Battle of the Ancient City

The Battle of the Ancient City was the second major battle of the Joint Expedition Task Force’s mission to locate an ancient signal of an unknown race. After expedition leader Admiral Jack Roberts of Redwood Industries and his team secured the origin point of the signal - an enormous abandoned fortress-like city built by a now-extinct civilization - forces of a faction known as The Remnant, who remained on the planet Chrome II to guard the intel and technology held in the city, attempted to take the city back.

Resupply
Following Admiral Roberts’ team’s initial capture of the city, Roberts sent Commander Craz, his friend from CNL (Crazy North Logistics), to search for the other forces of the JETF and gather them back at the city. Meanwhile, Captain Steven Dawson, captain of the RWI expedition flagship Prometheus, which had been heavily damaged by a Remnant battleship in the previous battle, managed to send the rest of RWI's surviving landing forces - a few VH-121 Vulture-class Attack Helicopters full of RWI troops and supplies - to aid the Admiral’s team in setting up a base in the city. Three gunships full of troops landed in the city’s landing platforms and began unloading supplies, enacting repairs, and setting up a base of operations to study the signal and the city.

Captured
Meanwhile, Commander Michael Lynch of the Prometheus, who had deserted after its near-destruction with a small group of crewmen, took Craz hostage aboard their armored rover, the Tempest. Lynch claimed that the JETF was a lost cause, and they needed to fend for themselves to survive. However, forces led by CNL Colonel Jorgen Larson liberated Craz and forced Lynch to flee.

Gathering Forces
Some distance away from the city, a Remnant carrier rendezvoused with multiple Remnant gunships and fighters. Archon, the mysterious leader of the Remnant, ordered his ships to move in at once. However, their intentions were discovered by two RWI scouts sent by Roberts, Lieutenant Commander Hayden and Lieutenant Castro, who immediately reported back to Roberts. They began preparing defenses at once.

The First Wave
Nearly immediately after the team’s defenses were in place, the first Remnant wave struck. Roberts sent Hayden, Castro, and Lieutenant Timedoctor to the city’s control room to man the newly installed Aden AA turrets, while Lieutenant Commander Castle and Captain Sam Reed stayed on the main platform to fire manually at the incoming swarm of fighters and gunships with assault rifles and rocket launchers. Meanwhile, Roberts and Lieutenant Collier flew one of the Vultures and engaged the enemy ships head-on. After heated fighting, they were able to repel the first wave, only losing one Vulture in the process.

The Second Wave
With support unavailable from the Prometheus, reinforcements seemed to be not an option for the city team. The second Remnant wave appeared quite soon after; this time the fighters and gunships were supported by the carrier. The crew assumed their defense stations again, but the attack was much more intense this time. Jack and Castle took Vultures up and used them to dogfight the enemy craft, which also began dropping off soldiers to attack the city. Several minutes into the fight, Time was able to activate the city's defense shields, which blocked some fire from the carrier but didn't do much to repel the enemy ships and soldiers.

RCSP Rescue
When things started to look grim for the city team, help arrived, but not from RWI. Their ally and fellow JETF faction, the Royal Coalition of Spatial Protection, arrived in a small attack force of one Wyvern-class Gunship and three Raven-class Gunships. Captain Tevin Myers, leader of the RCSP forces, radioed Roberts and informed him that they were en route to assist. The ships began dogfighting the Remnant ships and the rest of the ground crew fought off the remaining Remnant soldiers and destroyed or salvaged the gunships that landed or crashed on the city. The RCSP ships also attacked the carrier, forcing them to retreat to preserve their assets.

Myers and his troops landed at the city after the carrier had retreated and the other forces had been eliminated. He spoke with Roberts about RCSP's status after the Prometheus's initial attack; Myers's second-in-command was killed and most of their equipment and troops had been lost, but they managed to locate the city and take what forces they had left to join up with Roberts' group.

Aftermath
The RWI and RCSP forces patched up their vehicles, repaired the city's defense and infrastructure, salvaged the crashed Remnant fighters, and readied themselves for another potential attack. Meanwhile, during this time, the RWI Prometheus was crippled by drones from the experimental Project X-12, which repurposed GDA (Green Drone Armada) drones into RWI repair drones for the JETF forces. The drones went rogue and instead of repairing the Prometheus, they destroyed it even more. Security forces couldn't contain them and Captain Dawson sounded the evacuation signal as the Prometheus was dragged into the gravity well of Chrome II.

Meanwhile, after rescuing Commander Craz from Lynch's rogue group, the CNL team withdrew to their makeshift camp, which they had found abandoned and used as a base to gather their scattered forces. Craz and Colonel Larson discussed what they should do next in order to join up with Roberts and Myers and figure out what to do about the Remnant threat.