Chapter 14: The Battle of New Hong Kong Part 2

Twenty-five minutes had passed. The outskirts of New Hong Kong were awash with the sounds of overhead red flying aircraft. A series of short alarms were echoing in the city. Several hovercraft artillery vehicles had assumed proper formations for long-range bombardment. Railgun destroyers had shut off their repulsor engines and anchored themselves to the grass. A few half-track vehicles were driving on the fringes that led into the roads.

The city was somewhat different in looks than it appeared a year ago. This was even accounting for the encroaching darkness. It was just enough darkness that some areas exhibited artificial lights. However, it appeared that some areas had the lights turned off in preparation for the upcoming battle. Much of the previous damage had been repaired from the horrific bombardment. The surviving buildings had been almost left untouched, but there were indications of newly erect structures here and there. Flora and fauna were left alone, although there were hints that some introduced red alien trees were growing in some sections of the capital.

It all seemed quiet. After the earlier bombardment, it seemed as if nothing else had happened. It was almost as if it was intentional. Regardless, the Aksren ground defenses were primed and ready to go. The artillery vehicles had assumed the perfect positions before they shut off their engines and anchored into the ground. Their cannon was extended outward and in the direction of north. Countless Aksren soldiers, covered in their red armor, had armed up and climbed on top of the building rooftops.

However, the peace was being further disturbed up north. In the extreme distance were a large, fast-moving crawler and a series of almost thirty vehicles that were roaring towards the city. The myriad of approaching marine vehicles was evident. IFVs, mobile artillery, mobile railgun destroyers, mobile anti-aircraft vehicles, a makeshift armed truck, and armed motorcycles were zeroing in on the main capital. While they were still quite far away, it quite easily put the city’s new inhabitants on edge.

A single bomber was en route with the UHN ground fleet. It was at a lower altitude and still maintaining a parallel course towards the city. Inside the bomber, Dean could see the enormous number of dots that were showing up on his display screen. As each minute went by, those dots increased in number.

“That’s like ... a lot, man,” Dean remarked.

“It’s ... impossible to count it all,” Diedrich replied as he was looking at the screen. “I’m tracking at least ... a hundred Aksren interceptors ... not including the gunships that they have. I’m not even going to try counting what they have on the ground.”

Dean had a pleasant view while the bomber sliced through the air. He could see the early vestiges of New Hong Kong. He decided that now was the time. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his pipe. This time, it would be the big one. Win or lose. It didn’t matter. His best weed was at the ready.

“Five minutes till we reach within artillery range,” Patricia commented on the comms.

“So far, the display shows at least one hundred and twenty ground vehicles of various types,” Nari added. “This isn’t including the hundred aircraft that are in the air. At least ten formations are flying within patrol routes. They still haven’t altered course to intercept us yet.”

“All stations,” Kosai announced on the comms. “In less than three minutes, we will be engaged with the enemy. The Aksren are waiting for us to reach within a certain range before they will drop everything on us. We’ve been tracking the battle above us. While our forces are still engaged with the enemy fleet, the UHN are relying on us to reach the capital. We are all well aware of our status. It’s very likely that in less than twenty minutes, we’ll be dead. However, I also know that we can still surprise our enemy. All of you have gone above and beyond in taking this to the enemy. We’re the UHN marine corps ... some of us have proven that we can defy the odds and that we can still fight beyond what the Aksren ever expect. We charge straight through their lines. We drive through the city. If your vehicle is disabled, you climb out and fight. Never stop. Just keep firing at every soldier that you see. Use every bullet, every shell, every missile, every bomb that you have. Let the UHN know of the bravery of the UHN marine corps tonight. Show them that we fight for Cipra!”

A series of hurrahs and cheering could be heard from the various vehicle comms. Even Diedrich responded with pride in his cockpit.

“We can do it,” Diedrich announced. “I don’t know how, but we can ... what?”

The weapons operator of the bomber could see that Dean was inhaling deeply upon his pipe. The pilot was taking the deepest breath that he could.

“Oh no...,” Diedrich remarked. “Dean ... speak for me. Don’t start taking hits before this battle. I need you to be with me.”

