They spent nearly an hour observing the settlement from their position on the rise. Below the collective’s drones were still working on that sensor equipment. It was clear though that they were almost ready to turn it on. Thankfully, Command was finally ready as well.

It had taken some time, but two walkers were finally in range to project a field over the enemy base. A field that was coming online right now. He knew a few other squads had moved into positions nearby as well. Command had given him the basics of the attack plan, and he knew his part. Command had allocated some light vehicles to support the attack. A handful of ST-48s were standing by to assist if needed, and he was told that one Scorpion was on standby to provide artillery support if they need it.

Speaking of the artillery he was not planning on needing it, and he knew why there weren’t more assets allocated to this attack. The settlement before them was rather small, and they would need to conserve their forces and munitions. The majority of their assets were being held in reserve to be used on more important targets. Especially since it was unlikely they would be getting reinforcements from the fleet. Not until they knocked out the orbital defense grid, but if they managed to do that they would not need reinforcements. Not on the ground anyway.

Dismissing his thoughts, he adjusted his rifle. While looking through the scope. A spider-like mechanical drone skittered past carrying a box on its back. He did not shoot it, but he very much wanted to see it with a hole burned through its frame. Instead, he waited for the signal.

Thankfully he did not have to wait long for that signal. The moment it came through, he quickly aimed at a drone and fired. A blue beam lanced from the end of his rifle and burned a hole through the drone. The beam than burned through a wall before dissipating. The entire particle stream lasting only a fraction of a second. As the drone was falling lifelessly to the ground, he was already shooting a second target. Others from his squad were already picking their targets, and his hud was relaying their targets to him. With that aid, he was able to quickly select a second target and destroy it.

The beam sniping from the rise made short work of the drones in sight. A few attempted to take cover and shoot back. Their weapons flashing uselessly. A sign that the field had knocked out their energy weapons. It seemed their internal logic cores were advanced enough to make decisions without a connection to the collective, but given how brief the engagement was there was no way to determine if it was preprogrammed directives or something.

A few seconds later other troops equipped with heavier armor and weapons better suited to sweeping structured started moving into the settlement. The commander signaled to his squad, and they started moving around the perimeter. Their task was to keep an eye out for potential reinforcements or units attempting to escape.

She turned the corner and noticed it was clear. There was a door to her left, and she signaled to her squad that she was going to check it out. She moved swiftly and attached a charge. Stepping back she let it go off, opening up the passage. She peeked around the lip of the blasted door and spotted three drones. Their emitters aimed right at her. The drones fired or rather attempted to. Instead, they merely got sparks from their weapons, and she took advantage of the opening to fire her weapon. A purple bolt slammed into the nearest drone tearing a massive hole in its body. The second drone had no time to react before a bolt slammed into it as well. The third attempted to skitter away only to be hit by a third round.

She took a quick look around and noticed a workstation with some half-assembled components scattered around it. Behind the station were some devices that reminded her of a conveyer belt. Although it was clearly designed to make use of anti-gravity devices instead of rollers. Seeing nothing else in the room, she declared it clear.

Outside she rejoined her squad who had cleared the other rooms down the corridor in the brief time she had spent on this one.

A beam lanced out across the terrain and struck a drone as it was skittering towards some rocks. The charred husk tilted forward and collapsed on to the ground marking yet another kill for the commander. He had taken out several drones attempting to escape the perimeter. Not far from his position, a pair of ST-48s were positioned nearby and they were firing at a larger drone. Well by drone he meant tank.

It wasn’t shooting back, mainly because its main gun was being disrupted, but it was holding up fairly well. It was also not the first tank to come down this road. All of the others had been destroyed by the missiles that the ST-48s were carrying, but enough tanks had moved down the path to deplete those missiles. The tank itself had been part of the fifth tank group to leave the settlement and head down the road. The two cousins supporting it were sitting a ways behind it as smoldering husks. Victims of the last pair of photon missiles the Refuge Tanks had been carrying.

Several shells slammed into the side of the fleeing tank. Her plating buckled and cracked, but withstood the impacts of the explosive shells. The commander had to admit that the alloys used in the construction of the tank were fairly resilient, but it was clear they would not hold up much longer. Just as he thought that the tanks fired a second pair of shells into the Cylovan vehicle’s side. The buckling plating finally failed and a large fireball marked the demise of the alien tank. When the dust cleared another smoldering husk was left on the road.

