The desert had not cooled.
The dawn came with gray light and acrid smoke, painting the battlefield in muted shades. Craters stretched across the dunes like open wounds. The fortress of Anubis loomed still, its walls scorched but unbroken, crimson energy veins pulsing as though mocking the armies arrayed against it.
The soldiers of Overwatch's coalition moved like shadows of themselves, armor cracked, uniforms stained, eyes hollow. Yet none retreated. They tightened bandages, checked magazines, and lined up once again in trenches gouged deeper into the sand.
The second day had begun.
Morrison stood on the forward ridge, rifle resting across his shoulder, his voice carrying over the comms. "We regroup. Same strategy: hit the walls, keep pressure on the fortress until we find an opening. They can bleed. We make them bleed again."
Reinhardt slammed his hammer against his shield, the sound ringing out like a war drum. "They will not break us!"
Even Reyes, his voice sharp over the channels, added: "Stay alive, stay in formation. Don't get clever. We keep pushing."
Among the medics, Shawn stood with his own team. The night's rest had been no rest at all for any of them. Around him, Spencer, Virginia, and the others prepped kits and stim injectors, reloading bandoliers of medical packs.
"Day two," Leslie muttered, clicking her rifle's safety off. "Feels like day twenty."
"Just keep moving," Shawn said. "If we don't, they'll bury us here."
The desert shuddered as the first shells screamed overhead. The second day's assault had begun.
For the first hour, the battle mirrored the first day. Artillery thundered, tanks advanced, Bastions poured fire from the walls. The dunes shook with explosions and screams.
But then, the scanners screamed.
"Contact from the west!" a naval officer barked over comms. "Multiple energy signatures—massive!"
On the horizon, the sea boiled. Rising from the waves came shadows too large to be machines. Titans. Omnics as tall as skyscrapers, their heads crowned with jagged antennae, their eyes glowing with crimson fury. The waves they carried swallowed entire gunboats, their footsteps sinking the ocean into chaos.
"God help us," whispered a soldier as the Titans waded toward the fleet.
As panic rippled across the channels, another alarm sounded. This one from the north.
The sky split open.
From orbit, twelve black monoliths descended, each hundreds of meters tall. They slammed into the dunes with thunderous force, shaking the earth like earthquakes. The dust cleared to reveal obelisks, their surfaces etched with glowing glyphs. Already their panels shifted, splitting open into assembly lines. From them poured drones, Bastions, Orisas, entire armies birthed from skyborne factories.
"They weren't retreating," Morrison realized aloud. His voice hardened. "They were holding back."
The army now faced not just the fortress but three fronts of annihilation.
Adawe's voice cut through the chaos, sharp as a blade. "We can't hold all three without splitting our forces. Morrison, Reyes, coordinate with me now!"
On the tactical feed, the map burned with red markers: fortress to the south, obelisks to the north, Titans advancing from the sea.
"We divide," Adawe ordered. "Morrison, take S3bastian and the naval forces, stop the Titans before they reach our ships." Her gaze flicked to Shawn. "Rose your medics are fast. Mobile. I need you on the northern front. Stop those obelisks before they overrun us. The rest of you, keep pressure on that fortress."
Shawn met her stare. "We'll hold them."
Reinhardt clasped Shawn's shoulder as they parted. "The north will be hell. Hold fast, young one."
"And you don't let that fortress swallow us whole," Shawn replied.
The dunes trembled as the obelisks came alive. Each factory's panels split wider, releasing waves of drones. Bastions dropped from the sky in neat rows, their weapons unfolding even before they hit the ground. Orisa's marched out with shields interlocked. The air filled with the metallic screech of production, an endless tide pouring north.
Shawn led his medics and a small detachment through the chaos, their kits strapped tight, rifles at the ready. Infantry squads formed firing lines around them, mortars blasting into the drone waves.
"Hit the factories!" Shawn shouted. "If they keep producing, we're done!"
Virginia sprinted ahead, calling coordinates for an artillery strike. The shells landed true, blasting one obelisk's assembly ramp into rubble. For a moment, the tide slowed. But only for a moment as another ramp extended, and more drones poured forth.