“Mmmm...,” Dean replied with a smile. “Ah ... that’s the good shit.” He coughed hard at the smoke that came out of his mouth and lungs. He then took another hard hit. His best weed that he had in hand. The tainted seashunkelp littered his lungs and body over and over again. It would be an even stronger hit that he made when he first arrived.

Diedrich knew that he couldn’t reach Dean. He put his hand to his helmet and instantly knew that this could end badly for him. No ... he absolutely knew that his life and survival were in question. Nobody in their right mind would ever do this. Flying while under the influence beyond all imagining. His survival the first time had to have been sheer dumb luck. The pilot must have scored lucky kills and still managed to walk out of the destruction of his first aircraft. That had to be it, but even then, the pilot was still able to engage in everything not long ago. Nothing seemed to make sense, with the exception of the sensor screen. Then again, Dean might not have been so incoherent. Now ... it was beyond control.

“Wow ... like...”Dean paused. He practically shut off his pipe and dropped it to his lap. “Soooo good.”

“Why me?” Diedrich replied. You could hear how anxious he was getting with his tone alone.

“Have no fear Diedro-broooo,” Dean said with the absolute stoned calm vigor. “Just making sure to like ... remain at peace with the walking ... talking lizard women. You just ... focus on your stuff ... you know? Stuff ... I press the buttons ... I fly ... I fly ... and ... I fly. You press your buttons ... and pound it. Yeah...” He raised his hand to the canopy so that Diedrich could see it. “Pound it! That also comes from like ... Stingray-Bro!”

Diedrich began to breathe harder and harder as he simply focused on his screen and grabbed the joystick of the main weapons of the craft. He had to ignore reality and go with the madness. Dean was piloting. It was a fundamental reality. He had to let fate be on their side.

“I ... believe...” Diedrich almost choked on his words.

“Yeah, man,” Dean’s tone was pure joy. “Say it again, man.”

“I ... I believe ... I don’t fucking know how, but I believe.”

“Preach it, bro. Let Stingray-Bro hear your words.”

“God, let there be a guiding hand for us,” Diedrich said.

Dean could still feel the slight amount of euphoria hit his system. The hallucinogenic effects would kick in any minute. He had a firm control of the joystick. He could already see the Aksren aircraft that were altering their path to intercept him ... all of them.

“All units engage!” Kosai announced. “Redder than blood!”

“Blood for life!” Many of the vehicle operators responded.

All hell broke loose. At least three sets of artillery vehicles began to fire at once. A small flurry of railgun rounds was being fired directly at the column of incoming UHN vehicles. Simultaneously, the MMACC’s side railgun turrets opened fire upon all targets of opportunity. The Kujang UHN vehicles also fired as well onto whatever they could shoot. The hammer mobile artillery units started counter-firing at the Aksren artillery units.

The UHN marine fleet was closing in on the city’s outer edge. Tracer fire erupted from a series of autogun batteries on the northwestern edge spraying countless rounds against the UHN. Meanwhile, the MMACC’s CIWS turrets were already targeting the incoming array of Aksren gunships that were closing in. Explosions riddled everywhere. A UHN vehicle would get hit by a railgun round. An Aksren vehicle would explode from an artillery shell. A motorcycle narrowly avoided getting struck by an artillery shell. Grass and foliage would be thrown about.

On top of the MMACC’s top deck, Iz’tre was aiming and taking careful shots with her powerful rifle. It was unknown if she was hitting anything in the wake of the sudden chaos. Zalika had to wait until her machine gun could properly hit and damage anything she could shoot at. Bekra’s shield was already fully extended. A stray bullet smacked into it as she readied the railgun and fired at one of the countless enemy vehicles.

At least three pairs of Aksren gunships came screaming overhead. These had a similar size to the Aksren interceptors. Unlike the pincers of the interceptors, these had a large nose-mounted Gatling gun on them. Their frame was thinner but still had a series of adjustable VTOL emitters to finetune their ability to target ground vehicles. A series of rockets and missiles flew from them to their targets. Several would get hit instantly by the MMACC’s CIWS turrets. While gunships would succeed in taking down a UHN vehicle, many were blown to pieces in the air.

The MMACC’s VTOL launcher fired a salvo of four missiles that homed in on a distant target. Meanwhile, a railgun round would hit and slam into the moving crawler, blowing from one compartment out to the other side. It didn’t do anything in slowing down the monstrosity. So much was happening that it was impossible for the crews to properly report things to Kosai.

