I growled in frustration while taking another shot at the mechanical behemoth on the other side of my wall. Of course her stubborn...I’ll deal with it later. My shot, a Burst Shot, exploded against the metal plating of the Goliath causing next to no real damage to it beyond a little visual scuffing. No doubt this was because of the fucking System message I’d received after seeing that fucking Faction thing. It had read very simply, and all to frighteningly, what was coming.

System Announcement!

Attention Player: Damian Fern. Due to unlocking your own personal Faction as well as having been placed in the difficulty of Hell with a modifier of plus three yet continuing to triumph against all odds It has been decided that all foes within your Game Universe will now receive a permanent scaling upgrade to armor, attack, and reaction speed.

Additional Units will be spawned into your current battle in the War of Mar Sara, each a vastly superior model than normal. You will deal with them, and should you succeed, will be granted a months reprieve to consolidate your assets before the War begins again. As always, we wish you the best of luck in continuing to amuse the mighty Lumerians.

Or something like that at least. I ground my teeth again, taking a shot at the fucking Uber Goliath and watching it amount to all of jack shit as it turned to a small smudge against its armor. Marines were pounding towards us as well, each taking far more to kill than before, they seemed to have some sort of fucked up energy shield around them and it was taking either a Marauder or the combined clips of two of my own Marines to take them down fully.

I ducked, as did everyone around me when I shouted, the Goliath had begun firing another salvo of rounds into us. Even with the forewarning, I heard my men dying around me, one or two dropping here and there as the shields I was so proud of failed to stop the massive rounds, or they simply were not lucky enough to duck quickly.

Goddamnit! I popped back up and started hitting the Marines where I could, aiming at that Goliath was getting me nowhere. I managed to kill a Marine with a well-placed head-shot, but even I knew it was the concussive blast from the burst round snapping his neck back that ended up truly killing him. Those shields were becoming a fucking problem and I had no idea how to stop it.

“Granit! Status report now!” I screamed into the com, hoping he had better news. I was proven wrong in that hope sadly. He came on the com, yelling for his men to duck and cover as he did. “No updates, Sir. Only that we are being hammered left and right and they didn’t bother to buy us dinner first.” Fuck!

“Janus!” I screamed after telling Granit to hold it together until The Orion and Chimera’s Rage finished their battle in orbit. “Sir, we managed to take down one of the Goliaths, it got in range of our few remaining Spider Mines and couldn’t take the combined damage.”

Oh, thank God for that. We’d used the Spider Mines as planned, they had decimated the spawned in Uber Troops that The System had sent our way. That was when these fucking Goliath’s had shown up. We all still had a number of the mines surrounding Bastion, the problem was that the Goliath’s were not moving in range of them at all. It made this shit even harder. The Marauders and my own Rifle were the only things that could even hit the damn things from the wall.

I was about to send out the Condors, and fuck the consequences if they got destroyed. Before I could issue that order though, I heard a loud ‘boom’. I looked up at the sound, our Liberator had arrived over Bastion and was...rushing toward the Goliath? Oh shit…”No! Liberator, change trajectory, move to the center of Bastion and unload from a distance! I repeat, do not engage the Goliath at close range!”

It didn’t listen, instead moving in hot and fast while changing modes to its own siege mode in the process and unloading a hail of bullets at the Goliath, a loud feminine yell of triumph coming over an open com as each missile the Goliath had launched was hit by a bullet and intercepted before it turned into scrap metal. I took a deep breath, about to berate the ever living fuck out of the pilot but she had already changed modes and was flying off to another section under siege by the big bastards.

What the hell was it with women and not listening to me exactly? Was it my inflection, my tone? I ignored it and began unloaded into the Marines below us, my own assigned Marauder joining me while Trenton acted like the bulwark of armor that he was. I was regretting not specializing him again now, him and the other seven I could have right now. I’d hoped I’d either have some time to think it over and balance them or that this wouldn’t be anywhere near this fucking difficult.

I had no idea where the hell Nova was, or how she was even fucking moving. Green had said her stomach was a mass of shredded meat and she’d be down for a while. Stubborn, idiotic woman! I took a deep breath, popping up again and taking another Marine down. This entire situation had slowly gone fubar, though that insane Liberator pilot was a bit of a blessing all said. The fact she was going to get her ass chewed for being that damn idiotic was beside the point.

“Sir! Nova reporting for duty.” Following the single most frustrating individual in my life, currently, speaking came the resounding ‘boom’ of something exploding with the softest of ping like pops having been heard beforehand.

Beside me came into focus Nova, obviously in pain and about to get the shit knocked out of her for doing this. She had all but one-shot another Goliath making its way toward our wall though. I wondered if she managed to hit something vital. Her weapon was just...better than mine. All of my Hero Units had outstanding gear, even with all I’d done to upgrade and improve my standing forces.

I grabbed Nova’s shoulder, ignoring her snarky grin and pulled her down with me to avoid the Marines fire. She yelled out in pain at the sudden jerk and I quickly scanned her body, looking for injuries. Her stomach was bleeding, profusely. “Goddamnit Nova! What are you doing out here?”

She wheezed a bit, closing one perfect green eye in her pain. “Protecting...you...Sir.” Oh for the love of God! I felt my eye start twitching before I popped up over the edge of the wall and unloaded an entire clip into the Marines below us, a few more explosions going off as Spider Mines were triggered here and there. “You need to go back to Green, even if that means I drag your ass there!” I shouted when I got back down, forcing her to stay hunkered down with me in the process.

