RISE AND RISE AND RISE AND RISE AND...

[UnStellar]

Some strange folk had been seen around these parts, only one at a time but reports had come in from spots all over the country. As soon as they had been seen, however, they had disappeared. One person talked about a strange emblem on the uniform of one he saw... But this had been some time ago. Nobody had seen or heard anything since. Any concerns that may have been raised by this strange occurrence had been forgotten.
...But not now.
It happened with no warning, so abruptly some were still reeling with shock. Wrath appeared floating above a densely populated urban area, and without a word starting unleashing Taint Missiles, which caused violent, city-shaking explosions that took out entire skyscrapers. They also unleashed Tainted Energy, which began to Corrupt all energy sources in the blast radius... Including the Spirits of anybody claimed in the explosion. Anybody who was killed in the explosion would find their Spirit gripped by Tainted energy, holding them from moving on to the next life. As the Corruption took them, their minds would be brainwashed, being bidden to fulfill Wrath's wishes. If the Taint did it's work, they would be converted into Spirit Energy bombs. Even weak beings have lots of Spirit Energy, these bombs could cause serious damage to any thing unlucky enough to near it. The living and injured would be Corrupted too, and if they gave in to Revenge they would become more cannon fodder to his cause.

He released a dozen missiles in a matter of seconds, and paused briefly.
"RIIIIIIIISE." His inhuman voice screamed, releasing a terrible bugle from his elephant trunk. Tainted Portals would open all over the planet, Blame-branch Disciples with Misery-branch support Disciples began to pour in by the hundreds, destroying everything in their sight and using smaller level Corruption Beams to Taint any power sources near them.

It was unprovoked. It was unfair. It was Revenge.

[@Pokemon Master Red]

While the Mechera were not the ruling power of Duerme, that job being of course that of Alaskarine(the Embodiment of Emotion, though the Mechera were not aware of that much), when Gregory Falzone ceded control over Duerme to its rightful owner he pledged to protect it. And the military of the Mechera upheld the vows of their King.

As soon as the missiles were detected, Mechera portals were opened up right in front of them, with the timing and precision only a machine could have. Even without warning, the Mechera saw it unfurl in slow motion, because they could slow down their perception of reality by computing faster, which more often than not they did to fit more 'hours' into the day. Each portal left to a pocket dimension, which was immediately collapsed, causing the missiles to cease to exist along with them. And when the enemy portals were detected, Mechera portals were overlaid upon them, also leading into pocket dimensions that would collapse. The difference was that these ones would be recreated periodically, so that they would still be effective at blockading the invasion portals.

While the portal defence kept the invasion force busy, the Mechera conducted a military evacuation of all civilians within the area, preparing to extend the evacuation as necessary. They knew they might get flak for this, they knew that Alaskarine might take offense to the Mechera taking her people(and likely her eventually as well), but there wasn't time to be diplomatic. They couldn't combat this threat with civilians in the battlefield, and as the purpose of this battle was not defense of the territory but defense of its people, rescuing civilians was even more prioritized than under normal circumstances. The lone entity that actually made it to the fight wouldn't have any civilians to attack, only militarized Mechera forces ready to combat him teleported in. As right now, no contingents, only normal military models reinforced by RIOT police mechs. But these forces were only there to hold the line as evacuations took place. As yet, they only deployed a combination of Pseudo-Magic barriers and Mirror Shields, not encompassing the battlefield but instead protecting individual squads.

[UnStellar]

No matter how brief or fast the Mirror Shields were up, the explosions touched and Tainted it. This extra energy only lead to more intense explosions. Essentially, as soon as it connected with the Portal Energy, instead of passing through it like normal, it actually grabbed the very energy that opened the portal and Corrupted it. This prevented the Portals from stopping the explosions.

Some bottom-rung Grunts were lost by entering the pocket dimensions, so the hundreds of squads teleported on to the planet instead and displayed standard combat tactics. They would clump on to large power supplies, Corrupt them, and use them to further cause havoc. In the mean time they would contact the deployed squads and didn't directly aim at civilians. They didn't avoid injuring them either, but their main focus was either to distract and destroy the troops on the ground or claim power sources. Their deployed pseudo-magic barriers and mirror shields continued to backfire, acting as power sources to further increase the power of attacks launched at them.

