Chapter 17:
The Rise of Outcasts
High End was structured in a very weird manner. The place was so vast that it would take days to travel from one end to the other. Yet, there were only two gates. Geographically, less than a quarter of the district was located on a massive cliff while the rest was on the plain land so there was a long slope between the two areas. The front was on the top of the cliff while the rear was connected to the ocean.
Who thought this was a good idea to build a district like this?
We thought about attacking from the sides as well but the walls are way too huge and it was pretty much impossible to walk on that land, especially with three thousand men and Nox.
We were standing few miles away from the district.
We had eight thousand men in total. All from various districts, even from the ones that belonged to Cassius. A few months ago, his body was discovered in a pit near IX-99 CAS. With his death, it was fairly easy to take over his districts. Thanks to that, we managed to get our hands on more weapons, so we were able to provide them to every single individual. Some of them got highly explosive guns with bare minimum recoil, some were using Cardons, the ones that Valentino and the others used during the attack at Alessandra.
I took a deep breath.
"Listen up, people. This will be the longest night of our life. Most of us will be dead in the process but don't fear, we are more than ready to launch an attack. We will proclaim victory at the crack of dawn. It will be the start of a new era. So, hold your weapons tight and move forward."
The whole area shook because of their screams.
Why were we making such noises before the attack? Well, we did inform them… the reason was quite simple. Firstly, they were more likely to have an idea when we will attack because it was known throughout the districts of Low End.
So, we put some effort to let them know the day of our arrival. This way, they could spread their forces and it would be easy for us to take down the port. That was the best place to send a huge number of people. That's why we have five thousand men on the ships and three thousand with me.
A hundred of us stood right in front of the slope that led to the main gate. We had a fake vessel with us. There were a bunch of soldiers staring at us, reading to counter our attacks.
Meanwhile, on the rear.
“I can’t clearly see the port, there is just too much fog.”
"It will work in our favour as well."
"Hey Valentino, are you sure these ships can withstand the cannons on the port?"
"Jeronimo did say that these ships have a tough body, I think so. But Jacob did say they have a lot of cannons installed on the port. The numbers worry me."
Even if they had a huge number of weapons, they would survive as long as no external blasters??? were involved.
The ship was slowly moving towards the port. Their surroundings were covered with fog and the only thing they could hear was the sound of water. Their hearts were beating at a fast rate. It would be a huge loss if even one of those ships were to sink since each carries a thousand men, along with weapons.
They still hadn't completely come out from the fog; they heard a huge noise.
“What happened?”
Valentino shouted.
"We have been hit, sir. It seems like they have spotted us."
Then, they heard more noises after that. The ship that Valentino was on, shook as well.
"No need to panic. Hold your ground and fire in a straight direction."
He was holding off to Nox until he got the port in his sight since it was quite difficult to fire a shot with it.
Valentino and his men kept shooting in the straight direction, hoping to get some targets. It was working to some degree.
The fog disappeared and they got to see the port. It was massive. Numerous towers and cannons across it. But what truly shook them was the number of people standing. The whole port was filled with men, holding blasters, ready to shoot.
Valentino sweated after witnessing such a scene. Why were they here? What happened at the main gate?
He immediately made contact with me.
I started sweating as I heard the situation.
"Valentino… I think someone leaked the information."
"But only a selective knew about the ships. Those five thousand men came to know about the ships right before boarding them. We have a control system here to keep an eye on who they talked to."
“I think I know who did this.”
I started grinding my teeth.
"MAGNUUUUUUM" I screamed with full force. "Valentino, immediately make contact with your men and order them to blow up Opus and capture Magnum alive. We will deal with her later. It's starting on our side. You should go all out yourself, make use of Nox however you feel like it. We may have been cornered a bit. This is just the beginning."
“HAHAHA. You are more enthusiastic than usual. Understood.”
With that, I aborted the connection and screamed.
"Fire!"
All of them started firing bullets towards the main gate. In response, the opposing soldiers started firing at us as well but it wasn't effective because people in the frontlines were wearing bracelets that created shields. They were powerful enough to hold off the bullets
but only from the front and sides. The back was unprotected.
One of us used an extremely big blaster that blew up the gate and killed a lot of them.
