Across the vast deserts of northern Africa, a massive Nexus ground force had attempted to push toward several strategic oil installations. They had expected minimal resistance, believing that the region's defenses would collapse quickly under superior firepower.
Instead they found themselves facing a coalition of forces that had been quietly reinforced by Royce's command units.
The battle that followed lasted nearly eleven hours.
Satellite footage later showed a battlefield stretching across miles of sand where Nexus walkers had been reduced to smoking wreckage while human armored divisions pressed forward with relentless determination.
When the dust finally settled, the Nexus advance had been halted completely.
It was the first time in the war that a full-scale Nexus offensive had been not only resisted but pushed backward.
