Chapter LI: Survive the Night - Part Two

11 Oct 2358 KST

Seongnam, South Korea

Out of the parking garage and out from the adjacent streets a dozen or more motorcycles started up and proceeded onto the southbound street in front of the hospital followed by several cars and trucks, a number of which had heavy machine guns and mortars mounted on them. Vargas himself was riding in the bed of a silver pickup truck with a belt fed, tripod mounted K4 automatic grenade launcher affixed to the roof of the cab. In front of Vargas was a flatbed tow truck rigged with a K6 heavy machine at the rear and a tripod mounted M20A1 bazooka over the cab behind the operator of which sat Ryong-ho and his sniper rifle. The car behind Vargas had the front and rear bumpers wrapped in barbed wire and a soldier with a shoulder fired anti-aircraft missile stood up through the moon roof. At the rear of the motorized column were two vans, one full of soldiers the other full of the explosives that Young-gi had been preparing for them. Behind the vehicles were 160 soldiers and civilian fighters, enough to match the skitters man for bug according to the scouts reports. This left the defenses at the hospital very stripped down indeed, further giving the appearance to the occasional beamer flyover that this was a genuine relocation. If they failed however the hospital was left vulnerable with precious few fighting men and women to fend off an attack. Tae-yang personally led the foot soldiers as they lightly jogged behind the vehicles.

Bremer and a small contingent of soldiers were standing outside the entrance to the parking garage as the vehicles departed. "Give 'em hell Chico! And whatever you do don't come back here. We'll find you." Bremer told Vargas as he passed by. Once the vehicles had left and the troops on foot were passing by, Bremer and his group slipped back inside the hospital, unnoticed by any spying eyes that may have been watching.

"Lights on bitches! We want them to see us." Vargas ordered. One by one the vehicles headlights turned on as they rolled away from the hospital. Above them serpentine threads of smoke drifted into the midnight sky from the burning of fuel oil and solid refuse inside steel drums on the rooftops of the hospital and the surrounding buildings. The setup gave the appearance that the 4th Korea had torched their former hideout on their way out. Just as fate would have it, a pair of beamers, scarcely visible from the ground as two twinkling blue dots were at that time flying at high altitude over the area. They crossed over the hospital complex which from their vantage point would appear to be burning down. The first act of the ruse had reached the attention of the enemy; time would tell if the 4th Korea's theatrics would succeed in deceiving them. The vehicles mustered several blocks to the southeast with the hospital well out of view and waited in formation for the soldiers on foot to catch up to them.

When the foot soldiers arrived Vargas dismounted from the truck and walked over to Tae-yang who was catching his breath. "Don't tell me you're tired already?" Vargas teased him. "Easy for you to say from the back of that truck." Tae-yang replied. "Nah, I'm fine, a little run is good for the soul." Tae-yang said with a chipper sense of optimism. Vargas took a crumpled up street map out of his pocket and unfolded it before handing it to Tae-yang. Tae-yang took the map and looked over it. There was a location circled in pink highlighter and two routes marked in yellow highlighter, one to the location from where they were and one to the location from some ambiguous point to the west of it. "What's this?" asked Tae-yang. "I'm getting to it, but first, take this." replied Vargas as he took the light fifty off of his back and traded Tae-yang for his standard issue K2 rifle. "I've already got a big gun on that rig so you'll need this more than I will. Take care of her for me; I'll want her back in good order when this is all over." Vargas said. "Don't worry about it, she's in good hands" Tae-yang assured him. "Now, here's the part where we split up; take the foot soldiers straight down this road we're on now keeping parallel to the train tracks until the road curves to the west. When you get to the bridge, don't worry about which bridge it's the only bridge you'll see left standing, take the immediate left going southwest til you come two large banks next to a new multiplex theater with an adjacent underground parking garage attached to the second bank. The location is highlighted on the map I gave you in case you have trouble. We'll go on ahead and take the long way around back using the main road on the other side of the train tracks and make sure you're not going to get hit from behind. Once we make sure the destination's clear then we'll meet you on our way out with any surplus weapons we find. After that we're off to fuck shit up ahead of the enemy column. We'll slow them down as long as possible to allow you to get set up. After we give them a little trouble we're going to feign a retreat that will lead them along the highlighted route on the map to your location. We'll make it look like they've got us whipped with our tail between our legs so they'll buy in. Now, on your way to the theater set up your men all along the highlighted route. I need shooters in every building with a clear view of the street. Also the van with the explosives will be staying with you, I want you to set up charges to blow this bridge here once we've lead the enemy across so we can cut the forces we have to deal with in half. It's the only bridge still standing, the bugs bombed the main one so it should be easy to find. If we're good we'll have taken care of the first wave by the time the second half finds its way around. If you have time set up a few more traps as well. I want this street turned into a hornet's nest by the time we get back here." Vargas instructed Tae-yang. "We'll do whatever we can. See you there." Tae-yang replied. He and his men then resumed course towards the ambush location while Vargas hustled back to his truck and departed with the other vehicles to the same location via a more circuitous route.

Back at the hospital two twinkling blue lights were sighted in the distant northwest sky by one of the guards tending the burning barrels. One of the lights turned towards them and accelerated to supersonic speed. The light turned into a beamer quickly following the sonic boom. There was no time to react, only to wait and see what would happen. The beamer dove down towards the hospital as if it was about to make a precision strike. It leveled off and cruised through the intertwining ribbons of smoke from the fires burning below. Soldiers waited on the second level from the top of the parking garage with shoulder fired missiles aimed at the alien craft. They held their fire per Bremer's orders as the beamer passed over them and then without incident or hostile action it turned to the south and ascended. The controlled burn on the rooftops had worked it seemed; the beamer was blinded to the presence of the people inside. Assuming the hospital complex was a smoldering ruin it soared off towards the southern horizon and faded away into the night. The firepots had proven themselves to be worth the effort; at least the enemy would have to put a little more effort in smoking them out of their hiding place now.

