Chapter 4: City on Fire
--September 19, 2019--
--19:50 GST--
Ever since their arrival in Gallaron space, Dr. Varcus had done exhaustive research to assess the combative potential of the ancient protoculture colony vessels. His research had shown that as frontline vessels they had no potential whatsoever, but they did have other advantages, most notably size and power. Each of the five larger colony vessels in Gallaron orbit was nearly fifteen kilometers long, and modifying such immense hulls for defensive combat had been a project almost as extensive as repairing the factory satellites themselves. Three of the five had taken up their positions in orbit, each surrounded by a formation of nearly a two dozen Thor class destroyers, Zentradi cruisers, and a small fleet of ARMD carriers constructed at Alpha Factory for a dime a dozen. As the enemy strike fleet folded in low orbit of Kaderak-I, Fleet Admiral Gabrek had the entire tactical plot stretched out before him in the central nerve center of the first colony ship, now codenamed "Siren-1." Dr. Varcus was directing the primary defense from his command center in Alpha Factory, but Gabrek couldn't help but feel as though he alone were the heart and soul of the defense fleet here. "Tactical, send the fourth and second destroyer groups to counteract enemy movements. Launch all fighters in support."
The order was relayed to the appropriate commanders of the appropriate ships, and the defense fleet began to move. Siren-1's destroyers pulled away into the distance, covered by the fleet of ARMD carriers around them and joining up with the destroyer formations from Siren-2 and Alpha Factory to intercept the enemy fleet. Several small fighter carriers had already slipped past them to attack ground targets, but thus far the main force had not come much farther than the first moon. Until now.
ARMD-034 was alongside the leading destroyer of the formation, her fighters launching into space even as the enemy fleet began to come into range. The ship's Captain was anything but a military officer; Dumo Sekkai's position was a political one, thrown into combat by one particular member of the Elder's Council as an attempt to silence her criticism of his policies and corruption. Here in space, facing enemy guns, she almost began to miss the nauseating dance of self-serving politicians. "Forward missile tubes, prepare to fire reaction missiles on my command. Forward guns, select targets now."
"Commander Sekkai, we have a reading on the enemy fleet. Twenty cruisers, thirty destroyers, forty five scout frigates and several support vessels. Range, one hundred and twenty thousand..." Her first officer's screen lit up with a galaxy of red lights and the computer's radiation alarm clicked on, "First wave of fighter squadrons is now engaging the enemy. Reaction missile salvo... 30% effectiveness."
Sekkai didn't expect the fighters would have much effect against their fleet. She had read through thousands of pages of frontline reports to know that groups like this usually hid behind a wall of battle mecha to screen enemy fighters while the battleships slugged it out. But something about their disposition in itself made her very nervous, Their formation is weird. It's alot different from the last time, "Missile batteries, target the enemy scout ships on the left flank. Fire when ready."
ARMD-034's missile tubes flared in brilliance and fired their payloads into space in sequence like a gigantic cannon. Six missiles launched from the carrier, joined by salvos from the other vessels nearby and the squadron of destroyers they had come to protect. In one massive volley they converged on the Supervision fleet as their defense lasers opened fire; half of the barrage was intercepted by enemy lasers, the other half hitting the targets directly and delivering the full force of their damage into the hulls. A dozen of the smaller scout frigates were blown to bits in the first attack, and several of the larger cruisers and destroyers were smashed in the shockwaves of reflex energy burning through their armor.
A new group of warships charged through the chaos and returned fire with forward cannons, adding a spread of missiles to the attack even as the Gallaron ships fired their second salvo. The exchange of fire from both sides passed each other in space in a simultaneous blow, and three of the Gallaron destroyers in front of the formation were caught by reaction missiles with barriers down, instantly vanishing into clouds of debris. The ARMD carriers were more maneuverable; most of them managed to evade the fire from the enemy missiles and cannons, but just the sheer volume of enemy fire cut down a half dozen vessels just the one barrage.
