[The board has declared a state of emergency. Enemy forces are approaching the city and are expected to breach the eastern gate within the hour. Civilians in that area should attempt to evacuate immediately.]

  “I fucking know, that’s why I’m helping evacuate,” I snapped as the city wide alert crossed my augs for the twentieth time. “Nyx, block this shit until they have something new, or important to tell me.”

  I had every available Kodiak swarming the eastern residential district, trying to help evacuate as many people as we could before the gates fell. There were thousands of people in each mega tower, maybe even tens of thousands, and even with the civilian support it didn’t look like we were going to be able to clear them out before the gates fell.

  Down below, at street level, lines of armored vehicles rolled into position, blocking the streets so the enemy couldn’t get through. At the rear a dozen or so hundred ton monstrosities pulled into position, the city’s full super heavy contingent ready to repel whatever came through the gates.

  No matter who won this opening fight, the collateral damage would be enormous.

  “The two towers closest to the gate have been fully evacuated, the foxes are just doing their final sweeps now,” Spooky reported as he stepped up next to me. “Bandit says he needs five minutes, no more.”

  “Good. As soon as the Kodiaks are unloaded, get them back here and so we can get the last of these people out of here. Nyx, how many buildings are within the initial combat zone?” I asked.

  Dusty twitched for a moment, then wandered over to stand next to me. “I estimate there are five buildings that could be critically damaged by and collapse due to collateral damage in the initial combat area. Three have been evacuated, we just have this building and the one the Family are evacuating left.”

  “Well, we should move fast… I don’t think the gate is going to last much longer,” I hissed.

  The eastern gate of the city was a titanic thing, multiple stories high, a dozen lanes wide. It was designed to repel whatever the antithesis could throw at it.

  And right now, the center of the massive bulwark fucking glowed.

  The Denver armored column had several superheavy tanks armed with energy weapons, and their combined fire was slowly melting through the gate. I really hoped they’d stop firing before the weapons punched through, and started slicing into the buildings on the other side.

  Stepping away from the edge I pulled up my augs and called Hel.

  [How are things going on your side? I don’t think we have much time left.] I said the instant she picked up.

  [We’re evacuating as quickly as we can, but the Family only has so many trucks. We need more time.]

  [No shit, unfortunately I don’t think we’re going to get it.]

  As if to punctuate my words part of the gate sloughed away, allowing one of the superheavies on the other side to fire through. Some sort of high powered laser tore through the nearest building, ripping apart several floors and setting fires everywhere.

  Dozens of guided missiles lept from the defensive line, plunging through the hole in the gate before exploding somewhere out of sight.

  [Tell your guys to work faster!] I said tersely.

  [Already on it! How are things on your side?]

  [My teams are still sweeping the building that was hit, but it’s mostly clear. I need…] I glanced at Dusty and Nyx flashed me six fingers. [Six more minutes.]

  [Call me when you’re done.]

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  I had been coordinating the evacuation of this building from its twentieth floor, which was a combination commercial and restaurant area. The entire area was a complete mess, people panicked as soon as the evacuation alarm went off, so I had to hop over several chairs to make my way towards the landing pad for this level.

  There were still several dozen people milling around the area, waiting for the next transport, and not all of them were taking the situation well.

  “You will let me on the next transport, or I’ll kill her!” I heard someone yelling even before I stepped out onto the platform. An older woman with salt and pepper hair, wearing a security uniform, was waving her service weapon at a small crowd of people nearby. “They’re exchanging fire down on the street, I can hear them, I need to get out of here now.”

  “They’ve breached the gate, but they’re not through the gate yet, so calm down and put the weapon down,” I said calmly. “I’ll make sure everyone gets out of here.”

  “How can you be sure? One stray shot and we’ll all end up dead! Just let me leave, please,” the woman begged, tears in her eyes.

  “Put the gun down already!” I snarled. “I swear if you do something stupid my friend Bob is going to make you regret it.”

  The big bear, which had been following me around the floor casually reached over, grabbed a nearby metal chair and casually bent the thing in half.

  The woman finally dropped her weapon, and I sent a nearby bear scampering in to snag it.

  “Alright everyone, LINE UP,” I shouted. “I don’t want to be here when the fighting starts any more than you, so you better be ready by the time the transports arrive.”

  As the civilians scrambled about I stepped towards the edge of the landing pad and glanced across the prospective battlezone at another nearby building. A number of small black vans were still swarming around the area, which meant the family hadn’t finished evacuating either.

  A quick ping told me that the last wave of Kodiaks were on final approach, seconds away. I started to turn away from the edge, but before I could something flashed between the two buildings. Another laser blast, this one much closer to the ground.

  At the same time the tanks below all opened fire. Even though the cannons from the main battle tanks were loud, even here, twenty floors up, they were nothing compared to the weapons on the superheavies.

  One particularly tall model had two massive rotary cannons, and the whine as they wound up was frightening. It was nothing compared to the sound of it firing.

  I didn’t know what caliber the thing fired, but it fired several rounds a second, filling the air with an absolute cacophony that swallowed up all other noise.

  The people on the landing platform screamed, falling to their knees and covering their ears, but I couldn’t hear any of it.

  Thankfully that’s when the Kodiaks arrived, ramps lowering even before they hit the ground. Some people ran towards them, but many more continued cowering from the noise echoing from the street. “Everyone out!” I shouted, but of course, they couldn’t hear me.

  “Nyx, send an emergency alert, get them moving! Bob, if anyone fails to get on I want you to pick them up and carry them if you have to!” I didn’t know if Bob could hear me, but he still nodded at my command.

  A second later many of the cowering people looked up, and made a run for the Kodiaks. Most in a fairly orderly fashion, but not everyone. I growled to myself before sprinting back to the door, grabbing the nearest woman and half carrying her back to the nearest Kodiak. Behind me Bob grabbed the remaining four, draping one over each shoulder while carrying two more.

  Just when I was about to step on the Kodiak a massive explosion shook the entire mega building. At first I thought something had struck the floor we were on, but I couldn’t see any damage. Slipping the woman into the overly-crowded transport I spoke quietly. “Nyx? Status?”

  These are the last transports. Landing areas are clear, and you definitely don’t have time to do a sweep, go!

  “Right, let’s go!” I yelled. The bears probably couldn’t hear me, but that was fine, I sent them the command to move.

  The Kodiaks lifted off smoothly, then accelerated as they headed north towards the drop off point. As the ramp slowly slid closed I looked back towards the gate. Tanks, APCs and numerous other armored vehicles were swarming through the melted gate, exchanging fire with the local defenders. Behind the first wave were a couple behemoth machines, including one that appeared to have the equivalent to a naval cannon. When it fired, entire columns of defending tanks were ripped apart, and thrown away with the force of the round.

  The fight was going to get messy. Fast.

  Flicking up my comms I sent a quick message to Hel. [I’m away, building is clear. What’s your status?]

  [We’re also clear, it was close though. We’ll see you at the drop off point.]

  [See you.] I replied before cutting off the connection.

  The sounds of battle didn’t die down until the ramp finally shut, and the sound proofing kicked in. Even though I was glad to get away from that hell, I had a feeling things were going to get worse before they got better.

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