As the fearful garrison at the hospital entered into the small hours after midnight Williams sat down in one of the pews in the hospital chapel and bowed his head silently. He clasped his hand together with his hook and looked down silently as Father Yang was reading words of encouragement from the Bible to those who had come here for comfort in this desperate hour. This was the first time he set foot in a church since he had joined the army, back when he was still living at home with his mama. His mother was an outwardly religious woman, shouting amen and singing joyfully with the choir. She was probably someone who would be more at home in a boisterous southern Baptist congregation rather than the small community church situated in the heart of Atlantic City, the Sin City of the East, that Williams' family went to. Though she had passion for the word, she hadn't succeeded in instilling the deep roots of faith in Williams and his sister. Church was something like a hobby to him, like Taco Tuesdays or Fried Chicken Fridays, it was just something he did out of habit, a habit he put aside when the rigors of army life seemed to edge that time out of the schedule. So even though he was a professing man of faith, it startled him when he came across people like Vargas or Hamza who took their faith more seriously as the central focus of their lives. Korea seemed to be a more devout place than the largely secular world of New Jersey even before the world ended. Even still the churches and temples of Seoul were sparse in their attendance in better times. Such was not presently the case; the small chapel was a full house tonight. The heat from all the warm bodies packed together caused sweat beads to form on Williams' skin. "Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me." Father Yang read from the Gospel of John. Williams honed in his words and pondered them all greatly as Father Yang expounded upon them in an effort to grant courage and comfort to those in attendance who were facing a night that could be their last upon the Earth. Williams wondered if God would indeed shield them from the alien hordes; would there be divine intervention or the good fortune of providence that would give timely rescue to these dangling in front of the jaws of destruction? Could it be that Hamza was right, and the alien apocalypse was indeed God's judgement upon sinful humanity? Williams did not have an answer and he found none in Father Yang's words. What seems right to a man may not be the case with God, for it would stand to reason that the eternal, timeless, all knowing creator of the universe would see things from a far larger a different perspective from mankind, mere ants marching along the surface of a stone adrift in an endless sea of stars. This could be all part of the grand design, for what purpose only God would know. Yet there was still hope in him, hope but not certainty that God was not finished with their lives in this world, that there were still deeds yet undone in this life before He would call them up into eternity. This was probably the deepest reflection Williams had ever undertaken in trying to discern the mind and nature of God. It wasn't so much of a hobby now. Desperation, he thought, made him turn back to his faith and the coming fire would test if it was genuine or just an act of bargaining to escape the blaze. "Therefore do not be afraid of those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." Father Yang closed the service with a reading from the Gospel of Matthew.

He then led the congregation in prayer, earnestly seeking divine protection for themselves and those who had gone to protect them. Williams along with the others bowed his head and closed his eyes as Father Yang prayed aloud. "Heavenly Father, please watch over our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, friends and acquaintances through these dark trials of the night. Watch over our soldiers Lord as they go out as a shield between us and our enemies. Protect them and keep them safe from harm. May your mercy be their armor, your wisdom their shield, and your strength their sword. Send back the creatures that seek our lives and our world to whatever foul pit of creation they came from and restore mankind to peace and comfort, not as the world we used to know, but as the world you wish us to be. Watch over our commanding officer and chief maintenance officer and grant them a longer stay among us. Hold close the children and let not one of them fall into the hands of our dreadful foes. Give wisdom and foresight to Major Bremer, though he may not know you, to understand your will and lead us into your protection. We ask these things in the name of your son Jesus Christ, amen." Father Yang prayed. "Amen." the congregation resounded afterwards. Many remained behind to personally comfort one another and talk to Father Yang further, while others left the chapel and returned to their duties.

Bremer passed by the chapel, stopping momentarily in the doorway to watch as Father Yang prayed over the men and women gathered together. This time he did not think to scoff at the foolishness of the exercise but rather found it beautiful. These people had something to hold to, something that would not fail them inside. Regardless of the fact he believed that something was no more real than a giant three horned rainbow shitting tuna fish flying around the third moon of Uranus that granted wishes to small boys who ate between 2 to 6 ounces of creamy, not crunchy peanut butter on the third Tuesday in September, he still found it fascinating that they could hold on to hope like that. From a utilitarian perspective he admired their courage; whatever gave it to them, it was good. They would all need that courage before the night was through. Before the prayer concluded he continued on his way down the hall so that no one saw him there.

