that he was unlikely to contact her without a reason. Answering the call, an AR overlay filled a corner of her vision, showing her the interior of the cockpit of Chalet's XM-1 Possessor.

"Sabine here, what's wrong Captain?" she asked plainly, setting aside some of the paperwork that she had been working on before the call and squaring the corners.

"Nothing yet" Chalet responded, tapping his finger characteristically. "But I've got a bad feeling about things. The birds are clearing a ferry, and we're going to have to use it to move some of our less mobile stuff across into the city. You know I've got my 5-tons and 7-tons to move and those things are hardly amphibious."

Sabine cocked her head. A river crossing leading into an urban battle... she could see why Chalet would be feeling nervous. "I suppose you want to know how soon I can have some air cover ready for you?" She asked, politely leaving out the part where they'd seen no sign of Mishhu air power in the theater. She and Chalet might have been the same step on the rank ladder, but Sabine still showed some deference to the more experienced officer.

"Am I really that predictable?" The captain responded with mock chagrin, though Sabine left the question hanging.

"I'll have my birds in the air in 15 minutes, we should be able to reach you not too long after that. Your boys are going to have to buy my squadron drinks later though." She said as she rose from her desk, beginning to ready an all-hands alert for her troops.

"If we make it through this, I'll buy a round for them myself." Was the response.

The thudding of heavy feet came to a stop as the artillery Cordoba mecha's came to a stop, heavy outriggers boted onto their legs lowering into position as the artillery company took up positions. Three groups of five were arranged in a staggered chevron formation with each fire team being tended to by a a heavily armored ammo/utility truck with belted conveyors and crane arms unfolding. Combat engineers took to the vicinity running ahead of the fire teams with red and white striped stakes, quickly measuring away from the team leaders and pounding the posts into the ground. Scaling the canyon wall with flight packs ascended two more with satchels laden with surveying equipment. Once at the top they made quick work setting up their optics and releasing a quadrotor drone of their own equipped with large domed cameras and antennae.

Moments later a call went out to allied leadership, "Captain Tyson again. Artillery is set, ready to receive fire missions on your command."

"You sure you don't want a platoon or 2 of infantry for close protection?" Lieutenant Kimura messaged to Captain Tyson. Losing the artillery to a rear action infantry attack would be bad for them. Not to mention they could be used to secure their rear if they needed to withdraw from the city. Worse comes to past, they will more directly carry the deeds of their current iterations.

Canyon Day - 16

By the 16th day of the operation the former NMX site was fully occupied by Coalition forces. Former emplacements were occupied to protect the rear while those still yet paranoid search the canyon and its clifftops but found only traces of positions once held by their enemy. No trail ever led to any hidden scouts, no lead ever turned up a trap. The camp really had been given up but the implications as to why were still unknown.

Some theories seemed more and more popular on the night of the 16th as, across the water from the city of Dawnton all seemed concerningly quiet. No lights were seen save for the orange glow of a distant fire in the city that prior flyovers had confirmed was an uncontrolled blaze consuming several blocks. And no continued sign of the cities defenders was yet found as known FSC communications channels went unanswered, and thermal maps of the city were unreliable but to say that there were still people there. Flying above some shuttles and fighters still reported a flash here and there in the city, and what they suspected but could not confirm in several areas were either tracers or bolts and beams from energy weapons.

As mist took over the river in the cool morning air the ferry was finally cleared top to bottom and the cradle broken to slide it into the water were it floated near perfectly save for a few leaks that installed pumps managed to take care of. The stage was set, and lacking the casualties predicted to this point to need to wait for reinforcements the coalition was at 100% and ready for it's main objected weeks ahead of schedule.