ARMD-034 fired its thrusters and strafed to one side from a salvo from a cruiser's guns, but the two ships behind it were less lucky; one of them took several direct hits in its hull and began to break apart, the one behind it taking a heavy laser in one of its engines and knocked into a spin. Sekkai felt the surge of acceleration as the thrusters fired again, moving the ship to evade yet another attack from the cruisers. "Forget about the small fries, focus all firepower on the heavy cruisers to the front!" The carrier's forward cannons fired on command, joining in with the guns of the destroyers behind her taking the same target. Most of their fire glanced off the cruiser's energy shield, but a single reaction missile from one of the Valkyries smashed into it from the rear and the ship's engines immediately failed.
Far behind the main group, Sekkai's tactical plot registered an energy spike and the viewscreen changed to show her. Three of the Supervision cruisers had opened their main cannons and were preparing to fire. She tapped the little button on her headset and called out on an general frequency, "034 to all units, enemy cruisers are preparing to fire main cannons! Shoot them down before they can fire!"
The Valkyrie units were the quickest to respond, followed in short order by the ARMD carriers and the destroyers among them. Yet even as they directed their firepower into the enemy cruisers behind the enemy fleet, the warships closer to them intensified their firing and cut into the heart of their formation as they came close. Six more ARMD carriers erupted in fireballs, with the destroyers struggling to deflect enemy reaction missiles with reflex barriers. Six more cruisers opened their main cannons and charged up to fire, and several of the destroyers moved forward to replace their guns. ARMD-034 fired all four cannons into the hull of one of the charging cruisers, but a return fire from its escorting destroyers smashed into her pinpoint barriers, rattling the entire vessel from stem to stern with the impact. "Target missiles towards that cruiser!" She shouted even as the deck pitched beneath her, "Hit it with everything we've got!"
This time when the missiles fired, the laser turrets from the enemy ships cut down three of them before they were even close to the Supervision vessels. Two others detonated prematurely in the midst of the enemy fleet, but one slipped through the defenses and scored a direct hit. The stricken cruiser rolled half over to one side as the energy wave ripped open its hull, then erupted in a tremendous fireball as its capacitors released their destructive energy into space. The other two cruisers with the same formation were not deterred; both of them aligned themselves, and their cannons fired.
Half of the ARMD carriers used thrusters to evade, the other half directed their pinpoint barriers forward in a vain attempt to deflect the enemy cannons. The destroyers among them switched to reflex barriers as the force of the cannons brushed them aside, but as soon as the devastating salvo unleashed from the cruisers, the target of the enemy ships became suddenly apparent.
Thousands of kilometers behind them in geo-stationary orbit, the point barrier operators of Siren-1 directed all ten of the shields to deflect the attacks, but to no avail; the firepower overwhelmed the giant colony ship and tore into its hull, vaporizing a massive section of its hull and sending the bulk of it tumbling in space. At least by now Siren-2 and -3 were entering firing range with reinforcements, but the damage had already been done. The destroyer groups were in disarray, the command ship was dead in space, and the Supervision Army took it upon themselves to exploit their newfound advantage.
And now, finally, their trump card was played. Sekkai's radar screen lit up with a cluster of new blips as a second, small group of enemy vessels emerged from a hyperpace fold at a dangerously low orbit of the planet. They were mainly transport vessels, poorly armed and highly un-maneuverable, but from their position they could land a sizeable ground force on the planet's surface before the defense forces could do anything about it. This was not an invasion fleet. This was a "death raid."
Even if they could have turned back now, the Supervision fleet in front of the GSDF defense forces were already locked into close combat with their foes. Two frigates rushed past ARMD-034 before the crew realized what had happened, but the next two fell victim to the carrier's guns as it joined a barrage with a two other vessels a kilometer behind them. When she looked around now, the Supervision Fleet was right on top of them, giving little regard to the defenders and rushing towards the planet below with almost suicidal alacrity to support the troop transports that had just de-folded there. The strategy was simple enough; even if their fleet didn't make it to low orbit to support the landing unit, they would surely tie up the defenders in orbit long enough for the drop forces to do their jobs. Whatever the GSDF did next, it would have to be done very quickly.
Sekkai checked the control panel in front of her command chair and cursed under her breath. SDD-059 had been destroyed, and so far no one had stepped up to take command. "This Commander Sekkai of 034: all units, fall back to new coordinates to regroup for a counter attack. We have to coordinate the next run with Sirens-2 and -3. All units please comply..."