After returning to the emergency room waiting area Bremer called together a portion of the fighters and able bodied civilians who were left behind to ready their defenses. "Alright everyone, settle down." Bremer announced as he climbed up onto an oval shaped table full of magazines so that they all could see him, silencing the mutterings and sidebar conversations of the men and women gathered around. "As you are probably well aware of my boy Vargas is out there leading a motorized company to draw the bugs away from us. We can't however put all of our faith in his success; we have to turn to our own defenses as well." Bremer addressed them. "First of all I want the bus, the two ambulances and the delivery truck ready for a quick getaway." Bremer instructed a handful of civilians in the back. "Miss Do, I want you to get all the children onto the bus and be ready to leave." Bremer turned and addressed her specifically. "Any patients not in critical condition should also be taken to the bus or one of the ambulances as well. I want to keep one ambulance open however to move my two critical patients into if necessary." Bremer told a pair of ladies who he had seen previously volunteering to help Tae-yon with minor tasks earlier. "As for the rest of you, we're going to be working on some ghetto stealth technology. We don't know exactly in what ways these things "see" per se. We've been able to hide from them in the past but that's because they weren't looking for us then. We can't say that's the case this time." Bremer addressed the group. "We've seen evidence that the walkers are drawn to motion, sound and heat. It would be safe to assume the zoomies have infrared sensors as well. That's what the dumpster fires on the roof are for. It would also be safe to assume these things have X-ray capabilities as well." Bremer explained. "Radio waves too. I've noticed some odd interference on my handheld sometimes when I've gotten to close to the bugs on a run." mentioned one of the experienced scouts in the group. "Good that you should mention that, radio silence is a must tonight. If you've got one turn it off now." Bremer urged the group. "You five guys over there, yeah you, go up to radiology and bring back all the lead drapes, vests and anything else that would do a decent job attenuating X-rays and plaster them all over the walls of the trauma center. We can hope twenty something odd floors of hospital will do the trick from above we've just got to make the side views look solid as well." Bremer directed a group of disinterested men in the back of the crowd. "You three, the fat one, the goofy one, and the Asian guy, wait that's all of you but you know who you are." Bremer addressed another group with some humor attempting to lessen the gravity of the situation. "I need you to go down to the lower level maintenance room and bring a up few rolls of that pink sheet insulation. We're going to wrap the engine compartments of the remaining vehicles with it in an effort to retard their heat signatures." Bremer instructed them. "You over there, I need you to set up some flood lights and batteries in the trauma center. When we get the signal we're going to cut the generator and I want to give Tae-yon as long as possible to save our people." Bremer ordered yet another group. "The rest of you follow me outside." Bremer said then got off the table. He led the remnant of the group outside while those assigned to other tasks went off to complete them. "Give me a ring of dry trash around the hospital and soak that shit with the leftover JP-8. That should give us enough smoke for complete cover should we need it. I want to keep the drums burning up on the roof as well. If all goes to hell where Chico can't hold the line and the bugs show up here we'll give it a controlled burn to keep the zoomies off our backs. Might confound the bots a bit too. The heat from the fires should help mask our body heat and cloak us from visual detection as well." Bremer instructed the men outside as he pointed to where he wanted to build his final smokescreen. "Once you're done get your asses back inside on the double." Bremer told the men before they turned to their preparations. He then went back inside to quickly check in on how Sobieski and Han were holding up before going back to coordinating the operation.

Vargas' convoy was now nearing the east side of the proposed ambush location. "Turn at the next street." Vargas instructed the driver. "I found this location earlier when I was out on search and destroy orders and vaguely remembered the place from before. I was surprised it was still standing." Vargas remarked. They approached the area and saw the two broad, stocky bank towers with the upper portion of the parking garage exposed with a theater complex sandwiched between the second bank and a commercial building containing a coffee house and several nice restaurants on the ground floor. To the south of the first bank was a collapsed hospital tower that obstructed the roadway to the east. The large mounds of rubble would act as a wall to hinder the advance of the aliens into the location. South of the hospital ruins the ground was embedded with fragments of an alien airship that had previously crashed through the tower and brought about its collapse. The fragments were quite small as the ship had exploded inside the tower as it passed through and contained nothing of real value that could be salvaged. To the north of the first bank building was a demolished tower that had contained a church. The rubble from the church formed an incomplete impediment to alien advance and also offered a clear line of sight from the bank tower to the only surviving bridge across a small creek in a ravine. The location was a little over two miles to the south of the hospital so Bremer and company would be able to see the flares sent up if the mission had gone awry. Vargas hoped it was still far away enough to shield his friends from the fighting that would so soon be upon them. "What's so special about it? Looks like a movie theater and a couple of big banks to me." asked the soldier in the passenger seat of the truck Vargas was riding in as they turned the corner and crossed the train tracks. Exactly, what's a more impregnable civilian structure than a bank vault and what's a more innocuous structure than a movie theater." Vargas replied. "There's no evidence of military activity here but believe me we would have been well entrenched on our southern border if the alien assholes had given us more time. You see we we're setting this place up as a secondary command post before Seongnam fell. Colonel Cho expected to receive more civilians than we could handle with the area we had already secured so we started preparing to expand, never actually got the area manned and operational though. Early on during the attack enemy air power cut off this area off from our reach so most of its arsenal remains untouched. If there was somewhere we wanted to trick the enemy into believing we had a new base of operations this is the place to do it." Vargas elucidated. The vehicles parked and Vargas and Ryong-ho dismounted and were joined by eight soldiers debarking from one of the vans and a flatbed farm truck. Vargas directed the others to follow him into the entrance to the bank's parking garage.

Inside the parking garage Vargas, Ryong-ho and their men descended into the lower levels and discovered the weapons cache, still untouched from the previous Battle of Seongnam. It contained sixteen assorted Chiron and Stinger missiles, one javelin missile launcher, a crate full of American made anti-tank mines, two dozen M67 recoilless rifles, seventeen K6 heavy machine guns, eight cases of M371A1 HEAT rounds along with a handful of M72 rocket launchers that were stored in the bottom floor of the bank's underground parking garage along with a generous number of K1 and K2 rifles, grenades and ammunition. On the first floor below ground level in the garage there was also a more massive wheeled, tripod mounted M40 next to a couple military Humvees that presumably were operational. "Everything looks in good order here." Vargas declared feeling quite proud of himself. They checked out the Humvees and made sure they still ran after looking over the newly discovered weapons cache. "We'll leave these here in case we have to make a retreat." Vargas stated. "Retreat where? You heard the Major; we can't go back to the hospital." Ryong-ho inquired. "Due west to the hills, we'll try to swing around them to the south if we can. We'll lead them as far away from base as possible." Vargas answered. "You eight guys stay here and wait for Tae-yang and his company to arrive. While you're at it move the M40 to the top floor of the parking garage and set it up between the open portals facing the debris wall blocking the main road." Vargas instructed the other men before he and Ryong-ho departed. They came around a side road that bypassed the collapsed buildings and emerged further north right next to the bridge. There they sighted Tae-yang's men approaching. "I've got guys waiting for you. Pick up the pace!" Vargas teased them before his unit crossed over the bridge and turned to the south.

