A Motley Militia

"For our Kato!"

The man controlled the Stubber, spraying the areas with the most rebels. Every so often, two solid rounds or laser bolts struck the vehicle, but he was utterly fearless.

Amid the frenzied barrage, a small building packed with rebels collapsed, burying every Rebel inside alive.

"This thing was meant for anti-aircraft use, right?" Grey pointed at the Stubber.

"Looks like it, but he must have modified it." Grot nodded in approval.

Qin Mo walked over to the man and ordered, "Go support the other areas immediately. You and your machine gun are needed more in street fighting."

"If I leave, you'll defend this place?" The man glanced at Qin Mo, unmoved.

Qin Mo did not explain. He turned and fired a ball of light from his Shoulder Cannon.

The orb exploded above the rebels ahead. A massive flood of light swept down to the ground, wiping out every Rebel within its range.

"Understood." The man immediately stopped firing, jumped off the vehicle, and hurried elsewhere with his wife and child.

Qin Mo turned to Grey. "You and the others spread out across the city. I'll defend this place alone."

Grey nodded and activated his Jump Pack, leaping into the distance.

The others in Power Armor also jumped away, scattering throughout the city.

After landing atop a tall building, Grey swept his gaze across the surrounding area.

The rebels and the militia were locked in a tug-of-war throughout this district. Their weaponry was not all that different. Some militia members even wore Power Armor and carried oddly shaped weapons that fired beams capable of instantly punching through Rebel tanks.

After ignoring the allies who were not in immediate danger, Grey focused on the rebels. He discovered that he was on the rebels' side of the battlefield. The building beneath his feet contained a heavy weapons position that was suppressing the militia trying to seize the entire district.

"Die." Grey activated his Gravity Shield.

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

The rebels on the first floor, who had been intently operating their heavy weapons, were startled and nervously looked toward the uninvited guest in Power Armor.

Grey raised his right hand. Tiny orbs of light shot out in dense succession, pouring down like a rainstorm upon the rebels inside. By the time his right hand had completed a circle, every Rebel on the floor had been cleared out.

Grey calmly walked up to the undamaged heavy weapons and used the Gravity Shield to crush them all into sheets of metal.

Then a shell suddenly exploded outside the building, and a torrent of shrapnel poured in through the windows.

Grey looked toward where the shell had come from. The image at the center of his vision magnified and pierced through the walls ahead, revealing enemies operating a heavy cannon inside a building seven hundred meters away.

Grey silently switched his Shoulder Cannon to cannon mode, then fired.

The beam pierced through the building, then through every wall along its path, blasting the heavy cannon seven hundred meters away—and its operators—into pieces.

After the heavy cannon was destroyed, a tank roared out from around the corner. Painted on its left-side armor was a beautiful woman holding a gun.

"Ah—yeah!"

"Thanks, brother!"

A man with a crimson crest sticking out of the tank turret shouted his thanks, only to duck back down after being frightened by a shell exploding nearby.

Behind the tank followed a large group of strangely dressed men and women. Their shared trait was that every one of them wore crimson crests.

"Crimson Crests?" Grey was surprised. "I thought the underhive gangs had joined the rebels long ago."

"Don't fucking advance!" Someone inside the tank poked out again, holding a communicator as he shouted to the others. "The cathedral is about to fall! The cathedral is about to fall! The cathedral is about to fall!"

"What did you say? How could the cathedral fall? Isn't that the rear?"

"Go back and reinforce the cathedral!"

"Hurry back and reinforce it!"

The tank immediately turned around in the street, while the crested people simply ran back the way they had come.

Seeing this group suddenly appear and then withdraw, Grey felt nothing. He had no trust whatsoever in underhive gangs. In his view, rather than letting gang members meddle blindly, he would rather clear the entire district by himself.

Grey rushed out of the building and moved down the road, advancing through Rebel artillery fire while shooting the rebels. The shotgun lasers in his hands cleared infantry, while his Shoulder Cannon was used to blast apart buildings and Rebel armor.

Incoming solid rounds were intercepted by the Gravity Shield, while incoming beams were absorbed into the Energy Engine of his Power Armor, converted into weapon energy, and fired back at the rebels.

After clearing out the enemies just by reaching the end of the street, Grey suddenly recalled something Qin Mo had said.

"Once I finish the masterpiece I'm so proud of and let you see it, you'll realize just how fragile and inefficient the weapons and equipment on you are now."

Now that he thought about it, it was true. His previous Power Armor would never have been this formidable. Its Energy Plating would have overloaded, and the rebels' energy weapons would have riddled it with holes.

"Next district." Grey stared resolutely ahead as he stepped over the scorched enemy corpses. "You vermin have ten minutes left to live."

Grey and the others' arrival turned the tug-of-war into a massacre.

The rebels in every district of the city were wiped out in swathes. They no longer needed to grind through street battles. All they had to do was stay inside buildings and wait to be blown apart along with them.

For the militia, fighting alongside warriors clad in powerful Power Armor came with many advantages.

They no longer had to carry explosives to destroy buildings occupied by the enemy. They only needed to shout reminders through the gunfire to the people in Power Armor, and the entire building would be blasted apart.

There were downsides, too.

The warriors in Power Armor were not Kato natives at all. They did not care that this city was the home of the Kato people. They would demolish a building that had stood for thousands of years without hesitation, perhaps simply because they could not be bothered to go inside and clear out the enemies.

Grey, who had been fighting alone all along, pushed all the way to the edge of the city. There, he encountered Grot and the others, who had likewise fought their way to the outskirts.

The militia inside the city also gathered at its edge.

The rebels driven out of the city fled in panic, tossing away their weapons and carapace armor as they ran.

But those fortunate few did not get far before the surging, rolling sea of fire behind them caught up and burned them to ashes.

"Are there any enemies still alive elsewhere?" Qin Mo slowly descended from the sky, the Aquila Scepter in his hand covered in blood.

Behind him, two thousand soldiers who had come running at full speed joined the militia. Everyone who had participated in the battle throughout the city was now here.

"Thank you for coming to rescue us." An officer stepped forward and dropped to one knee before the Double-headed Eagle on the Aquila Scepter. "Praise the Emperor! Praise the Emperor's messengers!"

The soldiers also knelt before the Aquila Scepter.

The civilians, gang members, and bounty hunters also knelt, though they were not facing the Double-headed Eagle on the scepter, but Qin Mo himself.

Everyone who had held out in the city until now understood that if reinforcements had not suddenly arrived, they would have had to keep grinding through street battles. Even with immense sacrifices, they might not have been able to save the city.

Qin Mo swept his gaze across everyone present, thinking that this militia really was a motley bunch.

Civilians, gangs, bounty hunters...

"Forgive my bluntness." A bounty hunter suddenly raised his head. "It would have been better if you hadn't turned half the city into ruins... But of course, we're still grateful to you."

"You need to understand that this is 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 residents jealous. A city called New Kato will be your reward for fighting the rebels."