“Charge directly into the districts.”
I and many others used the Cardons to fly directly to the entrance as others were following on the ground.
The slope wasn't exactly wide so a lot of our men fell into the junk, that surrounded the area, once the enemy started throwing grenades. There was no other way to dodge instead of moving forward.
We were providing them aerial support while using the bracelet shields to protect ourselves. They were very limited so we couldn't give it to everyone.
Things were heating up as we were charging towards the entrance.
-On the other side-
Valentino was busy activating Nox as the ships were firing non-stop. The port took some damage but once the ship was badly damaged; it could go down at any moment. Valentino's ship was barely damaged because they took extra precautions to keep Nox safe. His ship was surrounded by numerous red shields.
“How long, Valentino?”
“Almost ready.”
With a huge sound, one of our ships sank in the water while a majority of the people already got killed during the attacks. Almost one thousand people got killed this early. Their morale was getting weak.
"It's done. Now, leave the deck this instant, the pressure will be intense."
Valentino aimed the weapon at the port, it was hard to get a good aim with this. Once he got one, he pulled the trigger.
A crimson red beam was emitted from the vessel and hit the port. There was a massive explosion and half of the port was destroyed.
The recoil was so intense that it knocked Valentino quite far.
He had adjusted the power the orb would exert. Originally, the plan was to use less power than that since there was no real danger at the port.
But now, the situation was different and he had to blow half of the port. But thanks to that, the vessel could hold two more shots before it broke down.
Valentino stood while rubbing his head. In front of him, was the mass destruction of the port. The sky was covered in smoke and there was fire everywhere. Half of it was gone and most of them were already dead. This was surely effective.
Valentino released a sigh of relief.
The path to enter the district is not that difficult anymore.
-Inside the District-
There was chaos everywhere. People were instructed to stay calm but things went out of hands once the news of half of the port getting destroyed circulated.
This was the best opportunity for those who hated the council to cause havoc in the midst of all this. They were already tired of living under the consequences that didn't concern them.
They started their rampage by setting up the mansions on fire. They started destroying shops and killing people.
All of this was so out of control that the military had no choice but to respond with a baton charge. But things were beyond their control. The entire district was like that.
“Kill the Giuseppe, don't let anyone escape. They really caused us a ton of trouble."
“Please spare my children.”
“No one is getting out of here alive, old man. Neither you nor us. Burn down his mansion.”
As the mansion was in flames, they held the rifles and filled the entire family with holes.
“There they are.”
A soldier shouted and a bunch of them gathered around them.
“You bastards, how can you cause such destruction at a time like this?”
"Shut up, this is our way of releasing out 40 years of pent up frustration."
With that, both parties opened fire at each other.
Citizens got caught in their rapid-fire and there were screams everywhere.
-Towards the main entrance-
We finally breached the main entrance and entered the district.
“Fall back.” One of the enemy soldiers screamed.
All of our forces chased them towards the residential area. I was well aware of the people that lived in that section of the district. I gave my men the signal and they opened fire at the building. Some of them used explosives, some used grenade launchers and some used hyper beams that were extremely hard to use so very few knew how to control it.
The whole place was in flames and all we could hear were the wails and cries. It was terrifying but I had prepared myself for this. There was no going back. We have to burn down all the major sections of High End while Fina and the others rescued people from the remaining district.
We kept pushing them as we moved forward. I used Cardon to get higher ground and started sniping the soldiers. I couldn't use Cardon all the time because it gets really tiring so I have to take a break after every few minutes.
As we were moving forward, suddenly there was a massive explosion in the frontlines. Even the shields couldn't save them.
"That's enough, Nicolo. This is as far as you can go."
“Giovanni…”
"I have to say I heavily underestimated you as a potential threat but I will not repeat the same mistake again."
Giovanni’s voice could be heard but he was nowhere to be seen. Instead, right in front of us were massive vehicles loaded with firearms and cannons.
One of our men, who had obliterated the front gate, loaded the blaster and fired it at one of those weaponized vehicles. It took massive damage but it wasn't completely destroyed.
“Scatter.”
I shouted as those weaponized vehicles prepared to shoot at us. A lot died in the process. I flew towards the one at the leftmost end and made a hole on the top part using a Jero cutter. Jeronimo created this and according to him, it could cut through metal with ease.
