Chapter 298 — The Defense of Cascade 2
Not every battlefield looked like Naruto's.
There were no orange blurs crossing entire valleys. No armies of Shadow Clones. No shockwaves cracking the ground every few seconds. No Covenant formations being erased by overwhelming force.
Instead, there was control.
Precision.
Discipline.
Several kilometers away from Naruto's sector, another Planetary Defense Laser installation fought its own battle.
The Covenant had landed in force.
Multiple dropships had successfully deployed troops.
Sangheili officers directed the advance. Kig-Yar marksmen occupied elevated positions. Jiralhanae shock troops pushed through the center.
The assault was organized.
Methodical.
Dangerous.
And yet progress was almost nonexistent.
Because every movement they made was being watched.
Saeko stood atop a reinforced defensive position overlooking the battlefield.
Her katana rested calmly in her hand.
From a distance she appeared relaxed. Almost casual.
The reality was very different.
Her Hyper-Awareness was constantly active.
Every movement. Every sound. Every vibration. Every change in the battlefield.
Nothing escaped her notice.
A Jackal sniper shifted slightly behind a rock formation.
Saeko noticed.
An Elite officer signaled his troops to reposition.
Saeko noticed.
A Brute squad began moving through a ravine to attempt a flank.
Saeko noticed.
Everything.
Her eyes moved slightly.
Nothing more.
"Mindy."
Several hundred meters behind the defensive line, Mindy looked up.
"Three Jackal snipers."
"North ridge."
"Two Elites moving left."
"Brute squad advancing through the ravine."
Mindy didn't even ask how Saeko knew.
At this point she had stopped questioning it.
She reached into her Parcel System.
A sniper rifle appeared in her hands.
Then she entered Focus.
Immediately the battlefield seemed to slow.
Her breathing stabilized.
Her pulse became steady.
Distractions disappeared.
Only targets remained.
The first Jackal never saw the shot.
The second died less than a second later.
The third attempted to move.
Too late.
Three shots.
Three kills.
The rifle vanished.
Another weapon appeared.
Farther ahead, an Elite stepped out from cover.
Marine rifles immediately opened fire.
Round after round slammed into his blue energy shield.
The shield held.
As expected.
Mindy watched carefully.
Not the Elite.
The shield.
More specifically, the exact point repeatedly absorbing damage.
She fired.
The shield flared.
The Elite kept advancing.
Second shot.
Same location.
The shield brightened.
The Elite immediately recognized the danger.
He tried to retreat behind cover.
Third shot.
The shield collapsed.
Fourth shot.
The Elite dropped.
The Elite beside him instantly ducked behind cover.
A smarter reaction.
Mindy calmly switched targets.
A nearby Marine lowered his rifle.
"Did she just break an Elite's shield with four shots?"
A veteran beside him nodded who has a keen eyesight.
"Four shots."
"Same spot."
The younger Marine slowly shook his head.
"That's ridiculous."
The veteran didn't disagree.
Then the center of the battlefield erupted.
Six Brutes charged directly toward the defensive line.
Large.
Armored.
Fast.
The Marines immediately opened fire.
The Brutes ignored it.
They kept coming.
Then Saeko moved.
The Edge-Edge Fruit activated.
Her blade shimmered.
The nearest Brute swung a gravity hammer.
Saeko stepped aside.
The attack missed completely.
Her katana flashed.
The hammer split in half.
The Brute stared.
Confused.
Then his right arm slid from his shoulder.
His body collapsed moments later.
The remaining Brutes charged.
Saeko met them head-on.
To the Marines watching, the fight barely seemed possible.
Every strike landed perfectly.
Every movement avoided incoming attacks by centimeters.
One Brute lost both hands.
Another lost a leg.
A third died before realizing Saeko had moved behind him.
Within seconds, all six were dead.
The Marines Stared
One finally spoke.
"I think she's scarier than the brutes."
No one argued.
Because no one was entirely sure he was wrong.
The Covenant continued pressing forward.
Dropships descended.
Troops advanced.
Plasma fire filled the air.
And yet every attempt seemed to fail.
Saeko identified threats.
Mindy eliminated them.
Again.
And again.
And again.
A hidden Jackal sniper.
Dead.
An Elite officer attempting to regroup troops.
Dead.
