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"All along I thought it was just a silly school event. I wouldn't learn until much later just how important the things I did on that day were."
- Yuuna Akashi; 'I Am ODST: Memoirs of a Student-Soldier'
Chapter XX:
Shooting Gallery
June 24, 2007
St. Ursula All-Girls' High School Chapel, Defense Point Charlie
1735 hours, local time
"All defense points are engaged with the enemy," Natsume Megumi reported, her dark eyes flickering from screen to screen before her as her fingers flew across the multi-tier keyboard faster than mundane eyes could track. "Nearly two hundred enemy units have been defeated. Our own casualties number less than ten."
As far as the student defenders were concerned, they became 'casualties' whenever their weapons and robes were destroyed by direct strike from a strip beam, forcing them to 'respawn' by acquiring new equipment to fight with. For the mages overseeing the battle, however, 'casualties' were students who suffered an actual injury. So far, only minor scrapes and sprains had occurred, none of which required the attention of the field medical tent set up at the World Tree Plaza, staffed by healing prodigy Konoka and a number of healing-inclined mages.
The mages had chosen the chapel at St. Ursula All-Girls' High School as the center for their command and control facilities for a number of reasons. Foremost among them was the fact that Defense Point Charlie was the farthest from the droids' point of origin at the lakeshore, meaning that it would be the most difficult to assault. Too, the chapel was the very key to the Charlie defense area, the target that the droids would have to secure in order to capture the base. The large number of mages at the chapel would make it a hard slough for the enemy.
In order to convert the chapel into a command and control center, the pews had been moved against the walls, and the empty space in the center had been filled with control stations for the sophisticated surveillance and communications equipment, similar to Fireteam Charlie's equipment, that they had set up around all six defense points. The communications gear on its own lacked the power sufficient to punch through the signal interference, but a boost from the mages on station gave it enough power to penetrate enough to send and receive short-range communications across the Charlie area. Over two dozen holographic display screens floated in the air all around the command center, displaying live images of the battles going on throughout the city.
Professor Akashi, tasked with running the command and control operation, nodded to the girl, just one of many mage students manning the operations center. "That's our student body for you," he said. "As long as casualties remain light and we don't have any fatalities, the operation can continue as planned."
He turned his attention to the primary display, currently showing the ongoing battle at the Alpha point lakeshore, the largest of the current battles. The level of sophistication of their surveillance equipment still amazed him; the system could accurately identify friend from foe, displaying droid units with a red triangle. When they were destroyed, the red triangles would update with a 'THREAT NEUTRALIZED' tag alongside. Student defenders were indicated by aqua-colored triangles and a service tag consisting of a letter and two numbers assigned to them when they had signed up for the event. An entire floating screen was dedicated to keeping track of who was assigned what service tag, their status, and their current score in the event.
He watched idly as the service tag 'K11,' its owner obscured by the beachside cafe that he or she was covering in, flashed yellow to indicate that the defender was firing. A thin violet beam shot out of the cafe, drawing an instant line between a droid infantry unit's head and the location of the sniper. He glanced over to the status screen, which displayed the service tags alphanumerically, and watched as the score of K11, Madoka Kugimiya, increased by seven points.
The service tag nearest Madoka, S17, flashed yellow moments later, and a globular burst of magic energy roared out to strike the flank of a six-legged 'crab' droid, staggering but not significantly damaging the armored unit. The droid immediately swiveled its head toward the origin of the shot and swept a yellow laser-like beam the width of a basketball across the cafe's side. S17 and K07 immediately burned red, the aqua triangles replaced with red x's, indicating that the participants, Sakurako Shiina and Misa Kaziaki according to a glance at the status screen, had taken the brunt of the attack. Madoka's service tag merely flickered orange to indicate she was taking fire; she had either ducked into cover in time or one of her cheerleader compatriots had taken the hit for her.
"Twelve enemy infantry units have broken through the lakeshore defenses!" a voice called out. "They're closing on the main camp!"
The primary image immediately shifted over to a view from above the central plaza, looking down the primary pathway down to the beach. Half a dozen dark forms were moving at an incredible pace, rushing past the startled defenders who were not expecting the enemy to have broken that far through the lines. Akashi regarded this with the steady eye of a trained strategist. "They're probing our defenses for weaknesses, trying to determine what strategy they'll use," he explained. "We're halting their infantry assault, so they're seeing if rapid skirmishers will do the trick."
Defense forces in the central plaza were responding. Amidst the sea of white robes, he spotted a figure in black armor, identified by the service tag 'M07.' He didn't need to look at the status screen to know that it was his daughter, Yuuna, organizing two dozen nearby defenders into a firing squad. "Audio," he called.
A near-roar of intermingled chatter and combat sounds hit the command center like a truck before the technicians weeded out most of the garbage so that individual voices could be heard. "Line up here behind the barricade! Ready the power drainers! Second line, be ready to hit what the power drainers miss! Snipers, do what you can!"
Professor Akashi felt a rush of paternal pride at the way in which his daughter was handling the situation. It was moments like these that almost made him regret following his late wife's final wishes to keep their daughter's heritage hidden from her; she showed such tremendous potential in these situations.
The droids had passed the third defense line and taken a massive, momentum-propelled leap into the air, avoiding the scattered defensive fire as they further took the defenders by surprise. He couldn't see her face clearly because of the distance and the helmet covering her head, but the professor knew his daughter was grinning, reveling in the challenge. "Bet you can't stick it..." he murmured to himself, knowing that she'd have kept at least a dozen of the adhesive catalyst grenades for herself to use.
As though she'd heard his challenge, Yuuna holstered the caster in her right hand and reached into a pouch on her armor, producing one of the spherical blue grenades and pressing her thumb down on its activation trigger. The catalyst grenade began to glow a brilliant azure color. "Hold!" she ordered her comrades.
Still in midair, the droids had now cleared the fourth defense line. The second row of Yuuna's firing line began to fidget, clearly wanting to take their shots now, before the enemy got close enough to really threaten them. Akira Okouchi, standing right next to Yuuna, eyeballed the glowing, hissing grenade warily. "Hold!" Yuuna reaffirmed.