--24:24 GST--Another squadron of Valkyries arrived over the city at almost the same instant the next wave of Supervision reentry pods appeared on the horizon. The destroid battalions on the ground opened fire as soon as the pods became visible, with the four Destroid Monsters on the corner of the city filling the sky with flak from their cannons and missiles. Several of the reentry pods took direct hits and started a fiery descent, but a few others managed to release their payloads before taking hits and pull up again out of range of ground fire. Squadron after squadron of Supervision battlepods filled the air above the Megaroad City, but among them were scores of micronian infantry riding anti-gravs to the surface near the outskirts of the city. A wave of fighter pods passed over the reentry pods and dove in to attack the destroids on the ground, but the Valkyries pounced on them immediately, cutting into their formations with gunpods and micro missiles and drawing every one of them back into aerial combat.
Almost a hundred miles above the city, a group of Supervision reentry pods began to descend from directly above, appearing on the city's defense center radar for the first time. Their response was without delay; dozens of armored plates beneath the streets of Megaroad City opened for the first time and the particle cannons hidden there rose into being, each the size of a small house, pointing their barrels into the sky as the first enemy warships came into range. More than forty cannons throughout the city opened fire at once, lighting sky with the radiance of their cannons and striking half of the reentry pods with a single salvo. The remainder of the formation maneuvered in an effort to escape the kill zone, only to be blown apart by the second salvo only seconds after the first.
The bomb shelter at King Lao's Chinese Restaurant wasn't especially crowded despite the suddenness of the attack. Thirty people had crammed into a hyper-carbon bunker designed to hold well over fifty. Half of these here were customers who had come to the restaurant during their lunch breaks for takeout, the other half were employees with the restaurant still dressed in aprons and smocks. Minmei and the twins were huddled into a corner with Pris and two other children, with Minmei humming a tune to keep the younger ones calm despite the sounds of gunfire and explosions erupting in the distance. There was a long moment of calm, them a powerful explosion shook the entire shelter and the lights flickered from the force of it. Taosan squeaked as a final warning that he was about to start another round of explosive crying, but Minmei countered the boy with a dance of her fingers across his forehead. Taosan grabbed her index finger and stuck it into his mouth.
There was another impact in the distance, this time the sound of something hitting the ground as opposed to an explosion. Minmei guessed correctly that a variable fighter or powered armor had landed less than gracefully on one of the buildings down the street. "We've had raids before, but never this intense." She said, more to herself than anyone.
Pris nodded in agreement. "The defense forces usually clean them up after an hour or two. You think something went wrong?"
Minmei shrugged. "The enemy gets lucky sometimes. Maybe they saw something we missed?"
Pris sighed and slouched even lower against the hyper carbon walls. "This sucks. And I'm startin to get hungry."
"Me too... although with this air raid going on I feel like I could use a drink."
"Me too." Pris said, and all at once Minmei glared at her questioningly, "What?"
"It just occurred to me, you've been babysitting for me since April, but never told me... How old are you, anyway?"
Pris shifted awkwardly where she sat, trying on her best look of sincerity. "Eighteen."
Minmei raised a brow. "Try again."
Pris blushed. "Sixteen."
"Keep going."
"Uh... fifteen and a half." Minmei stared at her for half a minute, and finally Pris threw her arms up in defeat. "Okay, I'll be fifteen next week! You happy now?"
Minmei smiled. "Babysitters are usually earning money for something. What's your big goal?"
Pris rubbed herself on the temples as if trying to block Minmei's mind-reading. "To be honest, I've always wanted to be an artist, like Picasso or Van Gouge or something. I'm pretty good now, but during the school year I sent in some paintings I did to an art dealer and he said that I had alot of potential, but I needed some work. So..."
"You're trying to get into an art academy?"
"Yep."
"How much is your tuition?"
Pris sighed, "Alot." The ground shuddered from a distant impact as if to underscore her point.
"How much?" Minmei said again.
"Three hundred thousand Yulins for each nine-week term. And since I've been working for you, I'm only about halfway there. I think I might just get a loan or something."
Minmei smiled. "Don't worry about a loan. I'll spot you the other half."
Pris looked at her in surprise. "What? Oh... no, no, that's okay..."
