〈 Earth, UFE European Central Command Switzerland - January 2020 U.C.E 9:40 AM 〉

Within the great Swiss alps these lands have not been in conflict for nearly 500 years. Until invaders from the skies beyond the heavens changed half of the landscape of this region where a former small country used to exist called Principality of Liechtenstein. That ruined country is now converted into a memorial site for honoring the fallen NATO forces and European civilians during Heaven’s Fall similar to what the Americans built for WW2 casualties of war.

What was known as the idolized peaceful neutral country of Earth now turned into a super-fortress base housing millions of military hardware's and personnel. Thanks to its natural formation of its high mountain ranges it acts as an impenetrable wall to any invading force.

The European Central Command is located deep underground enough to withstand nuclear or orbital bombardment. It can house 1.5 billion personnel similar to sites as Novosibirsk Russia, or Kunlun Mountains in China. In an event Earth’s surface defenses and defenders were to be completely wiped out on a global scale these stronghold undergrounds will serve as the last safe haven for mankind.

Inside the command center…

“General Natanaël Schaeffer, welcome to the European command!” The male lieutenant officer greets him with a salute.

“At ease lieutenant, what’s the latest situation?” the general asks.

“60% of the European forces are now on stand-by while the remaining 40% were sent to assist with the evacuation. The situation is grim, civilians are scrambling to the nearest underground shelters, We are already receiving reports of looting, stampedes and riots” he replied.

“Well fuck its a shitstorm out there now we’ve got a doomsday scenario level! And what of the central government?”

“They’re currently holding an emergency meeting in the conference room and I was informed that we are now into DEFCON 2. We will be sealing the blast doors at a moment's notice.” the lieutenant nervously replied.

The general was also shocked to hear that anytime now a catastrophic war will once again engulf Earth in the sea of flames under the feared invading Martians. He tries to calm his head as he takes out his smartphone and turns it on where his wallpaper shows his lovely wife and his happy 12 year old son posing on the beautiful mountain background. He felt a passing light of joy reminiscing his time he spent with them in that photo. But reality comes back around with a cold hearted feeling to him because they’re no longer in this world after the Heaven’s Fall event. 

With all the alerts, commotion and tense atmosphere in the command room he noticed the surveillance feed at the main entrance of the base. Women, children, elderly and even the men are demoralized with the face of defeat on their faces as they march in flocks towards the entrance. He hoped that the line would soon reach its end, but even as far on the dark horizon cars and people kept pouring in the congested road.

“Well I’ll be damned, we will not go down without a fight. Because by god and grace we have yet heard reports of any Martian incursion elsewhere since the last hour. The orbital defense forces must be keeping them at bay. Keep those blast doors open until we have every civilian in nearby cities and villages safely inside! Screw the orders!”.

“Y-Yes sir!” the lieutenant replied as he went back to his post to relay orders.

Gen. Schaeffer continuously monitored the developing storms across the European regions. Hours ago he was also informed of similar super-typhoons developing over Asia which prompted him of a calamity that is about to befall on Earth again. He felt immense pressure on his shoulders wearing the general’s uniform but he continued to move forward with great resolve to protect his fellow countrymen. But deep down he is also genuinely scared of what the Martians may be capable of based on the undisclosed reports he managed to acquire in the last 3 days.

He silently prayed to the gods hoping that the orbital defense forces would put up a hell of a fight to delay the inevitable Martian invasion at least a day. Though he doesn’t like the idea of sacrificing the entire EODF personnel just for the surface defenders to be on its highest readiness as he read the classified UFE battle doctrine only available to the highest of position such as a colonel or rear-admiral and above.

– – –

〈 Low Earth Orbit, ISS Olympus - January 2020 U.C.E 〉

Loud sirens continuously blaring in the corridors as the 5 UFE pilots float towards the hangar bay entrance. They’ve don their oxygen tanks and space helmet before mounting their combat ready Kataphrakts. The KG-8 models were made specifically for fight & flight in the empty vacuum of space. Equipped with thrusters and grappling hooks to increase maneuverability around the Moon’s debris. The KG-8 Striders are provided in three different colors; white for garrison forces, gray for camouflage taking advantage of the Moon's debris residing in Earth’s orbit and black for special operations.

“Centurion 4-4 weapon systems are online and all green. Ready to sortie.” the female pilot said over the loudspeaker.

