Across N'varos, the sky darkened as thousands of enemy dropships pierced the weakened planetary shield, descending towards the surface. Bursts of fire erupted as anti-air turrets opened fire, tracing the dropships of the alien invaders. Their explosive payloads striking the descending ships, scattering flaming debris across the landscape.
Inside the Shield Tower, Major Xarnak coordinated the desperate defense, his voice steady despite the mounting crisis. "All batteries focus fire on sectors Alpha through Delta! Keep their landing zones under continuous bombardment!"
"Enemy landings confirmed in Sectors Gamma, Theta, and Zeta!" an operator shouted.
Across the planet, Imperial ground forces responded quickly, armored divisions rolling into defensive positions. Gen'Dai soldiers with their legendary durability formed the front lines, armored in heavy assault gear and wielding powerful blaster weapons.
In Sector Gamma, the first wave of invaders touched down. Towering mechanical forms emerged from the dropships, massive droids whose limbs shifted as if it was living, reforming into blades and energy cannons. As they advanced, Imperial soldiers met them with volleys of fire, only to watch as the droids repaired themselves instantly, nanotechnology repairing their wounds as fast as they appeared.
"Push them back!" roared Captain Varak, a veteran Gen'Dai Officer. His troops moved forward, meeting the enemy in close-quarters combat, their immense strength and regenerative abilities turning the fight into brutal, prolonged skirmishes.
Above, Imperial starfighters desperately engaged enemy craft, weaving through the chaos of explosions and debris. Pilots fought valiantly, sacrificing their fighters to take down enemy ships attempting to reinforce the ground forces. Due to their decentralized nervous systems and lack of vital organs, as long as their cells remained and they weren't completely disintegrated, they could regenerate themselves.
Back at Shield Tower, alarms blared as another massive pulse struck the planet, shaking the building.
"Shield integrity failing! Power core compromised!" shouted a technician who desperately tried to fix the problem.
"Divert auxiliary power to shields, now!" Xarnak commanded, sweat falling down his forehead as he watched the tactical display showing the enemy advancements.
As the battle raged, General Valdran moved among his troops at HQ, rallying the defense. "Stand firm, warriors of the Imperium! Our Emperor is watching! Hold the line!"
Despite heroic efforts, enemy reinforcements kept pouring through the breach in the shield. In multiple sectors, Imperial defenders were being overwhelmed. The enemy had already found out that the Gen'Dai could regenerate and were practically unkillable, so they resorted to brutal methods of extermination to completely get rid of them.
As such, Gen'Dai soldiers faced the same situation as Admiral Tressan did when his ship was boarded. Their bodies were completely disintegrated by the droids, while a few were even taken prisoners for closer investigation.
On the outskirts of the capital city, a massive enemy dreadnought descended, firing a concentrated beam that shattered the protective dome covering the city. Imperial soldiers scrambled to establish a new defensive perimeter as the city's streets erupted into intense fighting.
After hours, each sector experienced brutal, grinding battles. Major Xarnak received a final, grim transmission from General Valdran:
"Major, we have lost the northern defense sectors. The enemy has breached HQ. Fight to the last, may the Emperor grant you strength!"
With those final words, Major Xarnak readied himself, standing tall in the Shield Tower control room. "Prepare all remaining forces for a last stand. Activate all available reserve droids and automated defenses. If they want N'varos, they'll have to take it inch by inch."
As darkness fell on N'varos, illuminated by flashes of explosions and burning cities, the Imperium's defenders stood defiant, determined to fight to the bitter end against a seemingly unstoppable enemy.
It didn't take long before the droids found the civilians hiding in the bunkers. Similar to every conquest, 50% would be killed and the other 50% would be enslaved and experimented on. The Droid Commander responsible for this invasion saw the potential that the Gen'Dai had and couldn't wait to experiment on them to see what they could be turned into.
Hours later on Veldari, Daimon was sitting at his desk going about his normal everyday emperor duties that involved signing documents, meeting with government officials, and making important decisions almost every day.
All of a sudden, he grabbed his chest as he felt the lives of tens of thousands being lost. In the next moment, he was pulled into a vision where he stood amidst a battlefield and saw the soldiers of the Imperium battling some weird droid army. He didn't recognize the droids, but he certainly recognized the place where the battle was going on.
"N'varos" he said out loud as he was pulled from the vision and back to reality several minutes later. As if on time, Progenitor Raelos was calling him on the holo, which Daimon answered immediately. "Did see that too," Daimon asked.
Raelos nodded his head, "Yes, So I just asked my subordinates to check each planet and report any abnormal problems to me as soon as possible. This is now my top priority."
"There's no need for that," Daimon said, causing confusion to appear on Raelos's face. "The planet is N'varos. I have a feeling the vision didn't reveal too much to you." Raelos nodded his head once again. The Vision was obscured and all he could see was Imperial soldiers dying but not where they were dying at.
"Whatever you saw, its happening at N'varos, I don't know the enemies strength, but 1000 ships should be enough to handle whatever is there. I want a quick deployment of troops as soon as possible. How long will this take?" Daimon was a little impatient as each second that passed, he could feel the loss of life that was occurring on N'varos. This meant that Gen'Dai were dying which was impossible under normal means.
"500 ships are always on standby and at the ready to deploy anywhere within the Imperium in 20 minutes max. But to assemble the additional 500 would take at least an hour. Adding the ground troops, I can have 2 million ready within 30 minutes and 10 million ready in an hour." Raelos didn't know if this was enough, but at the moment, this was the fastest that this many military assets could be deployed in a realistic scenario such as this.
