The once gleaming metal of the ArcDefense building was now tarnished and cracked, the holes from the missiles leaving prominent spiderwebs running through the glass. Several cables that were once hidden away in the leg-like appendages supporting the building hung loosely in the air, dangling down dozens of meters. Creaks and groans emanated from the metal as gusts of wind buffeted it.

Nearer the group of Vanguard Ascendancy soldiers, it did not seem that any building had been left untouched by the attack. As they went, some citizens scurried back and forth, hiding in the windows as they saw the group of Siatians marching down the street. Some dragged bodies of loved ones as far out of the street as they could, and a couple times they saw a child desperately clinging to a parent or other family member that lay still. Piles of rubble hid other corpses from view, only visible by the occasional arm or leg sticking out from underneath.

The crunching of the soldiers’ boots was the only noise apart from the gentle crackling of fires that the exosuits quickly tuned out and the periodic distant wail of emergency sirens. Some pieces of rubble dropped from the higher windows of the buildings, landing in mismatched piles around the street. Echoing creaks surrounded them as the buildings shifted and settled, some of them screeching loudly as they scraped against others before coming to a halt.

“Listen up,” Xaleyp called out, drawing the attention of the soldiers. “When we get to ArcDefense, only use lethal force when absolutely necessary. I want to take their leaders alive and don’t want any mishaps.”

A murmur of affirmation rang out from the group of soldiers, and they continued plodding forward. Several dozen meters ahead of them, a wall of rubble from the buildings and vehicles blocked their path. Xaleyp had a sudden ominous feeling about the way the wreckage lay there, as if it were designed specifically to block them, when an explosion erupted from one of the buildings at the side.

A wave of fire tore through the air in a straight line, hitting the opposite wall of buildings. Two of the front soldiers were caught in the wave, jumping backwards before they were baked inside the exosuits. Shrapnel from an explosion tore through Helsing’s exosuit, ripping into his abdomen and forcing him to the ground, where he lay motionless.

Another explosion came from underneath an upturned car, sending it soaring into the air and back down, arcing to crush Foxwell underneath. His arms went straight out as it impacted, attempting to keep it off his body, but it to no avail, and he disappeared underneath the metal.

Tyrell yelled out just as bullets began to rain down on them from the shadows of the windows. Emyr and Thalen quickly ducked behind cover, returning fire wherever they saw brief flashes of light. Xaleyp and Beta followed suit, though much further back, hiding behind some burnt out husks of vehicles.

Xaleyp’s breathing increased as he clutched the assault rifle to his chest, trying to look over the metal to get a look at the enemy firing on them. Bullets ricocheted around him, whizzing best his ears and pinging off the metal of the road. An explosion echoed from a Siatian soldier, followed by a thin white trail as a rocket took off towards one of the buildings. It slammed into the side sending a cascade of slag to the street and collapsing a portion.

Beta, however, seemed at ease, methodically poking her head out from behind the cover and firing off several shots before hiding once more. She looked over at him, and her visor disappeared to reveal her face. A smile plastered itself over the lower portion, and a pair of bright green eyes were framed by fiery red hair.

“Having fun yet?” she asked as the visor flicked back into place. She leaned back around and fired off two rounds in succession, immediately returning to cover. “I know I sure am. Almost as much fun as I had at Delargivic’s palace.”

Xaleyp said nothing, glancing sideways at her and wondering who exactly she was. He shook his head and quickly leaned over the top of the car, and his CAM lit up several targets in the higher windows of the buildings for him. He fired off two bursts of three shots at a pair of markers on the left hand side just before bullets started impacting his exosuit. His projectiles dug into the flesh of the soldiers, and they fell over clutching their chests.

From one of the windows, an Arcadian aimed a mounted machine gun-like contraption at the Siatians below. When he fired, a droning whine sounded above the rest of the noise, echoing in the area, and beams of thick light streaked through the air. Bits of ionized metal fell like rain down onto them as the plasma passed overhead. Sections of metal of the street behind them melted, turning red and white as it heated and cooled, and parts of their barricade were torn away by the superheated attack.

More bullets impacted the upturned car were the plasma weakened it, and Xaleyp felt some of them dig into his exosuit. A warning lit up the corner of his vision just as a pain radiated from his arm. He ducked back behind the cover and looked down, seeing a tiny trickle of blood appear through a minuscule hole in the exosuit. Sparks roughly arced between the jagged pieces of metal, and a loose wire hung broken in the center.

