19 The Fourth: Part 2
"This is Guardian-03! We're pinned down by Kridora advancement teams to the east wall! Requesting assistance ASAP!"
"This is Guardian-01! Aerial units have overwhelmed the turret installments on the east wall! Crown! Send additional reinforcements or they'll break through!"
"This is sky commander A01! Identifying and marking twenty heavy artillery Kridora units headed for the east wall! Requesting further orders! Crown, come in!"
Head Crown, the command center for the entire Andra kingdom army, was out of sorts. The currently present officer had requested the west and north wall Guardian teams to provide assistance to the east Guardians but their ETA was ten minutes. The guardian teams in each direction were busy pushing the Kridora assault teams on different sides of the city. In ten minutes, the east guardian team would be annihilated by the approaching heavy artillery and they would enter into the city. Even with the segments of frontier assault team currently present inside Svanga, the possibility of the Kridora discovering the Connecting Mantle System Entrance. Discovery of that passageway would lead to severe civilian casualties. As the officer was about to send the remaining frontier assault teams to the east wall as well, a message came in on the open channel.
"This is the left wing Commander Riku speaking. We're making our approach to the designated LZ and are ETA 23 minutes but we've spotted multiple aerial and heavy artillery units converging on your location. I suggest letting us send an assault team of our own, since we're in close proximity to the capital. Respond!"
The head officer let out a huge sigh as he took a moment to clear his voice. Tapping thrice on the response button, which lets one speak on the open channel, he voiced his response.
"You are cleared for the LZ! The forward team would be a great help! Sending you the coordinates to the approaching heavy artillery ground troops now!"
"Coordinates received. Forward party ETA 2 minutes. Hold out until then, Andra's warriors!"
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Explosions rocked the ground as the Andra warriors took cover among the debris. The Kridora assault team was pushing relentlessly and it was only a matter of time till they break through the east guardian team's defense. Smoke from relentless firing of pulse rifles stung their noses and a constant ringing due to the explosions racked their brain. Overlooking the stretched out plains was the capital city of the Andra Kingdom, built where once a great plateau range stood. But now, instead of a stretch of plain land, numerous craters were etched into the surface. Boulders were spread in an uneven fashion and the few plants that once stood are now but a scar on the ground.
The Guardian team of the east was stationed to protect the city walls and to report of any Kridora movements out of the ordinary. The Andra kingdom was not one that was heavily populated. The individual cities inside the kingdom were at significant distances from each other, on similar elevated ground and plain fields stretched in the spaces. In the middle of the entire country stood Svanga, the capital of the kingdom. Crown, the commanding station of the entire Andra army, was stationed in the headquarters of this city. As such, to protect the brains of the operation, the city was well guarded from surprise attacks.
Recently, the frontier reported multiple Kridora drop ships leaving from the 2nd ship, Ricardo and head for the city of Udan. The Andra forces stationed at Udan were inadequate to deal with the entire battalion and the requested reinforcements arrived only to descend upon a scorched land. The Kridora had trashed the city and the stationed soldiers and were now headed for the capital. The overhead observation units had managed to notify Crown of the impending situation but the response would have been too late, if not for the talks with the Tredje kingdom. The king of Andra kingdom had had a lengthy private discussion with the council of Tredje and subsequently, the entire left wing was called in to assist the frontier battles.
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Hundreds of blasts flew over the battlefield as Commander Ostra frantically reached for his communicator. His troops had already suffered multiple casualties and now the observatory units had reported heavy artillery Kridora troops headed for the east wall. Ostra managed to connect a line with Crown as a section of the boulder he was behind exploded. Dusting the debris off of his face and gauntlet, Ostra spoke in a desperate voice,
"We're being shredded out here,Crown! Where's that support?!"
"The capital city troops are preoccupied at the moment but we've received confirmations that an assault team from the incoming Tredje army is headed for your location. ETA 5 minutes. Hold off the Kridora until then."
"Understood! East Guardian, out!"
The commander then leaped out of his cover and ran for the forward teams while closely avoiding incoming plasma bullets. Using his diffusion shield to deflect the last one, he stopped right before the soldiers taking the Kridora on.
"Listen up! Reinforcements are ETA 5 minutes! Hold this ground at all costs until then!"
A loud explosion rocked the surface as multiple Andra soldiers were blown away from the impact. Among the ones who had survived the attack, someone reported to the Commander.
"They're breaking through the left! The artillery units have arrived here sooner that it was reported!"
Ostra turned his attention to the left, where he saw a huge crater where half of his troops were supposed to be. He also spotted multiple wounded sprawled on the ground, exposed to incoming Kridora forward teams. Ostra quickly relayed orders to the backup,
"Lay down suppressing fire ASAP! Get those wounded to the camps!"
As he himself was about to descend into battle, an arc of pure plasma flew across the battlefield. Lightning emitted from the blast managed to destroy a few Kridora soldiers as the blast itself veered towards the now stationed heavy artillery units. But before it could cause any damage, Kridora backup managed to raise and connect their diffusion shields which nullified the blast. Ostra turned his attention to where the blast came from. He saw someone in a blue black long coat descending rapidly to the left side. He immediately recognized the blue short length hair and outfit. The lady landed in the middle of the crater created by the heavy artillery units and skidded to a stop just before cover. Her burst plasma rifle was completely bust, its barrel completely melted. She immediately turned her attention to the now halted backup teams and shouted,
"What're you waiting for? Now's your chance! Get the wounded out of the battlefield now! I'll hold them off. Lord Ostra, throw me a gun! Mine's busted."
