Night.
Apparently, the runway was shorter than expected. It was right outside the hangar and continued all the way to the dormitory buildings.
A customly modified MC-130 sat in the hangar, its frame barely fit into the width of the makeshift runway of the school.
It had JATO rockets strapped into its back, on the rear lower fuselage behind its landing gears.
The fuselage gleamed faintly under the harsh light of flood lamps, its black and gray camouflage blending into the darkness.
The cargo bay had been stripped of unnecessary seats and refitted with armor plates, while racks of secure bearings lined the interior walls.
In the middle, there was a large wooden platform, the place where the bomb was designed to be placed on.
It turned out that the diameter of the bomb was nearly as big as the width of the plane itself, leaving only about 10 inches of clearance on each side.
The tail ramp had been lowered, creating a bridge for the bot soldiers as they pushed the massive bunker-buster gravity bomb toward its berth inside the plane.
Each bot moved carefully, their servos whining softly as they hoisted the bomb into position on a set of hydraulic stabilizers.
Carina watched that through the PC monitor in her office.
Maxwell and Oliver got into position, one of them proning on the court's rooftop while looking into their scopes, aiming to the front—the streets, where the Architect should enter.
Oliver was adjusting his binoculars while sitting cross-legged. The wind was so strong that their blazers fluttered around.
Joshua yawned as he slowly loaded his shotgun with buckshot shells out of boredom.
Peter stood on the main gate of the court with an RPG launcher strapped on his back while his hands were occupied with a light machine gun, meanwhile Fransisco guarded the east direction on that court.
There were 2 suicide drones placed behind him, ready to use.
The rest of the members, the not soldiers, gathered behind 2 units of the artillery howitzer, bustling around the gun and preparing munitions.
They chattered while loading the gun with armor piercing round, locking the breech while getting the elevations ready.
As the loading crews gave a gesture, the elevation team immediately spun the lever to lift the barrel up.
Ezra tied the flare gun into his belt, while inspecting his own pistol with the safety on. He pulled the magazine out and counted all the 15 rounds inside.
As he reattached the magazine back in, he released the safety and aimed the barrel to the ground.
“Why do they seem more ready to face the architect rather than transporting the bomb?”
Dika sprinted down to the basement of the last dormitory building.
A shotgun was slung across his back.
His heart raced, breath coming in heavy gasps, and sweat drenched his face.
Upon reaching the building's foundation, he planted explosives at critical structural points—walls, supports, and the main foundation.
Thoroughly, he connected the charges with cables, ensuring each connection was secure before dragging the cables out.
He rushed to the central hub where the first few cables had been connected into the central line.
Immediately, he linked the explosives to the primary wire, carefully attaching it to the fuse mechanism.
As Dika completed the connection under the last building, he bolted out, carrying the fuse and cables.
“Carina! All the bombs have been planted! Fuse explodes in 1 minute!”
Dika talked to his handheld transmitter, his voice came out from Carina's.
“Roger that, you're greenlit.”
Carina's voice answered him.
“Okay. Good night.”
Dika pulled the lever up and spun it to the left, then quickly pushed it down into the box. As the lock was triggered, Dika immediately sprinted away from the dormitory buildings.
“Stan, do it!”
Carina commanded via the same channel.
“Roger that.” Stan answered her.
In the control center building, Stan and Franklin bashed into the door quickly.
The guards were alerted, but just as they found out they were here, Stan fired rounds into their heads with his muffled pistol.
Franklin stealthily sneaked behind the desks and slit their throat with his machete.
Stan quickly activated the voice projectors, setting the equalizer, adjusting volume settings to maximum and skimmed the user manual on the table behind the equalizer.
As he finished reading, he immediately pulled a lever to cover all the high school buildings’ windows with automated curtains.
Suddenly, a loud hum enveloped the school.
Automated steel curtains descended over the high school buildings, slowly obscuring glass doors and windows. Students inside were startled, their expressions hidden in the growing shadows as the curtains sealed shut.