Immediately a rush of stimulants surged into his system from the exosuit to allow him to fight through the pain. His heart rate indicator from his CAM showed it quickly increasing, and his breathing grew more and more rapid.

Beta sensed something amiss and glanced over at him after taking down two more Arcadians, including the one wielding the plasma gun just as another arc slammed into their cover.

“You’ll be fine,” she said, quickly looking over the wound. She peeked back over the makeshift barricade and fired off another series of bullets, taking down another pair of Arcadians. With a sharp release of breath, she crouched back down and looked at Xaleyp’s wound more closely. “Looks like it was just a piece of shrapnel, and it doesn’t seem like it hit anything important.”

“Thanks for the compliment,” Xaleyp said, not bothering to hide the sarcasm in his voice.

A bullet whizzed over his head, and another impacted against the metal of the car with a piercing clang. The pain slowly faded away, and he brought his rifle up and fired off another trio of shots at the marked Arcadians. Two more fell down, one of them tipping out of the window and plummeting to the street below with a sickening crunch.

To either side of him, he saw flashes of light as the Siatian soldiers fired off more and more shots. Two were to his right, and another three to his left and two in front, with the rest of the two squadrons laying dead in the street. His CAM only showed five more of the Arcadians in the buildings and streets.

Another rocket erupted from the Siatians, arcing towards the top of a building where an Arcadian aimed from the window. The resulting explosion incinerated him, leaving nothing but a cloud of dust and smoke and molten metal in its wake.

As Xaleyp stood and aimed, the other Siatians around him did the same. Their bullets struck the last four Arcadians, tearing through their bodies with jerks, and the remaining insurgency was quickly quelled.

The air left in the aftermath was disturbingly silent, and the smell of gunpowder mixed with smoke and ionized plasma was thick and heavy. Fires crackled nearby, and the sound of sirens from elsewhere in the city continued to pierce the sky. Soft grunts and moans came from the Arcadians that were still alive, struggling under their wounds. Metal creaked and groaned from the buildings around them as they continued to settle into their new positions.

Somewhat hesitantly, the Siatians began to stand, continuing to watch the buildings for any sign of continued resistance. Without waiting for the order, they walked to their fallen squadmates and began to pull the small discs from their CAMs.

Xaleyp silently moved to one of the closest bodies to him and Private Emyr laying motionless. Steady blue light emanated from the man’s CAM before it gradually faded away after several seconds. His eyes were partially closed, and cuts crisscrossed over his face. A large hole sat where the front of his chest should have been, revealing torn apart lungs and a half-plasma-eaten heart. The far ends of his once white ribs sunk into the bloody red pulp around them, swallowed up by muscle and organs. Xaleyp tried to look away from the mess but continued feeling his eyes being pulled back that direction.

Part of him felt guilt for what happened to the man, and another part desperately fought to push it away. Every soldier knew what they were getting into when they agreed to the mission. They knew the risks that were associated with that choice, and whatever happened to them was not Xaleyp’s responsibility. Without a second thought, he reached down and pressed on Emyr’s CAM, taking the disc that popped out and putting it in a slot-like pocket on the exosuit.

Once every disc had been taken from their dead, the Vanguard Ascendancy soldiers solemnly gathered around Xaleyp, waiting for further orders. Their visors were retracted into their helmets, revealing their grave faces. He looked over the assembled crowd from Beta, who seemed as if she had just been on a walk through a park, to Thalen, who’s face was white and clammy with a look like a strong breeze would knock him over.

“The mission continues as planned,” he said, his voice sounding much more confident than he felt. He paced in front of them if for no other reason than to give his legs something to do. “Gather up any ammo and sniper rifles you can find. From here, we need to take a more subtle path, but, if anything, this proves that we’re on the right path, and that they deserve no mercy.”

There was a brief murmur of assent before the soldiers continued moving towards the ArcDefense building. It loomed large ahead of them down the street, its nearly pristine face in the backdrop of the devastation a symbol of hope: Hope, for Xaleyp, that he might avenge his parents; and hope, for the Arcadians, that maybe their city would survive the attack.