"I deployed my marines in the night." Slayer, one of the Strays military commanders informed the other coalition leaders before continuing. "The river bed is full of scuttled wrecks but there are no mines or waiting powered armor underwater for us to run into but couldn't make the shore due to all the wreckage on the riverbed impeding them due to our less than buoyant bodies. What we do know is what we can see from here and our aerial reconnaissance but we have four major opportunities available to us we need to take on to secure a beachead,"

Slayer paused as the second strays commander, the blacklight-lit fairy Mitzi taking up as the tactical map was updated.

"Across the river from us are four initial zones open to a landing," Mitzi Began.

An Industrial zone is present at the northern riverfront section of the city. Made up of warehouse and factory spaces there are a number of crude vessels on drydocks and cradles that if still in good condition can be made river worthy again and be used to transport forces across in large numbers.

A Commercial zone is just south of that and has a large number of docks for the loading and unloading of goods. This location they informed them would be the ideal primary landing zone due to heavy reinforced piers that could unload vehicles and troops fast.

South even past that is a solid kilometer of open beach space. The beach is soft silt but can take tracked and mecha but are otherwise several hundred meters of open ground even if neither enemy nor friendly forces have yet been spotted.

The forth and final zone is a highway on the southern edge of Dawnton. Connecting to the beach and right into the city and commercial zone it is a critical highway for possible reinforcement for any side and can either be taken advantage of by the enemy to blitz our forces when landing if they arent already in control of the eastern portion of the city, or can be used by coalition forces to flank the last known positions of the NMX forces on the south and western part of the city.


"If the FSC or local forces are still alive at least some of them have to be holding the southern highway to stop the squids from encircling the city." Slayer finished.

"We can move one company today on the ferry and their vehicles today with the one vessel we have. The corporations forces mechs and drones can move upriver together and attempt to secure the rest of the transport but otherwise you will either need to wait or start transporting yourselves. If the NMX are still in the city they will move to deny any landing we attempt if they are in a position to do so..."

"If SnS is going to move from the commercial zone to the industrial zone to secure an anchorhead for reinforcements and supplies, Bravo Company can assault the beachfront and move our way to the highway to the south. Hopefully there are FSC forces there, but this place is increasingly looking like a graveyard. Makes me wonder if a similar situation where Alpha Company reported the town they had secured had the NMX disappeared after fighting ceased and the town's population was forcibly removed.

Just want do they need so much biomass for?" Lieutenant Daeng remarked, saying the last part barely audible for the others to hear.

"The highway is key, if we hold it, then it will make reinforcing their troops difficult. Given that there does seem to be some fighting still in the city, I think we need to move quickly." Lochos Demansia said.

Captain Rashdon studied the layout of the opposite river bed, having access to more boats would certainly help in bolstering their numbers and keeping the coalition in the fight before they were completely wiped out.

"You might be right about denying a landing, but the Solar Transit boys are trained for low orbit deployments, have we managed to gather anything on NMX movements over the river? Dunno if they'd assume much strategic value lies in beat up old boats so I could send in 1 or 2 shuttles, get a small group in to fix em up and bring them back." The laibe looked around at his fellow leaders, dividing forces wasn't his ideal plan but if such a gamble paid off they would benefit extremely.

"We can provide some slight support from this side with indirect missile launching from the Zytones, but that's about it, you sure your guys can fly through a warzone without hitting a building?" GH's other present leader knocked the laibe on the shoulder with a grin, the aforementioned fox growling at the Nepleslian before shaking his head and punching him back, a lot harder.

"Look, I don't like the idea of dividing forces either, but extra boats for you ground walkers means you can finally catch up! If you all rekon its better just to focus on taking the highway we can help move any armour assets that can handle a bit of a hot drop-off." Rashdon replied as more of an open ended invitation to the others, still getting a feel for the room.

"Securing more boats would be ideal to get all of us over there. It will also benefit it quickly getting out of there as well if this turns into an evacuation situation. This disappearing act these Cats have been doing is concerning and the lack of intelligence on how and why they are doing it is even more so. We die, we die. But some of you die a little more permanently than others." Lieutenant Kimura said, having drawn the short straw. The three platoons of Charlie company going forward were going to have to wait for their turn on the ferry while Bravo company's three platoons and 2 of the Pioneers' Multipurpose Armored Vehicles were moving forward.