These steel barriers were impenetrable, locking all exits. For the NPC students, escape was impossible.
Franklin groaned as he dragged and threw the guards’ dead bodies into a crate, then covered them in diapers.
After that, he quickly mopped the floor using a piece of cloth, then threw the blood-drenched cloth into the crate, letting the diapers take care of business.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Quickly, he pulled a hydrogen peroxide solution and poured all of it into the cloth, as the red color from the blood disappeared quickly.
The stopwatch on Dika's wrist counted down to 10, as he was running downstairs.
Once he felt it was enough, he immediately sought cover behind the concrete walls.
While peeking at the dormitory, he mumbled while counting down from 5.
In just five seconds, the deafening explosion of hundreds of dynamites shook the entire grounds.
The dark alleys were instantly engulfed in a blinding light as flames erupted from every building, spreading through the underground electrical distributor like wildfire.
The elevator shafts turned into chimneys, fueling the inferno until it reached the top floor and exploded, sending debris raining down.
Within moments, the dormitory buildings collapsed like a house of cards, each floor pancaking on top of the other.
The sound of electrical systems short-circuiting filled the air as sparks flew in all directions, igniting nearby buildings like an ammunition factory.
The night sky was lit up with a spectacle of fireworks, casting a temporary day-like glow over the chaos below.
At that time, the resistance members’ gaze was on the explosion that almost turned the night into daylight.
Ezra watched half of the building going down, the once intact steel was now reduced to a pool of molten steel.
The once towering structure was now just a smoldering pile of rubble and destruction.
He could barely comprehend what he was seeing - it was like witnessing a volcanic eruption right before his eyes.
Suddenly the siren rang, warning all the students in the high school through speakers.
“All students of the high school, this is the security, please stay still in the building. We have a severe gas leak in the dormitory that caused an explosion. For safety, everyone must stay inside the school building.”
It was Stan's voice telling everyone to stay in the school building.
Right now, everyone in the high school building was panicking, screaming and crying.
As Ezra looked back to the end of the bridge, a figure was already standing in front of him.
Her head was covered with the cloth of a cloak that covered both of her eyes, her mouth was the only visible thing in her face. Her cloak also covered the high school uniform.
She was staring at the collapsed building for a while before turning her head and stared blankly at him.
Ezra didn't need to think about who that person was. Of course, it was a foe.
…The Architect.
Ezra's breathing rate became faster as he realized who she was.
Quickly, he lifted his arms and aimed the pistol at her, his arms trembling while trying to align the forward and rear iron sights.
“Shit!”
Desperately, he used her left hand to steady his right forearm. Panic clawed at his mind, but he had no time to think.
He pulled the trigger twice.
The bullets whizzed through the air, but the architect parried them effortlessly.
Her sword suddenly just appeared in his right hand, as if she used some kind of spell.
The bullets bounced off, glowing red before disappearing into the night.
Shocked, Ezra quickly aimed at her again, now setting the firing mode to full-auto, pulling and holding the trigger, as the remaining bullets in the magazine were fired out of the barrel.
At the same time, the Architect swung her arm, casting an invisible convex shield. The bullets slammed into it and ricocheted off to the ground without coming in contact with her.
Quickly, he reloaded his gun with a new magazine and sprayed bullets at her.
The outcome was still the same, all the bullets bounced off, except for the last one, it broke through the weakened barrier and crashed into her left shoulder.
“That thing has a limit…!”
He reloaded his gun with trembling hands and fired again. His panic took the most out of him, most of the bullets missed. The ones that hit the architect's hitbox were deflected, each turning red and flying away.
“Fuck!”
He cursed under his breath, fingers trembling as he fumbled to load another magazine.
His heart sank when he realized—it was his last one.
“Damn it!”
His voice was a harsh whisper, panic clawing at the edges of his control.
With no time to waste, he yanked the flare gun from his belt.
He bolted from his position, each footfall echoing like a countdown.
His enemy was close, too close.