In the air, Dean could see the numerous squadrons of interceptors heading to him and the Aksren ground fleet. Suddenly, a stream of missile locks erupted on Dean’s display. Alarms were going off. Diedrich was shouting at the top of his lungs. At least thirty aircraft were bearing down on the lone bomber.

“Heh ... heh...,” Dean remarked. “So many pretty colors. Like ... I think I can feel it.”

“Dean, please do something!” Diedrich screamed. He readied the autocannon and every turret and began to open fire on the slew of the incoming ordinance. There were too many things to shoot. There was too much of everything.

Do something ... Dean heard those words, but he wondered if he should pull to the left or the right first. Finally, the missiles were within ten seconds of impact. Everything was about to hit his aircraft when suddenly, it all came to a crashing halt. It all came to a stop. Everything froze in place, yet Dean felt no sudden stop. Everything was still.

“Whoa, man,” Dean said to himself as he raised his hands in glee. “That’s the best shit ever! Like ... it made time stop, man. Yeah! I can almost jump from my cockpit and into that stream of ... what is that stuff, anyway? Like ... I can’t tell, man.”

The song of the 24^th rendition of Jefferson Airplane’s the White Rabbit began to play. It was soft and echoed in the cockpit. Dean had the biggest smile on his face as he cheered at the event. He looked to his right and could see that Diedrich was looking at his screen, frozen in time. The still shot of the battle was incredible. Dean felt like he was holding his hand and could see it glowing for a second. Then the entire scene began to transform before his eyes slowly.

“Whoa, man ... yarn ... like ... I think it’s become string or something,” Dean said. “My favorite song is playing. Like ... this is amazing. This is the best trip that I ever had!”

“Oh, Dean ... what are you doing?” a happy female voice called out to him. It caused him to look around for the sound.

“What? Like, ... who is that voice calling out to me, man?” He raised his finger up. “Stingray-Bro, is that you talking to me? Oh no, man. I’m like ... so sorry that I called you a boy all this time. You were a woman all along!”

“Oh no, no, no, Dean,” the female voice replied. There was an oddly Former Greek accent to that voice. “No ... I’m just here to help you out.”

Suddenly, a large pair of hands pressed onto Dean’s shoulder. It caused Dean to turn his head in the cockpit to look at who was touching him. The cockpit had seemingly enlarged to a small degree. It allowed another person to be standing above him. She, however, was no ordinary human being. She could have been described as a minotaur, even though Dean had never seen such a creature or knew of one. She stood well over seven feet in height. She had digitigrade legs and stood on hooves. She wore a Greek white tunic that covered her large protruding breasts. Her fur was brown, and she had a pair of black horns that protruded from her head. To him, she was simply a walking anthro bovine of a woman.

“Whoa ... giant cowgirl!” He happily greeted her.

“Hello, Dean,” the unknown woman spoke to him. “Looks like you got yourself into quite a scene now, haven’t you?”

“Oh yeah, giant cowgirl. I think that these Aksren women ... a lot of them are like ... violent, you know?”

“Please, call me Ariadne,” she introduced herself. She let go of him and stood proudly next to him.

“Aria ... yeah, you got it,” he held out his hand and shook hers. “Pilot Dean at your service. Yeah, I think I done it again. I got so wasted ... like ... I just made time stop, you know? Unless ... did you make time stop or something?”

Ariadne shook her head. “No ... I didn’t halt time, Dean. Although, I really can’t explain this one. One of my daughters has this ability, but even then ... this could be just a hallucination caused by the massive overdose of the tainted weed that you just had.”

“Whoa, Aria ... that’s deep ... I feel like somebody else said something to that line ... and it was today. I’m trying to remember something...”

“Well, I felt that it was my turn. Maybe you would remember, the white rabbit?”

“Bunny bro!” he exclaimed. “He sent you to like ... help me?”

Ariadne gave a big nod. “But ... I have a feeling that even with your great ability to fly an aircraft, you got your hands full.”

“It’s like ... a lot of aircraft, Aria. Stingray-Bro can only handle so much.”