"They're right on top of us!" Ako Izumi protested, the rocket launcher on her shoulder beeping steadily to indicate a target lock.
"Let 'em have it!" Yuuna shouted.
Immediately, Akira and three other defenders threw the power drainers up into the air. Half a second into their flight, the devices activated, unleashing a five-meter electromagnetic pulse sphere, the spacing of the thrown devices carefully calculated to cover the entire approach path of the droids. The mechanical enemies, upon passing through the energy field, dropped like stones, leaving them weakened and vulnerable to the fire from the other defenders, and the thrown catalyst grenade from Yuuna, which stuck to one of the droids still stubbornly attempting to rise.
"Alpha Team, have you located the droids' point of origin yet?" a voice from across the chapel called.
"Negative, Command, no luck yet. We're still looking, but it seems they're coming out of the sewers. We can't exactly blow those."
"Copy that, Alpha Team."
So far, it had been determined that the droids had divided into two units, the first of which was assaulting the lakeshore, and the second had used the sewers to get to the inland defense lines, originating from some unknown point underground. Mage teams were searching for these origin points in the hopes of stemming the flow of enemy reinforcements.
"Enemy forces are entering Echo's first killzone," a technician reported.
Akashi looked to another holographic screen that showed the waves of droid infantry, currently unmolested by Echo's defenders, advancing across open beach of that defense point. Unmolested, of course, did not mean uncontested, as the large numbers of friendly Identify-Friend/Foe tags clustered in the buildings that had been turned into makeshift bunkers facing the beach indicated. Those droids were about to have a bad day.
Echo Mobile Command Unit, Second Defense Point Area
1738 hours
"Sir, first units have crossed the first defense line," a technician called out. Lorenzo just smiled, and sipped from the hydration pack in his shoulder. The terrain meant the robots had to start funneling up the main street, and everywhere, the unseen defenders were waiting. Some were nervous, some were already getting ready to spring their trap, but Lorenzo himself seemed to be happy, or discontent.
"Sir, confirm, approaching second defense line, they will reach the forward final protective line soon."
"Good, arm the first mine field," Lorenzo said, as he swung his feet out the side. The command crew inside the Warthog worked at a frantic pace, getting the minefield prepped. The droids had been passing over the buried mines, deactivated as they were, there were three layers, one made of anti-infantry mines, another made out of anti-tank mines, and the third was another set of anti-tank ones. The mines primed and ready, Lorenzo pulled out his pistols, and pointed at the advancing army while he saw that the bots were close to the first two tanks.
"Now!" he yelled, as a communications officer inside shouted orders. The technician next to him had his thumb over the mine activation key, ready to spring the trap.
First Defense Line, Defense Point Echo
1740 hours
Nearby, in the first set of tanks, Lieutenant Nakamura Junichiro was looking to his crewmen. His tank, the Centurion MBT designated as CA-03, though called 'Wakizashi,' had hit bad luck with a broken down transmission, but that doesn't mean they were out. As the highest ranking Fireteam Charlie member in this area of the first defense line, he was waiting for his orders to fire, his crew growing sweaty at the fact the droids were close to the forward bunkers merely 5 meters to their side. Then sure enough, word was to open fire.
His gunner let loose a long burst, followed by Staff Sergeant Michishige Kyousuke in the 'Tsurugi' in the other side of the street. Their infantry troops opened up as well, careful single shots, taking droids out slowly and carefully. The enemy started to fall, as the machine guns from the tanks and rifle fire from those behind the tanks started to cut down the first few ranks of the robot army.
No one really knew what happened...well, no one outside the defenders that is. The Tanaka-bots had walked into a mine field, and soon, many droids fell victim to the mines they were stepping over. Pockets of empty space were made in the advancing army, and with each explosion, and Lorenzo waved his guns around like a crazed maestro. The explosions were also the cue for the rest of the defenders to spring to action. Windows and other camouflaged emplacements opened up, and the empty bunkers sprang to life, automated heavy machine guns, namely .50 cal heavy machine guns and automated M240s joined in. From above, in the right flank, several imposing looking cannon tubes stuck out. The heavy weapons out front were several Type 11 infantry guns. Used by the Imperial Japanese Army by secondary troops, they proved ineffective against Allied armor, but against this enemy? The high explosive shell made nice double or triple kills. The recoilless rifles were held back, mainly due to the fact they would be needed later on.
The advancing robots were cut down, as more and more explosions of the first set of activated mines started to cut them apart. A mixture of standard anti-personnel, Bouncing Betty mines, small scale artillery shells, as well as machine gun, and rifle fire were quickly thinning out the first wave of attackers.
Defense Point Echo, Command Area
1744 hours
As the battle waged on in the first defense row, the artillery crews were at their were getting ready. Manning the venerable Type 96 15cm Howitzers, they were ready for the proposed enemy armor, and for the first defense line to be overrun. Loading fragmentation shells, their gunners were waiting for their target. Maria was in the command center, observing the battle through cameras, and directing the defenders to focus fire in one area or another.
Echo Mobile Command Unit, Second Defense Point Area
The Same Time
While the battle waged in front of Lorenzo, a few beams barely missing him, he heard shrieks, yelling, and gunfire, as well as the unmistakable smacks of girls smacking their boyfriend.. His smile when his escort troops were literally stripped of their clothing made some think of him as a pervert. What had happened was that several robots had snuck up on the second point, and as those stripped ran for the nearest changing spot, the bots approached Lorenzo, literally surrounding him, opening their mouths to expose the strip beam, as well as one with a FAMAS G2. The Famas holder seemed to be the leader.
"Enemy commander captured...Reque-" The droid was cut off as a burst from Lorenzo's left machine pistol blasted its head open. As the bot fell, it let loose a burst of rounds, which impacted into the stone and concrete side of the building. Lorenzo was slightly hunched over, a weird grin on his face.
