Inside the factory, all members of Akatsuki Works had already gone into hiding. Most of them were purely Technicians, and when the Apocalypse began its attack on Heliopolis, they had received orders from their technical supervisor to evacuate immediately. Naturally, this included the vast majority of Technicians sent by the Earth Force.
Thus, the only people left were the Earth Force's guard troops. There were practically no Orb personnel present. It seemed somewhat unreasonable, but amid such tense circumstances, no one noticed this slight irregularity.
To set up the Earth Force, Orb had given up quite a lot from beginning to end. It had maintained its cooperation with the Earth Force all along, and had even lent Heaven's Pillar to them under pressure. Now that Heliopolis's armor had been breached, everyone on the entire satellite had to take refuge in Escape Pods. The impact and damage to the satellite were extremely severe.
The Earth Force had always attached great importance to the G Series jointly produced with Akatsuki Works, and had deployed considerable Defense Force personnel. But with the enemy acting with preparation while they were caught unprepared—and with Orb having stabbed them in the back—no amount of defensive strength could withstand the Apocalypse's Landing Force.
Attacked from both within and without, with bombs and grenades exploding everywhere, and with the outer wall directly pierced by Katia's team, the entire Colony Satellite descended into utter chaos. Pinned from both sides, with Xiao Ran leading the breakthrough, the Earth Force's five transport vehicles and armed jeeps were blocked on either side of the main gate within fifteen minutes, unable to advance or retreat.
At that moment, Xiao Ran raised his hand, signaling the others to cease fire. The reason he had suddenly leaped down to spearhead the charge had been to