July 11th, Year 714 A.G.

09:13am.

BZZZ!

The city-wide Energy Shield that covered all of Leviathan Quay shuddered under the bombardment of the invaders.

Despite the fact that hundreds of transports managed to make their way into the city before the city shield came online, the others weren't just content to retreat after being locked out.

Instead, they bombarded the energy shield from orbit.

The Federation didn't bombard the state of the art energy shield with the kinetic weapons of their transports and warships like Mass Drivers or their Railguns though. That would have been futile, it would be like throwing moths to a flame.

Instead, they used specialized weapons that were prepared for this scenario.

They commenced this invasion with comprehensive knowledge about the infamous energy shield of Leviathan Quay and they prepared for it.

Instead of kinetic projectile weapons, they bombarded the shield with their disruptor torpedoes.

Warhead-carrying missiles that were specially designed for high-energy emissions to collapse energy shields descended on the barrier, disrupting and destabilizing the shield, pushing its endurance to the limit as the shield's internal workings began firing on overdrive and struggling to maintain its integrity.

BZZZZZZZZZZT!

The energy shield shuddered violently.

Leviathan Quay's energy shield was by far the most expensive and the biggest technological marvel of the city alongside the Megabases.

The energy expenditure and expenses to maintain the shield for a single minute ranged in the tens of thousands of Neo Credits.

For every minute that the shield stayed online, money burned.

For every hour that the energy shield stayed online, millions of Neo Credits were burned.

But there was a facet for this sacrifice, and that was the fact that the energy shield came with a guarantee for quality and endurance.

The integrity of Leviathan Quay's energy shield have not been truly tested in centuries since it was first created.

Yet now, the Federation was testing the endurance of this technological marvel with their own application of specialized technology weapons.

The conflagration of energy from the disruptor torpedoes quickly made the energy shield start burning, turning hot red and painting the sky a bloody shade of red even as the heat levels of the energy shield skyrocketed.

…

Inside Megabase 024, the control center of the energy shield.

Inside the biggest chamber of this Megabase where dozens of NetRunners and Mechanists monitored the hardware infrastructure of the energy shield, these operators became restless as the evaluation A.Is projected numbers that they've never seen from the shield before.

[WARNING!] [WARNING!] [WARNING!]

["Shield surface temperature has exceeded 100000 centigrade!"]

["Extreme stress detected on Southern Wall! Breach imminent! Redundancy methods automatically triggered! Energy redirection recommended…!"]

["Energy overload warning…!"]

["Energy overload warning…!"]

["Energy overload warning…!"]

The Mechanists and NetRunners in this important chamber of Megabase 024 stared at the projected values with helpless looks on their faces.

They were terrified.

For most of them, they've been working and serving the Gene Army in Leviathan Quay for decades.

Some were transferred here in recent years but one common factor about all of them was that no matter what kind of attack or beast tide that Leviathan Quay suffered over the years, the city-wide energy shield always maintained its sovereignty in the face of attacks.

This was because in the last few centuries, after repeated skirmishes from the Federation, the Geneforge Clans went all out to fortify their 3 main cities.

The city-wide energy shield was not a local product of the Geneforge Clans, it was an international product negotiated and bought from the major ally of the Geneforge Clans, the Synth Order.

The energy shield was a magnum opus of the Synth Order.

In the whole world, the Synth Order was the only faction who could boast of matching the Federation's technological strength even if they could not quite match up in their military power.

To make up for their shortcomings in the never-ending fight against the Omnicore Federation, centuries ago, both factions entered an alliance where the Synth Order provides technology while the Geneforge Clans provide manpower.

All this meant that since over 200 centuries ago when the alliance started and the cities were fortified with the energy shields, never have they come close to being breached and never have their energy come close to being overloaded.

And yet, today, both were happening.

The combined attacks of the Category 3 Beast Tide in the Southern Wall and the bombardment from orbit was pushing the energy shield to its limit.

Leviathan Quay was witnessing history but not in the way they wanted.

…

Megabase 025.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Above the Megabase was a constant fiery blossom of explosions as the air force of the Megabase clashed against the invading forces of the Federation.

Inside a massive hall in the Megabase, the high-ranking intelligence officer of the Gene Army in charge of the Megabase, Captain Holloway had a look of shock and horror on his face as he beheld the violence happening above him.

The clash of warships and military air transports made it seem like the heavens were burning and raining fire.

Leviathan Quay was veiled in a shade of red.

It felt like the world was coming to an end.

Captain Holloway was shaken but having received orders from Major Roshfield a few moments ago, he knew what he had to do.

'I have to call for reinforcements from Sprawl Delta and Verdanthold!"

The Federation forces clearly planned this invasion attempt for months if not years and they came prepared.

The Category 3 Beast Tide was just one of their plans to disrupt the reaction of the city.

Apart from the Beast Tide, with their NetRunner dominance, they blanketed Leviathan Quay's connection to the outside world, meaning no one outside knew about the invasion yet.

Leviathan Quay was essentially cut off from the rest of the world, they could not call for help!

As the most high-ranking intelligence officer of the Gene Army in Leviathan Quay, it fell into Captain Holloway's jurisdiction to figure out and break through the blanket of the Federation army to call for reinforcements.

And as the Megabase designated for intelligence operations, Megabase 025 had technology in place to brute-force through most WLAN blankets with effort.

Afterall, with their centuries of war experience, it would be extremely negligent of the Geneforge City if they didn't have measures in place to break through an information blockage when they had an enemy like the Federation even if they haven't personally experienced it before.

