Stampede

It was the evening, more than two hours had passed by when was taken away by the police for a crime he didn't commit. The masses in Macross district were restless upon hearing that. They all realized that he was framed and when he tried fighting back he was arrested on the charges of 'treason' without proper evidence.

"This is tyranny..", a person who witnessed Hiro being arrested spoke.

"Shut up, we don't wanna get involved with him.", the person the latter told him.

"But you can't jus-"

"I also hate it, the unjust treatment when everyone knows the truth."

The latter who thought about the nobility being nothing more than 'Tyrants' clenched his teeth.

The same feeling ran throughout the crowd out there but they couldn't go against the unjust treatment given to the lower-class people. It was because the higher-class people had the advantage of controlling the MECHA which the lower-class people couldn't fight against.

Even if they wanted to escape the unjust treatment by going towards the outside world, there was no guarantee that they would come back alive. They didn't have the arms and artillery to fight them.

Nothing went well for anyone the moment Hiro was arrested. They were restless more than anything but they couldn't take action.

At that time, in the basement of the inn owned by Raj and Yuki, the room was lit up by candles and lamps. There was a Katana within its sheath placed on its stand beside a few candles on a small table.

Facing it was Yuki, who sat on her knees joining her hands seemingly doing a prayer of some sort.

"Are you really going to do it, big sis?", A voice asked her, which came from the ventilation of the basement. The person who asked her was leaning to the wall on the ground to hear what Yuki, who was underground was going to say.

"Not only me, but my beloved is also going to do it.", Yuki replied.

"Is it really necessary to start our first attack for a single man."

"Yes it is. I guess me dressing up in a 'kataginu' explains that."

"Hai, hai, I understood that."

Yuki opened her eyes the looked forward asking, "Is the artillery and equipment ready?"

"Yes they are, all we need to go to the rendezvous point."

"Then get ready and inform everyone."

"Roger", the man who was on the ground replied and instantly disappeared from the spot.

At that moment, Raj came in to basement.

"Yuki, the time has come."

"Yes"

Yuki stood up and took her katana, tying it her waist.

At moment, as Yuki showed her to the candles, the flame in the candles and the lamps were extinguished, immediately going blank.

The room went pitch black as the flames of the candles and lamps went off.

The RIORS which were lead by another of them were coming towards the pillars. The RIOR which was leading leading them ran to the pillars space, which had a translucent wall of the core's energy each being in between a pillar. The RIOR was strangely humanoid and was the leading the rest of them immediately forced itself on the wall of plasma of energy powered by a RIOR's core within the secondary pillars.

It put its palm on it, only leading it to being burned. It screeched in pain and took its hand back and its palm soon healed, which wasn't a feat any RIOR could do. The people who were near the pillars were terrified upon witnessing it but were slightly relieved to see that it was stopped by the wall.

The RIOR tried plunging another of its arm again, only to face the same outcome which happened with the first one. But the fingers of the left arm were able to penetrate through the wall and reach the other side which bruning the skin and its flesh. The horde of RIORS which were behind it stood as if they were march into Macross district like an army anytime without fear if the pillar broke down.

The RIOR whose arms were burnt and regenerated screamed. It looked like it ordered the horde of RIORS there to barge into the wall of plasma which would be really lethal to the RIORS. It would burn the RIORS skin and flesh and almost everything with it . But the wall there present between the pillars was somewhat weak as the RIOR's fingers were able to penetrate it.

The RIOR which was able to penetrate a bit of the wall understood it and it smiled. It had a devilish smile on its face. It soon ordered the RIORS behind it to charge towards, leading to a similar but this time, they able to slightly penetrate to the other side.

The RIOR was seemingly the leader of the horde looked at the pillars. One of it was crumbling due to the constant disruption of plasma. The pillar itself didn't seem like it would hold long enough to defend. The RIOR noticed it and immediately moved towards it.

The RIOR was near the pillar, it observed the part where the pillar was crumbling. It clenched the fist of its right arm, pulling it back. It took the stance and was ready to pull its attack. It punched straight into the pillar, causing the pillar to crumble. The impact made the pillar to crumble, causing it to fall down.