Lorenzo whipped out his other machine pistol as the body of the first victim hit the ground. Uttering the phrase "Arma Salto" before moving, Lorenzo ducked down and stepped out, where 14 beams converged. Lorenzo though, was no longer there. He was moving swiftly within the group, firing as soon as a pistol was lined up to a droid. Ducking, jumping, and sidestepping beams, the droids frantically tried to get a fix on the fast moving man without hitting their comrades. But before long, Lorenzo's little dance wiped out the infiltration unit, the last droid going down within a minute of their leader biting the dust.
Lorenzo holstered his pistols once more, and took a pair of binoculars from an aide, only to see the last group of Tanakas fire their strip beams ineffectively at the tanks and buildings before being reduced to a pile of scrap. In the time between the first burst of fire from CA-03's coax and the mine field's detonation to the last group being decimated, it was merely a matter of minutes. The entire first wave had been wiped out at the cost of twelve 'casualties.' That didn't matter though, as a fresh wave was already bubbling up.
Beach Head, Defense Point Foxtrot First Defense Line
1743 hours
Stopping to catch his breathe and calm himself, Takaki took cover at the nearest place he could find, that being a life guard post. Takaki had fired roughly eight to fifteen shots at the nearest androids when they first appeared and made them count; he counted at least seven if not more of the bots drop after he fired. He was almost caught by one the enemy beams, but a retreating participant had stepped in the way just in time to catch the brunt of it. Thinking back on it, he grinned. "Thank you for the luck, Hiro-kun."
The amateur spy did some quick math to estimate his remaining shots, he was no where near out of ammo, but it was good to be aware of these things. Takaki laughed, though he tried to keep himself from getting himself too excited. "Where is Hiro, the last thing I heard from him was that he was going to be a hero. What the hell does that mean?" the junior asked himself as checked how clear the surroundings were. Satisfied to some degree, Takaki moved out from behind the life guard tower he'd used for cover back onto the flat and sandy terrain of the beach. He still had many people to use as cover even if the terrain yielded nothing.
The young mister Sato came out sprinting, aiming for a small trash can as cover. Beams and lasers zoomed and shooped all around him, but he did not return fire, that would be wasteful of ammo.
Suddenly, an enemy beam ricocheted off the very cover he was seeking, sending the rogue strip beam soaring towards Takaki. Filling out his reputation of an action spy, what happened in seconds, was slow motion to Takaki Sato. Clunky though it was, the secret agent wannabe somersaulted over the shot and landed into a sliding roll to the trash can.
Takaki let out a cheerful howl at his accomplishment "YEAH! That was aweso-" stopped Takaki as another shot passed too close for comfort. "Aaand that's why no one but Hiro-kun is aloud to get a hot head.." mumbled Takaki readying his pistols. He exhaled, and quickly popped up from his cover as more androids headed up the beach. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine Martian heads whipped back from the shots. Their limp bodies crumbled to the ground, but an even eighteen rose to take their place, and behind those even more. "Never fight fair with strangers," he said to himself, retrieving his power drainer from his robes.
Waiting for the opportune moment to present itself, he waited and held his fire. There! a small gap in a large emerging droid formation. "Everyone now, Drainers!"
With all the strength he could muster he chucked the power drainer as hard as he could into the open gap in the droid line. All those within earshot responded by tossing their own drainers at the fresh droids. And before the Martians could lift a finger or toe to stop it, they were engulfed in a blue sphere of cerulean electricity. In a vain attempt to get away, the droids still twitched violently as they collapsed into neat piles all along the front line, though still alive.
"Let 'em have it! As ONE!"
And with those words, in addition with countless voices giving out either cheers or incantations the entire beach lit up with white lights, crashing into the droids and demolishing the Martian line on the whole beach head of Foxtrot.
"This is too easy," called one male player.
"We mopped the floor with those guys," came the voice of another.
Takaki turned to those behind him. "Keep the pressure on, don't get cocky! These were probably just the losers sent to test our strength!" shouted the water headed informant. This did not stop them from continuing their own victory rants. They're more brawlers than warriors or fighters, brave amateurs; they do their part.
He turned back to the beach and chuckled a little bit. "A good start..."
Street Intersection Near Starbooks Coffee, Third of Five Defense Lines, Defense Point Charlie
The Same Time
Two of the multitude of mages on assignment to find the point of origin for the droids attacking the inland defense points ran down a sidewalk heading away from the World Tree, following a city map on a handheld PDA toward an aboveground storm drain. "Fifteen meters ahead, turn right!" called out the mage in the back, turning the PDA in his hand.
The pair stopped at the corner of a building long enough for the point man to check the intersection, ensuring it was clear of enemy droids. It was, so they took off around the corner to the right, heading toward the storm drain visible at the end of the road. "East, ten meters!" the guide called unnecessarily.
"Watch for droids, Alpha Team," the voice of one the controllers from the command center in the chapel warned.
Their objective was to weld the storm drain closed so that the droids couldn't use it as an access point. Slinging their magic casters, they reached for the flame catalyst grenades they'd be using to heat-weld the drain shut and maintain their own mana pools. As they neared, the point man caught movement from within the drain, and turned to shout a warning to his partner, when the drain exploded outward, the force pitching the two mages from their feet.
A six-legged armored crab droid crawled out of the ruined drain, its red seeker eye sweeping back and forth across the street before it, actively seeking targets. Dozens of Tanaka droids, some wearing jeans and black long-sleeved shirts for reasons unknown, but most nothing but their bare metal frames, poured out around the crab droid, far too many for the mages to stop, even without the damning presence of the walker.
"Shit!" the team leader exclaimed as he scrambled to his feet, pulling his partner up behind him. "Command, they've breached the storm drain on 5th Street!"
"Copy that, Alpha Team. Fall back to Sector Three, friendly forces have set up a roadblock there."
As they ran from the enemy force, strip beams lighting up the air around them, the guide looked down at his PDA to see a new waypoint marker appear; they'd passed the position on their approach to the drains. "Got it, Command, we're on the way."
They turned the nearest corner they could find, heading back up the hill in the general direction of the St. Ursula High School. The map showed the allied position around a corner ahead to their left, on the road that bypassed the Starbooks Coffee. Behind them, they could hear the steady thump of the advancing droids' charge, and knew that the enemy would be right behind them.