It was this lack of personal experience that made Captain Holloway slow to react in the face of the city coming under such a fearsome siege.

Due to being shaken by the sudden nature of the invasion, he couldn't react even as soldiers mobilized to intercept and fight the invaders.

It was not until Major Roshfield's message that he recovered.

'I need to call for reinforcements!'

His eyes gleamed, regaining focus as his whole body began radiating determination. He felt angry at himself for being so slow to react in such a critical situation.

Once he recovered, he glared at the dozens of NetRunners and intelligence operatives working for him in this hall of the Megabase, then he bellowed.

"BUNCH OF PUSSIES! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?"

"Get to work!" He roared. "Break through that goddamn blanket and get me a call with Verdanthold, I need just 1 phone call!"

"Start, NOW!"

Subjected to his intimidating voice, the intelligence operatives under him finally recovered as they scurried, his rage forcing them to suppress their instinctive fear as they went to work.

Just like he expected, breaking through the blanket of the Federation army was not going to be easy but with an entire Megabase built mainly for intelligence supporting his team, they managed to break through it even if it was for just 30 seconds but that was all Captain Holloway needed.

He quickly grabbed the phone.

"Mayday! Mayday!" He bellowed into the phone. "Leviathan Quay is being invaded by the Federation army!"

"We're on black alert! We need reinforcements!"

"I repeat, we need reinforcements!"

Bzzzt!

Through the interference of the Federation NetRunners, a cracked voice managed to answer.

"Re…peat, what did y…ou… say?"

Captain Holloway's face twisted. "We're under a goddamn f*cking attack! Send reinforcements! We don't have time, it's a black alert emergency!"

"I repeat, send reinforcements!"

Bzzzt!

"The Om…nicore Fe…de…ration?"

"YES!"

"Got it".

10 seconds later, he got both good and bad news.

The good news was that reinforcement were already mobilized from both Sprawl Delta and Verdanthold, but the bad news was that the reinforcement would only arrive in 2 hours and 5 hours respectively from both Gene cities.

The reason wasn't disclosed.

Originally, for military transports shuttling between cities of the Geneforge Clans, it was not supposed to take that long to travel to Leviathan Quay.

Captain Holloway guessed that this was a result of another interference by the Federation, another facet in their planning for this invasion.

They truly didn't leave any stone unturned.

He bit his fingers anxiously as with a twisted expression on his face, he looked up at the sky. "Can we last 2 hours?"

…

Megabase 023.

The massive military base was one of the major military landmarks of the city and if this invasion was to succeed, taking it down was a priority. It was one of the main targets of the invading force.

Above the skies of one of the 2 central Megabases of Leviathan Quay, a battle of epic proportions took place as the air force of the city engaged in a largescale aerial skirmish against the Federation aerial transports.

The military transports of both armies engaged in a dogfight in the skies.

Aerial fights between military-grade transports followed a simple pattern: evade direct sight to the enemy's main weapons, block unavoidable shots with energy shields, and retaliate with your own war weapons while trying as much as possible to manage energy conservation.

It was a lethal dance of metallic war vessels in the skies as gradually and methodically, they tore each other apart.

For this aerial dogfight, Ascended beneath D Rank were not qualified to participate directly in the air.

It was too easy to lose an E Rank Ascended in a battle of this intensity, this was why the battle was dominated by the aerial transports.

But the smaller 10 to 20 meter war vessels were not the ones who ruled the skies, the warships ruled the skies.

Everywhere these behemoths passed, fire and ash rained.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

They rotated between their endless catalogues of weapons while their titanic energy shields blocked all attacks that targeted them.

Laser and pulse beams erupted with the regularity of automatic machine guns. Combined with the bullets raining from the Gatling guns, they gunned down lesser war vessels on both sides with regularity.

From the much bigger compartments housing the Plasma Cannons and Projectors, superheated matter were fired by the warships.

Each shot from the Plasma Cannons delivered significant thermal and kinetic damage enough to shatter the energy shields of smaller air transports in single attacks!

They didn't just have energy weapons either.

From other compartments, Railguns and Mass Drivers fired solid slogs of tungsten and titanium at high velocities at enemy transports, tearing lesser vessels apart!

It was war; it was messy, it was chaotic, and it was bloody.

Brown representing the transports of the Geneforge Clans intertwined with the red of the Omnicore Federation, endlessly clashing in the skies as they ravaged each other apart.

The casualties mounted.

The only individuals who could interfere in the high-intensity skirmish of the aerial war vessels were D Rank Ascended.

Colonel Bam-Bam in his mutated from crashed into the massive air transports of the Omnicore Federation, tearing through their hulls with the natural weapons of his mutated body and his Mace Artifact.

Singlehandedly, he was a weapon of mass destruction and he was the first to stop one of the rampaging warships of the Federation on its tracks.

He couldn't destroy the warship immediately but he stalled it, unleashing devastating attacks at its energy shield to drain it while evading counterattacks.

The Colonel was determined to destroy the warship.

But barely a minute after he started wreaking havoc, his orange ADE painting a canvas of destruction in the sky, an opposing burst of oppressive ADE erupted.

BZZZ!

Neon green ADE burst out of a distant Federation warship as a single existence floated out of it- an A.I Construct with silver hair and cybernetic emerald eyes.

He wore thick black attire with a pair of knee-length gray metallic boots that pulsed with anti-gravity energy, enabling him to fly.

This was a D Ranked Ascended!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.