After a chat with the marines, Athena examined the remains of all the Terran marines killed in the battle. To her surprise, she was able to salvage the weapons and armor of all these marines when she got close enough to them. The resources she received from this were negligible, but this would help her keep Terran technologies out of the hands of other factions.
After she salvaged the weapons and armor, the other marines dug graves and buried the remains of their comrades.
Half an hour after Athena decided to make a move on Airfield Sigma, a third Decima force entered the forest, this time composed of four platoons. This time, instead of bringing in marauders and reapers and engaging them head-on, Athena took a more indirect approach to feign weakness.
First, she avoided the Decima troops, forcing them to split up into platoons to cover more ground and look for her. Her Terran marines would then ambush individual platoons, do some damage in the brief skirmish, and then immediately retreat before the Decima forces could convene and surround them.
Eventually, after several skirmishes and dozens of casualties, the Decima forces turned and left the forest. Their time and lives were better spent elsewhere. As far as the Decima commander could see, after taking so many casualties, this group of Imperials was of little threat anymore. That would be why they decided to turn to a hit-and-run approach. If they left the forest, they would be easily terminated. And if they stayed in the forest, then they wouldn't be a threat. More importantly, they were too slippery to hunt down, and there were other, more pressing threats as Imperial dropships continued to make planetfall.
As darkness consumed the surroundings, Athena knew it was time. She turned to Adrianna and nodded. Around them, most of the Terran marines disappeared into the nearby trees until only Click and Dash were left. They were Athena's bodyguards, and they would stay by her at all times in case something happened before she could call in the other units.
"We will split up and regroup with the others at the airfield. It will be a smaller target." Athena lied to Adrianna before readying her rifle and gesturing in the direction of the airfield. "Let's go."
It soon became clear that Athena was right in her assessment. The darkness didn't stop the fighting. If anything, the battle grew even more intense.
As the four of them exited the forest, they could see countless flashes in the night sky. The Decima anti-air guns and missiles were still being unleashed at airborne targets, likely Imperial transports and bombers. There were still nonstop explosions in the distance. Both sides were throwing everything they had at each other, and it would take more than nightfall to get them to take a break.
None of them could see the space battle, but more likely than not the fighting between the Imperial Navy and the Decima Royal Navy was as intense as the battle between the Imperial Army and the Decima Royal Legion on the ground.
"I hope the Decima Royal Navy can last longer," Adrianna commented as they walked. "If the Imperial Navy crushes the Royal Navy in orbit, this planet will fall soon after. Unchallenged orbital bombardments will make any major counterattack by the Decima forces impossible."
"Space warfare isn't like ground combat. It usually lasts a while. The Royal Navy will not win, but by the time they lose we will be out of here." Athena reassured Adrianna. This was only day 1 of the offensive. The Kingdom of Decima was still a powerful force in the Chaos Sectors. It should last at least a week...
The rest of the trip was mostly silent as the four of them tried to move as quickly as they could. There were a few close calls. Once, they almost ran into a squad of Imperial survivors. Another time, they were a few hundred meters away from a squad of Decima armored vehicles. Luckily, the cover of the darkness hid their presence well, and Athena's perimeter of underground roach scouts allowed her to navigate around these obstacles. The constant explosions and gunfire also masked the sound of their armor.
Finally, approximately two hours after leaving the forest, Athena and Adrianna found themselves a distance away from their target: Decima Airfield Sigma.
"Colonel, you should go get some rest. At least have some food."
Colonel Decker shook his head and looked down at his empty coffee cup. He sighed and handed it to his lieutenant, who quickly headed out of the command room to refill it.
"Any news on our reinforcements?" He asked, exhausted after a long day of work and stress.
The answer was expected but disappointing.
"No, sir. As you instructed, I told High Command that our men are all exhausted and will not be able to effectively continue our duties at night, but High Command insisted that they have no resources to spare."
A major, one by the name of Major Stanz, scoffed before Colonel Decker could reply. "No resources? How many Legions have arrived throughout the day? How many Auxiliary Legions? They can't spare a single regiment to relieve us?"
"Priorities, sir." The lieutenant replied quietly. "I believe High Command is moving all fresh Legions to the various Imperial landing areas. The objective is to overwhelm the exhausted Imperials in one swift push. If this works, the small groups of Imperial infiltrators will be easily purged. If this attack fails…"
"If this fails, we are finished." Colonel Decker finished the lieutenant's sentence. "Even if it works, the Imperials can simply regroup in orbit and launch another landing. It will waste their time and resources, but they have plenty of both to spare."
There was silence in the command center. Colonel Decker sighed. He looked at his officers in the room, and all he saw was doubt and fear. The reality was that he was as afraid as them about how this war was going, but as the commanding officer, he couldn't show doubt. If he showed doubt, how could he expect his men to do their duties? It was one of the many lessons his father had taught him.
