Hyperion city: Hyperion city starport

The name for the capitol city of Phaeton was no accident, it was no random choice debated by the colonial leadership. It was the name of the oldest structure on the planet's surface, the thing that brought the initial colonists to the surface of the world. TUSS Hyperion was a true behemoth, a hundred meters across and two thousand long, the behemoth colony ship had one singular task, to transport the tens of thousands of potential colonists from Earth to Phaeton, its armored hull was designed to absorb the forces of orbital reentry, and her screens were, for her time, top of the line powered by two dozen fusion reactors that were to designed to also serve as the colonies initial power plant.

She was made as essentially an instant colony, and the Hyperion city star port was built around her (mostly) intact skeleton, it was in fact now a planetary landmark and historical sight, albeit one that still provided a significant portion of power for Hyperion city. From her, the city had rapidly expanded as her internal nano forges, engineering bays and factories provided all the initial infrastructure that the newly born colony had required. As years passed by she was slowly burred under a network of steel beams, concrete, and asphalt until all that could really be seen of her was an access hatch into the underground museum that was her body. All those layers of metal and concrete had sheltered Hyperion from the Ruk bombardment, the thick heavy blast doors, concrete, asphalt and steel acting as ablative armor to guard the ancient vessel against the hellish energies that the aliens had unleashed.

Her children had one last request of this ancient and venerable vessel that had once been seen as the guardian spirit of the colony.

They were betting everything that she would say yes.

TUSS Hyperion: Engineering deck

Pioter walked down the ghostly corridor's of the Hyperion's engineering bays, he looked over at a display of a class ten nanoforge, the massive manufacturing device was a twelve by twelve by twelve meter cube, feed it enough materials and it could produce anything from a pickax to a backhoe to a battle tank. Sadly they had neither the time, nor the resources to reactivate the ancient machinery nor did they have the expertise. The trio continued deeper into the ancient ship. Nathan ran his hand along the stainless steel wall, eliciting a quiet hiss as metal scraped on metal.

"This place is a maze..." Pioter remarked quietly, looking around the dark and dusty hallways, "or perhaps a tomb"

"Just follow the signs and we'll be all right." Nathan said shaking his head.

"Hope you're right." Pioter said shaking his looking up at the ceiling.

"we're only a few hundred meters away, come on move it!" Chernov barked.

"Yes sir!" The two barked, they had a job to do, tired as they were... they could rest soon. After they were finished.

Hyperion city: the front lines

Major Stukov snarled as he lifted his accelerator pistol, putting three shots into the head of a charging Ruk infantryman, which exploded in a mess of wet gore. He dearly wished that he still had his other arm, then he would have more than this shitty pistol to fight with, an accelerator rifle however was not a weapon one wielded one handed.

"Forwards, keep pouring it on!" He roared over the weapons fire around him, dropping another one of the beetles as they attempted to blindside one of his men. "Watch your flanks!"

M-7 medium machine guns howled with a malicious glee as they tore apart the rallying Ruk troops, recoiless rifles roared with rage as they continuously fired high explosive shells into enemy infantry concentrations, forcing them to scatter out or risk being pulped, and all the while his infantrymen flit from cover to cover, advancing constantly as they kept up a steady rain of fire on the enemy forces. It was however, not the one sided battle Stukov had hoped it would be.

After the initial surprise the Ruk troops had recovered their wits, and then they began laying down a truly devastating amount of firepower themselves. He watched a bolt of plasma catch a trooper in the chest and smash a burning hole through their bodies, killing them instantly even as his own men retaliated, avenging their brother in arms. Thick beams of plasma scythed across the battlefield, killing anyone they touched even as the weapons gunners were targeted by sniper fire in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Stukov looked past his battlefront towards where the third enemy formation was, and to his grim satisfaction he saw it slowly being ground down by the US guardsmen but he also saw that the guardsmen were much reduced, they were being worn down at an alarming rate, they wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer... still they only needed to hold the enemy inside of the city for a few more minutes...

Phaethon: The cattle pens

Francine Waters was going to die. She had seen other who were taken screaming into the large metal building and she had heard what happened to them. Francine was determined not to let it happen to her. They had taken all of her possessions, as well as those of everyone else for "inventory processing". Stupid aliens hadn't realized they left- no, they had locked her in a pen filled with humanities oldest weapon, the humble rock. It took her twenty minutes to find the gathering of those who were emerging as leaders.