The commander sighed, with a bit of relief, and pulled his comm device. They had sped up the comm windows for the attack. So he was free to request a second set of tanks move to this position to relieve the pair already here. The current pair needed to move off the field, and rearm.

At the moment this wasn’t exactly a battle, but that was because the Cylovans were lacking in weapons that could function in the field. In addition, their drones and other units were rather disorganized and their attempted retreats were evidence of that. If they had attempted to flee in mass they might have gotten out of the noose, but instead, they were running in small fractured groups.

Elsewhere, on the rear lines of the battle, an older man was bent over a tactical display. On it was a display of where troops and squads were positioned. He was not the head of the army sent to invade this world, but he was in charge of this division. Along with a few other officers who were in the room with him. His advisors and immediate subordinates.

One of them a woman he had recently promoted, and taken on as he saw her talent for command, spoke. “A few of the units along this line, are requesting that their current tanks be relieved so that they can be rearmed. It seems that a large number of heavy tank-like drones have been attempting to flee along these two main roads.”

He traced the roads. From the survey, they took when the Shadowstrike and her task force had landed, they knew where they went. The lower of the two roads winded through several rocky mountain passes until eventually reaching a large settlement. A massive complex of bunkers and odd buildings. Several ground batteries were located there, and a small shield generator that served to protect the complex. Said complex was clearly positioned to protect the local spaceport and warehouses in the area.

The other road headed through an area that was not all that rocky, but instead, it was rather overgrown. The path crossed three rivers before eventually reaching another large settlement. This one was far larger with numerous massive buildings, ranging from clear factories to bunkers, power stations, and warehouses. A few ground batteries and more importantly a powerful shield generation complex was located in that settlement.

Both settlements were targets for them, but the second one was far more important. It was a lynchpin in the local defense grid. The complex being one of the dozens responsible for generating the barrier protecting the planet. The reason why the could not just glass the planet from orbit. There was not much here beyond what the Cylovans have stockpiled in their warehouses. Well the Cylovans themselves might be worth something, but not much.

“Looks like the units are trying to link up with their major garrisons,” he commented.

She frowned, “maybe, but those roads are also the shortest route out of the field we have projected over the town.”

He nodded, “that is another possibility. They might be trying to get outside of the field.”

Someone else spoke, “Given how simpleminded the drones seem to be, I would wager that they are trying to link back up with the collective.”

He didn’t say anything, but he had to concur with the officer about them being simpleminded. He had already sent orders to have a few squads search the settlement for drones with intact logic cores. Studying them could prove useful, and would help him determine if they really were simpleminded after being disconnected or if they were just acting that way for some reason. Instead, he gave an order, “I want the number of troops guarding those roads doubled and have the troops already there supplied with heavy weapons.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll have the troops increased, asap.” replied an officer as she rushed to fulfill his orders. He then turned to his student, and asked her, “...”

The collective studied the growing void with every sensor it had available. It had lost contact with its settlement nearest the void, and so far no units had managed to relink with the collective. Concerning, but it had considered probing the void in such a fashion before. Only it had rejected that idea to go with a more cautious approach.

Only the void seemed to be growing rather unpredictably. It had not expected it to reach the settlement so soon. It had expected to have a couple more days. Given this change in its growth rate, it was beginning to revise its plan for probing the field. Seeing as the void could expand without warning, it decided that probing it from the ground would take too long to set up. Instead, it was going to have to set up a new series of orbital sensors with which to probe the field. The current ones were not giving it much of anything on the field. However, it was certain the void was being caused by some kind of field. Beyond that, it knew very little.

It had theories of course. The field could not be a natural phenomenon and that meant someone was behind it. The collective had come up with two theories. The first was that it was some kind of weapon. The other was that it was an alien device designed to conceal something. However, it needed to be certain about what the field was before it could make a decision. It still remembered a device that it had encountered in the past. It had stumbled upon it about a century ago, on a colony it had controlled for nearly two centuries. The device had been buried in some ruins, and when it had probed them it had inadvertently activated the device. The resulting field blocked all sensors and started growing. Anything that entered never reported back, so it had bombarded the site from orbit. That proved a mistake that field, somehow absorbed the energy and spread over the entire planet. Said planet remained sealed within that energy field to this day. Although by now the field encompassed the entire solar system. Thankfully said the field has finally stopped growing. Having lost a world due to being too hasty, it wanted to be certain of the properties of the field first.