Without any hesitation, he disengaged the burst plasma rifle attached to his gauntlet and threw it to her.
"Don't mess this one up, Sophia! I'll personally kick your ass if you do! Quick heads up! Tredje reinforcements ETA 5 minutes. Have to hold them off till then. Can you handle the left flank?"
"Leave this to me! Just keep me updated on the Kridora Heavy artillery. I can manage a few of these punks with my Burst and fizzle while you have your men get the wounded out of the way!"
One of Sophia's gifts included, Burst and Fizzle, the power to scale the magnitude of velocity of any non-living object by a certain value. It has a lower and an upper limit of scalability and she has to be touching the object while it is speeding for this to work. She can't change the direction of the object or use it on living people. Dead bodies are exempt from this, though.
"Alright then, time to get to work."
She immediately leaped out of her cover and fired her rifle at the nearest Kridora soldier, who managed to put up their shield but her blasts simply penetrated the diffusion shield and went through the soldier, who dropped dead immediately.
"Haha! You'll need something more than a wafer like that to stop me!"
The approaching Kridora finally took notice of Sophia as they shouted to open fire. She immediately brought out her own shield to block a few blasts and rolled to one side. As she rolled over the ground, Sophia touched the palm of her hand to the loose dirt and flicked her wrist. The small amount of dirt which had gained a little velocity towards the soldiers suddenly flew with blinding speeds towards them, knocking a few off their feet. Taking advantage of this confusion, she grabbed a grenade from her belt and threw it at the Kridora, who took notice of it only to be blown apart. The ones who evaded the grenade began firing their rifles in Sophia's direction, who leaped behind a boulder to take cover. She placed her hand on the boulder and nudged it towards the Kridora. The boulder flew with blinding speeds towards the soldiers who were crushed moments later. Sophia made her retreat using the sand cloud that had risen up due to the impact. She reached the crater where the wounded had been sprawled and spoke on the East guardian channel,
"Alright, I managed to distract them for a good while! Are the wounded out yet?"
Sophia was still in close proximity to the Kridora assault team so the possibility of a heavy artillery strike was out of her mind. She retracted Ostra's rifle and began running back when someone shouted over the same channel,
"Fall back! Retreat! Take cover! Shells fired to the left!"
Sophia hurriedly looked up and saw multiple spheres of energy headed right where she and the Kridora assault teams were.
'Damn it! I didn't think they'd fire at their own squadron!'
She only had the time to conjure a diffusion shield and bring it down to the ground like a nuclear blast door before one of the shells landed a few feet away from her and exploded in a blinding light. Smoke covered the entire section of land as debris went flying in all directions. Her diffusion shield had managed to block a direct impact but the force sent Sophia flying.
Commander Ostra had managed to leap into the nearby trench when the shells bombarded the land. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone leap over the trenches and drop down below into the hot zone. He seemed to have been carrying a pulse cannon but Ostra couldn't be sure. Not wanting to risk any more lives, Ostra ordered over the guardian channel to fall back, assuming it to be a hot headed young soldier but to his surprise, he only heard static.
"Was I the only…one?"
Fearing the worst, he immediately leaped out of the trench in hopes to prove his fears wrong. The bombardment continued for a few moments but Ostra couldn't hear them at all. He could only see the scorched land in front of him, peppered with the remains of his comrades. He frantically looked back at the wall, fearing the same fate for the camps but to his relief, the backup team had managed to at least deflect some shells to the point none of them landed on the camps. Ostra turned his attention back to the soldier he had seen earlier, in hopes to at least save him but was unable to advance beyond the trenches due to the dust cloud.
"Damn it all!"
(A few minutes before: )
Sophia was still in midair. She had heard from people who had been in near death experiences that when the mind feels that it is closer to death, time seems to slow down a little. As if to say, 'Enjoy these few moments I've given you, they're your last.'
As she arced through the air with the debris from the explosion, her attention turned to a glint in the corner of her eyes. She managed to look up in that brief moment and saw a pulse cannon flying right above her in the opposite direction. In the next moment, Sophia's instincts took over her body as she grabbed the heavy gun out of the air. The large forward momentum of the canon managed to cancel most of the momentum due to the exploion as she began to fall to the ground. Using her agility, Sophia managed to spin her body in an anticlockwise manner to land on her feet as she drifted further back with her feet now managing to keep her upright. In those moments as she came to a halt, Sophia had managed to attach the pulse canon to her gauntlet and aimed the same towards the Kridora heavy artillery.
"This pulse canon can handle it! Using my burst and fizzle along with the upper limit of my energy generation, I give you assholes the greatest attack you'll ever see! Super amazing brilliant Arc of light: Railgun!"
A sharp and huge arc of plasma and electricity ejected from the pulse canon at blinding speeds and made its way to the heavy artillery units. Expecting the same energy output as last time, they did not bother to strengthen their diffusion shields any more as the projectile collided with a section of the shield and blasted through it. A loud explosion ensued as a segment of the unit was destroyed in an instant.
"Letting your guard down, huh? That's not like you, Sophia."
Sophia immediately turned to the voice she knew very well. Rather, she knew from the start who had thrown the now destroyed pulse canon at just the right amount of force to cancel the impulse of the shell explosion. The same spiky hair and black long coat now stood behind her as he had many times before, when they fought side by side in countless battles.
"Oh shut it, will you? First time I see you in months and that's what you've got to say, huh Alexio?"
