ENEMIES IN DISGUISE (II)

:

After the Attack…………….

Jiro call for a meeting , he told his story of how he has been able to survive from the day the outbreak happen in Tokyo, he talks about the friends he has lost since the outbreak……

Jiro brought a gun he found in the bunker when he was searching for supplies

“The .357 Magnum has a bullet diameter of .357 inches (9.07 mm), which gives it a larger diameter compared to common handgun cartridges like 9mm and .45 ACP.”

Jiro Speaking : We find ourselves in the midst of a battle that threatens to steal our freedom, our rights, and our very existence.

“But let me tell you, true warriors are not just those who wear a uniform or wield weapons. We are standing here today, united, determined to protect what is rightfully ours - our dignity, our future.

[The villagers start to nod, gaining courage with each passing moment.]

Jiro began rigorously training the young volunteer warriors in specialized combat skills for fighting Cassou’s advanced mechanized forces.

*********

………He taught them how to mask heat signatures and disguise their numbers against AI drone sensors.

…………

Ruka instructed the passionate fighters on identifying weak structural points in joint assemblies that could cripple much larger battle machines if precisely targeted.

Some teenagers were motivated by revenge more than ideals of justice for homes destroyed.

…….But Jiro urged them toward higher purpose, saying hatred wounds the hater while changing nothing in the past.

………Their goal had to be preventing further suffering by breaking the cycle of violence passed down through generations. The tools learned here might yet build a future where conflicts could end.

When Jiro’s weary refugee group arrived at the hidden valley settlement after long winter trails, the council of elders

welcomed them but remained suspicious of the battle-hardened strangers.

…..

They feared the outsider warriors would bring violence down upon a community sustaining itself through quiet resilience since the fall years prior.

……….Jiro argued that precise skills and experience would improve collective security and awareness of gathering external threats.

………But rules were strict requiring all martial weapons be centrally locked away except hunting rifles during designated seasons. Jiro acquiesced, hoping to gain trust through cooperation and training patrol guards.

Yet even with thick perimeter walls and regular lookout shifts, Jiro noticed details that planted seeds of doubt - mysterious accidents sabotaging food stores, a collapsed tunnel stranding workers.

…..His soldier's intuition suspected deliberate infiltration and strategic sabotage meant to weaken defenses internally over time. But who would betray their own neighbors and families?

“Before puzzles fully came together, the machines came over mountains ringing the secluded valley. “

“Scouts reported banners among the advance wave marked with the geometric sigil of Cassou's wartime Strategic Council. Somehow their location was leaked to old enemies!

……….Elder whistles urgently herded non-combatants toward underground bunkers as defenders scrambled to unlock armories. But the battle had already infiltrated via unseen cracks.

Coordinated waves of spindly mechanical spiders flowed down mountain slopes as quadruped walkers pounded valley grasslands,

…..immediately targeting guard towers and control sheds with precision missiles and plasma bolts.

……….

Jiro commanded Ruka and the clan trainees take up defensive flanking positions across the central courtyard, protecting civilians fleeing chaotically into shelters.

…….The ground shuddered beneath steel footsteps as still larger autonomous combat suits lumbered closer, each tipped with gyroscopic rotor blades capable of shredding any obstruction.

Jiro recognized these bipedal juggernauts instantly from his days supporting special forces strikes against Resistance holdouts.

……At range the titanium armor and kinetic barriers seemed impervious, consumption engines devouring biomass continuously to feed relentless advance.

…….But he had learned vulnerabilities from captured models, knowledge bitterly extracted under coercion.

Now put to redemptive ends.

He called the squad's three best marksmen to his rearguard vantage, rapidly indicating specific hydraulic mechanisms and heat exchange vents vulnerable if precisely targeted to destabilize the walkers.

"Concentrate fire sequences there alternating on my call!" The machines approached pounding down wagon barriers as terrified screams echoed from rubble piles that were once dormitories.

….But Jiro held his protegees steady, timing shots perfectly...

"Three rounds, now! Center joints!"

Rifle fire echoed as shells sparked off neck servos in seemingly useless displays.

….But as rotors lifted for killing blows, two walkers suddenly shuddered violently, gyroscopic stabilizers failing.

…..Their toppled bulk silenced screams beneath as the young rebels gasped, scarcely believing once-invincible titans disabled by coordinated strikes.

………Jiro slapped their shoulders in fierce pride. "You protecting your families now! Stand strong together!"

…..New courage ignited as more trainees stopped wavering spiders from breaching barricades.

But falling shells soon exhaustion and despair crept steadily back as soaring aerial drones penetrated cloudbanks, streaming downward by the hundreds.

..Jiro's stomach sank fathoms deep.

Too many fronts now, perfectly timed to erode last pockets of stubborn resistance through siege attrition alone.

….Their hidden settlement decayed rapidly from within long before this onslaught.

…Now it was reduced to counting breaths remaining. He gave the order to pull back as eyes followed his gaze reading truth there.

"Toward the mineshafts! We may yet surprise fate!"

Twisting down deep into glowing catacombs,

Jiro took grim status reports from ashen elders. Surface buildings decimated by augmented ballistic favor.

Over half their families still unaccounted for in choking rubble intermixed with mangled war toys. Food and ammunition reserves nearly exhausted, medical supplies minimal for gathering radiation burns from shells embedding in flesh randomly.

….The mouthy teens looked to Jiro now with fragile trust, silently begging an older generation’s promise that the worst was passed.

….How to echo hope when logic muttered only bitter curses? For this suspended hour at least they clung doggedly to shared breaths still granting defiance.

….Let dreams spread wings briefly against what lurked.

Worse revelations awaited in the lamp shadows.

Ruka approached wearing the sunken expression of personal betrayal.

“Talon never reported for shelter duty or patrol roster,” she stammered.

“I found encrypted radio components secreted inside his sleeping quarters along with identification codes used by Strategic scouts.”

..Jiro closed weary eyes against the waves of pain as full comprehension broke.

..How naively he underestimated hatred's patience waiting silent as stone.

….This sanctuary slowly bled from cynics embracing anesthesia of the past over sacrifice for unborn days.

……Was there no refuge left to build calloused hope? He shook doubts away harshly.

….That luxury belonged to cycles of justice spinning beyond reach.

….Now demanded single steps ahead however fates railed. Behind three turns, screams were drowned suddenly by awful subterranean booms as explosions quaked the reinforced ceilings unnaturally.

The mazeitself groaned in protest against what tunneled ravenously up through bedrock veins toward every pocket of defiant hearts who still nurtured tender shoots called future.

Then barricades buckled violently spewing shrapnel before concrete fissures vented torrents of lime green fumes carrying the sickly sweet smell of almond blossoms, promising only convulsions and white darkness.

Jiro rallied who could still walk or crawl toward the single locked chamber not yet breached, carrying two small children himself then sealing the vault door against tidal clouds erasing feeble light further back.

Here in inert air dozens of refugees huddled mute beneath wheezing vents,

all races blended indistinguishably by soot and blood and skin weeping for water.

……Were these cramped confines now destined to become communal tombs as the last tight breath was spent?

All eyed the quaking portal with that timeless question while Jiro rallied able-bodied remnants around crude weapons awaiting