Coming around the corner at full tilt, they leaped over the barricade of cars that had been pulled to block the street, manned by two dozen student defenders both immediately behind the barricade and in the outer courtyard of the Starbooks. "Get back here, they're coming!" the team leader shouted to the defenders.
The students immediately moved into position, most taking up shelter behind the barrier of cars and overturned tables at the coffee shop, others pressing their backs up against the wall of the apartment complex that covered the right flank of the position. They could all hear the charging droids now.
The orchestrator of the barricade, Kenji Matsumoto, a University ROTC squad leader who was not a Halo fan and therefore had not joined Fireteam Charlie, eyeballed the apartment complex's wall suspiciously. He was something of a student of tactics, and were he in the enemy's position, he'd bring down that wall in order to flank the barricade.
It was better to be safe than sorry.
He pointed out to the students using the wall for cover. "Hey, you, get away from the wall!"
The group looked toward him and began to follow his order, but his thoughts proved prophetic all too soon. The brick wall collapsed out into the street, brought down by the enemy forces just as he'd predicted, burying the defenders beneath the rubble. Panicked by the sudden surprise attack, there was an instant of hesitation amongst the defenders.
Matsumoto broke the spell as he snapped up his magic caster, one of the ones modeled off the Covenant plasma rifle, and poured fire at the attacking force as he shouted, "Damn it!"
Snapped out of their shock, the others counterattacked as well, a wave of magic beams crumpling the droids that had collapsed the wall. The two mages of Alpha Team spotted more infantry and the crab droid approaching the barricade from the front, shouted a warning, and half the fire of the defenders turned in that direction, the others continuing to fire at the droids coming through the wall.
One enemy droid stepped through the dust and debris, the strip beam emitter in its mouth already charged with energy, firing its beam blindly at a cluster of students before a concentration of fire brought it down. The beam grazed one student who dodged aside at the last second, disintegrating the upper right side of his robe and the clothes beneath it.
"Stand your ground!" Matsumoto shouted to the student, who nodded and redoubled his attacks.
One student reached into his robe and drew a catalyst grenade, arming it and drawing his arm back in preparation to hurl it into the advancing mass of droids, when an aerial drone swooped out of the sky and slammed into him, knocking him off his feet, his head impacting the side of one of the cars and sending him into unconsciousness. The armed grenade dropped to the ground at his feet.
Another student picked up the downed student's magic caster and, dual-wielding the plasma rifle-lookalikes, fired into the enemy ranks, burning down a charging droid, as he shouted to the nearest student, a girl from his school who'd been nearest their fallen comrade, "Throw it!"
She picked up the hissing object and, knowing there was no time to aim at a target, let out a wordless shout and hurled the grenade as far away from them as she could. The grenade exploded in front of the drone, which was coming around to make another pass. The drone's light armor crumpled, its internal reactor detonating from the compression, and its shattered husk dropped to the ground behind the barricade, raining metal fragments on the two students who had just saved their comrades a considerable amount of pain, who now stared at one another as though seeing them for the first time.
Allied Main Camp
The Same Time
Kazumi grinned as she watched enlarged screen showing the events underway at the 5th Street ambush. She didn't have the 'love radar' that her classmate and member of Negi's party, Haruna Saotome, did, but even she could tell that that last-second save had sparked something between those two students. Utilizing the features of her station to the fullest, she set the images transmitted to the televisions across the world to show a slow-motion replay of the 'epic grenade stick,' starting from when the drone had flattened the one student.
"It seems like love can bloom anywhere, even in the midst of battle, as these two protecting the St. Ursula High School have learned! Despite the ferocity of the Martian attack and having sustained a number of casualties, the third defense line of Defense Point Charlie are holding strong and beating them back, no doubt thanks to the leadership skills and inspiring presence of their leader, Matsumoto Kenji. A junior at Mahora University and squad leader in the ROTC program, Matsumoto-san is expected to perform well in the games."
She ended the playback loop and dismissed the Defense Point Charlie screen, then immediately enlarged the Foxtrot screen and began to cover the events happening on the beach, barely sparing a glance to the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter landing near Konoka's healing tent and allowing a robed defender cradling a broken arm to dismount and head toward the medical station.
Command and Control Center, Defense Point Charlie
1744 hours
One section of the command center was dedicated to personnel controlling medical evacuation teams scattered and moving throughout the combat zones. Each team consisted of a UH-60 Black Hawk and combat team provided by the Japan Self-Defense Force and US Marine Corps, courtesy of favors Konoemon had culled. "Team Three, priority shift. Deviate from original course and move to Sector Three, Alpha Team's position. Five casualties, four buried beneath rubble. Proceed with caution. They're under heavy fire."
Currently, there were six medical teams active, and each had a corresponding holographic panel floating over the medevac controller's station. The bottom center panel corresponded to Team Three, and the US Marine captain piloting the Black Hawk, Luther Douglas glanced toward the dash of his helicopter where the communications gear was located, and answered, "Team Three copies. En route to priority casualty evac."
A young female JSDF lieutenant from the upper right screen added, "Team Five here. I've just offloaded my batch. Team Three, we'll give you cover until we get another call."
"Copy that, Team Five. Thanks."
At the analyst station across from Natsume, Shizuna Minamoto turned in her seat to draw Akashi's attention. "Akashi-sensei, my analysis of the enemy tactics is complete," she said. "It appears that the droids are operating with an aggressive adaptability strategic program installed. That is to say, they respond with to our use of strategies and tactics with appropriate applications of their own."
Akashi turned toward her. "In other words, when faced with a gaggle of students firing at random, an opposing group of droids will not employ any specific formations or tactics?" he asked.
The 'guidance counselor' nodded. "And when faced with a strong strategic defense line such as encountered at 5th Street, they will use flanking maneuvers and surprise, demoralizing attacks."
Akashi paled and turned back to view the large displays of the ongoing battle. "With that in mind, it seems like those kids from Fireteam Charlie over at Echo are going to take the biggest hit in all of this."