[@Pokemon Master Red]

The portals weren't merely deployed fast or briefly. They were deployed before the missiles themselves went off, before they were close to reaching their destinations. The point wasn't to contain the explosions of the missiles, it was to cease their existence. The explosions wouldn't have affected the portals or the pocket dimensions for the simple fact that...Well...They simply hadn't happened yet. Or at all, for that matter.
But assuming of course that that isn't what you meant(which Im presuming not, but Im having the above juuuuuuust in case), the Mechera had a different plan to do.

While the cultists attacked the Mechera, the little time bought with the portal gambit was enough for the Mechera to evacuate the immediate area of civilians(teleportation and all), while the Mechera put into play their new plan. Their shields didn't do them Pseudo-Magic, and in the case of the Pseudo-Magic Barriers it actually backfired, as while it still wasn't Tainted the Pseudo-Magic's programmed Purpose was corrupted(not Taint Corrupted, just clarifying)-you see, shields and barriers are made to protect. The shields still did, of course...They wrapped around the Mechera, and acted as zero-way barriers(blocks from both sides). The result was that the Mechera's bodies were completely trapped within the Pseudo-Magic Shields, though they continued to block the enemy beams. But back to the plan. For starters, the Mechera quickly abandoned use of Pseudo-Magic shielding once the initial shields hit began to backfire, resorting to layering normal shields. This wouldn't actually stop the beams, of course. That wasn't the point. As the beams continued to corrupt the shields though, they'd have to do so before getting to the next one...They were being slowed down. The Mechera, as yet, weren't trying to attack the enemies. They were justkeeping them in one place, not QUITE holding the line(they would have to retreat a couple feet every now and then of course to make room for new shields once the beams started completely corrupting those set up), but very close to it. With this, they were keeping the cultists from spreading...Well, from spreading far, anyways. And so, they would begin Stage 1-A Pocket Dimension was overlaid across the entire battlefield, from a mile past the ever-receding Mechera Line, all the way extending up to where the big man calling the shots was sitting up in the sky.

[UnStellar]

These new layered shields actually did little to stop the Corruption. If you take one large, thick, piece of ice and take an ice pick to it, it with take you a bit to get through the whole thing. If you turn that large chunk into lots of little layers stacked on top of each other, but still equaling the same diameter as the solid block, it will fall just as easily.

If the shields they were using were made bigger or stronger, that just gave more energy to be eaten and spat back at it's original purpose. The shields, regardless of response, would be eaten up. Though not completely at first, it would still leave gaping holes, and left the footsoldiers and civilians vulnerable to attack, which the Cultists would. Casualties would start happening. Even with the Mecheras excellent evacuation work, There were still millions of civilians in the area, and teleporting the panicked, scattered and confused civilians would be easier said than done, and as they wouldn't always be right near the Mechera to be teleported, many of them died, their energies converted to the cultists needs and wants. Some major power sources began to be Corrupted as the Mechera would be too busy evacuating and playing defense to guard things like power plants and the like. These cores were converted to massive Corruption Hearts, huge amounts of Taint Energy to be dished out as they saw fit.

It was unlikely that the Mechera would be able to cover to entire planet with a pocket dimension, as the Cultists were not only attacking near their master but also across the planet. This pocket dimensions energies would be absorbed like acid. As the cultists caught in it were swept in it, they chewed through small sections almost instantly and continued to use the energy to keep up the offense.

Wrath continued to shoot massive Corruption bombs and missiles down, but got wise to the Mirror Shielding. He teleported away from the pocket dimension towards another large urban area on another part of the planet and started to rain them down. The eye in the sky (whoever the hell is making those mirror shields appear with ridiculous pin point accuracy) wold have to move with him to stop them in time.

