"Bust open the windows and doors on the main floor so they can get out." a Daleth man grabbed a piece of metal debris and began busting open the windows. "Open your doors, then come out everyone." The Daleth man swung and busted the doors off the frame and heroically ran into the building to direct the traffic. The young programmer fought the dizziness of blood loss. He heard the sirens go off in the building and became more alert as the system started. He could only hope that the families on the top floors made it out as he worked. He finally succeeded. He heard coughing. They would all need medical treatment, but goodness they did not die. People started flooding out of all the bust open windows and the main door.
"Dareen, Dareen!" Kilas yelled, staring at the building woefully as people flooded out. His husband had run in thoughtlessly to help out. "Come out in an orderly fashion, panicking will cost lives." Kilas woefully shouted. Their six sons cried.
"Father, we should leave. The building is on fire. It could fall. He would want us to be safe. Let us go to the Roobius Tree in the Park, that is where we are supposed to meet up in the event of a fire, Father." Damiel, the couple's oldest son said.
"All this over the need to control that Matriarch," Kilas said, looking to blame someone. Tears rolled down his face. "Dareen!" Kilas shouted.
"Go to the park with your brothers. Hold hands. I'll transfer our money to you just in case, son." Kilas said, making a quick decision.
"Father, no, it is not safe!" Damiel shouted in defiance. He did not want to be an orphan.
"Just go." Kilas said, weeping as he rushed towards the building. His children screamed woefully as he ran towards the building.
"Father stop!" Damiel said. He could not bear to look away as his brothers tugged on his sleeve to pull him along at his fathers instructions.
An explosion erupted as a powerbank on the upper floors of the building exceeded operational temperatures. It rained glass. A myriad of painful cries sounded out as people received cuts. A fireball belched out into the street from the upper floors, singeing Damiel's eyebrows. His father's hair caught fire briefly from the heat. His hand patted the flames out.
"No Dareen, no!" Kilas screamed. Windows on the floors below melted, the flow of oxygen accelerated the pace of the fire's destruction. Kilas saw a figure emerging from the building carrying two bloodied children. A wave of relief washed over him, that made the temperatures above seem negligible. It was Dareen. He and his family had somewhat escaped disaster. Their home in the building next door had caught fire.
"I could not bear to leave them behind. Are they breathing still?" Dareen asked Kilas. Kilas was practically blinded by his tears.
"I think so. I do not think help is coming. Dareen. Their parents just left them?" Kilas asked.
"They protected them. Let's go to Sacred Tree. It is not far." Dareen said. Kilas picked up the wounded he could carry, those who could follow their example. He looked at the small man operating an impromptu weapon. He wanted to help them with the movement, but he did not have the confidence in using technology. He would do his best to help those that he could with his strength. His father taught him that way, and he taught his children this way.
"Four, three, two, one. Cannon three; fire now!" Kirin yelled. The loud ping of the weapon sounded multiple times as damage increased to the ships hovering. He was not sure whether his instructions were actually being heard. It was a fight of desperation to save the occupants of the building. "Move, they are charging the mining beam to fire!" Kirin yelled out. Kirin, Umnot, Jengo and Limen all ran from the cannon as the beam passed over the area, pieces of walkway and infrastructure being melted and pulled upwards and dropped as they were rejected by the beam's computer. Trees set fire. "That was really close." Jengo ran back, hopping over a glob of cooling rock.
"What is that coming out of the building? Aren't those labor QuillBot Droids? They look like insects. Why do they have extra arms?" Kirin asked Umnot beside him. The Droids marched out towards the clan Allari down the block. It sounded positively unnerving. The factory was not burning yet. It looked like reinforcements were coming for both sides; doctors were pulling burned people who had their limbs melted off from the battlefield below as ships entered orbit from above. Another batch filed out and headed towards the Sedai factory that they came from. A thousand units waited behind them as they succeeded in taking down two other ships firing on the building.
'Why did they leave the building? The factory is undamaged. Are they protecting Sedai because of Quill's relation to the clan?' Jengo thought. These things unloaded heavy equipment, completed decontamination tasks, built housing, they were able to learn tasks.
"Enemy Soldiers, coming from the West," Umnot yelled. They did not have any combat weapons other than their inadequate fists. Kirin felt a sense of doom. A loud eerie voice spoke in unison
"Aggressive Parties Identified. Surrender or risk severe bodily harm." Ten thousand men kept marching regardless, not taking it seriously. Kirin looked at the next wave of Droids. One thousand units rushed towards them. The ones that headed towards Sedai rushed back. Kirin thought he was doomed; they turned and went west. He started to sob.
"I thought they were coming for us," Jengo said. He had started to cold sweat when they marched towards them. Fighting these ships was hard enough without worrying about being trampled to death.
"Continue firing above." Kirin said, sobbing. Relief washed over him. Shortly afterward, horrifying sounds came from the west direction the Droids went off in. The screams, shouting and weapon fire were deafening as the battle continued. Shrill shrieks resounded as the Droids began to methodically incapacitate soldiers.
Kirin shivered as the army said in unison: "Surrender, or lethal force will be engaged." Shrieking continued. The voice counted down from ten. The soldiers did not receive orders to stop. However, as the countdown stopped and the first Droid put its fist through a soldier's chest and withdrew it like it was not an effort, screams of horror resounded from the frontline. Some men turned and ran, but it was far too late. They were lucky to receive serious injuries. Those who continued to fight were met with gruesome fatalities.
'They need to lie down and stop resisting. There is blood misting in the air. Losing your life or a limb to defend your oppressors? Disgusting.' Kirin thought with a flinch. Kirin and his men kept shooting at ships. Moments later ships with missing panels and factory plastic appeared in the east and began to fire upon the ships above assisting them. Cheers rang out from Kirin's colleagues.
"The clan has sent reinforcements?" Kirin said aloud, almost not believing it. Screams continued as the Droids mowed through men like a Vegetation Harvester gleaning its fields of crops for food. He expected to lose his job because of this.
"Sedai apologizes for its late arrival, please fall back, we value your lives." sounded from the speakers above. The men turned the weapons around and climbed into the transports. They drove to the buildings on fire, turning on the fire suppression system and turning the mining ray on to disintegrate the buildings before they collapsed.
"Use the materials as weapons. It will erode the exterior faster than the weapons without the shielding, since they are not in space." Kirin yelled. These men constructed and engineered these ships for decades, they were well aware of how to operate them, and knew industry secrets. Four cannons worked on moving the separated base materials and swung their molten burdens into enemy ships, causing extensive damage to the chassis of the targeted ships. Loud explosions rang out as they combined their efforts and used the civilian housing as makeshift weaponry. A credit chime resounded in his ears. Apparently, someone appreciated their ingenuity. His employer would know his identification.