The wall made of plasma, started to disappear destroying the connection between the both pillars. The RIOR which destroyed the wall screamed to order the horde there to charge in. The people who witnessed this immediately abandoned the place and started to run away from there. The RIORS which had been on standby and the RIORS which had charged in the active wall started to charge into the district.

Thus, the stampede upon Krusch city had begun.

"What do you mean by stampede?", Hiro had asked Anton while taking his support standing up.

"Yes, it is as you heard. A secondary pillar at Macross district has fallen.", Anton replied to him.

"Oh god, this is the second time."

"I know how it feels but we don't have much time."

"What do you mean?"

"The decision to abandon Macross district has been made.", Anton replied and continued, "New backup pillars have been made which only covers the Weiss district."

Hiro was shocked involuntarily upon hearing his words.

"You, you're the only one that can save Macross district, Hiro."

At that time, Raj who was dressed up loaded in arms and ammunition along with Yuki boarded the vehicle to start their attack upon the people at Weiss district. The person who was driving was a person whom they had known and was involved within the rebellion. As they boarded the vehicle, a scream came from a direction at their back.

Raj got out to see what was happening. He saw a group of people running towards the direction they were supposed to go. Raj shocked to see what was chasing them, it was the RIORS. The one who was driving the vehicle looked back and was shocked to see what was unfolding at their eyes.

Understanding the situation, Yuki also got down from the vehicle.

"Are we going to fight them?", Yuki asked Raj.

"Even if you aren't, I am.", Raj replied.

"That attitude is what made you unpopular with women in the army."

Raj couldn't say anything back to her words.

The one who was on the driver's seat called out to both of them saying, "Wait, you two..."

"There's no stopping us, Masato.", Raj told him.

"Yeah, we really need to save the people. A sacrifice must be made and if you're thinking of stopping us..."

"Who's stopping you both?", The one who was the driving seat, Masato replied to both them, blocking Yuki's words and got up from the driver's seat giving them both a large box which was in the trunk of the vehicle.

"Use this weapons, it was developed by the 'you know who', we are going to need this a lot."

He opened the box and gave Raj a semi-automatic rifle and to Yuki a Katana which was glowing.

"This rifle and katana were specifically made to fight the MECHA but they can also be useful against the RIORS. Since, the MECHA can only defeat the RIORS, these are something which can challenge the MECHA itself."

Masato said and got inside the Vehicle, saying, "I will try to evacuate as many pedestrians and the people who are hiding as much as possible. The moment you feel outnumbered, quickly come to the borders.", and left.

"Roger, the both of them replied and went against the running crowd towards the RIORS. Raj took the ammunition which was specifically made and held the katana. The both of them charged towards the RIORS.

Raj shot out the bullets of the rifle which penetrated through the skin and hit its vitals. Yuki ran towards Raj and as she ran towards him, Raj joined both his palms to give her a push in jumping upwards. Yuki jumped onto Raj's hands and he immediately pulled his arms up to give her the push to the RIOR's head. Yuki, who was midair, controlled the inertia and taking the advantage of gravity, she slashed through the RIOR's neck with ease like a knife cutting butter.

Raj caught her in his arms as she fell down like a princess. They both looked forward, to see that a whole group of RIORS were in front of them. Yuki got down asking Raj, "Are you ready?"

"I am eveready."

Then they both charged into the RIORS.

Meanwhile, Anton took Hiro to where Vernier was. Hiro had regained quite a bit of energy and the patience to go there.

But at that time, the guards who were there didn't allow them to go there. Anton, took a guard's gun and shot it down to the ground, thus alerting the guards towards himself. Ad the guards where focused on him, Hiro ran towards Vernier and got on the bridge connecting to Vernier. The guards who were on the bridge immediately went hostile to him. But Hiro jumped upon on them kicked everyone down from the narrow place into the stream of water underneath it.