“Well, I tell you what...” Ariadne held her hand up as the rest of the scenery began to change beyond the cockpit. Cipra started to turn into a massive three-dimensional tapestry. Some of the Aksren aircraft was that of human hands that were trying to grab the bomber. Other vehicles were that of obstructions such as debris that were strewn about. The rest of the background had the same kaleidoscope of light and colors that he had on his last trip. All in all, it was a very colorful scene of string and cloth, at least for Dean to behold.

“Pretty colors, Aria,” he happily grinned.

“We’re going to play a game, Dean,” Ariadne explained. She put her massive furry hand on his shoulder. “You’re going to help thread a piece of string and finish up this tapestry that you’ve been making. Your Stingray-Bro is a giant needle with the last piece of string tied to it. You think that you can do that for me?”

Dean chuckled a little bit in his doped state. “Oh, like ... that’s easy, Aria.”

“Ok, if we’re going to thread and finish up your piece, then we will have to do this for a little while. You’re going to have to grab that joystick and follow my instructions down to the letter. You got that?”

“Anytime, giant cow lady.” He reached and firmly held onto the joystick of the aircraft.”

She paused as she thought about the music. “I like this music, but I think with it finishing up, we should switch over to something more to my style.” She waved her hand and it switched over to that of 24^th century vaporwave music.

“Ah ... that music doesn’t jive with me,” Dean commented.

“We need some comforting music. If Opet were here, she would have loved your style of music, but it’s me. Besides, I’ll make sure that you’re all rewarded after all this. You got it?”

“I hear you,” he relented with a big nod.

“Ok, follow my instructions. Tilt the joystick to the right and then to the left.”

He did exactly what she told him. When he did, the entire scene slowly sped up. The battle was resuming but at a slow rate. The giant hands that Dean saw were trying to grab his bomber. They were throwing rocks at him, but his aircraft was easily dodging what was being tossed onto him. He then swiveled to the left. Meanwhile, the bomber was tossing rocks back onto the hands. Some of these didn’t seem to be happy that they were getting hit, and they suddenly exploded into colorful pixie dust.

“Now, dive, dip, and up to the right,” Ariadne explained. She seemed more attuned to the rhythm of the music.

He did as he was instructed. The aircraft slowly moved downward and made a quick dip before rising up into the air. Even if Dean wasn’t thoroughly enjoying the music, he could understand why the giant cow woman was enjoying it. He felt like he was in full control of the aircraft. He knew that the string he left behind was going to make this art piece fantastic. However, there were a lot of hands, and the obstructions genuinely threatened to stop his work. When he turned to the right, the aircraft narrowly dodged three rocks that were trying to home in on him. They barely struck him.

“Phew...,” Ariadne calmly remarked. “That’s one set down, hundreds of more maneuvers to go.”

Outside of the odd world of Dean’s drug-induced trip, the real world of the battle was pure chaos. Zalika turned her head up to see that the bomber that he was flying was engaged in a vast series of maneuvers. Tracer fire from countless Aksren interceptors was trying to gun down the UHN aircraft, but the shots were missing. Meanwhile, the bomber’s turrets were hastily trying to gun down every missile and enemy aircraft that got in its way. Blasts and explosions littered the landscape.

“Damn...,” Zalika paused for a short moment. “Go, Dean, go!”

An explosion ripped near her location. Dirt, foliage, and debris were tossed into her as her helmet and visor provided a thorough layout of the field. Several Aksren half-tracks charged into the formation, firing railgun rounds and launching their missiles at the same time. Another UHN vehicle took a direct hit, but the battle was occurring in the greatest haste as possible. The fact was that the UHN ground fleet was moving in fast, driving in as hard as they could. While it didn’t mean that they outrun the hypervelocity rounds expelled into them, it did make it slightly hard to track. Nevertheless, speed was the only advantage that the marines had, and they had to exploit for as long as possible.

The MMACC and supporting vehicles were about one minute from touching the roads and the city’s outer edge. Another small railgun struck the side of the MMACC, but its sheer colossal size helped mitigate some of the damage. On the starboard side, several autocannon rounds riddled the crawler’s armor. An Aksren hover APC encircled and dodged much of the autocannon rounds of one of the M30. It was firing on the MMACC when one of the MMACC’s own port autocannons struck back. The enemy vehicle took a direct hit, spun out of control, and exploded on the grass. Meanwhile, the MMACC’s railguns were having an effect. With the encroaching darkness, a series of blue and purple plumes could be seen erupting from these guns. There was almost no defense against them.

