The inevitable was nearby. Rain decided to call Xita one last time before the fight.
"Hello? Xita?", says Rain, completely nervous about the fight, hoping that her short training was worth it. She didn't train much, but due to her martial arts training on Earth, she thought she was strong enough.
"Hey, Rain! It's been a few days, hasn't it? How's Kephar? Is your mission going well?", asks Xita, bored out of his mind. He was alone on the Thread for 11 days now.
"Yeah… small problem. Gotta save the planet. Seen the UHC fleet yet?", said Rain, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Uh… yeah. I noticed them approaching Kephar. Why?", Xita sounded bored, but Rain could feel his unease through the line.
"Evil person made huge machines that may destroy Kephar and everything nearby. I want you to be careful", says Rain, worrying for the Thread and Xita, starting to sweat from nervousness.
"You know that if you guys fail, the Altair system will be destroyed, right?", says Xita, making sure Rain knows the urgency of this fight.
9 hours until the fight, the crew lands at Bolmor. The entire city has been evacuated, and it's pretty much a ghost town now. The streets are empty, and the only thing that can be heard is the wind blowing at the crew and the Sanydran military. Afterwards, the UHC fleet comes in and separates itself, with the other half going to Leinata – the capital.
The ground starts to shake greatly, and it's only getting stronger over time.
Zarya, Rain and Mailen finish their training, and start to "practice" by fighting each other.
Zarya ducked under Rain's swing, pivoted, and kicked Mailen off balance. Rain stumbled, catching herself against a crate. "Not bad… forest tricks", muttered Zarya, panting.
Rain – using her new 'gun' that Mailen gave her found out that it also had a melee option as a spear. Mailen didn't figure out anything new – he already knew his weapons too well. They waited for the birth of the machines.
Kael comes up to Rain and got them to connect to the main communication channel for the battle.
"Can you hear me?", says Kael from the device.
"Affirmative. Let's start this battle.", replied Rain through the comms.
Suddenly, the sirens start to sound.
"Here they come", mutters Zarya, watching as the machines come from the ground of the Bolmor square.
The machines are emerging from the ground at Bolmor's main square. Buildings were getting destroyed as machines were coming out of the underground. Firstly it was the small ones. A wave of 5 country-level machines was easily destroyed by the UHC's massive fleet. Huge ships that engulfed the sky. Then, 8 other machines. It didn't take too much until the Thread finally got to one of the machines. They were stalling its birth until the UHC defeated the second final wave. Then, once that was done, the real fight began.
The machine was emerging from the ground, destroying an entire block of buildings with it. Its sheer size could be comparable to a huge skyscraper. The darker colors due to dirt were only making the machine look bigger than it actually was.
"It's happening.", says Rain, standing in front of the machine – flattered by its size, but also nervous, thinking she'll actually die here.
Mailen was destroying the smaller machines with his weapon, dodging lasers and hits from them. He was sweating insanely. Then, he got scratched a few times, and has come quickly to assist Rain from the front.
The laser flew right above his head, and he ducked behind a vehicle to stay safe.
"Holy mother of f*****g gods!", said Mailen, out of breath and trying to calm down.
He ran out and used his weapon to counter the machine's attacks. His clothes were nearly ripped apart by the attacks, but thankfully the Sanydran military personnel helped him fight back. He got aided shortly after, and went back to the frontlines as soon as he was confident to fight again, which only took him a few minutes.
Zarya, on the other hand, nearly died. She screamed in pain as a laser hit her leg and made a large wound.
"No, no, no, no!" – Her weapon broke in half by the laser. She crawled to the nearby building to hide herself, and called the nearby military personnel to get her to the center to get aid.
Rain heard the screams from Zarya and teared up. She started to harm the big machine more, as to trying to "prevent the queen from getting more machines involved". Zarya was quickly aided by the Sanydran military and her weapon got fixed nearly immediately. Shortly after, she went back to fight the smaller machines.
The large machine stood up. Rain didn't know that the machine was much larger than she expected, which made her end up on the machine's shoulder.
Meanwhile, on the Thread, Xita looked at Kephar and noticed that in Leinata, the Kepharian military barely kept up with the large machine. The UHC fleet was destroyed, and thousands of people were dying every minute. Xita took his telescope to look closer at Kephar, and it was just devastating. Many dead corpses lay across the city of Leinata. Xita, even if he's a robot, felt true emotion and sadness, nearly tearing up. Afterwards, he looked at Bolmor. He spotted Rain, Zarya and a man that he doesn't know, that being Mailen, fighting the huge machine. The UHC fleet was barely keeping up. Surprisingly, the Bolmor line was all alive, possibly because the machine was stalled for too long, because it is unable to fight back as much as the Leinata line's machine.
Xita has learned everything about the Thread and learned that there's an offense/defense system, that's used for protection of the Thread. He noticed that both sides were losing, just that Rain's side was losing much slower than the ones in Leinata. He decides to strike at Kephar, while also calling Rain before he clicks the button.
"Hello? Rain? This is urgent. Evacuate Bolmor immediately, I will destroy that machine myself. The Thread is being involved as well.", screams Xita at the phone due to the machine being insanely loud. Rain's eyes widen, and she quickly tells the crew to leave immediately, and sends Kael an urgent message to evacuate the entire country. She also tells everyone to evacuate through the comms. Rain starts to panic as she also calls her crewmates.
"Everybody! Leave the area immediately! The Thread is about to launch an anti-technological bomb at Leinata and Bolmor!"
Rain activated the waypoint system. The machine, being extremely loud, nearly threw Rain off balance. Behind her, Bolmor erupted in metal and fire. The crew, quickly responding to Rain's message, run towards Rain as fast as they could, whilst trying to evade the machine and its attacks. They landed in Sanydra, panting, the scent of smoke in their lungs.
Then, when both lines announced their evacuation was successful, Xita launched 2 anti-technological bombs to destroy the machines. It was mostly successful, with the Bolmor machine releasing hundreds of machines of the "city" type. The UHC fleet quickly got rid of them, and the fight was nearly finished.
The anomaly Zarya talked about was true, but also false. There were 50 hideouts, mostly in the east of the country. The UHC fleet was quickly notified, and the eastern neighboring nation of "Mahya" was also notified. They quickly got rid of the machines, and Kephar was finally at peace.