"What is going on out there! Someone! Tell me!"
It was the sound of explosions that woke Caleb from his sleep. Explosions that sounded way too close. Even as he got dressed, the Tier 2 Mutant could feel the entire mansion of the Sun Throne shaking. It was as if the building he usurped from former Lord Apollo was made furious by his very presence.
Tossing that foolish thought out of his head, he went straight for the door. Before he could even make it out, he ran right into one of his lieutenants. The Mutant recognized that lieutenant. He was one of the wiser officers who switched his banner and swore allegiance to Caleb as soon as he got in power.
"Sir! I'm sorry I didn't see you..."
"Shut up!" Caleb didn't have time to waste. "What is going on?"
"Camp York is under siege!" The lieutenant exclaimed, his argument enforced by the relentless explosions in the background. "It looks like some human faction with extremely advanced weaponry! Their artillery and gunships have laid waste to half the camp! They seem to be targeting Mutants and our high ranking officers! General Johnson's house is in ruins!"
"Then get the fuck out of my way!" Caleb suddenly snapped. If General Johnson and the low-level Mutants were all targeted, then he would be a fool to think he, the leader of this camp, somehow fell off the radar of these unknown attackers. He shoved the lieutenant to the side. As he made his way out of the building, he finally left a few hasty instructions.
"Gather whatever troops you can find and engage the attackers…"
And then countless missiles consumed the entire Sun Throne. In the air, four Arbiter X breathed death and destruction to the world below.
Caleb was right. He wasn't forgotten by the Phasewalkers. In fact, with four Arbiter X gunships sent after him, he actually got quite the attention, not that this was something he should be proud of.
On the ground, servants and guards alike screamed as they were devoured by flames. The servants were perhaps the most unfortunate. After Apollo died and Caleb took over, the new king of the Sun Throne executed a number of servants he deemed untrustworthy. But the rest survived and were made into Caleb's servants. These souls rejoiced when they heard the news, for at least they would live to see another day.
They had no idea that was never going to happen. The only difference was instead of dying by gruesome psychic strikes from a Mutant, they were to die under the fury of human combat aircraft.
The Arbiter X only stopped after they emptied half their arsenal on the mansion below. They were joined by the Artillery units that arrived at the scene. When they were done, the Sun Throne, the mansion that had stood tall and proud when Colonel Caity Hunter first visited Camp York, was almost completely destroyed. Its concrete walls and machine-gun posts alike were wiped off the surface.
The place that used to stand for the might of the Mutants in Camp York was shattered under the Phasewalker bombardment.
If Apollo was still alive, even if he was wounded, this would never happen. A Tier 3 Mutant like him could easily wipe out a fleet of Arbiter X with ease. Just his fireballs could ravage half a dozen gunships in moments. But he was dead, repeatedly worn down by his most powerful subordinates and finally killed by a backstab from Caleb.
In the end, with his betrayal, Caleb took the forces that could've effectively resisted the Phasewalkers and turned them against each other until no one remained. This level of internal conflict resulted in an easy victory for the Phasewalkers.
Two of the four Arbiter X landed, unloading squads of Airborne Troopers and Stasis Troopers alike. Leading this detachment of Phasewalkers was Eric himself.
"Check the wreckage. Verify the kill." He instructed quickly.
A few Stasis Troopers crept forward, their Defender-IIs prepared to unleash a storm of bullets onto anything in the remains that might move. Most of the Airborne Troopers and Stasis Troopers stood their ground with their weapons ready.
It turned out their caution paid off.
The first few Stasis Troopers suddenly collapsed onto the ground without as much as letting out a scream. If anyone opened their face shields, they would see blood was oozing out of their eyes, nose, and mouth alike. These Phasewalkers were well-armed, highly trained, and well experienced, but against the psychic attacks that killed them, these meant nothing.
A psychic blast came out of nowhere and hit the entire field. Countless Phasewalkers clutched to their heads and growled in pain. Even some of the Arbiter X pilots in the air were impacted. Groans covered the radio channel as a few Arbiter X gunships shook in the air. It took all the strength of the pilots just to keep them in the sky.
