Black Star was the first to act, and charged into the frontlines. Plasma worth two entire CWM squads was fired upon him from north and northeast but Ojo's Orbital Deflector scattered the like an umbrella, green lines rapidly spinning around the Framewerk, drawing much attention from the Cruxi Beast down the line. The Thermal Scythe was swung in deadly motion, and pierced the hard shell of the muscled monster. However, Zim had to stop Black Star and reverse his charge; the blade of the scythe had embedded itself in the creature's throat, prevented from cutting through by the beast's arm clutching the shaft of the weapon. It gurgled and vomited orange blood on the scythe's shaft, refusing to let go of the weapon. The other Cruxi Beasts in the east saw this, and began moving in, intelligent enough to recognize Zim's moment of weakness. At that moment, Black Star pressed its palm against the Beast's wound, and unleashed the Wave Surger at point-blank range: the blazing beam punched right through and incinerated the monster from the inside, freeing his Thermal Scythe in the process. Using Yeager's advanced acceleration systems, Roger was able to slow down the Frame's descent to the point that he only needed to make a single roll to fully recover from the impact, landing at the same relative velocity as a paratrooper. As he turned, he saw how Black Star's Wave Surger missed the second Cruxi Beast, who leaped into the air with bulging, glowing muscles to dodge the sweep. However, this left it easy pickings for Roger, who proceeded to unleash a storm of kinetic bullets into the organic monster's flesh, and it quickly dropped from losing momentum, wounded from numerous holes in it. The Wave Surger then hit the second Beast with a glancing hit sending the monster to fall with an earth-shaking hit before Ojo, causing the Frame to feel the shockwave hitting the Star Gazer's ring and nearly making the Frame fall backwards. The third Beast lifted it's front arms, and used the heavily shielded appendages to absorb the worst of the blast, causing it to wallowing in pain as it's front was charred black; red veins bulged horribly around the monster, it's face now red as it roared loudly. With a well-aimed shot, Black Star saved itself from being mauled apart. And in turn, he drew the attention of the eastern Cruxi Turtle, who charged a shot, and fired. Luckily for Zim, he had a guardian angel; Elizabeth was prepared for a possible attack from the cantankerous cannons, and activated Ojo's Star Gazer; a radiant light bloomed from the great circle on Ojo's back like the rising sun, and using its gravitonic power attempted to bend the Flux Vaporizer shot. The deflection was a success; the purple energy arrow was downed at I6, causing an explosion that created a crater on the square. The crater was deep enough for a mech to take cover in by crouching. Redeemer joined Black Star in the assault at the eastern front, the Haathan shields already shining around the imposing Framewerk. With the Laser Repeater in tow, Valéria prepared for assault, and managed to react in time to a surprise attack; the third Cruxi Beast in the east had pounced with a great cry, careening through the air at fast speeds in an attempt to slam it's over-sized fists on top of Redeemer, using the planet's high gravity to its advantage. However, the pilot's high Synchro Rate allowed her to overcome the gravity, and lift the Repeater; a rain of red beams shot up into the sky to intercept the Beast. It was hit in the center of mass, having left itself open, and the Beast fell down dead, smoke coming out of its blackened chest. Weissritter took combat position in expert fashion, hunkering down for maximum accuracy with the Neo Rifle steadied and aimed, ready for overwatch. "REC-1 reporting, got it!" Elise's voice sounded in the pilot's comms, and soon a small video feed was added to the HUD's corner; it showed the drone's POV as it flew above the battlefield, zooming towards Paladin and Caretaker. "I'll leave REC-2 with you as a spotter. Sending in location data!" And just as she got the words out, targeting reticules appeared on the display, followed by predicted shot trajectories. Jake saw that a Cruxi Turtle in the west was charging for a shot, and using Elise's assistance, succeeded in taking the shot. It hit the Turtle's energy shield, but due to being an energy shot, it overloaded the shield generator, causing it to create a small explosion on the Turtle's middle, where it's weapon systems were bursting out. As a result, the Turtle missed with it's Flux Vaporizer shot, and hit D8, creating another crater. Some small bio-mechanical appendages sprouted out of it's interior, like tentacles with delicate claws; they extended from below the Turtle's shell, and reached into the middle, doing something to itself. Two CWM squads then retreated, as if attempting to cover the Turtle. Caretaker maneuvered behind the nearest piece of solid terrain she could find, which turned out to be a warehouse of sorts, granting the Framewerk partial cover; enough to take a few rounds of plasma that may be shot her way, but not much more. Fortunately, she was covered by Paladin, but unfortunately, he had not taken the fall well, and struggled to assume defensive positions. "Ariin!" Both Ariin and Katya could hear Elise's voice in the comms, and a moment later she opened a video feed of herself in a small corner of the HUD; it showed REC-1 floating above the battlefield, providing an eye in the sky. "I know it's a pain, but listen! Set up a wall just north of your position, in these coordinates." She projected an area in the Paladin's HUD with a green highlight, having scouted the perfect spot using her drones. "If you can't get it up in time, that northern cannon's gonna mess you up worse! I'll make a scan of Paladin's status, and relay that to you, Katya, so that Caretaker gets to work faster. Just hang in there!" With Squad Sigma's intelligence specialist having given the groundwork by sending in data, Paladin got to work; Legion's mighty walls carved into the solid foundation of