As Vargas continued on a southbound trajectory three beamers were sighted flying above the column. Vargas signaled to the car behind him which then broke off from the main formation along with the 7 other vehicles behind it. Some of the motorcycles at the head of the column also branched out in a different direction hoping to draw away the flyers. The beamers continued straight on their course above Vargas' group for a while before speeding up and continuing on their present course ahead of and away from the vehicles. They passed the southern edge of Seongnam proper now and entered into the neighboring city of Yongin. If not for the still extant signage however they could hardly tell where one city ended and the next began. Aside from a flyby from a beamer heading from the west to the east there was no sign of the enemy. "We should have seen something by now." Vargas mumbled to himself. Having calculated the distance the scouting party had sighted the alien unit along with the time elapsed and estimated speeds of both his vehicles and the enemy Vargas knew that one of their units would be making contact with the alien force very soon. In fact, within a matter of minutes Vargas believed that either he or one of the advance scouts would be in for the fight of their life. Any second a motorcycle could come zipping out of one of the adjoining streets with alien walkers hot on its heels, or worse the scouts could have been cut down and the enemy would be coming at them full force with not a moment of advance warning. The anticipation and the dread was palpable, it was almost indescribable to someone who had never faced combat before. The closest mundane experience he could relate it to was the feeling you get as you ascend to the top of a rollercoaster only ten thousand times more intense. His stomach tightened and his hairs stood on end. His grip was firmly on the vehicles mounted weapon, while his rifle remained loaded and ready strapped to his back. The steady growling of the engines faded into background noise as his hearing was sharpened to detect even the slightest of sounds arising from outside the convoy. Ahead of him, Ryong-ho looked remarkably calm but Vargas knew better. He had to have been at full alert, ready to spring into action the moment the first bug or walker was sighted. The point of impact drew near, it was only a matter of who would be first to experience it.

The motorcycles that branched out looped around and split off even further into groups of three and four. These smaller groups scouted ahead to locate the enemy which they anticipated to be nearby. They fanned out into the southeastern quadrant of Seongnam and the hilly terrain around it as well as going further into Yongin ahead of the main motorized force. Four of the bikers that had turned to the east into a residential area nestled in a valley that was closed in by wooded hills on the north were the first to make contact with the enemy. When this group of scouts heard the hallmark sounds of nearby mechs they parked their bikes in a tight alley and slipped into a three story housing unit. One of the soldiers waited by the entrance to cover their escape route while the other three made their way to the third floor window in the rear room of the domicile overlooking the next street down. There they sighted a portion of the enemy army. It appeared to be even larger than they had anticipated. The mechs alone numbered nearly fifty, and among that number were a handful of mechs of a new design that the soldiers in Seongnam hadn't encountered before. They were the same design as the armored patrol mechs that had recently been seen near the industrial areas of Incheon. Of all the members of the Fourth Korea only Williams had even caught a vague glimpse of this model of walker as made his journey from Bucheon to Anyang. Even he knew nothing of their capabilities, which could only be assumed to be superior to the standard walkers. The soldiers here would soon come to use the term "pancake walkers" to differentiate them from the common smaller, more agile "egg walkers" that they had experience fighting. It wasn't just the mechs that were more numerous than expected, the ranks of the skitters were legion as well. The two scouts could see hundreds of them passing through the street and over adjacent rooftops further to the south, giving indication that the alien army encompassed several streets side by side. "We were told there would be 150 bugs, you heard that too right?" one of the scouts asked the other, standing in disbelief at the size of the forces arrayed against them. "Yeah." the other scout whimpered. "150 bugs huh? It looks like our recon boys forgot to add a few zeroes." the first scout cynically remarked. "Relax guys it's not "that" many; we can take 'em" a third soldier chimed in sarcastically from behind the two at the window. "Holy shit, that is a lot of bugs." the third soldier said after he saw what the other two had seen. "We can still take 'em." the third soldier repeated with faux confidence. He placed a hand on each of the other two soldier's shoulders and shook them gently. "Stop standing around guys, we got to report back to the convoy." the third soldier urged the other two. The three soldiers walked away from the window and went back downstairs where the fourth soldier was guarding the door. The soldiers quickly got onto their bikes and sped away, vanishing through the meandering residential streets before the sprawling mass of skitters crawled over the building they had just inhabited and continued on the very same course, mere minutes behind the scouts.

After the scouts had caught up to the main force and appraised them of the situation Vargas' column quickly doubled back to intercept the alien army. The scouts were sent into Yongin to pull back the other scouting parties that were heading away from the enemy with orders to return to the ambush point on a wide sweep in case the enemy had broken up their force and were coming at them from multiple directions. The main group accelerated northward once the entirety of their company had gotten turned around. It didn't take long before the enemy had taken notice of them. Ryong-ho was the first to spot a trio of beamers closing in on their position from the west. He motioned back to Vargas who looked over and spotted the distant blue lights approaching as well. "We've got zoomies incoming! Wong, Lee, Hyolyn, Light em up!" Vargas commanded. A man and a woman riding in the back of a flatbed produce truck with wooden side rails and a soldier in the back of a jeep took aim with shoulder fired Chiron missiles and fired once the craft were near enough. Two of the missiles completely destroyed the beamer on the left of the formation in mid-flight, hitting it head on while the third missile struck the center beamer on the right side of the craft as it began to take evasive action in the wrong direction. The center beamer dropped out of the sky gradually with a flaming trail behind it before it crashed into the city streets several blocks away. The third beamer escaped the attack and opened fire with white hot plasma bolts incinerating the flatbed truck and two cars as well as devastating the buildings on the eastern flank of the column. Another missile was fired at the beamer after it had passed over them and continued on eastward. The missile completely missed the craft and the beamer did not turn around and attempt a second attack, instead it flew over the eastern mountain ridge beyond the city and vanished into the night.