“Centurion 4-3 Ready!”

“Centurion 4-5’s locked and loaded!”

“Centurion 4-2 Ready to sortie!”

“This is the Centurion squadron, callsign Centurion 4-1, Olympus control requesting take-off clearance for a rapid-response mission at sector C12 over.” a young male's voice radioed over to the Olympus space station traffic control.

Having done pre-flight checks the squadron was ready to launch into the vacuum of space. They were trained for this very moment to inevitably counter the enemies of Earth. 

“Centurion team, please stand-by. Initiating depressurization of bays 2 to 6 in thirty seconds. Cleared for take-off at the green light.” a female voice operator replied.

A different tone of siren started to sound off as orange lights began to blink in the space hangers as maintenance personnel rushed to the safety chamber to avoid being depressurized in the hangar launch bays. As the depressurized hanger was ready the blast doors of the hangar opened revealing the infinite darkness of space. On top of the doors the blinking red lights continued to flicker until it stopped at a static green color.

“Centurion squad! Launch!” 

The thrusters of the gray Kataphrakts came to life emitting a beautiful blue flame from burning the enhanced jet fuel it carries as the catapult system in the hangar assisted in accelerating the Kataphrakts and lunged the squadron outwards into the the vastness of space. The Centurion squadron began to form an element to conduct their survey mission.

“Centurion 4-3 increase speed you’re lagging behind rookie this is not your usual drill.” Centurion 4-2 radioed over seeing a greenie already getting distracted.

In Centurion 4-3’s point of view he admires the huge white space station floating beside the huge asteroid chunk. Until he snaps back to reality after a rain of debris hits the chest area of his Kataphrakt causing a shocking trembling of his cockpit. Fortunately the chest areas of the Kataphrakts are the heaviest armored place as it is where the cockpit also resides. 

“Roger sir! Joining the formation...” Centurion 4-3 replied.

– – –

〈 Low Earth Orbit, Sector C Grid 12 - January 2020 U.C.E 〉

After flying within the satellite belt debris caused by Heaven's Fall event the Centurion squadron now arrives at the target destination of an alleged Martian force that appears to be manipulating the Earth’s weather conditions on the surface.

“We're now entering sector C, stay frosty…” Centurion 4-1 radioed.

“Jesus, Mikey are you seeing this!?” Centurion 4-4 said.

Centurion 4-4 noticed huge cloud formations that are almost engulfing Earth that the landmasses are almost nowhere visible from orbit.

“Reports said that the Martians might be using a superweapon to control the weather on the surface. Keep an eye out for any suspicious entities!” He replied.

After 49 minutes of surveying the area almost no possible contact was made. From orbit the Earth looked like it had already been engulfed by storm clouds as lightning strikes can be seen from their observational instruments. The Centurion squadron almost depleted their means and resources to further continuing the search it was time to let the mission be called off indefinitely.

“Sarge, what now?” one of his squad members frustratingly asked.

“We either failed to locate the Martians or they were not here in the first place…All Centurions RTB. If they decide to ambush us now we’ll run out of fuel for the thrusters mid-fight. We’ll be floating metal coffins if that happens.” Centurion 4-1 commanded.

“So the base command just told us to go on a wild Martian goose chase aye?” Centurion 4-5 sarcastically commented.

Frustrated by the results of their mission, they changed course and went back to their station of origin.

– – –

Back at the ISS-Olympus

“Total blackout of communications on the surface…this…is very troubling now…” the base commander said.

As he’s watching the live feedback from the man-made recon satellite showing Earth totally covered in storms and absurd amounts of clouds and lightning strikes. He prayed and hoped that the people on the surface were safely evacuated after the communications went dark.

“I want every surveying team to return now and increase patrols around the perimeter of the station as soon as possible!”.

“S-Sir we have a problem!” a young officer sitting at the comms section shouted.

“We’re beginning to lose contact with the other stations!”

“What!?” The commander was shocked to realize and started to assume that the Martians may have already secured air and orbital superiority. What awaited him was either a quick death by some unknown superweapon that can render an entire space station obliterated by a single attack or a tech-warfare was beyond their capabilities giving total confusion of the UFE’s forces was the Martian’s main advantage in conducting their operations.

All of the sudden all of the monitors in the command room went offline.