Fortress' surface, having seemingly blended in as another fortification among countless others. "Beasts on your left!" Elise called out, and added calculations to Paladin's aim matrix. With her aid, Pompey successfully landed on two separate volleys, with great success; Paladin instantly killed one Beast with a solid headshot, cracking the thick skull of the monster like a chestnut. The other one was less fatal, knocking one back with a shot that glanced from its tough shoulder and back, having braced like a rugby player on the move. But then, an emerald blaze pierced the Beast on the uncovered side, and it collapsed on the spot, burning with green fire from the inside. Ariin could thank Krista and her bug-like Hou-Yi, who once again joined Paladin in a deadly duo of demolition. Unlike the humanoid Framewerks, Hou-Yi was only slightly affected by the increased gravity of Fortress thanks to it's balanced design and horizontally spread mass. As a result, she had no trouble adjusting to the adverse conditions and delivering some pain. Like a team of veterans, Caretaker covered the two heavy-hitters, letting loose with the Marker Light on combat mode, neon blue streaks flying at at an approaching CWM squad; they quickly retreated into cover. They took pot shots at Paladin, causing the plasma to glance off Legion, but in turn making a counterattack less reliable. Uncharacteristically for the Cruxi, the two Cruxi War Machines on either side of Tayna did not immediately shoot at the Frame the first second it crushed one of their own under it's feet, allowing Anastasia to glow and create a strange scene, if only for a few seconds. It was possible that they were taken by surprise, but common knowledge dictated that Cruxi were difficult to surprise due to their assumed hive-mind. The other possibility, and one that Ritsu had to consider as she saw the footage from Tayna's POV, was that the Cruxi seemed to confuse Tayna with one of their own. "Anastasia...What are you?" She mumbled, a drop of sweat running down her forehead. Anastasia took her chance while the Cruxi were distracted, and managed to latch on to both mechs with Tayna's powered arms; the Cruxi did not expect this, and they flailed as they were lifted into the air. And then, in a bombastic move, Tayna spun like an Olympic disc thrower, glowing with power, and threw the mechs as hard as she could, sending them flying through the air. The other Cruxi squad attempted to open fire on Tayna, but they also hesitated, their view blocked by allies being sent their way, clearly not understanding the logic behind the move. With that weakness fully taken advantage of, Ana succeeded with her combination attack; the Neo Angel took aim, and with a single shot of the L.S. Rifle, hit both of the flying CWMs. just as they were about to hit the other squad. As they were destroyed, the CWM self-destruct mechanism activated, and with two of them exploding simultaneously, the other squad was blown to pieces, leaving only a single CWM heavily damaged, covered in the rubble of its two other companions. The CWM at the west had taken major casualties, and retreated back to defend the Turtle. The Cruxi Beast at B8 pounced on Tayna, slamming it's hard fists on top of the Framewerk just as the mech's Phase Shift ended, causing heavy damage to the Frame and cracking it's outer plates. The Beast grappled Tayna's arms, about to crush them- "Idiot!" Suddenly, the Beast gurgled, and vomited orange blood over Tayna's chassis, it's grip having loosened. It then dropped off, revealing Sköll behind it; with a calculated stab, it pierced the monster with MORS, and then decapitated the creature, spraying more of the icky orange goop onto itself. It turned out to be Irina's voice that Ana heard in her comms. "Focus! We got work to do, freak!" Sköll sheathed the blade, and took out GAR, readying it for use. The eastern front grew bolder with Cruxi Squads coming in and engaging Black Star; while the closer squads had little luck piercing Ojo's drone, the farther ones adding in to the energy managed to overload the drone's generator, causing the field to go online and damaging Black Star in a minor way; it's chest and shoulder wer hit by stray blasts, familiar chars once again forming on the appropriately colored Framewerk. The CWMS relocated to more cover in the vicinity, about to once again fire on what they deemed to be the priority threat. Suddenly, a loud explosion could be heard in the distance, and squad Sigma saw a Framewerk crashing near one of the Cruxi Turtles on H2; it resembled a ninja, with a red sword attached to it's arm, and blue lines that glowed from the head part. It's pilot, Deitrich 'Deiter' Wagner, had fought with another battalion, but a hard blow from an unknown Cruxi had sent it flying far. As a result of the crash, Krieg had suffered moderate damage to its back, left arm and back of the left foot; they were functioning at 70% of maximum potential. The eastern Cruxi Turtle responded to the sudden proximity of an enemy unit by tucking it's limbs inside it's shell, and activating twin Plasma gatlings. Dietrich felt something disturbing, as if he was overcome by a feeling of pride. Without him giving the command, Krieg rolled to the side to dodge the plasma, and in a single flowing move, jumped to I2, taking cover behind the Turtle to avoid the fire of nearby CWM squads, who prioritized the Turtle's safety over their own; the squad proceeded to close in on Krieg, turning their backs to Black Star and Redeemer. The two Frames REC-3 zooming out towards the newcomer. "Come in, Framewerk!" Dieter heard a young girl's voice, which had forcibly entered into his comms channel. "I don't know who your commanding officer is, but right now I'm taking over!" A video feed opened in the corner showing what looked like a 10-year-old redhead with an eyepatch and a beret. "Take defensive measures, and try to reach those two units over there!" She added an arrow to the HUD, and highlighted the two Framewerks on the opposite side of the battlefield. "We have an extraction ready in the south, get to it!"