"More enemy forces!" Natsume called. "Uh oh... They're attacking with a force of armor!"
Dozens of the armored crab droids broke the surf at the lakeshore defense lines, crawling steadily up the beach, all but impervious to the small-arms caster fire. They appeared to attack in one of two ways, either with the sweeping beam, or shorter beam bursts that packed significantly more punch.
Beach, Defense Point Alpha Second Defense Line
1747 hours
The first orderly lines of mages and droids trading fire at the beach were now gone. Droid forces had established a significant beachhead and were advancing steadily through the allies' white caster fire that fell on them like rain, heedless of the losses they were taking as they continued to press forward. Most of the defenders had fallen back to the raised roadway running adjacent to the beach, taking advantage of the greater cover afforded there.
"Head for cover!" "Don't let up! Keep shooting!"
Madoka leaned out from behind cover to snipe another infantry droid, gritting her teeth against the barrage of strip beams smashing into the ground and barricades all around her. She'd chosen a weapon that would allow her to make undisputed kills, but it was useless against the enemy armor.
In the trenches dug in the sand just below the roadway, she heard a shout, then a wave of glowing blue catalyst grenades flew out at the enemy ranks. The resultant explosions kicked up sand and significantly reduced the number of infantry, but barely scratched the crab droids, and more infantry were still pouring out of the lake.
Of the handful of students standing in intervals before the trenches, one crouching behind a trash can took a strip beam to the chest, his robe, weapons, and clothing except for his boxers evaporating in the blink of an eye, the force of the hit knocking him back on his rear. The heavy whump-whump-whump sound of a crab droid using its more powerful strip beam like a repeating blaster cannon echoed over the whine of the Mahoran casters and the hiss of the droids lower-powered beams. One unlucky girl took one such heavy beam to the chest, the impact picking her up and throwing her back into the railing of the raised roadway as the beam divested her of her equipment.
"Jaculetur!" Sakurako called as she popped up from behind the railing, the magic blast from her rocket launcher striking the already-weakened leg joint of one of the crab droids, blowing the leg off and sending the armored unit crashing to the sand. The force of the explosion also destroyed four infantry caught in the blast radius. "Yeah!" the cheerleader exclaimed. "Overkill!"
The destruction of the crab droid was good news, but it didn't significantly hamper the enemy's advance, not with dozens more of the armored machines still in combat. In retaliation for the destroyed unit, the one nearest it unleashed a sweeping beam in the direction of Sakurako, but the cheerleader had learned from her earlier 'death;' she was already behind cover, though the exclamations of a dozen of her comrades indicated they'd borne the brunt of the beam.
Madoka took out another droid with two rapid-fire shots, then hissed in pain as her weapon overheated in her hands, letting go of the barrel and shaking the burning sensation out of her left hand. "Dammit, this is bad. They're pushing us back."
Beach, Defense Point Echo
The Same Time
The droids had learned from the crushing defeat of their first infantry wave. Twenty crab droids advanced up the beach, sweeping their strip beams across the positions of the defense forces that had revealed themselves when they had attacked the first wave; that had been the only purpose of the first wave, after all, to force the defenders to reveal themselves. Several of the marching juggernauts concentrated their beams in rapid-fire mode at the two tanks, only intent on keeping the tanks' attention on themselves, as they knew that their strip beams would not harm the tanks. As this was happening, more infantry were rushing the first defense line, running at full tilt as opposed to marching, intent on boarding the tanks and disabling or destroying them by any means.
The crab walkers advanced, their strip beams peppering the bunkers and buildings, as well as the tanks. The infantry was still being decimated by machine gun and rifle fire, as well as the scant few mines left in the first layer. But that wasn't enough. Meanwhile, back in the tanks, Junichiro Nakamura had seen the walkers, their strip beams proving ineffective against the tank armor. Although amused, for now, their focus was the infantry. The walkers could be dealt with later.
"Load canister! Target the infantry!"
The gunners loaded the canister rounds, nasty things, turns the tank's main gun into a giant shotgun. Normally, rifling gives the canister shot an even worse spread pattern, but since there were no overly expansive ranges in Mahora that FTC and others could practice in, the L7 105mm cannons on the tanks had been replaced with a modified version, this time being a smoothbore cannon.
The effects of the canister shot was painfully obvious. The tungsten balls erupted from the two tanks, cutting down a huge swath of the attacking infantry, penetrating half the formation, as the coaxial machine guns and kept on firing between shots. The crews inside worked feverishly, as more and more of the advancing infantry was cut down, any attacker missed by the overlapping blasts were cut down by coaxial machine guns or by rifle fire.
This proved useless though, because by the time the fourth canister shot was fired, the droids had amassed again, this time keeping behind the now advancing walkers. Two had already been downed, a combination of 37mm, .50 cal, and 7.62mm gun and artillery fire. Another was badly damaged, when the full force of a canister round hit it. A few more were also downed, damaged or destroyed outright by the anti-tank mines. "Argh! Load HESH, alternate between HESH and HEAT! Target the walkers!"
The 'Wakizashi' opened up on the first droid walker. HESH, or High Explosive Squash Head, rounds are thin metal shells filled with plastic explosive and a delayed-action base fuse. On impact, the plastic explosive is 'squashed' against the surface of the target, and spreads out to form a disc of explosive. A tiny fraction of a second later, the base fuse detonates the explosive, creating a shock wave that, owing to its large surface area and direct contact with the target, conducts very effectively through the material. In short, it destroyed the walkers, but not very effectively.
The next shot though, was HEAT, or High Explosive Anti-Tank. A different type of anti-tank round, it was a shaped charge munition that uses the Neumann effect to create a superheated jet of molten metal to punch through tank armor. The jet moves at hypersonic speeds (up to 25 times the speed of sound) in solid material and therefore erodes exclusively in the contact area of jet and armor material. Spacing is critical, as the jet disintegrates and disperses after a relatively short distance, usually well under 2 meters. The jet material is formed by a cone of metal foil lining, usually copper, though tin foil was common during the Second World War. This round proved more effective than HESH, as the walkers taken down by HESH had sometimes proven they were just immobilized.