"My frames can cross the river on their own." Captain Chalet noted, as the group was discussing their options. "We're best suited to securing the south in a lightning strike, alongside with anyone else close enough to keep up with us while we're skimming nape-of-the-earth. FSC's frames might be able to, or any power armors that can do around 300-400kph." He gestured behind him to the support trucks, loaded down with spares and supplies for the company. "All that's going to need to cross on the ferry is a few trucks, and those can wait a while until we've got a safe beachhead."

Chalet considered the river crossing in his mind; his frames could get across in a matter of minutes at skimming speeds, the question would really be whether or not anyone would be able to keep up with the speedy Super Spartans or if he'd be left relying on air support from 1LT Sabine.

Dawnton Night 16

Industrial Disctrict.

As the sun began to cut off early from the distant mountain ranges to the north that cut all the way to the west several sets of heads slowly emerged from the water several dozen meters off the small beach that lined the Industrial disctrict on the north eastern art of Dawnton. Lacking eyes or facial features the impassive faceplates looked straight ahead as they glided forwards as their heavy metal bodies lacking any boyancy slowly began to reveal more and more of their bodies as close to six of the twelve squads of commando drones of the corporation moved at clipped paces as water dripped off them and their laslocks traced back and forth.

Scout drones moving ahead quickly strode ahead to stack up at wooden doorways and just off to the sides of windows at the closest buildings. At a single unspoken instant transfered in a mere milisecond each team moved in unison as doors were kicked in, windows smashed, and teams quickly cleared each building in a feate of impressive tactical acumen before exiting back into the warf.

Shouts of "Clear!" In the tinny bell of young girls were drowned out by the sound of the warf despite the Fairys ability to communicate without needing to vocalize. With the surface level buildings cleared, then followed the much more numerous drones as MKII tactical drones led their simpler MKI counterparts that lacked their intelligence on shore and began to fan out across the docks of the industrial district along a line of nearly a kilometer as MKI drones took up defensive positions and MKII drones organized them.

[Thirty minute countdown begins... Now.] The order echoed across the Fae as the commandos began going over every boat that fit their critereria. Large enough to move vehicles, barges and tugs, those that could be retrofit to move troops and equipment. Many again were sunk or regained fresh holes from the recent conflict but many more had their pumps kicked on and their ballast messured as drones attatched thick lack before jumping into the water with them and sinking to the bottom. There they attatched the chains to the winches of several mechs on the riverbottom who slowly began pulling them north and east against the current where they could be beached north of the canyon and collected later.

By the end of the countdown some six large barges had been cut free and were off and moving upriver slowly even as, preparing for the fallback, the two Pledias commanders hesitated as they conversed through their link.

[No encounters so far.]

[Move your scouts ahead to clear the neighboring block, I have a hunch.]

As such the salvage operation continued even as the an hour passed and several neighboring blocks near the industrial district were cleared. Damaged buildings made some unable to be entered but even so there were no signs of life be it a bird or a body...

Beachfront - South of the Commercial District.

The sun was in their eyes for the landing but in most of their optics the effect was negligible. Powered armor landed on the beachfront with weapons raised and training across each sector as the vanguard of the various coalition forces landed on the beachfront objective. It would be at least an hour for those hover and flight capable craft to cross fully and those aquatic thereafter but even when the time came the beachfront had its unbroken sand replaced by the tracks, armored boots, and rips of various vehicles as troops were unloaded. For several kilomiters man and machine pushed up the several hundred meters of beachfront even as droes and ariel capable units took to the skies ahead only to find smashed beachfront windows of buisnesses.

At least those still standing...