A few minutes after enemy air power had attempted to deter their attack Vargas' company came upon the vanguard of the enemy ground forces. A row of twenty or so mechs followed by innumerable skitters filed onto the main thoroughfare several hundred yards ahead of Vargas' unit. Oblivious to the threat to their rear the alien force turned and marched northwards. Their arrogance was Vargas' opportunity. The moment the full complement of mechs came onto the scene every man with a rocket launcher, bazooka, .50 caliber rifle or machine gun opened fire. The unsuspecting machines, packed into a tight linear formation across the street were easy targets. Many of them along with droves of skitters fell during the opening salvo. Those that survived scattered, some went back the way they came or down nearby side streets. Their ranks were soon replenished by ten mechs racing out into the street in a loose formation, arm cannons blazing as they emerged. Many defunct abandoned vehicles were mistakenly blasted apart by the second wave of mechs as they first came into view. A van to the left of the three motorcycles leading the column became the first true casualty. It was laced full of holes across the front and down its length along the left side. The van decelerated abruptly at the death of its driver into coasted into a prolonged rolling stop. The surviving soldiers inside the van hopped out the back door as the van drifted ahead and opened fire on the skitters issuing from the alleyways, leaving the wounded behind until it was safe to go back for them. Nearby a rusted blue pickup truck carrying two soldiers fielding K3 machine guns in the bed was struck by a mech's rocket through the front of the radiator grille. The rocket detonated amidst the engine and caused the truck to flip forward and land upside down as secondary explosions in the fuel tanks were spurred on by the initial blast. The motorized column was now left with a pair of old style jeeps sporting K6 machine guns at the lead, with Vargas and the others following some distance behind them. A band of motorcyclists covered the left flank of the jeeps gunning down skitters with K2 rifles and shotguns as they rode past. Another van with a K6 machine gun positioned in the open space where the now removed left side sliding door had been swung out in front of the onrushing throng of skitters. It opened fire spraying a hail of bullets at the skitters until heavy fire from a group of mechs destroyed the vehicle. The jeeps managed to light up a couple mechs as they swerved back and forth on their approach to evade the weapons fire from the machines. They did not pursue any mechs that went down smaller connecting streets for they knew that the mechs superior maneuverability would win out over their speed in those confined areas.

Even in the broad open spaces of the main thoroughfare the jeeps would quickly find themselves outgunned as the vanguard of the new design of mech lumbered out into the open accompanied by a pair standard mech and several skitters. The first two jeeps took the larger mech head on while the bikes led the skitters away down a side road to the south. The other armed pickups engaged the standard mechs with their machine guns roaring and mounted rocket launchers thundering. The mechs opened fire at the same time causing the vehicles to swerve out of the way in multiple directions. Some glancing blows and minor damage to the vehicles occurred during the exchange but they took no further losses. "Fucking A! Watch yourselves guys! The god damned pancake walkers can just shrug off the .50 cal like it was nothing." shouted one of the soldiers from a jeep at the lead of the pack after his barrage from the K6 glanced harmlessly off the patrol walker's armor. "Pull away, I've got something stronger for this bitch!" Vargas commanded. The two jeeps parted to the right and left, thinning out a horde of skitters closing in on them from both the left and the right with their machine guns. Vargas cocked back the grenade launcher and opened fire. "Let her rip!" Vargas exclaimed as the rapid fire barrage of 40mm grenades streamed towards the heavy walker as it obliterated one of the two jeeps with its shoulder mounted weapons turrets. The grenades impacted all over the mech, each blast flaking off more of its seemingly impervious exterior. The sustained barrage succeeded in blasting apart the mech's outer shell and bringing it first down to its knees then collapsing entirely as secondary internal explosions ripped the monstrosity apart. The whole of the mech blew apart before it had completely struck the ground sending sheared off, charred fragments hurtling into its own ranks. The explosions from the grenades also left many skitters in the vicinity slain or maimed and dispersed several more. The motorized unit sped up and looped around another city block to get out of the line of fire of the remaining standard mechs which had just been joined by 16 more of their kind.

The mechs gave chase while the skitters opted to take a more circuitous route to envelop the cars and trucks as they were not fast enough to catch them on the open road. The vehicles whose mounted weapons could be turned to the rear and those with guns mounted on the rear attempted to fend off the mechs as they at least maintained their distance with the vehicles as they meandered around all the disabled cars in the smaller side streets. They took several turns until they managed to start heading north again. They were unable to gain much ground in that direction before a flood of skitters obstructed their path and forced them to turn east at a shopping center. As they made the turn east a beamer raced towards them at a frightening speed from above the distant mountains. The soldier standing through the moon roof in the white sedan with the barbed wire bumper fired his missile at the approaching beamer as it came in on a strafing run. The beamer nimbly twisted on its horizontal axis allowing the missile to pass harmlessly by it while continuing uninterrupted on its present course. It fired two bolts of bluish white plasma over the sedan, vaporizing a jeep behind it into ashes and demolishing the storefront that the vehicles had just turned in front of. The beamer doubled back towards them forcing the convoy to take evasive action heading north, keeping close to the approaching skitters and thus making it difficult for the beamer to strike them without taking some of its own with it. The beamer seemed to be content with letting the skitters finish off Vargas' forces as it ascended back into the skies to the west, though it was not leaving the field of battle yet. Vargas' men fended off a salient from the skitters before they turned east again and went under a major highway overpass. At the same time the beamer in the west circled back towards them and the mechs at their rear were starting to catch up to them.