"Pris, never turn down the kindness of strangers."
"But you can't afford that! You work two jobs and you have two kids to support!"
"Three hundred thousand is nothing to me. That's about three months royalties from my album sales."
Now she was confused. For the past several months Pris had seen her employer highly strapped for cash, always in debt, always worried about finances and how she could make ends meet the following month. Somehow it didn't add up. "If you're making all that money, how come you work such long hours?"
That took some explaining, but Minmei decided there was no harm in letting the cat out of the bag for just one person, "Well the truth is..."
She was about to explain her secret plan when the large metal door near the stairs opened and Fei Chan climbed down with a box of emergency rations. For just the few moments the door was open, Minmei heard what sounded like intense gunfire just beyond the doors of the restaurant. "They just gave a report on the radio," He said as he came down, "They got past the orbital fleet and dropped a host of fighters and troops, then they scattered into orbit and made a run for it. It's not really an invasion, but there's a huge force on the surface just south of the city.
One of the Zentradi customers on the other side of the room stood up slowly and started for the door. "I've seen this before. They'll try and capture the city and dig in so we can't remove them without destroying it. It's just a tactic they use to tie up resources. We call it a Death Raid."
"Where are you going?" Fei Chan said as the man unlocked the door and pushed it open.
"I left my jeep parked around the corner. I've got a couple of pulse rifles in the trunk I wanna bring back here."
"What good will that do?" Someone else asked.
"Because they if they want to take control of the city, they'll definitely lead with infantry. We need to be ready in case they get inside." Another Zentradi customer followed him out, and the two of them closed the doors back as they left.
Minmei shuffled through her purse for a few moments and Fei Chan read her actions; he tapped her on the shoulder and handed her Adrian's pistol. "I found some spare ammo upstairs. You have to take off the safety to fire it."
"Yeah... thanks..." Minmei stared at it for a long moment before she could even bring herself to touch it. The last time she had held a gun was in fear for her life at a meeting with her estranged husband. She hadn't intended to use it then, but the fact of having it with her had given her just a little more security... but this time, the threat to her life and family was not a possibility, but a certainty, and now the reality set in that very soon she might have to use this gun to kill one of her enemies. She checked the clip and grimaced again; there were fifteen bullets, all of them with armor-piercing tips. "I hate guns." She grumbled, tucking the pistol into her jacket pocket.
--25:35 GST--ARMD-034 fired off a spread of reaction missiles just a split second before the burst of cannon fire ripped open the starboard hangar and knocked the ship halfway on its side. The missiles themselves skipped over the very top of Gallaron's atmosphere before slamming into the engines of the enemy frigate, detonating against the un-armored engine nozzles and ripping the entire vessel apart from the force of energy. In the same moment her forward guns fired into the upper atmosphere just beneath the, striking at another formation of reentry pods as it descended into the atmosphere towards the drop point far below. The three frigates behind her were still firing away with their smaller particle cannons, and now the carrier was starting to feel the effects of it.
The enemy cruisers had all been defeated in the counter attack from Siren-2 and -3, but the destroyer squadrons of the same fleet had entered low orbit and had begun deploying reentry pods to the planet surface in five different locations. In Megaroad City alone, a force of more than two thousand troops had been deployed, with just under half of that consisting of combat mecha deployed to secure the airspace of the city. The defenders had so far managed to maintain a line around the city to keep enemies out of it, but Sekkai knew from the reports that Supervision Army units would stubbornly hold their position once they had finally captured it.
The largest formation of enemy ships was up ahead, but the smaller group behind her still persisted. ARMD-051 and 058 were right behind her ship, flying backwards in space and firing into the face of the enemy with their forward cannons, salvo after salvo. A quick exchange between them, and two of the frigates came apart at the seams. "Enemy pursuit is dropping, Commander." Her first officer announced with a note of relief. "And... tactical reports the destroyer Harima with ARMD-021 and 028 are moving to back us up."
"Excellent. Engines, all ahead full!"
Her helmsman flinched at the request, not sure if he had heard right. "You want us to charge the enemy?"
"Just do it! Standby a spread of reaction missiles, set for a blind pattern. Forward guns, pick your targets now and standby for manual firing!"
