Tailang and Yuelang; or, generally, Tai and Yue; were, according to the propaganda arm of the People's Republic, the most powerful metas on earth, and the direct descendants of chairman Mao. This, of course, was nonsense. The two seeming teenagers, a young man and woman who were the ideal of strong, capable, Chinese soldiers, were the children of a young woman who'd been cleaning up trash a from the aftermath of a leak in a local nuclear plant; and while her children miraculously not only survived to be born, but would grow up to become titans; both they and their mother were rendered infertile by the radiation exposure.
They were also currently just south of the Mexican border; looking north. This country was beautiful, vibrant, green... a highway could just barely be made out in the distance, a sign with '307' just barely perceptible as the long strip of concrete curved away to the northwest. Tai glanced at his sister, shaking his head. "This is foolishness. There are thousands of people here. Normal, common folk. Yes, machines are among them, but they are not killing them; we are."
Yue sighed, and sat down on the hilltop. "Of course there are. People are everywhere, infesting this world like a plague. A few less will make no difference. More will be born tomorrow. But those machines there? We should be wiping the entire continent out, to be safe. Burn Guatemala to ash to form a firebreak, and just keep going north until there is ice beneath our feet. But if we can't do that... making the opening strikes to make less of our soldiers die is the least we can do. Besides. We have our orders. They don't need both of us for this, of course. I can handle it on my own, if you'd like to stay back."
Tai ground his foot into the dirt, staring downward. "...No. Is it time?"
Yue lifts up her watch. "...Yes. It is time, brother."
He gave a slow inhale... and pointed his hand to the north. It began to glow. First red-hot. Then white-hot. Yue nodded at him, and did the same, just pointed a bit further to the east; her own hand forming a startling blue-white crackle of electricity. "Serve the people, brother."
"For the middle kingdom, sister."
Warned by the timer counting down, the thousands of Chinese soldiers waiting for the advance ducked down, covered their ears... and were still shaken by the massive shockwave, as a rolling mass of fire and lightning rocked the countryside. Trees were burned, homes turned to ash, pavement and mountain alike turned into rubble as a wave of devastation obliterated everything in its path.
***
Ten miles away, a signpost labeled 'Nuevo Huixtan' was blown off of its post; the fragment of metal flying, partially molten, through the air and embedding into the ruins of a home.
The people inside that home, huddled in the basement, were trapped beneath the rubble; a small family, half a dozen ordinary people, ending their lives in the first moments of the war. Just past the ruined structure, a partially molten machine, one arm fused to its torso, its camera unit head rendered completely nonfunctional, used its remaining limb to lift up a small plate; revealing a well, hundreds of feet deep, ending in a fairly expansive cave.
Machines began to climb upwards, using bolts mounted in the stone wall for handholds. The invasion of its claimed territory was beginning. It had only had a few days to prepare once it had made its presence public; but it had had over six months before that to make its defenses in secret. The Ascension would not be thwarted by a few simple explosions.
Swiftly, quietly, before the dust settled, the machines began to hide controllers in the rubble. Anyone who came to investigate could be turned into a Pale One, and used against its fellows. They were left with instructions to remain inert, initially, if they encountered a soldier; not to activate until they either had a chance to possess an officer, or were at risk of destruction.
These humans placed great importance on officers, needed them to keep military affairs organized. This reliance would, of course, be used against them.
***
Hundreds of miles to the north, the alarm sounded. The Chinese were about to launch their offensive; which meant the machines would likely respond almost immediately. Jets, ready to bomb their targets, already on seeming patrol, surged out over Mexico, accelerating to substantial speeds as they moved in; smart bombs, cruise missiles, and a variety of ordinance all launched even as the shockwave was dying down to the south; former nuclear sites, factories, military bases, all being crushed by US air support... before the planes turned around to return, refuel, and make another strike.
Most of them never returned. Drones; clearly modified structures based on existing designs from NATO; had lifted off when the planes crossed the border. Waiting til the targets began to turn around to head home, at the slowest part of their trajectory, thousands of dark red machines hurtled into the sky, missiles and flak shells bursting high in the sky; out of the three hundred jets that crossed the border, only sixty-two returned.
While these losses were greater than expected, almost all of the planes hit their targets; so the next wave was launched. Over two thousand jets taking off this time; mostly made up of F-16s, F-35s, and the latest F-40s; different ages and capabilities of highly advanced jet aircraft. Data provided from the first fly-over of high concentrations of electrical signatures that might be machines... or unfortunately things like civilian data centers or radio towers... had been pinpointed. While the first wave had made it to their targets mostly unmolested... this second wave was forced to confront the AI drones in the air, already launched and prepared. While they wouldn't lose as great a proportion, overall losses would be much heavier this time... but would serve to give more information to the third wave, already preparing for launch.
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***
Eyeball watched the villains and soldiers around him preparing. One of the 'Big Bads'; the infamous Lord of Iron, a deadly mutant whose ability to control and animate any metal he touched extended to things the size of skyscrapers; was marching forward inside a 'suit'; really just a massive statue animated by his power, with long lengths of naval anchor chains; complete with the anchors still at the end of them... dragging behind it, ready to be used as weapons.
