Level one, Hestia mall
"Get ready!" screamed Lieutenant Colonel Welkin, as he aimed with his GD2 rifle, the men of the 7th Nordic regiment aimed their assorted rifles , machine guns and grenade launchers, while the NAPF officers with their revolvers, shotguns and modified GD2s before explosions from pre-placed m25 mines rocked the lower level. the Romans began rushing up the escalators, right before an explosion from a preplaced chunk of y-4 plastic explosives made their jobs harder, unfortunately, some of them had ladders to scale up towards the mezzanine level of the mall.
"Take out those with ladders!" yelled inspector Grimm, as he squeezed off a shot with his revolver, and was rewarded with the sight of one of the men falling over, along with the ladder that he was climbing up with, but it was too late, as they began to swarm over the parapet.
"HOLD THE LINE !" yelled lieutenant colonel Welkin, as all the soldiers began to fire at the onrushing crowd. The way they set up the defences meant that the Romans were funelled all in front of them.
"Fire fire fire!" screamed his Executive officer, as she grabbed a grenade.
"GRENADES! She screamed, as all the men took out grenades, one of the NAPF officers took out a flashbang and threw it with the riflemen, stunning some of them while others received shrapnel to the face.
Moments later, the protector cannon turret opened fire and, loaded with high explosive shrapnel rounds, it should have been devastating to the crowds of Romans, who somehow still held their discipline even though, in fact, none of their morale seemed to have died yet.
"Sir, the forces in the left-wing are falling back!"
"What, why aren't they holding, damn, fall back!" yelled Welkin, as he point-blank shot a roman in the face. The intelligence operative grabbed an RC car he stole from a shop, mounted a piece of plastic explosive on it, and drove it into the crowd.
"Hey, get me another RC car!" screamed a grenadier, as the officer passed it over, allowing him to quickly strap on some smoke grenades. He pulled the pins of the grenades and let the car lose into the crowd. Smoke billowed as the group fell back to the last remaining defence line.
"Alright, this is it, not one step back, We die here and allow the civilians to get out," said Welkin, as his infantry found cover in the shops and the barricade itself.
"Platoon 7, do you copy? We are breaking out of the administrative district, reinforcements will be here within 10 minutes!" said someone in a command centre in the administrative district.
The defenders looked up with newfound hope. Relief was inbound soon, and all they had to do was to hold out for ten minutes.
"Hey, you behind the barricade, you are surrounded and, though I respect your abilities and valour in combat, you have little to no way of beating the numbers I have with me. As the count of Italica, I promise you fair treatment, so, please, surrender.!" yelled a voice, as a Roman in a slightly more ornate armour came up to them, it appeared to be some kind of bastardised Latin
"Rosalina, you speak some Latin right?" asked Captin Gunther, as the rifle trooper nodded.
"Yeah, why sir?"
"Tell him to go to hell," he said succinctly before he loaded his rifle and took aim.
"Alright..uh...let's see," she thought, as she racked her brain for what little Latin she knew.
"Well, sir, I am glad for your offer, but we cannot accept your surrender at this moment," she said.
"What?" asked count formal, as he looked in shock.
"We don't have the room to process all your surrenders.\ Was there anything else?" she asked, one hand casually reaching for her rifle.
"Well, have a nice day," she said, waving the flabagastered man off.
"Rosalina you funny muppet." said a grenadier, as he readied his blowpipe grenade launcher.
"Don't worry Will, we got this," she said, as she also aimed with her rifle.
"Wow, they are forming up at the corner of the shops." said the Inops officer.
"Well, let's give them something to worry about," said Welkin, as the thunderous footsteps of a horde came thundering towards the barricade.
"Folks, let's show them how the GDI truly fight. Affix bayonets." said His executive officer, as they fixed their bayonets.
The Romans were slowly jogging towards them, before beginning to speed up. they ran straight into the gun line and began sustaining casualties.
"Steady fire, steady fire! We will break them here!" yelled his executive officer, as the GDI infantry kept pouring lead into the Romans, occasionally throwing grenades or bayoneting the weird mutants that managed to break through their lines.
"Predator tanks are about 3 minutes out, do we break out?" asked Inspector Grimm, as the heavy gunner fired away, while the two sniper teams took aim and fired at what was likely an officer of sorts.
"Yes, they are about to reach breaking point actually." said Lieutenant Colonel Gunther, noticing the Romans looked shaken. The large number of explosions and dazzling lights must have been sensorily overwhelming. Suddenly, the number of explosions outside increased exponentially, as was coupled by the faint rumbling of vehicle engines.
"The tanks are here, and so is their breaking point. On my mark we charge." said the lieutenant Colonel, as the police officers took out their nightsticks. The rumbling of the tanks and APCs grew ever louder, as some of the Romans panicked, yet most held their ground, pilum still pointed towards them.
"Charge bayonets!" Yelled the lieutenant colonel, as the defenders sallied forth, a silent charging mass that quickly closed the distance and slammed into the ranks of the wavering Romans.
It started as a trickle, one fled, followed by another, then four, then ten, then all of them, panicking as they fled the onslaught of the iron elephants that were decimating their comrades outside, and to make things worse, fiery things descended from the heavens above.
It was either flee or get caught on the knives that these mages had or be slammed in the head with the rods that the blue mages had.
"Fall back, fall back!" screamed count formal, as he waved men towards the exit. He then saw one of the blue mages knocked onto the floor, his rod lost. If he could take him hostage, maybe he could negotiate terms.
"Ah bugger, lost my nightstick." thought inspector fowler, as he knocked a Roman off his feet and slammed his boot into the roman's face. Squad 7 troopers were going at it, stabbing the enemy with their bayonets, while his officers were clobbering and cuffing whoever resisted, many too panicked to try to mount a proper resistance. He got up and saw the ornately dressed man approach him, sword pointed at him.
He took out his taser and tased him.
Count formal was surprised this blue mage was standing up to him, even if his rod was lost, well, all the easier for him. But instead, the blue mage drew a yellow object and shot something at him
He was shocked, as 50000 volts shot through him, causing him to fall to the floor and convulse in agony. As quickly as it started, it stopped, only for the blue mage to bind his hands with a metallic brace.
"You are in very big trouble." said inspector fowler, as platoon 7 fought their way to the front door, where a few Shepard and predator tanks were waiting, accompanied by an Ankylosaurus breakthrough infantry tank.