The Fire Control officer swallowed hard and checked his targets, predicting the Commander's intentions and guessing ahead of time where the ships would be when the missiles went off. "We're standing by sir, but..." The group of frigates ahead of them opened fire as they came into range, guarding a pair of destroyers deploying fighter pods and reentry pods into Gallaron's atmosphere. All ten of them fired in a single barrage as the carrier came close, part of the barrage catching ARMD-051 and destroying it in space before the crew even knew what was happening. "Sir, what happens if we don't get them on the first pass?" The first officer said nervously.
"That would not be good. Make sure you don't miss any, we won't have time for a second."
"I was afraid you'd say that."
"Fire missile spread! Forward guns, fire at will!"
ARMD-034 fired off yet another series of missiles, a spread of six warheads set amongst the enemy in a pattern designed to confuse them. Two of the frigates were destroyed by the detonations, the others split from their formation in an evasive maneuver, moving them directly into the path of Sekkai's guns. All five of the carrier's turrets scored hits on the first frigate, and a series of explosions rippled across the hull as the particle cannons tore into it. ARMD-058 added its own firepower to the barrage, along with the two carriers and the destroyer behind them. The crossfire of particle cannons and missiles left the Supervision destroyers suddenly defenseless, but the moment their escort unit had fallen, the destroyers opened fire with everything in their arsenal...
A blinding column of light burst out from the horizon, skipping just over the edge of the upper atmosphere and sweeping across the hulls of the Supervision destroyers, along with the surviving frigates nearby. All of them lingered for a few moments as their hulls crumbled from the power of it, then in a flash every one of them erupted into fireballs and scattered into dust before them. The larger beam was followed by a hundred smaller ones from the same source, striking down all the remaining enemies in high and low orbit until, in a matter of minutes, the enemy fleet had been reduced to spinning wreckage.
Sekkai's monitor flashed a new image, combining an audio message with a magnified close-up of SDF-04 and its escort fleet. "This is Admiral Hayase, I'm assuming command of the 1st Defense Squadron. All orbital targets have been suppressed, but there's a large number of enemies down on the surface. Launch all remaining mecha to support ground defenses."
That's a welcome surprise. "You heard the Admiral." Sekkai said triumphantly, "I want all fighters re-armed and sent back immediately! Let's give them some help down there!"
--26:10 GST--
"There's two more on the roof!!" Fei Huang shouted over his shoulder just as the two soldiers opened fire. A burst of laser fire pelted the frame of the pickup truck he was hiding behind, one pulse actually punching through the metal and melting it all the way through with a burst of sparks. Fei Huang ducked down and covered his head for a moment, until he realized in embarrassment that if any of them were to shoot him in the head, his hands would offer as much protection as a baseball cap.
Fei Chan appeared next to him with an old M-16 rifle in hand, dropping box of cartridges on the ground between them. Fei Huang had parked his pickup truck half up on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant's front door before the Supervision infantry appeared and began the shooting; for the past hour their numbers had not seemed to increase or decrease in any way. "This is fun..." He muttered sarcastically, reloading the shotgun again, "How do you suppose they got in here? The defense line hasn't moved back at all."
Fei Huang loaded his gun along with him, shrugging at the question. "They must have dropped out of the sky or something." Fei Huang poked his head up for a moment, just in time to see a half squad of soldiers come around the corner with laser rifles already aimed in his direction. He held down the trigger and fired a long burst before they saw him, raking them with fire and dropping the first three at once. Fei Chan took the second three with one shot each, and the two Zentadi customers in the window behind them fired pulse at the supervision soldiers in the rooftop. "These guys sure are sluggish... it's like they're in a daze or something."
"What do you expect, Huang? They're like an army of goddamn robots. They don't even think for themselves." Four enemy soldiers came around the corner and ducked down behind a car across the street; one of the Zentradi put a laser pulse right between the first one's eyes, Fei Chan and Fei Huang took the other two with a quick burst while the last one managed to drop down out of sight in time. For just the briefest moment there was a pause in the gunfire, and Fei Chan heard something else in the background playing on the P.A. system, "Minmei's music... no wonder they're so sluggish! They react to the music and it slows them down like snails!"