In a fluid motion, he leveled the flare gun toward the pitch-black sky, thumb finding the trigger.
The gun kicked back slightly as the flare shot forth, a blazing red tearing through the darkness.
The flare arced upward, its intense glow temporarily banishing the shadows.
He didn’t wait to watch it explode—he dropped the empty gun and resumed his sprint.
The architect was gaining, only a few strides away.
Above, the flare burst with a crackling roar, splintering into fiery fragments that lingered like embers.
The night was painted with a red beacon visible for miles.
Every eye in the vicinity snapped to the sky, the signal unmistakable.
The snipers adjusted their scopes, the green haze of night vision painting a clearer view, zooming into Ezra crouching behind a half-destroyed barricade, his pistol useless in his trembling hands.
“Target spotted at 2 o'clock! Ezra’s pinned and out of ammo!”
Maxwell's voice cracked through the radio, his heart pounding as he scanned for hostiles.
Maxwell turned off the night vision. The figure of the Architect became very clear, her movements slow, deliberate, and calm.
She radiated an aura of authority that froze the battlefield.
“Wait—what the fuck? The Architect?”
Stan’s voice came through, raw disbelief cutting through the tension.
“What’s she doing here?”
Maxwell didn’t hesitate. His fingers fumbled over the transmitter as he barked orders.
“Peter! Get word to Carina! The Architect’s in play—abort the main mission, now!”
His hands moved back to the rifle, adjusting the scope for a clearer shot, but his mind raced. Ezra was seconds from being cornered.
Oliver crouched nearby, tore open a duffel bag and yanked out an AK-47.
Without a word, he sprinted to the edge of the rooftop and leaped into the void, parachute deployed.
As he touched down, he gathered with everyone else, sprinting to the marked location.
Maxwell emptied his DMR magazine at the Architect, the bullets cutting through the air with a deadly hum.
But the Architect’s reflexes were sharper—each bullet ricocheted off her arm, barely leaving a scratch.
No, not just her arm. There had to be some other kind of convex shield, seamlessly integrated into her defense.
Maxwell’s heart raced, his eyes wide as he slammed another magazine into the rifle.
As the Architect restored her stance, she immediately pivoted to see Ezra.
In an instant, she was gone, her form a blur as she rocketed toward him at near-supersonic speed.
Suddenly, a combat knife flashed through the air, slicing towards her. With a swift motion, the Architect deflected the blade, sending it spiraling into the void.
It was Joshua.
The split-second disruption was all he needed.
He had already been on the side of The Architect when she was disrupted by the knife.
With a sharp grin on his face, he shot all the buckshot at her body and face.
But the Architect was too fast. Her body twisted out of harm’s way, the buckshot grazing her cloak as it tore apart in a violent gust.
The tattered fabric fluttered to the ground, and with it, the veil of mystery around her vanished.
Golden strands of hair cascaded down her back, catching the light. A pair of sharp hazel eyes locked onto Joshua, gleaming with focus.
Blood trickled down her pale cheek—a thin stream that dripped from the side of her left cheek.
One of the pellets had grazed her ear.
Not enough to kill. But enough to draw blood.
Without a word, she wiped the blood away with the back of her hand, her stance lowering, ready to retaliate.
“God damn it!”
Joshua exclaimed, quickly reloading his shotgun as The Architect summoned a sword like it was stored in her inventory and swung it at him.
Reflexively, he evaded the blade and fired 3 rounds that he had successfully loaded into the chamber.
Yet the Architect immediately swung her blade, a shockwave blasted all the buckshot pellets, scattering them away.
At the same time, she pointed the sword forward and launched herself towards Joshua.
Joshua only watched helplessly as the figure carrying the sword approached him quickly.
Suddenly, from the left side, bullets struck her body, disrupting her again. Now with a bigger reinforcement, the entire resistance team was all eyes on her.
Peter, Oliver and Franklin stopped by Ezra's side as they pulled the charging handle in their weapons.
Joshua immediately retreated back to their line while reloading his shotgun.