A pair of bikers streamed onto the scene from the highway as the main force passed underneath it. An enemy airstrike foolishly demolished the overpass, squashing one battered car tailing behind underneath it while at the same time forcing the alien ground forces to go around thus allowing Vargas' men to gain some ground on them in the short term. One of the bikers was cut down on the off-ramp by concrete debris flung outward from the bombing of the overpass. The chunk of concrete struck the back of his helmet and launched him forward off his bike. The biker landed on his chest and stomach and slid for several yards, leaving behind a trail of blood and torn clothing like streaks of bright red paint on the asphalt. His body stopped when it struck the guardrail which bent his head unnaturally to the side moments before his bike slid into him from behind. The second biker raced ahead without looking back and pulled up alongside Vargas. "There's a second enemy battalion heading up from the south along the highway!" shouted the biker. Before Vargas could respond the second enemy force was sighted coming down another off ramp to the south. A quick burst of mech fire scattered the bikes away from Vargas' vehicle before another truck swerved in front of Vargas and headed for the mech. Vargas' vehicle turned sharp left to avoid the truck and by chance happen to evade a rocket fired from another mech. The soldiers on the back of truck that had crossed in front of him opened fire on the mech with their rifles and the mounted bazooka whose blast opened a fierce gash in the front side of the egg walker effectively taking it out of the fight. The crew on the truck did not have time to reload against the additional mechs rushing into the street though. A horde of skitters coming at them from the side seemed to appear out of nowhere in the chaos and leapt upon the truck. The three soldiers in the back of the truck refocused their efforts and fired on the skitters at the moment they were being rushed upon. It had little effect, other than wounding a skitter that had jumped onto the left side of the truck. The wounded skitter snatched one of the soldiers with one arm and pulled the man forward and over the side of the truck before the other two hit the creature with enough rounds to cause it to lose its balance and fall off as well. The skitter was almost instantly replaced by two, then four more. The second soldier was pushed backwards over the right side of the truck joining his comrade as they were torn apart by the horde of skitters on the ground. The last soldier, who had formerly manned the bazooka had his arms ripped off by a skitter before another one picked him up and tossed him into the crowd of skitters behind them. Another skitter reached through the windshield and seized the driver as he slammed into a few skitters in front of him that brought the truck to an abrupt halt. The impact pulled the skitter that had took hold of him off from on top of the cab and sent it flying forward with the driver in its grip. The driver was pulled through the windshield as it shattered completely and hit the ground several meters away. The skitter and the driver rolled along the ground several times before coming to a stop. The skitter, although scraped up and disoriented for a time got up, leaving the driver lying dead upon the ground. The sedan covered in barbed wire suffered the same fate as the truck as the flanking skitters crawled all over it like ants over a piece of food.

The rest of the motorized force managed to complete the next turn towards the north and increase speed enough to avoid being swarmed by the advancing legion of skitters. They weren't far from the ambush point now; they just had to avoid being outflanked before they reached the last bridge. The soldiers on the vehicles kept a steady stream of fire directed at the skitters to their rear as the distance between them and the enemy widened. They also screened attempts by the advance forces of the main alien army to send skitters over the rooftops on their left flank. A pair of rockets whizzed by a pursuing mech and hit a crowd of skitters instead. The mechs closing in behind them quickly increased in number. Two mechs hopping down from the roof of a shopping center ahead and to the left of Vargas' force were met with a barrage from Vargas' grenade launcher that took out the legs of one walker and obliterated the central "egg" portion of the other. The mechs opened fire at the same time as Vargas and managed to put a few holes in a couple of the vehicles and take down one of the bikers on the flanks of the cars and trucks who was preoccupied with shot gunning skitters behind him at the time. The beamer made a freakishly abrupt midair maneuver to allow machine gun fire to pass harmlessly in front of it and rotated on its axis to face the Vargas' unit form the rear. Meanwhile Ryong-ho was handed one of the last few stinger missiles they had with them by the man in the passenger seat through the back window of the truck. He coordinated with another soldier in the back of a convertible and fired both missiles at the beamer. One was easily evaded and the second missile struck the edge of the craft, jarring it a little and causing mainly superficial damage. The beamer fired upon them, incinerating the convertible and two motorcycles. Skitters poured out onto the road in front of the convoy but were scattered by seven of their returning scouts sending grenades and bullets the skitters' way. Ryong-ho's driver managed to pull far enough to the left to escape destruction. After a brief clash with a team of mechs and skitters before reaching the bridge claimed another of their vehicles, a few bikes and several men, Vargas' force was now down to his and Ryong-ho's truck, five motorcycles and one unmodified jeep.

