A Militia of Mixed Components

"For our Kato!"

The man controlled the Stubber, sweeping it across the densest clusters of Rebels. Every so often, a few solid rounds or laser shots struck the vehicle, but he showed no fear.

In the midst of the frenzied barrage, a small building packed with Rebels collapsed, burying everyone inside alive.

"This thing's meant for anti-air, isn't it?" Grey pointed at the Stubber.

"Looks like it, but he must've modified it," Grot nodded in agreement.

Qin Mo walked over to the man and ordered him: "Head elsewhere immediately. The street fighting needs you and your gun more."

"If I leave, you'll hold this position?" The man shot Qin Mo a glance, unmoved.

Qin Mo didn't explain. He turned and fired a sphere of light from his Shoulder Cannon.

The sphere exploded above the Rebels ahead, unleashing a torrent of beams that swept across the ground, wiping out every Rebel within its kill radius.

"Alright, got it." The man stopped firing at once, jumped off the vehicle, and hurried away with his wife and children to other locations.

Qin Mo turned to Grey: "Spread out with the others across the city. I'll hold this spot alone."

Grey nodded and used his Jump Pack to launch himself into the distance.

The other soldiers in Power Armor also leaped to various points, dispersing throughout the city.

Landing atop a tall building, Grey swept his gaze over the nearby area.

In this block, Rebels were locked in a seesaw battle with the Militia. The two sides had roughly equal weapons and gear—some Militia members even wore Power Armor and wielded oddly shaped weapons that, when fired, released beams capable of punching straight through Rebel tanks.

Ignoring the allies who weren't in immediate danger, Grey focused on observing the Rebels. He realized he was right on their turf—the building beneath him housed a Rebel heavy weapons position, which was pinning down the Militia trying to seize the entire block.

"Die." Grey activated his Gravity Shield.

The Gravity Shield instantly crushed the floor beneath him, dropping him straight to the ground level.

The Rebels inside the first floor, busy manning their heavy weapons, were startled and turned nervously toward this uninvited guest in Power Armor.

Grey raised his right hand. Tiny spheres of light shot out in a dense, rainlike torrent, pouring into the Rebels in the room. As he swept his hand in a full circle, every Rebel on the floor was cleared out.

Grey calmly walked over to the undamaged heavy weapons and used his Gravity Shield to crush them all into scrap metal.

Just then, a shell exploded outside the building, sending a storm of shrapnel pouring through the windows.

Grey looked up toward the direction the shell came from. The image at the center of his vision zoomed in, piercing through the walls ahead to reveal an enemy operating a Heavy Cannon in a building seven hundred meters away.

Grey silently switched his Shoulder Cannon to cannon mode and fired.

The beam punched through the building, then tore through every wall in its path, obliterating the Heavy Cannon and its operator seven hundred meters away.

After the Heavy Cannon was destroyed, a tank rumbled around the corner. Painted on its left-side armor was a beautiful woman holding a gun.

"Ow—yeah!"

"Thanks, bro!"

A man with a red mohawk popped out of the tank's turret, shouted his thanks, then ducked back down as another shell exploded nearby.

Behind the tank followed a crowd of oddly dressed men and women, all sharing one common mark: red mohawks.

"Crimson Crests?" Grey was surprised. "I thought the Underhive Gangs had already joined the Rebels."

"Everyone, stop pushing forward, dammit!" The man in the tank popped out again, shouting into his Communicator: "The Cathedral's about to fall! The Cathedral's about to fall! The Cathedral's about to fall!"

"What? How could the Cathedral fall? Isn't that deep in the rear?"

"Fall back to the Cathedral!"

"Hurry, fall back!"

The tank immediately swerved in the street, and the mohawked people sprinted back the way they came.

Watching this group appear and then retreat, Grey felt nothing. He didn't trust the Underhive Gangs at all. In his view, letting gang members meddle was worse than just clearing the entire block himself.

Grey burst out of the building and moved down the road, advancing through Rebel fire while shooting back. His hand-mounted scatter lasers mowed down infantry, while his Shoulder Cannon blasted apart buildings or Rebel armor.

Solid rounds were intercepted by the Gravity Shield; laser beams were absorbed into his Power Armor's Energy Engine, converted into energy for his weapons to fire back at the Rebels.

By the time he reached the end of the street, the enemies were wiped out. Grey suddenly recalled what Qin Mo had said.

"Once I finish my proudest masterpiece and show it to you, you'll realize how fragile and inefficient your current gear is."

Thinking about it now, it was true. His old Power Armor would never have been this powerful—the Energy Plating would've overloaded, and he'd have been riddled with holes by Rebel energy weapons.

"Next block." Grey stared ahead with resolve, stepping over the charred enemy corpses. "You've got ten minutes left to live, you ants."

With Grey and the others joining in, the seesaw battle turned into a slaughter.

Rebels in every block of the city were cleared out in droves. They no longer had to grind through street fights—they just had to stay inside buildings and wait to be blown up along with them.

For the Militia, fighting alongside soldiers in powerful Power Armor had many perks. Buildings held by the enemy no longer required satchel charges; they just had to shout over the gunfire to alert the armored warriors, and the whole structure would be blown apart.

There were downsides too.

Those armored warriors weren't from Kato. They didn't care that this city was the Kato people's home. They'd unhesitatingly demolish a building that had stood for a thousand years, just because they couldn't be bothered to go inside and clear out the enemies.

Grey, who had been fighting alone all along, finally reached the edge of the city, where he ran into Grot and the others, who had also fought their way to the same spot.

The Militia within the city converged at the city's edge as well.

The Rebels, driven out of the city, fled in panic, shedding their weapons and carapace armor as they ran.

But these lucky few didn't get far before the rolling tide of flames behind them caught up and burned them to ash.

"Are there any living enemies elsewhere?" Qin Mo drifted slowly down from the sky, the Aquila Scepter in his hand slick with blood.

Behind him, two thousand soldiers and Militia members came together in a rush, everyone who had fought in the city now gathered in one place.

"Thank you for coming to our aid." The officer stepped forward, dropping to one knee before the Aquila Scepter. "Praise the Emperor! Praise the Emperor's envoys!"

The soldiers knelt before the Aquila Scepter as well.

Other civilians, gang members, and bounty hunters also knelt—though not facing the double-headed eagle on the scepter, but facing Qin Mo.

Everyone who had held out in the city understood that if reinforcements hadn't arrived suddenly, they would still be grinding through street-to-street combat, and even with heavy sacrifices, they might not have saved the city.

Qin Mo swept his gaze over everyone present, thinking to himself that this bunch of Militia had a surprisingly mixed composition.

Civilians, gangs, bounty hunters...

"With all due respect." A bounty hunter suddenly lifted his head. "It would've been better if you hadn't turned half the city into rubble... but of course, we're still grateful."

"You need to understand, this is a war." Qin Mo turned and walked toward the city center. "When the war is over, I will build a new city here that will make the Upper Hive jealous. The city called New Kato will be your reward for fighting the Rebels."