As we got closer the roar got louder, some Honkai particles floating around were drawn to my Cycled Muffler and I felt the power level rising, ever so slightly. The place turned more and more like a proper warzone, with holes littering the streets and buildings. The streets opened up to a parking lot/garden covered in vehicles, corpses and bloodstains. All vehicles were missing the guns that should have gone on top of them (APC's I thought they were) and a few trucks with boxes stew around them. It was clear that the Honkai had trapped everyone here in the Stadium and whoever was left decided to turn this into a fortress. As much as you could with a civilian building.
The machineguns were targeting somewhere to our left, the gate our street lead to was blocked with crates, rebar and ruined vehicles. Good enough for the undead, but the monsters would plow right through them with no trouble. The Chariots were at least 3 and a half meters tall hunched and walking on their four limbs gorilla style. The Templars were at least 2 and a half meters tall with that backpack that reminded me of the Promethean Knights from Halo 4. Thankfully, we hadn't seen any Ballistae close by but those were priority if found. We came to a gate with some steel barriers lying around and some soldiers using them as cover. They looked just as frazzled as Watchpoint-2 did when I found them, seemingly ages ago. Bloodshot eyes and trembling hands were brought to my attention as we came closer.
Suddenly I found myself with my helmet ringing as my head was thrown back. Things got hectic then.
"Friendly fire! Friendly fire dammit!" the Lieutenant shouted to one of the soldiers, which going by the smoking gun, had just headshot me. Thank god for helmets, but what the hell! "What the fuck are you doing private!"
The soldier's trembling went full body "Ma'am, sorry ma'am!" and that was as much as he could get out as the Lieutenant tore him a new one.
A guy with H. Tyler written on his chest plate came closer to me "You ok sir?"
"Thank god for helmets I say, but yeah, A-OK" I turned back to the Lieutenant as she got everyone else too into the shouting. Things like regulations and orders were thrown around but I think she used this as a pretext to get as much intel on the situation here as she could. The soldier stationed here were so nervous that they responded without caring where she'd come from.
"…Who's in charge here?"
"Major Kanata, ma'am!"
"And where is he?"
"VIP Lounge Ma'am" Of course…
More explosions and roars came from another gate. "All right, Watchpoint, On me!"
I fell in line despite not being part of the military.
Yet.
The VIP lounge was exactly as expected. Glass everywhere and spacious with few seats strewn here and there, on could see exactly what went on at the field below. However, now it was covered in papers, maps, radio equipment that stood silent on a corner. Several people still in combat gear (the Starship troopers look-alike) walked around, giving an impression of controlled chaos. The thumps of tank cannons could be felt on the glass every time they fired. The one I suspect was Major Kanata was over a desk covered in maps of the stadium and there were worryingly red spots all around it.
Uh… the Honkai were only attacking that Gate (the north one if I'm reading correctly). The south gate was the one we found barricaded and the guys at the west one were the ones that shot me, the east gate seemed to be holding with close to no contacts though. We'd killed a lot of Honkai coming from the south along our walk, but we'd only heard gunfire from the north gate.
Something was amiss.
"Major Kanata, sir. Watchpoint-2 reporting, sir." Huh, first time I saw the Lieutenant that nervous. Also I got to admit, Major Kanata was kind of plain looking except for the wight of his stare and the slight bags under his eyes. He'd turned to look at her and stood silent. Until he spoke.
"Watchpoint? Where is your commanding officer?"
"Dead sir."
"And only you remained to come back?"
"Yes sir, Lieutenant Yinsen here provided an opening to exfiltrate from a collapsing line. Sir."
"I see" he turned to look at me, my suit and my face. I'd chosen to collapse the helmet once we were inside the stadium away from happy triggers, but it seemed that whatever I looked like still caught attention easily. That or the suit, mostly the suit I thought. "and who are you?"
"Lieutenant Edward Yinsen, Task Force Steel Locust"
"UN?"
"Affirmative."
"And just what are you lot doing in my city?"
"Intelligence delivery, weapons field testing and backup for exfiltration of precious cargo." I listed matter-of-factly, my expression hopefully flat before this guy. This was is, the first time in many I had to fake it until I made it true. "Bird got shot down, objective 3 is good as done, number 2 is a work in progress."
"And number one?"
"That I'm about to accomplish." A pouch added to the small of my back was opened and I withdrew a little envelope. Its layout, taught to me by internet forums, hopefully matched actual 'classified' documents. 3D printing a piece of paper is quite the chore, let me tell you. The paper and photos printed on it were made based off my memories of Mei's, Sirin's and Bronya's Herrscher forms. Mei's hair color blonde instead of black, her armor yellow where it would be red and her face swamped with that of Kiana, so they wouldn't hunt down the Dr. Mei we needed right now. The photos looked as if a satellite took them (heh, if only they knew). The 'report' told how my 'agency' had identified high priority targets that imparted tactical information and could coordinate the Honkai in that area. The target had a variety of abilities at their disposal that could render common weaponry close to useless. And that my 'team' had been dispatched with EMD weapons to test against them.
"You are shitting me." He told me once he was done reading. I held out my hand and he handed me back the full envelope. A little energy surge on the tip of my fingers and the paper smokelessly burned away.
"I hope, it was supposed to be a full team taking on that thing, but now it's just me" I mentioned towards the lieutenant "I outfitted her team as the only option available for me to complete my mission, their survival will mean a lot of lives saved in the future" and hopefully I could keep us all alive so I could get on with a plan to save even a little of this world.
"Understood. Lieutenant, you're under his direct command, Yinsen, I hope your people are right."
"We've seen this twice; those photos just confirmed our suspicions"
"And that little piece about 'observed effective weaponry'?"
"That's why I'm here, sir. To find another way"
"Then, you're dismissed."
Hard to not let anyone do their thing when the threat of Nuclear Fire is aimed your way.