The Fall of Tarsonis

"Commissioners of the United Earth Directorate! Don't fire—don't fire!"

Unexpectedly, before Mike could even praise Donnie's heroic sacrifice, the other man turned to look at UNN announcer Mark Piel and the entire film crew behind him, who were raising their hands in a gesture of respect.

"Mr. Piel, did that damned camera capture my heroic act of loyalty and fearlessness in the face of death?"

For a split second, Piel didn't react. But Piel was a sharp-witted man; he stared into Donnie's eyes and said, "For God's sake, I sincerely hope that camera that was just destroyed is still recording, but the chances are slim."

"I was just on the verge of death!" Donnie blurted out a string of profanities, but when he turned to face the Earth soldiers, he put on a fawning smile.

"Sir, I'll show you the way."

Donny Mili is a contradictory man. This selfish fellow cherishes his life to an extreme degree, even at the cost of some precious qualities, yet he is willing to take risks to get ahead.

"What a pity, I was just about to grant you your unwavering loyalty and make you famous in history." The United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet officer's Power Armor had no unit insignia or rank markings. He was likely a veteran who had served for many years and had a calm and collected demeanor on the battlefield.

"While there is still time, thank and praise your God, for in the future, no religion will be permitted within the territory ruled by the United Earth Directorate."

Mike suppressed his urge to complain and, along with Piel and the other UNNs, followed the UED soldiers' instructions to stand against the wall, while Donnie, forcing a smile, got the chance to lead the way for the Earth invaders.

Frankly speaking, many Confederacy citizens harbor strong resentment and hatred towards the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet. They would rather die than submit, and most of these people are educated young people and elites.

Another group believes that being ruled by Earthlings would be no worse than the current Confederacy, and they hope that Earth, with its more advanced technology and ideas, can bring some change to the stagnant Confederacy.

Donnie, on the other hand, is accustomed to praising greatness, power, and conquest, and he doesn't like Earthlings.

There's always a comparison, and the Tarsonis are always about compromise. When someone tells them that rebels are about to take control of Tarsonis, they fear it will turn into a brutal military government, finding it unacceptable for the Terran Confederacy to be ruled by Korhal rather than orthodox Tarsonis.

But when the Earthlings came, they actually started to find the rebels somewhat agreeable.

At this moment, more soldiers in gray Power Armor came up the stairs, their numbers roughly equivalent to a standard 50-man combat platoon. They were also carrying weapons such as railguns and electromagnetic cannons, but those were clearly captured from the Terran Confederacy.

Some soldiers were equipped with modified C-series Electromagnetic Rifle, whose scopes and bayonets differed significantly from those used by the Confederacy Army.

About two squads of soldiers passed Mike and the others and continued up the winding staircase toward the higher floors of the UNN headquarters building, seemingly convinced that there were no other enemies in the building.

"There should be a backup generator in this building. Corporal Hardman, take some men and start it." The UED officer waved his hand. "We need to get all the equipment here back to normal as soon as possible."

"Yes, sir."

"Um, is the battle over? I mean, have you taken Tarsonis?" Donny asked cautiously.

"The main force of the Terran Confederacy has been utterly routed," the UED officer said with pride. "The outcome of this war was predetermined from the very beginning."

He didn't actually need to say so much to Donnie, but that precisely proved that humanity might be on the verge of victory.

It's hard to imagine how they managed to defeat the massive Confederacy Fleets in outer space orbit around Tarsonis, while there were over twenty million Confederacy guards on the planet's surface.

Although it included regular Confederacy troops, recently recruited reservists, forcibly conscripted soldiers, and even police forces, as well as volunteers sent from its vast colonies, and these people were poorly trained and equipped, it was still an incredibly large force, equivalent to five-thousandths of Tarsonis's current total population.

Given the chaos in the Confederacy's military command, the actual number of troops deployed was far less than that. After the Confederacy's information network was completely overrun, the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet Command became the one truly issuing orders to the Tarsonis garrison.

Many divisions and even corps-level troops received strange orders to move out of their garrisons almost from the very beginning, and remained unaware of what was happening for hours after the start of the war.