Zalika saw Bekra as she was taking the occasional withering fire. Her shield was her only proper defense against the occasional autocannon rounds. A railgun round punched clean through it and narrowly struck her right shoulder. Meanwhile, she would fire back. She scored a hit on one of the half-tracks, but it only knocked out the turret. The comms chatter was filled with the numerous calls of various UHN vehicles and CIC-directed communications.

“Starboard aft CIWS turret took shrapnel hit from one of the artillery rounds,” Nari stated. “It snapped the ammunition belt!”

“I’m picking up numerous railgun emplacements inside the city,” Patricia announced. “Picking up missiles coming in from due south.”

“That’s the Aksren assault carrier launching its missiles at us. Nari, target the carrier and launch every missile at it before we lose the VLS.”

“Acquiring a lock ... I got a firing solution. Launching!”

Zalika heard the great sound of the VLS tubes opening up and firing every known missile from the top deck of the MMACC. Each guided munition roared and screamed as they released jet plumes onto the deck. Smoke filled the air as it was quickly blasted away from the moving vehicle. While Zalika, Iz’tre, Bekra, and every other person were well clear of the tubes, the jet blast was still intense from their range. All twenty of these missiles turned and began flying over the city. The autoguns turned and began to focus fire on the flying guided munitions. At the very least, the fast-tracking guns were distracted from firing on the ground fleet.

“Squadron heading our way!” Zalika yelled.

Ten Aksren interceptors began strafing, focusing their attention on the MMACC. An M32 Sprite and the other CIWS guns of the crawler were firing everything in return. Five of the aircraft shattered into pieces. One of the hulks crashed and smashed into the port side of the behemoth before the left rear tread crushed it. The remaining passed by and fired a series of missiles onto the ground vehicles. One of the M30s took a hit in the rear wheel, almost knocking it to the side. It slowed down greatly in anticipation of reaching the city.

“What’s the report of the fleet above us?!” Nari asked.

“Having a hard time telling what’s going on in orbit,” Patricia responded. “It’s nothing but a mess up there, ma’am. Picking up nothing but weapons fire and nuclear explosions. Can’t tell who is ours or not. Over five thousand ... the computer can’t track all of it.”

“Railgun 1 and 2,” Kosai ordered. “Target the lead ground vehicles blocking the road and fire. Hammers target buildings N1-9 and 10 and fire.”

A series of weapons fire was being exchanged. Railgun destroyers that had been firing into the ground fleet lost track of the vehicle. They lifted up from the ground and then planted themselves back down to adjust their aim. Artillery vehicles were still bombarding the incoming ground forces. Finally, however, a simple strafe of autocannon fire occurred from above. The Stingray bomber managed to fire several shots down onto the forces. Over twenty interceptors were firing onto the lone UHN aircraft. Missiles of every type were being thrown into it. However, none could hit it. Careful, precise use of countermeasures and turning at the last second was occurring. At the same time, the Gatling gun was getting the occasional shot into the ground forces.

Inside Stingray-Bro, Dean was still in his little world of colors and weaving. He watched as Ariadne was lightly tapping her hooves to the soft beat of the chill music.

“And a left, right, and barrel roll to the right,” Ariadne calmly told Dean.

“Left, right and roll, roll, roll,” Dean remarked and followed her instructions with glee. “Man, like ... Aria, you know how to weave so well, man.”

He followed the instructions perfectly. The scene was moving slowly as everything was trying to come after him. However, nothing could target him. As soon as things seemed overwhelming, Ariadne would provide input into where to go next.

“I know,” she replied to him. “I wouldn’t be known as the goddess of weaving if I didn’t know what I was doing, right?”

“Oh, haha, that’s like ... a good point, bovine lady.”

“Now, make sure to yell to Diedrich to target the second vehicle on the bottom right and then turn and spin close to the ground. Real close.”

“Diedro Bro, fire your thing at the second thing below,” Dean announced. He jostled the joystick and began to make the adjustments.