"Look, gentlemen." He drew a deep breath before speaking up. "I have sworn my oath to the Kingdom of Decima. As have all of you. Now, we have all heard rumors about our king and his brother. We have all heard the Imperial propaganda that justifies their invasion. Here is the truth. It doesn't matter how our last king died. The reality is that Decimus I is invading his home with the might of the Venya Imperium at his back."
"If we hold off the Imperium here, the Kingdom of Decima will maintain the freedom and independence it had ever since it was formed. If we fall, we will be at the mercy of the Imperium! it will only be a matter of time before the Kingdom becomes another province of Venya!"
"I don't know about you all, but as a member of the Decima Royal Legion, I will not allow that!"
One by one, the officers in the command center nodded in agreement. This was a good point, not that it was new. What the Imperium hoped to achieve was quite easy to see. It was just that no one who had an incentive to stop the Imperium's plan had the ability to. Not them. Not their king. Not even Decimus I.
The young colonel nodded. As one of his lieutenants returned with a fresh cup of coffee, the colonel turned back to the 3D map of the surroundings. That was when he heard it. Was that…explosions?
The explosions by themselves weren't the problem. The problem was how close they sounded. Colonel Decker had heard so many explosions in the past few hours, but they had always been so far away. If they were this close, then that meant…
That was when one of the officers suddenly stood up, fear in his voice as he spoke.
"Colonel, we are under attack! We have hostiles at the main gate!"
"What? Who is it? Imperial Special Forces?" Colonel Decker snapped. It was common to send small groups of Special Forces troops to assault key military targets, but in most cases, the ISF was satisfied with attacking weaker targets like railroads or communication towers. Small units of ISF just couldn't break through a heavily defended airfield, and large units were often too difficult to deploy or move around in secrecy.
"I am pulling up the surveillance footage now, sir." The officer replied as he clicked on the console as quickly as he could, stumbling and cursing a few times in the process. Within seconds, the map in the middle of the room was replaced by the footage of the main gate. "They don't look like Imperial Special Forces, sir."
No shit. Colonel Decker thought to himself as he saw the intruders. There were two to three dozen of them, and it didn't take a genius to know they weren't ISF. For one thing, their armor held no resemblance to the Praetorian class used by the ISF. Not the color. Not the design. That being said, it was obvious these armor were quite tough. Automated turrets fired upon these figures, but the armor easily deflected the shots.
And the weapons they used…rocket launchers? Grenade launchers? Either way, they were decimating the automated turrets. Colonel Decker watched as a single pair of grenades hit a turret, tore through its layers of armor, and reduced the steel guardian of the airfield to a pile of scrap metal. Standard Imperial or Decima rocket launchers usually needed three shots to neutralize a turret, and those rocket launchers were much more difficult to carry and use than the ones these figures had mounted to their armor.
There weren't many of them. 30, at most. If the colonel had an entire regiment here, he wouldn't be too concerned. Unfortunately, as of now his troops were extremely limited. He had just redeployed two battalions after some quick rest and recover. As of now there was only a skeleton garrison in this base.
"Sir!" Major Stanz called out to his superior. "They have gone through the main gate! Our perimeter defenses barely slowed them down! How did they get so close to us without being detected?"
"Recall the two battalions back here at once! We cannot lose this position!" Colonel Decker immediately snapped to his men and split out a string of orders. "Mobilize the two reserve platoons and intercept the intruders now! Get all our gunships and drones into the air and engage the enemies! You! Inform High Command we are under attack! We need reinforcements at once! Any reinforcements! Now!"
Athena had always taken pride in being a cautious individual. After arriving at the airfield, Athena first sent in her roaches to do some scouting. It would be quite concerning if she assaulted the base only to find several fresh Decima regiments inside. Only when the roaches reported a pathetically tiny garrison did Athena call in the Terran and send in the attack.
The first units to go in were the 30 marauders, who immediately engaged and destroyed the automated gun turrets positioned around the perimeter of the airfield. They were followed by 15 reapers and Athena's remaining marines.
These new marauders and reapers took up most of her Terran supply and cost her over 7,000 units of resources in total. A significant but absolutely necessary investment.
For a few minutes, the Terran forces encountered little resistance. The few sentries and patrol squads were mowed down by the duel gauss pistols of the rapid-moving reapers. A few snipers on sniper towers could only let loose a few shots before they were blown up by marauder rockets.
There were a number of Overwatch class gunships and even a pair of Overlord class gunships sitting on the landing pads near the main gate, and they were the first to fall victim to the Terrans. Marauders approached the gunships before blowing them to pieces. Even the tougher Overlord gunships didn't stand a chance when they were sitting on the ground with no shields and no pilots. Their armor was tougher relative to the Overwatch class, not that it mattered against the anti-armor weapons of the marauders.