At least one out of every ten were standing as, for nearly the entire beachfront and as far as scouts could see were the remains of fire-burnt buildings or what remained of those made of stone. Not even smouldering anymore hundreds of if not thousands of homes, buisnesses, and structures were little but ash and foundations while those few trees still standing did so as just a truck without leaves as burnt branches still remaining stretched in the wind. Past all those each road was a mess that their vehicles would have a slow time getting over.

Deep craters from artillery, potholes from smaller explosions or even just disrepair would make a bumpy go of things for those that chose to move into the city itself. Be it west into the city, north into the commercial district, or south towards the highway the city of Dawnton showed only the aftermath of a city in war and not a single sign of a single living soul as of yet...

"This feels like a trap." Lochos Demansia said, unnerved by the lack of opposition to their landing near the highway. "Spread out, I don't want a sudden artillery barrage to ruin my day. Send the scouts forward, we'll push until we encounter resistance. Have the fighters do a low fast pass over the city, perhaps that will shake something loose."

Crossing the water was made easy for the well equipped FSC forces who donned flight packs and the Cordobas equipped with their graviton engines, the overburdened mechas skating atop the suface of the water as the ammo and infantry trucks made the journey by boat. Making their beach landing in peace was a genuine surprise.

Soban said:

"This feels like a trap." Lochos Demansia said...

Click to expand...

"I agree, but lucky for us we got a wall of meat today, heheh," Captain Tyson's gruff voice bellowed sarcastically switching to loudspeaker, his Cordoba pointing to the body of FSC infantry, "1st company, get on those buildings and get us some intel. And keep yer' damn heads down, softshells. Those infantry kits ain't cheap!" On the ground the infantry captain in full white armore flipped his peer a gesture most appropriate towards his uncouth colleage and set to organizing his men, 28 teams of 10 moving out to gain elevation as the rest tended to the armored trucks, erecting scanning equipment on thier open-top troop compartments. Those of a mechanical background would notice the masts were strong bio scanners.

"Captain Chalet We'll follow your boys in and provide fire support. Let me know if you secure a defensible area to establish a firebase. Until then we'll just shoot and scoot. Mr. Donovan requests we destroy no more than 25% of the infrastructure, which is generous, but ordered us to prioritize saving lives and routing the enemy above all else, so fire support is available. Our cannons can pierce buildings... like, multiple at a time. Just keep 'em lazed 'cause we need to be precise," Captain Tyson radioed his more flexible counterpart, then to his own pilots, "get ready to light this city up, boys! And scouts, I want eyes, git out there!" On queue the artilly mechas lowered their outriggers and pointed their howitzers skyward as the pair of scout teams bumped fists. the four scounts split in to a pair of teams, one guy carrying the targetting equipment and the other a sniper.

Planet Osman
Man, This Riverside Resort Sucks…

For the first time since making planetfall, the Anthedon-clad Patrician known as Uriel Cornelia was frowning as he surveyed Dawnton’s riverfront from the partial safety of a beachside crater- because, well… it was simply too damn quiet. He’d never seen such a retreat-happy enemy in all of his centuries of military experience, save for one exception - the filthy unwashed ‘cats who were guarding a town in Hell back during Second Great War - and it was that town which concerned the Aechangel, as the ‘cats had waited until his Century was smack dab in the middle of the town…

…then detonated the explosives they’d planted in all of its houses, nearly blowing him and his century to kingdom come. Only the timely arrival of Barachiel’s century had saved the day - and even then, both centuries had suffered extensive casualties.

It was due to this that Uriel had split Beta Century into three groups: one to safeguard the commercial zone and keep it secure as the coalition’s non-amphibious vehicles made their landings, one to hold the highway and deny it to any Mishhuvirthyar armor, and one to hold the beachfront and act as overwatch for the rest of the coalition as they conducted their assault into the city proper. The Patrician knew that they’d have to move up eventually if Mishhu PAs were detected in Dawnton, and that any serious enemy push would likely overwhelm the three contuberniums sent to the commercial zone and the highway - hence why they had orders to fall back to the beach if necessary - but until then, he was content to be patient.

