Nobody could have anticipated the sheer ferocity of the Cruxi assault as it came planetside. As their communications were mostly disabled, the Planetary Defence Force went into disarray. PDF troopers, despite their determination, were mowed down by the superior firepower of the green-clad troopers, the streets soon filling with rivers of blood and streaks of green plasma. The troopers in Troas were especially hit hard by their lack of command as they were caught in crossfires like blind rats in the rain. Joppa on the other hand fared better, thanks to Caretaker's Hyperwave Array and planning with the local commanders granting some semblance of order and stability in the otherwise chaos-filled districts. A cacophony of screams and weaponry blared out across the colonies as a grim battle unfolded. But above, an even bigger clash ensued, as titans trampled over buildings while struggling for supremacy.
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In Troas, counterattack was immediately initialized against the alien invaders, with some pilots looking to avenge their fallen officer. AA-XOTRY moved to intercept the Cruxi Tentacle Beast located in the north-west of the colony. As soon as the creature saw her, it grabbed the two buildings in front of it and slingshot itself through the air, aiming a claw straight at the light Frame, seemingly as single-minded in its carnage as a mindless animal. With the bounding creature in a direct line of sight, the red Framewerk swung its glowing sword and shot out a razor wind of subatomic particles. The attack proved effective against the nightmarish mix of flesh and metal as most of its tentacles were cleaved in two. The creature crashed through an entire block of the neighborhood, crushing it to rubble. However, this only caused the beast to turn more angry as it lifted its head and screamed with enough force to break glass, revealing to bleed a green slime as it charged at Serah with the speed of a bullet train, writhing tentacles shooting right at her. It seemed the poor girl was about to meet an unfortunate fate...

Until Yeager burst into the fray with lightning speed. Though Roger fumbled over his controls and caught a hospital with the Frame's foot, almost falling down while demolishing it utterly, he nonetheless managed to keep his motion through the air, and arrived at the nick of time between Serah and the foul bioweapon; covered in dust, but nonetheless ready to fight. The machine gun, despite it's humble roots, still ripped apart the aberration in such a close distance, filling it full of holes and sending it falling down right before the two of them. The sinuous appendages flailed in the air, and the cut ones spurted out green gunk at high pressure like disgusting hoses, splashing over the crimson Framewerk's chassis in a lewd manner before life finally left them. With the pressure reduced from the north-west, Magus relocated to position. Still unprepared after his initial shot failed, Daniel could only wait for his capacitors to recharge. Only time could tell whether he would last long enough before he was overpowered.

Alongside her comrade, Eiswolf also engaged the enemy. Already having taken a defensive position, it didn't take long before POLARIS re-adjusted the weapon's scope to a southern Cruxi machine that was responsible for Harold's death. The trigger was pulled, and the Rail projectile screamed through the air as it found its mark right in the center of it's body, between armor plates. The sniper fell over with naught but a shrill yet flowing electric sound, akin to a drowned computer. With the unit neutralized, Eiswolf moved into formation, with Sigma nearly back-to-back with the other two remaining members of their squad.

The northern sniper unit was visibly affected by the southern unit's destruction, as it dropped down to street level by uncoiling it's wire-like composition, unable to be hit by long-ranged fire. Then, in it's low position, it slithered through the streets, dashing to the northwest. It lingered just outside the firing range of Mist, who seemed to float idly in the middle of the warzone, seemingly oblivious. However, a careful eye saw how the patterns of colors and iridescent hues that randomly shone on the glow seemed to somehow react to the events around it, like a red streak that flashed when Roger made his move. It was clear the seemingly eldritch thing had an awareness to it, and that it seemed to bid it's time before flooding the earth of the sinful like the God of ancient scriptures.

The tentacle beasts around Troas sniffed the air and growled as they pounded on all fours, running closer towards the cluster of human machines with malicious intent. The southern squad of Cruxi War Machines was still shooting Rostosov's remains when Eiswolf's shot went past them. They then turned around, and moved in to attack Eiswolf and the rest. The three seemed to act unnaturally efficiently as they leapfrogged each other in perfect harmony despite their unreadable random patterns; it was almost like they could read each other's minds, so synced were they in their actions. 