“Sir all comms are offline! Observation systems are not responding! I'm not getting any feedback for our squadrons at the perimeter!” the other officer reported.

“Hit the scram! Engage the manual override for the emergency blast doors!” The commander ordered without hesitation. Even though he is fully aware 35% of his forces are still outside of the station. But he’d take his chances as he would rather let the exterior forces be considered lost than the entire space station. Either way if the exterior forces do manage to survive they will still struggle if the station was destroyed.

“B-but sir! What about our squadrons outside!?” the concerned officer asked.

“We’ve lost all means of communication! We’re literally blind as bats! Unless we know what’s out there we’re sealing the space station indefinitely!” the frustrated commander replied.

The blast doors immediately dropped in all vulnerable entry ways of the station. Preventing all outside forces to re-enter the station, the stranded squadrons on the other hand knew something bad is currently happening as they too also lost the means of communicating wirelessly. All remaining squadrons were reduced to visual confirmation amidst the confusion; they continue to guard the station with arbitrary orders from their squad leaders through hand signals and at their own wits end.

Spartan and Centurion squadrons the last squadrons that were currently returning from patrol were almost shot by the stranded station’s defense forces. But thankfully the Kataphrakts have mechanical fingers allowing them to communicate via hand signals. The locked out UFE forces continued to regroup and gather around the space station.

“For fucks sakes! This is stupid. We can’t even talk to each other and I'm already running low on thruster fuel! I'd say fuck base command I'm welcoming myself! I'd rather be court-martialed than suffocate in a metal coffin in space!" Centurion 4-2 talking to himself. While controlling his Kataphrakt’s arms and hands to gesture to his other squad members to take position on the station’s sealed hangar bay doors.

Make way! Centurion squad bout to make a welcome party!” he said in a optimistic tone.

“Is this guy for real? Is he not what I think he’s going to do?” one of the Spartan members commented on the developing situation.

“Quency! This damn guy…we barely even had the chance to see the Martians now you're turning tail like chicken?” Centurion 4-1 Mikey said.

Before Quency tries to forcibly open the blast doors of the station his squad leader immediately stops him by launching a grappling hook from his Kataphrakts wrists hitting Quency’s Kataphrakt’s upper rear end pulling him away from his teammates towards him.

“Gahhk!!?” “SHIT! HELP!!! I’m being abducted by the Martians! AHHH!” Quency shrieked as he drifted away backwards from his team from the hangar doors. Unbeknownst to him it was just his squad leader trying to restrain him.

His teammates looked at him as his Kataphrakt was being towed away in bewilderment and confusion as they noticed it was just their leader trying to restrain Centurion 4-2.

– – –

〈 Earth, UFE Eastern Russian Command Novosibirsk - January 2020 U.C.E 3:40 PM 〉

It was a cold mid-afternoon in this quiet remote Russian town hours ago until the local airspace unexpectedly became busier when planes and helicopters continued to land on its surface military airbase. The local populace knows something is up. But typical post-soviet intelligence practices always let the middle-class citizens receive the public news either late or “revised” information.

“Let us in you greedy fascists!” a random babushka yelling at the checkpoint guards whilst supported by a loud crowd of other slavic people protesting angrily.

“Oi! We are citizens of this country! Let us in already!” an angry man shouted along with the crowd.

Meanwhile at the other side of the checkpoint…

“Captain Kozlov! There’s too many people contesting the anti-riot guards!” the corporal said to his captain.

“Blyat! Those damn pigheads in the upper echelon! They've brought this upon themselves!” Kozlov ranted.

Seeing a huge crowd gathering at the gate checkpoint thinking it might be worth 3 different cities already. Many people of all ages tried to get inside the gate as soon as possible but the line held up because of the typical bureaucracy of the government trying to only accept useful or qualified people with into the underground safe haven.

Hours ago he only saw the wealthy and influential people entering in droves. Until he saw General Georgi Kukov amongst them, he heard rumors that he was the one responsible for the massive casualties of the eastern forces that were battling the Martians alongside with the Asian coalition forces. Rumors of wave after wave of battalions and companies charging into the battle zone only to be ended up massacred relentlessly by a single Martian Kataphrakt until a decision to launch nuclear strike hammered the Eastern seaboard. That unlucky nation used to be the DPRK now a small principality sized nation under the PRC's protection and welfare program.

