A tubular protrusion poked out of the mouth of the tent, shaking from carnage rocking the perimeter of the UCL base, its barrel swinging to face the massive unztadtlige weapons platform as all six of the remaining automata began to spread out, focusing their fire on Echo in an attempt to further divide its attention. Deeper into the base, the meat of the enemy forces were engaged in an increasingly protracted battle between high power pot shots from the insurgents and colourful busts of energy-jacketed rounds from the League-backed security forces. For every handful of gun quadripedal gun-walkers staggered back and set ablaze and sputtering from precision rounds, cries rang out as biotech augmented bodies flared their integrated concussion-shield generators, flaring like glass barriers absorbing then reflecting light. Precision volleys of semi-automatic fire were drowned by vicious bursts of automatic fire, forcing the Intransigent back from cover to cover.

The attack was starting to hit its roadbumps and something needed to break sooner or later. The CivSec forces knew that. However they were not expecting the target-marker on their HUD's signifying where Salvatore was positioned to abruptly vanish. The surviving automata paused for a brief moment, scanners thrown off-centre by the abrupt vanishing of the signatures they were using for targeting. Eyes swept the surroundings but the crafty voidhanger was far from the frontline of their perimeter.

Focused on the biggest threat, the elite soldier's sensors picked up the ethereal incursion too late. The EMP rounds had dampened them enough that by the time he had swung around on shakey and struggling legs still bleeding slightly from the needle-rounds, the shotgun's trigger had already been pulled.

The reputation of vrexul weaponry, even when scaled down for usage by less gargantuan species, made itself known by a monstrous kick. Like a wild beast striking his shoulder the weapon howled and shrieked and growled; the sounds blended as one with the spike-burst flash of its barrel lit up the darkened forest hidden by overhead foliage and smoke from the valley. Two slugs slammed then sliced into his side, a chunk of not just his armour but ribs vanishing in fragment of smouldering, distorting ether-burn as bioslugs ripped him open. Charred meat squirting bluish-purple blood, scraped and degraded bone, and complex wiring were visible as the soldier's voice-coms blared white noise before silencing, staggering back as he stumble-dodged away from the voidhanger.

His rifle's grip was loose, spraying wildly as energy-jacketed rounds flew in a wild retaliatory spray at Salvatore. A few of them missed; six automata became five as one's entire torso erupted outwards in sparks and flames from the desperate burst. The trenches torn under his left arm sparked with electricity, regulatory fluids squirting outwards as whatever biosensation inhibitors and medical drugs did their best to diminish the loss. Soon, the rifle fell as his left arm jerked back and he stumbled stunned, feeling the overhwleming, piercing pain of needle rounds through his arm. This time, he needed to pause to seize his hand for a brief second, struggling to try and take out the large drum-mag weapon magnetically attached to his back

The five gun-automata themselves had paused again as the connection to the trooper was severed. They twitched and stuttered, conflicting command instructions struggling to sort themselves out as the five remaining awkwardly tried to retreat backwards. Wild sprays of gunfire shredded cover but glancing shots on the Envenomed would hardly stop their advance or initative. Even the relatively smaller calibre rounds of Alice could pick them off - bodies and heads jerked then sparked as precise needles tore through reinforced torso and skulls. Wires and vital cores were severed and ran through - five became two, barrels smoking and nearing overheat status as they struggled against the increasingly relentless attack.

Echo's lunge sent its bipedal form bounding out of its body, descending with a quip and a deadly bludgeon onto the unsuspecting soldier. Yet at that moment, the tubular protrusion revealed itself - an anti-tank rocket launcher, dumbfire and locally made, dated and hardly worthy of a contemporary interplanetary military.

The Endoform was well out of danger but at these close ranges, even the mighty warform's body was going to feel the hit. Gas hissed and blew out cans of rations and loose miscellanea out of the back of the tent as a shaped armor-piercing projectile shot forth in a blink of a moment. Before the Endoform landed, the missile slammed into the bulk of the Warform's side, erupting into a small blast as it tried to rip into its dense armor. 