A heavy weapons team preparing a fuel rod ambush.
Dead.
Every minute the Covenant assault lost cohesion.
Every minute the defenders gained confidence.
One Marine eventually realized he hadn't fired his rifle in nearly five minutes.
There simply wasn't anything left for him to shoot.
He looked toward the two women.
One stood calmly with a sword.
The other sat behind a rifle.
Neither looked particularly concerned.
Around them lay dozens of Covenant dead.
The Marine slowly lowered his weapon.
"We're supposed to be defending with them."
A nearby soldier laughed.
"Feels more like they're defending us."
Nobody disagreed.
Several kilometers away, another Planetary Defense Laser installation experienced a very different battle.
There were no Marines.
No Army personnel.
No defensive trenches.
No infantry lines.
There was simply Tony Stark.
And his iron Legion units.
The Planetary Defense Laser behind him is like a metallic mountain, its enormous structure illuminated by warning lights and firing indicators.
Around the installation stood dozens of Iron Legion units in organized formations.
Tony floated several meters above the ground.
The nanotech armor covered every inch of his body.
Gold.
Red.
Silver.
Countless microscopic machines shifted constantly beneath the surface.
A holographic display floated before him.
The incoming Covenant formation appeared across it.
Four dropships.
Likely assigned to destroy this particular PDL installation.
Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Only four?"
He grinned beneath the helmet.
"That's almost insulting."
The dropships descended rapidly.
Their plasma turrets locked onto the installation.
Troops prepared for deployment.
Then Tony spoke.
"Jarvis."
"Let's welcome our guests."
"With pleasure, sir."
Panels opened across Tony's shoulders.
Then his back.
Then his forearms.
Micro-missiles emerged by the dozens.
Then hundreds.
The Covenant pilots immediately detected the launch.
One attempted an evasive maneuver.
Another banked sharply.
The remaining two accelerated toward the surface.
Too late.
The missiles were already airborne.
They crossed the battlefield like a metallic storm.
The first dropship vanished beneath a chain of explosions.
Its shields collapsed instantly.
The hull followed.
The entire craft broke apart midair.
The second managed to dodge the initial volley.
Then an Iron Legion unit fired its own missile barrage.
The dropship flew directly into it.
The resulting explosion lit up the sky.
The third and fourth dropships split apart, trying to force the missiles to choose targets.
The strategy worked.
Partially.
Only partially.
One escaped with severe damage.
The other lost an entire engine assembly.
Both began emergency deployment procedures.
Their troops jumped immediately.
Elites.
Jackals.
Grunts.
Brutes.
Dozens of Covenant warriors descended toward the ground.
Tony barely looked at them.
The surviving dropships were still more important.
His palms glowed.
Twin repulsor beams crossed the battlefield.
One damaged dropship exploded instantly.
The other lost control and slammed into the ground.
Fire erupted across the impact zone.
Only then did Tony turn his attention toward the Covenant troops.
Smoke.
Plasma fire.
Burning wreckage.
Nearly a hundred of Covenant soldiers trying to establish a foothold.
Tony sighed.
"That's a lot of targets."
Around him, Iron Legion units raised their arms.
Micro-missile launchers deployed.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
"Fire."
The battlefield disappeared beneath explosions.
One after another.
Then another.
Then another.
The Covenant troops had barely begun forming combat groups before the missiles arrived.
Grunts vanished instantly.
Jackals were torn apart.
Brutes disappeared beneath overlapping detonations.
Entire formations ceased to exist.
From above, it looked like a sea of fire.
Continuous.
Unending.
Relentless.
The bombardment lasted nearly twenty seconds.
When it finally stopped, the battlefield was unrecognizable.
Burning craters stretched across the landscape.
Smoke rose everywhere.
Tony activated a bioscan.
Very few life signs remained.
Most survivors were Elites.
Not surprising.
Their shields had protected them from the initial detonations.
One Elite staggered out of a crater.
Shield gone.
Armor damaged.
Still alive.
Tony raised a hand.
Nanites flowed toward his forearm.
A weapon began forming.
Growing larger.
Larger.
And larger.
A cannon.
Blue energy gathered at its center.
The air itself seemed to hum.
The Elite looked up.
For a brief moment, neither moved.
Then Tony fired.
The beam crossed the distance instantly.
The Elite disappeared.