They were on the home stretch now. The surviving vehicles turned to the southeast onto the intact bridge, narrowly missing being blasted apart by a volley of mech rockets and gunfire. As the vehicles crossed the bridge the beamer dropping down to strafe them into oblivion was greeted by a flurry of Chiron missiles coming from the first bank and nearby buildings of which were too numerous for the beamer to evade them all. The beamer burst apart in a spectacular fireball, raining down burning flecks of its composition onto the ground like sparkling glitter on the breeze. "Blow the bridge!" Vargas shouted as the twenty or thirty mechs pursuing them along with a throng of over a hundred skitters started to come across. Tae-yang activated the detonator which was supposed to bring down the bridge and the enemy army along with it but there was nothing. Tae-yang tried the detonator again and again to no avail. There was no boom; the explosives didn't do the trick. Vargas looked behind him to see fires burning on the support beams of the bridge and beneath the roadway but that was it; the bridge was still there. The flames below the roadway reached up around the sides of the bridge and spooked some of the skitters on the flanks. A few startled bugs was a poor consolation prize for an alien battalion at the bottom of a ravine. Just when it looked like an alien drone would dive bomb the bridge it pulled up, having only momentarily been deceived by the high thermal readings below it. They couldn't count on friendly fire either. The drone was paid for its disservice by a pair of Stinger missiles striking it fore and aft to bring it down in pieces. Vargas ordered his truck to circle around while the rest of his men fled towards the second bank's parking garage via narrow side streets immediately south of the bank. The structures along this narrow streets were lined with gunmen in case the aliens decided to pursue them this way instead of heading straight for the "front gate" so to speak. Meanwhile Vargas opened fire on the mechs with the automatic grenade launcher as they were crossing the bridge while at the same time the soldiers within the first bank and nearby structures overlooking the bridge fired upon the packed in alien force with all the weapons they had at their disposal. Vargas' truck went into reverse and backed away amidst the crossfire. A mech round sliced through the side of his right arm, taking off his clothing, body armor and some of his skin. Another round struck the truck through the passenger seat, passing out of the cab close to Vargas' right thigh. It was enough to scare the driver out of the vehicle and send him running for shelter within the bank. Vargas too was forced to flee before more mech rounds pierced through the skin of the truck, rendering it an inoperable hulk of metal riddled with holes. Vargas managed to make it around the corner behind the first bank as the frontline soldiers covered him. "Stay near the sides! Don't go in the middle of the road!" warned the soldiers waiting behind piles of rubble between the bank and the collapsed church building as Vargas retreated towards them. Vargas heeded their warnings and kept tight to the rubble and the wall and made it around the small mounds of rubble unscathed. He joined the soldiers nestled there in firing upon the advancing army of skitters crossing the bridge. While the enemy losses were grievous as they crossed the bridge their advance was not stopped. The dead skitters and ruined mechs piled up on parts of the bridge forming defensive walls of their own. Once the first wave of the aliens were out of the bottleneck they fanned out. The skitters scurried around both sides of the bank building while the mechs continued firing upon the soldiers inside, blasting chunks away from the structure in the process. They focused their fire on the upper floors where the soldiers could shoot over the walls of the dead and defunct shielding the second wave of aliens from street level gunfire. Bit by bit, brick by brick the building was being torn apart. Its walls offered no protection for the soldiers hiding within. The mech rounds penetrated them with enough force remaining to effortlessly rip through soldiers' flesh and body armor. Occasionally a mech rocket or energy bolt would be fired into an area of particularly intense gunfire or where a .50 caliber machine gun or other weapon not as easily mobile as handheld small arms were in place. Two pairs of beamers bombed the buildings along the narrow northern route around the bank where intense gunfire had been focused on the aliens as they stepped off the bridge. The beamers lost one of their number to anti-aircraft fire and the other three sped away. The beamers, while taking out a fortified position and several fighters had now blocked off the alternate route to the second bank and the theater where Tae-yang's main force waited for them. This forced the enemy army into a full frontal assault. Careless mechs stomped down on rather obviously laid out anti-tank mines, which of course to extraterrestrials could have just appeared to be bits of debris scattered about. The mines blew off the legs of several mechs and sometimes demolished the entire machine with the blast. The explosions also ripped apart clusters of skitters darting towards the first bank. Vargas led the men behind the ridge of church ruins in a retreat over the massive wall of hospital debris guarding the path into the kill zone while the remaining fighters in the first bank covered them. The first of the skitters were now reaching the ground floor of the first bank and with the help of the mechs blowing holes in the structure entered inside and started to engage the soldiers at close range. The fighters shot at the skitters until they came too close or they ran out of ammunition then resorted to their bayonets, if they had them, or using their gun as a bludgeon to defend themselves against the long armed, clawed hands of the skitters. As the defenders fought valiantly for their lives the skitters continued to pour in through the openings on the ground floor. Others scaled the outer walls against the efforts of men and women shooting downward from the windows and exposed rooms blasted open from the mechs' assault. Several skitters were gunned down and peeled off the sides of the building before falling down onto their brethren in the street. The flood of skitters could only be slowed down by the efforts of the entrenched defenders, it could not be stopped. Eventually skitters rushed into the openings on the higher floors of the bank and overwhelmed the defenders. A pair of beamers returned from the west and buzzed by the battle scene but they did not attack, for their own forces were too intermingled with those of the humans.

Vargas made it inside the parking garage just as the first skitters were coming over the wall behind him. Shooters in a hotel across the street and a pizzeria next door took out the first trickle of enemies that crested the heap of concrete and mangled metal. One of the soldiers trailing behind Vargas was clipped in the ankle by a spray of bullets from the first mech over the ridge before a blast from the M40 burst apart the central egg-section of the machine. The soldier fell forward onto his hands and chest, leaving his severed foot inside his laced up boot a couple meters away. Vargas and another soldier rushed to help the soldier back up and carry him to safety in the parking garage. Vargas set him down on an ammo crate while the other soldier worked to apply a tourniquet to the wound. A third soldier ran out to collect the lost foot and returned under a rain of gunfire from the next two mechs over the ridge. The sounds of combat intensified as a new wave of skitters joined the mechs coming over the wall. They just kept coming, no matter how many they killed it seemed like there was no end to them. The M40 and several well positioned machine gun emplacements focused in on the mechs, making their devastating punch a short lived one but could not keep pace with the skitters. The movie theater doors opened at the end of the street and two machine guns blared from behind the concession stand on the far wall. The new barrage tore into the skitters' ranks and drew a number of them away from the bank and pizzeria. The breakaway skitters were then flanked by soldiers within a shopping center and coffee house between the bank and the theater. Three more mechs, which soon became nine, then twelve pulled the firepower away from the skitters and onto the robots. The mechs lit up the pizzeria, shredding the building apart, killing and wounding many inside. Those fortunate enough to survive were forced out of the fight long enough for the skitters to storm the building and overwhelm it as they had done with the first bank. With overwhelming numbers of skitters flowing over the wall Tae-yang activated the third trick in his arsenal. A stream of flames spewed forth by the ignition of combustible gases and liquids buried beneath the rubble with dispersal lines threaded between them. The fires caught onto some of the unsuspecting skitters who fled in various directions, though few of them remained on fire when they were clear of the source of the flames. The skitters' exoskeleton proved to be rather flame retardant after all. Something else was noticed by Tae-yang as he fled down the back alleys into a restaurant next to the hotel. The armor of the mechs' that had been held up in the flames looked a little squishy and less firm as it usually did. He set down Vargas' light fifty and took out his pistol in order to test a theory. He fired and sure enough the .45 magnum round penetrated the softened armor and did damage to the mechs internals. Such must have been the tradeoff for the light bulletproof metal which coated the machines. All along it wasn't the kinetic force of their weapons that penetrated the mechs, it was the heat from the explosions, or the intense friction generated by higher caliber munitions as they crumpled against the metal. This knowledge now gave them an advantage they could exploit, but had this discovery come too late? While the flames burned off the rest of their fuel the mechs fell far more easily than they usually did allowing for a brief refocusing of firepower against the skitters, now approaching the bank and hotel. Tae-yang picked up the light fifty again and sniped at a couple mechs, it was so fulfilling how easily they could be brought down now. He soon had to turn his attention to the skitters however as they were near to storming his own keep.