I threw a grenade through that hole which took care of that vehicle, it couldn't be of use to anyone. Now, only three more were remaining.
The same person fired the blaster once more and it completely destroyed that damaged vehicle. But his arms were broken. They couldn't endure the constant pressure those blasters exert and got killed by the remaining weaponized vehicles.
They started firing all the cannons at once and we had to take cover, but that wasn’t enough. We were getting surrounded by the soldiers.
"How long, Fina?"
“We are almost there.”
"Change of plan, drop those bombs at our location. Two weaponized vehicles need to be destroyed.
Then, a moment later, we heard the sound of a plane.
“Retreat and take cover.” I shouted at everyone.
The plane started to drop bombs at our location. They were strong enough that they demolished the entire area. It managed to destroy the remaining weaponized vehicles.
That’s the plane Fina and the others were riding, the Three-Winged Plane. They also dropped a massive metal box which exploded and released a gas which put out all the fire.
The whole place was filled with nothing but smoke. We heard footsteps. More soldiers appeared from the smokescreen. The chaos continued once more.
As I was running towards the building on the right side, which was on fire just a moment ago, a bullet came from the left and hit the shield. Immediately, I took cover inside the burned building. It was Giovanni who shot at me.
He was wearing a helmet that covered his entire face and a leather suit that was, probably, bulletproof.
"Let's settle this once and for all, Nicolo."
“Bring it on.”
He started sprinting towards me. I went in a little further into the building. He kept firing at me and so did I. My shots were not working at all, as expected. As for his bullets, I had to take cover behind pillars.
This cat and mouse chase went until both of us were out of bullets. That was what I was waiting for. I threw my gun and ran straight towards Giovanni. I knew about the gun he was holding so I was also aware of the fact that how many bullets it could fire at a time. I also put into consideration the fact that he might also have more than one gun in his arsenal.
Just as I expected, he pulled out another gun and started firing at me. I was using the pillars to avoid getting hit as I was running towards him. Once that gun reached its limit as well, I took a long jump before he could take out another gun, and snatched his helmet in the process.
He turned, to get it back and received a kick on the face. His face was bleeding. Without wasting this opportunity, I took a short jump, grabbed him by the face and hit him with the knee. That broke his nose.
As I was preparing for another attack, he punched me with great speed and strength, I was on the ground. He punched me three more times then pulled out the gun and fire.
It barely missed as I rolled and put my hands on his gun. Now, we were both struggling to get the gun. I used the force to twist his right arm. He let out a huge scream and kicked me in the stomach that caused me to spill some blood.
He was ready to pull out another gun but I kicked his legs which disturbed his balance. I used that chance to kick him in the face in order to knock him down. That was the only vulnerable place he currently had.
I started kicking him in the face. I was preventing him from getting back up again. As he was coughing blood, I grabbed his left arm and twisted it as well. He let out another screech.
He was down for good but still conscious.
“You are way weaker for someone who handles military affairs.” I said as I pointed my gun at him.
“Huff Huff Huff! Want to know something interesting?”
???
“I was merely a lapdog to him.”
“Who?”
“The one who orchestrated this entire thing.”
…….
"What do you mean by that?"
"You must have realized by now that there was a traitor among you."
"Are you talking about Magnum? The one who is in charge of Opus."
"HAHAHA! No, I am talking about someone else."
I started sweating… what was this all about? Did I make a wrong call on Magnum?
“I felt really pathetic to even think about this. He manipulated the entire thing just to get what he wanted. There is no point in keeping it a secret anymore. Want to know his name?”
He had a big smile on his face. I didn’t say a thing.
“His name is____”
My eyes widened. I quickly made contact with Angelo, who was still at our base.
“Angelo, where is ******* right now?”
After his response, I continued.
"Keep an eye on him, things are taking a rather different turn than I expected."
After giving him some more advice, I aborted the call.
“Hehe, what are you going to___”
*Bang!*
I shot him right in the face. I didn't have time for his talks. I needed to get to father as soon as possible.
I came outside to see if we had won the fight but there were only a few of us left. I didn't think we would encounter anything of that calibre again.
Please log in to leave a comment.