A beam erupted from the orb with such intensity that it pushed back everyone around Emory by ten feet. It made a shrill sound as it scorched through the air and pierced the ship with little resistance. With a wave of her hand, she dragged the beam back and forth to bisect all ten ships in a matter of moments. Finally, she released the orb which impacted the first ship just as an explosion went off from the cut ships. Blood trickled out of her nose, but she quickly wiped it away before anyone noticed.
The Apleem turned to look at the destruction a single attack had caused to their temporary base. After a few moments, a much smaller force poured out from the wreckage and made a distinct hissing noise in response. The enemy barely numbered five hundred thousand, meaning Emory had cut the army in half with a single attack. After the sound died down, the Apleem charged towards the army that circled them which numbered nearly three million. "Attack!" Emory screamed; the ranged unit responded by unleashing a punishing barrage of bolts down upon the charging enemy.
At first, Emory attacked with the ranged division, but when the Apleem got within a thousand feet, she sprinted forward with the rest of the melee fighters. Like a ravenous beast, she tore through the initial waves of foes, one after another falling before her. Anyone that was unfortunate enough to stand before her was dispatched in seconds. Today, instead of using fancy weapons made from magik, she focused on her hand-to-hand combat skills. However, between her speed and power, she hopped from one opponent to the next and cleared out whole sections of the attackers.
Clarine wasn't far behind and cleaned up those along the path that had managed to avoid Emory's dominating presence. She even activated her Meta Form to keep up with Emory or at least attempted to. In this form, her body was covered in a pinkish glow. With a flick of her lance, a fiery slash cut through several enemies and carved a circle of bodies around her. Though she wasn't as powerful as Emory, she was just as efficient, culling the enemy in droves.
Fighting together, Innes and Nephenee also made significant gains into the enemy lines. Due to his massive size and incredible raw strength, Innes simply ripped the Mantoan into pieces. Even the Uthid were pushed back and dismembered by his brutal attacks. While Innes used force to overwhelm the enemies, Nephenee's peerless skill with her new gear matched his intensity. His strikes were big enough to take out multiple Mantoan, but her speed allowed her to take multiple opponents in the same set of strikes. With all four of the leaders making significant headway into the opposing army, the morale of the army rose significantly, leading to fewer casualties for the humans.
The environment also helped the humans swallow the Apleem. Instead of charging in, the humans stayed on the firm ground at the edge of the delta. And although the Apleem could move easily through the much due to their pointed legs, they couldn't do so fast enough to effectively charge into the human line. This allowed the humans to hold the line which turned into a meat blender. As the line held, the ranged division picked off the enemies one at a time in quick succession.
Though the battle started just before high noon, it was wrapping up by dusk as the last thousand or so Apleem huddled around a particular Uthid. He was a few inches taller than the other surviving Uthid and wielded two black greatswords. Unlike the other Uthid, his scorpion half was also covered in plate mail too. As they made their final push, he hung back slightly from the rest of the thousand troops. Emory narrowed her gaze and jumped over the forces directly in front of this last leader. Her eyes glowed brightly as she yelled, "You're the last commander, aren't you?"
"As well as the strongest," he huffed, "We may have underestimated the strength of you humans, but if I win here, it will still have the same result."
"How foolish of you to assume you can make any difference. Didn't they tell you all what I did to Selena? You're nothing compared to her," Emory scoffed.
"That was just a rumor," he took a couple of steps back, "There's no way a single person put her in that condition."
Emory glared, "I'll just have to show you then." With chromatic lights streaking behind her, she bolted forward and knocked both swords out of his hands in an instant. He didn't even see her hands move to his chest with a dual palm strike which tore through his armor like it wasn't even there. Luckily his second set gripped her wrists and stopped her from shoving all the way through him. She quickly grabbed on his arms and ripped them out of their sockets before tossing them aside and delivering a straight kick to his lower chest. The Uthid flew back several feet, snapping all four of his scorpion legs, but Emory surged forward like a drill. Both of her hands dug deep into his chest, causing green blood to gush out. His tail swung over his shoulder straight towards her when ethereal wings popped from her back and sliced the barbed tip clean off. Magik blades sprung from her fingertips and jutted out the Uthid's back. With a final motion, Emory moved her hands out the sides to split him in two.