Not fell.
Not collapsed.
Disappeared.
The laser pierced straight through him before continuing another hundred meters.
Tony shifted slightly.
Another shot.
Another Elite vanished.
A third.
A fourth.
Each shot removed another surviving Covenant warrior.
Several attempted to return fire.
Plasma bolts struck Tony directly.
Blue energy flared briefly around him.
The upgraded shield absorbed the attacks effortlessly.
Tony didn't even react.
The plasma fire wasn't worth his attention.
The cannon rotated.
Another beam fired.
Another Elite died.
Within less than a minute, the entire Covenant assault force was gone.
Tony looked around.
No movement.
No surviving contacts.
Nothing.
He deactivated the cannon.
The nanites flowed back into the Arc Reactor on his chest.
JARVIS spoke.
"Sir, as I said before, the Arc Reactor was operating near its maximum output."
Tony sighed.
"I know."
"After this, I'll redesign the armor and add another Arc Reactor."
Several Iron Legion units began moving across the battlefield.
Confirming kills.
Scanning wreckage.
Recovering usable materials.
Tony crossed his arms.
"Well."
"That was easy."
"Battlefield secured," Jarvis reported.
Tony nodded.
Then he looked toward the sky.
The real battle was happening up there.
Somewhere inside the Covenant flagship.
Gaius was currently turning an entire warship upside down.
Tony couldn't help smiling slightly.
The Covenant probably thought the ground assault was the dangerous part.
They were about to learn otherwise.
He turned back toward the battlefield.
Smoke still rose from dozens of craters.
Burning Covenant dropships littered the landscape.
Iron Legion units continued cleanup operations.
"No Covenant presence remains within the defensive perimeter," Jarvis said.
Tony nodded.
The attack had simply been too small.
There had only been about eight Covenant warships in orbit to begin with.
One had already been vaporized by the first volley from the Planetary Defense Lasers.
Several others had been heavily damaged.
Even deploying troops from all of the remaining ships at once still meant their ground forces were spread across multiple landing zones.
And with thirteen Planetary Defense Lasers still threatening any ship that moved too close, the Covenant couldn't simply commit everything at once.
That was exactly why Gaius insisted on defending every PDL.
The Covenant had been forced to split their strength.
Tony smiled.
Divided enemies died easier.
A new report appeared in his visor.
PDL status updates.
One after another.
Green.
Green.
Green.
Green.
No installations lost.
No major breaches.
The Covenant assaults were failing almost everywhere.
Not surprising.
Naruto and Tanya could probably hold an installation alone.
Saeko and Mindy were just as dangerous.
Diana was a force of nature.
And every site had Iron Legion support and UNSC troops.
The Covenant expected human resistance.
They had not expected this.
Tony folded his arms.
"They picked the wrong colony."
An Iron Legion unit approached.
"Sir."
"Additional Covenant dropships detected."
Tony looked upward.
Several new contacts appeared.
More dropships descending from orbit.
Likely reinforcements.
Tony grinned.
"Looks like round two."
Then Jarvis spoke again.
"Sir."
Tony looked up.
"The Planetary Defense Laser network has completed cooldown."
That immediately got his attention.
A tactical display appeared.
All thirteen installations.
Operational.
Ready to fire.
Tony nodded.
"Good."
His eyes shifted to the orbital display.
The Covenant fleet had changed formation.
Some ships maneuvered cautiously.
Others remained in bombardment positions.
As if they knew another volley might come.
Tony smirked.
"Guess they didn't like the first shot."
Jarvis remained silent.
Tony folded his arms.
"Fire."
Then added:
"Hit every ship still sitting in orbit."
"Leave the flagship alone."
Jarvis immediately understood.
"Sir Gaius."
"Exactly."
"He's in charge of that one."
Tony pointed toward the display.
"Give every PDL site a warning first."
"Three seconds."
"Understood."
The notification spread across Cascade.
Command centers.
Military positions.
Naruto.
Tanya.
Every defender.
Three seconds later...
Tony watched the orbital display.
A smile spread across his face.
"Let's see how much they like the second volley."
JARVIS spoke.
"Technically, sir, this would be the third."
Tony's smile twitched.
"I know, JARVIS."
He shook his head.
"I'm starting to wonder if upgrading you was the right idea."
~~~
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