And, if need be, wait until the sun had turned red over paradise…

The arrival of additional boats changed the tactical calculus of the Reds. The infantry rushed onto the beach as their Ironblood IFVs filed off the landing boats. Kimura looked onwards to the ruined city and surveyed it for a moment. The Reds of Charlie Company then proceeded to the commercial area, infantry remaining disembarked to better react to enemy contact. Bravo Company did the same in their attempt to secure the highway.

Beachfront - South of the Commercial District.

Chalet's frames had crossed the river, skating across it on plumes of water kicked up by gravity buffers and plasma thrusters, under the cover of Sabine's aircraft and variable frames, which had patrolled overhead along the river and were standing by in a holding pattern across it. Now on the opposite beach, the frames' wide feet sank slighty in the rust colored sand.

Chalet's Possessor turned its head towards the south, towards his company's objective. The highway was the key to linking up with any surviving local forces, and ensuring that the coalition had superior tactical mobility, for those unable or unwilling to take the risk of flying over the city. Signalling to the rest of the coaltion that his forces were beginning to move, the captain's frames locked themselves into a semi-squatting high-speed-gliding position, and began to skim across the sands along the beach and toward the highway.

"We'll give you a call if we need supporting fire," He said to Tyson over the radio, "But keep an ear open for the others. Don't forget that we've got our own air support and reinforcements waiting in the wings not even a few minutes flight away."

As he spoke, his frame's head turned once more, indicating to the FSC Cordobas that Duskerian variable frames and attack craft were circling nearby.

Highway

The "Red Suns" opted to traverse the river themselves to free up space on the limited barges for their less mobile ORC donning counterparts, after discussing it internally Rashdon and Irons decided it would be best to leave the shuttles behind for now as a quick evac/medevac option and instead utilise their combatant compliment as ground infantry for the time being. The Pellis wearing soldiers switched to their Pisces configuration and made short work swimming the distance with the help of the streamlining and flipper-style membranes while those wearing Zytones made a running jump and propelled themselves across with the help of the Cirrostratus thruster mounted in each of their rear chest plates. Once across the group reformed and headed for the highway to reinforce those already sending scouts forwards, the Pellis suits reforming the Armis config to bolster defensive power before the whole team spread out like others ahead of them.

Once finally ferried across the ORC wearing units from Solar Transit caught up with their more heavily armoured companions and spread out to either side of the highway to assist the FSC with clearing buildings, using the cover advantage to make up for the less combat oriented nature of their suits, a mixture of Breachanova shotguns and Dualarity rifles between them.

Dawnton Day-17, 0300 Hours

It was still dark on the morning of the 17th day when the majority of the coalition forces departed from the beachfront in an organized collum to the south. Sand kicked under tracks and wheels as the cool pre-dawn riverfront breeze washed over those exposed or turned out as the collum moved nearly a kilometer in length from the Red mechanized collum in the front to the larger Duskerians to the rear.

It was also dark. Lacking any actual light from the city save for smouldering embers confirmed through thermal vision the only lights were from those the convoy used as most was seen though low-light optics and filters in vehicles, visors, or optics as the only thing differentiating any of the coalition forces from the night was the strobes on some of their vehicles tuned to a specific light frequency only some of their optics, and likely none of the enemies without knowing it would have.

They passed down the beach, block upon block of broken or burnt remains of buildings the only sight to see in the city until finally, within an hour or so they broke out of the confines of the beach and hit a well-worn hard packed dirt road raised a few feet off the ground onto a berm that was unlikely any of them would sink into and likely let any rainfall or river overflow to run off and into the flatlands all around it to the south. It was slow going here, fears and concerns of mines or obstacles after some observation showed heavy and likely military-grade vehicle use on it in some recent point but as the convoy progressed slowly to keep close to each other those fears became unwarented and the consensus was to continue westwards towards the south-western part of the city where they could come around and get an un-obstructed view of the entire western-edge of the city where just a half month prior some fifty-thousand or more NMX were encamped.