After finishing the last commander, she turned back to see that the thousand troops had also been defeated. With her wings, she soared over to the wreckage of the destroyed dreadnoughts to make sure there were no survivors hiding in the piles of debris. Just to be sure, she landed in the center of the destruction, gathered a huge amount of magik around her, and released a massive wave of energy. In an instant, the remains of the dreadnoughts turned to piles of dust as blood trickled out of her ears. Once she wiped the blood away, she flew back to the rest of the human army where Clarine, Innes, and Nephenee rushed over to her. They immediately noticed the dried blood on the side of her neck under her ears.
Clarine put her hand on Emory's shoulder, "Lady Supreme, there's no need to push yourself so far with all of us here. We could have disassembled the remains of their ships with time."
"We don't know what was still operational," Emory huffed, "Better to be safe than sorry. Besides it's just stage three; I'll be fine in a few hours. Do we have a count of how many we lost this time?"
"Only about fifty thousand. Between the superior position and that massive initial attack, we did very well against the enemy," Innes replied calmly.
"That's good news," Emory nodded, "Let's head back to the outpost and rest. I'll report in with Shepherd."
With high spirits, the army marched back towards the outpost. Instead of the pressure they felt walking towards the battle, relief and peace washed over them the further they were from the battlefield. Native creatures once again started to make noise and check out the surroundings as they too saw the danger was gone. When they made it back to the base, it was night, yet the area was lit up. Those that had remained there cheered for the incoming troops as they arrived, releasing small sparks of magik like fireworks. While Clarine, Innes, and Nephenee got everyone settled back in their areas, Emory headed to the RRS.
As the machine booted up, she stood silently on the platform. Pixels began forming in front of all four stations, a good sign in her eyes. Finally, after a minute or so, Emory was surrounded by holograms of Gatrie, Shepherd, Tethys, and Tana, all of which seemed to be in decent spirits.
Shepherd boomed, "Miss Reiss, good to see you up and moving around. The initial reports from Jask have been surprisingly encouraging."
"We got rid of the last of the Apleem on our planet," Emory sighed, "All traces of their temporary occupation have been reduced to ashes."
"Great job, Emory! There is a medium-sized force trapped in their dreadnoughts, but the rest of the Apleem have been dealt with on our planet as well," Gatrie informed the group.
"Gatrie, what exactly happened yesterday on your planet?" Shepherd questioned as he picked up a clipboard, "Jask detected a surge of power close to the outpost but couldn't get a visual.
Before responding, Gatrie looked at Emory who slightly shook her head, "That was Myrrh, sir. She's the one who's holding the rest of the Apleem in their ships."
"We're quite lucky that she joined us then, aren't we?" Shepherd mused, "That surge was just below the power level to temporarily knockout communications. What else do you have to report?"
"The new weapons were a significant advantage. Based on initial reports, they reduced casualties by at least twenty percent. Moreover, they allowed individual troops to fight against multiple Mantoan simultaneously," Emory responded.
"That's encouraging," Shepherd rubbed his chin, "Thank you, Miss Reiss, for pushing us to use the Mentha plants in the forging process's early one. What's the plan going forward?"
Emory answered, "Once Gatrie's team deals with the last of the occupation forces on their planet, I'll reach out to our Elandrian allies and discuss next steps. How much longer will it be until the rest of the Collective army is deployed?"
"The second wave is leaving today," Shepherd grunted, "The first wave of ark ships should return in about a week when we'll reload them and send the final wave. Of course, if we could use teleportation, we could move them much quicker."
"The Council is not ready to release that information yet. This is only a delay," Emory scowled at Shepherd.
"Very well," Shepherd clicked his tongue, "However, I did want to mention that our R&D group has analyzed the recipes our new allies sent over. We should have adapted analogs by the time the last wave leaves. I've already ordered seeds to be brought, so we can start farming them at the outposts. If there's nothing else, I'll let you all return to your stations." Shepherd bowed slightly followed by the rest of the group doing the same. Just before the pixels disappeared, Gatrie gave Emory a certain look as if he had something to say in secrets. Moments after the RRS shut down, the link stone in Emory's pocket began to vibrate. She took it out and held it in her hand.
Gatrie whispered, "Emory? Are you there? Am I using this right?"
"Yes, Gatrie, I can hear you," Emory giggled, "What's up?"
"I just wanted to get our story straight about Lord Perceval. Why didn't you want to tell Commander Shepherd about him?" Gatrie asked.