“Not happening, Damian.” She smiled at me then, her teeth stained red with her own blood. “ANDY!” I screamed into my com, and she came running, the brave little trooper, through a blitz of ammo and hell along the wall toward me.

“Keep this idiot stable for me, yea?” She nodded, immediately going to work on Nova who was weakly trying to fend her off at this point. I popped up again, my aim to take out another Marine or two before I had to duck and cover again. The sight that met my eyes made me almost wish I’d stayed hidden behind the wall. Siege Tanks had arrived, not the normal single barrel ones either. These fuckers have upgraded, two launching barrels were seen in their Siege Mode and they look a lot bigger than the ones we fought before.

It took me a moment to realize the seven kinds of hell about to hit us before the massive explosion threw me from the wall, Nova, Andy, Trenton, all my men on the wall were now firmly on the ground several feet behind it, stone and metal flying around us while the distant voices in my com shouted that breaches in the wall from whatever the fuck those things happened to be where piling up. Enemy Marines were moving into the settlement en mass.

I shook my head, collecting myself while everything seemed to move in slow motion. I saw the Confederate red Marines moving through the gap, a few of my men who were standing trying to plug it as best as they could, Trenton first among them, the tough bastard. I looked around for Nova and Andy though, I had to find them, make sure they were ok. Surely they were...no...Oh God no!

I crawled as fast as I could toward the two body heap I had located, both female in shape and both as still as the stones around them. I moved Andy from atop Nova, she had a metal rod through her thigh but was breathing, if unconscious. Nova though, Nova wasn’t breathing. I felt my eyes widen while I grabbed her, shaking her in my despair at what I simply knew had happened. She’d died, she wasn’t breathing, she was bleeding in so many places.

I heard shouting, men calling for me, trying to find me, all I saw was Nova though, hearing her voice just before the explosion struck, thinking Andy could keep her safe. So wrapped up in the soul-crushing despair I couldn’t even see the very faintest of movements from her chest.

That despair quickly turned into something more palpable, hotter in nature. Rage, pure and undiluted rage at just what had happened. Nova had been my first real Hero, she had been with me from the beginning...I had grown to care for her in a way I had not thought possible, regardless of my earlier issues with that fucking ass kissing me. Now she was gone, I didn’t even get the chance…

I didn’t hear The Orion coming filling the airspace above us, aiding the Liberator in its defense of what was left of Bastion. I didn’t hear Trenton and Granit screaming for me, right next to me as they tried to have everyone fall back to a different position. All I heard was Nova’s last words, all I saw was her not breathing. Then I saw the Confederate forces, all that red...like blood, and I snapped.

The rest of that battle was nothing but a blur, the reports afterward had been almost unbelievable when I read them. What I do remember though was rising up and telling Trenton to move out of my way, I’d thrown him to the side when he didn’t do what I wanted. I remembered taking multiple rounds to the arms and legs, my armor stopping most of it. I remembered countless blue messages popping up left and right, several of them gaining a red coloration, like a warning. It only fueled my rage.

I remembered the searing, unbelievable pain as I screamed at the Confederates, blood flowing freely from my nose, ears, and eyes...Then all I felt was electric might, and a storm, unlike anything a Human had ever seen. My final sight was arcs of power flying into the shields of the enemy Marines all before me, something causing the shields to react and then the Marines exploding like little red balloons, blood and gore going everywhere, then sweet blackness came over me and I knew nothing at all, for a time.

System Announcement!

Attention Player: Damian Fern. You have chosen to use a skill that will result in your death, do you wish to proceed?

Attention Player: Damian Fern. You have chosen to use a skill that will result in your death, do you wish to proceed?

Attention Player, death is imminent, you are advised to stop all activity involving the use of Psionic Storm.

Attention Player: Damian Fern. Psionic Storm has morphed into Psionic Tempest due to extreme anger focusing your mind.

Attention Player: Damian Fern, continued use of this skill will result in immediate brain failure. Do you wish to continue?

Attention Player: Damian Fern. Due to the overwhelming force of will and continued use of modified skill, Psionic Tempest, your Psionic Potential has increased from eight to ten.

Attention Player: Damian Fern. Psionic Power has been re-ignited under unique, unknown conditions. Analyzing situations, searching for faults in programming. None found anomaly due to organic life with medium genetic change capabilities only possible reason. Updating Human database to accommodate

Congratulations Player! You have caused an update in The Systems archives, granted a one time rewards of Unit Selection Card, Resources card -10,000, Primary Building Card, Hero Upgrade Card, Two Randomized Passive Skill Cards, Two Building Upgrade Cards, Two Unit Upgrade Cards, and a one time increase to Hero and Unique Unit Capacities. Heroes able to be active at any point in time increased to ten. Unique Units under a limit increased to twenty-five (does not apply to Special Unique Units such as Chimera’s Rage)

Congratulations to Player: Damian Fern for gaining five levels for single-handedly destroying eight-hundred enemy units set at an upgraded level with a single ability. You are now level ten. Hero Unit Level cap increased to fifteen, now able to bring five Hero Units into Campaign Maps. Now able to bring fifty Units into Campaign Maps.

System Announcement!

Due to Player: Damian Fern being in a near death state, The System has deemed you shall be healed in light of causing a System Update. -WARNING- This will not happen again, further problems of this nature will end in your immediate death, regardless of circumstance.