However, Serah played the chess game several moves ahead, and had a barrier shield covering her vulnerable rear as it reflected the shots from the plasma cannons, saving her squad in the proximity. However, the wing overheated and broke from the sheer barrage of infernal death. As the other death squads moved away from Mist, the guardians of humanity still persevered with no additional casualties. But the enemies were closing in on them in a tide of chittering metal and snarling jaws, and already their defenses were breaking down. Was this to be the last stand of Squad Alpha?
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Joppa, while as bogged down in the emerald hell as the other colony, had a more valiant resistance to their fighters, with PDF soldiers ripping and tearing the huge guts of their demonic enemies. Katya Romanovna, the brave field officer of squad Bravo, howled tactical commands even as the PDF building was blasted with pure plasma. Thankfully the structure proved as durable as human souls of greatest steel, and Katya countered with a well placed burst of neon rounds. Katya used the support of the building to her advantage as scratching light blue streaks hit their target across the distance, and the bolts of energy severely damaged the war machine, causing it to stagger from the impact and lean on a crumbling building with a dismembered leg.

Elora breathed heavily, her hands shaking as she gripped the controls. This was it, the moment of truth. This was the moment that she has trained for her entire short life; that she has been created for, she thought to herself. A massive panic began to surface when she spotted swarms of ant-like shapes running around, burned to ashes by the spreading alien fires. But this time, it wasn't her fault. She was there to save these people. Her eye only twitched as Katya's voice shouted out of her communications. She nodded, her mind forgetting that her superior couldn't see the body language. "Acknowledged," she said, not a stutter in her voice as she activated the cloaking device, and blinked out of visual existence. "Engaging F2."

She felt disturbingly serene as she dashed through the battlefield like an outside observer, past the squad of killer mechas that were out to murder her friends as if they were only passerby people on a street. She guessed Lorenzo did something right when he subjected her to the horrors of the mock battle, as having lived through that nightmare, she knew what to expect. And just like what happened in that traumatizing training session she began her scanning protocols on the sniper, not giving a thought that she was floating next to a horrible wiry mass with the only objective of causing death. 

Once she was done collecting the data she transferred it to her squad. With no time to attack it, she decided to instead simply appear before it. And just as she thought, the long-ranged machine immediately dropped down to the street and slithered away. However, Logic Gate was suddenly taken from behind by tentacles, and Elora shrieked in horror as she realized the snarling monster dashed right up to her rear; if she had more combat experience she could have avoided the grapple from dashing such a long range, but right now her egg Frame was tightly wrapped up in the slimy appendages, free for it to do whatever pleased it. "Help!" She screamed, hoping someone would rescue her from the most unfortunate of fates.

Black Star creaked as it crouched down and then blasted off. It still felt clunky and unresponsive, but Zero was able to overcome his issues with pure practice; having trained in VR how to advance from cover to cover between buildings, he zig-zagged to the trio with only getting a single hit of a plasma cannon to his armor wings, causing it to weaken from the heavy mass of energy. The scythe-wielding Frame struck the enemy, but the outcome was left unclear as suddenly a volley of tungsten slugs from Paladin's mighty Pmpey weapon system impacted and sent Zero flying. When the dust cloud cleared, he was surprised to see that the entire group was eliminated right then and there, the wreckage lying scattered in pieces and one with it's torso cleanly cut in half. However, to his horror he realized that Black Star lost both Armor Wings to Pompey, akin to the volcanic end to the ancient Greek city. Zim also lost 2% of his Synchronization Rate from the painful, yet horribly real experience.

Neo Angel moved to attack the southeastern aberration, and landed a double shot of cannon-sized armaments to the creature. The beast cried out and staggered in pain, yet it was still alive as it slingshot itself right into Neo Angel's face, one eye bleeding out green fluids right on top of the formerly pristine Frame, tainting it's wings. Then the beast seemingly died out of nowhere. At first Mai didn't realize why, until the critical damage screens appeared; the Frame was shot by a lone, undisturbed Cruxi sniper who got her in a clear line of sight. The Frame fell down, having been pierced in the middle, and dropped one of the magnum pistols it was holding, forcing her to stay in place and search for it during her turn, or flee without it. Mai felt her synchronization dropping by 4% due to the pain she felt in her own gut. 

With one Frame falling, the other Cruxi pressed their advantage. The central squad of Cruxi dashed right nearby the mess where Black Star was left lying, while the southern squad retreated outside Mist's radius; the weapon, like it's Troas counterpart, had it's surface of colors react to the battles, with a big yellow circle spreading when Paladin's barrage hit it's mark. And like it's brother, it simply stayed there, like a spectator to a gruesome Colosseum fight. Despite Katya's best efforts, they were still faced with a verminous tide of alien monstrosities, and already they are incurring damage. At this rate there may be none left to stand before the might of the Xenos...