Siren's Elegy Volume 1: Orphans of Ashen Earth

Chapter 54: Conquest

October 04, 4021 09:33 [Lahab Mutajamid Desert]

The air had become ashen, and the sands were stained red with the blood of friend and foe alike. Amidst a sea of confusion stood Akula, lashing out at anything that didn't adorn the insignia of Yuèliàng. The Lancers had been deployed, charging at the fortress with a terrifying purpose.

Though it aimed to encircle the battalion, the Levantan Mobile Fortress now found itself engaged in combat with the greater portion of Yuèliàng's armed forces. Had they waited for the regiments to disperse accordingly, their situation may have fared better. Yet, as they were, the Levantans faced a dangerous prospect.

It was only reasonable then that they should launch as much of their military might as the mobile fortress' capacity allowed for. Its ground compartments opened to heights mirroring those of the Lancers, almost as if inviting their enemy inside. However, these compartments held a new kind of vehicle; one whose purpose was to subjugate Homunculi, not that of raging metal behemoths.

Still, the need to survive begot adaptation and that was precisely what the Levantans did—they adapted. Ghastly machines wrought of iron and steel, puffed black smoke as Virya deposits stoked their fires; they were as large in stature as the Lancers themselves, though ten were not nearly as powerful as one of the Uturian models.

What these machines lacked in power, they made up for in number, clashing with the Lancers in a brutal fashion. They threw themselves and their weaponry to the slaughter, content in their sacrifice, so long as they slowed their enemy enough for their comrades to land a strike to the hull.

Beams of energy rained down upon the battlefield, scorching the earth and blooming glass from the superheated sands.

"Machina!" Dot exclaimed over the radio.

"Focus on providing cover fire!" Hart ordered. "Mirai, Gauss! We'll work on breaching the walls of the fortress. Anari and Kafka, deal with the Machina and see if you can take out the outer turrets and railguns—give our troops a little breathing room! Ground troops, protect the supplies, and stay alive. Follow Temujin's orders!"

"Yes, sir!" they stated in unison.

Akula had lost sight of the mechanics in the chaos, attempting to contact Aisha, only to hear static over the speaker. He grew panicked as the situation devolved around him. Soldiers were massacred in droves, their entrails spilling out.

A myriad of scents assaulted Akula's senses. The innumerable sources of blood attacked his nose from such a range of directions he could not differentiate a single progenitor. It all became a wave of the same metallic odor.

He could smell the aftermath. The air was putrid; the acrid aroma of burnt flesh lingered throughout. The noxious atmosphere and the carnage that ensued made Akula sick to his stomach.

He had seen death before—on numerous occasions. Yet, this was beyond the scope of his imagination. Death was not swift here; it was painful and agonizing. He witnessed a man crawling across the battlefield as his organs spilled out of his severed torso. His blood seeped into the sand, wetting it as his movements slowed and his eyes stared blankly into the distance.

Another held the side of his face, trying in vain to cover a wound that had had the tissue ripped from it, leaving parts of the skull visible. He whimpered softly, rocking back and forth as he cried out for his mother.

Machina rushed past the Lancers, breaking rank as they launched an assault on the ground troops. Blasts of energy from their shoulder cannons and their sheer size devastated the regiments as the machines vaporized some and pulverized others underfoot.

Temujin relayed orders swiftly and efficiently, directing the regiments into formations to carry out countermeasures against the Machina. A combination of Traits and weaponry felled many a machine as their forces collided.