If General Kukov is the only present highest military government official in the Eastern Russian Command currently present in Novosibirsk, then something unfavorable is about to happen to the undesirables. Kozlov knew only 30% of the crowd outside might be only accepted in the last few remaining hours until the blast doors were to be sealed indefinitely. Faced with fear and tyranny he already made the decision not long ago. He will not let these people die at the hands of such corrupt man nor from the Martians.

“Tch...I rather die as a soldier than a bureaucrat's dog! All units stand down! I repeat, stand down comrades!” he loudly stated his intentions as he commanded the riot squads to lay down arms and let his people in.

“S-sir?” The guards questioned the captain.

“You heard me! All guards make way for our citizens! Let everyone in now, I don’t care who or what they are! We will protect and save our people! Glory to the motherland!”

As the guards looked at each other knowing complying with the command meant they would be subjected to treason alongside their captain. But they’ve also felt the same way with these helpless people. As fellow comrades in uniforms who swore to protect the state and its people they unanimously lowered their riot shields together and marched with the crowd.

"Uraaaa!!!" the people loudly chanted as they march in unison.

– – –

〈 Earth, UFE Yokosuka Naval Base Japan - January 2020 U.C.E 7:41 PM 〉

“Everyone get to the underground shelters!” a random soldier said. As flocks of people from the high-density cities and base personnel evacuate the surface the storm continues to intensify.

Inside the crowded civilian shelters the intercoms and monitors sprang to life as an important public announcement is about to be relayed.

“This is an emergency broadcast update from the UFE central government. As of 1900 hours ago all wireless communications have gone offline due to severe weather conditions. We ask all citizens to take shelter immediately, be aware of your surroundings and be alert…”

“Damn Martians, they’re probably the ones who masterminded this.” a random frustrated man said, watching the monitor attached to a corner of the shelter’s walls.

“You bet, my son in the Airforce said that most of our active navies here in Asia had to be recalled after losing contact on all North American fleets. Heck, probably all flights are suspended as well. I’m just going to sleep and wait till the bombs start to go off…” an old man rambling within the crowd.

“Ugh…this place is crowded…” Inko Amifumi said while walking together with Nina Klein, Calm Craftman, Okisuke Mikuni and Inaho Kaizuka.

“I heard base personnel have separate quarters and lounges in this place…” Okisuke said.

“But aren’t we all just students? Anyways, can we grab some dinner now? I’ve been starving from training earlier at the hangar bay of the carrier.” said Calm who was with them at the carrier ship except he was stationed as a technical crew for maintaining the Kataphrakts.

“Sure, we can grab some dinner now. My sister told me that they have some nice fish menus here…hopefully we won’t be given MRE rations…” Inaho Kaizuka replied.

“Oooh! So you think we’ll be allowed to dine at the Air Force's buffet?” Inko said with an energetic tone hearing they might get treated as soldiers of the base even though they're still trainees.

“Were neither considered certified jet pilots or fully fledge regular soldiers and my sister is a Kataphrakt instructor though, not an airman.” Inaho continually comments ruining Inko’s excitement.

“Eeehhh? Should Kataphrakts be considered an aerial unit as well? I mean we have those jets thingy at its legs with flight stabilizers???” Inko complained, continuing to state they should atleast get an airforce treatment since piloting a Kataphrakt unit is almost similar to piloting a fighter plane. Except the Kataphrakt only has crash courses to know how to move and shoot. While there's a different category for squadrons who are assigned to the orbital defense forces. Like police training is being compared to a ranger enlistment.

“Speaking of which, where’s your big sister Inaho? Shouldn’t you be worried?” Okisuke asked.

“Hmm..naah…I bet she was assigned to assist with the evacuation. Probably piloting the standard KG-7 in a random squad.” Inaho replied with no worries knowing her sister’s carefree habits she probably out there filling in for some makeshift squadron for a patrol mission.

– – –

On the surface…

“Warrant officer Kaizuka! Keep up or you’ll get lost in this storm!” a commanding man’s voice was heard over the radio.

“A–Ah-Achoo! Ugh, someones probably talking shit about me…” she sneezes as she’s trying to focus on the mission.