"Dammit!" Spencer swore. "They're self-repairing."
"Then we break them faster than they fix!" Shawn roared.
The fighting was savage. Drones swarmed trenches, clawing and firing into soldiers. Medics stayed back with Leslie and Sonya, providing healing to those who needed it. Shawn's katana flashed, arcs of electricity splitting metal, as he rushed forward, disrupting the ranks of the omnics.
The soldiers held their ground against the endless waves of omnics. Through Virgina's and Spencer's insights, the troops were well-placed, capable of taking on as many as needed while minimizing causalities. Dwayne and Marco dragged the fallen to cover, even as new waves threatened to drown them.
Far to the west, the sea churned with fire.
Morrison stood on the deck of a carrier, rifle braced against the railing as the first Titan waded closer. Its shadow swallowed the ship. "Fire all batteries!"
Missiles streaked upward, slamming into the Titan's chest. The explosion lit the night sky, but the giant did not fall. Its arm rose, a cannon glowing red, before it fired. An entire destroyer split apart in one strike, its wreckage dragged under the waves.
S3bastian stood beside Morrison, plasma arm glowing brighter than ever. "Permission to unleash fireworks, Commander?"
"Granted," Morrison snapped.
The omnic butler raised his arm, the plasma core screaming as it charged. A lance of energy tore from his hand, striking the Titan in the head. The giant staggered, molten steel dripping into the sea. The soldiers cheered, then fell silent as more Titans rose behind it, wading forward in an unbroken line.
Morrison reloaded grimly. "This will be the longest day of our lives."
Back in the dunes, Shawn glanced at a nearby obelisk. It was churning out Bastions faster than they could kill them. It was apparent that at this rate, they would be overrun despite their efforts.
"Focus the mortar fire on this obelisk." Shawn commanded.
"But sir, it'll just regenerate it. It's.... unstoppable. " A soldier responded back frantically.
"Who decided that?" Shawn counters.
Without waiting, electricity sparks off Shawns legs as he crouches down. In a boom, dust explodes from where he once was as he sprints towards the obelisk at insane speed. Seeing him make his move, Dwayne yells into the comms,
"What are you guys waiting for, get prepared to blast that thing."
The bombers scramble to get to their mortars as the spotters take measurements. Shawn dashed uncaringly through the Bastions, as he neared the obelisk, beginning to build up power. The spotters lined a shot up for the bombers.
Fire in 3.....2....1" he said as he timed it perfectly along with Shawn. Six mortars exploded out towards the obelisk. They reached the enemy the same time Shawn did. Shawn pulled his metal arm back as the mortar shells slammed into the obelisks hull. He punched, with all his might and built-up electric energy, causing it to travel inward, not outwards, tearing through the obelisk, obliterating a portion of it. The machine groaned as it collapsed on itself, destroying omnics that it was in the process of releasing.
The soldiers cheered at the fall of the obelisk, but eleven more still stood.
Shawn returned to his troops. Dropping in the trenches, he ignored the pain as his left side began to heal from tanking the explosion. His breath came ragged, vision swimming. Spencer crouched beside him.
"You can't keep this up, Shawn," Spencer urged. "You'll break before the rest of us do."
Shawn forced himself to his feet, gripping his katana. "If I stop, they die. That's not an option."
The medics rallied behind him. They were no longer just healers. They were soldiers. Together, they surged forward into the next wave.
By the time the sun sank again, the battlefield was unrecognizable.
To the south, the fortress still loomed, its cannons blazing. To the west, Titans clashed with warships, the sea lit with fire and wreckage. To the north, the dunes smoked with burning obelisks, three of them destroyed, the others still spewing machines.
Humanity had not won. Not yet.
But they still stood.
Shawn leaned on his blade, chest heaving, his medics around him tired but alive. Across the channels, Morrison's voice came through, calm despite the chaos. "Day two isn't over yet. But we're still here."
The desert burned. The sea boiled. The sky screamed with machines.
And the war for Earth had only just begun.