The Confederacy forces that were actually deployed to the battlefield were quickly defeated by the Hybrid and UED elite flanking units. Their command posts were often destroyed by the Earth Forces' superior air firepower shortly after the start of the war, and the Confederacy Fleets was clearly already in complete defeat.

"Lead the way, where is the studio in this building?" he said to Donnie.

"The studio is in the basement, while the rooftop houses the high-rise offices, and above that are the signal transmission tower and data transmission base station," Donnie explained.

"The signals from Tarsonis are currently being severely jammed, and even if these devices were to be restored to operation, it would be difficult to send any messages to the outside world," said another UNN staff member.

"Tarsonis was hit by a powerful electromagnetic pulse that nearly paralyzed communications throughout the city. Radio signals strong enough could penetrate this interference. There's equipment in headquarters, but it's not functioning as expected."

Even now, the other Confederacy colonies only know that Tarsonis is under siege by the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet, but they are completely unaware of the actual situation.

"This is none of your business—" the UED officer interrupted him.

Just then, a sharp, terrifying roar came from the city outside, and Mike bet it was mixed with screams of utter agony.

Mike had never heard such a sound before. He had once received an audio clip of Hive Guardian's roar, a shriek from a terrifying alien that sounded like it came from some prehistoric, ferocious beast.

But this kind of roar is a different kind of sound, like the sound of fingernails scraping against glass, which gives you goosebumps and can make you feel a sense of physical disgust.

"What is that?" Donnie exclaimed.

"A caged beast." The UED officer shoved Donny hard. "You don't want to know what that is. It's the most abhorrent monster in the entire universe."

"It sounds like a voice from hell, but it's not Zerg," Piel said. "You've hired the devil."

"Shut your mouth, or I'll order the medics to sew that up with the nano-suture gun." The officer ordered again, "Now, we're going to the upper offices. You all follow, and do whatever I order you to do if necessary."

So Mike had no choice but to continue climbing the stairs with the UED soldiers, his face as somber as his grieving colleagues. They were all prisoners now, after all.

Mike and Piel walked together, communicating only with their eyes in the darkness. These two seasoned journalists, both experienced in their field, felt uncertain yet were certain they could overcome any obstacle, just as they had in the past.

The UNN headquarters building is over sixty stories high, and climbing the stairs, with the elevators out of service, was enough to leave Mike breathless. Each stairwell turn had a window overlooking downtown Tarsonis, and the higher the floor, the farther the view.

In this building, the higher the status of a person, the higher their position.

The battlefield outside remained fierce, with half the sky illuminated by artillery fire, anti-aircraft guns, Arclite Siege Tank, and Goliath Combat Robot.

Multiple massive UED Goliath Mech advanced across the ruins of the central park in Tarsonis. Each one was astonishingly huge, making even tall soldiers in Power Armor appear dwarfed. They were true steel Giant, the tremors of their massive mechanical feet striking the ground clearly audible in the darkness.

What a magnificent sight it was! Countless giant Goliath were advancing along the highway, stepping over the Confederacy army's bunkers. The delta wings behind their cockpits resembled outstretched wings, making these giant mechs, even larger than tanks, even more terrifying in their sheer size.

Hundreds of soldiers in Power Armor advanced through the streets and highways, leaving behind tattered flags, wrecked vehicles, and uncollected corpses piled up haphazardly in the once bustling and beautiful city center.

Their opponents were the Confederacy troops who remained loyal to the Confederacy. The defense of the city center consisted mainly of Marines from Delta Squadron and Omega Squadron, who fiercely resisted the UED's offensive on the other side of the city.

UED may already be able to declare to the outside world that they have captured Tarsonis, but the fighting may continue into next month, with battles taking place in the streets and corners of various cities, and across the wastelands and tundra.

At this time, the Confederacy had not yet lost the capital city of Tarsonis. Despite the severe limitations on the command and communication systems, the Confederacy army was still trying its best to gather troops and launch a counterattack, which demonstrated that this army possessed extremely high professional competence.