“Sergeant Rai-san, this storm is already a super typhoon! Are you sure we need to continue patrolling for survivors? It feels like this district is already a ghost town!” She aired her complaints to the squadron leader as the storm has already evolved into typhoon categories. This significantly reduced their visibility and reason to continue patrolling for any leftover survivors that at this point a corpse might be their last thing to worry about as they were also brief of possible Martian invasion.

Instead of departing in heavy armored trucks they were changed to the last minute to sortie using the KG-7 Kataphrakts. That last-minute change spared them from either getting stranded due to flooding or getting flipped over due to heavy wind speeds. Thankfully the KG-7 is the heaviest armored Kataphrakt variant of the UFE. Even standing straight it won’t be easy to tip it over with just these extreme winds. The Kataphrakts are built to withstand even within a nuclear strike zone but not directly.

“Golem 3-1 be advised severe flooding in the 12th street here over!” she radioed over.

“...” 

no response.

“Golem 3-1 do you copy?” she radioed again to check.. However her repeated attempts to get in contact with the squadron leader failed alongside with other Golem members.

“I’m not getting any feedback…is it the storm? Not even the storm at this intensity should still be able to contact locally using our short-wave radio receiver mode…Unless…jamming? Martians!?” she becomes alerted to her surroundings assuming that an enemy attack has happened already. But seconds become minutes and a while later half an hour already there were no significant activities other than the poor visibility of the typhoon she cannot recklessly move her Kataphrakt erratically or she might cause an irreversible accident.

“The heck am I supposed to do now? I’m sitting ducks here…now that my radar’s acting funny…w-wait even my sensors are not registering reasonable numbers?” she complained as all of her observational electronics seemed to have malfunctioned. Until suddenly her optics went offline completely cutting off of her visual capabilities.

“Shit! Is it a software malfunction? Did water get into the system!? I thought these things were made to survive in space!”

– – –

〈 Low Earth Orbit, ISS Olympus - January 2020 U.C.E 〉

“!!!” 

“What hell!? My optics are shutting down! My instruments are all going offline all of the sudden! Centurion 4-1 do you copy? …Centurion squad does anyone copy!?” Centurion 4-4 said in a worrying tone.

“Fuck! fuck! Fuck! I’m blind now! I don’t know what my bearings are now!” Centurion 4-5 started to panic despite being a gung-ho ready to face the Martians dead-on but he never hoped to circumvent the fear of tech-warfare of this level where jamming comms, optics and sensors were this dreadful to a pilot's will.

In panicked state Centurion 4-5 accidentally activated his grappling hook hitting Centurion 4-2’s Kataphrakt creating another traumatic experience for the already startled Quency 

“Aaaaaah!!! The Martians are trying to get in!!! Stay back you heathens! Dammit why why can't I move!?” The screaming Quency said as he also experienced complete loss of all of his observational instruments. Not knowing it was just his allies accidentally and intentionally hitting his inoperable Kataphrakt. Centurion 4-1’s recent grappling hook intentionally severed the spinal system of Quency’s Kataphrakt to prevent him from doing any attempted assault on the space station’s blast shield doors.

“The hell? What do you mean no errors were found? Then what the hell is this big ass ERROR text on my optics monitor?” Mikey ranted as he managed to run some diagnostics on his Kataphrakt’s systems. To his surprise the system did not find any fault with the software nor the hardware. He frustratingly continues to tinker around in his cockpit trying to find a way to restore communications.

The unknown phenomena continues to plague the UFE forces both surface and orbit. Which was later known as the Earth hour event. As multitudes of communications were silenced through strong suspicions of the global storm continuing to engulf Earth the last hour. This was later brought up by scientists and scholars that the silent storm was actually the transference event of Earth’s nations and orbiting forces towards the new world.

– – –

??? ??? ???

“Mir 8-1 this is Northbridge control we have you on our sights, please dock at bay 4. Count Casier is expecting your arrival. Welcome to the Charon satellite!” a male operator greets the incoming travelers.

A dark purple medium-side air ship similar to a military cargo plane size proceeded to float in a gentle manner as its lowering its thrusters as it is approaching to a spear-like space station vertically floating in place.

“Huh? Control are you seeing th-” a flash of white engulfed the Sky Carrier pilots on the receiving end…

“...”

 

A huge shadow overcast on the space station. As if a ball was hovered on an ant.

 

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