Caleb used this opportunity to jump out into the open. Glancing at the Phasewalkers across the field, Caleb didn't waste a moment before dashing away from what used to be the Sun Throne. He knew the blast he did was far from fatal. A fatal attack on this scale was beyond anything he could scramble in just seconds.
Soon, these soldiers would stand back up and start shooting at him. Caleb preferred to be gone from here when that happened.
Even as he moved, Caleb couldn't help but realize these soldiers, with their neat black uniforms and identical weapons, were awfully familiar. And then he realized it. These were forces of Fortress Alpha! Only they would bother spending so much effort on the appearance of their troops!
But that revelation was hardly relieving. Why was Fortress Alpha assaulting Camp York and coming after his head? Did he do something that offended them? Was it how he killed Apollo? But Commissar Charlotte said who was the leader wouldn't make a difference! He could tell she was telling the truth.
Unfortunately for him, time was a luxury he couldn't afford. Before he got away from the field, many Phasewalkers had recovered from the blast, and they were raising their weapons.
Caleb growled and struck down two Airborne Troopers in front of him, fatally this time. As the sound of Gauss Rifles firing rang out, he quickly formed a psychic shield around himself. It wouldn't last long, but hopefully it could last until…
That was when two missiles scored a direct hit on him, cracking his psychic shield and sending him flying into the muddy ground.
"Damn it!" Caleb cursed and reinforced his shield, just in time to survive the next storm of bullets. This time, he turned to one of the Arbiter X and pulled his hand. The next second, the pilot collapsed on the control board, dead.
"Cassie! Shit!" The co-pilot scrambled to pull his comrade's body away from the control board and barely kept the gunship from falling.
Using the brief moment of chaos, Caleb stood up again. Countless rounds clashed with his psychic shield. He lifted his leg to move, but that was when a unique gunshot exploded louder than any other shots he had heard.
A bullet, straight out of the barrel of a Defender-III Gauss Sniper Rifle, found itself piercing the Tier 2 Mutant's psychic shield and punching right through his heart.
The man collapsed on the ground. As he stared down at the dark face shields of the Stasis Troopers encroaching, he couldn't help but want to ask them a question. "Why…"
Seeing Caleb wasn't dead, the Stasis Troopers opened fire again. They had no intention of taking the Mutant alive like what they did to Ford. With Ford, the man was in the middle of Fortress Alpha and facing the full might of the defenders. He had nowhere to run. Caleb was on his home turf. One mistake, and the Phasewalkers risk messing everything up.
When hundreds of bullets ravaged the corpse of the traitor, the question died with the man.
---
Across the entirety of Camp York, thousands of York Troopers were standing around with absolutely no idea what to do. A few of them saw the encroaching Phasewalker forces from all four flanks, but what could they do? Leave the camp and strike them down with a counterattack? Or sit back and wait for them to charge into the defenses?
Usually, orders like this were made by General Johnson and his second-in-commands, all of whom were dead. The result was a disaster. Half a dozen officers left were busy arguing what the hell they were supposed to do next.
If these officers could rally together under a single cause, then they might've had a chance, but these officers were just brutes. Brutes who have long had grudges against each other. Expecting them, already annoyed of being woken up late at night, to come up with a unanimous decision was just impossible.
Soon, the argument took a weird turn.
"You! I've hated you for a long time!"
"And I don't like your face! You were behind this, weren't you? You are a filthy spy!"
"What are you talking about? How old are you? 10? We have more important things to worry about!"
"You wanna fight? Let's settle this with a fight!"
"Guys! Calm down...ouch! Who punched me? Show yourself!"
And so even before the Phasewalkers pushed in, Camp York was already in chaos, and the chaos took away their last chance of resisting.
Originally, the Phasewalkers' plan was to broadcast the message to the entire camp. You've been surrounded! Lay down your arms or we'll kill you all! But after a few rounds of that, Caity realized in disappointment that no one seemed to be paying attention.