To their credit, the two reserve platoons in the airfield reacted quite quickly. As soon as the order was given, these men who were already armored picked up their weapons and charged out of their barracks. They were able to intercept the Terran forces before they could reach the hangar and the rest of the gunships and drones there. Unfortunately, they were facing the combined force of the Terran infantry, and their rapid response only meant disaster would happen sooner.
Athena took over the body of one of the Terran marines just in time to see how the numerically inferior Terran force decimate the two Decima platoons.
Marauders formed a battle line and opened fire on the Decima lines, ripping Decima soldiers to shreds while grabbing their attention. Their armors were almost impervious to small-caliber bullets. Marines assisted with laying down suppressive fire on the Decima soldiers with their combat shields raised. With the marauders and marines distracting their enemies, reapers quickly approached the Decima infantry from the flanks, rapidly hopping from cover to cover with their jetpacks.
The Decima soldiers lost almost a third of their numbers almost as soon as they got out of their barracks and joined the fight. As the body of the dead and the screams of the wounded littered the battle line, the remaining troops rushed to return fire. When their rifles proved to be almost useless, the sergeants and corporals screamed for the men to go to the armory and return with heavier weapons. One sergeant snapped to his men and told them to head for the garage and bring the APCs and tanks into the battle. A few other soldiers rushed to man the fixed-point machine gun positions.
That was when the 15 reapers arrived. They were few in number, not that they let that stop them.
Unlike the Terran marines who could satisfy almost any purpose, reapers were good at one thing and one thing only. They were close-quarter combat experts. Everything about them was designed with that purpose in mind. Recruits for reapers were often those too aggressive to be marines. They were then given chemical stimulants to make them tougher, stronger, and more aggressive. Simply put, they were madmen, and these madmen were then given twin pistols and explosives designed to kill most effectively at close-range. They would be slaughtered in a middle or long-range firefight, but a situation like this? They were bred for it.
"Fear the reaper man!" One of the reapers screamed as he leaped into the air, the jetpack spitting fire behind him. Before the Decima soldiers knew what was going on, the reaper tossed a trio of grenades at the soldiers. "Kaboom baby!"
Two of the grenades exploded before they even hit the ground, injuring or killing several soldiers. The third grenade didn't explode as it was never primed, but before the two Decima soldiers standing near the grenade could let out a breath of relief, the reaper raised his handguns. Two gunshots later, the two soldiers collapsed with holes in their helmets.
Around him, the other reapers, after throwing a round of grenades at the Decima soldiers, quickly closed the little distance between them and the enemies with the help of their jetpacks. Within seconds, they were in the middle of the two Decima platoons.
This achieved two goals. First, it put the reapers right in their elements. Second, it really, really confused the Decima soldiers with a fighting style they had rarely seen before.
One reaper threw himself into the middle of a group of Decima soldiers and suddenly rotated his body, the fuel of his jetpack burning the armor and flesh of the Decima soldiers. Another reaper saw a Decima soldier with his back turned and grinned as a brilliant idea came to his head. Instead of shooting the man, the reaper pulled out a D-8 charge that was often used to demolish buildings, attached it to the Decima soldier's back, pushed the soldier toward a group of his comrades, and then triggered the demolition charge. A third reaper grabbed onto a Decima soldier's rifle, pointed it toward the sky, and let out a loud demonic chuckle before firing his gauss pistol twice into the terrified soldier's chest.
"What the…" A veteran Decima corporal suddenly had no idea what he should do. He had seen soldiers who enjoyed combat a little too much, but none were this insane. These jetpack troops didn't look like they were fighting. They looked like they were playing.
He raised his rifle to take aim at a reaper several steps away but hesitated when he saw his comrades behind the reaper. If he fired, he would likely hit his fellow soldiers. This moment of hesitance was all it took for the reaper to act. Within the blink of an eye, the reaper had charged into another Decima soldier. The reaper's shoulder hit the power armor on the side with enough force to knock the armored Decima soldier to the ground. Strangely, the reaper didn't seem bothered by the blow at all. He quickly got back to his feet and put a bullet into the skull of the disoriented Decima soldier.
The corporal raised his rifle again, and this time he pulled the trigger with little concern for friendly fire. The reaper was hit several times and collapsed, alongside two other Decima soldiers beside him. Before the corporal could fire again, a series of gauss rifle rounds hit him from behind and tore him to shreds.
Previously, while the marauders and marines caught the attention of the Decima troops, the reapers rapidly flanked the enemies and closed the range. Now that the reapers were causing chaos, the marines and the marauders took the chance and rushed forward.
A minute later, the fighting was over. Both Decima platoons were destroyed at a cost of around a dozen Terran units, most of whom were reapers.