The students had slowly been evacuated into the second defense zone by now, the rifle fire gradually fading, while all but four of the 37mm gun crews made it back, the rest stripped by the droids and knocked out due to the force of the beam.
Second Defense Line, Defense Point Echo
1750 hours
Lorenzo stood in front of the barricade, his pistols out. He was observing the battle, and at times, covering the students streaming from the buildings and alleyways. A few universal carriers dragged along some wounded, but mainly equipment. Pretty soon, all that was left of the first defense line were the two tanks. He hoped the engineer crew had gotten there in time. They were sent to finish fixing the repairs on the 'Wakizashi.' Behind him, some Universal Carriers were being fitted with plows.
"Seems like they're doing well, for robots. Reinforce the second line!"
First Defense Line, Defense Point Echo
The Same Time
The engineering crew had reached the tank in time, and by the time the 'Tsurugi' started to fall back, its treads crushing the stone steps beneath it, the 'Wazikashi' was fixed. Too little too late, even as its coaxial gun and canister shot dropped multitudes of droids, it was overrun. Its guns fell silent, as the tank crew escaped from hatches underneath the tank.
The crew of 'Tsurugi' spotted the trouble that their fellows had fallen into, and halted their retreat, swiveling the turret back around and firing canister shells into the advancing droid formation as fast as the gunner could load the cannon. Combined fire from the canister shells and the coaxial machine gun created a steel rain that decimated the advance wave of droid infantry, buying time for the crew of 'Wakizashi' to board a retreating universal carrier.
So intent was the crew of 'Tsurugi' on covering their comrades that they failed to notice the swarm of droids pouring out of the alley beside them, until they heard the metallic enemy clambering up onto the armor of their tank, using their vast mechanical strength to bend the main cannon out of alignment and begin the process of tearing the main hatch open to get at the crew inside. Like the crew of the 'Wakizashi' before them, Michishige Kyousuke and his crew used the bottom hatches in the tank to escape to freedom. Fortunately, a manhole cover was directly beneath the current position of the tank, providing an easy and safe escape route for the crew.
Main Command Area, Defense Point Echo
1753 hours
Maria was told that the last of the people had been evacuated, the stripped crew members of the 37mm guns having been picked up by a few mages, and there were no IFF tags within the first defense line. "The area is cleared! Infantry may be the queen of the battlefield, but artillery is the king, and we all know what the king does to the queen! All artillery, fire!"
From outside the command tent, orders had been given and heavy, bone-jarring thumps filled the air as the first of the Type 96 guns opened fire. Raining down shells into the beach area, the mixture of high explosive, shrapnel, and white phosphorous incendiary started to decimate the reinforcement wave, while forward observers started directing the artillery fire to walk towards large groups of enemies. Already, the crab walkers were gone, targeted first by the artillery, while many of the bots scattered, taking shelter in the now abandoned FTC bunkers or in side streets.
In all, it was a Pyrrhic victory for the droids, as most of the defenders managed to retreat, while they, being left out in the open, were cut down. Those charging the second line was unsuccessful, due to the mass amount of guns trained on them. The next wave will have to be more aggressive it if wants to survive the next line.
Beach, First Defense Line, Defense Point Foxtrot
1755 hours
Panic quickly spread through the mage ranks on the beach head, leading to breaking of ranks and running clusterfucks of students. "Shit! where'd these things come from!?" shouted a front-line female participant shooting feverishly at the crab tanks with her plasma rifle. Preoccupied with the new droids, she didn't count on being blasted by nearby Tanaka infantry.
"Come on, come on!" called a student frantically attempting to reload his rocket launcher after already firing two shots at the nearest walker. Upon sealing up the loading port he attempted to retry taking out the tank. "Jacule-" It was in vain as the very walker he was targeting saw him as a threat and decided to remove him. These were just two examples at what was happening across the first defense line.
The droid forces were slowly but surely making their way up the beach, taking little casualties amidst the pandemonium, stripping contestants left and right as they marched so steadily in unison that the ground shook, sending a subtle rumbling sound echoing through the streets in Foxtrot's sector. Few were foolish to stand and fight even with good cover, most could only do damage to the infantry units. "There's no hope here! Fall back to the second line!" called one retreating man who felt the need to jump up onto a parked car to shout this command. Again, not a smart idea. And sure enough the man was sent flying off the car onto his back to the concrete below him after a heavy walker shot collided with his chest, evaporating his clothing and equipment.
People didn't need to be told twice, even in the confusion. The man's sacrifice was not in vain, quite a motivating little scene that convinced other fleeing players to 'get the fuck outta Dodge' faster than before. However, in the rush they soon became bottled up, even though the main street was not narrow, the situation quickly devolving into the proverbial 'shooting fish in a barrel' for the Martian invaders.
Takaki had been busy organizing all the rocket teams he could find to the roof of a nearby cafe as the massive retreat ensued. At this point, the rocket teams were willing to listen to whoever would lead them; despite the few feeling cowardly for being on the rooftops while those clustering below were stripped and blasted with no mercy.
"We should help them, Takaki-kun...It's not right," came the quiet voice of a young blue haired boy the same age as Takaki. The ever shy yet strong willed Taiyo Miyazaki gripped his morals tightly always, just like his younger sister Nodoka. He brushed his medium length dark blue hair from his eyes, clutching his rocket launcher tightly to his chest and looking up at his friend.
At this Takaki merely smirked and nodded. "Yes Taiyo-kun, we will. But to give ourselves away would be to seal all of our fates. They're trying to scare us but they forget: They are the visitors and we are the home team," he said confidently, normally he'd never be able to summon said courage without Hiroyuki. Smiling at the thought that Hiro's coaching was finally kicking in, he looked around to count the heads of the meager team rocket Takaki'd assembled. Nine, including himself and Taiyo, with only the eight having rockets. Takaki had picked up another drainer dropped by another player. "Okay, all enemies always have a weak point. No matter how intimidating they seem, we have to buy enough time for the others to escape. Aim for the joints or turret, that should be your target. Then we'll regroup with the defenders at the second defense line via an alternate route."