[@Pokemon Master Red]

...Not really at all how it worked. The foot soldiers were only the defensive forces, not the evacuation forces. One does not need to be nearby someone to teleport them, after all, so why even have the evacuators on-world? Civilians throughout agressed areas were not teleported by the footsoldiers, but instead by and onto the Frigates everpresent keeping watch on the planet safely from orbit...You dont think the Mechera would honestly evacuate them to other parts of a planet that was, quite frankly, under attack, do you? True, they'd be panicked, and true, they'd much disagree with the Mechera's decision not to give them a choice in the matter. But...The Mechera weren't trying to win a popularity contest or anything. So because, as already explained, the Mechera had bought the requisite time(all of a few seconds necessary in total, given how fast the Mechera can perceive time and operate a teleporter from Cyberspace) through the portal scheme and other distractions(such as the footsoldiers themselves), it actually WAS a very simple matter to forcibly teleport the populace of the immediate areas of the attacks. After that it was just a matter of tele-evacuating the areas not directly under attack(which would also probably take longer, if only because they'd need to wait for more ships to arrive via hyperspace/Mechera Analogue to carry the more people, which still wouldn't take very long at all).

The layered shields therefore did their job of holding it off longer by virtue of more shield to eat through. Since they were stemming the tide anyways, not outright trying to stop the corruption. ._.

I...Still dont know what you mean by Mirror Shields since I haven't mentioned any in this topic, like, at all...So...Moving on then?

The erosion of the pocket dimension, when noticed, was quickly patched up. Then its intended target jumped somewhere else for...Some...Reason...Er...Maaaajor point being, at that point they abandoned that Pocket Dimension and overlaid a new one upon where the big guy was, covering that battlefield. Of course, this one might also be 'burned' by the Corruption of the Cultists too, but it largely didn't matter. In any case, this time a AT Field was set up to help prevent such easy escape.

Uhm doesn't seem to fit anywhere else in particular but it really should be mentioned...Anyhow, the Mechera made no real attempts at 'blocking' the corruption beams, and yet none of the 'corrupted' soldiers got back up to praise revenge or...Whatever the Taint did to raw sentients because I dont know what it does. Instants before they'd be hit, the Mechera would simply transmit themselves from their current bodies along the Mechera Network, military channels, to a new one within the area. The bodies, after all, were disposable, and they still weren't on a offensive yet, so if the corruptive force got near them they weren't about to try to fight it. Not yet. They were just evading and slowing it for as long as possible.

OOC:Sorry for how rambling and incoherent this no doubt is, UnStellar. Posting this at early O'ClockDB(DayBreak) because I got the majority of the points in my head and wanted them down before I forgot them rather than getting sleep and making coherent sentences. Because Im a derp. If you'd like part of it explained, just lemme know and I'll explain it more clearly when Im not so tired. Again, sorry for all this.

[UnStellar]

Large masses of the civilians would certainly be evacuated in the immediate vicinity of major offenses. But the cultists were scattered across the entire planet, and the ones in areas of major tele-evacuating that weren't immediately taken away were killed and seriously injured.

But the footsoldiers didn't get a chance to transfer to new bodies. The Corruption went straight for their software and prevented the transmission from ever taking place, keeping locked in their body. As they made no attempt to block it, the hardware was Corrupted too. The Mechera would essentially be trapped in their own shells, at least until the Taint Corrupted their very mind. It was only a matter of time until that happened. These Corrupted Footsoldiers were folded into Cultist numbers and controlled by one Disciple, manipulated like a puppet.

These layered shields really didn't do anything. It was either the same amount of energy as before, or more. If it was the same, they were corrupted just as easily, eaten away to leave the soldier vulnerable to Taint Energy. If more, that only provided more energy to be used against itself, and they were actually eaten away faster.

The Corrupt Hearts became enormous, and took to the skies. These bundles of Taint Energy went straight for the corvettes patrolling the atmosphere and began to attack them, hampering the evacuation effort.

The pocket dimensions didn't do a thing, cultists continued to just burn through them, not letting them be affected. It also gave them more energy to continue the offense. Wrath continued to dish out massive amounts of damage, and as nothing had specifically stopped his second round of Taint bombs and missiles (please correct me if I'm wrong), the area around him was almost completely destroyed. All energies harnessed from the explosions would flow straight back to him. The more he destroyed, the more powerful he would get.

[UnStellar]

The Zarethian scream from the destruction of Temar acted as a signal. All of Revenge's forces left.