Talk:AIF/@comment-32153776-20160708204749/@comment-27404954-20160722023825

Above the battling fleets, the world itself seems to shift and tear apart. Before anyone can react, a massive spearhead of UAC ships plummets out of warp at ramming speed. The vanguard is comprised of five Rhm Borsigs, backed up with Caernavons, Divine Punishments, Caernavon IIs, and various other capital ships. Dotted throughout the spearhead were Sigma Octani and Siriuses to provide support.

The Protoss servicemen could only stare upwards in horror as the UAC ships came down, and the world suddenly ceased moving slowly as the UAC ships punched through the core of the Protoss fleet. The capitals' hulls wiped out hundreds of small Protoss ships, and their guns destroyed many of the larger ones. As the UAC ships come up from their dive, the Protoss fleet is left with a gaping hole over ten kilometers long.

In command of the fleet in his flagship, the UAC Fallen's Epitaph -- a Divine Punishment-class battleship -- Vice-Admiral Merlin-Caelum cued the next stage of the attack. More ships dropped out of warp as the UAC capitals began punishing the Protoss fleet from below -- this wave was made up of carriers, and they dropped out of warp below the capitals, the heavy armor shielding the carriers. The massive force of fighters -- compromising over twenty thousand Longswords -- immediately come to the aid of AIF fighters, wiping out over 40% of the surprised and heavily outnumbered Protoss fighters in moments.

The fighters then shift their attention to the Protoss bombers, and come from slightly below and behind, where the Protoss turrets cannot reach. The bombers are quickly decimated by the overwhelming power of the fighters, as they are unable to fire back. And it is at this crucial juncture -- with the Protoss shocked, surprised, and demoralized -- that the ANF forces arrive.

Almost seventy ANF ships show up, a fleet comprised of twenty Invictus-classes, fifteen Radiant Shard-classes, ten Macharius-classes, and five Orcus-classes. The ANF ships immediately deploy their cyberwarfare packages and activate their warp disruption systems, then, as the Protoss ships' systems are overridden and consumed by the ANF computer virus, begin firing precision railgun shots into the middle of the Protoss fleet.

The ANF carriers hold back from the main fight and meet with a UAC escort of ships sub-commanded under Zahn and Davenport, whereupon the ANF ships deploy their forces of four thousand of the best fighters the universe had to offer, the Griffon-Cs, and two thousand Chrysaor bombers. Taking this as their cue, the ANF battleships partially deploy their hangars, raising the total to six thousand and five hundred. The ANF fighters join with the UAC in attacking the Protoss ground forces.

Meanwhile, the Protoss ships are utterly incapable of moving or firing, their systems under total ANF control. The UAC and ANF begin firing MACs and superheavy railguns into the fleet, pinpoint shots vaporizing reactors. The Spires of Obliteration are the first to go down, shattered by reactor explosions. The Dreadnoughts are next, brought low by UAC MAC fire and the Rhm Borsigs' heavy 2040 support. Finally, the Leons and the Imperators fall to ANF munitions, and the massive UAC-ANF allied taskforce turns their focus to wiping out the last of the Protoss fleet.

So far, Aneph has taken no losses thanks to their disablement of Protoss systems, the UAC has taken some modest losses due to Protoss fire before ANF arrived. On the ground, the tide turns against Protoss, as superheavy railguns from the ships above smash heavy fortifications. Tanks erupt in flames as Aneph "Devil's Trumpet" rocket launchers fire en masse, their O2F2 payloads setting even water alight in hungry flame. Then, the combined UAC-ANF ground assault rolls in -- SPARTAN teams and ODST drop pods rain from the ships above, while Project Kappa monstrosities and Recluse walker tanks smash into the heaviest Protoss concentrations, decimating them.

From the planes strafing Protoss lines, some drop canisters different than the usual bombs. Any who drew near them were reduced to gibbering terror, and more rained from above every minute. Soon, the entire Protoss front line broke, their commander found by UAC SPARTANs and Aneph heavy troops and killed. Bereft of orders and blinkered with terror, the Protoss cut and run, their clone discipline overwhelmed by ANF's memetic warfare. The Aneph troops cease fire, but the UAC troops continue. Some yell "For Glacius" as they charge, HT-01 and 02 hovertanks running over clone troops and machine-gunning others.

Even the psi-troopers, so vaunted previously, are helpless -- Aneph troops single them out and kill them, in the case of Kappa monstrosities, brutally so. Some are captured, and given a quick field lobotomy by Aneph field surgeons -- enough to disable their psi powers and thinking capacity, but enough to give ANF researchers enough to develop ways of combatting psi powers and even develop similar.

Finally, the Protoss fleet lies destroyed, utterly decimated by the sheer might of so many UAC ships and ANF's technological superiority. While the Protoss ground troops may have managed to escape into Chile, the amount that may have survived was miniscule -- the UAC troops hunted them all the way to the border.

As the dust settles, an inventory is taken of the losses. The UAC took the brunt of the losses, with several large capital ships destroyed, and many more escorts. Aneph took next to none, with the only losses being among the ground troops -- a few hundred at most, and around thirty fighters and bombers.

This was a considerable loss for Protoss, with a large portion of their fleet irrevocably destroyed, and their ground forces killed or scattered. AIF would be safe for a good while yet, but Silas Tierce of ANF sympathized with his UAC counterpart's opinion -- perhaps this wasn't over yet.

The combined task force stayed at alert, with all ground troops reinforcing AIF defenses and mingling with AIF troops, sent wherever needed to bolster the front line.