Attack on Dunlin District

High above the Pride of Boke, Kel-Morian Hellhound squadrons and Terran Confederacy Avengers engaged in a brutal aerial contest. In the city center, anti-aircraft towers and flak cannons roared with thunderous intensity. The city was burning, flames reaching toward the sky and igniting the night.

Augustus and the soldiers of his squad followed an Arclite Siege Tank, running and firing, praying that the electromagnetic shells from the Kel-Morian Guild's large-caliber mortars would not land on them or their comrades.

According to the offensive deployment, ten battalions from the 2nd and 4th Brigades were to split into three prongs to attack the east side of the Pride of Boke, while Augustus's 5th Battalion was to push straight through the center, driving directly into the heart of the enemy urban zone.

The squads were spaced far apart, spread across a front seven to eight hundred yards wide. Ahead of them was a Resocialized Company charging at full speed, followed by three companies of a Resocialized Battalion, and behind them were the other companies of the 5th Battalion.

In the light of one rising flare after another, Augustus drew ever closer to the positions the Kel-Morians had constructed at the city entrance, fortified with sandbags, steel plates, electrified wire, and bunkers—clearly only the enemy's first line of defense.

Augustus stepped over one corpse of a Resocialized Soldier after another until he could see the muzzle flashes from the electromagnetic rifles on the enemy line.

About a thousand yards ahead of Augustus, a Kel-Morian hemispherical bunker had been destroyed by an Arclite Siege Tank shell; the position, piled high with sandbags and scrap metal, had long since been blown to pieces.

Even so, the Kel-Morian soldiers held their ground, returning fire at the charging Federal troops with a motley assortment of formidable weapons, having brought everything from laser drills taken from mines to other dangerous items they could scavenge from the pits and guilds to the front lines.

Augustus had to admit that the Kel-Morians, raised in the fiercely competitive guilds, possessed a fighting spirit far stronger than many conscripted Federal soldiers. They were born warriors, willing to sacrifice everything for their guilds and the honor of their families.

The Arclite Siege Tanks pressed forward, turrets rotating to fire continuously at the Kel-Morian positions. The Goliath Combat Robots beside Augustus also opened fire; these twelve-foot-tall bipedal mechs were like giants of steel, their hardened plating reflecting a cold, iron-gray light under the glare of searchlights.

The 30mm autocannons mounted on the arms of the Goliaths spun, firing thousands of rounds in mere seconds until the barrels glowed red.

Immediately after, the missile pods on the shoulders of the Goliath Combat Robots rotated open, launching a barrage of ground-attack missiles that tore gap after gap into the Kel-Morian lines.

Augustus and his squad stayed close to the tanks throughout, letting bullets whistle over their heads. Although Warfield's 1st Company was the first to launch the assault, they maintained their speed under the captain's orders, advancing in sync with the tanks.

A few minutes had passed since they entered charging range; during that time, a shell had struck the tank's armor but was immediately deflected, and another landed near Augustus, though it failed to harm him.

Augustus remained restrained and calm, moving steadily forward and firing at the flashes of light.

The soldiers of the 1st Squad were scattered nearby, each spaced twenty yards apart. Closest to Augustus were Rick, a sniper from the 1st Fire Team, and Benjamin, who carried a Whisperer heavy machine gun.

After the 1st Company slowed its pace, the Resocialized Soldiers, still charging at full speed, passed the steadily advancing 1st Company one by one. The power armor and visors of the Resocialized Soldiers lacked the wolf-head emblem of the 33rd Ground Assault Division, allowing Augustus to distinguish them from regular soldiers.

Undoubtedly, once the commander issued the order to attack, these Resocialized Soldiers would charge forward consistently, even if they knew they were diving headlong into hell.

Squad after squad of Resocialized Soldiers were cut down by Kel-Morian artillery and gunfire ahead of Augustus, but more surged forward in their wake. They charged like robots running on a fixed program, as if they were born knowing only how to advance.

After leaving over a hundred corpses behind, the Resocialized Soldiers reached the positions the Kel-Morians had deployed at the city entrance. Yet they did not stop, continuing forward at the same speed until they soon vanished into the distance beyond Augustus's sight.

The Kel-Morian artillery positions finally fell silent, clearly retreating. At this moment, Warfield's 1st Company was still nearly two hundred yards from the line.

"Continue the advance, maintain spacing, and stay close to the Arclite Siege Tanks," Warfield said over the command channel.

Warfield and his adjutant charged at the front; the lieutenant in his silver-gray power armor was the first to step onto the enemy position, followed closely by the 1st and 4th Platoons.

Behind them, the Arclite Siege Tank in front of Augustus accelerated, smashing through the makeshift sandbag barricades and rolling over a field of bloody corpses as it entered the city via the cratered road.

But the war did not end there. Augustus realized that the fighting within the city would likely be the most brutal phase.

Given the fighting spirit of these Kel-Morian soldiers, they would likely have to engage in cruel urban warfare, fighting for the city street by street, building by building, and house by house.

Fortunately, compared to the vast size of the city, the Kel-Morian garrison numbered only twenty to thirty thousand, and most of their forces had previously been stationed along the north bank of the Paddick River, the boundary river in the city center.

By the time Augustus followed the tanks into the high-rise district, it was already dawn, though the sky remained thick with dark clouds.

From time to time, a Hellhound or Avenger fighter would turn into a bright, falling spark in the sky; several aircraft with black smoke trailing from their wings plunged into skyscrapers like swords falling from the heavens, or crashed into them, turning into balls of fire.

In the eyes of Augustus and his men, the city seemed gray. Burning Kel-Morian vehicles lined the streets, all houses had their doors and windows locked tight, and the shop windows on the ground floors of the commercial district were shattered. Goods, tables, and chairs had been incinerated in the fires, leaving the walls pitch black.

The streets grew dim due to the weather, and a light, drizzling rain began to fall.

Gunfire erupted occasionally from other blocks and behind buildings, and only one IAA holographic projection advertising robot, powered by solar cells, remained active in this city that had been abandoned for years.

The small, plastic-shelled robot stood only two feet tall. It rolled on two rusted wheels toward Augustus, the holographic projection on its forehead monotonously cycling through advertisements for mag-lev bikes and the Goddess Statue landmark.

"Sir, welcome to the beautiful Pride of Boke. Please spare me a few seconds of your time to introduce the Terra 55 commercial mag-lev motorcycle—"

Before the IAA robot could finish, it was kicked aside like a ball by Benjamin, the heavy machine gunner next to Augustus, as none of them could be certain whether the cunning Kel-Morians had installed a timed explosive inside the robot's small frame.