"we can't just sit here-" One said.

"why not? its not like we're being butch-" a second started.

"you dumbass, that's EXACTLY what they're doing" The third growled.

The second held up his hands defensively. "Hey, you don't have any proof of that!"

"don't you hear those screams, that's all the proof I need you quisling." the third said angrily.

"I agree." Francine said as she stepped up to the group. "the question is," she asked tossing her rock up and down in the air, "what are we gonna do about it?"

The first and third looked at the rather petite miss Waters while the second turned away.

"You have a plan little missy?" the first one asked with a hint of an entirely false southern drawl.

"organize, arm, and beat them to death."

"arm ourselves with what?" the second spat.

"Rocks, Rebar, our bare fists if it comes down to it." She snapped back. "Either we die fighting or we get whittled down to the point where we cannot hope to do anything, and then we die anyway as they butcher us alive."

The third man gave her a small smile. "I like your attitude, but that's going to take time..."

"then we'd better get started right? at the very least we can cause some trouble before we go out, draw some resources away from any active resistance." She said offering a hand to the group.

"sounds good to me." the first man said shrugging "Anything's better than sitting in here waiting to die."

The second man shook his head. "You all are crazy, I'm out."

"Go on, run back to your little corner, come out when you're ready do do something other than cry to mommy." the third spat, glaring at the retreating form of the second.

"I'm Hank Cartwright, that's Mark Young." The first man, Hank said shaking Francine hand.

"Major Francine Waters, US Home guard. She replied with a sharklike smile. "Now, lets get to work."

Hyperion city: Ruk base camp

Groundmaster snarled as he looked at the report. sector seven's Groundleader was dead, as were two thirds of his in region officer corps. They appeared to have been assassinated via area saturation with those damnable cannons, or precision fire from enemy sharpshooters. That section's Groundleader had been at least a semi competent underling, his loss stung a bit. Furthermore, some of his small outlying defensive posts had gone silent, including the one at the Human datacache, far away from the front lines where they were attacking... he didn't like this at all... he was missing something, something important, but he didn't know what.

Furthermore, Voidmaster was offline and apparently the fleet had been fighting for its life with some form of unknown enemy combat vessels. He had no doubt that they were.. they were human vessels... that meant that this species was spacefaring... this was probably not their home world was it...

"oh... damn." The Groundmaster stepped back from his table. If this wasn't their home, then they had stepped in some seriously deep shit... if they fought like this for a colony world... that thought was troubling. He hoped this was the last he would be seeing of this nightmare species for a very long time. Lek Koz had a sinking feeling in his stomachs that it would not be.

"Groundmaster, we have a report from the stockades that the captives are revolting!" one of his subordinates reported, running into his command center, desperately attempting to fill his lungs with the worlds rich atmosphere.

"You have got to be joking..." the Groundmaster groaned, "WHY WON'T THIS SPECIES JUST GIVE UP AND DIE?" They shook their heads, slowly attempting to calm themselves. "Do I have to do everything myself, or can I trust the regional groundmaster to handle a few unarmed angry civilians?"

The messenger did not give the groundmaster the reply he was looking for, and ten minutes later his headless corpse was ejected from the command center.

TUSS Hyperion: Engineering bay

Pioter hesitantly activated the control panel in the Hyperion's engineering bay. It was old, but the technology was well cared for, the entire engineering section was kept well maintained due to the reactors. The pannel whirred to life, exposing a series of bars and technical information.

"Sargent, I have no idea what I'm looking at..." Pioter called out.

"that's because you're looking at the reactor controls." Chernov explained as he swiped on the panel, bringing up a series of diagnostics that were far more recognizable.

"See, much better. Now, Nathan just needs to override the safety lockouts."

Hyperion city: the front lines

"Once the guardsmen are eliminated they'll gain a mobile reserve formation..." Stukov said quietly. "Then, they can try to run up one of the flanks and wipe us out, we're already barely killing them fast enough. Still... we only need to hold out for a few more minutes."

"Sir..." Stukov's new adjutant asked nervously "what are we holding out for...?"