"Move in!" The Colonel finally ordered. "2nd Airborne stay in the sky and monitor any sign of resistance! 3rd Artillery on standby. The rest of the units, move into Camp York and disarm all York personnel!"
The roaring of engines quickly attracted the attention of the inhabitants of Camp York. Thousands watched in horror as lines and lines of Predator II and Leopard APCs streamed into the camp, followed by lines of uniformed and soldiers. All of them had their expressions covered by the dark face masks, making them all the more terrifying.
York Troopers looked at each other in confusion. Soon, the 1st Armored Battalion reached a band of York Troopers. Armored Troopers jumped out of their tanks and started collecting the weapons of the York Troopers. Two York Troopers tried to resist, but they were immediately knocked out by the Armored Troopers.
Some of their comrades considered retaliated, but after seeing the giant main cannons and Mounted Gauss Machine guns on the Predator II tanks, they wisely reconsidered.
The same thing happened with the 4th Motorized Battalion, the 1st Rebirth Support Battalion, and the 3rd Alpha Battalion. Facing bands of infantry York Troopers with no heavy weaponry, Leopard APCs were as menacing as Predator II tanks.
Soon, even the few officers gave up their arms. Their yield marked the complete surrender of the York Troopers to the Phasewalker Corps.
Throughout the campaign, the York Troopers barely fired a shot at the Phasewalkers, but it wasn't their fault. York Troopers were never designed by Apollo to do the actual tough fighting. The Phasewalker Corps, on the other hand, was the hope of Earth. If the Phasewalkers couldn't handle the basic York Troopers, then something would be seriously wrong and Caity should consider resigning.
---
"We lost 32 Phasewalkers in the initial assault. 8 Stasis Troopers and 24 Airborne Troopers." Cara reported the data reported from Major Riley and Lieutenant Hemingway.
Caity nodded in satisfaction. That wasn't bad at all, especially since the Phasewalkers just laid siege and took over a camp of thousands. Honestly, she felt like she should pay tribute to Caleb. It was only through his foolish endeavors that the Phasewalkers were able to get so much by spending so little.
"And Camp York?"
"We killed around two hundred York Troopers, most of them were defending the objectives of our decapitation tactic. Overall, there are nearly 2,500 York Troopers left. Converting them to our men will take some time, but they have decent combat experience. Commissar Carlson suggests that we choose the elite ones and organize them into more Support Battalions."
"I will think about it. And the civilians?"
"Less than 5,000 survivors. This number may rise if we release some of the York Troopers." Cara paused. "When we finished the initial strikes, there was some chaos in the camp. People were committing all types of crimes. Killing. Looting. Raping. What should we do about that?"
Caity's eyes were fierce.
"Instill martial law in the camp. Find Commissar Carlson and have him make an example out of a few criminals. Show them we aren't fooling around. Crimes might've gone unpunished under Apollo, but I am not Apollo. We are far better than that."
"Yes sir."
"And the supplies?" Caity knew the importance of having punishments and rewards go hand in hand. Not only disobedience had to be punished, but submission also needed to be rewarded. "Are the supplies on the way?"
"Yes sir. Major Fox said the supplies should be arriving in ten minutes."
"Good." Caity nodded slowly. "That is it. Dismissed."
As Cara left, Caity gave herself a small grin.
The Phasewalkers have come a long way from that tiny encampment outside of the Portal that has become Fortress Alpha. It was impossible to believe just a few months ago, she was part of a tiny vanguard sent to explore a whole new world that Earth knew nothing about.
Now, the Phasewalkers have controlled a significant area in World Alpha. Fortress Alpha. New Sara. Camp York. The Phasewalker Corps had thousands of soldiers under its command. The 1st Armored. The 2nd Airborne. The 4th Motorized. All capable and deadly units. Thousands of local Support Troopers were ready to die for the Phasewalker cause. One command, and Caity could have F-22s in the air. Even communication satellites were put in place!
For the first time in a long time, the girl felt satisfied.