Oliver gave Ezra the AK-47 he carried before and pulled his own pistol out.
Stan and Maxwell gathered around at the ceiling of the indoor court, fixing their proning position again as they looked into the scope with the center of the crosshair pointed at The Architect's head.
Peter threw his handheld transmitter into the middle of the ground.
“All units, open fire, now!”
Peter exclaimed. At the same time, everyone from all places pulled the trigger.
The muzzle flash became a literal flashlight as their bodies were illuminated by the fire.
The bot soldiers pulled the trigger of the cannon.
The howitzers blew back, sending the 155mm shell into the air, heading for the Architect.
Stan and Maxwell dumped the magazine of their sniper rifles, as everyone in the front line sprayed bullets towards the Architect.
Immediately, an energy shield spawned out of nowhere around her body, covering her entire body from head to toes.
As the hundreds of bullets struck it, they bounced off all over the place into the sky.
The ordinary bronze colored projectiles became red as they ricocheted, some of them found their way to destroy building windows and street lamps, make a hole in walls and destroy cars, as if it was raining upwards.
Peter screamed as he struggled handling the recoil of his light machine gun that mercilessly fired when the others had run out of bullets.
The 155mm shells came down and struck through her shield, destroying it partially, leaving some openings.
“Target hit!”
One of the operators exclaimed as he saw the explosion in his binoculars.
“Reload! Reload!”
Another operator followed.
At the same time, one of the howitzers fired again. The muzzle flash blinded everyone.
“Artillery, cease fire! We have to keep as much ammunition until the battle finishes!”
Maxwell exclaimed into the transmitter, communicating with the gun crews.
“Roger that!”
One of the crews answered him, then giving gestures to the others to stop reloading.
Stan and Maxwell quickly fired into that hole, hoping the bullets could go through the hole and bounce into her.
But they weren't too lucky. The shield couldn't bounce projectiles from the inside.
The Architect stood still to withstand the bullets and to make sure her shield could last until they ran out of bullets, spending time to focus on fortifying her body.
But she was too distracted by that threat, another 155mm armor piercing shell slammed through her shield and made another hole in it.
Now the hole was too big and some of her body was already vulnerable.
From the left side, Fransisco jumped off the building with two suicide drones in his hands.
Before he landed, he threw the first one in his right hand like a paper plane as the drone propelled itself like an air-to-ground missile.
Then as he landed, he threw the second one in his left hand.
The Architect saw that, she immediately jumped and evaded the first suicide drone. The drone crashed into the ground and exploded, sending muds and rocks into the air along with flame and smoke.
Yet in only a matter of seconds, the second drone crashed right into her shield.
The shield immediately became red and shattered, exploding, and accumulated by the explosion of the drone.
The Architect collapsed to the ground after her shield detonated.
The explosion was brighter, like a bomb detonating from a distance, leaving a barrier of smoke that covered them and the Architect.
Everyone had to cover their eyes.
Without hesitating, even though his eyes were blinded by the explosion, Peter screamed his lungs out. Everyone dumped their mags.
“Now!!!”
Nonetheless, everyone couldn't see the location of the Architect clearly.
The bullets flew everywhere without hitting the Architect.
As the smoke began to subside, the Architect’s body took shape behind the smoke.
Immediately, everyone corrected their aim and fired at the Architect.
“So this is the revolution… Carina’s plan was immaculate.”
Joshua muttered as he watched his allies firing at the architect.
Just before they could do too much damage, suddenly the ground exploded.
Mud, rocks, and shrapnel flew in every direction, the force of the blast hurling everyone into the air.
Screams filled the night as they were thrown back by the sheer force.
Peter hit the ground hard, his vision blurred and ears ringing.
Joshua and Franklin were sent tumbling, their weapons clattering away as they struggled to regain their footing.
“What the fuck is going on?!”
Peter shouted, his voice barely audible over the chaos.
The explosion's shockwave reached Ezra and Oliver's position, knocking them off their feet.