The other contestants nodded quietly in agreement as Takaki explained the bulk of the plan. "I only have one drainer and two grenades, so this first attack has to count and stall the enemy long enough for the rest of our forces to retreat. We wait until the first walker enters the street, aim for the joints, because even if we can't destroy it we can immobilize it. Remember, on my command."
As though on cue, almost right after Takaki finished speaking, the rumbling could be felt right beneath them on the street below. Still firing with the constant whump-whump-whump sound of the main strip cannon into the fray of slowly retreating students. The first of the crab walker line crossed onto the street from the sandy beach. The eyes of all on that cafe rooftop were on Takaki, who inhaled deeply.
"Rockets! Strike them out, this is our game!"
Getting to his feet at once, Takaki withdrew all of his grenades and tossed his freshly activated drainer onto the marching android ranks that formed a Martian wall around the walker, sapping their energy quickly, a redux of what he did on the beach. The walker didn't take noticeable damage but sparked and ceased moving, stopped dead in it's deadly march. His grenades stuck to random droids and blew them away, but it was the rockets fired after the unified "JACULETUR!" of the assembled explosive militia that made the plan work. Every rocket hit, but only six collided with it's leg joints. The other three smashed up it's turret barrel. The six that hit the legs were unimaginably accurate for random civilians, for they blew off two of the left legs. Sending the hulking metal crab crashing down into the street, barring the tanks behind it from getting past for now.
Taiyo laughed at their success and quickly smacked Takaki's shoulder. He turned and yelled to the people in the street. "Get outta here, back to the second line! We've stopped them for a little bit, so be prepared for them to resume advancing in a while!"
Taiyo was suddenly jerked backwards as a shot skimmed not and inch or so from his face. Takaki had saved the male Miyazaki, to which Takaki confirmed, "I think we pissed them off, time to go!"
Getting to his feet and motioning the rest of the team to clear the rooftop, he said, "We'll use the cellar, it leads into the basement of the shop adjacent to this one. From there we take the back alleys to the second line."
The assembled group dodged shots and cleared obstacles on their way through the cafe's transparent glass interior, finally taking cover behind the bar, where they proceeded to open the basement hatch and quickly disappear down their narrow escape route.
International High School, Defense Point Foxtrot Central Defense Area
1758 hours
"Seven enemy units have broken the defensive lines and are advancing on the courtyard! All available forces, keep them from taking the base!" a voice called out using the school's public address system, the most reliable form of communication with the phone blackout in place.
"You heard them, let's move!" ordered an American exchange student with shaggy brown hair and a thin, diagonal scar cutting down from his forehead across the bridge of his nose. Like all the other students, he wore a protective mage robe, but had opted not to take one of the weapon, choosing instead to combine one of the anti-machine 'Jammer' rings with his own weapon, a large and heavy sword.
"Yeah, let's do this shit!" one of his companions, another American with spiked blond hair and a lightning bolt tattoo on the side of his face agreed, pumping a densely-muscled arm into the air. He too had chosen a melee approach, his weapons of choice being fingerless, thick leather gloves with metal plates covering the knuckles.
The two Americans and the six other seniors they'd grabbed to provide ranged support took off at a run toward the central courtyard. As they passed through a hallway, the swordsman glanced outside to a holographic screen floating in the air that showed the ongoing battle down at the second defense line. A full-on melee had broken out as the defenders of the high school, mostly the students of the school, collided with a droid attack force nearly five hundred strong. Armed with everything from the magic weapons provided to folding chairs, weightlifting bars, and practice rifles from the JROTC program, the defenders waged a furious battle that more resembled a riot than a city-wide event.
"Heads up, they're ahead!" one of the ranged students called out, snapping the swordsman's attention forward, where the seven droids they had come to intercept were in the process of smashing their way through the barricaded doors into the gym. The gym was one of the 'respawn areas' where the resupply crystals and much of their backup weapons were stored. If the droids took that out, they'd be at a major disadvantage.
The swordsman nodded to the brawler, and they took off toward the enemy, moving to either side of the hallway, putting a dozen feet between them in the process. The other six students fired a volley of magic beams into the open space between them, destroying two droids outright and damaging a third.
The other droids turned toward the sudden attack to find the two seniors nearly on top of them. The droid directly in front of the brawler racheted its mouth open, charging energy for a strip beam. Before it could fire, the brawler leapt up and slammed his fist into the droid's mouth, shattering the emitter lens and crushing the firing components. The stricken droid collapsed, and two more moved toward the brawler. A low sweep dropped the first, and a rising double-kick sent the second smashing through a window into a smaller courtyard outside.
On the other side of the group, the swordsman ducked under a pair of strip beams and came up with his blade swinging, the heavy carbon sword cleaving through the reinforced metal chasis of the nearest droid like mere paper. Pivoting, he continued the swing to behead the second droid within range. Another shot from their ranged support finished off the last of the seven enemies.
Before the group could celebrate, the ceiling above imploded, filling the corridor with debris and dust, forcing the two melee combatants to move back and raise their arms to protect their vision. All was still and silent for a moment, then once their vision cleared, they found three crab droids occupying the hallway between the two groups.
The swordsman and the brawler looked to each other, exchanged nods, and then rushed at the droids, the brawler exclaiming, "Let's get it on!"
World Tree Plaza, Lower Section, Fourth of Five Defense Lines
1759 hours
The enemy's advance against the allied main camp was hard and brutal, pushing forward with a force of crab droid armor followed by dozens of infantry. This strategy forced engagements along all the approaches to the World Tree Plaza, preventing the outnumbered and engaged Mahoran defenders from sending reinforcements to block the enemy advance on the central plaza.
Yuuna looked down to the third defense line as the lead crab droid swept its beam across the street, eliminating ten combatants in the blink of an eye. Hartley's IFF tag on her helmet's HUD display flashed yellow as a vapor trail appeared out of one of the upper-floor windows on an apartment building along the main route and the loud crack of the sniper rifle echoed above the other noise. At least Hartley was accurate, and unlikely to hit any allies by mistake.