The opponents of Augustus's Revolutionary Army were these people: well-trained professional soldiers and re-socialized suicide squads. To put it bluntly, with only the army under Augustus's command, it would probably take another ten years or so to take Tarsonis.

Amidst the fleeting flash of light and the towering flames following the explosion, Mike could still catch a glimpse of the beauty that Tarsonis City displayed amidst the flames of war.

In the darkness, towering skyscrapers and spires weave gear-like lines, like the edge of a black forest. The park's colorful viewing avenues, forking intersections, and verdant parking lots have now been replaced by scattered fortification walls and barbed wire.

At the heart of the park lies a wide artificial lake, around which a canal, like a clear ribbon, meanders along the avenue. The avenue, stretching for miles, once possessed a grand and imposing presence, symbolizing the strength and inclusiveness of Tarsonis, but now it is ravaged by gunfire and lies in ruins.

There used to be a bronze statue of a Marine in Central Park, which was originally commissioned to commemorate the children of Confederacy soldiers who died in the Guild Wars. Now, it too has collapsed amidst the heavy artillery fire.

A raging fire and thick smoke engulfed the entire city center, and the acrid smell of gunpowder permeated the air.

The solemn and austere landmarks in the city center, silent in the darkness, were illuminated by a sudden rain of fire. In the clouds lit by the flames, countless wrecks that once belonged to a certain battlecruiser were falling, most of them already burned to ashes before hitting the ground, while those that did manage to land ignited fires throughout the city.

In one direction, a battlecruiser driven to the brink of destruction was crashing. Its massive hull, almost intact, fell into the city center. The white light from the explosion swept through several densely populated blocks, and at least 100,000 people died in the flames within seconds.

Even at this point, Mike still didn't believe that Tarsonis would fall. If the most difficult planet in the Terran Confederacy fell into the hands of the UED in less than two days, then taking over the other colonies would be a piece of cake.

When Mike and Piel stepped onto the top floor of the headquarters building, the UED soldiers who had traveled from afar were rummaging through the high-rise offices. But many more people had climbed onto the rooftop open-air platform, where the signal tower was located.

Mike wasn't completely ignorant about technology; he knew how to use these incredibly valuable devices. The signal tower could transmit data to the nearest star system, several light-years away, with a boosted signal—enough to break through the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet's communication blockade if they were lucky.

He quickly realized that the UED's communications must also be affected by the electrical pulse waves, and that the communication technology brought by the Earthlings was not much more advanced than that of the Terran Confederacy. But in any case, the Earthlings clearly had their own unknown solutions, and electrical pulse interference was not effective against all communication methods.

The wind chilled Mike to the bone from the rooftop of the UNN headquarters building. To his surprise, a light rain had begun to fall. In the misty rain, a battlecruiser sailing over the main city of Tarsonis stood out even more.

It was a dark gray battlecruiser, its hull featuring the classic hammerhead design of Terrans warships. At this moment, the warship's imposing, skyscraper-like armor was flashing red warning lights, displaying its presence arrogantly to those present, indicating that most of the anti-aircraft guns in Tarsonis's main city had fallen silent.

This battlecruiser has a prestigious name: Aleksander.

Just as the UED's golden eagle banner was raised, the soldiers declared that they had conquered the planet in the name of humanity.

"Find a way to get this signal tower working again. That shouldn't be too difficult for you," the UED officer shouted to Mike.

"No matter what, get this old relic moving immediately."

"Okay." Mike saw Donnie Mili standing dejectedly to one side fiddling with the tangled cables, while the other UNN employees also had various expressions.

Mike was, after all, Pan-Terran Revolutionary Party, an organization that had always had a Pan-Terranian tendency and would never sit idly by while Earthlings ruled the Terran Confederacy.

When he started up the main control panel of the signal tower, he found Mark Piel and, during a break from work, said to him, "We need to take this opportunity to spread the word about Tarsonis so that everyone knows what happened here."

"Don't worry, I know a communication channel from the Korhal Revolutionary Army. Humans won't be able to peacefully Overmind Tarsonis, even if the Confederacy is destroyed."