But that was too much time that would be wasted and too many lives lost. Raelos saw the look on Daimon's face and knew what he was thinking, but before he could say anything Daimon spoke first. "That's too much time that allows the enemy to keep killing my people!" Daimon had increasingly become more frustrated, but it was controlled frustration and not one that would spiral out of control.
"I'll use my Astral Projection, just prepare the Fleet and soldiers as fast as you can." Daimon understood the slow process of having to gather hundreds of ships. Just the fact that it would take an hour was something that was impressive in itself. Raelos nodded and cut the call to immediately get on the matter.
Within minutes, the other Progenitors were informed of the situation and some of them had begun to mobilize their Ascendant Legions and the Force Scions under them. Daimon first took a shuttle to his ship and entered the meditation chamber. He looked at his Ascendant guards and said one thing, "Don't interrupt me until we have arrived within the system." The Ascendant guards nodded and closed the door to the chamber standing watch outside. From here, Daimon began to manifest his Astral Projection extended his consciousness onto the planet, manifesting an energy-based avatar of himself.
Back on N'varos, General Valdran was on the last stand with his forces as the enemy had dropped down towering constructs to oppose them. He was wearing his combat Exo suit and had his Blaster Rifle in hand firing at the enemy. Beside him, Lieutenant Elira was wearing her combat armor and firing her Blaster Rifle alongside him.
(A/N: Don't know if I ever showed this, but here is how female Gen'Dai look just to give the readers more of a visual as you keep reading)
"Sir, we have to keep falling back!" Elira shouted, half her mask shattered, blood running down her forearm. "We're running out of ammunition…" Valdran's response was lost as one of the enemy walkers released a loud shrieking sound as it stood over the city's plaza wielding its energy weapons that could kill a Gen'Dai in an instant.
"First battery down!" called another soldier, slamming a fresh power pack into the last surface-to-orbit railgun. "General, that's the last one," hearing this, General Valdran, hoisted the man over his shoulder and sprinted with Elira toward a collapsed building where a handful of survivors regrouped, using the collapsed roof as a temporary shield from the terror above.
"We hold them here," he told Elira and the rest of the soldiers. "We have to protect the civilians for as long as possible." The soldiers steeled themselves as they created a defensive position and began to fire off at the enemy.
General Valdran led from the front as the highest-ranking officer, inspiring the soldiers to keep fighting. They were actually holding out for a few minutes, until the enemy brought out one of their advanced droids.
This droid was sentient and built for combat. It dropped right on top of the Imperial defensive position causing the surrounding soldiers to stumble from the crater that it created. General Valdran turned around and seen the chaos that was going on and ran towards the droid.
Seeing him running at him, the droid turned its attention to General Valdran, its arm shifting into a medium sized weapon as it aimed directly at him. In the next second, the droid fired, releasing an energy-based attack towards Valdran.
Valdran swiftly dodged to the right, avoiding the attack while pulling out his vibrosword. The droid raised its arm and blocked the attack, using its other hand to deliver a left hook to Valdran's face. Valdran completely ate the hit then pushed the droid back with his vibrosword. He managed to create some distance between them and threw one of his thermal detonators at the droid's feet. The droid, analyzing the trajectory in less than a millisecond, kicked the detonator back, where it exploded just above Valdran's head as he ducked.
It was all a feint. Valdran was already moving, dropping low and tackling the droid around its knees, hoping to disrupt its balance. Though the droid continued to fight with the brutality of that a droid would in battle, its hands shifting mid-battle from weapons to hooked talons, slicing at the Valdran's armor with each strike. Sparks flashed as the droid landed its attacks, but Valdran held strong, bringing his vibrosword up and under, serving a bundle of its hardware and other systems.
The droid started to give out, but even on the verge of collapse, it stabbed its wrist into Valdran's shoulder causing him to scream out in pain. "Ahhhhh!" In a quick move, he reached for the droid's head and pulled it clean off its body. He staggered back, half his body numb from the fight, as he tossed the droids head aside.
However, this was far from over, as this time it wasn't droids that attacked them, but some weird looking alien that had blue skin and red eyes. These large groups of aliens looked to be mad as they rushed relentlessly towards the Imperial position, overpowering the soldiers before they could even reload. Valdran tried to stand up and run to the front, but his body just wouldn't move.
A soldier ran up to him, "Sir don't move too much, I'll call the med…" before he could finish his words, he was beheaded as one of the blue aliens sliced his head off. General Valdran raised his vibrosword to block the next attack, and was successful, but his vibrosword got knocked out of his hand. Elira seeing this tried to run to his position but she wasn't fast enough as the alien already swung its weapon once again.
General Valdran closed his eyes, ready to accept his fate, but nothing happened. That's when he opened his eyes and saw that the battlefield had become quiet and all the droids were frozen in place. That's when he saw a familiar person standing in front of him, reaching his hand out.
It was Daimon, who had arrived just in time to save his life. Valdran reached out and grabbed the Emperor's hand, feeling his strength return to him and his body instantly heal. "Thank you, Sir." he said performing his military salute. The surrounding survivors of the Imperial Army did the same recognizing the God-Emperor who had come to save them.
In space, onboard the Abominor's capital ship, the Droid Commander in charge of the invasion had spoken in some strange language as he saw what was happening. "Deploy all the battle slaves and send out the Titan." he ordered. In the ship's hanger, hundreds of thousands of battle slaves were moved onto transport ships and one massive droid the size of a skyscraper was dropped from orbit towards the planet.
These Titan droids were planetary army killers designed to be able to fight entire armies on their own and level cities. The Droid Commander didn't know who they were facing, but he wanted to quickly finish this invasion to find out more about this species.