Retreating defenders from the third line joined up with her group at the fourth, breathing heavily, staring at the approaching enemy units with dread. "Things are getting tough," one student said as a beam from the enemy ranks blasted one of the retreating stragglers.
"Those damn tank things take eight hits with the rockets to kill!" added another defender who was toting one of the launchers.
"There's no end to the damn droids," Yuuna muttered, surveying the carnage.
One of the Narutaki twins, the gunslinger girl wasn't sure which, asked in a frightened voice, "Hey, we lose if the robots take over the plaza above, right? And we don't get any prizes if we lose?"
"We're being pushed back," Akira noted, ducking her head as a strip beam glanced too close. She reached into her robes and produced the equipment she had taken for the battle, throwing the deployable cover out in order to give some protection to their retreating allies from the lower defense lines.
Yuuna turned toward her, but before she could say anything, her motion tracker lit up with a huge blob of red enemy contacts, all seemingly right on top of them. She looked around, then looked up in time to see a crab droid and two dozen infantry coming down directly on their position. "Get back!" she shouted, boosting her vocal enhancers. "They're going to drop right on us! Move out of the way!"
She waited until her comrades had moved before she retreated as well, the proximity of the enemy units forcing her to take a leaping roll out of the way or be crushed beneath the tank. One of the infantry looked down at her and opened its mouth to eliminate her, but suddenly Akira was standing over her, the staff in her hand swinging horizontally toward the droid's head. The weapon connected with a chest-hammering boom of energy, and a concussive wave of magic obliterated the struck droid and shattered the four nearest it.
Other droids turned toward them, determining Akira's gravity hammer-like use of her staff to be a major threat, and charged their beams. Something small and spherical clattered to the ground right next to Yuuna's visor, and she blinked involuntarily as the bubble shield thrown by Fumika activated, and not a moment too soon. Nearly twenty strip beams splashed harmlessly against the golden sphere of energy surrounding Yuuna and Akira.
"Nice save, Fumika-chan!" Ako praised as she knelt down behind a bench, leveling her rocket launcher with one of the leg joints of the crab droid.
On a high-rise building looking over the pitched battle, two figures watched the ensuing chaos, the desperate defense of the quartet of 3-A students. "They're protected for now," the one in heavy, European-styled armor said. "Time for us to make our entrance, then."
"I suppose so," answered the other, clad more like a samurai. "They've held off the enemy remarkably well for nearly thirty minutes now."
"No doubt. Let's get in there!"
The two figures leapt from their high perch, unnoticed by enemy and ally alike as they descended like angels of death toward the enemy lines. A quartet of droids broke from the enemy group and rushed toward the bubble shield protecting Akira and Yuuna. "Heads down!" the armored figure shouted.
Yuuna glanced up in time to see a flash of red and steel before the armored figure hit the ground in front of the bubble shield, a massive sword in hand smashing into the ground, the concussive wind blast from the impact knocking the four droids back as they literally came apart. The figure stood up and ripped the sword out of the gouge in the concrete it had created, revealing itself to be the armored form of Asuna Kagurazaka, armored up in sections of plate mail like a European knight, the quartet of bells in her hair jingling faintly over the chaos of the combat area.
The crab droid advanced on her, intent on smearing her into the pavement, but she turned with a flutter of her red ponytails and swung her sword down in a rapid, one-handed arc that cleaved the armored tank down the middle in a single stroke that made it look easy. She turned and hacked into a pair of infantry units, using her oversized sword as more of a bludgeon than a blade.
A few feet away, Setsuna stood in the center of a dozen droids, Yuunagi held in a reverse grip in her left hand, her artifact Sica Shishikushiro in her right hand. She blocked a strike from one of the droids with the bracer on her left arm, then retaliated with a single, graceful thrust of her wakizashi into the droid's head. A small explosion of the droid's core puffed out of its frame before it collapsed to its knees before her.
Turning as the rest of the droids encroached to attack her at once, she released a pressurized burst of ki to blow them back and stun them momentarily and then, aware of the theatrical nature of her role, threw the wakizashi into the air, switched Yuunagi into her right hand, and lowered herself into a kendo stance, channeling her ki into the blade. "Ougi," she whispered. "Hyakuretsuoukazan!"
She spun faster than the eye could follow, drawing a circle of ki twenty feet across with her blade. As she came back to her original position and stance, lending to the belief that she hadn't moved, the charged energy exploded outward, shattering the remaining droids in the area, leaving Asuna and Setsuna standing tall, back to back, amidst the sea of wrecked enemy forces.
"Holy shit!" Yuuna exclaimed, nearly dropping her casters at the raw destructive force unleashed by her two classmates.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Yuuna," Asuna said with a grin, her twin ponytails trailing dramatically in the breeze.
"Wh-what the hell was that?" the black-armored girl stammered. "Those guys were about to kick our asses, then you two just come out of nowhere and bam!" She slammed her right fist against her left forearm for emphasis.
"We can't let our allies be defeated so easily," Setsuna said by way of explanation, glancing toward the battles below, then she turned her attention back and caught the wakizashi by its hilt as it came down.
"Yeah, what kind of heroes would we be then?" Asuna chuckled.
Up at the main camp above, Kazumi turned her attention from her classmates below back to her monitors. The mages, the so-called 'hero units' were beginning to show up in force now. Around her, Sayo drifted from screen to screen, watching the displays intently. "Ohh, Kazumi-san, this is so exciting!"
The reporter nodded to her ghostly companion. "I know. Makes me wish I could get out there and kick some butt myself." But her job as the reporter on the scene for this event came first. It was a shame that she wouldn't be able to do that documentary after all. Maybe if she could keep this platform afterwards and make use of its 'theater mode.' Shaking that thought off for now, she grinned and raised her microphone.
"Take heart, brave knights of Mahora! Allied reinforcements have arrived! The commanding generals of the Mage Knights Defense Brigade have entered the battlefield! Work closely with and support the commanders to maximize your score!"