As they moved they got a view of the still dark southern outskirts of the city as well. Made up into an M-shape there were rows of somewhat undamaged buildings to either side of a less developed section of the city. Utility structures were here ranging from old combustion-driven construction equipment to even a much more modern Kinetic-scoop machine that could move thousands of pounds of earth every hour using combustion-driven drivers to drive an 8-meter wide scoop-shovel into the ground. Various temporary outbuildings lined the area as well as the markers for some kind of structure shape undiscernable in the dark, and the less-than common compared building shells of pre-fabs only half assembled.

It was one of the FSC men who figured it out first and eventually made its way up the chain and onto the command net. The array of buildings and cleared land, the long strips of markers and deep clearences in certain sections smacked of a mid-port. Not a starport or airstrip but a smaller, more utility-focussed heliopad for smaller rotary and VTOL vehicles. A taste of modern construction and utility brought by the FSC to Dawnton now abandoned and pock-marked in its delicate pre-construction with craters; Sidelined or abandoned altogether in a city of which all they had yet seen was rubble and ashes.

As they came near the end of this zone however the Coalition finally came under fire.

"Contact!" Came over the net of the Reds side of the net. Unseen in any direction none of the vehicle commanders could tell what the lead APC had seen and had yet to follow up on until a tracer finally came. Slow, almost like you could catch it with your bare hands it arced slightly from a distance and then had the illusion of speeding up as it struck the lead vehicle and glanced off. At the rate of every third round on whatever heavy ordinance it was the fire-rate was impressive as some kind of recoilless-munitions struck at the reds at the front. It was seemingly only one weapon but from the arc of the tracers and the equipment onboard the vehicle they could identify the location to a raised hilloc position close to a kilometer and a half away.

That was, until an actually slower light that wasn't a tracer struck their way and avoided all point-defence weapons as the missile struck the lead APC and exploded, the vehicle surviving but over-correcting as with its speed, weight, and momentum, it slid briefly and then overturned as thousands of pounds of armored vehicle rolled onto its side, top, and then onto the other side like a wounded beast; A single form in a few thermal pictures of some of the vehicles and mecha seeing someone either turned out of from an opening in the vehicle thrown out into the air, arms and legs spread like a star as he cartwheeled several feet into the air.

And then came back down to earth, as the body bounced once and then was on the ground some five-meters from the still APC. With it down and out the heavy weapons tracers panned to the next vehicle in line.

Furthern down the line in the convoy one of the FSC units picked up a crackling, distorted transmission on their common net of undiscernible words in a male tone as they picked up tidbits here and there.

Commercial District

Heading north when the others went south was harrowing for the red mechanized unit. Roads clogged with debris and rubble made a slow start of things in the morning dark as scouts, drones, and other methods were used to find routes that could not simply be trampled over giving them poor progress.

As they traveled north, however, things began to clear up as more and more buildings remained whole and unburnt or broken save for the occasional artillery crater or clearly local-assembled barricades. Within a matter of hours they were now moving cautiously by choice and not due to obstacles as they only thing slowing them down was caution and their own alertness. The city was still dark and there was no life to be found, but unlike the beachfront that was utterly destroyed to explain it there was no rhyme or reason for the lack of life in even this part of a city of what reports had said was over a million inhabitants. Not too long before their sister unit several kilometers to the south got into their first contact the north most red units saw their first signs of life.

It was brief, barely a flicker on a thermal optic a block down the road to their west as one of the vehicles down the line slowed as the vehicle in front of it caught up too close to its leader. Blue and purple and red on thermal vision it passed at least a hundred meters down the road in the dark between two buildings and out of sight.