-=+ +=- [COMPLETED] The Second Universe -=+ +=-

Part 14: Destroy Tyranny

After this, the likely thousands of ships located in orbit launched thousands of cruise and ballistic missiles towards specified targets pinged by fighters, which crashed through the atmosphere like a ridiculous meteor shower and, after a little trouble with point defense batteries, reduced the targets to dust. A low amount of missiles were stopped by the point defense batteries, which was obviously not enough to prevent the attack.

Important buildings that stood as symbols of the CROS' history and served as political centers for discussions that were likely built over years were now completely destroyed in seconds, and an unlucky missile fabricator facility was also hit. The resulting explosion from the ordnance stockpiled and being prepared for shipment caused an explosion larger than a nuclear detonation.

The mushroom cloud was visible from space with the naked eye, and the explosion obviously caused immense amounts of cheering to come over every communications frequency tied to that specific battle. The cheering died down a few minutes later as every political building tied to government on the planet was annihilated by more precision airstrikes, bombs falling and railguns firing down.

Pillars of smoke rose from the city and from the destroyed communications nodes, damage control teams on the CROS side swooping in and attempting to control the damage and repair the buildings, then also themselves having bombs dropped on them. This would turn out to be a slight political blunder because the bombs would also accidentally hit civilians attempting to evacuate the area.

Air bases activated their air defenses if they hadn't already and started firing into the sky. Plenty of them were unable to use automated guidance systems due to NWU fighters equipped with jammers, and those who tried to push their radars to the limit simply had their signals locked onto and blasted with either ship guns or missiles. Several fighter squadrons moved to attack the air bases in earnest.

Bombs came screaming down from above the clouds, slamming into the bases and killing tens of personnel with each blast. More explosions now coming from gun systems, both on aircraft and ships in far orbit, rained thousands upon thousands of munitions on the air bases. A lot of them were cratered, and the last ones still functional were pounded with even more bombs. 

Anti air and CRAM-type fire from concealed locations in the city switched from typical thaumaturgic guided systems to AI visual identification systems. However, these systems required increased power to function, and thus could still be spotted by searching for especially high concentrations of thaumaturgy.

The NWU's sensor systems were not yet advanced enough to notice these systems, and thus, the anti-air systems would remain concealed. The main reason for usually not using AI optical identification is due to its lack of accuracy due to a further lack of CROS interest and investment in the technology, and the ever present threat of AI taking over their military assets.

Enemy missile and gunfire intensified, and explosions now seemed to have started replacing the bright, blue sky of the CROS homeworld. The NWU's fighters were still struggling, but the amount of rounds flying into the air essentially also lit up the aforementioned CROS AA batteries like fireworks.

Retaliatory missile strikes grew abundant, and the amount of explosions hitting the sky thinned slowly. More command centers were hit; entire batteries of anti-air going dark and ceasing their attack. However, across the planet, thousands of batteries still remained in operational condition and continued firing at the NWU's fighters and bombers.

A fleet of Enigma Corps ATM-47s dropped from the clouds, dropping tens of thousands of drones from their dispensers all across the planet. The drones opened fire on whatever wasn't marked as an ally with twin-barreled 30mm modified chainguns, forming into 'swarms of death'. Naturally, the anti-aircraft guns shifted to these much more numerous targets, downing hundreds in seconds due to their close proximity to each other.