A group of Mandelovian soldiers had secured the north entrance of the palace from a Strikeforce militia. The Elite Mandelovian infantry had stocked up on the advanced weaponry that was the pride of their military. Canister of a black gas were shot into the UN ranks, blinding them. Perched on each Elite's head were special goggles that allowed them to detect and target the opposing force inside the black cloud. UN soldiers fell left and right. Many began to surrender when they noticed that they had been boxed in and were outnumbered.
Many of the Mandelovian citizenry had gotten involved too. While the mothers, children, and the elderly were led away from the conflict, many healthy young men and women accepted what they thought their responsibilities were. Seeing the Strikeforce as an invading army despite its UN ties, the men and women of Mandelovia gathered to fight back the incursion in their land and headed to the steps of the palace.
The Strikeforce soldiers knew that firing upon unarmed civilians would only make the situation worse. Both tactically here and politically world wide. They found themselves trapped between a wall of humanity and barrier of fire.
"Here! Take this!" Phil yelled above the deafening music of war as he handed Adem Different a machine gun. The telepath shot forth a wave of information on the weapon directly into the alien's mind. Unfortunately, the information was detoured, put on a back road, given directions that were incomprehensible, got lost, ran out of gas, and left, abandoned on the side of the road with only a moldy bologna sandwich, a crossword book with all the crosswords completed, and an Andy Gibb cassette stuck in the tape deck. Adem looked confused at the item that now rested in his hands.
In the distance, the silhouettes of Ozzy and Hero criss-crossed, merged, and separate like an insane shadow puppet. Both sides of the conflict ignored the two men because each had more important things to accomplish than to watch an insane shadow puppet.
From the massive hands of Priest flew an oval object. It landed on the ground in front of Shock. A heavy, white foam shot out and encompassed the bulky form of Shock. With much difficulty the Strikeforcer continued to push his body forward. "Why don't you have a bit of this?!" he yelled as his foot slammed to the ground. The quake was weak but still damaging.
"Don't mind if I do!" Priest yelled back as he jumped the barrier and ran towards Shock. "Give me all you've got!"
Phil Smith let loose a barrage of bullets that sent the oncoming force for cover. "Say hello to my little friend!" he yelled as flames licked the end of the barrel. "Adem, fire off to the left so...... What the hell have you done?!"
Adem Different sat cross legged on the stone. Before him sat the machine gun...... broken down to all its separate parts. "Now I understand," the alien said to himself. "A simple machine with many moving parts. It's a projectile weapon that uses mechanical and chemical components instead of energy."
A red dot crossed Different's face. It returned and sat directly in the center of his forehead. "Look out!" Phil yelled as he dropped his gun and threw his entire body at the alien, sending them both back several feet. The stone cracked with and a powder rose a few inches behind where Adem once sat. Black scorch marks identified the "We've got a sniper on the east tower," Phil yelled into his headset as his eyes relentlessly searched the area from where the shot came.
"I've got you now, my pretty," Rose playfully said as she moved Phil into her cross hairs. A tiny crossbow bolt ripped through her right hand a split second before the assassin could pull the trigger.
Banshee was in a full dive at Rose. Her throat was too sore from her recent constant use of it to let loose another sonic cry. She was simply going to knock this woman off the roof. Rose had another plan as she rolled out of the way and grabbed the passing Vanguardian's ankle. With all of her strength and momentum, she pulled the avian woman out of the sky and hard onto the roof.
"We've got to get back to holding off the offensive attack," Phil said as he turned to retrieve his gun. In its place sat a pile of molten metal.
"Not what you were expecting?" Fire mockingly laughed.