He ran towards Vernier and got into its cockpit, activating it and severing all the connections with the bridge. At that moment Hiro was surrounded by other MECHA. He could go there by using Vernier but Hiro realized one thing. He realized that even if he had fought the MECHA which surrounded him and went there to save the district. But, by the moment he would have reached there irrepairable destruction to lives could have been caused.

"The MECHA pilot of Vernier, surrender."

"You will accused of insubordination, if you go to save Macross district."

"You don't realize it, you are in the nobles' district. So if Macross district is destroyed, you will be live here safely within Weiss district. Don't you realize that."

"Stay low and live under us nobility like a slave within this district. At the very least you can live."

"So living is also a choice for you...huh?", the demon asked him.

Within the Macross district, Raj and Yuki went ahead killing the RIORS trying to evacuate as many people as possible without knowing that the pillars which only protected Weiss district had been raised at the border.

Raj had exhausted his ammunition, as they killed the final RIOR in front of them. But at that moment, more and more RIORS seemed to appear.

"I've exhausted my ammunition."

"That is what you get for shooting recklessly."

"I was trying to cover for you. Anyways, lets go the border and try to evacuate."

Yuki agreed upon Raj's decision saying, "Wanna take the rooftops?"

"Did you need to ask?"

The both of them left the place they were in and went to border. The situation there was much to everyone's dismay. The pillars which were only meant to surround Weiss district had been raised, along with the road there. The people who got on the road tried to talk with the guards who were meant to protect the pillars.

"Try letting us in, please.", a person tried persuading a guard.

"No, you commoners aren't allowed."

"Then why are you guys here?"

"We were just meant to observe if the people of this district had fully been exterminated or not."

"Does that mean that you were just sent here to see whether we died or not?"

"That is another way to put it."

The masses who were there were shocked upon hearing this.

A child who was there with her mother started crying, "Mom, does this mean were are going to die?"

"No, my child.", the mother replied.

"Why don't you just tell her the truth?", A guard spoke to her. The guard moved towards the mother saying, "You fodder, and your children have no value within Kreiss Monarchy at all.", he tried to grab the crying child saying, "Shut that mouth of yours, its annoying".

As the guard moved his hand towards the child, Raj stopped him saying, "You have no right to touch us commoners."

"Leave my hand.", the guard told him, to which Raj tightened his grip.

Yuki took out her katana and pointed the blade at the guard's arm saying, "Shall we cut his arm or his head."

"How about both?"

Hearing their words the guard was scared and moved back, removing himself from Raj's grip.

"You, I won't, "

"Yeah, 'you won't' what?", Raj asked him to taunt him. The guard tried to exert himself upon him but that moment, a large tremor hit the place. The people looked there looked at a single direction, where a RIOR was standing in front of them. In that unprotected and elevated place where it stared downwards from its chest. The people there were frightened and only a miracle could save them at that point.

At that moment, in the headquarters for keeping MECHA, Vernier was surrounded by other MECHA. Hiro, who was there could fight back as the ones who surrounded them were just mass-produced MECHA. Hiro exhaled forcefully and with a tone as if he were to cry spoke.

"Demon, I know you are there. I want you to give me power."

"Ohh, of all days. Now you're asking me for power?", the demon replied

"Yes, I will do anything in return. I know that you know the present situation I am stuck in. Just give me a proper solution to it or guide me."

"I understand..... but there is something I want you to do."

"I will do anything you want me to do. But at least, as long as I can save the district and those two, I can sacrifice anything."

"That determination, fufufu..... Very well, I will grant it."

At that moment, Vernier started disappearing from that place with nebulous ends along with Hiro who was inside the cockpit. The surrounding people were shocked at the point. They couldn't understand what was going on.

The Vernier which disappeared slowly, appeared at the border to the RIOR which was going to attack the people there. Vernier, appeared out of nowhere with its hand first having nebulous ends, forming Vernier totally. The RIOR's head was held by Vernier's right arm, it gripped it forcefully smashing its head to the ground.

The miracle which could save the people had appeared right then.