There was a strange whistling sound in the air around them, and after a long moment Fei Huang recognized the sound from memory, grabbed his brother and half-shoved, half threw him through the front door into the restaurant just as the blast of a pulse cannon exploded through the bed of his pickup truck. The cannon reduced the truck to little more than a cloud of free ions, but the next series of pulses from the same weapon hit the wall of the restaurant just above it. A curtain of flame swept through the restaurant, and a tremor knocked everyone off their feet as the entire eastern section of the building collapsed in on itself.
A thousand eternities passed before Fei Chan managed to stand up, shook the dizziness from his head and looked around to examine what was left of his prized restaurant. The roof over the lobby had caved on, and most of the dining area was engulfed in flame. One of the Zentradi customers was nowhere in sight, the other was a few feet away from him along with two waiters and the cashier, all of them still clutching pulse rifles as they came to their senses. And when he looked again, he saw Fei Huang on the ground next to him, lying on his back, staring lifeless at the ceiling, with a ten-inch slab of jagged metal deeply embedded in his throat. He stared at his brother for almost a full minute, then in a final gesture of affection, patted him on the chest. "Long live the kings." A rhythmic pounding shook the restaurant from the footsteps of the battlepods that had fired on them passed, surveying the damage for few moments time... then a series of rapid impacts and a smaller explosion as a Valkyrie's gunpod cut the battlepod down where it stood.
Fei Chan threw open the doors to the shelter and his blood froze in his veins. An entire section of the shelter had caved in from the impact. Half the people sheltering in there had been buried alive, the other half cowered in a corner of the room just short of hysterics. "Everybody out!" He shouted, not stopping to take a count of who was left, "We're going to the larger shelters in the Old City! We're gonna have to make a run for it!"
The people hiding below didn't seem to give it a second thought; in a matter of moments, all ten people remaining below scrambled up the stairs and dashed through the smoke into the relative safety of the kitchen. Minmei and Pris were the last two out; Fei Chan felt a wave of relief to see both her and the twins unharmed. "C'mon we're gonna take the tunnels."
"Fei Chan, you can't get to the tunnels from this part of the city! The nearest junction is four blocks from here!"
"Well we can't stay HERE! Their infantry's moving in and they're not taking any prisoners! If we're lucky we can hotwire a car or something!" He shoved Minmei through the door into the kitchen, then rushed past the others to the back door and kicked it open. Everyone inside sprinted out as fast as their legs could carry them...
A salvo from a trio of laser rifles flashed into the midst of them as soon as they emerged. Two of the customers took shots in the chest, one of the waitresses dove for the concrete just before a laser pulse would have burned through her face. Fei Chan leapt through the doorway and fired a spraying burst at the two of them, hitting one with the burst and forcing the others to duck for cover behind a dumpster in the corner of the alley. After a moment they both emerged again and started to fire, but a burst of laser fire from the rooftop across the street caught both of them from a blindside and ended their fight. Fei Chan looked in that direction to see two men in brightly decorated robes with with long spear-like weapons in their hands. He recognized them immediately as protocran hunters, with the five-foot long staff-rifles their weapons of choice. In the two seconds he watched them, both leapt from the top of the building across the alley to the next rooftop, jumping from building to building and firing down at enemy soldiers as they went.
The group of survivors took to the streets in a sprint, single file on the sidewalk along a row of shops towards the service tunnels of the Old City, now only three blocks distant. Minmei carried Taosan under her arm as she ran, with Pris holding Yu like a sack of potatoes trying to keep pace with the others. Even as they ran, a host of enemy soldiers followed on foot, marching/jogging after in a lackluster attempt to keep pace with them. The Old City came closer with every second, every step felt like a victory against the enemies hunting them... two blocks to go... a block and a half... just one block away...
Around the corner at the next intersection was a wall of enemy troops, a platoon sized unit marching in a search pattern for the city's defense command center. The instant the civilians came into the intersection, they found themselves suddenly poised in front of an oversized firing squad; all of them stopped and sprinted back in reflex as a phalanx of laser rifles fired into the midst of them. Minmei and Fei Chan managed to dive back around the corner, but Pris was barely three feet short of safety when a laser pulse bored into the side of her head and burned completely through her skull. She died on her feet, flopping to the ground like a rag doll; by some miracle Fei Chan managed to reach out and snatch Yu from her hands before she could land on top of him. The sound of the enemy troops marching around the corner filled their ears, and in a panic reaction Minmei and Fei Chan and the six civilians left alive turned and ran as fast as their legs could carry them.