As the mechs disintegrated amidst the heavy weapons fire from the parking garage and bank a duo of heavy walkers lumbered over the de facto wall accompanied by a fresh contingent of skitters. The flames that had weakened the armor of the last wave were dying down to nothing now. Instead the defenders had to rely on more conventional means to defeat the giants. One of them was by a round from the M40 which poked a hole through one of the pancake walkers only to draw it's ire towards the parking garage. It fired a plasma bolt which liquefied the M40 and instantly turned the rear loader to smoke and ash. The surrounding crew was left incapacitated with severe burns as the blast tore straight through the parking garage. The soldiers within the bank countered with a full volley of HEAT rounds from their M67s that peppered in enough damage to dismantle the untouched heavy walker. First its outer frontal armor plating fell off then one of its disproportionate arms was severed. Several chunks were blown from its sides and back. Its right turret was destroyed yielding a ferocious secondary explosion that fried half of its internals and brought the entire thing down as the remaining few rounds impacted into the goliath as it collapsed in a few large pieces. The second heavy walker turned towards the bank and brought the entire building into collapse with a few rounds from each turret. Another HEAT round struck the mech on the side doing some minor damage and yet another jarred it's left knee joint, as the building began to come down. The mech turned away from the building and approached the parking garage that was still mostly undamaged. While the upper floors of the bank had completely caved in the first two floors had remained predominantly intact, save only for the front of the building facing the street. There were a couple of fire escape doors along the sides and back of the building yet through the fighting they remained closed; the fate of the humans and skitters trapped within the bank remained a mystery. The wounded soldier was carried deeper into the parking garage as fresh troops came up to fight off the swarm of skitters converging on the entrance. "Give it hell!" Vargas screamed from the top floor above ground as he and six other soldiers unleashed another volley from M67s and rocket launchers that hit the patrol mech on the top shoulder portions, disabling the right turret as it was about to fire upon them. As they retreated to reload Vargas caught a glimpse of both buildings across the street being swarmed by skitters. Tae-yang continued to try and fight them off leaning out of a 5th floor window but had to withdraw inside as two standard mechs opened fire on his position. Vargas launched another HEAT round towards the heavy mech, hitting it square in the front and damaging a region close by the puncture that the m40 had produced. It fired back at their position, bringing down a corner of the parking garage but harming no one in the process. "I think we may need to think about hopping on those Humvees." Vargas told one of the soldiers next to him. Two soldiers fired off their last rockets at the heavy mech and fled downstairs to get the Humvees. Vargas himself went to the roof after a plasma bolt incinerated two of his soldiers leaning out one of the portals preparing to fire. He had a round loaded in the M67 he was carrying and two more in his bag. Along with a couple more HEAT rounds still sitting on the lower level of the parking garage these were the last weapons capable of dealing damage to the pancake walkers. The pancake walker beneath him repeatedly into the ground floor of parking garage obliterating skitters and humans alike. While it was preoccupied Vargas lined up and fired at its operational turret. The mech moved and the round blasted a hole next to the turret instead. The damage however interfered with the mech's targeting system enough so the return fire missed him. Instead it destroyed part of the outer railing the force of which knocked Vargas on his back.

Meanwhile the rest of Vargas' force was inside the parking garage being forced underground by the increasing tide of skitters. Behind and beneath them they heard the revving of the Humvee engines as the soldiers sent to retrieve them had reached their objective. They loaded the wounded soldier in one of the Humvees, grabbed their pick of the weapons they could carry and drove up the winding exit ramp of the garage. As the dwindling defenders seemed overwhelmed by the skitters a friendly flurry of honks from behind prompted them to scatter as the mounted machine guns on the two Humvees mowed down and cleared the legion of skitters in front of them. Sensing the shift in the tide of battle below Vargas got up, ran to the edge of the roof and fired another round from his M67 at the heavy mech, chipping further into it and turning its attention away from the ground floor. As the mech returned fire at a fleeing Vargas on the roof the Humvees loaded up what soldiers they could fit onboard while the others were sent down below to protect the weapons cache while the vehicles planned to draw enough of the enemy away from their position. Their hope was that they could convince the skitters they had abandoned it and then double back once they had dealt with the enemy outside. From the first Humvee two HEAT rounds were fired striking the body and the damaged knee of the machine. The knee snapped and the mech fell over on its side, crushing its functional turret on the way down. The first Humvee opened fire with its mounted .50 cal, taking out and damaging several standard mechs as it made a hard turn towards the movie theater. A soldier from the second Humvee lobbed several grenades into the disabled pancake walker, which finally succeeded in destroying the infernal machine. Fifteen skitters raced over the mech, some of which caught the tail end of the explosion while others were cut down by machine gun fire. The rest of the skitters that came over the wall passed by the collapsed bank and the parking garage and pursued the Humvees as they joined with the remaining vehicles from Vargas' column which were parked along the street behind the movie theater. Seeing the skitters completely swarm the buildings between him and the movie theater Vargas was in essence trapped on top of the roof. His and Tae-yang's forces were a shadow of their former selves while there were easily a hundred plus skitters to contend with. He made the determination to prematurely signal their defeat to Bremer now. He reached down and set down the M67 before removing the pair of flare guns strapped to his ankle. He fired both into the air, giving the agreed upon signal. He knew they couldn't win here, but he and his men would give the enemy hell and with any luck buy their friends in the hospital enough time to do what they had to do.