The Major turned to glance at the young man, it was a pitty to waste tallent like this, but desperate times afterall did call for desperate measures, "Didn't you read your briefing adjutant?" He asked, taking the tone of a teacher in a classroom.

"No Major, I didn't have time, I got it and then we initiated operations immediately." The Adjutant replied looking charinged. "I tried to catch up on the march, but every time I thought we had time someone started shooting at us."

"Very well adjutant, I suppose I'll have to inform you then." Stukov replied calmly, his arms crossing. "Do you remember how our forefathers got to this world?" The Major asked patiently.

"Yes, by Colony ship, the Hyperion yes?" The adjutant replied confused. "We were taught that in primary school."

"And how did Hyperion get here?" Stukov asked like a parent to a child.

"Well... by Demispace of course." The adjutant replied, a notion of an idea slowly growing int he back of his mind.

"Now, you are aware of the interactions between a demispace drive and electrostatic shielding, such as what was used to help airbreak and land Hyperion correct?" Stukov said with a predatory smile.

The Adjutant went pale. "t-thermonuclear detonation?" He asked as the horrifying realization finally clicked into place.

"Of course, and the more power pumped into said shielding..." Stukov said leaving the scentance unfinished.

"Hyperion has twelve Fusion reactors..." The Adjutant gasped, the terror in his chest made him barely able to breathe.

Stukov nodded for the adjutant to go on, gently nudging the younger man to expand upon his thoughts, it was fitting after all for him to get to return to the job he loved for the last few minutes of his life.

"We're holding out for that...? Just to die here?"

"As the American Lieutenant up in that apartment complex said, there is always a way to win, sometimes you just have to change the definition a bit. Besides, scorched earth has always been a bit of a Russian tradition no?" The former history teacher asked with a cold laugh.

TUSS Hyperion: Engineering bay

"Emergency Safety lockouts have been overridden." Nathan said with a gulp.

"Not having second thoughts are you old friend?" Pioter asked quietly.

Nathan shook his head. "They took everything from me... from you, from all of us..."

Chernov looked at the two men and nodded. "Gentlemen, its been a pleasure."

"Likewise." Nathan said.

"Even if you were a bit of a pain in the ass... it was nice knowing you Sargent." Pioter said pulling a trio of glass bottles from his bag and passing them around. "To our lives," He said popping off the cap.

"And too their deaths." Sargent Chernov finished as he took a long drink from the bottle. Then, he flipped a small black switch.

When matter from demispace is brought into contact with an electrostatic feild generator, it causes uncontrolled nuclear fusion, the more powerful the electrostatic field, the more massive the detonation. Under normal circumstances, weaponizing this interaction is considered neither cost nor result efficient, due to the simple resources involved and the fact that pound for pound atomic weapons are more compact, cheaper, and have a higher yield per kilogram of fusion material since only aproximately half of the energy generated by this interaction ever even leaves demispace.

However despite all of these flaws, the result is not any less lethal as the full might of all twelve of Hyperion's ancient fusion reactors was momentarily re-routed into her electrostatic shield systems, gently caressing the rift into demispace that was, for the tiniest fraction of a second, opened by the flick of a small black switch.

The results of Chernov's final actions were visible from space as an estimated one hundred and fifteen megaton fusion detonation consumed the entire city in a ravenous wave of nuclear hellfire. The blast generated a mushroom cloud over a hundred and twenty kilometres tall, flattened anything within a hundred kilometres and killed anyone within two hundred, every living being within three hundred received third degree flash burns as the thermal pulse washed over the landscape igniting thousands of small brush fires.

In the crater that once was Hyperion city, the ghost of a dead Russian Major laughed and clinked glasses with an American Lieutenant. The fleet might have lost, but the Guard had won, all they'd had to do was change their definition of victory. The dead had done their part... now it was up to others to carry on their work.

The cattle pens

the fighting between the Humans and the Ruk had stopped for a moment as both sides watched the rapidly approaching light, the howling roar of the detonation filled the air as it raced ahead of the blast wave.

Major Francine waters looked up at the rapidly expanding fireball and nodded. "Godspeed." Then she clubbed a Ruk over the head with her rock, and the moment of silence was broken as the two sides went back to fighting viciously for control of the cattle pens.