They didn't get far.
Half a block down the street, Minmei felt a burst of pain in the back of her thigh as if someone had just set her leg on fire. She stumbled and started to fall, but one of the waitresses reached back and caught her before she could fully hit the ground. For just a moment he stopped in confusion, and for a split second she had just enough time to weigh her options and think of what to do next. She could feel blood running down her legs and pooling in the soles of her shoes; she wouldn't make it far. Shoving Taosan into her arms, she pulled the pistol from her jacket and shouted into the woman's ear, "Find a place to hide! Keep them safe!"
Fei Chan looked around for a split second and ducked around the corner into an alley, gesturing for the others to follow him. Minmei staggered along with the others, somehow keeping pace, even as the soldiers began to fill the air around them with laser pulses from rifles and pistols alike. Fei Chan kicked open the window of one of the basement apartments and dropped both of the twins into the building as carefully as he could, then baseball-slid into it himself and held the window open for the others. The waitress who had carried Taosan was just about to crouch down herself and duck inside when the first of the enemy platoon came around the corner and started to fire. Minmei and two of the men aimed with their pistols and fired back. The first soldier fell in his place, but a dozen more came around the same corner and all fired at once.
It was over in seconds. The combined salvo from the twenty rifles simply mowed them down. By pure chance, Minmei was the last one standing; Fei Chan watched utterly helpless as the pulse rifles cut even her down, five shots one after another punching holes in her chest and legs. She slumped to the concrete a trembling mass, and without so much as a comment the enemy soldiers resumed their march, some back down the street, some marching down the alley in search of more civilians...
A low rumble in the distance caught his attention, and clearly the attentions of the enemy soldiers as well. For a moment they stood perplexed at the nature of the approaching sound, then as it became clear all of them turned and ran for cover. But their reaction was too late; the angry roar of GU-11 gunpod filled the air, and a rain of shells cut across the alley, tearing down the enemy soldiers well short of where Minmei was lying. Fei Chan poked his head out of the basement window just as a blast of hot air rushed inwards from the exhaust of a variable fighter. Looking up, he recognized both machine and markings, a VF-4 Lighting in gerwalk mode painted in the orange and white scheme of a training squadron. In a moment the sky filled with variable fighters, swooping down on the city in gerwalk mode and strafing enemy soldiers in the ground wherever they could be found. Dropships appeared overhead right behind them, Marines lowering on ropes to the street level with pulse rifles and grenade launchers.
Fei Chan scrambled out of the same window through which he had come, kneeling beside Minmei with trembling hands. The Lightning lowered its cockpit to the street and Kai Chan climbed out to join them, kneeling along with them with a stunned expression in his eyes. "Minmei..." He said, tearing away her shirt to examine the wound.
"Kai..." Here eyes were shifty, her breathing shallow, "Wh-When did you get back? It's a real mess here..."
"Don't talk! Just try to stay alive!" At a glance, the laser rifle had cauterized the wounds, but one hit in her chest was wide open and spilling her lifeblood on the concrete beneath her. Her face was already beginning to look pale, and a pool was forming under her shoulders. "Hold on, Minmei, we'll take you to a hospital okay?"
She turned her head slowly to the side and looked at the basement window. Taosan and Yu were both there, staring at her, their eyes barely clearing the bottom of the window from the shelf they had climbed on to see her. She smiled pleasantly to see them both perfectly alright. Then her eyes closed.
Fei Chan heard footsteps behind them and spun around in surprise; the two men in colored robes he had seen before, still carrying the protocran war spears in their hands, stood above them and looked down at Minmei with an expression of sadness, then up at Kai Chan in recognition. "Captain Lao,"
"Dumo Gokaran." Hikaru didn't even miss a beat. "I don't mean to inconvenience you, but I think we'll be needing your sister's services again."
The two men looked at each other, then back at Minmei. "I do believe she would be honored."