Barely a blink later, the hammer fell and with it, the head of the soldier practically burst. Reinforced armor crunched and compressed the bone and meat within before the boundaries of structure could no longer take the strain. Fragmenting metal and shredded padding were overtaken by gushing grey matter and cranial biomass, bone fragments and cartilage, meat and teeth, spraying outwards and leaving a twitching, staggering corpse stumbling back before it fell to the ground. The huge weapon he carried clattered first, falling not far from his carbine, both stained with fluid and viscera.

The initiative of the infantry faltered; pot-shots from concealed positions around the crates and cargo piles paused for a moment as their indomitable leader lay gushing and a few inches shorter on the ground. A cacophony of screams and silenced cries followed; the automata platforms they were controlling had also been rendered stunned as if by the shock of such a graphic end. The command link was severed and they too now struggled to change operational parameters.

The perfect prey for not only rail guns and battle rifles to pick off but something fouler and more arcane.

As the CivSec trooper who fired his launcher hastily broke out of the back of the tent, already weakened from the backblast, he scrambled to get behind cover. He shouted something at his comrades, indistinct if likely Dutch over the din of the battle, trying to ignore the gruesome sight as he peeked from around the tree; swearing that the other three dolts needed to lay down far more suppressing fire so they could try to regroup with the others and form a tighter defensive formation near the artillery canon.

In his attempts to load the missile, he felt the strange burning sensation on his foot a little too late, turning to see the biomesh beneath beginning to froth and bubble. Meat beneath soon felt the unearthly touch as semi-augmented meat laced with light cybenrnetics sent deluges of agony into his body. He stood for a brief second before the joints of his ankles collapsed under his weight, gargling as the rot climbed faster than he could crawl as gloved fingers turned into skeletal claws, leaving a half-dissolved mess of bone and drenched metal. 

The reek alone broke another soldier out of his frantic potshots, pointing at the cloud as the three remaining soldiers sprinted wildly towards their allies deeper into the base. Faster still now that the ZRF allies were beginning to box the others in. Their numbers were depleted but the loss of the commanding officer and the ensuing stunning of the gun platforms on their spider-gorilla like bodies with single-turreted heavy prism-shape barrels and smaller auxiliary machine guns mounted atop, rendered them as easy pickings.

Perhaps they were the most mercifully treated. A spray of 10mm rounds slammed into their backs as they spun and staggered, armor cracking as one of them fired off a few desperate rounds at the lone pure human operative. It was not long before he slumped to his knees, then his face, joining the others in a bloodied pile not even halfway to their allies.

[i][color=8dc73f]"THE SPIRIT OF THE SOLAR TYRANT SWIMS AMONG YOUR NUMBER!"[/color][/i] The Gealtirocht leader's voice boomed over the coms as the path was now laid bare to join with his forces. While they had the initiative now, more and more infantry were popping from the woodwork, heavy machine gun fire spitting from behind them. They were cornered now, but given the amount of camo-cloaked bodies laying bisected upon the ground or reduced to charred husks on the ground, it was clear they were not going to give-up the area without a fight.

As the battle raged however, a flashing light trailing smoke broke through the treeline, darting between the bark and bramble, slamming behind a few of the large gealtirocht, swallowing them in flames. Another, a third, smashing through a tree trunk and detonating in the space bewteen the Envenomed and their allies and sending a ZRF recon trooper soaring through the air and into a pile on the ground. 

As the smoke of the blast cleared, one of the scielto lay on the ground - armor cracked open and cauterized meat visible, his rail cannon sparking as it powered down next to him. A crescendo-hiss morphed into a rattling cry for revenge as the remaining three, battered and burned advanced, switching to pulse carbines and spraying down the ground forces as their humanoid allies now eight in total fired volley after volley-

Before a sound of mechanical droning buzz announced a beam of tracer rounds shredding foliage and three of their bodies into clouds of mist and sparking bioelectronics. Implant organisms fell to the ground, ruptured out of the shattered effigies of Intransigent humanity, struggling to find organs, veins, and cybernetics to maintain as they slowly bled out bathed in the inner remains of their once physically cohesive hosts. 

Based on the high diagonal angle of the missiles and minigun fire, it wasn't ground forces they were facing now. Some sort of aircraft had been called in for League support - the one thing standing between the canon and hostile takeover.

[i][color=8dc73f]"We are pinned! Find a way to get the gunship off of us, we cannot establish visual contact! There must be heavy weaponry scattered about but we cannnot target it from here!"[/color][/i]