Chapter 19: The Complex Composition of the Militia
"To our Kato!"
The man controlled the woodchipper gun, directing its fire at the densest clusters of rebels. Occasionally, bullets or laser beams would strike the vehicle, yet he remained undaunted. Amidst the chaotic barrage, a building teeming with rebels collapsed, entombing them alive beneath the rubble.
"This device is intended for air defense, isn't it?" Gray inquired, gesturing toward the woodchipper gun.
"It appears so, though it seems to have undergone modifications," Grot nodded in acknowledgment.
Qin Mo approached the man and ordered, "You must immediately relocate; your machine gun is more urgently needed in the urban combat."
"You expect me to abandon my post here while you take over?" The man shot a glance at Qin Mo, unmoved.
Without explanation, Qin Mo turned and fired a light sphere from his shoulder cannon. The sphere detonated above the heads of the rebels, unleashing a torrent of luminous beams that obliterated all within its destructive radius.
"Understood," the man replied, halting his fire. He jumped down from the vehicle, gathering his wife and children to move to another location.
Qin Mo then turned to Gray. "You and the others should disperse throughout the city; I will hold this position alone."
Gray nodded, using his jetpack to leap into the distance. The others donned in power armor followed suit, scattering across the urban landscape.
---
Upon landing atop a towering building, Gray surveyed the surrounding area. In this district, rebels were locked in a tug-of-war with the militia. The disparity in weaponry was minimal; some members of the militia not only wore power armor but also wielded peculiar weapons that, upon firing, released beams capable of piercing rebel tanks instantaneously.
Ignoring the relatively secure allies, Gray focused on the rebels, realizing he stood among them. Below, in the building's lower levels, rebels operated heavy weaponry, suppressing the militia's attempts to seize control of the district.
"Meet your doom." Gray activated his gravity shield.
The shield instantly crushed the floors beneath him, allowing Gray to drop directly to the ground level. The rebels, engrossed in their tasks, were startled to see the armored intruder.
Raising his right hand, a barrage of small light spheres erupted forth, raining down like a torrential downpour upon the rebels inside. After completing a sweeping motion with his arm, every rebel on that floor lay vanquished.
Gray calmly approached the undamaged heavy weaponry, using his gravity shield to crush the equipment into scrap metal.
Suddenly, a shell exploded outside the building, sending a barrage of shrapnel through the windows.
Gray lifted his gaze toward the source of the explosion, his vision magnifying the scene before him. He could see an enemy artillery operator in a building seven hundred meters away, commanding a heavy cannon.
Silently, Gray adjusted his shoulder cannon to cannon mode and fired. The beam pierced the structure and continued onward, obliterating everything in its path, annihilating both the artillery and its operator.
As the cannon was destroyed, a tank thundered around the corner, its left side adorned with a mural of a woman brandishing a firearm.
"Yeehaw!"
"Thanks, brother!"
A man with a distinctive red mohawk emerged from the tank's turret, shouting his gratitude before ducking back down as another shell exploded nearby.
Trailing behind the tank were numerous men and women dressed in outlandish attire, their shared characteristic being their vibrant red mohawks.
"The Blooded Mohawks?" Gray exclaimed in surprise. "I thought the Kato gangs had long since allied with the rebels."
"Don't you dare advance!" The tank crewman popped his head out again, shouting into his communicator, "The church is on the verge of falling! The church is on the verge of falling!"
"What? The church can't possibly fall! Isn't that the rear guard?"
"Reinforcements to the church!"
"Quickly, to the church!"
The tank immediately turned down the street, while the mohawk-clad individuals sprinted back.
Gray felt no stirrings of emotion at witnessing their sudden appearance and retreat. He held no trust in the gangs of Kato; in his eyes, it was better to clear the district alone than to let gang members meddle.
Bursting from the building onto the street, Gray moved forward amidst the rebel artillery, returning fire. His hands unleashed laser blasts upon the infantry while his shoulder cannon was reserved for demolishing buildings and rebel armor.
Bullets rained upon him, intercepted by his gravity shield, while beams were absorbed into the power armor's energy engine, converting them into lethal energy directed at the rebels.
After clearing the enemies at the street's end, Gray suddenly recalled Qin Mo's words.
"Once I have completed my masterpiece and showcased it to you, you will realize how fragile and ineffective your current weaponry truly is."
In retrospect, he understood that his previous power armor could not compare; the energy layers would have overloaded, leaving him vulnerable to the rebels' energy weapons.
"On to the next district." Gray resolutely gazed ahead, stepping over the charred corpses of enemies. "You have ten minutes left to live, insects."
---
The arrival of Gray and his comrades transformed the standoff into a rout.
Rebels in every district of the city were systematically eliminated. They no longer needed to grind each other down in urban combat; they merely had to remain in their buildings and await obliteration alongside them.
For the militia, fighting alongside powerful armored warriors bore numerous advantages. They no longer had to carry explosives to demolish enemy-held structures; they merely needed to shout warnings to their armored allies, and the buildings would be reduced to rubble.
However, there were drawbacks.
The armored warriors were not Kato inhabitants; they cared little for the city that was once the home of the Kato people. They would demolish millennia-old edifices without hesitation, their reasons possibly stemming from mere disdain for entering the buildings to clear out the enemies.
Gray, continuing to fight alone, reached the city's edge, encountering Grot and others who had also made their way there.
The militia members gathered at the city's boundary.
The rebels, driven from the city, fled in panic, discarding their weapons and armor as they ran.
Yet these fortunate few did not escape far; they were soon engulfed in the fiery inferno that consumed them in a torrent of flames.
"Are there any surviving enemies elsewhere?" Qin Mo descended from the sky, the blood-stained double-headed eagle staff in his grasp.
Behind him, two thousand soldiers and militia converged, uniting the entirety of the city's combatants.
"Thank you for your timely rescue." An officer stepped forward, kneeling before the double-headed eagle staff. "Praise the Emperor! Praise His emissaries!"
The soldiers knelt before the staff as well.
Others, including civilians, gang members, and bounty hunters, also knelt, but not before the double-headed eagle. They faced Qin Mo instead.
Everyone who had held their ground in the city understood that, without the timely arrival of reinforcements, they would have continued to grind each other down in urban warfare. Even at great cost, they might not have preserved the city.
Qin Mo surveyed the crowd, contemplating the intricate composition of this militia.
Civilians, gangs, bounty hunters...
"I beg your pardon," a bounty hunter suddenly lifted his head. "It would have been better if you hadn't turned half the city into ruins... But of course, we are still grateful to you."
"You must understand, this is war," Qin Mo replied, turning toward the city's center. "When the conflict concludes, I shall construct a city here that will make the Upper Nest dwellers envious. This new city, named New Kato, will be your reward for battling the rebels."