"It's too new, and we don't know enough about the situation," Emory firmly replied, "Between the link with the Commission and the heavy-handed approach Shepherd employs, this news is too big to reveal until we know more."
Gatrie agreed, "You're right. On a different note, do you have a plan for dealing with the last of our Apleem?"
"They're trapped and stranded, right?" Emory confirmed, "As long as that's the case, I'll come in a couple days when Perceval has recovered. Myrrh, he, and I can probably wipe out the rest together."
"Understood. If the situation changes, I'll let you know right away. Get some rest, Emory," Gatrie affirmed. The stone in Emory's hand returned to its cloudy color. As if a sudden weight had been lifted from her shoulders, the crushing weight of responsibility washed off her back as she fell back on her bottom. For a few minutes, she just sat, clutching her knees and taking deep breaths.
She was finally relieved that her friends were safe, at least for the time being. There were no more incoming ships, no enemy reinforcements on the horizon. Although between the two planets they had lost more than a million troops, none of her close friends were among the dead. In fact, they were all in good condition with no more than minor injuries. Actually, because of the medicine the Elandrian sent, all of the injured troops would make a full recovery in the next few days.
Yet, the war had only begun; these two battles were nothing more than the entrance of humanity to the thousand-year war between the Apleem and the Elandrian. And although one could say that the humans had actually joined the fight when the Mantoan attacked them ten years ago, the numbers would say otherwise. The first war was between a Mantoan force roughly the same size as the two invasion forces combined this time. Furthermore, it was entirely made of Mantoan, and no reinforcements ever came. However, it was due to the military build-up after the first war that they were able to summon such a response this time.
Still, if Emory and her team had lost this initial assault, it would have spelled disaster for humanity. The FOBs were the closest outposts to the Apleem home world, and without them, humanity would be severely limited in their ability to respond quickly. Once the rest of the army arrived, they would be able to strike closer to the heart of the Apleem's empire. More importantly, since the Elandrian could use the teleportation pads Emory had set up at all the outposts, a combined force could blitz from any of the four outposts.
Finally, after fifteen minutes of mentally unwinding, Emory slowly got up and exited the secure building. To her surprise, Clarine, Innes, and Nephenee were all sitting outside waiting for her. Without a word, the four of them shared a quick hug before heading for the Command Center. On their way, they grabbed some coffee and pitchers for water since this could be a long night for them all.
Once they were in the room, Emory called out, "Jask, anything on the long-range scanners? Actually, run a full scan of the whole local area."
"I checked the reports when we got back," Clarine added, "Nothing since the Apleem entered a few days ago."
"Either they're staying out of our range, or they're waiting before making another move. We'll have to compare data with the Elandrian, but if they didn't consider us a threat before, they're definitely rethinking their next move," Innes continued.
"What's our next move?" Nephenee asked, "According to the report from Gatrie's planet, they still have some of the invasion force on the planet."
Emory announced the plan carefully, "Well, there's more than just the report. I don't know exactly how to put this, but Lord Perceval has been transformed from a human to something more like me. Myrrh cast a spell on him that gave him an independent magik core, not like you two got from me. I don't know all the details yet, so I'm going to go check on him when he finishes the process the day after tomorrow."
"What does this mean?" Innes gasped, "Can humans have magik cores all on their own? If they could, we could become as strong as the Elandrian overnight."
"There was always a legend that humans could. Several different Clans have looked into it over the years," Clarine breathed.
"Ninian and I have only confirmed a few things," Emory explained, "That's why I'm going to check him out in person when the process is complete. In the meantime, that information stays in this room."
Nephenee's eyes widened, "I can only begin to imagine what this means. I understand why you'd want to keep this under wraps for right now. Plus, we need to learn more about how Myrrh knows this spell and who could use it." Clarine and Innes nodded in agreement.
"Then it's settled," Emory stood up slowly, "If you all don't mind, I'm going to sleep in my own bed tonight. Use Jask to wake me if you need something."
Clarine, Innes, and Nephenee got up, and the foursome gave each other a hug before Emory snapped her fingers, disappearing into beams of light. Because she had gotten so proficient at teleporting, she appeared inside her own cabin instead of at the teleport pad on Yuzuno. She immediately stripped down and jumped in the shower. Once she was finished, she put on sleeping clothes, pulled back her covers, and snuggled into bed. For the first time in awhile, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep peacefully. Finally, she felt like she could breathe again.