In the real world, Diedrich was practically holding onto his breath. The g-forces were immense, and there was no denying that computer assist had to play a significant role in adequately targeting everything. Every gun was working hard. The bomber was flying into every known direction and spinning in every move possible ... yet ... he was alive. Somehow, he was alive. He should be dead. Hundreds of aircraft, autogun rounds, and missiles were flying towards him. It was impossible, but Dean was somehow doing it. He wished that he had time to admire this pilot’s miraculous work, but he had no time. He heard Dean’s words and adjusted his autocannon and one set of cluster bombs to deploy onto the target. A simple button press and the computer did the work.

A single bomb was dropped from the open bottom hatch within half a second. Autocannon fire targeted the set of artillery vehicles. One of these vehicles was just in the moment of launching a missile onto the bomber when the autocannon littered it with holes. The bomb, while deployed, exploded and deployed a litter of bomblets. The cluster of artillery vehicles was destroyed on impact. Meanwhile, the aircraft flew low and hard towards the ground.

“Ahhh!” Diedrich yelled.

The bomber skimmed close to the ground. More missiles and rounds were being expelled towards the lone aircraft. And yet, none of this advanced alien military equipment could hit him.

“Thirty seconds before reaching the main road,” Patricia announced on the comms. “Our bomber took out one of the artillery sets south southeast of us.”

The series of explosions and blasts dropped as further gunfire echoed in the ensuing moving horde of vehicles. The side-mounted railguns of MMACC fired in tandem at the upcoming wall of half-tracked vehicles. Both shots quickly pierced into the sides and disabled them. At the same time, three hover APCs flew through the side right blasting the side of multiple support vehicles. Finally, a single Kujang fired a round almost point-blank, blowing a sizeable hole and ripping one of the Aksren vehicles into pieces.

The mobile artillery vehicles were showering one of the buildings with overhead mortar fire. Sets of Aksren soldiers were in place and were in the early stages of getting ready to shoot anything they could target. They never got the chance. The shells exploded right over them, littering them with shrapnel that penetrated the female alien’s wrap armor.

“Ten seconds,” Patricia announced. A set of destroyed vehicles lay in the front. More ground vehicles tried to come around the port side of the UHN task force. Another railgun round struck the mid-lower bow of the frame. The roaring engine of the crawler was working overtime. The UHN vehicles and motorcycles ahead of the MMACC drove through the thin barrier. Finally, the crawler smashed through the layer of knocked-out half-tracks. The heavy vehicle did a slight leap, but the sheer weight almost flattened the Aksren units with ease. They were shoved aside and made a clearing into the main road. Buildings filled the scene. Except for the two side buildings adjacent to the road, a few other structures littered the side.

“We’re in the city!” Nari cried out.

“Target all units of opportunity and fire!” Kosai announced. “Drive through the heart of the city. Don’t stop unless your vehicle is taken out of commission. Fight every soldier that is here!”

The main road was similar to a flat highway. It was big enough to allow the enormous crawler to move through, but it consumed almost all the lanes in the process. A few support vehicles drove through the front, but most were behind it and following a narrower path. There was still plenty of room for these vehicles to go off-road, including the MMACC itself. Unlike the past, the roads were devoid of the original human vehicles, and most of the alien vehicles were almost nonexistent. Another set of structures was coming up. Aksren armed hovercraft and half-tracks were in close pursuit behind the UHN ground fleet. The buildings did provide a small amount of shelter and obstruction for the ground fire, but overhead shots still reigned. The MMACC’s guns were still firing at anything that came close. The railguns were still taking a toll on both sides. Only the rear support vehicles, such as the Kujangs, succeeded in taking down the Aksren units that were in hot pursuit. Their railguns were pointed due north towards the chasing vehicles. Another railgun round hit the aft rear compartment of the MMACC. One of the hammer artillery vehicles took a direct hit and exploded into fiery bits.

“Our missiles that we fired at the Aksren assault carrier aren’t getting through,” Nari stated. “They’re shooting all of them down.”

“I’m picking up an energy buildup in the assault carrier’s engines,” Patricia said. “Looks like they’re trying to lift off.”

“If that carrier reaches us, we’re done for,” Kosai said. “We’ll have to get ready to abandon our vehicles and make our stand in the buildings. Stingray-Bro, you have your assignment. Take out that carrier!”

“I’m weaving my tapestry, sir! Like ... I think it will look great,” Dean replied back.