He'd caught sight of Valkyrie herself; giving a few words of caution to Butch before she'd stepped out; and a rough, loosely organized mass of villains was headed out. By prior agreement, they would all march on the largest concentration of machines they were aware of; a force of, at least, thousands in Mexicali. At the same time, the heroes would be marching on an equally large group in Tijuana; and the Army would be supporting both groups. If the battle went well, and they drove the machines into retreat, they would sweep the area for any stragglers, and then plan the next step.
The neat divisions of the border crossed right through MexiCali; they were walking down streets, next to schools and cell phone stores, with the border just ahead... he could see one of the machines, emerging from the backdoor of a fast food resterant, raising its rifle, just before it actually did so; and opened fire with a burst of 15mm rifle rounds.
The machine stepped out, raised its gun... and collapsed as its CPU was torn apart by the first high-velocity bullet. A few of the nearby villains laughed. One even clapped Eyeball on the back... "The first of many, titanslayer! The first of many!"
Eyeball then saw... a bright flash. A wave of red. Crying out to the nearby villains, "GET DOWN!" He reached out, grabbing Butcher by the leg and tripping him to the ground, falling beside him; a concrete road barricade forming the closest available cover.
A loud, staccato burst of fire from at least half a dozen rifles; the booming sound of some sort of heavier ordinance; artillery? A tank cannon? Flying overhead. The wall of the 'Rally's' was coming apart, the machines firing right through the drywall and the outer brick facade; sustained bursts that found marks in dozens of villains. Some of them made it to cover. Others didn't. He could feel hot blood splatter down his back, and knew that, whoever he was, the villain who'd just been congratulating was no longer of this world.
Throwing an EMP grenade at the rooftop, Eyeball waited for just the right moment; and when it went off, he suddenly lifted up, firing several bursts... and then dropped back behind cover, just before the machines recovered enough to start firing back.
Whatever that big gun was, it was a threat to the heavies on his team. He needed to find it and...
A four-legged monstrosity of a machine; probably their version of a tank was seen flying into the air, an anchor chain wrapped around it. The Lord of Iron was marching through the streets, calling out his inevitable victory against these feeble machines as he smashed them apart, sending a few of the tank-like robots flying through the air, casually crushing buildings, destroying masses of them as his statue absorbed rifle fire and grenades without problem.
One of the tank-like machines managed to get a shot off at the Lord of Iron; a high-powered shell the size of a man's arm spearing through it; whatever metal he'd made the statue of, it wasn't tough enough to survive tank shells.
At first, things seemed fine. The Lord of Iron laughed. "Almost got me, you bloody machines! Not close enough, though! I wouldn't be stupid enough to stand right in the middle of.." A sudden, horrific scream of pain over the loudspeaker. The statue stopped moving. And then... it turned around, dragging the anchor chains behind it... and started to march towards the US.
There was widespread confusion. In the immediate area, other villains were exchanging fire with machines; the heavily armored villains in the vanguard able to survive long enough to close with and destroy the machines. But The Lord of Iron's silence, and retreat, had more than one villain looking back, wondering what was going on, as the statue walked right beside a US Army tank, one of dozens moving forward to support the villains...
And then stomped on it. The massive statue crushed the turret directly into the base of the tank, sending smoke rising and instantly killing its unfortunate crew. Eyeball stared at the statue. He... didn't have any weapons on him that could hurt the Lord of Iron while he was in that thing. Maybe... He tapped the side of his helmet. "Emerald! The tank shell must've hit close to him. Really close.. and put a controller inside. The Lord of Iron is a Pale One! See if you can do something!"
***
Emerald was currently flying, a few hundred meters up; keeping an eye on Eyeball and his surroundings, using a grenade launcher since, unfortunately, she couldn't get much accuracy out of a rifle with her constant flapping. She'd done as Eyeball requested; while she couldn't do anything for her arms and legs... or wings... from Ascension gunfire, she'd managed to find an armored helmet and vest that Eyeball had agreed would work; and a nice polymer coating that felt absolutely horrifying on her scales, but should keep Pale Ones from digging in.
She still felt strangely exhilarated after her meeting with Fade; Eyeball hadn't explained what was going on at the time, but promised to inform her once the fight was over; and that it was all good news. Whatever it was... flying was easier than it had ever been before. She was clocking in well past 150. Had she been drugged? Was this some new variant of Reflex? Whatever it was, it felt amazing...
And she could see the hole Eyeball was talking about. Diving down... narrowly avoiding a swinging statue arm.. she switched to an EMP grenade, and slammed head-first into the statue's shoulder; pressing her launcher directly into it, firing the grenade off through the pre-existing hole, hoping the Lord of Iron was still close enough to be hit.
Thankfully, he was... after one last, desultory swing at the gnat on its side, the statue simply went limp... and remained standing there on the street. Emerald climbed up to stand atop the head, looking out at the battlefield... and gave a grunt, as a solid impact struck her chest; feeling like someone had just kicked her in the ribs. She fell back off of the statue, barely catching herself and starting to flap once more, heading upwards. She tapped her headset twice; the signal for a broad transmission.
"Everybody, keep anyone who isn't bulletproof away from the controllers! if one of our heavy energy users gets turned into a Pale One and it can use their powers, we're fucked!"